I am delighted to be able to share with you, an interview I had with Commander Byron. Fans of my books will recognise the name; he’s a regular and very important character, appearing in both The Lilean Chronicles and The Sinclair V-Logs.

Hello, Commander, it is a great pleasure to meet you. This is our first interview and I’m grateful for your time, I know you’re a busy guy.

Hi, it’s my pleasure. Thank you for inviting me.

Can you start by telling us a little about yourself and what you do.

Sure, no problem. I’m Chief Engineer and First Officer aboard His Majesty King Lomas VII’s Battle Cruiser, DBC1. I spend my working days overseeing the incoming and outgoing cargo and keeping everything stored properly and recorded accurately. I’m also in charge of the Engineering staff and all repairs and maintenance of the ship. As First Officer, I am required to be part of all official meetings, and am part of the landing crew during a first contact visit with a new planet. I am fourth in line for emergency captain, should anything happen to His Majesty, his Son, Prince Toma, or the Captain of the Bridge.

Wow, you have a lot of responsibility, does it weigh heavily on you sometimes?

Not really, I’ve been doing this job for several decades, I’m used to it I guess. Emergencies do happen from time to time of course, but they are thankfully rare occurrences.

You’re Drycenian aren’t you? For those who don’t know, describe life as a Drycenian.

Well, we’re a very long lived race. If we maintain our health at optimum, we could easily live well over 400 years. Our ancient ancestors were savage and cannibalistic, but thankfully we evolved passed that stage and are now more interested in promoting trust and good relationships between galactic neighbours.

Are the rumours about your technology true?

Well that’s the one thing I’m not at liberty to discuss, sorry.

Why not?

Because our stance is one of non interference in the natural order and flow of the universe. If we gave away our technology or medical knowledge, we could influence a society in a way that the universe had not wanted. We believe that the universe is a living, breathing, entity in its own right and it knows best how to keep itself balanced and in order.

I understand the concept. You must be sick of people asking about your technology; I guess it happens a lot.

I wouldn’t use that expression exactly. We are aware that people don’t have the advancements we’ve got and the desire to know can be very strong, so we understand that people feel compelled to ask about it. We don’t wish to invite conflict so for this reason we keep ourselves a bit apart from other races. Some people think it’s because we feel superior but we don’t at all, we just don’t want to start any trouble by not give someone our technology know how.

You have a very unique look, if you don’t mind me saying.

I don’t mind at all, (he smiles shyly) we’re used to getting stared at when we do mix with others. Looking so different means people will stare so we have no choice but to be cool with it.

You and your people have been an integral part of both The Lilean Chronicles series and The Sinclair V-Logs series. How did you first become involved in this?

It was during our first meeting with Sam Sinclair. He happened to mention that he was thinking of doing some Video logs of some of his cases and asked me for help with setting it up as he’s not a techie sort of guy. This caught the attention of the Domenicos, who thought it was a brilliant idea and said they wanted to do it too, and would we mind them mentioning us and our involvement. After much debate, we decided to go ahead and so our literary collaboration with our friends began. It’s still ongoing, The Sinclair V-Logs is nowhere near done yet.

You have a central role in The Vazien Paradox. How did you feel about being more in the limelight rather than a background character as you had been up to then?

I was nervous at first as I’ve never been the kind of person who puts all my stuff out there. Once we got into it though, I relaxed and found it interesting and cathartic. It enabled me to further heal from the trauma of that time.

It must’ve been a very emotional time, at both extremes of emotion, both highs and lows.

It was and there were moments when I wondered if I would ever feel balanced again. One moment I was experiencing great joy, then soul crushing despair, then back to joy and so on. I swung from one extreme to the other for the entire time that event took place.

You found love during that time, didn’t you?

Yes (he smiles and blushes). I had reached a point where I had begun to accept I was destined to be a single guy all my life and sunk all my focus and concentration into my work. I already had feelings for this person, but not being Drycenian meant our chances of being together weren’t that great. The moment I discovered that they had similar feelings for me and had done for years was the single, happiest, moment of my life.

I’m so pleased for you and wish you both every happiness.

Thank you, we made a pact to be happy and not let anyone or anything take our happiness away or damage our bond.

There was a time during the Vazien case when Sam Sinclair thought you and your people were the bad guys. Can you tell us about that?

Yes, we had been warned that this would happen and although we knew in advance that we had to allow him those beliefs for a while, it was a horribly traumatic time knowing how we were making him suffer and what he would think of us. It took a lot of work getting passed the emotional trauma that caused all of us. I’m delighted now that we’re all in a settled place emotionally now, both ourselves and Sam.

Vazien was a very powerful man. Taking the decision to bring his crimes into the limelight took a lot of courage. Were you scared of the possible ramifications?

Yes, and as it turned out, we were right to be scared. I’ve never been so terrified as I was at the moment he almost got revenge on us, nor will I ever be as scared. As the case developed, we became aware just how evil and vengeful he was and what he was prepared to do to pay someone back for denying him what he wanted. Many people suffered terribly because of that man.

Can you tell us when we’ll be hearing from you again.

The next Sinclair V-Log is in production now, so you’ll be hearing all about my contribution to Sam’s investigation in the not too distant future.

We look forward to it. Thank you so much for taking the time to come and speak to us. Please come back again soon.

You’re very welcome, and yes, I’d love to come back again.