Steve's Friend Fiction

The story begins on the Planet Cerulean! Our heroes, Captain F and Betty Blue have decided to continue the missing Professor Jacob Blue's experiments into space travel after meeting an alien named Cat. Cat comes to them with an unusual story: The alien feline claims to have met Betty's father on Planet Kar while working as a mercenary. He claims that the good professor is being kept as a slave of Sni'Kar the Repellent, the evil ruler of Planet Kar and infamous space wizard! The purpose behind his captivity? To build weapons and spaceships for Sni'Kar's alien armada!

F and Blue gather friends from their local community to crew their ship and to help in the rescue attempt.

Gavel Kranger: Mechanic and veteran of the 30 Years War.
Medla Falin: Forest ranger and survival expert.
Brick Krenshaw: Professional boxer and amateur comedian.
Yelli Falin: Medla's teenage daughter and polyglot.

Once the team is recruited, F, Blue, and Cat come up with a plan to infiltrate Prof. Blue's old lab on the local Airship Base. The plan is successful, but Brick is shot in the arm with a handcannon while saving Yelli from an armed patrol of soldiers. Fortunately he is able to continue the mission thanks to some advanced medicine from Cat.

The book ends with the crew blasting off into space!

Our story begins with the heroes sharing a fun dinner in The Vulcan's galley, making what plans they can for their upcoming rescue mission. However, things immediately go off the rails when the ship is shot down just as it enter's orbit. The crew works together to allow F and Cat to land the ship in most of one piece but The Vulcan will need to be repaired before she can fly again.

The team finds themselves in an alien jungle full of alien plants and animals. While no expert on this landscape, Medla is nonetheless able to guide everyone to a nearby river, which is found to be safe to drink. From there, Gavel climbs a tree to help get their barrings and discovers what looks to be smoke coming from the east. They travel for hours, finally reaching what turns out to be a village just as the sun is going down. They decide to try asking for help, but things take a bad turn when the local chief calls for the defense bots to attack F and the others. Despite a valiant effort, only Cat and Yelli are able to get away. The book ends with F and the others transported to the capital via krakin-back and thrown into the Dungeons of Corinth! Meanwhile, in the epilogue, Cat and Yelli make their way in secret to the capital, the alien cat teaching the local language to the young girl along the way.

F, Blue, Gavel, Medla, and Brick wake-up in cells, the girls on one side and the guys on the other. After making sure everyone is alright F is able to confirm for Medla that Yelli is with Cat and that they both got away. She is relieved to learn this but now wonders where they are. At that moment a troop of human and robot guards come to take them to Emperor Sni'Kar. For the first time they are face to face with their enemy.

Attending this audience is Sni'Kar's generals as well as his beautiful daughter Zel'Kar and his other counselors. Sni'Kar's massive throne room contains souvenirs from the many planets he's conquered but chained to a laboratory bench is none other than Professor Blue himself! He's under heavy guard but when she spots him Betty yells out and tries to go to him, falling unconscious when she is hit by a guard's shock stick. This leads to a fistfight between F and crew, and the guards. The team is quickly subdued, but not before making an impressive showing of it. For their trouble, Emperor Sni'Kar takes Betty Blue captive to ensure her father's continued cooperation. For F and the others he sentences them to the Pit of Challenges, a gladiatorial arena within the Dungeons of Corinth where prisoners fight to the death for the entertainment of Sni'Kar and his people. It is here, where Zel'Kar first intervenes, asking her daddy if she can keep Medla as a trophy slave. Zel'Kar implies it will be a terrible experience, causing her father to delightfully agree. The wanker.

It's here that the series divides into multiple concurrent plots for the first time.

Plot A: F, Gavel, and Brick go the arena, where they defeat several rival teams of gladiators by working together. They refuse to kill anyone, pissing off their captors but winning the respect of the other gladiators and the general audience thanks to their novel defiance. This enrages Sni'kar to no end but finds he can't just kill them or he'll face open rebellion. Again.

Meanwhile, Princess Zel'Kar has also taken notice of F and visits him in private several times throughout the book. They get to know each other, and it's obvious that Zel'Kar is in love with him by the end. Eventually she is able to help F and Brick escape, but they must leave Gavel behind when he turns back to cover their escape.

Plot B: Betty and Medla adjust to their new situation, slowly befriending certain people within Sni'Kar's court.

Zel'Kar: The Princess herself comes to respect both Medla and Betty, despite Betty being her romantic rival. She reveals much of the history of Planet Kar, and how she use to love her father but that since the death of her mother he has become obsessed with security and conquest. They eventually flip her to their side, directly leading to F and Brick's escape.

Ambra Osprey: A fellow Avion slave that Medla befriends. The Avion are anthropomorphic bird people, one of the three races that evolved on the Planet Kar simultaneously. They once lived in peace with the Karnians, but when they opposed Emperor Sni'Kars program of conquest, he turned on them, taking their lands and forcing them to banditry. Ambra's brother Mihar leads one of the Avion tribes, the Osprey. She is able to arrange the pick up of F and Brick at the end of the novel by her brother's forces.

Stephan Olbair: A Nelunian soldier assigned to act as Zel'Kar's bodyguard. His planet was one of the first conquered by the Emperor and he was pressed into military service. Through excellent service and a bit of luck, he was assigned to the Princess Zel'Kar. She trusts him implicitly and he secretly loves her in return. He keeps the meetings secret between Zel and F despite his jealousy of the Captain. Betty figures out his feelings through their interactions but keeps this revelation a secret for now.

Betty also has several interactions with her father and the Emperor. Her father confirms Cat's story, filling in the blanks after his disappearance. He apologizes for dragging her into this mess and they have a good cry about it. Betty's interactions with the Emperor also confirm what the Princess said about his motives, but show how crazy he's become. He also reveals his next target as Cerulean itself! This is the catalyst for Betty and Medla to get the Princess to help F to escape.

Plot C: Cat and Yelli slowly make their way through the Karnian jungles, Cat teaching Yelli the Karnian language as well as how to defend herself. After several misadventures with the local wildlife, Yelli ends up putting her new skills to use when she saves Cat from a giant bug monster by shooting it with a Firebeam (laser pistol). They are able to steal a Flier at the end of the novel, finally making good time to the capital.