Please welcome my guest, Lyndi Alexander, author of the Horizon Crossover Series! We met at the That Book Place Authors Fair last month. I’ve asked her to write an interview with one of her characters, and she’s graciously provided it for your entertainment. Enjoy!
– Eric
In the novel, HORIZON SHIFT, when Captain Temms Rogers ends up on the far side of a wormhole, his ship shot to hell and most of his crew dead, the second priority after patching all the holes in his hull is to rebuild his crew.
While he has a couple of engineers that survived the passing, when he goes to the labor hall, he finds a young man named Benzi Quinn and hires him in spite of the fact he’s got a very bad attitude and just got fired from his last position—
“Now hold on an effing minute, there. Ain’t nothing wrong with me.” The sinewy black-haired fellow straightens up and eyes us with that piercing sapphire gaze. “Never wanted to serve on that ship anyway, not with Them aboard.”
“Them? Who’s Them?”
“You know, Them. Those what ain’t like Us.”
“Us?” A little confused. “Well, I’m a woman, you’re a man… we’re not really alike, are we?”
He smacks his forehead. “What are you, dense like my effing mother? Sprechan’s balls. Not human.”
“Oh, that.”
“Yes, that. Rogers, now he promised me if I hired on, I’d be chief of engineering. I liked the sound of that, being chief. Sounds important, right?” He scowls. “Important, hell. Didn’t tell me he already had a bloody department head. A woman, no less. And a wog second in command.”
“Wog?”
He rolls his eyes. “Not. Like. Us.”
“Oh, yeah. But look, aren’t you on a spaceship? In space? Going around to different planets? You’d think that would be a prime place to find aliens.”
“Don’t mean I want to work with ‘em. Can’t be trusted. They steal what belongs to you and never give it back.”
An odd look crosses his face, and he suddenly appears much younger, almost lost. But he quickly covers it up.
“Don’t matter. I’m better than anything Rogers has now. He’ll see it sooner or later.” He smirks a little. “Besides, I got something on him, Mr. High and Mighty Captain.”
A crafty look. “Don’t you worry about it. Let’s just say I know who’s looking for Rogers, and all I got to do is pick up a comm and send out a quickie. So he’d best be good to me. Cause I can bring him a world of hurt.”
“Wait, you’re saying after he practically picked you up starving on the street, you’d turn on him? That’s cold.”
“Cold? You know what’s cold? That navigator he hired on. Can’t be but eighteen, but you could freeze water on her ass. I was just trying to be friendly, you know?” He chuckles. “Liang’s cute enough, thought she might want to keep company. But…” He shrugs. “Who needs her?”
“Exactly. She’s probably better off—”
He eyes me, and I see that jackrabbit temper I’ve heard about flash to the surface. He’s hot enough I take a step back. Last thing I need is getting bashed in the face. “You’re better off too,” I assure him. “Who needs a chick that doesn’t want you, huh?”
He mutters something about none of the chicks wanting him, but quickly chews his mouth shut. “Who needs ‘em? Any of ‘em? I’ll show ‘em all!”
Showed my old man, didn’t I? Never thought I’d make anything of myself. See me now, Pa? Remember them nights in the old house by the river? Wind howlin’ through the window cracks and Pa just sloppin’ down them ales to keep himself warm. He come after me one time too many…
His cocky self-confident look restored, Benzi just grins. “Been on my own since I was fifteen. Guess I know my way around without anyone’s help. You tell Rogers he’d best expect great things from me. I bet someday I’ll even save his damn ass, his and the whole ship with him. Then we’ll see who’s indispensable around here.”
***
HORIZON SHIFT is a new science fiction/space opera release from Lyndi Alexander and Dragonfly Publishing, Inc. http://www.dragonflypubs.com/dfp/horizonshift.html Find out more about this book and the rest of the series at the blog home of Lyndi Alexander! http://lyndialexander.wordpress.com/the-horizon-crossover-series/
Buy HORIZON SHIFT at any of these fine retailers:
| Get 15% off paperbacks at Createspace: B3PY6HNE PAPERBACK LINKS: | Alibris.com | $14.99 Amazon.com | Amazon.UK | Barnes & Noble | $14.99 Createspace HARDBACK LINKS: | $__.99 Amazon.com | $__.99 Barnes & Noble | $24.99 Lulu.com NEW! EPUB EBOOK LINKS: | $5.99 Apple iTunes | $5.99 B&N Nook | $5.99 Diesel eBooks | $5.99 Kobo Books | $5.99 Smashwords KINDLE EBOOK LINKS: | $5.99 Amazon.com |
E. Chris Garrison 