TYRMIA





by





Ken McConnell





GB PRESS BOOKS BY KEN MCCONNELL





Starforgers

Starstrikers

Starveyors

Star Series Omnibus

Tyrmia

Tales From Ocherva, Volume One





This is a work of fiction. All of the character, organizations, and events depicted in this novel are products of the author’s imagination.



GB PRESS www.gb-press.com

TYRMIA

Copyright 2010, 2012 by Ken McConnnell

All Rights Reserved.

Second Edition: December 2012



Cover Art by Jeremy Wynn



Interior and Cover Design by Byron McConnell

The author’s website: www.ken-mcconnell.com





For my mom, Mary





Table of Contents

Cover

Title

GB Press Books

Copyright

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

Chapter 55

Chapter 56

Chapter 57

Chapter 58

Chapter 59

Chapter 60

Acknowledgments





Chapter 1

The starfighter scout eased into a low orbit over a green and white terrestrial planet. A tiny spec above a world of vivid colors. Two crew members were nestled into the scout, back to back, a human pilot and a Votainion scanning officer. Once bitter enemies in a long, galactic war, they now worked together to peacefully explore the galaxy.

“She’s a gem, Khas. Breathable oxygen-nitrogen skies near one G and she’s generating a myriad of life forms. How could our probes have missed this empyrean world?” Szeredy asked.

The Votainion back-seater was busy running a sweep of the planet’s northern hemisphere looking for any signs of industrial development. The sensitive instruments detected no fluorocarbon buildup or artificial chemicals.

The blue skinned Votainion responded flatly to his human pilot. “This system was too far outside the primary theaters of the war. It’s unlikely that anyone ever made it this far out. Put us into an equatorial orbit, please.”

Szeredy put the tiny delta winged scout into an inverted equatorial vector and was soon mesmerized by the colorful blue and white cloud patterns that whipped past her tinted canopy. Occasionally, the opalescent blur would dissipate enough to reveal dense rain forests and cobalt tropical seas.

“Isn’t it gorgeous?” she said. Born and raised in deep space, Szeredy had seen dozens of such worlds from orbit and never tired of their majesty.

Khas’s black eyes were focused on the glowing magenta view panels before him. The scout’s powerful scanners pierced the atmosphere and sent back real-time heat imprints of the flora and fauna inhabiting the planet’s surface. Eerie shapes moved through shades of red and pink across his displays.

“It’s a jungle down there, a real classifier’s dream,” he said.

Szeredy forced her eyes away from the spectacular view, down to the flight controls before her. It was time to roll the scout, lower themselves into the thin air, and extend the high powered scanner that was tucked underneath them. It was called a sled for short and it would let Khas scan in greater detail than he could from a higher planetary orbit with the scout’s own simple scanners.

Szeredy rolled the scout back over and edged it into proper alignment for the scans. They were several hundred kilometers into the highest strata of the planet’s atmosphere. The sky above them was a shimmering deep blue with twinkling stars.

Szeredy switched the bottom deflectors to their lowest power setting so as not to interfere with the sensitive scanner sled.

“I’m lined up. Lower the sled,” Szeredy said. She felt the instrument detach from under the scout and watched it deploy on her monitors. The sled extended down from the scout on two thin cables. It was flat and narrow with stubby wings for atmospheric stability.

The scout’s Core Control, an artificially intelligent computer, was essentially flying the starfighter. All Szeredy really had to do was keep an eye on the sled to make sure it was holding steady. But the professional in her demanded to know what was happening with her scout at all times. A darkened screen caught her attention.

“CC, what’s wrong with the bottom deflectors? I’m not getting a reading on the short field set,” she said.

The Core Control registered the concern from its human pilot and executed a diagnostic check on thirty holo-cells before answering in a calm, almost indifferent female voice. “Internal diagnostics read normal. It appears to be a frozen crystal matrix. I have added it to the post flight checks.”

Szeredy nodded, and the CC’s optical sensors read the non-verbal move. Tilting her head back, she caught sight of a meteoroid grazing the upper levels of the thin atmosphere and spraying apart like a hand tossed sparkler. Szeredy looked back down at the darkened screen on the control panel. It really bothered her now. Flying without lower shielding was less critical under the circumstances but she still didn’t like it.

“CC, can you bring up the side-to-side deflectors? I’m seeing rocks outside at twenty klicks.”

“Confirmed. Do you wish a course adjustment to compensate?”

“No! I’m not finished with my sweep,” Khas said.

“CC, can you extend the side-to-sides enough to cover our butts?”

The ship was silent, presumably executing the request. It was programmed to mimic human and Votainion mannerisms.

Szeredy’s head swept back and forth. “Wing tip to wing tip,” her old instructor used to drill into her. She could still hear his scratchy voice as she searched for more meteoroids. “You never see the one that gets you,” he used to say. As a student she always had complete faith in her instruments, despite the simulator’s intentional malfunctions. It wasn’t until she got out in space by herself, that she began to second-guess the CC. There was nothing like the possibility of dying to make you pay closer attention to details.

“I have extended them out as far as they go,” the CC said.

Szeredy knew that already, she was hoping the cyber-cell would pull a miracle out of its proton cell memory. “Khas, how much longer?”

Khas tweaked a virtual slider switch and said, “Just give me twenty more minutes to complete this sweep.”

“You’ve got ten,” Szeredy said. Khas grunted as he doubled his efforts.

“I have calculated the rate of incoming meteors to our present course and believe there is a 95 percent chance of a fatal hit in the next two minutes,” the CC stated. Szeredy thought she heard a note of concern in its lofty, synthetic tone.

“Khas, we have to go lower to get into the clear.”

“Do what you must, I’ll compensate,” Khas said.

She took manual control of the scout and gently pushed the joystick forward. The move caused the scout to reduce speed and thrust her forward into the safety harness.

“CC, more power, please.”

The ship’s cyber-cell was silent, but the engine whine from behind increased. Khas held onto the inner wall of the cockpit. His display visor became opaque and flickered with the yellow glow of the engine as it throttled up. More meteoroids came out of the darkness of space and passed harmlessly above them, burning up in the friction of the upper atmosphere.

They fell hard for a few moments, losing altitude and gaining a protective blanket of air between themselves and the incoming rocks from space.

* * *

Sergeant Krupp peered through the giant binoculars at the glowing light in the pre-dawn skies. It was getting brighter as it came closer to the ground. The image fluttered in the crude optics and it was difficult to see any details. He pulled himself away from the brass oculars.

If this were a new enemy plane of some kind, it was getting closer and still passing over the kingdom with impunity. He doubted there was anything they could do to stop it, but that was not his call to make.

He picked up a black phone and spoke with authority into it. “This is Krupp, we have acquired a target. Go to Alarm Red and get Commander Kor’re up here.”

Sirens warbled across the artillery base as soldiers poured out of their beds, slid on their gear and headed to their posts at the massive, long range cannons. The barrels of the artillery were over fifty meters long, held up by elaborate braces and covered with camouflaged netting. They were used to shell the enemy nearly two hundred kilometers away; weapons of fear more than accuracy. Twenty such long-barreled cannons were soon ready and awaiting orders to fire.

* * *

Commander Kor’re stepped onto the metal observation deck and moved to the side of Sergeant Krupp. He immediately looked up at the dark blue skies as the glowing target made yet another pass. Both men wore khaki army uniforms with round, metal helmets.

“It was much higher when we first acquired it, sir. But now it has come down to perhaps thirty kilometers above us.”

Kor’re looked through the binoculars and squinted to see the shimmering image. It was very small and it moved with such terrific speed that he could barely track it. He could just make out the pointed nose and flared fuselage - a slightly lighter shade of gray than the surrounding air.

Was this thing a new enemy threat, or was it from somewhere else? The hairs raised on the back of Kor’re’s pale blue neck as he considered the possibility that what he was looking at could be from outer space, perhaps even from the Ancestor’s domain. He quickly pushed those thoughts from his mind and focused on how to take the object down. It was in all likelihood some kind of new, long-range aircraft the enemy Engineers had created.

“Do you have a firing solution on it?” Kor’re asked, his eyes still at the oculars.

Krupp cleared his throat. “Sir?”

Kor’re looked away from the scope to his sergeant. “The next time it passes, I want a full barrage on it.”

“But sir, the odds are far too great against us actually hitting something that small and fast.”

Kor’re gave his sergeant an unblinking stare with his black eyes.

Krupp relented. He picked up the phone and started issuing the firing orders into it. The object would soon be in range again and they would wake the countryside with the sounds of the massive cannons firing into the morning skies.

* * *

The planetary scans proceeded without incident. Szeredy patched one of her screens into the data stream from Khas’s scanner. There were definitely signs of intelligent life, but the readings were hard for her to interpret. Most of the planet was wild and, near as she could tell, largely unaffected by the dominant species.

As they passed over the terminator again and into the daylight side of the planet, the scout was assaulted by a barrage of exploding white clouds. The concussions rattled the ship and made it difficult for Szeredy to keep it steady.

“What the hell’s going on out there?” she asked.

The CC came alive and started feeding her telemetry.

“Several explosive devices are being detonated across our bow. Probability of a direct hit is one million, four hundred thousand, to ...”

The CC was cut off by a sudden jolt as one of the rounds detonated directly under them. The explosion rocked the scanning sled and severed one of its tow cables. Fragments of the shell impacted the unprotected bottom of the scout. The scanning sled started to twist on the remaining cable, forcing the nose downward.

Szeredy fought to pull the ship up as the outside temperature increased dramatically from the friction. The shelling stopped but the damage had been done. The entire scout was soon enveloped in a ghostly halo. The scanning sled bobbed up and down violently under the scout.

“I can’t power down the sled. We’re going to get fried by the EMP radiation, you’ve got to release it,” Khas hollered over the din.

“I know that, damn it!”

She pushed the release switch repeatedly but the sled would not drop. “It’s stuck!”

“The sled’s spinning,” Khas reminded her in his most irritating, blue-skin manner. Votainions liked to make a point of stating the obvious at the most inopportune time. It was sometimes easy for her to see why the war between their species had lasted as long as it did.

“We’re going down. Bail if you want too, but I’m riding this out,” she said. Her voice shuddered with resolve. It was always safer to stay with the ship. No matter how bad reentry got.

The scanning sled twisted around violently and flashed the scout with a powerful electromagnetic burst. The CC uttered something unintelligible into Szeredy’s earpiece and then went off-line with a pop.

Inside the scout, Szeredy tingled all over like a static discharge. All of her instruments winked off at once. She was now flying “dead-stick”.

The tiny scout shimmied wildly through the thickening air at supersonic speeds. They spun around and around in a stomach churning head first descent. Szeredy could see the clouds streaking by in the orange glow flickering on her canopy. Gravity pushed her body into the crash seat, crushing her lungs. Her g-suit fought a losing battle to keep her conscious.

Her mind raced through emergency procedures, searching for a way out that did not involve burning up or digging a crater. Her right hand reached down beside the seat and pulled back on a lever that activated the emergency chute. The world quickly closed in on her as she passed out.

* * *

Kor’re could not believe what he had just seen. He lowered his binoculars and looked at Krupp. They both removed their ear plugs since the giant cannons were now silent.

“Nice shot, sergeant.”

Krupp’s normally narrow eyes were wide open in disbelief. He had a dumbfounded smirk on his round, blue face. They both looked up at the smoke trail burning across the morning sky in the direction of the Krakenhoven Mountains.

“I’m going after it,” Kor’re said.

“Not without me, sir.”





Chapter 2

A thumping sound awoke Szeredy. Outside was a tiny, black furry face staring at her through the scratched canopy. Szeredy blinked as the creature continued slapping the canopy as if it were trying to get her attention.

The scout rested horizontally, with its nose slightly raised. All the electrical systems were out and she began to get warm in the glass cockpit. She pulled the canopy’s manual release located behind her head. The concerned primate darted for the jungle heights as the canopy popped open with a hiss.

She quickly realized that her Biogenic flight suit was not working and cracked her helmet’s visor to let in the fresh, humid air. She knew it was breathable, from the scans in orbit.

“Khas, are you there?”

Getting no reply, she released the harness and pulled herself up to stand on her seat. The scout teetered a bit. She looked down at the damaged stern of the Gunnel-Khener scout. A sudden wave of motion sickness made her queasy. She steadied herself for a moment until it passed.

Khas’s helmet was resting against the canopy and she could not detect any motion. The darkened glass further hampered her efforts to see him.

She slowly made her way out onto what was left of the port wing and pounded on the glass to get his attention. The primates watched her curiously from the vines above, her behavior no different than theirs had been.

Her gloved hands found the emergency release cord under a recessed panel. She turned away and pulled the cord, blasting the back seat canopy high into the air. The boom sent the primates scampering ever higher to safer territory.

This time when she looked, she saw the ugly truth. The crash impact had breached the back seat area, when the scout fell stern first through the trees and wedged in between two trunks. A thick branch had poked through the gap and skewered Khas’s upper torso, splintering as it drove into the reinforced seat back. The result was a mess of wood, bone and blood. A few more centimeters and it would have gone through her back too.

Her legs became rubbery. She turned away and sat down with her back against the fuselage. A sudden wave of nausea swept over her. She quickly reached behind her head, unlocked the seal of her helmet, and pulled it off. The helmet slipped from her grip, hitting the charred top of the wing as it bounced away.

Taking a big breath of air, she caught a whiff of Khas’s corpse and promptly vomited on the side of her spacecraft. She hadn’t eaten before the launch, so very little came up. Beads of sweat covered her face from the planet’s relentless humidity. The Biogenic flight suit she wore was supposed to keep her body cool and dry, but the suit was useless after the EMP burst. The CC was tied into everything electronic in the scout. Even devices not attached to the plane were always tied into the neural net of the ship’s sentient Core Control.

The flight suit was designed to be worn in full until you were rescued. Theoretically, a downed Starveyer pilot could survive in any known climate for up to a month. After that, the organically engineered waste and temperature control features required level four diagnostics that could only be performed on a starship. In other words, if you weren’t found before thirty days, forget it. There were no provisions for being stranded without a functional suit.

Szeredy went back to her cockpit and took the survival rucksack out. She opened it up and took out the side arm, hoping that it was not dead. It was. She tossed it into the cockpit. The medical scanner was also useless. About the only thing she could use was a knife and some emergency rations that included a canteen of water. She slung the rucksack over her shoulder. It was much lighter.

She pulled off her gloves and tossed them back into the cockpit. Then she carefully stepped out onto what was left of the port wing. One last look at Khas’s helmet and she swallowed hard. He may have been a heartless Votainion, but he was her crewmate and she had failed to get him down alive. She said a silent Votainion prayer for his soul.

There were several vines hanging from the tall trees and she was able to snag one and test it with her weight before descending to the jungle floor. As she lowered herself through the mist, there was a pleasant drop in the temperature but not the humidity. The world took on a different look and feel as she neared the tall grass that covered the ground. It reminded her of falling deep into a dark ocean. She just didn’t know what lurked beneath her and that scared the hell out her. A low fog hung over the dull gray, primordial vegetation. Very little sunlight reached this far down through the high jungle canopy.

Stepping onto the ground, her feet slipped on the moss-covered roots of the massive tree, sending her prone onto the ground. She felt foolish and terribly out of her element. With her face pressed against the pliant grass, she thought she heard someone laughing. As she pushed her head up, she saw movement a few meters away.

Two bipedal individuals were walking hand in hand away from her. They were so familiar; she had to think twice before calling out to them. Strict non-interference laws prevented her from making contact with indigenous intelligent life forms unless her survival made it unavoidable. She watched them strolling through the high grass, looking like a young human couple in love.

Their lean, chartreuse bodies were completely naked, with grass-shaped stripes of black extending outward from their spines. She couldn’t tell if the pattern was natural or somehow painted onto their skin. They moved with an elegant stride that made a human’s gait look clumsy in comparison.

A high pitched laughter blurted out from behind her. She spun around quickly, her blond hair swaying aside. The humidity had already flattened her regulation bob cut. Standing beside her was an alien juvenile, covering his face and giggling at Szeredy. The child’s smile radiated from behind the six-fingered hands that covered his face. Szeredy returned the smile, entranced with the child’s large, saffron eyes.

Szeredy put a finger up to her mouth in a gesture of silence. The child probably wouldn’t interpret the sign language correctly, but it was the only thing she could think of to keep him from giving away Szeredy’s position.

The alien tilted his small round head to one side and then mimicked Szeredy’s gesture with his own frail finger. The move touched a cord deep inside the downed pilot. She wanted to pull the child close into her arms in a maternal hug.

The two adult aliens called out for the child. Their voices strikingly familiar to Szeredy as they sang out. The little boy withdrew into the tall grass and reappeared at his parent’s side. There was some animated discussion between the three of them after which the parents looked around suspiciously, as if they were not sure whether to believe the child’s wild claims.

Szeredy stayed put on the wet ground, hoping the kid didn’t drag his parents over to see the strange white creature. After lying still for several minutes, she ventured to stand up. The family moved on, and quickly blended into the swaying grass.

The aliens were bipedal and probably carbon based, not unlike herself. Szeredy marveled at the universe’s ability to evolve such a useful body shape on so many different planets. She firmly believed that nature worked the same on all similar worlds.

She headed off in the direction of the aliens. It was rapidly getting darker and she wasn’t looking forward to being alone in the jungle at night. A light rain started coming down as the skies darkened with storm clouds.

Walking through the tall grass and ground fog, Szeredy couldn’t see so she had to rely on her other senses to track the family. Concentrating on the sound of their voices, she stumbled into a snare trap. The explosive jerk pulled her into the air. She found herself hanging several meters off the ground by her boots. The rucksack and knife lay in the grass below her. She cursed her stupidity as she hung helpless and defenseless.





Chapter 3

Talon slowly turned the rock over in his big fingers. He had spent a sizable amount of his income on the flawless jewel and it got him exactly nothing in return. He had proposed to the woman of his dreams and she had politely refused him. She might just have taken the ring and cut his heart out with it. It was too late to return it, Szeredy and he had left for deep space a week after he purchased it, and they would never be going back to Vorticon IV. A situation was brewing on Voton, the home world of the Votainion Empire, and their starship could be leaving the area at any moment.

He was stuck with a useless rock and a broken heart. He slid the tiny ring onto the end of his little finger and twisted it around. There were several other pilots in the preflight lounge chatting. He sat by himself next to a porthole. Taking off the ring he held it up to the porthole. Somewhere out there in the inky black was his ex-lover, Szeredy. She and her scanning officer were the last recon patrol to return from the current star system. Talon always hung out in the lounge when she was out in space. Old habits were hard to break.

He had proposed to her one week ago in the observation lounge of the K’a-core Resort. It was probably the first time a guest of the hotel had ever proposed there or anywhere on the planet for that matter. Votainions did not marry out of romantic love, they were joined in arranged marriages by the Kastra leaders and the elders of the families involved.

He had thought of everything, even arranged to have something that resembled champagne and something that tasted kind of like real chocolate for them to celebrate with in the private suite. She had not seen it coming. He had taken her completely off guard by getting down on one knee before a large round window that overlooked the dark trees of a rain forest covering the planet’s southern continent. There were two full moons visible just above the tree-topped horizon that night. Talon couldn’t believe how romantic it was, considering where they were.

Szeredy had started to cry what he had thought were tears of joy. Then she handed him back the ring and left the resort for a long walk. He waited for her to return but she never did. He looked all around the resort and finally got word that she had returned to the ship without him. It was several uncomfortable duty days later when she came to his quarters and told him that she loved being with him but that she just didn’t have the same feelings for him. Talon’s heart sank into a dark place from which it hadn’t returned yet. He switched squadrons and avoided her as much as possible, but it was damn near impossible to get away from a fellow pilot on a starship carrier.

They kept running into each other at awkward moments. Szeredy put in for a transfer and her request had been granted, but they would not be back in Alliance space for another six to eight months. A part of him wanted her to stay. He still loved her and the feelings couldn’t be suppressed easily. Only time and separation would heal his broken heart.

The emergency alert siren went off and startled Talon out of his misery. An electronic voice echoed through the ship, “Attention. Attention, all hands. Starfighter down. Starfighter down. All emergency crews to the launch bays. Attention. Attention, all hands.”

Talon bolted up from his seat and headed for the nearest launch bay. He tucked the ring into a pocket on his flight suit.

Inside the launch bay crews scurried around the rescue shuttle and a standby starfighter. Talon ran over to the starfighter and jumped up onto the side of the ship.

“Cal, let me take your spot!”

Cal looked up at him and consented without a word. He climbed out of the cockpit and handed his helmet to Talon.

“You owe me mister. Both our butts will hang out to dry for this.”

“Thanks, buddy. See you on the return.”

Talon was already winding up the starfighter’s engines and closing the canopy when Cal stepped off the bird and onto the metal deck. He shook his head as he left the bay.

Information about the downed starfighter was coming in through Talon’s data comm link. Szeredy and Khas’s scout disappeared off the ship’s scanners while in orbit of a planet third from the star IS-40c. It had no name but was classified as capable of sustaining life. Details were sketchy but a rescue buoy had been activated and there was no visual contact with the starfighter.

Both the starfighter and the shuttle were space borne inside ten minutes and heading full throttle towards IS-40c. Talon turned on his forward scanners even though they were too far out to do any good. “We will be in range in fifteen minutes, thirty seconds,” said the Core Control.

“I know. I’m just a little anxious CC.”

“I am adjusting fuel mixture to assure maximum thrust,” the Core Control said.

“Thanks.”

The two ships darted for the blue and green planet, the starfighter edging out ahead.

“Delta Four Whiskey Niner Five, Delta Four Whiskey Niner Five, do you copy?”

There was nothing but static on the comm system. If they had managed to land or were still in their fighter, they would have answered. He called again, the concern in his voice was evident to everyone who heard him.

“Delta Four Whiskey Niner Five, Delta Four Whiskey Niner Five, do you copy?”

More static.

“Delta Five, this is Rescue One, I’m not getting a fix on their ship. We may just be too far out.”

“Rog, keep trying Rescue One. We’re only getting one pass on this.”

The bridge signaled them over data comm that the situation on Varconone was critical and the combined fleet was mobilizing all ships in Empire space. If they could not find the downed fighter in one sweep of the surface, they had to return to the starship. It could be months before another fleet starship came back this way with time enough to do a proper search.

Talon started to tap his helmet absent mindedly. He would get over his heartache in time, but he could not bear to lose Szeredy. Not now, not when she was still in his every waking thought and just the sight of her across the briefing room made his heart dance.

As they came within range of the rescue buoy, the shuttle collected the marker and started downloading the data into their ship’s Core Control. Talon dropped down to low planetary orbit and concentrated his scans in the equatorial region. There were many life signs and any one of them could have been Szeredy and Khas. The shuttle had more powerful scanners and trailed Talon’s fighter in a higher orbit. They were looking for Personal Locater Beacons which were embedded in the pilot’s space suits. Even if the occupants were dead, they would still get a signal from the PLBs.

Talon wasn’t getting a PLB signal. He kept messing with the tolerances of the scanner, trying to get more accuracy out of it to no avail. The shuttle’s scanner operators were coming up empty too. He tapped on his helmet some more.

“They have to be here. We can’t leave until we get something,” Talon said over the ship-to-ship comm link.

“I’m sorry Lieutenant, we just can’t make out any definite signals,” the operator said.

The orange bars of his scanner spiked and Talon’s heart skipped a beat.

“Did you see that?”

There was silence as the shuttle’s scanner crew narrowed their tracking beam.

“No, we didn’t get a thing.”

“It was the R-77, I know it was. Nothing on this planet registers in the range of composite materials. I got a noticeable spike back there. It had to be them.”

The shuttle commander’s voice interrupted them.

“Constellation Command is recalling us. We’re leaving the area. Reform on me, Delta Five.”

Talon couldn’t believe they were actually going to leave now. He pounded the padded dashboard and cursed the Captain, the shuttle commander and the universe at large. After taking a moment to collect himself, he doubled back over the area where the spike occurred. The shuttle pulled out of orbit and started back for the mother ship.

“Delta Five, this is Rescue One, abort the search. Repeat, abort the search.”

Talon switched off his comm link. He brought his tiny fighter lower into the atmosphere and did another narrow beam sweep. This time he got no spike. Just a flat line in the spectrum. A dark fog came over him as he pulled up into space and looked back one last time at the white clouds and lush green vegetation below.

“I’ll be back, my love. Somehow, some way. I will come back,” he said to himself. A few meteors grazed the upper atmosphere as he tore his eyes away from the view for the last time.





Chapter 4

Something poked her in the stomach. She brushed it off and fell back into the warm, embrace of sleep, where nothing bothered her. Except that annoying dig in her bladder. Szeredy opened her eyes to the darkness of the jungle at night.

Several shapes moved in the tall grass below her. One of them poked her in the bladder with a branch of some kind. Or was it a spear? Szeredy tried to slap the controls for her personal defense system shields until she remembered her suit was inoperative. Her hands were tied together with more vines. She had allowed herself to be surprised again by this strange world.

A few moments later she was being lowered to the half dozen mysterious figures below. They were males, as naked and hairless as the others had been. Their bodies were covered with a thick, oily substance that glistened on their olive skin. That was all she had time to notice before one of them clubbed her on the back of the head and she passed out.

* * *

Szeredy awoke to the sound of familiar voices. Several people were discussing something in broken Votainion. The accents were high pitched and slurred as if spoken by alien seraphs. She opened her eyes and saw only a verdant blur. Streams of yellow light broke through thin vanes of green until finally she focused on the bands of a thatched roof. She looked around and saw that she was lying in a low hut made from cut trees, covered with grass. There were several aliens moving around outside, engaged in cooking a skinned animal over a fire.

She tried to sit up and was overcome with sudden dizziness. Resting her head back down, she felt a smooth texture against her skin. It was not the tight, constrictive fabric of her flight suit. She was naked beneath the pelt of a dead animal. There was something crawling under her legs. She looked down and was startled to see a line of small black insects marching in single file across the dirt floor of the hut. She let out a startled shriek and pulled herself away from the parade of insects. They continued on about their way, totally unaware of the commotion they caused.

One of the female aliens entered the opening of the hut and stopped short of coming inside. Szeredy stared at the aquamarine colored alien while she covered herself with the animal fur. The alien noticed the insects and a broad smile opened across her face. Szeredy didn’t find any humor in the situation. The alien motioned for Szeredy’s hand. Szeredy cautiously accepted and let the alien gently pull her out of the hut.

Outside there were several other female aliens and a few children of various heights, all of them a distinctly chartreuse color. They turned to look at her with their big yellow eyes and pronounced foreheads. Seeing that they were as naked as she was, Szeredy reluctantly lowered the fur cover and let it fall to the ground. She still felt a blush rising in her face but the people seemed to relax, as if seeing someone covered was cause for alarm. The aquamarine colored alien examined Szeredy’s hand in her own cool fingers. Several other adult females moved in for a closer inspection. They seemed particularly fascinated with her blond hair.

They spoke quietly amongst themselves, obviously discussing the various odd features of their guest. Szeredy could almost make out what they were saying as they caressed her arms with their delicate cool fingers. Her body hair, what little she had, amused them to no end. The children approached her next; touching her in places far too familiar. She gently brushed their fingers away from her pubic area. They didn’t seem to have any shame.

The females ordered the children to retreat. The one with Szeredy’s hand led her to another fire pit. They sat down on smooth logs that were positioned around the white coals of the dying fire. The smell of burning wood permeated the jungle air and her senses for the first time. It was intoxicating. The alien pointed to the coals and Szeredy noticed the outlines of her flight suit. It was designed for far worse damage than a campfire. It was no longer very useful as a survival suit. She couldn’t breath in it and would be at risk for dehydration had she continued to wear it. Szeredy wondered briefly if her knife was also in the fire. She shook her head as if to convey that she didn’t want the suit back. The alien smiled approvingly.

This world was like living in a paradise. She had never realized that a wild and foreign planet could be so seductive and serene. She sensed no danger from these aliens, despite how they had captured her.

The blue-green female pointed to herself and said, “Cyril.”

Szeredy pointed to herself and said, “Szeredy.”

The alien smiled and repeated, “Zerdy.”

Szeredy was struck by the Votainion pronunciation of her name. The alien looked more human than the others and her skin color was a blend of Votainion blue and native chartreuse. Her eyes were more slanted and dark, almost Votainion black. Szeredy realized that her new friend was some kind of a Votainion half-breed. Cyril spoke again and Szeredy found that she could understand most of what the alien was communicating.

“Your mate didn’t survive in the trees. Where have you come from?”

“I come from a land very far away in the night sky.”

Cyril blinked her dark eyes as if that made perfect sense. She looked up into the dark canopy of leaves high above them. “My people come from above the trees in the night sky. They fell to the ground many generations ago and have never returned.” She looked at Szeredy again.

“Do you come from where my people do?”

Szeredy nodded slowly. She just couldn’t lie to her newfound friend. Space faring civilizations were simply not within Cyril’s grasp, so Szeredy made it sound as if there were lands above the sky, higher than the trees. Cyril seemed to understand.

They sat on the log and spoke for hours, pausing briefly to eat the animal the tribe was cooking. Szeredy had rarely tasted food cooked over an open flame. A life aboard starships and space stations, where fire was a deadly threat to existence, didn’t afford her the opportunity. She found that she liked flame cooked animal, the crunch of charred meat was satisfying in her mouth.

As dusk approached, the men of the tribe awoke and emerged from their huts. They were hunters and made their living at night, when the largest of predators were awake and hunting too. The males were slightly bigger than the females and carried themselves less elegantly. Their lean, muscular frames reminded Szeredy of zero gravity acrobats. They paid her little attention and only spoke in curt sentences to the females. After eating, they gathered around the fires and engaged in a form of verbal story telling that Szeredy found most enjoyable. Seemingly stoic male leaders gestured wildly and made comical expressions in reciting various tribal myths. To Szeredy’s surprise, she was encouraged to join in the tale of her capture. The children of the tribe laughed in their high-pitched, giddy voices and the adults watched her with a mixture of curiosity and good cheer.

When story time was over, the children were put to bed and the males began to dress for the night’s hunt. They were taking a kid out for what Szeredy gathered was his first hunt. He seemed cautious of the attention but at the same time clearly reveled in it. His big, bright yellow eyes took in all the details of the preparation, studying intently everything his elders did.

They had fashioned a hollowed tree into a bathing tub and filled it with a jet-black liquid that resembled petroleum. One by one the men stepped into the tub and submerged themselves into the dull black mud. When they came out they were covered in it and stood around the fire to let it bake onto their olive skin. Cyril explained that the mud acted as cover for the darkness of night.

Their weapons were primitive, but deadly nevertheless. Sharpened spears with flint heads and thin arrows were made from wood and bird feathers. The oldest males boiled a special concoction of poison used on the arrowheads. Szeredy had a primal urge to join them. She asked Cyril if she could tag along with them. Cyril looked at her in astonishment, her eyes blinking with soft eyelashes. Szeredy took that for a no and quickly dismissed the idea. Secretly she still wanted to go on a hunt, perhaps another time.

As she watched the men parade past them and into the night, one of them caught her eye. He stared at her with a primal focus that startled her. She asked Cyril who he was and she replied, “That is Kwin. Before him is Jel and over there, that is Wyrm. They are the best of our hunters.”

Szeredy watched them all but could not pull her gaze away from Kwin. She noticed right away that he carried her knife. She wanted it back, but decided now was not the time.

Cyril sat with Szeredy until the males had formed their hunting parties and disappeared into the darkness that surrounded the jungle camp. Then she led Szeredy into her hut and saw to it that she was comfortable enough to sleep for the night. Szeredy was not surprised that several other single females shared the hut with her and Cyril. They insisted there was safety in numbers when the males were away for the hunt.

The night was dark and noisy with the sounds of jungle nightlife. It took Szeredy a long while to drift off to sleep as her first day on the alien world came to a close.

* * *

Electrical power was out from the last enemy bombardment. Candles burned as the only light source. The windows were covered in heavy black cloth to keep light from escaping and giving away the building’s presence during night bombing raids. As a result, the Chief Strategist’s office was uncomfortably warm and darker than usual.

“We have operatives at the highest levels of the enemy’s offices. None of them has ever mentioned a project as bold as you claim, commander. It’s simply not possible to fly that high,” Chief Strategist Pruden said.

“How do you explain the lights and our ability to bring one down?” Kor’re asked. He knew he was treading lightly with the portly man, but needed to make his point.

Pruden put a delicate white handkerchief to his forehead and whipped his sweaty brow. Kor’re detested the political animal that Pruden had become. One day soon he would take over the Chief Strategist’s position and this sorry excuse for a leader would be retired or dead.

“Commander, I will admit that the entire incident is bizarre, but I cannot justify a military expedition across the Krackenhoven Mountains in search of mysterious lights in the morning sky. The Western Front is beginning to flare up again and all of our resources are being pressed into service.”

Kor’re moved in close enough that he could smell the perspiration coming from the Chief Strategist; a sign of weakness. He was under an enormous amount of stress and Kor’re was just adding to it with his crazy talk of shooting down lights in the sky.

“Sir, what if we find this object? What technological miracles would it possess that allowed it to fly so high and so fast? Don’t you think that would give us an unprecedented leap ahead of the enemy? It could change the course of the war forever. Perhaps lead to our eventual victory.”

The very idea of gaining an advantage over the enemy at this point in time was incredibly appealing to Pruden. And Kor’re knew it. He was hoping Pruden saw the advantage he was offering. The war was not going well for them. Recent enemy advances were draining their resources and manpower.

Pruden brought the handkerchief to his mouth and covered a burp. Kor’re saw the desperation in the man’s eyes and knew that he had won.

“You have your expedition commander. But I want you to do it with as few resources as possible.”

Kor’re relaxed. “There are mining tunnels under the mountains that lead to the far side. We can be through them in a matter of days. I should be able to send word of our progress over the wireless.”

Pruden sat down behind his large, wooden desk. He looked more at ease as he straightened the papers strewn about the desk top. “If you fail to return with anything useful, I should hate to think what it would do to your career, commander. You had better find something.”

Kor’re resisted the temptation to respond in the manner he wanted. Instead, he nodded his head out of forced respect. “Yes, sir.”

Kor’re left the Chief Strategist’s office and headed back to the artillery base. He was not entirely sure how he would get through the mining tunnels or even if it were possible. But he was sure that he would find a way. Nothing was going to stop him from finding that object. He was beginning to believe that shooting it down was some kind of divine providence.





Chapter 5

Szeredy awoke to the cries of exotic birds high in the jungle canopy. She lay still listening to the mating calls echoing back and forth. Morning sunlight made the inside of the hut glow softly. The other women were still sleeping, unfazed by the loud calls. She thought about her situation as she listened to the birds. Her scout would have come up missing by now and a search party from the Constellation would be dispatched to the system to find them. But they would have a difficult time finding her. They would be searching for her PLB and its transmitter was fried along with her scout.

Provided they could somehow locate the scout without too much difficulty, she could expect to be found in a few days. She had no idea how long a day was on IS40c but it seemed to be slightly shorter than a standard starship rotation. She figured that she would be safe enough if she stayed with this tribe for a while.

Flying insects buzzed around in the hut. She slapped her skin occasionally trying to kill them. There were so many insects, she had forgotten how invasive life could be on a planet. The others were beginning to stir. Cyril was the first awake. She sat up, stretching her arms out to get her circulation going. Her blue-green skin was smooth and flawless in the pale light. Szeredy wondered if there were more of her kind on the planet.

Cyril turned to face her and their eyes met. “Kharonem, Zerdy.”

Szeredy recognized the Votainion word for good morning. It sounded different coming from Cyril. Maybe it was the pronunciation she was using, it was not as harsh as traditional Votainion.

“Kharonem, Cyril.”

“It is time to rise and make the Kharon meal.”

Szeredy nodded in agreement, her stomach was starting to growl. They gently woke the other women and then gathered outside in the fog strewn camp site. Several of the women set out for water while Cyril and Szeredy began reviving the evening fire. Cyril used a flintstone that she had carefully unwrapped from a leather pouch to light the kindling. After a few smart cracks of the stone, the sparks took hold and a small fire grew. Szeredy found some larger sticks and dumped them onto the fire; slowly it came alive.

An elderly woman came out from another hut and sat down near the fire. Her hair had streaks of silver in it and she moved with a slow, unhurried manner befitting an elder. Cyril did not speak to the woman, she tended her fire in silence. The old woman began mixing a fine powder with water in a wooden bowl, making a dough that she kneaded with bony fingers.

There was no sign of the men and Szeredy wondered if they had even returned yet from the night’s hunt. She helped Cyril tend to the fire until the other women returned with water from a nearby stream. They were giggling like young women everywhere and chatting in their high-pitched native tongue. They filled a large wooden tub with the water they had transported in animal skin bags. Then they disappeared back into the jungle to fetch more water.

Szeredy watched the elder woman pound out her dough. She pointed to the woman and then to herself. Cyril understood.

“Her name is Crinna. She is the cook.”

“What is she making?”

“Crinna makes the morning meal. We bake her dough and feed the men first. we may have what is left over.”

“Is there any left over after the men eat?”

Cyril grinned. “Of course Zerdy, you will be fed.”

A commotion in the jungle caught Cyril’s attention. “The hunters return.”

Out of the jungle green came the spear touting hunters. Their bodies still caked with mud and their movements languid. They carried a large creature tied to a branch and several smaller animals tied to sticks held over their shoulders. It looked to Szeredy like a successful night’s hunt. But Cyril was disappointed.

“We will be moving on soon, the land is not as fertile here anymore. Time was when the men would bring back much more kill than this.”

“How much did they use to bring back?”

Cyril did not answer, keeping her head down and accepting the kill from the lead hunter. Szeredy helped her friend set the animal down and untie it from the branch. The men gathered around the fire and held out their hands. Szeredy watched them, admiring their lean and muscular bodies. She was not used to seeing such prime examples of manhood no matter what the species. She found Kwin again, he was less interested in her now but he did appear to note her unabashed stares.

The three young women returned again with more water and dumped it into the wooden tub. They gathered around the men and started guiding one of the hunters to the water tub. The hunter sat down in the tub and the women washed the dark mud from his body. Cyril caught Szeredy staring and nudged her.

Szeredy grinned sheepishly and returned her attention to helping Cyril.

Later they put a flat sheet of metal on the fire to cook the bread, Szeredy wondered where they got the metal from. It looked like it might have been manufactured at one time. It was blackened and bent into a flat shape.

Cyril explained that some items in their possession were stolen from other tribes and adapted for use in cooking and hunting. Nobody knows what they were used for or how they were originally made. Szeredy wanted to know more about the other tribes but Cyril cut her off and they began serving the hunters their breakfast.

While the men ate, they talked over the night’s hunt. It seemed that the kid did not throw his spear hard enough and missed his intended mark. The other hunters did not chide him, instead offering him words of encouragement and guidance. The few children in the tribe were the next to eat and finally, the women took their turn. Szeredy and Cyril ate with the other women. The men eventually took their weapons and ducked into their huts to sleep.

When the women finished eating, they immediately began cleaning the night’s kill and cutting it up for the evening meal. Cyril and Szeredy took the dirty pans and headed down to the stream to clean them. It was getting noticeably hotter as the sun climbed higher in the sky beyond the jungle canopy. Szeredy was already sweating and glad she didn’t have to wear any clothes. Nudity was not something her own people were timid about, but living completely unclothed was not something she had been able to do on starships. Her bare feet were still tender on the twigs and dirt of the forest floor. But otherwise she was adapting well to the primitive lifestyle.

As they scrubbed the pans with palm fronds and water, Szeredy decided to ask again about the other tribes.

“How many other tribes are in this area?”

Cyril shrugged. “A couple. Why do you ask?”

“I was just curious that’s all. Are any of them like you?”

Cyril looked up at her and froze. Szeredy thought she had said something wrong and offended the woman. Until she saw that Cyril was looking behind her into the trees. Szeredy slowly turned her head to look. Several aliens were visible in the shadows of the gnarled trees on the far shore of the stream. They were blue-green colored like Cyril and had black stripes painted across their faces. Colored feathers fanned out above their heads. Even Szeredy knew they were from another tribe.

Warriors.





Chapter 6

Cyril didn’t move. Szeredy slowly turned around to face the warriors. She could only see two of them clearly, but she figured there were twice as many surrounding them, hidden in the foliage. Cyril’s dark eyes darted from left to right while she slowly backed up towards the shore. Szeredy realized that the warriors were probably transfixed by her blond hair and pale, white skin color. She wondered if they would see her as a goddess or just another helpless female. At the moment, she wasn’t willing to experiment.

As soon as Cyril’s feet touched dry land, she turned and bolted for the safety of the jungle in the direction of the camp. Szeredy watched her run and turned back to the two warriors staring at her. Maybe they were more interested in her than Cyril. Good. Cyril can get help. At least she hoped that would happen.

One of the two warriors stepped forward into the stream. He held a spear that was as long as he stood tall. He was about as as tall as the average human. His eyes were dark like Cyril’s and his skin, what was not covered in black paint was the same blend of blue-gray and green as Cyril’s. Szeredy was terrified for the first time since landing on this exotic world. Her legs twitched with the urge to run but she realized that being skewered by that spear was not worth the price.

Single combat moves flooded her head as she contemplated the best way to take down the warrior. Every Starveyer was trained in hand-to-hand combat and she had been one of the best, at least in practice sessions. Right now her heart beat in her throat as she tried to look demure in order to lower the warrior’s defenses. It appeared to be working. The warrior approached her with his spear lowered. She flexed her fingers slowly, ready to take him down as soon as he came within her reach.

He halted. His nostrils flared, smelling her scent in the humid air. His pupils enlarged like an animal. She was transfixed by him and his taut muscular arms. His tight abdominal muscles moved rhythmically as he breathed. Fear tingled in her limbs as she stood face to face with this man, almost like a wild animal. Reminded of how animals can be excited by looking them in the eyes, she lowered hers and used her peripheral vision.

The warrior wore a loin cloth and had colorful feathers tied to his arms and the back of his legs. Bold black lines were painted across his blue-green body. There were animal pelts hanging from his leather belt that swayed as he waded through the cool stream water. He came close to her but didn’t touch her, electing to do a wide sweep around her. He studied every aspect of her body with hard, black eyes that rarely blinked.

His features were very Votainion - jet black hair, pronounced forehead with large brow line and a slightly brutish stance. But this man was not full blooded Votainion. He was definitely a mixed breed with a more slender muscle tone indicative of his native side. She wondered how long ago the cross-breeding took place.

The warrior stopped and looked into the jungle behind her. He crouched a bit and raised his spear. Szeredy turned ever so slowly to see what was going on. The warrior’s attention was clearly focused on the jungle. She knew the moment had come to make her move, she only hoped that the other warrior would not intervene and cut her down.

She had never fought anyone naked and it made her feel uncomfortable and weak, but she forced those thoughts away and just relied on her training.

Szeredy sweeped his feet from under him, forcing him into the stream. She jumped on top of him as he fell stomach first. The warrior’s head went under the water and he struggled to right himself. She twisted one arm against his back, fighting to keep him down. He silently struggled, thrashing as he drowned. Another warrior came out of the jungle on the far side of the stream. He was silent but she knew he was there. His spear went up. She glanced at the frowning man’s spear. The choice was to release the one who was drowning but get stabbed or defend against the new threat. Before she could move, something flew passed her. She ducked out of instinct as a spear impaled the second warrior’s mid section.

He fell back into the stream with a look of astonishment on his face. The water darkened with blood as Szeredy tightened her grip on the last struggles of the warrior under her. She focused on a third warrior who materialized next to her. This one’s hatchet sliced into her lower ribs before she could defend herself. Pain laced her side as the warm blood flowed. With a primal scream she thrust her spear at the attacker. Missed. She fell to her knees in the water, clutching her bleeding side.

The warrior batted her spear away. He grabbed a fistful of yellow, pulling her head back. Slowly, staring evilly into her eyes, he raised his hatchet.

She stifled her cry of pain. She was a warrior too. No weakness. This was how it would end, a day after crashing on this lush and deadly world. Slain by a half-breed Votainion. The irony of former enemies killing each other on a primitive world did not escape her.

A loud whoosh and thump flooded her death sharpened ears. Blood gushed and splattered her. The grip immediately loosened. A spear appeared sticking out of his neck, nearly severing it.

Szeredy swung her eyes in the new direction. A new threat? The pain and blood loss not giving her much of a chance.

Help. Kwin.

Darkness swallowed her as she fell into the water.

* * *

Commander Kor’re’s expedition to the far side of the Great Mountains assembled in the flatlands near the lowest mine entrance. A platoon of fully armed soldiers, several burca and their handlers, two Vurhan scouts and an Engineer for scientific supervision.

Kor’re did not want to have an Engineer with them, but the Chief Strategist had insisted on it. How else would they be able to properly analyze whatever new technology they found, he had argued. Kor’re didn’t have a response for that possibility, so he relented and brought the damn Engineer along. He hated bringing Brights into the field on maneuvers because they tended to be more trouble than they were worth. They generally lived protected lives in laboratories and were unequipped to deal with the rigors of daily military life.

Sergeant Krupp headed up the enlisted men and he had done a fine job of selecting some the best soldiers under Kor’re’s command. They were strong, hearty men who were not intimidated by the unknown. Kor’re was a little concerned about the Vurhan scouts, but he figured they would be invaluable once they got into the jungle that was known to exist on the far side of the mountains. Still, he couldn’t discount that one or both of them were members of the Vurhne underground and were therefore not to be fully trusted.

It would be days before any of them saw sunlight again. Kor’re stared at the setting sun and tried to hold the orange and blue sky in his memory. There was a stiff breeze blowing as storm clouds gathered high over the tops of the Great Mountains. If he were a superstitious man, he would have taken the storms for a bad omen. But he was far too practical to even notice the darkening skies directly overhead.





Chapter 7

Szeredy opened her eyes and saw the thatched weave of the hut she had spent the night inside. It was still day outside but it was dark and cool inside. Her side was throbbing as she touched it with her left hand. There was a crude bandage that looked and felt like wet mud wrapped with fern leaves. Great, they dressed my wound with mud. She turned her head to look out the entrance to the hut but could not see anything useful.

She waited on her back, trying not to think about the infection that was inevitably growing inside of her. After what seemed like an eternity, Cyril entered the hut and put a cool hand on Szeredy’s forehead.

Cyril checked the bandage and told her to be quiet.

“You must rest. Give your body time to heal.”

She did not look very happy.

“You have killed a Vurhan warrior and Kwin has killed two of them. Our tribe will be moving soon. We must not fight the Vurhan people.”

Szeredy looked at Cyril oddly. “Why?”

“They are savages and they will kill every member of our tribe if we stay here.”

“Can you peel back these leaves for a moment?”

Cyril nodded and gently pulled back the mud packed leaves. The wound was wet and clotted with dark blood scabs. Szeredy looked at the wound for signs of an infection, lay back down to rest. The movement had weakened her.

“I need to rest,” Szeredy said.

Cyril nodded as she replaced the muddy bandage. She covered Szeredy with an animal skin blanket and quietly left the hut.

* * *

When Szeredy awoke again it was dark. She could hear voices outside the hut. Shapes moved back and forth in front of a fire, casting shadows. She felt her forehead and wiped the perspiration away. Szeredy wondered whether the alien’s efforts to stop an infection had worked, she felt light headed and chilled. Snuggling under the animal skin, she thought about what had happened. She was in a fight with the warriors of a tribe of mixed breed Votainion and indigenous male Vurhan. They were blue-green colored like Cyril and they wore black paint and colorful feathers. Their weapons were wooden spears with metallic tips and their foreheads were more pronounced and brutish like some races of Votainions.

Szeredy’s father was a linguist and she grew up listening to him speak Votainion. She also traveled with him around the Empire living on stations and starships. She knew Votainion customs and language better than the average Starveyer. In her estimation, the men of the opposing tribe were indeed warriors, and they had greater knowledge of weapons. Not to mention a bloody heritage that extended back nearly as far as her own. She had to speak to Cyril, find out how many were in the warrior’s tribe. Judging by the commotion outside, the tribe was preparing to move.

She looked out the entrance to the hut and waited for someone to come and check on her. Someone came close to the entrance and moved away. Szeredy wanted to call out but thought better of it when her temples began to throb. She pushed her forehead with the hand from her good side, and the pain seemed to penetrate deeper into her head like a migrain. She didn’t feel anything around her wound but her head was killing her. It was not a typical infection, which made her think she was dealing with something else. Squinting from the pain that grew in intensity from behind her eyes she tried to think.

There was definitely something in the planet’s physiology that was not agreeing with her. She had to let her body rest while it fought the alien pathogens that were indigenous and not particularly healthy for her. She tried to remain calm. The last thing she needed was to get all worried about an alien disease killing her. She started doing relaxation techniques that she learned in her Starveyer training. Keeping calm and letting her body take care of itself was half the battle.

Eventually she was able to control her anxiety and that helped the pain subside enough for her to fall asleep. She woke up several times during the night feverish, tossing and turning as much as possible given her wounded side. Somehow she was able to get back to sleep, as the nighttime jungle sounds soothed her feverish mind.





Chapter 8

“Zerdy. Zerdy are you awake?”

Szeredy opened her eyes and saw the blue-green, serious face of her friend. It was still dark. Szeredy blinked and realized that her headache had subsided.

“We must go now.”

Szeredy nodded even though she didn’t know exactly what she was agreeing to. Her side still throbbed with pain but she found that she could sit up without difficulty which surprised her. Cyril helped her up and Szeredy leaned on her for support. When they came outside, the village had been abandoned. They were the only two people left.

The jungle was dark but her eyes adjusted after only a few minutes of walking. Cyril’s darker complexion let her blend in with the night better than the green skinned natives. They walked relentlessly only stopping to navigate over a fallen tree or other forest obstacle. Szeredy’s feet were beginning to blister from walking without shoes. Several of the sores chose this time to pop and cause her pain when she walked.

Cyril was silent as they walked and nervously scanned the forest every time they stopped for Szeredy to rest. Szeredy wondered how well her night vision was given that she had some native blood in her. The large saffron eyes of the locals no doubt allowed them better night vision than the average human or Votainion.

“Cyril, who were those blue skinned people that attacked me?”

“Vurhan. Very dangerous.” Her tone was respectful.

“Are you Vurhan?”

Cyril nodded.

“What are the green skinned people called?”

Cyril looked at her strangely. “Tyrmian.”

Szeredy could tell from her expression that now was not a good time for discussion. Szeredy rubbed her feet and her hands became bloodied. Cyril reached over for a fern plant and broke off a stem. She proceeded to squeeze out some sap from the branch and rubbed it on Szeredy’s blisters. The pain died down immediately. Szeredy touched her friend on the shoulder and smiled a silent thank you.

Cyril helped her up again and they continued their relentless march into the night.

* * *

They came to a clearing near a dried river bed, at least that’s what Szeredy thought it was. The ground was smooth. They had walked down a long hill to there. Cyril apparently knew where she was going as they followed the cool, dry dirt of the river bed. Szeredy’s feet were still sore but much less so than they would have been. The high jungle trees extended over the river bed giving Szeredy the sense that they were walking into a natural cathedral.

Szeredy wondered if they were going into a protected area, somewhere that the tribe felt safe, somewhere that the other Vurhan didn’t know about. The forest seemed to get darker as they went, an indication that they were going deeper into some kind of hollow. Szeredy had to sit down again, her calves were sore and her side ached.

Cyril helped her to the ground and walked a few steps ahead. She stopped and tilted her head to the side as if straining to hear something.

Szeredy rubbed her feet again, the bleeding had stopped and scabs had formed. Whatever was in that fern sap had a wonderful clotting agent. A loud snapping sound shot through the still of the night. The constant cacophony of the high tree dwellers fell silent, leaving only the rhythmic seesawing of the insects to fill the night air with their song.

Cyril slowly moved back to Szeredy and knelt down beside her. She spoke in a soft whisper.

“Mu’fron are coming. We will wait until they pass. Very large animals, very sharp teeth.”

Szeredy could hear something coming through the foliage. They sounded big, the soft mud of the river bed absorbed their heavy footfalls. Szeredy peered down river into the darkness and caught a glimpse of several dark shapes moving perpendicular to the river bed. An occasional horn shone in the dim light and she was quite certain that this was as close as she wanted to be to a mu’fron.

“Cyril, why are you not with your people?”

“I was not able to bear children. My tribe cast me out to the forest. I lived for a time by myself. The Tyrmian tribe took me in and adopted me as one of their own. I have been with them ever since.”

“The Tyrmians are very kind.”

Cyril nodded. “They are a good people, I am lucky.”

“Why do the Vurhan fight the Tyrmians?”

“It has always been so. The Vurhan are very aggressive. When we fight the Vurhan they kill us all, women and children included.”

Szeredy could tell her friend was clearly sympathetic to the struggle of the Tyrmians despite being a Vurhan. She even referred to her own race as ‘they’.

“Why are the Vurhan so aggressive?”

“They are a warrior race. They fight and they kill to appease the gods and extend the family.”

Szeredy was not surprised, but it deeply disturbed her. The Votainion race was indeed war-like and extremely violent. This tribe of lost Votainions were probably just doing as their ancestors did, dominating the planet like they dominated this entire side of the galaxy.

“How many Vurhan are there?”

Cyril looked sad, her dark eyes black as night. “Many tribes and growing. There are fewer Tyrmian tribes.”

Szeredy put her hand on Cyril’s shoulder.

“How long until we reach the others?”

“We have until sunrise, we must take shelter. The Vurhan hunt during the day.”

Szeredy looked around. She didn’t see any decent hiding places nearby, but she couldn’t see in the dark very well and had no idea what the terrain was like where they were heading.

“How long until dawn?”

“Not long.”

Szeredy stood up by herself and took a few short steps towards where the mu’fron had crossed. There were no longer any large shapes moving through the night and it sounded as if the animals had moved away.

“Let’s get moving.”

Cyril stood up and joined her, arm in arm they continued down the river bed.





Chapter 9

They reached a bend in the river and Cyril stopped. She looked around carefully at the trees and shrubs. Szeredy welcomed the pause in their journey, she sat down on a fallen log and caught her breath. The pain in her side was still there, throbbing gently to remind her of her wound.

“What is it?”

“We are close. I must make sure we are not being followed.”

Cyril motioned for Szeredy to stay put and slipped into the foliage. Szeredy sat there naked on the log feeling vulnerable and alone. She had only been on this world for a few days and here she was, interacting with the natives, defending herself from attacks, completely abandoning her Starveyer ideals and training. What if a rescue party finds me like this? She would be locked up, no doubt for breaking all kinds of non-interference laws. Her Starveyer career would be over and she would be forced to live on some back-water world doing manual labor to eek out a living.

She looked around at the lush forest and realized that living here was a far better life. Sure it was primitive and hard at times, but it was real. Not some plastic, sterile starship where life revolved around a clock and nobody seemed to slow down long enough to enjoy life. She waved at some flying insects that buzzed around her head. Even the bugs were somehow not as annoying anymore.

Cyril came back, grabbed Szeredy by the arm and stood her up. There was urgency in her voice.

“Come. We are being followed.”

