Content Pages
This section is dedicated to you, the reader of the Star Seeker series. Currently, it is divided into two sub-pages.
The first is background information on your favorite crew. As an author, I have to develop a lot more background to write about a character effectively, too much to put into a novel without strangling the narrative or over burdening the reader with details. So this is a win-win situation for us. You get to find out more about your favorite characters and I get to feel like all that work hasn't been wasted.
The second is just for fun. These are the "out take" pages, or what I normally label as detritus: these are plot arcs that never went anywhere, didn't appear in the books or were suddenly rendered useless because I decided to take a different direction in a previous chapter. Some of it is pretty good stuff. Maybe, just maybe, I might find a use for it somewhere else. This, too, is a win-win situation.
Obviously, this section more than any other is a "work in progress." Since I add pages nearly every week day to whatever I am writing, then the potential is always there for more fun stuff. And, there are always new characters to add to the mix. Please keep in mind that the characters grow throughout the series (progress in rank, new relationships, etc.) I will try my best not to give away too many spoilers.
Enjoy!
Synopsis:
Lt. Wesley Edwards is in command of a ship with a very green crew. All the officers on board have been given brevet promotions. Wesley is the only first lieutenant in a sea of seconds and struggles to get the respect he needs to be an effective commander. Wesley is conflicted. He loves the Scout Corps, but he is also in love with a junior officer Lt. Lenoir Claiborne. It is an open secret among most of the crew. Wesley is trapped in a prison of his own making. If he gets caught in romantic entanglement with Lenny, his career will be deep spaced. Yet, he cannot imagine his life or a future without her.
Standing beside him is Lt. Arnog Brachensclaw, an ursoid and spiritual mentor to Wesley. More than an ursoid of faith, he towers above humans and is a weapons master in his own right. He is the Chaplain of the Seeker and while unskilled in technology, he is skilled in understanding humans. It is because of this Wesley leaves him in charge of the Seeker while on an away mission. There is a second ursoid on board, Midshipman Burh Tigrin. From a high medieval world Burh is somewhat naïve, but he often serves as a reliable narrator in situations where the crew has lost their perspective.
The beta couple are Jason and Vesna. Jason can be a jerk and a loafer at times, but he is also a skilled pilot and marksman with a long gun. He imagines himself a player but has more than met his match in Vesna. She was raised on the streets of a heavy gravity world. She is insular and tight lipped. Jason was unable to break through her shell, but after a while she slowly lets him in. Jason uses humor to deflect, Vesna uses threats.
Our story begins with Commodore Lane aboard Ranger, the flag ship of the squadron. He and his Aslan first officer have discovered someone is rigging their ship for surveillance while it is being outfitted. Most of the crew are new. Lane commands the squadron but wonders if he is in command of his own ship. Taking advantage of an ambiguity in his orders, he sends the squadron out in search of the missing Diplomat. He hopes they will find the Diplomat before he is discovered or loses any more ships.
Wesley, in command of the Seeker, jumps into a system and is shortly afterward disabled by a magnetar pulse of such strength that it disables the major systems of the ship and the human crew. Only the two ursoid members of the crew are spared. Ten hours later when Wesley wakes up, all the alarms are ringing on the bridge while Arnog and Burh are fighting off insectoids trying to board the ship. Wesley’s thoughts immediately go to Lenny. Arnog gently corrects him and says the ship is more important or they all die. Wesley silences the alarms and begins to fix the targeting computer. While the alarms are cut, they are not alerted to the bugs boarding the ship. Arnog leads the fight, killing the bugs. Wesley, still unstable, is ambushed but prevails. One crew member is lost, one is critical in cryo storage. Wesley is torn up about the loss of his first crew member.
Before Seeker lies the drift, a mass of ships at the L5 point of a trinary star system. The ships are bound by an interlocking web of tunnels made by the insectoids known as the Zhuk. They capture ships disabled by the pulse to harvest heat, pressure and air to keep their civilization running. They treat humans as parasites but import fuel to a few ships to keep the system running. The denizens of the drift survive by cannibalizing new arrivals. The drift is inhabited by many races and nationalities creating a complex network of alliances and animosities the Scouts must negotiate. With their compromised systems, Seeker locates Discovery as well as other Confederation Scout and Navy vessels.
Wesley takes Lenny, Jason, Vesna and Burh as his away team, leaving Arnog in charge of the ship. When they arrive at the drift, direct access is blocked. They find another access point filled with carnivorous Zhuk larvae up to 5 meters in length. Outnumbered, they barely make it out alive and retreat to the ship. A second try leads to a sketchy access point. Characters can’t or won’t help, but they direct the Scouts to an Aslashi named Tabor. A 12 foot tall mix raced felid, his clan hunt the drift for sport. A volatile but somewhat trustworthy ally, he directs the Scouts to their next destination. When a Zhuk patrol is sensed in the area, Tabor abandons them in the lower levels of the drift. The felids stalk the Zhuk to eliminate the threat and distract them from the Scouts’ trail.
