Highsong
A science-fiction novelette that’s basically a love letter to Ecco the Dolphin and SeaQuest DSV, with elements of Bug War thrown in.
Sia is a Risen, a genetically engineered, sapient (and psychic) dolphin on board a science-ship sent to check the stability of a terraformed planet, Ptaal, that lost contact with the Ninth Democracy 300 years before. Also on board is her human friend, Harp, the result of an illegal experiment that attempted to make a psychic human. Both of them look forward to their first mission, because none of the alien Viciss show signs of targeting Ptaal.
Sia and Harp are wrong.
Because the Viciss aren’t coming.
They’ve already arrived.
Tropes used in Highsong include:
- After the End - Earth exists somewhere in the Ninth Democracy’s distant past, and previous Democracies were nearly wiped out by the Viciss before the creation of the Risen.
- Blessed with Suck - Harp is a blind polymath with eidetic memory, prone to uncontrollable psychic fits.
- Body Horror - The Viciss, if they feel like it.
- Bug War - The backdrop of the story.
- Cool Old Guy - Locuxu the orca.
- Deadpan Snarker - Isys.
- Ensign Newbie - Sia
- Horde of Alien Locusts
- High Octane Nightmare Fuel - The Viciss’s plan for humanity. It gets worse from there.
- Hive Mind - The Viciss
- Jerkass Facade - Harp has one for everyone but Sia and his adoptive mom.
- Lego Genetics - The Viciss
- Machine Worship - One of the Ptaal Risen cults has this attitude. The other hates it.
- Mind Rape - The Viciss and the Risen can do this to each other.
- More Dakka
- Nice Guy - Zei.
- Power Limiter - Harp’s halo.
- Psychic Static - The title Highsong creates this for the Viciss, in addition to offering other Psychic Powers for the Risen.
- Psychic Nosebleed - Harp gets one.
- Sapient Cetaceans - The Risen, who were genetically engineered as Attack Animal}}s against the Viciss.
- Shout-Out - The science ship Trellia, and the socorder and rebreather harnesses are a nod to SeaQuest DSV
- Sufficiently Advanced Alien - Sia to the Ptaal Risen, much to her dismay.
- Translator Collar - The socorder.
- Xenofiction - Half the story is told from Sia's point of view.