by Blaze Ward
“And even more so then,” Mina agreed. “Corporatism still reigned supreme in many places in the sixty-sixth and seventh centuries. Imperium largely supplanted that on many worlds as corporations were brought to heel by aggressive governments. But in all those conflicts, the individual lost out, pawns manipulated and exploited ruthlessly, but never really free to find their own way. Much of the modern aristocratic norms you find in many places are direct holdovers from Pocket Empires thinking.”
“So you have one man who raised his voice….” Behnam said.
Mina recognized the quote from a famous documentary assembled after she had gone to sleep. She had watched it a few times, mostly to see how much of what she remembered the filmmakers had gotten right.
As documentaries went, they were more right than wrong, but tended to sensationalize things.
Even today, there was no proof that Rama had been secretly assassinated by representatives of the Twaldi Trade Imperium. If nothing else, someone credible would have talked eventually, if only to crow about it.
Instead, Rama had simply vanished from history, forty-eight years old and galaxy famous. No trace. No stories. Nothing.
Rather like a much less famous Shepherd of his Word had, one hundred and sixty-three years later, after the Unification Wars had ended at A’Nacia.
“You have one man who raised his voice against the darkness,” Mina quoted the entire line that opened the documentary. “And then stepped into it.”
“What leads you to believe that you’ll find any trace, any clues, at this late of a date?” Behnam asked now, brown eyes boring in.
“Faith,” Mina answered. “That was all I had to go on then, as he’d already been gone so long that he was sure to be dead. At that point, he either becomes a man like Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. who is still quoted today, or he ascends to Heaven like Mohammed, Jesus, or the Buddha and becomes something of a god. In Rama’s case, he is largely forgotten now, but that was the effects of time, the mystery of his disappearance, and the Great War that undid the Unification of Man.”
“Will you bring him back?” Behnam asked.
“I doubt it,” Mina shrugged honestly. “He’s been gone so long that he risks become a demigod at this point, rather than a man.”
“Then why do it?” she asked.
It wasn’t a hostile question. Pure curiosity.
How should you react when you meet Don Quixote in the flesh?
Occasionally, Mina wondered if there existed an alternate timeline where Javier Aritza had turned out to be her Sancho Panza. What bizarre and humorous adventures might they have had?
“A younger Wilhelmina Teague wanted to know,” she finally said. “Dreamed of maybe solving the mystery and being famous, or something. In those days, followers of the Word lived on many worlds, so I ended up traveling from place to place seeking the old stories and occasionally righting wrongs like some ancient samurai warrior or buckaroo. It was a dangerous task I had taken on, but the Way of the Sword was probably the only way I could have survive all the strange places where rumors or leads might have taken me.”
“That galaxy exists no more,” the Khatum of Altai said in a firm voice. Cold, even. “Why are you bound by those strictures?”
Why, indeed? Rama has been gone for six hundred and fifty-some years. Forgotten except to scholars and tiny pockets of faithful that haven’t died out yet.
Why are you still tilting at windmills?
Mina considered.
“Something Javier said,” Mina finally spoke again after a long pause. “In his letter.”
I can’t save the galaxy, he said to me. You can’t either. None of us can.
But that can’t be allowed to stop me from trying.
“Yes, that sounds like him,” Behnam breathed the words with a hint of pain underneath.
What must it be like to smile anyway and send a man like Javier out into the galaxy, always wondering if you will ever see him again?
Can’t be allowed to stop us from trying.
The Way of the Sword.
“Because there are still windmills out there that might yet turn out to be dragons that nobody but me can see,” Mina whispered.
Tears threatened. Then she let them fall. Behnam Shirazi already understood what made her tick. She had already figured out Javier.
Birds of a feather, as it were.
Samurai on the Way.
“Do you recommit to fighting injustice?” Behnam suddenly asked, snapping Mina’s head up in spite of the tears. “To defending the faithful on the Way and seeing that evil is resisted and hope never extinguished?”
Mina felt her heart suddenly triphammer. She was eighteen again and about to be consecrated as a Shepherd of the Word.
Those exact words.
The ones that had cast her out into the galaxy on an impossible quest.
Seeking dragons nobody but her might ever know.
“I do,” she managed to whisper. “I will.”
Mina was blinded by the tears now, barely able to even breathe. She set the tea mug down before she simply spilled it everywhere, as her hands started to shake with cold in spite of the heat.
“How could you know those words?” Mina finally whispered.
“I have done a lot of research on the Shepherds, Mina Teague,” she heard the other woman say quietly. “Especially those of the Sword. I will cause Altai to become a center for studies of The Way, because I have already begun to send out scholars to locate everything they can and at least bring me home copies, if not the original artifacts themselves. I have even made an offer to the man who bought your original starship, the one Zakhar rescued at A’Nacia.”
“I cannot go to Altai,” Mina said, her voice gaining conviction. “Not yet. My quest will not allow it.”
“I know that,” The Khatum smiled sadly. “I will do what I can, but eventually we will need you to help correct us on what has been lost over those five centuries.”
“Why?” Mina demanded in a voice better suited to a kitten than a warrior. “What do you want of me?”
“I want you to continue your quest,” the woman said boldly. “Keep looking for Rama Treadwell. Because you will also find dragons out there. That will be unavoidable for a woman like you, just as it is for a man like Javier. The galaxy needs you, even though they don’t understand it yet. You cannot save the galaxy, but that can’t be allowed to stop you from trying.”
Behnam paused for a moment, studying her. Mina was still crying, but that was just an emotional overload, rather than any specific emotions.
“I am prepared to pay you a stipend to cover some of your expenses,” the Khatum said. “A year’s honorarium up front, with the expectation that you will send me stories on Altai. Better still if you delivered them yourself, one of these days. Or at least your students seeking to find the Way.”
Mina nodded, mute, terrified.
She could not stop trying. Nothing would ever stop her, except possibly death.
And even in death, Rama Treadwell still managed to move lives, but she was one of his paladins.
On The Way of the Sword.
About the Author
Blaze Ward writes science fiction in the Alexandria Station universe (Jessica Keller, The Science Officer, The Story Road, etc.) as well as several other science fiction universes, such as Star Dragon, the Dominion, and more. He also writes odd bits of high fantasy with swords and orcs. In addition, he is the Editor and Publisher of Boundary Shock Quarterly Magazine. You can find out more at his website www.blazeward.com, as well as Facebook, Goodreads, and other places.
Blaze's works are available as ebooks, paper, and audio, and can be found at a variety of online vendors. His newsletter comes out regularly, and you can also follow his blog on his website. He really enjoys interacting with fans, and looks forward to any and all questions—even ones about his books!
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Also by Blaze Ward
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Last of the Immortals
Goddess of War
Flight of the Blackbird
The Red Admiral
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CS-405
Queen Anne’s Revenge
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Additional Alexandria Station Stories
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Siren
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The Science Officer Series
The Science Officer
The Mind Field
The Gilded Cage
The Pleasure Dome
The Doomsday Vault
The Last Flagship
The Hammerfield Gambit
The Hammerfield Payoff
The Bryce Connection
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Shadow of the Dominion
Longshot Hypothesis
Hard Bargain
Outermost
Dominion-427
Phoenix
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Earth Force Sky Patrol
Birth of the Star Dragon
Flight of the Star Dragon
Call of the Star Dragon
Shadow of the Star Dragon
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Hunter Bureau
Mirrors
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Way of the Sword
Shepherd of the Word: Book One
Blaze Ward
Copyright © 2020 Blaze Ward
All rights reserved
Published by Knotted Road Press
www.KnottedRoadPress.com
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This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
