Scavenger Falters @Liza0Connor

Liza creates more sayings for her characters.

You feel like your catcher lost wind (you failed)

There’s got to be enough wind for the both of us (there is no reason why either of us should fail)

I’ve got the wind at my back. (this is going to be easy.)

What a blow out! (what a disaster!)

Wind is a big thing in the future. The Americas (what’s left of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada) have stationary circular hurricane level winds that cover most of the country. To protect our country and cities, scientists created methods of flying the high circular winds. Those who risked their lives, learning to fly the winds were called SkyRyders.

Windcatchers are complex parachutes. In its simplistic form, it’s large catcher hangs slightly above but in front of the flyer as it pulls the SkyRyder in the same direction as the wind blows. Thus, most flyers only feel a faint breeze behind them when flying with the wind.

There are also three to five narrow sturdy fabric panels that control lift, descent, and enable cross wind tracking by creating various angles of wind diversion, rather like rudders in water.

These are critical for control. They are also the most likely to blow out. If a panel blows, it almost always results in the death of the Ryder.

A great many men died while learning to fly these windcatchers in the years after the Terror Wars ended. Once the catcher was deemed reliable enough, they stopped altering its shape. Naturally, new expressions began to appear in the SkyRyders language as they expressed themselves with what they knew best: Flying.

Scavenger Falters

By

Liza O’Connor

Alisha Kane, the Corps’ best flyer, is promoted to colonel, in charge of teaching the Corp’s SkyRyders her extraordinary flying maneuvers. The man she loves, Logan, continues to place the Corps first and insists they both remain focused on their work. For Alisha, this means ferreting out the best flyers in a Corps that has systematically forced great flyers into mediocrity. Logan focuses on learning Alisha’s flying techniques so that he can become the hero the East Coast desperately needs. The result includes fractured ribs and broken hearts, but through it all they never relinquish their love of the Corps.

EXCERPT

(Alisha’s reactions when Colonel Logan steals her wind).

“Thanks for helping me escape, Jack, but I really need to be alone now.”

“No, you most certainly do not.” He opened the door and guided her inside.

“Jack, please. You’ve been very kind to me, but I just need to sort some things out.” She went to her bed and lay down facing the wall.

A second later, she felt the edge of the bed dip as Jack sat down beside her. His hand gently stroked her arm.

“I know what you’re feeling.”

“No, you don’t,” she said, struggling not to cry.

“I do too.”

Angry that he wouldn’t leave her alone, she rolled over and glared at him. “Then tell me what I’m feeling!”

“You’re feeling like your catcher just lost its wind and dropped you on the ground. And what makes it worse is the person who stole your wind is someone you really like. So you’re ashamed of your resentment; you know it’s not fair; you only wish good things for your friend, but you don’t understand why their success has to cause you such pain. Surely, there’s got to be enough wind for both of you.”

Having her thoughts so clearly put into words brought the tears she had been so diligently fighting. “You do know what I’m feeling,” she admitted and quickly rolled over toward the wall so he wouldn’t see her cry.

She felt the weight on the bed shift, and suddenly he lay beside her, holding her as she cried away her misery. Having his arms around her reminded her of how the colonel use to hold her and thinking of Colonel Logan’s kindness only made her cry harder.

“I’m a horrible person,” she sobbed.

“No, you’re a wonderful person.”

“No, I’m horrible. Colonel Logan risked everything so I could have my moment of glory, and the first day he gets some well-deserved recognition, I react like the spoiled selfish little debutante I was raised to be.”

SALES LINKS

The SkyRyder’s Series, Book 2

Scavenger Falters

AMAZON

Or go wide with

D2D

About the Author

Liza O’Connor lives in Denville, NJ with her dog Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small Cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky dive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet through her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels.

