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Gossamer and Grass
Gossamer and Grass
Gossamer and Grass
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Gossamer and Grass

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Dragon Wulf: Book 2
The Vada’s Fifteenth Ryzck goes into action again, this time to help save a species enslaved by a greedy, profiteering association known as the Community. They meet new friends along the way, friends who will become allies as the Community sets out to destroy them all. Never in their history have the Lind, Larg, Diaglon and their human friends been in so much danger.

PLANET WOLF
(1) Wolves and War - (2) Conflict and Courage - (3) Homage and Honour - (4) Dragons and Destiny - (5) Valour and Victory - (6) Ambition and Alavidha - (7) Paws and Planets - (8) Tales and Tails

DRAGON WULF
(1) Journey and Jeopardy - (2) Gossamer and Grass - (3) Flames and Freedom

FLYING COLOURS
(1) Rascals and Renegades - (2) Outlaws and Overlords - (3) Sparkles and Sphinxes (forthcoming)

T’QUEL MAGIC
(1) Ephemeral Boundary - (2) Enduring Barrier - (3) Eternal Bulwark

MULTIVERSE MUDDLE (forthcoming)
(1) Vampyre Crypt - (2) Faie Castle - (3) Shadow Cave - (4) Demon Citadel

SAMMY THE CAT
(1) Cat in Charge - (2) Cat at Christmas - (3) Dog not in Charge

KILL BY CURE

LanguageEnglish
PublisherCandy Rae
Release dateDec 8, 2014
ISBN9781311487964
Gossamer and Grass
Author

Candy Rae

Candy Rae has been an avid reader since childhood, with fantasy and science fiction appearing on her bookshelf in her first year of university when a friend introduced her to talking dragons. All her life, she has wanted to write, but it wasn’t until Christmas Day in 2003 that she sat down and started planning the book that, after many revisions, became the first book in the Planet Wolf series: Wolves and War.As a former accountant, Candy was notorious among her family for elongating her commute home by parking in a safe space and starting to write, having got into the habit of carrying a notebook with her wherever she went, a habit she continues to this day. When she’s not writing, her hobbies include knitting, tapestry, and trying to figure out ‘whodunnit’ in murder mysteries.Candy lives in Ayrshire, Scotland, with her large black cat, Sammy, and her Labrador-Corgi cross, Alex. She writes her books in British English with a Scottish flavour.

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    Gossamer and Grass - Candy Rae

    DRAGON WULF (2)

    GOSSAMER AND GRASS

    Candy Rae

    * * * * *

    SMASHWORDS EDITION

    * * * * *

    Dragon Wulf (2) - Gossamer and Grass

    Copyright © 2014 Candy Rae

    All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead; is purely coincidental.

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the author.

    Smashwords Edition, License Notes

    This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

    * * * * *

    BOOKS BY CANDY RAE

    Dragon Wulf

    (1) Journey and Jeopardy - (2) Gossamer and Grass - (3) Flames and Freedom (Publication Date - Spring 2015)

    The Planet Wolf Series

    (1) Wolves and War - (2) Conflict and Courage - (3) Homage and Honour - (4) Dragons and Destiny - (5) Valour and Victory - (6) Paws and Planets - (7) Tales and Tales - (8) Ambition and Alavidha

    The T’Quel Magic - A Trilogy

    (1) Ephemeral Boundary - (2) Enduring Barrier - (3) Eternal Bulwark

    * * * * *

    Dragon Wulf (2) - Gossamer and Grass is dedicated to the memory of ‘The Lost Generation’ from all nations, those who died or were killed as a result of the Great War (1914-18).

    This is not a book about the First World War. However, because it is exactly one hundred years since the war began it seemed fitting that those who gave everything should be acknowledged in this small way.

    The Scots were (after the Serbs and Turks) the soldiers who suffered the highest death rate of the war [Niall Ferguson - The Pity of War (1998)]. My grandfather survived but not a single one of his boyhood friends came home. 26.4% of Scots who mobilised lost their lives compared with 11.8% for Britain and Ireland as a whole.

