Welcome to Realm Explorers! In this weekly series, we visit a variety of unique worlds created by talented science fiction and fantasy authors. Enjoy your travels! And don’t forget to read to the bottom of the post to find out more about each author and see how to purchase the featured book.
Author’s name: Annie Douglass Lima
Title of book and/or series: Heartsong
Brief summary of the story:
Two alien worlds.
One teen emissary.
No reality she can trust.
Thirteen-year-old Liz Smith has been ripped away from one foster family after another for years, so the idea of a permanent home is tantalizing. Who cares if that home is a colony sixty-five thousand light-years from Earth? The friends in her trusty e-reader will keep her company just fine on her interstellar relocation.
But when the adventure of a lifetime turns into the disaster of the cosmos, Liz can only retreat so far into the books that have always sheltered her from loneliness and loss. Trapped in half-truths and secrets that leave her questioning reality, can one orphaned bookworm find a way to stop two races from destroying each other … and somehow write a happy ending to her own story?
If you like books about space travel, aliens, or cross-cultural transitions, you’ll love this poignant science fiction adventure. Get your copy of Heartsong now to start the journey today!
Brief description of the world or location you created for this story:
Somavia is a planet at the far end of our galaxy. It has two continents, one at each pole, both covered in ice and snow all year round. The Somavians live in underground communities warmed and powered by geothermal energy.
What types of animals or sentient races might we encounter in Somavia that we don’t see on Earth?
You would definitely meet Somavians, the mostly-humanoid alien race native to the planet. They have four arms and fur of various colors, and they’re between 8 and 9 feet tall. You might also meet animals such as bushbouncers, which Somavians often keep as pets. A bushbouncer is the size of a small rabbit and looks a lot like a ball of lint. They have eight legs and can spring from and cling to almost any vertical or horizontal surface.
What types of vehicles, animals, technology, etc. are used to travel in or to Somavia?
In the past, the Somavians’ ancestors used pack animals to travel from place to place. Now, however, they use a type of moving sidewalk with benches on it to travel around their underground cities. For the rare trips on the planet’s surface, they have motorized hover vehicles. Every four weeks or so spacecraft travel to and from their moon, Soma, where the Somavians have a mining operation. (Soma is also where Liz and her fellow human colonists hope to set up a mining colony of their own.) More about Soma in a future edition of Realm Explorers!
If we were to visit Somavia as tourists, what would you recommend that we see or do there?
I suggest asking for a guided tour of one of the underground cities, such as Ehaooapi, the capital. There are a lot of interesting things to see. You would probably get to ride the moving sidewalks, eat at a neighborhood restaurant, and see ranches and plantations with a variety of domesticated animals and crops. If you’re lucky, you might find yourself in the right place at the right time to watch a concert. Don’t expect this to be like a concert on Earth! It would probably involve a single musician standing or sitting in a public place, playing percussion instruments designed to look like rocks and other natural objects. The Somavian language contains eighty-one separate tones and already sounds a lot like music, so it might sound as though the musician is singing, but he or she would really just be rhythmically chanting lyrics. Somavians in the audience would take turns stepping close enough to lightly touch the musician in order to briefly share his or her heartsong, which greatly enhances the listening experience. Oh, and one more thing: on your tour, make sure you ask to visit the planetarium. It consists of giant floating models of all the planets and moons in the solar system, plus comets and an asteroid belt. It’s okay to handle the models, on which you’ll be able to feel physical features such as mountains, canyons, moisture to indicate bodies of water, and different temperatures representing various climate zones. You’ll even see viscous red liquid spurting from tiny volcanoes. It’s not an experience to be missed. Oh, and make sure you eat at a local restaurant or two during your tour. More about that in a moment.
What dangers should we avoid in Somavia?
Don’t go up onto the surface without plenty of warm clothing and a guide. Temperatures are often below zero, and blizzards are common. You won’t survive long, and it’s easy to get lost in the snowy plains where everything looks the same. The underground cities would be a much safer and more comfortable place to spend your vacation.
Is there a distinct or unusual type of food or meal that we might be served in Somavia?
The Somavians have a variety of tasty foods. You might enjoy one particular little restaurant in Ehaooapi where customers sit around a U-shaped table and the chef cooks in the middle. With his four arms, he busies himself over multiple pots and skillets at the same time. You don’t get to order from a menu like in most restaurants on Earth, but you can expect to be served a couple different types of soup (one a creamy vegetable puree, the other consisting of mushrooms and bits of meat and grain in a well-seasoned broth). You’ll also get a platter of strips of cooked meat with three kinds of sauce to dip them in. One sauce is spicy, another is sweet, and the third is thick and savory with a hint of exotic seasonings.
