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    Bloodline
    Bloodline
    Bloodline
    Ebook292 pages4 hours

    Bloodline

    By Sharon L Reddy

    ()

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    About this ebook

    How many times have you heard, "You've never read a story like this before?" Do you believe it? Would you like to make a wager. Download a sample. Make me prove it.

    "Trimmer adjusted her disguise a bit. She didn't want to go on a tour of the market, but it would be strange if a prosk collector didn't. The disguise was perfect for just looking around because prosk were upright bipeds with two arms and collectors were interested in everything. She reminded her stomach the market was the most important thing to check."

    What HIA Investigator Argus finds could start a war. The three young men had been in the control of an insane remisk mindholder since they were babies. The trovid were sure they were the only sentient species that should exist. They didn't fight wars. They caused other species to go to war with each other. The mindholder couldn't disguise itself as a human to abduct children of the three most important families in human space. Trovid could.

    About books by Sharon L Reddy, reviewers said:

    recluse:
    "The author is a fine wordsmith who possesses a marvelous imagination."

    Raven's Reviews:
    "...unique, fast-paced style ...allows one to read almost as fast as one can think."
    "...romantic brain-candy... If you like almost any kind of men at all, you'll like hers..."

    Mistress of the Dark Path:
    "...you will also notice your mind is stimulated."
    "...designed for a more educated and worldly crowd."

    R. Cagle:
    "I got hooked immediately."

    Marji Holt:
    "The characters came out of the books and into my dreams."

    Twenty-four titles. Start your collection today.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSharon L Reddy
    Release dateJun 6, 2011
    ISBN9781583383735
    Bloodline
    Author

    Sharon L Reddy

    I write science fiction romance, but it's the literary definition of romance. Swashbuckle, Baby, in "white tie and tails." High romantic fantasies, million word mysteries, family sagas, statesmen, gurus and wise immortals. Loving dads, sons and brothers, and of course, the women who understand and appreciate them. High fashion and landscape design. Materials and art, the books are built to be read very fast, specifically for the way women visualize. Research on the soap operas of the fifties, trends in international populist (fan) fiction, technological development, and above all, long-term entertainment value. It has to be good in reruns. The intent is create a body of work that's just fun to read, in spurts or bursts over decades. Ethics, responsibility, nobless oblige, the power of money, the use of prestige. I write good guys win. Period. They're fantasies for women. Men with lots of muscle say, "I love you," a lot.Most of what is currently published was written in the first decade, 1991-1999, before Mother Nature changed my personal definition of "mature audience." I hope you'll remain with me as I and my work mature and enjoy the second decade of my work now being published, as well.I've lived many places and visited far more. My current residence is on a high mesa in New Mexico, in the United States, where I am engaged in a habitat restoration project.Explanation of the Pilots Group:Some of these works have been sitting on my hard drive close to twenty years and they're no fun for anyone just sitting there. They're exactly what they've been titled, pilots, like for a TV series. It is my intent and hope that other writers will choose to continue the adventures of the characters. There are only three restrictions. Don't kill off my heroes, don't make good guys bad guys and give my story credit if you publish. Yes, you may publish and make money on your stories. I loved reading and writing fan fiction, but the limitations on it could be frustrating, so... Have fun with these works that specifically don't have them.

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      Book preview

      Bloodline - Sharon L Reddy

      Sharon L Reddy

      Bloodline

      ©2011

      Target Yonder

      Smashwords Edition

      ISBN 978-1-58338-373-5

      Cover by Barbara Ivie Green

      Chapter One

      Trimmer adjusted her disguise a bit. She didn't want to go on a tour of the market, but it would be strange if a prosk collector didn't. The disguise was perfect for just looking around because prosk were upright bipeds with two arms and collectors were interested in everything. She reminded her stomach the market was the most important thing to check and she needed to maintain the disguise if she planned on living to leave the remisk trade post.

      Humans had 'strange' ideas and were not welcome. Those strange ideas included things like freedom, equality and sentients were not suitable to have as dinner. The market was where she'd find the evidence. She hoped she didn't. If she did, things could get very hot in the cool relationship between the loose association of independent human worlds and the remisk empire. The treaty said no human ships, personnel, colonies, children, bodies, or anything else was to be bothered, collected, sold, had for dinner, or messed with period.

