Chief Radvar (The Chieftains of the Majuri Book 1) Read online

  “I’m sorry about that, Radvar. I thought I could make the shot,” Darin admitted.

  “You are young and still have things to learn. As long as you learn from your mistakes and do not repeat them, I won’t hold them against you,” Radvar promised. He rubbed Darin’s head with his fist as he had done when he was a youngster. Radvar loved his people but some of them had a special place in his heart. His family and some of the males that were like family were in that group.

  “Okay, males. Let’s hunt!” he declared and all the males took off into the herd. They would take no younglings only the adults. There were rules to the hunt and there were reasons for the rules. They never wanted to be the reason a herd died out. They wanted to interfere with the planets they stopped at as little as possible.

  They had no trouble getting plenty of meat once the safe sources were singled out. The fish and the plant life was equally easy. They saw no signs of anything but primitive life forms. They were fully resupplied, the shuttle was loaded and they headed back. They unloaded with the help of those that were in the shuttle bay when they arrived. There would be some fine stories of this hunt circulating for months to come.

  They were gathering near the particle beam transporter so they could return to the planet where they would partake of some high quality alcohol when lights started flashing and a shrieking noise filled their ears. They were under attack. Radvar made it to the bridge in seconds and it was clear the Dramites were attacking.

  He knew they weren’t completely stupid but they would have had a better chance at success had they attacked when the teams were on the planet. He could only guess that they wanted them all in one place so none could escape. Shields were in place and he ordered his weapons coordinator to fire. They scored a hit to their adversary’s bridge. Dare he hope for high casualties among the leaders there?

  Once again the Dramites went from standing still to gone in a nanosecond. He shot a look of disapproval to his engineer. They should damn well be able to do anything the Dramites managed. Dramites were after all an inferior life form.

  The Dramites were gone and they had some serious damage to repair. It would be safe to allow his males to drink. Just in case, ten percent of the males would not indulge including him. Better to be safe than dead if his estimation of the damage they had caused the other ship was wrong. He would drink next time while his top five stayed sober.

  It was a sore point with him that they hadn’t been able to take the Dramites out in the months of on and off contact. His crew and his ship were superior but they preferred fighting to pursuing. It was harder to hit an object, in this case a ship, fleeing to preserve its existence. It didn’t make the failure any easier to live with. He also had a feeling he and his crew would never see their home again. He had spoken to the best scientist on board and they were united in their opinion that the anomaly had covered not only space, but time. Space they could cover, time was beyond their ability to change.

  It was the accepted opinion that the reason the space looked unlike anything they knew, was because they had fallen back in time thousands of years and gone just past the farthest reaches of their known space. The area they were now exploring may not even exist in their time. It was not what he wanted to hear nor what he wanted to tell his crew. The theory one of the scientists who studied ancient races as a hobby had put forth, was that they might even be in the time before the Majuri had begun spreading out over the universe. He said some of the star patterns resembled those that pointed the way to Earth.

  Radvar tried not to laugh at him. It was true many of the colonies that the Majuri had conquered claimed to be descendants of that planet, but no real proof had ever been found that it truly existed. It was more likely that Rajahs IV was the original home world as ancient remains found there supported that possibility. It was even possible that Earth II was really the original Earth and had just been renamed after an apocalyptic event to symbolize the rebirth. Those two planets vied for the position of planet of origin for the human race. He was slightly annoyed with his scientists for feeding him tall tales and basing their advice on fairytales.

  They moved even farther from the point where they had been spit out by the anomaly because they needed to find something familiar. Their path was in the opposite direction of where they had landed in this part of space. He had little hope, but he had to keep trying so his crew wouldn’t give up or begin to despair.

  “Any sign of those cowardly bastards?” Radvar asked.

  Collin chuckled. “No sign of reptile scat or wasted carcasses left in their wake,” he admitted. Majuri considered wasting resources a sign of a weak mind and lack of character. It was a deep insult but would not be understood by the filthy reptiles.

  It was a joke among the soldiers that fought the Dramites that they left shit and remnants of their kills behind to mark their trail. The mention of their scat referred to the fact that they shit where they ate or reproduced. When they waged war, the fields where they camped become unusable for years afterwards. They were vile horrible creatures with no redeeming features.

  They ate their prey while it still lived and struggled to get away. They raped other races even though the protrusions on their male’s genitalia ripped the insides of those females to shreds. They and the Majuri were locked into a battle that could only end with the complete annihilation of one of their kind. Radvar intended to make it the Dramites and they were every bit as determined to see the Majuri erased from the universe.

  “Radvar,” Collin called. “A far scan of the communication channels indicates something may be ahead.”

  “Explain.” Radvar commanded.

  “It could be space noise, but I don’t believe it is. It sounds too uniform. I think it’s a message we’re just out of range and can’t receive it,” Collin suggested.

  “As soon as we are close enough to be sure, I want to know,” he demanded.

