The Book of Ominiue: Starborn

by D. M. Barnham

  ‘When should we leave?’ Shayne inquired as the lionman plotted.

  ‘As soon as possible, we can pass through Nakáda. We can’t stay there but the eastern lionmen would never give us away.’

  ‘And the Isradians?’

  ‘We shall tell them that we are returning to home. That would throw our position. From there it would be anyone’s guess to our likely destination.’ Kíe’arathorne helped Shayne to stand. He felt a little weak but otherwise healthy. They made their way out of the healer’s house.

  The city was made from mud-brick and a little wood imported from other places. The sun beat down upon their faces from the Isradian desert. Natives who passed them by called out his name along with the other word, Thall’magor.

  ‘What are they doing?’ Shayne half leaned on the journeyman for support.

  ‘You have fulfilled a prophecy,’ Kíe’arathorne told him as Shayne glanced around at the quiet worshippers. ‘They call you the tamer, the master, the one who came.’

  ‘But I tamed nothing, nothing has happened,’ Shayne countered. ‘Nothing has changed.’

  ‘Not yet.’ The journeyman smiled. They made their way around the grand house of the town’s leader, revealing more of the desert city and rocky mountains out in the distance.

  ‘You once said Isradian cities were all underground,’ Shayne recalled.

  ‘This is a trade city near the border of Nakáda. Most Isradian cities are secret. They may let a few outsiders know where they are, but very few.’

  ‘Wouldn’t asylum be better in one of these places then?’

  ‘I’ve thought about it and though they’d let you in without hesitation they wouldn’t let me. And your word won’t be enough to change that. You can stay here if you desire, but it won’t be with me.’ Shayne did not have to reply, he would not abandon the lionman after this; they will head for the Eldarhine Desert in the south.

  After spending an hour with the city elder they were granted two horses from the state of Isradia, Shayne stripped himself of his battle armour, he kept his top, boots and pants, but wrapped himself in a desert cloak, helping him to blend in. With gratefulness to their host they departed the city with packs full of supplies.

  It was early morning on the second day of travel when they crossed the border into Nakáda. They often passed traders, but they were few compared to the roads of Kérith-Árim and they often had long periods where they saw no one at all. They rode the horses as hard as they dared, and walked them when they were too tired. They would stop briefly to allow the horses a longer break and a good drink at inns and rests camps but they always continued on. They followed the main highway but skirted the villages when they came upon them. The plan was to travel along the road as if they were returning to the east, but once they reached the Na’Aman pass which lead into Bohaníde, they would continue on and into the Eldarhine Desert.

  They were walking their worn out horses when the sight of a small military hoverplane passed overhead, ‘Keep walking,’ Kíe’arathrone replied. ‘Do not stop.’

  ‘It would appear more natural to them if we looked up,’ Shayne pointed out. He looked at this uniform; he took his cloak off earlier and wound it over his head where it hung from his back; revealing his chest and legs to the world. By the time the aircraft passed it was too late to put it back on. His shirt was still very Earth-like and would stand out. Just as the lionman slowed down to look more natural the craft banked and came around; circling them in a large arc before it landed. The horses reared and Shayne’s broke loose; fleeing towards the trees that backed onto the mountain range. Kíe’arathrone managed to hold onto his, but it bucked and reared in fright. The air vice-marshal jumped from the vehicle with four other soldiers; two of which were suited up in the exo-battle gear.

  ‘Starborn Colonial Forrester!’ the man yelled as they made their way across to them. ‘Word has been sent that you’ve been found alive.’

  Shayne calmly looked at himself, ‘It would appear so.’

  ‘Why didn’t you just wait for us to get you? You weren’t deserting were you?’ he grinned coolly.

  ‘I’ve been sick in bed. The moment I awoke we decided instead of sending messages for you to retrieve us we would come ourselves. It would’ve been just as quick.’

  ‘Doesn’t the lionman have a wristcom?’

