The Lost Aria (Earth Song Book 3) Read online

  Minu handed her aerocar off to a valet and strode in through the front doors of the Dunes. A huge bar dominated one wall, all glass, polished dualloy and neon. Only a few were in attendance this early, mostly Chosen in their night black jumpsuits. One was a very shapely black woman nursing a beer, who looked up and smiled as Minu entered. "What happened to the island plan?" Cherise asked.

  "I have something to celebrate and wanted to have some night life." Minu walked over and ordered up a mead, downing it in one long, luscious swallow.

  "I thought you didn't celebrate your birthday."

  "I don't," Minu said and smiled. Cherise gave her a questioning look, her pretty black face scrunched up in mock impatience. "It's a birth date, just not mine."

  "Damn it!"

  "All right, all right," Minu laughed and ordered another mead. "We celebrate the birth of our new baby." She raised her drink like a toast. "Happy Birthday, Lancer!"

  "New baby? And who the hell is Lancer?" Minu explained the new multi-role fighter, and Cherise smiled, shaking her head. "You know, after your people started transferring all the old, beat to shit transports, the same kind you used and abused in the war games, I knew you were up to something."

  "Not my idea," she said. Over another pair of meads for herself, beer for Cherise, she explained the day’s events.

  "You think it's really that good?"

  "Cherise, that was an R&D job, they've only built three so far. Ted and Bjorn might have screamed bloody murder at having to do engineering work (getting his fingers dirty as he called it), but they delivered a top notch development team." She looked down at her empty glass and sighed, lifting it again. "If I could have figured out how to name them Alijah, Terry, and Pip, I would have."

  "Here, here! But Pip isn't dead." Cherise said and downed the last sip of beer. "Let's go have some fun!"

  Leavenworth was nothing if not a twenty three hour a day, three hundred seven days a year, endless buffet of fun. No matter what your taste, you could find it in bountiful quantities and affordable prices. Minu and Cherise went from place to place, watching shows, occasionally seeing other Chosen, dancing, and drinking. Always drinking. The dancing was fairly safe; no one really looked at two girls dancing. And the clubs were dark enough to sneak a squeeze or a kiss here and there. Once they found themselves in a mixed group of young non-Chosen men and women. For a few hours they club hopped and just enjoyed being young. It was fun for a while, but then Minu overheard one of the good looking young men whisper to his friend that he'd never fucked a Chosen before. At the first opportunity she hauled Cherise towards the bathroom and at the last second turned to the front door.

  It was well towards morning before they made it back to The Dunes. Minu cut back on the drinking an hour earlier, but as their cab dropped them off she was still drunk. Cherise, on the other hand, was wasted. "I want to get up to that room and have sex with you," she whispered in Minu's ear, her normally accent free English now thick with her native Desert tribe.

  "Okay, shhhh," Minu whispered back with a giggle. A thrill ran up her spine, a thrill of sexual excitement and concern. What they were doing was still illegal, after all. There were probably all kinds of girls doing the same thing all around them, but they weren't Chosen. She came to realize that danger was an aphrodisiac. The pair passed through the doors of The Dunes, and Cherise almost fell. Minu caught her under one arm and Cherise used the excuse to grab Minu's ass.

  "Well isn't this the fucking perfect picture?" Minu looked up after steadying Cherise to see Christian standing there with two of his fellow scouts, all obviously as drunk as Minu and Cherise. But they weren't grabbing each other’s’ asses. "I should have known you were this sick!" He tossed aside the partially drunk beer bottle that smashed on the polished floor making the bartender look up in annoyance. When the man saw a potential confrontation between Chosen his expression changed to worry.

  "I don't want no trouble here, Chosen sir."

  "Then shut up," one of the other scouts said, “go wash some glasses, boy.” The man retreated down the bar.

  "She's just drunk," Minu said, straightening her friend up again and trying to let go. Cherise teetered. Minu cursed and grabbed her around the waist.

  "What the hell is your problem?" Cherise spat at him.

  "Looks like you’re the trouble," he said, taking her in with a look of disgust.

