The Last Queen of Qorlec Series

Rose is a nerdy librarian going through a divorce when she is abducted by aliens. When the spacecraft is attacked by the enemies of Queen Nashal, Rose makes it back to Earth freshly impregnated by alien royalty with said enemies on her heels. Now faced with running for her life, she is joined by Zita, a cheerful and beautiful alien marine, who becomes her guardian and protector . . . and the love of her life. Don't miss the first installment of this lesbian romance series -- in space! -- "Who are you?!" Rose called, aiming her silver weapon at the door. "I've gotta Stainmaker 2000! And I'm not afraid to use it!" She stiffened indignantly when she heard the woman on the other side of the door laugh derisively.  "Your people just got cell phones less than two hundred years ago," the woman said, unimpressed. "You think I'm scared of your widdle plasma pistols?" She sighed. "Look, Mrs. Carmichael –"  - "Some of them are mech," said Zita, nimbly picking through the steaming pools of red goo and severed, wriggling limbs. She was splattered with blood and grinning as she came to them, but she frowned to see the utter bafflement on Rose's face. "Hey, snap out of it. Haven't you seen mech before?" She kicked a man's severed head, and Rose gasped when his face slid off, revealing a skull of gleaming silver metal.  Rose shook her head. "Mech are illegal. The government s-said they feared a robot war!" she insisted, turning to follow as Zita limped past her.    Zita laughed dryly, folding up her purring rifle and sliding it in her boot once more. "Is it so hard to imagine your government lied? Governments tend to do that."  - "Drop. Your weapon. And. Come quietly," said a robotic voice.    "Kiss. My ass," said Zita, mocking the robot's tone. - "I'm surprised you haven't come to hate humans," Rose said with hesitation. "I mean, given all that happened to you here. I'm pretty sure assimilating wasn't easy either."   Zita laughed softly. "Me? Hate humans?" She darkly shook her head. "I fought in the Midnight War for thirty years, Rosie. I know what happens when people let hate make decisions for them."

Quinn is back, this time in a race to save Earth from the zonbiri, a short, angry, green, seahorse people who wish to use humans to create an army of super hybrids. Along with Zita, the cheerful space marine, an orange alien with cool head spikes, and the three zonbiri kids who started it all, Quinn is off to save the world. Aside from her own recklessness, the only thing standing in her way is her overbearing and overprotective aunt, General Miora. Can she convince the cold and distant general to help her save Earth? And where is her mother, Rose? -- "Well, can you fight?"   "Can you?"    "No," said Thalcu with a sad laugh. "Zonbiri women aren't allowed to handle anything bigger than a butter knife. Not legally, anyway. Besides, I could never shoot a gun. My hands are used to pushing remote control buttons, pounding game controllers . . . picking the good chips from the bag."    - Quinn scowled up at Zita. "Guard the truck?" she repeated indignantly. "Zita, I'm not four anymore!"     "You'll always be four to me," Zita said softly.    - The woman smiled gently at Quinn, her lips curling behind her oxygen mask. "I will not really die," she said, drawing Quinn's surprised gaze. She looked at Quinn contently a moment and went on, "Do you know how worlds are born? From the first breath of a star. We are made of starlight. We can not bear to look into the sun, into the thing that birthed us, anymore than we can bear to look upon our parents in the throes of passion. It is our point of origin, and to it, we must all return."  - Zita shrugged. "I wouldn't hold it against ya, kid. You're asking if you should choose war or love. Hate is easy, everybody does it. But most people go their entire lives without really loving. Miora's gonna tell you that you can't love Thalcu because she's zonbiri, but if it's really love . . . you won't be able to help yourself." Zita smiled and went out.  - "I think I stepped in crap," Quinn answered somewhere to the right.    Thalcu's nose wrinkled when the sudden stink slapped her face: trokian poop. "Oh! It's bad enough we're going to die. Do we have to die covered in trok poo as well?"    "I have every intention of living covered in trok poo, thank you very much," said Quinn at once.    "You won't be living near me then." - "HALT. WE ARE ATTEMPTING. AN ARREST," said the cyborg.    "We're aware," Quinn muttered under her breath.  - Quinn tensed at the triumphant look in his eyes. ". . . What have you done?"    "I have entered launch codes in the computer. In exactly ten minutes, Alpha Star 9 will be a black stain in the middle of Utah."    Quinn's lips part in shock.    "Yes," said. Dr. Zorgone in amusement. "Dramatic gasp!" 