  “Yes, Sir. It will be done,” Collin agreed.

  Hope, it seemed like such a fragile thing but he sucked it up and felt better for it. He was certain it was an advanced race and hopefully it would be one they were familiar with.

  Two weeks later, Collin played the message for him. Using every trick he knew, it was barely audible. “What does it mean?” Radvar asked.

  “I don’t know. The computer translated the language and it says this is the literal translation. We are now able to pick up more communications, even videos. There is a video you should watch in your office,” Collin suggested.

  “I have no desire to go to my office. Put it on the screen,” he demanded.

  Radvar and the males on the bridge were treated to an unusual view. “Well that answers the question of if they have compatible females,” Darin said with a smirk.

  “They may be physically compatible, but can we produce offspring together?” Radvar questioned.

  “Have you ever seen such a thing?” Collin asked as he watched the male and female copulate.

  “I’ve heard of similar things but never seen it,” Radvar admitted.

  “I should love to see such a thing in person,” Darin said.

  “When will we reach this planet?” Radvar asked.

  “It will be two weeks at full speed,” Collin calculated.

  “Have you found out what this planet is called?” Radvar wondered. “Collin?” he asked again when Collin refused to meet his eyes.

  “It appears to be Earth, Chieftain,” Collin declared.

  A hush fell over the bridge as everyone shut up and looked at Radvar for guidance.

  “I will believe that when I see it. Maybe the computer just translated as best as it could,” Radvar suggested. It just wasn’t possible because Earth was just a myth. It was a story to frighten planets that didn’t follow the rules of the empire.

  The tales of the way the people of Earth had tortured their planet and each other were so extreme they had to be fabricated. Two weeks and they would know for sure. The only thing that would be good about this
planet being Earth is they could reproduce with humans. Earth was the legendary planet of human origin. If you believed the stories, which he never had.

  “Is there anyway the Dramites might get there first?” Radvar asked suddenly worried.

  “No, but they are following us just out of sight,” Collin offered.

  Collin was covering several positions at once with others being on call if trouble came up. It was a common way to fight the boredom on the bridge for long trips when little happened. Starting next shift, Radvar planned to have his bridge fully manned.

  The planet grew closer until they were only days away. The communications the Majuri picked up were many and varied. The planet seemed to have recently gone through a war that threatened to destroy them, they had finally united as one world, and they were well on their way to rebuilding their civilization to make it a better one. They were striving for peace, while keeping a large army to support the central government. They had scrapped their space program at one point and now were painstakingly rebuilding it. They even had a base and a prison on their moon. It was their first steps in spreading their wings as it were.

  They had shuttles and they even had several space ships that they had sent out with crews on board. They even had a planet targeted for colonization in a few short years. Radvar wondered if there was any way to have contact with them, but limit it enough that it wouldn’t affect them. He gave it a lot of thought, the answer was no. If this was truly Earth, contact had to be on an as needed basis only.

  They would arrive tomorrow and everyone was excited and nervous. If this was truly Earth, how would their arrival change their own lives? The scientists were having the old could I be my own grandpa and what if we change our future and cease to exist discussion. Radvar worried about that too, but he decided to focus on the more immediate problems at hand. If this were truly Earth, then he was certain they would never make it home. It would be their responsibility to build a home of some sort and to attract mates. They would need to go on and survive, to thrive even as the representatives of their people.

  Once they arrived at the planet and ascertained that it was Earth, they would have to find a way to import the females they needed so that each unmated male would have one and a handful of males that were required for the unmated females like his sister would also be found.

  He went to his room ready to go to sleep but tomorrow’s arrival on what might be Earth made it hard to rest. He wasn’t a philosopher, but he did contemplate life and what it all meant from time to time. There had always been a missing link between Earth and the Majuri. He was beginning to wonder if he and his crew might not be that link. Humans had carried signs of Majuri DNA since the first one had been discovered hundreds of years ago. What if their arrival here was fated? What if they were indeed their own ancestors? It would prove what an incredible and twisted web life could really be.

  Chapter 2

  Earth

  The giant ships that were locked into orbit around what everyone now knew was an insignificant planet in the scheme of things reflected light like a satellite might letting all know they were still up there. Panic had accompanied the announcement that two distinctively different alien craft where orbiting the planet. As far as anyone knew, they hadn’t contacted the government yet but if they had, no one could be sure the people would be told.

  There was worry, but not as much as some of the average people with little to do might have. On the moon base with her fellow warriors, they had a unique perspective. They were on full alert ready to die to protect the planet below if need be. The longer things seemed to be at a standstill, the more it looked like they would be fighting a losing battle. She looked through the sight of the pulse cannon at the two ships amazed by how they were unlike anything she’d ever seen. They were also as different from each other as night and day.

