Short story excerpt: CLASS REUNION, an Infrenx story

 Thyal chuckled and linked their arms. They set off down a paved pathway to the right and he increased their pace.

"Are we in a hurry to get somewhere?" she asked after several moments.

"Mysteries …" He winked, a most un-Le'ankan expression. "Father suggested I might be interested in something a ship of Gleaners brought for examination. Since the others are delayed – how long?"

"No telling. They'll contact me when Dulit arrives."

"Since we have some time to wait, I thought you might be interested also."

"You did say Gleaners? The garbage-pickers of the universe? The carrion-birds of every known stellar battle since spaceflight began? Gleaners?" She shook her head and let out a low whistle of amazement.

The path took them down a short tunnel, below a dividing wall older than the last major conflict to scar Le’anka. The wall stood there as a reminder and warning, of the damage that people could cause themselves when they tried to rewrite Enlo’s teachings to suit their tastes and inclinations, and put political expediency over truth and honor and purity of the soul.

"Exactly." His voice echoed softly against the tiles lining the tunnel.

"Does it give you a cold shudder of impending disaster? The idea of Gleaners sharing something they found? Before they could profit off it?  Yet it's totally in character with Gleaners to want all the profit, and trick others into doing all the work. Take all the risks."

They came up the tunnel on the other side of the wall and faced a dimpled landscape, with massive buildings for lecture halls, and facilities for scientific demonstrations. Each building sat in its own depression in the landscape, shielded and decorated by hedges and flowering trees that gave no indication of the serious, universe-shaking matters discussed and decided and discovered within those sedate walls.

"Father says Master Pejoris and his team theorize these Gleaners fear another faction of them will unlock this mysterious thing they can’t analyze. Before they figure out how to profit from it. They're desperate enough to win the race that they are asking for help."

"Enlo take me home now. I've seen it all," she murmured.

Thyal sighed. Their gazes met and they laughed quietly as they approached the double-wide, metal-bound doors of their destination. The building most often served as a lecture hall with amphitheater seating for four thousand. Analysis equipment was stored under the center platform and raised as needed. Containment facilities and equipment in this particular building, on the far side of the Academy grounds, made it useful for examining questionable materials.

They were quiet as they walked the last length of pathway to reach the building and went inside. The building’s passive security system scanned them for identification. Thyal’s master’s pin gleamed softly, pale blue for a moment, reading his bio-signs. M’kar’s locator wristband flashed green, acknowledgment of her identity and rank, and recording her location, if anyone in the Fleet might need to contact her. 

The Gleaner mystery object sat in the pit in the center of the vast hall, on the platform where a lecturer would stand. M'kar and Thyal stayed at the place where the doorway let them into the amphitheater seating, halfway between the roof and pit floor. They leaned on the railing and looked down into the pit. The craggy lump looked like dirty, metallic slag from more than a hundred meters away. M'kar guessed it to be maybe two meters tall, roughly ovoid, maybe six or seven meters around the widest circumference. 

Short story excerpt: CLASS REUNION, an Infrenx story

 "It's not real, is it?" The female voice that broke through the pleasant humming of relaxation in M’kar’s mind sounded far too young to hold such strong cynicism.

M'kar turned to gaze up four steps to the doorway of the contemplation pavilion. She had passed those five new students maybe twenty minutes ago. How had they found their way down here already? These contemplation pavilions should be marked as out of bounds for first-years. They were rather personal territory, established for each special class for a reason.

She knew if Thyal were here, he would tease her for being so territorial. Still, that girl’s tone of voice irritated her. Knowing her private quiet time had just died, M’kar stood and stepped out of the shadows and looked up the steps to the doorway. Five sets of eyes widened and flicked down and up and back and forth, translating the emblems and ranking marks on her uniform.

Lieutenant. Talents grouping. E&D ship assignment. The stylized shield emblem for the Defender.

None of those big, suitably impressed eyes flicked up high enough to catch on her facial tattoos: red lightning bolt on her left temple and blue lines extending her upper eyelids.

Thank Enlo.

M’kar could almost laugh. The first students within five meters of her who didn’t immediately stink of panic, silently shouting, What is that barbarian doing here on Le’anka?

"What isn't real?" M’kar asked.

"The sunbird." The smallest of the five, a boy, gestured into the center of the pavilion, at the infrenx.

