Note: this is an Adult-themed, Science Fiction Space Opera intended for readers over the age of 17.
“I swear to the GODS, Sai, I did NOT drown those kittens. That’s ALL a cruel lie!”
The mysterious third party has finally been revealed!
Now it was just a matter of convincing them that Humans weren't the bloodthirsty savages they were known to be – at least, not all the time.
Traveling with a select few members of an alien species, Rondal Caldar tries to show there is more to Humanity than simple death and destruction.
After brokering the first steps of peaceful co-existence, Lord Caldar must safely return the alien Ambassador and his party back to their home planet – despite the efforts of subversive elements within their own society!
Excerpt:
Prologue
Lady Sai Tal had been sent on a fool’s mission. She was to keep watch over a cursed Kantite Lord and kill him if he stepped out of line.
The only problem was, she no longer thought she was capable of it. In fact, for all intents and purposes, she’d severed her connections with authority and joined his piratical “off-the-books” operation on behalf of the Kantite Elder.
Unknown to the Commonwealth Emperor’s First Sword, Lord Rondal Caldar was getting close to discovering the one misshapen piece in the puzzle that had been plaguing both the Commonwealth and the Hegemony for quite some time now. Due to the generosity of his previous nemesis, Lord Gagsa of the Drecks, he had even been given a clue in the form of a sole survivor from an unknown system… Someone, it would appear, from Earth’s own distant past.
This hopelessly lost young woman had related a fantastic tale of Asgardian Gods ruling over her agrarian world, who would transport Midgardian grown food by way of the Bifrost Bridge, and take human sacrifices by way of incredible flying machines created by the Dwarves.
Naturally, they’d found nothing in any of their records to back up these claims, but luck was on their side – if they survived their encounter with their mysterious “third party” who was even now tracking their progress across the stars.
In the Cloud, Observer Station 27, The Vanir Senior Observer
The Senior Observer was of mixed emotions. On the one extremity, the expectation of recovering the last female and her new companions was an exciting prospect, even if they would eventually have to be destroyed. At least he could observe them together and perhaps make a determination of exactly why the female had been stressless for the last several periods.
On the other extremity, the fact that the female was proceeding, not towards Observer Station 27, but had diverted upwards to avoid the cloud and was headed past it was another fascinating object of speculation. Oh, to be a grugnat in the corner of that transport’s control room! He fleetingly considered the very excitement of personally being along to observe them, but several of his mind-segments immediately put a stop to that nonsense!
He, along with absolutely no other Vanir, would never, ever consider placing himself near a human without adequate protection – such as force fields or solid armor. All Vanir knew that humans were extremely dangerous, and who knew what would happen if any of them so much as touched a Vanir! Some of them might even be poisonous!
No – no – no – no. He was content to nestle within his station and continue his readings. The female’s implant continued to send along emotional stressor impressions and physical condition, along with subtle impressions of the life forms immediately surrounding it. It was too bad it could not send along proper thoughts the host was experiencing, but that smacked of fiction. Eleven-twelfths of his collective mind laughed at the concept, while one segment of his mind, tucked deep down in a tiny part left over from his childhood, thought, ‘Wouldn’t that be neat!’ before being jeered into silence by its peers.
March 30, 2004, The Kraken, Setting the New Course
“Well, out into the big unknown,” Rondal muttered in Commonwealth Standard. He missed the rolled eyes from Sai, who’d stopped by the bridge to learn what their status was, while Torga was there for his training rotation with Rondal this watch...
Over the last third of a month, they’d been slowly switching back to Commonwealth Standard from simple necessity. The Drecks females needed to learn it, and Auda, who spoke none of the languages within the Commonwealth proper, needed to be able to communicate with everyone without benefit of his inadequate translation services. With Déjà’s help, Kiki had already mastered enough of it to get by, and the rest of the girls were becoming somewhat conversant in it, as well. They were helped, of course, since Rondal, Sai, and her sons already spoke it fluently. Even Torga already had quite a bit of it and only needed immersion to make the final transition.
“Where exactly are we headed, Rondal?” Sai asked in frustration. Since he’d started them drifting to the “left” of Hegemony territory, she was just as curious as Endo, Gallus, and Torga by this point.
“About thirty minutes out and back. Lord Gagsa said there was nothing out there, but I’d kinda like to take a look around for myself.”
“But … but that will take a … a couple of months! At least!”
“At normal cruise, sure, but you know the navigation system we have, Sai. If we cut our calculations from five minutes down to less than half a minute per jump, then it won’t take as long, will it?”
“Half a–”
“Not that many stars out here to look at, Sai,” he interrupted her. “Besides, I haven’t traveled by star shot for years.” Her expression said she wasn’t buying any of it, and neither was Torga.
“Look, we’ll still do one-tenth second jumps – we’ll just do a lot more of them in the same amount of time. Thirty minutes out would normally take us about sixty-days at standard cruise, plus another sixty for the return trip. I’ve set the sensors to do a wide forward sweep, and we’ll do a quick look during the pause between jumps. We can be out and back in maybe a week. We get out there, survey the open space for anomalies – loose dark planets and other gravity wells – and if we find nothing, we’ll shift over a bit and wander on back. It’s not like we don’t have the fuel.”
“But … Lord Caldar… Why this? Why now?” Torga asked, and Sai looked at Rondal pointedly before silently asking the same question.
‘Yes, Rondal, why are you doing this?’
‘Because it needs to be done, Sai. I have foreseen it’
“No, wait…” she said aloud while letting a disgusted look darken her features. “This is another one of your damned hunches, isn’t it? Just like the one that led you to Kee to try to rescue Torga’s father, but got your first officer killed in the process! Now you’ve got one to come out here for some asinine reason and we’re being dragged along for the ride! Fine, my Lord! Fire this damn thing up and let’s get this party in motion, but if we run out of fuel, you’re walking back by yourself!” she bitched at him loudly, before throwing up her hands and storming off the bridge.
‘Sufficient diversion, my Lord?’ she asked silently.
‘Four could not have done better, my Lady Tal’ he replied gratefully, before setting up the console for the multi-jump sequence, with sensor scanning that would both stop the ship, and send out an alarm at any contact at all.
They were on their way with a four-section watch rotation of all four men, plus Sai. Torga would be floating among them until he was up to speed, and could take over as the fourth watch stander all by himself.