Terran Times Second Wave Series

Iridia has grown up invisible. To family, friends, co-workers, she is barely there. They haven’t noticed her in so long that the Volunteer project seems like the best method to deal with her issues. They see the potential in her and welcome her with open arms, basic training in combat and weapons, as well as etiquette for dealing with alien species. Chosen to be a Guardian on a newly re-waking world, Iridia finds that she is the second Guardian chosen and the only girl on the team. Zanthan has been waiting for her, so has the world beneath him. Tharos Prime swore never to have an Avatar again, but he never said he wouldn’t take two.

Aggie was slotted for life as a Keeper, a woman who put herself between her charges and danger. A genuine crisis of conscience kicks in on her second assignment and ends with her charge in hiding and Aggie in cold sleep for a while. Ikvaro was Aggie’s instructor on the moon base and his heart broke when she disappeared and was reported dead. Informed that she was alive and needed his help, he resigns his commission as instructor and heads out to the stars to find his woman now that duty no longer stands between them. She thaws, he looks into her eyes and she is no longer alone in there. She has gone from Keeper to Avatar and there is no protocol for this manoeuvre.

Olive has wanted to take midwife training, but the waiting list is nearly a decade long. When she is offered the chance to take the training and go into space, she takes it. Who wouldn’t? Assigned as midwife to a pregnant Terran on an alien world, she is immersed in a world of fighters, trainers and paparazzi. Regaran knows that a Terran would be a good match for him, but the only one he knows is taken. When he meets Olive, he is stunned by his response to her soft words and shy manner. After she gets a good night’s sleep, he finds out that her words are carefully chosen and she is not as demure as she looks. She’s a warrior who picks her battles, and he is looking for a fight.

Myrik had been a disgraced Enjel with guilt issues. Now, he is a Guardian in the Nyal Imperium and he puts himself between the innocent and danger. He is part of a group sent into rescue a Negotiator with the power to start or end wars, and when she comes out of her shell he is delightfully surprised. Alexia is one of the Second Wave of Terran Volunteers. She went from basic training into Negotiator armour and now, she is kidnapped, tortured and waiting for a hit squad to end her security risk. The arms of an Enjel take her off to a new lease on life, but it is security that he offers and compassion that he gives. He will defend her with his life, but she hopes that it will not come to that.

Dot has spent nearly half her life in a private home for those who have trouble with reality. Finding out that her talent for hearing the future is actually useful, she agrees to leave her residence to find a place that she has dreamed of. A world where her talent can be put to use. Loxin has dreamed of the woman his matchmaker told him about but finding her applying to be an Oracle on his base surprises him. No one told him the woman he was destined for could sense the future, but then, no one outside his family and the destiny painter on Yacaro had known about her. Together, they will fulfill each other’s needs and protect a world constantly under siege...with a little help from the other Guardians.

Rowen went along with her niece to apply for the Volunteer project, and when she is asked to participate, she has to decide if the stars are for her. When they offer her an entire world full of gardens, she is hooked. There is only one problem, no alien can work on the surface of Irudan; they must be married to a local to work there. Skorin Nakkua wants to get his family to stop asking him to get married, so when a marriage of convenience is requested by the Alliance, he agrees. His wife will live on Irudan and take on his social responsibilities with the community, leaving him free to focus on his life as Walking Darkness, the head of the Irudan Guardian Base. He had never expected their paths to cross while he was on duty, but the new Lady Nakkua is far more than he imagined and the convenience of their marriage begins to chafe.

Wren has been a caretaker for all her adult life. The offer to take up a new life in the stars comes as part of her career comes to a sad end. They ask her to change her DNA, she does. They ask her to engage in combat training, she does. They ask her to channel the new talent that roars through her bloodstream, she focuses. If they had asked her if she was willing to mate with a stranger, she would have considered it. Drovin has been waiting for the day when his mate would arrive on his world. He knows what she looks like and who she is, but her personality is a mystery. Binding them together before she arrived was his idea, but it might have been an incorrect impulse when she can find all of his weaknesses in an instant.

