The Vixen War Bride Read online

  Warren put the LTV into gear and a moment later passed through the main gate of the camp, taking a left toward the village center.

  “It’s got a very Asian aesthetic,” Patricia noted as they passed a house to the right. “The architecture looks a lot like Korean or Chinese.”

  Warren nodded at the observation. “One of my guys says he thinks the Va’Shen must have visited Earth at some point a couple of thousand years ago and either picked up the style there or shared some of theirs with us.”

  “Just because the houses are kind of similar?” Patricia asked with an arched eyebrow.

  The chief shook his head. “He said the Va’Shen remind him of some of the fox-related deities you see in statues and myths in parts of Asia. So, he thinks a long time ago, the Va’Shen came for a visit, and interacted with humans.”

  Patricia hmm’d in thought. “What are the odds of that, you think?”

  By this time it seemed pretty obvious that Warren had taken a liking to pulling Patricia’s chain. “Well, Ma’am,” he said, “I figure it’s at least as mathematically probable as a race of aliens just so happening to evolve into a form that matches how some groups of people perceived some of their deities.”

  “Touche,” Patricia relented.

  “Any Asian influence in their language?” Ben asked her suddenly, trying to help the interpreter by steering the conversation into her lane.

  The lieutenant thought for a moment. “In some of the pronunciation,” she finally said. “There’s no one-to-one correlation with words or phrases, if that’s what you’re asking. But some of the words sound like they could have come from Japanese or Korean, a pretty odd mix, actually, but you can see it if you know the two languages.”

  Ben made a thoughtful noise.

  Warren wasn’t about to let Patricia get the upper hand. “The language isn’t the only thing you have to watch out for,” he said. “The body language is completely different.”

  “How so?” Ben asked.

  “You ever been up close with Tod, Sir?” Warren asked. “Try to talk to him?”

  Ben’s mind flashed briefly to his last up close and personal encounter with a Va’Shen. The conversation had been very short, to say the least.

  “Up close, yeah,” he admitted dryly, the memory far from pleasant. “Talk, no.”

  Warren turned his attention to making a turn before coming back to his point. “Very subdued facial expressions,” he said. “Most of it’s in their ears and their tail.”

  “They didn’t teach us that!” Patricia blurted from the back seat.

  Warren turned to her and nodded seriously. “It can be like talking to a brick wall if you’re not used to it. When they’re agitated, their tails flick quickly from side to side, like a cat. If it poofs up, that’s fight or flight. If their ears come down, they’re unhappy. Those are the ones I know for sure.” He rolled his eyes. “Based on recent context,” he finished with a grumble.

  He turned down another street before continuing. “Now, the good news is that, for the most part, they don’t seem to be able to fake it. It’s not like with us, where you can smile at a guy but hate his guts. They wear it on their sleeves… mostly.”

  Warren stopped the vehicle and pointed out Ben’s window at a tall pagoda-like structure that looked to be about three stories tall. Ringed by a stone wall, it held a commanding presence in the center of the village. Ben could see flowering purple trees within the grounds, almost obscuring his view of the first two floors of the dark red wooden structure.

  “Mayor’s house?” Ben asked.

  “No, Sir,” Warren answered. “It’s a temple or something or other,” he said. “Tallest building in town. If you try to go in there, they get upset. Mayor’s office is across the road.” He moved his finger to an ornate two-story building directly opposite the temple’s main gate. “Just wanted to let you know about it. If I was going to put a sniper somewhere, it’d definitely be up there.”

  The Ranger nodded. He was hoping it wouldn’t come to that. He had deliberately foregone rolling into town in a large, well-armed convoy in hopes of setting a friendly tone. The Va’Shen Emperor had sworn cooperation, but if HQ was to be believed, other sectors were getting hit anyway.

  He took a breath, feeling naked without his armor. He had even left his carbine behind.

  “We’re all just friends now,” he muttered as if trying to force himself to believe it.

  “Are we going in, Sir?” Warren asked, bringing Ben’s attention back to him. Ben nodded, and Warren continued. “Something else, then. This guy you’re gonna meet, Kasshas, watch out for him. He’s no joke.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You can tell he’s a politician,” Warren said. “He’s got a real poker face. Remember what I said about the ears and tail?” At Ben’s nod he continued. “This guy doesn’t do any of it. Love you, hate you, want to kill you, you’d never know by his body language. His ears stay up, and his tail pointed at the ground. You can tell he’s used to guarding what he thinks. Watch out for him.”

  Ben nodded and pulled the latch on the LTV, opening the door. Patricia, Johannes and Warren followed him out, and Jenkins climbed down from the turret.

  “Don’t know how long we’ll be inside,” Ben told the two Rangers. “Stay with the LTV. Rules of engagement… but soft touch, okay?”

  Jenkins smiled at him and pulled a plastic bag from her right cargo pocket. “No worries, Sir. I came prepared.”

  “Candy?” Patricia asked as she shook the bag.

