Mistworld -e

Matushka Series, Vol.2

by Nina M. Osier

She thought her three sons were dead, killed in battle under her command. But thanks to a planet called Mistworld, retired Fleet Admiral Catherine Romanova has them back—years after she forged an unlikely peace with the mysterious beings who caused their deaths. Now the legendary Matushka and her part-Morthan husband, forced into exile by the brutal Terran occupation of her native Narsai, must unlock Mistworld’s secrets if they’re to have any hope of seeing home again. Or the thirteen-year-old daughter they’ve been tricked into leaving behind, by relatives who believe that Catherine’s heir holds the key to Narsai’s freedom.

1-59431-394-6 Suspence / Science Fiction / Futuristic Romance

Cover art by Maggie Dix

Also available in RTF and HTML formats



Chapter 1

"The Commonwealth won't let any of its member worlds go without a fight, Mum. But I'm telling you what you know already, aren't I?" Ewan Fralick gave Catherine Romanova a smile that the former fleet admiral recognized, although during his mortal lifetime her firstborn hadn't worn the face that formed it. Whenever Ewan expressed his feelings with the physical form he now inhabited, his mannerisms overrode those of the body's actual owner--one Ishi Sanibello, from the Human colony on Mistworld.

Katy Romanova had thought it an eerie business despite the blinding happiness it afforded, having her three boys who'd perished in a single long ago battle restored when the "Misties" brought their oddly assorted fleet to Narsai. She still found it strange, yet poignantly joyful, at moments like this one…Romanova realized that Ewan/Ishi wanted an answer. He wasn't asking the question rhetorically, after all.

"I certainly never expected the Diet to be that sensible!" she said, and sighed. "But lately I've dared to hope they may let us alone, after all."

Afternoon sunlight bathed the garden of Romanova's small home in Narsai's capital city of MinTar, where mother and son sat on the terrace together and enjoyed a rare moment of peace and privacy. Peace had become especially scarce here during the past six weeks, since Dan Archer (who was Ewan's best friend from his Star Service days, and Katy's adopted fourth son as well) and his wife, the fugitive gen and Star Service deserter called Rachel Kane, brought their three newborn babies home from MinTar Medical. With Katy, her second husband, her adolescent daughter, and the Archer/Kane family all crammed into it, the house that had so often stood empty for years at a stretch was filled now to its capacity--and beyond.

"Not likely, Mum." Ewan shook Ishi Sanibello's head. Not for the first time, his mother wondered if the noncorporeal Mistworld natives had deliberately paired the eldest Fralick son's consciousness--still self-aware in this dimension almost fourteen years after his body's death, thanks to their planet's unique environment--with a host of his own gender and approximate age, as of the last time he walked about wearing flesh. "They've got to be hurting, after six months without the colonies shipping foodstuffs to Terran markets. The replacement comm relay should have arrived from New Orient a long time ago, shouldn't it?"

Once again, the youngster was right. Romanova sighed, and nodded. "I never thought I'd see the time when Narsai would spend six months cut off from talking to the rest of the Commonwealth," she said, and then laughed at herself. "Just listen to me, still calling Human-inhabited space 'the Commonwealth'! But blessed if I can think what else to call it, love."

"Neither can I, actually." Her son chuckled. "'Cut off from the rest of the galaxy' would sound pretty pretentious! Although we haven't been completely. Cut off, that is. I talked to a captain just in from Kesra yesterday. Their link's working fine, and Terra's not talking to them, either."

"Or to Mortha, or either of the worlds in the Sestus system." Katy hadn't missed the catch in Ewan/Ishi's voice when he said the name of his birth-world, where Human residents were no longer allowed--making Ewan, Marcus, and Bryce (her sons by her first husband, George Fralick) exiles.

Which didn't matter a bit, of course, now that they belonged to Mistworld. Now that they'd become "Misties" themselves (a whimsical nickname bestowed by Katy's diminutive-loving fellow Narsatians), they might wear borrowed flesh in order to visit other worlds; but afterward they would always return to a home that wasn't Kesra.

Again Ewan nodded. "I wonder what they're up to?" he asked, and this time the question really was rhetorical. It had to be, because not even the former Fleet Admiral Romanova--who'd worked directly for the Defense Minister, and commanded the entire Star Service--could answer it.