Strange Chemistry
May 7, 2013
Zenn Scarlett is a bright, determined, occasionally a-little-too-smart-for-her-own-good 17-year-old girl training hard to become an exoveterinarian. That means she’s specializing in the treatment of exotic alien life forms, mostly large and generally dangerous. Her novice year of training at the Ciscan Cloister Exovet Clinic on Mars will find her working with alien patients from whalehounds the size of a hay barn to a baby Kiran Sunkiller, a colossal floating creature that will grow up to carry a whole sky-city on its back.
But after a series of inexplicable animal escapes from the school and other near-disasters, the Cloister is in real danger of being shut down by a group of alien-hating officials. If that happens, Zenn knows only too well the grim fate awaiting the creatures she loves.
Now, she must unravel the baffling events plaguing her school, before someone is hurt or killed, before everything she cares about is ripped away from her and her family forever. To solve this mystery – and live to tell about it – Zenn will have to put her new exovet skills to work in ways she never imagined, and in the process learn just how powerful compassion and empathy can be.
The Top 5 Reasons My Heroine Has No Friends*
(*Qualifier: human friends)
1. Zenn Scarlett is the only student in her class. Actually, the only student in her school. She grew up isolated behind the mud-brick walls of the Ciscan Cloister Exovet Clinic in a deep canyon on the edge of a human colony on Mars. At 17, she’s now the only novice attending the cloister’s exoveterinarian training program. Why the student body deficit? The Rift: a total trade and communications embargo with Earth. So, that kinda cuts down on the potential-friends-roster. She fills this hole in her social life by developing an intense empathy for the diverse alien creatures housed at the clinic. Not surprisingly, this has consequences – some that Zenn’s logic and intelligence allows her to foresee, some… not so much.
2. The people who live in Arsia City, the village of colonists a few miles from the cloister, think Zenn has cooties. OK, not cooties, exactly. The thing is, the towners dislike the fact that Zenn spends most of her time around big, dangerous alien animals. That’s what an exovet novice does. The towners think these alien creatures are “unclean, disease-carrying monsters.” In fact, the towners are determined to shut down the cloister and eliminate what they see as the threat of the alien animals being taken care of there. Why the xenophobic ‘tude? Because a few decades ago, the population of Earth was decimated by a mysterious virus. The Earthers, as well as most of the colonists on Mars, believe the propaganda being spread that says alien animals carried the virus to Earth, prompting the embargo. So, I take it back; the towners DO think Zenn has cooties. So, does she? No. There are no such organisms on Mars.
3. Because of the above cootie-misunderstanding, Zenn believes all towners are so deeply biased against aliens that there’s no likelihood of changing their minds. Are they all paranoid about off-world races and creatures? No. Some of them are smart enough to understand there’s no scientific proof that the nasty virus on Earth was carried there by alien animals. But since these people are in a clear minority, and since the xenophobic community members are becoming increasingly militant, this open-minded minority keeps their mouths shut and their smart opinions to themselves. Which only reinforces Zenn’s beliefs about towners. Kind of vicious circle thing.
4. Zenn’s main friend at the cloister is Hamish, an eight-foot-tall, sentient beetle working as the cloister sexton, or all-around handyman (bug). Hamish is bright and personable (insectable). Zenn gets along well with him, and he’s become her primary sounding board about various issues in her life. Unfortunately, he’s both alien and rather spectacularly insectoid, and this only serves to make the towners even less likely to associate with Zenn.
5. Zenn has a rule about making friends outside of the cloister: no friends. Sounds a little severe. But she has reasons: the people in her life that she loved, that she depended on, have left her, one way or another. Plus, when she was younger, she was mocked and ostracized by the towner kids because she was an outsider who consorted with “snot-monsters.” Now, one exception to the usual towner mindset is Liam Tucker, a street-wise, sorta cocky, sorta hunkish boy who is Zenn’s own age and who, lately, has shown some interest in getting to know her. This both annoys and puzzles her. Puzzles because he’s a towner (see xenophobic note above). Annoys because she’s in her very crucial end-of-term testing period in school and can’t afford any distractions. Even a sorta hunky one. Will her no-friends rule survive this annoying-but-oddly-alluring intrusion? Good question. But until this burning issue is resolved: human friend-count: zero.
About the Author
Christian Schoon paid his new-writer-dues as an-house copywriter at the Walt Disney Company, followed by a stint as a freelance script/copywriter in Los Angeles. After moving back to the Midwest, he bought a farm, started volunteering with a group that rescues abused/neglected horses and another group helping to re-hab wildlife: black bears, cougars, coyotes, raccoons, assorted other critters. His animal welfare work, combined with his life-long sci-fi geekery, inspired Christian to write his first book, the young adult science fiction novel Zenn Scarlett.
Tiger's Quest 