  ‘It was stolen,’ Kíe’arathorne tried his best to look ashamed. The air-vice-marshal looked doubtfully upon them.

  ‘Where are the others?’

  ‘They didn’t make it,’ Shayne returned with a faint hint of sadness in him. His superior failed to pick up on his distress and he reacted with anger.

  ‘You mean they’re all dead?’ his expression narrowed.

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘What do you mean you don’t know!?’ he yelled at him, hatred taking over.

  ‘They disappeared, all of them, they —’

  ‘Didn’t you look for them?’ he interrupted.

  ‘There was a fog; it was too thick to see a metre in front of you. We tried, but it was hopeless.’

  ‘A fog?’ the officer could not believe what he was hearing. ‘A bloody fog and you lost them?’

  ‘There was something out there. It was trying to separate us,’ Shayne defended.

  ‘And what was out there, Shayne, ha? What was it? The big bad natives? You had guns!’

  ‘He was attacked by Jahaarah!’ Kíe’arathorne jumped in, afraid and angry for his friend.

  ‘You were attacked by the devil?’ His rage seemed to rise to an extreme that would have humbled the general. ‘You bloody psycho freak, you can’t even give a proper damn excuse so you make some shit up. Do you think that I’m so fracking stupid?’

  ‘It’s true,’ the journeyman pleaded. ‘We warned you. We tried so hard to tell you, but you wouldn’t listen, none of you listened!’

  ‘I don’t believe anything that thing says,’ Williams pointed at Shayne while he spoke to the lionman, his voice full of hate and venom. ‘He’s got you all conned and I don’t care if he’s your saviour. He’s returning to the colony where he’ll be trialled for the murder of three federation citizens and six redundancies.’

  ‘No!’ cried out the lionman. ‘You can’t do that!’

  ‘I can and I have. Starborn Officer Shayne Forrester, you are hereby arrested under the authority placed in me as second command of the armed forces of the Iraquis colony.’

  ‘And I say that as an individual who’s been accused,’ Kíe’arathorne retorted, ‘he shall return to Kérith-Árim to be trialled by our law!’

  ‘He’s a Western Front Empire citizen, he falls under our law!’

  ‘And the accused crime was committed on our lands and on our planet, and according to our treaty you must abide by the law of Ádin-Harnader, which your leaders have accepted.’ Kíe’arathrone then motioned to Shayne and they turned their back on the Earthmen; walking up the road to the UeVarda’s capital.

  ‘Forrester!’ the air vice-marshal bellowed with such ferocity. ‘This will be seen as desertion, get back here now!’ Shayne continued to walk with the lionman.

  ‘Gorram it!’ Williams snapped. He then turned to the leading Starborn soldier. ‘Shoot him,’ he snapped to the girl. The Starborn hesitated, not from any empathy towards Shayne but because it seemed to be an unusual order.

  ‘Shoot him!’ he roared. The Starborn subconsciously snapped in response and she fired on Shayne as he walked away. Kíe’arathorne ‘s horse reared again, its mouth now frothing as it snapped the reigns from the startled lionman’s grip and bolted. Shayne faulted for a moment; the pain overwhelmed every sense. He attempted to continue to walk but after a few paces he collapsed and blacked out.

  Kíe’arathorne roared out in confused rage as he watched Shayne stumble beside him, his blood staining the ground. The scholar’s face curled up like a wild animal with his teeth bared. He spun upon his feet and leapt into a frenzied sprint straight towards the air vice-marshal. Williams experi
enced a glimpse of uncontrollable fear as the massive hulk leapt towards him; his face contorted and disfigured with pure hatred. Danto Williams faulted back but managed to point to Kíe’arathorne and command the soldiers. The two in the dark exoskeleton armour stepped forward; though they were large in the suits they still looked weak in the shadow of the lionman’s rage. Kíe’arathorne tried to break through, but as he tried to race past one of the soldiers grabbed his arm in a quick and flawless grip while the other bent down and took his leg, forcing the journeyman to lose his footing and fall awkwardly to the ground. The one who had tripped him then grabbed him from the scruff of his neck, forcing him to arch his back and the other continued to hold his arm; twisting it around. Kíe’arathorne was stunned by the strength and speed that the suits gave the humans. He tried to overpower them but they twisted his arm and wrist and he roared at the pain that seared through him.

