Chapter 1
Corin Dante sat quietly on an outcropping of rock, overlooking the breathtaking mountains of Colorado at sunrise. Far below, set deep between the mountains, near their base, his ship waited for him with his friends and daughter sleeping inside. He had woken early and set out on his own in an effort to see what his real home world was actually like. His family hadn’t set foot on Earth for several hundred years, and none of them had ever known the rugged majesty that stood before him, undeniable, right now.
The air was crisp, with a slight hint of the modest rain that had fallen the night before. The trees below him swayed gently in the breeze, their branches and leaves rustling in the otherwise silent morning. Corin watched the dance of the trees, lost in his thoughts and concerns. He was a father now, and with Mekala to look after, he was no longer responsible only to himself. T’Sula was another matter entirely. She was in his mind, constantly distracting his thoughts from where they needed to be. Something had to be done. His thoughts of her were always there, waiting at the edges of his mind for the right moment to betray him.
The sound of the wind in the trees continued, but something else had joined with it. Someone was coming.
Corin dropped his gaze from the sky, to the ground below. There, his eyes fell across T’Sula’s raven black locks as she casually picked her way up the mountainside. She had cleaned up, and changed out of her typical jump suit and into a light colored, flowing Bakeeron robe with laced leather sandals. At first glance Corin thought that T’Sula looked nice, but considering the terrain and time of day, her wardrobe choice didn’t make much sense.
“Mind if I join you?” T’Sula asked as she came close enough to Corin that when the breeze blew just right, he could smell her perfume. At first he couldn’t place the scent, and then it came to him. Lavender. The scent was lavender, with a hint of vanilla.
“It’s a free world.” Corin grinned. Whatever T’Sula was up to, she had put extra effort into looking and smelling very nice.
“It is now anyway.” T’Sula whispered as she sat down next to Corin. She settled in quickly, leaning back and gazing out at the mountains. “This place reminds me of home.”
“I didn’t grow up with mountains.” Corin said quietly. He looked over at T’Sula, letting his eyes drink in her exquisite beauty. Just by looking at her, especially now, you would never know that she was the single most formidable woman he had ever met.
“Where did you grow up?” T’Sula met Corin’s gaze with a smile.
“All over really.” Corin sighed. “I can remember this farm planet that we lived on for a while. Life was alright. It was hard work, but it was good, you know? After the Ta’Reeth came there, my family moved to a space station between Caldon and Makduran. The place was literally in the middle of nowhere.”
“You moved around a lot then?” T’Sula asked him, trying not to be too intrusive.
“For awhile we did.” Corin looked away from T’Sula, gazing back out over the mountains. “After my Mom died, my Dad took a job on a cargo ship that made its rounds to any place you can think of.” He wasn’t entirely sure what to say next. Should he ask her about her childhood, or should he just spill his guts, and tell her everything about him?
“So, what are you going to do now that the war’s over?” T’Sula asked, saving Corin from himself.
“I’m not sure what I’m going to do. Besides, there hasn’t been a treaty or anything formal signed. Not even a cease fire agreement.” Corin looked back at T’Sula. “The war’s not actually over yet. What are you going to do?”
T’Sula sat quietly, studying Corin. She knew that he was right, even though she didn’t want to admit it. She had focused so much on the end of the war that she had forgotten that there had to be something after the end. Life had to go on. She had done what she had set out to do, and now life had to continue.
“It’s not so simple for me.” T’Sula sighed and looked away from Corin. She forced herself to look at anything else, as long as she didn’t have to look at him. Thoughts of Corin, and the promise of a future together had sustained her when everything else had failed, and now that dream scared her more than she had thought possible. “What I want, and what I have to do don’t necessarily coincide.”
“What are you saying?” Corin gently put his hand on T’Sula’s shoulder. He was surprised to feel her tremble at his touch. Something was wrong, and she either couldn’t talk to him, or she didn’t want to tell him about it. “T’Sula, talk to me.”
