Natsuya Uesugi has a new queer sci fi book out:
Faid Callen is tired of life on the run in the Echelons trying to keep his psychic power in check. He founds the Packrats, a group of cyberterrorist hackers. A young powerful Psi Faction operative, Lino Dejarre, is sent on a mission to capture Faid. Wanting to keep Lino under control, the Psi Faction kidnaps his half-brother, Riuho, and they take him prisoner, experiment on him, train him, and subject him to mind control.
When Lino is assigned to a high stakes diplomatic mission to reveal a traitor, he finds another psychic operative in play, causing him to question the Psi Faction’s motives. Can Lino rescue his brother before more blood is shed or will Faid step in and destroy the Psi Faction’s plans?
About the Series:
Lino just wanted peace. All he got was war.
In After Colony 2055, the Atlantea Federation, a draconian power had taken over 75% of the world’s territories and launched a nuclear attack, the Dionysis Effect against the insurgent Pacific Territories. In a single brave act, the Pacific Territories retaliated in a battle known as the Blood Red Incident. The untested weapon’s radioactive fallout created Codess which manifested as psychic powers.
After the initial destruction, people struggled to survive and some developed psychic powers as others fell to the pervasive radiation sickness. Civil war ripped at the heart of society with cyberterrorist hacker groups rising up to fight the government. The son of the Viceroy, Lino Dejarre had psychic power. He joined the Psi Faction as a clandestine psychic operative tasked to capture Faid Callen the leader of the Packrat hackers.
Separated at age nine and banished from the royal family, Riuho Dejarre’s hatred for his brother Lino grew as he tried to scrape out a life in the slum level Echelons. Stripped of his citizenship, Riuho vowed to get revenge and thwart Lino’s every move as the young operative tried to govern and keep his people safe. With Faid and Riuho using the Packrat cyberterrorist hackers to attack the government even as the Atlantea Federation increased the threat trying to destroy the remains of the Pacific Territories and their allies, the war took a dire turn.
The Atlantea Federation attacked brutally on the ground and threatened the Pacific Territories’ space colonies. Lino and his Psi Faction team were roped into global diplomacy, inter-colony politics, covert missions, battleship scurmishes, jet fighter sorties, and space battles facing the Atlantea Federation head on. When Riuho once more entered the fray, his high stakes game of manipulation and lies threatened to destroy everything for which Lino had worked.
With threats to the fragile Pacific Territories coalition and the fate of the world at stake, can Lino, the Viceroy of the City, the Echelons and the Zone lead the Pacific Territories to a victory? Intrigue, fast-paced action, clandestine psychic operatives, hackers, the oppressive Zone Police, and shadowy government conspiracies, the situation couldn’t be riskier. Will Lino ever see peace and an end to war? Find out in the dystopian grydscaen series. Whose side are you on?
Giveaway
Natsuya is giving away an eBook copy of his grydscaen: rogue book with this tour – enter via Rafflecopter:
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A “Special” for Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words
FicLet – “Darklight Time” – grydscaen: beginnings by Natsuya Uesugi
The neon night screamed into the darkness. Signs hocking sex, technology, software glared at Naito as he walked. His dark hair shined in the lights, the glare making the tech fabric of his blue jacket sparkle. The buildings slammed up against each other as he weaved through the crowded streets in the Echelons, the Red Light District. The seedy shops and sex establishments lined the walkway as he passed young male hosts and female prostitutes going about their livelihood, the signs blaring their wares out to the populace.
As he walked the night he felt eyes on him. He passed a line of prostitutes casing the sidewalk. Their pimps at the corner overseeing their work. A woman walked up to him and engaged putting her hand on his shoulder in her red latex mini dress and high heeled stilettos. She tracked to him matching his gait as he walked down the sidewalk.
“Fancy a date? Hey honey, you look like you need a little love tonight. Felicia can give you some love right good…” she said, her voice sultry. Her hair was bushy, a bad perm and it was dark down to her shoulders, her skin tan, eyes bright. Her leopard print heels garishly screamed on her feet, fishnet stockings gracing her legs. Her voice was low, a little too low for a woman. Naito realized he was dealing with a Lady Boy the minute she opened her mouth. He didn’t take the bait.
“Not tonight, gorgeous,” said Naito and kept walking.
She kept pace with him, continuing her pitch.
“What, no love for Felicia? You know I can give you love more than Omnibus. I’ll treat you right. Not her…” she said grabbing Naito’s arm and pulling him to a stop. Naito decided to entertain her for a moment.
“What do you know about Omnibus?” he asked. Naito was a Waste, a drug addicted psychic that played ware games and worshipped gaming culture. A host knowing about Omnibus Darklight was rare.
Felicia brought her hand up to a silver bangle at her right wrist. She pushed the large button on the bangle and suddenly she was surrounded by a hologram. The hologram for Omnibus was standing in her place, the avatar for the Darklight virtual reality online game. The white and blue dress, the long white hair, six arms folded in different poses and the hover board under her feet. Her top two hands with a large holo globe leveled about her head.
Naito took a step back shocked.
“Omnibus?” he questioned.
The prostitute pushed the button on her bracelet and the hologram of for Omnibus disappeared.
“Felicia knows what you want honey. Warehouse 2. Don’t be late now…” She kissed him on the cheek.