The crew is left to their own devices to fight the insectoid flora and fauna of the drift’s lower levels. In a battle with a pair of pterosaur analogs, Vesna is injured, and Jason begins to crack. They manage to escape with an unconscious Vesna in tow. The crew finally make it to the Diplomat and Vesna gets the medical help she needs.
Things have not gone well on the Diplomat. When she arrived on the drift, she was attacked repeatedly for her food, supplies and spare parts. Captain Matthew Henry is deceased; his first officer is in charge. She is severely wounded and has had her leg amputated below the knee. Wesley informs her they have arrived with weapons and ammo for which she is grateful. She orders him to search for the missing parts the Diplomat needs to escape the drift. She gives Wesley the sobering news that he is next in command aboard Diplomat if something should happen to her.
Chief Winsome Rogers is assigned as the crew’s guide. The vivacious and uncomplicated Winsome is a foil to the high maintenance, aristocratic Lenny. Sparks fly continuously. Wesley is the target of Lenny’s ire while he remains largely clueless as to what he has done. His self-absorption in saving the crew and the mission doesn’t help at all. Meanwhile, Winsome has set her eyes on the handsome young lieutenant.
While searching for the missing part, the information falls on the wrong ears. When the crew returns to Diplomat, the Scouts find it has been mauled. They find the first officer clinging to life. The Ursoid Marines are off in the tunnels chasing down their attackers. After giving his parole, a belter pirate shoots both the first officer and Burh who is carrying her on his back. Wesley staples him to the wall with his needler. Now in command, Wesley performs the final act as Diplomat’s Captain. He goes to the bridge to remove the hard drive. He interrupts a belter trying to remove the hard drive. Convinced he has been too soft and others have suffered for it, Wesley whistles. As the belter whirls around, Wesley guns him down. His conscience is eased because at least he didn’t shoot the belter in the back. A new hardness is beginning to take hold of Wesley.
Attempting to return to their ship, the crew find the tunnel blocked by a new addition: a hospital ship named Comfort. The Zhuk have gotten there first and there are signs of a battle. Meanwhile, Burh hears another group marching toward them (bugs don’t march), so they hide. After the battle is over, the Scouts come in and clean up the leftovers. But taking the ship proves to be a lot easier than keeping it. The Scouts find several human survivors, including medical staff hiding in the ship’s two medical pinnaces. One survivor is an avian-aslan hybrid named Griff Taron, a nurse practitioner and genetic engineer.
While defending the ship, Lenny is badly wounded by shrapnel. Vesna carries her to the med bay then collapses from loss of blood. Lenny recovers under Griff’s devoted care and healer and patient develop deep affection for one another. Lenny forgets about Wesley who is ignoring her anyway. Griff is ignorant of his part in their breakup.
The Zhuk are beginning to cut through the aft hatch and Jason and Winsome rush to weld the openings shut. The Zhuk eventually win the battle and gain the ship. Using a combination of high tech, low tech and no tech, the Scouts and the walking wounded refugees from the drift make a valiant last stand. Burh proves himself heroically, standing almost alone with his blade and superhuman strength after his ammo is depleted. Just short of too late, Ursoid Marines arrive from the Diplomat. In their mechanized battle armor, they make short work of the remaining Zhuk.
Wesley, his mission failed, reverts to the Scout creed: “save as many as you can.” He devotes his energies to rescuing the half-starved prisoners of the drift, placing priority on finding a crew to pilot Comfort, Another group of belters get wind of what’s going on and come in force to demand a quarter tribute from the Comfort. They are offered passage off, but refuse. Burh is sent out to confront the new mob. Wesley has timed it right and the pulse strikes during negotiations. The Doctor on board previously distributed anti-seizure meds to lighten the effect of the pulse. The belters and Burh’s backup collapse. Burh is unaffected. On his own initiative, he collects all the weapons of the unconscious belters. When they revive, they fight to reclaim their weapons, but when they hear Ursoid Marines approaching up the tunnel from behind, they flee.
Winsome and Burh are sent out to strip other ships for parts to build weapons for Comfort (hospital ships have none by treaty). They are cut off from the ship by a Zhuk attempt to push Comfort off the drift. An attempt to rescue them fails, two ursoids volunteer to stay behind and find Burh, having obligations to his father to watch over the cub. Comfort fights as long as possible to delay but must leave their crew behind. As the ship leaves the system, they drop a buoy broadcasting a warning about the pulses and their frequency. Just before jump, Lenny detects a Scout ship taking heavy fire. First they thought it was Seeker, but instead it was Ranger. Crew on verge of mutiny to want to help, but Wesley refuses. With no weapons, armor and without a trained crew they wouldn’t stand a chance. Wesley collapses on his bunk weeping bitter tears.
Seeker is still missing. Arnog makes a critically wrong decision, and the ship barely refuels before losing all power. Seeker can see Ranger’s dilemma, but is unable to help either.