Chapter 1
Rose Cooper turned around to watch the rocket shuttle soar away and disappear into the atmosphere. That’s when she noticed the dragon. It waited until the shuttle flew away before it flew out from behind a nearby mountain, circled the landing site and perched on the mountain peak. It exhaled a trail of smoke from its nostrils and ruffled its spiky wings, while eying the newcomers with beady silvery eyes. “I didn’t know there were dragons on this planet.”
Rose’s sister Reyna didn’t look at the dragon. She kept her gaze fixed on the mountain in front of them. “Here they come.”
Rose hurriedly turned around, forgetting all about the dragon. Sure enough, a line of four men stood across the entrance of Harkniss Keep, a massive citadel built directly into the mountain. Besides the towering entrance and a few windows opening out, the mountain looked exactly like all the others in this range along Planet Kratak’s northern continent. Rugged, jagged peaks ran in all directions. Their precipitous cliffs and forbidding summits raked the crystal violet sky. Trackless black forests filled the valleys below so Rose could see the twisting rivers.
The wind howled through the valleys, and Rose pulled down her parka sleeves. It caught her brown hair, tossing it around her head, but not even a puff from the dragon could distract her from the men walking down the hill.
Her teammates stood in a line on either side of Rose to meet the oncoming men. Reyna gave her courage on her right side. Moira Flannery stood to her left. Tanner Montserrat and Whitney Anglesey stood farther off to the left, with Rose’s seventeen-year-old son Ben on the far end.
The men presented the most curious spectacle Rose had ever seen. Her training prepared her to encounter men like this, but she had never met any in her daily life as a doctor in the Allied Command.
The men all stood at least a foot taller than anyone on her team. Some stood much taller, and they all wore long hair tumbling over their powerful shoulders. Their shoulders stuck clear and strong out of their sleeveless shirts. They wore knee-length breeches and no shoes or socks, despite the bracing wind. Each man wore a wide leather buckler hanging diagonally across his chest with a large metal medallion fixed in the center. A stout sword hung from the buckler, and all four men kept their hands on their swords as they approached the strangers.
Two women, one old and one young, stood in the doorway behind the men and did not approach. They unsettled Rose more than anything. Among the Allies, women took charge. They never hung back and waited while men took the lead.
As the men came nearer, Rose got her first good look at the Krataks. Their skin gave the only clue they weren’t human. At first, she mistook the silvery-copper metallic tinge of their skin for a trick of the light. Then she noticed shifting organic patterns swirling just below the surface. Intricate tendrils, leaves, and fronds rose to view and disappeared as quickly as they appeared. She would have taken the patterns for tattoos, except they constantly changed beneath each person’s skin. They gave the skin a colored tinge, and the patterns gave each man a slightly different colored hue.
The white hair of old age set one man off from the rest of the group, though he strode down the hill with all the power and massive size as the others. The strangers stopped in front of Rose’s team, but instead of greeting her, the old man held out his hand to Whitney Anglesey instead. He spoke in a deep, rumbling voice that shook the very ground under their feet. “On behalf of Clan Harkniss, you are welcome to Kratak and our humble Keep. I am Rowan Harkniss, the patriarch of our Clan.”
Whitney shifted from one foot to the other and glanced at Rose. She stepped forward and extended her hand. “Thank you very much, Mr. Harkniss. I’m Rose Cooper, and I’m in command of this team.”
He looked her up and down. Then he accepted her hand. “Of course. My mistake. You are most welcome.”
“This is my sister Reyna Cooper, our genealogist. She’ll be studying your family history and your relations with the other Kratak Clans. This is Moira Flannery. She’s the Allies representative. She’ll conduct any negotiations on behalf of the Allies should you have any concerns from that quarter. This is Whitney Anglesey, our biologist. He’ll study your environment, and this is Tanner Montserrat. He’s our anthropologist. He’ll study your culture, your architecture, and your language.”
Rowan peered into her eyes. “And what will you do, besides command?”
“I’m the team's doctor. I'll study your general health. We're a scientific mission, but someone has to be in charge, so I got the job. We simply want to learn more about your planet and your culture. You're so different from us and yet so similar in many ways. Your planet is so far out of the way of our usual trade routes, we never even knew you were here until recently.”
“Are you sure that's all you want to do?” The patterns under his skin changed shape and color with his changing mood. They appeared to reflect his thoughts and emotions.
She studied him with a quizzical frown. “Of course. What else could we want to do?”
He turned to Ben. “And who is this young man?”
“This is my son, Ben Cooper.”
“Your son?” Rowan’s eyebrows went up. “You brought your son along?”
“It’s not unusual for our older children to accompany us on scientific research missions. The doctor of our other team, the team visiting Clan Assan, brought his wife and three young daughters. They landed at the same time we did, so I’m sure they’re all getting acquainted with Clan Assan as we speak.”
Rowan considered that. Then he turned to the men with him. “This is my middle son Rohn, and this is my youngest son, Damen. This is my son-in-law, Callan Assan. He comes from Clan Assan.”
She nodded to the other men, but something in their expressions told her to keep her hands to herself.
“And does their team comprise the same number as yours?”
“The same number, with all the same specialties. All our scientific study teams have the same professionals in them.”
His eyes pierced her to the core. “If your teams intend nothing more than scientific study, why did you bring a representative from your Allies? Isn’t that proof the Allies harbor hostile intentions toward our people and our planet?”
“All the teams must have at least one representative. That’s just one of the many rules the Allies have concerning non-member populations. You need one person you can talk to and ask questions about the Allies, so they send a representative. It doesn’t mean the Allies are hostile. If they were, they wouldn’t send a scientific team to study you.”