"Here on Le'anka, it is an infrenx. On my father's homeworld, there is a similar creature, with a name that translates as emberwing." She held her breath, waiting for them to ask what her father's homeworld was.

"Sorry for disturbing you, Commander," the tallest girl said, giving her a little nod-bow.

M’kar decided to be generous and not correct her; lieutenant, not commander. "As your teachers will tell you many times in the years to come, the pursuit of knowledge and understanding is always disturbing to someone, but that is no reason to hesitate." 

"Always apologize, however," the smooth baritone voice of Master Scholar Thyal interposed. A moment later, robed in dun brown, with the infinity symbol pin of a master glistening at his throat, he stepped into view in the doorway behind the students. "Politeness is a mark of civilization. As the Lieutenant will testify, it knocks aggressors off balance and buys you valuable time."

Short story excerpt: CLASS REUNION, an Infrenx story

 

One of these days, I will write a book or two about the Academy years of Lt. M'kar, Thyal, and the other members of Infrenx, the special Talents class at the Academy on Le'anka. This short story, and several chapters in ETRUSCA'S VOW deal with those years.

This is a story set in the AFV Defender universe.

If you've read FRIENDLY FIRE, the first AFV Defender novel, then you heard about the battle that injured Thyal and sent M'kar on her quest .... and I won't say anything more if you haven't read the book yet. (Why haven't you?)

Available in ebook from Amazon and other online sites. And Ye Olde Dragon Books, of course.

Through the end of the month: excerpts from CLASS REUNION.

 

The Academy

Northern Continent of Le’anka

Headquarters of the Alliance

 M’kar stopped counting after the ninth student in the soft green robes of first-year students turned to stare at her as she walked through the central plaza of the Academy. She considered how her classmates would laugh if she remarked on how above-average the eyesight of first-year students was, compared with the students in their class. None of them had stared very long at her, when they were first gathered together in the garden of the home of their teacher, Premier Master Reydon.

In her dark silver-blue dress uniform, she should have blended in with all the other Fleet officers who were arriving at the start of the academic term, preparing to teach. Instead, she constantly drew second looks. Mouths dropped open and faces went pale when her gaze met theirs. More than she would have garnered if she walked across the plaza barefoot, with her favorite knife raised and dripping blood. From several dozen meters away, they couldn’t possibly see her facial tattoos and recognize her as Nisandrian. Could they? How, when she had such a deep tan from her last planetside mission? Did she have a sign hovering in the air above her head, flashing glowing letters, warning everyone to stay away from the barbarian? Or had someone she had clashed with during her own time here as a student decided to get revenge, and sent out her image and a warning, as soon as she landed on Le’anka and stepped onto Academy grounds?

Then again, it probably wasn’t a former classmate. More likely her father was punishing her for not coming to see him and her mother before she met with her classmates. Chieftain Ashrock of Nisandros was nearly a tourist attraction in his own right. He was probably wandering throughout the many paths of the Academy, looking for every first-year student, warning them to be on the lookout for his daughter, a Fleet officer, who was probably in a bad mood while she was separated from her ship.

Off the Bookshelf: MIND YOUR OWN MURDER, by Pattie Larsen

 

Persephone Pringle Cozy Mysteries: One

Our heroine needs some time away. As a counselor/therapist, she knows the value of a retreat to get organized and analyze, so she rents a cute little cottage in a shore community, and tries desperately to just get away from it all.

Her ex-husband won't leave her alone, her daughter won't leave her alone, and both of them think she needs a keeper. They might be right, since she stumbles into trouble with wacko neighbors on either side of the cottage, and realizes too late she's the newest point of acrimony in a community battle. Turns out the locals despise the tourists who come in and rent homes. According to the jerk who ran a stop sign and nearly hit her and then insisted it was her fault. And then the sheriff backs up the jerk. And then there's the rock through her window, telling her to go home. And then the dead body in the water, after she accused the same jerk of being the rock-thrower. And the fact that a lawn ornament in her rental cottage is the murder weapon. Which leads the jerk sheriff to accuse her of being the murderer.

It's kind of understandable why every time she makes up her mind what she's going to do to deal with the creeps and wackos, she ends up doing the opposite, despite knowing better. Especially when her FBI agent ex and their daughter keep trying to run her life from long distance. And then there's the anti-social cat that seems to love her, and the abused daughter who could be a killer. And then ...

