DAUGHTERS OF ETHOS
Destination home BOOK TWO:
By L. M. Lacee
Copyright © 2019 L.M. Lacee.
All rights reserved. Published by PrivotelConcepts
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Ant resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
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Table of Contents:
Translations:
ONE:
TWO:
THREE:
FOUR:
FIVE:
SIX:
SEVEN:
EIGHT:
NINE:
TEN:
ELEVEN:
TWELVE:
THIRTEEN:
FOURTEEN:
FIFTEEN:
SIXTEEN:
SEVENTEEN:
EIGHTEEN:
NINETEEN:
TWENTY:
TWENTY-ONE:
TWENTY-TWO:
TWENTY-THREE:
TWENTY-FOUR:
TWENTY-FIVE:
TWENTY-SIX:
TWENTY-SEVEN:
TWENTY-EIGHT:
TWENTY-NINE:
THIRTY:
THIRTY-ONE:
THIRTY-TWO:
THIRTY-THREE:
THIRTY-FOUR:
THIRTY-FIVE:
THIRTY-SIX:
THIRTY-SEVEN:
THIRTY-EIGHT:
THIRTY-NINE:
FORTY:
FORTY-ONE:
FORTY-TWO:
FORTY-THREE:
FORTY-FOUR:
FORTY-FIVE:
FORTY-SIX:
FORTY-SEVEN:
Characters:
Books by L. M. Lacee
Translations:
Adee = Living malleable unknown substance
Amahka = Mate to Star Daughter
Ambassador = Ambassador
Anult woue = Attack Dog
Artar = Veterinarian
Assaen = Assassin
Basterads = Bastards
Bitchre = Bitch
Cabu = Cow
Cassuam = Engine
Castque = Out Cast
Chinsee = Goatee beard
Circlet = Made to work as a whore
Comparium = Engine
Data drive = Flash drive
Data Flick = Data Chip
Darma = Trader word for mother
Dayam = Damn
Dearle = Dear
Desoul = Demon
Devlish = Devil
Empirer = Palace
Falears = Faders
Feelons = Felons
Funta= Joke
Furin = Fuck
Furiner = Fucker
Genea = Geneticist
Gesovo = Vow
Gravatron = Force or traction
Greeting = Hello
Guardiod = Adopted
Guardio = Adopted parent or Guardian
Guardioan = Adopting/adoption
Hayda = Hell/Hades
Healers = Doctors/ surgeons
Hiesie = Conmen
Hikaran = Chess, four levels played in 3D
Hoay = Gay Male
Hutell= Motel/Hotel
Impoef = Pretender
Investigtor = Investigator
Kailee = Mystic Queen
Kail = Mystic King
Kilto = Mile
Lalorla = Lawyer (Lalora)
Laroro =Accountant (La-roe)
Layra = liar
Lituiumin = Type of alloy (lit-tui-umin)
Lunera = Month
Luslian = Precious metal
Masters = Mind Healers
Matar = Mother
Mecon = Senator
Min = Minute
Mins = Minutes
Mystics = All of the mystical people
Narto = Narcotics
Needar = Being/ Spirit
Nutoro = Idiot
Olesho = Asshole
Omperea = Mystic word for great mother
Parta = Trader word for Uncle
Plasium = Platinum
Poho = Ghost
Primer = Level of technology advancement, low, medium, high.
Priounty = Reward/Bounty
Prowler = Turquall
Raccinor = ‘Race- in- orr’ Motorbikes
Rie = Soul fire. Inner spirit. Well of power.
Rogu= Stew
Roments = Pig like animal with eight legs
Santinue = Drug used for Turquall
Savgell = Animal
Scallut = Female whore
Scallup = To whore oneself
Scaloup = Male whore
Schrouse = Special heavy water/gray water
Scup = Smug
Sene = Seer
Sevna = Mystic Priestess
Shipteen = Ships dining room
Snikes = Snake crossed with a lizard, Venomous
Somnea = Leather
Somneline = Mammoth animal used for leather
Soytou = Cow carcass
Shosole = Steroid Drug
Suula = Soul bond
Taje = Jerk
Tetamoant = Sampler of food
Thsieon = Thieves
Tivna = Priestess
Tocho = Matchmaker (Toeco)
Tournat = Sword duel
Tuarillians = Original Turquall
Tuap = Shit
Turquall = Large cat
Unta = Trader word for Aunt
Urnu = Guard, nanny
Upio = Deer like animal with six legs
Walkways = Escalators
Wetera = Material
Weken = Week
Whiskay = Whiskey
Woian = Gay female
Woue = Dog
Yenta = Year
Home is where my feet return me to. My heart is what calls me away.
— Heather Wilson.
