Was Once a Hero

Was Once
A
Hero

The first Book
In
the Fenaday and Shasti Chronicles

                                                          
By Edward McKeown

Was
Once
A
Hero

By:
Edward McKeown

Copyright © 2011 Edward McKeown

Published by: Hellfire Publishing, Inc at Smashwords

www.hellfirepublishing.com

All rights reserved. No part of this document or the related files
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic,
photocopying, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Digital ISBN: 978-1-937179-95-3

Cover art by:
Michael Church

Edited by: Julanne Batterton

This book is work of fiction. Characters, names, places,
incidents, and organizations are a product of the author’s imagination or used
fictitiously.

※
Dedication
※

"To
my love and my inspiration, Schelly Keefer."

Introduction
by
Janet Morris
, author and
editor:
 
Edward McKeown intends to rock
you and sock you with his new novel, "Was Once
A
Hero."
 
Heroism and hardship begin
on the very first page.
 
Fast paced
action abounds.
 
Buckle your seatbelts
for this epic of warships and aliens, love and death beyond the stars.
 
As McKeown points out in this first novel of
his ambitious Fenaday and Shasti Chronicles, "The peoples of the
Confederacy are weary of the expense and disruption of war.
 
They are demobilizing quickly, too quickly in
a universe containing the Dua-Denlenn and the unknown.
 
Your fleet and your people will not risk lives
and treasure on the closed book of my race."
 
Wrong decision.
 
Wrong time.
 
And there you have it: politics never intrude
on this story, but they fuel it to a blazing conclusion.

Edward
McKeown has a wonderful start on a series that plays to his strengths: young
people of both sexes, caught up in drama where individual heroism can make a
difference.
 
Buy it for the action, read
it for McKeown's unique view of a far future that's all too likely. -- Janet
Morris May-2011

Janet Morris began writing in
1976 and has since published more than 20 novels. Her first novel, written as
Janet E. Morris, was
High Couch of Silistra
, the first in a quartet of
novels with a very strong female protagonist.

She has contributed short
fiction to the shared universe fantasy series
Thieves World
, in which
she created the Sacred Band of Stepsons, a mythical unit of ancient fighters
modeled on the Sacred Band of Thebes.

She created, orchestrated, and
edited the Bangsian fantasy series
Heroes in Hell
, writing stories for
the series as well as co-writing the related novel,
The Little Helliad
,
with Chris Morris.

Most of her fiction work has
been in the fantasy and science fiction genres, although she has also written
historical and other novels. Morris has written, contributed to, or edited
several book-length works of non-fiction, as well as papers and articles on
nonlethal weapons, developmental military technology and other defense and
national security topics.

Was Once
A
Hero

By

                           
Edward McKeown

Chapter One

Winter
2805AD. Confed Forward Base Brendara

Robert
Fenaday looked through rain-streaked windows at the field where the sleek shape
of his wife’s ship lay in its launch cradle and thought…
this can’t be happening
.
 
But
it was.
 
Ground crews were clearing the
last connections holding
Blackbird
to
Brendara base.
 
The small scoutship was
bound for war—a war that made no sense, against the Conchirri, a species out of
a child’s nightmare.

“Hey,
spaceman,” a voice called softly.
 
He
turned away from the concourse windows to see Lisa.
 
She’d slipped up on him, her footsteps
covered by the dull roar of the refugees and military filling the halls behind
her.
 
Her long, auburn hair was tied
back, under a white naval cap that seemed too large for her delicate features.

Robert
strode over and embraced her.
 
Her face lay
against his neck for a few seconds and he felt a tremble run through her.
 
Then she stepped back, all cool dignity again,
for all that no one had paid them any mind.

“What’s
this?” she said.
 
“Somebody might think
you were afraid you wouldn’t see me again.”

“I
love you, Lisa,”

“I
love you too.
 
Always will.”

“Then
let me use my influence—”

“No,”
she said, shaking her head.
 
“I know you’d
do anything to protect me, but not that.
 
I’m
Blackbird’s
captain and
where she goes—I go.
 
Darling, there are
some things that can’t be fixed with money and even if they could, they
shouldn’t be.”

“What
good is my family’s wealth if it can’t protect you?” he said, twisting his
hands.
 
“I’d trade every credit if only
it could.”

Lisa’s
gray eyes were bright.
 
“It’s bought us
more than most get.
 
You’ve been able to
meet me every time
Blackbird’s
put in.
 
Even if it meant diverting one of your
family’s freighters, something I shouldn’t have let you do.
 
Few others have had that luxury.

“The
universe is on fire, darling, and I’m one of the firemen.
 
My family has been Confed Navy since there’s
been one.
 
I have to do this.”

“This
time I can’t even follow you.”

“No,
not where I’m bound.
 
You and your father
have a shipping line to run.
 
One that’s
vital to the Confederacy, and Robert, he’s old now.
 
So that’s your post.
 
Mine’s with the fleet.”

He
looked at his wife and was filled with foreboding.
 
