The Wounded Warrior

by Jim Laughter

  The Wounded Warrior

  Book 5 of the

  Galactic Axia Adventure Series

  * * *

  Jim Laughter

  Tulsa, Oklahoma

  www.jimlaughter.com

  Dedication:

  For the brave fighting men and women of the United States armed services, both at home and abroad. Thank you for your dedication and for protecting our right to live free. God bless you.

  Cover background photo: Hubble data: NASA, ESA, and A. Zezas (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Axia Books

  1547 S. 78th E. Ave.

  Tulsa, OK 74112

  © 2019 by Jim Laughter

  All Rights Reserved.

  Second Edition

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. All characters and concepts of Galactic Axia are the property of the author and may not be used in any other work by any other author without written permission by AXIA BOOKS and Jim Laughter.

  Foreword

  We are not alone in the universe. But you already knew that. It is the way in which we are not alone that is the question, isn't it? Of the billions of stars in the Milky Way galaxy capable of nurturing life-sustaining planets, our sun out on a lonely spiral arm is not unique. Although a beautiful gem in space, our little planet Earth does not stand alone as nature’s supreme creation.

  Many billions of Earth-like planets orbit suns where life similar to humanity can exist. It stands to reason that of these billions of planets orbiting yellow suns, there are many civilizations in all stages of evolution ranging from early primate cavemen to deep space travelers. Many civilizations are younger than us and not as technologically advanced. But there are no doubt others that have existed for hundreds of thousands of years, perhaps millions, whose technology far surpass Earth in every way and who travel among the stars in interstellar ships. Some of them have visited Earth and influenced our cultures, intermingling with early humans and creating a new species – modern man.

  The ancient deities of Rome and Greece may very well have been visitors from other planets, each one influencing our religions when believed to be gods. Others may have been mistaken for evil spirits sent from Hades to torment and torture mankind, giving rise to the modern day myth of angels and devils. Like the universe, the possibilities are endless.

  If you are expecting this book and others in the Galactic Axia series to be about silicone-based aliens that look like green Jell-O, or little gray creatures that abduct people in the night, you will be sorely disappointed. But on the other hand, if your mind is open to the unexpected possibility that whoever is out there is the more normal of the universe, and we, in fact, are the odd ones, then hang on tight.

  Welcome to Galactic Axia, a benevolent commonwealth of planets spread across the galaxy and ruled by an absolute monarch on the capital planet Shalimar. And just like here on Earth, they have their military service, a branch of heroes dedicated to the preservation of peace. They stand ready to defend the Axia and the independent planets with their lives, and many times they pay the ultimate price for the safety of their citizens. You’ll meet a large number of them in this and other books in the Galactic Axia adventure series. You’ll get to know them on a personal basis. You’ll learn to love some and hate others. Many will not survive.

  The Axia only has one mortal enemy; a violent reptilian species called Red-tails. Conjecture has it that a Red-tail vessel crashed on Earth many millennia ago, giving rise to Earth’s mythical vision of red devils.

  Red-tails are heavy set with thick leathery red skin. They have vestigial horns protruding from their foreheads, and they have heavy barbed tails for balance. Red-tails invade from their home galaxy of Hadeous by means of intergalactic transit tubes that can transport hundreds of raiding ships at a time. They are always hungry and their planet is always starving. Their main quarry are humans.

  The humans of Galactic Axia (yes, they are our parent stock here on Earth) are not very different from ourselves. They have the same needs and wants as we do. They live their lives as we do, some in conflict and struggle and others in mundane routine. They raise their families, go to work and school, and have both triumphs and disappointments.

  Earth isn't the center of anything in Galactic Axia. In fact, our planet is closed – quarantined. Seeded with threatened species of plants and animals from other similar worlds for hundreds of thousands of years, it was later used as a safe place to exile criminals and malcontents. Watcher ships in deep orbit, along with observers on the surface, stand vigil over Earth (or Sol-3 as they call it) hoping for the day when we’ll mature enough to be adopted into Galactic Axia society.

  The day will come when we’ll grow up enough to where we’re not a threat to civilization here or out there. We’ll abandon our nation-against-nation and religion-against-religion bickering and strife and learn to live together on this small orb in space. We’ll put away our weapons and stop spilling each other’s blood for ideals that mean nothing in the grander cosmic scheme of the universe.

  In the meantime, we are being prepared. This book and its companions are but one way that is being done. So journey on, dear reader. It is not by happenstance this book came into your possession.

  Chapter One

  Lightning ripped across the black sky revealing the ominous shapes of the departing thunderstorm that lashed the land. Thunder echoed among the debris.

  A pair of frightened eyes peered out through the mist left by the hard rain. She sniffed. Waited. Nothing. She sniffed again. Her terror-heightened sense of smell betrayed no scent of them.

