New Release: LISTEN CAREFULLY. Young Defenders Book 2: Tress's Story

 

Sh'hari's mouth dropped open at Tress's answer. The other girls laughed. Then Sh'hari laughed and tipped off a salute with two fingers from the edge of her eyebrow. She bent down and gestured for the four girls to come closer.

"Thanks for your help. I've always wondered how she got around the ship so fast when we're running intruder alert drills. She cheats."

"It's not cheating," Kati said. "You're not cheating when you use something you know, that other people forgot about."

"That certainly sounds like your big brother." The security woman winked and straightened up and gestured for the girls to go ahead of her. "I have to get you troublemakers back on the ship in twenty-two minutes. Any last-minute stops you want to make? Or do you want to just take a leisurely stroll down ramps and check out all the airlocks and get a feel for the layout of the station?" 

The girls chose the leisurely stroll. Sh'hari was always a fun escort, because she always seemed to know people on every station or colony world or outpost where the Defender stopped, and on every ship they encountered. Her parents had been independent merchants and traveled to all sorts of planets and distant star systems, looking for interesting things to import to the Alliance.

New Release: LISTEN CAREFULLY. Young Defenders Book 2: Tress's Story

 Tress sighed, realizing once again that growing up was hard enough, but growing up on a starship with so many rules and regulations and precautions just made everything more complicated. And being the daughter of two members of the command crew just made things worse for her. Both her parents had apologized to her several times in the last year or two, about how everyone expected so much more from Tress because of who her parents were.

And in situations like this, when she knew something that she probably shouldn't have, people assumed her parents told her.

This time, though, they weren't really right, and they weren't really wrong.

Only a few seconds had passed after Sh'hari asked her question, and the other girls laughed. Tress wrinkled up her nose again and jammed her fists into her hips to mimic the security crewwoman.

"Aunt M'kar taught me, when we were playing seek-and-destroy last dec." She barely stopped herself from sticking her tongue out. 

M'kar had also had a talk with her about how expressions and gestures and various parts of body language were perfectly innocent for a girl her age, but in some galaxies and among some cultures, they could be taken very badly. She advised Tress to watch how the captain and other members of the command crew acted around officials and diplomats and strangers who came on the ship. She needed to start learning now to behave like she was going into a tricky diplomatic situation, dealing with people who were just itching for an excuse to start a war.

New Release: LISTEN CAREFULLY. Young Defenders Book 2: Tress's Story

 

"But I heard him. His voice got weird. It echoed, like he was talking inside a box, or one of the access tunnels in the ship," Tress insisted.

"Uh huh." Sh'hari narrowed her eyes at them and gestured for them to step into a lift, to ride to another level. "And just when were you in an access tunnel, so you know how it sounds?"

The other girls laughed.

Tress wrinkled up her nose. That was a stupid question. Everybody knew her father took all the children on tours through what he called off-limits-to-the-point-of-being-paranoid parts of the ship. The parts where the children couldn't have caused any trouble or done any damage unless they took tools with them. So it wasn't really dangerous for them to be there. Her parents and adopted aunts and uncles had explained, in different ways and with different words, that much of the ship was kept off-limits to the children to avoid wondering if someone had touched something they shouldn't have, whenever trouble did happen. 

As Security Chief Decker had growled more than once, during his self-defense lessons and what he called "reminding you of the common sense Enlo gave you, so you don't get as stupid as most politicians" lessons, the Defender had a reputation for a strange kind of luck. If something was going to go wrong, in the worst, most messy and embarrassing way, it would if the Defender's crew was involved. No one really minded, once they were out of the mess. The other part of the Defender's weird luck was that they always came out covered in gold or whatever was most valuable in that part of the universe.

New Release: LISTEN CAREFULLY. Young Defenders Book 2: Tress's Story

 Tress held hands with Dafna and the girls trotted to keep up with their teacher. E'bett knew how to hurry without looking like she was running. Why didn’t she react to what that man said? Why didn’t the other girls? Maybe they were scared. He scared her. Tress wanted to ask how that man was able to speak without moving his lips, and why he would say such things to them. Or was he one of those people that Security Chief Decker complained about a few decs ago? The ones who believed their thoughts and ideas were so important that everyone needed to hear them, even if they were rude and made no sense? Was that man a crazy person?