They moved across the river bed and headed in a perpendicular direction to it. The going was rougher, thick fern plants and big leafed shrubbery impeded their movement. Cyril held the branches back as Szeredy struggled to keep up. After what seemed like an eternity they stopped again and headed in the same direction as they had been back at the river. Cyril kept looking back over her shoulder, her long black hair was tied into a single pony tail but there were individual braids in it that Szeredy had not noticed before. Her skin had a slight hint of native stripes from the back of her neck down her spine. Szeredy thought Cyril’s blue-green skin was beautiful. It was cool to the touch unlike her own white flesh that was constantly wet and warm.

Cyril moved slower than before and got down low in the underbrush. She motioned for Szeredy to sit down and get as low to the forest floor as possible. It was painful. Cyril covered Szeredy with leaves and branches and placed herself over her pale colored friend in an effort to conceal her. They waited quietly in the underbrush.

From behind them someone was coming through the forest. Szeredy thought whoever it was seemed to be moving in a much less elegant manner than Cyril or the Tyrmians.

A figure stopped near them and Szeredy looked up through leaves and past Cyril’s shoulder to see a Vurhan warrior standing perfectly still and looking around the forest ahead of them. He must have been following them closely. After a long pause, he moved forward again. A spear by his side.

Cyril breathed steadily, but Szeredy could sense that her heart raced. If the man had looked down, he would have no doubt found them and killed them or worse.

They listened as the warrior moved away from them and seemed to double back around. The next time Szeredy heard him, he was standing above them. The sound of his foot steps in the brush beside them startled Szeredy. A spear moved through the leaves and lifted the branches to expose them.

The Vurhan warrior tensed, pulling back the spear to plunge through them both.

Szeredy watched his black eyes grow large as he swiped something at his neck. A small feathered dart stuck in his skin. He pulled it out and looked at it oddly before he fell. He twitched once then lay looking at them with open, dead eyes.

Cyril slowly got up and brushed off the leaves. She stooped over the dead warrior removing his feathered arm band and took his spear. Szeredy slowly stood then sat on a nearby log. Out of the forest came a Tyrmian male, holding a long, slender blow pipe. He gathered Cyril in his arms and smelled the scent around her neck. They spoke in an unrecognizable dialect.

Cyril handed him the dead warrior’s spear and feathered arm band. The male put on the yellow arm band and hoisted the spear before slipping away into the underbrush. Cyril turned to help Szeredy stand.

“We are close to the others now.”

Szeredy looked at the blue back of the fallen warrior. She got a peculiar feeling just then that she would be seeing more of them again. It left her sad and a little worried for their future. Then she put her arm around Cyril and they continued after the Tyrmian male.





Chapter 10

After walking for close to an hour, they broke into a vast clearing in the jungle just as it started to rain. There was a longhouse built of wood and covered in bark that dominated the clearing. In the center of the longhouse, smoke trailed out from a fire inside. Fog settled around the smaller huts that flanked the longhouse. Szeredy could see many Tyrmians moving around the clearing, tending to chores.

Several green skinned natives approached Cyril and Szeredy. They were young females with taut muscles and big, saffron eyes. They helped Szeredy to the nearest hut and laid her down in a bed of animal hides. Cyril explained to them what had happened to Szeredy and the women stared at her with unblinking eyes. She knew they had never seen a human before, pale and blond. Part of the reason they stared was cultural. They probably thought of her as ugly. Word had spread of her pale white skin and little blue eyes. Szeredy felt like a freak.

Cyril checked on Szeredy’s wound and had the women redress it. One of the Tyrmian women left and came back with a bowl of thick soup and offered it to Szeredy. She took the bowl with a smile and thanked her in Votainion. The young woman smiled back. Her large eyes seemed less alarmed at Szeredy’s looks than they had been originally.

Szeredy ate the soup with a carved wooden spoon. It was bitter and spicy but not enough of either to stop her from finishing it. She asked what it was called and they responded with Thusmare, a local day meal. When she had finished, her bowl was taken away and she was left alone to rest. The rain fell steady outside the hut and Szeredy was soon asleep.

* * *

When she awoke it was late in the day and the rains had stopped. Cyril was laying beside her in the hut, resting from the long hike through the forest. She looked over at Szeredy and smiled.

“Good afternoon.”

“How long was I out?”

“Half the day. How do you feel?”

Szeredy touched the leaves at her side where she was cut by the Vurhan warrior. She barely felt the wound at all. Sitting up was not painful anymore. She pealed back the leaves and saw that her laceration was healed. Only a long, ragged scar remained. And it was still tender to the touch. It went against everything her medical training knew about healing. There must have been something in the leaves that promoted rapid skin and muscle regeneration.

“I didn’t expect this to heal so quickly.”

Cyril looked a little puzzled by the comment.

“It usually takes a day to heal most flesh wounds. Yours took longer because we were moving. Once we got you here and let you sleep, the healing could begin.”

Szeredy just shook her head in amazement. Cyril sat up and took Szeredy’s hand. They walked outside along a well worn foot path that was laid out with logs. The rain washed under the logs and kept the pathways free of mud. The forest canopy thinned out some above their heads. Sunlight filtered down through high trees and gave the clearing a much brighter feel than the regular forest floor.

There were many Tyrmians moving about the log trails. They stared at Szeredy as they passed. Some of the younger kids even pointed at her and laughed. She felt insecure with at all the attention. Even her nakedness embarrassed her again. Cyril brought her to another hut where they had prepared a bath for her inside a carved wooden tub like the one the males used to paint on the warm black mud they used for camouflage. Several teenaged Tyrmian girls bathed her and cleaned the mud from Szeredy’s feet. Cyril stayed and helped them wash her hair and braid it in multiple strands. Her hair was not long enough to bind into a tail so they pulled it back and pinned it up using bone hair pins.

Szeredy had not enjoyed this much attention to her beauty and well being in many years. There was that time she and her friends had sprung for a spa treatment on Caloundria but that was long ago and far, far away. It was a very happy moment for her and she enjoyed it immensely.

They took her out of the bath and dried her off with supple towels made from animal skins. Then they set her down on orange animal fur, and proceeded to decorate her body with earth tone paints. Szeredy didn’t want to be painted up but she could tell it was important to the women. They painted her toe nails and her finger nails and made elaborate patterns on her face, arms and mid-rift. The soft, hair tipped brushes tickled as they decorated her pale skin.

When they were done painting her, they brought in a beautiful feathered head piece that attached to her ears. The bird feathers were blue, green and yellow and radiated out from her ears. She was told it was to signify her acceptance into the tribe and to signal her availability as a mate. The pattern of colors indicated that she was in Cyril’s extended family. Szeredy was not sure she was ready to be anyone’s mate yet, but hopefully she would not have any takers. There was so much to learn about her new found family, but she didn’t feel rushed to figure it all out. That in itself was a tremendous relief to her.

Szeredy could hear a rhythmic drumming sound coming from the longhouse. It started slow and methodically and increased in tempo at a steady rate until it was something just faster than the beating of a heart.

“It is time for the acceptance ceremony. You are being welcomed into the tribe and will be made a member today,” Cyril said, as they all moved outside.

The clearing was empty as everyone had gone inside the longhouse for the ceremony. They walked along the log trail to the entrance of the longhouse. The drumming stopped abruptly.





Chapter 11

Cyril entered first, holding the animal skin flap open for Szeredy. It was dark inside the longhouse. The only light was from a fire in the center of the room. Everyone in the tribe was present from children to the elderly. Three men sat cross-legged before simple drums, pounding out the rhythms of life. Szeredy took a few cautious steps inside and then waited for Cyril to take her by the hand and guide her to a spot before the fire. They turned around and knelt down facing the entrance they had just come through. Szeredy bent forward in a prostrate position mimicking Cyril. Their hands were forward palms down on the dirt floor.

The drums suddenly stopped and the room got quiet. The entrance flap was pulled back again and a thin, elderly male entered. Szeredy sneaked a peek at him as he walked over to her. His large, saffron eyes were weary and wise. His green skin was wrinkled and saggy like an elderly human. He walked with the aid of a simple wooden stick that was well polished and smooth.

The tribal shaman.

He wore a headpiece made from bird feathers and animal pelts. His waist was covered in a leather flap painted in reds, greens, and yellows - the tribal colors. The old shaman spoke a trite word and Cyril motioned for Szeredy to rise to her knees. Szeredy’s first inclination was to stare in wonder at the shaman, to study his kind old face and his proud, beautiful headpiece. But she knew that as a female she was supposed to keep her eyes down.

He spoke again, this time with a reverence that made Szeredy look up at him. His face twisted into a look of shock and fear as he stared at her. She became concerned as he looked for all the world like he was seeing a ghost. The shaman began mumbling to himself what sounded like a prayer to her. He kept repeating the muffled words over and over.

Cyril looked up and around at the other Tyrmians. They stared quietly at the shaman and her new friend. The last time they had this look on their normally placid faces, they became extremely agitated and wound up fighting with a neighboring tribe over some long held grievance. It resulted in many dead from both tribes and an uneasiness that lasted for a long time.

The shaman raised his long arm above Szeredy’s head and waved it around in circles, then he backed away from her and took out a long, thin pipe from his shoulder bag. He squatted down beside the fire and used a burning branch to light the pipe. His cheeks puffed up as he sucked air through it to light it. Then he sat for a while in silence, smoking the pipe and staring into the fire.

The tribe was clearly upset by the shaman’s behavior. Szeredy could sense that even Cyril was on edge. She looked at her friend for guidance. Cyril whispered for her to remain still and keep her eyes down.

Several older male hunters stood up and moved to the elderly shaman. They had spears in hand and seemed tense, as they waited for the shaman to speak to them. Finally the old man stood up and faced the six senior hunters.

“She is from the skies above. She is not of this world. Were there any more of her kind?”

Kor, one of the hunters who had captured Szeredy on her first day said, “No, she is the only one.”

Szeredy could hear what they were saying and for the most part, understood them.

“Our legends speak of white creatures who came from the skies in times gone by. They helped our people find this forest and taught us many things. Fire, cooking and how to fight the blue-skins,” the shaman said. He looked past the males towards Szeredy.

“Do you think she is one of the ancients?” another hunter asked the shaman.

The old man’s large eyes narrowed. “I do. I never believed it would happen in my life. Every shaman since ancient times has expected The Return. I’m humbled that the spirits have chosen me to fulfill our destiny.”

As he started towards Szeredy again the hunters backed away from him. She tried to keep her eyes lowered but could not help looking at the old shaman as he faced her. He reached out and touched her blond hair, rubbing the tight braids in his fingers. Then he touched her cheek and her soft shoulders. Finally, he took her hands in his and squeezed her tight as if to prove to himself that he was not in fact touching a ghost. Satisfied that she was real flesh and bone, he spoke to her in a reverent tone.

“What is your bidding Ancient One? Why have you come from the sun to be among us?”

Szeredy had no answer. It sounded to her as if there were other humans on this world a long time ago.

“I’m lost. I cannot return to my world until others of my kind find me.”

She took a gamble by admitting that she was not perfect. She hoped this would not be considered a sign of weakness and lead to her death.

The shaman nodded and looked at her closely again.

“The ancients were lost too. Many paths exist in the sky. It must be hard to make one’s way in the land of the sun.”

She suppressed her grin. The man was wise beyond his station in life. She nodded.

“Nothing happens without a purpose from the spirits. You are here and you will be welcomed. The spirits will reveal your purpose to us in time.”

He motioned for the hunters to return to their positions. They made their way back to their families and sat down, spears on the dirt in front of them. Szeredy exhaled in relief.

Cyril did too. She looked at her friend in a new light now. The shaman had said Zerdy was from the spirit world. That she had chosen Cyril as her friend was a great honor.

The shaman raised his arms again and the drums began a new beat, slow and methodical. Everyone in the longhouse clapped their hands in unison except for Szeredy. She was about to join the tribe and become one of them. A young male brought forth a bowl of muddy paste and held it up before the shaman. The youth was dressed in similar garb as the old man, with fewer feathers and pelts. A shaman’s apprentice.

The shaman started reciting something in ancient Tyrmian. Szeredy listened to the sing song sounds of his words and felt honored to be accepted into the tribe. The shaman stuck his hand into the brown paste and spread it across Szeredy’s forehead and then over her bare shoulders. He took another scoop and spread it across her chest. Szeredy figured this was symbolic of being from the earth.

“Let it be known to all the land that Zerdy is one of the T’marre tribe,” the shaman said, loud enough for all to hear.

He used the same pronunciation of her name that Cyril used so she decided to refer to herself by that name so as not to offend anyone.

The initiation part of the ceremony was over. The shaman gave her a good long look over one last time and then left the longhouse, followed closely by his apprentice. The women of the tribe both young and old began to dance joyously to a faster drum beat. The celebration continued on into the night, with dancing, singing and food. The women made her smoke a long thin pipe after the feast and insisted that she continue smoking it for hours. The fumes made Zerdy dizzy. Smoking was something she had never done before and she found that after she became accustomed to it, she actually enjoyed it. The hunters put on a show of their cunning and bravery by reenacting the night’s hunt. Spears were brandished as they danced around the fire and shouted calls for animal spirits. Zerdy loved the display and wanted to join their hunt even more.





Chapter 12

Early the next morning the women were up and about the campsite. Some were tending to the young, others were cleaning up after the festivities. A few, including Cyril, Tey, Serna and Zerdy were fetching water from a nearby stream. Zerdy submerged wax lined animal bladders into the cool clear water and let them fill, while Tey took them from her and tied them to a stick with leather strings.

Cyril stood in the stream and looked intently into the water. She was holding a long thin spear with a flint head. She poked at the water and sometimes came up with a thin, brown fish. She would pull it off the spear and toss the still floundering fish onto the rocks at the shore line. Serna would take the fish and smack it hard against the rocks to kill it and then pack it away into a leather pouch. Zerdy flinched each time a fish was beaten to death. She wasn’t used to killing live animals. It was so primitive and brutal.

“How many Vurhan tribes are there in these parts?” Zerdy asked the group more to get her mind off the fish killing than anything else.

The Tyrmian women seemed to ignore the question.

Cyril stabbed her spear into the muddy stream and brought it back up empty. “There were only a few until just this past season. Now there are many tribes.”

“Do they always attack us?”

Cyril looked at her pale friend. “Of course. Does the sun not rise every day?”

This drew a few laughs from Tey and Serna. Zerdy felt stupid for asking about something that was so obvious to them.

“The Vurhan hate all Tyrmians, but they hate the Votains even more,” Tey said.

Zerdy handed her the last bladder full of water and started out of the stream. A couple of the brown fish brushed past her ankle as she stepped out of the water.

“Votains?” Zerdy asked, this time playing dumb on purpose. She hoped there were no pure bred Votainions living on this world.

“They live beyond the Great Mountains. They steal our women and make Vurhan slaves, like Cyril,” Tey stated, tying off her bag of water.

“Some of my people escaped the Votains, but they have adopted their ways and their spirits,” Cyril said, making her way out of the stream.

“Do any Votains live in these parts?” Zerdy asked.

The other women shook their heads as they all started back for camp. They walked in silence back through well-worn paths. Zerdy didn’t press for more information. Sometimes the Tyrmians preferred to be silent and she was learning that walks through the forest were one of those times.

* * *

When they arrived back at the camp there was more activity. Some of the males were up and busy making arrows and other weapons. They sat in groups of three or four and spoke in low, harsh tones to one another. Zerdy noticed the young male Tyrmian who had rescued her from the stream. He was from her family unit and was the son of one of the elders. Kwin meant ‘sly one’ in Tyrmian and was a Votainion root word for ‘knowledge’. Her father’s language skills rubbed off on Zerdy when she was growing up. She knew more about the origins of the various Votainion dialects than she knew about the hundreds of Galactic Standard origins.

Votainion was her second language, and she often used to joke it was also her third and forth language. When she was six years old she lived with a Votainion family for a while when her parents were both off on some kind of training course. Zerdy learned to speak the language out of necessity and soon became so good at it, she even thought in Votainion. When her parents returned after a six month absence, her mother was upset that Zerdy could talk to her father and she had no idea what they were saying. Her mother was career military and only knew enough to communicate orders with her Votainion crewmen.

Zerdy was never afraid of Votainions and as a consequence never developed a hatred for them that many humans had. Not that she ignored her history and the atrocities during the Great War, she just never let it taint her personal relationships. In secondary school, she even dated a Votainion boy for a few semesters. That little stunt left her human friends angry with her and her father furious. Votainion boys were more aggressive sexually than human boys. The last thing a human father wanted was his teenage daughter learning about sex from a blue-skin. It took many months for her father to talk with her after that little episode.

Kwin was talking with his friends around the fire but he kept sneaking glances at her. She knew he was eyeing her but she tried to ignore him as much as possible. She found the Tyrmians a very beautiful people but they weren’t nearly as human as the Votainions. They truly were alien to her in just about every way possible. Obviously they were compatible with Votainion physiology but they were on average, smaller and thinner than any normal human or Votainion. Their heads were larger and hair only grew in long strands from the back of the skull. Large foreheads and narrow chins dominated most Tyrmian faces. High cheek bones framed brilliant yellow and light-green colored eyes, giving them a pixie-like appearance. They had no ear lobes and very long, narrow necks. It was difficult to notice the differences in the sexes when only the face was visible. This made them all look androgynous to Zerdy.

She was more used to Cyril’s face partly because they had spent so much time together and partly because her Votainion features gave her head a more familiar feel. Cyril’s forehead was less pronounced and she had more black hair on her head, although it was pulled back and tied up in the Tyrmian fashion. Cyril also had jet black Votainion eyes and a noble nose shape. Her blue-green sometimes grayish tone skin was strikingly different than the verdant greens of the average Tyrmian.

Kwin stood up and came over to where Cyril and Zerdy were sitting, gutting the dead fish and de-boning them. Cyril looked at him with suspicion.

“Your fighting skills are very good, for a woman. How did you kill the Vurhan at the stream?”

Zerdy looked at Cyril who seemed cautious but nodded for her to answer him.

“I drowned him.”

Kwin tilted his head and looked at her.

“I held his head under the water where he couldn’t breathe until he stopped struggling,” she said.

Kwin nodded slowly and looked at her with interest.

“I have never seen anyone, how do you say? Drown a warrior, before.”

“It was my first murder, thanks,” she said sarcastically. He stared at her blankly.

“My people don’t kill so quickly. We have laws against it.”

Kwin shook his head again, he obviously did not understand her ways or her words.

“Vurhan are deadly warriors. To kill one is a good thing. To kill one quickly and with no blood, is remarkable. You must teach me how.”

Zerdy looked back at Cyril who barely shook her head no. She had a strange look in her eyes.

“I could teach you many ways to kill. In my world, I am a warrior. But I won’t teach you or anyone else my ways unless you take me on the evening hunt.”

Cyril’s eyes bulged out of her head as she all but waved for Zerdy to stop talking.

Kwin stood up and grunted something in Tyrmian. Zerdy slowly stood up to face him. She was much shorter than him. Zerdy took a step backwards and went smoothly into a defensive pose that she learned in hand-to-hand combat training. Her palms were open and her legs were arm’s length apart. Kwin crouched in a hunter’s stalking pose.

Zerdy moved to her right as Cyril stood up and backed away from them. Their combative posturing drew the attentions of others in the camp. Zerdy decided it was worth humiliating Kwin, if in the future they decided to leave her alone. She faked a thrust to his right, he countered it just like she thought he would and she brought him to the ground with a single fluid move.

Looking down at him, she pinned him with an arm across his throat. He gasped for air and choked a few times until she released him. Kwin scrambled to his feet and noticed the other hunters laughing at his take down. Zerdy returned to her defensive pose, ready for more.

Kwin backed away, rubbing his throat.

“You took the air from my body.”

“It’s called a choke and if I had wanted to, you’d be as dead as the Vurhan by the stream.”

Kwin looked at her with a puzzled expression on his green face.

“Why didn’t you take my air?”

She let a shy smile loose on her face. “Because I like you Kwin. You saved my life and I will always owe you mine.”

Kwin tilted his head and smiled back but only for a moment. Then he returned to his friends who pushed on him and continued to tease him for being taken down by a female. He took the ribbing well and challenged any one of them to take on the strange white woman. Nobody took him up on it.

“You are full of surprises my friend. I was ready to beat him off if he tried to jump on you,” Cyril said.

“I can take care of myself.”

“Kwin likes you. You are lucky, he is a fine man.”

Zerdy watched Kwin talking with his friends. He caught her looking at him and nodded at her in a tilted fashion. Perhaps some day something would come of it, but for now, she was more interested in learning how to prepare the fish for the morning meal.





Chapter 13

Kor’re could see daylight streaming through the crevice in the cave wall. They must be near the far side of the mountain. He could smell a faint sweetness in the air as if there were fruit bearing vegetation nearby. The temperature had risen sharply in the last few meters and the humidity was noticeably uncomfortable in his heavy weight military uniform. He unsnapped the top of his overcoat and wiped sweat from his blue brow.

“This is it, the way out,” he said.

The Vurhan scouts were already trying to scale the rocky crevice and squeeze their way through it. They were lean men with blue-green skin that glistened in the daylight. They wore not much more than a loincloth and some feathers and were able to wend their way through the rocks in no time.

Kor’re finished unbuttoning his overcoat and took it off. The sergeant took it from him and waited patiently in the darkness for Kor’re to hand him his pistols. Sergeant Krupp folded the heavy coat over his arm and then took the pistols from his commander.

“I’m going up to take a look. Have the men ready to move up and through that crevice when I return.”

“Yes, My Lord,” Krupp said. His pudgy face already sweating from the saturated air.

“Shouldn’t we wait until the scouts return. I mean, who knows what lies beyond that entrance?” the Engineer said, fear evident in his cracking voice.

“You may stay with the men sir, but I have waited far too long to see what lies beyond that crevice.”

Kor’re took hold of the same rock ledge that the scouts had used and slowly climbed his way up to the top of the cave wall. His black eyes had not seen daylight in nearly a week, since they had entered the mine on the other side of the mountain. He squinted at the bright light as his pupils dilated. The cave entrance was wide and open, but there were some very steep walls of rock that were covered in green moss not far away. As he crawled out of the crevice and stood up, he could see that they were at the bottom of a very deep pit that was topped by tropical trees and vegetation.

One of the half-breed scouts approached him and motioned to the high stone walls.

“We are in a pit, no way of climbing out.” His voice sounded defeated. Everyone was looking forward to getting out of the tunnels and into the forest and now the forest floor was impossibly high above them.

Kor’re walked past the scout and stared up at the sun lit trees a good sixty meters above. It was a glorious sight. He was the first Votain to see the other side of the Great Mountains. He breathed in the fresh humid air and savored the clean smell of lush, green plants. His lungs had been full of coal dust and dank, cold air for too long.

“We’ll make camp right here, under this ledge. I think the Engineer can rig us up some rope ladders. We won’t be trapped in this hole for long,” he said.

* * *

The rain started pouring as they were pulling their supplies through the crevice from the cavern. It ran down the high sides of the pit and gathered in pools around the mossy rocks that made up the floor. The soldiers had pulled their equipment back under the rocky over hang and were sitting down watching the rain fall. Some stood under the falling water and washing their dirty faces.

Kor’re and the Engineer drew up plans to erect a rope ladder with the pulleys and tackle that they had brought with them. When the rain stopped, they would use a rocket to propel a rope up to the trees high above and hope that they could hook over a sturdy branch. If one of the Vurhan scouts could hustle up to the top, they could start to build a rope lift that would allow them to pull their supplies and troops up and out of the pit. It would take some time to construct, but if the gods were willing, they could be on their way by night fall on the next day.

Kor’re looked at his soldiers sitting on their packs. They didn’t look like the impressive army he had left behind at the Kastra’s castle. They were twenty of the finest shots in the army but they weren’t prepared for an exhaustive climb up hill into a sunless, cold tunnel. They had already endured a long journey through the inside of the mountain and now he was asking them to climb out of a deep hole and into a lush and dangerous rain forest. But Kor’re knew his men could take all of that and more. They were Votain soldiers and nothing was going to stop them from forging ahead with their mission.

Sergeant Krupp yelled at the troops for sitting around. He got them busy breaking out the ropes and moving the ammunition boxes to higher ground. The fire breathing old sergeant never let his men rest unless he thought they deserved it. Kor’re had served with Krupp for ten years now and together they had never lost a fight or a battle. Kor’re was glad to have the old soldier with him on this journey into the unknown.

According to an ancient myth, the Votains on this world had come from a star far away in the night sky. Prophets had foretold that the ancient ones would one day return and take them back to the home worlds from whence they came. Kor’re was not sure he really believed the Prophets.

Kor’re had his doubts that they would find anything at all except native savages and dangerous carnivores. Never being one to turn down a challenge, Kor’re was in it for the adventure and for the glory of conquering new lands. Every Votain’s heart sang the ancient song of exploration. It was in their bones to extend the reach of the Kastra and to conquer all enemies and force them asunder. They had survived on this world for countless generations by always striving to overcome what dangers awaited them, to use the land and its resources to further their own goals of universal domination. Kor’re wanted nothing short of earning his own place in the annals of history. To be known as the only Votain to reach the jungle regions of the planet and conquer the remaining tribes of natives. This mission was but his first tentative steps into a new world. A world that he alone would rule over soon enough.





Chapter 14

They had the rope hoist in place before noon and were lifting up soldiers as fast as they could. It was hot, tiring work and it drained even the most hearty soldier. It took two soldiers fifteen minutes to haul up one man fully packed out with weapons, armor and all his personal gear. Kor’re was the first to make the ascension. He looked around the steamy hot forest and for the first time realized that they may have been better off in the dark, dreary tunnels. The flying bugs were as thick as the relentless humidity. He could only see a few feet in front of him due to heavy, green vegetation and trees.

Kor’re wore his khaki shirt, dirt brown trousers and knee-high wrapped boots. His revolver pistols were mounted cross ways in their leather holsters with their wooden handles pointing outward. There were just as many vicious animals in the jungle as there were lethal insects. The Vurhan scouts carefully decapitated the poisonous snakes that ventured near their overhang as the soldiers helped one another off the hoist ladder and onto the earthen ledge.

Kor’re ordered the wireless be brought up next so that he could get a signal back to base about their progress. They would have to shoot long wires into the high canopy and hope it was enough to bounce a wave off the ionosphere and over the Krakenhoven Mountains. In all likelihood the signal would skip around the planet going the opposite direction before scaling the heights of the mountains.

Kor’re pulled out his brass compass and took a bead on the farthest trees to the east. The plan was to head east for several days and then commence a north and south sweep of the forest looking for anything metallic. They had two crews armed with electromagnetic coil inductors that were powerful enough to detect the presence of metals in the environment. The mag-coils were spindly metal poles with coils attached to one end and wires and electronic alarms at the other. They were battery powered and had to be recharged after only a few hours of use. Hauling around gasoline powered generators did not make their task any easier.

Kor’re knew it was going to be a long shot if they found any kind of space faring ship in the jungle. The Engineers were convinced that if they found a ship, it would have been destroyed. But on the chance that it was not, they would be the first Votains to greet the ancients in person, an honor that Kor’re respected and took very seriously. Still, he had his doubts that they would find anything at all, except green skinned savages and deadly big game. He looked down at his foot and was greeted by a millipede that was as long as his forearm. It passed over the toe of his boot faster than any bug that big had a right to travel. The speed startled him and paralyzed him with disgust.

The Vurhan to his right reached out with his machete and chopped the insect in half as it cleared Kor’re’s toe. Kor’re looked over at the half-breed who nodded curtly to the commander.

“Don’t let those bite you sir, you would keel over and die before you hit the ground.”

“I’ll try and remember that, Tupo.”

Kor’re kicked the carcass off his boot and started hacking at the ferns and palm bushes with his machete. The going was slow and soon his shirt dripped with his perspiration. He looked up at the blazing sun just as it was covered by another dark cumulus cloud. The rain came down in huge, heavy drops that broke apart on his metal helmet and drenched everything not covered. Kor’re attacked the bushes and vines with renewed vigor. The cool rain water revived him and gave him a burst of energy to continue on with forging a clearing for the wireless operator.

As more soldiers joined him, he stopped exerting himself and sat back on a rock to take a long sip from his canteen. They would wait until this shower stopped to hoist up the wireless. He drank the tinny tasting water and surveyed the huge pit. This was a strange land in which they found themselves. Nothing like this rain forest existed on their side of the Great Mountains. There were some thick forests back in the motherland but nothing as humid, insect infested and dangerous as this.

* * *

After a few hours of hauling up equipment and men and carving out a place to set the wireless, they made their first calls into the ether. The Engineer sat on a rock, resting the brass key on one knee and and fine tuning the transmitter on a folding table that was just big enough to house the heavy device. The tit-tat-tat sound of the key striking metal was the only sound the device made while sending out a binary code. He wore a glass monocle in his left eye and a wire headset around his head. Sweat ran down his pale blue face as he strained to hear a reply over the sound of men working and jungle noises.

The Engineer had a proper name, but after one attained the credentials to be an Engineer, the surname was often dropped. Less than one percent of the Votain population had the training and the talent to be Engineers. It was a highly valued trade and the only skill in the Votain Kingdom that didn’t require you to be a soldier. As a result, Engineers tended to be physically smaller and weaker than the average Votain male. This particular Engineer had been in Kor’re’s Kastra for many years and had proved his cleverness and value time and time again.

His eyes squinted as he held onto the small round earphones that covered his ears in an effort to better hear the static filled sounds coming through the receiver. Finally he jerked off the headset and switched off the device.

“Nothing. The skip is bad today. We need to try again after sunset.”

“Agreed. Sergeant?” Kor’re asked.

Sergeant Krupp walked up and saluted. “Yes, sir.”

“We need to get moving away from this pit. That tall tree there directly east is our target for the day.”

Krupp saw the tree and knew instantly that they would not make it that far. “Yes My Lord. Sir, should we set up a perimeter before leaving?”

Kor’re looked down into the pit and then around the few meters that they had cleared near the edge.

“Yes, the pack handlers will need a few soldiers to protect them. Post two up here and the rest can remain in the pit.”

Krupp nodded and saluted again before turning and barking orders. The army traveled with large pack animals called burca. They were four legged, domesticated beasts that could each carry twice their weight in gear. The gray burca had nubs for horns on their large heads. In the wild they were plant eating prey for the many meat eating animals of Tyrmia, but the Votains domesticated them early in their history and now they were used as pack animals and as cattle, raised for both milk and meat. The company had brought several burca with them through the tunnels and had intended on using them to help haul all their equipment through the forest, but given their current situation, Kor’re opted to leave them behind. Several civilian handlers were in charge of feeding and caring for the burca. He hated to spare the extra men to stay behind and guard the handlers, but if they did find the space vehicle, the burca would be essential for returning parts of it back to the Kastra, provided they were able to widen the crevice enough to get the vehicle into the tunnels.

With most of the men out of the pit, Kor’re had the sergeant form them up and they began their trek through the wet forest. Nobody had seen any animals since they first came through the crevice into the pit. It was entirely possible that every living thing for kilometers knew they were there and were staying clear of them. An army does not move quietly through the jungle and this company was no exception. The soldiers traded point duty every thirty minutes due to the exhaustion incurred from beating back the bush and clearing a trail.

After they had only moved a few kilometers in four hours, Kor’re called off the advance. He huddled to the rear with one of the Vurhan scouts and Sergeant Krupp.

“This is taking far too long,” Kor’re said.

“Agreed, sir.”

“What can we do to move faster?” Kor’re asked the Vurhan.

The scout was thin like a Tyrmian and his cerulean skin was spotted with dark splotches that were tattooed on by his tribe. Every tribe had their own pattern that usually mimicked an animal’s hide.

“The Vurhan move single file and we do not disturb the foliage. Your men are destroying the land, not moving through it.”

Kor’re nodded in agreement.

“It’s true. We don’t need to be trail blazing. Perhaps we should split into smaller units and explore ahead of the main group.”

Krupp agreed. “The lead group could leave markers for the others to follow.”

Kor’re looked around at the hot, sweaty soldiers taking a rest on the side of the trail. It started to rain again.

“I’m beginning to loath this persistent rain,” Kor’re said.

“Bad to split the group, but worth it to gain speed,” the Vurhan said.

“Sergeant, take your ten best men with us and form a second unit to stay with the gear and bring up our rear guard. Stay vigilant. We don’t know when those green savages will show.”

“Yes, sir.”

The Vurhan looked away, not offended in the least by the Votain’s racial slur.





Chapter 15

They didn’t make it to the tree before sunset. Kor’re’s group did get within sight of its towering top branches, but they were still an hour away at best. Sergeant Krupp had the men clear a circle so they could build a fire and set up a temporary camp site. Two soldiers were to be on guard at all times throughout the night.

The wireless antenna was strung up into the nearest tree and a tired soldier cranked away at the generator so the Engineer could try again to contact home. Nothing but sporadic pops and cracks greeted the Engineer’s tapping. He shook his head discouraged as Kor’re looked at him from across the campsite.

Kor’re found a place to hang his hammock near the fire. They didn’t know much about the animals of the rain forest, but they figured that the fire would discourage even the boldest of predators. Kor’re took his mess kit out and set it on the hammock. Everything had to be hung up or risk being overrun by insects. The Cook would have a meal hot within the hour and sunset was coming on quick.

He squared away the rest of his gear and then consulted with Jeroo, one of the Vurhan scouts.

“What do you think?” he said, motioning to the camp.

“Good camp. I’ll be up there tonight,” Jeroo said, motioning to a tree a few meters away from the camp site.

“Don’t trust the sentries?”

The Vurhan nodded solemnly. Kor’re grinned at the blue-green man then he looked up at the dwindling daylight and swore. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

The rain forest was anything but quiet at night. Strange cries and mournful howls echoed for hours. The constant droning of insect noise added to the din and made it hard to relax enough to sleep. It rained again shortly after the evening meal and the Cook used the falling water to clean his pots. Kor’re ordered the smoking lamp out and everyone except the sentries turned in for the night.

Jeroo nestled into his hammock high above the camp. He looked up at the stars peeking out from the high branches of the trees and watched them blinking in the thick atmosphere. Dark clouds moved in quickly and it started to rain again. This time there was thunder and periodic lightening strikes that lit up the forest when they flashed.

A few hours into the sleep period a killer strode through the camp. The sentries didn’t see it. They were looking off into the thick foliage alert for movement of any kind but they heard nothing save the din of the night.

The killer walked uncontested around the equipment and followed its keen sense of smell closer to the light of the fire. It stopped short of the fire, staring into the light with huge, black eyes. The zipher was hungry. It had not eaten in several days and now, laying all around were the warm, salty bodies of easy prey.

It pushed through the fabric of a soldier’s overcoat and sniffed the blueish skin underneath. The man snorted in his sleep and rocked his hammock as he tried to turn over.

The zipher moved on, methodically sniffing every soldier it passed. A second zipher entered the rim of the fire light and paced back and forth along the rows of sleeping Votains. They were big, powerful animals with massive claws and large, sharp teeth hanging down over lower jowls. Several horns pointed out from their smallish heads and their backs were lumpy with bony ridges. The zipher was the top of the food chain in the rain forest and they hunted in packs. Just outside the campsite were five other hungry animals waiting for the signal to attack.

Jeroo startled awake and listened intently to the night. Something did not sound right. There was less noise than there had been a few hours ago. Insects still buzzed and branches swayed in the gentle wind but all smaller animal noises were silent. He looked down at the fire and saw the huge shapes moving silently through the camp.

Ziphers!

He slowly pulled his rifle up and considered whether he would be able to get out of his hammock without being noticed. The wind was blowing his scent away from the camp area, so he was sure they hadn’t smelled him.

He decided to stay put and take aim on one of the dark moving shapes. When he knew he had a killing shot, he squeezed the trigger and then quickly chambered a second round.

The shot rang out like a crack of thunder and woke up everyone. The zipher Jeroo shot went down and then came back up as if its huge muscular body had absorbed the bullet. Jeroo shot it again and it stopped moving in the dirt near Kor’re.

In the confusion that followed, soldiers scrambled out of their hammocks and started shooting at anything that was large and furry. There were plenty of opportunities as two more ziphers charged their ranks. Gun shots and shouts rang out into the darkness as the soldiers fought off vicious attacks by multiple ziphers.

In a few minutes it was all over. Two ziphers were killed and the remaining animals retreated into the forest. One soldier was mauled to death and two were injured. Kor’re surveyed the wounded and determined that the Cook could repair their injuries. The dead soldier never made it out of his hammock. His torn body hung limp in the netting. The forest floor was wet with Votain blood.

The unit closed ranks and reevaluated their security plan. It was determined that the ziphers were able to sneak past the sentries because the men were too far apart. So the outer perimeter was tightened and a new set of guards took over for the remainder of the night. The dead soldier was buried a few meters outside of camp. Votains weren’t especially mournful people and they didn’t erect a grave marker. There would be nobody around to read it anyway, after the unit moved on. His personal artifacts were distributed to the others, with Sergeant Krupp taking the man’s ID tag.

As dawn came a thick fog hung in the trees. The forest was calm and unusually quiet as the soldiers woke and started breaking camp. Rifles were examined for functionality and kept close at hand as they disembarked for an early push to the big tree ahead of them. Kor’re wanted to get to the tree and then set up for morning meal. It would give them time to do a quick survey with the metal detectors before moving on westward to the next objective.





Chapter 16

The Tyrmians bathed infrequently, at least for Zerdy’s tastes. She could smell their body odors and she knew that her own odor was just as unpleasant for them. Sitting in the running waters of the nearby stream, they rubbed themselves with the soft slivers of soap that they had made from animal oils combined with rock salts. Zerdy was fascinated with the process of making the soap they called uran. The women would use the animal oils from the night’s kill and combine it with what Zerdy knew was mineral salts. They formed them into hand sized chunks that they disseminated to every member of the tribe. It was quite sophisticated, considering how primitive their lifestyles were.

The longer she lived with these people, the more impressed she was with their life skills in the dense rain forest. Their complex social structure revolved around the extended family unit. It was not uncommon for several generations to be living together with many cousins. Family units were anywhere from fifteen to twenty individuals.

A tribe consisted of several unrelated families and were governed by the eldest males. It was difficult to tell how long the Tyrmians lived, but she imagined they had similar life spans to other primate species. As they grew older, Tyrmians tended to get weaker and developed a hunched over posture. The hair that came from the back of a woman’s head turned gray but never white. The males ritually cut off their hair until they reached an advanced age. The elders often had hair down to their waists and wrinkled skin. They didn’t have body hair like humans and Votainions. Sometimes they made fun of Zerdy’s hairy arms and legs. They called her Vurhan komo, which meant Vurhan monkey. She took the ribbing in stride, there was no changing some aspects of her humanity.

Zerdy lathered up with the uran and let the rushing water rinse it off her shoulders and arms. It felt good to get clean after many days of living in the village. There were three other females in the group and one hunter perched on the rocks looking out for Vurhan or hunters from other tribes. It was not uncommon for nearby Tyrmian tribes to steal each other’s women. The conflict resulting from such actions usually lead to revenge kidnappings or killings. Zerdy was disturbed by the practice but she understood it was part of their culture and in the end, acted as a natural process for ensuring diversity and population control.

Tre’l the hunter guarding them was stealing glances at her. Ever since she had been adopted by the tribe, she had become the object of several hunter’s desires. Cyril had told her that she would be taken by one of the hunters soon.

“It’s best to let them have what they want, otherwise there could be trouble,” Cyril said.

“I can’t do that my friend. It’s just not my way.”

Cyril lowered her eyes. She ran the uran over her arms and stared at the tiny bubbles. Zerdy could tell she was disappointed. Zerdy looked up at Tre’l on the rocks. He was too thin and lean. Not enough meat on him to be attractive to any female. Zerdy looked away with a sly grin on her face. She thought about having sex with the alien male. The idea was almost as insane as her being alone and trapped on this world. Still, for a woman who had been attracted to Votainions since she was a teenager and who had even dated a Caloundrian for a while in secondary school, it was not beyond the realm of possibilities.

She thought about Talon and her life on the starship. She didn’t really love him and she was glad she had the courage to turn down his proposal. But she still missed him. She missed all of her friends on the ship. Sometimes, when the rain forced everyone to lay around in their huts, she thought about the life she left behind and wondered if she would ever be rescued. It was getting past a month since she first crashed and she knew that as time went on her chances of being found diminished to nothing.

Her new life among the Tyrmians was tranquil and slow compared to her life in space. It was more relaxing and considerably less stressful. No meetings, classes or mandatory drills. She could lay around and think about things and really connect with the people here. There were no false pretenses with the aliens. They cried, laughed and loved with open hearts.

Sometimes at night, while the hunters painted on the black, she stared at the glowing coals of the wood fire and dreamed of going with them. Of stalking a wild fli’r or a herd of tifren. The jungle was a dark and scary place at night, more so than on any other planet she’d visited. She was virtually blind, where her hosts could easily see in the darkness. Their large, saffron eyes could dilate and take in things that she could only imagine. She would probably not be very good at tracking prey. The male hunters spent their whole youths practicing with bows and arrows and learning to track animals of all sizes. She would be at a huge disadvantage and wind up either killing herself or someone else. Still, it fired her imagination to wonder what it would be like to go on a hunt.

“You’re thinking about the hunt again, aren’t you?” Cyril asked.

“Sometimes I wonder if you can’t read my mind. How do you do that?”

Cyril smiled and stood up. Water rivulets fell off her blue-green skin. She motioned to the hunter and the others that they should head back to camp.

* * *

Zerdy and Cyril were helping the elder women prepare for the evening meal when a commotion came from the direction of the Tree of Life. The tree was the largest tree Zerdy had seen yet in the jungle and it was clearly very old. The trunk was actually several trees woven together in a testament to Tyrmian engineering and longevity. The trunk of the tree was hollow and the shaman lived inside. Tribal shaman had lived in the tree for many, many lifetimes. The Tyrmians had little ability to tell time in anything other than days and seasons. They could not easily see the night sky so that ruled out following the phases of the two small moons or the other planets in the system.

They measured the long run, as they said, by individual life spans. She guessed that they lived on average close to eighty standard years. But she was not sure how that translated to Tyrmian years. It’s possible that the Tyrmian year was much longer as the orbit around IS40 was to the far side of the habitable zone.

The shaman came into the camp, his yellow eyes large and bloodshot. He was muttering something in Tyrmian that Zerdy could not understand. His apprentice followed him, excited and unsure of his master’s next move. The shaman stopped before Zerdy and dropped to his knees, still muttering what sounded like a prayer to Zerdy.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

The apprentice stopped a few paces from the shaman and went down on his knees with his face down and arms stretched out before him.

Cyril watched the shaman with large eyes and she looked nervously at the other Tyrmian women. They backed away from Zerdy. Cyril and the others bowed before Zerdy muttering in an ancient dialect.

“You are a living spirit. They are paying you respect,” Cyril said as she edged away from her friend and lowered her head.

“Cyril, tell them I’m just a woman-” She stopped abruptly as the shaman raised his head and arms to the tree tops. He moaned loudly.

“Oh great White Fli’r, we are your humble servants in this life.”

The shaman bowed back to Zerdy and started mumbling in some ancient Tyrmian. It sounded to her like he was talking to someone, having a conversation with them.

Zerdy looked around at all the Tyrmians bowing before her. It was more than a little upsetting. These people who had welcomed her into their tribe as one of them, now suddenly believed that she was some kind of animal spirit that had come to protect them or pass on some kind of knowledge. There had to be a law against assuming the guise of a deity to indigenous people on primitive worlds. Zerdy was pretty sure there was and she would be guilty of interfering with these people’s lives above and beyond such laws if she were to go along with it. But she had little choice. She needed these people in order to survive in the jungle. She couldn’t afford to disengage from them now, interstellar law be damned.

“Who is he talking too?”

The shaman’s apprentice looked up and addressed Zerdy in a tone reserved for elders.

“He is speaking to your spirit, be respectful.”

Zerdy looked back at the shaman. It was clear to her that he was under the influence of some kind of narcotic. His eyes were glassy and his movements more fluid than usual for a Tyrmian. Finally the shaman stopped communicating to her spirit. He sat up and she could see him return to reality and focus on her.

“I have spoken to your spirit guide and she has set me straight. You have come to offer us your wisdom and we bow to your words. We are at your service.”

She smirked and looked around at all the yellow eyes upon her. The shaman looked at her with a new understanding in his old and sallow eyes. “You will go with me to the longhouse now. I will inform the elders of your status. You will go with the hunters tonight and honor them with your spirit ways.”

The shaman rose to his feet, as did the apprentice. They waited for Zerdy to rise before escorting her to the longhouse. Cyril’s eyes were large, as she watched them leave.





Chapter 17

The long house was dark, the fire for the impromptu meeting abandoned. Hot embers glowed silently. It wouldn’t be allowed to completely burn out, someone would lay some kindling on it and another log. The shaman stood before the hot embers and looked down into them, lost in thought. Zerdy stood with the apprentice and watched the tribal elders and hunting party leaders come inside and stand around the fire. She no longer averted her eyes from them. Only Kwin looked at her briefly as he entered and took his position next to an elder. She could not read his alien expression.

When everyone had entered, the door flap was lowered and the shaman spoke.

“My brothers, I have called this meeting to inform you of my visit to the spirit land. We have been chosen to receive the great White Fli’r, Zerdy. I have spoken to her spirit. She is from a world outside of our own and she is here to guide us to a new beginning. Many lifetimes ago, her people came to this land and taught us how to fight the blue-skins. Her people were pale and weak, but they wielded magic that was more powerful than the greatest shaman.”

The elders listened intently. The tribe was led by the old man’s visions and they lived or died according to them.

“Zerdy will go with your hunting party tonight. She will lead you to fresh game and protect you from the night. Her people are great warriors and hunters and we shall learn many things from her. I foresee a time when she will lead this tribe into new lands and help us to defeat our enemies.”

There was unrest amongst the hunters. They were unconvinced that such a weak, pale female could wield more power than they could with their bows and spears.

“Great One, how can she be allowed on the hunt? She is weak and knows nothing of how to live in the forest,” Clau, the lead hunter, said.

“Where did you find her?” the shaman asked.

“She was found in a snare trap.”

The other hunters laughed. The shaman raised his head and looked at them all in turn. The laughter subsided under his narrow eyed stare.

“How many of you have been in a snare trap?”

Nobody spoke. The fire crackled below them, and smoke drifted into the air.

“She came to our world and fell into our trap, only she can understand what it’s like for our prey to be captured. She is the White Fli’r, the rarest animal in the forest. How many of you have seen a White Fli’r?”

Again, no reply.

“Legends say that the white fli’r has never been caught in a trap. They are too sly. Zerdy allowed herself to be captured so she could come into our world as the fli’r leave our world. You will take her on the hunt tonight and every night. The spirits have warned me about a new danger in the forest, a threat that only she can save us from. They would not tell me who or what that threat was, only that its arrival will signal the fall of this tribe and this land. Only she can save us.”

The shaman stepped out of the circle and pointed his long bony finger directly at Zerdy. The others looked back at her, following the shaman’s finger.

Zerdy’s blue eyes widened with shock and excitement. She desperately wanted to go on the hunt with them but she knew that leading them was completely out of the question. The shaman was mistaken, she was no great warrior and certainly was not their savior. She took a deep breath, stuck out her chest and tried to appear confident. This was her one shot to prove that she could hunt with them and she wouldn’t blow it.

* * *

Darkness came quickly and Zerdy found herself standing in line to bathe in the black mud with the other hunters. Kwin stood in line behind her. He had not come near her after the meeting in the long house. No male did. It was as if she were now unapproachable in some small way. Even now, he was a good two paces behind her. She pulled her stringy hair back over an ear and glanced at him. He looked at her with a detachment that she had never gotten from him before. It was as if he was no longer interested in her and she was now just another female.

He was probably having a hard time accepting that a female would be hunting with him. He was not alone in that. All of the hunters were clearly opposed to the idea. Even the women of the tribe shunned her when they found out that Zerdy would be going on the hunt. Hunting was not something women did nor did they aspire to do it. She could live with the whispers and the finger pointing from the other females, but when Cyril shunned her, she was hurt.

Cyril was the only friend that Zerdy had on this world and even she wanted nothing to do with her after finding out that Zerdy would be going on the hunt. Zerdy had tried to explain that it was not her idea to hunt, it had been commanded by the shaman and in turn, the spirits. Cyril didn’t buy it. She looked at Zerdy with disdain in her glossy, black eyes and walked away.

Zerdy pulled her shoulder length hair back into a tail and tied it up with a piece of leather string. She wanted it back out of her way for the hunt. Her natural blond hair color had faded somewhat from infrequent washing and the ever present humidity. She looked down at her body and for the first time she felt as if she were in someone else’s skin. Her normally soft and smooth complexion was now dirty and rough. She had so many scratches and bruises on her limbs that she no longer kept count of them. Her skin was tanned and dark with grime. The bottoms of her feet were hard and callous from walking barefoot. She had never looked this ragged in all her life. If her friends on the ship could have seen her now, they’d have shrieked in horror.

But she no longer cared so much about how she looked. Living like a savage had lowered her self esteem for a while, but then she got it back when she finally accepted that she could be here for a while and she may never return to a civilized world again. And that was fine with her. She liked it here and now she was about to get her dream of going on the hunt fulfilled. She shuddered at the thought as she stepped forward to be dunked in the black.

The oily mud was warm and enveloped her in its embrace, like the spa treatment she once had on Caloundria. She closed her mouth and eyes and held her breath as she slipped under the mire. It was quiet in the tub, all sound was dampened and she could only hear her own thoughts. Before she could enjoy the silence she was pulled out of the tub. The mud clung to her skin like liquid rubber. She was helped out of the tub and she padded over to stand with the others around the fire to dry.

The other hunters looked at her with curiosity, they had never seen the black on a woman before. Some of them stared long enough at her to raise their long, slender sex organs. The others laughed and pointed them out. She had never seen the males embarrassed before by sexual displays. She found it flattering, considering how everyone had ignored her for most of the day. She turned around so she wouldn’t encourage the behavior.

Kwin walked up to the fire and stood beside her to dry his black cloak. He didn’t join in with the juvenile behavior of the others, but he did take a look at her back side. She caught him and gave him a private smile. His large yellow eyes narrowed at her as he looked away. She looked at his slender, muscular frame and for the first time saw how powerful his body was. He was not as beefy as a human male but somehow more elegant and refined. She felt the stirrings of desire for the first time and looked away into the dark forest. She had to focus her thoughts on the hunt and away from him and matters of the heart.

The leaders of the night’s hunt began putting on their quivers and bows. They congregated away from the fire and looked out into the darkness letting their eyes adjust. Zerdy was given the bow and quiver of a young male she knew from her tribe. He was not yet old enough to go on the hunt, but his bow was smaller and more her size. She thanked him for letting her use it and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He smiled at her and ran back to his family near the fire.

She had never shot a Tyrmian bow and arrow before but she had watched the males practice and figured she could pick it up soon enough. Her confidence was not unfounded. As a Starveyer she had been trained in jungle survival and had even built her own bow and arrow on a training mission to Tomungia. That jungle planet was not unlike Tyrmia in many respects, but she had only been on the ground for a few days. Survival training was often feared by cadets in flight training, but she had loved it. Thoughts of that training came back to her as she waited for her eyes to adjust.

The leaders slipped into the jungle in various directions and were gone from view. She was told to stay with Kwin and to not shoot her bow unless directed to. Her first night she would be more of an observer than a participant. She followed Kwin into the jungle, stepping where he stepped and trying her best to keep up with his stride.





Chapter 18

The night was darker than Zerdy had ever imagined. The Tyrmian hunters had no problem seeing where they were going, and more importantly sensing what they were hunting. Zerdy followed closely behind Kwin, keeping up with his pace. He communicated with the other hunters using bird calls and hand signals. How they could see anything in the darkness of the rain forest was beyond Zerdy. The large, Tyrmian eyes had evolved perfect night vision, especially on a world with small moons.

The temperature had dropped appreciably as the night wore on. Zerdy was thankful for the mud suit but it was already beginning to peel and flake off. She could hear thunder in the distance and knew that when the rain fell, they would loose the mud cover.

Kwin motioned for her to stop and they slid under a moss covered log. Zerdy could hear the steady breathing of a zipher but she couldn’t see it from behind Kwin. He was laying perfectly still on his side, his muscles taught. She peered over his shoulders and caught a glimpse of the beast, moving slowly through the tall grass in their direction.

It was bigger than a human and a Tyrmian combined. Sharp teeth poked out of its mouth and a bony spine rippled with stubbly knobs. Zerdy had never seen such a creature. She got the feeling that it was hunting them, rather than the other way around.

Kwin remained calm. She could tell he was watching the beast’s every move. A bird call rang out nearby drawing the attention of the zipher. It paused and sniffed at the air as its ears turned in the direction of the call. Kwin slowly brought up his bow. Zerdy had no faith that an arrow would stop the zipher. She gripped her own bow, but was not in a position to make a shot.

The animal moved in a wide circle reacquiring their scent. When its slender back was to him, Kwin slid out from under the log and drew his bow. The zipher’s head snapped around and it growled fiercely. Zerdy readied her bow and the two of them let slip their arrows, first Kwin’s and then Zerdy’s.

Kwin’s shot struck the animal in the chest, Zerdy’s arrow fell wide into the tall grass. Kwin had already drawn and fired two more shots before Zerdy could get off her second shot. The zipher charged them and took two more shots to its head and upper torso before Zerdy’s shot found purchase in the narrow eye. The animal plummeted to the ground not a meter from them. Dead.

Kwin reloaded his bow and turned to their right flank. Another zipher had appeared and was making its way toward them in full stride. Zerdy reloaded and together they shot several more arrows at the second zipher. Two arrows found meat, the third fell wide and the beast continued toward them.

Kwin pushed Zerdy up onto the log and told her to climb. She scurried up the log without looking back. When she got to the top, she looked back in time to see Kwin vaulting the zipher over his head having impaled it through the torso. He brought the animal down beside the log she was on and pulled the spear out so he could stab it again for good measure.

Zerdy had never seen such bravery in the face of nature’s red tooth. Her heart pounded and her senses were alive as she looked down at the Tyrmian who had saved her life. He looked up at her and managed a thin smile as he pulled the bloody spear from the heart of the dead zipher.

They both heard the scream at the same time. Their heads whipped around in the direction of the nearest hunting party. Kwin motioned for her as he collected his bow and started into the dark bushes. Zerdy slid down the slick log and took off running after him.

* * *

It was Chone who had screamed as he was ripped apart by a zipher. His partner was too busy poking holes into a second zipher to help the younger hunter. The eldest hunter, K’vare had arrived first, his bow drawn and pointing at the carnage. The zipher looked up long enough to snarl at him, as a third zipher jumped from the lower branches of a nearby tree.

The closest person to K’vare was Zerdy. She heard the animal before the others had seen it and leaped for the elder hunter, dropping him into the tall grass before the zipher’s extended claws could snatch him. She rolled over the hunter and came up with her bow drawn. The zipher snarled at her and she could feel its warm breath.

Her hands trembled as she aimed for the open mouth of the beast. The twang vibrated through her hand as she let loose a shot. The arrow entered the back of the upper jaw and pierced the brain. It took one step toward her and fell with a crash to the jungle floor. She barely had time to realize what she had done before another zipher charged at her from her right. She drew a second arrow and aimed again for the open mouth. When she let go of the feathered tail of the arrow, she knew it was short. It entered the zipher through the lower jaw. The arrow pierced the tongue and came out again. The zipher stopped abruptly and shook its head in pain. Zerdy took advantage of the pause and let fly two more shots, one of which pierced the animal’s heart. It started towards her again as the powerful animal’s heart began to bleed out.

