The Lost Aria (Earth Song Book 3) Read online

  “I am Casan Macubale,” the man next to her said. Minu turned back to see him smiling and inclining his head in a bow, “I am the elected chief of our town, and very grateful to meet the great Minu Alma at last!”

  “I am hardly great, just Chosen,” she said as humbly as she could. “Are you any relation to Cherise?”

  “I am proudly her father, Chosen Alma.”

  “Please, call me Minu.” He nodded and smiled broadly. His perfect white teeth flashed in the dimming afternoon light, his skin a rich coffee color as opposed to Cherise who more resembled milk chocolate.

  “I am honored, Minu. I can see you are a little confused. My first wife died when she was very young, in child birth. We do not often miss the technological life you lead, but at times like that the cost of our agrarian lives is very high indeed. While I was recovering from the loss, a Chosen came to help us install our humble computer network and power station. I had never seen a Chosen, especially not a beautiful white female Chosen. Of course I fell in love with her and spent every waking moment trying to turn her heart to mine.

  “I failed to earn her heart, but she did honor me by sharing my bed. Nine months later she honored me again when she brought twin daughters for me and the town to raise. Cherise and Alicia grew up here never knowing their mother.”

  “Is she still Chosen? I've probably known her!”

  He looked down and she saw some of the happiness slip from his face. “She died seven years ago on a mission with your father. He was devastated and told me in person.”

  Minu was sure she could remember that mission. She always knew when her dad returned and had lost men on a mission, but this time was worse than most. He didn't talk to anyone for days, and it was one of the few times she ever saw him on the verge of tears. “I'm sorry for the loss.” Casan nodded in thanks. “So that is Alicia,” she asked, nodding her head towards the girl speaking with Cherise.

  “Yes, she is the other shining light in my life. I feared she would race off to be Chosen with her sister, but she decided that teaching the next generation was her calling. She has worked hard to make sure the children here are among the best educated in our tribe.”

  Minu took a moment to look around. About four hundred men, women and children were gathered now around the fire, all talking animatedly. The sun was beginning to set and the fire was becoming a welcome relief from the oncoming chill. Every time they saw her look at them they would smile brightly and bow their heads. Minu decided this is what it must have felt like to have been royalty, to be adored like this. There were a few other lighter skinned members of the town, but not many. Cherise and her sister Alicia by far the lightest. It seemed to make little difference here though, and it made Minu feel right at home. In some places on Bellatrix racism was alive, but not in the Chosen. You couldn't be Chosen and harbor such meaningless bigotry. Now sexism...? Well, that was another matter.

  “May I ask you a question?”

  “Of course, Casan.”

  “Your hair is the most amazing color! Do all your siblings share it?”

  “I'm an only child. Even in my family it is almost unheard of. I suppose one day there will be no one left with red hair.” Minu explained, then told the story of her hair’s origin going back to Mindy Harper and the exodus from earth.

  “Ah, I know that story from Plateau. A truly amazing woman, your matriarch. Our distant ancestors were very patriarchal, but to our credit here on Bellatrix we have grown past that. My position, that of an elected chief, is about the only traditionally male position which remains. Of course the town council has more power than I do, so I guess it makes little difference.”

  “Your English is outstanding.”

  “I attended a Keepers Academy in New Jerusalem,” he explained. “My father sent me there hoping I would escape the poverty of our people. The Concordians had only just returned when he was a young child and he saw the future would not be here. Once I was educated I did not agree with him, and much to his chagrin, I returned here. But I brought with me a hunger for change and growth, and have strived ever since to drag us forward to join the rest of the world. The Concordians have much to teach us, and I believe we have just as much to teach them. But if we cannot stand beside them as equals, no one will listen to a primitive Stone Age people. So that is my quest.”

  “You are a wise man with a beautiful vision, Casan; I'm honored to know you.”

  “You are too kind. But please, this celebration is for my daughter and her newest sister! Food for the Chosen!” he bellowed and a moment later trays were being paraded before them.

  Hours after dark the town was still celebrating, singing, talking, and amazingly, eating. How could people so thin eat so much food? And the drink too! She favored mead, but their own alcoholic drink made from a local berry was quite impressive, and doubly intoxicating. If not for a timely intervention by Cherise, Minu would likely be sleeping it off instead of having a walk.

  Despite the fun and fondness of the people it was still a party. And like any other party, not her sort of thing. Minu was becoming an increasingly private person as she became more of an adult. A short time ago Casan gave a small speech praising first his daughter, then Minu. Then using his admittedly limited power, he officially made Minu an honorary member of the Desert Tribe, and a resident of Naomi. Shortly afterwards, Minu decided on a private walk. No one tried to stop her or insist on going along, and that was refreshing.

  Minu walked along the rough ground carefully, using the forearm crutches for their intended purpose as well as probing ahead to avoid any holes. Behind her the town was alive with life and light, making her smile but also glad to be out of the middle of it. She decided she was far enough away and looked up at the night sky. The low cloud cover burned off just before dark leaving a startling vista of stars twinkling over her head. She'd only seen such a star field many years ago during her trials. Ironically it was in a distant part of this very desert that she'd met her fate, and had her destiny brutally foisted upon her by a rapist, and an attempted murderer.

