Preview – 1st Draft of To Love & Honor
t was midnight and Lucinda nursed a cup of Cafka as she waited for the time to report in for her shift on Port Recovery’s Security forces. Agra, her Dactyl, snuggled with her littermate Saura in the fur lined nest the made especially for them. Dactyls were six-limbed flying mammals native to Vensoog. They came in all sizes, from creatures large enough to hunt the Water Dragons living in the rivers and along the channels between the Equator Islands, to animals like Agra and Saura who were tiny enough to hold in your hand. Although tiny, they possessed all the characteristics of their species: wings covered with long, lint-like hair needing a daily combing to prevent becoming matted, a fluffy, down-coated body, talons on the rear feet, and arms with hand-like paws. Humans fell in love with them because of their soft coats, large ears, big dark eyes and pointed noses. Their protective adaption included being able to adapt the color of their fur to blend into their environment. Like the Quirka, another pet adopted by the settlers, Dactyls were empathic, bonding in love with their chosen humans.
Several years ago, Lucinda and her foster brother Rupert had been on a plant foraging expedition and found four orphaned, hungry Dactyl kits and adopted them into the family. The other pair had boned with the girl’s foster brothers, Roderick and Rupert.
She was not yet a full-fledged officer, but all cadets had to do a three-month stint under a trainer before transitioning to a qualified officer. She was excited to begin, although she let none of her anticipation show in her face, not even to her sister Juliette, sitting across from her in a night robe. The sisters looked nothing alike. Juliette was tiny, with a thin body, green eyes and a long, curly mane of red hair, while Lucinda was tall and full-bodied. Her white-blond hair, cut to chin length, fluffed around a heart-shaped face with red, cupid bow lips, a short nose and light grey eyes.
When Juliette and Lucinda were twelve and Violet their other sister ten, Lady Katherine and Lord Zack had come to the center looking for Lord Zack’s orphaned nephews Rupert and Roderick.
Discovering the illegal nature of Grouter’s operation, the couple had made sure Grouter was arrested for his part in the child sex trade. They adopted Lucinda, Juliette, and Violet as well as Zack’s nephews. Although they considered themselves sisters, the three girls were ‘designer children’ who had been ordered to specifications. Lucinda, Juliette and Violet had been born in a laboratory on one of the moons of Fenris and later raised on that planet in a child placement center run by Hans Grouter a lieutenant in the local Thieves Guild.
Jerry Van Doyle another lieutenant of equal rank, ran an arm of the child prostitution business and recruited a great many of his “new meat” from the Fenris Child Placement center.
Grouter had plans of his own for the girls, so he protected them from being used by Van Doyle. However, they had been subjected to harsh training methods to enable them to utilize their programed genetics for the Guild’s criminal purposes. Lady Katherine and Lord Zack had adopted all five children and they came home to Vensoog and Veiled Isle, as a family of seven.
This year Juliette and Lucinda were six months away from receiving their Match Lists which would mark them as full adults under Vensoog law. Their parents had reluctantly agreed to the girls could share an apartment in Port Recovery rather than stay at the O’Teague Clan compound on O’Teague Isle, the Clan’s Port Recovery embassy. On Vensoog, you became legally an adult when you received your official Match List with genetically compatible mates for the first time. Match Lists had been created to help preserve the biological diversity of the human population and handed down during the Planting and Harvest Festivals occurring in the spring and fall of each year.
For the next three months Lucinda would be on her own in the apartment because Juliette was leaving later that morning on an expedition to the largely unexplored northern continent of Kitzingen.
As Lady Katherine’s First Daughter and direct heir Juliette was learning her trade by shadowing her mother when Parliament was in session. Juliette was going to be heavily involved in politics; Lady Katherine wasn’t only the next in line to rule Veiled Isle, she was Clan O’Teague’s Parliamentary Representative. However, Parliament only met three times per year and Juliette was taking advantage of the free time to go out with one of the exploring expeditions to Kitingzen, the closest of the four largely unexplored continents.
“There is just one tinyfavor I need you to do while I’m gone,” Juliette said.
Lucinda eyed her suspiciously. Juliette’s designed genetics made her naturally manipulative, and while Lucinda’s had given her genius level intelligence, as a child she had more than once been tricked by her sister into doing something she hadn’t intended to do.
“What kind of favor?” she asked.
“I got tapped for helping with the plans for the Harvest Festival and I need you to stand in for me.” Seeing the refusal in her sister’s face, she rushed on, “it’s not a big deal; I’m not in charge of anything. It’s mostly showing up at a few meetings to vote on what the committee decides and going to the reception for the Free Traders when their delegation arrives. Please?”