      The remisk weren't taking ships. The question was, were they making the taking of them so profitable others were doing it for them. She'd already found enough to answer yes, but what she'd seen could be items traded by another species to the remisk. In the market, she'd find those things the remisk were not allowed to trade for per the treaty.

      Assured she did look like one of the slender, scaled, prosk, Trimmer rejoined her eager hosts and began the tour. As they walked through the market, she recorded the clear evidence the remisk were breaking the treaty. She sighed in relief when the meat market listings had no sentient species listed as available. The remisk finally seemed to be getting the idea that the human attitude was rather universal, even if they were the only ones who would take apart anyone who served them for dinner. It seemed they just didn't appreciate the fact they were considered among the most delicious creatures in the galactic arm.

      Trimmer purchased two pieces of human tech that were not for sale by humans to any other species. It was typical prosk behavior and she could tell the remisk hadn't tried to figure out how the Cord transmitter and M'hashune drive core worked because the seals weren't broken and the trading station still existed. She calmed her stomach once more as she was led into the last area of the market.

      Selling people was part of remisk culture. They sold each other. A remisk only needed one offspring, the mind holder of their four-sexed species. Since fertilizer, egg layer and nurturer were also produced at a birthing, they were sold. The profit from them was enough to purchase a citizenship for the chosen offspring. It must earn enough to buy its own triad at maturity. Since the empire was expanding, two birthings were recommended. Mind holders of good bloodlines were so profitable a few were birthing three or more sets. One could pay taxes to the empire with a purchased mind holder of excellent line after three years of training it. One's own birthed could not be used for tax credit. That led to problems. People did odd things like ask what service the empire was making of them.

      Trimmer fought not to pull a blaster when she saw the boys. She 'casually' read the posted information on them. They were of the Britan bloodline, trained by the mind holder of the Driv remisk and cured of the human oddity of independence. They were entertaining and ornamental.

      The saleshost saw her reading and Trimmer assured her 'prosk' posture invited a bit of promotion. They probably hadn't attracted the expected interest. A prosk collector might not be as worried about the possibility of some 'semi-civilized' human seeing them and becoming violent.

      They were found on a moribund ship six remisk years ago. All other personnel were dead and decaying. These were in a failing life support module. Though they look a great deal alike to us, they are not closely related by human standards. As posted, the Driv mind holder trained them itself. They are conditioned to require an owner and to be stimulated by the accouterments of possession. They are known to be of the Britan bloodline.

      Britan?

      A human related grouping renowned for superb mental and physical skills. Theirs have been trained of course. The Driv mind holder has succeeded where all others have failed in giving them education in cultures and technology and not arousing the primitive human response to possession.

      How was that managed? I had thought it totally impossible.

      The brilliant implantation of a binding, as the holder described it, between their physical function and the concept of being possessed. They don't desire independence because they will die without an owner. I should tell you they are a set. The holder found the true secret was in linking them. One might choose death to possession, but not that the other two die as well. The binding between them has been reinforced as they matured. The human emotion of love, odd though it is, was a tool which the holder used very well. Their odd sexual behavior has been modified as well. Continual stimulation has removed the resistance which is inherent in the species. They are quite entertaining when engaged in mutual physical stimulation. The preference for a female of the species is not absent in them, a stroke of genius on the holder's part, but physical desire for one another added to it. If you locate a female of the species, putting it, her, with them should be most entertaining.

      They are extremely expensive and humans are not a safe investment. One can't really show them off, you know.

      Ah, but these one could. Their desire to be owned would be obvious even to another human. Watch their response to a simple chain.

      Trimmer held the contents of her stomach with more willpower than she'd known she had. She'd had practice holding her temper. Blowing up the remisk station wasn't going to really solve any problems and the three boys didn't deserve to die. She was too mad to think about the fact she didn't either. Seeing one of them become aroused when a chain was wrapped around his neck made her too angry to consider herself, or the possibility she might start an interstellar war.