  Minu tried to will her friend quiet, but it wasn't working. "Sorry, you just couldn't get the job done, so Minu upgraded to someone with more manhood." In an instant Christian's face turned from disgust to rage. "Never send a boy to do a woman’s job." In an instant his hand flew out, backhanding Cherise across the face hard enough to spin her out of Minu's grasp.

  "What do you think you're doing," Minu cried and bent over Cherise who'd landed on hands and knees, shaking her head to clear it and spitting blood from a split lip.

  Christian was suddenly behind her, bending over and grabbing her prostate form around the waist with one hand and cupped a breast with another. "Come on baby, I can give you more than this Desert bitch ever could." His crotch was pressed in to her ass and she felt him getting hard against her. She struggled a little and that encouraged him. Christian pressed his growing erection against her buttocks. "Yeah, I always wondered why you wouldn't let me do this to you." He pushed again, his meaning evident. The position behind her, the voice in her ear, his lewd behavior, all added up to the breaking point. The memory of being raped during the trials crashed into her mind with bitter clarity. Something snapped inside her.

  In a flash she'd jerked free of his grip and spun, one foot snapping out. He crashed to the floor, nearly knocking over one of his surprised friends. In an instant he was on his feet and in a fighting position. Minu flipped to her feet and attacked. "You are in serious trouble!" she snarled.

  Years of fight training were under her belt, close combat, knife fighting, bone breaking, dirty ass fighting. Her dark skinned friend taught her there was no such thing as a fair fight. She was only dimly aware that Christian's two friends were flanking her, and that they were all Chosen. Hadn't she just admonished him a few weeks ago about brawling in Dodge City?

  "Men are different adversaries," Cherise' voice came to her as her body flowed around his first clumsy punch, "what you can use against me will lead to quick and bitter defeat against a man." Christian swung hard again, his fist a blur of power. As she would against Cherise, she raised her left forearm to fend off the blow and the impact almost broke her arm. His strength forced her hand back into her face almost as hard as if the punch had connected. It was only her speed that kept his follow up left from ending it right there. "You can't match a man's raw power." Minu jabbed him once with a stiff arm in the abdomen, and he backed a half step up in surprise. "Speed is your weapon, and their mass is their enemy."

  The bartender was yelling now, and Cherise lay moaning on the floor. A dozen guests in the bar exclaimed in surprise as service staff rushed to clear the combat zone. Minu caught a shadow to her right and sidestepped. A fist shot past her head close enough that her hair flowed in its wake. She grabbed the wrist, turned and rolled the surprised Chosen over her hip, her right arm pushed past human limits to send the man like a missile right into Christian who was coming at her again. The two men collided with a whump and crashed to the floor.

  Minu’s mind was operating on a subconscious level, it was instinct that told her to jump and spin a foot around. It was a half second too late to be perfect, her ankle caught the third Chosen in the side of the head instead of her instep as would be ideal. Still the spin was fast and the impact solid, and the shock on his face was interrupted only by his face smacking into the floor. He was out of it. Minu spun to hopefully put another out while they were off balance but they were already coming like a flash. She hesitated for an instant, finally settling into a jump to avoid both. Christian's out stretched left caught her foot and she flipped off balance, crying out as she tried to roll. She hit the floor hard on her l
eft shoulder and rolled as best as she could, but the second Chosen had her by the hair and he jerked her back.

  "Ouch!" she cried as she felt hair tear, yanking her neck back farther than it was intended to go, she kept her feet, but only barely. Quick as a flash there was an arm around her neck and mind blurring force was applied. He meant to choke her out. "Stop," she gasped, but nothing resembling a sound came out. She willed Christian to stop him, and she craned her neck to try and see. He was standing there, holding his ribs, and laughing as his friend choked the life out of her.

  "See if you can have any luck getting her to behave," Christian laughed.