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What types of weaponry or fighting styles are common in Somavia?
Somavians don’t fight. A key part of their communication is the ability to share emotions and physical sensations with anyone they touch. This is known as hearing a person’s heartsong. A Somavian cannot punch a person, for example, without feeling the pain their fist would inflict. Thus, they have developed a peaceful society focused around helping each other rather than fighting or competing with each other.
Is there any advanced or unusual technology in Somavia? If you haven’t described it already, please give some examples.
Somavian medical technology is far beyond ours. For example, they are able to heal a character’s injured legs (nerve damage and multiple compound fractures) within a couple of weeks. Somavians also have computers and devices much like cell phones. But their visual abilities are different from ours, and they cannot clearly see or process two-dimensional images, so they don’t have screens with pictures or text. Instead, they read with their fingertips through a system similar to Braille, where raised bumps and ridges appear and disappear on flat sections of their devices.
Tell us about any sports, games, or activities that are available for entertainment in Somavia.
Games and activities don’t play a major role in the story. However, it is mentioned that many Somavians enjoy playing a form of video games (tactile, not visual), though their idea of what makes a good story is way different than ours.
What is the political or government structure in Somavia? Who is in charge there at the moment, and what kind of leader is he/she?
The planet is governed by a leader whose title has no direct English translation. She has more power than a president but less than a queen. She is assisted by a council who come together to make decisions, each council member being a representative from a certain geographical region of Somavia.
The planet is governed by a leader whose title has no direct English translation. She has more power than a president but less than a queen. She is assisted by a council who come together to make decisions, each council member being a representative from a certain geographical region of Somavia.
Are there any other unique cultural practices that we should be aware of if we visit Somavia?
Somavians rarely tell each other their names. If you choose to introduce yourself by name to anyone you meet, they will be surprised and perhaps a little embarrassed, but honored. However, don’t expect them to tell you their name in return. Names are private and are only shared with immediate family members and very close friends. If a Somavian needs to refer to someone else, they will usually mention their color; e.g. “the one with blue fur” or “the pale yellow one”.
Has anything in your actual life inspired the locations, cultures, etc. in your book?
A few years ago, I was jotting down ideas for this story in the car while on a family vacation with my in-laws in California. I didn’t have a name for the planet yet, but when we passed a sign that said “Somavia High School”, I knew that was the right one.
What, if any, “hot-button” or controversial topics do you touch on in your book?
Racism and prejudice are touched on briefly. Also, the question of whether it’s right to harm one individual in order to protect many – or whether harming a large group to save a group of a different species can be justified.
Racism and prejudice are touched on briefly. Also, the question of whether it’s right to harm one individual in order to protect many – or whether harming a large group to save a group of a different species can be justified.
Author Autobiography:
Annie Douglass Lima spent most of her childhood in Kenya and later graduated from Biola University in Southern California. She and her husband Floyd currently live in Taiwan, where she teaches fifth grade at Morrison Academy. She has been writing poetry, short stories, and novels since her childhood, and to date has published eighteen books in a wide variety of genres (science fiction, fantasy, YA action and adventure novels, a puppet script, anthologies of her students’ poetry, and a Bible verse coloring and activity book). Besides writing, her hobbies include reading (especially fantasy and science fiction), scrapbooking, and international travel.
Where, and in what formats, can we purchase your book?
Heartsong is available in both Kindle and paperback format here. All my other books are available here.
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Where can readers connect with you online?
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: https://twitter.com/princeofalasia
Goodreads: http://bit.ly/ADLimaOnGoodreads
Google+: http://bit.ly/ADLimaOnGooglePlus
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/anniedouglasslima
LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/ADLimaOnLinkedIn
I hope you all enjoyed the trip to Somavia. Questions about the world or the book? Ask them in the comments and the author will get back to you!
Click here to read other posts in the Realm Explorers series.
Please join us again next Monday for a trip to another world in next week’s edition of Realm Explorers!
Click here to read other posts in the Realm Explorers series.
Please join us again next Monday for a trip to another world in next week’s edition of Realm Explorers!
-Annie Douglass Lima
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Two alien worlds.
One teen emissary.
No reality she can trust.
Thirteen-year-old Liz Smith has been ripped away from one foster family after another for years, so the idea of a permanent home is tantalizing. Who cares if that home is a colony sixty-five thousand light-years from Earth? The friends in her trusty e-reader will keep her company just fine on her interstellar relocation.
But when the adventure of a lifetime turns into the disaster of the cosmos, Liz can only retreat so far into the books that have always sheltered her from loneliness and loss. Trapped in half-truths and secrets that leave her questioning reality, can one orphaned bookworm find a way to stop two races from destroying each other … and somehow write a happy ending to her own story?
