Chapter 1

Dakkan

The great trees of the Sesgrev forest dripped with vines. From the vines grew the plump tanji gourds that were the main harvest and export of my Thrail. I walked through the main trail and breathed in the humid air that smelled of ripe plants and gentle florals. I'd known these trees for the whole of my life, having tended the vines and harvested the gourds as a boy. Now I walked among them as my Thrail's warlord.

"Pal-Dakkan." My first guard jogged up to me, ledger in hand. "Your morning update."

I didn't change my stride as he fell into step beside me. "Proceed, Corik."

"All positive news. The upcoming tanji gourd harvest is set to become our largest yet. We expect an eighteen percent surplus; that allows us to process more into minla powder, which sells at a premium, you know."

"I know, Corik."

"The sirk fruit bushes in the southern region are rebounding well after the gik fungus infestation. And the experimental treatments to the desert on the western edge seem to be working. The sand is giving way to fertile soil that we will be able to plant with more songa trees in the future, to expand our Thrail."

"Good." This report was not so different from the day's before, be Corik was incredibly dedicated to his duty, and in truth, I liked hearing good news. After a long war and struggles with infertility among our people, I never took Corik's positive reports for granted.

"In terms of our human population, two more pregnancies have been announced. One baby is due today. That brings the total of human-Mitran hybrid children to fifty-eight, ranging in age from newborn to five years old. There are five children who are ill. One is in the infirmary. Has been there for four days. The healer is at a loss of how to treat her."

"Would that be Tira—Bakar and Rina's child?" I asked.

"Yes, Warlord."

I nodded curtly as we rounded the curve that led back to the occupied section of the Thrail. Huts, buildings, and walkways peeked through the branches where my people lived in the trees. "There is no improvement, then?" The child had struggled from complications at birth and had spent her infancy in and out of the infirmary. As she neared the age of two, she was not thriving. I closed my eyes, knowing the next words that would come from Corik's mouth.

"No, Warlord. Which brings us to the issue of the human physician," he said. "She is arriving today. We have the space she requested prepared with the prescribed power requirements. Several qualified Mitran males who served on a warship during the war and have the necessary technical experience will assist in setting up her equipment."

I ground my teeth together. "Very good, Corik. I will meet her at the landing pad. Her quarters are prepared as well?"

"Yes. I chose the closest unoccupied hut to the laboratory she will be running." He snapped the ledger shut. "That is all I have."

"Thank Skrah for that," I said. "The only reason this human is coming here is because our healers lack the tools to treat these children, and the humans have demanded one of their own." I didn't like the request, but I'd consented to it immediately and sent word to our ambassador on Earth for a human doctor to be sent.

"I'm headed back to the main hall for an update on her shuttle," said Corik, turning toward a different tree where a wide ladder ran up the side. "I'll inform you of a precise time."

I waved Corik off, not terribly eager to invite this doctor into my Thrail. We had resisted much of the technology that other Mitran Thrails had welcomed. We lived by many of the old ways, including healers for medical needs. Our energy needs were light and traditions were passed down with joy. But there was no denying that change had come to Thrail Sakra. It was the fastest growing, in terms of population, on all of Mitra. Children were being born regularly by the several hundred females who had come here from Earth. Many matches had been made, and for the first time in a very long time, the songa trees rang with the sounds of children's voices.

We arrived at the closest ramp that led up to the lowest levels of the Thrail's settlement. The mix of wood and stone pathways were sturdy beneath our feet as the ancient trees easily held the weight of our city on thick branches. I smiled as a small child ran past me. Short horns poked through a head of curly black hair. Her name was Ria, and she could frequently be spotted streaking up and down pathways, pumping her arms and wearing a gleeful grin as her parents ran after her.

The hybrid children were unique. Some had the spikes that rose from their arms and backs at times, and some did not. Some had brakas—fleshy, tubelike strands from the head—and some had hair like their human mothers. Mitran skin was red as our closest planet, the gas giant Brinat. While all had some shade of red in their skin, the appearance of these children was as varied as that of their mothers. So far, all were growing horns, like their fathers. One thing in common with all these children was that they were deeply loved.

A Mitran warrior trotted after the child and scooped her up, eliciting a delighted squeal from the little one. "Apologies, Warlord," said Rikar, a spear thrower who patrolled the northern border. He hiked the child up onto one broad shoulder, where she wrapped one small hand around his horn in a proprietary manner and gazed down at the world like a tiny queen. "This one is a runner."

I smiled up at the girl, no more than three. "Where were you off to, little one?" I asked her.

"Dada and Ria play a game," she said with a grin, then pointed proudly at herself. "I win."

Rikar rolled his eyes, but his lips curved into a smile of pure joy. "She always wins."

"It looks to me as if you are the one who has won, my friend." I clapped him on his unoccupied shoulder. "Wait until she is old enough to run through the forest."

"I dread and look forward to that day."

"As do all parents," I said. "But she will outrun any taakis or behenots. Your Ria will make a great warrior."

Rikar smiled widely, stretching the scar that ran down his jaw. "That she will."

I continued on, heading for the dining hall to take my morning meal, when Corik ran up to me. Whatever he had to tell me, it was not good news. "What is it?"

"The physician," he said, uncharacteristically out of breath. "Her shuttle has been lost."

"Lost?" I stared at him. "Define ‘lost.'"

"Operators at the communications tower report that her shuttle fell off the scanners," he explained. "It showed an erratic pattern of multiple locations at once, then disappeared."

"Impossible. It was being remotely navigated to the landing site," I muttered, even as I pivoted in the direction of the com tower. It was the only place in the Thrail that was fully loaded with tech and therefore had been built a bit off from the city itself. "Where was it when it disappeared?"

Corik stayed beside me. "It was over the Raak region."

My stride didn't falter, but my thoughts did. "Why was it there?"

"It was the most direct route from the ship she traveled on," he replied. "The cargo ship that deployed her shuttle must not have known to avoid that region when they plotted her course."

I let out a Mitran curse. "Flying over it shouldn't have been a problem," I muttered, but Corik would know this. The Raak region was a seemingly barren stretch of land with a long, strange history. Things went in, only to never be seen again. With nothing of value in the area, and after attempts to solve the mystery of the phenomena had failed, it was declared off-limits and that was that. But somehow, the human physician who had been sent to save Tira, and care for the human-Mitran children in my Thrail, had fallen into it.

"What will you do, Warlord?" Corik asked as we climbed the ladder up to the com tower's chamber.

"I will go after her," I said. "I will find her."

"What if she's in the Raak?" He sounded aghast. "No one has ever come out of it."

"I have," I said. "And I'm here to tell you that there's nothing there. Do you think Earth will just send another physician if we politely tell them we lost the first one?" I turned and looked at him. "No. I will find her. You are to send no one else. I will take this risk. If I'm not back in one month's time, begin the process of replacing me as warlord."

"But Pal-Dakkan," Corik said, clearly upset. "You expect to take that long?"

"I don't know what I'll be dealing with. It could be an attack or it could be something more complex, like a space rift. You will not place any of our warriors in danger by sending them out. I am responsible for this female. I will retrieve her."

"I know, but—"

"But Bakar and Rina's child is dying, Corik. It's long past time that whatever is going on in the Raak region is exposed." The spikes on my arms, shoulders, and spine rose in fury. "No one takes one of Thrail Sakra's females. This doctor was assigned to my protection. I will see that she gets it."