Zerdy watched it fall at her feet and slowly let out her breath.

The other hunters had seen her take out two ziphers in short order and stood staring at her in the now quiet jungle. Ziphers usually hunted in packs of three or more and there were now four dead carnivores and one dead Tyrmian hunter.

K’vare, the elder hunter that Zerdy had pushed to safety, stood beside her with an open mouth. His eyes locked on the two dead animals at her feet.

“You truly are the White Fli’r,” K’vare said. His long green face made even longer by his look of astonishment.

She lowered her bow and stood tall. Her bosom full of pride and her heart full of confidence. She had conquered her fears and acted as her military training had prepared her. It felt good to assert her skills and she knew at that moment that she had found her life’s purpose. She was a natural born hunter and this was the best night of her new life.





Chapter 19

The afternoon feast was the largest Cyril had seen in years. Zerdy and the other hunters had returned early in the morning and immediately taken baths and retired for a well deserved sleep. The drums of the feast began beating in the early afternoon and awakened the hunters. The female members of the tribe had spent the first half of the day preparing the ziphers for consumption.

Cyril endured many hours of speculation about her new friend and her amazing skill at slaying the most feared animal in the jungle. All of the women now saw Zerdy as their savior, not some awkward white creature that had to be taught everything about living in the jungle. But Cyril knew better. To her, Zerdy was still just an outsider, looking to fit in like herself. The only difference was that she had some undeniable abilities.

As she listened to the Tyrmian women gossip about Zerdy, where she came from and why she was sent from the spirits to live with them, Cyril started to feel less and less connected to her new friend. Zerdy began to take on a mythic status in the tribe. But that was not the lonely, and frightened person that Cyril had befriended.

In just a few weeks since her arrival, Zerdy was living the life of a tribal male. Hunting with great success by night and sleeping half the day away as the other women tended to the game she had provided them. Zerdy’s role in the tribe was quickly changing and Cyril was not sure that she could handle it. For Cyril, Zerdy would always be the timid stranger who came to her for advice, who then became a celebrated huntress that stood above all the other females in her adapted tribe. It was hard for Cyril to accept her friend as anything but another outsider female, seeking acceptance in the tribe.

* * *

Zerdy came out of her hut and stretched her arms in the late afternoon sun that filtered through the high jungle canopy. Her muscles were sore from pulling the tight bow and walking throughout the night. The other hunters had started to come out of their huts and form an informal circle around the campfire. They spoke in hushed voices about the events of the previous night.

Zerdy was not sure if she should join them. It was not the place for a female in the tribe to stand with the hunter males. She looked around for Cyril and did not see her friend. Perhaps she was down at the creek, washing. Zerdy walked slowly around the edge of the circle of hunters. The other women, both young and old seemed unwilling to accept her into their cooking groups. She felt like an outsider again.

Before she could sit with the nearest group of adolescent females, the shaman’s apprentice came into the camp and sought her out. He bowed gracefully before her and spoke low enough for only her to hear.

“My master bids that you join him in the tree of life, after the feast.”

Zerdy nodded. The apprentice rose and turned to leave without making eye contact. She watched him move quickly through the camp and disappear into the jungle. The hunters paid him no mind and she was forced again to decide where to sit. With the females who were apparently shunning her, or with the male hunters, who were at the moment, ignoring her.

With an inward grimace and a feeling that reminded her of her first day at flight school, she moved to the fire. She chose to stand beside Kwin who appeared to notice her for the first time. He took a few short steps to the side to let her into the fire watching group. She kept her eyes down and looked into the white hot coals at the bottom of the fire. The meat from the night’s kill was stretched out on wooden stakes, cooking in the black smoke of the fire. It was the most food she had ever seen since she had been taken into the tribe.

“White Fli’r, what say you?” asked a senior hunter.

Zerdy looked up at him. His yellow eyes stared unblinkingly at her. She did not know what to say.

“Thank you for allowing me to hunt with you last night.”

The hunter nodded curtly.

“You fight like no other female we have ever seen. You commanded the deaths of three great ziphers, a feat no man has ever matched.”

Zerdy got an uneasy feeling in her stomach. She could just as well be banished or even killed out of fear by these honorable hunters. They all looked at her silently with their big eyes and slender bodies. She liked her men taller, and with a lot more meat on their bones. The Tyrmian males were attractive to her, but not in the same way as a human male. She often wondered what it would be like to kiss them, hold them, feel them inside her. But she never let herself imagine sex with them as being anything more than physical. They were attractive but they were impenetrable at the same time.

She never got the feeling that she would ever know them like she could know a human male. Tyrmian males rarely spoke to their female mates. They communicated in touch and in long stares into each other’s saffron eyes. Zerdy craved conversation, be it small talk or deep philosophical meditations on life and the universe. Sweet nothings about how pretty she was or how she made him crazy with desire. A Tyrmian male would never be able to fulfill her in that way. She felt like she would never truly know them as they knew one another.

Kwin turned to look down at her and his long face had a knowing smirk. At least that’s what Zerdy made of his grin. His slender penis was half erect as he stared at her with a glint in his eye. He was clearly aroused, but she wasn’t going to go off with him into the bushes nor did she particularly fancy doing anything in public. She had witnessed Tyrmian sexual escapades in the middle of camp before. Sometimes couples broke out into sex without regard to who was watching or what either one was doing at the time. They were much more free with their emotions and desires than any society Zerdy had lived in. Even Votainion males took their mates into private dens for sexual intercourse.

K’vare, the hunter that Zerdy had saved during the zipher attacks came into the circle and warmed his long fingers over the fire. He looked straight at Zerdy and smiled. She felt her cheeks blush, she was touched by his gesture of thanks, however subtle it was.

* * *

Later that day, the entire tribe convened in the longhouse for the feast. Zerdy sat with the other hunters, her female head piece of feathers was removed by the elder hunters and tossed into the fire. She was given a bow and a quiver of straight arrows. She accepted the hunting weapon with grace and held onto it for the entire night’s festivities. Kwin presented her with a necklace made from the teeth of the zipher and leather from its hide. She was also given a braided leather hunter’s belt that sat loosely around her hips.

The final gift was from the shaman and it was a face smearing with black paint, the tops of her shoulders and her forearms. The black was symbolic of the night in which the hunters lived and stalked their prey. She stood before cheering tribal members as she was initiated into the tribe, not as an available female, but as a hunter. Zerdy stood proudly before her adopted people and smiled. She searched the crowd of green faces for her blue-green friend Cyril but could not find her.

Later that night she found herself wrestling some of the younger hunters by the fire, teaching them the art of hand to hand combat. It seemed to the young males that her knowledge was endless in the art of killing. She was only passing on her Starveyer training which was very limited in comparison to those who had trained her. But what the young hunters didn’t know about her on this celebratory night, wouldn’t hurt them.

* * *

In the bushes away from the camp, Cyril stood alone. Her dark face lit by the flickering fire, her eyes catching a glimmer of light. She had lost her friend to the hunters and she knew that Zerdy would never be able to be her friend again. Not like she had been. She was a hunter now and the hunters lived, for the most part, in their own group. Cyril was not welcome in that group. Nor was any female, except it would seem, for Zerdy.

Cyril had contemplated leaving the Tyrmian tribe many times since she was adopted by them. She never felt completely comfortable around them and she could tell they felt the same about her. Her people were feared by most Tyrmians and she could never change that. Cyril feared they would always wonder about her loyalty.

She thought about returning to her own tribe. But she knew that they wouldn’t take her back. Especially the leader, Kaymon. He had banished her from the tribe when she was unable to mate with him or any other dominate male in the tribe. A female incapable of conception was useless to the tribe. Normally, Vurhan women were compatible with Vurhan males, but she was an exception.

Cyril watched Zerdy rolling in the dirt with the other hunter males and a thought occurred to her. Perhaps Zerdy would be able to mate with a Vurhan. If she could give Kaymon a child through Zerdy, he might take her back into the tribe and restore Cyril’s standing amongst her peers. The child of Kaymon and Zerdy would be strong and unique in the jungle world. It would have the heart of a Vurhan warrior and the knowledge and skill of Zerdy’s race.

Zerdy would never be allowed to hunt or fight with the Vurhan males, her place would be with the females and Cyril would have her friend back. Cyril started to formulate a plan as she backed away from the camp, deeper and deeper into the jungle.





Chapter 20

Zerdy searched the camp for Cyril and couldn’t find her friend. She thought about mentioning to someone that Cyril was missing, but decided that she probably didn’t want to be found. Living in a tribe that consisted of less than thirty people was not unlike living in a small town or living on a starship. Everyone knew each other and everyone knew each other’s business. Sometimes, you just had to go for a walk to get away.

The evening’s feast was winding down and the evening’s hunt was suspended. There was still plenty of meat left over to feed the tribe another day. The hunters began to disband and slip into their respective huts. Zerdy saw the shaman’s apprentice watching her from across the camp and remembered her promise.

The Tree of Life was an unusually large and old tree at the end of a well worn trail within sight of the campfire. The smaller, constituent trees were grafted together in a twisted cage that spiraled up into the tops of the jungle canopy. Zerdy stood staring up at it for a moment, admiring the sheer grandeur. There was a simple opening near the trail’s end where the shaman’s assistant stood, hunched over in the stoop. He motioned calmly with his slender arm for her to approach. Zerdy wondered to herself if she were ignoring long established, religious customs by plodding into the sacred place.

She had the very distinct feeling that she was about to enter a monastery or some other kind of holy place back in the galaxy. A quiet reverence settled over her as she crossed the foyer and stood silently inside the tree. The room, if you could call it that, was tight but not so small as to be cramped. The roof extended into an opening tens of meters up. Small candles burned every few meters. Amber tree sap closed the gaps at the top of the trunk and coated the inside of the tree to make a cathedral of natural beauty.

In the center of the tree sat the shaman cross legged on a raised dais. His head tilted down in silent prayer. The assistant left the tree and stood outside in the dark. Zerdy took a step forward and knelt down, her head bowed. She had no idea what to do, but she recognized a holy place when she saw it. The shaman slowly opened his large, yellow eyes and looked down at her peacefully. She kept her eyes down out of respect.

“White Fli’r, you honor me with your presence in my sacred tree.”

She looked up briefly to see the old man smiling gently at her. She nodded respectively.

“This tree has been in our tribe for countless generations. It was crafted by Tyrmian hands at the guidance of the spirits. Little is known about the people who created it only that the work was overseen by great and powerful spirits who came from the skies.”

That got Zerdy’s attention. She looked up again and slowly took in the sparse details of the natural temple. She could find no clues as to who the builders were or what particular faith they practiced. There were no religious articles or statues carved in the tree trunks. Only nature’s own, natural beauty.

“Two sacred objects remain from the distant past and it has always been the tribal shaman’s duty to watch over them and to await the return of the spirits from the sky. I never imagined that the spirits would choose my time as shaman to return. Welcome.”

She shifted her weight slightly uncomfortable being called a spirit, but she understood why and tried not to let it bother her, or go to her head. Primitive people’s beliefs were to be respected and honored by Starveyers, but not interfered with in any way. She had already broken too many interference laws to even bother with at this point. Clearly the Votainions had visited this planet in its distant past and she even suspected that so had humans. She waited patiently for the shaman to go on. He closed his eyes again and seemed to be agreeing with someone he silently spoke with in his own mind.

“Many, many generations ago, the Sky Spirits came to our world. They were being hunted by the Votain spirits of war. Our people befriended the Sky Spirits and they showed us many things that we did not know about our world. They helped us escape the Votains and settle in this glorious forest. The Sky Spirits were not immortal and they eventually left our world. They are buried under this very tree. Their spirits still haunt this place and speak to me sometimes.”

Zerdy regarded the shaman carefully. She knew he was not really speaking to the dead spirits of human ancestors. The room smelled of noxious fumes from some kind of hallucinogenic plant that the shaman and his assistant seemed to always be smoking in their wooden pipes. She waited for him to speak. After a long pause the shaman opened his eyes.

“I have been watching over these holy items my entire adult life. My father before me and his father before him all the way back to the time of the Sky Spirits, we have protected these objects and kept them hidden from prying eyes. Until now. I will be the first to return them to their rightful owner.”

He slowly rose and stepped down from the wooden dais. Carefully he twisted the top of the dais and pulled the heavy wooden cover off, setting it aside. Zerdy wanted to stand up and gaze into the hollow stump, but she didn’t. Something told her to wait.

He pulled out a heavy, long object wrapped in old and delicate cloth. She knew from its shape and size that it was a sword. She wondered why it was not being used as a weapon instead of being hoarded by an old shaman who lived in a tree.

“This stick was used by the Sky Spirits to slay the Votains. It has but one purpose and no Tyrmian has the knowledge to use it for that purpose. I tend to the stick daily, as all shaman before me have done.”

He swept the cloth off and held the sword up above his head. The candles in the tree cast reflections on the shiny, chromed blade. Her father was a military historian and she had grown up in a home filled with such ancient weapons. It looked like a ceremonial sword, possibly from pre-Alliance times and maybe even from before the age of the Federation.

The shaman lowered the sword and handed it to Zerdy over his arm, hilt towards her. She accepted it and felt its weight. She was trained to parry with a similar Votainion weapon, the famous Votainion falchion. But she felt she could adapt what she knew to use this beautiful old weapon if she needed to. It was longer and thinner than the Votainion falchion and not as heavy.

She read the inscription in galactic standard on the base of the blade. Presented to Lore G. Ballen, Captain of the S.S. Bourke. The date was pre-Alliance. She read the name of the ship again, trying to place it in all the galactic history she had been forced to study at the Academy, but came up blank.

The shaman handed her the cloth cover and she wrapped it back up and returned the sword to him. He reverently placed it back inside the stump. Then he extracted a smaller object wrapped in the wide leaves of a fern plant. He handed it to her with bowed head.

She took the object, gently unwrapping the leaves. Inside was the paper log book of the S.S. Bourke. In the times before the Alliance, it was still considered proper to keep a hand written journal of the ship’s log book. It contained course corrections, ports of call and the personal thoughts of the Captain and his First Mate. Historically, the book was golden; a priceless look at a time when humanity was still innocent about the dangers that lurked in the far corners of the galaxy.

She opened the leather bound book slowly, savoring the feel of the cover and the slightly musty smell of the paper. Her eyes narrowed slightly then widened as she caught her breath. This was, truly a once in a life time experience.

The shaman watched her and slightly nodded to himself. He knew he had made the right decision in showing her the book. Only the Sky Spirits would have understood the strange scribbling inside the artifact.

“You understand the Spirit Booche?”

She looked up at him briefly, nodded and than continued to read. It was fascinating. Hand written notes from the Captain of an exploration starship. She carefully skimmed through the pages, careful not to bend them in the process. Books were considered valuable relics in her world.

The log started out very routine, with daily technical observations about the ship, the crew and the space where they were traveling. As she read about the starship’s old fashioned nuclear drive, she realized that it was a pre-tunneling design. Something in her memory was jogged and the name S.S. Bourke finally crystallized. The Bourke was the first deep space exploration starship. She was launched from the outer rim planets heading for a planet that is now called Atrik in Votainion space. At the time, it was considered the next closest planetary system that could sustain human life. Little was known about Atrik, only that it was deemed worthy of exploration by the huge interstellar businesses that funded exploration back then.

The ship and all its crew were unwittingly lost in space and never heard from again. It was assumed that the nuclear drive had malfunctioned and the starship was destroyed, killing all hands. There was no evidence to back that assumption, but how else could you explain the fact that it completely disappeared? Some people at the time theorized that the experimental stardrive had malfunctioned and sent them into a black hole or into the center of a normal star. All very dramatic, but in the end, nobody really knew what had happened to the Bourke and its crew.

What made the disappearance of the Bourke so important to the political events of its day was the fact that within days of the Bourke’s demise, the Votainion expansion fleet entered Federation space near Al-Shatar and started destroying the outpost on Ocherva. It was the opening salvo of the greatest interstellar war in history. The pro-Alliance forces used the Bourke’s mysterious disappearance as further evidence of the cruelty and destructive force of the Votainions. The Bourke became a rallying cry for the opening of the Federation to all human worlds and the creation of the Western Alliance.

Zerdy realized that she was the first human to learn what had actually happened to the Bourke. The book she held in her hand solved one of the oldest mysteries of space travel and would be invaluable to the leaders of the Combined Fleet. She would be a hero for finding and returning it to the Grand Alliance representatives; except that she was probably considered as lost in space as the crew of the Bourke. Her chances of being rescued were quickly dwindling as time went by.

She suddenly felt very trapped by time and history. She may be the only one who learns the truth about the Bourke, but she would never be able to tell anyone about it. Perhaps hundreds of years into the future, this planet would be found again and whichever shaman stood watch over it would finally be able to give it back to the real Sky Spirits.

“This is called a book. My people used them to transfer knowledge from one person to another. The same way you might teach an apprentice using words.”

The shaman nodded stroking his chin beard.

“This book tells a story. The story of what happened to the Sky Spirits, as you call them, who fell to this world from the stars a long, long time ago. May I read this book, Shaman?”

The shaman sat down before her and made himself comfortable. “Yes, you may read, as you say, this book. I want to hear the story. I have looked at it for my entire life and never understood the strange markings in it.”

She smiled, realizing he was like a little kid at story time. He would be the first shaman to know the history of his ancestors in the same way she would be the first to learn of hers. Together they would know the truth of what happened to the S.S. Bourke and the Sky Spirits. She skipped the boring beginning of the mission and found the pages where the ship first encountered the planet Tyrmia.

“Ships log, day 246. Today we made orbit around IS40c. The crew and myself have fallen in love with this emerald and sapphire world that sensors reveal to be absolutely teeming with life.”





Chapter 21

Zerdy spent hours in the Tree of Life, reading the log book to the old shaman. It was a chilling story of how the crew of the Bourke made planet fall on the verdant plains of a vibrant world and were soon stranded when the Bourke was destroyed in orbit. The truth of what had happened became apparent when the survivors encountered a landing party of the Votainion warship that had destroyed the Bourke.

The human survivors fled the blood thirsty warriors and soon encountered a peaceful tribe of Tyrmian people who lived in the lush forests. The shaman explained to her that this all took place beyond the vast and impenetrable mountain range on the plains of a distant land.

The surviving crew members were quickly adopted by the Tyrmians and in return, they taught the primitive aliens how to make fire, hunt larger game and evade the now permanent outpost of Votainions. Over time, the humans learned that they could not mate with the Tyrmians but the Votainions could. However the resulting half breed females were sterile. Thus was born the Vurhan tribes. The Votainions used them as slaves, something deeply ingrained in their long and bloody history in the galaxy.

The humans found that they could mate with the Votainion females. There were only a few dozen Votainions left on the planet and the genetic differences between them were not sufficient to propagate without risk of inbreeding. The same for the humans. The Bourke crew became divided when half of them wanted to join forces with the Votainions and the other half wanted to continue living with the natives.

Eventually they split up and the result was more bloodshed. The Votainions began to take over the land with growing villages and a standing army. The Tyrmians were captured and forced into slavery with their females used to propagate the Vurhan worker race. The Bourke’s Captain and two other crewmen realized that the only way to save the Tyrmians was to get them out of the area. In a heroic exodus east, through an impossibly high mountain range, they lead the Tyrmians into a dense rain forest that was full of game and offered them a natural barrier from the armies of the Votainions.

Captain Lore and two of his crewman, lived out the remainder of their lives with the Tyrmians and eventually died of natural causes. It was not known what happened to the Votainions and their worker class of Vurhan. The shaman told her that in recent years, the Vurhan had rediscovered the route taken by the ancients and were sneaking away from the Votains to live in their forests and challenge his people for their hunting grounds. But the Vurhan could not mate amongst themselves, so they were forced to steal females from the Tyrmian tribes in order to survive.

“Is that why Cyril is living in the tribe, because her own people banished her?”

The shaman nodded. Then he slowly got up and returned to his position behind the platform. He took out the sword and brought it back to Zerdy.

“This item and the Spirit Book, belong to you. You are a Sky Spirit and you have returned to us to help defend us against the Vurhan. What is your bidding?”

He stared at her expectantly, patiently holding the heavy sword. She took it from him and set it carefully in her lap. She was not a Sky Spirit and she had no intention of leading the Tyrmians and getting involved in their politics. All she wanted to do was hunt and live. She would probably never see another human again. It could be months or years before she was found by the Combined Fleet. She even doubted that they would make an effort to return here.

The Combined Fleet had many such worlds that were torn apart or otherwise affected by the Great War. It would take them generations alone to help heal the damage done to the known planets in the Empire, much less the ones that were forgotten like Tyrmia.

“Shaman, I cannot take these things from you. I was not meant to be here. When I fell from the sky, it was an accident.” She could tell by the look in his eyes that he was not following her.

“It’s like when you’re walking through the forest and you trip on a branch and fall down. You didn’t intend to trip, but there you are, sprawled out on the ground.”

He nodded his narrow face.

“So you tripped in the sky and fell to my land?”

She smiled, when he put it that way it sounded kind of lame.

“Yes, you could say that.”

The shaman looked up to the towering heights of the tree’s interior. He seemed to be holding a quiet conversation with unseen entities. When he lowered his eyes to her, he was resolutely serious.

“You are the one. The Spirits have never lied to me. You will lead this tribe or be the death of it.”

Zerdy swallowed hard. She hated being put on the spot. The man was obviously high on some kind of hallucinogenic drug and she wasn’t going to let him bully her into leading them. She picked up the sword, set it in his lap and stood.

“I will not lead this tribe. I’m not your savior. I’m simply a lost traveler and I will not be coerced into doing whatever it is you think I should be doing. My ancestors crashed on this world and yes, it sounds like they helped screw up this planet. But it is not my duty to help fix their mistakes.

“I’m just a woman, a being not unlike yourself. I’m not the spirit of a fli’r or any other animal on this planet. I am my own person and I don’t want the responsibility of protecting an entire tribe. I’m sorry shaman, but I can’t accept these items or your offer.” She turned to leave.

“You will be the undoing of this tribe, are you prepared to live with our deaths on your conscience?”

Zerdy paused in the entrance to the tree and turned her head aside. She thought about it for a moment and then left.

The old shaman bowed his head in silence.

* * *

Cyril traveled most of the night to her homeland. She had worked out the details of her proposal to Chief Kaymon and was sure he would accept it. He had to, it was her only hope. Zerdy would thank her in the end, because being a hunter and being a female were two incompatible things that would surely lead to trouble.

As she came into the old-growth forest, the size of the trees increased dramatically. A Vurhan sentry heard her approach and challenged her. She told him who she was and that she wanted to see the chief. The sentry recognized her. Her departure from the tribe had made her face and her story well known to all tribal members.

He took her up the rope ladders that extended to the forest floor. His skin was cool to the touch, not unlike her own. She knew him but his name escaped her. She held onto his shoulders as he climbed quickly up to the next level. He guided her along wooden foot paths that climbed higher into the tree tops to the Vurhan village. Nothing had changed much in her home. They pushed past the common areas and went straight to the chief’s hut, resting a few meters higher than the others.

“Wait here.”

She watched him disappear into the hut and suddenly remembered his name. Veer. He was the younger brother of one of her scorned suitors. She turned his brother Ty’mr down and then she was quickly outed as unable to reproduce. It was a label that Ty’mr had placed on her in the male hunter’s group and she was never allowed to prove herself fertile. The chief banished her shortly thereafter.

She wondered where Ty’mr was and if he ever regretted having her sent away. He was probably on a hunt. She looked across the compound at the family huts and wondered if one of them held Ty’mr’s family.

Veer came back outside. “Chief Kaymon will see you now.

She wanted to ask him how his brother was, but instead she nodded silently and walked into the chief’s hut. It was dark but for a few glowing embers in the fire pit. Chief Kaymon was a muscular Vurhan male with dark skin that was almost black in the shadows of the hut. He had two Tyrmian females lying next to him, one was awake and the other asleep.

Cyril came closer as Kaymon motioned to her with a big hand. The female who was awake looked startled to see her. Cyril recognized the woman. Her name was Creela and she was one of the chief’s many wives. Her skin was as dark as the night and the whites of her eyes and teeth glowed from the orange ember light. Creela was the only female who had sided with Cyril and tried to stop her banishment. Cyril bowed before them.

“What brings you back to us Cyril?” Creela asked.

Cyril kept her head down out of respect. “I bring you an offering, great Chief.”

Kaymon smiled with white teeth bared. “What sort of offering?”

“My new tribe has discovered an Ancient One. Our shaman believes she is a Sky Spirit. I have befriended her and I can help you capture her. She is most certainly fertile and she is from the Spirit World.”

Kaymon looked at Creela, they both could not believe their fortune. Nobody had ever seen a living Sky Spirit, not even the Votains. Surely the Votains would be looking for the female. What better way to negotiate with the Votains than to have something that they valued. Kaymon looked back to Cyril and stood up from his fur covered bed.

“You are sure this female is a spirit? You have seen her?”

Cyril ventured upwards with her dark eyes, until she could see Kaymon’s face. His skin was a deeper blue-green color in the dark of the night. Black, swirling tattoos covered every inch of his body. Kaymon’s Vurhan stature was more compact and sturdy, compared to the lithe Tyrmian males. Large arms were crossed over his thick chest. He wore a simple leather loin cloth and a feathered head piece. The Vurhan were not big on ceremonial dress, but both sexes covered their waists and the women sometimes covered their breasts. Living amongst the Votains had taught them modesty if nothing else.

“Yes my Chief, I have earned her trust and companionship. If you want her, I can deliver her to you.”

Kaymon looked back to his wife again. She had sat up and thrust her chest outward confidently. She nodded her approval.

He bent down to Cyril and commanded that she rise before him. Cyril rose with him to her feet.

“Bring this woman to the stream and we will capture her. If she is indeed a spirit, I will let you live with us in the trees once again.”

Cyril bowed low and then stepped back out of the Chief’s hut. Veer was there to take her back down to the forest floor. She wore a confident grin, her plan was coming true just as she had hoped.





Chapter 22

Kor’re slapped the back of his neck and removed the blood stained insect with a finger. He was getting eaten alive in this damn rain forest. Previous bites itched relentlessly on his arms and legs making sleep difficult at best during the dark, noisy night. His men were sleeping in the trees now, to avoid being attacked by ziphers. They had seen evidence of the predators at night but no soldiers had been attacked since that first day.

Kor’re motioned for the mag-coils to move up and take the point. They were far enough into the jungle now to be using the metal detecting devices more than carrying them. The young men who operated the spindly devices were eager to use their advanced technology and prove its worth to the unit. They moved past the Vurhan scout on point and quickly set up.

The unit moved on again, at a slower pace as the mag-coil operators scanned the jungle for any signs of metal. Kor’re watched them move back and forth in a methodical sweep, and wondered if they would ever find any evidence of alien technology. It seemed as if they were looking for a twig in a forest of trees. He slapped his arm again and wiped the blood stain off on his sleeve.

* * *

After several hours of scanning the thick forest undergrowth one of the mag-coils started chirping, then the second one chimed in. Kor’re was taking a water break with his men. The water was warm and metallic tasting from having sat in the metal canteen. He took a last drink and put the canteen back in the woven sheath. He pushed forward through the bush to where the commotion was.

“Sir, we have a positive contact with metallic objects but we can’t see anything,” the lead mag-coil operator said. Kor’re could see the excitement on the man’s face. They were close to something big, but they just couldn’t see it.

Sergeant Krupp made his way to the group, sweat beading on his blue forehead. The thick jungle had given way to tall strands of grass and the trees had thinned out. The oppressive humidity was doing its best to drain the energy out of them.

“Sergeant, fan the men out and have them form a creeping line. We may be looking for tiny pieces of debris instead of a solid structure.”

“Yes sir,” Krupp said, turning to bark out the order.

Kor’re took a closer look at the instrument. The operator let him hold it and feel the off-balanced weight of the pole. The little meter was swinging heavily into the red as the tiny speaker chirped a positive signal, adding to the natural sounds of the jungle.

Kor’re moved the pole back and forth slowly and detected no discernible change in pitch. They were standing in tall grass and it was difficult see anything on the ground. It could take them hours to search for what was surely just bits and pieces of metal. Kor’re wanted an intact, solid object. Something big enough for him to haul back to civilization and let the Engineers dissect. Another damn insect buzzed in his ear and then bit him on the neck again.

“Sergeant, I’ve found something!”

Krupp waded through the green grass to the soldier who was holding what looked like a glass bubble. When he got closer, he could see that it was a helmet of some sort, made from a clear material like glass, but lighter weight.

Krupp took the helmet from the soldier and motioned for him to continue looking. He walked back to where Kor’re was standing with the mag-coils.

“What do you make of this, sir?”

Kor’re took the helmet and slowly turned it over in his bug bitten hands. It was obviously a helmet and yet it looked like no helmet either man had ever seen before. It had a grooved metal ring at its base and what looked like a darker shield could be moved down from the top to cover what was clearly the front of the piece. There were some kind of electronic elements embedded in the back of it but they were completely alien in form.

Kor’re started to smile. He was holding in his hands something that had come from another intelligence deep in outer space. It was like the devices that the Ancient Ones used, but somehow more refined. He had been to the museum and seen the trinkets and devices under glass there that had been used by his ancestors and this helmet was without a doubt, made by the same star voyaging people.

Even if this was the only thing they found, his mission was a success. But Kor’re wanted more. Something better than a helmet. He wanted to know who was wearing the helmet, and what he most wanted was the craft itself. A flash caught his eye as he held the helmet in both hands. A reflection of something shiny in the clear glass of the helmet.

Kor’re slowly raised his head to the tree branches above him and his jaw dropped wide open. Sitting peacefully in the large tree was a complete vehicle made from the same whitish metal of the helmet. Sergeant Krupp followed Kor’re’s gaze upward and saw the ship in the trees. He swallowed hard.

“We found it, Sergeant,” Kor’re said.

“I never would have believed it, sir.”

Kor’re handed Krupp the helmet and started heading for the tree’s massive trunk. He unbuckled his utility belt and let it fall into the tall grass. Jeroo, the Vurhan scout, was already scaling the trunk, making his way up the tree with little difficulty. It took Kor’re much longer to climb the tree but he eventually made it to the back of the ship and smelled the burnt metal of the engine exhaust port. He touched the charred surface with his bare hand and found it was cool, like the metal of his own equipment.

Climbing out on the delta shaped wing, he found the remains of someone inside the vehicle. Scavengers and insects had made quick work of the body that was inside some kind of fitted suit. The victim was obviously killed by the branch that impaled him. What took Kor’re aback was how Votain the man’s remains looked. He was the same size and shape as Kor’re. Perhaps this was one of the mythical Ancient Ones from the legends.

There was an empty seat in the front of the craft. Kor’re looked into the tight confines and realized he was staring at a technological capability that was far ahead of anything his people had developed. He stood back a bit on the wing and took in the entire craft. The thought that this machine had once traveled in outer space made his heart sing for a chance to fly in it. Jeroo dropped down beside him from the higher branches of the tree. Kor’re winced and looked at the blue-green skinned native.

“It slid from the top of the tree, where it fell from I can not determine. There are no cliffs nearby,” Jeroo said.

“It did not fall from any place on this planet. It fell from the stars.”

The half-breed looked at Kor’re like he had lost his mind. Kor’re smiled, it was nearly as hard for him to accept and yet there it was. Jeroo laughed nervously, as if he were not sure if Kor’re were joking.

“We need to get this on the ground. It may be best to lash ropes to it and try to remove these larger branches,” Kor’re said, pointing to the tree limbs that supported the craft.

Jeroo nodded and then quickly slipped over the edge of the wing and down to the ground. Kor’re stood looking at the empty cockpit and started to wonder where the other occupant was. It would appear that he survived the crash and was probably not far away. Kor’re looked around the jungle with a curious eye. If he could manage to get the craft and find the occupant, his mission would be a glorious success. The High Council would surely press for his advancement to Chief Architect.

Another flying insect buzzed by his ear, but he swatted at it thoughtlessly. He had more important things on his mind. The sooner he was able to get this craft broken down and brought back to civilization the better. Several other soldiers climbed up to the craft and began surveying the tree and how to cut it. They carried large metal saw blades on their backs. The operation would not be easy and would surely take some time. Kor’re got out of their way and descended the tree.

Sergeant Krupp was already issuing orders to his men on how to fell the tree and recover the strange craft.

“Sergeant, how long do you think it will take to get that thing down?”

Krupp rubbed his bluish chin thoughtfully. “Hard to say, sir. Perhaps a few days. Even longer to construct a wagon and blaze a trail back to the mountains.”

Kor’re nodded his agreement.

“Send someone back for the burca. We will need their strength to pull this thing back.”

Kor’re picked up the helmet and studied it, trying to imagine what its owner looked like. He reasoned that the man could look very much like himself, judging from the size of the helmet. He looked around to see if anyone were watching before he put the helmet over his head. It felt constricted, but comfortable. There was a distinct smell of flowers inside, like the perfumes that society women wore. His breath quickly fogged the glass so he took it off. He was still examining it when Jeroo approached him.

“Sir, there is evidence of Tyrmian hunting in the area. Snare traps were found and these spear heads.”

He handed Kor’re two stone spear heads.

Kor’re put the helmet under his arm and turned the sharpened stones over in his free hand. Could the surviving Ancient One have been captured by the Tyrmians? A space faring man defeated by an ancient, tribe of primitives? Legends said that at least some of the ancients befriended the local tribes and disappeared into the jungles with them. Perhaps the owner of this helmet had came back to be with the Tyrmians? Kor’re shook his head in disbelief. What could he possibly find interesting about the natives? It was far more likely that the Ancient One was hidden in the jungle, watching and waiting to be rescued. If that were the case, Kor’re would find him.

Kor’re handed the spear heads back to Jeroo.

“Fan out and look for the owner of this helmet. He may be in the area, hiding. I want him found and brought to me. Do not kill him, understand?”

“Yes sir,” Jeroo said, as he slipped into the tall grass and was gone again.

Kor’re returned his attentions to the helmet, staring again into the glass face of it. His own pale azure face and reddish hair reflected on its shiny surface. He was about to match wits with the ancients and nothing could have been more exhilarating for him. He smiled at his reflection.





Chapter 23

The blade felt balanced in her hands as she swung hard, swiftly removing the head from the blue skinned warrior. Her face was sprayed with red, freshly oxygenated blood. She screamed like a mad woman as she brought the blade back toward another soldier and cleaved his right shoulder from his torso. The warm blood sprayed onto the dirt as the mortally wounded man fell at her bare feet.

Metal projectiles whizzed past her head, she could hear them cutting the thick air as she charged into the melee. Her blond hair was matted down and wet from hot blood and her own sweat. She ran her sword through a third man, twisting it around to enlarge the fatal wound. Before she could pull her sword from the dead man’s back, a hail of bullets punctured her arms, legs and under her collar bone. She screamed in pain, but still managed to pull out the sword and take a step forward to engage another soldier.

Kwin was by her side now, his spear thrust hard into the chest of the closest soldier. His lean body was punctured by bullet holes as badly as her own. She raised her sword for another charge when a second wave of bullets came right at her like a dark swarm of deadly insects.

Zerdy shot up from her bed of leaves, her body soaked with perspiration and trembling with fear. Her heart-rate was soaring as she let out a scream that woke the other women in the hut. They came to her side, trying to calm her down. Zerdy had never had a dream that intense before. It took her a few seconds to realize that she was indeed dreaming. The battle was so intense and real, that she could not get the bloody images from her head. Slowly her breathing returned to normal and the other females assured her that she was okay and among the living again.

She got up and left the hut, to walk alone in the cool evening. Her body was still wet and the cooler night air felt good against her skin. She held her arms and began to get gooseflesh on them as she walked. There was a sentry at the fire pit. An older male Tyrmian who watched her walk along the edges of the camp before resuming his stare at the burning coals in the fire.

Zerdy thought about what the shaman had told her. How he was convinced that she was sent from the spirit world to lead them and to protect them from the Vurhan and the Votains on the far side of the mountains. But she had seen no evidence of the Votains in the jungle. They probably could not get through the massive mountain range that separated the rain forest from the plains on the other side of the continent. She dimly recalled the geography of the planet from the few orbits they managed to complete before being knocked out of space. There were smaller bodies of land in the southern hemisphere, but only the one continent that nearly straddled the entire equator, and most of the northern hemisphere. She recalled seeing a desert, but it was far to the east of where they came down.

In her dream she was slaying Votainion soldiers with the sword from the Tree of Life. Is my tired brain just rehashing the day’s events, or am I having a premonition? Is it my destiny to die by a hail of bullets shot from the rifles of Votainion soldiers? She had never believed in destiny before. Her life was her own to live as she saw fit. She joined the Starveyers because she wanted to help heal the wounds left over from the Great War. Not because her mother was in the military and her mother before her and so on into the past for a thousand years or more. She was born after the war and she had never known a time when the Votainions and the humans were at war.

Although she was trained to fight, she was not a soldier at heart. She had no desire to lead people into combat. Especially against others that she knew and understood as well as her own kind. She walked by the drying rack where the pelts of the ziphers were stretched out to dry. That first night of the hunt she had slain the fiercest animal in the jungle and did so with an ease that was openly admired by the Tyrmian hunters. Maybe I really am a warrior? Maybe killing is something that I never knew I had a talent for? That thought scared her a bit as she felt the soft fur of the zipher.

All she really wanted to do was live in peace with the Tyrmians and wait to be rescued; something she had not given much thought to lately. She was so involved in the tribe that she didn’t have the time to sit and think about how long she would be stranded on this world. Something inside her told her that she may never be rescued. If that were the case, then learning to live with the Tyrmians was her only hope of surviving. Still, she did give thought to what lay beyond the mountains sometimes. Were the Votains somehow less aggressive than their ancestors were? They obviously had a good level of technology to be able to shoot my scout down. Perhaps someday her curiosity would get the better of her and she would seek out the Votains. But for now, for tonight, she wanted no part in being a savior. She just wanted to go back to sleep.

She walked back to her hut and lay down in her bed of animal fur. She noticed the empty bed next to hers and felt lonely. Where had Cyril disappeared to? And why? She would have to find out in the morning, because her head was heavy and she could not keep her eyelids open any longer.

* * *

Morning came too soon for Zerdy. She ventured out of the empty hut in time to help lay out the morning meal for the returning hunters. Cyril was helping portion out the servings. She locked eyes with Zerdy for a moment and then looked away. Zerdy wanted to talk with her, ask her where she had disappeared to. But she decided now was not the time.

The males returned from out of the misty jungle weary and tired. The hunt had not been fruitful. Only a few smaller animals were killed, barely enough meat to feed the tribe for one day. Zerdy took Kwin a bowl and handed it to him as he sat before the fire.

“Zerdy you must hunt with us tonight. The forest was barren, our prey have moved on.”

She lowered her head and nodded.

“I will if you command it.”

Kwin looked at her with a troubled expression on his dark face.

“Ever since you have come to live with us, the animals have been moving out of this area. Are you punishing us for something?”

She shook her head. “I have no control over the animal populations. Perhaps this area is simply over hunted. We may need to move deeper into the forest.”

“But the animals have always been plentiful in this land. Now they have moved on, as if spooked by our presence or the presence of someone else.”

Zerdy thought about that for a moment. Perhaps another tribe was hunting the same land and causing the animal populations to drop.

“Kwin, are there other tribes of Tyrmians in the forest?”

“Yes, but they are several days travel from here and they have not come into our area in a long time. We used to trade with them until they moved deeper into the forest. Now we rarely encounter them.”

“What about the Vurhan?”

Kwin looked back to the fire and scooped the mush from the bowl into his mouth. He chewed it quickly and then answered her. “The Vurhan do not hunt the same prey as we do. They stick to the tree tops and eat the animals that live there. Rarely do they venture to the ground and take our prey.”

She realized that there must be a kind of symbiosis between the two groups of hominids. As long as they kept to their designated areas they could live relatively near each other in peace. Perhaps the jungle canopy was becoming less able to support the Vurhan and they were now hunting the lower level animals.

“Tonight I’ll go with you and maybe together we can find some answers.”

Kwin seemed relieved. Zerdy looked across the camp at the zipher pelts. “Kwin, have there always been large numbers of ziphers in this area?”

He shook his head as he ate. She wondered if the thinning of the animal population was also taking its toll on the jungle’s largest predator. Ecosystems sometimes went through cycles where populations of one kind or another became scarce, but usually they recovered. Unless the factors that contributed to the changes were permanent.

When Kwin had finished his meal, she took his bowl and returned it to the stack that was ready to be taken to the river for cleaning. Cyril took the bowl from her friend and then motioned for her to sit. Zerdy sat down in the dirt beside Cyril.

“Will you come to the river and help me wash these?”

“Sure. Where were you last night?”

Cyril looked away.

“I was feeling badly and I didn’t want to bother the others.”

It was not unusual for someone who felt sick to leave the tribal area and suffer on their own. If what they had were contagious, it could spare others the chance to become infected.

“I missed you,” Zerdy said with a smile.

Cyril looked back to her friend and returned the smile. “I missed you too.”

When the hunters had finished eating, they disappeared into their huts and the women and children ate their morning meal. Afterward, was time to head to the stream to wash the bowls and cooking pots.

Tre’l came over and stood beside Zerdy as she finished stacking the bowls. He would be their escort to the creek. He looked rested and content. He had not gone out on the evening’s hunt, since he had drawn domestic defense duty. He protected the camp and acted as escort for trips to the creek. Zerdy knew that the hunters didn’t enjoy the duty, but she could tell it afforded them a much needed break from the nocturnal routine of the hunt.





Chapter 24

Tre’l stopped in mid step. Cyril and Zerdy nearly ran into him. Standing a few meters down the trail was a Vurhan warrior. His bow was drawn and an arrow pointed at their chests. He wore white war paint on his face and upper torso. It contrasted sharply against his dark, blue-green skin.

Zerdy noticed two more warriors off the path on both sides of them. It was a trap, and they had walked right into it. Cyril looked at her nervously. Zerdy could see the fear growing in her friend’s eyes.

The Vurhan warrior started jerking his bow up and down and slowly crept towards them, making guttural sounds. Tre’l didn’t raise his bow or make any sudden moves. His yellow eyes stared into the dark eyes of the Vurhan. Zerdy was not certain whether Tre’l would attack, even though he would surely be killed. She knew that males often sacrificed themselves for females if there was a chance it would let them escape, but there seemed little chance of that happening.

“Vor no veet tar!” the Vurhan said.

Tre’l said nothing. Neither alien could really understand the other. All they could do was stare at each other with fierce looks on their faces.

Zerdy understood the Vurhan. He was telling them that all they wanted was the white female. Zerdy moved forward slowly and passed Tre’l. He grabbed her arm and stopped her.

“You can’t go with him.”

“If I don’t, both of you could be killed.”

He didn’t let go of her.

“Tre’l, let me go and you warn the others. I can take care of myself.”

Tre’l let go of her arm and she stepped cautiously towards the Vurhan warrior. He moved back a few steps, maintaining his distance from her. The other Vurhan in the jungle backed away at the same time, their bows still aimed at Tre’l. They eventually circled back around Zerdy and forced her deeper into the bush with them.

Tre’l let out a loud cry and brought his bow and arrow to bear on the path were the Vurhan had disappeared. Cyril and the other woman ran back to the camp site, passing several armed Tyrmian hunters who were alerted by Tre’l’s call.

* * *

Zerdy was pushed and shoved through the jungle with little regard for her wellbeing. She followed the path of the warrior ahead of her and endured the pushing from the painted warrior behind her. They moved at something short of a run and she wouldn’t be able to hold this forced run much further.

They changed directions several times until Zerdy was completely turned around. She could hear Tre’l screaming in the distance but it faded the longer they ran. She tripped over a fallen tree branch and fell to the moist ground. The warrior behind her picked her up by her arm and set her moving again like a parent picks up a fallen child. He was much stronger than the average Tyrmian. More like the size and weight of a large human male. His touch was cool and moist from perspiration.

She felt his hand on her back as they pushed forward through the palm bushes and over more fallen tree branches. Zerdy tried to get them to slow so she could catch her breath, but they only pushed her onward with urgent grunts.

As they came near the base of a giant tree with a wide trunk, she noticed for the first time that the size of the trees had been increasing. The roots were half exposed and nearly as tall as she stood. Suddenly the Vurhan warriors stopped, leaving her gasping in the warm, humid air. The Vurhan warriors held her still and looked around for signs they were being followed. Zerdy didn’t hear anything but the sounds of the jungle and her own heavy breathing.

They pushed deeper into the land of the giant trees. Zerdy’s ankle bothered her from the fall when she slipped. She kept putting her hand down on her throbbing right ankle, much to the detriment of her captors. A light rain started to fall from far above the foggy heights of the tree tops. The temperature seemed to drop a bit and she welcomed the cooler air.

The Vurhan warrior leading them stopped short at the base of another huge tree, waiting nervously. A coiled vine dropped from above directly in front of Zerdy. She thought it was a giant snake and let out a stifled scream. One of the warriors wrapped the vine around her waist and tied it with a quick knot. Before she could protest, she was hoisted up into the air. A Vurhan warrior slid past her on his way down.

She came to a halt some twenty meters above the forest floor. She was grabbed by a pair of long, muscular arms from another Vurhan male. He was not painted like the others as he hauled her onto a wooden platform.

She grabbed the tree instinctively so as not to fall. There was a wooden deck around the base of the tree and only a single rail guard. The slats of wood were woven together with vine rope. She tried not to look down as the Vurhan male guided her along a rope bridge that extended for several meters to the next giant tree. From there they climbed upwards again on ropes and wooden steps to another cross walk. The regular forest canopy was below them now and Zerdy could see that the rolling tree tops extended out to the horizon. It was quite impressive but she didn’t have time to admire the view, the Vurhan male continued to push her, upward and onward.

After several such passages they came upon a tree village the likes of which Zerdy had never seen before. A patchwork of trees all surrounded with wooden huts and wood planked, rope cat walks between them. There were Vurhan of all ages from little children to the elderly all going about their business in their treetop village. At the center of the village was a suspended structure that had a stone covered oven. Unfamiliar yet pleasant smells wafted through the tree tops.

The level of engineering required to build such a massive wooden and stone structure high in the tree tops, impressed upon her that the Vurhan were not simple hunter-gatherers like the Tyrmians. The differences fascinated Zerdy as she was escorted along narrow pathways. Not only were they sophisticated at building tree top structures, they were completely adapted to life hundreds of meters off the forest floor.

Even the tiniest children had a very developed sense of balance and not a concern in the world about the possibility of falling to their deaths. Zerdy wondered whether they had some kind of natural ability or whether they just learned it from their parents. Fortunately she was not afraid as long as she stayed on the paths and could grab a rope handrail if needed.

The Vurhan male guided her to a large hut that encircled the trunk of a tree and appeared to have several levels. They stopped at the entrance and he forced her to bow on her knees. He spoke a guttural word that Zerdy didn’t immediately recognize. A resonant voice from within replied and the male rose again pulling her up with him.

Inside the hut was dark but her eyes quickly adapted. A darker skinned male sat upon a fur covered bed surrounded by two Tyrmian females. They were all looking at her with an intensity that alarmed Zerdy.

“This is the White Fli’r?”

The male behind her pushed Zerdy down to her knees.

“Leave us,” the dark one commanded.

The male quickly departed leaving Zerdy alone to face this obvious leader of the Vurhan tribe. The man studied her with a curious eye while the two women whispered into his ears. Zerdy was reminded of the Votainion Soothsayers that used to whisper thoughts to the Emperors during the Great War.

“Do you speak, creature?” the male finally asked her in plain Votainion.

She was surprised to hear the language spoken so clearly from the Vurhan leader. She lowered her head out of respect and responded quietly, as was the custom for subservient Votainion females.

“I do, My Lord.”

The man was equally surprised.

“How do you know our language?”

“I know many languages, My Lord.”

“Stop calling me Lord. I am Chief Kaymon, not a Votain Lord.”

Zerdy responded without hesitation. “Yes, Zuthera.”

The chief lifted an eyebrow at her use of the old world language. Zuthera was an ancient Votainion word for Chief. It was a very curious thing to call oneself in a modern Votainion society. But she had to remind herself that she was not in the galaxy, she was on this isolated border world that may never have even heard of the Great War.

“Who are you and where do you come from?” Kaymon asked.

Zerdy hesitated, not wanting to tell him everything about herself. She feared he would try and exploit her knowledge. But she also realized that this man might not believe in the spirit world of the Tyrmians. He may have his own mythology.

“I come from a land far away. I was sent here to study the Tyrmians and live in peace with them and all the brothers of the land.”

Kaymon broke out in a wide grin and then laughed out loud.

“Why would anyone want to study the Tyrmians? They are a primitive people who know nothing of this world. The Vurhan are the rulers of this forest, from the great mountains to the dune seas.”

“You are a wise and very powerful nation, Chief Kaymon.”

Kaymon whispered something to the female on his left.

“What are you called and what kind of creature are you?”

“I’m a human and my name is Zerdy.”

Kaymon looked at her critically again and motioned her closer. He stood up and towered over her. His dark, shiny skin was taut with muscles that were more pronounced than the lithe Tyrmians. His physique was more Votainion or even human. He walked around her, looking her up and down.

She tried not to watch him and instead looked at the two females who were giving her icy stares. She wondered if they felt threatened by her presence.

Kaymon touched her dirty blond hair and brought it to his nose to smell it. He then moved in closer to her and inhaled through his nose. He shook his head and made a face as he returned to his fur covered throne and sat down.

“You do not appear to be a Votain. What species is human and what land are you from?”

“I come from the sky, but I’m not a Sky Spirit. I’m flesh and blood like yourself.”

Kaymon shook his head curtly. He had long, shiny black hair that extended from the back of his bare and knobby skull.

“I don’t understand. The Votains have command of the sky in machines that can fly, but they can not fly over the mountains or the deserts. It is impossible to be from the sky. Explain.”

“I’m from beyond the sky, from the realm of the stars at night.”

Kaymon’s eyes widened as if he understood her. “You are an Ancient One?”

Zerdy was not sure how to answer that after the reaction the old shaman had upon making that connection. She decided it was best not deceive Kaymon.

“Yes.”

Kaymon and the female to his left exchanged looks.

“Do you have powers?”

“No, but I have knowledge. Knowledge of the Ancient Ones.”

Kaymon sat back and contemplated her.

A male warrior appeared at the entrance behind Zerdy. He was out of breath and clearly agitated.

“Chief Kaymon, the Votains have been seen in the forest. They are coming this way. Many soldiers and Vurhan scouts.”

Kaymon stood up, clearly alarmed by the news.

“Gather the warriors at the clearing, prepare the village for attack.”

The warrior saluted with his right arm across his chest and left. Kaymon looked down at Zerdy who suddenly felt unsafe in his presence.

“You will come with us. If you are an Ancient One, we might be able to bargain with the Votains.”





Chapter 25

The Vurhan scouts had found a large tribe of natives living in a settlement not far from the recovery site. Kor’re had led a small raiding party to see if they could find the Ancient One living among them. There were six Votain soldiers fanned out in the thick jungle lying on their stomachs to avoid being seen by the Tyrmians. Their tan uniforms did not blend into the jungle well enough to allow them to get very close.

Kor’re brought the brass binoculars to his eyes and adjusted them to his vision. He could see about twenty odd Tyrmians of different ages and sexes going about their lives, completely oblivious to the presence of anything foreign. They were all naked, a sight that repulsed Kor’re. Nudity was not socially acceptable in modern society. Especially by well cultured ladies and gentlemen of the courts. Votain fashions tended to be layered and intricate with delicate lace and the occasional splash of color over a generally dark base.

Kor’re lowered the binoculars and returned them to their leather pouch on his belt. A small force of perhaps a dozen soldiers could easily slaughter the tribe, but there was no evidence that it would net them anything in return. He gave the hand signal for retreat and his men crawled backwards and then got up to reform a short distance back near a clearing.

As they all stood around in a circle some of them took drinks from their canteens and spoke in low voices about the natives they had been watching. Kor’re swatted his neck again in a futile attempt to kill yet another bloody insect. He quickly turned, pointing his rifle all the other soldiers at a commotion down the trail where they had just retreated.

Jeroo pushed a naked female Vurhan woman through the brush and stopped before the soldiers. She was the same blue-green color of the trusted scout. She looked frightened. He forced her to her knees before Kor’re.

“My Lord, I found this lone female leaving the Tyrmian camp. She claims to be lost, but I suspect she lives with them. No Vurhan female would be in the jungle alone.”

Kor’re studied the woman. Her hands were tied behind her back with jungle vines.

“What is her name?”

Jeroo asked her the question in Vurhan.

“Cyril.”

Kor’re shifted on his feet, uncomfortable with her nakedness. With a glance he noticed his men eying her body. He ordered them all to turn away and watch the forest. They came to attention and turned around.

“Ask her if she knows about the Ancient One.”

Jeroo repeated the question again in his native tongue.

* * *

Cyril didn’t know how to respond. She wanted to protect her friend’s location, but she knew that she was no longer with the Tyrmians. If she told this Votain that Zerdy was with her Vurhan tribe, they take her away and probably kill everyone in the tribe. But if she said that Zerdy was with the Tyrmians, they would slaughter that tribe. She didn’t want to cause harm to either tribe. The Tyrmians had taken her in when her own people had banished her. They were good people and they didn’t deserve to be betrayed. Cyril looked away from the red haired Votain soldier and tried to think of a way out of her predicament.

The Vurhan scout pushed on her back and grunted for her to answer. Cyril looked back up at the Votain soldier and smiled wryly. His eyes narrowed as if he realized that she knew about the Ancient One.

“Yes. She lives with the Tyrmian tribe.”

The Votain male looked at his scout for a translation.

The Votain looked back down at Cyril as she tried to suppress her emotions with a cold stare. “She is a great and powerful hunter and she will kill you and all your men.”

The scout back-slapped Cyril and she fell over on the ground.

The Votain spoke harshly to the Vurhan scout. The Vurhan shook his head curtly and pleaded with the Votain.

The Votain soldier squatted down before Cyril and looked in her eyes. Cyril could make out nothing in his shiny black eyes. It was as if he had no spirit at all. A dark and ominous feeling of foreboding filled Cyril.

When the Votain spoke his tone was flat, without emotion. One of the other soldiers turned around and saluted the Votain leader. He spoke again, still looking her in the eye. A cold chill went down her back as he calmly issued an order. She knew that she was in peril despite his calm demeanor.

The scout pulled Cyril’s head back by her hair and looked down at her with a twisted smile.

“You will die, if we do not find the Ancient One,” he sneered at her.

Cyril was more terrified then ever before. She knew they would not find Zerdy in the camp and she knew she would not be able to tell them where to find her friend. Her plan to be with Zerdy was falling apart and this time there would be nothing she could do to save herself. She hung her head down and started to weep.

* * *

Sergeant Krupp and his men joined Kor’re’s patrol at noon. They were fully loaded with rifles and a repeater. Each man had double the amount of ammunition he regularly carried. Kor’re organized them into a flanking formation and they quickly moved into the Tyrmian camp.

The soldiers were under orders to shoot only those natives that attacked them, but what happened soon degraded into a massacre. Tyrmian women and children fled the camp, screaming, which awakened the sleeping hunters of the tribe. Gun shots rang out into the forest as the soldiers marched into the camp. Tyrmian males fell quickly to the overwhelming firepower of the Votain soldiers. Some barely had time to bring their bows to bear before being cut down by bullets.