If you like books about space travel, aliens, or cross-cultural transitions, you’ll love this poignant science fiction adventure. Click here to get your copy of Heartsong now and start the journey today! (Shh! For June 30th through July 2nd only, the ebook is available for free!)
Read on for a sample of the story …
Heartsong
Chapter One
My love of reading started the whole thing.The best place to read on the Laika was in the lifeboats. I’d discovered that on the first leg of the trip, during the flight from Earth to the jump point off of Phoebe. I mean, what else was there to do when we couldn’t see much through the viewports? The view was exciting when there was one, but when you’re far away from anything, space all looks the same.
The hyperspace jump that shot us across the galaxy had been quick, of course, so no time to get bored there. And after we came out of it at the jump point off of Somav, the blue giant that would light my skies for the rest of my life, the flight toward the little moon Soma was pretty exciting, too. I couldn’t stop staring as we passed Somavia, the blue and white planet I knew none of us would ever see close up again. I wondered about the aliens whose home it was. What were they like? The pictures and video Forerunner had sent back, from the few passes it had taken in high orbit, left everyone with more questions than they answered.
Of course, we knew the planet had a breathable atmosphere. If it hadn’t been for the alien race who already lived there — and the tirtellium that we were going to mine on Soma, of course — New Horizons Industries might have decided to set up its colony on the planet Somavia instead of on its moon.
We passed Somavia three days ago, and we’d been orbiting Soma ever since. Which was also exciting, at first. I couldn’t wait to actually get down there and start life on my new home. A home I would get to help create, along with the adult scientists and miners and the rest of the Young Explorers. A home I would never be taken away from just when I was starting to settle in. My forever home. Normally I hated new beginnings, but this one was different. This would be the last new beginning of my life.
Even the colony’s name, chosen by the Samoan astronomer who discovered this solar system, was perfect. Avanoa, which apparently meant opportunity in the Samoan language, sounded to me like a kingdom from some fantasy novel.
Not that life in Avanoa was going to be a fantasy. I knew that starting a colony would be hard work, but that didn’t matter. A real home, with friends I would never have to say goodbye to, would be worth any amount of work.
Soma was interesting to look at, though not as pretty as the planet it orbited. The moon was mostly brown, with splotches of gray-green surrounding the dark blue dots that marked the location of its scattered lakes. With no actual oceans, the moon had just enough water to support a little plant and animal life. Nothing too dangerous, at least as far as we could tell from Forerunner’s pictures. Insects. Some fish and crustaceans that might or might not be edible. Small reptilian or maybe amphibian creatures that lived in and around the lakes. A handful of different mammals, all tiny, that made their homes in the hills. Nothing that seemed likely to bother two hundred human colonists setting up a new home on their world.
Of course, the aliens could be another story. We knew the Somavians had developed a limited form of space travel; we knew they had mines on Soma, too. But whatever they were mining for, it wasn’t tirtellium, and they only had a few tunnel mines in a few locations. We planned to set up our colony hundreds of kilometers away, where if all went according to plan, they wouldn’t even know we were around. Forerunner’s sensors had not detected any other artificial satellites in orbit around either Somavia or Soma, and as far as we could tell, the locals had no instruments capable of detecting Forerunner, no way to suspect we were coming. Its orbit was carefully programmed to keep it out of sight of any of their mines after dark, when it might be visible from the ground as a moving point of light.
The adults all said that hopefully we would never have to encounter any Somavians, but all of us kids hoped we would. I mean, why would anyone in their right mind not want to meet the first real live aliens actually confirmed to exist?
Jessie, who loved science fiction movies almost as much as I loved reading, had often kept Maria and Shaliqua and me awake late into the night back in our dorm room discussing all the possible alien-related adventures that awaited us if we ever made contact. Most of those possibilities were a lot more fun — though some were scarier — than the idea of living in isolation and never letting the locals know we were on their moon.
Anyway, judging by Forerunner’s footage, Somavian culture seemed peaceful, with no evidence of any wars going on down on their home world. If they did find out about the humans in their solar system, hopefully they wouldn’t mind us being there. We wouldn’t bother them, and with any luck, they wouldn’t bother us. And if they did get mad, well, the Laika had some weapons. Not enough to wage war with, but hopefully enough to convince them to leave us alone.
So much to wonder about. So much to look forward to. I could hardly wait to get down to the surface and start my new life. But here we all were, stuck in orbit for three whole days so far. Three painfully long and boring days. Earth days, that is. It had been nearly five Soman days, though we wouldn’t officially switch to using Soman time until we landed.