    * * * * *

    Cover Artwork by ebook-designs.co.uk

    * * * * *

    AUTHOR’S NOTES

    Dragon Wulf (2) - Gossamer and Grass’ is written using British English. There are spelling differences between British English and the English as written in other parts of our wonderful, diverse world.

    Apology - ‘Dragon Wulf (2) - Gossamer and Grass’ was originally due to be published in June 2014. Due to an unforeseen circumstance (moving home - an event that proved to be very stressful and took weeks longer than it should have), the book proved impossible to complete on time.

    * * * * *

    TABLE OF CONTENTS

    Exordium

    Chapter 1- Paula’s Journal

    Chapter 2 - Celebrations

    Chapter 3 - Plans and Preparations

    Chapter 4 - Friends Reunited

    Chapter 5 - Spies and Escape

    Chapter 6 - Mission to Orum

    Chapter 7 - Journey to Neamh

    Chapter 8 - Bloodshed on Orum

    Chapter 9 - Training for Battle

    Chapter 10 - Ambush in Space

    Chapter 11 - Harnessing for War

    Chapter 12 - Unexpected Journeys

    Postlude - Peril on Planet Rybak

    Characters

    Glossary

    Appendices

    * * * * *

    Exordium

    Dragon Wulf (2) - Gossamer and Grass’, begins four years after the survivors of the Fifteenth Ryzck (and others) returned to Tak after their adventures on Planet Tenha.

    This introduction gives the reader insight into the years of technological development that was needed in order that the dragon-like Diaglon, their allies, the insectoid Vlon, and their Human, Lind and Larg friends can defend themselves against the predatory, human conglomerate known as ‘the Community’.

    During these four years, or xanus, the Vada, the Lind and the Larg began to prepare for the war everyone was hoping could be avoided.

    * * * * *

    Planet Tak

    Marcel Rossier was the engineer technician in charge of the Alcub Project, a vast inter-species undertaking. The ultimate objective was to design, build and test the faster-than-light engine drive so that it could be manufactured and fitted into the space fleets of the Diaglon and their allies, the Vlon.

    The Community, the vast human run consortium that controlled a large section of the galaxy possessed Alcub drives. They were fitted into all the star ships of their war-fleet.

    Marcel’s greatest fear was that the work wouldn’t be completed in time. There had been setbacks and time was running out.

    Reports had come in that the ibon trails from scouting star ships belonging to the Community had been located, admittedly at the very limit of Vlon and Diaglon sensor range and beyond the frontier of the Vlon space sector where their vessels, augmented by Diaglon space ships constantly patrolled. It was a worrying development.

    Over the last two years Marcel had overseen setbacks, a disaster (when one of the test Alcub drives had blown up, killing seven artificers) and successes but at long last the prototype was ready for testing.

    The verusta, the armed defence space ship, the Dwenikko had arrived and was in orbit around Tak.

    The Dwenikko was an elderly space ship; in fact, she was one of the oldest in the Diaglon space fleet. She had been about to be decommissioned when need took a hand and she had been hastily flown to Tak where, it was planned, she would become the first space ship to be fitted with an Alcub drive and so become a star ship.

    Unlike the newer, more streamlined verustas, the Dwenikko, over two hundred and fifty xanus old was chunky in shape and her cannons protruded from her hull like the quills of a porcupine’s back. The cannons aboard the newer verustas had been fitted inside the hull so that only the ends could be seen.

    The Dwenikko however had been built to last, a veteran of many a voyage and had been well maintained over the xanus. After Marcel had examined her schematics, he had pronounced himself satisfied with her suitability although he had some misgivings about her weight. The prototype Alcub drive was not a large one.

    * * * * *

    "She is heavy, and as unwieldy heavy as an egg-heavy Brai in a close battle manoeuvring situation, Marcel informed the delegates who had arrived at the installation that had been built to develop the Alcub drive. She will never attain the speeds the Community star ships can attain, even if she had been fitted with the most modern Alcub drive in the galaxy. I know the Community were fitting drive refinements into their battle-fleet when we left."

    There were some murmurs of disquiet from ‘those in charge’, especially the Vlon Ambassador.

