These Convergent Stars
by Janine A Southard
Published: October
2013
Word Count: 25,000
Genre: Science Fantasy / Science Fiction
Synopsis:
300 years ago, Earth was destroyed, but the Terrans aren’t
giving up. Maya Qaitra is a special type of Terran, created to sniff out
biologically compatible species. But Maya’s talent comes with a hefty cosmetic
price: half the time, she looks like a mountain lion.
On a space station over the planet Elsajh, she’s mistaken for a local shapeshifter and goes with the flow. After all, how better to observe a new species and culture? While impersonating her alien look-alike, Maya stops an invasion and becomes a populist hero. Sure, that seems great, but her mistaken identity stirs trouble for her and her doppelganger. If she’s not careful, she could get her whole species banned from Elsajh forever.
On a space station over the planet Elsajh, she’s mistaken for a local shapeshifter and goes with the flow. After all, how better to observe a new species and culture? While impersonating her alien look-alike, Maya stops an invasion and becomes a populist hero. Sure, that seems great, but her mistaken identity stirs trouble for her and her doppelganger. If she’s not careful, she could get her whole species banned from Elsajh forever.
Janine
A. Southard writes speculative fiction and videogame dialogue from her home in
Seattle, WA. She sings with a Celtic band and is working on the next book in
the Hive Queen universe. She's also been known to read aloud to her cat.
The cat appreciates all of these things. Maybe.
The cat appreciates all of these things. Maybe.
Excerpt:
I padded along
behind Rzis, down dusty streets and through cozy alleys bordered by a
perplexing mix of delicate new construction and pitted stone walls that had
clearly stood against the tossings of time and weather. I kept far enough
behind that he wouldn’t mark me.
How better to
research a new world than by following the local law to the scene of some
really weird sounding crime? As ship’s Mahdan—and, thus, First Contact
Specialist—I heard plenty of strange terms, so the perp’s being “a Shalanite”
was no problem. But this crime matched nothing I’d heard of before. How did
small-time guys annex anything? And who would bother to annex a bank?
Once I learned
the answers, maybe I’d suggest to the commander that we bypass this world
entirely.
I kept
expecting shouts and complaints. My mind created an echo here—Baastards should all be put down!—and
another over there—Goodness! Look at
those teeth!. I bared my incisors at this imagined detractor. Why did they
always point out the teeth, as if mentioning them stopped me from using them?
But it didn’t
go down like that. No one shouted at all. A few people cleared out of our path,
yes, but we were heavy things barreling along. Also, my unwitting companion was
The Law. If anyone recognized him, they’d scamper away for that reason alone.
When we reached
the bank, Rzis was the first enforcer on location, so he had to distinguish the
facts and stall till his pack arrived. The guy inside the bank, however, had me
fluffin’ flummoxed.
Think about it
for a minute. You’re holding up a bank. What are you there for? Money.
Otherwise, why bother with the bank? Okay, your other reason could be to keep others
from said money, on the assumption that banks are unconnected. In that second case,
you could more effectively blow the place up, preferably with something that
makes fiat money impossible to repair.
So, there’re a
couple of plans and motives. But all they had in common with reality was the
location. There was a guy holding up a bank. He had hostages, but made no fuss
about killing anyone. No ransom note on hand. His pockets could maybe carry a
double handful of precious whatever.
Over a
primitive loudspeaker he repeated, “I annex this bank and the property on which
it stands for the state of Shalal. All Shalanite citizens are welcome here. I
annex this bank....” And so on in perpetual duplication.
Rzis shifted hominid
about twenty feet from the bank’s front door. I hadn’t paid him much attention
earlier, before he’d gone leonine, but now I could see that he was quite the
strapping young lad. He was about 6’4”—a sensible for the size considering his
other form—though he looked older than I’d thought he’d be. Maybe he’d waited
till he was successful before embroiling himself in the arranged-marriage
market.
He had the same
dark coloring and shiny hair as his leonine self, and that shiny hair included
a gentle dusting across his face and arms. Where a Terran would have nearly
invisible vellus hair, he had a dark, downy, not-quite-fur. Aliens. What can
you do? I wanted to pet him.
Giveaway:
- One eBook copy of These Convergent Stars
