Welcome to Solomon Territory!
We’re glad you’ve decided to make Solomon your home,
pioneer! It takes a brave soul to cross the nebula in search of a fresh start,
which makes Solomon home to the boldest, strongest citizens of Earth. We’re
proud you’ve decided to count yourself among that number.
After your nebula crossing, we’re sure you’re ready to make
yourself at home. Please proceed to the citizenry office to make rental
arrangements for an apartment within the city. While apartment living on
Solomon is top-notch, we understand some of you are looking forward to being
landowners. It’s now estimated that air outside city limits will be breathable
within twenty years, so it’s not too soon to start thinking about buying a
permanent home for your family.
We boast the most up-to-date food generator technology in
all civilian apartments, including pseudo-produce. Our colonists insist you
can’t tell our broccoli from the real thing! However, if you long for a
homecooked meal, civilians are always welcome in the military mess. Be sure to
thank the officers for securing your freedom and protecting you from the
coronals—freedom is never truly free.
Don’t forget: the human body requires frequent exercise to
withstand the rigors of artificial gravity. Don’t play games with your health!
Instead, obtain a civilian-grade membership to the state-of-the-art gym on
base, and play games with your fellow colonists. Join a football team, or take
up boxing!
You’ll find the religious service schedule posted on the
community bulletin boards in each apartment building. The churches of Solomon
Colony welcome new worshippers with open arms. See Ellen Slapinski for more
details.
We’re glad you’re here!
Fight or Flight
By Vanessa North
On the edges of civilized space, Tirzah Simonian and Zeke
Lucassen are pitted against each other with her life and his career at stake.
Neither has any reason to trust the other, but both their futures depend upon
finding common ground.
Given a choice between fight or flight, Tirzah Simonian has always
been a fighter, but when she turns to flight to escape her disastrous marriage,
her life comes crashing down around her in a stolen transport. Now she’s to be
tried by court-martial, and an acquittal is her only chance to save her career
and get her life back on track. Advocate-Commander Zeke Lucassen has no love for women who abandon their spouses. He’s under pressure from the fleet to close the case hard and imprison Tirzah in the workcamps, but the evidence he’s been given doesn’t add up. He has to choose between believing the evidence provided by the investigator, or the growing conviction that the pilot may have been acting in self-defense.
Given the horrors in their pasts, neither one has any reason to trust the other, but both their futures depend on finding common ground.
Want more? Of course you do! I aim to please...
Excerpt:
Tirzah tried not to fidget as she sat at the table with Josiah at
her side. His hand slipped under the table and closed over her knee, stilling
the foot she hadn’t realized she tapped. A Court Officer stood by to issue
orders once the plea had been entered. She glanced over as the door opened and
a huge man walked into the conference room. Her breath caught a little as he
nodded in her direction. Broad shoulders filled his advocate uniform, narrowing
down to a trim waist and powerful thighs. Sharp green eyes bored into her,
startling in their lightness from a dark-complexioned face. His hair was
braided into tight rows, close to his scalp. He looked rigid, unyielding. Terrifying. Every bit of him looked sharp and
dangerous.
There had been a time in her life when the appeal of a dangerous man
had been as seductive as the appeal of steering a fighter through space. Her
body still, on some level, reacted to the raw power of a big, strong man, even
though the man she married had eventually turned on her, terrorized her.
This man in front of her seemed to see right through her. Her
heartbeat grew frantic—she knew now how small creatures felt under the gaze of
a bird of prey.
Fight or flight.
She’d fought Walter and she’d lost. She’d flown and she’d fallen.
Now another big, terrifying man had her pinned to the wall and there
was nowhere to go, no escape possible.
“I’m Advocate-Commander Zeke Lucassen, the prosecutor assigned to
the case of Captain Tirzah Simonian. This is an informal hearing that will
serve as your arraignment. Are you prepared to proceed?”
“We are.” Josiah’s voice rang out clearly in the small room.
The officer of the court looked at Tirzah. “We will enter your plea
on the first count of murder now.”