    But she will still travel at least ten times faster than she does now, Marcel assured them.

    Our more modern space ships are of similar weight and dimension, worried Gtrathlin Larku, the most senior Diaglon on Tak. What if …

    Marcel raised his hand.

    Let us not beg for trouble before it appears, he said. "It will work. It must work. I have every confidence that once we know the drive is viable we can build bigger drives into your space ships and they will go like dreams, very fast dreams. The fabrication machinery is ready and waiting in the workshops."

    The Alcub drive is ready for fitting, added Maximilian, Max for short and one of Marcel’s most trusted and capable subordinates. "The Dwenikko’s old power crystals have been stripped out and she awaits us in the repair facility in orbit above Tak."

    How long will it take to fit the drive? asked Gtrathlin Larku.

    Three tendays at the most, answered Jill Ross, another of the senior technicians present. "The Quorkos from the Aanvallenino, the Assalireino and the Atacarino as well as the Aikko, which will transport the drive components up to the facility are ready and waiting. The transfer should take one to two days and then we can begin the fitting."

    She rubbed her hands together in satisfaction, satisfaction that all the hard work and long bells had paid off and that they could move on with the next part of the project.

    As Jill stepped back she was reflecting on the last decade or so. It seemed like a lifetime since the day when she and the others had departed Rybak, the planet where her ancestors, cut off from the rest of humankind had called home for over eight centuries. They hadn’t had the technology to build space ships, never mind star ships. The know-how had been lost in the struggle to survive.

    She remembered when, as a young child her father, Paul, Duke of Hallam had taken her to see the wonder of a water wheel he had installed in one of the mining communities. She had been so excited, in fact rather scared of the great, thundering monster. She had wanted to run away but her father had taken her hand and comforted her.

    Another time, another day, she remembered the excitement in her father’s voice when he had read aloud an account of a discovery made in Argyll, a country situated on the northern continent. A learned university professor had invented a thing he called ‘spark-power’ (she now knew it was called electricity and the professor had merely re-discovered something that had been commonplace amongst their ancestors on Old Earth over thirteen centuries before).

    And now? Now she was a trained engineer who had helped to build a sophisticated interstellar star ship engine. It was almost beyond comprehension.

    Her life on Rybak would have been so different if she had stayed, as her sister Judith had done. Judith was probably a noble’s wife by now, running the domestic side of her husband’s estate.

    Jill Ross, once Contessa Jill Hallam, had never felt so alive.

    * * * * *

    Marcel, Jill, Max, Xcpltt the Vlon chief engineer and Alu, his Diaglon counterpart entered the Aikko’s Quorko (Marcel always called this type of vessel a ‘shuttle’) with an air of barely suppressed excitement. Xcpltt especially was finding that keeping a calm demeanour was an impossible task. He was bobbing around like an inebriated grasshopper, a description Marcel whispered in Max’s ear and was immediately embroiled in an explanation as to what a grasshopper was. Like Jill, Max had come from Rybak while Marcel originated from the Community sphere of domination.

    Max decided that Marcel’s simile was very apt once the attributes of the Old Earth grasshoppers had been explained. They were very like the grassjumperhops here on Tak, Marcel explained, an explanation that did not help all that much as to what a grasshopper looked like (because a grassjumperhop was the size of a new born baby and had four legs) but Max got the general idea.

    All the Vlon are very excitable, he whispered back. It’s a wonder they can remain still long enough to actually accomplish anything.

    Their technicians have been excellent, noted Marcel, especially when we’re manufacturing the miniscule pieces. Their …

    "Little digits at the end of all their legs?’ suggested Max.

    Marcel laughed and tried to hide it behind a raised hand. The Vlon took offence at imagined insults and were apt to be vocal in their displeasure.

    The Quorko lifted off in the usual, noisy manner of its kind and the passengers gritted their teeth. Stoically bearing the discomfort, they knew it would be a short flight only. Looking out of the porthole, Marcel had been lucky, or determined enough to have gained the only seat with a view, he gazed at the repair facility spinning slowly in high orbit as it came into sight. As peripatetic space facilities went, it was a large one, although perhaps not as large as the ones the Community used to service their battlewagon fleet. Of course, battlewagons were four times the size of the biggest verustas; the corvette sized warships of the Diaglon and required space docks of enormous proportions.

