The Might of Defiance : Elise t'Hoot Book One

It's 2101 and the United States Patriot Empire treats climate refugees like criminals. Elise escaped an internment camp on the edge of drowned Holland and did okay as 'Marta' in the US. That's until her Grad School funds dried up. Now she signs onto a Patriot supply ship that services the colony planets where excessive refugees - people like her - are dumped.Keeping her alias intact on the cramped ship is tough enough. Protecting what she discovers on the ship's first stop will take all the strength she can exert, and will require personal sacrifice. Should she work so hard for something that will shake humanity to the core? Should she crash through regulations, laws and Planetary Protection statutes? With her tragic past and hope-filled future colliding, how could she refuse?The Might of Defiance explores how one abused climate refugee can not only survive but in some crucial ways thrive in the Patriot era. Marta is a different age and nationality than Elise, and dutifully attends her classes. Elise feels straitjacketed and plans for contingencies by excelling in a wide array of studies. She's a rebel but does not know it yet.She asks her shipmate mentor, which is more moral? A commitment made to a despotic empire in good faith or a new commitment that sets love, tolerance and the sanctity of life above all else? Does she have the right to endanger the friends she's made among the scientists onboard? Her Dutch countrymen crashed their exploration ship and stranded these bizarre aliens on this eerie planet years before, which saddles her with guilt. Of the two men she admires and who know what she's found, one urges her to proceed while the other warns her of the consequences. Could anybody even do what is needed in four days? And as she struggles with these questions, the cameras and hidden sound pick-ups keep spying on her and time keeps ticking away.