Lt. Sh'hari from Defender Security was waiting for them when they stepped out onto the main corridor. She winked at the girls and spoke into her wristband communicator, acknowledging transfer of the "packages." The girls giggled, knowing she meant them. In moments, E'bett hurried away, and the four girls turned around with their new escort. It was time to go back to the ship.

Tress was sure E'bett would report the crazy man, but maybe she would be so busy with the priority communication that came by courier ship, she might forget. She told Sh'hari about the man, and what she could remember of what he said.

"No, he didn't," Jayna said.

Tress opened her mouth to argue, but Dafna nodded and Kati echoed Jayna. 

"All he did was ask if Mestra E'bett was a teacher,” Jayna said.

New Release: LISTEN CAREFULLY. Young Defenders Book 2: Tress's Story

 

A chime rang through the open area, and a communication panel in the support arch to their right lit up.

"Mestra E'bett of the Defender," the warm, buzzing computer voice said. "Please contact Commander Harmays of courier ship Wingswift. A priority level three communication is waiting from the Academy."

E’bett raised her wristband and tapped the tiny screen, so it lit up green. "This is Mestra E'bett. I am in the arboretum. It should take me twenty minutes to get to the courier docking arm. I must return four students to the Defender, first."

"Security personnel will meet you and escort the students. The Wingswift is on a slingshot course and must depart ASAP."

"Understood. Please notify Commander Harmays I am on my way." She tapped the tiny screen and nodded to the O'goali man. "If you will excuse us, a priority three communication and slingshot schedule for a courier ship cannot be delayed."

"Can't do anything. They're probably watching. Weakling Alliance folk. Always watching." 

Again, the O'goali man spoke without moving his lips. He nodded politely to E'bett and his lips flattened, pressed so tightly together they went white so his face seemed dirty. He watched the girls as they followed E'bett out the other side of the domed area. A doorway half-hidden by a screen of purple leaves lit up, giving them a way out of the arboretum without having to follow the winding pathway to the door where they had come in.

New Release: LISTEN CAREFULLY. Young Defenders Book 2: Tress's Story

 The O'goali man's smile widened and he showed some teeth. "Just checking. You're all academic?"

"Many subjects come under academics." E'bett held out her left arm and twisted it slightly, so her long sleeve fell back, revealing her tool wristband.

It had a small screen that let her communicate with the station and the ship. On past expeditions, she had used the wristband to give the children impromptu tests on the things they saw, the people they encountered, the places they went when they were on planets or space stations. Tress was especially looking forward to seeing a museum in the lower levels of the Fleet part of the station, just because her father was so interested in seeing it. He said it was full of examples of the damage people could do when they jettisoned their common sense and forgot to ask Enlo to protect them from their own stupidity.

"I'm not looking for a gusquacca teacher," the man said, and spat.

Tress flinched. She had never heard that word before, but her mother said she had good instincts for what foreign words meant. That had to be a bad word, and the man had insulted E'bett.

"Fleet people are idiots, sending a useless, fat old woman out with a bunch of helpless little girls," the man said.

Tress shook her head. She couldn't understand how the man had said that without moving his lips. His grin just got brighter, and his voice had that echo for a few seconds.

"Serve them right," that angry voice from the far side of the open area said. "Hope that brute teaches them a good lesson. Children don't belong out in space. They sure don't belong on military ships." 

"Mestra," Tress began, and reached up to tug on the back of E'bett's long vest.

New Release: LISTEN CAREFULLY. Young Defenders Book 2: Tress's Story

 

Tress decided she would ask E'bett. As the five of them stepped out of the tunnel of vines, she opened her mouth and planned what she wanted to say. Then she heard a low, growling voice, coming from the far side of the open area.

"Stupid Nanny Ship. What idiot decided it was okay to send families into space? Waste of a good ship. Waste of training. What good does a ship do if it can't go into a tricky situation, because it has stupid little useless helpless kids on board?"

Tress stumbled, startled by how angry that voice sounded. She looked around, trying to find that person. It was odd, but she couldn't tell if the voice was a man or a woman. It was just angry. It put a bad smell in the air. Like something was burning. And a little rotten.

"Look at them. Nasty little snots. Arrogant little spoiled brats," the voice continued. "Think they're better than everybody else because their mommy and daddy are officers. Somebody ought to --"

Footsteps coming from the pathway behind them echoed a little and the angry speaker stopped. Tress shivered and moved closer to E'bett. She didn't want to get close to that angry person. She hoped the angry speaker didn't see them, but she had the awful feeling the spoiled brats that person talked about were her and her friends.