Yeah, it's tangled and fast-moving and just when you want to take people and shake them until their eyeballs rattle, our heroine starts putting the pieces together. Whew!

Want To Hear a Story?

 

Starting in January, I'm going to launch a new venture -- a storytelling podcast.

Each week, you can listen to me reading a chapter from a work-in-progress. Then, you'll have a chance to ask questions and make suggestions and make guesses about what's going to happen next right here on this blog.

PLUS: If you join the Patreon group I'll be setting up in December, you'll have access to exclusive content, such as new bits I've thought of thanks to comments in the Patreon group and here, changes to scenes, a chance to vote on things such as the names of characters and places and even the title of the book, early access to the print and ebook and audiobook versions of the finished book, and limited edition hardback editions, with special extras such as maps, and maybe even sketches of characters, if I can find an artist to do that for me ....

Right now, I'm working on a book that has quite a few working titles. If you've read the short stories about 'Na, Ambrose, and Fang the bunny in the enchanted forest, appearing in the Ye Olde Dragon Books anthologies, When Your Beauty IS the Beast, Tales from the Tower, and Who's the Monster? then you're familiar with the world they live in, and you've heard about 'Na's parents. This first book starts the adventure of just how Ashlyn and Zared became the Beastly Beauty and the Disenchanted Prince, and how they met Fang the bunny and tamed the enchanted castle.

In fact, that's one of the first things Patrons will be able to vote on -- and you can offer suggestions about, here on the blog: the TITLE of the first book. I'm wavering back and forth between Taming the Enchanted Castle, The Beastly Beauty, or The Beastly Beauty, the Disenchanted Prince, and Fang the Bunny. Yeah, I know the last one is kind of long....

Anyway!! Stay tuned for updates, and please consider joining the Patreon group to help pay for the expenses of publishing and distributing the podcast .... which you will be able to listen to for FREE! Yeah, that last one is important ... But it will be available on most podcast platforms, such as iTunes, Spotify, etc.

Hope you're as excited about this as I am!

 

New Release: ETRUSCA'S VOW. AFV Defender Book 3

“Listen to your fellow warrior, mi’sho’ki,” Ashrock said, his voice coming from the shadows of the hallway. A moment later he came around the corner. He scowled at them, brow furrowed. “Didn’t we tell you both to find your beds? You have had a long, draining day, and the days ahead will be even more so. Go!” He made a shooing gesture down the hall.

M’kar laughed. “Tell me a bedtime story, Po’pa?”

“Ah, there, you see?” He sighed gustily and crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, still scowling, teasing, at the two children. “You win one small battle, and you think you know better.” He lunged, catching M’kar around the waist with his massive hands. She squealed as he tumbled her upside down and hung her over his shoulder. He held her ankles with one hand and swatted her bottom hard with the other. “You will obey as long as I can spank you!”

M'kar could hardly breathe for giggling. Thyal’s wide-eyed expression melted into a grin. 

“I have an idea, my fine young warriors.” Ashrock nodded as he lumbered down the hall to M’kar’s room, three doors down from Thyal’s, on the other side of the hall. “In the morning, we will have the hearth-kin ceremony. You fought together and for each other. That is something to celebrate. Even if you did not, sadly, shed any blood.”

 

New Release: ETRUSCA'S VOW. AFV Defender Book 3

 “Everything’s all changed. You can’t take the classes with your friends that you wanted to.”

“I suppose.” He shrugged, then grinned. “You’ve got nothing to be sorry about. Think about what you did today.”

She couldn’t help thinking about any of it. Especially the part when the two men calmed down once the animals left them alone, and they got angry and cursed her, and kept cursing her until Security hit them with stunner wands to shut them up. They spoke in the war tongue of Nisandros, and M’kar wished she had never teased her father to teach it to her. Those men vowed they would find her and kill her no matter what it cost them. She had embarrassed them. They were trained, dedicated killers, sent on an honor vendetta decreed by the Ancestors. Not that she cared about the Ancestors. But those men should have been able to find her and shred her before anyone realized what was happening. She was just a little girl, nine years old, and she had defeated them. Not only that, but she had made them scream like frightened little girls. She had commanded all the animals to come in her defense. They had shredded the men’s clothes and scratched and bit them and defecated all over them. That was the worst part of the embarrassment. The smell. 