Atmospheric storms. Who would have thought that storms would be this big of an issue on a world with virtually no precipitation? Our science team had come up with a theory about minerals in the soil reflecting particles and wavelengths from the solar flares that Somav had been throwing out since our arrival. Whatever the case, the result was some pretty impressive windstorms in parts of the atmosphere. Since the spot picked out for Avanoa was directly underneath one of the worst storms, Captain Tyler insisted it wouldn’t be safe to try to land yet.
But no one had anticipated that the flares and storms would go on this long. At first, I was glad of the opportunity to orbit my new home and see what it looked like from space. But after a while the excitement faded, and everyone turned grouchy as we all grew more and more bored and impatient. The movies and games preloaded on our Horizon-brand tablets weren’t good enough to keep everyone happy, not while we had to put the adventure we’d all waited over a year to start on hold indefinitely. And I’d never been a big fan of video games or movies anyway.
So I did what I always do when real people get too annoying. I pulled out my old-school Novareader and turned to my true friends, the ones who never got annoying, who would always be there for me no matter what, who I never had to say goodbye to. And I escaped to the one place I had found on board where nobody would bother me or interrupt my adventures to ask what I was reading or exclaim over their new high score in who-cares-what-virtual-adventure on their RizeTab.
The Laika was designed to be taken apart when we arrived. Its decking and bulkheads would be used to help create Avanoa’s buildings until we could construct permanent residences from local rock, and that was one of the reasons the ship was so large. But big though it was, it had no extra empty space. Every compartment was full of freeze-dried food items, mining equipment, packages of seeds for genetically modified crops designed to grow well in the moon’s dry soil, and educational resources for us youth, because even on an interstellar adventure, there was no escaping school in some form.
So I had discovered in between Earth and Phoebe that the lifeboats were the best place to read. I wasn’t sure if I was really supposed to hang out in them, but they were unlocked, because after all, what would be the point in locking something that people would need to get into in a hurry in an emergency?
I sat curled up on a seat in Lifeboat 1, alternating between reading and looking out to see if anything interesting had come into sight down below. But from this angle, the one window — a wide viewport at the very front — was mostly full of stars, only a tiny sliver of Soma visible from one edge. I could have turned on the screen at the lifeboat’s navigational console and adjusted it to show me any view I liked, but that might trigger some sort of alert, and I didn’t want anyone showing up to tell me I wasn’t supposed to be in here.
So I joined Caz and her friends on their travels across the Granbo system, caught up in their space adventure on my Novareader screen, since my own space adventure had turned pretty dull. Lunch was another two hours away, so I might as well enjoy myself in the meantime.
And I did — until the ship vibrated more vigorously than usual and the fasten seatbelts sign flicked on.
I often felt as though several of me were debating inside my head. For a moment, Cautious Liz wondered if I should return to my seat. But what was the point? Practical Liz reminded me that I would be just as safe here in the lifeboat, and if the turbulence got bad, walking around with the Laika lurching under me would not be the smartest idea.
I already had my seatbelt on, since that was the best way to keep from floating around. Not that floating around wasn’t fun, but there was too little room in the lifeboat to do mid-air flips and spins without banging into things, and drifting around while I read made it hard to focus on the book. Of course my magnetic-soled shoes could have kept me anchored to the deck, but not when I wanted to sit cross-legged.
So I just tightened my seatbelt a little and turned back to The Gypsy Pearl. We had encountered turbulence lots of times in the last few days, thanks to the solar flares. It was no big deal.
But the vibrations grew stronger, and then the ship started lurching under me. I lowered my Novareader and looked around, but there was nothing to see here in the little lifeboat. The stars jumped and jerked outside the window, and if it hadn’t been for my seatbelt, I knew I would have been thrown about and probably injured already.
I waited for the crackle of the intercom and Captain Tyler’s voice to explain what was happening or issue instructions. But I heard nothing, and I wondered if the flares had damaged the lifeboat’s intercom system. They had interfered with the Laika’s electrical systems before, after all. Now I wished I’d returned to my seat while I could. If something dangerous was happening, I would rather face it with the others in the main cabin, where at least I would know what was going on.
Without warning, the lights flickered and then went out. Now that was a first. An instant later, an alarm screeched, making me jump. I gasped, really worried for the first time since we left Earth. The screeching continued as the stars swirled and zigzagged, sending faint but frightening shadows thrashing around me like alien spirits trying to take over the ship. For a second I wondered if that could actually be happening. Maybe the Somavians had powers we didn’t know about. Maybe they were trying to drive us out of their system … or worse.
Then the emergency lights embedded in the deck glowed to life, and I let out my breath in relief. The navigational computer two rows ahead of me powered on automatically, its screen lighting up green.
