Welcome back for another Saturday Snippet. This week we’re returning to The Fearless, book two in the space fantasy series, Star Legend, which goes live on Amazon in fifteen days. Last time we became reacquainted with Major Wright as he prepared to investigate the mysteriously lost and found flagship. Now it’s time to see what’s been happening with Taylan Ellis since book one, The Valiant.
If you missed the first snippet, you can find it here.
Chapter Two
The Marine approaching Taylan seemed familiar. He was tall and burly, and he had a look on his face that told her she better not beat him.
Huh, tough.
Ah!
She remembered him. He was the guy the instructor had teamed her up with the first time she supported a training session—the guy she’d thrown on the mat and punched to keep him down.
The burly Marine lunged. Taylan stooped, preparing to drive her shoulder in low and unbalance him, maybe even upend him as she had before. But he’d learned from his earlier encounter. He went lower, and swiped at her with a fist. If it hadn’t been for her fast reflexes, his longer reach would have caught her. She pulled her head back just in time. His knuckles swept past her nose.
She shot out a hand and grabbed his extended wrist, quickly twisting it and stepping to the side, trying to get his arm up and behind his back. He was too strong. He resisted the twisting and kicked out at her knee.
A shout of protest went up from the audience of new recruits. She jumped left a fraction, just enough that he didn’t make contact, while maintaining her grip on his wrist. What a jerk. The big guy could break her knee and put her out of action for weeks.
She hauled him forward, taking advantage of his temporary imbalance, and quickly got behind him, shoving him the remaining distance to the floor. In another beat she had a knee on his back and his elbow pushed up.
The downed Marine cursed and tried to rise, but she forced his arm higher. Even his thick muscles couldn’t protect his shoulder from the pressure. With a yell of pain and frustration, he slammed the mat with his other hand, conceding the match.
Taylan released her hold and climbed to her feet, panting. Her opponent also rose, and she saw him hesitate. Was he planning to pull a fast one and attack her while her guard was down? She glared at him, hard-eyed.
I dare you.
After another moment’s hesitation, he slunk off, walked right past the gawking recruits on the mat, and barged out of the gym.
The instructor went after him, yelling.
She shook her head. Her partner’s behavior was unacceptable, but it was also a symptom of a wider problem that affected the BA’s military forces. Arthur’s influence had gone some way to improve matters, but the cracks were still evident.
The instructor returned, without her demonstration partner.
What was his problem? Everyone lost sometimes. It was nothing to be ashamed of. Her dad had beaten her more times than she knew. He’d taught her to accept defeat graciously and try to understand what had gone wrong so she could avoid making the same mistake. Maybe that was the difference. The guy was used to winning all his matches due to his size. He didn’t know how to lose.
“Session’s over,” said the instructor. “Dismissed.”
She jogged to the showers. If she was lucky, she might be able to find Arthur and spend some time with him. Ever since he’d learned English, she’d been getting him to tell her about his life and the world he’d lived in. Though Wright still refused to accept the man was the Arthur, King of Britain, the former name for the Britannic Isles, she didn’t need any more convincing. No one could make up the number and range of things he’d told her over the weeks, and no one could maintain the facade so effectively for so long.
What she didn’t understand was how he was still alive. Arthur’s existence was impossible. But he couldn’t explain it either, so she’d given up on trying to figure it out.
After putting on her clothes, she left the changing room and headed for his cabin.
When she arrived, he wasn’t home.
She had no way of reaching him. He had no comm implant. The docs hadn’t wanted to put him through the operation as they were still trying to figure out how the hell he was alive. He also didn’t carry a comm button. The devices freaked him out. He could watch vids, but disembodied voices coming out of nowhere made him turn pale and tremble. It was just one of the many aspects of his new life he would take time to get used to. He’d only just begun to accept the Valiant floated in the sky.
Where could he be?
She walked down the passageway, trying to think of likely places.
First, she went to the mess. Arthur loved eating and would eat anything and everything he was offered. But there was no sign of him there. Her next destination was the entertainment lounges. He wasn’t in any of them, but then she remembered he’d complained about the noise and lights. Along from the entertainment lounges was the main fitness center. Her hopes rose as she walked inside and surveyed the exercise machines. Arthur came here quite often to work out, though he didn’t seem to have to do as much as regular people to put on muscle.
He wasn’t in the fitness center.
Bummed, she left.
Where else?
Taylan wandered the Valiant for another half an hour before she finally found Arthur in the sick bay, of all places. It had been the last place she’d looked, and then only because she was bored. She hadn’t thought he could actually be there. He was probably the healthiest person on the ship.
“Hey, what are you doing here?!” she asked as she spotted him sitting outside the medics’ office. Even if it hadn’t been for his size, the torcs he wore around his neck and bicep made him stand out.
“Hi,” he replied, “it’s good to see you too.”
His English had improved a lot over the weeks since he’d undergone the speed learning program, and he’d developed quite the talent for sarcasm.
“Sorry, I was just surprised to see you in the sick bay. Did you hurt yourself? Are you ill?”
“Neither. I’m not here for me.”
“Oh.” She looked around the room, thinking she must have missed the patient, but the place was empty.
Then the door to the medics’ office opened.
A doctor emerged, carrying Boots.
“I’m here for him,” said Arthur.
The doc placed the cat in his arms. “I’ve checked him over, and there’s nothing to worry about. I guess he must have thrown up a hairball. It’s pretty common for cats.”
“That’s a relief. Thank you.”
“No problem. Examining cats makes a change from treating war wounds. Hello, Corporal Ellis,” added the doc. “How’s your back?”
