Starshield

Starshield is something of a approach/avoidance thing for me these days. I very much loved the universe and the stories that were being told there and was excited to complete the series. However, after finishing two of the three books, contract problems with the publisher cancelled the final book.

Since that time, I have tried on several occasions to get that final book published so that the entire story could be told. I continue those efforts still. When that final book is finally agreed to, you will hear about it first in the newsletter!

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Starshield Sentinels (Mantle of Kendis-dai) Exerpt

Chapter 1: Cascade

Merinda Neskat stepped carefully about the slick rocks, the cool mists swirling about her cheeks in the evening. It was wet, to be sure, and soon she knew that her hair would be heavy with the mists, her thick curls struggling to maintain their shape against the clinging dew. Her clothing was already soaking through -- the promise of a cool later when she returned to the dryer climates higher up. But for now, with the air nearly as wet as she was and dancing around her in gray forms, she was content with the feeling of the water on her bare arms and legs. "Immodest," she could hear the Dex Libris, her most immediate superior intone in that sepulcher voice that was her hallmark. "An Atis Librae of the Omnet should command more respect in her demeanor. How do you hope to get off the rock and make a career for yourself if you do not respect yourself enough to allow others to respect you."
Merinda choked off the giggle that the thought elicited and stood suddenly erect. "Yes, Libris Gildesh," she said in her most mocking serious tone, "I shall uphold the honor of the Omnet even in my sleep." The truth was that she was serious -- far too serious for many of those who worked around her. Merinda believed that she was saving the universe, in her own way and in her own small part. She openly disdained the others around her who did not understand the importance of 'recovering the past, preserving the present and protecting the future' as the slogan of her order maintained. She rarely socialized at least as far as most of her coworkers were concerned. But, as Merinda reminded herself, she didn't need to. She nearly caught herself giggling again at the thought, kicked a curtain of water into the air before her with her bare feet, and once more began picking her way around the rocks.
She loved it here. Her own home world was wet like this though not nearly so constantly warm. That planet that had been the first place she knew had seasons -- a concept which the local inhabitants found droll at best and frighteningly incomprehensible at worst. The warmth of the mists pounding through the air over the surging water of the rocks was filled with life and comfort; a safe haven from the doldrums of her other existence. The monastery was cold despite the heat, cold in a way that no sun could ever change. It was an austere place and some thought that it suited her -- but then, they didn't really know her did they?
The outcropping of rock was coming to an end with a great pillar of stone jutting from the frothing water. With practiced ease, Merinda reached up for the hand hold. A moment's breath. A kick of her shining legs in the filtered light and she swung around the stone to its far side.
Merinda caught her breath, daring not to breath. The sight always struck the wind from her, as her mother used to say, a vision of surpassing beauty and wonder. It had taken her nearly an hour to walk the path to this spot yet the time spent and the exertions of the way vanished in the moment.
The Denali Falls of Brishan V were once a religious secret held to be a vision which only the local priests could full understand or appreciate. The waters gathered their strength from the high mountains of the Krevish mountain range, a place where the ancient gods of this world were held to have lived under blankets of the sky. The tears of the goddess Rhishan, weeping at the death of her three boys at the hands of their cruel uncle Umbleh, were said to be the source of the three rivers that converged at the top of Denali canyon and formed the great falls that cascaded with a deafening thunder nearly a thousand feet into the pool at its feet. Yet the beauty of the falls was not found merely in the beauty of its height nor in the ancient monastery whose buttresses arched magnificently over the confluence of all three of the rivers. The falls were made special by the Klenith vines that threatened to choke the waters at the fall's crest. The twisting vines were hollow, their nature allowing the water itself to flow through their tubing. The effect was doubly beneficial. The hollow conduits of the Klenith vines filtered the water for sustenance, thus purifying it as it fell through its tangled shape and, better still, its twisting forms wove the pure water into braids of shimmering elegance in it's cascade. Merinda had, as always, timed her arrival well, for the sun D'rak was settling for the night at the edge of the plains far below. Quite suddenly, it seemed, Merinda's world became suffused with salmon-colored light as the cascades and mists at the base of the falls were suffused with the twilight glow at the end of another day.
