Title: Found Among the Stars
Author: Vicky Burkholder
Genre: Science Fiction Romance
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Book Blurb:
Even in outer space there are dictators. Eiko, a crystal hunter for the Massaki people escapes marriage to a man she reviles. Forced to flee, she mourns the loss of her fiance' Hopper who disappeared thirteen years ago.
Hopper's life is torn apart when he is kidnapped. His mind and body abused--leaving him with no memory of the past. Now, as captain of the ship Amaya, he finds information about the woman who haunts his dreams.
Trapped and injured, Eiko is startled to find Hopper is not dead. His attempt to save her is derailed when some of the same forces who put his kidnapping into place abduct Eiko. Can Hopper, with Amaya, his living ship, their friends and the Blessed Three bring down a dictatorship or die taking a stand for honor and right?
Excerpt:
All he could remember was that there was a woman involved. Someone who was important to him. But he didn’t know anyone called Eiko.
“Another dream?” Amaya’s disembodied voice sounded soft in his head as well as the room. How he wished she were a real person and not a sentient ship he was mentally connected to.
Hopper sat on the edge of his bed, his head in his hands, not the look a ship’s captain should have, but no one could see him here. “Yes.”
He wanted someone to put their arms around him and hold him. Be there physically for him. He shook his head and closed his eyes briefly. Might as well wish for this Eiko, the woman who haunted his dreams, to be real. He’d dreamed of her occasionally back on Pointe Noir, but not like this. Now, her image came to him nearly every night. So why now? And who was she?
Though he had searched for and found beings with that name, none of them matched the Eiko of his dreams. He still had people—and Amaya—searching the name out, but no one had found the one he thought was the Eiko of his nightly thoughts yet.
“Your dreams of this woman are coming more frequently,” Amaya pointed out. The catering unit pinged, so Hopper went to his living area and got the cup of tea Amaya had ordered for him.
“I know they are. And thank you for the tea.”
“You are welcome. Do you wish to talk about your dream?”
Hopper knew Amaya would listen, would soothe him with her words. He sipped his drink and thought about the dream. “There’s not much to say. Are these memories? Or do they come from my imagination? Some of them are full of warmth and happiness, but others…Where do those images come from? My horrible imagination? And if only a dream, why am I experiencing them so often now? Who is this Eiko I keep imagining? She must be important.”
“We have not found anyone in our searches who matches your image. And the abuse you described, could that also come from a memory?”
He rose to pace the room, running his hands over his head. “I don’t know! Maybe that’s why I left wherever I came from. That horrible man grabbing me and pulling me away from her. And then there are the good dreams. The ones without the man. Where it’s just this Eiko and me.”
Hopper had no memory of his time before he arrived at Pointe Noir space station, barely alive and in a tiny ship not even suitable for salvage. He’d been severely injured both physically and mentally, and while the doctors had done what they could for him, the scars— both external and internal—remained. They’d given him the name Hopper because all he would say was “I am Hopper” repeatedly. His DNA hadn’t shown up in any databases, so nobody knew who he was or where he was from. He twisted the bracelet on his left wrist. He had no idea why it was special, but the doctors said he’d refused to remove it and fought hard when they tried. For some reason, the material and white crystals comforted him when he was especially agitated. Like now.
Because of his scars, he’d become someone few wanted to associate with. He was like a skittish rat living in the bowels of the station. He kept himself and his clothes—an old, patched coat with more pockets than any coat should have, a ragged shirt, and trousers held up by a piece of rope—clean, but his grooming didn’t matter to the elite. Only his friends Cass, Omar, and Katie cared enough to invite him in or to help him. Oh, sure, when someone wanted a task done, especially when the job called for engineering, they called on Hopper, but only his friends invited him to their homes. His abilities with mechanical and electrical systems were another anomaly. He could fix almost any machine given to him. And find whatever someone needed found. Except Eiko. Then he’d met the ship Amaya and his entire life had changed.
“I believe your dreams are memories, but perhaps not all you want to remember,” Amaya said. “This is probably why you do not experience them when you are awake. Your subconscious is trying to show you what you endured, but in such a way as to not upset you.”
Hopper spewed his drink across the table. “Not upset me? How is giving me nightly terrors not upsetting me? And why have they increased since we left Pointe Noir? Did the repairs your nanobots did on me do this?” He grabbed a towel and cleaned up his mess.
“No. The changes I programmed did not affect your subconscious, only your physical damage. As for why now, I cannot answer. Would you like me to do a search on night terrors and the subconscious and how to alleviate the problem?”
Hopper shook his head. Even though Amaya was sentient and much more than a normal ship’s artificial intelligence, sometimes she took his words too literally. “No, thank you.”
He moved through his cabin and looked out the porthole at space beyond. So many worlds. So many people. Was there anyone out there for him? He had friends—like Omar, Katie, Cass, and her husband Zack. And he cared for them deeply. But they were friends. Not someone who was the other half of his heart. Yes, they were closer than some families were, he knew that with all his being. But he saw the kinds of relationships his friends had with their mates—the sort of one he wanted. And Cass had started this entire trip—in fact had spent the last twelve years of her life searching—because of family. He had…what? A sentient ship. Which was great, but she wasn’t family. Did he even have a blood-related family out there somewhere?
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Author Biography:
Vicky lives in a small town in southeastern Pennsylvania. She has been married forever to the one man who accepts that she sometimes lives in a fantasy world or among the stars. At various times in her life, she has been a teacher, a secretary, a short-order cook, a DJ, a newspaper journalist, and a librarian. When not busy reading, editing or critiquing, she can be found puttering around the kitchen, baking gluten free goodies or working on crafts.
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Website: https://www.vicky-burkholder.com
BlueSky: Vicky Burkholder