The princess of Qorlec is back, this time surviving the harsh purple deserts of the planet Anarchy. In the hauntingly beautiful oasis of Lot'Vasa, Quinn must learn new languages and cultures, endure marriage, motherhood, and the brutal training of the entirian resistance – and keep from tripping over her skirt and falling down the stairs -- all while simultaneously earning the respect of her people. For not all are willing to fall blindly in line behind an entirian princess who was raised by a human. -- She knew in that moment that falling in love with the princess would destroy her, and so she decided at once that she would do her damnedest to despise her.  - She stood over the princess for a time, simply looking at her as she willed herself to climb in, and she knew doing so would make it utterly impossible to hate her. The princess looked so innocent and vulnerable as she dreamt, and it was difficult to hate someone once you had seen them sleeping.  -- "I can't help it," the princess said with a laugh. "I like you. You're my friend, aren't you?"   "Yes," Ckyla said dismally. Dammit, she thought dismally.  -- "The real princess of Qorlec would know the mother tongue. But you are more zonbiri than entirian, are you not?" Her unfeeling eyes glittered. "It is with regret that one must remove you and end the Miora line once and for all."    "The hell one will," Quinn muttered darkly.  - Varzo rolled her eyes, putting her own buckets back on her shoulders and rising as well. "Of course I care, Quinn. We're friends, you idiot."   "We're friends? When did that happen?"   "I dunno," Varzo realized. "It just sorta . . . happened." - "Haven't you been humiliated enough, princess?" Callam rasped. "You can't use your special magic powers here. If you're lucky, you'll walk away in one piece."   "If you're lucky," answered Quinn, "you'll walk away."

The Princess of Qorlec is back again and finally ready to take the battle to the Zon Regime in earnest, with the help of the Black Hand rebels, a snarky robot, and her inseperable sickick, Varzo. But when it's revealed that the princess is pregnant with the enemy's child, she is abandoned by her people, and the love of her life marries another. Can Quinn beat the odds, even when her heart is breaking? - Thalcu smiled. "When I met her, I'd convinced myself it was a cold and uncaring universe, that people were awful because we'd made it that way. Then there was Quinn, who always went out of her way to help people, who always tried to do what was right at any cost, and who never asked for anything in return. She was the gentlest, kindest person I've ever known. She was so selfless in spite of the world and what it had done to her. To kill her was a crime against all that is good, not just because I love her, but because I do believe she might have been the last pure soul in the universe."    -- "It's notta joke," Varzo said. "Quinn really killed some people with a pen. Six, I think. Or was it seven?"     "It was seven," Quinn confirmed, grinning at the tavalin's horrified shock.    Varzo glanced sideways at Quinn's gory pen. "Why're you hanging on to that gross thing anyway?"    "Yes, you probably just dropped six diseases on my counter," Aridis scolded.    "I dunno," Quinn said, lifting the pen to examine it. "It's sort of handy, isn't it? Kinda like a dagger but smaller. Easier to carry around. No one ever sees it coming either." She laughed softly. "Maybe I should train the Black Hand to fight with ballpoint pens."    -- "I've got tree sap in case it falls apart," Aridis said, thoughtful eyes fixed on the crib. "It has the texture and smell of diarrhea but will hold the pieces together well enough."    Quinn laughed flatly.     Aridis blinked. "What?"    "With anyone else I'd assume they were joking, but you were completely serious, weren't you?"    -- "What, you can't worship Xaxa at home?"    Aridis dropped her eyes. "No. Some believe that to know the true blessing of the goddess star, one must walk in her light. We worship her because we came from her – or rather, that's what the doctrine states."    ". . . What do you believe?" Quinn wondered.     Aridis Verto's pale blue eyes darkened. "I believe the universe is just as it appears: a cold dark place." She looked at Quinn. "And you have my sympathies that you must be its only light." 

In the fifth chapter of the series, Quinn must race against the clock to save both her mother and her daughter, who are in danger on two different planets. Rejoining her in the fight are Zita, the cheerful space marine, Varzo, her trusty sidekick, and Cara, the snarky robot with nothing to lose. But after having been captured and brainwashed by Emperor Zycun, Princess Calorra is full of so much hatred and anger, Quinn must ask herself if her daughter even wants to be saved.   -- Cara's pointed ears clicked as she listened to a distant sound. "Someone approaches down the hall," she said. Her blank eyes rolled to Varzo. "We should have a plan of action. If you are determined to prevent this execution, I wish to help you."  "That's what I like to hear," Varzo said, grimly rising to her feet. "We'll die fighting before we sit back and let them kill us! Quinn would want it no other way." Varzo paused awkwardly. "Well, I'll die. You'll do . . . whatever it is robots do."    -- "So you just side with the strongest?" said Wrip in disgust. "Don't you have any honor? Any sense of moral obligation?"   Wviria wriggled her long fingers on the steering wheel, pointing her thumbs at herself. "Pirate."   Wrip rolled her eye.   -- Thalcu sat in her tower, and as she looked out the window, it suddenly occurred to her that she had spent a great deal of her life locked away in lavishly furnished cages and looking out windows. She supposed it was the fate of a princess.  