  ‘Down kitty,’ Williams said stepping forward so that he had to look up at the human. Kíe’arathrone’s eyes burned with a fury that pierced the air vice-marshal, but the man dismissed it, comfortable with his strength over him now that he was restrained.

  ‘See if the degenerate freak is still alive,’ he told the un-armoured medic.

  ‘I will see to it that you are punished for this!’ the journeyman spat.

  ‘And who will believe you?’ Williams laughed. ‘After all, it was he who shot first.’ Williams then went over to the bleeding man. The medic applied basic first-aid while the air vice-marshal leaned over and took Shayne’s primitive gun from his holster; careful to use the unconscious man’s hand he fired the device twice. Kíe’arathrone flinched at the noise that rang across the land. Williams then motioned the two soldiers who carried him onto the Hoverplane.

  ‘Didn’t know that was a gun did you?’ He mocked the journeyman. ‘If we’re lucky he’ll die on the way.’ He then injected the lionman with a sedative he took from the medic’s kit and the armoured soldiers carried his collapsed form onto the craft.

  As they flew the air vice-marshal reported the incident to the base, giving his altered version of events. He then went to the man tending Shayne.

  ‘Are we lucky?’ Williams asked.

  ‘He’ll live,’ the medic said. ‘The bullet punctured one of his lungs, but has missed all other vital organs.’ The air vice-marshal was not pleased with the news and it was too late to just push him out of the plane. So he sat silently as they made the trip back to the colony. Now that his head had cleared he looked upon the sleeping lionman strapped to a seat; a feeling of guilt flooded him. He had grown fond of the scholar. He knew Kíe’arathorne would never forgive him for this, he made a new enemy. It was too late, actions were made, there were more important things to do, and reporting to a poor tempered superior was one of them. He knew he was doing the right thing. It was all for the sake of the Union.

  End of Part I

  Appendix I:

  Of Language and Pronunciations

  1.1 Accents:

  The accents of names and places present in this story do not necessarily reflect how those accents are pronounced in the English language. I included them to help the reader pronounce the indigenous population names as I intended them, they do not follow any real world rules, but if you prefer to read them your way then that’s shiny, this guide is just for the curious and obsessive.

  The accents only exist on vowels, with left biased slant above them (á,é,í,ó,ú) the pronunciation of these accents is extremely simple. You pronounce them as the word, not the sound of the word.

  Examples:

  á as in “álien and áble” and not “alphabet and aeróplane”

  é as in “éast and égó” and not “earth and enemy”

  í as in “íon and ívy” and not “irrelevant and image”

  ó as in “ópen and ópal” and not “occúpy and offer”

  ú as in “útensil and útópia” and not “upright or utmost”

  My examples focus on the first letter, but as you can see I’ve also listed any other letter that would also be converted in this format. The Kadalian (and most other) alphabets see these pronunciations as different letters and they therefore have their own character denoting the difference.

  1.2 Oren: Gender Neutral Words:

  Dífrun politics is dominated by the Fa’Orian (the Lionmen) and its beginnings were dominated by a race of humanoid people named the Ilnatao Afradian. The Afradian race held no bias according to gender and the Fa’Orian race is slightly biased towards a matriarchy; primarily due to their 3:1 gender ratio. As a consequence there is neutrality within the Kadalian Language (An old Afradian language) that influenced other races over the generations.