My relief was short-lived, though. The alarm kept blaring its intermittent warning. Screech! Silence. Screech! Silence. Screech! The turbulence was worse than ever, as though the Laika was a wild horse, bucking and leaping and trying to throw its rider off. And that rider gripped the edge of her seat all alone there in the lifeboat, wondering what in the universe was happening.
Suddenly the whirling stars vanished and Soma swung into view, filling the viewport ahead of me, a blur of brown-blue-gray-green-brown. I barely had time to notice before it was gone and the streaking stars reappeared. Then the moon appeared again.
My stomach was spinning as fast as the ship. Thank goodness I had inherited the Smith Stomach of Steel, or my breakfast would probably have ended up all around me. I could only imagine what a nasty experience that would be in zero gravity with the ship thrashing around like this.
A new noise caught my attention. A mechanical noise, a series of clicks and clinks and the sliding of metal against metal. I had only ever heard it before in simulations, but I recognized it right away, and my heart lurched in terror. “No!”
Words flashed across the computer screen, large enough to read from where I sat. LIFEBOAT LAUNCHING.
“No! I yelled again. I fumbled for the seatbelt clasp and flung myself across the tiny cabin, lunging for the manual override button beside the door. Not a smart move, I have to admit, considering how wildly everything was jerking around me. But I panicked. Can you blame me? None of our training, none of the simulations, had dealt with what to do if the lifeboat you were sitting in alone accidentally detached from the ship.
I knew what to do if a lifeboat didn’t detach when it was supposed to. I knew which lifeboat I was supposed to board in an emergency. Not this one, though they were all the same. I knew who my lifeboat buddies would be — a fairly even cross-section of the ship’s crew in terms of age and abilities, so we would have the best possible chance of survival in case not every lifeboat made it. I knew how to steer the lifeboat and bring it down for a controlled landing, even though I wasn’t the assigned helmsperson in my group. We had all learned all those skills, just in case.
But I didn’t know how to survive in deep space or on Soma’s surface on my own. The cupboards contained emergency rations and survival gear, of course, but not enough to live off of indefinitely. Of course the lifeboat would emit a signal that the ship’s sensors would pick up — I knew they were picking it up already, as of the moment my craft started to detach — but what if no one could come and get me right away? What if I landed on Soma, but the Laika couldn’t land for days or even weeks? They would have no way to rescue a stranded teenager who shouldn’t have been reading in a lifeboat in the first place.
And what if the aliens found me before my people did?
All that went swirling through my brain within a couple of seconds as I slammed my fist into the manual override button again and again. But nothing happened. That is, the hatch didn’t open to let me out into the ship’s corridor. But the incessant alarm finally went silent, and the frantic jerking and thrashing stopped, replaced by a slow, gentle twirl.
For a second, Optimistic Liz dared to hope that the trouble was over. But I knew that wasn’t it.
The lifeboat was no longer connected to the ship.
Too horrified even to yell again, I watched the Laika drift past the window, Somav’s light tinting her silver-white hull a metallic frostbite-blue against the blackness of space. She was still spinning and dancing like some huge bird as the solar flares played havoc with her electrical systems. And then I saw only stars, and then the mottled brown of the moon, then more stars. And then there went the Laika once more, further away this time.
Grabbing the back of a seat for leverage, I shoved off from the deck, thankful for the zero-gravity training. Floating was faster than clomping along in magnetic shoes, and I had to get to the controls now. I had to steer myself back to the ship.
But as I seized the arm of the helmsperson’s chair and maneuvered my body into it, I realized I had no idea how to reattach a lifeboat to its socket on the ship’s side. They had never taught us that. Were lifeboats even designed to reattach once they were separated?
Well, somebody must know the proper procedure for this kind of emergency. Captain Tyler or one of the other adults could talk me through the process. Right?
I fumbled for the seatbelt, twisting my ankles around the legs of the chair so I wouldn’t float off in the meantime. Jabbing the intercom button, I called, “Help! I’m in a lifeboat that just detached! What do I do?”
Realizing how panicked and little-girly I sounded, I took a deep breath and tried again. “I mean, this is Liz Smith on Lifeboat 1, calling anybody on the Laika who can hear me. Come in, please.”
There was no response, and I realized that the communication light wasn’t even on. The intercom was offline.
Great. Dang solar flares.
I took another deep breath. I had never felt so alone.
But the controls in front of me looked exactly like the ones in the simulator. I could do this. It would be just the same as I had practiced.
Except this was no game, where the only real struggle was to beat my classmates, to be the first to land my virtual lifeboat safely.
This was a real emergency.
This was my life at stake.
