GUEST: Alexis Glynn Latner

Haunted Nebula

by

Alexis Glynn Latner

My story in the science fiction romance anthology Embrace the Romance: Pets in Space 2 is set in a very strange part of interstellar space called the Starcross Nebula. It’s modeled on the Trifid Nebula [https://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/html/im0587.html], with dust lanes that divide it into four parts from a certain astronomical point of view. There’s real space science in how I’ve conceived the Starcross Nebula. Bluish emission nebulosity, pink reflection nebulosity, a massive O-class blue star driving a strong cosmic wind, and a planetary core all figure into Mascot. In a departure from space science, though, some aspects of the Starcross Nebula are paranormal or downright scary!

The heroine of Mascot explains, “When there was a major starjump point here, it gave access to the strangest place in all of known space. That way.” She indicated a thick knot of dark dust and bright blue and pink nebular gas. “In the midst of that lurked a brown dwarf star surrounded by a cluster of terminal points, also called star pits. These were points that could be arrived at by starjump, but not departed from. The dead space around the brown dwarf star was called Star Pitfall. It was a place of shipwreck and stranding, full of the wrecks of a thousand dead civilizations’ worth of ships. It was infested with monsters that feasted on the infallen ships and their unlucky crews.”

It’s like a Bermuda Triangle in space—half as old as time. 

Mascot fits into my science fiction series called Aeon’s Legacy. The Starcross Nebula is the setting for two books so far, Star Crossing and Helldive. In Helldive (coming out in late 2017), which is set two thousand years earlier than Mascot, a mission to rescue castaways in Star Pitfall goes in fully aware that they’re doing something alarmingly like diving into Hell. 

But like Halloween shading in to All Saints’ Day, the scary stuff isn’t all there is. As it turns out, a rather angelic, telepathic intelligence is piecing itself together after its own shipwreck in Star Pitfall. The heroine of Helldive dares to communicate with it, and it gives her a valuable clue about where the starlost castaways are.  By the time of Mascot, Star Pitfall has been mined and the monsters have been genetically unraveled back to their original form as smaller creatures that usefully clean up orbital debris. The rumor of the evil heart of the Starcross Nebula no longer strikes terror into star travelers.    

Does that mean that there are no more dire secrets in the Starcross Nebula?

Not at all. The Starcross Nebula has terrors, wonders, and secret ways still. :-)

www.alexisglynnlatner.com

Mascot – an Aeon’s Legacy novella in Embrace the Romance: Pets in Space 2

Twelve authors spin tales of science fiction romance with adventurous heroines and heroes – and their cute or mischievous or devoted or heroic pets! 

In Mascot, a mysterious alien pet becomes the unlikely defender of a remote mining station, while the station manager and an interstellar auditor try to work out their mutual attraction – and stay out of the casualty count.

GET EMBRACE THE ROMANCE:  PETS IN SPACE 2

HERE!