Freedom's Fury

Sequel to Freedom's Scion. Althea Morelon, polymath and psion, has returned to Hope, her ungoverned home world, in great fear. The Loioc, a kindred humanoid race in Eridanus cluster, infected her with a nanite that destroys the sentience potential of male zygotes, and she's unsure her HalberCorp medipod has cleansed her of it. Worse, Clan Morelon has been besieged by an alliance under the vengeful Charisse, Clan Morelon's deposed matriarch, and has suffered fatalities. Worse yet, her beloved husband Martin lies in his medipod in a near-death coma. Charisse has assembled six major clans into a coalition to force Clan Morelon to surrender certain properties and void certain contracts. The siege they've mounted has trapped the Morelons in their manor. Althea contrives a ballistic weapon she can use from her orbital redoubt on the Relic to force the coalition to lift the siege. It costs Charisse her influence over Alex Dunbarton, patriarch of the largest of the allied clans. She flees again, to elude Althea's vengeance and seek a new power base. Bioengineering genius Claire Albermayer, HalberCorp's CEO, visits the Relic to determine whether Althea is still infected. When Althea is certified free of the Loioc nanites, she initiates an affair with Claire, both to assure herself that Claire can be trusted with the power she possesses and out of her own unacknowledged need for intimacy. It awakens Claire to unfamiliar emotions, but makes Althea fear that she has violated her bond to Martin. On the surface, Martin's medipod has released him, but he has lost his emotional memory. He can no longer remember any of his emotions, and is impeded from experiencing new ones. Clan patriarch Barton and his wife Nora are torn over whether to inform Althea of Martin's condition, hoping that time will render the matter moot. Claire is enthralled by Althea, who worries about the intensity of their affair. She sincerely intends to return to Martin, but has come to love Claire equally. When Clai