    The great Diaglon exploratory spaceships were bigger than even the battlewagons but in their case, major repairs were usually completed on the ground facility on the Diaglon home planet, Dagana. Marcel had not yet visited Dagana but he hoped to one day. At present it was too far away for such a journey to be feasible. The Alcub drives would change this.

    He heard someone calling his name and turned.

    I looked over the stress limit parameters last night as you suggested, Jill shouted at him over the noise of the engines.

    And? Marcel mouthed back at her.

    She nodded brightly.

    All within acceptable limits. I also swung round to the university before I came to the installation, she continued, her voice high and clear. Some might describe Jill Ross’s voice as penetrating but Marcel was glad of it now.

    He nodded that she should continue.

    I’d left some calculations to be checked. Thought we’d be better safe than sorry; not that I thought we’d made a mistake you understand.

    Marcel nodded again, wishing she would get on with it. The repair facility was only a few tvans away.

    Taking your figures regarding the speeds obtainable on Community star ships relative to the estimated mass of their warships, well, she was rapidly scanning the figures. "I asked them to check them against the mass of the verustas and racovens in the space fleets of both the Diaglon and the Vlon. You were almost exactly on the ball Marcel. They all should make eighty-nine point four nine five two prozent of the speed of one of the Community battlewagon and ninety-two point five eight seven three prozent of a frigate’s speed. Better than we hoped."

    Yes, thought Marcel, but will it be enough?

    * * * * *

    It took twenty-three days to fit the Alcub drive inside the Dwenikko’s vacant engine space but the work was completed at last and she was ready for her test flight. Her elderly skipper, Susa Brendu had overseen the refitting with eyes that missed nothing and was clearly excited that he and his old space ship would be the first to experience light speed, or close to light speed, space travel.

    It was as if his huge green brown eyes were alight from within as he waited for the technicians and artificers to inform him that the Alcub drive was on line. They had tested it earlier and some minute adjustments had had to be made to the configuration parameters.

    His knobby ears were twitching and his tail was as straight as a ramrod, a sure indication for those of long association with the Diaglon and especially the green skinned rtath known as the Dglai that his adrenalin was pumping.

    His talons and digits on his hands were itching to start pressing buttons and turning dials.

    At a series of almost simultaneous nods from Max, Jill and Alu, Marcel turned to Brendu and bowed.

    Captain, he corrected the appellation quickly. Susa, you may take your ship out.

    Brendu’s green face broke into a dragonish grin and he simply bellowed out the command to initiate start up procedures. Max, Jill. Marcel and the human technicians and artificers covered their ears. The Vlon, Xcpltt was so surprised that he took flight although he came to his embarrassed senses a heartbeat later and fluttered to the deck once more.

    Strap in everyone, ordered Marcel and grinned as he saw the alacrity with which everyone complied.

    Susa Brendu took up his stance in front of the bridge screen and steadied his body by extending his tail, planting his feet and settling his body into the ‘U’ shaped restraint fixed to the deck. He activated the inter-deck intercom.

    < Engineering. >

    < Susa? >

    < Go. >

    A humming noise permeated the bridge and the humming grew louder as the Alcub drive powered up. Brendu’s excitement was affecting everyone. Marcel felt his heartbeat race.

    Brendu kept up a running commentary so that everyone was aware of what was happening. This was not really necessary but Susa Brendu enjoyed listening to his own voice.

    Dun tvans, vad tvans, lok tvans, san tvans, rak tvans, olf tvans.

    Duntan prozent, duntanvad prozent, duntanlok prozent.

    Tak tvans.

    Duntansan prozent, duntanrak prozent.

    Zan tvans.

    Duntanolf prozent.

    Marcel held his breath.

    Echt tvans.

    Duntantak prozent, duntanzan prozent.

    Marcel let out an explosive breath as he continued to mentally translate the Diaglon numbers into Standard as Brendu continued to count them through the power up.

