Alysha Forrest

Ten years after she graduated from the Fleet Academe at Terracentrus, Alysha Forrest was captain of the battlecruiser UAV Stardancer with more honor to her name than any other officer her age. But before that dawn there was a night, and it is in the darkness that souls are made...or broken.

Ensign Taylitha Basil wasn’t sure what to expect when her ship dropped her off at the officer training retreat at Quickwater Preserve. A hike up the mountain? She’s not much of a hiker. A trip down it in a canoe? Even worse, she’s not a great swimmer. An obnoxious peer who put himself in charge? An and Bast preserve her. But all of that seems manageable when she meets Alysha Forrest. Here is the story of how they met and forged their relationship during a training exercise far more dangerous than anyone planned....

Alysha Forrest is looking forward to her assignment as the Songlance's newest lieutenant, particularly when it gets her placed as the liaison to the ship's water environment crewmembers. Interfacing with the mermaid-like Naysha and the alien Platies who serve as the ship's navigators is an exhilarating experience, and all the other officers on the crew are eager to welcome her into the fold...all of them, except one. The disaster at the leadership retreat is nothing to the one they have to handle now. If they can...

When a routine mapping expedition uncovers what looks like ruins on the planet Theth-129, the crew of the Stardancer is thrilled to have something more exciting to do than catalog worlds only a terraformer could love. Their trip to the world’s surface confirms their wildest hopes: their ruins really were made by natives and abandoned long ago, a find of incredible significance. But there’s more to this world than an obelisk, a set of painted caves, and a mysterious shoreline.