  Just at the edge of the eastern horizon Romulus was slowly climbing into the sky. Minu only needed to give it a momentary thought to know that the moons twin, the tiny ocean moon Remus, was several hours behind it. The two chased each other across the sky every night, Remus being roughly twice as fast as its sister moon, but in a similar orbit. The two moons always appeared about to collide in their passage. The truth was they were thousands of kilometers apart, Remus being in a much lower orbit than the more massive Romulus. As a little girl she read books by Jules Verne, and Robert Heinlein and imagined flying to those moons and exploring for aliens. The truth was much more boring. Remus was completely covered with a shallow sea brimming with stinking algae and tiny crustaceans. Romulus just a dark obsidian rock, a rogue captured by Bellatrix eons ago.

  A sound made Minu turn her head and look. There, under a bush two kids were sitting. There were no more than eleven or twelve. They hadn't noticed Minu's approach, or simply were indifferent to her presence. She first thought it was a boy and girl, but even in the dim light cast by Romulus form the horizon she could see they were both naked from the waist down and had their penises in hand. Minu turned and quietly walked away, shaking her head. She remembered Cherise telling her that such things were not uncommon where she came from, and how she'd lost her virginity at just about the age of the two boys. It was a very different place from the sheltered, overly civilized city of Tranquility.

  Minu wandered the perimeter of the town for a few hours until her legs started hurting again, and eventually ended up sitting on a rock within sight of the town. Somewhere a dog howled in the dark and was answered by another. There weren't many wild dogs where she came from, the kloth were too hard on them. Here in the deep desert the kloth seldom ventured, so more earth species thrived. She knew that a couple species of gazelle did well out here, brought by Cherise' ancestors, as did goats. It was a hard place to live, but no big predators. And there were no h
owlers barking at you. They were like flies around her cabin this time of year. And every time they heard any sound the blasted lizards would all start their bone grinding serenade.

  The stone was warm and the air quickly cooling as she watched Romulus climb into the sky. Four years as Chosen seemed more like a hundred as she thought about it. So many she'd known were dead, or gone to her. So much talent, so much hope, so much pain. It sometimes felt like a long drawn out drama playing before her eyes, only with more tears. The scene after the battle on Serengeti, her in the hospital demanding the after action report and scrolling the losses of her soldiers. Nearly two hundred dead and half that number injured. The Rasa lost twenty, with five injured as well when the Tanam brought down one of their transports. An entire company of soldiers were gone in one battle. Every time she fought the butchers bill got bigger.

  A few tears rolled down her cheeks, far fewer than she expected, and in moments they were gone, the moisture drunk by the hungry dry desert air. It felt like there was less room for grief and remorse, and less time to indulge in such things. The revelation of how she came to be born and the real relationship, or lack thereof, between her mother and father had done more to harden her heart that she realized. And then there were the Weavers, the mysterious entities that appeared to live inside the Portals. They'd saved her life during the Vendetta, at least she believed they had, and now wouldn't talk to her. They insisted on talking to Pip, and he was all but dead. A Rasa flechette dart was embedded deep in his brain, rendering him permanently in a coma. How was she supposed to put a comatose patient in touch with ethereal aliens that may or may not be living inside Portals?

  She took out one of the tablets she always carried and brought it to life. The screen cast a ghostly shadow on her face. Displayed was an email she'd received a few days ago. A friend in the office of the dean at the University of Plateau told Minu that they'd heard about her treatment by the Chosen council. The board of governors at the school discussed it and Minu was officially offered a position as associate professor of history. If things worked out, and she continued her own education, she'd be made full professor in charge of a new Military History department in a few years. They didn't come out and say it, but she was sure they were a little nervous of appointing an eighteen year old woman as a professor. Still, it was the most tempting offer she'd had in a great long time. But to leave the Chosen behind and teach? Maybe form her own military history department? Very tempting.

  Then she found the files from her father. Her birthright, of a sort. An invitation from her dead father to explore the cosmos, and find clues he'd left for her that promised to lead to an even greater mystery. Maybe he was alive out there, waiting for her to find him? It was a tantalizing thought. More tantalizing than the teaching position? She needed to think about it some more.

  Chapter 3

  April 28th, 521 AE

  Village of Naomi, Mt. Sahara Region, Desert Tribe, Bellatrix

  Dawn broke over Naomi on the second week of her rest, and Minu blinked. Already the sounds of children running and playing came through the simple lace screen that served for windows here in the desert. It had only rained once in the two weeks, a pathetic trickle of moisture from the parched skies so meager the shutters weren't even closed. Even though no one closed their windows, Concordia made moisture locks captured the water from each roof and sequestered it into the residences individual cistern for later use. Water was more precious than steel in the desert.