  Spots floated in front of Minu's eyes and she knew she only had seconds. In that instant she decided she'd had enough. She reached up with her right hand and grasped the wrist around her neck. Again Cherise' voice in her head; “Men have iron handed strength that only their sex is capable of, no matter how hard a woman tries to match them.” She mentally overrode instincts she'd developed over years. Instincts that kept her from hurting people accidentally when shaking hands, or sparing with a friend. The cybernetic actuators whined audibly as she took his thumb and twisted his hand from her neck. Air returned in a whoosh but she didn't release her grip. She continued to bend backward on the hand, bearing the man to the floor. His eyes were wide in pained shock, looking at the grayish skin of her artificial hand with dawning realization. Only an alcohol soaked moron would forget during a hand to hand battle that the grayish arm with its three fingered hand, so normal looking and so alien at the same time, was a Concordia made cybernetic wonder. Her natural arm was nearly bitten off by a Kloth in the Chosen trials years ago.

  "Bastard, gonna choke me out?" she snarled and finished the move. His forearm snapped with a sickeningly loud pop followed by his scream. One on the floor crying, another unconscious, only one left now. “You do not know who you're screwing with.” She turned with slow deliberate intention to where Christian stood a few meters away, only he wasn't laughing anymore. She lowered her head; sweat dripped from her brow, and watched the emotions play over his face. Surprise was followed by anger then a creeping fear. In all their time together her arm had never really been a subject of conversation, even though she'd held his most delicate parts with that powerful hand. He gulped as that very thought seemed to occur to him.

  "Minu, listen..."

  "Oh, no, no, no, lover; far too late for that." She dropped into the most aggressive stance she knew, feet spread far apart, one fist raised over her head, the other, her cybernetic right, aimed at his throat. Kung-fu was so un-subtle, and that was just what she wanted now.

  "Just who do you think-" he never got a chance to finish because Cherise' fist slammed into his groin, doubling him over with a strangled scream. Cherise reached up and grabbed his hair in both hands, jerking him down with all her might. His legs went out from under him and his face slammed into the floor with a sickening thud.

  "Mother fucker," Cherise said and climbed shakily to her feet.

  Minu looked around nervously, suddenly remembering this wasn't the practice floor in Steven's Pass gymnasium. To her surprise, almost no one was looking. In fact, at the late hour, the majority of the remaining casino goers were more interested in their drinks then the yawning silence following the fracas. The bartender walked over and looked down at the three male Chosen, two of them unconscious and the third holding his broken arm and making mewing sounds. Minu held her breath as he clucked.

  "Those boys should learn to be more careful," he said. Minu stared at him, open mouthed. "Such a shame that they came running in and tripped over a luggage cart." Understanding dawned in her eyes and he winked at her. "Saw everything, lady Chosen. I'll see they're taken care of, and have a chat with the constable when he arrives." She looked around and saw a couple of the patrons nodding into their drinks in agreement.

  "I thank you," Minu said and went to Cherise. "Can you walk okay?"

  "Hell yeah," the taller dark skinned girl said with a weak smile, "I'm ready for more." Then Cherise almost fell over. Minu put her right arm around her waist and steered her towards the lift.

  "I just hope I can remember what our room number is..."

  Morning light flooded through the huge moliplas window far earlier than Minu would have liked. Cherise snored loudly next to her and Minu shook her head. The other girl had tried to get romantic when they got to the room, Minu resisted with loving gentleness. Not because she wasn't interested any more, but because she knew better. In a few minutes the adrenaline wore off and Cherise was out like a light, leaving Minu to lay there staring up at the ceiling. She thought for a while about her relationship with Christian, the things he'd said to her, and how quickly he'd turned against her. And slowly she came to the realization that what he'd said about his feelings for her was all lies. It somehow hurt worse than the actual ending of the relationship. A few tears came: not a lot, just enough to feel like it was an ending. And in her core that was what it was, an ending. Eventually she found sleep, snuggled against the naked form of her girlfriend, the one person she was certain had never lied to her. Somewhere in the back of her sleeping mind hovered the question. How much of what you think is really just a lie?

  Minu got up and showered before pulling on a fresh jumpsuit from her seldom used overnight bag. She was on duty that morning but was considering calling in sick. She'd never done that even once since becoming Chosen, but the sheets pulled back as her friend slept and Minu could see a breast exposed seductively. Thoughts passed through the back of her mind that sent shivers up her spine. And that was when her communicator went off.

