‘I am here,’ Brutus said. Cain had felt the moment when the ‘cat had made his kill and thought Brutus would still be reveling in it. He hadn’t seen him return. ‘I haven’t returned and I am reveling in my kill. These things are faster than a ‘cat, I’ll have you know. I’ll talk to him.’
Albert’s face changed and he looked around, trying to see where the voice he heard was coming from. “He’s in your head. That’s Brutus, the ‘cat who keeps me out of trouble,” Cain offered as way of an explanation.
The old man closed his eyes, nodding, thinking, and nodding some more. When Brutus finished with whatever he said, Albert said thanks.
Albert looked at the equipment with a smile, he keyed it and Cain confirmed via Jolly that the message was being broadcast to all towns and villages. Cain smiled and gave him the thumb up sign.
“People of Concordia, I am Albert, Elder of village Fairsky. I want to welcome you to a new day, a day where oppression has officially ended. We have a long way to go before we see what that looks like, but no longer will we bend our knee to masters. We will greet others as friends. We will not give all our food to the government, begging them to give us some of it back. Real change has finally come to Concordia, and it came from a planet so far away that the distance is inconceivable. The people who came to us from Cygnus have shown us that there is a better way, a way where we are in control of our own destiny, not something that is pre-determined at birth. I am going to Concord and will represent my village there. I ask that each village Elder travel to Concord, join me so we can all have a say in our future.”
Albert ended rather abruptly, but he had lost his momentum. He had sounded confident and if he tried to continue, he might stumble. Cain gestured for Albert to shut the unit down.
“We’ll see how people respond. You never know. You sounded great, Albert.” Cain slapped the old man on the back. They went outside and walked into the fields, talking about everything and nothing while they waited for the others to return.
The feast that afternoon was as Brutus promised. The ‘cats gorged on raw karasha while others enjoyed theirs cooked over a turning spit. No better meal was ever had. Stalker was disappointed that she was unable to run down one of the creatures, but happy that the ‘cats had been successful. She wondered if they had used mind tricks on the animal to get them to turn at the right time, get them to slow down so the ‘cat could overtake them. Brutus was ambiguous in responding to her accusation. Stinky hadn’t hunted as his burns hurt more than he let on and made running uncomfortable.
Cain noticed that he and Stalker were not just sitting side-by-side, but that they were leaning on each other. He knew that Wolfoids mated for life. If they did, then Cain was assured two Marines for the duration. He decided that there wasn’t a stronger foundation for the new force.
The hunting party returned to Concord before nightfall to find that nothing had changed. The Marines were lounging, eating until they were tired, then sleeping until they were hungry. Cain felt he should have been embarrassed by that behavior, but he wasn’t.
Thirty-four hours after his first call to the ship, the second shuttle arrived. It landed next to the first ship and with a little help from the pre-programmed maintenance bot, it refueled, then jettisoned the two temporary tanks. It took half their total number to carefully load Bull into the ship. No one volunteered to go, so Cain picked Spence, Tobiah, Grace, and Pickles, along with the bodies of Tracker and Slayer. He wanted an appropriate escort for the fallen Marines.
They cleared the area and the ship blasted off, arriving at The Olive Branch ten hours later, where Bull was rushed to the med lab and the fallen were put into cryopods for the trip home. Pickles, Spence, and Grace debriefed with the commander and the captain as they were still in disbelief at the changes they were hearing from the planet.
On the fourth day, the clones returned with the ‘cats in tow. Their statement was simple. “With the help of our friends from Cygnus VII, we will convene a Council of Elders and from them, we shall move this world forward. Graham has already had the safety protocols established, identical to those of your Holly. With his help, we will rebuild, in a way that benefits all.” The clone finished and looked at Cain for an answer.
The major had expected a negotiation or some kind of conversation. He was at a loss as to what to say, so that’s what he said. “I don’t know what to say.”
“To help us, we do require one thing. The six have volunteered to remain behind with us, help us through the most difficult time as we transition to a new way of living.”
“Luthie?” Cain asked in surprise.
‘I need to keep these others under control. Don’t worry about me as I stay on Concordia. We have things well in our paws.’
The end of Cygnus Expanding
Look for Cain and the Marines to return in Cygnus Arrives
The Free Trader Series
The Free Trader series is currently six books, soon to be nine of prequel adventure where you get to meet each of the species mentioned in the Cygnus Space Opera.