The prosecutor sat across the table from her, his eyes still
piercing into her. She swallowed, trying to force her eyes away, to still her
rapid heartbeat before the treacherous organ imploded.
“Tirz, you need to enter your own plea, I can’t do it for you.”
Josiah reminded her, giving her leg another squeeze.
“N-n-not guilty,” she stammered, looking down at the table.
“We will enter your plea on the second count of murder now.”
Second count of murder. They were charging her for the man that
Walter had killed, the warden who had helped her escape.
“Not guilty.” Her chin lifted in defiance as she looked back at the
prosecutor.
“We will enter your plea on the charge of taking a star-transport
without prior requisition and approval.”
“Oh, I’m guilty of that one.” Tirzah turned to the officer of the
court. “I knew my commanding officer would not approve the requisition so I
took it.”
“Please note, Captain Simonian has already paid the fine, paid
repairs, and served two weeks in the brig for that misdemeanor,” Josiah said,
looking from the prosecutor to the court officer.
“I see.” The prosecutor looked down at his reader, and then back up
at Tirzah. “Prosecution agrees to drop the charge of taking the star-transport
and accept time and monies already rendered in lieu of further punishment on
that charge.”
He made a note on his reader and then continued. “We will seek a
trial by court martial on the murder charges before the Solomon Tribunal.
Captain Simonian, as a citizen of Earth, and a member of the Fleet, you have
the right to be tried before a panel of your fellow officers, unless you waive
that right.”
“I do not waive my rights.”
“So ordered.” The court officer banged a gavel. “You will be
informed of the trial date. Until such a time as the trial is held, unless
otherwise ordered by this court, you are grounded, Captain Simonian. Please
turn in your wings to this court.”
She tried to keep her hands from shaking as she unpinned the
silver—not gold, she’d lost fight command status when Walter had first thrown
her in the brig and she’d missed the qualifying exam renewal—wings from her
uniform. Of course, she hadn’t flown since the crash, but her wings, a symbol
of her status as a pilot, had remained pinned to her uniform, giving her hope.
She nodded, forcing the lump in her throat back down.
Disgraced. Humiliated. Grounded.
“When the mighty fall, they fall hard.” A nasal voice sounded from
the doorway. Tirzah looked up into the red face of the investigating
commandant. He’d had a hard-on for her wings since the day he’d taken the case.
Snarling, she leaped to her feet, ripping her elbow out of Josiah’s grasp, her
only thought to get out of this room where the walls seemed too close and the
stares too pointed.
Fight or Flight is available now at http://www.lsbooks.com.
Thanks again to Vanessa for visiting with us today! It's been great having you here - come back anytime!
Vanessa North was born in New England but moved to the South
as a teenager, where she learned to appreciate biscuits and gravy, bluegrass,
and that most welcome of greetings: “Hey y’all!” She has a degree in Mass
Communication but has long since abandoned journalism in favor of writing
romance. Instead of telling the news, V would rather tell stories.
Fight or Flight is available now at http://www.lsbooks.com.
Thanks again to Vanessa for visiting with us today! It's been great having you here - come back anytime!
Vanessa North was born in New England but moved to the South
as a teenager, where she learned to appreciate biscuits and gravy, bluegrass,
and that most welcome of greetings: “Hey y’all!” She has a degree in Mass
Communication but has long since abandoned journalism in favor of writing
romance. Instead of telling the news, V would rather tell stories.
Vanessa has a voracious appetite for books and loves all
kinds. She writes obsessively: every day brings new ideas and stories to tell.
When she’s not buried in a book—hers or someone else’s—you can find her taking
thousands of photographs of the people she loves.
She lives in Northwest Georgia with her handsome husband,
not-quite-civilized twin boy-children, and a pack of dogs.
Where you can find Vanessa:
Website: http://www.vanessanorth.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/authorvanessanorth
Twitter: https://twitter.com/VanessaNWrites
Parker, thank you so much for having me here today! <3
ReplyDelete