About the Author:
Annie Douglass Lima spent most of her childhood in Kenya and later graduated from Biola University in Southern California. She and her husband Floyd currently live in Taiwan, where she teaches fifth grade at Morrison Academy. She has been writing poetry, short stories, and novels since her childhood, and to date has published eighteen books in a wide variety of genres (science fiction, fantasy, YA action and adventure novels, a puppet script, anthologies of her students’ poetry, and a Bible verse coloring and activity book). Besides writing, her hobbies include reading (especially fantasy and science fiction), scrapbooking, and international travel.
Blog: http://anniedouglasslima.blogspot.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnnieDouglassLimaAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/princeofalasia
Goodreads: http://bit.ly/ADLimaOnGoodreads
Google+: http://bit.ly/ADLimaOnGooglePlus
Amazon Author Page: http://bit.ly/AnnieDouglassLimaOnAmazon
LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/ADLimaOnLinkedIn
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My third National Novel Writing Month has finally ended, and it’s been an exciting experience! I’ve braved the 4:30 alarm clock almost every weekday morning, gained motivation and focus from word wars and sprints with other authors online, and squeezed writing into almost every spare moment I’ve had in the month of November. And now that it’s over, I have just over 97,000 words under my belt, plus a completed rough draft of my new young adult science fiction novel, Heartsong. I’ve enjoyed every step of this journey with my characters, especially when new characters not in the original outline decided to jump in and join the adventure.
I can hardly wait to dive back into the story from the beginning and start editing and touching things up, but alas, that will have to wait. The Gladiator and the Guard (the novel I drafted for last year’s NaNoWriMo and the sequel to The Collar and the Cavvarach) is next in line, since I’m hoping to publish it in the spring. The fourth book of my Annals of Alasia series, tentatively titled King of Malorn, is next.
But in the meantime, for anyone who’s curious, below is the first chapter of Heartsong. (Please bear in mind that it’s still a pretty rough draft – just a sneak preview for those who are interested, and not the final polished version.) Many thanks to my many Facebook friends who have already contributed with helpful hints about the science involved – I’m sure I’ll have lots more questions in a few months when I get back to working on it, since this is my first foray into science fiction!
I can hardly wait to dive back into the story from the beginning and start editing and touching things up, but alas, that will have to wait. The Gladiator and the Guard (the novel I drafted for last year’s NaNoWriMo and the sequel to The Collar and the Cavvarach) is next in line, since I’m hoping to publish it in the spring. The fourth book of my Annals of Alasia series, tentatively titled King of Malorn, is next.
But in the meantime, for anyone who’s curious, below is the first chapter of Heartsong. (Please bear in mind that it’s still a pretty rough draft – just a sneak preview for those who are interested, and not the final polished version.) Many thanks to my many Facebook friends who have already contributed with helpful hints about the science involved – I’m sure I’ll have lots more questions in a few months when I get back to working on it, since this is my first foray into science fiction!
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| Screenshot of my Word Count Page on the NaNoWriMo Site |
Heartsong
Chapter 1
My love of reading started the whole thing.
The best place to read on the Laika was on the lifeboats. I had discovered that on the first part of the trip, during the flight from Earth to the jump point by Phoebe. I mean, what else is there to do when you’re not close enough to any planet or moon to see much through the viewports? The view is exciting when there is one, but when you’re far away from anything, space all looks the same.
The hyperspace jump had been quick, of course, so no time to get bored there. And after we came out of it at the jump point by Somav, the flight toward Soma I was pretty exciting, too. I couldn’t stop staring as we passed Somavia, the blue and gray and white planet none of us would probably ever see that close again. It was awesome to think of the aliens who lived there and wonder what they were really like. The few decent pictures taken by the Forerunner left everyone asking more questions than they answered. And what about the planet itself? Of course we knew it was cold, being further from Somav than Earth is from our Sun. But it did have a thin but breathable atmosphere. If it hadn’t been for the alien race who already lived there — and the tirtellium that we were going to mine on Soma I — The Corporation might have decide to set up the Colony on Somavia instead of on its moon.
But we had passed Somavia three days ago, and we had been in orbit around Soma I ever since. Which was also exciting at first. I couldn’t wait to get to my new home — my permanent home. A home I would never have to leave again, never be taken away from just when I was starting to settle in. A home that I would get to help put together, along with the scientists and the miners and the rest of the Young Colonists.
The moon was prettier to look at than the planet, though not by an awful lot. It was brown and gray, with little splotches of green and blue here and there where the lakes were. There wasn’t much water, no actual oceans, but enough to support a little plant and animal life. Nothing too dangerous, at least as far as we could tell from the Forerunner’s pictures. Some fish and crustaceans that might or might not turn out to be edible to humans. Some amphibian or maybe reptilian creatures that lived in and around the lakes. Insects and a handful of different mammals, all tiny, that lived on the plains. Nothing likely to bother two hundred human colonists setting up a new home on their world.