  Another flash of lightning further away lit the scene around her in stark black and white. The small girl beheld the torn bodies of people she had known. A single tear trickled down her dirty cheek.

  A clanging noise to her left caused panic to overcome her small body. She knew that sound. It meant pain. It meant death. All she could think of was to flee. But where? Where could she run to that they wouldn’t find her?

  “Leatha!” a voice croaked from the shattered wall of a building. “Come child!”

  Leatha whirled and ran toward the voice. An old, bent man rose up from his hiding place and gathered her into his arms.

  “Oh, my little one,” he whispered. He held her close for only a moment.

  Motioning for silence by holding an index finger to his lips, he grasped her hand and together they started a low, cautious run from the approaching terror.

  Between burnt buildings and down rubble-clogged streets they ran, the girl gasping for breath with the old man wheezing beside her, each urging the other on through united fear. But the sound grew nearer. Time was against them. They would need to hide, hope, and pray.

  Frantic, the old man looked around and spotted the remains of a doorway leading under a building. They approached it. He looked at her, trusting her heightened sense of smell. She sniffed and shook her head.

  His old fingers tore at the heavy buckled door and frame, trying to force it open. Inch by inch, it gave way enough for them to squeeze through, creating a metal against metal screech he was sure would betray their position. From inside, he pushed the door back and hoped the approaching patrol hadn’t heard the terrible sound and would find no sign of their passing.

/>   Ever closer the clanging treads approached while the two scared humans, one an old man and the other a shaking child, huddled silently inside the ruined building. Who these invaders were was immaterial now. Survival was the only thing that mattered, and the way to do that was to avoid them at all cost.

  The old man and girl watched through a crack in the wall as the tread-mounted vehicle hove into view. The scaly red reptilian skin of its driver was plainly evident in the lights mounted along the top of its holding cell where the crumpled heaps of humanity, both living and dead lay piled together.

  A foot patrol around the vehicle searched the ruins for prey. While they watched, one of the footmen moved off to one side, its clawed feet scraping on the pavement. It soon returned dragging the broken body of a man. With a flip belying gargantuan strength, the creature tossed the bloody corpse over the top of the holding cell to land with a sickening thud on other people already in there, some dead, others still alive, but not for long.

  The old man drew back from the crack, pushing himself and the girl deeper into the dirt and debris under the building. He fervently prayed to the Unseen One or whatever god that still existed, hoping their scent could not be detected down here among all the ruin and waste. Too many times he had seen the enemy’s uncanny sense of smell betray the hiding places of his friends and family.

  Ever closer approached the patrol. The scared humans knew their enemy was just outside. They held their breath in fear.

  A sudden inward blast of explosive energy buckled the door. The frightened child whimpered and snuggled even closer to the old man, shielding her eyes as if not seeing them would make them go away.

  As the dust cleared, the old man could see that both the door and its frame had been blasted away. In a flash of lightning from the retreating storm, he saw one of the terrible creatures standing in the doorway peering into the darkness. He feared the worse. He feared death. He feared them!

  ∞∞∞

  Leatha bolted awake, her body drenched in the cold sweat of fear. “Lights!”

  A sensor turned on the night and aisle lights of her ship, the Aurora. The dim light revealed her cabin around her, and her ears detected the soft murmur of the ship’s automated systems. Shaking her head to clear a mental fog, she could not recall anything of the retreating nightmare—nothing except fear.

  Glancing at the repeater board mounted on the wall next to her bed, she noted that all ship systems were green. It had taken her some time to trust the automated systems but now she was glad to have them. Still, as a precaution, she would park the Aurora in orbit around some planetoid or set down at a convenient trader outpost if possible. The few times she’d left the Aurora on even a slow cruise through open space while she slept had proven a lost cause. If she slept at all, it was fitful and left her drawn and tired.

  Currently, the Aurora orbited a small nondescript uninhabited planet. That was why waking up with fear in her throat shook her so badly. There was no reason for it.

  Throwing back the covers, she swung her legs out of bed. Striding across to her small shower, she shed her night clothes and threw them into the laundry chute where they would be cleaned and ready before she needed them again.

  A glance at a passing mirror reflected her face, haggard and worn. Many more trips like this and I’ll be old before my time, she thought as she stepped into the shower cubicle and turned on the water.

  This was one advantage of her solitary ship life. There was always enough hot water. Tapping into the recycling holding tanks that acted as filters and heat sinks for the life-support system meant she would never have to be content with a tepid shower.

  Leatha stood under the shower. Its soaking heat permeated and relaxed her tense muscles. The fading images of the nightmare circled down the drain into the recyclers along with the rest of the water. She found herself breathing easier and her mind clearing. After a few minutes, she felt fully refreshed.

  “Time to snap to it!” she said aloud to herself as she shut off the water. She waved a hand in front of a control panel and jets of warm air flowed over her, drying her in only a matter of seconds. Shaking her hair back, she stepped out of the shower and dressed in a standard ship flight suit.