Merinda stood ankle deep on a sand bar she had come to think of as her own and felt all of it become a part of her again. This was life, she thought, this is sustenance. I need so very little to bring me the joy that I want out of life. I'll make my own way and endure the pain and the loneliness and the frustration so long as there is a place like this that I can call home. I'll travel wherever destiny takes me so long as there is always someone, some singular one, who is home awaiting me.
The dark figure moved behind her, nearly invisible in the billowing obscurity of the thrashing water. Footfalls without sound. No wasted movement. As the figure moved toward her it was revealed as a tall man, his deep gray tailored clothing covering him from head to foot. The dark cloak he wore over it all was heavy from the mists and did not billow as was its custom. Her back was toward him as he closed the distance between them, coolly and efficiently, his large gray gloves reaching for her.
Merinda stood relaxed, gazing up into the woven cascade of the falls.
Her eyes flashed sideways.
Suddenly Merinda stepped backward, both hands moving up to grasp one of the threatening arms. She thrust her hip into the approaching man's own waist, attempting to leverage the attacker over her.
The man reversed, stepping sideways and twisting her arm back around behind her. She cried out from the pain but in the same moment hooked one of her feet behind the ankle of her attacker and shoved herself bodily toward him with her free leg.
They both tumbled backward against a rock outcropping at the edge of the beach. The gray man's breath rushed from him in a sudden "oof", his grip relaxed slightly from the impact. Merinda wrenched her hand free, kicked the man into the rock again. As he rebounded unsteadily, she grabbed him by both hands, fell backward into the sand and planted both feet planted into his stomach.
The dark robes fluttered over her as she kicked and released him. The tall man sailed head down over her, his arms flailing in the thick air as he unceremoniously fell back-first into the shallow waters at the beach's edge. The deluge of his impact had not yet hit the ground when she was already rolled to her feet and leaping for him, her hand drawing her weapon from her belt as she moved. The final droplets were just hit the water's surface when she pressed one knee against his chest and leveled the weapon's sites between her assailant's eyes.
His eyes. Those granite gray eyes.
He sputtered as a wave from the pool washed over his face, spraying water and coughing to clear his mouth and nose.
Merinda laughed. "Oh, great and powerful Vestis Novus I see that you have once again proven your superiority to us lowly Atis Librae. Will you surrender to me now?"
The hood fell back from the prone man as he craned his head up out of the water, straining to keep his face above the surface. With the action came an explosion of black curled hair above a strong face. It may have been considered to heavy in the jaw for some people's tastes, Merinda reflected -- certainly that was the opinion of Librae Brenai, the Omnet coworker with whom she had roomed ever since they had first met for their initiate training on Netprime over two years ago. Kiria Brenai had quite firmly stated her opinion that Queekat Shn'dar could break stone with his lantern jaw, and, for all Kiria knew, probably did.
Then, as Merinda watched, those gray eyes flashed at her and a wide smile spread across his strong, angular face. Those eyes, she knew, were for her; that smile, somehow her property. "I surrender, Mistress Librae," he spoke in a high, fluting voice, "to the honor of your order and its superior training."
Merinda's eyes went wide with mock disbelief, "What? Not to me?" Her knee pressed his chest down again, plunging his face momentarily beneath the small waves.
"Yes, yes," Queekat sputtered as he surfaced again half laughing, "I surrender to you."
Merinda laughed. She collapsed lovingly on top of him -- nearly sending him back under water a third time -- and then rolled with him back up onto the beach. "Oh, Kat, when I heard you were coming, I hoped you might remember this place -- this one place that is more dear to me than any in all the creations."
"There are many more beautiful and terrible places in the stars than this one," Queekat shook his hair at her, spraying water into her squealing face.
"Not to me, you brute," she replied when at last she could. "We met here, you and I. This is our place, our private little universe so far from the worries of our professions or directors or . . ."
"Or the E'toris," Queekat continued for her. "Say, how is the old cliff-goat anyway?"
Merinda screwed her face into a belligerent look that was betrayed by the brightness of her eyes locked on his. She reached over with her cupped hand and splashed a small sheet of water in his general direction.
"Hey," he protested with little protest.
"Our E'toris Librae is fine, I believe and, as I am sure that you as ambassador and investigator for the Omnet are well aware, is not planetside presently."
"Oh, really?"
Merinda almost became serious. "Oh, Kat, don't mistake me for stupid. You know as well as I that your visit would have sent her into a fit of preparations and ceremonies. You were her brightest and fairest of the fair to ever leave this rock. Imagine, a lowly information sifter from the D'Rakan Empire actually rising to the post of Inquisitor of the Omnet. Kat, if she'd known you were coming there would be so much ceremony that I'd never get to see you."
