Read Online Among Bright Stars... by Rodney C. Johnson - Free Book Online Page B

– I have never used a nuclear weapon on
anyone before.” She told him, her voice small. “What we’re risking
here are the lives of our people. Not just our soldiers, but all of
us, every last Falcanian on the planet could pay for what we’ve
unleashed this day.” Nuclear attacks, even on unpopulated areas
demanded retaliation. “I don’t like this silence from the
Imperium.”
    Imperial Strato-General Shuriken Kra sat,
placed his own MRE down on the table. “Sympathizing with your
enemies isn’t good for your self-esteem.”
    Arshira gave him an upward emerald glare,
crossed her arms over her ample cleavage, which bulged out of her
unzipped uniform, pouted. “It’s not about sympathy.”
    “Had to be done.”
    “I understand that Shuriken.”
    The Sub-Commander got interrupted in her
dark musings by boisterous laughter. She turned to see Kulcarin’s
Skatha Brigade gathered apart from everyone else at a group of
tables. Colonel Aranskrai busily regaled his men with war stories
from the recent military operation, specifically how he had earlier
taken out the Imperium’s pilot. “I never see them out of that
bioarmor.” Arshira stated. “More and more they become like
Shierkala’s servants, thirsting for blood and war...” The Duchess
had made a study of the Telchar Shanral and found much insight from
its pages. “We let them go without restraint.”
    “They get the job done and like fighting.”
Kulcarin had been Shuriken’s protégée. The former Drakorian now
surpassed his teacher where it came to the art of war. “And they’re
good at it. You too, if it wasn’t for you, today wouldn’t have
happened.”
    The Valküri harrumphed, took a sip from her
drink.
    For a few moments Arshira and Shuriken sat
silently and ate, in the background Skatha cheered one another on.
The quiet between the two very unusual.
    Shuriken watched Arshira sigh, and sink
deeper into her chair. He noticed a new decoration on her upper
right arm, a digital tribal barbed wire tattoo. Digital tats were
the only sort of body art which stuck on a Morningstar. “So what’s
happening with you and Sharr?” The Supreme Commander had an idea
about that already.
    “Oh,” Arshira said. “Very much the same.
When I can get his attention, things are fantastic.”
    “What’s he think of that?”
    Barely even glancing with her emerald feline
eyes, Arshira peered over at her arm, said. “My tattoo,” she
smiled, a bright white feminine grin. “Sharr thinks it ‘enhances
my voluptuousness’ whatever that means!” She let out a
self-amused giggle.
    “No kid yet? That’s weird, Sharr really
likes to fuck. And I know he does it with the express intent to
breed. I mean, I don’t know from experience. I’ve... I’ve heard.
What’s he got twenty-something children?”
    “Last I checked, twenty-three, that is if I
counted right.” Arshira didn’t know if any of the concubines were
pregnant at the moment. “I want one as well, but I decided that I'd
need to wait, not the best time to raise a child, at least for me
to be able to actually be a mother.” Arshira wanted to be able to
be a real mother when she had a baby, and devote all her time to
its upbringing. “Leading armies just wouldn’t allow for that now.
Besides, I’ve got lots of time.”
    Kra listened attentively while the girl
spoke.
    “Like I said though, that’s when I can get
his attention, he spends so much time fawning over Aria. The minute
she complains, he sees that she is made happy first, und trust me,
she usually has a lot to say or complain about.”
    Shuriken couldn’t hold back his expression,
it telegraphed his hate of the cloned girl, Aria had been a
nuisance in her former life, and she had begun to become one once
more.
    “You don’t much like her do you?’ Arshira
asked.
    “She’s not my favorite person.” Shuriken
grunted. “Her impact on Sharr has always been like this. Nadia
doesn’t even turn him into a pile of goo – at least not