Lucinda scowled at her. “I might be on duty when they have their meetings. Police work isn’t like a regular job; there’s a lot of unscheduled overtime.”
Juliette smiled winningly at her. “It’s okay if you have to miss a couple of meetings because of work. I cleared that with Duchesse St. Vyre, the head of the committee. She won’t mind, as long as you let her know.”
“What about this reception? Is it formal?”
“Well, yes, but you have that lovely new dress you got for Jayla’s wedding. It’s a shame to let it sit in the closet.”
Trapped, Lucinda gave in. “Oh, alright, just let me know when these meetings take place. You owe me though.”
Her sister jumped up and gave her a big hug. “I already uploaded everything to your calendar. You are the absolute, bestsister. Anything you want, I promise.”
“I’m the best patsy, you mean,” Lucinda snorted.
The house alarm chimed, signaling her it was time to leave for her shift. She hugged Juliette again and stood up to put on her jacket. “C’mon, Agra, its time to go,” she told the Dactyl, who reluctantly left the warm nest and fluttered over to her shoulder, yawning.
Knowing Juliette would have left for Kitingzen when she came back from work, Lucinda stopped and looked at her. “You be careful out there, okay?”
“I promise,” her sister said. “Besides, thanks to Dad, I’ve got Bridge and Terrence Mann along as minders, remember?”
Lucinda laughed, hugged her again, and left. She opened the garage section attached to their apartment and rolled out her air sled. Agra obediently settled into a made-to-order Quirka Seat attached to the dash. With so many Vensoogers having Quirka another native animal popular as a pet, the Quirka Seats, which resembled an upside-down helmet with a glass faceplate, had become popular.
Agra, being about the same size as a Quirka another Vensoog mammal popular as pets, fit into the seat just fine, her wings taking up the same space as a Quirka’s tail would have. Mini Dactyls such as Agra and Saura came in all colors. Agra’s fur was a mixture of pale green, red and yellow, the skin on her feet and hands was a pale tan, shading to a darker shade outlining her eyes and on her nose. Dactyls were magpies and loved glittering jewelry which they usually wore in the form of a bracelet around their necks. Tonight, Agra’s neck adornment was a braided tan and brown leather collar to match Lucinda’s Security uniform.
Settlers had adopted the Dactyls and Quirkas because both animals were small, affectionate and avid hunters of household vermin, which crept into human dwellings despite the best efforts of modern technology. The Quirka’s and Dactyls had returned the favor because humans provided a mutually satisfactory love bond.
Lucinda threw a leg over the seat, strapped on her own helmet and fired up the sled. There was still some traffic out because Port Recovery, the capital of Vensoog, never really slept, but this section of the city was quiet as most residents who lived in the girl’s neighborhood were abed.
The apartment was located over a shop near their cousin Jayla’s in a high-end merchant section of town. The two-story domed buildings, a necessity because of Vensoog’s seasonal hurricane winds, were mostly dark because of the late hour but as she neared the center of town more lights showed in the windows. As she moved toward the center of the island where the city government offices were located she could see the tips of shuttle noses at the spaceport peeking over the tops of the large government buildings.
When the clans first landed on Vensoog, the huge domes had been used as shelters. As the Clans moved to their permanent territories, the domes had been converted to government and commercial uses.
Lucinda parked her sled in the employee parking lot, showing her brand-new ID to the gate guard, who nodded, grinning at her, and she and Agra went inside for roll call.
There was a mixed assortment of officers waiting in the roll call room: young, old, male and female. Lucinda took a seat by her trainer, Sgt. Mira Forest. She knew she had been lucky to draw Mira, a twenty-year veteran of the streets with a reputation as the best trainer in Port Recovery. One look at Mira and people immediately knew she was a cop from her short pepper and salt hair, tough, blocky build and most of all, the look in her eyes. Mira had been offered promotions to detective grade numerous times and refused. She preferred to stay on the streets and train young recruits. She was a dead shot with both a pulsar rifle and pistol.
Although she was the only one with a Dactyl, Lucinda was relived to see that about a third of her fellow officers had a Quirka perched on a shoulder. About the size of a human fist, Quirka’s faces resembled an Old Earth hedgehog. Their primary defense against predators in the wild, venom tipped quills, ran along their spine from their shoulders to their plumy tails. Quirkas had a squirrel-like body, hand-like paws and feet, a pointed nose and small upstanding ears. Like the small Dactyls, they were omnivores.
Lucinda had been a little worried Agra’s presence might cause issues. Officers who were accompanied by Quirka or Dactyls were required to take special courses in how the animals should behave while on duty. She and Agra has passed easily.
