Alysha's Fall (Stardancer Prequel)

What is the definition of strength? At what point is there nothing more to learn than the limits of endurance? When is darkness no longer contrast to light but a suffocation, and how close to that line can a person walk before she risks her soul?

This tenth anniversary edition of the original collection features all new illustrations.

Ten years after she graduated from the Fleet Academe at Terracentrus, Alysha Forrest was captain of the battlecruiser UAV Stardancer with more honor to her name than any other officer her age. But before that dawn there was a night, and it is in the darkness that souls are made...or broken.

Genre (setting): space opera (Pelted)
Tags: survivorship, leadership, coming of age, military academy, crime
Rating: R for abuse, physical and sexual violence

Excerpt from Alysha's Fall

Alysha Forrest stepped off the monorail after three weeks spent gathering laundry and serving meals to passengers who’d had the money to pay for the trip to Terracentrus. The tarnish of the recent months fell from the Karaka’An’s shoulders as she lightly touched down on the pavement and jogged out of the station to get her first glimpse of the city. What she’d seen of its skylines against the growing dawn had only whet her imagination, delicate curves and spires thrusting into the pale cloud banks. She slipped past the few people in her way and out as the glass doors irised open for her.

Sunlight poured over her body as Alysha stared at the vista. People of all races streamed up and down the streets, mottled pelage in shades of gray and brown, orange and red. Above their bobbing heads rose the buildings, edges streaked with buttery-rich yellows, spiraled towers beside the fluted blocks of sun-pale edifices. Thin bridges threw themselves across impossible spans, woven from seeming spider-webs that glittered fiercely in the new light.

Hundreds of scents spilled across her nose as the Karaka’An stood stunned at the doors of the monorail station: rich meat pastries shot through with alien spices, the tantalizing odors of creatures from other worlds mingled with the more familiar smells of Karaka’A and Seersa, and through it all a breeze lightly touched with the weight of water, moving, always moving. The sounds proved equally disorienting, the muted roar of a busy street, voices blending into one great symphony.

Shading her eyes, Alysha stepped into the tumult, her heart rising until she thought it would burst from her chest. She strode to the edge of the monorail station and ducked into the respite of an info-stop.

“May I help you?” a delicate Tam-illee asked, her wheat-blonde hair swinging lightly around her white chin.

“I’d like directions to the Academe, please,” Alysha asked, offering a smile in return.

The female foxine chuckled softly, “Ah, another cadet-to-be, I see? We get a lot of those. Would you like hardcopy or transmission to your data tablet?”

Alysha waited for the foxine to notice her empty hands. She’d long since disposed of the graduation gown, and had only her stretchsuit and the small balance in her bank to her name.

“Pardon me,” the Tam-illee said, large ears coloring. She tapped a button, then presented a flat card to Alysha, tracing the route. “This is where you are, on Millennium Walk. Millennium is one of the center lanes for the city . . . along with six other streets, it bisects all the walks, streets, and boulevards in Terracentrus. Just walk east until you begin to reach the fringe of the commercial area. You’ll pass a few residential areas, and then it’ll clear up and you’ll find yourself at the gates of the Fleet Complex.”

“A long walk?” Alysha asked, trying to gauge distances.

“Maybe forty-five minutes, if you’re light on your feet,” was the reply. “We’re on the eastern edge of the city here.”

“This is only the edge of the city?” Alysha asked, incredulous. She couldn’t help glancing back over her shoulder at the high-rises.

The Tam-illee laughed kindly. “One day you’ll have to visit Center Walk where it intersects Main Street. Then you’ll see the real city.”

Tucking a strand of hair behind her shoulders, Alysha nodded. “Thank you, alet.”

As she turned to go, she heard a quiet “Wait.” Curious, she stopped and glanced over her shoulder only to find the Tam-illee offering her a gold fin.

“Take it,” the female urged gently as Alysha hesitated. “Please.” The Tam-illee smiled, her ears ruddy. “I have two children, one near your age. It’s a long walk, and he gets hungry every fifteen minutes. You look hungry as it is.”

Alysha’s lips twitched, torn between a sheepish smile and a grimace. She’d eaten lightly on the way to Terracentrus to spare her account. She took the coin respectfully, then said again, “Thank you, alet.”

“Good luck.”

Alysha smiled, then ducked out of the stop and into the sunlight again. She looked into her palm where the fin nestled, then wrapped her long fingers around it. Orienting herself by the sun and the direction of the streets, Alysha faced east and followed her nose to a pastry shop where the fin bought her a meat pasty. Card in one hand and brunch in the other, the Karaka’An felt exhilaration rising again, and she started off at a smart pace. Perhaps there was something to be said for casting off one’s life and walking empty-handed, or nearly so, into a new one.

Alysha’s attention warred between her directions and the color of the city. She learned from the map that all walks ran east-west, all streets north-south, and all boulevards diagonally. The map also demonstrated how little experience she had with cities of the scale of Terracentrus. She tried to calculate the distances from the size of the map and found she could not hold an image of the city in her head. It was too large: only fitting for the summer capital of the Alliance.

