Kyrie Talganian (A to Z Challenge)

Kyrie Talganian is R’il’noid and non-aging, but she is not a High R’il’noid and thus not a member of either Council. She is a blue-eyed blond who loves food but has a constant weight problem. Although she is a borderline esper (she finds teleporting difficult, for instance) she has superb truth-sense which she uses in her role as a Confederation adjudicator. In Homecoming she is serving a brief term on Central, the Confederation administrative planet; by the time of Tourist Trap she has been reassigned to Falaron. She is a long-time friend of Elyra’s, and is happy to invite Derik and Elyra to Falaron for a brief vacation. (Falaron is within teleport range for Derik.) She is speaking from near the end of Tourist Trap, shortly after Derik and Elyra have arrived.

Oh, it’s a beautiful planet, and I enjoy being here. And the food! Derik, I might have overreached in having you pay for half of what I sent the youngsters from Gralen’s, but we all have to dine there while you’re here. I wish I could eat as much, and have it show as little, as you do.

I do feel a little overworked at times, being the only Confederation adjudicator on planet. Three or four cases a day! But it’s a fascinating place – you should see the mammoths and saber-tooths! Roi’s loving it, or at least he was the last time he contacted me. I didn’t really believe it when you said he was quite artistic, but he’s been drawing everything. I’ve seen some of his sketches through his eyes, and I’m really looking forward to seeing them myself.

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.

Elyra Faranian (A to Z Challenge)

Elyra is very small (around 4’ tall) but perfectly formed. She is milk chocolate in color, and (like Derik) monotone in that skin, hair and eyes are all the same shade, though her eyes are veined with copper. She is R’il’noid and an important member of the genetics board. Like many R’il’noid women she is sexually active and easily aroused when she is not pregnant, but loses interest in sex when pregnant or nursing. At the start of Homecoming she has agreed to try to have a child by Lai “the old-fashioned way,” although most natural pairings with R’il’nians are infertile. Laboratory manipulation has been the norm since Çeren’s work made it possible. I’ll let her explain it.

R’il’noids are essential to the survival of the Confederation, especially now that the purebred R’il’nai are almost extinct. Most have at least some degree of ability to detect and remove Maung parasitization, and many have the even more important talent of conditional precognition. My job as the chief geneticist of the Genetics Board is to encourage pregnancies that could produce R’il’noids without undesirable traits, and since Çeren’s work, that generally means laboratory pregnancies. Natural matings of R’il’nian males with human females were producing about one pregnancy per R’il’nian a century, and Çeren was getting a much higher rate with his lab technique.

But with the lab technique we were getting an increasing number of R’il’noids with no sense of responsibility.  Lai, the last of the R’il’nai, suggested that might be due to the laboratory techniques. Further, he’d gone back to Jarn’s Journal, where he detailed the first, natural cross-species pregnancies, many millennia ago. “I think I’ve figured out what he was doing,” he said. “Emotional connection — love — is necessary. Knowing what I now do, I think I can manage it with strong liking and desire for a child. I won’t claim to love you as I loved Cloudy, Elyra, but we’re good friends, and I think it might work. Are you willing to move in with me and try?”

I’ve never been exclusive in my loves, but Lai is special, special enough that whatever my doubts about whether he could get me pregnant, I was more than willing to try. “Of course,” I said.

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.