A ‘cat and his human minions fight to bring peace to humanity. Compared to Andre Norton, David Gemmell, and Larry Niven, the Free Trader series takes you to a colonized world across the galaxy where engineered animals help the people survive and become masters of the planet. After a devastating civil war, humanity and its creations rise again. The Free Trader finds himself at a crossroads: can he and his ‘cat prevent a repeat of past mistakes as they rebuild civilization?
Here’s what some reviewers had to say about the Free Trader…
“Most authors can't make a animal character believable. This one does. Craig Martelle has a great imagination and can put it down on paper for you to enjoy also, just like the great writers of the golden age. His writing is very reminiscent of their work.”
“very good read. reminds me of Andre Norton.”
“This series is excellent. The characters are well developed and the story line is compelling. As a long time fan of Post Apocalyptic books by Larry Niven and others as well as PA games, I would encourage anyone who enjoys Apocalyptic, Survival, and high adventure books to read this series.”
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01G19OHTS/ref=series_rw_dp_sw
Postscript
Thank you for reading Cygnus Expanding!
If you like to see the series continue, please join my mailing list by dropping by my website www.craigmartelle.com or if you have any comments, shoot me a note at [email protected]. I am always happy to hear from people who’ve read my work. I try to answer every email I receive.
If you liked the story, please write a short review for me on Amazon. I greatly appreciate any kind words, even one or two sentences go a long way. The number of reviews an ebook receives greatly improves how well an ebook does on Amazon.
Amazon – www.amazon.com/author/craigmartelle
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About the Author
Craig is a successful author, publishing in both the Science Fiction and Thriller genres. He’s taken his more than twenty years of experience in the Marine Corps, his legal education, and his business consulting career to write believable characters living in realistic worlds.
Although Craig has written in multiple genres, what he believes most compelling are in-depth characters dealing with real-world issues. The backdrop is less important than the depth of the characters, who they are and how they interact. Life lessons of a great story can be applied now or fifty years in the future. Some things are universal.
Craig believes that evil exists. Some people are driven differently and cannot be allowed access to our world. Good people will rise to the occasion. Good will always challenge evil, sometimes before a crisis, many times after, but will good triumph?
Some writers who’ve influenced Craig? Robert E. Howard (the original Conan), JRR Tolkie
n, Andre Norton, Robert Heinlein, Lin Carter, Brian Aldiss, Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman, Anne McCaffrey, and of late, James Axler, Raymond Weil, Jonathan Brazee, Mark E. Cooper, and David Weber. Craig learned something from each of these authors, story line, compelling issue, characters that you can relate to, the beauty of the prose, unique tendrils weaving through the book’s theme. Craig’s writing has been compared to that of Andre Norton and Craig’s Free Trader characters to those of McCaffrey’s Dragonriders, the Rick Banik Thrillers to the works of Robert Ludlum.
Craig finds the comparisons humbling. All he wants is for his readers to relate to the characters, put themselves into those situations described in Craig’s books and ask themselves, what would they do if they were there instead?
Through a bizarre series of events, Craig ended up in Fairbanks, Alaska. He never expected to retire to a place where golf courses are only open for four months out of the year. But he loves it there. It is off the beaten path. He and his wife watch the northern lights from their driveway. Their dog has lots of room to run. And temperatures reach forty below zero. They have from three and a half hours of daylight in the winter to twenty-four hours in the summer.
It’s all part of the give and take of life. If they didn’t have those extremes, then everyone would live there.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Calm Down!
Prepare to Enter Cygnus Space
Take Us into the Well
A Memorial
The Message
De’atesh Shipyard
The Marines!
An Attack on Peace
Coldstream
Briz Unleashed
Wolfoids and Hillcats
A New Dawn
Discipline
Stinky and Pickles
‘Cats, Dogs, and Chaos
The Training Regimen
No Animal Is Safe
The Cygnus-12
The Next Challenge
A Different Way to Train
The Olive Branch
Running from the Shadows
Cover and Concealment
Marines! We’re Leaving
Provisions for a Long Journey
Launch into Space
Space Station Traveler
Take Us Out
Training Continues
No One Knows What’s Going On
A Bridge Filled with Androids
Silent Running
Finding Your Way
Docked with the Traveler
The Price to Leave the Traveler
The New Normal
IC1396
What Is Graham Doing?
The Marines Go Ashore
Incoming!
The Ship is under Attack
A Crap Sandwich
Duty First
Fighting for Freedom
The Free Trader Series
Postscript
About the Author
Cygnus Expanding: Humanity Fights for Freedom (Cygnus Space Opera Book 2) Page 34