Of course, there were the Somavian miners. We knew the Somavians had developed a limited form of space travel; we knew they had mines on Soma I too. But whatever they were mining for, it wasn’t tirtellium, and it was only in a few little spots relatively close together. We planned to set up our colony hundreds of miles away, where with any luck, they wouldn’t even know we were around. Forerunner’s sensors had not detected any other artificial satellites in orbit around either Somavia or Soma I, and as far as we knew, they had no way of knowing Forerunner was there or that we were coming.
The adults all said that hopefully we would never even have to see any Somavians, but every kid in the group hoped we would. I mean, why would anyone not want to see aliens? Anyway, from the Forerunner’s pictures, they sure seemed to be a peaceful culture, with no evidence of any wars going on down on their home world. If they did find out about us being on their moon, hopefully they wouldn’t get mad. We wouldn’t bother them, and hopefully they wouldn’t bother us. If they did get mad, well, the Laika did have some weapons. Not a lot, but enough to defend ourselves if we absolutely had to.
Of course the two hundred of us on board could hardly wait to get down there and get started with our new life. But here we were stuck in orbit, as we had been for the last three days. Three painfully long and boring days. Earth days, that is; it had been nearly five Soman days.
Atmospheric storms and solar flares. No one had anticipated that they would go on this long. At first, I was glad of the opportunity to orbit the moon and see what it was like. I had an aisle seat, though, and it was a pain to lean past three people just to see out the window. And after a while, when everyone’s excitement faded, most of them turned grouchy as they got more and more bored and impatient. The movies and games preloaded on our tablets just weren’t good enough to keep everyone happy for that long when the adventure we’d waited over a year to start was being put on hold, and I’d never been a big fan of video games and movies anyway.
So I did what I usually do when real people get too annoying. I pulled out my Kindle and turned to my true friends, the ones who would always be there for me, who I never had to say goodbye to. And I went to the one place I had found on board where nobody would bother me or interrupt my adventures to ask what I was reading or exclaim over their new high score in who-cares-what-virtual-adventure.
The Laika was designed to be taken apart when we arrived. Its decking and bulkheads would be used to help create the buildings in the colony until we could create more permanent buildings from local rock, and that was one of the reasons it was so large. But big though it was, it had no extra empty space. Every compartment was full of freeze-dried food items, mining equipment, packages of seeds for genetically modified crops designed to grow well in the moon’s dry soil, or educational resources for the youth, because even on an interstellar adventure, there was no escaping school in some form.
So I had discovered in between Earth and Phoebe that the lifeboats were the best place to read. I’m not sure if I was really supposed to be in them, but there was no lock, because after all, what would be the point of locking a place that people would have to get to in a hurry in an emergency?
And so I sat curled up on a seat in one of the lifeboats, alternating reading and looking out the viewport to see if there was anything interesting to see down below. But the lifeboat’s position was such that the window mostly looked out on space, with just a tiny sliver of Soma I visible from one edge. I could have turned on the screen, but that might trigger some sort of alert, and I didn’t want anyone coming to tell me I wasn’t supposed to be in here.
So I traveled with Caz and her friends across the Granbo system, caught up in an imaginary space adventure, since my own real space adventure had been put on hold. It would be at least another two hours until they served lunch, so I might as well get comfy and enjoy myself.
And I did — until the ship vibrated and the fasten seat belts sign flicked on.
For a moment I wondered if I should return to my seat. But what would be the point? I would be just as safe here in the lifeboat, and if the turbulence got bad, it would be a better idea not to walk around the ship with it lurching under me.
I fastened my seatbelt and kept reading. We had encountered turbulence lots of times in the last few days, thanks to the solar flares. It was no big deal.
But the vibrations got stronger, and in a moment the ship really was lurching under me. I set down my Kindle and looked around, not that there was anything to see in the little lifeboat. No clues as to what was going on. But the stars were jumping and jerking outside the window, and if it hadn’t been for my seatbelt, I knew I would have been thrown around and probably injured already. Now I wished I had returned to my seat while I could. Whatever was happening, I would rather face it with the others in the main cabin, where I could hear any announcements from Captain Tyler over the intercom and know what was going on.
Without warning, the lights in the lifeboat flickered and then went out. At the same moment a blaring alarm started screeching on and off. Now that was a first. I gasped, really worried for the first time since we had left Earth. The stars swirled and zigzagged outside the window, sending faint but frightening shadows thrashing through the escape pod around me like alien spirits trying to take over the ship. For a second I wondered if that could actually be what was happening. Maybe the Somavians had powers we didn’t know about. Maybe they were trying to drive us out of their system.
