A Bit About Ursa

 Ursa is my heroine in the upcoming book, Her Rogue Cyborg. I thought I'd introduce her.

My release was delayed because I blew out my knee the weekend  before last. I don't need surgery, but do need to rest it. I was at the final picky edit stage and just didn't feel mentally sharp!

 

 

Excerpt:

 Ursa opened up her tablet while she waited for a ficvid to start. Her stomach roiled and she swallowed hard. Acting up again. Soon she might have to retreat to her pod, with the small toilet. She nibbled on a salty snack, since eating seemed to help.

Taking a deep breath, she pulled out her tablet and opened the book, Pregnancy in the Modern Age.

 
“Congratulations! You have chosen to experience one of the most profound biological activities in all of human experience. In this age of artificial wombs, you have made an honorable, almost noble, decision to carry a baby to term.” 

Ursa decided to carry the embryos of her fallen friends herself instead of using a birthing womb. That way she could afford the deluxe colonist land package in an optimum location. Her neos would be raised in a small agricolony with fresh air, outdoor activities, and home-grown food. 

It was expensive, taking all of her considerable combat bonuses as a Striker in the Alliance Guard, but she liked the idea of living somewhere with fresh air and sunshine. Living in a dome on New Prague wasn’t appealing. She didn’t want to work in manufacturing. Or try to survive on the New Prague rainforest continent, though she had considered it. It would have worked if it was just her, but she would have two infants to raise.

 
Somehow, she had assumed she would breeze through pregnancy. Her body was fit, strong and graceful, always capable of doing what she wanted or needed to do as a soldier. She had not expected the debilitating nausea and vomiting. The profound exhaustion. Having rarely had as much as a sniffle, she felt betrayed by her body.  Her mother had been Puregen, and Ursa had always been viewed as another New Prague Puregen. She had always thought she’d received her mother’s perfected genetics.
 

Maybe not.