"Yeah, E'toris Wishtan is awfully proud of her magnificent D'Rakan Empire." Queekat sat up slowly, drawing his knees up and hugging them as he looked up toward the first stars appearing directly overhead through the mists. "I use to think so, too -- until I left here. D'Rakan Empire is a find sounding name until you put it up against the galaxy. Then -- well, then it tends to get pretty small, Rini."
Merinda rested her head again her hands in the sand. Queekat had called her by the familiar of her name and she knew, somehow just knew, that he still felt for her as he had those months before. "What's it like, Kat -- out there, I mean. What's it like for an Inquisitor."
Queekat smiled and shook his head. "It's different than we thought, Rini. More complicated. More subtle. Good guys and bad guys get lost in the details. Black and white begins to look gray from a distance -- as gray as these robes."
"But that's your job, isn't it?" Merinda asked, not quite understanding what he was telling her. "Separating the black and the white in the details? You're the Vestis inquisitors who take all this information that we churn through in the Atis Librae and pinpoint where the truth is."
Queekat snorted, "Right. You sift through the mud and when something really horrible turns up, we Vestis get to clean it up."
Ah," she said, cocking her head to one side mischievously, "is my handsome paladin of the universe feeling a bit peckish today?"
"Peckish?!" Queekan leaped so quickly to his feet that Merinda froze, frightened at the change that overcame him. He stood over her now, a sullen rage barely restrained within him. "You've no idea what's really going on out there, do you, Merinda? What it is we have do deal with? There are fifty-seven minor stellar empires in this sector alone, fifteen of which aren't even aware that there is other life in the universe and seven of which are preparing to go to war right now. Damn it, Merinda, two of those are arming themselves for a war over interstellar exportation of indigenous cheeses. Here we are, trying to recover the wisdom and knowledge lost when the Kendis Imperium fell -- three thousand years ago, mind you -- and we're preoccupied when over six trillion lifeforms threatened over moldy milk products!"
Queekan stopped, able for the first time to see past his anger. He looked down at Merinda. Don't move, she thought, purposefully allowing her face to go completely neutral toward him. Let him take his time and he'll come around to what's really bothering him. He always does.
Queekan sighed and knelt wearily in the sand before her. "Sorry, Rini. I guess I'm just not myself anymore."
Merinda lay slowly back on her elbows. Her voice barely carried over the rumble of the falls beyond Queekat but her words were distinct, their meaning clear. "You always knew just who you were and where you were going. I remember standing in the Golden Court beneath a hallow of stars ..."
"That was long ago," Queekat muttered.
"... and you looked up with a hunger far greater than you ever felt for me." Merinda's words came devoid of compassion or malice -- statements whose value stood on their own without the inflection of the feelings she held against them. "'They will be mine,' you said."
"I meant 'ours'," he snapped.
"But you said, 'mine'," she responded testily. "Within a week you were gone, Kat. Atis Librae Shn-dar out of nowhere selected for the great Inquisitas Vestis. One week you were analyzing synopsis news upstream from a handful of backwater worlds and the next you were off reinventing yourself as an inquisitor for the Omnet."
Queekat looked up sharply. "I didn't reinvent myself! There was hardly any need to -- they did a fine enough job reinventing me on their own terms. Look, Rini, you have no idea what it's like. You have to know so much that is specific to your assignment and your assignment changes so often. They just pour it right into you, Rini. The Oracles of Nine decide who you have to be on a mission and then they make you into that person. They partition your brain as if you were a mechanical device just like them -- sift your memories and shuffle your thoughts into convenient storage places to make room for the information they think you need to get the job done for the Omnet. Then they just pour it into you through a biolink."
Merinda watched him carefully. Somewhere, high overhead, a Stribek cawed as it soared above the falls.
Queekat sighed, and began sifting the wet sands of the beach through his fingers. "By the stars, Rini, three months ago they needed a xenobiologist with surgical skills. I was on the duty list. One night, I went to bed not knowing that the Kribenthian Sedak even existed and by the time I awoke I could not only describe its anatomy down to the cellular and chemical level but perform surgery on it as well. For that month I was the greatest of all Sedak physicians. When it was over, I had another assignment. The Nine gave me knowledge of the deep intricacies of the Four Dynasties of the Ruqua. Oh, I could instantly recount to you the relationships and genealogies of each of the four houses for the last thousands years -- but I no longer knew a Kribenthian Sedak's hand from its ass."
