Let me try to finish what I wasn’t well enough to complete last week.

Samantha Kershaw

Samantha Kershaw was in the first book also, but she arrived later. (I’m just going to get this out of the way before it comes up: If you haven’t read the first book, there are spoilers in here. Not a lot, but there are some). She also presented an inside look of the Pact Council, exposing their thinking regarding her and her father. But, that’s not her only purpose.

One thing we need to remember:

Samantha folded her arms. “ You tried to kill me and my team on Camelot.” She pointed defiantly at the older gentleman. “But, as you can see, you can’t silence me that easily.”

The older gentleman raised an accusing finger. “You! You’re Admiral Samantha Kershaw! The traitor!” 

Samantha Kershaw and the older gentleman

By this point in the book, Samantha is not a decorated officer in the Pact. Though not officially, ‘dishonorably discharged’ might be more fitting. So this changes her relationship with Richard. Instead of being a peer from the Pact, she’s now a civilian on a military vessel.

So, what does a Terran civilian, like herself, do on such a ship? Um, I guess this is one thing you could do:

My new XO Samantha – I now realize I failed to name one …

Richard Tyberius

This did happen in the previous book, but it seems Richard does not fully understand what she can bring to the table since she finds time to do this:

Richard catches a whiff of her breath. “Have you recently consumed an adult beverage?” he asks, backing away from her face.

“Why, why do you ask?” Samantha steps back, covering her mouth. “I didn’t drink that much more than usual, and they don’t usually affect me that much.”

Richard moves from his desk and steps over to a cubby hole in his office wall. “Motodal Cocktail.” A small cup filled with a foaming concoction of a murky reddish color appears. Samantha cringes as she waves away the drink.

“Not the worm juice again,” she mutters, backing into a nearby couch.

Richard sits down beside her, putting the cup under her nose. “You know you love this stuff.”

Samantha smirks, taking the cup. She closes her eyes as she gulps down the drink. She then lets out a shiver. “Whoa! That really burns the back of your eyes!”

Richard and Samantha

I can’t speak for anyone (other than myself) as to why a person might choose to do their work while inebriated. Or try to. I have wondered at times if some are, but I can’t speak with any certainty of this. It is interesting that I wrote that this character thinks she can and it not be an issue (in case you’re new to this blog, you might look at this one to better understand when this was written in my life). So, her issues are coming to the fore.

There is a simple reason why these things are likely coming up in the second book, instead of the first (or, they didn’t come up much).

Time.

By the time this conversation is had by Richard and Samantha, over a month has passed, and she’s been working with Richard for a couple weeks. So, if there are any bad habits that anyone has, they’re probably going to start to manifest with a little time.

Next week, we’ll discuss two characters largely absent from the first book, and what they will bring to the story.

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