Moro's Price
Page 37
Radu: Sonta spymaster for the Ksala Aiyon.
Rajiv Fenti ne’Cama, pronounced ‘rah JEEV’: Guide of Cama attached to the Embassy staff in Cedar-Saba.
Rianta Indusarya (‘ree ANN tah inn dew SAHR yah’) and Meek Indusarya: fellow orphans at the Ventana crèche, essentially Moro’s adopted sister and brother, killed during the takeover of Ventana.
Rio Sardis: one of the top three League terraforming corporations, now expanded into thousands of other businesses. Its corporate symbol is a stylized palm tree usually shown in platinum or gray. It owns at least two Apex planets (Palmyra and Rowan), large investments in the intermediate planet Willowtree, and at least fourteen colony worlds including Ventana. Rio Sardis has a history stretching back to Old Earth, when Persian tech entrepreneurs threw off Arab religious influences and petroleum economies, and developed the first affordable nuclear fusion engines. The Sardis family had long been aggressively proud of their Persian heritage, until Lyton Sardis’s father allowed neo-Christian Terra Prima supporters into his board of directors.
Roberto Chu: the current Premier of Cedar.
Rowe Vermilion Singh: law firm in Cedar-Saba.
Sagana, pronounced ‘say GONE ah’: capital city of Camonde, ancestral seat of the Antonin Royal family.
Sasha ‘Gran’ Case: blind elderly woman who ran the Ventana Township orphans’ crèche where Moro grew up. Killed during the takeover of Ventana.
Savinilan, pronounced ‘sah VEEN ee lahn’: male Sonta Vessel and consort of Aksenna, originally born to the tribe of Danil.
Sentience: the quality of self-awareness and empathy most cherished by Lifebringers. In Moro’s universe, many things besides mortal humans and aliens have sentience; even some planets and stars have been shown to possess a slow-reacting intelligence.
Sergeant Acton: one of Lyton Sardis’s bodyguards on board the starship Persepolis.
Sofia Carson: Doc Carson’s wife and Demetra’s mother, died in a terraforming accident on Ventana around the time Moro was born.
Sero, Sera: male and female honorifics used in the Terran League and the Camalian Commonwealth. Equivalent to our ‘Sir’ or ‘Madame’.
Siwana Space Museum: antiquated Cedar-Saba museum housing artifacts of the Terran League migrations from Old Earth and Terra Prima. Needs to invest in better security.
Sonta, pronounced ‘SAWN tah’: long-lived humanoid species living and migrating in vast, self-contained worldships. The race appears to be various hybrids of three distinct subspecies: tall, brawny humanoid warrior-stock; a shorter, more-delicate and almost elfin group; and furred and tailed sentients called Singers who resemble a cross between Terran lions and velociraptors. Each Sonta tribe has adopted/enslaved a particular Bound Ksala, and their fates are entwined with their star-eaters’ destinies. The Sonta are conjectured to have a written history going back at least 100,000 years, and distant kinship to League and Camalian humans. Before Moro, there were no known Sonta/human hybrids. Sonta sexuality is too fluid to easily fit human terminologies; for all intents and purposes, assume everyone is pansexual.
Stratton: wealthy district of northern Cedar-Saba.
The Sunburst Throne: ancient throne of the emperors of Camonde. Visitors expect it to be grandiose, but it is a very simple large chair carved from a single block of the oldest basalt on Camonde, and decorated only with symbols of science, mathematics, and Cama’s sunburst emblem.
Symbiont: the colonial nano-virus created by Cama and Maya Antonin. All cells of this stable, artificial virus carry particles of Cama’s matter, and are linked to each other through quantum entanglement. This allows Cama to monitor her chosen humans and occasionally ‘speak’ to their minds. Camalians who are unusually sensitive to the symbiont can sense other Camalians’ surface thoughts and emotions. In the case of Antonin Royals, many of them can not only contact/control large groups of other Camalians, they can sometimes influence Cama herself for brief periods.
Tagorska Spaceport, pronounced ‘tah GORE skah’: starship port in northeastern Cedar-Saba.
Tena (Tena Sonta), pronounced ‘TAY nah’: the most relatively sane member of her star-eater pack. Sonta history suggests that Tena was already ‘tame’, and volunteered to become enslaved to a Sonta tribe along with her siblings Aiyon and Aksenna. Tena’s signature color is searing magenta fire. There are rumors she is holding back her Change into a Lifebringer until her siblings are ready to join her. Or until she loses patience and kills them.