“Did the data messenger send you?” asked Naito.
“No honey, check your profile baby.”
Naito quickly went into his pocket and pulled out his handheld and checked his avatar profile. There was a message on the screen. He had done a search for Omnibus on the gridscan. The AI program logged the inquiry sending his unencrypted search to the Zone Police government database. Darklight was an illegal online game. Tournaments that popped up randomly at locations in the Echelons were trolled by the Zone Police and shut down. The game was dangerous. Players who lost were rumored to have died while playing. He hadn’t been masked when he did the search. That had been careless. He knew better.
“I can sort that for you, honey. Give it here…” said Felicia and moved in.
Naito hesitated not wanting to give his handheld to a prostitute to steal it or get into his business. She leaned in and whispered in his ear.
“There is a data sale at the warehouse. That what you after, honey?”
“How did you know that?”
“Same as I know who you are Naito, baby. Just let Felicia fix you up right. You have a stop before you get to where you need to be…”
Naito was on a mission for the Wastes. He did have to get data at the warehouse. This prostitute must have been put on his path to give him intel. He handed her the handheld as they stood on the sidewalk. Naito watched her closely as she engaged the device. She took two minutes with it then handed it back.
“All set, gorgeous. New map for you. Now get on your way,” Felicia smiled and patted him on the backside.
“Thanks,” said Naito.
“Any time, gorgeous. Stay out of trouble…”
Naito continued down the street and took a left into the warehouse district. His meet up would get him the data he needed for the Packrat hackers to continue their push to take down the Elite government.
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Excerpt
“Why is there a child here?” asked Jai.
“He will be staying here now. He has psi potential. We are giving him to Dr. Ren as a test subject,” said Gailen as they walked down the hall to the Controlling Chambers in the Psi Faction building.
“Where did he come from?” asked Jai.
“His mother sold him to the Psi Faction for a cit card,” informed Gailen.
“People actually do that?” choked out Jai.
“His mother was a prostitute. She sold him and was paid a hefty sum and given a cit card. The child has very high psi potential. We would have requested him if she had not offered.”
There was a maintenance crew in the hall. They were fixing up a room in the back of the Controlling Chambers to make a day care center, a playroom. It was to ensure there was some age appropriate place for the child to be kept during the day. Dr. Ren was in the Controlling Chamber area when they got there.
“How is it going?” asked Gailen coming up to him.
“Oh Gailen. Come in. Come see. It is going rather well. I think this room will be adequate,” said Dr. Ren.
There was an electrician at the wall installing an electrical panel and he handed Dr. Ren a remote control. The electrician finished up and placed the face plate of the panel at the wall and told Dr. Ren the panel was all set.
“The room has a damper, a psi shield and other features that will help to control the child. He has been here for almost six weeks now. We have just started the first level of his psi conditioning. He has been very receptive so far. Would you like to see him?” said Dr. Ren.
Dr. Ren walked with Jai and Gailen to the living quarters. They went to the main observation room with four rooms along the wall with glass windows. Each room had a bed and a dresser and a chair. There was a child in one of the rooms sitting in a chair. Gailen, Dr. Ren and Jai came into the main room with the lights out. The child could not see them through the one way glass.
The child had dull ash brown hair that kind of looked like it was blue since the colour was washed out. The child was rocking back and forth in the chair with his hands on his head.
“What is he doing?” asked Jai.
“We gave him an initial dose of nanomachines to see how they would take. He is reacting to that,” said Dr. Ren.
“Is it a girl or a boy?” asked Gailen.
“It’s a girl. But when I ask her she says she is a boy,” said Dr. Ren.
“She is transgender then?” asked Gailen.
“Yes, that is what it looks like. I did a whole psychological work up on her. We should start calling her he and just get used to that. She also refuses to wear dresses. One of the nurses in the infirmary tried,” said Dr. Ren.
“What is her name? I mean his name,” said Jai.
“Julian Iskafiin,” said Dr. Ren. “But he said he wants to be called Blue.”
“He is only five. How does he know what he wants to be called?” asked Gailen.
“Julian said his mother called him Blue.”
Jai looked over at Blue in the chair. The child stood up and went to the wall and started banging his head on the wall. Dr. Ren lifted up his arm and tapped out some buttons on a metal arm band he had on. A nurse came into the room and started comforting Blue.
Author Bio
Natsuya Uesugi is a systems analyst and white hat hacker who has worked in the design of aerospace, semiconductor and financial systems. With an MBA in International Management and a minor in Japanese, Natsuya uses his Japanese, Black and Native American heritage to paint his stories, keeping an eye on diversity.
By night, Natsuya is an author and manga artist weaving stories in his cyberpunk grydscaen world, his dark fantasy universe The Seer of Grace and Fire, and his contemporary yaoi graphic noiz which takes place in New York City. He studied animation and game design at the Art Institute of Phoenix where he learned sequential art and traditional animation that fueled his childhood dream of creating manga and anime.
To date he has created four manga and two episodes of the short anime grydscaen: A Storm’s Coming based on the teenage hacker Rom. He enjoys skydiving, cosplay, manga, World Cup futbol, watching French news, eating ramen and anything with matcha, watching anime in Japanese, and writing poetry.
Author Website: http://www.grydscaen.com
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Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 