Irth
What is this Comi Conn?
An entire pride of cheevers had taken up residence inside of Gleb’s skull.
He knew this for a fact because it felt like they’d been nibbling at his brain and he was pretty sure they were using his sinuses as a latrine.
He wondered, briefly, at his predicament until he remembered the battle. He’d been in the magazine of the Stiletto…
He opened his eyes, forgetting about his headache, and saw a sky, reddish blue, and a small building, less than a kilometer in height, to his right. The HUD showed a breathable atmosphere.
Is this some remote colony? He wondered, opening his helmet. No, not with shiny buildings like that. It looked wrong somehow.
How did I end up here, wherever here is? He’d reached out at the very last second and he was reasonably sure he’d found Scylla.
There had been no time for fine targeting. He’d simply followed the universe’s suggestion and aimed for the first large grouping of Humans he could find.
So why am I not on the Mouse?
A shadow loomed over him. “Hey, buddy,” an angry voice growled, “how about you pace the shenanigans? I don’t give a bent shit how you managed to do this but I’ve got a couple hundred guests finishing the breakfast buffet and they’re gonna be out here, asking me why the pool is frozen. How do you think that makes me feel, huh?”
Gleb frowned up at him. The man’s sentence structure was different from the usual Imperial Standard. Clearly, Gleb’s suit had been busy. There was a veritable swamp of signals in the area and they carried a lot of data, including voice. The data was poorly structured but it was easily readable and the suit had done a good job of building a new translation matrix.
Gleb tried to get up, not wanting to deal with this fellow while in such an undignified position, but there was resistance. He looked down.
He was encased in ice, tons of it. He was in a large, kidney-shaped, ice-filled depression in the ground.
The energy in the water had saved his life but how to explain that to this angry man? He pushed hard, his suit amplifying his strength, and he broke free, icy shards forcing the man back a step.
He climbed to his feet. “Sorry about that,” he said.
“Yeah, yeah,” the man waved off the apology as if it was some annoying insect. “Just be glad nobody got hurt or I’d be sitting on your chest until San Diego’s finest got here!”
“Ah, yeah,” Gleb scratched at the back of his head. “Sorry!”
“Whatever, dude. Next time you feel like pulling a prank, wait till you’re inside the convention.” He jerked his head toward something behind Gleb. “Go on! Get out of here and take the rest of your nerd-herd with you!”
Gleb turned to find two men and one young woman, wearing what looked like white plastic armor. He couldn’t imagine what possible reason anyone would have for such equipment. Must be ceremonial, he mused. It wouldn’t stop a strong breeze let alone combat rounds.
“How did you freeze a whole swimming pool?” the young woman asked, grinning. “Dude, that’s epic!”
Her armor, for reasons that Gleb couldn’t fathom, exposed her entire midriff. He wasn’t complaining, mind you, but that still didn’t mean it made sense.
Also, even though she wore the least comprehensive suit, she appeared to be in command of her small team. The two males viewed her with a certain awe and not a little fear.
“Does that mean songs are being composed about it?” he asked her, bewildered.
She rolled her eyes. “Fine! Don’t tell me.” She looked him up and down. “Sweet suit! Make it yourself?”
“No, but we’ve made a few tweaks,” he admitted wondering what ‘sweet’ meant in this context. The translation matrix needed a few tweaks itself.
She nodded appreciatively. “Ain’t it always the way? They never look that good straight out of the box.” She nodded her head toward an awning. A label on it was superimposed by his HUD to read ‘BAYSIDE’.
“Better, hurry,” she warned. “You don’t want to miss the judging!”
So they’re cops. That’s what this ceremonial armor is for! He took a deep breath. “Very well, officer. Lead on. I shall stand judgement for freezing that man’s water!” Shouldn’t be more than a fine…
She laughed, dragging a stray lock of dark brown hair back over her ear. “Maybe I’ll have to punish you, later!”
He fell in beside her. Her attitude seemed to indicate he wouldn’t face much trouble at this ‘judging’ and the feelings he was picking up from her mind indicated an approach to punishment that he heartily approved of.
“What jurisdiction am I in for this judging?”
She grinned. “It’s San Diego! You’re about to go before the highest court on Earth!”
He stopped walking.
Irth!
From the Author
Power, as Mishak has already pointed out, is not a place of comfort. It’s a never-ending struggle to hold what you have.
Eth and his Humans have risen high in the HQE and that means new enemies. It was only a matter of time before someone moved against them.
They just never expected it to be their own side.
So now they’re forced into exile on the fringe of the empire, cut off from the rest of Humanity on Kish. They should be down for the count but our boy Gleb has stumbled onto a new source of recruits.
He’s got a pool of nearly eight Billion potential recruits to work with.
Some interesting things will be happening in book 3.
Meanwhile, I’m outlining book 5 of the ‘Black Ships’ series. The long range group is planning to cross the great void, sneaking into the Dactari Republic by a back door that nobody thought was even possible.
They’re looking to rescue their group’s founder, Commander Gabiola. Odin, bored with his role as the law-giver, might be playing a role as well.
I hope you’ve been enjoying the Human series. I hope to have a third book out this year. If you have a moment, a quick review would be appreciated!
If you like reading shorter stories (less than 50k words) I have a library page where you can download the stores I’ve done that aren’t long enough to actually sell. Mostly, they explore sidelines from the main series.
You can get the link by joining my mailing list (below). I figure you should get more for subscribing than just the odd email letting you know I have a new title for sale on Amazon. When you get your welcome email, you’ll get the link for the free downloads.
You also get my own email when you join so feel free to drop me a line if you have any comments or suggestions.
Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great new year!
Click this link to get started:
http://eepurl.com/ZCP-z
Humans Page 32