“I get a twinge now and then, but it’s pretty good.”
“You hurt your back?” asked Arthur.
“Yeah, but it’s fine now.”
“The option to exchange the artificial replacements we used for natural ones grown from your stem cells is still open,” said the doc. “Now might be a good time, before shit really goes down. You should ask permission.”
“Thanks. I’ll think about it.”
The doctor shrugged. “Up to you.” She returned to her office.
“What did she mean, before shit really goes down?” asked Arthur. “What shit are we expecting?”
“Uh, you don’t know?” Taylan hadn’t been aware he was so out of the loop. She hadn’t said much to him about BA stuff, preferring to listen to stories of ancient West BI. “Come and get a coffee with me. We need to talk.”
“Sure.” He stood up. Despite the fact that nowadays he wore ship-printed civvies and his red-gold hair and beard were clipped short, he still managed to retain the appearance of an Iron Age warlord. He towered over most everyone else on the ship and his chest and shoulders were proportionate to his height.
Boots climbed from his arms onto his shoulder before leaping the considerable distance to the floor and running out of the sick bay.
“I guess he doesn’t like coffee,” said Taylan.
***
“I like this drink,” Arthur said as they sat down in the mess with their mugs of coffee, “but I prefer ale.”
“Most of the ship agrees with you,” Taylan replied, “but drinking alcohol is against regulations.”
“It is?! Why?”
“Because it makes you drunk. And when Marines get drunk, bad things happen. Sometimes we’re allowed a few beers for a special occasion, but mostly we can’t drink unless we’re on surface leave.”
A twinge of sadness hit her. The prospect of surface leave in the near future was currently a dim and distant hope.
Arthur gave a snort of surprise. “Every day I learn something new. In my world, everyone drinks ale from the moment they’re weaned. Though the beer children drink is very weak.”
“Kids in your time drank beer?” asked Taylan, astonished.
“Why not? It’s safer than drinking water.”
“Huh, well, you don’t need to worry about the water on the Valiant. It’s very clean.” She didn’t go on to explain that it had also passed through other shipmates many times. Some things, it was better he didn’t know.
Her curiosity sparked by his reference to ‘his world’ she asked a question she’d meant to ask him for weeks. “Arthur, do you still think you’re dreaming?”
He took a sip of coffee and put down his mug before answering, “If I am, it’s a very long dream. But perhaps dreams can seem to last a lifetime. Honestly, Taylan, I’m no longer sure. Everything I experience feels real.” He smiled. “The way I see it, I might as well behave as if this is reality.”
“That sounds a good way of handling it, and I’m glad for another reason. You see, we need you. The people of this time, I mean. Do you know the prophecy about your return?”
Once again, he took his time to answer. “I know something of it.” He didn’t elaborate.
What was he holding back?
Taylan decided not to press him. “Your story, as it was passed down to me, was that in your final battle you were mortally wounded, and you were carried from the field to an unknown place. There, you were to sleep until the people of the Britannic Isles needed you again. I’m from West BI, where we found you. My land was invaded by the EAC. I escaped to Ireland, along with my…” She paused and swallowed as memories popped into her mind. She went on, “The timing works, you see? After thousands of years of independence, the Britannic Isles fell to a foreign invader. And, within a couple of years, you were found and brought back to life.”
Arthur was frowning and staring into his coffee.
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
He looked up and smiled again, the skin around his kind eyes wrinkling. “I think my timing could have been a little better.”
“What’s two or three years between friends?” Taylan quipped. “Seriously, though, I can’t think of any better explanation for what happened. Can you? You’re here to help solve the crisis and restore the Britannic Isles to its people. After the military coup attempt and destruction of the BA’s Parliament in exile on Jamaica, the Space Fleet was going to secede. The Britannic Alliance was falling apart. Everything was breaking into pieces—until you gave your speech in the gym. You restored Colbourn and Wright’s faith in their cause, in themselves. And you gave the Valiant’s Marines something to believe in. We didn’t manage to force the EAC off Jamaica, but when the rest of the Fleet saw what we were doing, it changed minds. Now, people have begun to pull together again.”
“I only spoke the truth as I see it.”
“But it was a truth we’d lost sight of. Words can be powerful when you’ve lost hope and a sense of purpose.”
Arthur sighed. “I’m happy I helped, but it wasn’t by design. I just did what you asked me to do. As to freeing the Britannic Isles, as you call them, I’m ill equipped. I don’t understand how you fight, how your weapons work, or how to operate any of your strange machines. I don’t know who your enemies are or what strategies they use. I’m at a loss. Give me a sword, armor, and a battlefield, and I’m your man. But your world is too different and too complicated for me.”
“I understand. Everything you say has already crossed my mind. But the prophecy was correct. That much, we know. Only the most stubborn would deny it.” Taylan thought of Wright. “On the other hand, what you say is true too. Your fighting skills aren’t so useful now.”
“Maybe I could talk to the other knights of the Britannic Isles.”
“That would probably help, but there’s no Camelot anymore, Arthur. Millions of men and women were on active duty in the BA military not so long ago, in all parts of the globe. I don’t know how many are contactable now. They’ll be fighting their corners in the remaining BA territories and protectorates, or they will have gone to ground, waiting to see what happens.”
“A million knights? I can hardly imagine such a number.”
“It doesn’t matter how many there are if we can’t reach them,” said Taylan. “I don’t know what the answer is. We’re missing something.”
I hope you enjoyed this week’s snippet of The Fearless.