crazed alpha females in outer space

Thanks for the link, Scotty.
It seems most of my friends are now on the search for interesting active female characters.
The basic rules?
1. there will be 2 or more female characters, and they will talk to each other about something other than men.
2. they will kick arse.
The second is pretty ambitious, considering how difficult it is to fulfill that first rule (can’t remember where I read that one, either, sorry – props to whoever it was). But we are on the case.
Perhaps some of the scribblers out there could consider scribbling a female protagonist who meets these criteria… and a couple more?
3. her costume will cover her arse and her tits and her belly. It will not be skin-tight (but it will be well-made, well-cut and comfortably ‘cool’). She will not wear high heels.
4. she will kick arse.
I am currently reading a series of freakin’ awesome sf books by Karen Traviss (I’d link to them within the site but it’s got some nasty frame-type action happening). The protagonist is a woman. An angry woman. There are ongoing discussions about what it means to be ‘human’, a ‘person’, in a relationship (where matriarchal polyamoury is the norm), a parent, a soldier, an ‘environmentalist’, a woman or a man.
I try not to read these before bed because I end up staying up really late because I can’t put the damn things down.
It’s been a long time since I’ve read female characters who actually work for me – lots of female characters talking to each other about things other than men. Traviss’ Shan Frankland reminds me of Bet Yaeger from C J Cherryh’s Rimrunners.
…and while I love this stuff, why is it that the best female characters have to be miserable sods? Guess we’ve got Tanya Huff for happy female space soldiers who can still kick arse and the women Miles pines for in Lois McMaster Bujold‘s (fab) books.
–:Edit:– You can read a bit more about ‘the rules’ here