  "Chosen Alma," she said quietly, heading for the entry area to keep the noise down.

  "Minu, where are you?" It was Dram's deep bass voice.

  "In Leavenworth, blowing off some steam." She felt a moment of panic. Did the bartender’s attempt to keep the fight quiet fail?

  "Well get to Fort Jovich, right away."

  "Can I ask what's going on, sir?"

  "A Chosen transport team on a Tog world is under attack. They say the enemy is the Tanam."

  "I'll be right there."

  She let Cherise sleep, grabbed her overnight bag and sat it by the door. Using the pad and pen the hotel provided she left a brief note explaining she'd been called to duty, and that she was sorry their date turned out so poorly. Almost as an afterthought, she added that she wanted to spend an entire weekend with her at the cabin as soon as possible, then drew a little heart and signed it Minu. Fifteen minutes later she was in her aerocar and rocketing into the dawn sky.

  Chapter 10

  Octember 23rd, 521 AE

  Fort Jovich, Peninsula Territory

  The two hour flight was just long enough to let her get her thoughts in order. Chosen on a distant world were under attack by a higher order species. The ROE dictated that humans gave ground or retreated when faced by a higher order species. In addition, there was a short list of species they all knew were openly hostile to all young species, and/or humanity in particular. The feline Tanam were right at the top of the list. Minu kept the aerocar's throttle against the firewall and ignored the overheat warning for the gravitic impellers. She normally babied the bright red car, this time it could damn well deliver some extra.

  Luckily it didn't let her down, and she dropped below the clouds and into one of the never ending rain storms. The huge octagonal shape of Fort Jovich was just below her as she angled towards one of the vehicle bays. The doors automatically swung open when her IFF transponder was recognized. The vehicle load master looked up in surprise as her car hummed to a stop. She asked him to find a place for it and left him with the cars valet ID cards and ran for a lift.

  The command center in the thick ceramic concrete heart of the fort was busier than she'd ever seen it, even during war games. Only this time it was not a game. Somewhere out in the vast galaxy, humans were fighting for their lives. "SITREP!" she yelled as she crossed the threshold. She came up short when she saw Jacob along w
ith Dram and several other Chosen from the council. "I'm sorry, First," she said and bowed her head. Instead of looking annoyed, he looked worried, and that made her pulse race even faster.

  "Thanks for coming so quickly," Dram said and gestured for her to come up next to him. He began briefing her before she'd even crossed the room. "A transport team of eleven Chosen and fifty two civilian contractors were en route to Amber..."

  "The Tog experimental farming world we’ve been working on," she said instantly.

  Dram nodded and continued. "We've been trying to duplicate the distribution system we've made here. Amber has an unpredictable harvest cycle that makes our unique harvest and distribution system much more practical."

  "Down side of the over-automated systems the Concordia tend to use," Minu pointed out, "you'd think they’d never heard of a grain silo."

  "Exactly. All the true farming worlds in the galaxy utilize huge distribution networks through Portals linked to processing facilities. They work night and day, rotating input from different parts of the planet depending on the growing season and field rotation. Amber is more like Bellatrix with shorter growing seasons that start at irregular intervals. It's hard to have the Concordia's massive factories get random shipments, so we've been building networks of silos and storage bins. Aside from a few bots and our teams, there isn't much there."

  "Low value target," Minu agreed. "Any defenders?"

  "A garrison of fifty Beezer." Minu snorted and he nodded. "So our team comes through with transports and starts to unload their gear. The Portal opens again and Tanam come through. Chosen Bainbridge was in charge. He offered respectful greetings, and they killed him on the spot."

  "How many more did we lose?"

  "Only Bainbridge, the other Chosen were attendees of one of your little combat readiness camps." Minu smiled; glad she'd made that suggestion a few months back, and even gladder the Chosen Council listened. All the Chosen who took the class complained unceasingly about the unnecessary imposition, especially the logistics and science branch. "The team fell back and established a strong defense that held the Tanam at bay even though they only had two shock rifles and a beamcaster stowed in the transport." Minu nodded in appreciation. The combat readiness camp instructed Chosen in how to defend against a superior force by establishing a good defensive position.