Dr. Terise Volker Sardis, pronounced ‘tear EES’: neuroscience expert, human supremacist, and ex-wife of Lyton Sardis. A major Terra Prima supporter. Responsible for the synthetic secondary neural network that allowed Lyton Sardis to control Moro’s actions from a distance.
Terra Prima, pronounced ‘TEAR ah PREE mah’: 1) the first colony of humanity on the migration from Old Earth, lost when Camalians wrested control of it and forced surviving humans to flee. 2) Powerful quasi-religious and socially conservative human supremacist organization with similarities to several of our religious fundamentalist groups.
Terrani, pronounced ‘tear AWN nee’: what the Sonta call Terran League humans. Usually with overtones of insult, and often paired with a word that means ‘dawnfly’ (for an insect that lives for only one day).
Terran League: major human empire, created after humanity was forced off Terra Prima by the rebelling Camalians.
Valier Antonin ne’Cama, most often pronounced ‘val YAIR’, (nicknamed Owl-boy by Moro): Camalian crown prince with a gift for nano-engineering, long-concealed sadistic urges, and secret abilities that neither he nor Cama want to reveal.
Val’s toolbelt: think the dorkiest combination of Batman’s utility belt and any workman’s carry-all belt, this ugly black monstrosity has dozens of pockets, pouches, and attachments. He began assembling it as a child. It houses Val’s personal collection of nanotech tools, some survival gear, and at least one sex toy in questionable taste. After the events of Moro’s Price, Val is never going anywhere without that belt.
Vilstad Meng: arena fighter defeated by the Diamond (Moro).
Vilam (William) Volker Sardis, prefers being called Bill Sardis: only legitimate son of Lyton Sardis and Terise Volker.
Vaclav Sector: entertainment district in south-central Cedar-Saba, known for casinos and sports franchises.
Vaclav 17: the casino skyscraper housing the Golden Cage at its summit.
Vaclav 18: the industrial building just to the north of Vaclav 17, place where Moro saves Val’s life on the roof.
Ventana, also called RS14: a previously viable terraformed farming community on a large rocky moon. Sonta artifacts may indicate the moon was a former environmental laboratory of the White Storm.
The Ventana Network: informal and leaderless group of displaced Ventana colonists plotting revenge on Rio Sardis, and the restoration of Ventana’s scattered surviving population.
Ventana Design Group: fake business set up to hide Lyton Sardis’s continuing ownership of Moro.
Vittori, pronounced ‘vit OAR ee’: desert planet in a backwater part of the Terran League. Another former laboratory world of the White Storm, now home to a failing human colony after they excavated a Sonta site too deeply.
Waterside Tavern: the best bar and restaurant in Ventana Township. For many years, Anya Dalgleish was part-owner, bartender, and cook.
The White Storm: once the most powerful star-eater in several galaxies. Pack leader to his lesser siblings Aiyon, Aksenna, and Tena, he evolved into a Lifebringer approximately twelve thousand years before Moro’s birth. Apparently away from this universe for long periods of time, he reappears occasionally to trick Unbound star-eaters into deathtraps, or meddle in planetary engineering and the progress of several mortal civilizations. Aiyon wants to kill him. Aksenna is still in love with him. Tena just wants him to stay the hell away from her (they have History.)
He has worn many names and disguises during his long, slow change from a star-eater to a Lifebringer.
&nbs
p; Willowtree: intermediate planet in the Terran League.
Wynne Ventana: Jost’s mother. Came up with the plot to claim the underage Moro as the Ventana Family’s personal bondslave and thus keep him safe from off-worlders looking for him. Died from a hereditary degenerative disease while Jost and Moro were still teenagers.
Zarin Basrali, pronounced ‘zar EEN bass RAW lee’: security analyst at Rio Sardis, recruited by Bill Sardis for a spy mission against Lyton Sardis. Semi-devout Avestan Persian. Orphan raised by a Rio Sardis crèche.
About the Author
M. Crane Hana lives in a flat place filled with cactus. She writes romances in all flavors, spends too much time world building sword & planet fantasies and space operas, and makes museum-grade artifacts from cultures that never existed.
Email: cranehanabooks@gmail.com
Twitter: @MCHana2
Website: www.cranehanabooks.com/blog
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/14903875.M_Crane_Hana
Other books by this author
Maestro
Also Available from NineStar Press
www.ninestarpress.com