Zhaim Laian (A to Z Challenge)

Zhaim is Lai’s oldest R’il’noid son, and as long as he has the highest fraction of active R’il’nian-derived genes of any of the R’il’noids alive, he is his father’s heir – if anything happens to Lai, Zhaim will take over. He took this position from Derik (who was just as glad to be rid of the responsibility) when he came of age several hundred years ago, and has come to define himself in terms of how he will improve the Confederation when he takes over from his dowdy and senile (in his opinion) father.

Zhaim is quite handsome in his way, vain about his appearance, and very fashion-conscious. His complexion is dark bronze, like his father’s, and his hair is black. His eyes are almost clear with silver veining – “ice and silver” is how they are often described. His hobby is making “artistic” sculptures out of living things (including slaves) and he considers himself a great but misunderstood artist. He likes and admires cats, but is violently allergic to them.

He is an important character in both Homecoming and Tourist Trap and will continue in the trilogy. Here he is speaking from the Bounceabout, early in Homecoming.

The Bounceabout. Ha! The Nausea would be more appropriate. And twice in one day?

Damn the old man! He knows how those rough jumps affect me. And he damn near ordered me to come. Blast Derik. I should have been the one left on charge, not that soft-headed fool. He’s even older than my father!

And now my father even admits he doesn’t have the slightest idea of where he’s going. Just that some possible jump points feel more “right” than others. Well, I knew it was a useless quest.

Still, he has a habit of being right. And if there’s even a chance of other R’il’nai out there …. If one of them were female ….

Damn it, the R’il’noids are better than either race! We’re smarter than the Humans; more practical and creative than the pure R’il’nai. We don’t need the R’il’nai any more. But if the old man finds others ….

I’m his heir, the son who has inherited the most of his R’il’nian genes. He mustn’t have a child by a pure R’il’nian!

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. The format of background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. Bold type indicates that more information has been or will be available in another A to Z post. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

 

Wif k’Roi Laian (A to Z Challenge)

Wif is the son of Roi and Feline (feh-LEEN), conceived when both were forced into a sex show as slaves. As a result of this episode and its aftermath, Feline was not quite sane and was extremely possessive of the child. Roi carries the Coven gene and is barred by the Genetics board from having any other offspring, but Wif did not inherit this from his father and as an adult has numerous offspring. He looks strikingly like his grandfather, Lai, except for an eye color that matches his father’s: gold with flecks of metallic gold. In our time, that of the upcoming trilogy, he has become the Guardian of Earth.

He appeared briefly as a baby in Homecoming (where he played an important role as a catalyst) and again when he is three and a half years old at the end of Tourist Trap. I am letting him speak shortly after the end of Tourist Trap.

I rode my pony all morning, even when we cantered! And I wasn’t the least bit tired. Well, my legs were just a little stiff. But this afternoon Daddy said we’d go in the canoe on the river, because he wanted to show me some fish like we don’t have on Central. I had to promise not to jump up and down, though.

I don’t know why Mother didn’t want me to come to Falaron. She never wants me to do anything that’s fun. Even my pony back home. She kept screaming about how dangerous it was, even with Flame leading me. I like auntie Flame better’n Mother, but Daddy says I mustn’t tell her that. He says I have to be polite to her. Even Grandma Marna says that. Grandma Marna made Mother let me come, though.

Oh, look at that bird! It just swooped right down and caught a fish in its feet. Talons, Daddy says.

Flame and Penny are leading my pony and Daddy’s horse along the bank. There’s a path there. I like Penny. She doesn’t scream like Mother. She says I ride really well, and she showed me how to put on my pony’s bridle. Not the saddle, though, I can’t reach that high.

I wish Penny’d come back to Central and be my Auntie, like Flame. I asked her if she would, after lunch, but she just turned red. So did Daddy. Did I say something wrong?

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. The format of background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. Bold type indicates that more information has been or will be available in another A to Z post. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

Penny Ansdor (A to Z Challenge)

Penny is a guide who works for the Falaron Company, hoping some day to become a trekmaster. She has been assigned to guide Roi and his three slaves (who to her surprise do not even consider claiming their freedom on Falaron) on a Challenge journey from the Spine Range down the Surprise River to the port at the river mouth. She has broken up with her boyfriend, who resented how her job brought her into close contact with off-planet men. She is speaking from near the beginning of Tourist Trap, after the first day on the trail.