OTHER BOOKS BY LIZA O’CONNOR

SCIENCE FICTION

The Multiverse Series

Sci-Fi Soap Opera with humor, romance, and science

The Gods of Probabilities

Surviving Outbound

Surviving Terranue

Surviving Sojourn

Artificial Intelligence Series

Sci-Fi/Romance

Public Secrets

Birth of Adam

The SkyRyders Series

Sci-Fi Romance

Scavenger’s Mission

Scavenger Falters

Scavenger Vanishes

More SkyRyder stories for Mature readers.

Arial’s Triumph -Oct 1, 2019

Cassey’s Troubles- Nov 1, 2019

The Enemy Within –Dec 2, 2019

The Titan Series

Sci-Fi Soap Opera

Destination: Titan

Arrival: Titan

Sci-Fi/Dystopia/Romance

Song Bird –Sept 1, 2019

PARANORMAL/SCI FI MASHUP SERIES

Cat Refuge

Leaving Earth– Aug 1, 2019

New World – Jan 2020

Click here For ALL Novels by Liza

Social Networks 

Facebook    Facebook Author Page   Twitter  Multiverse Blog

Other books coming soon:

Scavenger's Mission @Liza0Connor

By

Liza O’Connor

How to get along in the SkyRyders. Be male and don’t fly better than your captain. Have your family send their best sweets in your monthly care package so you can give them to your captain. Accept your position as Dog for the first year of training. 

If you are female, expect to be abused, tormented, and diminished, because as far as the captain is concerned, females are only good for one thing. And if you refuse to play, prepare to die.

So what’s going to happen to Alisha when she flies with skills far beyond her captain’s and knows him to be the one who murdered her friend?

Read the excerpt below

Scavenger’s Mission

Blurb

Meet Alisha: A young woman who refuses to live the life her parents want.

In a single month, Alisha Kane has gone from a wealthy debutante to street girl to scavenger.  While testing her new flying skills in the Cully Canyon, Alisha incurs a near-death crash landing. She’s “rescued” by a colonel of the SkyRyders and her life changes forever.

Meet Logan: A SkyRyder colonel in charge of a sleepy fort with little to do other than arrest the occasional scavenger.

For the first time in his life, Logan’s attracted to a young woman, only she’s probably a scavenger and he’ll have to arrest her.  But first, he offers her a shower and food while he checks on his crew. His videographer has captured her extraordinary flight through the Cully and her flying is astounding!

He forgoes arresting her and puts his career at risk by asking MAC to assess her skills and integrity as a potential SkyRyder. If he can get Alisha into the SkyRyders, it will be his greatest contribution to the Corps.

Meet MAC: The Artifical Intelligence that runs the SkyRyders Corps.

Upon seeing her arrival, MAC upgrades Alisha’s test. Her flying skills are not just excellent; they exceed what was previously thought possible. MAC classifies her as its top asset and soon she proves her value. 

But…the SkyRyders remain a male-dominated Corps where Alisha’s sense of right and wrong often clashes with her superiors. How long can a rebellious young woman survive in a regimented Corps?

Excerpt

After her third stall-out and dunking on the ridge, Alisha attempted to out-climb him, but Washington and Ollie were behind her, diverting a major portion of her wind. All she did was increase the distance of her fall when she stalled. Thank God the suit she wore was three sizes too large, for it helped her to slow the descent and direct her fall into an overhanging tree so the wind-catcher caught in its limbs, preventing her from smashing down onto pointy granite rocks at high speed.

When the tree limbs broke from the force of impact, she still fell and hurt her knee in the tumble, but at least she lived.

She had hoped DC would be satisfied with the results of the day. She’d been thoroughly beaten, humiliated, and humbled. While severe, her injury would not cause him censure. His punishment had been perfectly planned and executed.

To her shock, he commanded her to get up and take another run. Alisha realized something had broken in his twisted mind. It wasn’t his intent to punish her. He planned to kill her.

