Character Interview w/ Dezmind Lisle

You specifically asked for Jutaya Fyce to be the contractor on your mission, ‘A Guide into the Deserts’. Why?

The incident at the Rally told me two things: one, this woman cares about people and two, this woman has to be a Contractor. So I looked her up on the database and checked out her job history – she was daring and cocky and not afraid to work in the Expanse near the Deserts. That said a lot. I don’t know. For moment as I stood there when everyone was cowering in fear between us and I got a feeling about her – it turned out to be a good one.

There were many personality clashes between you and Jutaya. How did the two of you manage to work together?

Necessity breeds familiarity. For the most part I’d say that knowing she was literally the only Xannian who could even attempt to take us out into the Deserts and home again made it easier to overlook the high-attitude and bitchiness – if I let myself rationalize it out I had to admit that if our positions were reversed I’d be just as sour and just as stressed. I knew she wasn’t there for the cause… it was something about risking innocent lives that kept her glued to us. In that way we started to understand one another, or so I’d like to think.

When, and why, did you come to trust Jutaya?

Mmm, that’s a hard one. I think some part of me always trusted her – just the simple fact that she was willing to risk her own life in order to keep a bunch of crazy strangers safe said something about her convictions. But I don’t think I let myself see the truth of it all until she sacrificed herself to save us. Regardless of her reasons, the second I saw her doing what was right for the group instead of what was right for her I knew.

The Talian culture lives by strict codes. What can you tell us about them?

Wow, that’s a big one. I guess the best place to start is to understand that when the existence of your race depends on mating Talians with Talians the powers that be want to discourage any kind of extra-racial mingling. If the DNA pool grew too small our survival would be at stake – facing extinction will make you do almost anything and that’s what happened. The fear put the wall of the Compound up, and then with a limited number of people to keep this microcosm of society operational, the free will that the outer commoners were given to be able to choose their livelihoods was a luxury we simply couldn’t afford – think about it; if suddenly all the farmers wanted to be merchants, how would we feed ourselves without taxing the outer commoners beyond our walls or conscripting Talians to do jobs they knew nothing about? 

So, by integrating jobs into custom and culture the Kronik was able to infuse a sense of pride into the average Talian and martial law was avoided. And then, of course, there was the matter of procreation. With a limited gene pool we had to be careful about who was related to whom and falling in love was another luxury left to the outer masses. When certain innate abilities became stronger through the right breeding, those of the Oracles, science was no longer needed and a blending of DNA and compatibility was suddenly possible with the discovery of Soul Mates. Knowing that the perfect person existed out there for you was an intoxicating idea that turned any unruly tidings or rumblings that the forced marriages had been causing. And when the people are happy with their jobs and happy with their mates – life is good and no one cares what goes on beyond the Compound walls.

Interview provided by: Debra Mauldin

Synopsis:

Taya

A loyal and dedicated government contractor extraordinaire, learns of the fate

of the planet while on a top-secret job working as a lab tech for a disreputed scientist.

Dezmind

A Talian government dissenter who claims the only way to save their dying world

is to trust a set of ancient documents lost long ago in the forbidding Deserts.

Zaith

A reporter covering the story of a lifetime following a lead that could mean more

than breaking the biggest story to hit the planet since the Nine Seas Massacre.

Fate, destiny and truth collide with 2000 year old secrets the government will do anything to keep buried. When Taya is forced to accept a contract that will be a death sentence for anyone involved, she unwittingly becomes a catalyst in a game she never wanted to play. As she leads a false prophet and his followers on a mission doomed from the start, she learns far more about herself and her world than she ever thought possible.

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