Star Brigade: Resurgent (Star Brigade Book 1) (5 page)

The Technoarchy finally relinquished much of the Ferronos Sector to the Galactic Union. Before vanishing back to wherever Technoarchy Space was in the Dracius Cluster, the Cybernarr shocked the whole Union by releasing Habraum back into Union custody, alive and unharmed. The news streams erupted over his survival, and overnight he became a reluctant intergalactic hero. Honaa lost count of how many profiles had been done on Nwosu’s life, revealing his honorable discharge from AeroFleet—as well him being a maximum. After the latter fact came out, a volatile courting war erupted between every military agency or defense contractor to acquire Nwosu’s services, including Star Brigade.

Then, by the most unexpected circumstance, a chance to recruit Nwosu literally fell into Honaa’s lap like a white-hot meteorite. Habraum’s then-girlfriend Jennica Hoang happened to be the second-level teacher for Honaa’s twin sons at Corowood Primary School. So without informing his superiors, the Rothorid visited his sons’ class the day Jennica brought Habraum in to speak with her students.

The tall, lanky Nwosu was a dark-skinned blend of Nigerian earthborn and Kenende Cercidalean; bald, blunt, brash yet devastatingly bright, with shimmering hazel-gold eyes that pierced through you like knives. The echoes of whatever perdition Nwosu had endured in Technoarchy captivity were obvious in his boyish face, as was a deep humility for his second lease on life. Honaa had known this youth was premium Star Brigadier material within moments of meeting him. “I don’t wanna be wanking off the UComm’s panhandle for the public anymore,” Nwosu had stated frankly in his thick Cercidalean brogue, “I wanna be part of something important again.” Not much convincing was needed from Honaa to recruit Habraum the following week.

Despite the initial doubts of Honaa’s peers, Nwosu didn’t just survive Star Brigade’s hellish training process, but thrived in its torturous depths to become an active operative. It had been Honaa’s great honor for seven wonderful years to mentor and befriend Habraum Nwosu, mainly as he grew into one of the greatest Star Brigadiers to ever grace the organization.

…and then Beridaas happened. Honaa had been on a much needed vacation on Rothor IV with his family. The loss of but one Star Brigadier was tragic enough for Honaa. But eleven of the best Brigadiers from two combat teams, ambushed and killed?  The Rothorid scarcely stifled a shiver at the memory of how icy-terror flooded his veins as he raced back to the Brigade’s headquarters on starbase Hollus Maddrone as fast as hyperspace jumps could carry him. He had never forgiven himself for not being where his teammates needed him, even a year later.  The Rothorid had arrived then at Hollus to find Habraum and Sam as the only two survivors, but to his stark horror got blindsided by another blow. Nwosu’s wife Jennica had been killed in a fatal spacecraft collision on her way to Cercidale.
After Beridaas, Habraum and Jenn were going to travel to Cercidale so that their second child…a girl…would be born on his homeworld
, he called to mind, as if from a half-remembered dream. The tragedy still sliced into Honaa’s soul at remembering Habraum’s anguish as both his private and professional worlds had been smashed into bloody ruins. The Cercidalean had vanished from Union Space with his young son, Jeremy, right after Jennica’s funeral—never even bothering to attend the funerals of his deceased teammates and fellow Brigadiers who died on Beridaas. That act had killed any compassion Honaa had for his former mentee.

Since then, not once had Habraum bothered to contact Honaa. The Rothorid felt his scaly skin prickle as an old anger seeped through his body and infected his heart once more. Honaa could not condone Nwosu’s disrespect, his cowardice—.

“Hey!” A finger snap jolted Honaa back to the present. “Ishliba! Where are you?” Sam barked, her voice like a whip. The Rothorid stared down at her, recalling her earlier question.

“It’sss the right thing to do,” Honaa rasped abruptly, stopping in the middle of an intersection with another pathway. As much as it pained him to even consider this, Honaa never put his personal feelings before Star Brigade—no matter how sour his distaste was for this alternative. “If bringing Nwosu back will get usss our commission reinsstated, then we ssshould do it.”

Sam gave Honaa a surprised once-over. He was a solid six-foot-two, a good eight inches taller than the human woman. “I was hoping you’d say that,” she sighed in relief. “And I’ll kill that vile dung heap Greystone if he wrecked any chance of Habraum eventually coming back.”