      She motioned mild interest with the left elbow lift which would tell the remisk a sale was possible, but not probable. The interest of a prosk was always known. The elbow lift was involuntary and she knew only one who had learned to control it. He'd been the one who told her he believed she'd find evidence of the missing ships on the remisk station. He, a known friend of humans, had been told a problem in air filtration had caused an odor that, though barely noticeable to the remisk, would make him violently ill. He'd contacted Human Intergovernmental Association Law Enforcement Agency Investigator Trimintine, Trimmer, Argus as soon as he'd gotten in range of the human comm net. She'd hit the control that operated the mask program of her ship and was on her way before the flexible exterior panels had reconfigured to resemble a prosk ship.

      Three would be expensive to maintain.

      They are well-trained in human music and dance forms and fully trained in all aspects of ship maintenance and control. All skills could be leased to offset expense. Their sexual activities are fascinating, as well. If one was nervous about human reaction to leasing them, one could record performances of artistic and sexual activities and market them.

      Possible, but not proven. Too much.

      Perhaps we could negotiate on the price.

      I am open to the possibility. Their ages? In human standard please, I don't wish to take the time to compute it and no human under a certain age in their standard years is reasonable to even consider purchasing.

      The largest is the youngest. He is eighteen years in human standard. The mind holder of Driv retained them until he reached the age considered by humans to be fully adult for most purposes. The others are both within one human standard-year-older. The coloring is rare and increases their value. The Britan bloodline is obvious.

      In what way?

      Most humans are of darker hue and have dark hair and eyes. Their pale skin and eyes indicate they are of the line of the Britan colony founders. They are all of Amercan genetic derivation.

      Amercan?

      A group which suffered a radiation-caused series of mutations. Their unique solution was to stimulate recessive physical attributes. It is considered a prime example of human cultural response. The logical response would have been to destroy the mutated individuals, or at least sterilize them. The human group instead chose to select unchanged genetic components. The mutations were completely expunged in three generations, but the eye and skin color did become dominant in the group and even now, nearly one thousand of their years later, the descendants of the Amercan group produce primarily offspring with light skin and pale eyes.

      Yes, I have heard the story before, though the terms used are unfamiliar. Humans have very tight legal strictures on all aspects of genetic manipulation of the species. The choice to stimulate recessive traits was one of few options available. No actual genetic surgery was performed and it was done only to eliminate a genetic disorder. Four thousand kelva for the group.

      You jest!

      I do not. Possession of them may be dangerous and could prevent any purchaser even entering human space. Humans are unlikely to respond favorably to the fact they have been conditioned to need an owner. I, personally, have a possible method of avoiding such problems, but it is only a possibility and the cost of implementing it may be more than I have offered for them. Any other would have no real option but to immediately turn them over to the first human who learned of their existence.

      You will speak of their sale to humans?

      I will not have to answer questions about where they were purchased and most would. I may be able to retain them and most could not. I will at least be reimbursed my purchase price if nothing else. Any other would probably be out the expense and find themselves in a human court and have the added expense of that with their loss of purchase price. I do want them, but know it will be difficult to avoid problems with human authorities. Sell them to me at my offered price or take total loss, then be very thankful I am the one who bought them. Humans pay extremely well for information. Another, who did not regularly locate human artifacts and sell them to humans for nine percent over cost if no questions are asked, would run directly to human space to see how much knowledge of them was worth. I, on the other hand, with careful work and much careful discussion can avoid the possibility of them being questioned, as well.

      Four thousand kelva is much below expected.

      My offer is more than their value as food items.

      Very little more.

      Humans are a delicacy which it is often fatal to enjoy. Even I would have reported the availability of human flesh in your meat market. The remisk still fail to realize the danger of dealing in things human without very careful checking to make sure such dealings do not arouse the ire of humans. Sell them to me or get rid of them fast. Otherwise this station is unlikely to exist shortly after a member of any other species sees them. I think you should do a bit more study of human history. We know the species is quite dangerous to aggravate because we have. It would not be unlike them to declare war on your species for not returning these immediately to them. It is quite within human nature for every member of the species to join in said conflict. Their survival as a species is a thing of wonder to a student of their history and a triumph of ideology over nature. I agree the Driv mind holder has accomplished an amazing feat. Sell them to me and your species may survive it.

      You exaggerate to make a purchase.

