About Fleet
Alysha Forrest’s Fleet is not, most of you will have noted, much like a military. This is a reflection of its origins. After the Pelted fled Earth and established their new homeworlds, they thought it would be a good idea to have a military, but while the technology was easily within their reach, the cultural challenges were significant. Most Pelted are non-violent both by inclination and biology, and prior to the Exodus their few interactions with military personnel on Earth had been either as distant authority figures or in security functions. They knew nothing of military history; they weren’t aware of the division of labor or forces; they didn’t understand the military culture and, importantly, its purpose in keeping people under high stress functional and capable of executing their missions.
In short, they were pacifists who could build big guns, decided they should, and then weren’t sure what to do next.
It didn’t help that once they settled into their colonization period, the Pelted failed to find anyone to deploy their fledgling military against. The universe was mostly empty until the Pelted filled it with their own experiments in genetic engineering, and the few aliens the Pelted met were benevolent. The warships the Pelted built found themselves assigned to exploration, disaster relief, and ambassadorial duties. As the merchant fleet expanded, Fleet found extra work in anti-piracy duties… but pirates were few and poorly organized, and these few encounters never necessitated the development of even the most rudimentary of tactics.
Hundreds of years after the Exodus, the most modern and potent military in known space is manned mostly by scientists, engineers, and a small handful of people trained in executive decision-making. It completely lacks the distinction between officer and enlisted personnel, has all of six ranks, and offers little mobility between them save in the command track. Most of Fleet’s members are in the soft and hard sciences and remain ensigns all their careers. They are assigned to the departments of particular ships and never leave. This structure—more like a corporation or government—reflects the duties that have become typical for Fleet, which are primarily scientific, exploratory, and diplomatic.
Command track officers are among the few Fleet personnel who do advance, usually based on their abilities with personnel and resource management. While some of them have the decisive personalities and leadership qualities that a Terran military officer would recognize, most of them are simply superb managers who drive their ships from world to world, mapping nebulae, ferrying diplomats around, and occasionally frightening away pirates.
When the Rapprochement reintroduced the Pelted to their makers, humanity was eager to join its defensive efforts with its far more powerful ally… which was when they discovered just how ill-equipped the Pelted Fleet was for anything more complex than escort duties. Earth wanted badly to overhaul the Pelted’s military, but the Pelted resisted. Their Fleet had grown to one of the most sizable employers in Alliance space, and one of its most productive governmental arms; they had no desire to change it to suit their more warlike progenitors’ demands.
...and then the Chatcaava, who had previously been a non-issue (and whom the Pelted had insisted to humanity was no threat), became abruptly expansionist. The unexpected change of policy made the Pelted uncomfortably aware of their own vulnerability, and the subsequent increase in piracy made it clear that at least some traditional military training would be necessary in the future. With this in mind, the Pelted began to accept the offer of personnel loans from the human militaries into theirs, and the culture clash began in earnest. As the Chatcaavan Empire has become more aggressive, humanity's demands that the Fleet find the wherewithal to transform into an actual fighting force have become more urgent.
This is the Alliance Fleet into which Alysha Forrest and her contemporaries have been inducted, and the tension between humanity and the Pelted, and the looming threat implied by the Empire’s saber-rattling, have cast a long shadow. No doubt Fleet will make the transition. The only question is whether they will do so in time to serve the purpose their makers never thought they would need to fulfill.
The Species of the Alliance Universe
The Alliance is mostly composed of the Pelted, a group of races that segregated and colonized worlds based (more or less) on their visual characteristics. Having been engineered from a mélange of uplifted animals, it’s not technically correct to refer to any of them as “cats” or “wolves,” since any one individual might have as many as six or seven genetic contributors: thus the monikers like “foxine” and “tigraine” rather than “vulpine” or “tiger.” However, even the Pelted think of themselves in groupings of general animal characteristics, so for the ease of imagining them, I’ve separated them that way.
The Pelted
The Quasi-Felids
The Karaka’An, Asanii, and Harat-Shar comprise the most cat-like of the Pelted, with the Karaka’An being the shortest and digitigrade, the Asanii being taller and plantigrade, and the Harat-Shar including either sort but being based on the great cats rather than the domesticated variants.