  “Heck yeah!” Jenkins said with a smile. “Everyone loves candy! Kids see a super cool Army jeep rolling up, they’re gonna wanna check it out. I give them some candy, and we’re all best buds! That’s peacekeeping 101!”

  Patricia shrugged but smiled. “If you say so, Private.”

  “You communicate your way, Ma’am,” Jenkins said with a grin, “And I’ll communicate mine.”

  The three of them turned and approached the decoratively carved wooden doors that blocked the way into the inner sanctum of Pelle’s mayor. Ben looked over at Patricia and found her taking a deep breath.

  “You ready?” he asked.

  “Yep,” she said. “Just… haven’t done this for real before.”

  “I’m sure it’ll be fine,” he told her.

  “Oh, yeah,” Warren piped up. “Guy’s real accommodating.” He stepped forward and pushed the door open only to find a bearded Va’Shen man already waiting for them in the middle of what appeared to be an antechamber. There was no furniture but a few comfortable-looking red pillows on either side of the room. A doorway with a staircase was on the far side of the chamber, leading, Ben assumed, to the man’s office itself. He must have seen them coming from the window and came down to meet them.

  Ben felt himself tensing and forced himself to let it go. All the same, he took some old twenty-first century military wisdom to heart and came up with a quick plan on how he’d kill the guy if he had to.

  Push forward, grab his beard with my left hand, pull the ka-bar with my right, horizontal stab under the breast bone…

  For the most part, the Va’Shen looked human. Same general build and face, though usually a little shorter on average than a human. Same number of hands, feet, arms, legs, fingers and toes, though their hair colors ran a much wider range than with humans. Where Va’Shen differed was the distinctly fox-like set of ears on top of their heads and a bushy fox tail. This Va’Shen’s hair and tail were black, salted with specks of white. Pufts of white hair protruded and curled out from inside his black furred ears. His mustache and beard were still jet black, and yellow eyes peered suspiciously at them.

  Nevertheless, he bowed to them, and Ben and Warren did the same. Patricia caught on a step behind and did the same.

  Warren stepped between them and gestured to the Va’Shen. “Captain Gibson, this is Kasshas, the mayor of Pelle.” He turned to Kasshas and gave him another, shorter bow. “Kasshas, Captain Ben Gibson.”

&n
bsp; Kasshas bowed to them again.

  The two stared at each other for a moment before Ben turned his head slightly to Patricia. “That’s your cue,” he noted dryly.

  “Oh!” Patricia jumped. “Right!” She stepped forward and gestured to Ben.

  she said in halting Va’Shen.

  Ben bowed again to the Va’Shen, quietly noting that, true to Warren’s word, the tod’s tail and ears were decidedly motionless.

  Kasshas looked at Patricia for a moment before speaking.

  he said.

  Patricia looked at him dumbfounded. The Va’Shen had said all that very quickly, and she had only caught a few of the words. Ben looked at her expectantly, and she turned to him.

  “He says ‘hello,’” she said stupidly.

  Ben bit his lip, the frustration plain on his face. “Right,” he said, clearing his throat. He looked at Kasshas and gave him a smile. “Tell him we are pleased to meet him and look forward to being good friends.”

  Patricia nodded and turned back to Kasshas.

  she said.

  Kasshas responded with a short bow.

  Patricia swallowed, sweat beading on her forehead as she turned to Ben.

  “He said… he’ll help with whatever we need… and…” She thought through his words again. Why did he have to speak so fast and for so long?! “He hopes we can be friends too,” she finally finished.

  Ben nodded, biting his lip, as Warren turned and bit his fist, trying hard not to laugh at Patricia.

  “Well, that’s nice,” Ben said deadpan. After a pause, he continued. “I think, then, we should start with learning more about the area and its people. And for that, we’re going to need maps.”

  Patricia nodded and turned to Kasshas. Kasshas said nothing, no tail or ear twitch, nothing. Patricia mimed unrolling a map and pointing to different places on it.

 

  Patricia digested that for a moment and turned to Ben. “He says they don’t have any.”

  Warren coughed into his hand. “Bullshit!” As the others turned to him, he elaborated. “You see how straight and well-planned their streets are? Someone’s kept track of who built what where. Otherwise, it would be total chaos.”

  The Ranger captain didn’t really need the explanation. He knew crap when he heard it. “Ask him again,” he said. “Let him know how appreciative we’d be if he could help us with this.”

  Patricia told Kasshas. She bowed sharply from the waist.

  Kasshas turned his gaze to Ben, and Ben met it, refusing to flinch.

  “He says they might have something,” she said to Ben.

  “So, he’s going to look for it?” Ben asked.

  “I guess so.”

  Ben gave her a stern look, and Patricia realized her mistake. The Va’Shen hadn’t actually promised anything. Cursing herself she turned back to him.

 

  Kasshas told her.

  This time Patricia didn’t let up.

  Kasshas didn’t respond immediately, and Patricia was done with his stalling. She gestured to Ben, Warren and herself.

