An Excerpt from an Upcoming Project

The following is an excerpt from a new project I'm working on, The Word of the Lord. A sci-fi novel set in roughly the same world as Temples to Alien Gods but featuring a new cast of characters. The plot (in the very loosest sense) will feature a group of intergalactic fugitives who strikes an uneasy alliance with a gang of intergalactic mercenaries in their search for a new home.

 

This excerpt features Jennifer 'Jenny' Champions. The leader of the mercenaries, at this point in the novel (from what I've written so far) the mercenaries have finished laying siege to a small town and this is the first moment Jennifer gets to herself all day.

From her tent Jenny could hear whatever Alice Cooper song the mercenaries were playing as they celebrated a day’s hard work. Someone had found a grill in the rubble of one of the buildings and it had snowballed into a barbeque.

Despite how much she appreciated Alice Cooper, objectively speaking, Jenny didn’t feel like participating. She wasn’t one for parties as a general rule, much less if Norton and his men were there. Jenny didn’t mind other mercenaries but Norton and his men were of a particularly unsavory category. The kind who burnt crop fields for fun, or kidnapped exotic local animals for sport, or who liked to knock asteroids into the gravitational pull of passing planets to watch what would happen.

Norton was that kid that liked to pull the wings off flies and watch the flies run around. And just like those sorts of kids he attracted others like himself.

Jenny idly wondered if this was true of all merc commanders, whether they attracted followers like themselves. She knew it was certainly true of herself, she couldn’t think of anyone among her own followers who would stoop to base cruelty. They all had their vices sure but they were more misfits, they didn’t fit in civilized society for one reason or another. But they had…certain skills.

And Jenny was the biggest misfit of the bunch.

With her tent flaps sealed Jenny took this time to examine her naked body in the mirror. She had worried that that last batch of estrogen, after all the dealer had not exactly been on the up and up, but it was a month now and she wasn’t seeing any adverse effects. She skin was continuing to soften, her breasts to fill out. She felt less like a Frankensteinian abomination or a drag performer and more like a woman. The estrogen was even helping to smooth over the marks from the numerous surgeries, her tattoos had only gone so far to hide the stitches were certain organs were removed or were certain bones had been filed down or reconstructed. She felt like a rough sketch that the artist was finally adjusting the rough edges and adding color.

It was at the point she looked in the mirror and didn’t see any trace of that awkward farm boy from Mars.

Feeling cold Jenny pulled on pajamas. She winced a bit as she pulled her pants on, certain scars hadn’t quite healed and were a little bit tender. Jenny’s thoughts drifted to the transgender women from the richer planets. How they could afford those complicated DNA alteration treatments, or to have brand new bodies cloned or made entirely out of plastic and silicone. They probably never winced as they got ready for bed. And here Jenny had broke the bank just getting skin grafts so her skin was the same consistent ebony color. Instead of patchy where all the surgery marks were.

Maybe the rich could afford the finest specialists money could buy, but everyone had to make do with black market cybernetic surgeons on backwater colony worlds. The ones whose schedules included sex workers looking to repair damaged bodies, or bounty hunters looking to installment secret weapons under their very skins.

Jenny sighed and ran a hand through her hair. She was enjoying having it grow out like this, but before their next mission she definitely wanted to braid it. She enjoyed having hair down her back.

“Jenny?”

Jenny picked up her radio.

“Yes, Gordon?”

“We got trouble.”

“What sort of trouble?”

“Norton’s men found one of the local kids. Some of our boys tried to protect her, a fight broke out.”

Jenny cursed.

“Blast it! I’m heading over.”

Jenny rushed to grab her shotgun and pull clothes on, there was no way she would be going to break up a fight in pajamas.

I'm also including a link to the playlist I created on Spotify for this character. When I'm fleshing out a character one of the ways I figure out who they are is what kind of music they listen to. For Jenny I saw the character as a lot more of a rock 'n roller then some of my previous characters. Listening to a lot of 'punk funk' and black rock 'n roll.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/38GxRDCiCMXwMSrW8vAVke?si=jbpIjMVeQaazsrhfzGFbpw