"Found them. Should I take them now?" One of the O'goali men stepped out of the shadows of the vine tunnel and a slow smile stretched his mouth as he looked at E'bett and the four girls.

Tress looked past him, but nobody else stepped out of the shadows. Who was he talking to?

"You're a teacher, aren't you?" the man said.

That was odd -- his was the angry voice she had heard, yet somehow it had changed. It sounded flat and a few notes lower now. It had echoed a little before.

"Yes. I am the mestra assigned to the Defender," E'bett said. She twitched both hands, using the signal M'kar had taught the children for when they were off the ship on expeditions. It meant to gather together and get behind their leader. "Are you looking for information?" 

She glanced once over each shoulder, making eye contact with the girls as they lined up, two-by-two, behind her. Tress and Dafna held hands.

New Release: LISTEN CAREFULLY. Young Defenders Book 2: Tress's Story

        "I was thinking this was better than that last hide-and-ambush game we played in the simulator room." Tress gestured around at the narrow winding path through a tunnel of flowering vines.

"Because it's real." Jayna nodded and grinned.

"Because nobody is going to jump out of hiding and scream at us."

"And try to pick us up and carry us away," Dafna added, laughing.

They came out of the tunnel then, into an area that was clear all the way up to the domed ceiling of the arboretum. Starlight shone down on them, with streaks of light coming from the right. Tress thought about the map of Sheffroab Station, and decided that light came from the Fleet docks, where ships were repaired or upgraded or expanded. The Defender was going through that right now. 

Her father growled a lot more lately, ever since they got their orders to come to Sheffroab. Being Chief Engineer, Jasper Lore was the highest authority. Everything had to pass his inspection, and he needed to understand everything before it was added to or done to the ship. At the same time, she had seen him just sit and grin and rub his hands together and sometimes even laugh as he read through the hundreds of screens worth of specifications and descriptions. Tress thought he was excited, and maybe even having fun -- but he growled so much more lately. She planned to ask her mother, after thinking about the puzzle for a few days, but today Treinna was busy preparing to welcome a new crewmember. Lt. Kewsaq was a linguist and would be in Treinna's department and under her command. One of the ship's counselors could have handled the task of greeting the new linguist and her younger brother, getting them settled in their quarters, and taking them through orientation. Treinna didn't want to do it that way. She even told Tress that the Defender was family, and that meant everyone who joined the crew had to be treated like newly discovered distant relatives, from the day they reported for duty. 

New Release: LISTEN CAREFULLY. Young Defenders Book 2: Tress's Story

 

"Mestra E'bett?" Tress said, falling into step with their teacher. "You should know, I didn't hear that from Aunt M'kar. I heard it when my mother was practicing her Nisandrian vocabulary."

"Of course …" E'bett sighed, then she winked at the girl. "Unless you're acting as a translator because your mother isn't around and the translator equipment is broken, I suggest you not use that word until you're much older. Agreed?" When Tress nodded, she rested her hand briefly on the girl's head.

They wandered through the arboretum, and for at least twenty minutes it felt like they had the place to themselves. None of the girls had been down on an actual planet for nearly a whole year, so this was a treat for them. When Lt. M'kar gave them self-defense training, she sometimes used the simulator room to give them an illusion of being down on a planet. Holographic projectors moved and changed the environment around them, so they felt like they were running down forest paths or hiking along beaches. The sensory programs pumped smells and sounds and varied the temperature and humidity, so sometimes they could believe they really were being pushed along by the wind or spattered with raindrops. It never lasted very long. This was much better. Tress laughed when she realized something. The other girls asked what was so funny.

"I was remembering self-defense class with Aunt -- with Lt. M'kar."

She caught herself a little late, but did remember that it really wasn't nice to refer to the lieutenant as Aunt, when the other girls didn't have the right. Lt. M'kar had always been there, just like Captain Arroyan had always been there, good friends with her parents, just a little bit closer than the rest of the "family" of the Defender.

New Release: LISTEN CAREFULLY. Young Defenders Book 2: Tress's Story

 "So people are making fun of us now because they're jealous, and because they can't be part of the crew?" Kati said.