ONE:
Heather moved through the purple mist as it rose from the ground, making it impossible to see where she walked or to see what she walked on. Her sobs echoed around her in the stillness of the planet, as fear grabbed her by the throat and made her breaths come in short pants. She stumbled on feeling the hopelessness burning in her chest and found herself sinking into another mud hole. With mind-numbing effort she started the process of pulling her feet free from the mud, while she cried out for the hundredth time.
‘HELP ME!’
Looking above the knee high mist, she could see the purple mountain range in the distance, and the lone figure engulfed in brilliant white star fire. Wherever Peyton looked, rays of starlight incinerated homes and people. Heather sobbed as she screamed and pleaded with her to stop.
‘PLEASE PEYTON DON’T DO THIS REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE!’ Her heart broke as her desperate eyes searched the area around the flaming figure and saw another home go up in flames and heard more
screams of the dying.
Finally freeing her feet, she stumbled on a few more yards, then dropped to her knees in despair. Peyton could not hear her, or worse she did, and just ignored her pleading to cease her destruction of their new world. Peyton’s anger had grown and knew no bounds. She believed they had brought the virus with them from Earth, and the only way to save everyone was to burn it from the world. Heather had told her it was not so, the virus was not on Maikonia, as her sister and healer she would know, but her words had fallen on deaf ears.
Now here she was, Heather Wilson, Maikonia’s healer on her hands and knees, in this place watching the Star Daughter, her friend and sister burn their world. Begging for her to stop killing the same people she had promised to save.
The fires raged on and the mist rose higher as Heather struggled up again, rubbing her chest as she tried to ease the hurt from her heart. Her clothes were torn and covered in mud as was her face and hair, her body was bloody and bruised, she shivered not from cold, but from fear and desperation.
She stumbled on, trying to get her bearings. Nothing looked familiar, what part of her home land she was on thinking about that she stopped moving. Trying to remember why she was out here in the wilderness, and not in the medical unit where she should be.
She shook her head. Where was Patty and Dinas? Shouldn’t she be with them, unless… no, her mind shied away from that thought, and she started walking again? Placing one foot in front of the other, she was so tired, her brain would not clear enough for coherent thought. She only knew she had to keep moving forward, always forward to something or someone.
Tears obscured her vision, no matter how many times she wiped her eyes more came, she had only been walking again for a few minutes when she stumbled over an object and fell to the ground, catching herself on her hands and knees. Her head bowed touching the dirt she heard someone screaming in agony and realized that horrendous noise was coming from her. Suddenly she found herself beating her hands against the ground in frustration and despair.
‘WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?’
Exhausted; she sat back on her heels panting hard but again she could not stop moving. This time she just crawled through the mist as her hands searched the ground, finally touching something soft and wet. Her heart stopped as fear notched up another level. She caught her breath and pleaded softly. ‘Please... Star Child. I beg of you... Star Child... please... nooo!’
She scrambled hurriedly over the rocky ground, unmindful of her hands and knees that started to bleed as the rocks ripped her skin. By now her words had become one long mumbling chant until the words suddenly stopped. Her hands had found what she believed to be a body, slowly, so slowly it was almost like she was not moving her hands at all they traveled until she felt the features of a face. Hurriedly she fanned the mist away and as she did bright red blood ran down her arms to drip off each elbow. Screaming, she waved her hands faster, thinning the mist away to reveal the sightless eyes of Darby.
With a cry of anguish, she threw herself away for her dead sweet sister and moaned. ‘No… no, not Darby! Please, not Darby... I can’t bear it anymore... I can’t!’
She raised her face to the sky and screamed and screamed until no more sounds came from her swollen throat.
Turning on hands and knees, she cried hysterically as she crawled away from the sight of Darby lying with her blood soaking into the lavender grass. Automatically her hands started searching the ground again, and as she did, she could not shake the thought that Darby’s eyes followed her, judging her. ‘What... What decision, I don’t understand.’ She moaned as she looked back, only to see Darby was already covered in the purple mist. Turning back around, she cried. ‘I don’t know what you are accusing me of?’
She moved some distance away, then stopped as she tipped her head to the side, straining to hear beyond the screams of fallen Warriors and females. There was something else, some kind of sound just out of reach of her hearing. Looking up toward the mountain range, she could see Peyton still surrounded by flames. They licked toward the purple sky, and her voice rang out, demanding the death of all she could see.
Heather collapsed, letting the despair she was feeling overtake her. She brought her knees up to her chest and covered her ears, rocking back and forth as she desperately tried to deny what she was seeing and moaned over and over. ‘Why Star Child, why will you not help us?’
Then suddenly, as if she had been heard, the mist parted and a tall golden male walked toward her. He was a calm oasis in this scene of madness and as she watched him come to her. She heard the sound become louder. It filled her mind and thrummed with each beat of her heart. Mine… Mine… Mine!
Then long golden fingers attached to a strong hand reached out of the mist and held steady. It seemed as if the male was waiting… waiting for her to decide to believe in what he offered, to trust him. His voice was as smooth as silk when he spoke.