  Although it was her ship and she could wear anything she wanted, Leatha preferred the utilitarian one-piece flight suit. It was comfortable and functional at the same time. Out here alone in space, she saw no need to expend extra effort. There were no males to flirt with, and besides, she had her heart fixed on a certain young man, Stan Shane, but he was many light years away on a mission for the Axia.

  Stepping out into the main control room of the Aurora, Leatha glanced out the front windows and noted she was still in a stable orbit around the planet. She already knew this from the repeater board in her cabin, but seeing it with her own eyes reassured her somehow. Strapping herself into her control chair, she disengaged the autopilot and took the controls.

  “Time to get moving, girl.” She played her fingers over her navigational and directional controls. Easing the throttle forward, she feathered the axis ball to break orbit. In response, the Aurora took up her old heading from the day before and leapt into the darkness of space. This was the last leg of a brutal mission. If everything went well, she should dock at the orbiting station before the end of day.

  ∞∞∞

  The old man reached over and painfully grabbed another piece of firewood. Pausing for a second wind, he grunted and threw it onto the fire. The draft through the makeshift shelter blew the sparks and smoke away from his face. Unfortunately, it also carried away much of the heat. He shivered against the cold.

  He wasn’t alone in his discomfort. Ranged around the fire were a number of other refugees. Each had a story to tell but no one spoke. This wasn’t the time or place for such recollection. Today it was just enough to survive; a day-to-day scramble for the barest of necessities.

  A man readjusted one of these necessities on a flat rock beside the fire; a pot of boiling water so it would get more heat and boil harder. Safe, drinkable water was hard to come by in this ravaged land. A system of collecting rainwater stored the precious fluid in containers scrounged from the ruins then boiled in an effort to prevent the diseases sweeping the planet. Whole regions had been depopulated by epidemics.

  Food was next on the list. Some could still be found in the remains of food centers and warehouses throughout the city. But since their society had been built around the transport of fresh food from different agricultural and industrial regions, much had been lost in the attacks. What little there was consisted of canned products, and not much of that still existed. Now it was too late in the season to grow anything edible. Besides, the invader’s chemical weapons had contaminated most of the soil.

  Soon they must hunt, and there was precious little game. The old man had directed efforts to collect as much non-perishable foodstuff as possible. But it would not be enough to make it all the way through the approaching winter. He feared there would be many new graves in the frozen soil before spring brought relief. With a fatalism borne of adversity, he knew his would most likely be one of them.

  Sighing in desperate relief, he closed his tired old eyes and reflected on how much had changed since the invaders arrival so long ago. He wondered once again if his planet’s leaders would have done anything different had they known their future. Of course they would have. But hindsight always tended to be perfect.

  Credence was such a peaceful place, he thought. Self-sufficient with a good balance between population and natural resources, they were proud of what they had built. And that was the operative word for it—built. Now it was being torn apart, destroyed by an enemy with no concept of compassion or mercy; monsters that only perdition itself could have spawned.

  The people of Credence knew their forbearers had landed here as part of Galactic Axia’s early seed colonization effort. The planet was void of human life but well suited for agriculture.

  It only took a few generations to t
erra-farm the fertile soil into a giant breadbasket for the growing population. Axia transport ships overflowing with hopeful colonists arrived almost daily, each with dreams of starting new lives on this wonderful new planet. Trade flourished and some considered life on Credence idyllic. They’d found their peaceful garden in the midst of uncertainty.

  Then the Dark Times blanketed the cosmos. For reasons few understood, civilization throughout the galaxy collapsed. Whole sectors and star systems were lost as trade and travel diminished to a fraction of its former prosperity. Many planets became isolated, struggling to replace goods and services that had always arrived via trade. The protective shield of the Galactic Axia fleets dwindled away, leaving hundreds of planets alone to fend for themselves; Credence among them.

  Food was no problem. At least lack of food was no problem on Credence. Initially, they had serious problems of over production since they were geared toward a large export market. But that was adjusted over time. The real critical needs were manufacturing and transportation which the Axia and its ships had provided.

  Now they were virtually nonexistent. A few independent ships plied the old trade routes but these were infrequent at best. Eventually, even these disappeared as the Dark Times spread across the galaxy.

  So again relying on themselves, the people of Credence built their own industry from the ground up. Lacking the resources and expertise of the Axia, what they built was technologically inferior but it served the purposes of Credence, and a new industrial age was born on the planet.

  Instead of large, fusion powered processing plants, they built smaller thermal mills. To replace the flying warehouse ships they relied on, Credence took a step backward and built rail lines crisscrossing the continents of the planet. This allowed them to continue to take advantage of different growing seasons and climates. It took just a matter of coordination and planning to see that everyone on the planet could have fresh food and produce year round, regardless of weather. As an additional benefit, the rail lines also provided much needed ground transportation.