  Minu yawned and sat up in bed, the scant single sheet falling away from her naked body. Next to her Cherise snored on peacefully. She patted the girl affectionately on her shapely bottom but she just continued to sleep. “Typical,” Minu whispered and crawled from bed. More nights than not, the two spent their evenings together. Minu admitted to herself that she was glad for the company, and the physical pleasures it brought. Hard to believe she'd reacted with such fear and negativity the first time it was offered by Cherise. Now it was a natural thing, a sort of safe love she could share with her best friend.

  Her normal morning shower ritual was curtailed here by necessity. Instead most times she sufficed with a washcloth bath of all the important parts. She'd had a shower a few days ago so she stuck with the simple cleaning today. Breakfast was leftover biscuits from last night and a package of instant oatmeal, simple yet filling fare. The oatmeal was for her enjoyment. Desert Tribe preferred a sort of curdled goat milk that just wasn’t to her taste. When she was done Cherise still hadn't stirred so she went outside.

  Walking around naked from the waist up took some getting used to, even after the trials and their forced nudity. Now two weeks later it was normal. She'd found out the next day after her welcome party, to her surprise, that near nakedness or outright nakedness was commonplace. She'd stuck to the light blouses she'd brought the first two days, but then quickly tired of being sweaty and sticky at the end of each day. She'd gone topless after that. To her relief no one even looked twice, not even the men. She admitted to herself it might be because except for the young girls she had the smallest breasts in the village.

  The only challenge in adapting was her pale skin. Red heads had been known to burst into flames on overcast days. The blast furnace of the sun here was almost unbearable. Luckily she didn’t go far without ample supplies of Concordia formulated sunscreen. It went on lightly and lasted for days, and saved her from being burned to a crisp. Not even a swim washed it away.

  After the brief rain earlier in the week Cherise and she joined the young teenagers of the tribe in a first for her; skinny dipping with others. It was quite an experience to be bare naked with thirty other young men and women in a shallow stream. That water was cool and refreshing, and the young were completely uninhibited in their behavior. By late in the afternoon she’d watched at least five pairs wander off together into the sparse underbrush, not all opposite sexes, and one couple simply consummate their passion right there in the shallow water. It was so strange to see passions on display for everyone to see, and had the natural reaction of driving her into Cherise' ready arms. They were the sixth couple to find a secluded place that afternoon.

  Though she was less well-proportioned than normal for the town, that didn't slow down the boys from trying to gain her attentions. She'd lost count of how many asked her to 'tour the woods', as Cherise explained was the local euphemism for what Plateau kids called a roll in the hay. It didn’t seem to matter that there were no trees more than a meter tall within many kilometers. Most of the potential suitors were somewhat younger than her with the exception of one man old enough to be her father that had the unexpected result of making her blush spectacularly. And there was one boy no older than the two she caught experimenting that first night. Cherise laughed when she heard about the latter. “It was probably a dare from another boy,” she told Minu, “next time, say 'sure' and watch how fast he runs away.”

  The last few days she'd spent her time shared between mornings with the older women, accompanied by Cherise as translator, listening to them talking about their ancient traditions, and afternoons with the young men watching and slowly increasing her knowledge of their unique style of martial arts fighting. At first they were amused that a non-Desert woman would want to learn fighting. Then at Cherise' urging she'd picked up a wooden practice knife and pinned a boy to the ground in a couple seconds. It would have been much faster but her legs were still not one hundred percent. It was the first time she'd straddled a boy, nearly naked herself, and been sure he wasn't more impressed by her breasts than her abilities. After that demonstration they eagerly awaited her arrival, often seeking her out should she be late or otherwise occupied. They were most engaged by the other martial art moves she'd integrated into her own personal style. Everything from Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, and Jackie Chan were her artistic influence. Now with her time in the desert running short she could see bits and pieces of what she'd shown them slowly working in to their native fighting style. They were integrating what they liked, and d
iscarding the rest.

  One morning Minu started with a run, something she'd never felt good enough to do yet. The legs had a strange otherworldly quality about it that the arm never quite bothered her with. She considered it coming maybe from the hybrid nature of the limb compared to the purely cybernetic arm. She'd sent an email a week ago to Dr. Tasker, complaining about that very issue. His reply was that her complaint was common, and to get used to it. So with a shrug, she'd set about doing just that. Now that she was finally running, it was fading.

  As she ran she was most grateful for being small-breasted. She couldn't imagine running topless with the large breasts Cherise sported. Even with her lithe build she ran with her arms pulled in, reducing the amount of bounce she experienced. A couple boys in their mid-teens paced her for the first kilometer, hoping she'd be impressed with their endurance and want to sleep with them. Before long they dropped out, pretending to be interested in something else even though the truth was only Cherise and a few of the oldest boys could keep pace with her. Running had been her favorite way of keeping fit her whole life and after weeks of sitting on her ass, she'd noticed a little roll of fat on her tummy when she sat up. “That just has to go,” she growled and started pushing herself to begin running that very morning.

  Today after only two kilometers she was forced to slow to a jog, cramps rippling through her abdomen. “That's new,” she growled as one hit, strong enough to almost send her face first into the sand. Reluctantly, she admitted she wasn't well and turned back. By the time she reached Naomi she was walking and holding her stomach.