Galileo (Battle of the Species)

Battle Of The Species

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Galileo

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By

Meaghan Sinclair

Book 1

Text © 2011,2013 by Meaghan Sinclair

Cover illustration © 2013 by Jason Moser

Interior design by Jason Moser

Editing by Kathleen Dale

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the author.

Galileo
is the first book in a five-book series.

For updates on future releases, please visit:

www.meaghansinclair.net

www.battleofthespecies.com

Twitter: @SinclairMeaghan

Facebook:
www.facebook.com/meaghan.sinclair.92

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1                  The Heir

CHAPTER 2                  Fight like a human

CHAPTER 3                  Cascading Portals

CHAPTER 4                  Camden, Maine

CHAPTER 5                  The Galileo

CHAPTER 6                  Simulation

CHAPTER 7                  Battle of the Species

CHAPTER 8                  Bottom of the Food Chain

CHAPTER 9                  Portals

CHAPTER 10                The Long Kept Secret

CHAPTER 11                The Closet Explorer

CHAPTER 12                Blue Illumination       

CHAPTER 13                Fighters, Prepare

CHAPTER 14                Unwanted Projections           

CHAPTER 15                Allies

CHAPTER 16                Burlia

CHAPTER 17                Class Field Trip

CHAPTER 18                Karma

CHAPTER 19                P-3191

CHAPTER 20                Traitor

CHAPTER 21                And Then There Was Light

To my mom and brother.

CHAPTER 1

The Heir

Planet: Torres

Galaxy: Messier 87

Federation Date: 6.25.7266

A hunter should always know his prey, which Desh soon realized he didn’t. He followed the crimson streak of blood through the snow-covered forest and tried to relax, even if only to hide his uncertainty. This was the first time he had heard of a Prymin wandering into that region of the planet. He had only learned a few hours before that they were shaggy albinos, strong enough to overpower a large Toran male and drag him through the forest. Prymin stood waist-high to the average human when walking on all fours, had sharp retractable claws, and a long tail with a huge claw on the end.
           The forest was washed with a heavy silence, while he continued to follow the macabre trail. He heard the Toran wings swooshing above the trees, moving a great bulk of air with each beating motion, knowing that Kia would be among them. Then the soft thud of their spiked boots could be heard as they landed on the thick snow-burdened branches, sprinkling the ground with a hail of powdered snow. The snowfall gave the forest a surreal beauty, despite it turning out to be such a gory day.
            Desh’s palms illuminated with a bright blue light, warning predators that electricity harbored within him. He sniffled, hating that the chill always made his nose run.

You know, Kia and I are fourteen
, Desh projected into the trees.
We can handle a Prymin attack on our own
. He listened to the scattering of thoughts of the Toran men flying above him.

We can’t risk it.

It’s too dangerous.

Get over it.

Desh sighed and continued on by foot, for lack of Toran wings. Since Desh was Mindeerian, he was human in form, despite the diamond shaped pupils and fangs. He had the gifts of telepathy, telekinesis, and electricity creation, but what he would have given for a pair of wings. At first glance, he looked like nothing but a defenseless child, especially compared to the brawny Toran men, dripping with testosterone. Their scars, from battles long since past,
intertwined with tribal tattoos snaking down their faces, disappearing beneath their uniforms of leather, fur, and metal. The Torans clutched their double-curved, wooden bows, ready to fire poisonous arrows. The hope was to find the Prymin before it found them.

Desh brushed the dark brown hair out of his eyes with his fingers and focused on the ground. The trail of blood grew fainter and fainter until there was only the indentation of a body being dragged.

Don’t mess up, don’t mess up, everyone’s watching
, he thought to himself — thankful that he was the only telepath on the planet. He tried retaining the hope that Roma, the missing Toran, was still alive, but the longer time went on, the more hope began to fade.

He listened to the thoughts lingering in the air while he walked.

He must be dead.

I don’t see him.

We need to make better time.

Desh increased his pace in the thick snow, hoping he wouldn’t be exhausted by the time they found the Prymin.

I see Roma, Brother.

Brother.
That’s Kia
, Desh thought. It didn’t matter that they weren’t brothers, or that they weren’t even of the same species. Kia had been Desh’s best friend for as long as either of them could remember and as close as brothers could be.