“We both learned to do new things today, that we didn’t know we could do,” Thyal said. “People come from all over the Alliance to ask my father to be their teacher, and he wants to teach us. Do you know how special we are? And that’s because of you, because I wouldn’t have figured out what I could do if I didn’t have to help you.”

New Release: ETRUSCA'S VOW. AFV Defender Book 3

 Master Reydon insisted on taking M’kar as his student. He specialized in dealing with anomalous Talents. He was currently taking a period of rest while preparing to assemble his next group of students. Maenta was part of the dinner discussion, and she agreed to be in charge of M’kar’s foundational teaching before handing her over to Reydon in three luns. M’kar would be the youngest student he had ever taken, and the youngest member of the class.

Thyal had felt the energy and psionic resonance as M’kar’s Talent awoke. His instincts guided him in trying to shield her as she called all the animals for nearly a full kilometer in all directions, to defend her against the would-be murderers. He kept her shielded from possible physical damage, until Maenta felt the disturbance in the mental atmosphere and came to investigate and help. Reydon and Thean made no effort to hide their deep pride in their son. Thyal would be like his father, with an over-arching Talent that would allow him to touch on and interact with and even control other Talents, when necessary.

Because of that, Thyal would be part of this new class. M’kar thought he looked happy, but even more he looked stunned. Had she made trouble for him? Many classes he had planned for the next few years at the Academy would have to be canceled or delayed.

“I’m sorry,” she said, as they walked down the hallway to the bedroom wing of the house, after their parents sent them to bed.

The five adults were still talking in the common room behind them, their voices muffled with seriousness and the lateness of the hour. 

“For what?” Thyal frowned.

New Release: ETRUSCA'S VOW. AFV Defender Book 3

“Ah, better already? Very interesting,” Maenta said with a smile and a nod. “You can let go now. You don’t need me shielding you.”

M’kar didn’t understand.

“Master Maenta has been shielding your mind,” Thyal said. “You have a Talent and it woke up, and you weren’t able to turn it off.”

“Because you didn’t know how you turned it on,” Maenta added, nodding. “Yes, young Thyal, I understand now why your parents insisted you be given advanced classes. You will be a great asset to the Academy, when you have finished your training. As for you, little one …” She sighed. “You’re confused, aren’t you?”

“I have a Talent?” M’kar couldn’t yank her thoughts off what Thyal had said. “I’m not old enough.”

Thanks to the psionic heritage of Dr. Jeyn’s family, and the genetic manipulation that had been done to the ruling families of Nisandros centuries ago, there was no way to be sure if the emergence of M’kar’s psionic Talent was too soon or right on time. Everyone agreed, as they talked over dinner and into the evening, that the combination of so many drastic changes in her life and environment, combined with the trauma of the attack, had awakened her animal-focused Talent rapidly and with some violence. Her course of studies would now have to include mental and physical disciplines to help her harness this newly awakened ability and avoid the physical shock and draining she had endured today.

New Release: ETRUSCA'S VOW. AFV Defender Book 3

 

M'kar tumbled out of the cart and landed in the lavender and rose-streaked moss lining the side of the pathway, retching. Thyal shouted something and suddenly he was there, kneeling over her, holding her as she shuddered and fought to breathe. He was still holding her when Security found them and used stunner wands to drive away the swarms of birds and small ground-dwelling creatures that covered the shivering, weeping, ragged, bleeding, smothered men. He didn’t let go of her until a small, pink-faced woman with a crown of white braids wrapped around her head knelt and put her arms around M’kar and patted her back.

M'kar didn’t know how she knew it, but the little woman made the angry, confused cries of all the creatures go away. Shuddering with relief at the quiet inside her head, she burst into tears. 

By the time Security found her parents, and Thyal’s parents, and dealt with the two failed murderers, M’kar and Thyal had been taken to the closest healer station. The little woman introduced herself as Master Maenta. M’kar had calmed down enough to notice how everyone hurried to do obey her, and they didn’t ask questions. Maenta held M’kar’s hand the whole time, and that was even more comforting than Thyal holding her hand. She asked for a room where the three of them could be alone, and quiet, and asked for a drink that was all creamy pink and lavender and mint green swirls. M’kar didn’t think she could swallow anything, but she tried. All the shivering and throbbing and brief sharp stabs in her head quieted, and she felt the humming in Maenta’s hand holding hers.