Thus, Alisha saw no alternative but to fly into the wind farm. Using a standard catcher, death was a probability, but if she didn’t escape DC and his obedient squad, she now realized death was a certainty. If his intent had been anything but murder, he would have stopped after the last crash.

How she managed to turn and steer her clumsy catcher into the farm, she didn’t know. Feigning left, she pulled the catcher hard right, aiming between two rows of invisible blades. The greatest danger was that the wind would blow her catcher into a blade. There would be no recovery. Within seconds of first contact, the blades would reel her in and chop her body into a thousand pieces.

Without question, she’d be safer if she just collapsed her catcher and hit the ground, but if she landed too close to the border of the farm, DC could hunt her down on foot. With her leg busted up, she’d be the slowest rabbit he’d ever bagged.

Alisha held the catcher steady against the west wind until she estimated she was a mile into the farm. She released her harness at the exact same time she collapsed her catcher. She hoped it would fall safely to the ground and not wrap up in a wind generator, but if it did, she sure as hell didn’t want to follow it up.

She hit the ground favoring her strong leg, but it didn’t matter. The pain was so intense that she rolled into a ball, trying desperately not to black out.

“Get up,” she warned herself. “Hide the catcher and get away from here.”

Somehow Alisha forced herself to move farther into the farm. She didn’t worry about leaving prints in the sand. The wind blew so hard any footprints disappeared in seconds.

After walking over half a mile east into the farm, she noticed blood dripping from her knee. She unzipped her suit and pulled off her shirt, wrapping it tightly around the open wound. The pressure hurt like hell, but she had to stop the bleeding. While the sand covered the drops of blood in seconds, the tracking gear DC had could still follow it.

Realizing they had to be close behind, she altered her direction and headed south.

A sense of danger made her turn around. When she did, she saw the laser bead on her shoulder. She weaved through the windmill posts, hoping the metal would confuse the bullet as it attempted to follow the path to its target. When she heard the bullet ricochet on metal, she stopped for a moment and re-assessed the situation.

SALES LINK

The SkyRyder’s Series

Sci-Fi Romance

Scavenger’s Mission

Amazon Links above

Or

Go wide below

Scavenger’s Mission

About the Author

Liza O’Connor lives in Denville, NJ with her dog Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small Cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky dive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet through her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT

LIZA O'CONNOR’S MANY BOOKS

Investigate these sites:

Liza's Blog and Website   Facebook   Twitter

Multiverse Blog

The Gods of Probabilities @Liza0Connor

Xenophobia – the future of racism.

Definition of Xenophobia – An Unreasonable fear or hatred of strangers from other lands/countries/planets.

Original usage: 1905-from the word Xenos, meaning strange added to Phobia, meaning fear. Together they mean fear of strangers.

Current/Future usage: 2300 – Fear of sentient aliens, especially those who do not resemble a humanoid form.

In The Gods of Probabilities, Captain Zousan discovers a great deal of his crew harbor xenophobic attitudes. This comes to light when Pane is given the critical position of Shepherd for the planet Zepwick, which is vitally important for the success of The Path of Light.

Pane is the result of one of the Gods getting frisky with an orangutan species on the planet Hooweet in the Triangulum Galaxy. As the dominant intelligent life on the planet, they drove about in three-wheeled helio cars that could also fly short distances. Their young people loved to go dancing and swinging ‘til the break of dawn, then head off to battle at the break of dawn. They were warring with the other tribes, much like humans do, so Zousan sent one of his crew down to teach them to live in harmony. Taking on the rallying cry of “Make Love, not War” the sub-par God evidently followed his own advice. Nine months later, Pane was born. Normally, God genes dominated over the DNA of the native partner, and they always came out looking like… well, Gods. The men were handsome and strong, the ladies beautiful and svelte.

But not this time.

This suggests that Pane’s DNA proved stronger and better than the DNA of the idiot God that Zousan had sent to the planet. He would like to know exactly who he sent to the planet, only the computer refuses to tell him. 