She glanced at her mini-porta-tab to ensure she had received the list of the latest BOLO updates. A rash of break-ins along the waterfront shops had been happening, some vandalism by persons unknown in a couple of commercial sled parks, there was a list of stolen air sleds, and a peeper had been reported in a couple of neighborhoods.
When she joined Mira in the locker room, she found the older woman frowning at her own porta-tab.
“Is something wrong?”
Mira tossed her a DNA key for a sled. “That is for your sled. If you’ve got one of those fancy Quirka seats for—Agra, is it? You can snap it into place. I’m afraid you’ll have to use your personal one. Command hasn’t gotten around to issuing them for the rank and file yet.”
Lucinda caught the key easily and pulled the Quirka seat out of her locker. Tucking it under her arm, she followed her trainer out to the car park.
“Why were you frowning just now?”
Mira shrugged. “Nothing really, I heard a few rumors there is some smuggling going on near on the docks.”
“Isn’t that our area?”
“Uh huh. This is your first night, so stick close. Don’t go chasing off when you see something without telling me first. I’ll do the same for you.”
Lucinda activated the key and pushed it into the waiting slot on the dash of her sled, which started when she gripped the handlebars. From now on, she would be the only one who could start it. She followed Mira out the gate of the secure lot and the pair of them rode side by side toward the docks and warehouses. There were few homes this area, just manufacturing, small shops serving the offices and the warehouses who needed access to the ships bringing in, meats, fish, harvested crops, and other raw materials from the outer islands.
Lucinda and Mira stopped their sleds at the edge of the district and dismounted.
“A map of our patrol area should have been downloaded to your sled controls. Set it to meet us at the warehouses in an hour,” Mira instructed.
Several storefronts selling paper, tools and a few all-night eateries serving simple, fast food and Cafka lined both sides of the street leading down to the docks.
“We do a foot patrol from here,” Mira told her. “Keep your eyes open for anything unusual.”
“That one looks as if there are workers inside,” Lucinda said, gesturing to a lighted warehouse with its own attached dock.
Mira consulted her tab. “That belongs to Medford textile. They are supposed to be getting in a shipment of dragon silk to ship off world. We’ll swing by there on our beat. We start here; we each take one side of the street. Check the windows and test the shop doors. If you find one open, tag me.”
Chapter 2 – Domestic Disturbance
T
he street was quiet. At first, Lucinda had been a little nervous, but her nerves soon smoothed out. At least until she found the door open on a shop specializing in small hand tools.
She tapped her shoulder com. “Mira, I’ve got an unlocked door here.”
“Okay, wait for me before you go in,” Mira instructed, calling it in as she crossed the street.
Once there, she shone her light on the lock. “Doesn’t seem to have been forced,” she said. “Okay, rookie, this is how it goes down. Draw your weapon. We enter and check each side of the store for someone who shouldn’t be there. I’m going in high, you go in low. Try not to shoot any shop owners who just forgot to lock up.”
They were moving cautiously through aisles of small tools when they heard the hullabaloo start up.
“You cheating bastard! I come down to bring you dinner because you’re working late, and I find you boinking this slut!” A woman’s voice shouted, and there was a splat of something messy hitting something.
Lucinda turned the corner in time to see a man with his trousers partially undone wiping the remains of a messy take-out box dripping sauce and noodles off his face. Just as she arrived, the woman who had thrown the take-out box jumped on the other woman sitting half-dressed on the low counter. The two went over backwards, pulling hair, kicking and biting.
‘Hey, no!” the man cried, and jumped in to separate them.
“PRS! Freeze!” Lucinda shouted. Seeing this had no effect, she holstered her gun and grabbed the nearest combatant, who happened to be the man, and pulled him out of the fight.
In the meantime, Mira had arrived and dived into the roiling mass of flying fists and kicks behind the counter. She separated the half-dressed women from the pile, dragging her around the counter where there was more room to handcuff her. Climbing over the countertop the wife leaped to attack again, landing on Mira to reach her prisoner. The three careened around the in the area between the sales counter and a tool display, slipping in the spilled sauce and noodles, as they knocked over displays.
Mira ended up on her butt underneath the fighting women. The wife had the advantage now because of the younger woman’s cuffed hands, and she used it mercilessly, landing several fist blows and kicks on the other woman’s face and breast. She also managed to raise a mouse over Mira’s eye.
Shoving the husband down in a seated position against a wall, Lucinda told him sternly, “Stay there,” and rushed to help her trainer.
She grabbed the wife by the back of her hair and heaved her off Mira and her captive. She forced the woman down on her belly and pulled her hands behind her to apply restraints.
