Joslyn Musey

Joslyn Aaron Musey, known as Jos, is the protagonist of the science fiction novel "Warchild" by Karin Lowachee. Jos makes appearances as a minor supporting character in subsequent novels, "Burndive" and "Cagebird".

Biography

Warchild

Born on the merchant spaceship "Mukudori", Jos was raised until the age of eight by his parents. When he was eight, "Mukudori" is attacked, boarded and destroyed by a pirate ship, later revealed to be the "Genghis Khan". Among the children kidnapped by the pirates and help aboard their ship, Jos attracts the attention of the "Khan"'s captain, Vincenzo Falcone. While the other child prisoners are auctioned off to other pirate ships, Jos remains on the "Khan", under Falcone's personal tutelage.

Spending one year aboard "Genghis Khan", Jos becomes protégé. Falcone teaches him various skills from table manners to poker, all the while elaborating that he intends to capitalize on Jos's good looks to soften his clientele. Falcone's teaching methods are obscured by Jos's narration, but his distress is evident. After a year's time, Falcone takes Jos with him on a business excursion to the space station Chaos. When the station is attacked by striviirc-na aliens and human sympathizers, Jos escapes in the confusion.

His escape on Chaos Station leads to being caught in the crossfire between the striviirc-na and the human soljets, and an injured Jos is rescued by Nikolas S'tlian, a human sympathizer of the striviirc-na, who sided with them when the war between the human EarthHub and the striviirc-na began. Nikolas takes Jos with him to Aaian-na, the striviirc-na planet of origin. Though initially afraid of him, referring to his by the unwanted EarthHub moniker "the Warboy", Jos gradually grows to trust Niko, even becoming his student.

When Niko leaves Aaian-na to continue fighting the war against EarthHub, he leaves Jos's training in the hands of his mother and brother. Ash-dan, Niko's brother, teaches Jos to burndive, a technique of hacking that utilizes a virtual reality interface.

Due to the difference in the passage of time between planets and deep space, years pass for Jos before Nikolas eventually returns from his voyage. Bitter about the absence of his favored teacher, and angry because of the tension between himself and Ash-dan, Jos's coldness towards Niko becomes a strain on their relationship. Still ambivalent, Jos nonetheless accepts Niko's request to send him on a dangerous, long-term undercover mission, posing as a soljet recruit for the deep space carrier ship "Macedon".

Aboard "Macedon", Jos underwent the harsh training of jets, EarthHub's elite, deep-space Marines offshoot. He drew the eye of the ship's infamous captain, Cairo Azarcon, because of the year he spent under Falcone's tutelage, and learned about Azarcon's publicized grudge against pirates in general and Falcone in particular. Undercover, Jos went on jet missions, boarding alien vessels and killing striviirc-na and sympathizers, while at the same time reporting on the ship to Niko through his sympathizer contacts on Austro Space Station. During his service as a soljet, Jos reverts to using the pejorative terms 'strit' and 'symp'.

When sympathizer ships are seen doing business with the pirate ship "Shiva", Jos begins to uncover underhanded dealings between a militant faction on Aaian-na, led by Ash-dan, and the pirate ring led by Falcone. When "Shiva" is captured and boarded, the crewmembers taken captive include Jos's childhood friend Evan, who had been taken from "Mukudori" with Jos and then sold. Evan turns to Jos to extract him from Macedon's brig, claiming to have been a reluctant crewmember held captive by Shiva's captain against his will. Jos testifies to Azarcon on Evan's behalf, and Evan is allowed to remain on "Macedon" in the capacity of a morale officer.

When "Genghis Khan" attacks "Macedon", Jos is among the jets and other crew captured by Falcone. Falcone attempts to glean information from Jos, and his torture techniques include revealing to the rest of the captured crew that Jos had been rescued by striviirc-na when he escaped from him, and was now affiliated with them. The revelation causes the brigged crew to turn their backs on him. He is released from captivity when Niko's ship "Turundrlar" attacks the "Khan". Niko communicates to Captain Azarcon, arranging a deal to return the captured soljets, and allowing Azarcon to speak with Jos.

The conversation, and Niko's safe return of "Macedon"'s crew, leads to a partnership between "Macedon" and "Turundrlar" in hunting down both Falcone and Ash. Falcone is captured and held in preparation for being extradited to EarthHub for trial. Nikolas-dan, being a "ka'redan" or striviirc-na assassin-priest, handles Ash-dan's betrayal in accordance with the traditions of his caste, by assassinating him.

Once the rogue ships are handled, "Macedon" and "Turundrlar" dock at Chaos Space Station to initiate peace talks between EarthHub and Aaian-na, the original purpose of Jos's mission among the soljets. When Falcone is brought off the ship for extradition, Jos attacks him with his "ka'redan" knife and kills him. Azarcon chooses not to sanction him, but instead asks him to serve as translator for the peace talks.

Burndive

When Ryan Azarcon moves onto "Macedon" at his father's behest, Captain Azarcon assigns Jos to be Ryan's guide, and puts him in charge of his weapons training. Initially, Ryan displays the same prejudices Jos himself showed to Niko, calling striviirc-na "strits" and sympathizers "symps", his suspicion of Jos, and the sympathizer cause by extension, lessens gradually the more he gets to know them. During his stay on "Macedon" Ryan starts calling Jos a friend.

Appearances

*Protagonist of "Warchild", which is written entirely from his first person perspective.
*Appears in "Burndive" as a supporting character.
*Several cameo appearances in "Cagebird".