When T’Sula finally turned to face Corin, tears ran freely down her cheeks, and her voice trembled with emotions that ran very deep. “I don’t want to be Queen. I want my own life, not some title or responsibility for a group of people that I spent my entire life hating. It’s not fair! None of them have ever even thought for themselves!”
“What would you do with your own life?” Corin put his arm around her and pulled her close. “What would you choose for yourself?”
“I want a family. I want to settle down some place quiet.” T’Sula allowed herself to sink into Corin’s shoulder, drawing in his warmth as she put her arms around his waist. “I want to never have to fight again.”
“Honey, you can make that happen, if you can work things right.” Corin waited for T’Sula’s rebuke for calling her ‘honey’, but it never came. “You’re in a position to change everything. Only you can do it, and I’ll stand by you no matter what.”
“I know, it’s just that I, I just…” T’Sula took a deep breath before she forced herself to continue. “I just don’t know if I can do this.”
“Alright, let’s take a look at this, and break it down.” Corin glanced down at his watch, noticing that the dawn was beginning to slip away into full daylight, and that Mekala would be up soon. “We need to get you some help. We need people who really know the Ta’Reeth, and that we can trust, to advise you.”
“I already have a few people in mind.” T’Sula sat up and looked earnestly at Corin. She believed what he said about not leaving her, especially now that she saw him in a different light. He was many things, but in his own way he was an honorable man, and he would stand by his word. She knew that even with all of the things that had happened between them in such a short period of time, she loved him. Maybe that was part of the problem.
“I want the Ta’Reeth named Pike, Gabrielle, and Justo Saint Germain. Those three should be able to give decent council. We should be able to find them around the city that’s at the foot of Pike’s Peak.” T’Sula carefully extracted herself from Corin, smiling sadly as she stood. She wasn’t sure what she had planned to say to him this morning, but she knew, she felt that whatever it was was immaterial now. He had pledged to stand by her, no matter what, and that was good enough for her. “Have you had breakfast yet?”
“No. Have you?” Corin asked as he stood and dusted himself off. He still wasn’t sure why T’Sula had come to him this morning, and it bothered him that she hadn’t actually said. Either way, she had come to him, and it felt good to know that simple fact.
“No, I thought that I might wait until everybody was up.” T’Sula started picking her way down the mountainside. “Anyway, we’ve got a lot to do today. I was thinking that after breakfast we might go to Pike’s Peak, and start looking for Pike.”
“What’s so important about this ‘Pike’?” Corin asked, following T’Sula.
“You’ll see. It’s actually hard to explain.” T’Sula grinned back at Corin. “Gabrielle’s the same way.”
“If you say so.” Corin said as he came alongside T’Sula. She had chosen an easy trail to follow, with little in the way to obstruct their passage. They stayed quiet as they walked, each enjoying the serenity of the mountains, and the presence of the other. Neither noticed the movement on the surrounding mountainside, as a handful of Ta’Reeth slipped from tree, to rock, to shadow, and back again.
“I don’t understand something.” Corin finally broke the silence.
“What’s
that?” T’Sula cocked an eyebrow at Corin.
“Well, I don’t understand how the Ta’Reeth never had any free will.” He kept pace with T’Sula, and tried to make certain that his thoughts and questions were coherent not only to himself, but to T’Sula as well. “I mean, every one of them is an individual, right? So how could they not be able to think for themselves?”
T’Sula caught a glimpse of movement from out of the corner of her eye as she stopped and turned to face Corin. She knew that she had a detail of guards around her, but as of yet they had not been seen. Her thoughts jumbled as she tried to sort through them to find the answers that she knew were there, hidden somewhere inside her mind. She wanted to give Corin the best, most honest answer that she could. He deserved that much.
“Corin, the Ta’Reeth were bred with telepathic abilities and controls built into their minds.” T’Sula took another moment to focus her thoughts before she continued. “I’m not sure how this was done, but the First was able to control each one of them, as if they were nothing more than a puppet, or an extension of the First’s body.”
“So, how are they functioning now? If they were controlled like that, wouldn’t they shut down after the First died?” Corin noticed the flicker of a warning coming from his cerebral implants. Something was watching them, very closely. He casually rested his hand on the pistol that he wore slung low across his hip, and activated his link with Vengeance.