‘Take my hand my treasure. I will lead you from the mist. No longer will you be lost. Come my treasure… come home to me!’
She could not see his face, it was surrounded in shadows, but his voice… his voice lifted the fear from her heart and the heaviness from her needar and pushed her gut wrenching loneliness away. She reached toward his golden hand and begged. ‘Help me… please help me...’
TWO:
Heather jerked awake with a scream lodged in her throat, her heart pounding with a mixture of fear and relief. ‘Thank the stars, just another dream.’ She groaned as she fell back against the mattress and grimaced at the damp sheets, which were tangled around her sweat soaked body. It was like she had fought a battle while she had slept and lost. Tears gathered and fell as she hugged herself tightly, rolling into a ball of misery and cried.
Every night since they had arrived on Maikonia Prime, she had suffered a variation of this dream. The same deaths of her family and friends by Peyton’s hand and finding Darby’s body with the judgmental look in her eyes and the same male reaching out to her from the mists. She sniffed back tears, thinking that just once, she would love to see his face. Just one time to see if he was as handsome as she believed him to be. A giggle escaped her raw throat as she decided she must be delusional or half-way to crazy land as Peyton would say, thinking of a dream male as handsome and a savior.
Her days were filled with the knowledge she needed to sleep and her nights filled with the fear of that actually happening. In the last few wekens she had started moving through her days with exhaustion constantly nipping at her heels. She had no idea what to do or how to stop the dreams, she was just so tired of fearing sleep. She refused to drug herself which had crossed her mind more than once, but the thought of walking through her life half asleep was no choice really, too many people relied on her. Wearily she pressed herself into the mattress with longing for a dreamless sleep. After a few minutes of futile hope, she sighed in resignation, there would be no more rest for her tonight, moving the damp sheets away from her naked body she crinkled her nose at the scent of sweat and fear that clung to her bedclothes.
Rising quickly, she tore the sheets from the bed and threw them into the reclaimer and slowly walked into her cleansing room, knowing from experience the heat from the shower would loosen the muscles she had clenched as she had dreamed. Slowly washing the sweat from her body and hair, she enjoyed the warm water cascading over her. It was only three luneras since they had descended on Maikonia Prime and she had moved into her apartment. Like everyone else, she still indulged at every opportunity in the availability of a constant water supply. Hot water or just water for more than drinking was still a luxury after the sonic showers on board the Warship. She hung her head and let the heat from the water sink into the muscles of her body, chasing the tightness away, feeling them relax one by one. With a small smile, she thought she would trade the water for one complete night of sleep.
‘Are you going to hide in there all night?’ Asked Peyton who stood outside the cleansing room door, a smile on her face when she heard Heather
screeching.
With a hammering heart, Heather yelled. ‘What are you doing here?’ She breathed in and out quickly as she rested her head against the shower wall and murmuring. ‘Too soon… too soon!’
Peyton’s voice sounded right next to her, even though Heather could hear her moving around in her kitchen. ‘Waiting for you.’
Annoyed more than she thought was possible, Heather slammed the water button off then slammed the dryer one on. Warm air blew from the ceiling, walls and floor, almost fully drying her. With a snarl she slammed that button off, then heard Peyton say.
‘It is time yah big baby, you have been hiding from us all. Me especially, ever since we arrived on Prime. Do not think I don’t know. So get your big ass out of there and stop using up all the water, greedy female.’
Peyton laughed again as she heard Heather hitting buttons. Everyone knew Heather had been working tirelessly to set up the medical clinics on all the worlds and to bring the ships medical units up to date. When she was not doing that, she was training healers and nurses and administrators in her exacting methods.
Then at the end of each day or sometimes very early the next morn, she would drag her exhausted body to bed only to dream.
THREE:
Brenda had gently demanded tonight at eve-meal that Peyton do something about poor sweet Heather.
Esther and Helen had agreed with her without words, they had just given her the look, the one that always made her feel like squirming in her seat.
Unfortunately, Brenda had not been the first person to have come to her and voiced their concern that there was something wrong with Heather. The night before Netta had snarled at Peyton to fix this mess. Apparently that day at training, Warriors had cornered her and demanded she finds out what was wrong with their healer. And then there was Melody who had sent her a message only that morning, not so gently telling her that people were talking to her about Heather, and did she want her to fix the problem?
Peyton did not, in fact no one did everyone knew Melody had little or no diplomacy where her family was concerned. So with all their not-so-subtle threats ringing in her ears. Peyton enlisted Patty’s help and together they had waited until Heather had once again woken from her nightly dream to ambush her. Some might say gently question her, which had been Brenda’s advice. Peyton was not sure what that entailed, so went with her first inclination, confronting Heather head on and giving her no time to shore up her defenses.