Shanna

by Bill Nolan

  Shanna

  Book One of the To’Ach’an Cycle

  By Bill Nolan

  Copyright 2013, 2016 All Rights Reserved

  Quail Canyon Publishing

  Willcox, Arizona

  Cover Photography and Design by:

  Bill Nolan

  Dedicated to Sara, for her loyalty and support during the last 50+ years. I couldn’t have done any of it without you.

  Through chance, a young Earthman becomes bonded with an intelligent spaceship and then forced into exile from the To’Ach’an, a space-faring race who built the ship. Years later he is forced out of exile by a brutal attack on a young girl he is sworn to protect. In a universe ruled mostly by corrupt officials of an out of control Empire, he must somehow face his own inner demons, and lead his ship into battles which will ultimately determine the fate of thousands of planets. Along the way, Earth must face exposure to a widespread galactic civilization they didn’t even know existed, and traditions held sacred for thousands of years must be challenged.

  Table of Contents

  Convergences

  New Beginnings

  Homecoming

  Explanations

  Old Friends

  Bainto

  Wotara

  Princess

  Earth

  Changes and Surprises

  Cultural Conflicts

  School for a Healer

  Unhappy Homecoming

  Sisters and Other Conflicts

  Finality

  An excerpt from Book Two of the series: Serena

  My Author Page on Amazon

  My Patreon Page

  About the Author

  Convergences

  Tovey was having an interesting day at work. Not exactly fun, but interesting none the less. She always had a great time at work. The little clothing shop was small, but high-end – not one-of-a-kind designer stuff, but definitely upscale. The fabrics were imported from all over the galaxy, and the owner used first rate tailors to do the garment construction. The girls working at the store had all worked there at least a year, and they were all friends, socializing together pretty often outside of work.

  Although she still helped with the customers as much as ever, Tovey was officially assistant manager. About all it added to her duties was that she was responsible for the schedule. That’s what got her day off to an interesting start. Jaina had called in to tell Tovey that her uncle had died and she would not be to work for at least a week. Since there were only four girls total working there, that meant they had lost a quarter of the workforce until Jaina came back, and they were open from 9am to 8pm every day of the week.

  They had been joking around all day, and having a great time. Business was slow in the middle of the week, and so the three girls had started singing and acting out little scenes from their favorite shows. Tovey had a pretty fair voice, and her happy-all-the-time attitude was catching. Plus, she had the most amazing smile. It made people happy just to be near her when she smiled.

  She was laughing and singing a current song when both her friends got quiet. When she looked around, she saw why. Horru, the son of the planetary governor, had just walked into the shop with a couple of guards. Tovey recognized him from the photos she had seen on the news. She took a deep breath and went over to him, saying, “good afternoon, sir, how can we help you today.”

  Horru didn’t say anything. He just waved her away and wandered around the shop for a few minutes, and then left as suddenly as he had arrived. Once he left, everyone started breathing again. Horru had a reputation as a cruel and evil man, and the three girls felt like they had dodged a bullet.

  Tovey was off at six, and, like usual, her manager had to tell her it was time to go home. Tovey never paid attention to the clock. She always had such a great time working at the shop that she was in no hurry to leave. Finally she said her goodbyes and headed for home, which was only a 20 minute walk away.

  Bainto was a pleasant world, quite Earthlike in many ways, although it had three moons, all smaller than Earth’s moon. However, the Planetary Governor was known to be corrupt, and since the police were also corrupt, crime was a problem. The streets just weren’t very safe. As a result, since she had to walk, Tovey always tried to get home before dark. She was about half way home when the three men in palace guard uniforms stopped her and told her to come along with them. They said she was under arrest, and things would go hard with her if she resisted. She asked what she had done, but they just laughed at her and told her that the judge would explain it. Instead of the court, they took her to a big warehouse near the freight spaceport. Waiting inside was Horru, the Planetary Governor’s son.

  “I saw you in the shop today, sir. Why am I here?”

  “Yes,” he said, “and I saw you. You are a very, very pretty girl. I just wanted to see more of you, but the Governor’s son can’t be seen asking out a little shop clerk, can he? What if you said ‘no’? That would never do, so I asked my guards to bring you by for a date. You don’t mind, do you?”

  Tovey felt like she was going to be sick. Like everyone else, she had heard the rumors about Horru. “What are you going to do with me?”

  “We’re going to have fun,” Horru replied with a laugh that was almost a giggle, “and you’re going to do whatever we tell you to do. You’ll be eager to please me, I promise you that. Now, be a good girl and strip for us.”

  Tovey’s mother, Melia, knew the walk from the shop was about 20 minutes, but she didn’t start worrying for a while after that. Tovey often ran over her shift. By the time the smallest moon had set, though, she was getting really worried. Tovey was two hours late. Melia called the police, but they seemed uninterested, almost apathetic. They said girls ran away or were out late all the time. They told her to call back if she didn’t show up in a few hours. When Melia’s husband finally got home from work, she sent him right out again, looking for Tovey. It was like she had fallen off the face of the planet.