The Vurhan scout held onto Cyril and marched her forward behind the soldiers. One by one she was forced to watch her friends die. Tears streamed down her blue-green cheeks as she watched the slaughter unfold before her.

The soldiers started to burn the huts and gather the Tyrmians who couldn’t flee into a circle, where they sat down and weeped openly for their fallen friends and relatives. An old male was brought before the Votain leader by another Vurhan scout. He was forced to his knees by the scout.

“The tribal shaman. He claims to know where the Ancient One is,” the scout said.

Kor’re looked down on the wrinkled old Tyrmian with a long, white beard.

“Where is he?”

The shaman spoke with the Vurhan scout translating for him.

“The Ancient One is called Zerdy, the White Fli’r. She was kidnapped by another tribe.”

Kor’re looked around at all the dead natives and the burning huts. It was possible that this man was telling him the truth, but he couldn’t verify it. He didn’t need to waste his time going from tribe to tribe, killing natives and never finding his prize. He looked around at the destruction his men had wrought and sighed.

“Bring me the female Vurhan.”

Cyril was pushed through the camp forced to her knees before Kor’re. He took out his service revolver and pointed it at her head.

“Ask him where the Ancient One is, or I shoot this female.”

The scout translated and watched the shaman for a response. The old man looked sadly at Cyril. He didn’t know how to save her.

He told them again that Cyril’s former tribe had taken the Ancient One. When the shaman’s words were translated, Kor’re lowered the pistol and turned it on the shaman. With one shot to the forehead the old Tyrmian fell over backwards.

Cyril broke down in tears, which touched off more baleful mourning from the survivors. Kor’re was getting tired of hearing all the noise. He ordered the repeater bearer up from the ranks and told him to kill the survivors. The soldier didn’t hesitate. He aimed the weapon and sprayed a hailstorm of bullets into the handful of survivors.

Cyril held her ears and screamed as her adopted tribe was all but exterminated. They fell where they stood in a pile of green bodies. The smoking gun barrels wound to a stop as the repeater operator shouldered his death stick.

Kor’re returned his attention to Cyril. He pulled her to her feet and spoke to her in his native language.

“You will now lead us to the tribe where the Ancient One lives.”

Jeroo the Vurhan scout translated the Votain’s words. She looked at Kor’re coldly and shook her head defiantly. There was no way she would lead them to her own tribe and cause them the same fate.

Kor’re pulled the hammer back on his revolver and pointed it to her forehead.

“Take us now, or die.”

Cyril closed her eyes and breathed Zerdy’s name.

Kor’re pulled the trigger. Jeroo watched the female fall forward into the dirt. He let go of her bindings and walked away. There was little sympathy in his heart for her despite the fact that they were of the same race. Class separation was everything in Votain society and the Vurhan were forever on the bottom of it. The only thing lower than the Vurhan were the Tyrmians. If you lived with the Tyrmians, you lived lower than your station in life.

Kor’re walked over to Sergeant Krupp. The village huts were reduced to smoking coals and all the Tyrmians were dead. He was still no closer to finding the Ancient One.

“Sergeant, gather up the men, we are heading back to camp.”

Krupp saluted smartly and relayed the order to the soldiers standing around. Kor’re motioned for Jeroo to join him. The Vurhan scout came quickly to his master’s side.

“Jeroo, fan out from here and see if you can find the Vurhan tribe. If you can’t find a tribe within a day’s walk from here, return to our camp.”

Jeroo nodded and then slipped away into the forest. Kor’re walked back over to where Krupp was forming up the men for the march home.

“I sent Jeroo to look for the Vurhan tribe. If he finds it, we will resume our search for the Ancient One. If not, we will carry on with our retrieval of the flying machine.”

“Do you think we will find the remaining occupant of that machine?” Krupp asked.

Kor’re looked at the carnage. “I think she will show herself now.”





Chapter 26

It looked to Zerdy as if Chief Kaymon rarely walked the forest floor anymore. He was not used to it. You had to lift your feet high and watch for tree roots and other dangerous ground debris. Progress was slow and laborious. Zerdy was a few paces behind the chief, walking with several painted warriors. There were ten Vurhan in the party, plus a few scouts in the trees ahead of them.

Zerdy realized that the Vurhan moved rather clumsily through the forest as apposed to the Tyrmians who seemed to move with hardly the snap of a twig. She wondered how long it would take them to get back to her tribe. They weren’t moving as quickly as she had when they abducted her. Probably due to the presence of the chief. Her ankle wasn’t bothering her at the moment, and she wasn’t going to complaining about the slow pace.

They cut back down along a stream and stopped for a short while to refill their water bladders. The chief motioned for Zerdy to be brought to him.

“You are a curious creature.”

Chief Kaymon looked back to a warrior who approached from ahead of the group. They exchanged words and then the chief looked back at Zerdy.

“Bad news I’m afraid. My scouts say that your Tyrmian tribe has been attacked by the blue-skins.”

“What?” Her heart seemed to fall into her stomach, clenching tighter and tighter.

The chief moved closer to her, he had a truly sympathetic look on his blue-green face.

“The Votains are looking for you. We are not prepared to fight the blue man directly. They will kill every one of us. Their weapons are far more advanced than ours. It would be suicide.”

Zerdy swallowed hard. She stepped backwards awkwardly and leaned against a fallen tree near the water’s edge. She wondered if Cyril, Kwin and the others were still alive. Zerdy had to see them, to be sure they were alright. She stepped up and faced the Vurhan chief.

“We have to go to them now! Help them if we can.”

The chief shook his head slowly. “Too risky. They’re probably all dead now.”

Chief Kaymon looked up in the direction they were traveling. He seemed to be listening to the forest sounds as if he could sense an answer. Then he returned to her with his intense stare.

“The Votains have been trying to get to us for years. They come to the forest from all directions but they usually do not last for long. It is possible they have found the ancient passageway through the mountains that Vurhan have used to escape their tyranny.”

His dark eyes looked her over closely again.

“Votain legends tell of their origins from the sky. They believe that the gods stranded them here long ago and that someday, those gods would return for them. Are you a Votain god? Is that why they kill to find you?”

Zerdy realized that there was no longer any reason to keep anything from these natives. Their entire belief systems were long ago contaminated by the presence of Votainions and possibly even humans.

“I’m not a god. I’m from an advanced tribe that lives in the night sky. I have knowledge that far exceeds the Votains. If you take me to them, I’ll show you how to destroy them.”

Chief Kaymon looked her over again from head to toe. She could read the disbelief on his face. He had to be thinking, how could this small, naked woman with freakish yellow hair and pale, sickly white skin defeat the blue-skins?

“I do not see how that is possible. You are small and frail and have no command over the spirit world.”

She pushed off the log and stood before his muscular form. How can I convince him of my abilities? I could wrestle him to the water and drown him, but that would cause panic and get me killed. She glared at him with her icy blue eyes.

“Trust me, Chief Kaymon. I can save your people from the Votains.”

He dismissed her abruptly and turned to leave. She reached out and put her hand on his forearm. He looked down at her with disdain.

“I have killed some of your best Vurhan warriors with only my hands. I can teach your men how to kill the Votains with only their hands. Weapons or no, I can teach you ways to defeat them.”

Chief Kaymon paused, his eyes quickly surveyed his warriors stationed around them. She realized he was taking a huge risk in helping her, but she had no chance without him.

“We will go to the Tyrmian camp and look for survivors. If you get us into trouble with the Votains, you will die.”

She nodded. Then she let go of his arm and backed away to the banks of the river.

“Come on, we may already be too late!”

Chief Kaymon whistled and his warriors moved out again in the direction of the Tyrmian village.

* * *

Kwin emerged from the unnaturally quiet forest cautiously. He had watched the clearing for a long time and had seen no signs of life. As he stepped cautiously along the ground, he came upon the twisted forms of fallen Tyrmian hunters.

Kwin had never seen anyone killed in such a manner. He squatted at the first body he came across. It was Jarve, one of the elder hunters. His bow still in his hands and he had two holes, one in his chest and the other in his leg. Kwin had never believed that anything could kill an elder hunter. They were the most experienced hunters in the village and they had killed many animals and more than a few Vurhan in their day. Kwin reached out slowly, reverently and touched one of the holes. To see him laying lifeless in the grass, defeated so easily by the blue-skins, unnerved Kwin even more than seeing his entire tribe laying dead before him. His eyes swept the area as he stood, shaking off the strange feelings.

He moved from body to body, searching for any signs of life but found none. A single tear slid down his right cheek as he surveyed the dead. Everyone he had ever known was now gone. Anger and confusion clouded his heart and mind. He wanted to scream out in pain, but knew that whoever had done this might still be near.

He pulled the bodies of family members he knew from the pile where they had fallen and laid them out next to each other. His grandmother, and his younger brother were both dead. His mother died when he was young. Now it seemed that he was the end of his family line. More tears streamed from his yellow eyes.

A noise jolted him back to alertness. He squatted again as he swept the smoking remains for the source of the noise. The Tree of Life. There was movement where the shaman had lived. He picked up his spear, creeping to the nearest patch of tall green grass for cover. From down the dirt path that led to the tree came a single, thin male Tyrmian. It was the shaman’s assistant, Tenar. He drug his staff in the dirt, his shoulders hunched and defeated. His face, normally animated, now looked dull and empty.

Kwin stood up slowly so as not to startle him. Tenar flinched for a second before recognizing him. They stared at each other for a long moment; each relieved to know there was another survivor. Finally Kwin moved to where the shaman’s body lay and motioned for Tenar to come over.

Tenar stood over the dead shaman and mumbled a chant that reminded Kwin of the shaman’s pre-hunt prayer, only it was sadder. Kwin bent down to the old man’s body and carefully removed the feathered headpiece. He handed it to Tenar who accepted it with trepidation. As he put on the headpiece, Kwin bowed to him.

“You are now the shaman. What are the spirit’s biddings?”

The young shaman closed his eyes and raised his head and hands to the tree tops. He started to chant again, this time louder. Kwin looked around, keeping his head down. The jungle became even more silent. They were not alone. Kwin stood up and put a hand over the shaman’s mouth. Then they both fell down to their knees beside the dead shaman’s body.

Now there was a noise in the deathly silence. Tenar could hear it too. His eyes were big as Kwin removed his hand from the frightened shaman’s mouth.

“Someone is coming. Stay here,” Kwin whispered.

Tenar nodded quietly as Kwin moved to the perimeter of the camp. As Kwin watched from the edge of the tree line, a dozen Vurhan warriors came into the clearing. What are they doing here? News of misfortune travels fast in the forest, but not this fast. He watched carefully, knowing that Vurhan scouts were probably above him in the tree tops.

A new party entered the camp. More Vurhan warriors and a pale white female.

Zerdy!

His heart leaped into his mouth and he had to stop himself from crying out. She ran out from behind a large, dark skinned male Vurhan that Kwin assumed was the Vurhan chief. He could see the wet, glistening tears streaming down her face as she went from body to body, looking for someone, anyone to be alive.

* * *

Zerdy moved to the body of a single Vurhan female that was apart form the others. Cyril. The ground was still wet with her blood. Zerdy bent down, sobbing. She didn’t care how weak it made her look in the eyes of the Vurhan, she had lost her only true friend on this planet and the pain was too much to bear.

A commotion from across the camp brought her out of her grieving and she stood up. Vurhan warriors were walking two green skinned Tyrmian males towards her. One was the shaman’s assistant Tenar, the other was Kwin.

She ran to Kwin and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. He calmly returned the affection, holding her in his arms for the first time.

“How did you two survive?” she finally asked him as they parted.

“I was deep in the forest looking for you.”

She looked at the new shaman and touched his arm.

“How did you survive Tenar?”

He looked at her with sallow eyes that were clearly still in shock. Being surrounded by so many Vurhan warriors was not helping him.

“I hid in the Tree of Life, where the shaman told me to go. I came out after the thunder bolts stopped and the forest was quiet again.”

Zerdy squeezed his arm and then let go as the Vurhan Chief approached.

“This tribe is finished. We must move on before the blue-skins return.”

Zerdy looked around at all the dead strewn out on the ground. Then she looked down the path that led to the Tree of Life. She had to return there. She needed to think about what they would do next. What she would do next.

“Chief Kaymon will your warriors help us bury our dead?”

The chief looked around and silently nodded. He could not deny his former enemy their right to bury the dead. Zerdy bowed her head to him and then looked back to Kwin. “Can you help them? I want to return to the Tree of Life.”

Kwin immediately began to organize a mass burial. Zerdy turned away and headed off down the trail to the Tree of Life. The new shaman hesitated for a moment and then followed her. A Vurhan warrior went with them after a nod from Chief Kaymon.

When she got to the base of the tree, she stopped before entered the sacred place. Nothing had been disturbed near as she could recall. The circular room was still absent of much decor. The dais was still in the middle of the room, covered with an animal hide. Tenar moved past Zerdy and stood behind the dais.

“Where did you hide from the Votains?”

He looked down at the dais and pulled the hide off the stump. “Inside the sacred chamber with…with these things.”

“You are a brave man, Tenar. You risked your life to protect these sacred items.”

He looked at her sadly. “I know not what they are, but the shaman told me to stay here and hide until he returned.”

She took the sword from inside the stump and pulled it from its fur cover. The shiny blade caught the yellowish light from above and cast reflections across Tenar’s face. His mouth dropped open as he witnessed the majesty of the sword.

“With this weapon, we shall take back the jungle and reunite our tribes,” Zerdy said reverently. She looked up to the sap covered interior of the Tree of Life. She had accepted the old shaman’s offer to lead them to safety against the Votains. It had only taken the death of the entire tribe to force her hand. But a darkness was growing inside her that wouldn’t be easy to excise from her soul.

She wouldn’t let a bloodthirsty Votain army overrun yet another innocent planet. History was filled with such violence on countless worlds in the galaxy. As long as she had the means to defend the Tyrmians, she would be their protector. She would fight for their freedom from all forms of tyranny and aggression. Or die trying.

Tenar looked up at the sword and then over to Zerdy’s cold blue, narrow eyes. He saw the resolve and the growing hatred in her.

“First we must find our enemy.”





Chapter 27

Zerdy knew that Tenar had never climbed the Tree of Life before. He probably considered it sacrosanct. But he had to trust that she knew what she was doing. They were nearly to the top and both of them dared not look down for the fear of falling.

Zerdy took a handful of foliage and pulled herself up to the top of the tree. The brilliant sun was warm upon her cheeks as she balanced herself on the thickest branch she could find. The humidity was not as bad but the sunlight was more intense than it had been since she came to this world. Tenar stuck his roundish, green head through the leaves as he found a steady place to sit beside Zerdy’s pale body.

Zerdy pointed around them to the endless horizon of tree tops. It was the farthest Tenar had ever seen. Zerdy knew that a lifetime under the forest canopy had not prepared him for the great distances he was seeing.

She pointed to a rising trail of smoke a short distance away.

“That is where our enemy is camped. The smoke from their fires gives them away.”

Tenar nodded, shielding his large eyes from the bright sunlight with his long fingers.

Zerdy looked beyond the smoke trail to the snow capped mountains. They seemed to dominate the western horizon. Judging from their size, she estimated they were the highest peaks on the planet. No wonder they had served as a natural barrier that the Votains had trouble crossing. They were covered in trees as well, up to the highest levels where shrub brush and snow took over. Their peaks were obscured by clouds that formed on the leeward sides of the mountains.

A great thunderhead was forming and heading their way. In a couple of hours they would be deluged with cool tropical rain. She thought about how to defeat the Votains. They obviously had firearms. She bet they had a range of only a few hundred meters. The rifles would be of limited use in the jungle if they were engaged in close combat. She needed to trap them in a valley or somehow keep them together so they could be engaged with spears and arrows. It wouldn’t be easy. Images from her bloody dream flooded her head and caused her to second guess her decision to engage a superior military force. Am I destined to die under a hail of bullets or is my unconscious mind trying to warn me of something else?

As she pondered her possible tactics, Tenar began to shake. He was clearly uncomfortable this high up and exposed to the harsh sunlight. She felt her skin getting uncomfortably warm as well.

“Let’s get back down, Tenar. We have much work to do before sunset.”

The young shaman nodded as he looked around for the last time.

* * *

They all gathered around the mound of buried Tyrmians to pay their last respects. Tenar had smoked his ceremonial pipe and communed with the spirit world. Much to Zerdy’s relief, he told them the spirits were angry at the slaughtering and expected revenge against the Votains. His drug induced trance lasted longer than she would have liked, but it kept him out of her way so she could make plans.

Standing to one side of the burial mound, Zerdy took the sword out of its sheath and held it high above her head. The Vurhan warriors had not seen such a brilliant and powerful weapon before.

“This weapon belonged to my people many, many generations ago. It has a long and powerful history of death and destruction. With it I can easily cut down my enemies. But our enemies have another weapon from my past, the rifle.”

She put down the sword and raised a stick, cut to the size of a rifle.

“With this weapon they can easily cut down our people.” She motioned to the mound before them.

“We do not have the fire sticks that our enemy has. But we have something they do not. We have knowledge of the forest and we have the skill and valor of the greatest warriors of all time. We are rulers of the forest and we own the night.”

This brought cheers from the Vurhan warriors. They understood where she was coming from. So did Kwin, being a hunter in the darkness.

“Our enemies are lords of the day, but like the mighty zipher, we rule the night. All the animals of the forest fear us and so will the blue-skins.”

Another round of cheers. Zerdy listened as the Vurhan warriors erupted into a spontaneous war cry. She joined in with them, moved by the moment. Kwin was more reluctant to join in, but before long, even he was drawn into the excitement they generated. The Vurhan’s white painted faces and bodies were a dark blue-green in the shade of the forest.

Zerdy climbed up on a fallen log and held up her sword again, high above her head. The noise abated and they all looked up to her thin white form.

“Tonight, we take back our forest and honor our dead with the lives of the blue-skins. Tonight, we take our fight to their soldiers and spill their blood.”

* * *

Kor’re watched as his men lowered the fuselage of the strange craft from the tree to the ground with large twine ropes. They set it onto a wooden cart that they had built from a supply wagon. The cart bent under the weight but seemed to hold. They had a long journey ahead of them back through the forest to the cave entrance. A separate team of soldiers was blazing a trail back for the wagon; cutting down small trees and jungle foliage to make their journey faster.

He didn’t like having his patrol split up, but he saw no alternative until they could secure the craft and get it moving along the trail. He could hear them cutting down trees and whacking back the bushes off in the distance. His people would camp one last time at the crash site and ready themselves for pulling the wagon back in the morning.

The craft was clearly a flying machine, as it had a superficial resemblance to the wooden vehicles his people were designing to soar above the clouds back home. They had succeeded in perfecting light weight motors for the aircraft but were a long way from mastering the skies. Kor’re knew that the Engineers would learn much about flight from this craft. They would be able to take it apart and study how it worked, of that he was sure. He also knew that it would net him much respect in the council and even earn him a promotion.

Kor’re’s men secured the perimeter and began building a fire for the night’s meal. Sergeant Krupp headed up the camp security detail, he walked around the camp, directing where traps were to be set and positioning the guard stations.

Kor’re looked up at the high forest canopy and wondered where the alien female was. Was she watching them or was she a long way off in the jungle, adopted by another tribe of primitives? He couldn’t understand her obvious preference for the jungle savages. But then he couldn’t understand how she flew through the night sky in the gray and black machine strapped to his supply wagon.

They’d taken the dead body from the back seat of the machine and removed the suit it wore. There were various smaller pieces of equipment found on the body and Kor’re held one of them in his hands. It was clearly a weapon of some kind. Shaped like his pistol, it even had a trigger. He had long since given up trying to make it fire. The device was either deactivated or broken for it didn’t function in any case. He toyed with it as he walked around the camp.

“Sir, the perimeter is secure,” Krupp said as he approached with a salute. Seeing the pistol in Kor’re’s hand reminded him of something.

Kor’re returned the salute and put the alien hand gun under his web belt.

“Oh, we found another set of those alien instruments,” Krupp said as he opened a pocket on his pant leg and pulled out a handgun and a biocorder. He handed them to Kor’re.

“Thank you, sergeant. See that the men are fed and bedded down. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”

Krupp nodded. “Yes sir. Do you think we will hear from the alien woman tonight?”

Kor’re shook his head looking at the instruments. “Doubtful. She is probably long gone from here.”

The tired sergeant nodded again and then excused himself.

Kor’re put the biocorder in his pants pocket and the handgun beside the other one on his web belt. He wasn’t sure how to make them work, but he knew he needed to keep them handy in case the alien woman came back. She would surely know how they worked. He looked off into the darkening jungle and wondered again where she was.

* * *

Zerdy organized the warriors into two groups, scouts and fighters. She sent two scouts off to look for the blue-skins, with orders to leave one person behind to watch them and send the second back to inform her where they were. They were not to engage the enemy, only study them. She wanted a head count and how many weapons they carried. The scouts slipped into the dark forest and were gone.

Standing near a fire, Zerdy drew up her plan of attack based on what little they knew of the Votains and how they operated. She questioned Kaymon about weapons and strategies of the Votain soldiers and drew up counter tactics that would play to the Vurhan’s strengths. Her plan was to be executed that night, the later the better. Surprise was their greatest ally.

“We will paint ourselves black in the Tyrmian fashion, all of us, including our weapons. There will be no war paint, no feathers. Every man must be as silent as a whisper and patient. We will sneak up on the Vurhan scouts and take them out quietly. Then we will move into the area from the tree tops. When we are in position above the soldiers we will attack as one. Every warrior must take out as many soldiers as possible with their bows. No one can afford to miss.”

Kwin nodded his approval but interrupted. “I can’t move through the trees and neither can you.”

Zerdy smiled. “Don’t worry, we will also be moving into their camp on foot.”

Kaymon cleared his throat and spoke in his baritone voice. “My warriors can kill a man from ten paces in the trees. There is great advantage in striking from the trees, but we must get lower to ensure kill shots with our bows.”

“Do whatever it takes to ensure one-shot kills. There are more of them then us; we must make every shot count. Once they are alerted to our presence, they will overwhelm us with their rifles.”

The two jungle men looked at her like she was speaking another language. They didn’t always understand the meaning of her big words, but they understood enough.

“The black will hide us in the trees, but the moment we come into their campfire light, they will be able to see us. Stay in the dark and let the night protect you. They will fire their guns into the forest blindly. They will be confused and frightened and will not be able to see you well enough to kill you.”

Both men nodded in agreement. It was a sound plan, but it depended heavily on surprise and execution. Something that any good army knew how to do, but they were not an army. They were a bunch of fierce hunters with no real experience in warfare. She looked around at the twenty or so lean Vurhan warriors standing around the fire. They looked tough and in many respects they were tougher than any army in history. The only thing they lacked was tactical knowledge. That would be entirely up to her. If she didn’t account for something, or misjudged how the enemy would react, they could all be killed.

Kwin set about preparing the black that they would wear for the night’s attack. He was helped by several Vurhan, who were not eager to help a Tyrmian do anything. Zerdy watched him patiently instruct the Vurhan how to mix the mud and boil the roots used in the concoction. She was grateful to have at least one experienced Tyrmian hunter with them.

“Chief Kaymon, tell your men that I want the Votain leader left alive.”

“Why?”

“Because he will lead us back to their side of the mountains.” She looked up at the dark skinned chief with a calm resolve.

“Do you wish to spill more of their blood?”

She shook her blond head. “No, I want to see their chief. I want to negotiate with him.”

Chief Kaymon laughed so loudly, he startled Zerdy.

“You are indeed a very strange creature White Fli’r. No one escapes the land of the blue-skins, they will kill you for sure.”

She looked away, her small hands gripping the sword tightly.

“Perhaps.”





Chapter 28

Kor’re lay in his hammock, his mind restless thinking about the day’s events. He had no feelings of guilt for having killed an entire tribe of Tyrmians looking for the alien woman. They were nothing more than animals to him. The Vurhan woman was different though. He had lived with the Vurhan all his life and had come to think of them as more than mere animals. After all, they were half-breeds, part Votain and part Tyrmian. The Votain side of them was worthy enough to make a slave caste and to warrant using their natural abilities to track and to do hard labor in the mines.

His family had always owned slaves and the Vurhan had always been loyal servants. He even had a Vurhan woman for a caregiver until he was nine. He knew they weren’t animals like the Tyrmians, but he also knew they had a wild side to them that was never too far from the surface. When he was fourteen he witnessed a slave escape from the mine. He ran away into the forests that surrounded the ranch. Kor’re’s father told him they found the slave’s body in a river where he had tried to cross during the spring thaw. The river was deep and cold and they think he was swept away by the current and drowned.

Kor’re had felt sad on that day, but he didn’t know exactly why. It was how he felt now, having killed a Vurhan woman who was living peacefully in the jungle. Regret for having killed a half-Votain woman who probably had never known any other way of life than one with the Tyrmian savages. Still, she was a savage at heart and didn’t have a soul.

He thought about the alien woman who had fallen from the sky and he wondered what she looked like and how advanced she was. What was her world like out amongst the stars? Is she related to my ancestors or is she some other form of life? Her companion in the flying craft was clearly Votain. They had stripped the body and discovered its family crest on a medallion. It was very similar to the crest of the Ancient Ones. Perhaps the woman was a Votain with perfectly smooth, pale blue skin, shinning black hair and eyes as dark as coal. He fantasized about what she looked like and what she would do when they finally found her.

The night was dark and he could see the stars occasionally through the tops of the highest trees. They winked at him in the warm, humid air as he swatted at the flying insects buzzing in his ears.

* * *

The last of the warriors had been dunked in the black and were drying before the fire when the Vurhan scout came back with his report. There were a dozen Votain soldiers and twice as many more Vurhan slaves in the blue-skin camp. Two Vurhan warriors slept higher in the tree tops and were taking turns guarding the camp from above. The weapons were mostly fire sticks. They had built a wagon and were preparing to haul off a large object made from shiny material.

My starfighter. They’re probably taking it back for analysis, that would be quite a catch for any non space-faring civilization. Zerdy wondered how much of a boost the technology would give their society. It may actually be too advanced for them to make much sense of it. The ship was practically a life form. The complexity of its on-board sentient cyber-cell alone was orders of magnitude more advanced than the Votains were over the Tyrmian natives. Not to mention the exotic metals and composite materials that made up over ninety percent of its structure.

She would have to stop them from taking it back and then she would have to find a way to destroy or hide it. The internal power source was rendered useless in the crash, so blowing it up would not be possible. There were some small explosives in the wings and cockpit, but not enough to do any damage to the ship. The best that she could hope for would be to bury it deep in a pit or well and hope that it was never found again.

Chief Kaymon finished briefing her on what his scouts had found and she altered her plan of attack to account for not killing all the slaves. If their masters were killed, she might be able to count on them for her little ragtag rebel force.

Zerdy gathered everyone around in a circle before they headed out.

“Tonight we take back the forest and avenge the deaths of our friends and family. Some of us will not survive the night, but most of us will live to tell our grandchildren of the night we defeated the blue-skins and drove them out of our land.”

She raised her blackened sword and stuck it into the dirt blade down. Then she put Kwin’s hand on the hilt over her own and indicated that Chief Kaymon do the same.

“We three shall never be taken alive. Forever together until death takes us.”

Both men looked at each other hesitantly. Zerdy cracked a wicked grin and then hollered at the top of her lungs a war cry that she had always wanted to use. The others joined in, followed closely by the warriors. Soon the camp was awash in the war cries of twenty forest people.

Zerdy stopped her cry followed by the others. She withdrew her sword. They moved into the forest, their dark black bodies disappearing like shadows in the dark. Not a sound was heard save for the swaying fronds and branches of a late evening breeze.

* * *

Zerdy and Kwin crept quietly through the forest a few meters apart. When they got within sight of the Votain camp they crouched down and waited for the Vurhan to take out the enemy scouts. Zerdy could not see the Vurhan warrior pouncing on his blood brother and twisting his head until it snapped like a twig. She could not hear the Votain guards meeting similar fates but she knew they had been dispatched when she heard the distinct bird call that told her all was proceeding as planned.

She moved in closer, her sword held at the ready. Her pulse had quickened as it had on the night of the hunt. She felt alive and alert. The anticipation of taking a life had never felt so right in all her life. She had never killed anyone before coming to Tyrmia, not even in combat. Hers was the first generation of soldier-explorers who only fought when threatened and championed lawful peace. But tonight the only law that mattered was the law of the jungle. And sweet revenge.

High in the tree tops her warriors moved in on the sleeping Votain soldiers. She could see their shapes silhouetted in the sky amongst the tree trunks and vines. Kwin gave her a hand signal that meant he was in position. She signaled back to him that she was in position too. A strange, howling sound echoed through the trees.

* * *

Kor’re finally started to drift off to sleep. His eyes flirted with closing. He noticed movement in the sky above him. Not the regular swaying of the tree branches but a deliberate downward movement that caused him to open his eyes wide and focus beyond the insect netting.

A strange howl broke through the chatter of the nighttime forest and caused him to slowly pull out his pistol. His eyes darted around, looking for movement in the near total darkness. That was when he realized the fire was dead and the camp was cloaked in black. More shapes out of the corner of his eye looked for all the world like the trees were moving around him. Muffled sounds could be heard that could only be described as men struggling to live.

Kor’re rolled over and fell out of his hammock to the wet jungle floor. He pointed his pistol at the dark shapes moving through the camp but he could not get off a clean shot. He heard the whipping sounds of arrows cutting the humid air around him. He fired a few shots but could not tell if they had any affect. The weapon’s discharge temporarily lit up the darkness like fireworks, and blinded his night vision. He shouted out into the darkness.

“Sergeant Krupp? Jeroo? Wake up, we are under attack!”

Several soldiers had survived the initial attack and were firing their rifles into the night. Screams cried out as they were cut down by an unseen enemy.

Kor’re moved in the direction of the wagon to use it as cover. He stopped short as a black shape emerged from the jungle and thrust a dark sword to his neck. He thought he was dead but the sword stopped short of cleaving his head from his shoulders. He squinted to see who it was that held him at blade point. All he could see was a lithe, black form with feminine curves. His pistol was swiped from his hand and he was brutally forced to the ground with his face buried in the cool dirt and weeds. A vine rope lashed around his hands and he was pulled forcefully to his knees by a second, dark skinned person.

“Who are you?” Kor’re asked.

A woman’s voice in perfect Votain sent a cold chill down his spine, penetrating the darkness like the crack of a rifle.

“Your worst nightmare.”

Explosions and pain laced his head as a darkness darker than the night overtook him.





Chapter 29

Kor’re was still tied up when he regained consciousness. He was laying face down with his arms wrapped around wooden stakes that were buried solidly into the hard jungle floor. He tried to move his feet, but realized that they too were tied down. He looked around the darkness and couldn’t see anything but trees and grass in the distance.

He could feel the warmth of a fire and hear it crackling from behind him. Slowly, he lifted up his head and turned to face the fire. There were several Vurhan males tending to the flames, their blue-green skin covered in a dull black mud that was flaking off like dried desert mud.

He couldn’t see any of his men and wondered if they were all dead. His mouth was parched, yet he was sweating profusely from the jungle humidity. He tested the knots around his wrists and realized they were too tightly bound for him to wiggle free so he gave up trying.

The Vurhan warriors were gesturing excitedly, no doubt recalling how they were able to kill all of Kor’re’s best troops as they lay sleeping. He swore to avenge their deaths. He had gravely underestimated the lethality of the jungle people. By killing off one tribe of natives, he had somehow offended the local Vurhan tribe enough to exact revenge on his detachment. The image of the frightened Vurhan woman came into his mind again and he realized that killing her might have been the reason for the retaliation.

Normally the wild Vurhan were too afraid of the Votain army to attack them outright. But this tribe had purposely hidden in the dark and attacked them when they were all asleep. Such bold tactics were uncharacteristic of the Vurhan. Then he remembered seeing the female who had captured him. She had wielded a sword, of the type that existed only in museums. How had a Vurhan tribe obtained a weapon of Votain antiquity? It made his head hurt thinking about it. Than again, maybe his head hurt from being knocked out. He started to ease back into darkness, his eyes closing ever so slowly.

Someone grabbed his head by his hair and turned it away from the fire. Kor’re stared at the face of an apparition. The woman holding his head was covered in black, the skin flaked off in pieces and underneath it was the white hot skin of a demon. Her eyes shined a cold blue and white color. Her hair was streaked black but was clearly golden under the war paint. A more frightening sight he had never seen.

“What is your name, soldier?” the woman asked. Her crystal clear voice had an odd accent that he could not place.

“Kor’re, Commander Kor’re.”

She let go of his head and his cheek hit the cold ground again.

“How many men did you have, commander?” She snarled his rank as though she had absolutely no respect for it.

“Who wants to know?”

The woman smiled a twisted, toothy smile and stepped back. She was completely naked but for the black war paint and she carried a sword over her shoulder like a walking stick. “I’ll do the questioning, if you please.”

Kor’re picked up on her unusual phrasing and suddenly it hit him that he was probably talking to the alien woman. She was obviously not Vurhan and despite her mud caked camouflage was far too smooth of forehead to be a Votain woman and too small and thick of limb to be a Tyrmian.

“Are you the pilot of the plane from space?”

She looked down at him like he was lower than the lowest creature of the land. Then she looked away and had words with someone that Kor’re couldn’t see. She spoke the Tyrmian language and some version of Vurhan he was not familiar with. He was not able to make out any of her words, so he studied her body in the flickering fire light.

She was very thin, for a Votain. Thin and delicate as if a good push would snap her fragile arms. Her hair was full and long enough to fall around her shoulders. It extended from her forehead just above the eye brows, like a Votain; but her brow line was thinner and her face narrower than a healthy Votain woman. He found her oddly attractive and wanted to look away from her nakedness. But she captivated him and he continued staring at her.

She finished talking and looked down at him again, catching his awkward stare.

“Good night, commander.”

* * *

Zerdy awoke early the next morning. During the night Tyrmian survivors from the massacre had found their way back to the main camp. There were three women, mostly older and two orphaned children. The women tended to what food remained in the camp and managed to make a morning meal for the Vurhan warriors. Zerdy ate her fill and thanked them and then left for the stream to bathe. Kwin informed the women of the dead and the wailing for the deceased soon commenced.

Zerdy could hear them weeping from clear down at the stream. She even cried for the fallen again, her tears lost in the water of the stream. She would never forget the look on Cyril’s face in death. That night she had even dreamed that Cyril was talking with her, like she had always done. If it were not for Cyril’s kind, patient manner with her when she first arrived, it was doubtful that Zerdy would be as comfortable with her new Tyrmian family. For that she would always be grateful to her Vurhan friend.

Zerdy soaked her tired muscles in the cool, clear water and scrubbed the dried mud from every crevice of her body. The hair took the longest to clean and she considered hacking it off with the sword. In the end, she climbed out of the water refreshed and clean; picked up her sword and headed back to camp. She had to discuss with Kwin and Kaymon what they would do with the surviving Votain.

She wanted him kept alive, so he could lead her back to the other side of the mountains, but she knew the natives wouldn’t want to follow her there. She had to go back with the Votain commander. She had to see for herself how advanced they were. She had to know what she was up against the next time they came into the jungle. The old shaman was right, she was beginning to see herself as the protector of the Tyrmians and would do anything to keep the Votains at bay. But first she had to see them for herself.

* * *

“I don’t like it. It’s wrong to go back and we all know it,” Kaymon said.

“But I have to understand what we are up against. If this one group does not come back, they may send more soldiers looking for them and than we would surely be out numbered,” Zerdy replied.

Kaymon looked away, his large arms folded across his chest. Kwin wanted to defend Zerdy, she could see it in his eyes, but he knew that the Vurhan king was right.

“Zerdy, I would follow you to the ends of the world. But what you want to do is crazy. The blue-skins are evil. They do not live in accord with nature, they live in spite of it. They burn forests, make great holes in the ground and consume the harvest of the land with no regard to the future. With no regard to other tribes. To them we are just another animal to be hunted and killed. They killed our entire tribe!”

Kaymon nodded. “Your mate speaks the truth. These Votains are not to be trusted and not to be allowed into our forest again.”

Zerdy looked askance at Kwin and then Kaymon. She studied the green man standing with his spear in his arms and his heart in his stare.

“If you two will not go, I will take the Votain and go myself.” She turned around in a huff and started to leave.

Both men looked at each other and then at the blond female walking away.

“You go with her, she is your mate?”

Kwin shook his head. “She’s not my mate.”

Kaymon raised a dark eyebrow at the comment. “I have a tribe to lead. I can not go off on some crazy adventure. Go with her. What have you here? Your tribe is welcome to come with us back to the trees.”

It was a generous offer and one that on any other day, would not have been made by the fierce Vurhan king. Kwin looked around at the handful of Tyrmians in the camp. He saw the new shaman standing tall across the camp, overseeing the prisoner. He looked young and inexperienced. Kwin wondered if Tenar would rise to a position of leadership in the reconstituted tribe, or perhaps that role was to be played by himself. He was the sole surviving hunter of the tribe and therefore the default leader.

Kwin moved up to Zerdy and put a palm on her shoulder. “I will come with you.”

Zerdy put her hand on his and smiled at him. “Okay, but you are not my mate.”

Kwin rolled his yellow eyes and his face flushed a darker green. He put his long green arms around her and she hugged him back. He was startled at how warm and soft her pale skin was against his body. He decided that he could get used to her touch.

Blue-green arms suddenly extended around them both.

“I can’t let you two go off alone together. Who would watch the prisoner?” Kaymon said to them.

* * *

Chief Kaymon informed his warriors that he would be going away for a while and he appointed his top man to be in charge while he was away. It was a risky move for him, Verro was younger and had almost as many wives as Kaymon. His place in the tribal pecking order was second only to Kaymon. But unlike some of the other males in the tribe, Kaymon trusted Verro and was grooming him to take over the tribe at a later date.

Verro took the news well, he stepped up and suggested that Kaymon should try and contact the Vurhan underground, known as the Vurhne. The Vurhne were responsible for sneaking out Vurhan slaves from the west and leading them through secret tunnels under the mountains to the rain forest. Every few years a dozen or so freed Vurhan made the hazardous journey and were adopted by forest tribes. Sometimes they smuggled items like knives and clothing and sometimes they came through with only the clothes on their backs. There were many long and winding tunnels through the heart of the mountains and only the Vurhne knew how to get through them safely.

Kaymon thought about it and decided that Verro was right, he would mention it to Zerdy. He told Verro to take in the Tyrmian women and children and to raise them as if they were Vurhan. This was met with some skepticism in the warrior’s dark eyes, but Kaymon was sure he would follow through on it. Verro finally nodded his consent. Kaymon put his hand on Verro’s shoulder and the two men clapped arms to seal the bargain.





Chapter 30

Kor’re awoke with his face flat against the dirt and his mouth open. He had drooled in a puddle and the wet mud created a cold sensation on his cheek. His eyes batted open and he looked around. His arms and legs were still anchored to the ground just as tightly as the night before. He pulled at them each in turn, trying to find a weakness in his captor’s methods but alas he could not.

He sensed movement behind him and lifted his head to the camp fire. Tyrmian women were tending to the fire and cooking something that smelled horrible. He didn’t realize that they even used fires to cook their meat. Whatever they were making it was revolting to his refined sense of smell.

“Good morning Commander Kor’re.”

Kor’re turned his head back around and tried to look up. It was the white alien woman. Only this time she was clean and radiant in the morning sunlight. He was taken aback by her beauty and her wet nakedness. Why did she insist on not wearing clothes? It was shameful and deviant. A part of him was grateful, but he tried to suppress those carnal feelings.

“Not from my point of view,” he replied, looking away from her shining skin.

Zerdy sat down beside him, taking care to keep herself turned away and her arms around her legs to cover her breasts.

“You are all that is left of your company. Your men fought bravely but we had the element of surprise.”

Kor’re looked back at her and focused on her Votain-blue eyes.

“Why let me live?”

“I need you to take me back to your side of the mountains.”

“Why?”

She looked away and relaxed her grip on her legs. “I need to see for myself how advanced your people are. It will help me to organize these tribes to more effectively counter your advances.”

“Why do you care about these savages? You are not even from this world.”

She looked down at him and smiled. “That is correct, I’m not from this world. And neither are you. We live amongst the stars in vast societies that were once at war with each other. But that war is over and now the Votainions and the humans live together in peace and we have great interest in maintaining the peace on the worlds we have infected. Like this one.”

Kor’re tried to understand but what she was saying was too fantastical for him to grasp. He had no knowledge of her world but he knew everything about his. Kosgren was the home to the Votain kingdom and they were the rulers and keepers of the land. If her people had an interest in this world, they would meet with great resistance from his people.

“This planet is ours. You have no right to tell us what to do. We will fight your people to the death to defend our homeland.”

She ran her hands through his reddish hair and then examined the shiny rank emblem on his collar.

“Your people did not evolve on this world. Your ancestors were stranded here along with mine a long time ago. Mortal enemies forced to survive on an alien planet. They must have done pretty good for themselves, judging from your clothes and your weapons.” She reached for a rifle off to her side and brought it up to examine it.

It was a bolt action, rim fired projectile weapon with a rifled barrel and a wooden stock. The construction was simple and no doubt reliable. It was no different than the rifles that her ancestors had made on many worlds in the galaxy.

“Tell me commander, do you have air travel yet?”

He looked at her oddly, as if he did not expect her to know of such things.

“No,” he lied.

She racked the bolt back and chambered a round. Then she pointed the rifle at some far away item in the jungle and pulled the trigger. The sound echoed in the forest and scared the natives. A Vurhan warrior scurried away and Kor’re could hear him come back and drop a bird to the ground beside the woman. She cleared the weapon and set it down in the dirt beside her. The bird was blue and green, he did not recognize what species it was. She offered it to a Tyrmian woman who took it proudly away presumably to cook and eat it.

“Looks like the range is about three hundred meters. Not bad. But my weapons are far superior.”

“We could not make your weapons function,” he admitted.

“All of my equipment is far more advanced than anything your people have even dreamed about. My plane could dance among the stars and my weapons can kill with light. Don’t underestimate me and my followers commander or you will be killed as easily as your men were.”

He nodded as best he could. She stood up and moved out of his vision with his rifle. She came back a few minutes later with some food and set it down beside his face. He could not reach it and he figured that she was toying with him. But she then proceeded to cut his hands and feet free from the stakes.

He pulled his arms and legs in and slowly sat up. Able to see around the camp for the first time, he noticed two Vurhan warriors watching him closely. They both held rifles and had their own weapons on them. There were older Tyrmian women and a few children cleaning up after the morning meal near the fire.

He saw the blond woman sitting with what looked like a Vurhan chief and a Tyrmian male. They were watching him as they spoke, as if they were deciding his fate. He picked up the food she had given him and smelled it. It must have been what they were cooking earlier. It still smelled horrible to him, but he was hungry and grateful to be free so he ate the food. It tasted bland, but it was tolerable. He watched his guards and wondered if he could wrestle a rifle away from one. He might have time to get off a few shots at the nearest savages, but then where would he go? The jungle was hot and inhospitable; he would not get far before they tracked him down and slit his throat.

Eventually the woman came back and sat down cross legged in the dirt with him. He did his best to avert his eyes from her body. She seemed to be aware of this but did nothing to cover herself. Perhaps they did not wear clothing in space, where she came from.

“We are retrieving your gear from the forest. When I’ve had time to inspect it, we will pack for our journey back through the mountains. You will come with us. If you try and escape, we will kill you as quickly as you murdered this tribe.”

“I understand. Do you have a name? What do they call you where you come from?”

She looked at him again like he had spoken out of turn.

“You may call me Zerdy.”

He looked at her eyes again. They were as blue as his own skin. “I’m Commander Kor’re from the Royal Defense Force of Kosgren. Serial number four, eight, seven, two, two, one.”

He looked away again, refusing to stare at her body. She moved until he could see her again.

“Am I that ugly that you can not look at me, Commander Kor’re?”

He shook his head and put down the bark plate. It was empty.

“Why must you be uncovered like these savages?” Kor’re asked, his eyes averted from hers again.

* * *

Zerdy’s face reddened. She had not realized a Votainion male could be offended by female nudity. That would never have bothered a line officer of the Empire. Quite the reverse in fact, she would have thought that he would have preferred her nude. It was her position of power in the tribe that would have most offended a true Votainion officer. This man was not a Votainion, as she knew them. She had to keep reminding herself that. He was from a different culture and he had a quaint, almost human sense of honor. For the first time since going native, she felt naked.

Zerdy got up and walked away, without saying anything more to the Votain. She wanted to go back into her hut and cover herself with animal furs. But the Tyrmians did not wear clothing and there was nothing in her hut but loose pelts that wouldn’t cover her completely. She stood alone by the edge of her hut as a new commotion came from the other side of the camp. The Vurhan warriors had returned with the Votain equipment.

She watched them as they brought the strange gear into camp and set it down carefully. They had no idea what any of it did. After they were finished, she moved to the piles of metal devices and canvas bags. It was immediately apparent how advanced the Votains were by looking at their gear. They had manufactured items some of which were mass produced, like uniforms and weapons. The most sophisticated items looked like they were custom designed or were perhaps prototypes. This indicated to Zerdy that their technology was in flux and perhaps advancing quicker than they could develop factories to produce it.

There were two magnetic coiled devices that she assumed were for finding metal. Primitive, but effective. Various sizes of rifle and hand guns, boxes of ammunition and what she assumed were explosives. The destructive power of the field army. There were portable metal stoves and various cooking items, including spices and herbs presumably from the far side of the mountains. An army traveled on its stomach and these troops were well fed.

What intrigued her the most were the small metal boxes hooked to what looked like a hand cranked power source. She guessed they were early radio transmitters, but communications history was not something she had ever studied. The small brass key, headphones and various wires leading to and from the rectangular box were beautiful in their elaborate facades. Usually such equipment was clean and simple in design so that any soldier could be trained to use it. But this radio and much of the other technical equipment had elaborate facades with detailed engravings. This suggested to her that the Votains were specializing to a degree that the Votainions had never done. It was apparent to her that this expedition even had Engineers traveling with them to operate these complicated devices.

She set about distributing the cooking hardware to the Tyrmian females. She would have to teach them how to use the pots and pans, but it was something she knew they could get used to using. A few simple explanations were needed for some of the devices, but the females seemed appreciative to receive the unexpected gifts.

Then she had the Vurhan warriors divvy up the rifles and ammunition. Her first order of business was to teach them how to fight with the newly acquired rifles. But she also needed to prevent the Votain commander from watching. She walked back over to where he was sitting. He tried not to look at her directly as she addressed him.

“Commander, your equipment is quite impressive. I commend your Engineers for their obvious technical abilities.”

Kor’re glanced up at her briefly. He was not used to being complimented by a savage woman.

“What are you going to do with me?”

She knelt down before him to look into his deep, black eyes.

“I’m going to put you in a hut and tie you back down. Then I’m going to teach these savages how to shoot with your rifles and how to attack your troops in such a manner that will make our defeat of your men look like child’s play. Then we will embark on our journey through the mountains.”

“What if I refuse to go with you?”

“You will be killed, of course,” she said, as if she were discussing the simple rules of a game.

“If you cooperate, you will live to see your homeland again and I will be your prize. Your mission will be judged a success, even at the cost of your entire company. For I alone posses more technical knowledge than all your best Engineers combined.”

Kor’re looked at her like she was crazy. “I don’t understand why you would come back with me and risk imprisonment. Because that is what awaits you there.”

“Perhaps. But sooner or later, your leaders will realize that they can learn much from me and I will be far more valuable to them as an Engineer.”

Kor’re scoffed at the mere suggestion that a woman could be an Engineer.

“You will be tortured and killed or at best banished to prison. In any case, you will never return to this jungle.”

Zerdy looked around at the camp and its occupants. She would miss it and the people she had grown to respect and admire. But she had to go back with Kor’re. If she didn’t make the journey now, she knew she might never get the chance to again. She knew that Kor’re could protect her if he saw fit. Something about his response to her so far, his stolen glances, his refusal to look at her naked body, suggested to her that he was an honorable man. That he might even harbor feelings towards her, feelings that would not allow her to be imprisoned. She realized that she might be risking her life on the possibility that one Votain man might fall in love with her, however tenuous that possibility was, it was her last resort.

“I want you to present me to your king. I will promise to show him the technology that will help your people control this planet in ways that you can’t now imagine. All I ask in return is that you leave these jungles and the people in them alone.”

Kor’re looked at her again with suspicion. “The king will laugh at you and send you to the gallows and my career as an officer will be over. No thanks.”

He turned away again, after stealing another glance at her breasts. Zerdy grabbed his chin and forced him to look her in the eyes.

“If you present me to your king, it will increase your chances of being with me.”

Kor’re took her hand from his face. She was warm and soft, but unlike the finest women of the court, she was dirty and smelled of the jungle. But he could tell that she was beautiful underneath the grime. That he might some day have the opportunity to be with her if he were to return with the knowledge she claimed to have, enticed him. He held her soft white hand in his blue palm and fell helplessly into her crystal blue eyes. She was beautiful underneath it all and he was unworthy of such a gift from heaven. He realized in that moment that he would do anything for her. Anything. He kissed the back of her hand and she slowly withdrew it.





Chapter 31

Zerdy divided her time between training the Vurhan how to be soldiers and preparing the supplies they would need on their journey. She knew they had to get moving quickly, or risk encountering more Votains out to rescue Kor’re’s company. She thought about the Votain commander off and on throughout the next few days, careful to keep him secluded from their activities, held prisoner in her hut. She let him out to stretch his legs in the evening, under heavy Vurhan guard.

The Votain soldiers had brought more supplies with them into the jungle than she would have thought necessary. They were prepared to stay for an extended time. It took her a while to go through everything. She had Chief Kaymon and his men distribute the clothing and useful weapons. They would not need uniforms in the jungle, but they would need warm clothes for any journey under or over the mountains. All of the Votain uniforms were too big for her, but she managed to use belts to cinch the pants down to her waist size. The clothes were too small for Kwin, his lithe body stuck out from the legs and arm holes. They each tried on what they thought they would need, including boots and hats. Zerdy had to laugh at how ludicrous they all looked.

Kwin was out of the clothing quickly, he hated the feel of the rough cloth on his smooth skin. Kaymon had the most fun, pretending to be an important Votain soldier. He settled on a shirt with large stripes on it and attached multiple officer pins to it. Zerdy thought he looked like a fool, but she was not about to tell him that.

They packed ruck sacks full of food and clothing to use in case the tunnels got cold. They would not be able to hunt and from what Chief Kaymon knew, it would be several days journey to the far side of the mountains. Kaymon and Kwin both insisted they take several Vurhan warriors with them for added defense against the unknown, but Zerdy convinced them it was unnecessary. If they kept their number small, they could move quicker and require less in the way of food and munitions.

They decided to leave early the next morning. The Vurhan warriors would haul the remaining Votain army equipment back to the tree village and leave the starfighter behind. Its power cells were drained and there were toxic chemicals inside it that Zerdy did not want harming the Vurhan people. She would deal with hiding it or taking it apart after they returned. If they returned, she admitted to herself. There was a good chance that something would happen and she would either be killed or imprisoned. In that case, she wanted future raiding parties to be able to find the ship and take it back without harassing the Vurhan or Tyrmians. It would take them decades if not longer to figure out the technology used to construct the ship and by then, she hoped, an Alliance ship would have returned for it.

That night she returned to her hut and found Kor’re sitting with his legs folded and his eyes shut, in some kind of meditative trance. He slowly opened his dark eyes and looked at her.

“We leave in the morning. Do you know the way back through the tunnels?” Zerdy asked.

“No.”

She looked at him oddly. “Then how were you going to return with my ship?”

He looked away from her. “We laid down markers, a bread crumb trail to follow back through the tunnels. Only our Vurhan scouts knew the way without the markers.”

“Seriously?”

He calmly nodded. She sat on a fur pelt opposite him and put her head in her hands to think. The specialization of the Votainion military never ceased to frustrate her. Alliance military personnel were always cross trained in more than one aspect of their jobs. When the chaos of battle raged, it was invaluable to be able to depend on troops that could pick up where fallen comrades had been and do their jobs. Not so in the Votainion military. They often specialized to the point of making their units unusable when key members were killed. Rank and job title meant everything in Votainion society.

“If you ever want to get home again, you had better be able to navigate us back.”

“I will do my best.”

She looked at him closely again. His blueish skin and short cropped red-orange hair made him the oddest Votainion man she had ever seen. There must have been a fair amount of human genes in him. His brow line was less pronounced and he had a much more human shape to his facial features. On the whole, he was not half-bad looking. She had examined the bodies of the dead troops and she knew that their features were as refined as his. She had seen mixed race people living on starships in the fleet. They were mostly younger than her and were often ridiculed by pure bred kids from both races. She wondered if she were looking at the future of human Votain evolution.

He was becoming uncomfortable with her stare so she looked away. “Good night commander,” she said, getting up to leave. He watched her go. She could feel his eyes lingering on her back side.

* * *

Morning brought with it the calls and whines of an awakening forest. Birds greeted the sunrise and primates jumped around in the tree tops, screaming and chasing each other. It was impossible to sleep through it all, so Zerdy had thought. But laying on the ground beside her were the still sleeping forms of Kwin and Kaymon. She sat up and stretched her arms and legs to get the blood flowing. Kwin had not made a move on her last night, despite them bedding down together. Part of her was disappointed and another part of her relieved. They needed to get moving today and it would be a long and possibly difficult journey. She didn’t need to be worrying about how he felt about her or how she felt about him.

Still, it would be nice to have a man again. Someone she could lean against and let make a decision for them both on occasion. But she had asserted herself as the alpha of the group with her knowledge and her fighting skills. It would be difficult for any male to treat her as just another female to be had whenever they wished. If she wanted that kind of companionship, she would have to engage it herself. It was a little odd, her society was still rooted in male dominated ways, and she herself were used to being able to rely on a man to do certain things for her and to always behave in an aggressive manner sexually.





Chapter 32

After walking for several days through the rain forest they came upon the mountains. Under the constant canopy of the forest they couldn’t see the looming heights until they broke free of the dense vegetation at the rim of a huge pit. Looking up they stared in awe at the massive wall of rock and stone that marched into the clear blue skies.

Zerdy knew the mountain ridge was massive, having seen it from the top of the Tree of Life. Parts of the snow capped peaks were obscured by clouds and then reappeared higher up. It was clear to her why the Votains had not come over the mountains, they no doubt needed oxygen for the journey. She asked Kor’re if anyone had attempted to cross the mountains that he called Krakenhoven, or monster peaks in Votainion. He said many explorers had tried to make the crossing, but all had ended in failure. It was not until they learned about the tunnels, while digging for coal, that they found a viable route through the Krakenhoven.

Most trading routes simply went around the peaks by ocean to the central rain forests. His was the first patrol that he knew of that had made it through. Were it not for the Vurhan scouts, following legends and underground escape tunnels they would have never made it through.

Chief Kaymon knew about the escape tunnels, but he had never seen them. His people often found escaped slaves wandering the forest at the base of the mountains, but they never seemed to know exactly where they had come from. Dazed and confused by their journey, the slaves were in no position to help themselves. When questioned about their journey, most of them refused to talk about it. Some were too traumatized, most were sworn to secrecy by resistance movements that helped them escape.