  Along with words denoting an individual’s sex (him/her, his/hers etc) there is also equivalent neutral words, often used when discussing a face-less person or used in conjunction with the gender words. Because this is a strong part of their society there is often no appropriate translation into English. Sometimes other words could be used to replace them such as ‘person’ or ‘them’ (or even just replaced with the masculine as our society does) etc. Often the gender separation is not appropriate (or even the substitutes)and can undermine the importance of the difference in their culture. Due to this I have sometimes used their terms of neutrality as a reflection of that attitude and I provide here the translation equivalents.

  Kadalian(neutral equivalent words): [English(Gender words)]

  Oríde: [male-man/female-woman]

  Oren: [he/she]

  Orden:[her/him]

  Orben:[his/hers]

  1.2.1 Orian: The Race Neutral Word:

  The word Orian is also a neutral word, but instead of gender neutral it is species neutral and is used to denote any intelligent being. One could see Ta’Orian as them saying “intelligent human, or human child of god” as Fa’Orian is “intelligent Lion, or lion child of god” It is a separation from common animals, but can be used for any intelligence that hold language and or civilisation. And Orian does not just define Lionman and human, but it can also be used to describe their two extinct/mythological races: Afradian and Dragon.

  1.3 Key Kadalian Words:

  Afradian

  An extinct race (formally called Ilnato Adradian)

  Barda

  Name for Kings from the Southern Nations

  Casader

  Native word for the planet. (Iraquis to Earthmen)

  Da’rukí

  The Demon of Ill Omens

  Dífrun

  The name of an enclosed subcontinent region on Iraquis and the only place where Lionmen dwell.

  Fa’Orian

  Lionmen

  Falá’arah

  Spaceship

  Hankída

  Elected holy rulers of Isradia

  Jahaarah

  False King (the devil)

  Kéaran

  The Lion God Brothers

  Kerwin

  The order of monks

  Kushlanor

  Captain

  Maltat

  Companion

  Nida Kushlanor

  High Captain

  Ominiue/Ossh’laue

  The DragonGod

  Orben*

  His/hers

  Oren*

  He/she

  Orden*

  Him/her

  Oríde*

  Man/male/woman/female

  Rukí

  Demon/spirit

  Shádarnˣ

  Master

  Shingahˣ

  Wizard

  Shinharah

  Dragon

  Shytardaˣ

  Kérith-Árim guards

  Ta’Orian

  Human

  Ueda

  Chief/elder title for nomadic people from the Western Dífrun deserts

  Ue

  Great/High

  UeVarda*

  Great King/Queen

  Varda*

  King/Queen

  Venra*

  King/Queen’s
spouse

  * Unisex word

  ˣ When used in context with the common language (or any other language) it describes an official title rather than a general word.

  Appendix II:

  Characters, Nations and People:

  2.1 Characters:

  Main Character:

  Shayne Forrester | Planet – Earth | Race – human | Nation– Republic of Australia | Other Info – Star Born regulated status – occupation solider and physics graduate

  Kíe | Planet – Iraquis (Casader) | Race – Lionmen | Nation – Kérith-Árim | Other names – Kíe’arathorne and Kíe’athraden | Occupation – teacher

  Sercondary Characters:

  Earthmen:

  Military:

  General Thorn Hendingson | Planet – Mars | Nation – New America

  Brigadier-General Christov Hanniver | Planet – Earth | Nation – England |Other Info – Born Germany, two pet Tasmanian Tigers – Red Rocket & Cascade

  Air-Vice Marshal Danto Williams | Planet – Earth | Nation – Republic of Australia

  Lieutenant Rae Wong | Planet – Eridani Star/Mir) | Other Info – medical officer and psychologist

  Lance Corporal Omar Shalvie | Planet – Earth | Nation – Canada | Other Info – Communications

  Corporal Dominic Bianchi | Planet – Eridani Star/Mir

  Captain Javier | Planet – Earth | Nation – Spain

  Lieutenant Jameson | Planet – Ophiuchi/Oberon

  Android One: 73B-GMSR (general military standard robot, second class medic) (Gemscar)