  Horru kept Tovey prisoner until very late that night, and he was as good as his word. It seemed like hearing her scream was their favorite thing. Besides raping her over and over, they beat her badly several times and tortured her with pain sticks. When they were done with her, the guards took her and dumped her in the street in front of her house. They shouted at the house to wake up and let their daughter in. Melia and her husband ran into the street and found her lying naked, unmoving and bloody on the pavement. Once they got her inside they could see what had been done to her. She seemed semi-conscious, but all she kept saying, over and over, was “Horru did it.”

  They nursed her constantly, but two weeks later she was really no better. Her body was healing, but she lay in her bed unmoving, almost like she was dead, and when she did speak, it was always the same: “Horru did it.” The police were no help at all, not even bothering to write a report. After that they started harassing Melia and her husband every chance they had. Between that and seeing her daughter lying shattered in the bed, it was more than Melia could stand. Finally, one night shortly after they went to bed, she quietly said to her husband, “I must go to the To’Ach’an about Tovey. They will help us.”

  Her husband switched on the light. She saw his face was white. “No, you mustn’t do that! Please, Melia, it’s death. Melia, listen to me, you know it’s death. They'll kill you, or worse, and if they don’t, the Governor’s men will, when they find out you spoke to the To’Ach’an. The To’Ach’an will kill us all. You can’t just walk in and ask them. They're butchers! Even the Empress fears them. Please, Melia, they won’t help us anyway. They only take care of their own people. Everybody knows that.”

  Melia stared blankly past him at the wall and said nothing for a time. When she finally spoke she didn’t look at him, and her voice was flat. “Many years ag
o, before I met you, I had a friend. We were – well, we were very close friends. We parted, still friends, and he told me that if I was ever in trouble, if I ever needed help, I could call on him, and he would come, no matter where he was, no matter how far, no matter what. He told me if he was alive, he would come. He gave me a comm code. He made me repeat it to him over and over and over again, and he told me I must never, ever, write it down. I still remember it. I still remember exactly the words he told me I must say.”

  “Melia?” He paused. “What was your friend’s name? Have I heard of him?”

  He could barely hear her whispered response, but it still hit him like a fist in the groin. “His name is Robert Allen.”

  When Melia entered the code, the call was picked up almost right away.

  “SKG Exporting.”

  “Mr. Andrew Jackson, please.”

  There was a brief pause, then a different voice. “Mr. Jackson is out, can anyone else help you?”

  “No, Mr. Jackson said I should be sure to ask for him. Will he be in by 4:15?”

  “Just a moment.”

  Time passed, and then another new voice spoke. “OK, I’m Jonu, and the Ringed Planet is a place near the spaceport. Be there in one hour, and wear a green scarf.”

  She had to stop to buy the scarf, but she was there 15 minutes early. When Jonu came in, he saw her sitting there with a blank look on her face, just staring. She saw him, and watched him come over. He was a small man, but he had a certain quality about him. Melia was suddenly very glad it was a public place — and equally sure that it would make no difference. He was wearing the jumpsuit that all To’Ach’an usually wore, and every person in the bar was watching him, while trying to look like they weren’t.

  Before he sat down, he paused a moment and looked her over. It felt like he saw right inside. Melia started to shiver. He sat down. “I’m Jonu. What can I do for you, Melia?” She wondered how he knew her name. He did look familiar.

  “I need to get a message to someone. I was told you could help. I was told to say ‘Jocca sent me’.”

  “OK, leave the message with me, and I’ll see what I can do. There may be some difficulty. We don’t know exactly where he is.”

  “Then he’s not dead? I’d heard he’d been killed, but I never really believed it. I always thought he would be pretty hard to kill.”

  “Dead? No, he’s not dead, but it’s a complicated situation. I know of someone who may be able to contact him, if she will. We’ll have to see. In the meantime, is there anything I can do to help you?” They talked for another few minutes, and then Jonu escorted her home. The next day Jonu sent a healer by to look in on Tovey. She had some medicine that helped with the physical recovery, but Tovey still just lay there in the bed. He also dropped by the police and had a little chat. After that, the harassment stopped.

  * * * * * * *

  Maria Sanchez could sense another fight coming on. Seventeen years of living with two alcoholic parents had taught her the signs, and so she was getting ready to go out. Usually, if she could stay away from the house until 10 or 11, her parents would be asleep when she got home. A week ago, she had waited too long to leave the house, and there had been a real explosion. Her dad had beaten her with his belt until she couldn't sit down. Tonight she was leaving before he got too drunk, and tonight she wasn't coming back.

  Maria was a bright kid, and a good student. She kept telling herself that she had really tried. It was only a few months until graduation, and her counselor thought she would qualify for a scholarship. All she had wanted was to hang on until graduation, and then go on to college. She had sent applications to several schools, and all had one thing in common. They weren't near home.

  Ever since she could remember, she had wanted to be a doctor. Maria studied hard, and she had the straight A's she knew it would take. But she also knew she had to survive to get into college, and during the last beating, she really thought her dad might kill her. Her plan was to take the bus to Tucson and stay with her best friend's aunt until she graduated. In June, she would be 18 and a high school graduate, and then she would never have to go home again.