The shear cliff walls of the pit were covered in vines. Against the mountains the walls were layered shale, wet with runoff from a waterfall high above them. There were no signs of life below where the Votains had crawled out of the narrow opening.

She motioned for Kwin to take the vine she had found and climb down. He descended without hesitation.

“How many men did you leave behind?” Zerdy asked.

“Four. Two burca handlers and two soldiers.”

Zerdy looked at him carefully, trying to determine if he was telling the truth or setting them up. She decided not to risk it and took out her handgun to cover Kwin. Kor’re idly gazed down, as if he half expected a fight of some kind.

Kwin moved with caution on the slippery rocks under the overhang. He could see evidence of an extended stay, but nothing living. There was a narrow crack near the back of the cave that was dark and somewhat foreboding. Kwin looked around at the abandoned equipment. The packs and sleeping gear had been abandoned with no signs of a fight.

He walked back out to where he could signal up to Zerdy that the coast was clear. She waved back at him and sent Kor’re down the rope. His hands and feet were cut free so he could make his way down to the slippery floor of the pit. Once down, he watched the water falling over the rocks as Zerdy descended behind him.

After reaching the wet grassy floor of the pit, Zerdy slipped and fell on the first flat section of rock she stepped on. Kor’re caught her in his arms before she could hit the hard ground. She pulled herself up and away from his strong embrace. Her face was reddened from the embarrassment of slipping. He said nothing, just made sure her bare feet had found solid ground before letting go of her. She pushed by him and headed for where Kwin was standing under the wet rock overhang.

“Where are your handlers?” she asked Kor’re, as he made his way under the dripping cliffs of rock.

He looked around, taking stock of what he saw.

“They were Vurhan handlers. They probably abandoned their post.”

“What about the soldiers?”

Kor’re waved his hand dismissively. “They probably went after the handlers.”

Kwin and Zerdy exchanged looks and then shook their heads. Zerdy sorted through the gear and found no weapons or food.

“They all probably got hungry and took out looking for food,” she said.

Kor’re seemed indifferent. “They had enough stores here for another week. You just can’t trust the lower castes.”

Zerdy was used to Votainion caste prejudices but that didn’t mean she condoned it. She ignored Kor’re’s comment and peered into the darkness of the crack in the cave. They were going to need torches or some other form of light to see in the dark cave. She had not even considered that basic necessity.

“What did you and your men use for a light source in the caves?” she asked Kor’re.

“We used torches and glow bugs.”

She didn’t quite understand the word he used but thought that he meant bugs. Some words Kor’re used were ancient Votainion and some were equally ancient galactic standard. Every once in a while he used vocabulary that was unique to this world.

“Where did you find these ‘glow bugs’?”

“Verrento, not glow bugs. They are native to the caves, but only found deeper in the mountain. We used hand cranked lanterns until we came upon the verrento.”

Zerdy went back to the gear bags and dug around until she found two crank lanterns. She looked them over and quickly found the hand crank. They didn’t produce much light, but they had what looked like a battery attached to their bottoms and she figured they could hold a charge for a short time.

“We’ll take these with us,” she said, tossing one to Kor’re and keeping one herself. She cranked hers for a while and then switched it on. She stuck her head into the crack and quickly climbed inside. Her bare bottom disappeared into the dark, leaving Kor’re and Kwin to stare at each other. Kwin motioned for Kor’re to go in next. Kor’re straightened his uniform and squeezed his larger frame through the crevice.

Kwin motioned for Chief Kaymon to go in next. Kaymon took off his ruck sack and slid it in before he ducked inside the crevice. There was a dim light inside as both Kor’re and Zerdy’s lights were on. Kwin took a look around the abandoned pit and watched the burca grazing. He wondered briefly when he would see the daylight again. Then he ducked inside to join the others.

* * *

It was cooler in the cave, but not enough to make Zerdy want to put on her clothes. The humidity of the forest was still oppressive. They formed up on Zerdy. She looked around for the markers that Kor’re had mentioned but didn’t see them. There was only one path deeper into the cave and it was darker than the darkest night. She cranked up her light and started forward. The others followed, looking around at the dank cave.

They walked for several hours before the cave started to change direction. It was so dark Zerdy felt like she had been swallowed whole by some horrible monster. The weak light from the lanterns seemed to only cast awareness a few feet into the dark. Zerdy slowed her pace and eventually came to a stop. She turned to face the others, the yellow light from the lantern fading as it got weaker.

“We’ll stop here for a few minutes rest and then Kwin will take the lead.”

She slid off her ruck sack and sat down on it. Her feet were tired of walking on cool stone. She rubbed her soles and thought about putting on the boots she had brought. Kor’re took out his metal canteen and drank from it. He watched her more and more the longer they walked in the dark. It made her uneasy, as if he were planning on jumping her at some point. She kept close to Kwin and Kor’re seemed to become less obvious about his interest in her.

Kwin had not brought clothes in his bag, but he did bring plenty of roots and starch patties. He took out a root and started to chew it slowly. His thin, green body with dark stripes across his back made him look more and more alien to her under the dim lights. He offered her a piece of root and she took it gratefully.

Chief Kaymon kept a watchful eye on Kor’re. His blue-green skin was darker than the Votain’s pale blue skin. Kor’re seemed to ignore the chief’s cold dark eyes on his every move. Kor’re stood up after short time and started to stretch his legs. Kaymon stood with him.

“Going somewhere, Votain?”

“We should keep moving. It took us several days travel to get to the core.”

Zerdy stood up and hefted her ruck sack. “What’s the core?”

Kwin stood up and started them moving again. His long legs set a quicker pace for the group. Kor’re moved in behind Kwin and before Zerdy. He answered her question, looking back at her as he spoke.

“The core is a lava vein that runs through the central mountains. It is impossible to cross over and there is only one natural bridge.”

“You just let us know of any problems we may face, before we face them.”

Kor’re smiled at her with that condescending manner that made her want to slap him. Votainion males always thought they were so superior to everyone else. They were rarely humbled and when they were, they still came off as being better than anyone else in the universe. The group continued into the dark cave, their crank lights winking on and off like glow bugs.





Chapter 33





The end of their first day in the cave was cold and dark. Zerdy had resorted to putting on the Votain army uniform and was still cold. Kwin and Kaymon had both held out for a long time before either consented to put on a shirt. Kor're had nothing left to put on and sat by himself in the dark, refusing to crank his light anymore. Kwin and Kaymon took turns cranking lights and guarding Kor're while the others slept. It was a long night and they used Kor're’s windup watch to know when morning would have came.

Zerdy awoke to the screeching of something far off in the caves. It sounded like birds or some other native nocturnal animals wrestling or fighting.

“What’s that sound?” she asked Kor're, when everyone was awake and pushing back the dark with their lanterns.

“Cave animals. Some species of traynx and kerwa are adapted to the darkness. They have large eyes and even larger ears than their daylight cousins. Nothing to fear,” he said.

She looked at him suspiciously. He would have every reason to lie about any hostile animals. If more than one of the group was killed or incapacitated by an animal bite, he could more easily take over. But something about the way he spoke left her more at ease. Unless he was a really good actor, she could tell that even he wasn’t bothered by the strange sounds echoing in the caves.

When they were ready to move out, Zerdy made Kor're lead. He knew where to look for his markers. They had found only a handful of them in their first day’s travel. But then again, there had been only one earthen tunnel. Now the tunnel began to meander back and forth every few hundred paces and at some points, it forked in many different directions. Kor're used his lantern to find the markers and keep them moving as quickly as possible.

They began to see glimpses of purple and blue light up ahead. The glow of verrento. Before long they came across patches of glowing insects that looked like fungus on the floors and walls of the tunnels. It was bright enough that they no longer needed their lanterns on all the time just to see where they were going.

Zerdy was amazed by the natural beauty around her and she wanted to stop and study the glowing bugs. But there was no time. They had to press on if they were going to make it through the mountains before their food ran out. She asked Kor're if they could cook up the verrento and eat it in desperation.

“If you wanted to die, there are quicker and easier ways to leave this life. The verrento have killed two of my men and one of my burca on our passage. Even when told not to touch, they still got too close to the insect and paid the ultimate price for their curiosity. Do not touch the verrento.”

She looked at Kwin who could not understand the Votain’s words. She translated for him and he looked around at the glowing purple patches with greater respect. Kaymon smiled like he knew the deadly insect’s secret. He brought up the rear as they walked, occasionally watching their backs in case anyone or anything was tracking them.

The glowing patches of verrento came and went as they walked. Sometimes they were plunged back into eternal darkness and had to crank the lanterns again to keep from stumbling on the hard rocks or bumping into the smooth walls of the tunnels. They stopped at regular intervals to rest their weary legs and then it was back to walking again. Zerdy’s feet were beginning to get sore in the heavy, leather military boots. She took them off and rubbed her soles during one of their respites. Setting her bare foot down on the cold rock, she decided that she could do without the boots and be more comfortable. The cave floor was cool to the touch, but she was generating enough body heat walking that it didn’t matter so much that her feet were cold. She bagged the boots and rolled up her pants to mid calf. After another long stretch of walking, she pulled off the pants and rolled the sleeves of her shirt up. Is it getting warmer in the cave or is it my imagination? Soon they started to see a distant orange glow that overtook the light from their lanterns. They were approaching the core.

* * *

Coming around a tight turn in the tunnel they were suddenly in a vast, high ceiling cavern that was bright enough to read by. A lava stream passed through the far side of the cavern. The heat was intense and forced them to move along quickly to get into the next tunnel. Zerdy and the native men had stripped out of their Votain uniforms and were sweating. Kor're, ever the respectable one, rolled up his sleeves and wiped the sweat from his forehead. No matter what the conditions he wasn’t going to reduce himself to a naked savage.

They continued down the new tunnel for several more hours and the intensity of the heat abated. Kor're slowed down and looked around carefully for another marker as the tunnel forked again into two passages. Stooping down to the ground, he felt around with a hand and eventually picked up a small round marker at the entrance to one of the tunnels.

“This way,” he said, standing and moving confidently into the tunnel on the right.

They followed him into the darker tunnel, cranking up the lanterns again for another extended dark period. But the tunnel wound its way back near the lava streams and soon began to heat up again. Zerdy took out a piece of string from her boot laces and tied her hair back out of her face. She tore a strip of cloth from her uniform pants and used it as a head band to keep the sweat out of her eyes. The others took her lead and did the same thing as they continued to walk along the well lit tunnel.

By the end of the second day, they were still traveling in and around the lava tunnels. They picked a cooler passage to make camp in but it was still very warm and not very dark. Kor're rolled out his bed mat and laid down on it. Kaymon did the same, keeping a watchful eye on the Votain commander.

The next morning Zerdy was still sore from walking on the rock. It was a restful sleep, but now it was back to the business at hand and she quickly took command of the group and got them all moving again. This time she led them, followed by Kwin and then Kor're and Kaymon. The cave tunnels were still warm but they were getting darker the more they walked. Before long they were back to total darkness. They were also moving upward. As the day wore on, their calf muscles were more tired than usual. They had stopped to rub down their sore legs and everyone mentioned their sudden discomfort.

“We are slowly climbing. Soon it will be straight uphill until we reach the coal mines,” Kor're said.

“How much longer till we reach the mines?” Zerdy asked.

Kor're looked around as if he were calculating how far they had to go based on where they had stopped. Zerdy shook her head and figured he was nearly as lost as they were.

“Another full day’s travel at least,” he finally said.

She went back to kneading her thighs to work out the sore muscles. Kor're sat there watching her work for a moment, wishing she had chosen to remain clothed.

Kwin stood up and and motioned for them to carry on. Slowly they all got to their feet and started walking again. Fatigue and darkness were beginning to weigh on them as they pressed on.





Chapter 34

They were awakened some time during the night by the purplish light of the verrento and a handful of heavily armed Vurhne freedom fighters. The blue-green warriors had them surrounded with a mixture of spears and Votain rifles. They carried torches made from a nest of the glowing bugs. The Vurhne wore black, loose fitted clothing that let them blend into the darkness of the cave. Most of them had some form of white paint in random patterns across their dark faces. Zerdy had seen the Vurhan warriors in the forest wear similar face paint, it made them look all the more fierce and intimidating.

The Vurhne had Kor’re on his stomach with a rifle pointing to the back of his head. They were all in a similar position except for Chief Kaymon. He was separated from the group and standing with the Vurhne warriors.

“I’m Chief Kaymon of the Raune tribe. I’m escorting these people back to Votain,” Kaymon said in the dialect of his people.

The lead Vurhne warrior stepped forward and pointed to Zerdy.

“What is that?”

“She is a friend of mine, a magnificent warrior woman named Zerdy.”

The Vurhne looked at Kaymon as if he were insane. The naked female the color of white coals didn’t look like a warrior at all. She looked sickly pale and had yellow hair, like some kind of ugly character with which mothers threatened their children. But the warrior respected the chief and took his word at face value.

“No one comes back through the mountain, are you lost in the tunnels?”

“No, we are trying to get to the Votain side. Can you help us?” Kaymon asked, his deep voice echoing off the rock walls.

The Vurhne warrior tilted his head slightly and looked back at the odd trio. It was the strangest thing he had ever seen in the tunnels. People didn’t come back from the other side of the mountains. Ever.

“We will take you back to the mines, there you can either come with us to the underground, or give yourselves up to the Votain masters,” the warrior said.

Kaymon looked down at Zerdy and she nodded agreement. She had been able to understand their exchange.

“What is going on?” Kor’re demanded. He was still on his face with a rifle to his head.

“These Vurhne will take us back to the mines and turn us over to your people,” Zerdy said to Kor’re as the warriors let them up.

“Best keep your mouth shut commander. We don’t wish to offend our hosts,” Zerdy said.

Kor’re dusted off his uniform and stood toe to toe with the closest Vurhne warrior. If he had had access to a rifle he would have shot them all dead without batting an eye. They were the bane of his society, mocking the Votain government and setting free the working caste that did the hard labor of the kingdom.

Zerdy put herself between them, and gently pushed Kor’re back. He became distracted by her beauty and backed down his posturing. The Vurhne warrior grinned back at Kor’re, clearly amused that he could be quieted by a female.

Zerdy faced the Vurhne warrior.

“My name is Zerdy. What is yours?”

“I’m Khaum.”

“Thank you for being our guide, Khaum,” she said. Khaum nodded, his eyes still on the blue-skin.

There were six Vurhne warriors and they surrounded the trio as they all headed off down a different tunnel from where Kor’re had them going. The Vurhne knew these tunnels better than anyone and Zerdy immediately felt comfortable under their guidance.

The tunnel began to make a steady incline as they moved closer to the Votain side of the range. Walking became more and more difficult for everyone except the Vurhne. They were used to the climb and had the taut leg muscles to prove it. Zerdy admired their black uniforms that appeared to be wrapped around their lean bodies. They each carried ammunition in bandoleers around their necks, and various pouches attached to a belt held food and water. They were well equipped for living in the tunnels. She recognized a well organized resistance movement when she saw one. The Grand Alliance had worked with many such organizations that had flourished during Votainion occupation of hundreds of planets during the war. She knew that when her people did return to this world, they would use the expertise of the Vurhne to help them control the Votains. It was important for her to have good relations with the Vurhne.

After a half day’s walking, the tunnels began to narrow and they started coming across verrento bug torches mounted on the walls. They were spaced out like street lamps, each torch placed just beyond the reach of the last one. Zerdy also noticed some wall paintings that looked extremely old. She started looking at them more and more as they walked. Eventually, she realized that she was seeing a story illustrated on the stone walls. It was very elaborate and beyond her comprehension until she saw several white figures being led through what looked like dark tunnels by Vurhan warriors. She stopped to study them further.

The Vurhne halted their progress and circled around Zerdy.

“What are these paintings depicting?” Zerdy asked.

Khaum stepped forward and examined the wall. He looked back to Zerdy, then to the wall.

“These were painted by our Ancestors who came through these tunnels. They depict the first journey through the mountains.”

He looked closer at Zerdy and then touched a white woman in the painting.

“You are one of the Ancestors!” he exclaimed and immediately bowed at her feet. The other Vurhne dropped to their knees.

Zerdy didn’t know what to do, they were suddenly idolizing her. She blushed. She looked hard at Kor’re who was clearly contemplating making a break for it.

“Don’t, commander. You won’t get far before they capture you and I can’t guarantee what they will do with you in that case,” she said.

Kor’re eyed the Vurhan chief who had repositioned his spear to run through him if need be. Kor’re smiled innocently and said, “I was just realizing myself how incredible it is that we have one of the Ancestors in our presence. After a thousand years our forefathers return, only to take sides with the natives and run around naked with them. I’m pretty sure my people will not take to you with the same respect.”

She looked away and tried to get the Vurhne warriors to rise up again. They did so reluctantly.

“We must continue our journey. It is very important that I speak to the Votain leaders. If you can get us safely back to the Votain side, I can assure you that I will do my best to free your people.”

Khaum turned to Zerdy and said, “Many generations ago your people lead us through these tunnels to our freedom. We have done as you commanded ever since. Now you have returned and want us to go back into the arms of our enemy. I do not understand.”

“I know, the spirits move in mysterious ways. Please continue your mission to free your people, but for this one time, take us the other direction. I promise you will not regret it,” she said.

The Vurhne leader nodded reverently and commanded his warriors to rise and continue moving.

* * *

After walking uphill all day, they came through an opening to a larger cavern. It was supplied with fur pelts for sleeping on and trunks full of weapons and food. There were a couple more Vurhne guarding the room. Verrento bugs covered the ceiling and lit the chamber with an eerie purple light. Zerdy was exhausted from the day’s climb. She bedded down and was asleep before anyone else. Kwin and the chief took turns watching Kor’re as the others bedded down for a night’s sleep.

The group began to stir again many hours later in what on the surface would be morning. Zerdy had no idea how much time had passed, only that it seemed like she had only just fallen asleep when Kwin awakened her for the morning meal. They sat around in a circle and ate dried fruits and nuts. The Vurhne had fresh water in wooden vats and made sure everyone had plenty to drink.

“How far until we get to the other side?” she asked Khaum.

“Not long now. We must be cautious. The Votains are mining nearby. When we reach their mines we will part ways. His people will take you to the surface,” he said, pointing to Kor’re.

She could tell there were bitter feelings towards the Votains and she couldn’t blame them. They wouldn’t even exist as a race without genes from the alien Votainions. Interbreeding with indigenous life had occurred on several occupied planets in the Votainion Empire. Often the resulting species was not equipped to survive when the main contingency of Votainions left the planet.

She only knew of one case where a half-breed race had risen up against their Votainion masters and banished them from their world. The Kiriian people were unique in that they had already mastered space travel when they were invaded by the Votainion Empire. Whenever a people had already achieved a certain level of technology it was much harder for the invading forces to occupy them. The Kirii dispersed themselves throughout the galaxy and were never completely conquered in the way other races were during the war. When the native Kirii were subjugated and forced into slave labor, they revolted by simply fleeing into the void. The exodus didn’t happen quickly. It took many generations, but the Kirii were patient. When they finally fled, there was no trace of where they had gone. It was now many decades after the Great War and still no trace of the Kiriian race had been found.

After several hours of walking they came to a narrow corridor with several dark openings. Khaum pointed to the one on the left. “That tunnel leads to the Votain mines. This one leads to the Vurhne camp.”

“Where does this tunnel go?” asked Kor’re, referring to the one they were standing in.

“To hell,” Khaum said.

Kor’re glanced down the tunnel and his dark eyes detected a faint orange glow. It must have lead back to a lava vein. Zerdy handed Kwin her spear and took a rifle from Kaymon. She pointed the rifle at Kor’re and motioned for him to take the tunnel that led to the mine. He moved into the tunnel and stopped to wait for her. She took off her pack and faced the others to address them.

“This is where we part my friends. Go to the Vurhne camp and await my return. I will make contact with the Vurhne when I am ready to leave. It may be many days. I cannot know for sure how long I will stay.”

“What if they imprison you?” Kaymon asked.

“Then my mission will have failed. You are free to go, but if you do return without me, seal off the tunnel. If the Votains have found their way through once, they will come again and again. The Vurhne will have to find another way through the mountains.”

Khaum agreed. “We have many paths to freedom through the mountains.”

Zerdy took out a pouch from her ruck sack and handed it to Kwin. She opened it up to show him the device inside. It was an explosive with a hand wound timer on it from Kor’re’s arsenal.

“Place this device at the entrance of the tunnel and turn it to the right one full turn. Then get away as fast as you can. These tubes are explosives and will crumble the entrance with a loud bang like thunder. Do you understand?”

Kwin nodded. He had no idea what explosives were but he knew he could follow her simple instructions. She handed him the device and he slipped it into his own ruck sack. Then she handed over her own rucksack. She hugged him tightly. Zerdy felt like she was saying goodbye to a friend. Perhaps her only friend on the planet. She couldn’t bear to look at Kwin again or risk crying. They let go and she headed down the dark tunnel with a quick glance back at her friends.

“You are brave to let your leader go so easily my friend,” Kaymon said to Kwin.

“She will return. I’m sure of it,” Kwin said, staring off into the passage Zerdy and Kor’re had taken.

Kaymon patted the Tyrmian hunter on the back and they both followed Khaum into the remaining dark tunnel.





Chapter 35

Kor’re cranked the lantern again so he could see where he stepped. There was a flicker of light further down the tunnel and they could hear noises echoing around the rock walls. They were getting closer to his world. Closer to civilization. He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around to look at Zerdy.

She handed him the rifle.

“My fate is in your hands now, Kor’re.”

He took the heavy rifle from her and kept the barrel pointed down. She was standing there naked in the yellow light of the lantern. Her shoulder length hair dirty and knotted.

“I will do my best,” he said, motioning for her to lead them and handing her the lantern.

She took the lantern and walked forward. He followed her, checking to make sure the rifle was on safe. He wouldn’t need to shoot anyone now.

They came to another turn in the tunnel and elected to go in the direction of men’s voices and the clanking sounds of metal on rock. Before long the air was filled with fine dust from the miner’s work. They rounded a bend in the tunnel and came upon a group of four Vurhan miners. They were startled but stepped aside to let the Commander pass with his strange yellow haired female.

A Votain foreman greeted them next, his dirty black face and clothes a condition of his job.

“Commander, what are you doing in these tunnels with this, this female,” he said, with contempt in the way he pronounced “female”.

“I’m Commander Kor’re and this is my prisoner from the other side of the mountains.”

The over-sized foreman stared at Zerdy and let them pass. He gave Kor’re a look that men give one another when they approve of the other’s sexual conquests. Kor’re was disgusted with the man and pushed Zerdy past him and on up the tunnel.

“Brutes,” he said to her after they had passed.

Zerdy caught herself from laughing at Kor’re’s remark. To her all Votainions were brutish, barely above the higher primates sometimes, when it came to social etiquette. It was part of their charm, at least for her. The human males that she lived and worked with were so far removed from their base instincts they sometimes acted rather feminine. She hated that and it was part of the reason she always liked Votainion men. Their raw attractiveness spoke to her in a primal way.

They passed several groups of men heading down to the lower levels with pick axes and shovels. Each one ogled Zerdy as they passed. Her natural beauty on parade in the dim tunnels. Zerdy ignored the lingering stares. In her world, they were simply being Votainions. Or even just human males. Finally, Kor’re stopped a foreman and demanded that he take off his overcoat. After some hesitation, his eyes glued on Zerdy’s body, he finally handed over the black, dirty coat. Kor’re dismissed the man and put the coat over Zerdy’s naked shoulders. It would not hide her bare, white legs, but it would keep wandering eyes from gluing themselves to her chest.

“Wear this until we can get to the manor. I’ll have the house-maidens bathe and dress you,” Kor’re said.

Zerdy was grateful to be covered, despite how filthy the coat was. She had been without clean clothes for so long, she had forgotten what they felt like. She was surprised to find that the promise of a proper bath and whatever clothing was in fashion brightened her spirits immensely.

They took an elevator to the higher levels, riding up alone in the clanking metal cage. Zerdy kept quiet, wondering how she would be received by proper Votain citizens. The white, savage woman from the jungle meets the male dominated, war-like society of soldiers. She imagined it would be like going back in time to before Voton had discovered space travel. When the nine Kastra were still warring with each other in a never-ending battle for supremacy on a barren, hostile world.

She looked at Kor’re and noticed his subtle nervousness at having to take her back to his world. Having to explain how he lost his entire company to some savages led by a naked woman. It was no doubt a terrible blow to his ego and his pride. If his king valued knowledge like she hoped, she would be able to bargain with it for her life. She may not ever get to leave this land, but she may have a long career of teaching them how to be more sensitive to the planet they lived on. Perhaps in time, her people would return and she could help the Votains assimilate into the Grand Alliance.

The elevator shook to a halt and they stepped out into a high cavern open to the outside. The light was incredibly harsh to their dark adjusted eyes, they both shielded their faces as they walked into the cavern. There were lines of Vurhan workers waiting to go to work in the mines and many more Votain foremen barking orders and pushing workers around. It was chaotic and noisy as they brushed by curious workers and stood before the cavern opening.

They were high above a valley filled with white castles dotting a misty landscape of green conifer trees. Off in the distance were fields of green crops and high walls surrounding factory buildings belching white smoke into the hazy skies. It was an early industrial scene merged with ancient stone buildings with incredibly ornate details. Zerdy was in awe as she took it all in. She was not prepared for such a fantastic landscape.

Kor’re pointed to a manor not far from the mountain base where they stood. It had smoke coming from its many chimneys. Square windows with wooden shutters painted blue with white angled stripes dotted the white walls. It was obviously very old, yet well maintained. Traditional Votainion society was divided by nine major houses or Kastra. The manor reminded her of the castles of ancient Voton.

“That is my Kastra. We will get you prepared for an audience with the king tomorrow,” he said.

Zerdy nodded, still taking in the beauty of the landscape. She was beginning to feel like she was suddenly in a fairy tale.

* * *

They rode a gasoline powered carriage from the mines to Kor’re’s manor. The cobbled streets were dotted with stone buildings that had wooden roofs and facades. Votain citizens bustled about their business most paying them no attention as they wound their way down into the valley and then back up to the hill top where the manor was. Zerdy had to struggle to keep her mouth shut as she stared out the open windows of the noisy carriage. Kor’re seemed glad to be back in proper society, his demeanor changed and he seemed less tense. He was among his people again and not stuck in a hot, wet jungle surrounded by blood sucking insects and blood hungry savages.

He pointed to the top chambers of the huge stone manor.

“I’ll have a warm bath drawn and clean clothes for us both. We will dine with the Kastra this afternoon in the main hall.”

Zerdy nodded, still in awe of the beauty around her.

They arrived at the courtyard and were greeted by a tall Votain servant in an elaborate black uniform with red accents. The driver held open the door and Kor’re stepped out first.

“Good afternoon, Sir. It is good to have you home again.”

“Good to be back, Kreve,” Kor’re said, as he reached back in for Zerdy’s hand. She stepped out of the carriage and onto the cold stone driveway.

Kreve’s dark black eyes widened as he took in the alien woman dressed in a miner’s coat.

“Good heavens, Sir. Where did you find this young lady?” Kreve asked.

“Her name is Zerdy, and she is our house guest. Assign a guard to her. She is free to move about but she can not leave the estate.”

Kreve nodded. “As you wish, Sir.”

Kor’re lead Zerdy down the long path to the front door where more servants let them into the imposing stone manor. Inside, Kor’re handed Zerdy off to a young Votain female servant.

“Take her to a guest room. See to it that she is cleaned and dressed for this evening’s meal.”

The woman curtsied and, somewhat hesitantly, took Zerdy’s dirty hand. “This way, Madam.”

Kor’re strode off in another direction, presumably to bathe and dress himself. Zerdy was led up a stone staircase that wound around and above the entrance foyer. They strolled down richly carpeted halls filled with portraits of Kastra family members. Zerdy had never thought about how old this society was. Despite being cut off from the rest of the galaxy, they had quite a long history.

“What is your name?” she asked her young handmaid.

“Trista, my Lady,” she said, not looking Zerdy in the eyes.

“My name is Zerdy. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

The girl looked up at her for a moment and Zerdy could see her dark green eyes and beautiful pale blue skin. She had a high forehead, but her brow line was smaller than a traditional Votainion woman would have. She looked a lot more human than she did Votainion. Her white and tan dress was simple, but not plain. There were elaborate lace patterns and layers to it.

Trista took her into a large bathing room that was humid and fragrant with the smell of fresh cut flowers. Other maidens were in the bath, and they helped remove Zerdy’s coat and guide her into the warm, inviting water. Zerdy let them take her to a formed seat in the bath and begin scrubbing her with abrasive soaps to remove the dirt and grime from her skin and under her nails. She was pampered in ways that would have been considered luxurious even at a resort. Her hair was washed and brushed and her jagged finger nails trimmed.

When she emerged from the bath, the maids gasped at how beautiful she was, despite her smooth brow line and pale color. The bath had to be drained and cleaned while she was sprayed with delicate perfumes and wrapped in warm towels. Zerdy was led into another hallway that ended in a room. There was an armed soldier standing at her door, he didn’t look at the blond woman and her hand maidens as they entered the room.

The room was large and filled with hand carved wooden furniture. High ceilings were painted with elaborate scenes of idyllic countrysides. The fine sheer drapes that covered the simple, glass paned windows gave the room a soft white light.

The handmaids sat her down at a make-up table complete with electric lamps and began painting her face with makeup designed to whiten a blue face. Her lips were painted a dark red color and her eyes lined with black. She stared at herself in the big mirror and realized that she was not as plain as she had always thought of herself. Her high cheek bones and soft, round nose gave her a simple, elegant beauty.

Zerdy was dressed with a tight fitting corset that boosted her and squeezed her in uncomfortable ways. Then the handmaids put her into a black dress with intricate fringe and layers. Her calloused feet were slipped into calf length lace up boots with heels. She felt constricted in the outfit, but realized quickly that this is the way all proper women dressed in this society and to fight it would be rude. Her hair was braided and then tied up off her neck and held in place with pins. The women commented frequently on her beautiful blond locks. A black, feathered hat was placed on her head and secured with pins to complete the outfit.

Standing before a wall length mirror, she admired herself for a moment. She had come a long way from the naked warrior woman living in a rain forest. In fact, she was pretty sure that she had never looked this good in all her life.





Chapter 36

Zerdy strolled down the winding staircase to Commander Kor’re, feeling like a princess in some childhood fairy tale. She was far more taken with the refinement and elegance of this society than she would have suspected. It was a long way from sitting naked in a wooden hut in the middle of a rain forest. Never would she have imagined that Kor’re’s people were living in such luxury. The refinement of this Votain society was not at all like the austere customs of traditional Votainions. She should have suspected he came from such riches by his behavior in the jungle. Even in military defeat, he remained dignified and honorable.

Now that she was in his world of fine clothes, opulent estates and refined manners, she would have to follow his lead and see where it took her. Hopefully he would be able to get her an audience with the king. In the meantime, she would do whatever was necessary to appease Kor’re, within reason.

He was waiting for her at the base of the stairs, no longer dressed in his dirty campaign uniform. He was wearing a starched white shirt under a finely decorated black vest and long coat. Thinly striped black and gray pants and shiny black knee-boots completed his attire. His red hair contrasted with his pale blue skin and black clothes. He looked quite handsome for a Votain.

“You look amazing Miss Zerdy,” he said, as he took her hand.

“You clean up pretty well yourself, Commander.”

He took her arm in his and guided her across the entryway to the main dinning hall. Servants held open the doors for them, and they strode together into the dining room. The room was large enough to feed a small army of people, but there were fewer than a dozen dinner guests. Most were already seated at the long, “V” shaped wooden table. A few were gathered around the edge of the room, engaged in quiet conversations.

News of Kor’re’s return and his unusual guest had spread fast through the house. Wild rumors had stirred up much excitement and had brought out many guests from the extended family. They were all curious as to where he found the woman and what kind of creature she was. Some rumors had her being from outer space and some had her being from a lost tribe of pale white people that Kor’re had found living deep in the rain forest. As Kor’re and Zerdy entered the dining room they were announced by the head servant and all eyes in the room focused on them.

The patriarch and matriarch of the Kor’re Kastra were greeting guests as they came into the room. Kor’re’s father looked like an older, thicker version of Kor’re, with gray hair and a neatly trimmed beard. His mother was tall and had paler blue skin than was usual. Her jade green eyes were accented by the green elements of her formal dress. Zerdy thought that she must have been very beautiful in her youth, for she was still quite stunning.

“Father, this is Miss Zerdy. Miss Zerdy, my father, Kor’re Senior.”

Kor’re senior took her hand and bowed his head to her. Zerdy smiled at the older gentleman and curtsied.

“It is a pleasure to meet you sir.”

“The pleasure is all mine, young lady. Forgive me for staring so, but I have never seen anyone of your kind before. You are quite radiant, if I may say so.”

She smiled at his directness. Kor’re shook his father’s hand politely.

“It’s good to have you home, son, I’m deeply sorry about the loss of your men.”

Kor’re nodded. “I miss my first sergeant the most, sir. He was a good man.”

“That he was, that he was,” Kor’re senior said as they moved past him to stand before his wife.

“Mother, this is Miss Zerdy. Miss Zerdy, my mother, Madam Kor’re.”

Madam Kor’re was a tall, thin woman with distinguished features. She was very much the matriarch and everyone knew it at a glance. Her graying hair was tied in a bun on the back of her head and her evening dress flowed in basic black. Her facial features were less Votainion and more human, leading Zerdy to suspect that these Votains were possibly more human than Votainion. But for the slightly pronounced brow line and pale blue skin, she could have passed as human.

“Welcome to the Kor’re manor, Miss Zerdy,” Madam Kor’re said.

Zerdy attempted another polite curtsy and slipped. It was an awkward social blunder and she knew it.

“I’m terribly sorry, Madam Kor’re,” Zerdy said.

“You can dress up a savage my son, but you can’t teach it social etiquette so easily.”

Kor’re gave his mother a peck on the cheek and a stern look.

“Don’t be rude, Mother. Zerdy is not a savage. She comes from a culture far more advanced than ours.”

Madam Kor’re gave Zerdy a skeptical look before dismissing them and focusing her attention on the next arriving guest. Zerdy brushed off the insult and vowed to keep her feet in line. She was tired from the long walk through the mountain tunnels and all she really wanted to do was sleep for a day or two.

Kor’re introduced his guest to a few more family members before offering her a seat at the grand table. Zerdy was glad to finally sit down. She maintained her posture, despite wanting to slump into a puddle.

As the first course was served, Kor’re recounted in summary how he had found the wreckage of Zerdy’s space plane and tracked her to a tribe of native Tyrmians. He described how she had been adopted by the tribe and had earned their respect with her hunting and fighting skills. This was quite the shock for everyone attending. They seemed to want more lurid details of living with the savages. For such a polite and refined society, they were all too eager to hear about running naked through the jungles with green skinned natives.

“That’s all very good indeed, but what of the world from which Miss Zerdy has come?” said Kor’re senior.

Kor’re released the floor to Zerdy, who wet her throat with a drink before speaking.

“I’m human, from a world very far from here. My people fought a long and bitter war with another race of space faring people known as the Votainions.”

There were a few hushed whispers around the table. They had possibly heard the word used to describe their distant ancestors.

“The war started a thousand years ago right here, on your world. When a human science and research starship was attacked by warships from the Votainion Empire. The main front of the war quickly moved on to other areas of the galaxy and eventually this world was forgotten. You are all no doubt the descendants of a handful of human and Votainion crew members that were stranded here.”

The whispers became gasps of disbelief as she continued her story.

“The war lasted a long time and altered the histories of hundreds of planets like this one. The human and Votainion forces have been at peace now for many years and we are once again exploring the galaxy. I was part of a new wave of explorers known as Starveyers, who are charged with finding lost worlds like yours and bringing them back into the fold of our Grand Alliance.”

She paused to take a question from Kor’re senior.

“Fascinating, just fascinating. But why did your people abandon you here?” he asked.

“I do not know. My best guess is that they simply thought I was dead. But they could have been called away on more pressing matters. There is still much unrest in this part of the galaxy.”

Not everyone at the table was buying Zerdy’s fantastic story, especially Madam Kor’re.

“Come now Gren, you don’t actually believe anything she tells you do you? Where is the proof of this wild story? If she were truly from the stars as she claims, don’t you think her people would have come back for her? Her story lacks credibility and quite frankly is far beyond my capacity to believe.”

Others murmured their support for Madam Kor’re. Finally, Kor’re stood up and defended her wild claims.

“I believe her stories, for I have seen her space plane. I have also seen the remains of her dead companion. He was just like us, a Votain.”

He took from his vest pocket a shiny metal object on a chain. It was Khas’s family crest. All Votainions carried it on them to bring them good fortune, especially in battle. The shiny medallion had failed Khas, like Zerdy had failed to get them both down to the ground alive.

“This medallion has the Votain crest on it. The same crest as the ancestors created for our kingdom. We are descended from that great military race that conquered the galaxy as she has said.”

Zerdy tugged on his arm and he stopped to listen to her.

“I said they fought a long war. I did not say that they won it.”

Kor’re sat back down and begged her to finish.

“The Great War between the Votainion Empire and the Western Alliance lasted over a thousand years. Many millions of sentient beings were either killed or exterminated during the conflict. In the end, it came down to a war of attrition as the Empire simply used up all its resources and collapsed upon itself. The great Kastra of Voton fell into bitter in-fighting and could no longer prosecute the war.

“To this day, the Kastra are suffering bitter civil wars that threaten to tear apart the Grand Alliance. The Khara Kastra is the latest to fall to infighting and that is probably where my people have gone before they could rescue me. When I crashed, we were on alert status to go to Khara and help prevent another civil war.”

“There is a Khara family here, in the valley. They have always been prone to in-fighting,” Kor’re Senior said.

There was laughter from some of the guests at the expense of their neighbors.

Lady Kor’re leaned forward and challenged her son and his guest again. “Where is her vessel that you claim to have seen? Did you bring it back with you?”

Kor’re shook his head.

“Unfortunately no,” he said looking at Zerdy.

Zerdy smiled nervously. She had nothing to show of her advanced technology.

The main course was brought in by the serving staff and everyone began eating. Zerdy enjoyed the meal, even though she had no idea what much of it was. All of it was prepared animal and vegetable food, no doubt from cultivated crops and livestock. The meat was a bit too salty for her tastes but everything was far more pleasing to the palate than the dry, simple food of the Tyrmians. Still, a part of her wished for the simplicity of knowing where everything she was eating had come from. In Tyrmian meals, nothing was prepared that had not been living the day before.

As the meal progressed she became more relaxed and slightly dizzy from the libations. Kor’re was just as tired from his ordeal as she was and excused them from the dessert course so that they could retire for the evening.

Kor’re led her out a back door to the courtyard of the great manor. The night air was cool and dry, unlike the moist rain forest. Zerdy took in deep breaths of fresh air and tried to clear her head. Her clothes were too tight after the meal.

“I will send for you in the morning. We have an appointment with the King’s Court and my superiors.”

She nodded as they walked along the stone pathway in the garden.

“I’m sorry I made a fool of myself tonight, I shall be more charming after a good night’s rest.”

“I’m sure we both will,” Kor’re said, as Kreve approached them.

“Take Miss Zerdy back to her room, see that she has whatever she needs.”

Kreve offered his arm for her and she took it.

“Good evening, Commander,” Zerdy said.

“Good evening, Miss Zerdy,” Kor’re said.

* * *

Kor’re watched them walk across the courtyard before noticing the twinkling stars above. They shined down at him with cold indifference. So many wonders existed in space that he was unaware of. She had opened his eyes to it and he wanted more. He wanted to soar into space and visit the far away places that no Votain had ever seen before. He lusted for such adventure far more than anyone else he knew. When the chance came to lead an expedition into the rain forest he jumped on it without hesitation. It was a chance to go where no Votain had gone before and to possibly find something more extraordinary than anyone could imagine.

He never thought he would find such a strong and beautiful creature as Zerdy. She was so different from any woman he had ever known and yet not so strange as to be repulsive to him. He wanted to know more about her world and he wanted her to take him to the stars. To show him her universe, the universe that he never knew existed. But that was a dream, something that he knew would never happen.

His duty was to his Kastra and to his King. He had to transport her back to the capital and turn her over to the proper authorities. She would be questioned and if she refused to cooperate, they would torture her in ways that would either break her or kill her. He didn’t want that to happen. He wanted her to cooperate with the authorities and to forget ever returning to the jungle. He wanted her all to himself. To learn from her and to be with her night and day. He was becoming far too attached to her for his own good, but he could not stop it. He thought about her nearly every minute of the day and when she was out of his sight he longed to be with her again.





Chapter 37

Kreve showed her to the door of her room and then let go of her arm. He was a darker blue than most of the Votains, more Votainion in facial lines as well as color. She wondered if his blood line was more purely Votainion than the human and Votainion mix that Kor’re and the other elites of the society appeared to be. Kreve bid her good evening and left quietly down the carpeted hall. The guard at her door was unflinching. His presence reminded her that she was not just a guest at the manor, but a captive as well.

She opened the wooden door and walked into her dimly lit room. It was empty. The young handmaidens were not around. Zerdy wondered where they had disappeared to as she began to undress herself. It took her a while to get out of her elaborate clothes. She took her time, thinking about what she would tell the authorities in the morning. She had to do her best to convince them not to plunder the rain forests and commit genocide on the Tyrmians. It would not be easy. The taking of slaves and the rapid consumption of natural resources was a guiding principle of Votainion culture. It’s what forced them to leave their home world and seek out new planets to plunder. It was not solely due to their war-like nature, it was because of their complete lack of respect for natural biospheres. Their need for resources drove their need to conquer and that unquenchable desire to take what they needed without regard to the future was what in the end led to the downfall of the Votainion Empire.

There were only so many habitable worlds in the galaxy and when you used up everything in your reach, you moved into other areas in search of more resources. It was not until late in the millennial conflict that the Western Alliance leaders realized that the entire war was about obtaining scarce natural resources for the Votainion Empire. That understanding let the Alliance alter its strategy from winning a war of aggression to out-lasting the enemy in a long war of attrition. Defending planets from being taken by the Empire and denying the Votainions the resources they needed to grow, eventually led to the end of the long conflict.

Zerdy slipped into the long nightgown that the handmaids had left on her turned down bed. She lay down on the soft mattress between the smooth sheets and was asleep before her head fell completely into the pillow. She slept soundly for half the night before being awakened by a bird, sitting on her open window sill. The bird was a dark black color in the moonless night. It chirped and pecked at the wooden sill making a terrible racket. She got out of bed and shooed it away.

Standing at the window, she looked out across the spacious, grass covered yard and up to the imposing mountains. They rose dramatically and blocked the starry sky from her view. There were lights all along the mining camps where they had come out of the mountains. The coal from the tunnels was mined around the clock. Another reminder for her of the tireless machine that was a modern, Votain society. If she listened carefully, she could hear noises coming from the mines.

She wondered where Kwin and Chief Kaymon were. She wanted to be with Kwin again, in the jungle. He was a simple being, not tied by laws and social mores. When he was angry, she knew it; when he was aroused he would no doubt take her; when he was moody he would sulk about like a child. There was no false pretense with Kwin. He was as he was and he would never complicate life, just live it to its fullest. She loved that about him and she wished he was here with her now.

There was a sound from the back of her room. She moved cautiously away from the window. A section of the wall near the back of her room opened into the shape of a door. Zerdy wondered if it were a servant entrance or some other secret way into the bed chamber. Kor’re emerged from the passage and stood before her. He was wearing a bed robe and nothing else. She knew what he was there for, she had hoped he could have waited a while longer. He was there for her and he was in control this time.

He moved closer so he could see her more clearly in the dim light. She tried to remain calm, but her body was tense. He took her into his arms and held her close to him. She could see the fire in his eyes as he moved in for a kiss. She braced for it, but he kissed the back of her neck and slowly moved his way from her collar bone to her ear lobe. The sensation excited her more than she wanted it to. She gripped him closer in her arms and gasped lightly in the night.

They moved slowly to the bed, locked in a kiss that Zerdy found herself helpless to resist. She lay back in his arms and he deftly removed her gown and then let his robe fall away. He lifted her gently onto the bed and continued to please her. She was ready for him, even though she knew it was wrong to use him to get what she wanted.

They made love into the wee hours of the morning. It was better than she had thought and she willingly participated. It had been far too long since she had been with a man.

As dawn began to break, Kor’re left her bed and gathered his robe from the floor. He wrapped himself up and looked back at her one last time. She wanted him to stay, but she knew that he was bound by honor not to have admitted to being there. She was his secret lover and that was fine with her. She had no real intention of being with him again. There was something about him that reminded her of her ex-fiance, Talon. Something familiar in the way they behaved. Both men were too civilized and proper to really light her fire. She liked her men slightly unpredictable. The brazen act of coming into her room unannounced for intercourse excited her; but she knew it was only the result of his puritan society, not because he couldn’t resist her. Kor’re was a man of social honor not unlike Talon. In the end, she decided that she much preferred the unpretentiousness of someone like Kwin.

Zerdy was awakened by the return of the handmaids. They came into her room through the secret passage that Kor’re had used and proceeded to start her bath and select her outfit for the day. It was good to be pampered in this fashion but she knew it would not last long. By the end of the day she would either be on her way back to the jungle, tossed into a prison, or just plain dead; depending on how things went.





Chapter 38

Kwin and Chief Kaymon had spent the night with the Vurhne in their underground way station. The Vurhne helped to smuggle liberated Vurhan out of the cities through a series of access tunnels used for plumbing in all the major cities of Votain. The tunnels were dark and smelled of sewage . They were never used by the Votain citizens. Even when the pipes in the tunnels broke, it was Vurhan that were sent down to fix them. No self-respecting Votain citizen would stoop to such a dirty job.

There was much traffic throughout the night as Vurhan females and their children were whisked along into the mountain tunnels. This close to the mountains made the area they were in a focal point for refugees coming from all over the kingdom. Kwin barely got enough sleep to make it worth his while to even lie down. The straw mattresses and musty smells of too many people living in close proximity with very little fresh air made him nauseous. He was born and raised in the open rain forest and he missed it terribly. Ever since he had left the forest, he had traveled in underground tunnels and slept in cold, dark caves. He wanted to get out of the dark and smell the fresh air above.

The traditional cloth thong he was given to wear chafed his crotch and made him uncomfortable. He didn’t like the way the Vurhan dressed and he particularly didn’t like the way they smelled. He missed his friends who were killed by the Votains and he missed Zerdy. Where was she in this crazy world of the blue-skins? Was she living in a big stone hut with that red haired Votain? Is she missing me as badly as I’m missing her? He did not have answers. He only knew that he could not stay in this hellhole and wait for a signal from her. He had to get out into the sunlight and make his way to her.

A woman’s chronic cough kept him awake as he tried to sleep on the lumpy bed. There was so much suffering by these people. It is no wonder that they wanted out of here and risked everything to get to the forest where he lived. He had more respect for the Vurhan tribes that he used to fight for hunting grounds. If they had escaped this kind of life, they were a much heartier breed than he was.

Kwin got up from his bed and walked the dark, wet tunnels until he was too tired not to sleep. He found an alcove away from the noise and propped himself up to sleep. In the morning he would find Kaymon and tell him that he was going to seek out Zerdy, even if he had to go by himself.

* * *

Kwin awoke to the sounds of people passing by him, splashing the water on the ground before him. Nobody seemed to notice or care that he was not one of them. He had not seen a familiar green face of a fellow Tyrmian in days. He stood up and stretched his thin form to get his blood circulating. There was a commotion further down the tunnel and he peered down the dim tunnel to see what was causing it.

A handful of females were being ushered down the narrow tunnel by several Vurhan males. As they got closer he realized that they were Tyrmian females, young ones barely of age and covered in robes. They were heading outward, away from the mountains and deeper into the city. As they passed he could see the terror on their faces and it made his heart ache for them. After they rushed past him, he ducked into the tunnel and followed them.

Kwin followed the Tyrmian females at a safe distance so as not to be noticed by their Vurhan masters. They eventually changed tunnels and continued without rest for what seemed to Kwin like a very long time. Then they came to a way station that led up and out of the tunnels. Kwin lingered in the shadows as the ten females were ushered into a secret passage under a stone stairway up to the surface. He waited for a while and then entered the same passage.

It was so dark in the passage that Kwin could barely see his own arms. But after he stood there for a while his large yellow eyes adjusted to the dark. The passage curved around and around, snaking along tightly before ending at a simple wooden door. Kwin put an ear to the door and heard nothing.

He pushed on the door and it didn’t budge. There was a black handle that he had seen the Vurhne use. So he pulled it down and the door creaked open, announcing his presence to whom ever was on the other side.

But when he came through, he realized that it was just another dark passageway with another door. He could hear voices on the other side. Vurhan males and possibly females, were barking orders. There was a dim red light coming from under the frame. Kwin could hear people passing by on the other side. He hoped that nobody came in and found him huddled there in the dark.

Eventually the sounds fell quiet and he decided to open the door in the same fashion he had opened the first one. The room was quiet but he could hear movement further down another hallway. There was a sibilant sound that he had not heard before. The metal pipes running through the hall were hissing like giant snake monsters. Kwin knew that the Votains had machines and that they sometimes hissed like angry spirits, but that didn’t make them any less terrifying.

He followed the sounds of shoveling and came upon the boiler room for the building. Several burly Vurhan men were shoveling black coal into a glowing hot furnace. The heat was intense and Kwin quickly slipped past them while their attention was focused on filling the glowing boiler.

The heat felt good to him, but it was far too dry for his skin. His oily green skin was used to the humid air of the rain forest and the constant dry heat was causing him discomfort. He moved down the hall until he came across a metal staircase. He crept up the cold stairs and when he got near the top he slowly opened the door.

He could hear more voices, muffled but obviously speaking his own language. He followed the higher pitched female voices until he came across a room filled with Tyrmian females. They were bathing together in a large, pool of water. There were two Vurhan males guarding them and paying no attention to them. Kwin slipped by the entrance to the bath without being seen. Footsteps approached and he ducked behind a dark curtain to wait until it was safe to move again.

Behind the curtain he saw a young Tyrmian girl laying on a bed. She was asleep and did not wake. He could tell she had been abused. There were bandages on her arms and legs. Her light green skin was darkened and rough in spots where normally it would be smooth. There was a table beside her with shiny metal instruments on it. So many things in this world Kwin did not understand, but he knew quite clearly what a medicine man’s lair looked like.

He ducked behind the curtain into the hallway again and continued up another flight of stairs. Following the noises of more Tyrmian females, he came across an open room filled with beds. There were curtains around the beds but they were pulled back. As he walked by them he realized what he was seeing. These were the conception halls where Votain men impregnated Tyrmian females. It was where the Vurhan race was artificially created.

He saw the hollow looks on the Tyrmian women’s faces as he walked by. They were hopelessly resigned to their purpose in life and showed no signs of wanting to be helped. Kwin was sickened. The room smelled of filth. He wanted to set them all free and kill every last Votain male he came across. But he continued upward, looking in desperation now for the way out.

In his haste, he bumped into a Votain male coming down to the chambers. He pushed the startled man to the floor and stuck him with his spear. The man’s eyes grew large before the last breath left his body. There were screams as the female Tyrmians came across the dead man and soon the hallways were flooded with people.

Kwin tried doors as he ran, searching for what he hoped was a way out of the crazy Votain building. Finally, he found a door that opened up into a dark alley. Images kept returning in his mind of what he had just seen in the building. Anger grew inside him, fueled by the sight of his fellow Tyrmians living in such horrible conditions. The Votains had killed nearly everyone he knew and here they were slowly killing more of his people. There was only so much death and suffering anyone could witness without being moved to help. He couldn’t bring back to life the members of his former tribe, but he could help these Tyrmians to get free of their captors.

He thought of Zerdy, trapped by the Votains and trying to reason with them. She would approve of his actions on this day, even if he never lived to see her again. He so wanted to look into her blue eyes and hold her pale body next to him. Kwin begged the spirits for help in what he was about to do. Although he had never witnessed the spirits, he could feel their approval and knew that they would be on his side. He turned to go back into the nightmarish world. He was ready to descend back into the madness and try to make restitution for his people. He was ready for some payback.





Chapter 39

Breakfast was served in the main dining hall, but only Kor’re and Zerdy attended. Servants brought them a somewhat traditional Votainion morning meal of bird eggs and raw fish. Zerdy ate the eggs but only pecked at the fish. She never liked fish before dinner, but it was deeply ingrained in Votainion society and this being a largely Votainion influenced world, she had half expected fish for breakfast.

Kor’re was wearing his finest military dress uniform. A dark black, long coat with red piping and elaborate ribbons and scarfs. It was vaguely Votainion in look and feel, but mostly it was original to her eyes. Her own attire was a black dress similar to what she had worn the previous night, but less pretty and more functional, if one could describe a full-length dress as functional.

Nobody spoke as they ate. She wondered if he would mention their midnight tryst. He showed no inclination to speak, but she could tell he was glad to see her and she caught him staring at her from across the vast, wooden table.

Kor’re ate everything and then sat back to enjoy his tea. Zerdy drank her tea with a bit of cream. She hadn’t smelled the aromatic flavor of the domestic Votain tea before and found it was quite good.

“Did you sleep well last night?” Kor’re asked.

“Yes, I did. Thank you,” Zerdy replied.

A servant took Kor’re’s plates and he waited patiently for the man to leave them alone in the large dining hall before speaking again.

“We have a busy day ahead. It is a short ride into town where we are scheduled to attend some official debriefings before we will be allowed to travel to the capital city to meet the King. I thought you would enjoy seeing some of our more interesting technological achievements.”

She nodded her agreement as she sipped her tea. He looked pleased from what she could tell. She found it interesting how he had kept his technology from her at first, but now seemed eager to show it off. It was like they were going on a date and he was showing her his home, hoping to impress her. If that were the case, he was going about things in a very odd manner. They had held nothing back from each other in last night’s carnal marathon, to spend time wooing her with a grand tour seemed kind of pointless.

She decided to go along with it, in order to better understand him. It was her intention to leave this majestic blend of human and Votain culture and return to help defend the Tyrmians from it. The more she knew about the Votains the better equipped she would be to fight them in the future.

“Shall we get started then?” Kor’re asked.

* * *

They rode into town inside a six-wheeled motorcar that looked as if it could have transported a dozen people. Everything that Zerdy saw seemed to have been built to a noticeably larger scale than the people who operated the equipment. The motorcars were large and so were the huge manors the Kastra lived in. The roads were cobbled instead of paved, as if the motorcar had not had time enough to be as well used as the ornate carriages that were pulled by animals.

There were many fields with crops that extended off to the horizon. Smaller villages dotted the landscape where the lower castes lived. Kor’re explained to her the rigid structure of Votain society and she recognized it as being a blend of early human and Votainion government styles. There were three primary Kastra and each was divided into roughly the same amount of land. Each Kastra was represented at the King’s capital city of Kermia. Kermia was the Votainion pronunciation of Tyrmia, something Zerdy found amusing. The king himself held court over the ruling Kastra, currently it was the Varn family.

There were vast networks of steam driven trains that connected the Kastra and were the basis of trade and transportation. They drove near a depot and she could see one of the massive, metal monsters that drove on a three rail system and moved from station to station with alarming speed and punctuality. The Votainions were well known for being on-time for everything. It appeared the habit of being punctual persisted here in this Votain kingdom.

