Cassandra nodded. ‘I’ll start looking for a suitable destination as soon as we get out of this system, but give me a couple of days. I think we could all do with a little rest and relaxation somewhere quiet.’
‘Sounds good to me,’ Thea said. ‘I think I’ll start that after some sleep. Wake me up when we get there.’ There was a slight pause and then, ‘Coming, Kaya?’
‘I thought you said you wanted to sleep,’ Kaya replied.
‘Yeah. And when I wake up, I want to relax. Come on.’
Kaya grinned and started after Thea, and then blushed at the thoroughly dirty laugh from Cassandra which followed her out the door.
Oracle of Zanar, Unnamed Brown Dwarf System, 21/2/483.
Kaya stood in her cabin, examining her clothing options. She was going to have to book some time on the fabricator system and get some more clothes, but actually picking something to fabricate was going to take some thought and the process was not immediate enough for her needs. She wanted something now, not in an hour or two.
She wanted something, she realised with a hint of surprise, that Thea would like to see her in. The idea of dressing to please someone else was not exactly alien, she had done it for Jay, though whether that had worked or he had been intending to ‘fall for her charms’ anyway was a matter of conjecture. She pushed that thought aside with a growl of annoyance and refocused on her wardrobe selection.
And her eyes fell on something hanging right at the end…
~~~
Thea looked up from her tablet as Kaya emerged from her cabin. An eyebrow was raised. ‘It was my understanding,’ Thea said, ‘that you would never be able to wear that without blushing.’
Kaya walked over to the sofas in the communal lounge, taking care on the oddly designed boots; they were actually easier to walk in than she had thought they would be. ‘Well, I never imagined I’d do half the things I’ve been doing with you over the last few days at all, never mind without blushing.’
‘Mm-hmm, but that was in private. Other people are going to see you walking around looking like that.’
Shrugging, Kaya sat down beside Thea. ‘I’m a zanari and, since I have nowhere else to go and I’m not sure I’d want to if I did, a member of this crew. I think it’s time I tried dressing like one.’ The tunic and shorts outfit was as surprisingly comfortable as the boots. Whatever the material was, it seemed to adapt to the wearer, fitting snuggly without the feeling the Sisterhood dress had that you were one shoulder movement away from exposing more of yourself than intended. It felt good, and not a little sexy.
‘I’m not going to complain,’ Thea said, smiling. ‘So long as you’re comfortable.’
‘I am. It’s weird, but I am. Not the clothes, which are comfortable, but here, on this ship, with all of you. I never thought anywhere would really feel like home aside from Sadrine’s Drift, but I feel like I’m home.’
‘Good. I’m glad. I’ll get Cassy to put you on the rotas for chores.’
‘Wait, there are chores?’
Thea held her straight face and raised an eyebrow. ‘Of course there are chores.’
‘Okay, you can drop me off at the next planet.’
‘What happened to “I thought nowhere would feel like home after Sadrine’s Drift?”’
‘Well… Yeah, but… chores.’
###
Notes
Here are a few notes on the setting which you may find useful.
The Bowrain Commercial Calendar (BCC)
The calendar system employed throughout the Bowrain Commercial Union (BCU) was actually established with the Union on 17/3/178 BCC and then backdated to the ‘official’ end of the Solar Empire period. It was based on the standard 60-day contract periods the Bowrain family used with their workforce and the empire’s official 365-day year.
Each year is divided into six sexagoy. The first five of these are 61 days in length and the sixth is 60 days, thus creating a 365-day official year. There are no leap years.
Beyond that, the system works much like old Earth’s Gregorian calendar, with 7-day weeks, 24-hour days, with an hour split into 60 minutes each of 60 seconds.
Synchronisation of galactic time is carried out through observation of certain clearly defined pulsars and the use of sensitive quantum clocks. While most systems have their own local time and calendar (due to the differences in day and year length), most interstellar corporations and many local ones begin and end contracts according to BCC standard time.