Beryl lives a quiet life taking online classes and working on solving cases for her brother when he needs a second pair of eyes. Her skills gain her the notice of the Volunteer Project, and she is encouraged to go and get a life of her own. Working as a criminal analyst is incredibly rewarding and she thinks she has everything she needs until her path collides with that of one of the local Guardians and her life takes a sudden turn. Toyo sensed Beryl before he met her, but watching her disable a criminal cemented his interest. Her blood called to him, her scent drove him wild, and when she knocked him on his butt, he knew it was the first of many encounters to come.

Being invited into the Alliance was a shock for Kyna. She was wanted for an archivist assignment on a far-off world that needed her...specifically. Kee gets an implant that allows her instant access to generations of information, and she heads off to Jhenno for her new life in one of the most comprehensive archives in history. When a co-worker tries to take her life, he forces the hand of her would-be suitor, and for the first time ever, Kee faces a dragon. Jherin has been asleep for a few thousand years. He was thrown back in time to be at the right place at the right time to find his mate; he just missed the mark. When the mind of his mate begins to dim, he can’t spend time waiting for a long courtship.

Blown up, healed and grafted were things Lee never expected to see in her medical records. Waking up after a terrorist attack, she finds her father has signed her over to the Volunteer Project as long as they can keep her alive. Grafts, implants and slow regeneration are now her life, and she is assigned to the Guardian emergency response dispatch. Having no base, they travel from world to world and do whatever needs to be done from rescues, small incursions, to escorting treaty brides. Lukar has worked alone for quite some time, but the scientists at the Guardian Project assured him that he and Lee were a good match. He had no idea how right they were.

A talent for heat sends Nanette to the Volunteers, and the power of her fire assigns her to a Guardian Base. Assigned to repair the damage left behind after the Guardians did their work, Nanette dives into her new position with enthusiasm until her new work puts her in the path of one of those heroes. Rand is stunned when he meets the new Terran. She is nothing like the women of her species that he has met before. Her scent is neutral, but her expression tells him that he is not the only one with an interest in interspecies relations. He just has to find an excuse to see her again. Perhaps he should break something?

Roxelena has inherited her family talent for cold. On Earth, it is useless, but there is a request for a woman with talent on a world she has never heard of. Marriage is a condition of her travel, so she agrees. She has yet to find a man who can withstand contact with her, so his unconditional agreement to her comes as a surprise. When she meets her husband for the first time and feels the heat of his body and his talent for fire, she understands why he doesn’t feel the cold. He craves her cooling as she wants his heat, and they exchange their talents gladly.

Jewel’s ability to broadcast calm made her no fun at parties but perfect for a life in peacekeeping. She volunteers and goes to the Nyal Imperium for duty as the forerunner of the peacekeeping force on a mining colony. Taken by an unmanned ship, Jewel finds herself on an arena station, cruising through space. The medics use her skills for calm to keep a patient calm who cannot be sedated, and when their eyes meet across the crowded med bay, she finds herself pulled into a state of confusion. She has finally met a man who shakes her calm, and his slow smile says that he knows it.

Liberty has spent her time trying to warn the people around her about imminent death. Her warnings have not always been well received, and after a stint in prison, she is offered a chance to enter the Volunteer Program. Set free and launched into space, her life as a Death Seer begins. The Nyal Imperium is the area that wants her, and she is delivered to a court world and into the custody of the duke who has other plans for her beyond having her read his death. All she needs is a slight change to her genetic code and her destiny will change forever.

Melia is a customs agent who takes her skills to the stars. Working for two years at a space station, she manages to locate and seize all kinds of contraband, but when she finds a trio of kidnap victims in cold sleep, her life takes a weird twist. Dornin-tah is the captain sent to retrieve his family and bring them to his sister’s fiancé. When he is on the way to medical, he runs into the lovely agent and accidentally infects her with his tissue. Unused to soft-skinned species, he finds that she has been keyed to his body and he has no trouble in easing her frustration. Melia runs into trouble when there is a price put on her head. She is medically dependent on visits from Dornin-tah and the easiest solution is to send her to his home world, in his custody.