Desh ran over a small hill and saw Roma lying on his back, looking up with lifeless eyes towards the slate gray sky.

Desh slowed down as he approached, wishing he could silence the sound of the snow crunching beneath his boots. He raised his blue-lit palms and scanned the area, looking for the slightest movement.

Nothing.

Does anyone see it?
Desh projected.

No.

Not yet.

It must be here.

The tree branches sagged with Torans pointing arrows in every direction.

Desh listened for foreign-tongued thoughts, and took cautious steps around Roma’s body, but heard nothing. Then it occurred to him that he didn’t even know what the Prymin’s language sounded like. For all he knew, the whistling sound he heard was the Prymin and not the wind.

Desh heard the clicking of a claw only a second before the huge white Prymin jumped from under a shallow layer of snow behind him.
He spun around before he had time to register movement, just as the Prymin lunged for his neck. He created a wall of energy, shielding his body from the Prymin’s bite.

The two slammed into a pile of snow, thrashing about, covering both fighters in ice.

“Get it off you!” Kia yelled, unable to get a clean shot.

Desh released the shield, focused the energy on the Prymin’s chest and thrust it into the air.

The Prymin whipped its tail around and clamped down on Desh’s leather coat, pulling itself back on top of him.

The beast’s putrid breath made Desh gag, as a bifurcated tongue jutted out from between the Prymin’s jagged teeth, licking at Desh’s face.

He sent another burst of energy into the Prymin’s chest, so intense that the beast couldn’t hold its grip. Desh pinned it against a tree while it growled in murderous rage, thrashing and swiping at the invisible cloud of energy that imprisoned it.

Kia landed beside Desh with his arrow aimed at the Prymin’s chest. “Drop the energy stream, I’ll cover you,” Kia said.

“No, hold your fire,” Desh replied, trying to regain his breath.

“Why, Brother?”
Kia asked.

“Something’s not right,” Desh said, glancing back at Roma. “There’s only one. Where’s it taking him?”

Desh squinted, looking into the Prymin’s red eyes, and searched through the memories of the filthy animal. He held them only long enough to register their meaning, causing the images to flash at a rapid pace. He saw an image of it creeping through the forest, and then slowed the memory down to see it in its entirety.

He watched it approach a quiet burrow in the snow, and then leap behind a bush when a wet, pointy nose popped out of the hole, sniffing the crisp winter air. A furry head popped out next, looking around with three beady black eyes. After a few moments, the animal shivered its matted red fur and crawled out on four stubby legs. It turned towards the river nearby and slowly made its way through the trees.

The Prymin dug its feet into the snow to gain traction and pounced from the bush, snapping the animal’s neck before it had time to react. The Prymin turned around and clamped down on the fur with its tail, then took off running. It dragged it to a clearing, where a pack of Prymin sniffed the dead animal and grunted. The largest Prymin in the pack howled and raced off towards the burrows with the pack following close behind.

Desh fast-forwarded, scanning through more memories, until he recognized the village, high up in the trees, where he and the Torans lived in houses carved deep into the massive tree trunks.

The Prymin crawled up a tree, inch by inch, creeping up towards Roma’s hut and waited till Roma turned his back to the open doorway.

The Prymin jumped, ripping out a chunk of the Toran’s neck with its teeth. It turned again and clamped down on Roma’s jacket. The beast walked to the edge of the hut and threw the Toran to the ground far below before it slid down the tree, using traction from its claws to control the descent. It ran through the forest, dragging its kill, while the shouts of Torans faded behind it.

The Prymin stopped running when it heard rustling in the trees and saw powdered snow sprinkle down in the distance. It burrowed under the snow, unmoving, until it felt Desh’s feet crunch down beside it.

Desh released the memories when he saw a reflection of himself holding the Prymin against the tree, as if he were looking into a mirror. He looked to his right and saw Tig land and walk up to him and Kia. Unlike the others, Tig wore
a metal chest plate, a wrist communicator, and thought blockers on his ears — which were currently disabled in order to allow him to communicate with Desh at far distances. The chest plate bore the insignia of the Intergalactic Law Enforcement, distinguishing him from the local Toran soldiers around him. Tig tightly tucked his massive brown and white spotted wings behind him and glanced at the Prymin.