Alan K. Dell

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Meet the Characters #6: The Re-Emergence

MLR-SMS Unit-17 “Seventeen”
Image by Glenn R. Frank

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming…

With only a week to go until the release of my debut science-fiction novella, The Re-Emergence, I thought the time was right for a Meet the Characters post all about the characters in the book. So naturally that means I’ll be moving the entry about Angela Marie-Stewart to next month.

The Re-Emergence centres around a vibrant cast of non-human characters - both synthetic and organic - and all of them were a lot of fun to write. It’s hard to choose who my favourite is, to be honest!

So here are the four major characters in the novella:

Maldaccian Long-Range Spacetime Monitoring System, Unit-17 - “Seventeen”
Seventeen is the first character we meet in The Re-Emergence, showing up in the Prologue (which you can read right here). He is a satellite - just one in a network of many thousands surrounding Imperial space acting as an early-warning system for signs of enemy activity. Over the eons, however, Seventeen and his siblings evolved and gained sapience, and it wasn’t long before he grew bored with his lonely existence. After detecting signs of an enemy vessel, his consciousness was downloaded into the Qesh’kal, a Maldaccian Imperial Cruiser under the command of Imperator Da’kora Corasar. Aboard, he is overjoyed to have something else to do besides watching the stars, and to be of assistance to his Makers.

Imperator Da’kora Corasar
Da’kora Corasar is the commanding officer of the Qesh’kal. An elder of his species, his long years in command are starting to wear him down and just like everyone else aboard, he is apprehensive about their mission and its unusual circumstances. He can be cantankerous and stubborn, but he has a good heart, and is always looking out for the well-being of his crew.

Knight Ra’azni Leyr
Ra’azni is the senior communications officer on the bridge of the Qesh’kal. Like many of the crew, she opted to stay aboard the ship for this strange mission because she craved the adventure though she is prone to anxiety, but she’d take anything to get out of the drudgery of patrolling colony space. Compared to the Imperator, she’s barely more than a hatchling but she’s outgoing, friendly, and takes to Seventeen immediately.

Squire Ashfan Ti’znal
Ashfan is one of the junior communications officers on the bridge of the Qesh’kal and one of the newest members of the crew. Suspicious and jittery, his apprehension about the ship’s mission is clear. He also doesn’t like how everyone else just seems to have accepted Seventeen’s story, or his seemingly unfettered access to critical ship systems. He’s mistrustful of Seventeen and resolves to find out what the ‘glorified calculator’ is really up to.

I hope you enjoyed that little peek into the characters of The Re-Emergence, which will be available for purchase on Amazon from Tuesday 1st June.