"That's a very simplified explanation, but yes. What you girls need to keep in mind is that with all the advantages you have, just growing up on the Defender, with so many smart people helping to teach you, that means you have extra responsibilities. We expect so much more from you. We expect you to be not just smarter, but more grown up, have more self-control and dignity."

"So it was really wrong to yell at those bo'cagi?" Tress said.

E'bett sat up straight and stiff and her eyes widened for a moment. "Where did you learn that word?" She shook her head. "It's Nisandrian, so I know where you heard it. Do you know what it means?" She relaxed when Tress shook her head. "It's a very descriptive word, and very accurate to those men."

"What does it mean?" Jayna asked, and grinned.

"It's a very vulgar word, and one you shouldn't use until you're much older." E'bett's lips quirked up and she looked in all directions. That made the girls laugh, because they couldn't imagine their teacher ever being afraid of someone overhearing her. "Let's just say the word refers to their smell, and the smell comes from their brains, not just their dirty clothes, and implies they don't know how to use a sanitary."

"Eewww!" Kati's face wrinkled up like she would be sick. Then she giggled with the other three girls. 

"I think we've discussed this subject quite enough. Let's enjoy the arboretum and try to learn something during our short visit here, shall we?" E'bett stood up and spread her arms, beckoning for the girls to get up and head down a path through the arboretum.

New Release: LISTEN CAREFULLY. Young Defenders Book 2: Tress's Story

 

 "I have found in my many years of service to Enlo that people make fun of what they don't understand, or what they fear, or what makes them jealous. Chances are very good if we looked up the records of those two messy, silly men, we would find they either couldn't get into the Fleet, or they wanted to be private contractors for the Fleet or the Academy, and no one would hire them. They are very disappointed, and to make themselves feel better, they make fun of anything connected to the Fleet."

"So they're really stupid and they don't do work good enough to work for the Fleet." Jayna nodded. "That makes sense."

E'bett's lips twitched, hinting that she tried not to smile.

"But why is it bad they call us the nanny ship? It's true, isn't it?" Dafna said. "We have lots of kids on board, and we're getting more with all the new crew. Why is it bad?" 

"It's not bad." E'bett looked each of them in the eyes and nodded each time. "The Defender has one of the best reputations of all the Exploration and Diplomacy ships in the Fleet. We have a long waiting list of scientists and specialists who want to serve on our ship. That's part of why we're getting expansions and upgrades. To make room for new crew. Families in the Fleet want especially to serve on the Defender because the children who have gone on to the Academy have been far ahead of their peers, before they even started Basic. You are learning so much, growing up on the Defender, that will prepare you to serve the Alliance in so many different ways. You should be ready for some jealousy from your classmates, when you go to the Academy."

New Release: LISTEN CAREFULLY. Young Defenders Book 2: Tress's Story

  

"I'm sorry," she said, as soon as the five of them were in the arboretum and the doors had slid closed behind them.

"You shouldn't be. They were really stupid. And mean," Jayna said. She jammed her fists into her hips and moved back a couple steps. "They shouldn't tell lies about our ship like that!"

"What's a nanny ship?" Kati asked. "My brother was talking with some of his friends and they said other people called us a nanny ship, but he wouldn't tell me what it meant. Is it a bad word?"

"That's not right." Dafna settled down on a bench just inside the doorway of the arboretum. Her little face wrinkled up with deep thought. "I know what a nanny is. It's a person who takes care of little children. So that's not a bad thing, is it?"

"Of course not." E'bett settled down on the bench next to Dafna and gestured for the other three girls to sit with them. "I agree, we could have handled that unpleasant little encounter better. On the other hand, I suppose it's a good learning experience for you, to have encountered those … well, I suppose the kindest label is to call them indiferps." 

She wrinkled up her nose at the girls when all four giggled at her use of the word. E'bett usually didn't use any slang words or mild cusses. She always told them that if they couldn't think of appropriate, civilized words to express their feelings at the moment, then they needed to read and expand their vocabularies. Perhaps the momentary lapse in thinking was a good sign they shouldn't react at all. 

New Release: LISTEN CAREFULLY. Young Defenders Book 2: Tress's Story

 

 "That's enough," E'bett said. She waved her hands gently, urging the girls to keep moving. "It's always best never to get into arguments with the uninformed." She winked with the eye the men couldn't see. Tress grinned and caught hold of Dafna's hand.