So far, so good. They’re certainly not the spoiled brats I usually get – no problem at all getting them to help with the camp chores. In fact, they seemed to enjoy bringing in snow to melt and wood for the fire, and helping feed the dogs. And for a group that admitted they were new to dog sledding, they did a darned good job of handling. Of course the helpfulness may disappear once the novelty wears off!

And if I didn’t know Roi was free and the other three were slaves, I sure couldn’t tell from the way they behaved. If anything, Roi seems the most willing to put himself out for the others.

At least they’re all in good physical condition, and if the way they took to dog-sledding is any guide, they should be able to handle the things they’re supposed to be experienced with, like the hang gliding and horseback riding. Sailing – well, Timi’s supposed to be good, but he’s the one that bothers me most in terms of attitude. I’ll have to teach them how to handle the rafting and rock climbing, but they seem willing to learn. Not like some of the clients I get.

Of course that’s assuming everything goes all right, and we don’t have any problems. Since it’s a Challenge, I can’t call in help unless it’s a real emergency. Well I hope we don’t have any.

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. The format of background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. Bold type indicates that more information has been or will be available in another A to Z post. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

P.S. I’ve been so busy keeping up I haven’t bothered to check how may posts I’ve put out. Knew I was approaching 1000, but it turns out this is number 1018!

Outer Council (A to Z Challenge)

The Councils were originally formed to provide the R’il’nai some feedback on how the Human population of the Confederation would react to R’il’nian actions. All members showed strong R’il’nian traits, but until the development of the Çeren index (which measured the fraction of active genetic material of R’il’nian origin) membership was rather helter-skelter. By a century after the Çeren index was developed, it was formalized: those with a Çeren index of more than 72 (1/2 the active gene R’il’nian-derived) were considered R’il’noid; those with more than 108 (3/4) were called High R’il’noids and expected to act as part of the Outer Council when on Central, and the Inner Council was made up of those with Çeren indices of 120 or greater (7/8). By the time of Homecoming, the Inner Council was effectively running the Confederation, though Lai as the last surviving R’il’nian retained veto power (which he rarely used, recognizing that all too soon the Inner Council would be on its own.) The Outer Council was an advisory body for the Inner Council and its members were on call for assignments throughout the Confederation, as were all R’il’noids.

It must be emphasized that both Councils were concerned strictly with Confederation law, which dealt with R’il’noids and relationships between planets and between species. Individual planets had their own laws and governments and aside from a few things that were requited to join the Confederation (such as not trying to settle or exploit a planet with a native sentient or near-sentient species,) any form of government was accepted and could not be interfered with by the Confederation. Think of the United Nations with absolute power to stop wars between member states, but absolutely nothing corresponding to the declaration of human rights.

Thus Central, for instance, though the seat of the Confederation for historical reasons, was under the control of an elected assembly of Humans, and slavery was accepted there. On Falaron, the vacation planet in Tourist Trap, slavery was illegal.

Confederation law did trump planetary law, and R’il’noids were not subject to planetary law. There was actually good historical reason for this: R’il’noids trying to do their job had been executed for inadvertently violating some rather strange local laws. But by the time of Homecoming some R’il’noids were taking advantage of this fact.

Although the Inner Council met regularly, the Outer Council was convened only under extraordinary conditions. Such a condition might be an amendment to the Articles of Confederation. To quote Carina, the oldest member of the Inner Council and the expert of Confederation law, when she as asked about amendments:

“Part of the original Articles,” she said without opening her eyes. “Yes, it can be changed. Two-thirds of the Inner Council—not two-thirds plus—and a simple majority of the entire Council, inner and outer combined. Then two-thirds of the planets in the Confederation have to ratify it. It can be done, but it’ll take time—probably several years, if not decades.”

But for the most part, the Outer Council serves as the eyes, ears, hands, and feet of the Confederation.

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. The format of background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. Bold type indicates that more information has been or will be available in another A to Z post. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

Galactica (A to Z Challenge)

Tourist Trap: 2012 fiction book of the year, Reader Views.

Galactica is the lingua franca of the Jarnian Confederation. It is a language based on sound and hearing, and one almost all humans can learn to produce and understand.

Certainly there are variations. On some planets the language has drifted so far that they have developed their own languages, and Galactica has to be taught as a second language. But all children who are taught to read are taught to read Galactica, though planetary dialects may make Galactica spoken on one planet very difficult for the native of another planet to understand. (Think of the varieties of English before radio or television.)

