This is the third in my alien empath series. When it was time to write this one, my daughters had been  telling me I needed to write a tough, capable female mercenary, so I did, and made the empath in this one a man. I enjoyed the challenge of making Larissa Channer truly kickass and I have to confess I was inspired by Ripley in “Aliens” and Linda Hamilton’s character in the Terminator movies. If my female main character could stand with the two of them, I’d be satisfied.

The book is full of moments I really enjoyed writing but I think the couple’s encounter with a sentient tree and its pets, “the amusing ones” was special. Samell’s life energy is depleted by what he’s endured and Larissa takes him to this planet to allow him to pull what he needs from the flora and fauna. Turns out there’s a very large and opinionated tree running things!

The excerpt: 

“The sentient thinks of herself as Moratiu or the Mother of All, if you prefer a loose translation. Apparently, she has the ability to absorb us into her being, her energy stream for a period of time, where she can study us and communicate more directly.” Samell held out one hand in invitation, as if asking her to dance. “I would advise against taking weapons. I’ll do my best to protect you.”

“Why is nothing ever simple when it comes to you?” Larissa unbuckled her holsters and locked the blasters into the small compartment on the speedster. “I’m doing this against my better judgment.”

“Thank you.”

“Hey, how many people can say they were eaten by a tree? If we survive.”

He held out his hand again, and she hesitated. “I believe we’ll be safer if we’re physically linked,” he said.

“Makes sense.” She liked the reassuring feel of his grip as his fingers entwined with hers. The idea the priest would have her back during this strange ordeal quieted a bit of her apprehension. This weird mystical stuff was his specialty, let him take the lead. She could cope.

Hand in hand, they marched to the base of the tree, standing in front of a particularly smooth section of the ruddy brick-red bark. Samell studied her face and she nodded resolutely. He placed his free hand on the trunk. “We’re ready to be your guests,” he said.

The avian creatures set up a shrill, discordant song, and the insects clicked like small arms fire.

Larissa glanced around. “See, the local fauna don’t think this is such a good idea.”

“Moratiu says they’ve never seen her do this.”

“Oh, another reassuring indicator. Not. No soldier anywhere ever wanted to be the designated guinea pig, and I’m no exception. Could she please just get on with whatever she needs to do before I lose my nerve?”

“I can’t imagine you ever losing your nerve.” Samell looped his arm around her shoulders and drew her close, facing him. “Perhaps it would be best if you don’t watch this part of the process, however. Hang onto me.”

“Is this for my safety or your enjoyment?” She gave him a quick wink to let him know she was teasing then got as close to him as she could manage. When she worked with male mercenaries, even those who were her friends and former combat allies, the protection was the military kind – make sure no one gets the drop on your team mate, make sure your aim was swift and true. Don’t screw up. This was more elemental, like sheltering from a storm. She thought she could hear his heart beating as a shadow crept around them. Larissa took a peek and recoiled, watching the bark creeping around them like a coffin, enclosing them inside the tree’s boundaries.

Samell hugged her tighter, rubbing her back. “Deep breaths.”

As if she’d been hit by lightning, a blinding white glare wiped out her vision, and a sizzle traveled along all her nerve endings. She couldn’t feel Samell’s grasp, although she knew at a subliminal level he was still there with her. There was a rapid sensation of being drawn upward. She realized she wasn’t breathing but neither was she suffocating. Larissa felt like she was floating in a river of energy.

We travel in one of Moratiu’s nourishment streams. She allows me to drink of her bounty while we’re here as a courtesy.

              His voice was deep, calming as always. Larissa tried to think back an answer but her mind was curiously fuzzy. Voices rumbled through her head like echoes in an empty cave, nothing she could understand. Although she thought perhaps one of the tones was Samell’s. Panic ate at the edges of her consciousness, and she deployed one of the mental exercises she’d been taught as a raw recruit, but it was hard to concentrate on the calming mantra. The voices distracted her.

Your aura flashes with anxiety. I wish I could help, but you’re one of the few humans on whom my powers refuse to work. I’m sorry.

              She laughed, or would have, if she hadn’t taken on the form of a disembodied lightning bolt. Just hearing your voice helps.

              Good, you’re getting used to the process. He sounded proud of her.

Don’t let me distract you – I’d like this to end sooner than later. Grumpy, she wondered why the tree-being insisted on having her along for this ride if no one was going to ask her any questions?