But then the emergency lights embedded in the deck by my feet glowed to life, and I let out my breath in relief. The navigational computer two rows ahead of me came on automatically, its screen lighting up green.
My relief was short-lived, though. The alarm was still blaring its warning: Screech! Silence. Screech! Silence. Screech! The turbulence was worse than ever, and now it felt like the Laika was a wild horse, bucking and leaping and trying to throw its rider off. The rider being me, gripping the edge of my seat all alone there in the lifeboat, wondering what in the universe was happening.
Suddenly the stars were gone and Soma I swung into view, filling the viewport ahead of me, a blur of gray-brown-blue-green-brown-gray. I barely had time to stare before it was gone, and the streaking stars were back. Then there was the moon again. My stomach was spinning as fast as the ship. Thank goodness I had inherited the Smith Stomach of Steel, or my breakfast probably would have ended up all around me. I could only imagine what a nasty experience that would be with the ship thrashing all around like this.
A new noise caught my attention. A mechanical noise, a series of clicks and clinks and the sliding of metal against metal. I had only ever heard it before in simulations, but I knew right away what it was. My heart caught in my throat. “No!” Not that there was anyone around to hear me yell.
Words flashed across the computer screen, big enough to read from where I sat. Lifeboat launching.
My heart hammered in terror. “No! I yelled again. I fumbled for the seatbelt clasp and flung myself across the tiny cabin the moment I was free, lunging for the manual override button beside the door. Not a smart move, I have to admit, considering how wildly everything was moving around me, but I was panicking. None of our training, none of the simulations, had dealt with what to do if the lifeboat you were sitting in alone accidentally detached from the ship.
I knew what to do if a lifeboat didn’t detach when it was supposed to. I knew which lifeboat everyone in my seating section was supposed to board in an emergency. It wasn’t this one, though they were all the same. I knew who my lifeboat buddies would be — a fairly even cross-section of the ship’s crew in terms of age and skills, so everyone would have the best possible chance of survival on the surface in case not every lifeboat made it. I knew how to steer the lifeboat and bring it down for a controlled landing, even though I wasn’t the assigned helmsperson in my group. We had all learned all those things, just in case.
But what I didn’t know was how to survive on the surface on my own, if the rest of the ship didn’t land close by or shortly after I did. There were emergency rations and survival gear stashed in every lifeboat, of course, but not enough to live off of indefinitely. Of course the lifeboat would emit a signal that the ship’s sensors would pick up — it was picking it up already, I knew, as of the moment the lifeboat had started to detach — but what if they couldn’t come and get me right away? What if they weren’t able to land for days or even weeks? What if I ended up on the opposite side of the moon from where our colony was supposed to be? Our little 4-wheel-drive trucks were designed for carrying tirtellium back from the mining site, and harvested crops from the fields to the settlement. Not for making cross-country trips across rough terrain to the opposite side of the moon to rescue a stranded kid who shouldn’t have been reading in an escape pod in the first place.
And what if the Somavians found me before my own people did?
All that went swirling through my brain in a moment as I slammed my fist into the manual override button again and again. But nothing happened. That is, the hatch didn’t open to let me out into the ship’s corridor. But a second later, the incessant alarm went silent, and the frantic jerking and thrashing stopped, replaced by a slow, gentle twirl. As my feet drifted up off the floor, the dizzy feeling in my tummy told me that the ship’s artificial gravity had stopped working.
No, that wasn’t it. The lifeboat was no longer connected to the ship.
Too horrified even to yell again, I watched the Laika drift across the viewport like a big white bird against the blackness of space, still spinning and dancing as the solar flares played havoc with its electrical systems. And then I saw only stars again, and then the gray-brown of the moon, then more stars. And then there was the Laika once more, further away this time.
I pushed off from the bulkhead, thankful for the zero-gravity training. I had to get to the controls. I had to steer myself back to the ship. But as I grabbed the back of the helmsman’s chair and maneuvered my body into it, I realized I had no idea how to reattach the lifeboat to its port on the side of the ship. They had never taught us that. Were lifeboats even designed to reattach once they were separated?
I grabbed the seatbelt, twisting my ankles around the legs of the chair so I wouldn’t float off it before I could strap myself in. The controls in front of me looked just like the ones in the simulator. I could do this. It would be just the same as I had practiced.
Except this was no game, where I struggled to beat my classmates, to be the first to land my virtual lifeboat safely. This was a real emergency.
This was my life at stake.