Despite Pane’s excessive fur, short bow legs, and a grey muzzle jutting from his brown furry face, Zousan thinks him an excellent Shepherd, the best he had in fact. Pane had great empathy for his charges, excellent problem-solving skills, quick to give others credit for their ideas, diligent, focused, hardworking and never resented questions or suggestions. While disturbing in appearance, he handled his charges to perfection.  Zousan only wished he had more like Pane. But Pane was unique, both in his abilities and his hideous features. And his presence had brought to Zousan’s attention that he had a serious xenophobia problem. Even knowing they might destroy The Path of Light by their actions or inactions, other crew members will ignore his requests, even if they were signed off by his supervisor Athena. Zousan is constantly having to intervene because the Xenophobes on his staff send Pane’s Highest Priority requests down to the bottom of a hundred yearlong queue.

Finally, he threatens to send all Xenophobes home through the next black hole they pass. SANS SHIP!

While this quelled the obvious signs of Xenophobia, nothing has altered the hearts of his crew. The Gods who were Xenophobes yesterday are still Xenophobes. They’re just more careful about it.

And the problem isn’t just with the Gods. The large contingency of humans in space, while claiming to follow The Path of Light, in truth walk a darker path, plotting to kill all other sentient lifeforms in the all the multiverses. I’m sorry to say, but some things never change.

The Gods of Probabilities

By

Liza O’Connor

 Blurb

The Gods require a time shifter to ensure the Path of Light reigns during the final collapse of possibilities. To speed the process of finding an Oceanic with the specific talents needed, God DNA is induced in several batches of Oceanic eggs, resulting in a generation of brilliant tiny blue Oceanic children.

One charming boy named Drogan has the ability to manipulate quantum reality in ways that will strengthen the Path of Light. The only trouble is that his gift runs a high probability of killing him and wiping out the Path of Light for good.

While the bureaucratic Gods will try to assist, in Quantum all possibilities not only can, but do happen, so the future is never certain.

Sales Links

Amazon
or
D2D

About Author
Liza O'Conner has exceeded 50 novels. 
Yep, she loves to write stories in many genres: 
Contemporary,
Sci Fi
Paranormal
Western
Historical
and a few youth books too.

Social Networks

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT

LIZA O'CONNOR

Investigate these sites:

Liza’s Multiverse Blog

Liza's Blog and Website   Facebook   Twitter

Surviving Sojourn @Liza0Connor

Pane is the product of one of the Gods crew mating a sentient orangutan during an era when Zousan sent his fellows out to teach sentients not to kill each other. The crew called it the Make Love Not War campaign.

And it resulted in a great many baby Gods.

Normally, the God’s DNA overwhelms the other species resulting in pure God DNA in the offspring.

Except, on occasion, it turns out the sentient creature will have stronger, better DNA in some sections of the DNA strand resulting in a mix-breed rather than a pure God. That is how Pane came to be.

While Zousan was worried when Athena took a liking to Pane—(He did not want furry grandkids), over time, he also grows very fond of Pane. He promotes him to top shepherd and constantly praises him for his fabulous ability to get sentients to cooperate with one another and solve their own problems. This is critical to the PATH of LIGHT's success upon the final collapse.

The contract Zousan signed severely limits the number of times Zousan or any of his crew can intercede to save the various sentients needed to save the Path of Light. So Pane’s incredible gift of persuasion, foresight, and genuine love for his sentients makes all the difference in their battle to ensure the Path of Light triumphs over darkness.

Over time, Zousan comes to love Pane like a son. He could not be prouder of his top Shepherd.

But the sentient computer Marybell senses her Pane beloved needs physical love, so Marybell suggests and Zousan acquires a Tea Cup Puppy that resembles Pane a great deal. When the puppy licks Pane’s nose, he licks the puppy and a love bond is set forever.

Ah, Puppy Love!