Natural linguistic drift has been balanced by the very long life spans of the R’il’nai and many R’il’noids. When there is a living speaker of a language who learned it several millennia before, pronunciation shifts are very slow. New words, however, are readily incorporated. Probably not as fast as in English, since the pace of technological change is much slower. This relative technological stagnation is also due to a R’il’nian talent: conditional precognition is invaluable in recognizing unforeseen consequences.

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. Background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

Flame (A to Z Challenge)

Flame is slave-bred, a redhead with green eyes and a very fair (but not freckled) complexion that sunburns easily. At the time she is speaking from, she has never been outdoors and has never seen the sky. She is an important character in Homecoming and Tourist Trap, though she does not appear in Horse Power. She is the least intelligent of Roi’s companions, but the most loyal. She has an eidetic memory: she can recall every detail of something seen once. She is a bit of a clothes horse, and she has the height and figure to pull it off. Here she speaks from before the start of Homecoming.

Of course I can dance. I was bred to dance. Long legs, long body and arms, perfect coordination and I’ve been made to perform exercises that boost strength, coordination and agility ever since I can remember. My breeder was a master instructor in the dance, and when I was old enough he began putting me into his classes.

How old? What do you mean? Years? Numbers? I don’t understand those, just the rhythm of the dance. I’m still growing, I know that.

Classes. My owner had me dance at times with those he had in for training, and one of them was really good. Snowy, he called himself, and somehow we both danced better together than apart. Even my owner noticed and he bought Snowy, saying he’d train us as a pair. Snowy thought as he danced, and sometimes he would come up with variations that my owner really liked. I wasn’t so happy when Snowy wanted to add Amber and Timi so we’d have four dancers, but he pointed out that four of us, dancing really well together, would bring a high enough price that we’d likely be treated well or at least not just thrown away. And maybe we could even train other dancers when we got too old to dance ourselves.

That last didn’t seem very important to me, but staying together was. Snowy, and later Amber and Timi, were the first friends I’d ever had.

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. Background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

Coryn (A to Z Challenge)

Coryn K’Derik Tarlian is Derik’s son and head boy of the 12^th year at Tyndall, a boarding school where most of the students are R’il’noids with esper abilities. Cory is a secondary character in Homecoming, is mentioned in Tourist Trap, and because he is non-aging, will still be around in the upcoming trilogy. Here he is speaking from the first section of Homecoming.

(Incidentally, the R’ and l’ are palatalized, as in Russian. An alternate spelling of R’il’noid would be Ryilynoid.)

I’m not sure why Kim asked me to tutor this Roi. Oh, the older students are always expected to tutor the younger ones, but a paralyzed youngster who everyone says is my father’s catamite? I know he’s dad’s slave. I saw him once on a visit, though he wasn’t paralyzed then. Beat me riding, in fact. But what is he doing here? Dad’s a practical joker, sure, but he doesn’t play that kind of jokes.

Anyway I took him on, though I expect it’ll be a real challenge even if Kim’s right in thinking he’s pretty bright. He’s been a slave; he can’t have learned anything. But Xazhar K’Zhaim, the 10^th year leader, is bound and determined the kid’s going to fail. Xazhar’s a bully. If I have anything to say about it, he’s not going to get his way this time!

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. Background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

Amber (A to Z Challenge)

Amber is a character in all three of my published books: Homecoming, Tourist Trap and Horse Power. She is blond, blue-eyed, and pretty, but has a tendency to put on weight. This is how she might have told her story early in Homecoming, when she was still a pre-teen.

Amber is what my parents named me, but of course now I have to answer to whatever my owner calls me. I’m not sure why, because we didn’t even have slavery at home. Home. Where is my home? I don’t know. I can’t even remember the name of my planet.

I do know that I was in school when they came, because I remember how pleased I was at figuring out what multiplication meant. After that things got blurry and when they unblurred again, I was being sold at a slave auction. I was sold again several times, and I think put on another spaceship. This time my new owner asked a lot of questions, and when I said I’d had dancing lessons he sold me again, to a trainer of dancers.

That wasn’t too bad except for the slave collar, but I’d learned by then to do what I was told—fast. Those things hurt and I wasn’t going to give the trainer any excuse to use it! But that was where I met the others.

Timi first. He was a captive, like me, maybe a year older. He was determined not to give in to the collar, and he got into an awfully lot of trouble. He was a terrific dancer when he was cooperating, though. Then a little later Snowy and Flame showed up. They’re about the same age as Timi.