  Esther was waiting around the corner, like she had promised. They stopped at a hamburger place for a while, because the bus didn't leave until after 11. Maria kept looking around. She knew she was going to miss Bakersfield, and she had a lot of friends here, but she had to get away. She and Esther held each other and cried at the bus station, and then she got on the bus. She kept whispering to herself, "Today is the first day in the rest of my life."

  The bus got into Phoenix the next morning, and there was a two-hour wait until the bus for Tucson. She could see a restaurant up the street, and decided to go get breakfast. A couple of joggers passed her, and several people were on the other side of the street. Ahead of her, she saw one of the joggers stop and bend over. As she got closer, she saw he was grabbing at his chest. His friend was trying to help him stand.

  Maria had taken a CPR class, and was frantically trying to remember what she had been taught. She ran up to the two men and asked if she could help. A third man came out of a store and also asked if he could help. The jogger said, "I think my friend is having a heart attack."

  The third man said, "This is my van. Let me open the door so he can sit down. Does he need to go to the hospital? It's just a few blocks." The man unlocked the side door of his van and slid it open. Maria was helping the sick man try to walk to the van. His friend was supporting him from the other side, and the man had one arm around each of their shoulders.

  As they reached the van, the owner jumped inside and reached out to help the sick man. Suddenly, the sick man pushed Maria into the van, and the man inside grabbed her by the hair. She opened her mouth to scream, but the man in the van punched her hard in the stomach. The other two climbed in after her, and one pulled the door shut. The third man wrenched her arms around behind her and held them, while the other two took a roll of duct tape and wrapped it around her ankles. They ran another band around her legs above her knees. She was starting to get her breath back, but one of the men stuffed a sponge into her mouth, and the other wrapped the tape around her head to hold it in place. Then they forced her down onto her belly, and taped her wrists together behind her. Finally, they put a piece of the tape over her eyes.

  She heard the van start, and then felt it drive away. One of the men said, "That was too easy, girl. But don't be scared, you're going to love being a whore. Isn't she, Jake."

  Another voice said, "Most definitely, and she's a pretty thing. Once we turn her out, she'll bring in some serious money."

  It took them three days to completely break her. She couldn't remember how many times she had been raped, and if she fought, they beat her with belts and tortured her with a cattle prod. On the third night, she turned her first trick. The man gave her $200. She cried the whole time, but he didn't seem to mind. Jake took the money and told her what a good girl she was.

  In a few days, she was turning four or five tricks a night. Jake told her that if she tried to run, they'd catch her and kill her. He told her if she went to the police, they would just arrest her as a prostitute, and when she got out on bail, he'd be waiting.

  * * * * * * *

  Kamci woke up early, before it was light. She had learned the skill of waking whenever she wanted a year before. It made her mornings easier if she got a bit of a head start. These last three weeks, she had been getting up early so she could take care of her new pet before starting her chores. When she found the bird three weeks ago, it had been injured somehow. She didn't know what had been wrong, but it couldn't fly and could barely walk. By sneaking food out of the kitchen and caring for it whenever she had a minute, she had nursed it back to health.

  She gently tapped her sister, Letha, and their best friend, Laurni. When they were awake, the three of them headed out to the garden to give the bird some fresh air. Kamci had deliberately not named the bird. She knew that when it was strong enough, it would probabl
y fly away to join its own friends, and she didn't want to get too attached. It was a losing effort.

  The bird had gotten very tame. It seemed to enjoy having its head scratched, and would ruffle its feathers and cheep at them when it wanted attention. Mostly it wanted food. Kamci was amazed that so small a creature could eat so much.

  The three girls worked in the kitchen of the mining base. Their days were filled with constant, hard work, and their supervisors seemed to take delight in tormenting them. They were beaten for every minor infraction of the rules, and it seemed to them that being yelled at was the normal way to be addressed. They couldn't quit, as they were under contract.

  Their parents had told them there was good paying work on the mining base, and so they had been sent on a company ship. On arrival, they had been asked to pay the fare, which cost 25 zarigs, the standard currency used throughout the Galaxy. When they told the purser that they couldn't pay, they were brought before the base manager for judgment. He told them if they didn't pay, they would be flogged. Kamci was only 13, and the other two girls were 12. They had no idea what to do, so when the manager told them that there was a way for the company to pay their fares for them, they were very grateful.

  "Of course," he said, "You'll have to pay the money back."

  The frightened girls readily agreed. The manager told his clerk to draw up three "standard contracts." These were unlimited service contracts. Although the girls didn't realize it, this type of contract was both legal and common in the Empire. Basically, it obligated them to do whatever work they were instructed to do for the term of the contract. Their wages would go to pay off their contract, after deductions for living expenses. The contract holder was legally allowed to punish them for infractions.

  In practice, the living expenses were slightly more than their wages, so the amount they owed on their contract was slowly going up, not down. At the end of the first year, when they were given the required annual statement, Kamci was shocked to find out that she now owed 29 zarigs, as did the others. Kamci realized then that they were bound to the mining company for life.