“Go on and initiate contact Commander—Sssam,” Honaa corrected himself upon seeing her annoyed look. Sam hated the formality of titles among friends. “You and Habraum are ssstill are clossse, correct?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Sam said pensively. Rhyne’s mid-morning light glistened off her blonde head of hair. “We speak over the TransNet about once a week, but we’re long overdue for some face to face time.” Honaa never failed to notice how Sam always lit up when it came to Habraum. Their friendship, formed when both were recruits, had been an object of admiration and speculation from the start.

“I’ll arrange a get-together when I come back to Hollus.”

At this Honaa furrowed his brow suspiciously. “You’re not returning to Hollusss with me?”

“No, I have a meeting at the Ministry of Interplanetary Affairs,” she replied in guarded tones.

Instantly Honaa knew what it was about. “The Korvenitesss, still?”

“Yeah? So what?” Sam bristled.

Honaa couldn’t believe his ears. Trying to salvage Star Brigade was a chore in itself. Yet Sam D’Urso had kept at this foolish quest to aid the outcast Korvenite race for months. “That other sssecurity matter Hollienurax ssspoke about other than the Union-Kedri Imperium merger—?”

“Yes Honaa, I know that he was referring to the recent Korvenite escapes and attacks on internment camp facilities,” Sam sighed, already tired of talking about this. “But not all Korvenites are murderous terrorists Honaa. The way they are treated in those camps would —.”

“I know enough about Korvenitesss to realize they possse a continued threat to thisss Union. And given how much they have taken from Earth humansss, so should you!” Honaa irately slammed his tail onto the ferroment pathway, scaring the daylights out of a young UComm officer passing nearby.

The two Brigadiers glared at each other in a stinging silence, which wasn’t really noiseless given the loud hovercar and sentient traffic around them. This wasn’t the first time they had debated this matter, but in public was hardly the forum to continue.

“Whatever,” Sam waved a dismissive hand. “I’m going to be late for my thing.” She turned and strode down the pathway without another word. Honaa stared after her as she disappeared into the crowd.

Honaa pushed the whole Korvenite debacle from his thoughts, focusing only on Star Brigade and Habraum Nwosu’s potential return. The Rothorid sissed with laughter at the irony; the Brigade’s future now in the hands of his former protégé who’d quit a year ago. “You better sssucceed, Sssam,” he hissed quietly, tearing his gaze from where his fellow Brigadier was standing. With that, Honaa turned left onto the pathway and headed toward the UComm shuttle bay.

Five whole macroms had passed. The two hadn’t so much as flinched or blinked—totally focused on their uninterrupted staring contest. The much larger of the two was a yosk, which stood stock-still on the grassy turf that was its home. Many nature enthusiasts believed the yosk was related to the bison and the water buffalo of Old Earth, mainly for its broad head and high-humped shoulders. Others thought it was closer to an elephant because of its scything grey tusks and tree trunk-like feet. Children just got a kick out of the creature’s unusually squashed face; it looked like it had run face-first into a wall.

Regardless, it was a staple of Terra Sollus—particularly the Oklorada Basin in the country of Vesspuccia. Somewhat hidden in the yosk’ black shag of hair was a pair of cavernous blue eyes. Through its forcefield, the yosk glared at its equally determined adversary. A seven-year-old named Jeremy Nwosu.

At first glance Jeremy looked like a young version of his father, mainly the way his deep-set hazel-grey eyes drank in the universe around him. After careful scrutiny, the differences between father and son were more evident. The boy’s curly shock of black hair for starters, the lighter complexion in his brown skin. Some of these differences, like the slight almond-shape of his eyes and the flatter nose came from Jeremy’s late mother, an earthborn woman of Sino-Xibetanese descent.

Currently, Jeremy and the gigantic yosk male were faced off in an intense staring contest. The young boy was standing on the tip of his heels, while the yosk stood on all four of its hoofed feet and still towered the boy by over a metrid and a half. Despite the dryness burning at his eyes, the boy still did not blink. The deep, crystal blue of the yosk’ eyes filled his entire world and was his entire focus.

“Outstaring the yosk” was an age-old dare that children had played since Habraum Nwosu was a youngster on Cercidale, and had taught his own son. As he stood a metrid away leaning his shoulder against a column break in the forcefield, Habraum watched proudly as Jeremy turned teachings into deed.

