Rhea Hawke (Vali Gurgu)
We look a little more closely at what makes Rhea Hawke the Galactic Guardian Enforcer she is:
| Date and place of birth | Twenty-three years ago, 192 SGT, in Vancouver, Canada; daughter of Laura Wood and Colonel Mark Hawke. The story goes that Hawke was shot down in the Vos invasion of Earth when Laura was six months pregnant with Rhea—just as the Eosians came to rescue Earth from annihilation. |
| Physical attributes | Face dominated by strong features for a woman: a long, almost aquiline nose and full mouth framed by well-defined cheek bones and a firm jaw. Face framed by dark, long, wavy hair, which Rhea tends to tie back when she’s working. She stands at 6-feet—tall for a human female but short for the Galaxy among very tall aliens. Nevertheless, she carries a long confident stride. |
| Idiosyncrasy | A tendency to bluster and bluff with biting sarcasm when under attack. She often recites a wise proverb when she’s nervous. Rhea hides her kindness and compassion—even from herself—with an arrogant, overly-confident and alienating composure. |
| Job | Galactic Guardian Enforcer. Rhea joined when she was fifteen. She served as an Enforcer-in-training for two years then became a full Galactic Enforcer at seventeen—over much protest from the rest of the Eosian Precinct. |
| Weapon of choice | MEC (Mechanical-Electro-Concussion) pistol, a solid hand gun of her own design. In a single sweep, the wave-weapon can maim, render unconscious or kill according to someone’s DNA. |
| Clothing of choice | Black Enforcer clothes and her Great Coat, made of intelligent material that protects, alerts, and enhances her abilities in her work. |
| First injury as an Enforcer | A long wound on her lower left buttock from the slash of a dool blade; she’d received it in a skirmish with Venik slave traders who had ambushed her on EpsEri 2. It was before she learned how to handle her Great Coat. |
| Most loved | 1) Her tappin, Jasper, a cat-like stray she feeds and sleeps with when she’s home. 2) Benny, her AI ship, who has a sense of humour and excellent taste in music; 3) Serge, the mysterious seductive art collector (before her discovery) |
| Most hated | 1) The Vos, who invaded the galaxy and killed her father. 2) The Eosians, who saved Earth from annihilation by the Vos. It’s complicated. Rhea calls them baldies (given they are completely hairless). 3) Serge (after her discovery) |
| Most ironic | Rhea signed on with the Galactic Guardians, Rhea as the only human amid only Eosians—who she hates. |
| Favourite drink/drug | Rhea likes to drink soyka, a coffee-like soy-based stimulant. She is addicted to soyka gum and relies on it when she is nervous. Despite telling Laura Dob of Galaxy News that her favourite drinking place is the Muddy Pit in the Hive, Rhea very seldom goes there. |
| Dark secret | Rhea has several, but the best ones she isn’t even aware of. |
Here is some backstory to the present:
Splintered Universe ~Timeline~ Book I: Outer Diverse
| Detail | When | Date |
| Azaes makes contact with Earth | 215 years ago | 0 SGT |
| Genevieve Dubois crash lands on Eos and returns to Earth with first alien contact | 200 years ago | 15 SGT |
| Azaes murdered, Genevieve escapes into countryside and gives birth to Diana | 199 years ago | 16 SGT |
| Diana Wood born (daughter of Azaes and Genevieve Dubois, 51) and lives in seclusion | 199 years ago | 16 SGT |
| Laura Wood (Hawke) born (daughter of Diana Wood, 110, and an unknown mate [Vos shape-shifter, Ka]) | 110 years ago | 105 SGT |
| Spiritual leaders share dream of Borrias;
Eosians end their isolation to form Galactic Guardians and research the galaxy, terraforming |
100 years ago | 115 SGT |
| Vos destroy Bor, begin siege of Earth | 30 years ago | 185 SGT |
| Eosians take on the Vos, colonize Earth (eventually defeat the Vos in five years) | 29 years ago | 186 SGT |
| Rhea Hawke born (daughter of Laura, 87, and Ennos, [Vos] ageless) | 23 years ago | 192 SGT |
| Rhea (at age 5) melts U’clid | 18 years ago | 197 SGT |
| Rhea joins Galactic Guardians at age 15 | 8 years ago | 207 SGT |
| present | 215 SGT |
Inner Diverse is the second book of The Splintered Universe Trilogy:
When Galactic Guardian Rhea Hawke investigates the genocide of an entire spiritual sect, she collides not only with dark intrigue but with her own tarnished past. Her quest for justice catapults Rhea into the heart of a universal struggle across alien landscapes of cruel beauty and toward an unbearable truth she’s hidden from herself since she murdered an innocent man.
Get the complete Splintered Universe Trilogy. Available in ALL THREE FORMATS: print, ebook, and audiobook. You can listen to a sample recording of any of the three audiobooks through Audible. Read the Splintered Universe reviews on Goodreads.
Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press (Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times ‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” will be released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in 2020.
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