      I do not, and I make purchase offer because my species would probably be drawn into a conflict. Humans allow neutrality, but destroy any ship which attempts trade with an enemy. Are the remisk so foolish they do not realize a human child can build a device to destroy a world? Why do you think humans consider at least eighteen of their years necessary before a child is allowed to be without adult supervision? That is the minimum time believed necessary to insure their young do not decide to 'play' with weapons and find a nice target, such as this station. It takes that long until they are sure the ideology, which has enabled them to survive, is firmly instilled in most. They have huge numbers of persons engaged in the task of locating and confining those who are too dangerous to their own species because the ideological training was not successful. They are to be commended on their success. They have not wiped out any species since they developed the capability of leaving their birth world. Sometime read the list of just human cultures which they completely wiped out and realize most were not even recorded. If that list isn't long enough to frighten you, spend a few days reading the listing of animal species which once were numerous and they hunted to extinction, remembering no one bothered to take note of them until approximately the time they developed space flight. Then peruse their laws on purchase of illegally-gained items and realize ignorance of the law is not an admissible defense. I do not think the galaxy would be more pleasant without the remisk, so I will take them and initiate actions to prevent difficulties. I can do so. Very few others of any species could. My offer is generous under the circumstances. Take it and hope no other has already reported their presence here. Also be aware those who sell illegally gotten human artifacts have been known to sell such, then report to human authorities that the purchaser has them to collect the reward for information. Four thousand.

      It worked. Trimmer instructed the three be taken to her ship and apologized to her hosts for the unpleasant tone of the end of her tour of the market. She said humans understood some items were salvaged from derelicts and such and knew themselves well enough to check if that was the case before arbitrarily declaring someone criminal for possession. She noted many prosk watched for such items and all knew those humans considered too dangerous to be allowed in the possession of persons not completely trained in their use. She would carefully phrase the explanation of the 'rescue' of the young humans and note remisk considered three as a unit and being owned normal. She would imply the mind holder who trained them knew very little about humans and was attempting to aid them. She would succeed because humans would prefer not to believe any foolish enough to deliberately tamper with their young.

      She gave the double elbow lift of a prosk sigh and told them she really hoped she wouldn't be stuck with the three. Human societies did not allow ownership of humans, so she couldn't just sell them to a human and knew of no other prosk, or any other, who would take them even if she offered to pay them to do so. It was too dangerous. Any human might decide to attack without any more information than that humans were owned.

      She also noted they'd shown a great deal of sense in not tampering with the other items she'd purchased. The two pieces of technology would have made the trade station a dust cloud if opened or even slightly mishandled. They weren't boobytrapped, just that dangerous. Both contained an antimatter core very carefully centered in containment fields. Human engineers only worked with them in specially constructed facilities in space and then with remote-controlled handling units. She added they did have to build replacement facilities fairly often.

      Her hosts, of course, understood why their prosk visitor hadn't told them such before the items were delivered to her ship. She hadn't wanted to panic anyone in the market. She repeated her warning about dealing in human technology with any but an authorized human agent and got exactly what she was after. The allundi had sold the items. She said allundi were not very bright and those who were dealing in human contraband less than most. She expressed the opinion the remisk were much more intelligent and she was sure they'd tell the allundi they weren't in the market for technology of human manufacture without display of trade manifests noting original licensed human seller. They agreed they were much more intelligent than the allundi and thanked her for her efforts to prevent a misunderstanding escalating into a war.

      It's profitable for me to do so. Humans appreciate it. They try hard to live up to their very high ideals and succeed amazingly well. They rarely speak of their history of conflict. It is not conducive to good relations with other species to begin by stating yours is the most deadly in the galaxy. They speak, instead, of accomplishments in developing peaceful trade. Only one who knows the history of the human species truly realizes how amazing those accomplishments are. The human species channeled their aggression into technological development and trade competition before they colonized their first world. I admire them for their success. No other true predator has succeeded as they have. Consider their attitude toward the consumption of sentients and you will begin to see how successful they have been. They managed to extend their instilled aversion to consuming members of their own species to include all other sentients. One of the reasons they are so adamant any who find one of their young return them is to make sure that one absorbs the various strictures which control their nature. A human child of four of their years once landed on an uninhabited planet in an escape pod with five others even younger. It was twelve human years before they were found. She had found them shelter, hunted with a rock as weapon, devised traps for large animals and all six were by then accomplished predators which even the largest carnivores of that world feared and avoided. That is the nature of humans. They will fight to the death for an ideal. The interesting thing is their highest ideal is peace. Yes, a very interesting species indeed. No other has a history which is a record of ten thousand years of war at its beginning and survived to add ten thousand years of peace.