"Uninformed, are we?" The first man laughed, louder this time. "That's what you think. I know what you are. How many teachers have they got on that big fancy ship getting all those repairs? Guess the Defender isn't as great as everybody wants us to believe, if it needs so much fixing."

"It's not getting fixed!" Tress shouted and turned to face them. "My Daddy is the Chief Engineer and the Defender doesn't need fixing. We're getting bigger! We're getting all kinds of new equipment."

"Her daddy. Ain't that cute?" the second man said. His laughter sounded greasy. "What did I tell you? Full of little kids. It's the Nanny Ship, just like everybody's been saying. What good is a ship full of children?"

"Go," E'bett said, in that soft voice that was nearly as frightening as when M'kar got quiet and her eyes looked cold.

Tress shivered, knowing she had messed up. She caught hold of Dafna's hand and the two girls hurried away, with Jayna and Kati right behind them. They tried not to run, but Tress wanted to move fast enough not to hear the laughter and rough voices behind them. She was pretty sure those men were saying all sorts of nasty lies about them and about the Defender, and probably about her father, too. She wanted to punch them. She wished she was allowed to carry a knife like M'kar. She wished her adopted aunt had taught her that really neat fighting move, where she ran and jumped from two meters away. Then she twisted herself around in the air so she wrapped one leg around the man's neck and hit the side of his face with her other knee. With the momentum of flying through the air, she turned him around and knocked him down. And he never got up.

New Release: LISTEN CAREFULLY. Young Defenders Book 2: Tress's Story

 RELEASE DAY!!!!!

"I thought there was a height limit to get into the Fleet," the one with cinnamon-colored skin called, as the girls and E'bett walked past.

"Nah," the other man said. "They want them short so they can get into tight places and make repairs. Fleet engines are breaking down all the time. I bet they put the really little ones on a treadmill to generate power."

"That's stupid!" Dafna said, turning and stopping and jamming her fists into her hips.

"Oh, yeah?" The one with the dirty, curly red hair spat on the deck. "What do you know, shrimp?"

Tress caught her breath, waiting for someone to swoop down on the man and make him clean that up. No one was allowed to spit on the Defender. Not even if they got something disgusting in their mouths during an emergency, or when something really strange happened. Like the time the ship lost its artificial gravity for nearly half an hour and all sorts of bits and pieces and clumps of water and clouds of dust floated through the ship and got in people's faces and mouths.

Nothing happened to the man, but Dafna's face got red.

"I'm not a shrimp! I'm just the size I'm supposed to be!"

Tress and Jayna looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Dafna was always taking teasing for being a good five centimeters shorter than other girls their age.

Upcoming release sample: LISTEN CAREFULLY. Young Defenders Book 2: Tress's Story

 

"They aren't part of the Alliance yet, are they?" Jayna said.

"No. We consider it a major step forward toward joining, that they are sending merchants out to the rest of the universe. I haven't heard of them sending any students to the Academy, or diplomats to confer with the Alliance Council, but they are allowing trade to take place on the outer orbital station in their solar system."

The rest of the trip to the arboretum was filled with information on the planet O'goal. The genotype and standard features of the people, the style of their clothes, the characteristic dishes, what kind of music they seemed to prefer, and the few exports from their planet.

Tress thought she saw two O'goali men following them down the long corridor to the arboretum on the sunward side of the station. When she looked for them a few minutes later, they were gone. She supposed she thought she saw them because E’bett had been talking about the O'goali.

Two men in what her mother called Wannabe Gleaner-but-cleaner clothes were walking toward their group as they walked down the wide corridor with the arboretum at the end. Gleaners were what her father called the garbage pickers of the universe. They were sloppy, filthy, and loud, and were very happy when they heard about colonies failing or ships that wrecked or crashed. Gleaners went through the universe, breaking into archeological sites and raiding damaged ships and taking everything that survived after a disaster. If a ship was having trouble, the crew was better off waiting twice as long for a rescue ship to respond to their distress signal than to accept help from Gleaners. If they let Gleaners into their ships, they ended up worse off than when they were drifting in space.

These two men approaching E'bett and the four girls looked like their clothes had come from a salvage bin. They didn't look greasy or filthy-dirty. Tress took a tiny testing sniff and didn't smell disgusting things like bad breath and dirty hair and sweaty clothes. She didn't like them, though. They stopped as the girls approached and turned to watch the party of five walk past them. One of them laughed. It was a rough, broken kind of sound. It made Tress shiver a little.

