K. D. Wentworth - Stars Over Stars
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- Year:2001
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Raised by a human, Heyoka Blackeagle thinks like a human, even if he is a typical hrinn - seven feet tall, covered with fur, retractable claws. In the war against the insect like flek, Heyoka distinguished himself in the Ranger Corps. Now, on a planet from which the flek have been driven, hes leading a group of humans and hrinn, trying to prove that hrinn can make proficient rangers in spite of their disdain for following orders. Then a hidden, fully functional flek star gate is found, ready to transport flek hordes. And word comes of a flek advance. The planet must be evacuated, but rather than abandon his team in the jungle, Heyoka stays behind, only to find that his human partner Mitsu, once a flek POW, is hallucinating, seeing nonexistent flek. And then the real flek arrive...
K. D. Wentworth: author's other books
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K D Wentworth
Heyoka Blackeagle 02 - Stars Over Stars
Chapter One
The wind skimming in from the Oleaakan sea bore the scent of brine as well as the crash of waves breaking on the black sand beach below. Heyoka Blackeagle stood on a crest of exposed volcanic rock and gazed out at the aquamarine expanse of water.
The sky of this backwater world was a deep shade of green-blue, the sun, a mellow amber. The afternoon sunlight played over the restless waves so that each, at its peak, seemed topped with diamonds. A strand of his mane escaped its tie and whipped around his muzzle.
His ears flattened. Though he was hrinnti, not human, his adoptive father had raised him far inland on Earth in the Restored Oglala Nation. He had rarely encountered seas until humanitys war with the flek had assigned him to the contested world of Enjas Two.
Now, even two years later, the salt smell of a sea, any sea, brought back that brutal day of fighting, how the gaunt chitinous flek warriors had advanced down the green sand and pinned his unit under impenetrable laser fire. Hed taken a near fatal wound that day and subsequently had to learn to walk all over again. His breath quickened. His claws sprang free and he had to force them to resheathe.
Mitsu looked up and he could see in his human partners blue eyes that she remembered too. Short and black-haired, deceptively slight for a soldier, she blotted sweating hands on her tan Ranger uniform. It was still crisp and new, the latest cut. She was only three weeks out of Rehab and the shadows that had haunted her for the last year still loomed in her eyes. She lowered her head and looked away. You shouldnt have requested me.
Its just a training run, Heyoka said. You could do this in your sleep.
Once, maybe. She sat on her heels, a small forlorn figure, and gazed upland into the rich silver-green of the tangled rain forest. No one with half a brain would trust me at his back now.
Heyoka lifted his muzzle and let the wind ruffle his black fur. She kept returning to that and he couldnt convince her otherwise. At any rate, Oleaaka was not in the direct path of humanitys decades-long war with a notorious hive species, the flek. The enemy had landed here in the past, stayed long enough to damage the environment, as well as exterminate most of the native population of sentients, the timid laka, and leave flek ruins dotted about the planets six major island continents. Five of the six were still poisoned with heavy metals and uninhabitable.
Then, for some reason never apparent to human scientists, forty-eight Standard years ago, theyd left again, never to return. Perhaps this world was too difficult to transform. Flek preferred their atmosphere thick and noxious, the surface temperature unbearably high. Something, or someone, in this deceptively lovely landscape had defeated them.
Up in the tangled maze of foliage, a delicate six-legged avian cried out and dove. A fleeing cloud of large scarlet insectoids blundered into Heyokas fur. He swatted at them. Oleaaka was every bit as hot as his native world of Anktan, but flagrantly humid, where it had been dry. The air seemed thick enough to drink here and smelled so damned green, he could taste it. Not a problem for humans, of course, who were much less sensitive to odors, but overwhelming for a hrinn like himself.
The wall of leaves at the edge of the forest quivered, then suddenly, Kei and Bey, two of his hrinnti trainees, emerged. They presented a formidable picture, both well over seven feet tall, Kei actually closer to eight, heavily furred, armed with retractable claws, and double rows of teeth, not to mention the laser rifles slung over their shoulders which had been modified for their double-thumbed hands.