Suddenly, she regretted her thought, as she had the image in her mind of a giant eye fringed with leafy branches instead of eyebrows opening and regarding her as if she was an infinitesimally tiny bug, too insignificant to notice in the ordinary course of events. Easy to squash. The energy rippling in her being ebbed and anxiety tipped into full panic as she realized she’d stopped moving anywhere in the stream of energy. For a terrifying moment, Larissa felt alone and abandoned.

I’ve got you.

With his words in her head, a comforting pressure enveloped her like a warm, fuzzy blanket. Sheets of coruscating colors filled her vision as Samell’s voice rang out in a language her hypno implants couldn’t translate. Larissa began to move again, cocooned within the color and reassuring embrace.

I told Moratiu you’re essential to my survival and insisted her promise to us both must be honored.

Suddenly, Larissa’s vision cleared as if a switch had been flipped, and she was floating in a cool pond, surrounded by green leaves. Is this easier for you? The voice was not Samell’s.

“Yes, thank you. Not having a body is disorienting.” Larissa thought she spoke aloud but couldn’t be sure.

There was a flash of amusement in her head, cold, and a bit cruel. You are not the same as the other. He has no problem immersing in the life force. Why does he need you?

Was Samell hearing this? Larissa told herself to stick to simple responses. “I’m a soldier, I protect him.”

That being can protect himself, foolish one.

“You can generate your own weather yet you still need the rain,” she said. “I have different capabilities than he does.”

Nothing else was said, so Larissa concentrated on floating in her tiny pond, hoping Samell was persuading the tree to give him what he needed so they could both get out of here in one piece. Wherever ‘here’ was. This had to classify as one of the weirdest experiences of her life.

She’s granting me the right to drink fully of the energy. I’ve persuaded her to let you go, as you cannot survive the experience.

“We should stay together.” Her protest was instantaneous, born of worry for him, dealing with the alien entity alone. Although I’m not providing significant backup floating in this damn pond, draped in lily pads and whatnot.

Samell’s gentle laugh echoed in her head. In this case we cannot remain linked.

The tree’s huge voice echoed in her head next. I will send you back to the ground. The amusing ones will tend to you while you wait for the other being to complete fulfillment of his needs.

Larissa barely had time to ponder who or what the ‘amusing ones’ would turn out to be before the pond disappeared and she was again a disembodied flash of lightning, streaking downward, faster than she’d ever moved without a rocket assist. She tried to send Samell a thought of good wishes, but her mind was fuzzy. She wasn’t sure she ever got the words assembled.

A caress on her cheek, or where her cheek would be if she was a corporeal being, and a whisper of her name then she was shoved away from the tree, stumbling across the soft green moss. Larissa fell and somersaulted with the force of her expulsion from the grasp of Moratiu and wound up spread eagled, too weak to move. She closed her eyes, struggled for breath, and consciousness fled.

Larissa dreamt she was surrounded by colorful cats with huge round amber eyes, curled up beside her on all sides. The felines were warm and soft, and the vibration of their combined purring was soothing and emotionally restorative. She stretched and opened her eyes, adrenaline spiking as she realized it was no dream—she was lying on the moss with ten creatures of varying colors that did indeed resemble cats to a surprising extent, with huge glowing amber eyes and plush black-and-white ringed tails. The animals perched on top of her and pressed against her side, purring, with a low key vibration and a loud sound.

“I hope you’re the amusing ones,” she said with gritted teeth, wishing she had a blaster or some form of protection. These fur balls were beautiful and undeniably soft, but even the most adorable alien creatures could be deadly if a wrong move was made.

The Fated Stars – fourth in the series but can be read as a standalone

Larissa Channer, a tough no-nonsense mercenary in the Sectors, is celebrating success on her last job and a big bonus, with no slightest thought of taking on another assignment anytime soon. Out for a night of carousing with her friends at a third rate carnival on a backwater planet, she walks into the tent of a fake fortune teller and finds herself confronting the most intriguing man she’s ever seen. But something’s wrong, ominous currents lie beneath the surface of their encounter and Larissa can’t leave well enough alone.

Samell, a powerful, high born empathic priest, has been kidnapped from his own primitive planet along with a number of his people, and sold to the shady operator of an interstellar carnival. Kept enslaved, pretending to be a fortune teller while forced by his captor to steal information from the minds of all who come before him, Samell despairs of every breaking free.

Until Larissa walks into his tent and he recognizes the warrior who might mean the difference between life and death.

The situation becomes dire when Larissa and Samell come to the attention of the Shemdylann pirates who kidnapped him in the first place and the deadly Mawreg, aliens who threaten the Sectors. Can she save herself and the empathic alien noble, and derail the Mawreg plot against the Sectors? And will the soldier end up with her prince when all’s said and done?

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