Shadow Warrior - 01 The Wind After Time by Chris Bunch

Author:Chris Bunch [Bunch, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chris Bunch
Published: 2010-03-23T15:07:23+00:00

"So what'll you want with me? I'll guess it ain't real legal or you'd have Thetis do it." "Nothing illegal about it, Mister Libanos. Let's just say it's a bit chancy." "Whyn't you use that fancy lifter you've got?" "Lifters send up spray. I want something quiet." "Why not?" the old man grunted. "Nothing much happening this time of year anyway."

"Can I ask you something, Joshua?" "You can ask anything." "But you might not answer. It is a personal question. Very personal. You were a prisoner of the Al'ar, you said the first night we made love." "I was." Joshua's voice was suddenly dead. "I wish the light was on. I would like to see your face, to know when I should shut up." "Don't worry about it. What's your question?" "Were you a soldier?" "Not then," Joshua said reluctantly. "When the war started... when the Al'ar attacked the Federation, I was on Sauros. That's one of the Al'ar Ruling Worlds, as they called them. They didn't have to centralize their capital, since they had ways of communicating between stars almost instantly. We still don't know how they did that." "My family had been sent there two, almost three years before, when the first incidents occurred and things started heating up. They were supposed to try to defuse the situation with words." "But after a while the Al'ar decided they didn't want to listen. I guess there weren't many on our side who wanted to, either, by then." "When they blindsided our fleets without bothering to declare war, they rounded up every Federation being on any of their worlds. They didn't bother with the difference between soldiers and civilians. Not then, not later. I ended up in a camp." "What about your parents?" "They died, like most of the people around me. Disease. Malnutrition. Neglect. The Al'ar weren't deliberate bastards, but it worked out the same." "But you escaped." "I escaped." "And after that?" "I was the first human who'd been that close to them for that long, and so the Federation was very glad to see me and use what I knew. Later on there were a few more like me. But not very many. The Al'ar didn't take many prisoners, since they never surrendered themselves." "Then the Federation made you a soldier?" "Of sorts." "I have known soldiers," Candia said softly, "and I have learned that none of them, none of the real ones, ever want to talk about fighting. So I shall not ask about what you did or where." "But I have another question. How could you stand to be around those creatures? I never was; I only saw them on the vid or on holos. But they made me shudder. Like... like seeing a slug on your walk. Or a spider on your wall." "That's the way most humans feel... felt. The Al'ar felt the same way about us. That's the real reason the war happened." "But you didn't?" "No." "Why not?" Wolfe was silent for a long time.

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