“I’m not convinced of that. You might as well know the truth up front. If I wanted to ask questions about the Allies, I could ask you or any one of your friends here. You belong to the Allies. I guess you know what it's like. I don’t need a special representative for that. If you ask me, it proves the Allies want to evaluate our planet for possible conquest.”
Rose gasped. “Conquest! The Allies don’t conquer people or planets. We’re an egalitarian democracy. All our member planets join of their own free will, and they can leave whenever they wish. Every planet and every people on those planets determines their own form of government and their involvement with the rest of the Allied populations.”
Rowan never took his eyes off Rose’s face. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t take your word for that. We don’t know much about your Allies, and we will observe your team very closely to draw our own conclusions about them.”
“I can’t blame you for that. I would do the same thing in your position, but I must ask you to put aside for the moment the simple fact that we are a female-dominated people. I understand you are a male-dominated people. That alone could start us off on the wrong foot, but it does not mean the Allies bear any hostile intentions toward you.”
His lined face broke into a smile. “Believe me, Commander, I wouldn’t dream of holding that against you. I am very glad you came to visit us. We look forward to learning as much about you as you will learn about us.”
Rose relaxed. “Please, call me Rose.”
“Come inside, Rose. I can see you’re cold out here. Come inside and get warm.”
The Krataks led the way, still walking shoulder to shoulder in a straight line, with the team following, also in a line. “If this is your middle son and this is your youngest son, where’s your oldest son?”
Rowan didn’t turn around. “He’s not here at present.” He stopped in front of the two women. “This is my wife, Fay, matriarch of Clan Harkniss, and this is my daughter Haya Assan, Callan’s wife.”
Rose shook hands with both of them. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Fay bowed to her, but Haya hung back. The four men walked under the entrance arch into the Keep, and Haya took her place behind Callan. Rowan guided the whole party down a huge passageway chiseled out of black rock. It plunged into the mountain’s very heart. Shafts cut into the ceiling let sunlight in so they could see where they were going. The team looked all around them on every side.
Tapestries and pictures painted on stretched animal hides hung on the walls. The elaborate designs consisted of swirling wave motifs and intricate labyrinthine interlocking geometric shapes. The designs exactly mirrored the changing patterns under the Krataks’ skin. Tribal symbols of animals and birds fitted into the patterns.
The medallions the men wore on their bucklers carried the same intricate designs, but no man’s medallion exactly resembled another’s. Each one bore an image unique to that man.
The passage dropped farther and farther underground and left the world of light and air far above. At the very bottom, it widened into a hall so huge Rose couldn’t see the side walls. Shafts too numerous to count let light in from the ceiling, and heat radiated up through the floor. The black walls should have made it cold as a prison, but the enormous chamber proved surprisingly temperate. Rose loosened the zipper of her parka. She would have taken it off had she had known where to put it.
Rowan faced the team. “We meet here for meals, but for now, Haya will show you to your quarters. Rohn will take the men the other way. I hope you don’t mind if we keep you separate, at least until we learn to trust your intentions.”
“Not at all. Each of us has trained to work independently of the others, and we will prove to you, through our actions, that the Allies mean you no harm.”
Haya came to Rose’s side. “If you’ll follow me this way...”
Rose gave Ben a nod, and he went with Tanner and Whitney. They followed Rohn away into the dark. Rose, Reyna, and Moira followed Haya.
Moira whispered to Rose. “Do you really think it’s a good idea to let them separate us? They could be dangerous.”
“It’s the only way we can get them to trust us. If they were dangerous, we shouldn’t even be here.”
“Aren’t you worried about Ben? What if they try to subject him to some barbaric ritual?”
“If they have any such ritual, they’ll try it on Whitney and Tanner first. Now stop whispering. That will make them more suspicious than they already are.”
Rose hurried to catch up with Haya. “Excuse me, Haya. We left all our equipment outside. We'll have to go get it after you show us our quarters.”
Haya rounded on her. “What equipment are you talking about?”
“It's nothing technological. We know Kratak has no technology, and your father and the other patriarchs communicated very clearly with the Allies our team would only be welcome here if we left all technology behind. We would never trespass on your hospitality by bringing it against your will. We only brought notebooks and spare clothes and a few very basic medical tools.”
Haya started walking again. “In that case, you can go get your things whenever you wish. They'll be perfectly safe outside.” She cast a much softer glance in Rose's direction. “How do you plan to communicate with the other team in Assan Keep without your technology?”
“We won't communicate with them. Both teams are completely cut off, not only from each other, but from the Allies until the Command sends a shuttle for us at the end of our year's study.”
Haya showed Rose her full face, and her smile sent shivers down Rose's spine. “I guess that means you're completely at our mercy.”
Rose stopped in her tracks. “That's right. I can't think of any better way to prove to you the Allies are your friends.”
“My father and the patriarchs made the decision to let your teams come here and study us, but not everyone agrees with their decision. We’ve been alone on this planet for eons. We don’t need the Allies. Our whole way of life has been disrupted since we first made contact with you people. Most people on Kratak would be very glad never to see your faces again.”
“I’m sorry they feel that way.”
“Don’t be sorry. I’m just telling you. As my father said, you might as well know right out front where you stand with us.”
“Thank you for telling me. I can only continue to reassure you and everyone else the Allies are a peaceful people. We never wanted to disrupt your way of life, unless you want to join our Alliance, in which case you’ll be seeing a lot more of us.”
“That’s what everyone is worried about. We don’t want to join your Alliance, and we hope this scientific study, as you call it, isn’t the first step toward that happening.”
“It won’t happen unless you want it to.”
“That’s what you keep saying.”
“It’s true. You can take my word for it.”
“I hope you’re right.” Haya opened a heavy wooden door in the passage wall. “Here’s your room.”
Rose stepped toward it and turned to Reyna and Moira. “I’ll meet you in the main hall later, and we’ll go get our equipment.”