    Duntanecht prozent, duni prozent.

    Duntan tvans.

    Power indicator at loki, at olfi.

    A hundred to go, thought Marcel as he closed his eyes.

    Zani! Brendu’s voice was triumphant.

    They couldn’t hear the thrumming now but were aware of the whining as the Alcub drive reached full power.

    Disconnect umbilical lines to the facility, ordered Brendu.

    He looked at Marcel, who nodded.

    Speed slow, continued Brendu. Forward on heading olfi-tak-echt.

    The Dwenikko began to move.

    Once we have left orbit, in, Brendu consulted his display on which numbers and letters were blinking and changing with a rapidity that was mesmerising, olf tvans exactly, increase the power to the engines and make all haste for Dagana! Wait for my word. Wait. Wait. Go!

    The Alcub drive burst into life and the Dwenikko flew away from Tak so fast that those tracking her were only aware of the fact that one tvan she was there and the next she was not. Only her ibon trail remained to testify she had been in orbit around Tak at all.

    * * * * *

    They were orbiting Dagana and loud were the cheers emanating from the throats of everyone aboard the Dwenikko.

    The journey had only taken ninety-three tvans instead of the usual one hundred and sixty two days.

    Jill and Max were analysing the flight data.

    They raised their heads at last and looked at each other in triumph.

    Ninety-three point five seven one eight prozent, shouted Jill in a voice loud enough to wake the dead. Much better than expected. It certainly works! Needs some fine-tuning and some more shielding. There’s a small seepage of energy been detected in the main cargo hold but it is not at a dangerous level.

    Marcel was sitting with his head in his hands, sobbing with relief and reaction. The Alcub drive he had designed and built was working!

    Now we can start building more drives, said Max.

    Bigger and better ones, agreed Jill.

    Now we have evened the odds, declared Alu.

    The next two years will be crucial as we begin the production-line and actually make more drives. Remember, they take time to build, warned Marcel, raising his head. "But yes, then we will have the means to withstand the Community."

    * * * * *

    Back on Planet Tak, the technicians received word of the Dwenikko’s success with noisy jubilation.

    Inside the communications hub, with the Brai and other Diaglon specialists and the representatives from the Vlon and the Jus were two men.

    I think we can take it that the experiment has been a resounding success, said Robain Hallam, senior human representative on the inter-species government in an aside to his companion, his brother-in-law Daniel Ross.

    Daniel’s face spelt satisfaction yet he was still looking worried.

    We still haven’t been able to contact the Dragon Wulf rebels, he warned. Without their help and the intelligence they can provide about the Community we are still at a disadvantage. We need to know something about their plans Robain, specifically their immediate plans. It will take years to build the Alcub drives and fit them into all the Diaglon spaceships. It is the interim, the next four years, that’s how long Marcel told us it would take, didn’t he, that worry me the most. We are vulnerable.

    Absolutely nothing yet, not even a glimmer of a reply from the Dragon Wulf Cadre?

    Not a squeak.

    * * * * *

    Chapter 1

    Paula’s Journal

    Planet Tak

    Vadrhed - (Year 1) - (AL 819/AD 3153)

    Planet Tak

    Dear Mum and Dad,

    I have so much news I want to tell you about and I can’t. You live so far away and there are no comms. channels between you and me. I haven’t worked out how many star systems sit between us yet but I don’t suppose it matters how many because there is no way I can send a signal to you. So I have decided to write it all down on old-fashioned paper because hand-held message tablets aren’t used here. Perhaps one day I’ll manage to find you and you will be able to read my words. So, here goes …

    This first one might be a bit blotchy in places, I’m still getting used to using pen and ink (it’s a dippy pen with a nib, just like the ones we saw when I was little and you took me to that museum, do you remember? I must have been about eight). The paper too is of the old-fashioned kind - it actually tears if you aren’t careful and if you get it wet the ink blurs and the words are unreadable!

    I wish there was some way I could let you know that I’m not dead. It breaks my heart to know that the Cadre will have probably notified you that I’m missing, believed killed but there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it. Marcel Rossier, you met him that last time when I came to visit, he’s trying to make contact with the Dragon Wulf Cadre but isn’t holding out much hope. Getting a message past the Community’s spy satellites without them being aware of it is no small task! Still, if anyone can do it he can.