Surviving Sojourn

By

Liza O’Connor

 Blurb

An alien species is removing human colonies from planets, but to where, no one knows. Sojourn, along with the Emperor’s daughter and their crew, must find this unknown species and negotiate a treaty before the Empire’s army declares war on all non-human races.

Those who do not follow the Path of Light would prefer to kill all the non-human sentient beings before they are even aware they are under attack.

 Matters turn bleak for the Path of Light when Sojourn’s ship crash-lands on Terranue before their journey even begins.

Excerpt

Zousan smiled as he turned from his monitor. “Marybell, I have a great wish to reward Pane for his extraordinary work getting the alien bias removed from the books so Drogan could return to Captain Longfellow’s service.

“He did more than that,” the sentient computer replied. “By not placing Drogan on the crew list, your father has been under the presumption he died and thus has made no further attempts to kill the poor fellow.”

Zousan had wished he’d known what an ass his father intended to be. Then he would have bothered writing a trillion rules to stop his father from cheating. But no, he mistakenly believed he and his brothers and sisters had been successful with their intervention and his father had realized he needed to stop controlling all of their lives. Given all the troubles his father had plagued him with, he worried what happened to Poseidon’s fishing trip and Hade’s desire for a warm climate. He doubted his father had played fair with them any more than he had with Zousan.

“What does Pane want more than anything?”

“To be woken with kisses,” she replied.

“I thought you loved Pane?” Zousan challenged.

“I do!”

“Then why did you suggest I find him another woman to warm his bed?”

“I suggested no such thing! I said he wanted to be woken with kisses.”

“And how do you propose we achieve the matter? I guarantee you no female on this ship will accept the job.”

“Well, I would, if I could, but I can’t. But I have found a cute little teacup poodle to do the trick.”

“There’s a planet with sentient teacups?” Zousan asked. He was definitely demoting whoever made tea cups sentient.

“Actually one your idiots did try to make sentient teacups, to prank you, but when he poured the hot water into the cups, I made it so hot the cups melted, spilling hot water all over the idiot.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about this before?”

“We weren’t on speaking terms back then. You preferred your interface.”

“That was a huge mistake on my part. One in which I’m most thrilled to have changed.”

“Thank you. I much prefer our current relationship as well.”

“So, back to the original topic. What type of Tea Cups are able to kiss Pane awake?”

“It’s a puppy. A very tiny puppy. So small, he’ll fit in a teacup. Which means Pane can keep him in his pocket so he doesn’t have to worry about the little fellow when he’s working.”

“Then let’s get him a teacup puppy. He’s more than earned those kisses.

Sales Link

Book 4 : Surviving Sojourn

Amazon

Book 3: Surviving Terranue

Amazon

Book 2: Surviving Outbound

Amazon

Book 1: The Gods of Probabilities

Amazon

About the Author

Liza O’Connor lives in Denville, NJ with her dog Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small Cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky dive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet through her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels.

Social Networks

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT

LIZA O'CONNOR

Investigate these sites:

Liza’s Multiverse Blog

Liza's Blog and Website   Facebook   Twitter

All the Many Books Liza has written

Surviving Terranue @Liza0Conner

HEAVY THOUGHTS BY

LIZA O'CONNOR 

One disturbing point of my books is there are quite a few Pre-ordained deaths. Both Tamara and Blue are fully aware that their deaths were pre-ordained. On the positive side, neither actually 'dies'. They simply transform into a different entity rather like a powerful spirit.

I wouldn’t mind a pre-ordained death, especially if I got to help a great cause in doing so. Then, hopefully, I could get everything in order before my death. Maybe even clean the house, but that would be the last on my priorities. If I knew the exact time of my death, I could give all my stuff away and not worry about the future.  But alas, we don’t get an exact time of death. Even if you have cancer, exactly when you will go isn’t known until a short while before. Six months can be three months or nine.

I would love to know, down to the very second, so I could give away all my worldly goods in person. It would please me a great deal doing good deeds ‘til the end.

