One year after saving the Neek homeworld and redefining the people’s religion, the crew of the Scarlet Lucidity returns to the Charted Systems for a much-needed break. For Nicholas and Yorden, the Systems will always be home, but for Emn and Atalant, too many memories compound with Emn’s strange new illness to provide much relaxation.
TALES FROM ARDULUM continues the journey of Atalant, Emn, Yorden, Nicholas, and Salice as they try to define their place in a galaxy that no longer needs them while battling the artifacts of Ardulan colonization. Other stories include Yorden’s acquisition of the Mercy’s Pledge (and his grudge against the galaxy), Atalant’s exile from her homeworld, Ekimet and Savath’s romance, and many others.
Series Blurb:
The ARDULUM series blends space opera and hard science into a story about two women persistently bound to their past, and a sentient planet determined to shape their future.
Amazon
Know your Ardulum Characters
Pt 3 – Nicholas St. John
Although there are numerous POV characters across the ARDULUM series, Nicholas’ journey, in many ways, mirrors the reader experience of being a new, wide-eyed bystander. In part three of this four part series (find the other three parts on the blog tour for TALES FROM ARDULUM), we explore ten random facts about Nicholas that just didn’t make the cut into the final books.
1) Nicholas has an older sister named Hayley, who had a little too much fun on her Youth Journey. Her experiences made Nicholas’ parents a bit more wary about where he would end up.
2) Nicholas’ parents have always hoped he would go into law. Nicholas tended to favor cellulose science but hadn’t actively tried to go against his parents’ wishes until he met Captain Yorden Kuebrich and his crew.
3) By the end of book three, Nicholas is a better ship mechanic than Yorden
4) Early drafts of First Don named Nicholas’ long-distance girlfriend. It is worth noting here that Nicholas is asexual, but very into romance
5) Though they fought well into their teenaged years, Nicholas and Hayley bonded over budget bodice-ripper paperbacks that, yes, are still available in trade paperback in 2060
6) Early drafts of First Don had Nicholas’ clothing choices often in the neon, until everyone eventually ended up with standard issue flight suits
7) The first ever draft of First Don was almost entirely Nicholas’ POV. Though the story revolves around Emn and Atalant, it was interesting to watch the Charted Systems evolve through the eyes of a Journey Youth
8) In Third Don, Nicholas ends up functionally a construction worker as the Eld Temple is rebuilt. He volunteered for this job, having always wanted to take more hands-on coursework in high school and college and having been steered away from it by his parents
9) ‘The Neek Brigade of Jollies’ was his favorite variety show growing up
10)Nicholas spent a lot of his free time on the Pledge repairing systems that Yorden had classified as non-essential.
J.S. Fields is giving away four prizes with this tour: a collectible soft enamel pin of the Mercy’s Pledge (2), and a high res version of one of the interior illustrations (their choice, pick from Yorden, Nick, Emn, or Atalant) (2). Enter via Rafflecopter:
“You can’t!” Neek burst towards the door just as it slammed closed. She rebounded and fell back to the floor, her tailbone taking the brunt of the fall. The ship’s engines began to whine, and the floor jostled as the craft left the surface.
Neek ran to the controls and slammed her hands on the stuk interface. Through the viewscreen, she saw capital buildings, the Ardulan Temple, and then treetops as the skiff left the city and moved to the suburbs. She tapped command after command into the computer, but each try brought an angry beep and no change in course. The ship was on autopilot and password locked. She had no control.
Neek swallowed, trying to ease the ache in her throat. Wherever they stashed her, she would find a comm. She would smuggle out handwritten messages if she had to. She wasn’t going to give up. That she had lost the robes, lost the Guard…she could mourn that in time. Saving the forests, that was her job. Helping her people move beyond Ardulum so they could truly participate in the Charted Systems, that was why she did all this, right? That she loved piloting was just a bonus.
Right?
A low tremble went through the ship. Neek had never felt a skiff do that before. Had she lucked out? Was it malfunctioning? Neek sent another query to the computer. The ship was…
Neek blinked. It couldn’t be.
The ship was going up.
Neek frantically queried the computer. The viewscreen still showed treetops, but that silo in the distance…that had been there the first time she’d looked. It had seemed closer for a while, but now, she realized as she squinted, it was far away again. She was watching a prerecorded loop!
“No!” The skiff was clearly going up. Neek’s ears were popping, and there was a funny feeling in her gut. Her planet’s skiffs were not designed to leave even the lower atmosphere. Only settees could do that, and this was no settee. Whatever the president’s engineers had done to make it spaceworthy, it hadn’t been nearly enough.
Neek threw commands at the computer. Land. Coast. Glide. STOP.Each returned with a ping and the perpetual image of treetops. He couldn’t do this. He had no right to do this! What in Ardulum’s name was the president thinking? Neek pounded at the controls, and the recorded loop fuzzed out to reveal space. Endless space.
Text scrolled across the computer screen:
Hours of air left: 233
Gallons of water remaining: 2
Food rations available: none
Communication systems: disabled
Destination: high orbit around planet Neek
Entertainment options: one video available of Heaven Guard airshow #4194, highlighting the double barrel rolls of Guard Four; all Neek holy texts available
Neek screamed. She kicked the console, her boot denting the cheap biometal. The Neek did not leave their planet. They did not live on space stations or strange worlds. They stayed put, to wait for Ardulum’s return. And she…she was meant to rotup here, in Neek space—rot while watching a planet she could see but never again touch. Rot while the Heaven Guard executed flawless formations in Neek’s upper atmosphere, ignoring her gold coffin spinning by. Rot while reading texts she’d had shoved down her throat since she was old enough to read—texts that were slowly destroying her planet.
And…and…
She would never get her settee.
She was only nineteen years old, and she was going to die, alone, in space.
And there was nothing she could do.
J.S. Fields (@Galactoglucoman) is a scientist who has perhaps spent too much time around organic solvents. They enjoy roller derby, woodturning, making chainmail by hand, and cultivating fungi in the backs of minivans. Nonbinary, and yes, it matters.
Fields has lived in Thailand, Ireland, Canada, USA, and spent extensive time in many more places. Their current research takes them to the Peruvian Amazon rainforest each summer, where they traumatizes students with machetes and tangarana ants while looking for rare pigmenting fungi. They live with their partner and child, and a very fabulous lionhead rabbit named Merlin.
Author Website: http://www.jsfieldsbooks.com
Author Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/galactoglucoman
Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16484795.J_S_Fields
Author QueeRomance Ink: https://www.queeromanceink.com/mbm-book-author/j-s-fields/
Author Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/J.S.-Fields/e/B071YWC4VN