Zerdy had always loved ancient technology like steam trains and petroleum based air and land vehicles. There was a certain elegance in their industrial design. The machines of her world were built, to a large extent, by other, more intelligent machines. The human element was reserved for artistic design and whimsy. It seemed that the most reliable machines were those designed by artificial intelligences, but the AI’s lacked the ability to create art. Biological life forms were imbued with the ability to create whimsical designs that were then translated into working machines by the super-reliable and super-intelligent AIs. But the machines of early industrial design were embodied with a certain charm and magic that no AI designed machine could match.

Their motorcar was bouncy and loud, but they were pretty well insulated inside the cabin. Kor’re sat opposite Zerdy who faced forward. She looked out the windows for much of the trip, but she could feel his dark eyes on her. She caught him staring at her from time to time and he didn’t look away. She got the distinct feeling that he was developing an obsession with her. More than sexual or intellectual fascination with someone from a different world. He was focused on her like a bird of prey intent on taking down a weaker bird. She filed that bit of knowledge away for future use. Perhaps it could be used to save her life some day or end it.

They arrived in the stone walled ancient city of Trindendale and pulled up to the entrance of a government building.

“This is the Ministry of Defense. I have to check in with my superiors. You will be debriefed by Officers of the Court. I suggest that you cooperate with them. They will determine whether you will be allowed an audience with His Majesty, the King.”

“I understand,” Zerdy said.

Kor’re led her inside the white marble building. They passed through a security detail and into a series of passages that led deeper into the old building. There were many uniformed men but conspicuously few women. She expected that, as in Votainion society, the women weren’t allowed in combat units of the military.

She was checked in by a clerk who examined her from behind round spectacles. She felt like he was dismissing her as a minor curiosity. Kor’re signed something with a fountain pen and then led her into a small room that was dimly lit by a single electric light on the wall.

There was a wooden chair in the middle of the room where Kor’re motioned for her to sit. She took her seat and looked around for anyone else. The room was empty but for the two of them.

“I cannot interfere with the questioning. You will be on your own,” he said to her.

“I understand.”

“Good luck, and remember, how you answer is more important than what you say. Be polite and acquiescent.”

She nodded, wondering what exactly was about to happen. Kor’re exited the room and she was left to think by herself. The room was absent of any decor except for the sconce on the wall. The floor was polished marble and very clean. The walls were a rougher cut marble and limestone. The chair she was sitting in was made from wood and was well worn. She wondered whether she was in a torture chamber or simply an empty office space. She began to think the former was more accurate. A person could scream pretty loudly and not be heard through the stone walls.

The door opened again and two Votain officers stepped into the room and stood before her. They didn’t look like they were prepared to torture anyone and she relaxed a bit.

“Madam Zerdy, you are hereby appointed a citizen of Kermia with all the civil rights and freedoms associated with said citizenship. You are now considered a member of the Kor’re family registry and must defer any and all allegiances to the Kermian King, Klev Varn the Third.”

The man paused and Zerdy said, “I understand.”

“Please sign here,” he said, handing her a fountain pen and pointing to a paper book that he held out for her.

She took the pen and wondered what to do with it. People had not written on paper or written with a pen for that matter in hundreds of years. She recalled from her studies of ancient civilizations that a signature was often used to represent the honor of an individual. She had no idea how to write a Votainion signature, so she simply scratched her name in Votainion to the best of her ability and handed the man back his pen.

He read the signature, looked at her funny and then blew on the still wet ink. She watched him take back the book and looked at the second man, who was of a lesser rank. At least she guessed that by the smaller amount of decoration on his sleeves.

“Madam Zerdy we have several questions for you this morning,” the second man said as he began to walk around her slowly. Suddenly their civility was giving way to fear as she waited for it to get ugly.

“I’m ready to answer,” she said, with a slight tremble in her voice.

“Where do you come from, exactly?”

“I come from the GCU Constellation, a starship of the Grand Alliance based in Sector Nine of the Northern Arm of the Herzaist-Vicon galaxy.”

Both men stopped and looked at her like she was speaking a foreign language.

“Er, what is this star ship you speak of?” the man who carried the book asked.

“It is my home in space. A ship, like a water vessel, except that it flies in space. It holds thousands of people and can traverse great interstellar distances.”

The two men looked at her and shook their heads.

“Commander Kor’re claims that he found you living with a Tyrmian tribe in the rain forest. Is this true?”

She looked down to her knees and rethought her answers. She had to keep her story similar to Kor’re’s, she gathered, to avoid confusion.

“Yes. My starfighter, ah, my space plane, crashed in the rain forest and I was captured by the hunters from a Tyrmian tribe.”

The two men seemed to agree with that statement.

“How long did you live with this native tribe?”

“A few weeks, maybe a month. I’m not used to the rotation rate of this world and I did not keep track of the days that passed.”

“Why did you lead an attack on Commander Kor’re’s company?”

She looked at them carefully before she answered. If this were the thing that Kor’re warned her about, she might be about to blow it.

“Because he attacked my Tyrmian tribe and killed them all. Would you have done any differently in my position?” She looked up at the man who asked the question. He looked at her with skeptical eyes.

“Perhaps, Madam, but I’m a soldier, not a woman.”

Oh, well, of course you are.

“Why did the Vurhan you were with not kill Commander Kor’re? Your savage warriors killed every last soldier in the company but did not take out their leader. Why was that?”

“Because I wanted him to bring me back here. I wanted to understand why a vastly superior army would slaughter innocent natives. I can see now that the Votain people do not consider the Tyrmians worthy enough to respect their lives.”

She had to be careful or she would fall victim to their culture of honor and be killed.

“Madam Zerdy, the Tyrmian savages are not capable of achieving the level of sophistication that we enjoy here in Kermia. They are an essential part of our caste system, but they must be contained. One day this kingdom will rule the planet and when we do, the wild Tyrmians will eventually find themselves detained in camps and raised to be our worker class.”

“That’s exactly what I cannot condone. You can tell that to your king or I can tell it to him. Either way, I shall make it my business to stop you from enslaving the Tyrmians.”

The two Votains exchanged looks again and then smiled like those who knew they would win in the end. She found it repulsive. They both looked back down at her as if she were misguided and dumb.

“Our superiors wanted to have you executed for killing an entire company of soldiers. Commander Kor’re has considerable sway with the high courts and has managed to award you citizenship. As a citizen of this state, you can be tried for treason. Any further deeds that you perform against Votain will result in your summary execution.”

She understood them loud and clear. They left her alone again. She wanted out of the small room and out of the building, nothing like being threatened with death to make you feel appreciated.





Chapter 40

Kwin let the heavy door slam shut behind him as several Votain males approached. They were too close for his spear to be effective. He didn’t care. He charged them anyway. It was clear that they didn’t expect him to fight. Their pale blue faces whitened as he impaled the first man in the chest and throttled the second with his long, green fingers.

The lower ranking males were no match for a seasoned hunter. Kwin snapped the Votain’s neck and pulled his spear from the gurgling chest of the other man. He could hear more movement down the hall that led to the breeding rooms. The men he had just killed were not armed. He needed to keep moving while he still enjoyed the element of surprise.

He sprinted down the hall and opened the door to the first room. It was empty. He moved to the second and found a naked Votain on top of a Tyrmian female. He pulled the man off the bed with his hands and impaled him through the heart without so much as a pause. The female screamed and tried to cover herself with a dirty sheet. Kwin pulled her out of the room and yelled for her to run down the hall and alert everyone that he was freeing them. She screamed all the way down the hall as he continued to open doors and pull out waiting females.

When he got down to the medicine man’s room, he encountered another Votain. This one wore spectacles and a trim chin beard. Kwin charged him without hesitation. The man started to run and was impaled with the bloodied spear from behind. Kwin followed him to the ground and pulled the spear tip out so he could jab it into the struggling man again and again. After the third jab, the Votain was dead.

He herded the females out into the hall. There were maybe a dozen women huddled together and whimpering. Some were older and looked upon Kwin with admiration. They had hoped and dreamed about this happening, but never believed the spirits would actually save them.

“Head towards the water pools. I know a way out of here,” Kwin said to an elder Tyrmian woman.

She nodded and started leading the women in the direction of the baths. Kwin searched the halls for more Votains and found none. Either he had killed them all, or they were planning to cut him off in the lower levels. He opened another door and found a Votain clerk huddled under a desk. There was a black stick next to his face and he was speaking into it. Kwin pulled the stick out of the man’s hand and tried to throw it but it was tethered to the desk with a rope. The clerk had his hands up and was cowering like a child. Kwin wrapped the rope around his neck and choked the life out of the Votain clerk before moving on.

The Tyrmian women were huddled in the basement near the entrance that Kwin had come through from the subway system. They were scared and cold and some of them were barely dressed. He showed them the secret passage and told the elder woman to follow the rails back to the mountains where they should find Vurhne members who could lead them back to the forest.

“But we have never lived in the wild, we are born and raised in this place. What chance will we have out there?” the old woman said.

“Our people are strong. You will be adopted by many tribes and taught how to be Tyrmian again. It is the only way we will survive.”

Sirens began warbling their sound off the concrete walls as more Votains began to flood into the building. Kwin looked up as he heard the heavy footfalls coming their way.

“Go now. Seek out the Vurhne leader Mholb. Tell him Kwin sent you.”

The woman nodded in agreement as she lead the others through the passage and onward to a new life. She turned back once to see Kwin disappear down the dark hallway. His spear at the ready. His angry screams echoing off the walls.

* * *

Kwin ran as fast as he could down the long halls. Shots were fired in his direction but no rounds were lucky enough to find purchase. He had several dozen Votains following him as he led them away from the damp, dark basement and up to the higher levels of the breeder building. He didn’t stop to look at any of the horrendous things he glimpsed along his route.

He was only running from the fight to lead the men away, not because he was afraid for his own life. He knew he had but a fleeting moment left to live and he was going to take as many of them with him as he could manage. He pushed through the last door on the top floor and burst out into the daylight.

It was blindingly bright outside. He shielded his eyes with his free hand as he scanned the roof of the building. This is where he would make his final stand. This bright, barren place of little to no color. The nightmarish world of the blue-skins.

Black smoke billowed out of large cylindrical smoke stacks and coated him with a fine gray dust. He coughed and choked on the air, for it was nothing like the lush, clean forest air in which he had been raised. This air was thick with tiny particles that his delicate lungs were not used to filtering. He suddenly realized that he hadn’t seen a single tree since he set out on his journey. He hadn’t known how much he missed the color green. He alone was the only green in this depressing, gray jungle of stone and metal.

The Votain males poured out of the door from which Kwin had come. Their tight blue faces were angry and grim. Their weapons were pointed at him, ready to launch a wall of metal at his slightest provocation. Kwin held up his pitiful spear, still wet with their brother’s blood. The Votains encircled him as he backed up to the stone wall that led to a steep cliff. There was nowhere to run and nowhere to climb. His back was to the wall. It was fight or be captured. He was out of time.

Kwin said a prayer to the spirits, begging them to accept him into their world for the sacrifice he was about to make in his world. Then he pictured Zerdy in his mind, her soft white skin and bright blue eyes that seemed to see right through him. He remembered wrestling with her and watching her take down a Vurhan in the stream. He remembered poking at her pale body as she hung helplessly in his snare trap. And he remembered watching her slay three ziphers in one night. He hoped that he would do her proud as he gripped his wooden spear and summoned the fiercest war cry he could muster.

The Votains all instinctively backed away as the wild, green savage came at them full tilt. They were under orders to take him alive and couldn’t fire on the creature. The first man to clash with the green animal was skewered and fell to the gravel roof. The second man was able to smash the butt of his rifle across the savage’s face. As the soldiers closed in on Kwin, he was pummeled harder and harder with rifle butts until he was forced to the ground.

The soldiers had his thin limbs lashed with metal strings before Kwin could inflict any more damage on them. When he finally went limp, his bruised and bloodied body collapsed in a pile of green and red flesh.

* * *

The elder Tyrmian woman was named Kyra. She lead the others down the dark and wet tunnel in a single file line. She had no idea where she was going. The brave one called Kwin had said to follow the tunnel until they came across the Vurhne. She had heard of the Vurhan freedom fighters but she had never met one before. They were known as shadow warriors who came out only at night and stole Vurhan babies and small children from their Votain foster parents. She had always considered them the stuff of fairy tales. Things Tyrmian women told their children to inspire them to a future life without servitude to the Votains.

After being rescued from the hellish breeding program, Kyra was feeling more and more open to the possibility of a better life. It filled her heart with joy and excited her as nothing else had done her entire life. Even though the tunnel was wet and cold and they had no idea what lay ahead for them, she was optimistic that it would not be as horrible as where they had been.

The line of Tyrmian women came to a halt as sounds became evident further on down the line. Kyra had worked her way down the line, encouraging each woman to keep moving, no matter what the cost. She quickly brushed past everyone, heading to the front of the line again.

There were bluish lights and mechanical sounds coming towards them from the darkness of the tunnel. She couldn’t identify what she was hearing, but her ears picked up bits and pieces of Votain words. She motioned for everyone to sit down against the wet, cold walls of the tunnel. Then she ventured forward by herself to get a better view.

The narrow tunnel they were in opened to a much wider tunnel that seemed to be a busy thoroughfare for Vurhan. She knew that the Vurhan and Tyrmian slaves were often moved about the kingdom in subterranean passages to keep them out of sight from polite Votain society, but she had never seen them in person until now. Groups of mixed sexes walked along together in idle conversation as they moved between towns and cities. It would have been far more efficient to move them by rail on the surface, but that would expose them to Votain citizens and incite unwanted social questioning.

Kyra moved into the main tunnel and watched the people pass her by. They seemed unconcerned that she was standing there unaccompanied by a Votain handler. She stopped a Vurhan male who was traveling by himself and asked him how to find the Vurhne.

He looked at her suspiciously. “One does not seek out the Vurhne, the Vurhne seeks out you.”

“But I was told to seek out the one called Mholb.”

The Vurhan looked around suspiciously and then pushed Kyra back into the darker tunnel where she had come. He looked down at her and whispered so only she could hear him.

“How do you know of Mholb?”

“We were freed from a breeding house by a brave Tyrmian named Kwin. He told us to seek Mholb in the Vurhne.”

“How many of you are there?”

“Two hands full.”

He looked down where she had come and then back out to the main tunnel. Kyra thought for a fleeting moment that he was going to turn them in to the Votain authorities. Her heart sank at the notion of returning to the breeding halls. Finally he turned back to face her.

“Stay here until I return. Keep yourselves out of sight.”





Chapter 41

A low fog bank hung over the grass aerodrome as their motorcar came to a stop beside the drab bomber. Kor’re had secured a ride on a plane that was being ferried from the factory to the front lines. There were three seats on the fragile bi-wing, the pilot, bombardier and forward gunner. The narrow, cloth covered fuselage was shaped like a tub, with a pusher propeller at one end and a twin barreled machine gun at the snub nose. Two wing-mounted engines extended backwards in a twin boom configuration and were connected by a stabilizer wing and twin tails.

It was an odd looking bird designed by engineers who were barely familiar with their craft. Zerdy had only read about such machines from her history texts, she never imagined that she would one day get to fly in one. She ran her hands along the leading edge of the lower wing as Kor’re and the pilot discussed where she would sit.

Women didn’t fly and they sure as hell didn’t fly in combat aircraft. The Votain pilot was perturbed at having to ferry passengers. The gunner was told to stand down to make room for them. He muttered an epithet in disgust and stormed off the field towards the main hanger, his red scarf fluttering in his wake.

Zerdy stayed out of the argument and walked slowly around the aircraft, studying its primitive controls and water-cooled engines. It was a wonder to her that the thing flew at all. Early pioneers of manned flight were either incredibly brave or touched in the head to fly such aircraft. By the time she had walked around the entire bomber, the pilot and Kor’re had come to an agreement and they were ready to board.

They were dressed in heavy leather flight clothes with goggles but nobody was wearing a parachute.

“Where’s my chute?” Zerdy asked Kor’re.

“What’s a chute?”

“A parachute, you know, in case we have to abandon ship?”

Kor’re looked at her as if she were crazy.

“We never abandon the aircraft, that would be dishonorable.”

Zerdy realized that the parachute was not something that would have even occurred to a Votainion pilot. Their notions of honor and duty forbid them from ever abandoning their plane. Even in the most sophisticated Votainion starfighters of the war, there were no ejection seats. She had forgotten that little fact of history.

Kor’re put his hands on her shoulders before she climbed aboard.

“We are heading into a war zone. If we encounter the enemy you are to stay out of our way and do as the pilot commands. Understand?”

She nodded, and suppressed her urge to tell him to shove it. She had to respect their laws and customs if she were to get what she wanted from them. She allowed him to help her climb up the footholds on the side of the fuselage to board the plane. She took her seat beside the pilot and silently watched him prepare to start the three engines. Kor’re crawled under the instrument panel and forward to the gunnery pit at the nose.

After several failed attempts to start the engines, they finally got all three running smoothly enough to take off. The smell of grease and gasoline filled the open cockpit as they barreled down the grass runway and took to the clearing skies.

They were aloft for several hours before they noticed dark storm clouds ahead. The capital city contained a vast seaport. There were docks and shipyards along the waterfront. Zerdy could see the gray hulls of warships moored at the docks and was again reminded that the progress she had seen was fueled by warfare.

Kor’re had told her that the H’rzai Empire occupied the land across a narrow channel to the west. He indicated that they were even more militant than the Votains. The two nation states had been at war with each other for hundreds of years. With the advent of flight, they were each within range of the other and so endured a never-ending bombardment as they vied for control of the skies.

Zerdy looked down and noticed an array of massive cannons all lined up in neat rows, facing the channel. They were silent at the moment, but she could easily imagine them hurdling heavy shells at the enemy. Their barrels were so long, they had to be held up with heavy bracing.

Looking out across the channel she couldn’t see the H’rzai shoreline. A tiny airplane descending from above them caught her attention. She pointed to the spec in the sky and the pilot’s eyes followed her reach.

“Commander, we have company!” the pilot screamed forward to Kor’re.

Kor’re turned to face the enemy plane and grimaced. He unlocked the twin machine guns and swung them along the rail they were mounted on until they faced the enemy. Pulling back on the charging handle he aimed and waited until the plane was in reach.

Zerdy was fascinated by how slowly the battle played out. It took forever for the tiny enemy plane to get close enough to fire its own machine gun. But the results were deadly for the lumbering bomber. The first shots missed below them but the enemy pilot adjusted before Kor’re could return fire. Multiple rounds cut through the fabric fuselage and into the pilot’s side. He turned away from the hail of bullets only to have his torso riddled with them.

Zerdy watched the pilot slump over his controls as Kor’re returned fire. The sound of the machine guns overpowered the three lumbering engines for several seconds as Kor’re chased after the enemy fighter plane overtaking them. The big bomber lurched its nose down as the controls jammed in the forward position. Zerdy pulled the pilot’s body off the controls and shoved him down into the passageway towards Kor’re. Then she pulled up on the control wheel to bring them out of the dive.

Kor’re turned to face her with a horrid look on his goggled face. He had seen the pilot’s head fall through the passageway, bloodied and still.

“Can you fly this thing?” he yelled.

“Just get that fighter.”

Kor’re reacquired the fighter and charged his guns again. Zerdy’s head swiveled around, looking at each engine in turn for any signs of damage. The port engine was trailing smoke but the propeller was still spinning. She glanced across the primitive control panel and tried to make sense of what the instruments were telling her.

Number One engine was losing oil pressure, the other two were holding steady. She found the rudder pedals and tested them in conjunction with the wheel in a slow roll to the left and then the right. The plane steered like a large mammal, slow and steady.

Kor’re pointed to the starboard side while wheeling his guns into position for the next attack. Zerdy saw the tiny fighter plane coming at them again. It had a round, barrel shaped fuselage to which was mounted a top and bottom wing. The body ended in four stringers that converged into the stabilizer and an inverted tail. It was painted dark gray with black and white stripes down the fuselage and across the wings. There was no doubt that the design was intended to intimidate those who dared engage it.

Zerdy waited until the plane got closer before she steered the bomber directly into the fighter’s path. She could actually see the enemy pilot’s look of astonishment as he struggled to get out of the bomber’s way. Kor’re opened fire at it but his shots fell short again.

“You have to lead it commander. Shoot ahead of where you intend,” Zerdy shouted.

He nodded curtly and charged his guns. His expression clearly conveyed his annoyance at having to take combat advice from a female.

Zerdy watched her altitude as the little fighter circled them and set up another pass. She poked at the glass face of the dial that showed the oil pressure of Engine One. It was not budging off zero. Fearing fire on a largely wooden plane, she cut fuel to it and the wooden propeller swung to a stop. The plane skidded a bit and she adjusted the controls to account for the added drag of the stopped propeller.

A part of her was really enjoying the challenge of flying something so primitive. The competitive streak in her wanted to shoot down their opponent. She tried to give Kor’re the best chance for a kill shot. What she needed was a distraction. Something that would cause the enemy pilot to hesitate long enough for Kor’re to blast him with his machine guns.

She figured it was probably unique enough just being a female pilot, so she unstrapped her leather flight helmet and pulled it off. Her blond hair had grown down past her shoulders in the time she had been on Tyrmia. It flowed out behind her like a great, yellow scarf.

The enemy pilot looked up from behind his guns and stared in disbelief at his target.

“Fire commander!” Zerdy shouted.

Kor’re opened up on the approaching fighter, his metal bullets finding their mark. The enemy pilot was riddled and slumped over the side of his open cockpit.

Kor’re stood up and shook his gloved fist at the plane.

“Got you, you bastard!”

But the little fighter plane kept closing on them and was too close for Zerdy to turn out of its path. Collision was imminate.

Kor’re sat down and braced for impact. Zerdy pulled up on the control wheel, willing the bomber to tilt up enough to let the diving fighter pass underneath them. But it was not enough.

The fighter’s top wing rammed into the big undercarriage of the bomber and separated from the rest of the fighter. The wing cracked the landing struts and snapped metal wires that held the bottom of the bomber intact as it crumbled.

The jolt of the collision nearly tossed Zerdy from her seat and to her death. She held onto the control wheel and pulled herself back into the seat. Looking over the side of her cockpit, she could see the single winged fighter auger into the ground not far from some thatch-covered homes.

She saw that part of the fighter’s top wing stuck to her main landing gear. That was not good.

Kor’re secured his machine guns and came back through the passageway to the cockpit. The bomber was creaking and shuddering as parts of the undercarriage were slowly falling away.

“I think we lost the landing gear,” she told Kor’re.

He nodded, looking out his side of the cockpit. He noticed part of their lower wing shaking like it might come loose. He looked back to her and pulled his goggles back over the top of his hat.

“Can you get us down?”

Zerdy nodded. “Where is the damn aerodrome?”

Kor’re looked down at the city below, trying to glean where exactly they were.

“I think it’s that way, about four vectors.”

Great, how the hell far is a vector? She decided it was something akin to a kilometer and tried to turn the bomber in the direction he had pointed. It was slower to respond to her wishes than it had been before the collision.

They were still pretty high up and were skirting along the bottoms of dark thunderclouds. She decided to nudge them lower so they could see the ground better. In the process, she realized that her lateral movement was restricted. The rudder pedals were not moving.

She looked down to see if they were jammed and saw that pieces of jagged wood were poking through the bottom of the bomber. Shit.

“Commander, can you work the rudder pedals on your side?”

She pointed down to where the pedals were located. He slid his boots down further to the pedals. They each moved freely as he managed to skid them a bit from left to right.

“Yes!”

“Good. Swap positions with me, I need them to land.”

He nodded agreement and they swapped seats. Kor’re looked more at ease with being in the pilot’s seat, as it would have looked better if he was the one who actually landed the bomber. Then he shouted at her with alarm in his voice.

“Zerdy, you need to land from the pilot’s seat.”

She looked at him like he was crazy. “What?”

“If you are seen landing the plane it would prove that you had skills that no native of a jungle would have. Swap back with me.”

“But I can’t move the rudder from that seat. Do you want us to land or crash?”

“Never-mind, there is the aerodrome!” he pointed.

Zerdy took her time lining up for a direct approach. There were no flaps or air braking equipment so she had to bring the throttles back on the pusher engine behind them and the remaining pull engine on their right. It was a constant struggle to get them lower and keep them flying straight. Kor’re was clearly alarmed at how they were sliding forward at an angle.

There would be only one chance to make the landing. The plane didn’t have the power to go around for a second attempt. She lined up on the main grass runway and tried to hold the damaged bomber up to keep it from stalling.

As they got closer, she could see other planes parked on the lush green lawn. Where the hell were those guys when we were getting attacked? Dozens of people had come out to watch them land. She felt like the main attraction at a circus. Hopefully she would give them a show of her piloting skill instead of a fiery wreck.

“Hang on commander. This isn’t going to be pretty.”

Kor’re grasped the side of the cockpit wall with one hand and his bucket seat with the other. Zerdy could tell he was scared. Hell, I’m scared. But she had done this a thousand times in simulators and probably hundreds of times in real life, of course; never with a rickety old flying bucket made from wood and canvas.

The bomber lumbered in until its undercarriage kissed the green blades of grass. Wood and metal plowed into turf as the plane touched down. Jagged pieces of the wheel struts dug in and busted off as the fuselage slammed into the ground. The huge machine slid for a few meters before coming to a halt.

One of the fuel lines was punctured and caught fire as the plane came in. The port engine began to burn as Zerdy and Kor’re jumped out of the cockpit and put some distance between themselves and the bomber.

A fire truck and several cars raced to their location and arrived before the plane could become completely engulfed in flames. The fire truck had a pump on it and the men manning it had the fire out in minutes.

Kor’re and Zerdy were picked up and brought back to the main hangar for a debriefing. It was then that they learned that the plane they had shot down had belonged to the ace of aces, Krim Rueven. He had been terrorizing the Votain Air Command for months, flying solo search and destruct missions and taking down bombers and fighters at will.

The Squadron Commander wanted to know all about how they managed to shoot down the enemy ace. Kor’re used his rank and stature to delay the debriefing until they had spoken to the King. The Squadron Commander was not pleased with having to wait, but deferred to the wishes of Kor’re and the king.

They were escorted to the royal castle at once, without changing out of their flight clothes.





Chapter 42

The Votain King’s castle was large, but the architecture seemed rather plain to Zerdy. She had seen far more exotic and fantastic castles in her travels across the known galaxy. This castle was quite pedestrian and utilitarian in style, not unlike the rest of the Votain society that she had thus far experienced. The flat-sided ramparts were painted white but were topped with black A-Framed roofs and dotted with simple, square windows.

The Votains were at war, perhaps the simple architecture made things easier to repair and rebuild after attacks. She figured being so close to their enemy made rebuilding doubly hard. The buildings in the capital city were just as plain and showed signs of wear and tear that most cities didn’t have to endure in peacetime.

The castle was no doubt originally built hundreds of years ago at a time when weapons were not as destructive as they were rapidly becoming. People scurried to and fro in the streets in a hurry to get to where they were going before the next bombing raid. Dressed in blacks and reds, Votain fashion tended to be more adventurous than their architecture. With black capes and waistcoats for the men and long, black dresses with accent colors of red and yellow for the women.

Zerdy and Kor’re were dropped off at the front gate of the castle, with little fanfare. Several military officers were there to meet them and take them inside. The men saluted Kor’re and merely nodded in her direction. She was beginning to get used to the lack of respect for her gender, but she still didn’t like it.

They walked down busy corridors until they came into the main chamber of the castle. It had impossibly high walls with vaulted ceilings. Beams of tinted light streamed down and lit the tiled floors at their feet. Zerdy’s jaw dropped in awe. She would never get used to the Votainion custom of building to such massive scale. Somehow the grandeur of this particular place seemed to fit its importance. The long, thin statues of dignified old Votain men were probably important leaders or men of significant cultural reference. But to her they were just large and dignified.

They came to a stop before the tall wooden doors that led to the king’s chamber. Another officious looking man in elaborate dress asked them politely for their names and stated business.

“Commander Kor’re and Madam Zerdy, to see the king on official business,” Kor’re said.

The man looked at their dirty flight clothes. Zerdy’s hair was tangled about her shoulders and she scratched at the woolen collar like an animal with fleas. The man lifted an eyebrow and bowed ever so slightly.

“His majesty is expecting you. Please, follow me.”

Kor’re took the lead as they entered the king’s inner chamber. It was dark and dreary in the mostly wood decorated room. After walking through a narrow hallway dominated by tall bookshelves filled with books, they came upon a room with high, decorative ceilings and no windows. There actually were many windows but they had been shuttered to make them light proof, no doubt to make the castle appear darker and less of a target from the air at night.

Zerdy was impressed by the lack of wealth and splendor in the décor. The wooden furniture was finely crafted with carved inlayed patterns but it was tasteful and not overdone.

Standing in the shadows near a wall of books was the King of Votain. He seemed lost in thought, smoking what looked to Zerdy like a cigar.

“My King, Commander Kor’re and Miss Zerdy to see you,” the attendant said.

His voice was almost too loud in the quiet room. The king looked up and turned to face them. He was tall, even for a Votainion, with straight black hair and a tight goatee beard.

“Commander, thank you for coming to the capital city today. I understand you had quite a trip.”

Kor’re’s head was bowed and he was standing at attention.

“Yes, My Lord.”

The king walked over to them and shook his head gently. “You can dispose of the formality, my son. Please, tell me how you managed to shoot down the Ace of Aces!”

Kor’re was more nervous than Zerdy had ever seen him. He rocked on his heels and fiddled with his flight helmet in his hands.

“Our pilot was killed on the first pass. We would have crashed to the ground thereafter, were it not for the skill and bravery of Miss Zerdy here.”

Zerdy looked at him with astonishment. She didn’t expect that he was going to give her full credit for saving them.

The king looked upon Zerdy for the first time, taking in her features and appearance with a wry smile.

“Ah yes, the jungle woman. White Fli’r is what the Tyrmians call you?” he asked, extending his hand palm up.

She did a slight curtsy.

“Yes My Lord,” was all she could think of to say as she offered him her hand.

“Your appearance is rather unusual to say the least. Curious, the color of your hair and I should say, the lack of color in your skin tone. Very interesting indeed.”

He turned her hand over and examined it briefly before letting go of it. Then he looked back to Kor’re and his expression turned serious.

“I was not aware of your training in aerial combat commander. How were you able to fly after your pilot was killed?”

“My Lord, I simply manned the guns. It was she who took over the controls and allowed us to attack our assailant.”

The king looked back down at Zerdy again.

“Is this true, little lady?”

The condescension was as annoying as the itchy collar of her flight suit, but she gritted her teeth and pressed on.

“I’m a trained and decorated pilot where I come from, My Lord. It took some time for me to learn the mechanics of how your bomber flew, but I was able to direct it into the path of the enemy fighter so that the commander could shoot him down.”

Not only could this fright of a woman pilot a plane, but she also had the gall to attack a fighter plane so that it could be shot down. A feat that was completely unheard of in Air Staff history. Bombers never went on the offensive against a fighter plane. Certainly not against the best pilot the enemy deployed against them.

The king stood back from them a moment and collected his thoughts. He took a long draw on his cigar and slowly exhaled.

“Your claims of being from another world appear to have some legitimacy, young lady. No female in our fair society has ever flown in a plane before, much less piloted a bomber to shoot down the top enemy ace.”

He paused for a moment to take another drag.

“What other things are you capable of my dear?” he said, exhaling smoke into her face.

Kor’re looked down at her and nodded ever so slightly. She noticed his consent and decided to take a chance.

“My Lord, I’m from another world, if you will. My space plane crashed on this planet by mistake. My people live in space and are very advanced. There is much that I can teach your people, more than you can possibly know.

“For instance, what you are doing to the indigenous people of the forests is wrong and must be stopped. The Votain people are not from this world and therefore have no right to subjugate the natives.”

The king put up his cigar hand to stop her.

“You say my people are not from this world? Where are we from then?” He was clearly amused by what she had to say.

“Your own people are from space, from a world far away from here called Voton. A thousand years ago your ancestors came to this world and were stranded here, not unlike myself. The survivors of that original group were both Votainion and human like myself.”

She paused as she could tell the king was processing her claims.

“In our museums we have relics from our distant past. It appears to me that you may be speaking the truth in regards to our not having evolved on this planet. But anyone who has seen these museums could have presented what you just did about our past. Tell me something I do not know about.”

“Okay, The Votainion Empire stretches across this half of the galaxy. It was a militant and cruel empire that invaded life-baring planets and used the natives as slave labor, exactly the way you are now handling the Tyrmians. They conquered many worlds this way and thrived for thousands of years, until they came upon my people.

“My people did not use and abuse galactic resources or citizens in the same fashion. We believed in the sanctity of life and the freedoms of individuals. We formed a galactic Alliance that countered the Votainion Empire in a long and bloody conflict known as the Great War. When it was over the Alliance forces won, not because we were militarily superior, but because we did not devour our resources and use the innocents of the galaxy to do our dirty work. The Votainion Empire collapsed from within when they could not win a war of attrition over the resources that they took from less powerful beings.”

The king listened to Zerdy, puffing thoughtfully on his cigar. He paused to blow out smoke and smiled again in that all-knowing manner that only an alpha male can pull off.

“Are you suggesting that my people’s subjugation of the Tyrmians could lead to our eventual downfall?”

“No, My Lord, I’m telling you that it will lead to your downfall.”

The king stroked his beard and turned his back to Zerdy and Kor’re. He seemed to actually be giving the matter some serious thought. Maybe my coming here to plead the Tyrmians case had been the right thing to do after all. Hope began to well up inside Zerdy, as she stood a little taller.

The king turned around and snuffed out his cigar on a metal ashtray.

“For being someone who claims to have all the answers, you are remarkably naive, Miss Zerdy. You come to my kingdom and demand that we make fundamental changes to our society, a society that has thrived despite all odds for a thousand years outside of your galactic empire. Our society works for us. We don’t actually bother the Tyrmians in their jungle. They have lived in that part of the world since the dawn of life on this planet. We have interned a very small percentage of their females so that we can breed the Vurhan race. It is the Vurhan race that we have enslaved.

“The Tyrmian’s days are undoubtedly numbered though, that I will give you. Progress and the war with the H’rzai will eventually lead us into their jungles. Commander Kor’re was allowed to look for your space plane in those jungles in part because we needed to find a land route through the mountains. Reports from that side of the world are indicating that the H’rzai are looking for an invasion route from the east.”

The king moved slowly around the study, gathering his thoughts again. Zerdy was beginning to see her hope slip away. This man was not about to change his ways and it was clearly wishful thinking on her part that he would be interested in anything else.

“Perhaps it is the H’rzai Emperor that I need to be talking to then, My Lord.”

The king looked at her with a touch of pity on his face.

“That would be even more foolish than coming to speak with me about such matters. The H’rzai are far too cold-blooded to even give you an audience, I’m afraid. They would have killed you on sight.”

Kor’re nodded in agreement with his king but remained silent. Knowing that these Votains were a Human/Votainion mixed race, it would be reasonable to assume that the H’rzai were probably pure blooded Votainions. Her best hope was to try and appeal to this king and it was clear to her now that he wasn’t going to be persuaded by her moral arguments.

“My Lord, how long do you think your war with the H’rzai will last? Have your Engineers predicted the rate of change at which their war machines will overtake the H’rzai’s ability to make war?”

Kor’re and the king exchanged odd looks.

“That would be a state secret and you would not be privy to such calculations,” Kor’re said.

“I’ll wager that this war will only last a single lifetime. Before you gentlemen are gray haired and wrinkled, this planet will be at the brink of total annihilation from the weapons that both sides will create. We have seen this technological advance happen on countless worlds and only a few of them make it past the warring stage. Eventually you will discover weapons that will be capable of destroying entire cities. From there you will amass many such weapons until both sides have enough destructive power to lay waste to this entire planet. At that time your leaders will have to make a decision, to fight and risk total extinction of all life, or to settle your differences and continue to thrive. How your people answer that question will determine whether you will be welcomed into the Grand Alliance, or be consigned to history as a lesson for others to learn from.”

The king walked briskly back up to Zerdy and looked down into her blue eyes.

“You’re in no position to lecture me on how to run my kingdom. If and when your people ever return from the heavens, they will tremble at our military might.”

Zerdy lowered he head in defeat, her attempt to take the high ground had failed. The king wasn’t going to be swayed by logic and common sense any more than Kor’re had been. She had failed to appeal to the humanity of someone who was only partly human. Kor’re and Zerdy were ushered out of the chambers without further comment.

* * *

After the guests had left the king summoned his Chief Engineer, Pruden. Pruden wore his glass monocle on his left eye as he entered the king’s chamber.

“Is it possible to build a bomb that can level an entire city? Just one bomb?” the king asked.

The Chief Engineer considered the idea for a moment.

“It seems a bit far-fetched, My Lord. But theoretically yes, I’m sure it’s possible.”

The king moved away from the Engineer and stood alone facing a wall-sized painting of himself.

“Put your people to work on it, will you? I want to see this bomb before I pass from this life. Correction. I want to see such a weapon in twenty season’s time.”

He turned to face the Chief Engineer.

“Can it be done?”

The Chief Engineer nodded tentatively. “Yes, My Lord. I shall make it so.”

The king seemed to relax a bit as he summoned food and drink with the ringing of a bell. He wouldn’t let the H’rzai gain the upper hand in the race to achieve such awesome power as the white alien woman had foretold.

“I want that woman examined carefully. Have you seen her Pruden? Her skin is sickly and pale. I want your people to verify that she is not a H’rzai spy.”

The Chief Engineer raised an eyebrow. “Do you suspect her of being H’rzai, My Lord?”

“I have no direct evidence, but I think we should be prudent and make sure of her blood line. If she is really not of this world, she will have alien blood, correct?”

The Chief Engineer nodded.

“So find out if she is truly from outer space and let me know the results. Oh, and try not to kill her just yet. She may be of some value to us if she does in fact turn out to be an alien.”

The Chief Engineer bowed his head and left the room. His mind was already deep at work on building the largest bomb that he could imagine.





Chapter 43

Kor’re and Zerdy were ushered into another room of the castle and told they could leave. Kor’re used the landline at the military attaché office to call back to his command. Zerdy stood alone in the main room and started peeling off her heavy coat with the scratchy collar. Her neck was red and chaffed.

She watched Kor’re talk into a black conical device with a wire coming out of it. The technology of this society was primitive but she knew it wouldn’t stay that way for long.

Two burly Votain soldiers entered the room and came towards her. She realized at once that she was their intended target and backed away from them towards Kor’re. They grabbed her by the arms and slapped metal handcuffs on her.

“Hey! What the hell is the meaning of this?”

The commotion got Kor’re’s attention and he immediately hung up and came into the main room.

“Private, what is going on here?”

The biggest of the thugs put a muscular forearm up to hold Kor’re back.

“King’s orders, commander. The woman is to be taken to the Ministry of Health for examination.”

Zerdy looked forlornly at Kor’re as they dragged her away.

* * *

Kor’re waited until they had left before cursing and driving his fist into the wooden door frame. He was losing control of her. He knew she would not be treated civilly by the Ministry of Health. The title was a grievous misnomer. Ministry of Death would be a more apt description of what happened there.

Word had come of the capture of a Tyrmian male near the breeding halls. Kor’re knew it was Kwin, the green skinned man that followed Zerdy around like a child. He was determined to use the savage’s actions as a way to keep her for himself. Kor’re ordered that the Tyrmian be brought to the Ministry of Health under heavy guard. He would deal with the green man in good time. For now, he had to convince the authorities that Zerdy shouldn’t be killed.

* * *

Zerdy was taken to a building not far from the king’s castle. It was made from shiny stone on the outside but upon entering quickly changed to the most frightening place she had yet been to on this planet.

She was led through administrative halls where normal people were no doubt dealt with and into dimly lit, dank passages that reminded her of the tunnels under the Great Mountains. Except that these halls were precisely cut from rough stone and lit by gas lamps that cast long and wavering shadows ominously across the walls and floors.

Clearly she was being taken somewhere deep into the bowels of the building where her screams wouldn’t be heard. She steeled herself for the pain and suffering that she knew would soon be coming. Her only hope of surviving now lay in how deeply she had penetrated Kor’re’s heart. She hoped that he wouldn’t be able to bear her being tortured, and that he would use any and all means of his power to get her back. He had to, or her hopes and dreams would die here in this dank cellar. She knew that the mere thought of that happening would push her mind over a precipice she couldn’t pull back from. She had to hold on for Kwin and his people, if not for her own sanity.

* * *

Commander Kor’re headed to the Operations Building first. He had to find out if there was any pull he could use to have the orders for Zerdy’s arrest changed. He was a full commander of the Western Division Army and his power and authority had considerable influence. He had never tried to use that power before, at least not to the extent that he would be using it now.

His first stop was to check into billeting and change into his dress uniform. He was still wearing his flight gear and it lacked the imposing stature of his dress uniform with all its medals and campaign ribbons. He always kept a billet at the Command Center for when he attended monthly staff meetings with the High Command.

After a quick shower and change of clothes he headed directly for the Situation Room and checked in with his home command. They had put the Tyrmian on the last train out of town and it was expected in the capital city by nightfall. Most excellent. Now to pay a visit to the Chief Engineer and try to convince him to free Zerdy.

Kor’re entered the offices of the Chief Engineer and requested a formal meeting with him. The administrative officer took his name and rang into the Engineer’s office. After a brief exchange the man hung up the receiver and motioned for Kor’re to enter.

Kor’re nodded curtly and moved past the administrator’s desk to enter the private office. Pruden was eating his mid-afternoon meal. Several plates of food were scattered across his large wooden desk. A white cloth napkin was secured under his chin. His monocle hung from his neck on a chain.

“What can I do for you, Commander Kor’re?”

Kor’re stood at attention before the Chief Engineer. He had to choose his words carefully, he would only get this one meeting with the man.

“Sir, I would like to petition for the release of the alien woman.”

Pruden looked up between bites and squinted his narrow eyes. “For what reason?”

“During my mission to the far side of the mountains we not only found the woman, we also found her space plane. My men had already secured it and were preparing to bring it back with us when we were attacked. I would like to lead another expedition back to the jungle to retrieve the plane. I need the woman to guide us back to the location.”

Pruden chewed thoughtfully on the matter before answering.

“The King has asked me to verify that she is in fact an alien. When we have finished our tests, I will consider your request.”

He took another bite of fish covered in a rich white sauce and stared up at Kor’re with indifference.

Kor’re nodded. “Sir, I have seen her space plane. It’s like nothing we have. I can assure you that she is not from this world. If we were to recover the plane, the rewards to our technology could give us a decided edge in the war.”

Pruden finished chewing and wiped his mouth with a white napkin. He set down his utensil and took a drink of dark ale.

“Commander, I seem to recall authorizing you to bring back that space plane and you utterly failed to do so.”

Kor’re lowered his head. It was the only blemish on his otherwise spotless military record.

“What I’m about to tell you will not leave this room, do you understand?”

Kor’re looked up. “Yes sir.”

“The King has directed me to come up with a weapon to level an entire city. We do not currently possess the knowledge to create such a weapon. In fact, I doubt we will ever have such power at our disposal.”

Pruden pushed back his chair and stood up, removing his napkin bib.

“If we were to recover that plane, do you think that it has the kind of technology that would allow us to construct such a weapon?”

Kor’re had no idea what kind of weapons the space plane had; if any at all. But he was positive that if they could reverse engineer even a small part of it, the rewards would be greater than they could ever hope to achieve on their own.

“Sir, the technology needed to fly in space is far and away more advanced than what we have now. If we could harness the power of that plane, who knows what discovery would await us.”

Pruden’s lips curled in a wry smile. He came around his desk and took Kor’re by the arm.

“Regardless of whether she passes our tests, I will see that you get your return mission. I can’t allow the enemy to find that plane before we do. Begin preparing your men, commander. Whatever resources you need, I will secure for you. But keep the plane’s existence between you and me. The fewer people know of it, the less likely word of its existence will spread to the enemy.”

“I understand, sir. And thank you.”

Pruden patted Kor’re on his back and motioned for him to leave. Kor’re bent to bow and then left the room. That went far better than he had dared to dream.





Chapter 44

Zerdy had been taken to a room with no windows and smooth granite floors. There was a folding chair and a single light source from above. It was cold, from being underground and built without central air circulation.

She had been asked to change into a white, short robe with the king’s crest on the back. Her feet were cold and she held her arms closely to her body as she waited. Her flight clothes were removed when a thin man dressed in a black apron had drawn her blood with a needle that looked big enough for a large animal.

He was good at his job and despite the size of the needle she barely felt it. He was wearing round, wire glasses and was a shade lighter than anyone else she had seen since coming to the capital city. He never said anything to her and was gone before she could think to ask why her blood was being drawn.

After an eternity of siting alone in the cold room, the door opened and a tall, thin Votain man entered the room. He was dressed in black with the same leathery apron that the needle man had worn. This man’s long face was clearly bored as he stood before her with a clipboard and a writing implement. He had hollow cheeks and narrow, black eyes.

“Your blood test proves that you are partially Votain, yet you claim to be from another world. How do you explain this?”

So that’s what the blood test was for. To test if I were one of them. She thought for a moment before answering.

“Your ancestors were both Votainion and human. I’m human. There are no-doubt some of you on this world that are pure Votainion and perhaps some who are pure human, but most of you are a mixture of both races. Neither of whom are originally from this world.”

The man seemed unconvinced. He walked slowly around her chair, taking notes on what he saw.

“Your blood is mostly the same as our own, yet your skin tone is pale and your hair is yellow. Were you medically altered in an attempt to fool us into thinking you were an alien?”

“No, you’re not listening to what I’m telling you. Everyone on this planet who is not Tyrmian are a mixture of human and Votainion blood lines. I’m one of your ancestors, of course we have similar blood.”

The man stopped in front of her again. His expression was skeptical. “It is the opinion of our medical staff that you have been physically altered to appear different from us. Do you deny this?”

“Of course I do.”

The man nodded and scratched something on the clipboard. The door behind him opened again and two burly guards came in and grabbed her by the arms. They picked her out of the chair and stood her up.

“You are a prisoner of His Magistrate the King, and are considered an enemy of the state. Any attempt to deny this will result in punishment. You are hereby formally charged with conspiracy to deceive the State and are sentenced to life in prison.”

“What? That’s absurd, you can’t do that,”

The thin man nodded to the guards and one of them popped his fist across her jaw and knocked her out. Her body went limp and they dragged her out of the room.

* * *

She could not remember why they were doing it, only that it hurt worse than anything else she had endured in her life. There was only the pain and the short-lived spaces between the pain that came all too infrequently. She lived for the moments between the pain. It’s what got her through the agony and the stress of the torture.

No matter how she answered the questions, she was stuck with a metal rod and her wet, naked body convulsed involuntarily on the metal rack. It was degrading and painful beyond words, beyond even her mind’s ability to register it.

She had no idea how long she had been enduring the torture. It seemed like a lifetime but in reality could have been only a few hours or days. Her body was covered in welts and burns from being electrocuted over and over in a new spot each time. No matter where they zapped her, she reacted the same; so as not to give them the impression the pain was greater in certain areas of her body.

The metal frame she was strapped to was cold and hard. She was always left upside down when they stopped, so she could empty her stomach on the cold rocky floor. The doctor would examine her between sessions, sometimes infusing her with just enough fluids to keep her hydrated so she could continue the beatings.

They had beaten her repeatedly at first, with leather wrapped pockets of what felt to her like rocks but were probably just uncooked beans. She endured the hits better than any female they had ever worked-over. They talked amongst themselves about how resilient she was to the beatings. That was when they came back with the electronic device and began zapping her body in random places. Her arms, legs and breasts were favorite targets but the rest of her got worked over just as thoroughly.

Tears fell from her eyes and disappeared on the wet floor as she hung upside down on the rack. Her attempt to convince the king that he was heading down the wrong path had been a failure. Her attempt to win the heart and mind of Kor’re, had also failed. Why else would he have abandoned me in this hellish place?

She began to lose faith in her own cause. She knew that once she did lose her faith, she would be at their mercy. They would be able to make her admit to lying about where she came from and who she was. How bad could that be? Will they stop torturing me? Or will they just kill me? She didn’t know.

She found it increasingly difficult to maintain her will to live and to resist them. There was after all, only so much that the human body could endure. Only so much pain and humiliation. Only so much mental anguish and despair, before the mind caved.

The thought of losing her mind to the will of her captors scared her more than any pain that they could inflict on her. But she knew that she couldn’t hold out for much longer.

She began to drift into a deep, trance-like sleep that gave her a momentary pause from the pain. But the sleep was short lived. The lights came up and her rack was pulled vertical, forcing her weight against the wrist and leg straps. Her eyes were forced open and a bright light shined in them. She felt the probe in her vagina being pulled out. Was this session over? She could not open her swollen eyes enough to see what was happening.

She heard boots shuffling across the brick floor and then she felt the rush of water through a hose. Cold water doused her bruised and sweaty body from her feet to her head. She struggled helplessly to breath as water rushed over her mouth and up her nose. Are they trying a new tactic? Am I to be drowned until I agreed with them? The water lowered again and was turned off.

She struggled again to open her eyes. Tiny slivers of light greeted her exhausted eyes. She felt her arm restraints being untied, followed by her feet restraints. Her body collapsed into a heap on the cold, wet floor. Wet hair covered her face as she felt the full weight of the planet on her bones for the first time in what seemed to her like an eternity.

The boots shuffled away and she could hear the heavy metal door swing close with a crash. The lights went out and she was left alone and naked, to shiver in the dark. Sleep claimed her again before she could protest her treatment.

* * *

She awoke to shuffling boots and the sound of a metal plate of food falling on the slate floor by her head. The owner of the boots said nothing. She found it incredibly hard to move her arm enough to reach the plate. It had some kind of mushy substance on it that she brought to her mouth without even looking at it. Satisfied that she was eating, the boots left the room again with the slam of the heavy door.

Zerdy ate the tasteless food. It was nourishment and she knew that she must eat or waste away. She was so cold that her body convulsed involuntarily on the wet floor. Her mind was slipping away, dimming like a flashlight with a failing battery. She retreated into a fetal position and willed herself to sleep. It didn’t take much effort.

* * *

She awoke again, this time to the thunder of distant explosions. The city was under aerial bombardment and the concussions penetrated the stone building down to the lowest levels where her cell resided. A part of her was glad that her tormentors were now being tormented.

Pieces of the ceiling crumbled and fell on her in a fine dust. The ground moved with a low frequency throb that caused her to try and open her eyes. There had been a thin slice of light coming into her cell from under the metal door, but that light was now out, leaving her in complete darkness.

She could hear the air raid sirens warbling on the outside, the first sound that she had heard that was not in the building. She listened to it for the entire raid, holding herself and shivering in the cold.

Not caring, she fell back to sleep.





Chapter 45

She was on the rack again when she regained consciousness. More frigid water sprayed her down in preparation for the electronic shocks.

Her tormentors were less civil with her this time. They didn’t even ask her any questions, just started zapping her randomly and with greater amperage than before. She started screaming only to find out her voice was scratchy and her throat sore.

She managed to open her eyes and could see that the black dressed man with the zapper was angry. Whereas before, it seemed that his expression was indifferent to the pain he was inflicting. Just a job to do, no pleasure in it, no shame. Now, his dark eyes shined as if he were exacting revenge on her thin, bruised body.

He pressed the metal electrodes to her breast but didn’t shock her. She looked at him through dirty strands of wet hair. He was focused on her chest, moving the wand in a smooth, almost caressing manor.

She knew that look and she was more afraid than she had ever been before. He moved closer to her, tracing her hip with the wand. She started to scream as loud as she was able to with her coarse throat.

He jerked with surprise, and looked back towards the door. Another person entered the room, eclipsing the light from the hall.

“Get away from her now!” a familiar voice demanded.

It was Kor’re. Is he here to oversee the session or to take me away from this hellish place? She couldn’t tell from his featureless face, hidden in the shadows.

“Leave us.”

The man with the wand stepped back and turned off the device before leaving the room. The metal door slammed shut behind him.

Kor’re slowly walked around the rusted metal rack. She could hear his boots tapping on the wet rock floor and his slow, steady breathing.

“I am sorry you are here, Zerdy. I could not stop them once they had the results of the blood test.”

“Fuck you.”

He had moved back around in front of her and stopped. Her eyes had adjusted again to the dim light and she could see his pale blue face behind a strand of her hair.

“I do not blame you for hating me right now. But you must believe me that I still want you,” he paused for a beat, “out of here.”

“Fuck. You.”

She stared at him with a hatred that she never knew she possessed. If her hands were free, she would’ve attacked him like a mad animal. Tearing his eyes out of his skull and kicking him with all of her remaining strength. Strength that she knew she didn’t have anymore. All she had was an icy stare and a burning hatred inside.

“I have secured your release in a few days. The torturing will stop and you will be taken to a proper cell and dressed. A doctor will assess your wounds and treat them as necessary. I am sorry it has taken this long to free you, but the wheels of bureaucracy turn slowly during times of war.”

She said nothing in return so he moved in closer to her and pulled her matted hair from her eyes and back over her burned ear. He winced when he saw how bruised and burned her face was.

“Damn, my love. I never meant this to happen. You must believe me.”

She believed him. It was the only thing that she had to cling to anymore. If he got her out of here, she might be able to regain her senses and continue the fight. But if he didn’t get her out, she knew she would lose her mind and die here.

He put his face inches from hers. She could smell his cologne and his clean breath. She knew he could smell her body odor and foul breath. His voice lowered to a whisper as his mouth brushed against her bruised cheek.

“I have managed to put together another expedition to the far side of the mountains, in order to bring back your space plane. If we had brought that back with us before, you would not be here now. There would be no doubt that you were not from this world.”

“Neither of us are from this world. That’s the problem,” she replied in a hoarse whisper.

He backed off enough to look into her eyes.

“You are here because of me, you know that right? It was my artillery barrage that clipped your high flying wings and brought you down to this world.”

Zerdy focused past his eyes and remembered the explosions outside her cockpit on the day she crashed. She recalled seeing the huge cannons during their flight to the capital city. They were certainly big enough to have downed her, but the odds were against it.

As the realization sank in, she felt a sinking feeling. It was Kor’re who had shot her and Khas down. He was directly responsible for her being on Tyrmia. The thought clouded her mind with hatred.

“If you help me return that plane, I will take you for my wife and you will never be sent to this place again,” Kor’re said.

She stared through him as if he were not there.

“Go away.”

Kor’re backed off and straightened his uniform. He called for the guards. The door opened and Kor’re left without looking back at her. Two men came in after him and untied her from the rack. She collapsed in a pile and was dragged out of the cell and down the hall in the opposite direction from where Kor’re left. She caught site of him and spat in his direction. Kor’re turned his head briefly and then left without looking back. She started swearing at him in Votainion until they pushed her into another cell and slammed the metal door shut.

* * *

Zerdy sat naked in her new cell. At least it had a bench to sit on. The lighting was better too, although that just let her see her horrendous condition. Her body had endured more physical abuse on this planet than a lifetime of living in space.

Her pale skin was splotchy and pink. Burns from the torture sessions made her normally soft skin, hard where she was not actually burned. She had been allowed to shower and her hair was clean, but unbrushed and frizzy. She was dry now but she was still cold in the windowless cell.

