Melissa Scott is from Little Rock, Arkansas, and studied history at Harvard College and Brandeis University, where she earned her PhD in the Comparative History program. She is the author of more than thirty original science fiction and fantasy novels, most with queer themes and characters, as well as authorized tie-ins for Star Trek: DS9, Star Trek: Voyager, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Star Wars Rebels. She won Lambda Literary Awards for Trouble and Her Friends, Shadow Man, Point of Dreams (written with her late partner, Lisa A. Barnett), and Death by Silver, written with Amy Griswold. She also won Spectrum Awards for Shadow Man, Fairs' Point, Death By Silver, and for the short story "The Rocky Side of the Sky" (Periphery, Lethe Press) as well as the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. She was also shortlisted for the Otherwise (Tiptree) Award and the Midwest Book Awards. Her latest short story, "Sirens," appeared in the collection Retellings of the Inland Seas, and her text-based game for Choice of Games, A Player's Heart, came out in 2020. Her solo novels, The Master of Samar (2023) and Fallen (2023) are both available from Candlemark & Gleam.
Nic en Doroney was promised an education and an academic career in exchange for sharing the nanite burden she carries in her bloodstream. Instead, the Novilis family broke that bargain, and now Nic is captain of a small starship, competing with larger businesses by using illegal Ancestral technology to chart her way through the adjacent possible. But when Rejane Novilis re-enters her life, Nic is unable to resist the chance to work with her again, even if it means challenging the malevolent AI who have already destroyed human society once before.
When Rejane Novilis reappears in her life, freighter captain Nic en Doroney should know better than to give in to her feelings — particularly when that brings her into conflict with the rogue AI that brought down human society once before. Far future space opera and forgotten Ancestral technologies combine in an exciting sapphic adventure. – Catherine Lundoff
" In Melissa Scott's haunted and spectacular neo-mediaeval far future, one entitled young scholar… could prove far, far more dangerous than the hard-bitten tomb-raiders of the previous episode. Fun for space-opera fans of Finders and for new readers both!"
– Gwyneth Jones, author of the Aleutian trilogy, winner of the World Fantasy, Clarke, Dick, and Otherwise (Tiptree) awards"Melissa Scott is an absorbing and inventive writer whom you should read right away."
– Pamela Sargent, author of the Seed trilogy and editor of Women of Wonder"Melissa Scott's Fallen melds contemporary space opera sensibilities and settings with // a touch of the mythopoetic… [It] returns us to the universe of Finders with a queer, immersive and page-turning character-focused timeless story."
– Paul Weimer, SFF book reviewer and Hugo award finalist"Melissa Scott is known for rich worldbuilding, and Fallen does not disappoint, featuring stunning settings… for an exciting adventure. The characters are layered and intriguing… [A] fascinating book perfect for fans of classic space opera."
– Jo Graham, author of the acclaimed Numinous World historical fantasies and Calpurnian Wars space operasSafican was an easy system, the grain of space smooth and clear. It was easy to keep Beljaeger aligned with the jump point, and when the capacitors fired, we leaped into the possible as though we'd stepped over a threshold. I locked the pilot's controls, letting momentum translate to a temporary course. Rejane bent over Haliday's controls, tuning the fields to hold us steady. She seemed to have that under control, and the sensor nets were empty. I took a breath to brace myself, and reached for the device. Heat bloomed under my hand, the vast space of the possible rushing over me like an empty wave. It peaked and receded and left nothing behind.
Beast? I waited, warmth pulsing in my palm. The sensors were empty, Beljaeger boring on into the possible, following the first leg of the first course I had plotted. Beast? The device pulsed, out of rhythm with my heartbeat. Rejane stirred, and then sat still, her eyes on her displays. Beast… The warmth flared, a sudden flash of pain. I held steady, wincing, and felt the AI's amusement.
Beauty. Two Beauties. A banner day.
I'm seeking safe passage to Ankes-and-Irthe. Will you help?
By what route? I visualized the pattern of my first course, and Beast recoiled. Not possible. Too busy, too much noise.
This? I visualized my next option, and felt the AI relax slightly.
That is available.
And your price? I felt something like laughter trembling against my palm. The counter was ticking up, tracking elapsed time: we needed the bargain before we got too much further in, or we would need to run on our own. I'm offering transit mass. Three hundred grams.
More laughter, tickling my skin. Not enough. I want to taste the other Beauty.
No. It was entirely too risky, for Rejane and for the ship. Four hundred grams. It's the best quality.
The other Beauty or nothing. Or I withdraw… Or it might betray us to the other AI. That was always the risk. But the absence of its protection would be bad enough. It felt me hesitate. But it need not come to that. She wants it as much as I do.
I glanced sideways again and saw Rejane staring at the colors swirling within the device. Instantly, she looked back at her displays, but I had seen the hunger. "It wants to taste you. I'm trying to get it to take something else."
"But?"
"No luck so far."
"I'm willing," Rejane said. "I know how to handle this."
Probably she did, better than I had done when I began working with the device. I glanced at the sensors again. Were the edges of the screen starting to show a haze, incoming weather? The counter was ticking on. I focused on the device again. She is willing.
I knew she would be. Who could resist Me? Beast's delight rolled through me. Hurry, hurry, I am curious—
In exchange for protection on the road I showed you, I said.
Yes, yes. Yes, as we have bargained before.
All right. I looked back at Rejane. "It's agreed to protect us. You can touch the device."
"The autopilot's locked," she said, and leaned across me to lay one careful finger on the glittering surface.
Golden lightning leaped from her fingertip, struck to the heart of the glittering tangle in the core of the device. It split, colors exploding, gold and green and blue and even flashes of unfamiliar red, then resolved into a new twist of metallic threads. I could feel Beast's satisfaction, and Rejane's confident control. Her presence rang like a bell.