Mostly the slave-breds didn’t want much to do with the captives, and us captives felt the same way about them. Snowy and Flame were both slave-bred, but I noticed right away how they danced as a team. They were good! I think they were there for polishing, but Snowy was watching the rest of us, too. One day he came over and asked me if I’d like to try dancing with them. “I’ve got an idea for a dance for four people,” he said, “and I think it’d be a good one for you. If we can find another boy it might even get us a better owner.”

“Timi’s very good if you can get him to work with you,” I said, and he nodded.

“I’ll see if I can talk him around.”

Well, he did, and after a month of practicing when the trainer was busy elsewhere, we performed our dance when he was watching. Snowy was really good at making up dances, and I think the trainer was impressed. Anyway he sold us as a group, which was what Snowy was after. Our new owner wasn’t exactly what Snowy was looking for, though, and he really watched the guests we were made to dance for. I think he engineered the next sale, without either of the owners realizing it.

So the four of us came to belong to Derik. He’s nice enough, though he has an absolutely rotten overseer. I’m really worried right now, though. Snowy’s sick, and Derik took him away and told us not to worry. Timi’s kind of taken over the leadership, but he can’t make dances like Snowy could. How much longer are we going to be able to stay together? And where’s Snowy?

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. Background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time. Today I’m adding an extra A: Thanks to Arlee Bird, who started this whole A to Z thing.

The Leopard Gene in Horses (continued)

The pattern most people first think of in Appaloosa horses is the one that gave the gene its name—leopard. This pattern gives a white horse with round or oval spots of base color. There may be shading of the genetic base color on the flanks, behind the elbows or on the head.

Most people would call this horse a chestnut leopard. In fact he combines a white rump, extreme roaning or snowflake, and clearly defined spots. Note the haloes on several of the spots.

Genetically, a leopard must have at least one Pattern-1 allele in order to have most or all of the body white. In addition, it must have one leopard allele and one wild-type allele at the TRPM1 locus. Two leopard alleles will lead to a few-spot leopard, with only a few colored spots. Other factors leading to the leopard pattern undoubtedly exist, but are still unknown.

The mane and tail may be mixed in color if some of the mane and tail hair grow from colored spots. The spots may have roan edges, called haloes, which normally develop after birth. Blacks tend to have more and larger leopard spots than do chestnuts, with bay being intermediate. Also, horses with black mixed in the coat (sooty) will sometimes have the black and red colors form separate spots.

Three of the horses in Tourist Trap have leopard markings.

Another view of the same horse. Note the white “lightning strike” markings on the forelegs.

Token is the mare ridden by Flame. She is fairly tall—around 16 hands. She is a chestnut leopard, white with copper spots. Genetically, she is homozygous for the most recessive of the extension alleles, has two copies of the Pattern-1 allele and one of the leopard allele. She is wild-type at all dilution, pinto spotting, grey and roan loci. She could have genes for minor white marking on face or feet, but they cannot be seen.

Dusty is the gelding ridden by Timi, who would just as soon not be riding. He is the calmest and laziest of the group, and the easiest for a novice rider to handle. He is also the least responsive to leg pressure. Dusty is a buckskin leopard, around 15 hands tall. He has wild-type extension genes, bay alleles at the agouti locus, and one cream and one wild-type gene at the cream locus. His pattern-1 and leopard alleles are the same as Token’s. He has quite a lot of white in his mane and tail, so they are not noticeably sparse.

Penny is the guide and her horse, Freckles, is a bay leopard gelding. Freckles is a little keener than the horses assigned to Penny’s clients, but he’s a bit younger and the cross-country trip is part of his training. Freckles’s underlying bay color is a little sooty, so he has both red and black spots. Genetically he is the same as Dusty but with sooty and without the cream allele.

The other two horses have the leopard allele but are not leopards, and I’ll talk about them next time.

This was first posted, without photographs, April 2 2011.

New Pricing on E-Books

I am pleased to announce that the e-book prices on my first two books are finally down where I think they should be for a relatively unknown author. iUniverse has both Homecoming and Tourist Trap at my preferred price of $4.99.

Amazon is selling Homecoming on Kindle at $4.39 but seems a bit slow on Tourist Trap, as they are still listing it at $7.69. I’ve pointed out to them that iUniverse is cheaper, but customer complaints might work faster.

Barnes and Noble offers both Homecoming and Tourist Trap in Nook format at $4.39 each.