  One ship was smaller and cigar shaped like in the old sci-fi movies. The metal was a gold color and she thought it was its natural color. The other ship looked like an oversized cruise ship. It was more than twice the size of the cigar shaped ship and it was a shiny silver color that reminded her of titanium. The smaller ship had few windows while the larger ship had rows of them. The windows were reflective and she couldn’t see in them at all.

  Right now they seemed to be playing a waiting game but she had no clue what they might be waiting for. It was probably too much to hope for that this would turn out in a positive and beneficial way for humankind. She’d always had a hope for the best but prepare for the worst outlook and it had worked for her. She had come out of some situations alive that would have killed most people. It was her intention to come out of this one alive too.

  Having been stationed on moon base for two years now, she had found she liked it here. She knew she couldn’t stay here for her whole career, the worries about what living on the moon long term might do made them have a maximum of five years total moon side. That didn’t apply to the convicts that were sentenced to stay on the prison that was on the opposite side of the moon from the base. They stayed for however long their sentence was and many of them never left. Overpopulation had taken its toll on the planet and even the devastation of the last war hadn’t taken the number of humans on the planet to the appropriate levels and the planet was suffering.

  Birth control had become a legal requirement and births were carefully regulated. Large families were no longer allowed and extreme measures were taken. No, babies were not murdered, but parents could be given a death sentence for reproducing without permission. It was extreme but so was the situation the planet was in. The aliens could be a boon or a disaster. Everyone sat around with baited breath waiting for something, anything to happen. They weren’t ready for it when it did.

  She had been off duty for a couple hours and she sat in front of the TV screen watching the news as she ate her supper. An emergency news cast flashed on the screen and at first, she thought it was a trailer for an aliens attack type of movie. The reptilian creatures were eating people. Crowds screamed and trampled others as everyone sought to escape. They weren’t even using weapons, they were just ripping people to pieces using their teeth and claws.

  A few of them grabbed hold of women or men and they disappeared. She knew they were taking them with them to eat later or give those that had stayed behind. She waited for the alarms to go off certain she would be called out with her squad to strike back at the enemy that had come to their world and attacked them so cruelly. No call to arms came and she went to bed still waiting to be called in.

  “Hey, Shay. Wait up! Where are you going in such a hurry?” Jerod asked.

  She’d slept poorly, got up and grabbed a protein shake, and decided she was going to find out what the hell was going on. Jerod wasn’t a complication she wanted this morning. “I’m just going to work. What are you doing?”

  She stopped and turned her stare directly on him. He squirmed as he always did. Few people could stand the direct stare of a Haygood. They were a tough military family, officers every one of them. At twenty four, she was young to be a major. Some might suggest it was because she had family higher up in the ranks but they’d be wrong. If anything, that had slowed her meteoric rise through the ranks. It was her heroic deeds; the ones that made superiors feel she had no sense of self-preservation that had given her the rank she carried.

  There had been a time in the past that a female might not be allowed to go into battle, but in these modern times, females could hold their own against male soldiers. The year 3013 had been a time of great strides in social, economic, and medical areas. It had been a good year until now and it wasn’t even the people of the planet themselves that were causing the difficulty. No, they were being acted upon by an outside force and the results, as she’d seen them on the news last night, were grim.

  “I’m just going to breakfast and wondered if you cared to join me?” Jerod asked.

  She gave him another long look. The man was handsome, hell he was almost downright beautiful with hi
s perfect face, muscular body, and longish curly blond hair. The problem wasn’t in his looks, it was in his behavior. She wasn’t looking for a spouse this early in her career and he already acted like he was in love. It made her avoid him like he was the plague. Had he just been looking for a quick roll, or the sexual Olympics to release the stress of active duty, she would have jumped him. Instead, he was sweet and romantic. She heard the death knell of his pursuit but he didn’t take no for an answer. He was persistent if nothing else.

  “No, I’m going in right now. I already had a bite at home,” she said. Home, if you could call the small area she stayed in something like that. It was similar to the studio apartments single people had years ago. At least as an officer she wasn’t stuck in barracks. Jerod shook his head and finally took the hint.

  Shay continued on to the war room. It was what they called the place where all the planning for missions and the daily assignments were given out. The man in charge, Brigadier General Joshua Haygood, otherwise known as her dad, was at the center of all the activity. Some might say if he was such an amazing leader, which he was; why was he the lowest rank of general? He’d been offered promotions, but he’d turned them down. He always said he wanted to be in the trenches with his troops and in times of trouble, that was exactly where he was.

  He was a handsome man, with a hint of red still peeking out of the gray in his hair. His blue eyes, just like hers, sparked with the strength of his character. He was tall and had the slim, muscular body of a man still in his prime. Her hair was dark brown but a hint of his red showed especially in the light. As far as personality went, she was her father’s daughter. Strong and commanding, with a touch of a superman complex. Yes, she was aware of her faults. She might not be able to leap tall buildings like the hero of old, but if it needed to be done, nothing would stop her from trying.