The Quasi-Canids
The Seersa, Tam-illee, and Hinichi are the most doggish of the Pelted, with the Seersa being short and digitigrade and foxish, the Tam-illee taller, plantigrade and also foxish, and the Hinichi being wolflike.
Others
Less easily categorized are the Aera, with long, hare-like ears, winged feet and foxish faces, the felid Malarai with their feathered wings, and the Phoenix, tall bipedal avians.
The Centauroids
Of the Pelted, two species are centauroid in configuration, the short Glaseah, furred and with lower bodies like lions but coloration like skunks and leathery wings on their lower backs, and the tall Ciracaana, who have foxish faces but long-legged cat-like bodies.
Aquatics
One Pelted race was engineered for aquatic environments: the Naysha, who look like mermaids would if mermaids had sleek, hairless, slightly rodent-like faces and the lower bodies of dolphins.
Other Species
Humanoids
Humanity fills this niche, along with their estranged cousins, the esper-race Eldritch.
True Aliens
Of the true aliens, four are known: the shapeshifting Chatcaava, whose natural form is draconic (though they are mammals); the gentle heavyworlder Faulfenza, who are furred and generally regarded to be attractive; the aquatic Platies, who look like colorful flatworms and can communicate reliably only with the Naysha, and the enigmatic Flitzbe, who are quasi-vegetative and resemble softly furred volleyballs that change color depending on their mood.
Author Sketches
It's typical for me to do sketches while writing, a sort of mental doodling as I work out events and character arcs. These sketches are not intended to be the final word on what the characters look like! I just find I work better when I'm thinking with a pencil as well as a keyboard. I've selected a few of the sketches from when I did the initial drafts of Second, and hope you enjoy the peek into the artist brain.
1. Cadet Break: Alysha and Taylitha, with lots of trees.
2. Camp Walk: A typical expression for Taylitha, I think!
3.Taylitha in the Rapids: A fairly ambitious piece but one of my favorites.
Return to the Alliance
More Fiction Set in the Paradox Universe
Mindtouch, Book 1 of The Dreamhealers Duology. Seersana University is worlds-renowned for its xenopsychology program, producing the Alliance's finest therapists, psychiatric nurses and alien researchers. When Jahir, one of the rare and reclusive Eldritch espers, arrives on campus, he's unprepared for the challenges of a vast and multicultural society... but fortunately, second-year student Vasiht'h is willing to take him under his wing. Will the two win past their troubles and doubts and see the potential for a once-in-a-lifetime partnership?
Earthrise, Book 1 of Her Instruments. Reese Eddings has enough to do just keeping her rattletrap merchant vessel, the TMS Earthrise, profitable enough to pay food for herself and her m
icro-crew. So when a mysterious benefactor from her past shows up demanding she rescue a man from slavers, her first reaction is to say “NO!” And then to remember that she sort of promised to repay the loan. But she doesn’t remember signing up to tangle with pirates and slavers over a space elf prince...
Even the Wingless, Book 1 of The Princes' Game. The Alliance has sent twelve ambassadors to the Chatcaavan Empire; all twelve returned early, defeated. None of their number have been successful at taking that brutal empire to task for their violations of the treaty. None have survived the vicious court of a race of winged shapechangers, one maintained by cruelty, savagery and torture. Lisinthir Nase Galare is the Alliance's thirteenth emissary. A duelist, an esper and a prince of his people, he has been sent to bring an empire to heel. Will it destroy him, as it has his predecessors? Or can one man teach an empire to fear... and love? (Caution: contains adult/difficult situations.)
About the Author
Daughter of two Cuban political exiles, M.C.A. Hogarth was born a foreigner in the American melting pot and has had a fascination for the gaps in cultures and the bridges that span them ever since. She has been many things—web database architect, product manager, technical writer and massage therapist—but is currently a full-time parent, artist, writer and anthropologist to aliens, both human and otherwise. She is the author of over 50 titles in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, humor and romance.
"Second" is only one of the many stories set in the Paradox Pelted universe. For more information, visit the “Where Do I Start?” page on the author’s website. You can also sign up for the author’s quarterly newsletter to be notified of new releases.
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