    I’m dating the letters not by our dating system but by the system we use here - more about that in a minute but first I need to tell you what has happened since we were last in touch.

    You know that the Cadre was sending me on an important, secret mission, well, we went as planned. It was to Orum, the Community call it Orlando, to see what we could do to ease the plight of the Orumcek. I’m not going to go into the details, but suffice to say that we managed to spirit three of them away! We got out of the Orlando System without any trouble but we didn’t know that the Community had found out about us and sent one of their battlewagons and some frigates to give chase. I suppose we should have been honoured that they thought we were so important but believe me, we didn’t feel that way at the time, far from it!

    We eventually arrived at the planet we ended up on after a couple of false starts (the previous two on our list proved to be most unhealthy, especially for the Orumcek). It was a long way outside the Community sphere of influence and we didn’t know they were on our trail. The planet was truly beautiful, all bright and sparkling new! I got to work analysing the fauna and flora and we began to relax. Then the Community battlewagon and her frigates arrived and that’s when the trouble started (trouble with a capital ‘T’!).

    The battlewagon destroyed our three corvettes. They were no match for them and thirty of us and the three Orumcek were stranded on the planet. Their ASPC’s started hunting us on the surface and destroyed our base camp. Only five of us and the three Orumcek managed to escape into the woods.

    Must go now, I have a class and mustn’t be late. Will carry on later.

    * * * * *

    It’s later, by three busy days and you’ll be wondering about what class I was writing about. Well, I’ll leave you in suspense for a little while longer as I want to tell you first about what happened next.

    We were fleeing through the trees, me, Marcel, a woman called Astrid (she is a zoologist) and another two men, Tancred and George when all of a sudden we found ourselves captives! And our captors were not Community soldiers at all but a group of people riding horse-sized wolf-like creatures! I thought I’d die of fright. They didn’t kill us (obviously as I’m sitting here writing this) but took us to a huge cave. They were also hiding from the ASPC’s. The Community ASPC’s had killed quite a few of them too. Like us, they had come from another planet. I didn’t believe them at first, their weapons included swords and some kind of antiquated looking guns they called firearms so it seemed most unlikely. How wrong can one be?

    They didn’t know if their space transports had been destroyed by the battlewagon but they were adamant that rescue would come.

    The wolves by the way are extremely intelligent and can talk. They are also telepathic. I’m going to copy down some notes from one of my classes so you will understand. There I go about classes again … you must be wondering.

    Blast. Can’t find the notes from the introductory lectures. Tavin must have borrowed them, will carry this on later once I’ve got them back. Also have to polish my boots for inspection tomorrow morning!

    * * * * *

    Here are the notes; I found them under Tavin’s bed. He always uses the space there to tidy away things he doesn’t know what else to do with …

    The Lind as a species are native to a planet called Rybak. They are wolf-like and in stature and in dimension, resemble thoroughbred racehorses. They are highly intelligent and are telepathic. They are fast runners and prefer to live in forested areas. They are also committed to saving lives and to peace - although they will fight when the situation requires them to do so. Some Lind are life-bonded and mind-bonded with certain emphatic humans. This is known as vadeln-pairing. During the eight centuries when they and the humans co-existed on Rybak the Lind and those with human partners formed a military force called the Vada. The Vada protected peace on the planet. This included defending the northern continent from the Larg and defending the planet from a group of renegade Dglai who tried to invade it about two hundred years ago.

    The Larg are very similar to the Lind, having descended from the same genotype. They are wolf-like and in stature and in dimension, resemble carthorses. They cannot run as fast nor for as long distances as can their cousins, the Lind. They prefer to live in open areas. They are telepathic but their mind-sending abilities are not as good as those of the Lind. Although some have the ability to mind-bond with a human, this is very rare. For eons before humans arrived on the planet the Larg, who lived on Rybak’s large southern continent fought the Lind from the largest northern continent for domination and supremacy. For the last two centuries before they and the Lind left, there was peace between them.

