Green, Simon R - Deathstalker 05 by Deathstalker Destiny

Author:Deathstalker Destiny
Language: eng
Format: epub

By now, Micah Barron and his father Ricard were riding horses over the shifting scarlet sands of their home-world, Tau Ceti III. The sky was a shade of green that most outworlders described as sickly, and the ever-present drifting clouds were jet black, shot within by sudden golden lightning storms. Just another day on Tau Ceti III. Micah and Ricard were following a long-established trail, and didn't even need to guide their mounts. The horses knew the way. That gave father and son all the more time to talk together, but they were finding the going hard. Father-and-son talks have always been tricky, difficult things. Especially when son and father are pretty much the same age, and the father's been dead for years.

"I joined the Fleet to follow you, Dad," said Micah, looking straight ahead of him. "To go where you'd gone, to see the things you'd seen. I thought it would help me feel… closer to you."

"I know I was never home much," said Ricard, looking straight ahead of him. "They promised us a lot of accumulated leave when we got back from Unseeli, but… well. I gather a lot of us never came home from Unseeli."

"The Ashrai are dead," said Micah fiercely. "Captain Silence made them pay for what they did to you.

To all of you. He scorched the planet. Wiped them all out."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better, son? I hated the Ashrai while I was fighting them. But time, and being dead, gives you perspective. It was their planet. Of course they fought. I would have, to defend Tau Ceti III from invaders. Tell me you didn't join up just to kill aliens, son."

"Not really. Mostly I just wanted to get off Tau Ceti III. I mean, I know it's home, but it was… Small.

Limited."

"Boring."

"Right! I wanted to see the Empire. Other worlds, other people. I requested transfer to Captain Silence's command, so I could follow in your footsteps. You'd always spoken well of him in your messages home.

Turned out to be pretty easy getting a place on his ship; he's not been the most popular Captain in the Fleet for some time."

Ricard snorted. "Trust me, Micah; he never was. Silence was good to his crew, but no good at politics.

Anyone else with his abilities and record would have been an Admiral by now. But he never was any

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good at kissing the right asses. Most of us respected him for that. You always knew where you were with Silence. How's your mother, these days?"

Micah shrugged uncomfortably. "All right, I suppose. I haven't heard from her in a while. Probably owe her a letter."

"Write to your mother!" said Ricard sternly. "Better still, save up and send her a personal holo."

"You're a fine one to talk!"

"Learn from my mistakes, son. That's what fathers are for."

They rode on awhile in silence, moving easily to the rhythm of the horses beneath them.

"I never meant to die on Unseeli, you know," said Ricard quietly.

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