updated 11/2025: When an authoritarian regime begins taking over nearby worlds, an accomplished older woman and her four old friends with covert skills, deep personal bonds, and mastery of the ancient arts may be the best chance the alliance has to survive.

originally: An accomplished older woman brings together a close-knit team as they look for ways to protect the Local Neighborhood. Together, they must find a way to stop the invading Olmeri. 

SYNOPSIS:

SERIES PREMISE:

Star systems near Sol in what astronomers call the Local Neighborhood formed an alliance centuries ago. In recent years, the alliance has been getting more frequent reports about planets being taken over by the Olmeri, a highly destructive, authoritarian regime. The Central Alliance High Council assigns their best ship, the Magellan, to take their top operative and negotiator, First Contact Ambassador Micha Lawrence, to a distant star system to get a treaty and to stop the Olmeri incursion. She succeeds. But the Olmeri are still coming. She finds a way to buy time. It will be risky. She asks her four old friends for help.

The Ambassador is a highly respected older woman, not another Captain or Lost Renegade. She is not a broken relic looking for redemption. She’s very good at what she does. She is an adept in the ancient arts and a Keeper of Earth. She’s well-liked. She’s received more than a few medals and commendations. She is slightly snarky, speaks multiple languages, and keeps lots of secrets. She’d like to retire. The High Council won’t let her. Not yet.

The Ambassador and her four old friends embody the five elements of Xingyiquan (Metal, Water, Wood, Fire, Earth) grounding the series in the long history and storied traditions of authentic Chinese martial arts. Their colors (White, Black, Green, Red, Gold) reflect their elements, personalities, and special skills (xingyi, taiji, qigong, bagua, sword).

DEVELOPMENT:

The story has been published as an eight-book series. In 2024, the first chapter was scripted, produced, and distributed as a full theatrical audio drama with original concept art. In May 2025, the show won a Corporate Live Wire (UK) Innovation and Excellence award. It is currently heard in 38 countries, 253 cities.

STORY ENGINE:

The show is optimistic, character-driven, and built around excellence, found-family, and generational legacy. Each episode leads the team to their next discovery as they:

• Evaluate situations, develop strategies, make plans, and use technologies
• Navigate regions of real space, arrive on new worlds, and evade capture
• Learn, practice, and use traditional Chinese martial arts
• Prepare meals and sit down together to eat them
• Uncover secrets, use special objects, employ mystic skills
• Explore cultures, languages, histories, and philosophies
• Rely on integrity, honor, respect, ethics, expertise, teamwork, and practice
• Confront moral choices with empathy, fairness, justice, and compassion

The stories are a play-date for adults that offer a grounded vision of a hopeful future. They are a comfortable adventure in a world where excellence is expected, integrity and honor matter, trust is earned, wits matter more than firepower, friends are the best, everybody gets a seat at the table, and the good guys win most of the time. They cross generations and cultures, East and West. They take us back to a time that never existed and show us a future we can only imagine. They offer a rare glimpse into the inner world and discipline of traditional Chinese martial arts training and philosophy. The stories ask us to step just far enough away from our current world to see our common humanity. The scenes juxtapose office conversations with flights through space; mystical ancient swords with a personable AI that can take physical form; making cookies with installing a flight monitoring system, and more. The connections between the real world and what the characters experience keep the stories grounded. The stories are not about blowing things up or who has the biggest guns. They are about how we come together, grow, learn, and pass on what we have learned to the next generations.

THE AMBASSADOR