She thought about what Kor’re had offered her and wondered if it was worth going along with him just to get out of the cell. She imagined herself dying in an attempt to stop him from acquiring her plane. She knew beyond a doubt that she couldn’t live with herself as his wife in this dreadful kingdom. Especially after what they had done to her. She thought about Kwin and the Vurhan Chief and decided that they had long since given up hope that she would return for them. They probably already left for the jungle without her. She missed the jungle more than ever. Even with all the bugs and wild dangers, she would much rather take her chances there than be kept like a caged bird in this castle.

She missed Cyril and the thought of her death moved her to tears. It seemed to Zerdy that she had known nothing but pain and suffering on this world and that saddened her. She remembered seeing the beautiful colors of the land from orbit and wishing that she could live down on that majestic world. Careful what you wish for.

There was a commotion at the cell door and a man wearing a khaki uniform with a white bib came into the cell by himself. He carried a small bag under one arm and wore a white breathing mask and gloves. The doctor. She remembered his dispassionate face.

He sat down the bag and commanded her to stand. She reluctantly pulled herself up and submitted to his examination. His hands were cold as he carefully felt her wounds. He seemed as dispassionate as the men who tortured her as he treated her more serious wounds with ointments and gauze strips. She flinched a few times as the burns were still sensitive to the touch. He stepped back from her when he was finished and looked her over again from head to toe. Then he called for the door. A woman entered carrying a white camisole and put it over Zerdy’s head. It was square shaped and had a delicate lace around the neckline. Zerdy recognized it as the bottom layer of the multilayer garments that fashionable women wore. She had worn a finer, silken version at Kor’re’s mansion.

The woman nodded to the doctor after positioning it around Zerdy’s body and then left without making eye contact with her. The doctor followed the woman out and Zerdy was left alone again in the white cell. She sat down and examined the handiwork of the doctor. Her bandages were firm, but not tight enough to hurt. The ointment he used must’ve been made from the same plants that the Tyrmians used in the forests. It had a similarly bitter smell. She hoped it hastened her healing as well as the native version.





Chapter 46

Near as she could tell, several days had passed since Kor’re visited her. In that time, Zerdy hadn’t been put on the rack and the doctor had checked her wounds once more. She had no other visitors. Her meals, which were only slightly better than the gruel she had while on the rack, were given to her by the guards twice a day. She relieved herself in a built-in toilet that was little more than a hole in the stone floor.

Time seemed to slow down for her and she began to wonder if Kor’re would ever return. The doctor never spoke to her and neither did the guards. Although she got the distinct feeling that had they felt that she were completely abandoned, they would quickly have their way with her. The fact that they had not touched her was a good sign.

She spent her time lying on the cement bench and sleeping. With nothing else to occupy her mind, the best thing for her to do, was to allow her body to heal. Her burns healed faster than she would have guessed, even allowing for the regenerative power of the Tyrmian herbs. But her muscles were still sore and she was pretty sure that at least one rib was cracked, if not completely broken.

On what she took for the third day, the air raids returned. The stone walls of the building rumbled and masonry crumbled from the ceiling. She was covered in dust and found it hard to breathe. After a few minutes, the bombs stopped and the air slowly cleared as the dust settled.

The sound of the door unlocking startled her and she sat up. Her cell was dark and she had no idea whether it was day or night.

A guard came in and looked around the cell, inspecting the walls and ceiling for damage. Convinced that the cell was not in danger of collapsing, he gave her a quick glance and left.

Alone again, she shook her hair to get the dust out of it. Her efforts were pointless, as more ceiling chips fell down around her again.

Her throat was dry and she wished she had access to a water fountain. But that would have been humane treatment, at least in her eyes. She had been trained to resist torture and captivity but she couldn’t resist basic bodily needs and water was definitely a requirement for living.

There was a commotion in the hall outside her door. Several people were moving around, jockeying for a position. Zerdy wondered what was going on. She feared it might be a rape party gathering.

Her cell door swung open and a guard came in followed closely by the commander. Kor’re wore his formal black and red military uniform this time. The red piping of his uniform was set off by the red-orange color of his close cropped hair. He wore her sword. He had it properly sheathed, but she recognized the hilt.

“Bring in the savage and leave him with me.”

A second guard pushed a Tyrmian male into her cell. It was Kwin. He was wearing a Vurhan thong and his hands and feet were chained.

“Kwin!” Zerdy said. She started for her jungle friend.

Kor’re pushed her back with one hand while he gripped the hilt at his waistcoat.

“Stand back.”

Zerdy stepped back, seeing the cold black eyes of Kor’re. He was not the same man who had professed his love to her on his last visit. A chill swept up her body as she realized that Kor’re was no longer acting rationally. She started shaking her head. This was not good.

“Do you love this savage?”

“Yes, but not as a lover. I love his people and his tribe as if they were my own family.”

Kor’re shook his head curtly as if he did not believe her.

“Will you come with me back to fetch the space plane?”

She looked at Kwin. He was staring at her with a frightened look in his saffron eyes. Zerdy didn’t like where this was going.

“Yes, if you bring Kwin with us. We will need him to guide us.”

Kor’re looked at the savage for a moment and then pulled him into a headlock. Kwin resisted but not as much as Zerdy would have thought. The fight was long gone from him. She wondered if they had tortured him too. When he was brought closer to her, she could see the burn marks on the hunter’s green skin. Kor’re’s people were the only savages that Zerdy had seen so far on this planet.

“We caught this one trying to free the women in the breeding houses. He killed many of our citizens. If you agree to go with me, I will pardon his life. But he will never be allowed to leave this building.”

Zerdy returned her attention to Kor’re. She was beginning to hate him more than any other person she had ever known.

“Forget it. If he stays here then I stay here.”

Kor’re called for the guards again and pushed Kwin into their massive arms. Then he drew her sword and walked slowly towards her.

“This is the blade you killed many of my men with. It is very old. It belonged to the Ancestors.”

He put the blade to his cheek, admiring its clean lines. Zerdy began to see the irony of the situation. She was about to be killed by the blade that the medicine man had entrusted to her. The same blade her own savage ancestors created so long ago on a distant world. The circle of violence would be complete.

Kor’re hollered something in Votain that Zerdy didn’t recognize. The guards pushed Kwin between Kor’re and Zerdy, forcing his head down.

“Come with me or the savage dies.”

Zerdy looked down at Kwin who couldn’t return her gaze. She began to shed a tear.

“Okay, okay. You win, Kor’re. Put the sword down. I will come with you.”

Kor’re’s mouth cracked a thin, victorious grin. Zerdy saw the look in his eye and started to scream. But his movement was fast and fluid as he brought the blade down.

The Tyrmian’s head rolled across the stone floor in a spray of red blood. The guards let his body fall to the ground and stood up with smirks on their brutish faces.

Zerdy began to bawl uncontrollably as she fell to her knees. Kor’re took out a cloth and wiped the blood from the sword before sliding it back into the sheath.

He ordered the body removed. One guard grabbed Kwin’s feet and dragged the body out of the cell while the second guard picked up the severed head by its single black tail of hair and left with it.

Zerdy’s camisole had been splattered with Kwin’s bright red blood. She crumpled into a pile, sobbing. Kor’re stepped away from her and turned to look back from the doorway.

“My mission to retrieve your plane has been canceled. The war is not going well for us. I must focus my efforts on defeating the enemy. You will rot in this cell until such time as I can afford to return to the jungle.”

Zerdy didn’t respond to him, she continued to cry for one of the last survivors of her adopted tribe. Kor’re looked down at her with disgust before leaving. Tears were a sign of weakness in his culture, even for females.





Chapter 47

Zerdy had bawled uncontrollably for a long time before trailing off into heaving sobs. Kwin’s blood was on her hands and literally all over her camisole and her cell floor. She could never forgive herself for his death. It would haunt her until her dying days. He was a good man and she was counting on his help to lead the resistance movement back in the jungle.

Now that dream was over and the best she could hope for was to die by Kor’re’s hand herself. The darkness and hopelessness of her torture closed in around her again. She took off her camisole and used it to soak up the pool of Kwin’s blood. Then she pushed the garment down the waste hole. Her hands were stained red with his blood. She curled up into a ball and held her legs. She rocked herself back and forth on the bench, slowly losing all hope again like water down a drain.

She had been through psychological warfare training and knew well the signs of depression. But there was nothing she could do to stop the darkness from overwhelming her. She was going to stay here for the rest of her life and endure the painful memories of her dead friends. There was no hope of ever getting out. No hope of ever returning to the jungle. No hope of ever being rescued by her unit on the Constellation. She saw the face of Talon, what little she could recall of it. He was probably light years away and would eventually forget her. His love for her would fade with time and then she would be reduced to just another MIA statistic in the records of the fleet. That alone was enough to sink her deeper into the blackness of depression.

A guard opened her door and started yelling at her about something. She didn’t listen to him. He found her garment in the toilet and yelled some more, presumably about what she had done with it. She ignored him, rocking slowly in her darkness.

He slapped her against the back of her head and she fell to the floor. Even that didn’t seem to bother her. The guard grabbed her by the arm and easily pulled her to her feet. Then he pulled her from the cell and marched her down the dreary stone hallway. There were other cells, but nobody occupied them.

She tried to pay attention to where he was taking her, but she just didn’t care. They went through another metal door and down a narrow stone stairwell. It was lit by gas lamps that cast long shadows on the walls.

They arrived at the entrance to another cell. It was where she was tortured. The rack was against the wall. The guard shoved her inside and slammed the door shut. He was not on the outside.

Zerdy turned around and realized that they were alone in the cell and there were no other sounds of people. The guard was the same man who had caressed her with the electronic wand. Her situation couldn’t have gotten any worse.

She stood there without a care, ready to be abused again, in the worst way. Why resist him? He would just beat her bloody and leave her for dead. The thought of ending her life in this cold, hellish dungeon entered her mind and was not met with the usual resistance. With death would come release. Release from the darkness and the pain of this world.

The guard had removed his utility belt and was commanding her to bend over facing the rack. The coward was probably going to tie her down, so she couldn’t defend herself.

Before turning around she noticed a shape moving in the shadows just outside the bars of her cell. The guard smacked her face, turning her around. He forced her to her knees and proceeded to tie her hands to the foot restraints of the rack. He felt her waist and buttocks and she braced herself for the inevitable.

There was a sound from the hallway and the guard turned around. Zerdy heard a crack and felt something warm splatter on her back. She turned around and saw a spear protruding from the guard’s back.

He fell down dead beside her. Zerdy heard the patter of bare feet on the stone floor and felt her wrists being untied. Blue-green colored Vurhan warriors helped her to her feet and ushered her out of the cell. They said nothing and guided her into a hidden passage with a false stone face. The secret tunnel was just big enough to crawl through on their hands and knees.

Zerdy followed the lead Vurhan as the one behind her replaced the stone facade and then followed after her. The tunnel wound its way down and around several twists and turns until it emptied into a dark, earthen cave.

The cave was lit by the same glowing verrento bugs that were found in the caves under the mountains. There were other Vurhan standing in the dim light of the cave. Two females came forward and offered Zerdy a clean camisole and a peasant’s dress. They helped her dress with the care and speed of the finest Votain handmaids.

When she had slipped on and tied up the black boots popular in Votain fashion, they stepped back into the shadows. A male warrior stepped forward.

“I’m Kesh of the Vurhne, Chief Kaymon awaits you in Krechna. We must get you onto the next train without being seen.”

Zerdy nodded. She looked around at the faces of the Vurhne in the room.

“Thank you for rescuing me.”

They each nodded their heads respectfully. Kesh motioned for her to follow him to the rail station. Zerdy couldn’t believe she was leaving the hellish prison that she had resigned herself to being in for the rest of her life. As she followed Kesh down the cool damp tunnels, she began to regain her optimism for the planet. If Chief Kaymon could arrange for the Vurhne in a distant city to spring me from prison, imagine what he could do back in the jungle to unite the remaining tribes of Tyrmians and Vurhan? She was beginning to feel like her life might have a purpose after all. That she was needed by these people to help restore their planet to its rightful heirs.

* * *

Kor’re got word of Zerdy’s escape within hours. He went down to the prison basement where the guard was found dead and pulled the spear from the man’s chest. It had Vurhne markings on it. He snapped the wooden weapon over a knee and tossed it aside. Somewhere in this prison there was a tunnel. He had no jurisdiction in this building but he would make sure those who did, found the tunnel. In the meantime, he had a new mission - find Zerdy before she made it back to Krechna. As he left the dreary prison he pondered letting her escape as far as the mountains. Then he would have reason to go after her and in the processes, bring back her space plane. He headed for the local constabulary to order the east bound trains stopped. If she were on one, the authorities would find her.

The only other way back to Krechna over land was the main trade route and that was riddled with security check points. Nobody wishing to be unseen, would travel those roads. Kor’re knew she would try to move at night and by train, there was no better way. The trains ran on time in Votain even when at war.





Chapter 48

Kesh and Zerdy walked for what seemed like hours in the damp, dark tunnels. She finally asked him to stop, so she could rest. The lace boots were killing her feet and she took the time to remove them and tied the laces together so she could wear them over her shoulder.

“Where are we heading?”

“To the eastern edge of the city, where we will smuggle you on board a river boat bound for Krechna.”

She rubbed the bottoms of her feet and looked around. The tunnel was earthen and the ground was moist. There was a faint sewer smell in the air.

“Are these tunnels near the city sewers?”

“Yes. We can’t use the actual sewer systems anymore, because the military keeps them closed for fear of spies.”

Zerdy stood up again and they continued on.

* * *

They came upon a wider tunnel that abruptly ended. A wooden ladder reached up to a narrow tunnel on the ceiling. Kesh started climbing the ladder and Zerdy went up after him. They passed through a trap door that opened inside a domicile not far from the rail lines.

There were several Vurhne men and women waiting for them. As soon as Zerdy cleared the trap door it was secured and hidden under heavy wooden furniture.

The young Vurhan women took Zerdy into a connecting room with the windows shuttered. There she was given a warm bath and dressed in clothing appropriate for a Votain military woman. Women were forbidden in combat, but they played very important roles in nearly every other aspect of supply and intelligence.

Zerdy was carefully outfitted with black slacks, belt and a pressed dark gray blouse. A black, flat top hat completed her uniform. A woman then had her take off the blouse and hat in order to paint her hands, neck and face a sky-blue color. Zerdy was fascinated by the elaborate rouse to make her appear Votain.

Once her skin had been covered, they took scissors to her blond hair and cut it into a short bob. Hair pins carefully folded over the remaining hair and a black wig was affixed. The wig was combed and then they pressed her blouse with perfect military creases. Zerdy’s feet were then carefully laced up with calf length leather boots that fit better than the other pair they had given her. When the women were finished, Zerdy was guided to a floor length mirror.

She stared at the blue faced woman in the mirror and for a long moment, she didn’t recognize herself. Her skin began to crawl and she held her arms folded in front of her.

“You must not look anyone directly in the eyes, we can’t hide their color,” the taller of the Vurhan women said.

Zerdy nodded, her eyes down.

“Good. Do not speak unless spoken to and stand clear of any male on deck.”

Again Zerdy nodded, looking up hesitantly. “Thank you.”

The woman smiled briefly and then ushered Zerdy into the main room. The men in the room turned to her immediately, weapons drawn. They reacted as if they had been found out by the King’s special agents.

A couple of them laughed at their own susceptibility to Zerdy’s disguise. The leader took Zerdy by the arm and guided her into a smaller room. There was a table with several paper maps on it. He pointed to the city on the map.

“This is the capital city, we are here. The rail yards are here, adjacent to the river.”

Zerdy understood.

“Our plan is to make the authorities think we have smuggled you onto the only train out of town. Creela, who helped make you over, will be made up to look like you. We will smuggle her aboard the train just before it departs the depot.

“At the same time, we will have you board the escort boat on the river. The boat follows the train and provides air cover and other security. There are Vurhne operatives on the boat and one Votain sympathizer. He will contact you and see to it that nobody bothers you for the journey to Krechna.”

Zerdy smiled, her blue lips parted. “Thank you sir, for all your efforts. Who is directing this operation?”

The man looked back to the room with the others and then whispered to Zerdy. “A Vurhan chief by the name of Kaymon.”

Kaymon, the fierce jungle chief with a heart of gold apparently had considerable sway with the Vurhne. For the first time since coming to this side of the mountains, she believed that she might truly have a chance to make some positive changes.

* * *

They waited until long after dark to sneak the woman dressed as Zerdy onto the train. She was wearing a hastily crafted wig from Zerdy’s own hair and her face and hands were painted white. To complete the illusion, she was dressed in beggar’s rags and hidden in a rail car’s undercarriage. Her smugglers were never seen by the rail yard’s guards.

The conductors began securing the train for departure, walking quickly between the cars and along the great, iron steamer. They checked for saboteurs and freeloaders, looking to make the passage without paying. The obvious hiding places were checked but not at the expense of delaying departure.

With a long, baleful blow of the whistle, the gunmetal gray train lurched forward and slowly gathered speed. Zerdy watched it depart from the river’s edge not a dozen meters away. She stood with a Votain sympathizer and two Vurhan workers, waiting to board the patrol boat that would escort the train from the river.

The sympathizer showed his papers to the boat’s First Officer. The man looked them over and then eyed Zerdy and the two Vurhan. He had a skeptical manner about him and Zerdy figured the ruse wouldn’t work. She tensed, ready to engage him hand to hand and fight their way aboard. Her palms were sweating and she could see the light blue paint smearing.

Finally the man nodded his approval and they were allowed on board. Zerdy and the Votain went below deck where she was told to wait in a tiny cabin that faced the train side of the river. The small porthole looked out just above the waterline. She could see the train passing by on the shore.

The Votain’s name was Vitor and he was dressed as an officer in the King’s Special Service. His uniform was black and had few adornments. She was dressed in the same style of uniform but with softer, feminine lines. They were on board to ensure the train arrived on-time and were charged with watching it for freeloaders and spies.

The boat’s captain and crew would stay out of their way without much trouble. Nobody willingly crossed the KSS or hindered their clandestine missions. It was also not unusual to have them on board for certain high-priority missions. In fact, the Vurhne had taken the uniforms from KSS personnel who were sent aboard a river boat for the exact same reasons a month ago.

Vitor returned to the cabin after a few minutes and started setting up surveillance gear. He didn’t say much and told her to stay quiet and out of his way.

She kept to the porthole and watched as the boat left the dock and gained speed to match the train. The night air was cool and there were dark storm clouds in the skies as revealed by the flashes of distant lightening.





Chapter 49

Commander Kor’re sat in the dining car going over his new orders to capture the prisoner and bring her back to the King’s Special Service. He hated working with the KSS agents, but he had no choice in the matter.

He was confident that she would be on board, all he had to do was find her. Even as they were getting underway, his men were beginning their search for the light skinned, blond haired woman.

The trip to Krechna would take half the night by train, plenty of time to find a stowaway. While he waited for the inevitable, he began to plan out the supplies and men he would need to make a return expedition through the mountains and back to the jungle. The space plane was already loaded onto a wagon, so all he really needed were some beasts of burden to haul it back through the mountain tunnels.

The entrance to the cave would have to be widened, a few pounds of explosives and some ordnance troops would take care of that. He would need enough rigging and able bodied men to muscle the wagon down into the pit. The size of his party had essentially doubled for the return visit. He would need fewer soldiers and more specialized technicians but that wouldn’t pose a problem for his unit. They were fairly deep when it came to special capabilities.

Kor’re put down his writing implement and stared out the window to the dark waters of the river. He would miss having his First Sergeant Krupp with him. Krupp was just about the closest thing to a friend Kor’re had had in the non-commissioned officer corp. The two men had been through more battles and more adventures than he could remember. Krupp had left a very lean and experienced group of NCOs behind and Kor’re was sure he would find a competent replacement. But he would still miss his friend on this particular mission.

The river was high after a healthy spring runoff from the mountains. He watched the water rush by tree lined banks. His thoughts returned to Zerdy and the anticipation of seeing her again. He was so damned in love with that woman that just the thought of her made his heart ache. It nearly killed him to see her on the torture rack and he was relieved when he learned that she had escaped. The Vurhne had achieved what he couldn’t do in freeing her from that horrible prison.

He was not the least bit troubled by having that green bastard Kwin out of his way either. Whether or not she had actually loved the savage, he was no longer an obstacle for Kor’re’s love. When his men found her and brought her to his cabin, she would be his and only his for the rest of her life.

He missed her soft, pale skin, bright blue eyes and the exotic smell of her hair. He was quite prepared to have her in his bed again and lay with her. Something about her free spirit and unabashed love making made him want her more and more.

He was startled out of his thoughts by a knock. This was it. They had found her. He stood up and called for them to enter.

Krey, his new First Sergeant entered the cabin and stood at attention before Kor’re.

“Sir, we have found the white woman. She was hiding in the baggage car.”

“Very good, Sergeant. Bring her in and post a guard at my door please.”

Krey saluted and did a wobbly about face as the train jarred.

A woman dressed in peasant’s clothes and bound in metal shackles was pushed into the cabin by a burly soldier. Krey stood aside as they entered.

Kor’re’s heart sank as he looked at the woman. This was not Zerdy. Her arms and hands were white, but far too pale to be Zerdy’s soft pink skin. He picked up her chin and looked into her dark, Votain eyes. Whoever this woman was, she wasn’t his lover. He grabbed her frayed hair and pulled it to his nose. She smelled like Zerdy. Or rather her hair, smelled like the woman he loved.

Kor’re pulled the hair as hard as he could and the wig came off. Krey and the guard let out astonished gasps. They had no idea the woman was a fake. Her own black hair was neatly pinned close to her head. The white face paint she wore did not even extend to her tiny bluish ears.

Kor’re felt his blood pressure rising as he tossed the wig to the floor. The slight hint of a smile on the woman’s painted lips enraged him.

“Idiots! This is a decoy!”

Krey stepped toward the woman and drew his pistol. Kor’re stopped him from shooting her in the back.

“Take her away and find the real woman.”

“Yes sir,” Krey said. He grabbed the Votain woman by her cuffed hands and pulled her away from Kor’re. She didn’t resist.

Alone in his cabin Kor’re started to perspire. If she wasn’t actually on this train, then she was taking some other form of transportation. He was sure that they would use this train to smuggle her to Krechna. The roads would have been impassible and there were no scheduled transportation flights.

He opened the door to the back of the car and stood at the railing. It was cooler outside and the night air felt good. As he watched the tracks disappear into the night, he heard the steady sound of the escort boat plying away upstream with its older, steam engines. Search lights from the boat were casting their beams across the river and over the back of the train where he stood. If she had attempted to leave the train, surely she would have been spotted by the river boat.

Kor’re pounded the railing with his hand. She would turn up yet. He just had to be patient.

* * *

Zerdy sat alone in the tiny cabin, staring at the tail end of the train. She watched someone come out and stand at the back railing. He was tall and wearing a military uniform. Zerdy left the cabin and headed topside.

The boat was gaining speed and the back of the train got closer. She gripped the side railing and stood, staring at the back of the train. The crisp, evening air blew in her face along with a freshwater spray from the bow. The searchlight from the top deck of the river boat flashed across the train.

It was Kor’re. She could see his neatly trimmed goatee. His posture, although relaxed, was familiar to her. She wondered if he could see her and if he would be able to identify her. Her black hair and dark uniform against a dark gray boat, made that highly unlikely.

She watched him for several minutes, until he finally went back inside the car. She could see inside the windows as the patrol boat began to overtake the last few cars of the train.

Zerdy wondered if they had found the decoy woman and whether she’d been killed. The compassion of the Votain sympathizers had impressed her. She owed her very life to them and they were so willing to lay down their own lives to get her to safety. This society was far more complex and interesting than what she expected to find. Perhaps there was hope after all for the survival of the Tyrmians.

She returned to the cabin and found Vitor waiting for her.

“Where did you go?” he asked.

“Topside to get some air.”

Disappointment lined his lean azure face.

“You should stay out of sight from the rest of the crew. We can’t afford to have you outed while still on board.”

She sat down at the table where he had set up some instruments. A small transmitter complete with a metal code key. She marveled at how antiquated it seemed; the wire circuits and magnetic coil clearly visible on the device.

“Vitor, why do you and your fellow sympathizers care so much about helping the Vurhne?”

He looked away, out the porthole.

“Not everyone in the kingdom is heartless cattle who follow the party line on breeding and subjugation of lesser species.”

“Do you believe that I’m not from this world?”

He looked back at her, his black eyes darker in the shadows. “Yes.”

She heard the conviction in his voice as he walked over to her and rolled up his sleeve.

About mid-forearm his skin went from a pale blue color to a pinkish white.

“You are human?”

He nodded and rolled his sleeve back down.

“Not everyone is as full-blooded Votain as the government would have you believe.”

“How many of you are there?”

“We are a tiny minority that live only in the darkest shadows of the night. If the average citizen knew we existed, we would be hunted down and killed as quickly as any Vurhne.”

“So that’s why you are helping the Vurhne.”

“We created the Vurhne. Our goal is to not only free them from oppression but to eventually free ourselves.”

Zerdy couldn’t believe it. A minority population of humans existing in the shadows of a clearly dominate Votain society, helping a lesser species gain freedom before they themselves have attained such freedom. It inspired her and confirmed that her instincts to help Tyrmians were correct.

“It is vital that we get you back to the jungle where your plane crashed. We need to combine our efforts with the freed Vurhan who live in the jungle. You will be our contact on their side. The war between the Votains and the H’rzai is spreading into the central jungles. Competition for natural resources, mostly oil, is becoming more and more critical to the war effort.”

Zerdy listened intently. Her mind filled with ideas and renewed inspiration. She stared at Vitor with a smile on her face. She hadn’t smiled in so long, she wasn’t sure her facial muscles knew how to do it correctly.

“What?” he asked.

“I knew it was the right thing to do to come here. Your existence and your cause fills my heart with joy.”

He managed a thin grin on his gaunt face for a brief moment and then it left as quickly as it had come.

“They have found our plant. It is not known if they have killed her. This is most unfortunate. If they do not find you on that train it could cause them to tear the train apart when it reaches its destination and that might expose more of our operatives.”

Zerdy wiped the smile from her face and pondered what they could do. She could turn herself in. Kor’re would not have her killed, he was too much in love with her. But that was not what he most wanted. She was convinced that he was hoping she would try and return to the jungle so that he could chase her there and return with her starfighter.

“Kor’re wants me to return to the jungle, so he can follow me. He needs to prove to the king that I’m really not from this world. My space plane is the only proof he has of that.”

Vitor sat down opposite Zerdy at the table. He lowered his voice as someone walked by in the corridor outside.

“Why does he care about proving you are not from this world?”

“He is in love with me, or at least he was.”

Vitor looked horrified for a moment and then quickly regained his composure.

“We can use that in our favor.”

Zerdy nodded. “I’ve been trying, believe me. Can you alert your people to cause a commotion at the depot in Krechna? Just enough confusion to allow me to get off this boat and into the tunnels.”

Vitor said, “We’ve been planning to bomb the train station for a while now.”

His thin smile returned. She reached out and squeezed his arm. It was good to know another human again.





Chapter 50

Five hours into the trip, Sergeant Krey returned empty handed to Kor’re’s coach. “She’s not on the train, My Lord.”

Kor’re wasn’t surprised. He was resigned to having been hoodwinked into believing that she was ever on the train.

“When we arrive at Krechna station, I want this train searched from the engine to the last car along the bottom. She could be riding in the undercarriage.”

Krey nodded curtly. He looked out the windows to the river. The wake of the patrol boat stirred up the dark waters as it cruised along ahead of the last car in the train.

“My Lord, what if she were not on the train?”

Kor’re looked up at the Sergeant and saw where he was fixated. Of course, why didn’t I think of that? She could be on the patrol boat, safely out of site from prying eyes on the train and yet going in the same direction.

“Sergeant, get on the wireless and instruct the Captain of that boat to give you a complete crew manifest. Don’t let on what we are looking for. Just get the manifest.”

Krey saluted and left the carriage, heading for the communications car.

* * *

Zerdy jerked awake at a knock on the cabin door. Vitor was on his feet at the door in seconds. A young crewman from the bridge was standing outside with a bored expression on his cyan face.

“The Captain needs to see your papers, Sir.”

Vitor reached inside his black overcoat and handed them to the kid who snapped a salute and hustled over to the cabin door across the hall. Another knock and the same question was asked, as Vitor closed his door.

“This is unusual. The Captain must have been told to verify his manifest.”

Zerdy stood up and moved to the porthole. She tried to see movement on the train through the lit windows, but saw nothing.

“They haven’t found me on the train and now they suspect this boat. I hope our papers are in order.”

She looked at him sanguinely. He didn’t offer her much confidence.

“We shall soon see, won’t we?”

* * *

Kor’re had gone outside again and was watching the boat on the river. He could see crewmen running around and hear orders being screamed. It wouldn’t be long before they found her, if she were aboard.

Sergeant Krey entered the train car and walked across to the back door where Kor’re stood.

“My Lord, the boat’s Captain insists that his manifest is in order,” he handed Kor’re a sheet of paper with a list of names on it.

Kor’re scanned the page in the dim light. There were twenty-five names on it. The regular compliment for a patrol boat of that size was twenty men. Who were the extra crewmen? He scanned the duty column and found the five additional crew. Two were passengers assigned by the KSS, not entirely unexpected. The remaining three were Vurhan deck workers. All five had boarded before they left the capital city.

One of the passengers was female.

“Sergeant, have the Captain examine the two KSS passengers. I want to know if the they are indeed Votain.”

He handed the list back to Krey who nodded and ducked back inside. Kor’re gripped the rail and watched the patrol boat slowly bob up and down as it moved down river.

* * *

The door knocked again and then swung open. The river boat’s Captain entered with an armed guard. Zerdy and Vitor were standing together by the porthole.

“Excuse the interruption Lieutenant Vitor and Madam. I have been ordered by Commander Kor’re to verify your race and rank.”

Zerdy looked at Vitor who stepped forward on his own accord.

“I understand the Commander’s concern, we were told to be on the lookout for anyone unusual. You may check us as needed Captain.”

The Captain appeared embarrassed at having to check the identity of two KSS agents. He shined a flashlight at Vitor’s face and looked him over closely. Vitor was completely at ease with the cursory examination.

Zerdy on the other hand, couldn’t have been more nervous. Her skin was itchy from perspiring under the blue paint and her heart was racing. She would never pass the informal test. As soon as he looked into her eyes, she was as good as caught.

The Captain finished with Vitor and handed him back his papers. Vitor stepped aside and let Zerdy take center stage. She held her gaze down, staring at the Captain’s dark overcoat. He shined his flashlight in her face and down her pressed black uniform. She handed him her papers and he spent what passed for an eternity looking them over.

She hazarded a quick glance up at him just as he returned her look. That was so stupid! Did he notice my eyes? She snapped her eyes downward again as he handed back her papers.

“Everything seems to be in order here. Sorry for the interruption,” the Captain said.

He noticed the device on the table and stopped to consider it.

“Is that a portable wireless device?”

Vitor stepped up again. “Yes, sir. The latest design. We can communicate anywhere in the kingdom with it.”

The captain shook his head. “The things they can do these days.”

Vitor nodded in agreement and the Captain turned to leave. He stopped and turned around. Zerdy kept her eyes on the wireless.

“Where is your antenna? Doesn’t a wireless device have to have an antenna?”

Vitor looked down and started to stutter. He was not prepared to offer an explanation for the equipment. Zerdy wondered if he even knew how to work it.

“We have not set the antenna up yet sir. May we use the main mast to string our lead?” Zerdy asked.

The Captain nodded his consent. “Just get with my First Officer. He’ll know what you need and can assist you.”

Zerdy gave him a faint smile. “Thank you, sir.”

The Captain tapped the bill of his hat and left the cabin. Zerdy and Vitor exchanged wide-eyed looks.

“That was too close,” Zerdy said.

“Well played on the wireless bit.”

“Thanks, but he saw my blue eyes. I’m sure of it.”

Vitor waved it off. “They’re lots of blue-eyed Votains. It is actually a very sought out feature. He probably though you were cute.”

Zerdy blushed in the dark.

“The feeling was not mutual. I can assure you of that.”

She motioned to the wireless.

“Do you even know how that thing works?”

Vitor shook his head. Zerdy figured as much.

“Did it come with some wire for an antenna?”

“Nope, I set it up like they told me to. There were no other parts.”

Zerdy sat down at the table and examined the device more closely. It was a crystal radio with a small battery of some kind. She flipped on a switch and the receiver sputtered alive. There were no signals coming in, so she tuned it around. Nothing but static, as she suspected without an antenna.

She picked up the wooden case and looked inside it. There was a thin wire antenna wound around the inside of the lid. She showed it to Vitor.

“Here’s your antenna.”

She unwound the wire and attached it to two screws on the main breadboard. The sputtering changed to a clear carrier signal. She didn’t know how the Votains used this on and off signal to communicate. Many different kinds of binary languages existed in the known galaxy.

“Do you know anyone who might be able to understand this?”

Vitor shook his head.

“We might be able to eavesdrop on Kor’re’s movements if we could understand what these signals mean,” Zerdy said.

“There might be someone in the resistance who can use this device. I was told to use it as a prop for the mission and then give it to the Krechna cell.”

Zerdy agreed that was the proper action to take. She fiddled with the wireless some more to take her mind off things.





Chapter 51

The train began to slow as it approached the outskirts of Krechna. Kor’re had already packed his things and was sitting on the river side of the car, watching the patrol boat. It was up the the river about mid-train.

He looked down at the message passed to him by the boat’s Captain.

“All aboard accounted for. Two KSS agents are in a VIP room. One male and one female. Portable radio on table. Female has blue eyes.”

He read the last line again. “Female has blue eyes.” It had to be Zerdy. The statistical odds were too great for it to be anyone else but her. Blue eyed Votains were a sought after genetic mutation, but outside of royalty, were almost never seen.

He wanted to be off the train and on that boat. He wanted to look into her blue eyes once again. He wanted to see her creamy white face again and smell her blond hair.

A knock at his cabin door brought him out of his daydream.

“Commander, we are approaching the station now. A full search party is waiting there,” Krey said.

“Very good, Sergeant. Our stowaway is on the river boat. Have a search party meet the boat as it docks.”

Krey nodded with a knowing smile. “Yes, sir.”

Kor’re positioned himself for the jolting slow down that inevitably came to the end car of a very long train. He thought about going forward to avoid the neck jarring stop, but figured he could be closer to the docks if he got off the train where he was, so he stayed put.

* * *

It was shortly before dawn when the boat’s Captain announced all hands on deck for docking. Zerdy had fallen asleep on the floor of the tiny cabin. Vitor was awake and watching out the porthole. The sound of the train stopping and the cars slamming against one another could clearly be heard outside.

Her head was itchy and hot from wearing the black wig. She wanted to pull it off and let what remained of her hair down for a breather but now was not a good time for that.

Vitor took out his black pistol and verified that it was loaded and ready to fire.

“Are you expecting trouble?” Zerdy asked.

“The train is scheduled to blow up upon arrival. That is our signal to get off the boat.”

“What do you plan to do, shoot your way off the boat?”

Vitor smiled ruefully. “There will probably be a search party waiting to board. The explosion will draw their attention to the train station. That is when we will get off. Can you swim?”

“Yes,” she said, not liking where that was leading.

“Good. We may be in the river for some time.”

Zerdy picked her tired bones off the floor and came to the porthole. The lights of the station lit the fog like an eerie dream. Soon it would be more akin to a nightmare.

“Where are we going when we get off the boat?”

Vitor looked at her, his dark eyes tired and dull. “The local Vurhne cell leader wants to meet with you. His name is Mholb.”

Zerdy understood.

“Come, it is time for the fireworks,” Vitor said, as he picked up the radio case and headed for the door.

* * *

The night air was cool and refreshing. A light breeze came off the mountains and washed through the river valley. Zerdy could see the stars above except where the dark mountains cut them off in the Eastern sky.

The crew made the boat ready to dock, hustling back and forth pulling ropes and securing the gear strewn about the deck. The steam engine blew gray smoke into the sky where it occluded the stars. Zerdy could see the well-lit dock approaching from the port side. There was an odd assortment of dock hands and a rigid formation of heavily armed soldiers.

She looked worriedly at Vitor, who had also seen the soldiers. He didn’t seem concerned about them, looking back over their shoulders at the train station. The engine had come to a stop and the rest of the long train was slowly banging into each other as it came to a stop.

Zerdy didn’t think it could get any louder until the huge, eight-wheeled engine was literally lifted off the tracks by a series of huge fireballs. The shock wave rippled across the river and rocked the boat violently. People were thrown to the deck like so many toy soldiers.

Vitor grabbed Zerdy by the shoulders and lead her off the starboard side of the boat and into the cold, rushing water. It happened so fast, she barely had time to gather a breath before they were in the water.

As she came to the surface another blast lit up the night. The patrol boat was on fire as it cruised up to the dock. The main deck’s smoke stack was blown off and burning. Zerdy treaded water in the stiff current and watched the boat burn. Vitor surfaced just ahead and made his way over to her.

“Make for the shoreline,” he said.

She took one last look around at the destruction then swam for the shore. They were being carried down stream by the current and the river’s edge was lined with trees and high grass. It would be easy to slip ashore and disappear into the pre-dawn darkness.

Vitor pulled Zerdy out of the river and together they slogged their way up above the water level and behind some trees. They stopped for a moment to catch their breath and watch the confusion and fire at the dock and the train station.

The scene looked like a war zone. Several passenger cars were blown back at jagged angles and burning like torches. Smoke billowed over the edge of the city as emergency vehicles hurried to the scene of the bombing.

Vitor put his hand on her shoulder and motioned for her to follow him. They crept along the shore until they came to a dirt road. A motor car waited for them in the dark. It was boxy and had high, wooden spoked wheels. The engine was idling and the driver waited until they were inside before pulling out onto the road. They headed away from the docks and the raging inferno of the train station.

* * *

Kor’re had been blown to the floor of the car and suffered only a minor cut to his left forearm. He stood outside in the cool night air holding his arm to stop the bleeding and watched the disaster unfold. Across the river the patrol boat sank in flames. He wondered if Zerdy was aboard and if she had survived. Something told him this wasn’t an enemy attack but the work of the underground Vurhne. They had conducted bombings before, but nothing this extreme. He was impressed with the damage they had caused. A bit too impressed for his comfort.

Sergeant Krey appeared out of the heat of the fires and stood beside Kor’re.

“That was incredible, sir.”

Kor’re agreed.

“Not bad for a diversionary tactic. Our old friend Mholb has outdone himself this time.”

Krey turned to his commander. “I’ve sent a search party out along both sides of the river. Something tells me we won’t find anyone.”

“Your instincts are good, sergeant. But perhaps we don’t need to worry about finding her tonight.”

Krey arched his black eyebrow.

“We know she will probably be heading back through the tunnels to the leeward side of the Krakenhoven Mountains. So all we have to do is block the tunnels. She will come to us.”

Krey looked back to the burning train. “I have already placed a detachment of soldiers at every entrance. Should I let her pass through one?”

It was Kor’re’s turn to be impressed. He looked at the sergeant with approval. That was the kind of like-minded thinking that he used to enjoy with Krupp. Krey would make a very admirable successor to Sergeant Krupp.

“You read my mind Krey. Reassign some of those troops to leave one passage all but open. Don’t make it too easy on them but make it clear which is the weakest path. I’ll report to the High Command that she has escaped in this mess.” He motioned to the flaming train cars.

“In the meantime, make sure our excursion is ready to move out at a moment’s notice.”

“Yes, My Lord.”

Krey saluted and moved away towards what was left of the station.

Kor’re glanced across the black river and watched the fire burning on the main deck of the patrol boat. Zerdy and her Vurhne friends had won this round. They wouldn’t be so lucky a second time.





Chapter 52

The house was located in a perfectly normal side of town and was indistinguishable from all the hundreds of other stone flats, except that inside this house a rebel leader lived. He was an elderly black gentleman with an eccentric tuft of white hair that launched from the top of his head and the bottom of his chin at about the same distance. He was dressed in slightly worn clothes and cast a peaceful gaze in Zerdy’s direction.

There were only two other people in the house besides Zerdy and Vitor; a tall, blue-green Vurhan male and a short, dark haired woman who was either Votain or disguised as one. The woman was dressed as plainly as the old man; a simple, slightly worn black dress and black lace boots. The Vurhan was wearing worker clothes like a common laborer would wear. None of them looked like what they really were. The most feared members of the local Vurhne cell. The architects of the train station explosion.

Zerdy and Vitor were still wet and starting to shake.

“Shea, find these people some dry clothes please, before they fall ill,” the old man said.

The woman nodded and quietly slipped away down a hall. The Vurhan male stood by a window and kept a watchful eye on the street outside.

“Thank you,” Zerdy said.

He smiled and nodded his head to her. “It is a pleasure to meet you Miss Zerdy. Our people have been waiting for your arrival for a long, long time.”

“Thank you sir, for rescuing me from that hellish prison.”

“I am only sorry we could not move to retrieve you sooner, my child. Sometimes we have to strike when the opportunity arises rather than when we would like to. The nature of our business, you understand?”

Zerdy nodded. She was cold and her body trembled. Vitor seemed to be fairing better but his blue paint was streaked.

“Vitor, you have done well, my son. Go and wash up and return to your duties,” the old man directed.

Vitor excused himself and headed down the hall where the woman had gone. Zerdy looked around at the room and could find no reason to believe that a rebel leader lived there. Perhaps the best disguise was to be as close to normal as possible.

Shea returned with a blanket and wrapped it around Zerdy.

“Go and get cleaned up, my child. We have much to discuss.”

Shea and Zerdy went down the hall and to a bedroom.

“I set out clothes for you on the bed and there is a bath drawn. Meet us back in the main room when you are changed.”

Zerdy nodded. “Thank you.”

Shea gave her a polite smile and shut the door. Zerdy took off her wet uniform and hung up the clothes to dry then she sat down in the warm bath and allowed herself the chance to relax a bit.

After scrubbing herself clean and letting the water soothe her tired muscles, she got out and put on the dress. It was black, of course, like all proper Votain fashion, but like Shea’s dress, was a rougher hew.

Zerdy stood at a mirror and tried to do something with her shorter hair. No matter which way she brushed it she looked like a rebellious teenager. She decided to leave it be for now. It would eventually grow back in time.

She rejoined the others in the main room. They were serving a hot drink that smelled similar to Votainion black tea. She accepted a cup and saucer from Shea and sat down on the floor in front of a fireplace.

The old man was sitting in his chair as before, sipping his drink slowly.

“My name is Mholb. I’m the cell leader.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir.”

Mholb set down his drink and folded his long, brown fingers in his lap.

“It is my intention to get you back to the jungle on the far side of the Great Mountains. Our time to move is rapidly closing, but first, I have questions for you.”

He paused as if to let her grant him permission to continue.

“Please,” Zerdy said.

“Why are there not more of you here? Have you been abandoned by your people?”

Zerdy took a drink and set down her cup. “My plane was shot down by Kor’re’s soldiers. I crashed in the central jungles of this world. My people no doubt tried to find me but were called away on urgent business to a distant part of the night sky. It’s my hope that they’ll return one day. If not my unit, then another ship.”

Mholb listened intently to her. He looked away to the fire while he composed his next question.

“This world is full of strife and suffering. Have your people found a way to leave that behind? Are there things that you can teach us, to make this life easier?”

She hadn’t expected a question rooted in a belief system. The Votains were an intensely moral society and she had assumed that they had one or more guiding religions. But so far, nobody had exposed her to them.

“I’m not a savior. I’m a human. Nothing more, nothing less. My people haven’t learned to overcome our base desires. We struggle with them as surely as any of you do. What I can offer you is knowledge. I can assure you that you’re not alone in this universe and that you’re all the descendants of my ancestors who were stranded here long ago.”

The Vurhan at the window looked over at her as did Shea and Mholb. She got the impression they were hoping she could do more for them. Mholb’s eyes lowered.

“When do you think your people will return?”

“I have no idea. Perhaps not for many generations. Space is so vast and time is not patient.”

Mholb took another long drink from his tea. The disappointment was clearly etched on his dark face.

“When your people do return, will they colonize this planet? Will they replace the Votains as the ones who subjugate us?”

Zerdy shook her head emphatically. “No. They’ll not enslave you like the Votains. They will assist you in your struggles to free yourselves, much like I’m trying to do for the Tyrmians. Their goal will be to make your planet ready to join the galactic family of planets known as the Grand Alliance.

“This planet is the way it is, primarily because of a long war between the Votainions and the Western Alliance. That war is now over and the Votainions lost. What that means for you is that the ancestors of the Votains have been defeated. Their warring ways led to their eventual downfall. The surviving Kastra are now a part of the Grand Alliance and are working to right the wrongs done to hundreds of planets like this one across this side of the galaxy.”

She wasn’t sure how much of that made sense to these people but she thought it best to be honest about her intentions and those of her people.

Mholb seemed reassured. He relaxed a bit and slowly stroked his stiff white beard.

“Chief Kaymon awaits your return near the tunnel’s entrance. I have assigned my best warriors to guide you back to the far side of the mountains. I ask only that you keep in touch with us. We smuggle Vurhan to freedom in the jungle when we can. They need somewhere to live.”

Zerdy sat up on her knees. “I suspected you were doing that. Was Chief Kaymon your contact on that side before?”

“No, but he has promised to take in our refugees now.”

Zerdy’s face clouded for a moment and Mholb detected her reluctance.

“Do you believe he will honor his commitment?”

“I do. He took me in when the Votains slaughtered my Tyrmian tribe. His people live in the trees and sometimes fight the Tyrmians. I wouldn’t like the Vurhan population to exceed the Tyrmian population and risk more tribal wars.”

Mholb pondered that for a moment.

“Tell us how we can help you.”

Zerdy stood up and started pacing around the tiny room. Her feet were already sore inside the tight leather boots. She hadn’t had the time to properly think out what she would do back in the jungle. Just yesterday she was prepared to die in a Votain prison.

“Vitor had a radio set on the boat. We can communicate over the mountains with such a radio. I can show you how to construct an antenna that will bounce the signal over the mountains instead of into the sky. We can use a binary code that I will show you so that the Votains will not be able to understand what we’re saying.

“I intend to create a Tyrmian/Vurhan alliance in the jungle and to build a resistance force similar to the Vurhne to keep the Votains at bay. I don’t know how long it will be until my people return, but when they do, I want them to be able to work with us, to help this planet join the Grand Alliance.”

She wasn’t sure if she had said too much. Mholb sat there for the longest time, staring into the fire. Finally he turned to her and spoke.

“Our goals are similar and they are noble. We will work with you to achieve them.”

Zerdy stopped pacing and sat back down in front of Mholb. He seemed to have finished his thought as he stared at her with his patient, time wrinkled face. She marveled at how wonderfully human he was. Sure there was a blueish tint to his black skin, but his features and mannerisms were very much human. It had been a long time since she had seen a familiar face. Perhaps she would never see another. Her eyes took in every detail of his features, in case she never saw him again.

Finally he spoke, his voice warm and fatherly.

“Go now, my child. I wish you safe passage to your jungle home. We will be in touch.”

The Vurhan male who had been watching the window came over to her and helped her to her feet. Mholb bowed his head to her. She returned the gesture. Then she was escorted to a back room where Shea had opened a trap door on the floor. The Vurhan descended into the tunnel first. Zerdy gave Shea a hug and said goodbye. Then she followed the Vurhan into the tunnel.





Chapter 53

Zerdy came into the largest underground room she had ever seen. It was lit by crude electric lights hanging open bulbed from the high ceiling. They were deep below the city of Krechna in a staging area for the Vurhne freedom fighters.

Hundreds of people were going about their business, making uniforms, putting together firearms and organizing equipment that was pilfered from the Votain army. Zerdy was in awe of it all.

Her Vurhan guide through the tunnel system was named Vholm. He had barely spoken a word to her after she had managed to get him to admit his name. Vholm pointed to a room hollowed out of the limestone and said, “He is waiting for you there.”

Zerdy made her way over to the room. It was dimly lit but she could very clearly see Chief Kaymon standing at the far end of the room, being fitted for a Vurhne uniform. They usually wore simple, green fatigues that hung loosely about their tall, thin frames.

“I do not want to wear anything, I tell you,” his voice boomed off the rock walls as he pulled his arm away from the fitter.

Zerdy smiled. It was good to hear his voice again.

“Better leave while you still can,” she said to the confused clothier.

Kaymon’s face lit up as he saw Zerdy framed in the entryway. He pushed the clothier aside and walked towards her. The two hugged so tight Zerdy nearly lost her breath.

“It is so good to see you, White Fli’r!”

Zerdy coughed as they parted and she sucked the air back into her lungs.

“It’s good to see you too, Chief Kaymon.”

He looked her over suspiciously. “We heard they had captured you too. When Kwin was taken, I feared for your safety.”

She held onto the chief’s arms as she looked into his dark eyes. “Kwin is dead, Chief. Kor’re killed him in front of me with my own sword.”

The smile left Kaymon’s face and was replaced by cold hard anger.

“I will kill that man before I die.”

She squeezed his arms and let go of him. Her eyes were rock steady and filled with determination. “He’s mine, chief. He’s all mine.”

Kaymon drew a knowing grin. “I believe that he is.”

Vitor entered the room carrying some rolled up papers in his arms.

“I have our mission plans ready, if you will allow me to show you.”

He set the rolls down on a wooden table and rolled them out. Kaymon and Zerdy gathered around him to study the plan.

“There are three known entrances to the mining tunnels. Kor’re’s troops have two of them heavily guarded. You won’t be allowed to stroll through them like you did coming out of the them. The third entrance is less guarded, here.”

He pointed to the nearest tunnel to the ground level.

“It was the first tunnel dug and it has been largely abandoned for several years now. There is a line that runs up to the main tunnels but at a fair distance away from where they begin their runs through the mountains.”

“Why is it less guarded then the others?” Zerdy asked.

Vitor shrugged. “I don’t know.”

She looked at Kaymon. “Kor’re wants us to go there. He’s making it easy for us to get away, because he intends to follow us.”

“Let him. We will kill him in the jungle.”

Zerdy returned her attention to the map. It showed many tunnels leading through the mountains but most didn’t go all the way through.

“How many paths are there to the other side?”

Vitor pointed to two points on the eastern side of the mountains. “Here and here.”

She recognized one of them as being the pit where they had entered. The other one was higher up the side of the mountains.

“Does anyone use this path?” she said pointing to the high route.

“No. It has been blocked by a rock slide for years. It would take a good deal of explosives to free it and then only at the risk of another landslide.”

Zerdy nodded as she studied the map. It was clear to her that Kor’re wanted her to go back the way she came, so that he could recover his precious space plane. She wondered if he wanted to bring her back too and keep her locked away for his own amusement. He was still in love with her after all, the poor bastard.

“I guess we have no choice then.”

Vitor nodded slowly. His eyes held the same intensity that everyone in the Vurhne had.

“Our team is ready to go at a moment’s notice.”

She put her hand on Vitor’s forearm. “Are we bringing explosives?”

“We can if you desire it.”

“I do. Enough to seal the lower tunnel on our side and enough to attempt to open the higher tunnel. I want Kor’re’s people to think that their only route is lost.”

Vitor looked hesitant. “I am not sure we have the approval of Mholb to cut off the only passage.”

“We will open another in a few weeks time. I just don’t want to make things easy for the Votains.”

Vitor understood her reasoning.

“When do you want to depart?”

She looked at Kaymon. “I’m ready when you are.”

Zerdy sighed. She had not had a restful night’s sleep in so long. Her muscles were hurting and she still had sores from the torture sessions. But she knew the sooner they started the better. Kor’re’s people were distracted to some extent by the train station explosion but that would not last for long.

“I would love to sleep, but I don’t think we can afford that luxury. Let’s move after sunset.”

Vitor took out a pocket watch and noted the time.

“That is in four hours. Enough time to secure the explosives and be underway to the mountain’s base.”

Zerdy and Kaymon both agreed and Vitor rolled up his maps and left the room. Zerdy tugged at the neck of her dress. “I can’t travel in this thing. I need to find some decent clothing.”

Kaymon moved to the entrance and called for a clothier. When the elder Tyrmian woman came into the room he pointed to Zerdy. “Find this woman some proper clothes. Whatever she wants.”

* * *

Kyra had never seen a human before. She looked no different than the average Votain, save for her pale white skin and yellow hair. Fitting her for clothing would simply be a matter of taking in the arms and legs.

She took out her measuring tape and wrapped it around Zerdy’s waist.

“It’s good to see a Tyrmian face again. How did you come to be here?”

“Myself and others escaped from the breeding houses after our keepers were killed by a young Tyrmian male.”

Kyra didn’t look the human in the eyes as she quickly took her measurements. The human woman stopped her with a frail hand on her arm.

“What was the male’s name?”

“Kwin.”

The human’s small blue eyes welled up and leaked tears down her cheeks. Kyra didn’t know what to do for the woman. She held her in her arms until the crying trickled into sobs.

“I’m sorry. What is your name?”

“Kyra.”

“I’m Zerdy. Kwin was a good friend of mine. His tribe adopted me in the jungle.”

Kyra looked into the pale blue eyes of the human woman and saw the grief in them. She had never seen a Votain woman cry over a Tyrmian. Never.

“Where is he now?” Kyra asked.

The woman’s lower lips trembled again and she barely managed to speak before breaking down into sobs. “He was killed in front of me.” Her head lowered out of respect for Kwin.

Kyra let go of the woman and stepped back. She had hoped that Kwin lived, he had given her so much hope by setting her free. In all the years that Kyra had been enslaved she had never seen one of the Votains care so much for a Tyrmian. This one was different. She cared.

“The Spirits have him now. They will guide him into their world.”

Zerdy nodded, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. Kyra didn’t weep, holding her tears for private shedding. She held her head up and walked with a dignity that behooved a woman of her advanced age.

“I will return shortly with your clothing,” Kyra said. She bowed slightly and left the room.





Chapter 54

Kor’re surveyed the mining maps that Sergeant Krey gave him. There were so many starts and stops and different levels that his eyes began to hurt staring at them. Most of the entrances converged on the main vein that eventually extended across the base of the mountains.

He had repositioned half of his men and supplies at the junction of the lowest tunnel and the middle tunnel. The lowest level was used primarily to remove dirt and rock from the other inner veins. A rail system wound its way from deep in the tunnel, carrying out the excess dirt and rock.

Kor’re and a handful of his best soldiers waited patiently for Zerdy to make her move. They were hidden in the trees around the entrance and in the foreman’s shack nearby.

The sun had just disappeared and the last empty rail cars of the day were heading inside. Kor’re figured that the entrance would be stormed at any minute by the Vurhne. It was dimly lit and there were only a couple of relaxed soldiers watching over the workers heading in and out of the tunnel.

Time passed and nothing happened. He studied his watch with a frown. Looking back at the rail cars, he noticed a guard peering inside one and going for his gun. Is she trying to sneak into the tunnels? Clever. It looked like his guard was not being fooled.

A second guard came over to examine whatever was inside the open topped rail car. They appeared to be discussing something as if they couldn’t quite identify the items.

Kor’re kept his eyes moving to the surrounding area, expecting the commotion to be a diversion. But there was no other movement. One of the guards shouldered his rifle and leaned over the edge of the car to reach down inside for something.

