Character Chat: Amaya Ulonya and Ed Osborn

  Welcome Adventures, to Character chat. In this new article I’ll be talking with characters from newly released and soon to be re-released books. Today’s guests Amaya Ulonya and Ed Osborn from Like Herding the Wind.

Welcome, so tell my adventurers about your world.

Ed: Well, um, it’s … Earth. Las Palomas, Texas, to be precise, and Woran Oldue, and the Buffer Zone, and the ruins of Woran Juvay, not to mention a wee bit of Marquette, Michigan, and Woran Kishay, too.

Amaya (leans closer to Ed): I don’t think their Earth was graced with Eshuvani crash landing in 1612, dear one.

Ed (smiling): Ah, yeah, that sure would change quite a bit, don’t you know? In that case, you should know that, as Amaya said, an Eshuvani generation ship crashed in what’s now Germany in 1612. Earth is short on the resources the Eshuvani needed to repair their technology and take off again, so they were stuck here. Since then, they’ve learned from us, we’ve learned from them, and for the most part, we all get along okay. Mostly.

Amaya: By and large, we kept to ourselves and stayed in our enclaves to let the human civilizations develop freely. From time to time, we tried to help out with crises or tried to prevent disasters. That had mixed results. Now and then, a human and an Eshuvani will adopt one another. The relationship typically takes on a parent-child tone to it.

Ed: I adopted Amaya when I was four. I’d gotten myself lost in the woods around Marquette, and she was the one who found me. I was fascinated with Eshuvani even at that age. She’s been my urushalon ever since.

What are some of the places you’d recommend my adventurers see in your world?

Ed: Las Palomas really isn’t that exciting. Typical, mid-sized, rural Texas town. Not much to see there. Nice museum. Decent aquarium. Lovely beach. That’s about it. Likewise, Marquette is … typical. If you get a chance, though, you should visit one of the Eshuvani enclaves. They have technology that just boggles the brain if you’ve never seen anything like that. You would have to either get an Eshuvani to sponsor your visit or become someone’s urushalon, which is a lifetime commitment, not something to take lightly.

Amaya: There are some open-to-all museums, like the First Contact museum in Michigan. They’re located on the edge of the enclave that sponsors it, which allows humans to access it. If you can’t find a sponsor, that might be an option.

Tell my adventurers about some of the technology in your world.

Ed (scratches his head): Technology, huh? Let’s see. Color televisions are becoming more available. Pretty expensive, though. Um, what else? Oh! Las Palomas police cars got 2-way radios a few years ago. Those are handy. I think some of the bigger cities have had those for a while, though. And they say we’ll have computers in our homes in the next decade. If the Eshuvani didn’t already have them, I’d’ve said they were pulling my leg. (Ed shrugs) Eshuvani technology is much more interesting.

Amaya: There are many fascinating technologies that survived the transfer to Earth resources. One of the most useful for me is an avicopter. They are somewhat like a human aircraft, but the wings actually flap like an Earth bird. (Amaya points to the gold filigree on her collar) The communication system used by Eshuvani emergency services helps us coordinate, communicate, and even send a request for immediate assistance. Because of these colored crystals in the collar tabs, I can also tell at a glance what skillset the other emergency personnel have. We also have voice- and heat-recognition systems that do things like turn on the lights or open doors.

How would you describe your fellow characters?

Ed (snickers): Characters. That’s a good description for some of them.

Amaya (smiles): We do have an interesting assortment, do we not? When I took over the Buffer Zone kiandarai station, the enclave’s kiand, my superior, had already assigned all my staff. Somewhat irregular, but not unheard of.

Ed: Irregular? That old piranha gave you kids.

Amaya: He did at that. Four of my staff are kialai, which means they’re still in the latter part of their training. That makes for some interesting times.

Ed: Two of them look like – and one acts like – they’re not even out of school.

Amaya (pats Ed’s hand): Ishe will learn, and Vadin is somewhat more mature than his years, fortunately. The other two, well, Jevon at least follows his laments with useful action, and Nurinyan is starting to recognize when he has been impulsive.

Ed: After the fact, which is still an improvement. At least you have Orinyay. A bit too soft-spoken for police work, if you ask me, but she’s competent. Did you ever figure out why Emyrin assigned her to your crew? Everyone else seems to be there because he’s got it in for them.

Amaya: She corrected his bad math on a report.

Ed (winces): Oops.

Amaya: Fortunately, all your staff is experienced. Mark and Robert, in particular, do quite well.

Ed: They’re good men. All of them are. As soon as they’re all trained on how to deal with the Eshuvani criminals who are making our lives more exciting, we’ll be all set.

Amaya: We’ll work it out.

Thank you for coming to talk with us, and can’t wait to read all about you.

Ed: Thanks for having us.

Amaya: Yes, thank you for the opportunity to serve. Like Herding the Wind will be re-released soon.