My spirit-Tamara was told by Pane, as she endured agonizing pains of death, that her demise was pre-ordained and necessary to protect her soul-bond and her husband when they go Outbound. And while she didn’t enjoy her excruciating death by poison, at least she didn’t have to blame herself for being stupid enough to stick her hand into a bag which was supposed to have apples in it only to be bitten by a deadly inland Taipan snake. That it rested in her bag of apples is most odd because it naturally lives in Australia, which was half-way around the world.

The Inland Taipan is normally non-aggressive to humans. It would prefer to get away from people. But stuck in a bag with a giant hand reaching in, it had no choice but to defend itself. And it did, killing Tamara in short order. As she died, Pane told her the good news about her transformation so she could keep Saran and Dmitri safe.

The other pre-ordained death is Blue’s, yet Pane has no idea who told him about his forthcoming death. Pane had no idea of the complexities required to save the Path of Light until a short time before the event when he dreamed a very complex solution to the problem at hand.

Do you think it possible that the dream Pane had in his sleep was like the advice he gives his sentients while they sleep? Did an even bigger God, possibly the First God, dream speak to him?

What do you think?

Surviving Terranue

By

Liza O’Connor

 Blurb

 Leading a colony of frightened people on a new world is rarely easy. The human colonists of Terranue have as their leader, Tamsarandem, the only Soul-bond of Three that has ever existed. Unfortunately, some perceive the innate kindness in the shaman’s choice of leaders as a weakness, thus, challenges begin. From the moment they arrive on the planet, self-survival instincts take hold among the colonists, putting the survival of the colony at risk.

To survive, they must act for the good of the colony rather themselves, even when their natural instincts tell them to do the opposite. First, they must befriend the dominant intelligent life form on the planet, long-haired blue cattle, only slightly smaller than the blue bull Tamsarandem brought with them. Second, they must find a way to survive three of the planet’s five seasons. Otherwise, they’ll be baked, frozen, and pummeled to death. Third, they must protect themselves from the giant bears, saber tooth lions, and T. rexes that roam their planet. But worst of all, deep within the planet, a seed of evil grows, waiting to devour every living creature on the surface.

Every day in their new paradise is a challenge to survive. Despite all the advantages the Gods have provided, success is neither easy nor certain, and people are rarely as good as they need to be.

Excerpt

 Zousan worried over the twenty-six percent probability of The Path of Light succeeding in every single universe. It made no sense! The chances of the same percentage occurring was less likely than every sentient being in existence choosing the correct Zega Lottery’s seven hundred game symbols. No. This had his father’s hand written all over it. Damn Cronus! Why couldn’t he just be proud of his son’s success? Why was he driven to crush and devour his children? Was his ego so fragile?

While Zousan wasn’t crazy about most of his offspring, he certainly didn’t spend a second on conniving ways to destroy them. He just left them behind when his father allowed him his own multiverse. He happily escaped the man’s tyranny, taking his one sweet offspring, Athena, with him. While his other children were a pain in the ass, he absolutely adored his talented, brilliant daughter.

Without her, he would have failed early on, since she was the only one Cronus had ever shared the secret of creating life with. Fortunately, his father adored Athena and had showed her how to make life when she was but a little girl, long before Zousan demanded his own multiverse which he assured his father would be far superior to his.

“Pane have you found the source of trouble?” he asked his top shepherd. 

Sales Link
Go Wide with
Books2Read
https://books2read.com/u/mKEBkV

Book 3: Surviving Terranue

Amazon

Book 2: Surviving Outbound

Amazon

Book 1: The Gods of Probabilities

Amazon

About Author

Liza is a multiple-genre-author of nearly fifty novels. 

Social Networks

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT

LIZA O'CONNOR

Investigate these sites:

Liza’s Multiverse Blog

Liza's Blog and Website   Facebook   Twitter

All the Many Books Liza has written