Queekat had lapsed into a rather pouty sullenness. Merinda chewed her lower lip. It had become awkward, watching an inquisitor unguarded and vulnerable. Then he looked up at her and smiled the same confident, knowing self-assured smile that had so blinded her when they first met that she, in her eternal pessimism, had ascribed to being too cocky and self-important. She couldn't belief then that the smile was meant for her alone but she had at last claimed ownership to it and from that time her loneliness had ended. Despite the robes and the manor and the training, he was still Queekat. She was sure of it.
"Well, then, who are you today?" Merinda teased with a gentle edge in her voice. "Does your mission require you to become an invisible part of the D'Rakan Council of Matriarchs or are you perhaps something even more exotic?"
"Oh, you are such an innocent," he laughed, shaking his head. "I hate to disappoint you, but today I'm an advanced theorist technician for level twelve synthetic minds."
She looked at him with disbelief. "You're what?"
"I am an expert at communication with and repair of most automated household appliances."
Merinda laughed. In a single smooth motion, she grabbed the front of Queekat's jump suit and pulled him down onto the sand next to her. "Ah, my own inquisitor; master of the self regulating laundry! What evil grows among the stars which causes the Omnet to send its ruthless and skilled investigators to the far reaches of the D'Rakan Empire which require the skills of an expert repair man? Are the Nine Oracles so concerned about the kitchen synths at our little sanctuary that they would send one of their elite researchers all the way to Brishan?"
"No," he smiled at her, "my mission is on Tentris -- but I'm going to need a little help. That's why I'm here. I assume that you still have some leave saved up. Can you get a way for a few days?"
Merinda never spent her leave time -- while Queekat had been here there never seemed to be a need for it and once Queekat had gone there never seemed to be much point. Her heart leaped at the thought of taking a holiday with him, of getting off this rock and visiting somewhere exciting and new. It had never seemed important to her before -- she certainly could have arranged passage to just about anywhere she wished to holiday in the past -- but suddenly it had become incredibly important.
"Yes! Of course I can get away for a few days!" The words gushed out of her in a school-girl rush that belied her usual serious and controlled demeanor. "Do I have time to pack anything or must we leave right away?"
"Easy! Easy!" Queekat held up both hands to fend off the words assaulting him. "It's not going to just be us. I'm going to need Kelis, Flynn, Dharah . . . probably Sendix and I think Brenai should joins us as well . . . hey, stop that! What's the matter with you?"
Merinda had begun beating her fists rather ineffectually against the man's chest, a pout growing more and more pronounced as she spoke. "Why do you have to bring along the whole department? We don't need them! You're the great inquisitor; you're the one with all the training and powers! We don't need anyone else -- all you need is me!"
"Merinda! This is an important operation! There'll be plenty of time for us to . . ."
"Don't you talk to me about time," Merinda's blows were becoming a bit more effective, the pain beginning to register in Queekat's face. "I transcom a message to you everyday. You use to be good about getting your replies back to me. Now I hardly hear from you. Nearly two months had gone by until your arrival message came. Now you're here and you -- you want to mount an expedition? Don't you think I can see what's happening . . ."
"Rini!"
The word was sharp and harsh in her ears. She had never heard him use her name so coldly. She stopped as he arrested both of her forearms in his powerful hands.
"Rini, this is my work. I serve the Omnet just as you do. There's a very special place for you in all of this. I can't explain it to you now and you may not understand it at first but it is necessary that you come and it is necessary that you do your duty -- do you understand?"
Queekat's gray eyes held her gaze. It was impossible for her to look into them and not feel slightly lost.
"Yes," she said softly at last, "I understand. It just that it has been such a long time, Kat. I just . . . I just wanted a little time for us."
He pulled her toward him, the coldness of his face warming slightly. She buried her face against his chest, cradling herself under his arm. "Of course, Rini," he said to her, the words warm but the tone somewhat distracted. "We all want just a little more time."
Merinda closed her eyes, her mind taking her back to the time before when their excursions to the falls had been warm and wonderful.
She did not see Queekat's own eyes, staring blankly at the emerging stars overhead.

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