Daddy's Girl

By Blaze Ward

Mom's accidental death let Grandmother declare Angus an orphan, because Dad was an alien, an Aracheed. Worse, the crazy old bitch got custody, and plans to trap Angus on her estate, away from the alien half of the family until Angus reaches eighteen.

But other secrets lurk. Angus must learn about the dark mysteries buried in her own family's past. Things Mom never explained.

She must confront the old woman, and learn how to make her own way, in a world she never desired.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Knotted Road Press
• Release date: Sep 10, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386561316

Blaze Ward

Blaze Ward writes science fiction in the Alexandria Station universe (Jessica Keller, The Science Officer,  The Story Road, etc.) as well as several other science fiction universes, such as Star Dragon, the Dominion, and more. He also writes odd bits of high fantasy with swords and orcs. In addition, he is the Editor and Publisher of Boundary Shock Quarterly Magazine. You can find out more at his website www.blazeward.com, as well as Facebook, Goodreads, and other places. Blaze's works are available as ebooks, paper, and audio, and can be found at a variety of online vendors. His newsletter comes out regularly, and you can also follow his blog on his website. He really enjoys interacting with fans, and looks forward to any and all questions—even ones about his books!

Book preview

Daddy’s Girl

Daddy’s Girl

Angus MacIntyre’s Tales

Blaze Ward

Knotted Road Press

Contents

Daddy’s Girl

About the Author

Also by Blaze Ward

About Knotted Road Press

Daddy’s Girl

The gavel sounded like a gunshot as it slammed into the judge’s desk. Angus flinched in spite of herself.

Death sounded like that, on all of the planets or the starports she had visited in her fourteen years. It was the sound that something had just broken and your starship might be about to die, taking you with it.

The court finds for the plaintiff, the mean, old lady judge announced. Custody for the minor child, Serena Angus McIntyre, is awarded to the maternal grandmother. This matter is settled. Further, the court extends the temporary restraining order against the Aracheed creature known as Ish’dael, and makes it permanent. The alien will have no further contact with the minor child.

Angus. That was her name. Serena was just something stored in a computer. Nobody called her that. Not that anyone would listen to her. She didn’t even get to say anything in this courtroom, let alone do anything.

Buncha obnoxious grown-ups in expensive suits on the left, viewed from out in the audience where she had been relegated, sitting with her own personal bailiff. All of them seated around the woman who was apparently her grandmother. And the old cow’s lawyers? Every one of them was human.

Dad was on the right. Angus didn’t care that the court had just decided that he wasn’t legally her father. As if an Aracheed and a human could actually breed.

She suppressed a snort. Grandmother was apparently a specist, trapped into seeing nothing more than the shell.

So Dad looked like a spider version of a centaur? Whatever. Fine, black fur covered his upright thorax, with a head atop that with all the usual sensory and masticatory bits, like a human, more or less. Six legs coming out from the hip joint on his abdomen, where she had ridden him like a pony when she was smaller. The stripes in his fur even kinda looked like a saddle.

Mom and Dad had made no bones about Angus’s origins growing up. She