Calorra, now her mother's enemy, has exiled Quinn and Thalcu to an alternate dimension and has taken Qorlec for herself, ending the centuries old war with the callous slaughter of many innocents. Meanwhile, Varzo and Mercy are likewise exiled by Calorra to a barren planet, where they are trapped and helpless to escape. As Quinn reconciles with Thalcu and searches for a way back to her own world, Zita searches desperately for Quinn and her lost friends, becoming exiled by Calorra herself in the process.     --   "There you are, Zita," said Calorra fondly.      And there you are, my little mass murderer, Zita thought grimly.     -   Thalcu stared at Quinn, unbelieving. "As if you didn't marry the help!" She froze angrily when Quinn pointed a threatening silver finger at her.     "Don't insult Ckyla," Quinn warned, brown eyes fierce with anger and wet with unshed tears. "Neither of us had a choice."     "The hell you didn't," snarled Thalcu and hated herself when the tears started to her own eyes.     "How would you know?" Quinn demanded hotly. "You weren't there! I told you before: they told me you were dead. If I knew you were alive . . ." She waved a silver hand in disgust. "It doesn't matter. You dumped me on Anarchy and then you married Zycun because you missed your pretty dresses and fancy shoes. You made your choice. And now you stand there crying, as if I'm supposed to, what? Just melt at your feet and forget it all?"     -   "She exiled us and left us all to die! Sending Quinn off to Rokna knows where! That little shit," said Varzo darkly. "And after we busted our asses tryin' to save her from Zyvector. This is how she repays us? By trappin' us here for years?"     Zita hesitated, and Varzo could see her searching silently for some way to defend Quinn's daughter. "Calorra's very confused, Varzo," she said at last.     Varzo shook her head. "No. I think Calorra knows exactly what she's doing. You just don't wanna admit it. Why? It's not like you raised her. I was there when she was born. Guess I don't blame you. She can put on a real 'sweet and innocent' act. Even I couldn't see it for a long time, her hatred and resentment, all that arguing Quinn and Ckyla did in front of her." She glanced around the room. "Bein' exiled to a dead planet will open your eyes to a lotta things."    "It's not like that," said Zita, sounding almost helpless. "Calorra's not pretending. She's convinced she's doing the right thing—"    "Aren't most people with too much power?" said Mercy quietly.    -- "I . . . I don't know," Rose stammered. Much as she was furious at Calorra for sending Quinn to another dimension, Calorra was still her granddaughter. It was difficult to truly hate her. "What does it matter to you?" she snapped at the robot head.     "Though I once kidnapped and physically harmed you, Calima forgave me and accepted me into her ranks," answered the head. "It seems a pity that I would be allowed a chance at redemption while Calorra, who has suffered so much more greatly than I, would simply have her life cast away." 

With Calorra still on the throne, Quinn approaches Coralelle Palace to rescue Zita and Rose, completely unaware that both have already escaped Qorlec. As an army of robots waits for Quinn, her adult daughter from an alternate dimension turns up at Zora's Stone, where she discovers a very pregnant and very ill Thalcu.     --  Quinn closed her eyes, frowning sadly. "I know, sweetheart. Now tell me: where are Zita and Rose? Did you hurt them?"     More soft sobbing, then Calorra shouted bitterly, "They left me here alone because they'd rather be with you!"      Quinn flinched from the half-screamed, half-sobbed words. Calorra's sobs went on, and then she whispered in the tiniest heartbreaking voice, "No one loves me."     --  Mercy caught the cigarette in two fingers and exhaled a stream of smoke. "Zycun hurt Calorra, too, Varzo. He chopped off her mother's head in front of her. Why do you think she's so fuckin' crazy?"     "I . . .I know. But she coulda made it bad for him, you know? She blew up civilians and tortured them with moon fire but gave Zycun a quick, clean death? What bullshit is that?"     "When someone's a shitty person, their punishment is bein' a shitty person."    --  Dr. Ranovi swallowed and went back to searching through the data chip box. "Have you heard of Zora's Stone, your highness?"    Calorra hesitated, thinking. "Yes," she said eventually. "My birth mother was always lecturing me about ancient places, old ruins that no one cares about anymore. She told me there were star gates all over the galaxy, really old ones that no one uses now because they're dangerous, they let things in. Zora's Stone is one."    "Correct," said Dr. Ranovi, whose eyes became distant and angry as she thought of her time in the zonbiri detainment camp. The zonbiri had been looking for Zora's Stone, likely to travel to another world in search of tonlian, the fuel that ran their technology. They had attempted to torture the information out of her. She had told them nothing.    --  "Cara?" Quinn panted.    "This one was sent to capture you, Calima," the robot answered. "This one was sent to capture you alive. If you resist, this one has been ordered to render you unconscious."    Quinn frowned. "Oh shit. You're talking like you did on Anarchy." She glowered. "Is Ranovi's hand up your ass again?"    -- "That's where you and I disagree," Quinn said at once. "I'll always love Calorra and she'll always be my daughter."   "Gee, I wish you were my mommy," said Kadyzia sarcastically. She gave Quinn a withering look. "How many innocent people does she have to kill before you woman up and put a bullet in her eye? Open your eyes, Calima. Your daughter is evil! She's worse than me. And that's saying something."    -- Thalcu shook her head. "Mercy, this is Varzo we're talking about! Once she finds out about this, she is not going to forgive you! You can't save things or work things out. Not with Varzo."     "I know," Mercy said unhappily. "I wish I could go back and undo it all, keep her from gettin' tangled up with me. But . . . it's not like I loved her on purpose."