Aster’s assignment as a bodyguard suits her temperament. She likes to boss folks around while keeping them where they are supposed to be. A fan of order, she enjoys her position away from Earth on a world where her services can be of use. Dressed up like a doll for a costume party, she finds that fighting is part of the local community tradition and calling upon an ancient god is also traditional. She just never expected him to answer. Yodin is an immortal who has been looking for another of his kind. Aster has only recently shed her previous life and entered the endless lifespan that he currently enjoys, but he intends to introduce her to the pleasure of an eternity with the god of war, death and sex.

In human terms, Lynni is a chimera. She carries two strands of DNA in her body. She is unaware of what this means until she joins her sister at the Lunar Base and goes in for enhancement into the species of one of her ancestors. Her genes are split down the centre, and since the techs weren’t aware of them, her enhancement goes wrong. Leko is the Familiar assigned to Lynni, and he spots the problems in her transformation before the medics notice, saving her life. His duty is to watch her and keep her healthy and safe. He feels that she is calm, quiet and ladylike. He believes it until she is out of medical and able to voice her opinion. Once she starts, she doesn’t stop.

Humouring her grandparents leads Myra to discovering that a member of her family belonged to an alien race, and that race wants her back now. The people who killed her ancestors demand the last viable member of the Day clan, and she has no idea why. She finds out that her bloodline is the key to bringing back a portion of the population that have died out. The women. Her alien people survive by abducting their brides from a variety of species, but if she can claim her birthright, she can bring the trigger back and fertility will return. Arbor-Dren–assassin, warrior and snappy dresser—is the consort that she chooses, and he is more than capable of dealing with her learning curve, and all of her other curves as well.

Polly takes the position of Guardian with a talent for magnetic attraction with an open mind. Meeting her first W’lyn sets her sights on a one-night stand, but Loesh wants much more. On her first day, Polly shows that she is competent in battle and able to think on her feet, but when she is exposed to experimental nanites, her entire life takes a sudden shift, and what she sees isn’t necessarily what is in front of her. Loesh wants a Terran mate for the potential to have a family and a woman who can match him skill for skill. Polly’s skills are already developed, and her attraction to him is obvious. Screwing it up should be difficult, so why does it come so easily?

Zelia lives a predictable life until she helps some of the members of the Volunteer Centre avoid a gunman. Her reward is a one-way trip to the stars to have the child that she wants with the freedom to raise it in a safe and quiet environment. She is altered to make a suitable host for the new life and deposited on the surface of a nameless world where a home and supplies are waiting for her. Her days are relaxed and comfortable, and her nights are filled with alien songs. Rad has been waiting for centuries to meet his mate, and to have her arrange to carry his child before they had even met goes against Drai customs. He is willing to adapt as long as she will accept his protection in a world chosen as her home.

Gala suffered from lack of nerve response and had lived her life numb. Her lifetime was spent looking for damage to her body or avoiding it. When you can’t feel your limbs, anything can happen. Given the chance to gain a sense of touch by giving her body to a planet for occupation, she becomes the Avatar of Rekfa without hesitation. Rekfa shares her body and convinces her that she needs to seek out her own sense memories in whatever form they come. Arez has been waiting for a mate of his own, and the Avatar is as close as he can come in this lifetime. He offers himself to her and is amazed when she takes him up on his offer to teach her what seduction can feel like when both parties are focused on the outcome.

Lilia has been working for the Zel family for half a year, and she has enjoyed being the administrator of the design clan. When the clan is called upon to participate in an ancient ritual and the only clan member who is eligible is pregnant, Lilia has to step into the breach to run and hide for three days in order to retain the rights over thousands of acres of land. The Almoss family has tried everything to get the Zels out of the competition, but finally, it comes down to calling up their eldest son from duty as a forest ranger half a world away and offering him a place with them once again. When Lilia and Xeric collide, they are each looking out for their own interests, but when he offers her an option, she might be willing to oblige.