    Hope you understood all that. Actually I could scarcely believe my ears when I first heard about it!

    The people come originally from another planet, not Rybak. Old Earth! Here are the class notes about how they got to Rybak and then on to Tak. The notes tell the story much better than I could possibly do, that’s why I’m including them …

    The humans who came from Rybak are the descendants from two space ships that set out from Earth in the twenty-fourth century. They had originally been heading for Riga, an established colony. A cosmic storm swept them off course and they ended up light-years away, in the middle of unexplored space. One shipload landed on the southern continent of the planet, where the Kingdom of Murdoch was established, and which became, in time, semi-feudal and militaristic. In the north, two nations were founded. One was called Argyll and the other Vadath, the latter being governed equally and jointly by humans and Lind. It is from Vadath that the Vada come. The technology used when they landed on Rybak has been largely lost during the eight centuries since, which has necessitated the implementation of a huge, learning project instigated by the Diaglon on Tak.

    It’s quite a lot to comprehend, isn’t it?

    When I read it I can see that more explanation is needed but it will have to wait. We’re going out on a field exercise so it’ll be into next month before I can continue with this.

    All My love Paula.

    xxx

    * * * * *

    Lokrhed - (Year 1) - (AL 819)

    Stronghold, Planet Tak

    Dear Mum and Dad,

    AL means Anno Landing (so it has been approximately eight hundred and nineteen years since the people arrived on Rybak). Just thought you would like to know.

    Last month I mentioned a species that are known as Diaglon and as usual, the notes are far better at explaining who and what they are than me.

    Here they are …

    The Diaglon can fly and breathe fire. In size, they have about twice the bulk of the Larg although their tails and wings make them seem much bigger. They live for a number of our centuries (around eight). Those Lai of great age can remember humans arriving on Rybak although there are very few of those alive these days. There are five sects of Diaglon. The Brai are black-skinned, the Dglai are green-skinned, the Rai are blue-skinned, the Sbnai are red-skinned and the Lai are golden-skinned (the gold turns to copper as they grow old). They originate from the planet Dagan (now uninhabitable) but they have a new home planet, which is called Dagana. The Diaglon are very advanced, technologically speaking, and have had the ability of spaceflight for very long time, since before mankind evolved on Earth.

    The Lai landed on Rybak around 20,000 B.C., Earth time, found there the ancestors of the Lind and the Larg and took them under their protection. They extended this protection to the human inhabitants and their descendants of the two space ships, the W.C.C.S. Argyll and the W.C.P.S. Electra when they landed on AL 0 (Anno Landing). Long lost from their fellow Diaglon, the Lai were located in c. AL 750 by the Diaglon exploratory space ship that was searching for the Ammokko, a ship belonging to a group of renegade Dglai.

    The Lai, together with the Lind, the Larg, those humans vadeln-paired with Lind with their dependants and some five hundred humans from the southern Kingdom of Murdoch, left for a new world (Tak) in AL 808 in large transport space ships. Tak is a Brai planet. The Brai have welcomed the settlers from Rybak and although the Brai still rule Tak, Humankind, Lind-kind and Larg-kind are being gradually integrated and educated.

    The Diaglon are beautiful creatures. As Tak is a Brai planet so they’re all black coloured. There is one Lai here as well. His name is Maru and he is gold all over, yes, really! He’s just like those colour pictures of dragons in that fairy tale book you told me was a family heirloom and would only let me touch after I’d washed my hands. They are, as you will have realised, absolutely and completely dragons. I love watching them fly.

    We all have to learn various languages including Standard here. The Standard the Takkians speak is a bit different that what we’re used to. We also take classes in Diaglon, Lindish and Larg. Luckily Lindish and Diaglon have a lot of similarities, which makes it easier - probably like the Latin languages of Old Earth, French, Spanish and Italian. They have the same root base. One of the aunts told me about Latin based languages when she described her studies when she was in the Diplomatic Corps. What a long time ago that seems now!

    Whoof! That took simply ages although I’m writing a lot faster (and neater - as you can see) these days. Going to bed now, early start in the morning.

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    Back to my time

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