“I wasn’t much before we met, you know, a
spoiled brat of a rich kid, partying like a fool.”

She
smiled through the tears in her eyes.
 
“We’ve been good for each other Robert.
 
We will be again when this damn thing is over.”

A
claxon sounded overhead and he jumped, fighting back a curse.
 
A voice read out a string of numbers.

Lisa’s
smile faded into a grim line.
 
“That’s my
ship’s launch clearance.”

Now
that the moment was here, it seemed unreal.
 
How could she be leaving?
 
They
stepped toward each other again and this time didn’t care about military
discipline or onlookers.

“Now,”
she said finally. “I want you to stay here.
 
So that this will be my memory of you, until I see you again.”

“When
will that be?” he said, fighting down his anguish and trying to smile.
 
I can’t
make this harder on her.

“I
don’t know, Love, and I couldn’t tell you if I did.
 
But I think it will be a long time.”

He
kissed her again.
 
“Return to me,
Lisa.
 
Return to
New Eire
, the house above the cliffs.
 
It will all be waiting for you.”

She
touched his face.
 
“I’m counting on
it.
 
Now, Robert you have to let me go.”
 
She kissed him, then turned and walked
quickly into the throng.
 

He
watched her until her slender form in navy dress whites could no longer be
seen.
 
“I’ll never let you go, Lisa,” he
whispered.
 
“Never.
 
Not if all of time and space were arrayed
against me.
 
I swear it.”

Eleven
months later:

To
Robert Fenaday- New Erie

The Secretary
of State wishes to express the Confederacy’s sincerest condolences in the loss
of the C.S.S. Blackbird.
 
The vessel
having been missing long past its life-support capacity, the crew must
regretfully also be considered lost.

C.S.S
Blackbird was operating alone in a classified operation far beyond the front
and was last reported in the Fringe Star sector.
 
We deeply regret…

*****

December
14, 2809-Enshar Star System:
 
same year

Telisan
stretched his arm over his head, as he had every day since his release from the
hospital ship.
 
The injury had kept him
from joining his fleet carrier on the final attack on the Conchirri
homeworld.
 

“Gad,
it makes me queasy just watching,” said one of the human pilots draped over a
chain in
Earheart’s
ready room.

Telisan
smiled, a gesture he’d learned from humans.
 
“I’m surprised you humans have only one joint in your arms, must have
made it hard to swing from tree to tree.”

“Hey
Rico,” another pilot called.
 
“The
commander knows your family.”
 
The humans
began to shout good-natured abuse across the room.

Seeka,
the only other Denlenn aboard, walked in.
 
Like Telisan, he was tall and angular, with leathery skin, a lipless
mouth and golden eyes under a rough mane of thick hair.
 

“Greetings,
young one,” Telisan said in Denleni.

“Greetings,
Mighty Warrior, Ace of Aces.”

“Ah,
knock it off,” Telisan added in Standard to his young friend’s amusement.

“What
word from the bridge?” Seeka asked.

Telisan
shrugged.
 
“We’re still at defcon 4.
 
There’s been no signal, no sightings since we
left jumpspace.”

The
young Denlenn’s face looked grim.
 
“Can
it be?
 
Can the freighter captain’s wild
story be true?
 
Is Enshar destroyed?”

“I do
not see how with the Conchirri fighting in their home system,” Telisan
replied.
 
“Pity the freighter didn’t dare
get closer to Enshar.”

“Damn
him,” Seeka said.
 
“He fled when he could
not raise system control, even dumped his cargo.”

“Perhaps
it is best.
 
Had he gone in, he too,
might have been destroyed.
 
As it is we
are here with a fleet.”

“Fleet?”
Seeka snorted.
 
“A rust-bucket escort
carrier and whatever else was handy in the fleet resupply depot when the call
came.”

“Which
included me,” Telisan replied.
 

Seeka
nodded.
 
“That is the only reason we’d
have a century ace like you on a CVE.
 
Trust me; the Black Diamonds are glad to have you here.”

“Now
hear this,” the speaker sounded over their heads, “all senior officers to the
bridge.”

“Now
maybe we’ll find out what’s going on,” Seeka said.

Telisan
looked over at the rostrum where his XO, Lieutenant Bailey, stood.
 
“Bailey, get the pilots down to the flight
deck.
 
I’m betting we sortie soon.
 
We have time for once; I want everything
double-checked.”

“Aye,
aye, Wing.”
 
He turned to the waiting
room.
 
“Black Diamonds, on your feet!”

Telisan
nodded to Seeka and sped off, his long legs eating up
Earhart’
s corridors until he arrived at the bridge.
 
A marine opened the hatchway for him and he
ducked to enter Earhart’s bridge, with its multitude of holo screens and
stations.

Officers
filled
Earhart’s
cramped bridge and
stared at the multiple views of Enshar displayed on the ship’s view-screens.
 
Telisan, taller than most of the human crew,
looked over their heads at the green and blue world they’d come to rescue.