The six-foot-five Cercidalean sported a bald head and trim goatee along with a single white-jeweled stud in each ear. He donned a blue vintage t-shirt and grey loose-fitting denims, the casual style of someone well acquainted with public attention and trying to avoid it. His clothes were easily filled out by an athletic physique balanced between rangy and powerfully-built. Habraum fingered one of his earrings, amused at his son’s tenacity. But that was all he could do, as Jeremy requested silence.

This was the third time in two weeks that Habraum had taken Jeremy to the Corowood Interplanetary Zoo, the second largest zoo on the planet, right in the heart of Conuropolis’ more suburban Corowood District. No zoo in the Mynar System could match the diversity of this one, more than two million species of animals, all in an identical reproduction of each creature’s natural environment. Habraum was a bit worried to be overindulging the lad with so many zoo trips. At the same time, Jeremy had earned this reward of late for his consistently top marks in school and good behavior.

The Oxophas Valley, Jeremy’s favorite part, was a copper-hued dome building near the eastern edge of the zoo and held acres of rolling grasslands, similar to the yosk’s native Oklorada Basin. A force field lined the corridors, surrounding and cutting through the fields for visitors to view the oxophae safely.

Habraum stayed in the moment for his son, proud at how easy it came for him now. But in the back of his mind, another small triumph gave him even greater pause.

Today was the first Corowood Zoo visit without the lie. That one lie he’d been telling himself for months, to not feel guilty over enjoying Jeremy’s company.

In this lie, Habraum’s late wife Jennica was merely feeling too ill for the zoo trip that had been the family’s monthly ritual. And she would be waiting for them at home on the other side of the globe. Also part of this little white lie, Habraum wasn’t on indefinite sabbatical from Star Brigade, just on shore leave visiting his family. But today he forced himself to own the hole in his heart—the gaping, searing hole left by the loving wife he saw too little of, and the organization he’d dedicated too much of himself to. And despite how jarring the reality of his emptiness, Habraum Nwosu was still standing.

The Cercidalean’s attention was jerked back to the present by the unblinking yosk’s sudden, baying whoop. Jeremy jumped back in surprise, blinking, and quickly realized his mistake.

“NO!” Jeremy cried, beside himself with boyish fury. “The yosk cheated!” he declared with his diluted Cercidalean brogue. He pointed angrily at the guilty party, who was busy licking at the forcefield.

“Sorry sprout.” Habraum playfully mussed up Jeremy’s curly hair. His face literally hurt from holding back laughter over this ‘dilemma.’  “I warned you that yosk distract while they stare, lad.”

“You have blasting powers, aren’t you gonna do something?”

“Ya think I’m getting into a throwdown with that?” Habraum guffawed, jabbing a thumb at the massive beast. “Come on, then. You can outstare him next time.” He turned on his heel to leave. But Jeremy, stubborn like a bull, dashed straight for the yosk, which now scratched itself.

“I want a rematch with him. He cheat—Aah!”

Catching him by the scruff of his shirt, Habraum effortlessly hoisted Jeremy up in the air with one arm. “No rematch, we’re leaving, sprout.”

Jeremy thrashed and flailed his limbs, but it was useless. “Not fair! Why do we have to leave?”

“My stomach said so,” Habraum said matter-of-factly. The boy still threw some nasty fits when denied something he wanted. But months of experience had made Habraum an expert on how to tame such episodes. He set his son down so that he could look him in the eyes. “Besides, is out-staring a yosk worth keeping your Auntie Sammie waiting?”

The mere mention of ‘Aunt Sammie’ caused Jeremy to nearly burst at the seams with joy. “Auntie Sammie! Yay!!”  Habraum, feeling the same way, felt his own smile stretch from ear to ear. It had been far too long since he had last seen his former colleague, and she’d given the Cerc two and a half indignant earfuls about how long it had been when they set time to meet today. Taking Jeremy by the hand, father and son moved through the maze of corridors in Oxophas Valley until they reached the exit.

This scene would have been a fairytale vision just over a year ago. After leaving the Brigade…and losing Jenn, bad days were all we both knew. Habraum had made the impulsive decision of fleeing Union borders with Jeremy to the exotic menagerie of non-Union worlds in the Libratta System. At the time, Habraum couldn’t see the willing support system of family and friends he was leaving behind. A towering, insurmountable grief had infected every part of his being, down to his very marrow. All he had wanted was an escape from any reminders.