Living an uneventful life was Cierra’s goal, but fate kept pulling her in another direction. In the Volunteer Program, she discovers a talent for precognitive identification. She can see when something is wrong. On Xerat, she works as a contract proofer, finding errors and gaffs in the written words. Being kidnapped and hauled to a spacecraft was not in her plans. Ahket saw the pale alien with his talent and knew that she had to come with him. He didn’t know why, but she was designed to be with him, and as events unfold, he is more confused than ever.

Tyanni has spent the last two years in a hospital bed with no chance to live a normal life. Her sister has remained at her side and kept her interested in the world by looking through their family trees, and a genetics scan turns up surprising news, they aren't completely human. The Lrrko is a cloned race that is rapidly running out of usable DNA. The discovery of no less than five new sources gains a lot of attention, and they dispatch five of their best to bring the Terran women back. Brex is one of the Familiars sent to gather up the lost Brides. He is assigned to Tyanni, and he feels a sense of relief. Out of the two sisters, he got the quiet one. When she leaves the healing tank, he learns of his mistake. He takes over care for her body, soul and physical needs. He gradually becomes Familiar, in every possible way.

Anna’s family has a secret, and she had been left out of the loop until an ancient curse is revealed to be alien DNA. Anna is part Nyal, and her heat is pulling the men around her into rut. If she stays on Earth, it can get very bad very quickly. Running to the stars is her only hope to spare herself the fate of her ancestors. Quake isn’t eager to take a bride, but when he is presented with a portrait of himself and the Terran woman whose file he was just given, wrapped in a lover’s embrace, he knows fate when it shows up in full colour.

Jill leaves Earth with a focus on starting a life where her genetic background was determined by her DNA and not her appearance. After allowing implants in her skull, she makes her way to the Great Archive of the Alliance and is installed as one of their archivists. Looking through ancient contracts on request fills her day until the moment a pregnant woman comes through the door and everything changes. Rimash is Jill’s escort and bodyguard, protecting her against those who would capture and profit from the information of the Archive. When the client places a burden on them that neither expected, Rimash steps in to protect the archivist against those who would part her from her new phase in life.

Bella has been trying to find a man who will see her for the smart and charming woman that she is. She wants them to look beyond the obvious. When she joins the Volunteers, she finds herself on a world where everyone around her hides their faces and you have to deal with their minds and positions in society. It takes getting used to, but she thrives. Lord Akking runs a club where aliens can meet with the Kloa traders face to face. As Minister of Trade, Akking is cut a lot of slack, but when he has her assigned as his assistant, he has a lot more than just being face to face with her in mind. Becoming the object of his affections is startlingly direct, and with nowhere to hide, she has to deal with her own desires and be honest about them.

Olena enjoys taking things apart and repurposing them. She enters the Volunteer Program, and after some coaxing, she agrees to leave to find her fortune in the stars. The fortune she gets is a grimy salvage station where family ties keep her from rising to the top, and her life is a series of endless grey days until she takes apart a chunk of debris that turns out to be a life pod. Brin Tai Wekk has been waiting for a compatible female to share the burden of the mind of a planet. When the woman who slams the lid of his capsule on his hand wakes him, he knows he has found someone capable of sharing more than her instinct for survival. A discarded career, a stolen mate and a talent for turning the obsolete into something useful track Olena to a new world with a new start.

Mila was living a quiet life. Too old to join the Volunteer program, she was resigned to her position in the middle of nowhere. When a recruiter comes to her and orders her to join she says no. When he explains that due to her genetic heritage she has no choice, she reluctantly enters a pact to gain an education in return for her genes. As her assigned Familiar isn’t interested in her, Mila is left on an alien world looking for someone to take on her training. Who could possibly want to take her on, body, mind and soul?

In prison for common assault, Bryn is surprised to get a small alien visitor who offers her a life on a new world. She agrees on the condition that she gets a pardon. On the way to her new home, there is an attack, and Bryn finds out what she is made of. It scares the hell out of her. Surat knows that he is getting a warrior in the Lrrko Bride he is caring for. Until he is unable to help her, he has no idea that she is a born survivor. She returns to him damaged but alive. Now, she needs to deal with the aftereffects of her actions. No pardon is forthcoming.