      We thank the collector for this information. Humans work so hard to be peaceful one does not realize it is not their nature to be so.

      They must. Do not make the mistake of thinking they are docile because of it. Ask the Driv mind holder. It will know. It also knew the three were too dangerous to keep, else why sell what it had worked so to train. The posted price was less than six years of maintenance and training. It was attempting to rid itself of them because it knew it had made a true error. The three would have decided it was worth death to kill the one who had so bound and conditioned them very soon and it knew it. It had touched their minds and knew the truth. No conditioning can stand against the will of a fully adult human and death is of minor import to them if they become enraged. 'Let's see how many of them we can take with us,' is a very human statement and one that almost every human would understand without any explanation or need for placement in context. It is also their nature to attempt to survive any conflict, but not to the extent of capitulation if they believe they are justified in violent action.

      Chapter Two

      Trimmer walked onto her ship, blanked her disguise unit, grinned at the three very surprised boys, reinstituted the disguise and said, Now I'm going to get the slimy remisk who messed up three human kids, and walked into her quarters.

      She touched the mirror above her bed in a certain pattern and it faded. She reached into the recess revealed and took out two items. She set the seeker with the station coordinates for the Driv compound and carefully tuned it to locate the mind holder.

      It would lie in wait years if necessary, but it would kill the Driv mind holder the first time it was alone. She recorded her judgment of knowledgeable human enslavement and clear evidence of mind tampering in the log and noted the serial number of the seeker, then returned the log to the recess. She stepped off the ship, gave the controller of docking the prosk customary gift of appreciation for hospitality to be delivered to her hosts and released the seeker. It would activate as soon as her ship departed the station.

      The remisk would never learn how the holder had died. Only six people even knew of the existence of the seekers. Only one knew she was one of those authorized to possess and use them. She'd never used one before. They were the tool of execution for those judged to have committed a crime against all humans by one of the three chosen as defenders of the species. She knew there were three. She didn't know who the other two were. She knew two had invented the seekers and placed them in the hands of the Mentor of Earth. She knew she was one she had chosen to bear the responsibility of using them.

      The mind holder had known what it was doing could bring war between remisk and human. It had spent six of its years, almost sixteen of hers, assuring there would be outrage and outcry, then made sure the boys were placed where they'd be seen by members of other species. Her information had been correct. A remisk was in the pay of the trovid and had probably been promised all the layers, fertilizers and nurturers on some colony world when the two species began destroying each other.

      It was the trovid way. They never engaged in warfare. They were 'totally nonviolent.' They removed 'infestations of alien life forms' from territories they wanted by instigating war between others. Humans were on to them. They were going to learn it.

      The three boys were on their knees just inside the hatch. She told them to get to acceleration couches in the lounge and how to find it. She checked to make sure they were all strapped in and backed out of the docking bay. As soon as she was clear, she hit boost. Ten seconds later, she rammed the ship into warp. She got rid of her prosk disguise and put away the unit, then collapsed the ship disguise. It was time to see how badly the three boys were damaged, and if she was stuck with them.

      "Log on. Trimintine Argus reporting. I found evidence of trovid manipulation on remisk station Modda. I also learned allundi are responsible for the missing ships. I picked up two pieces of contraband tech. No attempt had been made to open either of them. In prosk guise, I threw a major scare into the merchant host triad which should make allundi unpopular with the remisk. Trovid manipulation is evidenced by three boys who were reportedly taken from a moribund ship with failing life support. They've been purportedly conditioned to require an owner and emotionally bound to each other. A demonstration of sexual arousal at the touch of a chain nearly emptied my stomach and I preempted a display of their sexual training with each other or my lunch would have been on the ground. The entire situation is too bizarre to be anything but an attempt to foment hostilities between human and remisk. The boys were for sale in the busiest remisk market bordering human space. No remisk mind holder would have thought of tampering with human young on its own. It certainly wouldn't have spent six years in the task, then put them on sale for an amount that wouldn't have supported them for that length of time. The allundi sale of human contraband messed up a tidy plan because the merchant hosts were carefully finding reasons to discourage known human friends from visiting. Boss, if they're as screwed up as the saleshost guaranteed, I'm

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