Eyn – the alien turtle

VS: From STAR CRUISE TIME LOOP (“GROUNDHOG DAY in space…”)

Excerpt: From the beginning of the novella – an alien glass orb has caught our Female Main Character’s eye while on shore leave:

Stressed, Raelyn wanted to set the orb down and walk away but found the idea of relinquishing the item was more than she could deal with. “All right, you win.” She found another ten credit token and placed them both on the table. Ignoring the profuse thanks from the vendor, she tucked the expensive impulse item in her carryall and sprinted to the shuttle. Her friends pulled her aboard as the large groundcar began to move and she heaved a sigh of relief as she fell into a seat.

This is not the week to come to the captain’s attention in a negative way. 

Back in her small cabin aboard the luxury cruise liner, in orbit far above the planet, Raelyn craved a shower more than anything. The weather on Mabann Two had gone from balmy to humid and hot in a few hours while she was there. She could examine her purchases later, after dinner maybe. Stripping out of her casual clothes, she paused at the side table next to the bed and extended her arm. “All right, Eyn, we’re home.”

The red-and-purple spotted bracelet around her wrist twitched and uncurled, becoming a moyed from her home planet, blinking at her sleepily from three eyes for a moment before leaping from her wrist to the large, ornate shell which was its home.

Pets weren’t allowed on the ship ordinarily, although exceptions were made, but Eyn was more than that, being a symbol of Raelyn’s clan and emblematic of the deity to which her tribe prayed. The goddess she worshipped was believed to use the moyeds to transmit messages and to observe the human activities, and the oldest folktales said the planet itself was carried on the back of a giant moyed.

She’d had Eyn since she was a girl, acquiring the creature in a special ritual which she barely remembered anymore. The cruise line for which she worked was accommodating to crew members’ special needs and it pleased Raelyn to have a companion from home. She’d roamed the Sectors as a stewardess for the CLC Line and loved her travels but Eyn was a nice tie to her place of origin and her family.

The Ship’s chief hydroponic officer allowed her to raise a special variety of insects for Eyn to eat in a small enclosure on Deck Nine.

Now, the little creature scooted into its shell and snapped the front flap shut.

With a chuckle, Raelyn took herself into the bathroom and a relaxing shower.

The book blurb:

Raelyn Cantorini, senior stewardess on the interstellar cruise ship Nebula Zephyr thinks the alien artifact she bought on the last planet the ship visited was just a pretty glass orb…until her pet Eyn knocked the ornament off a table, shattering it and sending her into an infinitely repeating time loop.

Stuck reliving the same day over and over, Raelyn has only hours to try to save the ship and everyone on board from dying in a terrible catastrophe. As she tries to solve the mystery of what happens to the ship right before midnight each time the day repeats, Raelyn meets Kev Stevens, the former Special Forces soldier turned actor and finds herself falling in love with him. Each time the day repeats, she learns more about him while he has no memory of her. Can she persuade him they’ve met before? Will he trust her enough to help stop the Nebula Zephyr’s destruction?

And if they do save the ship, will that reset time for Raelyn?

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