Meredith Nicole "Nickie" Grimes

* Father - Scientist, blue eyes, blond, killed on a space station from planet below it

### Other relative(s)

John Grimes GrandfatherJean Dukes GrandmotherTabitha Honorary AuntGabrielle Honorary AuntBethany Anne Honorary AuntBarnabas Honorary Uncle

## Overview

* Granddaughter of John Grimes and Jean Dukes.
* Has had Meredith EI embedded in her brain since she was a child.
* Nickie is 3 years old when the Empire ends, the Federation begins, and Tabitha leaves with BA.
* She was rebellious as a teenager and went on a substance abuse binge, As a teen she is kicked out of her third school in a year for breaking a boy's knee.
* The bad acts came to a head Tabitha left to follow Bethany Anne  .
* BA exiled her for 7 years, the early part Nickie continued to spend with alcohol, drugs and fights. At times Nickie thinks of her 'sabbatical' as her decision at few a points in the series characters like Tabitha and Barnabas consider her exiled.
* Meridith is dormant on the exile but comes alive when Nickie hijacks a Skaine battlecruiser.

## Activities

### Deuces Wild

Nickie is 3 years into her sabbatical when the series starts.

#### Rampage

The Skaine returned to the Themis Colony on the El'hana and wiped out 80% of the colonists. Nickie has returned with weaponry and sensors and sets them up to protect the remaining miners. Nickie follows the El'hana to Swapayama in the Rebus Quadrant where the Skaines are terrorizing another planet. Nickie confronts them on her own and wipes out the entire crew.

Back on Flex, Tabitha and Ryu hunt down Etoy Walce, a Skaine leader, by subterfuge as well as direct assault. No indication is made of what happens to him when he is caught.

After both rounds of violence Tabitha takes stock of her actions. She reviews the drone footage and sees a person she is not sure she likes. The violence is so directed she ignores everyone and everything else. Innocents could have been injured or even killed and the person in the footage would not have noticed.

Nickie does fulfill a promise she made to Molly Bates and takes out a ship of Skaines who are terrorizing another planet. She does send a message to Molly confirming the promise was kept.

#### Labyrinth

Nickie works with the colonists/miners on Themis to get basic services like water and agriculture restored. She still has guilt over the Skaine assault on the colony despite Meridith's coaching.

Nickie gets anonymous message from the Federation asking her to help a royal family find a prince who has set out on a quest and is missing. Her immediate reaction is to push back at being requested to do something while she still has 2 years left on her sabbatical. Shortly after Prince John Deblanc arrives in a Federation ship to personally ask for her for help.

Colonists Keen and Adelaide ask to join the quest. The final item the Prince must find is a rare plant in the middle of a specific volcano. The plant has medicinal properties that will cure his father, allowing John to take the throne with his father as advisor. If his father dies there is a high probability of civil war.

Once on the planet the group pushes through the caverns, fighting a creature that can live in the extreme heat. Nickie finally gets to actually tear off an arm and beat the owner senseless with it, something she had heard BA threaten a number of times. They do get the plant and out of the volcano just before it erupts.

#### Birthright

Nickie follows Prince John out of Federation space only to find herself at High Tortuga where she has to show her true identity to the Federation security there.

Nickie's extended family has somewhat conspired to give her a task that brings her closer to rejoining them, actually performs a useful tasks and isn't obviously a lure to her. All the family except Barnabas find reasons to leave High Tortuga so he can safely pitch it her. The goal is to help a six planet system join the Federation. They not only all have to agree to join or none can join, but their economies are so interwoven that a disaster in one could cascade to the other planets. Nickie, her team and Prince John agree to go undercover as the Silver Line Trading Company to scope out the situation and take appropriate action as vigilantes not associated in any way with the Federation.

They arrive to find Cynthia, the queen elect, is not evil, she just doesn't care about the hard part of ruling such as dealing with the planet's problem. Her sister Josie is far more competent at working through the issues facing the planet and is very popular with a segment of the population. Prince John is appalled with Nickie's solution is to kill Cynthia so Josie can become the queen. The resolution comes when Prince John realizes Cynitha would be an ideal bride for him whether he becomes king or not and Cynthia sees the same in him. After convincing Josie that her being queen would be best for everyone and even improve her relationship with Cynthia.

On the way back to High Tortuga Nickie and Grim talk about their future and she discovers in the past Grim trained with her grandfather.

#### Resolution

Nickie is reminded by Tabitha of the trip they took when Nickie was 14. The mission was to break up a fight club that was taking street kids and putting them in death matches. They stop the fighting with Nickie showing courage and fighting skills, but she is injured enough she requires time in the Pod-Doc to fully heal.

### Lone Wolf Squadron

#### Attack Wing

Beau Ward calls Tabitha for help retrieving Katy from the Skaine Codex Syndicate. Tabitha is unavailable but sends Nickie to halp with the effort.

Nickie with Meredith and Durq arrive just as they have narrowed down the location where Katy is being held. They find is about to executed as entertainment for a gathering of Skaine Factors almost immediately. They infiltrate the site with Durq acting as a Factor, Charli and Nickie as his arm candy. Once inside they take out the guards and leave with Katy and Teefer, a defective Kratch that Katy has befriended. They escape to the spaceport after hijacking a tour bus, giving the tourists a shoot-out filled wild ride to the spaceport where they lift off from Uuru.

### The Ascension Myth

#### Subversion

Nickie goes to the Sark system to help the Sanguine Squadron deal with a Skaine arms trader.

## References

1. ↑ Clarke, Ell Leigh; Anderle, Michael. Deuces Wild Complete Series Boxed Set: (Books 1-5 - Beyond the Frontiers, Rampage, Labyrinth, Birthright, Resolution) (p. 929). LMBPN Publishing. Kindle Edition.
2. ↑ Clarke, Ell Leigh; Anderle, Michael. Deuces Wild Complete Series Boxed Set: (Books 1-5 - Beyond the Frontiers, Rampage, Labyrinth, Birthright, Resolution) (p. 1041). LMBPN Publishing. Kindle Edition.
3. ↑ Clarke, Ell Leigh; Anderle, Michael. Deuces Wild Complete Series Boxed Set: (Books 1-5 - Beyond the Frontiers, Rampage, Labyrinth, Birthright, Resolution) (p. 6). LMBPN Publishing. Kindle Edition.
4. ↑ Clarke, Ell Leigh; Anderle, Michael. Deuces Wild Complete Series Boxed Set: (Books 1-5 - Beyond the Frontiers, Rampage, Labyrinth, Birthright, Resolution) (p. 487). LMBPN Publishing. Kindle Edition.