Upcoming release sample: LISTEN CAREFULLY. Young Defenders Book 2: Tress's Story

  Tress didn't like that woman, and she was sure she would never go back to that shop, even though she liked the cream and pale green scarf and thought it would be a nice present for her mother's next birthday. She had an allowance, and she got extra spending points when she made good grades. She would just have to buy something else, something better. Somewhere else.

"Describe the woman?" E'bett said, after Tress and Dafna reported the encounter when all of them had met up again.

The five of them were in a lift, going up to another level to explore the arboretum. Fleet botanists were running a long-term experiment, seeing how well plants from different eco-systems and solar systems shared the same soil and air, and to see if merging different flora and fauna would make the plants and animals stronger, or cause a negative reaction.

Tress and Dafna took turns and corrected each other a few times. The woman looked old because of all the wrinkles around her eyes and mouth, and the creaky tone of her voice. She was thin and her hair was fuzzy and a weak shade of copper. Her nose was long, with a hook to the side, not downward. Her voice had a buzz that made her words sound like they had just been cut out of a sheet of rusty alloy. E'bett smiled and visibly kept from laughing, when Tress gave that description. Well, she had heard her father use that description, and it certainly fit the woman, didn't it?

Her clothes looked like they were all made out of leather, dyed dark purple and black and dirty amber, and she wore a long, sleeveless vest over everything with pockets down each side, nearly to the floor. E'bett nodded when Dafna described the clothes. 

"Ah, that explains much. That woman is an O'goali. The Alliance contacted their world about ten Standard years ago. They have been very reluctant to make contact with the rest of the universe. At the same time, they constantly complain about all the rules established for when we make contact with another Human world, to avoid contamination and damage to their culture. They don't want much to do with other worlds, yet at the same time they didn't like how slow the Alliance was to make contact and let them know other Human worlds were out there."

Upcoming release sample: LISTEN CAREFULLY. Young Defenders Book 2: Tress's Story

 

 

"What's wrong with you young ones?" a woman said, as Tress followed Dafna out of a shop that sold long scarves like slices of rainbows and mist.

Both of their identity wristbands had flashed twice, meaning they had five minutes until they had to meet E'bett and the other two girls back at the lift.

"Ma'am?" Dafna said, turning around before she reached the door of the shop.

"Don't you like anything? Or are you looking around to get ready to come back and rob me later?"

"No, Ma'am. Everything is pretty. We're just not allowed to touch."

"Who told you that?" The woman laughed, but it wasn't a nice laugh.

 "Our parents. Our teacher. Our captain." Tress unclasped her hands and reached to take hold of Dafna by her elbow. The other girl flinched a little, then looked over her shoulder, nodded, and continued stepping out of the shop.

"We're very sorry if you're offended, Ma'am," Dafna said.

"So you say. I still think something's wrong with young ones acting like that. That's what's wrong with your whole Fleet, maybe your whole Alliance. No wonder my folk don't want to join you people. You don't let people think for themselves."

"We can think whatever we want," Tress said. "We're just not allowed to touch." 

The woman burst out laughing, but it still wasn't nice laughter. The two girls held hands and ran a few steps, until a light in one of the security scanner strips in the ceiling ahead of them flashed yellow. That was the reminder that people weren't allowed to run. Later, when Tress told her parents over dinner about what happened, her father snorted and muttered something about the woman being partly right, but there were good reasons why there were so many rules on a space station.

Coming Release: LISTEN CAREFULLY. Young Defenders Book 2: Tress's Story

Listen Carefully

 

Tress Lore, daughter of the chief engineer and chief linguist, was born on the Defender. Only nine years old, her life is about to change.

 

While exploring the space station where their ship is undergoing upgrades, she overhears people saying things that frighten her. Threats against her friends, and even the ship. But when she tells the adults, nobody else has heard what she heard. Tress is confused. What is wrong with everybody?

 

When she hears Lt. M’kar wishing to play a nasty trick on some people who are giving her trouble, Tress breaks some rules to try to help. When she is caught, the captain and her parents begin to understand what is happening to her. She isn't hearing people's voices, but their thoughts.