  Ben saw the fox person’s tail twitch, and he smiled. Patricia must have nailed him somehow.

  Kasshas took a breath. he said.

  she asked. Now that she had him hooked, she wasn’t willing to let him go until she reeled him in.

  The Va’Shen paused.

  Patricia nodded and turned back to Ben. “They’re going to start looking right now and will bring us what they find.”

  “Great,” Ben remarked. “Tell him thanks.”

  The lieutenant bowed to Kasshas.

  Kasshas bowed back.

  “Ask him if there is anything we can do for him,” Ben instructed. Part of his mission was reconstruction. Although he knew, from his briefings, where in the area the Coalition had hit and that Pelle hadn’t been, there was always hidden damage. The village’s economic situation, their agriculture, their health all had likely suffered during the war as more and more resources were dedicated to fighting it.

  she asked.

  Kasshas said nothing. He bowed, turned and walked through the door that led to the stairwell.

  “Guess that means ‘bye,’” Warren commented.

  Patricia sighed heavily.

  “Ramirez is right, you’re great at this,” Ben told her dryly.

  “He kept using all these words I didn’t understand,” she growled. “It’s like he didn’t want me to get what he was saying.”

  “He probably didn’t,” Warren piped in, his voice slightly more sympathetic than before. “The guy’s not dumb. If he can confuse you, he can promise us literally anything and then come back later and claim that wasn’t what he said. He was screwing with you.”

  Patricia grit her teeth and growled at the idea. “We’ll see about that,” she muttered.

  “Come on,” Ben said, putting on his patrol cap as he turned to the door. “We’re going to have plenty of time for a rematch.”

  Leading them through the door, they found the other two Rangers standing by the LTV, weapons slung in a decidedly casual manner. Patricia smiled at Jenkins as they approached.

  “How many new friends did you make?” she asked.

  The private shook her head. “Not a one,” she admitted in defeat. “A couple of old folks walked by, giving us the stink-eye, but other than that, this place is dead.”

  Ben looked down both sides of the street. The entire block seemed abandoned. “Remember what they said in convoy training about not seeing any kids?” he asked Jenkins and Johannes.

  They both nodded. Counter-insurgency lessons learned the hard way said that if you didn’t see kids out in the street it was because someone had given their families a warning that something bad was about to happen.

  “I don’t know, Sir,” Johannes spoke up. “I don’t get that vibe. I mean there’s no kids, yeah, but there’s no anyone.”

  “No fighting-age males,” Warren noted.

  “No women out shopping,” Patricia added. “Just older people.”

  “Maybe we found the Va’Shen version of a retirement community!” Johannes quipped, trying to lighten the mood. “We should see if they have a golf course!”

  Ben kicked at the packed dirt of the road and bit his lip. No young males might make sense if the village’s male population was drafted to fight. They were either dead or at Jamieson being re-processed for release. But no young women in the middle of the afternoon? No one shopping for tonight’s dinner? It was eerie. He suddenly felt like he was being watched by eyes he couldn’t see. The Va’Shen were very good at tha
t kind of thing.

  “Let’s get out of here,” he ordered quietly.

  The others nodded and climbed into the tactical vehicle. As first impressions went, today had a lot to be desired.

  Chapter 2

  He hadn’t realized how beautiful the night sky would be on this world. Although he had been on-planet for a couple of weeks, the lights on Jamieson Airfield had drowned out the stars at night and, to a lesser extent, the green and blue hues of the aurora borealis that settled over the sky like a blanket. Both of Va’Sh’s moons were on the rise, and although the sun had been down for hours, the ground was lit with a gentle light from these cosmic actors.

  Ben leaned against the door of his hooch, the personal hut in which he would live, and looked up at the stars. This far from the larger cities, the cosmic lights were clear and vibrant. Everything about this world, he was finding, was beautiful in some way. He wondered why its people had insisted on starting a war over another world so far away from it.

  Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a folded piece of printer paper, the corners on the folds still sharp and pointed. He twirled the paper in his hands. It had been the last thing he had printed out before disembarking the Neil Armstrong. It was only luck that someone had warned him about the EM interference before he left. Finding a terminal aboard the converted colony ship, he quickly transferred the file from his tablet and printed it off. After all that trouble, however, he found he couldn’t bring himself to open it.

  He heard someone whistling and turned to see Ramirez walking up the path from the direction of the shower hut, his hair still wet and his towel and shave kit still in his hands. Instead of his camouflage battle uniform he was wearing a black pair of shorts, his red 5th Ranger Regiment t-shirt and a pair of shower shoes that smacked against the bottom of his feet with each step.

  “How you doing, Staff Sergeant?” Ben asked him, looking back up at the sky as he shoved the paper back into his pocket.

  “Helluva first day, Sir,” Ramirez told him with a smile. The sergeant was always smiling. Three worlds they had fought on, and Ben didn’t think he had ever stopped smiling. The only exception being that one day when they got the news…