The Trade Language
What is now known simply as Trade, or Common Trade, became the standard language used across the BCU even before the BCU was formed. Some time in the Solar Empire period, linguists recognised a commonly used lingua franca which had supplanted true English as the most widely used language across the empire. By the time of the BCU, it is just one of those things whose origins are lost in the mists of time, but the original language was formed from English with additions (mostly loan words) from Chinese, Russian, and Spanish.
Lexicon
BCC: Bowrain Commercial Calendar (see details above).
Bowrain Commerce Union (BCU): More or less what it says on the tin; the current galaxy-scale ‘government’ which is largely there to handle trade disputes and keep commerce working. Originally negotiated by the Bowrain family, who still retain considerable power within it.
Buckies: Fairly pejorative nickname for BCU Security.
Cào: Generally an expletive in Trade. ‘Fuck!’
Daformi: Species of insect-like aliens known to the zanari. Singular: daforma.
Diyou: Word in Trade from the Chinese ‘Dìyù’ (地狱) meaning ‘Hell.’ Used in place of the English word to obfuscate the ‘Christian’ meaning. Pronounced ‘dee-ow.’
Filarax: A species with high psi capabilities and, generally, a rather territorial attitude.
Hepps–Montague drive: Technical name (among humans) for hyperspace drive systems.
Hepps–Montague field: A vector field permeating spacetime and hyperspace which is responsible for psi effects. Named for its discoverers, Barrington Hepps and Lionel Montague, who first formulated their theory for the field in 2132 CE on the Gregorian calendar (1564 PH, 1564 years before the Solar Empire period).
Hepps–Montague–Drifield drive: Technical name for pressor drive systems.
Inplaniti: Off-worlder, alien. Plural: inplanitin.
Jiàn hé Shŏu: From Chinese ‘sword and hand’ (剑和手). An elite force within the zanari military assigned to guard the zanari senate as well as carrying out special operations activities in time of war. Also the name of the martial system they used, based around employing psi abilities in combat.
Madre: Equivalent to Sora when differentiating an older member of the same family or when expressing respect for someone older than you.
Mind, the: Always capitalised because it’s a religious concept akin to God. Believers in the Universal Mind, Minders, view the Hepps–Montague field as a physical manifestation of the mind of the universe.
Minder: A believer in the Universal Mind.
Moshonka: Russian for ‘scrotum.’ Used in the same sense as ‘nuts’ or ‘balls’ when describing male anatomy.
Nong: Derisive term for someone from a backwater colony. Derived from the Chinese for ‘farmer,’ ‘Nóngmín’ (农民); a lot of lower-tech colonies are agricultural.
Padre: Used as ‘Mr’ when referring to an older male of the same family or when expressing respect for someone older than you; equivalent to Sor.
Pressor Drive: A reactionless, normal-space drive based around an application of pressor technology. Actually, the drive came first since it was easier to build such large devices than the (generally) smaller tractor/pressor devices.
Psi: Psychic powers, their use and training.
Psi field: Common name for the Hepps–Montague field.
Psionics (1): Technology related to and derived from psi powers.
Psionics (2): The common name for the field of physics r
elated to the study and manipulation of the psi field.
Sexagoy: One of the six ‘months’ of the calendar year under the BCC. The first five are 61 days long, the last is 60 days.
Shlooka: Trade word for a prostitute, slut, ‘bit on the side,’ or a woman who dresses ‘inappropriately’ as defined by local culture. Can be applied to a man in the first three senses, but cultures which worry over clothing mores tend to still have double standards. Derived from Russian, ‘shlyukha’ (шлюха).
Sor/Sora: Mr/Miss in Common Trade. Derived from Spanish (señor, señorita), via a few millennia of mangling.
Solar Empire: The first large-scale government formed from Earth colonies and ruled from Sol. Founded in 2698 CE (Gregorian Calendar), it continued for over 4600 years.
Stink: Common nickname for planetside police forces.