Disobeying Lucinda’s order to stay where he was, the husband got up to help his girlfriend. Agra flew at his face, talons on her hind feet extended. He ducked Agra’s charge, but he needed to get by Lucinda to reach Mira and her captive. Her hands busy restraining his cursing wife, Lucinda used her boot to shove him away. He slipped in the spilled dinner and ended up on his rump, covered in sauce and noodles. “I told you to stay where I put you!” Lucinda yelled, and Agra flew in his face again, this time hissing a threat. “Go sit down!”
Eying the Dactyl warily, the man dropped back down.
“You okay?” Lucinda asked Mira, who had staggered to her feet, dragging her captive with her.
“Just dandy,” Mira said, swiping a smear of sauce off her chin and then wiping her hand on her captive’s still undone blouse. “Welcome to patrol work, rookie.” She looked down at the sauce and noodles spattered on her uniform and scowled. “I ought to charge the three of you for my cleaning bill.”
“What do we do with them?” Lucinda asked.
Mira studied the three combatants. “Depends if they want to prefer charges or not.”
“I do!” the half-naked one said. “She assaulted me!”
Mira sighed. “Okay, that’s one. Anybody else?”
“Yes! I want to exercise Code Duello!” the wife snapped. “She’s attempting to break up my home.”
“Code Duellois a civil matter,” Mira told her firmly. “You’ll have to file that with your Clan Liaison.” She looked over at Lucinda. “Call it in, rookie.”
Lucinda swallowed, and tapped her com, trying frantically to remember the codes for a domestic disturbance and assault.
The rest of the night was uneventful; sort of. They arrested three half-lit tourists serenading what one of them mistakenly thought was the home of a pretty girl he had met in a bar. They couldn’t carry a tune between them and the din roused the neighbors as well as the homeowner and his wife. The justifiably annoyed homeowners had called in the disturbance and the irate husband had dumped a bucket of water on them. The neighbors had come out to watch.
“Call the wagon,” Mira told her as they rode up, “and then shut them up.” She indicated the trio of drunken singers. “I’ve got the homeowners.”
“He didn’t need to call you guys; we didn’t know she was married,” the first singer protested, when Lucinda identified herself to them.
“I don’t think that’s her,” one of his friends whispered loudly.
“Yeah,” the third drunk opined. “Where did she change her clothes? That looks like a uniform.”
“You’re lucky you didn’t get shot,” Lucinda told them in disgust while Mira calmed the irate husband. “This neighborhood has reported a peeper these last few nights. Sit on the curb and we’ll arrange a ride for you.”
“Just go back to bed, sir,” Mira told the husband. “We’ll handle it from here.”
“I hope they lock you up and throw away the key,” he yelled, before he slammed his window shut.
Apparently losing interest in the couple, the singer complained, “I’m hungry, “How come you smell like Chinese noodles?”
“We broke up a fight. One of the weapons was a box of take-out,” Mira said dryly.
“Hey, I’m hungry too. Can we stop on the way and pick some up?” asked one of his buddies.
“No,” Mira replied.
“Hey, where are we going anyway?” the third one asked. “What kind of party are you girls taking us to?”
“Oh, you’ll like it,” Mira said. “There’s lots of people in your condition there.”
“You guys are keeping us busy tonight,” Kneckie the Patrol sled driver, told Lucinda as they pulled up in front of the nurse’s dome.
When he opened the door to the sled, the aroma of noodles and sauce wafted out, along with the miasma of vomit and sour booze.
“Don’t you ever wash this thing out?” Mira demanded, as she helped Lucinda herd the three drunks inside.
“Why? We don’t have to smell it. It’s sealed off,” the driver retorted. “What have you got for us Sarge?”
“Drunk and disorderly, disturbing the peace. The homeowner and his wife will be in tomorrow morning to sign a complaint. In the meantime, throw ’em in the drunk tank.”
“Sure thing. There you go, upsy-daisy,” he told the last man, as he boosted him up into the sled. When the drunks sat down, the sled’s bench cuffs snapped into place. “See you back at headquarters, Sarge.”
Mira rolled her neck. “Sure thing Kneckie. C’mon rookie, we’ve got reports to write.”
Returning home, Lucinda parked her sled in the unused storage space on the ground floor. She glanced at the empty storefront, wondering who Jake Reynolds, their new landlord and cousin Jayla’s husband, intended to rent it to. Because the girls were upstairs, he was being very picky about the tenants.
Opening the upstairs door to the apartment, she was struck by a sense of loss, as she realized she was going to be spending her first ever night alone. At Grouters, and later in Lady Katherine and Lord Zack’s home one of her sisters had always been near.