It was too soon for them to be back. A snarl rattled low in his throat. They must have used blueshift speed, showing off for the human members of the squad again.
In addition to the obvious external differences between humans and hrinn, hrinn possessed special receptor cells in their bodies to store excess energy which could be released for metabolic overdrive. Only last year, he had learned to control this ability himself so that he could move almost too fast to be seen, but then hed burned himself out in a battle against the flek on his home planet, Anktan. His body couldnt sustain the effort anymore and he saw the contempt in Keis eyes every time he looked at him. Hrinn respected only strength and physical perfection.
Accustomed to the loose-fitting robes of their home world, the two hrinn looked distinctly uncomfortable in their Ranger gear. The sleek uniforms with close-fitting sleeves and legs were only one of many trials hrinn faced trying to fit into human-based culture.
Bey, the shorter, had a mahogany outer layer of fur with a cream undercoat: brown/on/buff, a hrinn would have named it. Keis fur was almost uniformly black, with only faint buff patches behind the ears, nearly black/on/black, as he himself was. Their manes had been cut shoulder-length, like his, and then bound with heavy cord.
The two were related in some fashion, both being born of the same Line, Levv, which later he had discovered was his heritage too. On Anktan, though, grown males found matrilineal heritage beneath their notice.
Heyoka checked his watch. Ten minutes. A record find under these conditions, even for his olfactory-gifted hrinnti recruits, but traveling in blueshift had been an extravagant waste of energy.
Kei sketched a sloppy approximation of a salute as he stopped. Heyoka gave him a crisp salute back. Report, he said.
Recon was right. We found flek ruins, three miles in. Keis black eyes were fierce above the ropy laser scar across his muzzle, relic of a childhood encounter with flek on his home world.
Recon was right, sir, Heyoka prompted wearily. He saw Bey glance at his fellow recruit out of the corner of his eye. This was an old skirmish between the two of them, endlessly replayed. Twice already, since the first hrinnti classs graduation from boot camp, Heyoka had been forced to stalk Kei and thrash him unmercifully in time-honored hrinnti fashion. Fortunately, though Kei was taller and carried more muscle, Heyoka had trained for years in hand-to-hand combat. For the moment, he still possessed a slight advantage.
Keis massive body stiffened, but he remained silent.
Long simmering anger stood Heyokas fur on end. He felt the savage other who lived within him, and all hrinn, awaken. Would there never be an end to this issue? Even though hrinnti culture maintained that obedience was only owed to those individuals who had proved their ability to tear your throat out, Kei should be able to think his way beyond that savage imperative.
If you intend to become a Ranger, Heyoka said, then you will follow protocol. You will address your superior officers as sir!
Keis lips wrinkled back from his gleaming white teeth. Sir, he said, with apparent disdain.
Mitsu stood, then shouldered her rifle with careful deliberation, affecting, for his sake, not to have noticed Keis tone.
Leaves rustled, then a third hrinn, yellow/on/white Visht, emerged from the forest, ears laid back, panting hard. Heyoka looked from him back to the forests green wall. Wheres the rest of your patrol? he asked Kei. You have two more out.
They couldnt keep up. Kei gazed boldly into Heyokas eyes, giving him brazen challenge.
Heyoka felt a snarl threatening. Perhaps because you used blueshift?
If they cant match our pace, they deserve to be left behind. Kei flexed his handclaws and studied them in the brilliant Oleaakan sunlight.
He would have washed the insubordinate wretch out, Heyoka thought, if he didnt have so damned much potential. As it was, his arrogance had set the tone for far too long now and the other hrinn looked to him for leadership. He had to find a way to get through to him, just as wily old Nisk had finally opened his own eyes back on Anktan. This project was the hrinns chance to prove themselves more than the barbaric savages humans had long considered them to be. Much more was at stake here than the career of one recruit, or even six.
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