Unit: Shortened from BCU standard currency unit, the interstellar currency used throughout the BCU. Local currencies exist, and generally have exchange rates. Local monetary names include: dollar, credit, scrip and crown.
Universal Mind: See Mind.
Zanari: A sub-species of human with very strong psi abilities. While it’s supposed that they were all wiped out with the Zanari Protectorate, they are still figures of legend within the BCU, frequently used to scare children into behaving.
Zanari Protectorate: A collection of worlds colonised by a human-offshoot species, the Zanari. Noted for its deep understanding of psi. Destroyed by remnants of the Solar Empire prior to the formation of the BCU.
About the Author
I was born in the vicinity of Hadrian's Wall so perhaps a bit of history rubbed off. Ancient history obviously, and border history, right on the edge of the Empire. I always preferred the Dark Ages anyway; there’s so much more room for imagination when people aren’t writing down every last detail. So my idea of a good fantasy novel involved dirt and leather, not shining plate armour and Hollywood-medieval manners. The same applies to my sci-fi, really; I prefer gritty over shiny.
Oddly, then, one of the first fantasy novels I remember reading was The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper (later made into a terrible juvenile movie). These days we would call Cooper’s series Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy and looking back on it, it influenced me a lot. It has that mix of modern day life, hidden history, and magic which failed to hit popular culture until the early days of Buffy and Anne Rice. Of course, Cooper’s characters spend their time around places I could actually visit in Cornwall, and South East England, and mid-Wales. In fact, when I went to university in Aberystwyth, it was partially because some of Cooper’s books were set a few miles to the north around Tywyn.
I got into writing through roleplaying, however, so my early work was related to the kind of roleplaying game I was interested in. I wrote science fiction when I was playing Traveller. I wrote “high fantasy” when I was playing Dungeons & Dragons. I wrote a lot of superhero fiction when I was playing City of Heroes. I still love the idea of a modern world with magic in it and I’ve been trying to write a novel based on this for a long time. As with any form of expression, practice is the key and I can look back on all the aborted attempts at books, and the more successful short stories, as steps along the path to the Thaumatology Series.
Recently I took the big step of quitting my day job and taking up full-time writing. My favourite authors are Terry Pratchett, Susan Cooper, J.D. Robb, and Kim Harrison. Kim’s Hollows books were what finally spurred me to publish something, even if the trail to here came by way of Susan, back in school, several decades ago.
For More Information
Take a look at the Witches and Ray-guns blog: http://witchesandrayguns.wordpress.com
Amazon US Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B006J6II9O
Amazon UK Author Page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B006J6II9O
Other Books by this Author
The Thaumatology Series
Thaumatology 101
Demon’s Moon
Legacy
Dragon’s Blood
Disturbia
Hammer of Witches
Eagle’s Shadow
Ancient
Dragonfall
The Other Side of Hell
For Whom the Wedding Bells Toll
Vengeance
A Midsummer’s Nightmare – 2017
Anthologies in the Thaumatology Universe
Tales from High Towers’ Study
Tales from the Dubh Linn
The Aneka Jansen Books
Steel Beneath The Skin
The Cold Steel Mind
Steel Heart
The Winter War
The Greatest Heights of Honour
The Lowest Depths of Shame
Hope
The Ultrahuman Books
Ugly
Shadows
Hunting Mink
Frostburn
Guardian – 2017/18
True Dark – 2017/18
The Unobtainium Books
Kate on a Hot Tin Roof
King Solamet’s Mines – 2016/17
The Reality Hack Books
Reality Hack
The Fox Meridian Books
Fox Hunt
Inescapable
DeathWeb
Criminal Minds
Emergence
The Ghost in the Doll
Eden Burning - 2017
The Princeps Venator Books
Hunter’s Kiss
Be My Valentine
The Gunwitch Books
Gunwitch: Rebirth
The Children of Zanar Series
The Zanari Inheritance
Children of Zanar 1: The Zanari Inheritance Page 28