Tanya Huff - Valors Choice (Valor Novel)

E-Book Version 0.9, scanned & proofed by Bodafon - 21st April 2004, most formatting & spelling errors rectified.

Cleaned, re-formatted & proofread by nukie.

Color:

Text Size:

Valors Choice

Valor 1

Tanya Huff

Copyright 2000 by Tanya Huff. All Rights Reserved.

Cover art by Jody Lee. For color prints of Jody Lees paintings, please contact: The Cerridwen Enterprise

P.O. Box 10161 Kansas City, MO 64111 Phone: 1-800-825-1281

DAW Book Collectors No. 1148. DAW Books are distributed by Penguin Putnam Inc.

All characters and events in this book are fictitious.

Any resemblance to persons living or dead

is strictly coincidental.

If you purchase this book without a cover you should be aware that this book may have been stolen property and reported as unsold and destroyed to the publisher. In such case neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this stripped book.

First Printing, April 2000 5 6 7 8 9

DAW TRADEMARK REGISTERED

U.S. PAT. OFF. AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES

-MARCA REGISTRADA

HECHO EN U.S.A.

PRINTED IN THE U S.A

This ones for Sheila, cause she was willing to take a chance.

And for Gord Rose and David Sutton and Leslie Dicker and all the other men and women who actually do the work in military organizations worldwide.

Also for my father who, during the Korean War, made Chief Petty Officer. Twice.

Table of Contents

Prologue

A writer and philosopher of the late twentieth century once said, Space is big. There are three well-known corollaries to this. The first is that the number of planets where biological accidents occurred in the correct order to create life is small. The second is that the number of planets where life managed to overcome the odds and achieve sentience is smaller still. And the third is that many of these sentient life-forms blow themselves into extinction before they ever make it off their planet of origin.

If space is big and mostly uninhabited, it should be safe to assume that any life-forms who really didnt get along could avoid spending time in each others company.

Unfortunately, the fact that said life-forms could avoid each other doesnt necessarily mean that they would.

When the Others attacked systems on the borders of Confederation territory, Parliament sent out a team of negotiators to point out that expansion in any other direction would be more practical as it would not result in conflict. The negotiators were returned in a number of very small pieces, their ship cleverly rigged to explode when it would do the most damage.

The Confederation found itself at a disadvantage. Its member races had achieved an interstellar presence only after theyd overcome the urge to destroy themselves or any strangers they ran into. Evidence suggested the Others had flung themselves into space without reaching this level of maturity. Clearly, in order to survive, the Confederation would have to recruit some more aggressive members.

Humans had a bare-bones space station and a shaky toehold on Mars when the Confederation ships appeared.

Some fairly basic technology by Confederation standards, combined with the information that the Others were heading Earths way, convinced humanity to throw its military apparatus into space where they took to interstellar warfare the way the Hsan took to cheese.

Some one and a half centuries of intermittent war later, borders had shifted, and Humans had been joined by first the Taykan and then the Krai. Much of the military terminology introduced into the Confederations common tongue remained Human although, as the three races became increasingly more integrated, Taykan and Krai words began creeping in. The Krai, for example, had sixteen useful adjectives describing the impact of an antipersonnel weapon on a soft target.

Although the induction of younger and more aggressive species had undeniably solved the problem presented by the Others, it had also irrevocably changed the face of the Confederation. Feeling just a little overwhelmed, many of the original species spent their spare time sighing and reminiscing about the good old days.

One

Reveille was not the best thing to have reverberating through ones skull after a night of too much and too little in various combinations. Making a mental note to change the program to something less painfully intrusive, Torin tongued the implant and tried to remember how to open her eyes during the five blessed seconds of silence before the first of her messages came in.

*At the chime, it will be 0530.*

The chime set up interesting patterns on the inside of her lids. What had she been drinking?

*Your liberty will be over at 0600.*

Which might be a problem, considering how much trouble she was having with basic bodily functions. Groping for the panel beside the bed, she applied what she hoped was enough pressure for dim lighting and cautiously cracked an eye. From the little she could see, these were not her quarters. The less than state-of-the-art wall utility suggested station guest quartersfor a not particularly important guest.

Finally managing to sort current sensation from memory, she turned her head toward the warm body pressed up against her side. The diTaykans short lilac hair swayed gently in response to her exhalation, the pointed tip of an ear covered and uncovered by the moving strands.

A diTaykan.

That explained things. It wasnt a hangover, she had pheromone head.

Sliding out from under the blanket, Torin stood, stretched carefully, and filled her lungs with air that hadnt been warmed by the diTaykans body heat. As memories returned, she smiled. Not only did Humans find the Taykan incredibly attractive but a Taykan in the di phase was one of the most indiscriminately enthusiastic life-forms in the Galaxy and offered the perfect and uncomplicated way to chase the memories of that last, horrible planetfall right back to the galactic core.

*Captain Rose wants to see you in his office at 0800.*

There were two piles of clothing on the rooms one chair, both folded into neatly squared-off piles. He mustvebeen raised by one strict sheshan, Torin thought, grabbing her service uniform and ducking into the bathroom. It had taken most of her nine years in the Corps to achieve that precise a fold, regardless of distraction.

When she emerged a few moments later, fully dressed, all she could see of her companion was a lithe lump under the blanket and a moving fringe of uncovered hair. Relieved, she moved silently toward the door, pausing only long enough to turn off the lights. A diTaykan considered, Once more before breakfast? to be a reasonable substitute for Good morning. and, with no time to spare, she was just as happy not to have to test her willpower.

Outside in the corridor, the familiar somethings leaking somewhere smell of the stations recycled air drove the last of the pheromone-induced haze from her head.

*0547* her implant announced when she prodded. Thirteen minutes before her liberty ended and her flasher came back up on screen. Thirteen minutes to get to a part of the station that wouldnt incite prurient speculation among the duty staff.

I shouldve reset wake-up for five. What was I thinking? she muttered, diving into the verticalfortunately empty at this hourand free-falling two levels. Grabbing a handhold, she swung out onto the lock level. Easy answer, actually. Shed been thinking that she needed to forget the carnage, forget those they lost limping back to the station on a ship that had won its battle but nearly lost its own little slice of the war, forget the messages shed sent to family and friends, and forget that new faces, always new faces, would soon be arriving to replace those theyd lost.