Kor’re looked away again, trying to find the real attack he knew would be coming. When the bomb went off, his eyes were protected from the flash, but he felt the shock wave as the entire entrance to the mine collapsed.

Dirt and rock filled the sky where the entrance to the mine had once been. Kor’re was blown backwards onto the floor of the shack by the concussion. When he picked himself up to look, there was no longer an entrance. Dirt and rocks still fell like brown hail.

“Damn!” he muttered under his breath.

He ordered his men to start heading for the other entrance. It would take them valuable time to get up the mountain and back into the tunnels to continue the pursuit. Just enough time to afford Zerdy the lead she would need to make it through the tunnels before them. It was not ideal, but he was confident that his men could catch up with them. They had enough supplies and equipment for an extended stay in the jungle and wouldn’t be caught off-guard like the last time.

* * *

Zerdy pushed up on the false bottom of the rail car and pulled herself out. The air was filled with dust and dirt which made breathing difficult. The tunnel was lit by the single head lamp of the train’s miniature engine.

She helped the others climb out of the cars and head down the dark tunnel. They could not afford to mill around at the collapse of the tunnel.

Chief Kaymon, Vitor and Vholm all wore ruck sacks on their backs filled with food, water, ammunition and explosives. Zerdy was still in no condition to carry a load. She did have her own canteen and food stuffs. The men carried carbine rifles and she a revolver along with her rifle. They were crude weapons by her standards, but quite modern and accurate for this planet.

They sprinted down the dark tunnel. Vholm lead the way, being the most familiar with the vein they were in. He wore a crank electric lantern on his chest that cast a dim beam into the darkness.

They could only advance as fast as the slowest member of the group, Zerdy. She had to stop after the initial sprint and they wound up walking quickly after that. Her leg muscles were throbbing and some of her burns from the prison were chaffing under the clothes she wore. She just needed to rest for a day or two and recover. But that was not an option.

They pressed on, trying to beat Kor’re’s troops to the place where the veins converged on the main tunnel. After walking uphill most of the way, they finally got close enough for Vholm to switch off his light.

The tunnel was an old lava vein and it narrowed as they approached the convergence. Vholm held up his arm and they all came to a stop and took a knee. There was light and some noise ahead of them. Vholm edged ahead of the rest of the group until he was on his stomach and crawling very carefully. He stayed in that position for what seemed like an eternity to Zerdy.

Finally, he motioned for them to advance to where he lay.

“They are just around the bend up there,” he whispered.

“How many of them?” asked Vitor.

“I could make out only a handful of distinct voices. They may be an advance party out ahead of the main group.”

Vitor looked back and motioned for Zerdy to come up beside him. She crawled on her elbows as quietly as she could. Her face was close to Vitor’s in the dark.

“I say we should take them out and move on past.”

Zerdy looked down the main tunnel. It was so dark she couldn’t see, even with the ambient flashes from the Votain lanterns.

“How far back up the tunnel are the rest of them, do you think?”

“Difficult to tell.”

“Any chance we could slip past without them noticing?”

Vitor sighed and Zerdy could barely see the frown on his face. “I will send Vholm to slit their throats. He’s good at that.”

Zerdy consented to that as she tried not to imagine it. Vitor crawled up to the Vurhan and relayed the order. He agreed and drew his long, thin blade. In a few minutes he was gone.

They didn’t have to wait long in the dark before the last Votain light went out. Vholm came back to their group standing. He was splattered with fresh blood and Zerdy thought at first that he might be grievously wounded himself.

“There were four of them and they are dead now.”

Vitor and the others got to their feet and walked past the quiet tunnel. Zerdy could not see anyone in the new darkness and held onto the loose shirt of Vitor as they continued down their path.

* * *

By the time Kor’re and Sergeant Krey caught up with the main force, they were greeted with the news of four more deaths. Kor’re was upset at the incompetence but didn’t let it distract him from his goal.

Looking around at the slit throats and pools of blood, Kor’re wondered if she had taken her anger out on the poor bastards. Whether she had or not, she was heading where he wanted her to and he was only too happy to follow.

He had Sergeant Krey reform the men and they set out down the main tunnel. They needed to engage Zerdy before she made it back to the jungle. It was far better to engage one’s enemy in your own backyard rather than theirs.





Chapter 55

They had been on the move for most of a day when Zerdy finally insisted they stop. She couldn’t go any further unless someone volunteered to carry her. Chief Kaymon consented to stop first, his bare feet were sore from walking on the hard rock floor. Vitor and Vholm took the first two watches to give the others added rest time.

Only a few hours into the sleep period, Vholm returned from his post with word that Kor’re’s men were approaching. Everyone was awakened and back on the move in minutes. They had only brought one rifle apiece and Zerdy’s weighed heavy in her languid arms. The bolt action, single fire weapon was made from heavy wood and simple metal alloy. She kept alternating a shoulder to rest it on as they trudged along in the dark tunnel.

Her leather boots were giving her feet blisters and she considered pulling them off. But the thought of carrying them along with her pack and her rifle dissuaded her from taking the boots off.

Eventually they took a break from walking and opened their rations for a quick meal. Zerdy and Vitor consumed their water and the two Vurhan used the break to double check their weapons and redistribute the weight they carried. Chief Kaymon hadn’t adopted the clothing that the Vurhne wore. He was still barefoot and wearing only his loincloth and ceremonial necklaces. His blue-green skin was decorated with tattoos that Zerdy figured were tribal designators and not decorative in nature. She watched him messing with his ruck sack and recalled his harem of women and his jungle top fortress. She figured he missed the jungle more than she did and was pushing himself to get home again.

Vitor went for a walk back the way they had come, forever paranoid that their pursuers were gaining on them. He came back out of the darkness at the end of their break and didn’t say a thing. Zerdy figured he hadn’t seen any signs of Kor’re’s soldiers, but she didn’t ask him.

They started to come across patches of verrento bugs glowing with purple fluorescent light. Zerdy scooped up some with a flat rock and put them inside her lantern. The colors refracted off the cave walls and amused her if no one else.

Vholm slowed to a crawl again and motioned for Zerdy to cover the lantern. He slithered forward into the darkness and was gone for what seemed to Zerdy an eternity. When he came back, he spoke so quietly she could barely hear him.

“There is a cavern ahead. We must be cautious. The active lava veins are nearby.”

Everyone agreed and followed Vholm’s lead. They moved onward slowly, careful not to drag their feet or rattle their ruck sacks.

Soon the tunnel ended in a large cavern with a ceiling as high as a two story Votain dwelling. It extended for the length of several train cars. There were patches of verrento everywhere, giving the cavern a surreal purple glow. Zerdy could just barely make out where the tunnel continued at the farthest corner of the cave.

Vholm guided them along the wall to their left, preferring not to wander out into the center of the vast cavern. Everyone followed him single file until he found a notch and they all came to a stop. Vholm looked around the cavern and his large, black eyes seemed to take in details that nobody else could make out.

“Something is not right,” he said. He sniffed the dank air of the cavern and tilted his head from side to side slowly, as if he were an animal picking up a scent trail.

“We are not alone here.”

“Votain or Vurhan?” Vitor asked.

Vholm shook his head as if he were not sure.

“Vurhan, I believe.”

Vitor and Zerdy exchanged glances. “There’s nobody behind us, at least not that I could tell. Do you think there are people in the tunnels ahead?” he asked Vholm.

“Perhaps.”

Zerdy touched Vholm lightly on his dark forearm. “Go ahead and see what you can find, we’ll stay here and wait for you.”

Vholm was not as quick to reconnoiter this time. He drew his knife and peeked slowly around the rocky outlay. Seeing and smelling nothing out of the ordinary, he moved around the corner toward the tunnel they needed to take.

Two shots rang out in the cavern, echoing off the rock walls. One shot went through Vholm’s head the second through his chest. His lanky body fell backwards, knife clattering on the rocks.

Everyone was startled by the shots and had jumped back against the wall despite themselves. Vholm’s body lay inert on the ground before them.

“Sniper!” Vitor said, locking a round into his rifle.

Zerdy pulled her rifle off her shoulder and slid the safety off. She brought her barrel up to cover Vitor, who was sitting where Vholm had been standing, trying to get a shot off. He was rewarded with a bullet impacting the rock near his face, sending rock and dust into his eyes.

“Damn,” Vitor swore.

“How the hell did he get ahead of us?” Zerdy asked.

Vitor sat back against the wall and rubbed the dirt from his eyes.

“I don’t know.”

Chief Kaymon put a big hand on Zerdy’s shoulder. She looked over at him and where he was looking. Back the way they came, there were lights and noises. Kor’re’s troops were coming.

“Shit,” Zerdy said.

“We are trapped,” Kaymon stated rather obviously.

“Vitor, they’ve caught up to us,” Zerdy said.

Vitor cleared his eyes and tried to see back the way they had come. Several Votain soldiers were setting up an offensive position at the mouth of the tunnel.

The three of them watched the soldiers and tried to hide behind a tiny outcrop of rock.

“Now what?” Vitor asked.

Zerdy was at a loss. She could only watch and see what developed. There was another shot from the sniper and one of the Votain soldiers fell flat on his face dead. The other backed up shooting past them at the sniper.

“I guess they’re not on the same side,” Zerdy said.

“I don’t get it? Another Kastra maybe?”

Zerdy nodded, that was as good a guess as any. The sniper shot again and this time struck a soldier in the head. He fell back out of their line of sight.

There was no return fire, but Zerdy could hear the commotion of men shuffling around to pull away the dead and take up more secure cover from the sniper.

Zerdy watched as a signal light flashed a coded message to the sniper. There was a pause as the sniper was no doubt translating the message. A single shot rang out in response and the signal light was extinguished.

“He must be KSS. Sent to take us out and prevent Kor’re from returning to the jungle,” Zerdy said.

Vitor looked at her and slowly nodded in agreement.

“So how do we get out of this?”

Zerdy looked out across the dimly lit cavern. There were a few rocks scattered about and two large lumps that looked like they could’ve been the corpses of the beasts of burden that Kor’re had brought on his first mission to the jungle.

She looked at them for a moment formulating a plan.

“I need a stick of explosives. Something I can light and toss.”

Vitor shimmied out of his ruck sack and opened it up. After rummaging around in it for a moment, he pulled out three sticks of explosives and handed them to her.

“Okay, you two make some noise while I head out there.”

Vitor put his arm across her chest to hold her back.

“Are you insane?”

She pushed his arm off of her and started to take off her water, ammunition and her fatigue shirt. She was wearing a brown t-shirt underneath.

“Just cover me until I make it to that carcass over there.”

Vitor read the urgency in her voice and backed off.

Kaymon squeezed her shoulder. “May the Spirits be with you, White Fli’r.”

She winked at him as she stuck the explosive sticks in her pockets and gripped the rifle tightly in her hand. Before she could talk herself out of it, she told them to fire and bolted for the nearest clump of rocks.

The sniper managed to get off a single shot at her but it missed. The unlikely dash had caught him off guard. She dove into the sharp rock and loose dirt of the cave floor. Her elbows and knees scraped the hard lava rocks ripping her pants and the skin underneath them.

Vitor and Kaymon stopped shooting as soon as she dove for cover. Kor’re’s troops were silent.

Zerdy cringed in pain as she tried to jockey for a position to throw the explosive. She had three chances to get the home-made hand grenade to the sniper. Realistically, only one chance before he nailed her with a head shot like he had Vholm. She took a moment to gather her wits and catch her breath. Putting the fire stone to the rope fuse, she clicked the primitive lighter until the fuse caught fire. It was laced with gunpowder and started to burn brightly. There went her night vision.

She tossed it quickly and as far as she could towards the dark tunnel. A shot rang out in the cavern and she fell back down behind the rotting corpse. Another miss. The sniper was probably blinded by the sparkle of the fuse.

The resulting explosion rang throughout the cavern and kicked up more dirt and rocks than Zerdy had figured on. She charged the position, taking out her pistol and shooting into the cloud of dust. The others followed her, shooting behind them in an effort to keep the Votain head’s down.

By the time the sulfur smoke cleared, they were all three into the tunnel. The sniper was killed by the explosion. His long, black rifle was under the largest diameter scope Zerdy had ever seen. What remained of his uniform, was black in color.

“KSS alright. Probably working for the king himself,” Vitor commented.

They hurried down the tunnel. Zerdy stopped and tossed another stick of explosives back down the tunnel. Then she dashed around a bend before it went off. They could hear the resulting rock slide dumping dirt and rocks into the tunnel as they hurried away from it.

Zerdy came up to the other two men, grimacing from the pain of her cut knees and feet. “Well that should buy us some time, while they dig out.”

Vitor and Kaymon looked at each other and just shook their heads slowly.

“What? I got us out of there, didn’t I?”

Zerdy lit the last fuse and started to hobble back.

Vitor put his hand over the spark and extinguished it.

“That’s enough. Look at you, you can barely walk now.”

She looked down at her cut knees and pressed her hands to them. She could feel the blood running down her shins. Vitor took off his shirt and began tearing the sleeves into bandages. When he was done, her wounds were dressed and she could keep moving despite the pain.

He handed her back her rifle and ammunition that he had picked up before her insane charge. She took them from him and they headed off down the purple lit tunnel.

“You are a brave one, Fli’r. But sometimes there is a fine line between bravery and insanity. You walk that line too closely I fear,” Kaymon said to her.

Zerdy didn’t reply to him. She just limped after Vitor into the darkness.





Chapter 56

“I want this cleared immediately,” Kor’re shouted. Sergeant Krey was already bringing up a squad of men with shovels. It would take them some time to clear a hole. Krey took control of the digging, putting his own shovel to dirt.

Kor’re knew the sniper was KSS, he had to be. The fact that they didn’t trust him to return to the jungle and find the space plane, really bothered him. Those bastards at Command thought they could take out Zerdy and he would turn around like a mutt with its tail between its legs. To hell with them. He was pressing on with or without her.

When he returned with the space plane and all the technological advances it offered the Engineers, they would appreciate what he had done for them. Especially if the resulting weapons they created helped put an end to the war with the Verzai Empire.

Krey pulled the sniper’s rifle out of the rubble and showed it to Kor’re.

“Standard issue night scope on a KSS long frame,” Krey said.

“Put it with the gear, we may need it later for evidence.”

Krey handed off the weapon to a trooper heading back to the supply troops in the rear.

“We’re just about through sir,” Krey said.

“Good, prepare to move out as soon as we clear it.”

Krey snapped a salute and returned to the digging, barking encouragement to the troops.

Kor’re walked over to where Vholm’s body lay. He looked at the man’s face, contorted in a final expression of surprise. Poor Vurhan bastard. Looks like he heard the shot that killed him.

He noticed an olive green shirt, crumpled against the cave wall. Picking it up, he breathed in the human scent of Zerdy. She had only discarded it a few minutes before and it was still warm with her body heat. He stood there for a while, recalling the single night of carnal adventure that they had enjoyed. Her scent brought back pleasant feelings he had almost forgotten since she was imprisoned.

He put the shirt inside his service coat and walked away before anyone noticed his obsessive behavior.

* * *

The temperature in the tunnel heated up far quicker than Zerdy had remembered from the first time through. They were upon the active lava veins after walking what seemed like a short distance. This time they entered the lava pit from the high ground and quickly moved to the lower levels.

The brightness completely destroyed their night vision. Everyone squinted as they edged along the narrow trail.

Vitor and Zerdy seemed to sweat the most in the suffocating heat. Chief Kaymon was only wearing his loincloth and a ruck sack. His skin was moist but he seemed to be less concerned with it than the two humans.

Zerdy wiped beads of sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand and tried not to lose her balance. Not falling into the churning hot lava became her primary concern as her boots struggled to maintain their footing on the hardened lava rock.

Returning to the cool, slightly humid main tunnel was a relief to each of them. For Kaymon, the humidity was a sign they were getting close to home. His sea-green skin had been dry and itchy ever since they had left the jungle. The natural body oils rejuvenated his colorful melanin and gave him a physical boost.

The humidity had the exact opposite effect on Vitor and Zerdy. Although Vitor was not as purely human as Zerdy, he still had enough human physiology to get dehydrated and languid under the weight of the jungle humidity. Kaymon moved out ahead of the group and had to slow down to let them keep up with his long, slender legs.

“We are getting closer my friends,” Kaymon said.

Vitor had taken the tailing position, constantly on the alert for Kor’re’s soldiers. He hadn’t seen or heard any sign that they were being followed since the large cavern. It was just a matter of time before they caught up.

Zerdy’s knees were still bothering her but she walked with only a slight limp. It was her boots that gave her the most trouble at this point. She could feel several callouses forming inside the tight leather. She longed for a good pair of custom designed synthetic boots like she had worn all her life on starships. Having to shove her feet into shoes not designed specifically for her own feet was unheard of until she came to this primitive world. She vowed to get out of her boots as soon as they got back to the jungle. As hard as it was for her to initially walk bare foot in the jungle, she much preferred it to being bound up in the leather Votain boots. The boots squeezed her toes and made her arches ache.

Soldiering on, she followed Kaymon through the much cooler tunnel. She had lost track of time under the mountain and had to ask Vitor whether it was day or night. He carried a wind-up time piece and told her it was early into the morning hours. Somehow just knowing that she had walked all night long, made her more tired than before. She insisted they stop for a while so she could rub her feet and check her bandages.

Vitor helped her out of her lace boots and she sat alone rubbing her feet while she pondered what to do when they got to the other side. It had been her intention all along to seal the entrance to the cave with the explosives. She didn’t want this tunnel used again for a very long time. If she happened to bury Kor’re in the process so much the better.

Even though she knew he was out there and coming after her, she didn’t want to face him again. All she wanted to do was get into the jungle and start building a new life with her old tribe. She knew it wouldn’t be easy and that she would be looked upon as their leader over and over again for many years. But she had come to accept that it was her destiny on this planet to help the Tyrmians avoid extinction at the hands of the Votains.

She would dedicate her remaining years to building a resistance force like the Vurhne, for the Tyrmians. She hoped that one day they would rise above their primitive ways and defend themselves against the tyranny of other races. Races like her own, who had forever altered the history of this planet and so many like it throughout the galaxy.

Her mission as a Starveyer was exactly that, to rectify the wrongs of history and make the galaxy a free and peaceful place. She was doing her job, just on a smaller scale. The fact that she might never succeed or that her efforts would go unnoticed by a race who had no written history, was not as important as the fact that she had at least tried to make things better.

“We must get moving again,” Vitor said.

His voice shook Zerdy out of her thoughts. She started to put the boots back on and then tossed them aside. Vitor raised an eyebrow at her action.

She took Vholm’s knife and cut off her pants above the knees. Then she ripped the pant legs into strips and used them to redress her knees. After a few minutes work, she was ready to continue.

Chief Kaymon began tapping his thigh as they walked. Zerdy noticed it right away and realized that the big man was getting fidgety to return to his homeland.

She walked beside him and put her hand over his to stop his tapping.

“We’re getting close, Chief. Are you anxious to see your wives again?”

He looked down at her and smiled white-toothed. He made a conscious effort to stop the tapping. Zerdy squeezed his hand and then moved up to walk with Vitor.

Vitor looked around the dim tunnels as if he half-expected another sniper to strike him down. She reached out to touch his hand and he brushed her off. She respected his privacy and fell back a bit to let him take the lead.

“Why did you volunteer to go with us?” she asked him.

He didn’t respond to her right away. He walked along at the same gate as her, his mind silently formulating a response.

“I have always been an outsider in my world. Those of us who are more like you, are looked down upon as outcasts of society. We are excluded from participating in many aspects of daily life. But we are not slaves and we are not abused like the Vurhan and the Tyrmians are. No matter how badly we are looked down upon, we are not treated as poorly as they are.

“Sometimes it takes an outcast to champion the rights of those who have no rights. That is the purpose of the Vurhne. That is why I fight my own countrymen to help them. That is why I have given up my own freedoms to help them achieve theirs.”

Zerdy had to hold back her tears. The human spirit of equality and justice seemed alive and well in people like Vitor and Mholb.

“We’re very much alike, you and me. Had I crashed on your side of the mountains, I would have sought out the Vurhne and joined you.”

He looked back at her and lowered his chin in agreement.





Chapter 57

The dark tunnels were now so black that they had to use lanterns to see where they were going. There were no glowing pods of verrento bugs to help them find their way. Vitor had grown more and more wary of being overtaken by Kor’re’s troops. He took up their rear, walking far enough behind them that Zerdy could barely see him in the dark.

Chief Kaymon was leading the group. His strides were longer and his restless hands increased their tempo. Zerdy knew that they were getting close to the exit point. She checked her supply of explosive sticks. Crude hand grenades that she wanted to use to bring down the entire tunnel entrance. She had four more left. Zerdy hoped that would be enough to keep Kor’re’s troops from digging out. Just to be safe, she had one extra stick that Kaymon carried with twice the explosive yield as the smaller sticks.

Her plan was for him to get out of the tunnel first, she wanted to make sure that he survived to lead his people. If Zerdy or Vitor were killed, at least Kaymon’s tribe would be safe.

Zerdy’s legs ached more than her knees and elbows as they kept on walking. What had taken them several days to traverse the first time was now an everlasting nightmarish walk. Their pace had slowed as endurance was now more important than speed. Zerdy took a long drink from her canteen and could tell it was running low by how light it felt. She wondered if they could make it before falling over from exhaustion. Kaymon seemed to be faring the best. His slender build and long legs easily outpaced the two humans.

“Kaymon, I need to rest a while.”

Kaymon turned to her with his bright eyes glowing in the darkness. “We are nearly there. I can already smell the sweet drapher trees.”

Zerdy plopped herself down and rested her back against the cool cave wall. Vitor came out of the shadows behind them and sat beside her without questioning the need to stop. He was visibly exhausted.

“I can not hear anything behind us. Perhaps they stopped for an extended rest.”

Zerdy shook her head. “I don’t think so. He wants more than just my space plane. He won’t risk letting me disappear into the jungle.”

“Why is this commander so obsessed with you?” Kaymon asked.

She looked up at Kaymon who was still standing. “He’s in love with me.”

He looked at her blankly. She didn’t know the Vurhan word for love.

Vitor shook his head, he understood and the thought of them being together somehow amused him. He looked away so as to hide his grin.

Kaymon was not getting it. Zerdy was going to have to draw him a picture. She pushed her right index finger into her left fist. Kaymon’s face brightened, now he got it.

“You are his mate?”

She nodded. Kaymon’s eyes were big for a while, the very idea was foreign to him.

“This explains a great many things I have wondered about,” Kaymon said.

Zerdy laughed out loud. Vitor joined her. Kaymon shook his head and turned around. He didn’t understand what they were so amused by.

* * *

“Sir, the men are weary. They could use a break,” Sergeant Krey stated.

Kor’re was walking ahead of the rest of the column. He turned to look back at them and for the first time saw how depleted they looked.

“We are nearly to the end. If we stop now, they will get away.”

Krey pressed him further, “What good will it do us to catch up with them if we cannot lift our weapons to fight?”

Kor’re eyed his sergeant who was bordering on disrespect with the comment.

“Alright, Sergeant. We will take a short break,” he said. He continued walking along side the soldiers at the front of the column while Krey stopped and turned around to give the order to halt the formation.

Kor’re moved ahead of his soldiers and stood in the darkness trying to peer ahead. He gave his lantern a few quick turns and lifted it against the dark. Its light only fell a few meters ahead. He could see no further than the light of the lantern.

Somewhere ahead of them in the dark tunnels was Zerdy. He wished that he could meet with her privately. Tell her how much his heart longed for her. She probably doesn’t care. I doubt she feels the same about me. How could she? She is from another world. I’m probably just some kind of primitive male to her.

“Sergeant Krey?”

Krey left the column and hurried up to where Kor’re was standing by himself.

“Send two of your best troops to me. I’m going ahead of the main group. You are now in charge of the main force. Get them moving as soon as they are rested.”

Krey saluted and headed back to the main group. Kor’re could tell by the expression on his face that Krey was not thrilled with breaking the group up, but he was too much of a professional to complain about the order.

Within a few minutes two soldiers reported to Kor’re. They were well outfitted with field packs, helmets and plenty of extra ammo.

“Take off those packs and lighten your load. We will be moving quickly.”

Kor’re helped them strip off any extra weight until like him, they were wearing little more than their uniforms and weapons.

“We are going to catch up with the Vurhne and monitor their movements. There is a woman with them. You are not to kill her under any circumstances. Understood?”

Both soldiers spoke in unison. “Yes, sir!”

Kor’re cranked up his lantern and gave it to the biggest soldier. “You are on point.”

They started walking into the inky blackness at a slightly faster pace.

* * *

Zerdy could feel the humidity of the jungle slowly wrapping her body in its wet, sticky arms. Even Vitor had taken off his shirt and was nipping from his canteen more and more. Her own canteen was nearly dry.

They were very close to the opening now. The sliver of light beat back the darkness of the subterranean world. Zerdy could smell the jungle. The various flowering plants and fruit trees tempted her onward to sweeter things. Ahead lay a better life for her and the Tyrmians.

The thought of making it out of the tunnel somehow made her wounds less painful and her muscles less sore. She almost had a spring in her step as she walked.

Vitor walked with Zerdy and Kaymon. He had given up on watching their backs and primarily focused on getting to the jungle as fast as they could. They were all falling under the spell of the jungle as they hurried along at a faster pace than before.

When the shot rang out from the darkness behind them it, took a moment for it to register before they fell to the ground for cover. Zerdy looked back to where they had come and pulled her rifle up so she could use it. She planned to aim at the next muzzle flash, provided it wasn’t the shot that killed her.

Vitor had fallen beside her and was not moving.

“Vitor, are you alright?” Zerdy asked. She could hear Kaymon moving around on the ground behind her and assumed he wasn’t shot.

Vitor didn’t move or respond to her in any way. Damn, I can’t believe this is happening. To make it all this way and then lose Vitor. She felt like crying but her growing anger steeled her.

She reached out beside her to try and touch him, keeping her eyes facing forward to catch the next muzzle flash. She could feel his torso and he wasn’t breathing. She moved closer to him and rested her rifle on him to steady her shot. Then she sent several rounds down tunnel at her attackers.

“Come out and fight like a man, Kor’re!” she yelled. Her voice echoing off the tunnel walls.

There was another shot which nearly blinded her and she returned fire with another five rounds. When the echoes subsided, she could hear the sounds of a body being dragged a short distance.

“Chief, get behind Vitor and me,” she whispered.

Kaymon crawled over to her right and hid behind Vitor’s head. He carried no rifle and didn’t know how to use one.

“See if you can find his ammunition, I’m going to need it.”

Kaymon nodded in the dark and felt around Vitor’s body for his bandoleer. His hand touched the center of Vitor’s chest and became wet with blood. Not deterred by gore, Kaymon found the leather bandoleer and pulled it off the dead man.

Zerdy was carrying about twenty rounds and so was Vitor. They hadn’t taken much ammo because it would have slowed them down. She loaded up the remaining rounds that she had and rested her rifle on Vitor.

“You’re going to have to shoot his rifle, can you do that?”

“Yes,” Kaymon said confidently.

“Just point it that way and pull the trigger. It will kick a bit, but not much. I’m going to toss one of these.”

She took out one of her explosive sticks and her lighter.

Kaymon couldn’t really see it, but he understood what she meant.

“After it goes off, we’re sprinting as far as we can go.”

“Try and keep up with me, White Fli’r.”

She grinned in the dark, as Kaymon picked up the rifle and aimed it down tunnel. Then she stood up quickly and tossed the lit explosive. Kaymon fired the rifle until it ran out of bullets. Zerdy fell to the ground and covered her head.

The resulting explosion blew rock and dirt over their heads and throughout the tunnel. The flash lit up the debris in mid-flight for a split second before plunging back into the pitch black.

Zerdy and Kaymon got to their feet again as the dust still rained down and ran as fast as they could over the tiny chips of stone and rock. Kaymon quickly pulled out into the lead and Zerdy was forced to run faster to stay up with him.

They ran for several minutes until Zerdy’s side began to ache and her lungs were ready to burst. She slowed down and eventually collapsed as the light from the crack in the rock became visible in the distance. Kaymon sensed her absence and slowed to a stop.

“It is only a little further, Fli’r. We must continue.”

He called back to her in Vurhan. She held up a hand and gathered her breath. Then she waved him on. “Get out while you can, Chief!”

Kaymon pushed on, sprinting with ease until he reached the rocky entrance to the rain forest. He looked back to Zerdy in the distance, barely able to make out her form moving in the shadows. Then he scaled the rock wall and started crawling through the crack.

She had made him swear to get out of the tunnel first, at all cost. To not go back in after her or Vitor. He was doing as she asked him to, but it was still hard for her to watch him slip into the glare of sunlight without her.





Chapter 58

Kor’re walked through the clouds of smoke with steady determination. His second soldier lay torn apart in the dark behind him. Kor’re’s body was shredded with cuts and bruises from the explosion. He had lost his weapon and his hearing but he needed neither to track his target.

His right hand rested on the hilt of his sword. Her sword. His left hand dangled uselessly by his side as he walked. Shrapnel had torn the muscles of his forearm apart and left the ligaments alone to keep his arm attached. The pain was intense, but he ignored it, focusing instead on catching up to her.

She limped along about as fast as him, trying to get to the exit. Kor’re walked faster, his vision blurred by the light from the cave opening and her wavering silhouette.

He struggled to pull the blade from its sheath as he walked. It was no easy task with only one hand. Finally he got it free and gripped it tightly in his good hand. The heavy sword fell to the rocky ground and he dragged it behind him as he walked. He didn’t intend to kill her, but he was not beyond it at this point.

It felt like he was underwater or in some kind of languid nightmare. The ringing in his ears focused his thoughts and carried him forward. Even the pain of nearly losing his arm in the blast was mute and distant. All he wanted to do was stop Zerdy from leaving the tunnel. He couldn’t let her disappear into the jungle never to be seen again. He needed her. More than life itself.

* * *

Zerdy could hear the metal scraping coming in her direction and it scared the hell out of her. She had no idea what it was until it started to out pace her. Hesitant to risk a look back, she saw that it was Kor’re dragging her sword over the rocks. He was limping and one arm dangled loose beside him.

She checked her rifle and realized that in the last skirmish she had expended all her remaining rounds. She pulled the bolt out and it ejected the last shell. Angry at herself for being so wasteful with her ammunition, she tossed the rifle aside. It clattered on the rocks as she tried to pick up her pace.

How could Kor’re be the only soldier behind me? He must have taken some men with him and pressed on ahead of his main group. That meant more soldiers were coming. She had to get out of the tunnel fast. Another glance behind her and she realized that she wasn’t going to make it. He was a few meters behind her and closing. Damn he can limp fast!

She checked her pockets for more explosive sticks. She had one left. The big one. If she set that one off inside the tunnel, she would die along with Kor’re and the entrance would be sealed. She wasn’t ready to die. She had something to live for. A mission more important than anything else she had done with her life. She had to live long enough to teach the Vurhan and the Tyrmians to work together to defend their land from Kor’re and his people.

She turned to face her pursuer. He stopped and struggled to lift the sword up to rest on his shoulder. She could see him better than he could see her, the light from the tunnel’s entrance was behind her back.

He was in pretty bad shape. His face was bloodied from rocky shrapnel and the fabric of his shirt was torn. He looked like hell and she wasn’t the least bit concerned.

“It’s over Kor’re. You cannot win!”

He started to limp closer to her. Her back was against the wall that she needed to climb to get out of the tunnel.

“If you come after me, I’ll kill you Kor’re,” she warned, taking Vholm’s knife out where Kor’re could see it.

Kor’re admired the long blade on his shoulder and shrugged.

“Mine is bigger,” he said so loudly that she realized he must be nearly deaf from the blast.

She backed away from the stone wall and moved out into the light of the entrance. He watched her circle and snarl at her like a brute.

“To think I actually loved you.”

She didn’t respond. Just kept her cool and tried to figure out how she could knock him down before he got a swing at her with that sword.

He took a wobbly step towards her and she decided not to wait any longer. She had no idea how soon the remaining soldiers would catch up to them but she knew that she didn’t want to be around when they did.

“Who am I kidding, I still love you.”

His face was suddenly less grotesque and more pathetic. He looked at her with smitten black eyes and a wistful smile. She almost fell for it.

He swung the sword at her and she lunged backwards to easily miss it. The metal bounced off the rocky wall of the cave with a clang. Kor’re pulled it back up with all his strength before she could parry the move with her knife.

She ducked as he backhanded the sword over her head. She drove her knife into his stomach and pulled it out quickly. Kor’re doubled over in pain and let out a gasp of breath.

Zerdy sheathed her knife and wrestled the sword out of his good hand without much effort. She pounced on him with it gripped firmly in her hands. Kor’re fell backwards onto the hard ground with her on top of him.

She knew he couldn’t hear but she spoke anyway, if only just to hear herself.

“Rest in hell, you bastard.”

He looked at her with tired, glassy eyes. A smile played across his lips.

She plunged the sword into his heart and twisted it until she saw his eyes roll back into his head.

“That was for Kwin, Cyril and all the Tyrmians you butchered.”

She bent down to his face and gouged the sword further into his body with a satisfying thrust.

“And that was from me. Goodbye, Kor’re.”

She touched his face with a trembling hand and closed her eyes. Her strength was nearly gone and she still had to climb out of the cave.

There was movement and sound coming from the darkness. She stood up above Kor’re’s body and tugged the sword out of his chest. It was wet with his blood. She cut off the scabbard he had made for it, wiped the blood from the blade on her pants and then slid the sword into the scabbard.

Looking up towards the light pouring into the cave from above, she tossed the sword through the opening. Turning back to face the tunnel, she took out the last explosive stick.

She put it in her mouth and bit down on it as she started to climb up the side of the rock wall. There were creases in the slick wall that she could find purchase with her feet and her hands. She climbed without looking back, even though she could hear the rustling of boots and the sounds of commands being issued in Votain.

Shots began hitting the rock around her as she pushed herself over the top of the ledge. Crawling as fast as she could, she made it out into the white light of daylight.

The round, moss covered rocks of the pit were slick, slowing her down as she tried to run away from the entrance of the cave. She slipped and fell. Got back up again and ran until she slipped again. She dropped the lighter onto the rocks and had to search for it frantically. The troops in the cave began trying to scale the steep cave wall.

Water was falling from high up the side of the mountain and it soaked her, adding to the difficulty of her escape.

She found the lighter and clicked it to light the fuse.

The fuse was wet.

Shots fired from the opening of the cave. Zerdy took one in the arm. She lunged behind a larger rock and continued to try and light the wet fuse. It was pointless. The lighter was wet and so was the stick. Her right arm bled from where she was shot. She pushed back her wet hair and tried to think how to light the damn fuse.

She could hear the Votains shouting and trying to push themselves out of the cave. She picked up a fist sized rock and beamed the first soldier that came out of the opening. He caught the rock in the forehead and fell backwards blocking the entrance.

She looked up at the high cliff walls where the water was coming from and tried to think of her next move. The struck soldier was pulled back into the tunnel and a second man came forward, leading with his rifle. She started hurling rocks at him before he could even see her well enough to shoot.

She laughed as they struggled to defend themselves from a rock attack. Finally, they pushed out of the entrance, rifles blazing in her direction. Zerdy ducked down behind her rock, closed her eyes and started to scream. It can’t end this way. NO! I’m so close to getting free.

The zinging of bullets stopped and she opened her eyes. She looked to the vines and trees at the top of the pit, where she could just make out the outline of dozens of Vurhan warriors. She looked back at the cave wall and saw the first soldier hit the ground, impaled with a hunter’s spear. The second soldier raised his rifle to take a shot and was met with two such spears.

Zerdy raised her good arm to cheer on the warriors. They answered her back with war cries of their own. Several began descending on ropes made from jungle vines. Zerdy peered through the waterfall to the entrance of the cave. She could see a third soldier, a sergeant aiming at the descending warriors.

She picked up a rock and skipped it across the ground right before the soldier. It smacked him over the head and ruined his aim. Not to be deterred by a rock, he quickly aimed at her.

But Zerdy was not there. She had sprinted to a new location behind a bigger rock. The sergeant started firing at the Vurhan warriors. A few fell but more replaced them until the entire side of pit was flooded with blue-green bodies of screaming warriors. Finally the sergeant realized he was outnumbered and slid back down inside the cave.

Zerdy sat behind her rock and watched the Vurhan warriors pass her by and run uncontested into the cave entrance. There were shots fired inside the cave, but not enough to stop the flood of angry warriors.

Chief Kaymon descended to the pit floor. His toothy grin was big as the sky.

“So good to see you again, White Fli’r.”

He helped her to her feet on the slick rocks and she hugged him tightly with her good arm.

“Thank you for rescuing me, Chief.”

He patted her on the back and returned her hug. When they parted, a warrior came back from the tunnel with a report.

“The soldiers are all running like cowards.”

“Very good. Recall the warriors.”

The painted warrior nodded and started yelling after the others back into the cave.

Zerdy examined her explosive stick. It would dry out quickly and still be usable. But she knew the soldiers were probably carrying more.

“Chief, have your warriors capture the soldier’s supplies. I’m going to need some more of this.”

He nodded and passed on the message. She put the stick in her pants pocket and removed a bandage from her knee. She used it to tie off the wound on her arm.

“I thought I might have lost you in those Spiritless tunnels,” Kaymon said.

“You nearly did. Commander Kor’re is dead,” she said, her hand on the hilt of her sword.

“I killed him with the sword he used on Kwin.”

Kaymon put his big hands on her shoulders.

“You are the slayer of Kor’re. The leader of the Vurhne in this jungle and the White Fli’r of the Spirit world. Truly we are blessed by the Spirits to have you among us.”

Zerdy smiled and looked back at the tunnel entrance. This place had to be destroyed. It would keep the Votains out of the jungle for a while, but eventually they would be back and in greater numbers. By that time, she would be ready for them.





Chapter 59

Under Zerdy’s guidance, the Vurhan warriors retrieved all the equipment that Kor’re had brought on his expedition. They were able to salvage weapons, explosives and food. Even some radio gear needed to communicate with Mholb and the Vurhne. All of it was carefully lifted out of the pit and transported back to the camp where Kwin’s tribe still lived.

Zerdy then set off several charges inside the tunnel’s entrance. The resulting explosion sealed the tunnel off from the jungle. But she was not finished. She planted more charges above the pit on the high cliff walls causing an avalanche to sweep into the giant pit and completely seal all access to the area. It would take a major effort to dig through that tunnel to the jungle. An effort that would surely be noticed in time to take action against it.

But Zerdy didn’t expect that to happen. She figured the Votains would come over the mountains before coming under them again. Their meager airplanes were limited to lower altitudes now, but in a few years they’d be soaring over the Krakenhoven ridges and bringing with them troops and explorers looking for oil and other natural resources that the jungle held.

Zerdy was openly welcomed back into Kwin’s tribe by shaman Tenar. There were little more than a half dozen members that had survived the slaughter by Kor’re’s troops. Mostly the elderly and a few children. The first thing Zerdy did was to insist that they merge with the neighboring Tyrmian tribe. It wasn’t a trivial negotiation, but when word of her adventures arrived the leadership quickly conceded without violence.

It would be the first merger of Tyrmian tribes in a long line of mergers and alliances that she would preside over. With each new tribe of Tyrmian people she adopted into her alliance came an agreement not to fight the Vurhan over the scarce natural resources of the jungle. She taught the Tyrmians how to improve their meager lives by adapting their customs to her new methods of hunting and even farming. The jungle had many layers and she taught them how to make use of them and still retain the diversity of life.

She worked with Tenar to encourage their spiritual lives, even though she knew that it was all superstition, fear, and drugs that gave him his control of the Spirit world. As long as he continued to support her improvements, she would tolerate his shaman ways. The tribe needed a spiritual leader and she was not prepared to offer them anything different.

A few weeks after the tunnel was sealed she realized that she was pregnant. Her tummy began to show and she slowed her pace significantly. Her physical wounds from the other side of the mountains were completely healed. But her psychological ones were still under the surface. She knew that her child belonged to Kor’re and that thought disturbed her deeply. But she was willing to accept that if it weren’t for him, she wouldn’t have been able to mother her own progeny in the jungle. She spent many mornings off on her own, high above the jungle at the top of the Tree of Life.

Tenar didn’t care to follow her up to the top anymore, preferring to keep to the ground and smoke his pipes. She could smell the aroma wafting up from the center of the tree as she sat looking out on the jungle canopy. The sun was rising and casting an orange glow on the Krakenhoven peaks behind her.

The sword of her ancestors rested in her lap, as her hands gently caressed her growing tummy. The future grew inside her and the dawn was rising on a new beginning both for her and her people. She had a long journey ahead of her but she wasn’t afraid to face it. She had come too far to ever turn back from her destiny in the jungle. Acceptance of her role in protecting the Tyrmians gave her an inner calm that she had never known before.

Her restless soul had found a home on an alien world filled with pain and suffering but also filled with love and possibilities. As the warm rays of the sun fell upon her cheeks, she looked to the future. To a time when the Tyrmians would be able to assert their rightful place on this world and turn back the tides of war. She wanted to see that future, or at least let her child see it. She felt a kick and then another inside her. Something told her that she was carrying a baby girl. Mother’s intuition perhaps. Only the future would know for sure.





Chapter 60

Admiral Talon stood before a picture window that looked down on the iridescent colors of IS40c. It was like returning to the scene of a crime that had occurred some twenty-two years earlier. He never thought that he would get to come back to this jewel on the outer edge of the galaxy.

After a long and rewarding career as a starforce officer, he was on his final mission before retirement. Sensing it would be his last chance to return to this world, he pulled what remaining strings he had at Wing to finally get a mission approved to IS40c.

No one had been to this system since the Constellation had left on urgent fleet business all those years ago. He swore to himself on the memory of how that ‘urgent business’ had turned out to be just another planetary civil war. One of many minor skirmishes that erupted in the ensuing years after the Great War ended. His entire career in space had been devoted to putting out fires on planets torn asunder by the war.

He had hoped that he would enjoy a long career of exploration at the far corners of the galaxy. But that was not to be. Neither it seemed was he to have been with Szeredy, his long lost first love. After her disappearance his career went into a slump as he tried in vain to get reassigned to a ship that was headed back to this system. But no ship ever received orders to explore the planet.

Eventually he gave up and focused on his career. He rose quickly enough from Squadron Commander to Group Commander. It was only a short time before he was promoted to second in command of a light carrier. Years spent learning to run a starship eventually paid off with his Fleet Carrier Command.

He tried to come back to this system many times during his long career and the fact that he was finally here was a testament to his perseverance. He fiddled nervously with the wedding band on his finger. Sliding it past his knuckle and then back again to its well-worn position. He had been married for the past twenty years to a wonderful woman that he met in the fleet. They had a son together and now he was a Starveyer on the very ship Talon commanded. Trey was just as eager to see the galaxy and make his mark on it as his old man had once been.

When they entered the system it was immediately obvious that there was life on the fourth planet. The night side of the blue-green ball was dotted with the lights of hundreds of cities. Talon felt immense gratification in knowing that he was right about life flourishing on the planet.

He had no idea the natives were as advanced as they now appeared to be. There were two nation states that were fighting for control of the planet’s resources. Both were rapidly approaching nuclear capability and both appeared oblivious to anything outside their own atmosphere.

Talon didn’t wish to become involved in the planet’s destiny but he knew that he couldn’t search for Szeredy’s starfighter and not be noticed by the warring parties. Advanced reconnaissance indicated that the dominate race was Votainion and that there was an indigenous race that was primarily located in the jungles where he knew her ship went down.

As he stared at the greens and whites of the planet below, he tried to imagine again what Khas and Szeredy had gone through on the planet’s surface so long ago. Did they survive a crash landing? Were they killed by the natives? Did they know we tried to look for them? All questions Talon had asked himself over and over again for years. Finally, he was going to have the answers.

“Bridge to Admiral Talon.”

Talon tapped his collar rank and spoke to the ship’s intercom.

“This is Talon, go.”

“We have located the starfighter.”

Talon heard the words but couldn’t believe them. He had waited so long to learn the fate of his long lost love. He stammered to reply.

“Ah, g-good. Ready my shuttle, I’m heading for the launch bay.”

“Aye, Admiral.”

Talon made it down to the launch bays in record time. He couldn’t wait to get to the surface and see the wreck. His pulse was racing and his forehead beaded with sweat.

It only took him a few minutes to make the walk and in that time he received two updates from the ground team. The first mentioned that they had seen no native life in the area, the second mentioned the condition of the scout. His son was leading the ground team. Lieutenant Trey had reported that the SR-77 Scout ship was located on a wooden cart that had collapsed and was overgrown with vegetation.

Talon tried to make sense of the wooden cart. The natives must have found it and tried to move it somewhere. The fact that it was overgrown with jungle flora meant that it was no longer of interest to anyone. He asked about PLB’s and was awaiting an answer when his shuttle launched.

* * *

Talon’s shuttle was escorted down due to all the aerial activity from the waring parties in the area. The skies were full of metal flying machines all designed to shoot each other down. The explosive projectiles they used for weapons were no match for the shuttle’s shields, but that did not stop the area commander from exercising extreme caution where the captain was concerned.

The jungle was thick and lush as the shuttle skimmed over the tree tops. Dark rain clouds hung over the area lending an ominous feel to the mission. He had come too far and waited too long to return here, there was nothing that could scare him away now.

The life forms detected on the shuttle’s scanners were varied and plentiful. There appeared to be rich diversity in the jungle. This was essential for any living planet. The warring nation states hadn’t made an appreciable dent in the rain forest.

The shuttle descended into the dark lower levels of the jungle before finally making landfall. Security troops were the first to exit, making sure the area was secure before the Admiral was allowed to debark.

Talon could feel the humid air envelope him as soon as the doors opened. No effort to wear a protective suit was made as the ground team had already determined the atmosphere was sustainable. Everyone wore minimal personal shields to protect them from insects and other potentially deadly airborne diseases.

Trey came out of the thick brush and met up with his father. His uniform was scuffed up and his face alive with the joy of discovery.

“Father, I mean Admiral. The scout plane is over here. We haven’t located anyone nearby and there were no bodies on board. However, the back seat was...”

Talon’s heart sank as he heard his son’s report.

“What?”

Trey motioned for his father to follow him over a fallen tree and down into a shallow ravine. They came upon a growth of heavy vegetation and Talon could just make out the twisted metal of the scout’s airframe.

Vines and weeds had been hastily cut down and pulled back to reveal the cockpit area of the scout. The wooden cart it was once on had already been consumed back into the forest floor. Trey helped his father up onto the wing root so he could peer into the backseat area of the scout.

It was amazingly intact for having been exposed to the elements for so long. Trey pointed to the massive hole in the seat back.

“It looks like part of a tree might have killed the back-seater upon landing. But it didn’t go through to the pilot seat.”

Talon got an image in his mind of how horrible Khas’s death must have been both for the Votainion and for Szeredy. She was alone on the planet from the very beginning.

A sobering and terrible thought. How frightened and alone she must have been. I can’t even imagine…Provided she survived the crash, and it looked as if she had, she must have felt terribly alone when nobody rescued her. Talon wasn’t sure he could have survived under those conditions. Perhaps she didn’t live long. The life forms encountered so far were fierce and varied.

“Captain, we have inbound bipedal contacts,” a trooper alerted him.

Trey was already pushing through the brush towards the contact before Talon could turn around. I’m too old for this shit. He took out his service pistol as several more troopers moved in to cover him with rifles. Talon felt like an even bigger target with all the fuss over his protection.

“Hold your fire, we have natives. I repeat, hold your fire,” Trey’s voice came over the communicators.

Talon caught a glimpse of movement higher up in the jungle and squinted to see what it was. There were several humanoids standing on the branches of a tree several meters away. The troopers raised their weapons but held them in check. Talon pressed on through the underbrush to where his son had charged.

Coming out of the brush into a tall grassy clearing, he saw Trey confronting several nearly naked natives. Trey’s rifle was up and his posture was relaxed as if he didn’t consider them a threat. As Talon moved closer, he saw why. They were not alien at all, at least not all of them. Most of them were lithe green aliens but one in particular was not.

A human looking female young and beautiful stood quietly in the tall grass. She wore a leather wrap around her waist and carried a long spear. Her light-blue skin was decorated with black stripes and her hair was a burnt orange color. Her face was strikingly familiar. Szeredy?

Talon slowly approached Trey from behind, his pistol still held up in the ready position. He waved his body guards off as they tried to surround him.

Not Szeredy, she was far too young. But she was definitely related, except for the skin and hair color.

“This is Cyril. Daughter of Zerdy. Whoever that is,” Trey said. He was scanning the woman with a biocorder.

“That would be Szeredy, the pilot of the scout.”

Talon stood beside his son and stared at the exotic woman standing before them. She had Szeredy’s cheek bones and her blue eyes. Her pale bluish skin coloring suggested a Votainion mate, but the red hair was throwing him. Still, she was the child of Szeredy, which meant that Szeredy had survived on this world.

“She’s human and Votainion or something like Votainion. Perhaps one of the two dominate races on this planet,” Trey said as he smiled at the woman. She was exotically beautiful and bare chested.

She didn’t return the gesture but focused her attention on Talon, looking at him like she had seen a ghost.

“We come from the sky,” he pointed up.

Cyril looked at him curiously at first and then relaxed a bit. Her dialect was part Votainion and part native. He had no difficulty understanding her.

“My mother came from the sky. She told me that one day her people might return. You are from my mother’s tribe?”

Talon slowly nodded.

“Come with me,” she insisted, turning to walk into the tree line behind her.

Trey secured his biocorder and followed after the woman with his father. They walked for a while in the simmering heat and before long came upon a massive tree that had been woven together by several smaller trees.

Cyril stopped before it and got down on one knee. She spoke something in the native language and a thin, green alien emerged from an opening in the tree. The alien had a single ponytail of gray-black hair that extended from the back of his head and fell down his back to his waist. He wore a loincloth and simple necklaces of bones and vines.

Talon’s wife was an archaeologist and he had seen enough primitive tribes to recognize that the male alien was some kind of medicine man or shaman. Cyril took Talon by the hand and guided him inside the massive tree, while the shaman stayed outside with Trey and the others.

It wasn’t dark inside the tree, light poured in through the yellow windows of sap high above. Talon could see a simple dais with a wooden table and a few articles of faith – candles, animal hides and wooden pipes.

She sat down with him before the dais and removed the top to the table. Inside the dais was a package wrapped in very old cloth or perhaps very large leaves from a plant. Cyril unwrapped the leaves and removed an ancient starship log book made from paper. The letters S.S. Bourke were engraved on the book’s withered cover.

Talon accepted the book from her and put a wrinkled hand on the words. He understood in an instant what they were. Every fleet captain knew the history of the start of the Great War. How the Federation starship S.S. Bourke was savagely destroyed while on a mission of peaceful exploration.

“Many, many generations ago, my people crash landed on this world. They defended the native Tyrmian people against other, more aggressive people, also from the skies.”

Talon nodded, he was beginning to understand the history of this planet and how it could have gotten to where it was now. It was far more important than anyone had ever known before. This was the unofficial starting point for the millennial galactic conflict.

“My mother was also from the sky people’s ships. She fell to this planet and was accepted by this tribe.” Cyril waved around her to indicate the natives outside.

“She protected them from the Votains and taught them how to defend themselves against a superior military force. She is known among these people as the White Fli’r. I am her only daughter, Cyril. My father was a Votain leader who once captured White Fli’r and took her to his side of the Krakenhoven mountains. But she was braver and smarter than him and escaped back to this forest to lead the Tyrmians and the Vurhan against the Votains.”

She stopped and looked away from Talon. Her face was sad and wise beyond her age. She looked as if she had inherited the mantle of protector from her mother and all the burdens associated with it.

“Where is White Fli’r now?”

Cyril stood up and took his hand in hers again. It was cool and soft, compared to his rough and sweaty hand. He tried to give her back the book but she insisted he keep it.

“My mother recorded her adventures in this book. She wanted her people to read it someday.”

Talon carefully put it under his arm for safe keeping. Together they walked out of the tree and into the forest. Trey and the others were curious but said nothing as they moved to a small clearing behind the tree.

Cyril pointed to several wooden posts with engraved names on them. Talon got down on his knee and read them.

Khas, Lieutenant Junior Grade Age 26

Szeredy, Lieutenant Age 48

Cyril Friend to Szeredy, Age Unknown

Talon put a hand on the wooden post and traced the outlines of her name with his index finger. She had died so young but had managed to thrive in this forest for longer than he could’ve imagined. It must’ve been a hard life.

“How did your mother die?” Talon had to ask.

Cyril was serene and proud as she spoke. “My mother died from an infection after losing her leg in combat. She was the Uniter of our peoples and the greatest warrior who ever lived.”

Talon shook his head in amazement. That didn’t sound like the woman he knew all those years ago. Szeredy was restless and non-committal, at least concerning her future with him. But as he recalled, she always seemed to be looking for something different than everyone else. Falling onto this world was about as different as she could’ve ever wanted.

She had clearly championed the natives and left them better off than she had found them. All these years he had wondered what his life would have been like had she said yes to his marriage proposal and she hadn’t gone on that fateful mission. Now he realized that so many lives were undoubtedly made better by her coming here instead of building a life with him. Still, he would always remember her the way he knew her, not as some jungle savior.

He stood up and looked into the eyes Szeredy’s daughter. She was very pretty, like her mother and he could tell she was bright, also like her mother. He wondered who her father had been but figured such things were probably recorded in the book he carried in his arms.

“Thank you for the book. I knew your mother once, long ago.”

Her eyes brightened. “Are you Talon?”

His wrinkled face relaxed in a smile. She had remembered him enough to tell her daughter about him.

“Yes, I’m Talon.”

She threw her slender arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. “This is from Mom. She told me to hug you tightly, if you ever returned.”

His eyes leaked as he struggled to keep it together for the hug. Suddenly he was a young man again, and head-over-heels in love with the most beautiful woman in the universe. He looked up at the high jungle canopy and mouthed ‘thank you’ to Szeredy.

There was a rustling in the brush behind the wooden grave markers. They both caught a glimpse of a white fli’r bounding into the tree line before it disappeared.





Acknowledgments

Many people had a hand in the making of this book. I’d like first to thank my wife Laurie, and my two sons, Jack and Spencer for putting up with a husband and father who moonlights as a writer.

This book was based on a short story that was accepted by Silverlight.com. You can still read it on that site today, under the title - “I Tyrmian”. I’d like to thank the editors of Silverlight for accepting that story and all the readers who told me I should expand it into a book.

I would also like to thank my Beta Readers - friends, co-workers and fellow writers who took the time to read early drafts of Tyrmia and suggest ways to improve it. I’m forever in their debt. Special thanks to: Mike Hachigian, Chris Morgan, Victoria Gray, Teri French, Stephanie Hobbs, Sharon Roest, and Steve Bryan. Thanks once again to my good friend Bill Blohm who was a sounding board for me during the writing of this novel. I’d also like to thank author Bob Mayer and my fellow writers who attended Bob’s fantastic Warrior Writer class in the Spring of 2010.

No writer is complete without his or her editor, and for me that is the fantastic Angela Abderhalden. Thanks for another fine job, Angie. I’d also like to extend special thanks to Jeremy Wynn for creating a truly awesome cover for Tyrmia. Finally, I’d like to once again thank my brother, Byron McConnell, for his stellar graphic design skills in laying out both the e-book and paper back versions of this novel. As always, he makes my stuff look great.