Even people who don’t normally like science fiction have enjoyed these books. They include many of the things I’ve blogged about: horses, dogs, genetics, conservation laws, and hypoglycemia, for some.

A sample excerpt, from Homecoming:

The spring equinox found Marna moving back to the north, keeping ahead of the rains as she recrossed the savanna and moved into true desert. Furnace winds parched her mouth and throat, and blowing dust caked her eyes. She paused near the crest of a dune, shading her eyes against the glare of the morning sun.

The blue line to the north had become more than a line. She nodded in satisfaction as she turned back to the floater and picked up her canteen for a drink. The map had been telling her for more than a day that the Wind Hills were ahead of her, but this was the first time she had been sure that what she saw was more than a mirage. She sealed the canteen and returned it to the floater, making a quick check of her remaining water containers. A good three days’ worth, she thought, and she should reach the foothills and at least one spring tonight. She licked her dusty lips and began climbing down the slip face of the dune.

By late afternoon she had sighted three cabins, all well away from the line to the hills. The fourth, however, was directly in her path, and she paused to study it. It was built of the pale limestone that made up the backbone of the Wind Hills, roofed with red slate, and seemed almost untouched by time. In fact, it didn’t look as if it could possibly have been abandoned for as long as the cabins on Windhome, or even for a fraction of that time. Marna’s heartbeat quickened as she stepped closer. Could this place possibly be isolated enough to house a survivor of the plague?

She circled the cabin, looking for any sign of life. On the fourth side was a door, propped part way open by a chunk of rock. She ran up to it, her heart pounding and her breath tight in her throat, and looked inside.

The small windows had been sandblasted over the years, and her eyes, adjusted to the glare of the desert sun, at first saw only darkness broken by paler rectangles. Marna closed her eyes and covered them with her hands, willing her sight to adjust but already aware that there was no smell or sound of life. When she looked again, she saw that the room was half filled with drifted sand.

Something dark protruded from the sand to her left, and she thought at first it was a tree branch, oddly shriveled and distorted. She scuffed her way across the room to try and pull it free, and only then realized that what she held was a hand.

Her knees buckled and she collapsed into the sand, still holding that poor, withered travesty of a R’il’nian hand. She stroked it gently while tears ran down her face and the trained Healer in her mind noted the spread, backward-stretched fingers and bent-back wrist. A plague victim, no doubt hidden from scavengers by the drifting sand and mummified in the heat and dryness of the desert.

Gently she dug the sand away, revealing a contorted body that seemed little more than a skeleton covered with stretched, dried leather. Someone tired of the press of crowds had come here for rest and renewal, perhaps, but had brought the plague along and died in agony, far from any help. Elsewhere, the last to die had been reclaimed by the life of the planet, not even their bones remaining. Here, there had not even been a scavenger to accept the poor body.

Logic said she should get away, that the person was long gone and the body might still harbor the plague.

She could not abandon the remnant.

The body refused to be composed into any semblance of rest, but she brushed away the last of the sand and carried it into the sun, now high in the sky. Deaths among the R’il’nai had been rare, and she finally had to ask the computer for the proper words.

“I do not know who you are,” she told the body finally, “so I cannot speak of your life and the joy you brought those who knew you. I can only say the final farewell. Take the goodness and joy of your life with you as you go before, and let all sorrow and evil be consumed with your body in the furnace from which it came.”

She reached out to cup her hands around the skull-like face, locking her mind on the body. She gathered herself mentally, reached for the sun, and thrust the body into its nuclear heart.

For a long time after the funeral Marna sat unmoving beside the cabin, tears running down her face and making brief marks in the sand. Finally she struggled to her feet and began pulling the floater on toward the hills, but her pleasure in seeing the beauty of Riya was gone. She might as well go back to the island, she thought. At least there she had the tinerals for company.

*

            The tinerals were bearing their young when she returned. Most of the animals chose to give birth on their own, but Ruby preferred Marna’s bed. Her lavender mate, still suspicious of Marna, watched nervously from outside the window as Marna patted the garnet-downed infant dry.

“She’s going to be a beauty, Ruby, and a color I’ve never seen before,” Marna told the tineral. But there’ll never be a child for me, she thought as she handed the newborn back to its mother.

You’ll raise a child and bear one too, love. Mine in spirit, if not by blood. She jumped to her feet. Surely that message hadn’t come from her subconscious, nor could it have any precognitive content. She left the island again the next day. But if Win’s voice on the island tempted her to death, the unheard voices on the rest of the planet drove her in the same direction.