Drysine Legacy (The Spiral Wars Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

but when an aggressive dog mauled you, did you blame the dog, or the one holding its leash? If sard had been the first instinctively aggressive and violent species humanity had encountered, humans might have been more tolerant of them. But they were the second, after the krim, and the krim had been tavalai-sponsored as well. The krim had exterminated Earth, and after five hundred years of struggle, humanity had exterminated the krim, down to the very last child. Most humans would happily have done the same to the sard, just as precaution against what most knew was possible, should sard power grow.
    These sard passed by in single file, mouthparts flickering as they tasted the air. Taller than humans, though not as strong, even augmented. Individually, Fleet marines handled them comfortably. But the larger their numbers, the more sophisticated and clever sard tactics became, and they would sacrifice individual formations for overall success as humans would never do. Erik heard the whine of their vocals as they passed, like a cicada shrill, with rhythmic chirps at harmonic intervals, creating mathematical code that took human computers to decipher, but sard understood instantly.
    “Yeah, keep on walking, bugs,” Lance Corporal Kess muttered.
    “Is it true they’ve got eyes in the back of their heads?” Private Haim wondered.
    “Watch where you’re going or you’ll get my boot in the back of yours,” Crozier told her.
----
    T he entrance to Jigi Trade and Freight was a lobby with green walls and open water displays. Again it violated a bunch of human architecture regulations, but it was increasingly clear that those were anathema to barabo. The effect was an indoor jungle, and as the lobby attendant beckoned them past the welcome desk, inset speakers made jungle sounds and the buzzing of insects.
    Lance Corporal Kess’s Third Squad remained in the lobby, while the white-robed attendant beckoned the rest into a large office. The office had its own lobby, with a water fountain in the middle, and intricately carved wooden panels on the walls. More attendants gestured them to wait, while one went into the main office, and fetched their contact — ‘Ben Guring’, Phoenix ’s computer had insisted Erik pronounce it.
    She emerged, a big barabo with a big grin, and a big mop of dreadlocked hair tied in a bunch above her head. She wore big dark brown robes with intricate gold trim, and many bangles chimed and clanked upon her arms as she swept them wide in welcome.
    “HELLO!” she declared to the room, with great extravagance. “Hello! Hello!” Erik repressed a grin. Barabo could be… unrestrained. Ben Guring seemed most pleased at the opportunity to use her one human word.
    “Hello,” Erik agreed, turning the translator mike on. He offered her a handshake, barabo-style, palm flat and fingers locked. “I am Erik. I am in charge of Phoenix .” The speaker at his collar translated that into Palapu. Surnames and exact ranks were pointless — the translator would mangle them. For all their simple cheerfulness, barabo were not stupid, and could figure the details for themselves. “This is Kaspo, from Phoenix ’s bridge crew, and this is JC. She is in charge of the marines here.”
    “Erik De-bo-gan-day, yes?” Ben Guring grinned at him with those big teeth. “Do not worry, we all know family De-bo-gan-day here.” As the translator took over. “And JC… another woman marine? I thought that this was rare for humans?”
    “Tradition,” Jasmine ‘JC’ Crozier explained, shaking the barabo’s hand in turn. “With technology, there is no reason why women cannot be marines. But there is tradition, and some tradition does not change, even if technology does. Some tradition goes backward.” There had been more female marines seven hundred years ago than now. Erik knew it bothered Crozier more than it bothered Trace.
    “Ohhh,” said the barabo, knowingly. “It is the same with barabo, just the same. I have five