Alysha tucked the card in her waist-pocket, the route etched into her mind, and let her fingers occupy themselves with holding together the hot pasty. The first bite brought a low sigh of pleasure. It had been several months since she’d had hot food of this caliber, or any meat. The pasty didn’t last long; the Karaka’An licked her fingers clean in her enthusiasm before returning her gaze to the cityscape, watching the people now past. She’d never seen so many people, and of so many varied kinds. Her hometown had sported a good mix of Karaka’A and Seersa with the rare Tam-illee or Asanii, but Terracentrus was an object lesson in the diversity of the Alliance. She even spotted one of the alien Sirelanders, slender tentacles swept back from its head.

Competing with the people for her attention scrolled a never-ending row of shops, and she often paused to glance in at the vendors. Clothing stores made her wish, briefly, for something a little looser than her stretchsuit. Other stores sold jewelry, still others appliances and commodities, real estate and personal recreational vehicles. A place selling personal tech almost pulled her inside with its data tablet display, and it was only with effort that she set on her course again.

It was too rich a banquet for one morning. Alysha drank her fill and felt heady, but a steady tugging drew her away from the sights and sounds and scents. She jogged steadily down the walk until the tall buildings faded away, replaced by low scrolling gates and entrances to housing developments. The breeze fell more easily through the crannies of the city here, and it threaded fingers through her dark hair, pulling it astray. Alysha drew long breaths as she continued, straining her eyes for any sight of her destination.

She found it ten minutes later: a clearing at the end of the walk, and then a large gated complex behind which rolling melds and towering trees broke from the cityscape and recalled the roots of nature. A collection of low-lying buildings occupied the northernmost edge of the estate; as she drew nearer she saw a regal house rising against the fringe of the southern side. As she approached, she saw two guards, dark Hinichi with stern expressions, tails rigid despite the wind. Behind them on three tall poles, the Academe flew the Alliance flag, the Fleet’s, and Fleet Academe’s.

Alysha strode to the gates and stopped, uncertain. The guards looked more like statues than people until one of them broke and asked, “Good morning. How may we serve?”

“I’m looking for the application office,” Alysha said, ears pointing forward and shoulders back.

“That’s inside and directly to the right.”

Alysha glanced past the guard. “In the guard tower?” she asked.

“Just so.” She thought she detected humor and smiled in reply, then walked past the guard and onto the threshold of the Academe. She was so near her hair stood on end. Eagerly, the Karaka’An stepped into the guard tower, a squat round structure of stone that stood only a story and a half high.

Sunlight flooded the interior of the tower from a window in the northeast. A long desk ran half the circumference of the tower, and several people worked behind it. Alysha approached one of them.

“Good morning. How may we help you?”

“I’d like to apply,” Alysha answered.

She received a warm smile in reply. The Seersan waved her to a seat and said, “You’ll have to fill out this application here. How will you be paying, monthly, biannually, or annually?”

Alysha froze. “I forgot. . . . I need to apply for a scholarship.”

Though the other operators continued working, she was certain that silence reigned within the tower office. The Seersan said, “I’m sorry, but all scholarships have been handed out for this academic year. You’ll have to wait until this time next year to apply.”

“Do you have work-study programs?” Alysha asked. She couldn’t bring herself to realize that luck had finally deserted her . . . if indeed she’d ever had it.

“No,” the male answered, honest regret in his voice, “We used to, but they were repealed.”

Alysha sat because she was unable to move. Something of how lost she felt must have reflected on her face, since the male said gently, “You might try to get work in the city. It’s hard for an undergraduate to find work that pays enough, but sometimes. . . . ”

A course of action. Alysha embraced it to keep herself from falling. “Where do I go?”

“The nearest info-stop is a few blocks south of here on Strop Street,” the Seersan answered. “You can go there to ask for job openings.”

“Thank you,” she answered mechanically, standing. “I’ll be back.”

The man paused, then nodded. “I hope so. See you soon.”

She found the info-stop ten minutes later. Alysha planted herself in one of the kiosks, ignoring the spool of people winding in and out of the room. “Privacy screen, please.”

A soft hum reached her ears from one foot behind her. The displays nicked to life, a sigil scrawled across the screen hugged by the legend, “Terracentrus: Center of the Accord in Summer.” A small white dot flashed on and off in the upper right-hand corner, indicating a ready status.

Her hands lit on the edges of the display. “How much a year is it to go to the Academe?”

The computer politely replied, “Cost for one cadet, with room and two meals a day, for one academic year, is sixty thousand fin.”

Alysha braced herself against the sudden vertigo that assailed her. Sixty thousand fin a year was within the scope of a professional working in her meld, or maybe a particularly hard-working layman, but certainly not a student. Nevertheless, her voice rasped from her throat. “Search for job openings in Terracentrus that might yield sixty thousand fin a year.”

A few seconds later, two pages scrolled through the display. Alysha watched them dispassionately. When the computer finished, she said, “Eliminate those that require educational honors past finishing school.”

All of them vanished.

Alysha stared at the blank screen for several minutes, then roused herself. “Show listing of the jobs that don’t require honors, make more than eleven thousand a year and approach sixty thousand a year. List how much each pays, and where each is located.”

Only nine entries rolled across the screen. Jaw clenched, Alysha selected a hardcopy dump. When the card dropped from the slot into her hand, she left the building. A few moments with the map given to her by the helpful Tam-illee at the first info-stop and she walked away, chin high. The morning had begun to age, but all of the afternoon stretched before her. In a city so beautiful, there had to be an answer.