“I can’t pretend to know all of the answers, Corin.” T’Sula sighed. He had a point, but how could she make him see that the Ta’Reeth weren’t actually bad. Everything had been because of the will of the First.
“I understand the theory that they were all being controlled. I get that. It’s just that…”Corin’s pistol slid easily out of its holster and into his hand as he placed himself between T’Sula and another crash that came just inside the tree line. There was movement now, shapeless forms bursting from the shadows, and then disappearing again just as quickly as they had materialized.
Corin scanned the tree line, searching for movement, and any creature that he might recognize. Minutes passed quickly, with nothing happening. A thin line of sweat started to trickle down the middle of Corin’s back as searched. Still, nothing moved.
“Come on. Let’s go.” T’Sula whispered to Corin. There was something out there, but she hoped that her guards had been able to take care of the situation. For all that she knew, the disturbance could have been an animal of some kind. Possibly a large cat or one of the bears that she had heard about. There was no way to know for sure.
“Alright.” Corin sighed as he holstered his pistol. He didn’t tell T’Sula, but he kept his implants running with enhanced sensory options, and his remote link with his ship fully operational. As they began to walk again, Corin adjusted his sensory options, setting them on a higher sensitivity rating. Everything was much sharper now. He could see the heat signatures radiating from T’Sula, and the creatures that were roaming the mountains. The sounds from the squirrels scampering through the trees came to him in waves that he quickly sorted through, telling himself that these were not the sounds that he was searching for.
Time passed more slowly as they walked. Each of them scanned the mountainside for things that shouldn’t be there. Both T’Sula and Corin let their training and experience dictate their actions. Years of training and fighting had kept each of them alive in the worst of situations, and they both found a measure of comfort in the fact that the other was with them.
The bright morning sun shone through the canopy of trees as Corin and T’Sula stepped into a small clearing. The ground was reasonably flat, with large sun baked rocks dominating the center of the clearing, and a ring of old trees on the outside. As they approached the center, Corin’s sensors went crazy.
Corin pulled his pistol free as he gently pushed T’Sula toward the rocks, keeping himself between her and the dozens of Ta’Reeth that appeared in the clearing. As he moved, he used his remote link, and brought Vengeance to full power. The Ta’Reeth moved into the clearing, forming two concentric rings, just within the perimeter. The hunters that filled the outer ring faced the center of the clearing. Their short, muscular bodies were poised to attack in any direction. Razor sharp teeth lined their gaping maws, watering for the taste of flesh.
The hunters slowly circled the clearing, constantly looking and probing for a weakness that they could exploit in the inner ring of defenders. The Ta’Reeth that formed the inner circle looked nothing like the hunters. They stood upright like a man, standing just shy of two meters tall with slender, muscular bodies that were hardened by years of combat and training. T’Sula’s guards moved effortlessly across the uneven mountainside, mirroring the movements of those that would have them die.
An ear-splitting shriek filled the air as the hunters lunged for the guards. Their lower jaws split wide, showing row upon row of razor sharp teeth as the hunters ripped mercilessly into the other Ta’Reeth. The guards struck back, even as the hunters slashed at them with elongated talons. One on one, the guards might have been able to repel the assault, but the hunters outnumbered them by three to one. Six guards fell within a minute.
Corin leveled his pistol, and aimed at the nearest assailant. He knew where to aim, how to kill these beasts, but he waited. He waited for a clear shot, so that he would not risk hitting any of T’Sula’s guards. The guard nearest him fell backward with a hunter clawing at its chest. Without any more hesitation, Corin fired. As the hunters head disintegrated, he tracked another target.
“Run my Queen!” the guard screamed as another hunter ripped into its body.
Corin shot another hunter, opening a small hole in their shrinking circle of safety. He grabbed T’Sula’s hand, and ran. They didn’t look back as they ran down the mountain trail to the next clearing. The sounds of the struggle receded quickly into the distance, to be replaced by the hum of starship engines. Vengeance settled in the clearing, and Corin and T’Sula climbed aboard.