Agra chirped comfortingly in her ear, and rubbed her cheek against Lucinda’s, emitting comfort and love.
Lucinda reached up and stroked the Dactyl, who purred at her. “Just us tonight sweetie. Let me get out of this smelly uniform and you and I’ll take a shower and get something to eat.”
Stripping off her uniform, which gave off a faint odor of soy sauce, she examined it for stains. Programing the clothes fresher for stain and odor removal as well as cleaning and pressing, she tossed in her uniform.
She had no fear of the stains not coming out; as a housewarming present, Jayla had sent Martha, her house-bot over to set up the house which included programming the clothes fresher. Looking at the menu in the Robo-Chef, Lucinda realized the ever-efficient Martha had not only stocked it, but loaded it up with her recipes, which were far superior than the standard ones it came with.
Afterwards, Lucinda did a quick clean-up of the kitchen. The apartment came with a weekly cleaning service, but she hated the smell of dirty dishes. She and Agra tumbled into bed and slept dreamlessly.
It was late afternoon when she woke to the sound of her com chiming. Looking at the display, she saw calls from both her sisters. Setting up for a multi-vid call, she slipped on a robe and wandered out to the kitchen to program a pot of Cafka for herself.
“How was your first day?” Violet asked. She and Jelli, her sand dragon, were on the cliffs above the Dragon nests on Talker’s Isle. Lucinda heard the ocean waves crashing on the rocks in the background.
“You look like we woke you up,” Juliette commented. She was sitting outside her pop-up dome on Kitingzen, with Saura sleeping on her lap.
“You did,” Lucinda laughed. “It was different. We broke up a fight over a man, got slopped with Chinese noodles and arrested three drunken tourists. How was your trip?”
“A bit crowded, and Jorge isn’t happy to have me here. I think Dad must have threatened him if something happened to me.”
Violet nodded. “He did that at Jayla’s wedding. He was in full protective papa mode that night. I saw him talking with Tom Draycott too, and I know he laid down th law to poor Silas Crawford. It was kind of sweet really.”
Juliette snorted. “He thinks Jorge is a risk taker. That’s why Bridge and Terrence are getting a vacation on Kitingzen.”
“IsJorge reckless?” Lucinda asked, frowning.
Juliette shrugged. “I don’t have a way to judge. We haven’t really gotten started yet. Tomorrow we head up the trail into the unexplored territory. We will be out of com touch a lot of the time, and we could encounter anything.”
“I thought you would be mapping the area outside the new village,” Violet remarked.
“Originally, we were going to do that, but apparently, Jorge saw something resembling buildings on the vids the first-in scout made. He thinks it’s an old city, and the council gave permission, so that is where we are heading.”
“Well, you be careful,” Lucinda said.
“I could set it up through the link for all of us to know if one of us is in trouble,” Violet offered.
“Judging by last night, mine could show trouble a lot though,” Lucinda protested. “I can’t have you two panicking whenever I have to chase someone or break up a fight, Violet.”
“It can be fixed so we can talk to each other through the link,” Violet promised.
“Okay, I guess,” Lucinda agreed. “If Juliette is going to be out of com reach we need it.”
“What are you going to be doing the rest of the day?” Violet asked Juliette.
Juliette made a face. “I’ve been told we will have a camp meeting after supper to arrange camp chores and go over the route and safety rules.”
“That doesn’t sound as if Jorge is taking unnecessary chances,” Violet remarked.
“I doubt if he is as careful as Mom on the trail though,” Juliette replied, and all three girls laughed. Lady Katherine had a justly earned reputation as an over-protective mother.
“We do have a real greenhorn with us this time,” Juliette admitted. “Our map-maker, Isaac Jordan has never even been camping. I had to help him with his pop-up dome, and those things practically set themselves up.”
Picking up something in Juliette’s voice, Lucinda asked her, “Is he cute?”
“How old is he?” Violet seconded.
Juliette’s fair skin flushed a little. “He is about our age. A year older than Luce and me.”
“You didn’t say if he’s cute or not,” Lucinda pressed.
“Oh, there’s the dinner gong,” Juliette said hastily. “I’ve got to go. Later guys.” She dropped out of the link.
“She didn’t answer you,” Violet said.
“I noticed that,” Lucinda agreed. “She likes him, I would bet.”
“Attracted,” Violet corrected. “Couldn’t you feel it through the link?”
“I felt something,” Lucinda admitted. “Did you manage to do that while we were talking? You are getting really good with this link stuff.”
Violet nodded. “Drusilla is a good teacher. I’ve learned so much since I’ve been studying with her.”
