Cybernautica: Return of the Princess - Paperback

When Bekra Politkofsky joins a Space Transit expedition as a language interpreter, she has only a faint understanding of her true identity as Her Majesty Fenna, heredity ruler of the Planet Fenria. Of course, she has heard her grandfather's tales of how her father, a pirate, had won the love of the queen. But tales aren't the same as the reality of a planet in recovery from a pandemic and in desperate need of a leader.

Fenria hosts a high-tech maritime society. Elite men and royal women have neural implants that they use to interface with a planet-wide system of weather buoys, robotics, and AI. They-the Seaguard-monitor and protect the oceans of Fenria. Or they did, until a pandemic wiped out nearly all of them. The planet now cries out for its Seaguard.

On Fenria, Shewolf, sentient royal yacht, pins her hope on the return of the princess. A crew is assembled, all eligible young men, candidates to become the next king consort. Among them is Shewolf's favorite, Tyee Fennako, robotics technician. He survived the pandemic, but only because his implant was burned out. Thus, he can no longer directly interface with robotic systems such a Shewolf-no longer use remote devices known as telechirics, remote hands.

Wary of the danger and uncertain who to trust, Bekra hides her own implant and conceals use of her personal telechiric, Wulfie.

The Expedition's mandate is to investigate Fenrian's eligibility for space access. Only societies judged to be civilized are allowed space communication and travel. Bekra strives to prove both herself as an interpreter and her planet as worthy of access.

Shewolf has her own priorities- the relationship between Bekra and Tyee and the reconstitution of the Seaguard.