 

As she starts training to use her new Talent properly, Tress starts to understand what her parents have been teaching her: Enlo gives gifts for a reason. And the reason for her Talent appearing far too soon may already have arrived.

RELEASING JULY 15 IN PAPER, EBOOK, AND AUDIO.

From Ye Olde Dragon Books

 

New Release: CADETS, Young Defenders, Book 1

 

“Is she covered in tattoos?“ Shayn asked.

“No, not really. Just a few scars are visible on her face. The rest on her arms and legs are covered by her uniform. E’bett says she carries a very big knife. It’s tradition.“ She winked, prompting chuckles from Tila and Ben.

Jorgan suspected Maenta was teasing, just a little. He didn’t think she was lying, because she was a Le’ankan master. They couldn’t lie, could they?

><><>< 

The only time Shayn and Jorgan could find an open spot to play in the zero-gravity tank was early the next morning, an hour before breakfast. When they went to bed that night, they set the controls in the wall screen in their room to wake them up half an hour before that open time. That would give them time to dress and get to the recreation deck. Before they could tell their parents what they planned, Ben knocked on the door of their suite and came in.

“What are you boys getting up so early for?“ he asked.

“How do you know?“ Shayn blurted.

“We’re responsible for everything you do on this station.“ Their father sat down on the small couch in the sitting room. Jorgan thought he didn’t look angry, just concerned. “When you program anything into the room controls, it alerts us. It also tells us when you go into any part of the station that isn’t strictly residential.“

“Will it tell you when we go to the recreation deck?“ Jorgan asked. “Isn't that considered part of the residential section?“

“Oh. Right.“ Ben grinned. “What are you planning on doing in there? Before breakfast.“

“Well, we planned on taking some of the food in there.“ Shayn gestured at the cabinet kitchen. “That's the only time the zero-g tank is open.“

“Okay, makes sense. Did you reserve it?“

“We forgot!“

“Duh,“ Jorgan said. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh or groan. “We should have thought of that.“

“Yes, you should. You don’t want to get up that early and get to the rec deck and find out some other people had the same idea, but they got there a minute ahead of you,“ Ben said.

“We were going to ask you,“ Shayn said. “We were just excited we figured out how to set the time.“

“That’s good to know. Just rearrange your steps.“

Ben figured out how to navigate through the station services system to reserve the time in the zero-g tank, without having to go to the recreation deck to do it. When the boys asked him if he wanted to come play with them, he laughed and said he might think about it. If he woke up early enough.

New Release: CADETS, Young Defenders, Book 1

 Jorgan saw the way his parents’ eyes widened and they sat up a little straighter and exchanged those looks parents were so good at. The looks that said lots of things in total silence, so that he could believe his parents could read each other’s minds.

Then he understood. People from Nisandros liked nothing better than to get into fights. The more dangerous, the better. The more scars they got in fights, the happier they were. They made sure people knew all the scars they had by marking them with tattoos. At least, that was what he had read in textbooks talking about the cultures on the many worlds the Alliance had discovered so far. Nisandros wasn’t part of the Alliance yet. They kept delaying, talking with diplomats and ambassadors, and arguing over details Jorgan just didn’t understand. Who wouldn’t want to be part of the Alliance?

Nisandrians didn’t agree with what the Alliance believed and what the Academy taught. They believed in Enlo, but they didn’t really worship the All-Maker like Neoma and the Le’ankan masters taught. They preferred to ask the spirits of their ancestors what to do, rather than pray to Enlo. That just didn't make sense at all to Jorgan. Another big difference was that Nisandros disagreed with the teaching that long ago, the homeworld of all Humans, Core, was endangered. A group of people with superior technology, known as the Gatekeepers, opened up doorways in space, called Gates, and took all the Humans from Core to save their lives. They scattered Humans across the universe, on different planets. The Alliance was formed to find all the scattered Human worlds, unite the Human race, and find the Gatekeepers if they were still alive.

Nisandrians claimed they were different from ordinary Humans. Better. Stronger. They didn’t need to do things the way Enlo’s teachers taught. So they didn’t want to join the Alliance, because they didn’t want to admit they were wrong.

At least, that was how Jorgan interpreted all the things he read and learned about Nisandros.

“If she’s in the Fleet, that means she believes in Enlo and Neoma and the Gatekeepers?“ he asked.

“Oh, yes, most certainly.“ Maenta nodded. “Very good question.“