In The Beginning by Gail Daley (top 100 books of all time checklist .TXT) 📕

a season here, you’ll see. But we leave a skeleton crew manning the outpost in case someone camps close enough to attack while the outpost is under-manned."

He grunted. "Depending on weather as a defense isn’t always reliable. Maybe after the season passes, Vernal and I can take a little trip out to the outposts to see if we can improve security. That’s for later though. We have other fish to fry. You know this area better than I do. If you were planning an ambush where would you do it?"

Always so business-like, Katherine thought ruefully. Their union had been more than satisfying but she couldn’t help wondering what his reaction would be if she proposed to make it permanent.

"Hey!" he snapped his fingers under her nose. "Zack to Katherine. I asked you where you think the best ambush place will be."

Abruptly jerked back from her nostalgic dreaming, Katherine replied. "There's Blue Talon Canyon at the base of the hills. We usually hold most of the herds there for a few days before we move them down into the low meadows near the Lodge. The ground gets hilly as we approach it and they could pick us off from concealment."

"Okay, then we need to get there ahead of the herds and scout it out to make sure we aren’t walking into a trap when we arrive. I’ll take a small team of fighters and scouts with me and cut across to it. We have six fighters from my old unit with us, I’ll take three of them and I need you to pick three more of your people who can guide us there. We’ll leave as soon as we arrive in Alpine Meadows Station."

Camp was the usual first night muddle with everyone running around trying to get organized. Chores had to be assigned, the animals fed and camping domes set up.

Never having slept in the outdoors before the children were excited, Katherine decided they would all share a porta-dome. She had left Sooka behind with Corrine because her pups had just been born. Besides her, Zack, and the children, Violet insisted that Jelli sleep in the pop-up with them. This meant everyone had to step over or around her if they needed to get up in the middle of the night, and when Zack rose quietly to check on the night guards, he accidentally stepped on her tail. Jelli’s squeal of outrage woke up not only their dome, but those on either side of them.

The next afternoon they arrived at Alpine Meadows, and the next morning Zack left with his fighters on the scouting trip.

Zack and his scouts could cover more ground than the slow-moving herds. He told Katherine and the children he would meet them before they arrived at Blue Talon Canyon. Watching Zack and the seven fighters ride off into the pre-dawn chill was hard. Katherine had smiled at Zack as she kissed him goodbye, swallowing a knot of fear for him. When she saw some of the distress disappear from her children’s’ faces, she was glad she had made the effort. She remembered one of Corrine’s teaching mantras—confidence was contagious. When he left, Zack got a hard hug from all three girls and at Violet’s insistence a goodbye whuffle from Jelli. From Rupert and Roderick, he got a manly handshake as he instructed them to "look after the girls while I’m gone."

"We’ll look after each other," Katherine had retorted. She then made sure that all her children were too busy with morning camp chores to have time to fret. Unlike herself at that age, her new children were acutely aware of the idea a parent could be taken away from them. She and Zack were their security, she reminded herself; she couldn’t afford to for them to see her fear for Zack unless she wanted them to take matters into their own hands.

They probably would do something anyway, she thought resignedly as Juliette and Roderick caught up with her when the herds and flock moved toward the next station. "Are we going to be attacked?" Juliette asked.

Katherine studied her, judging how frank she ought to be about the situation. There was fear there, but resolution too. "Well, I hope not, but it’s always possible," she replied.

"We want to learn to fire the plasma rifles," Juliette stated.

Katherine’s eyebrows rose. "You've been learning the Force Wand so you can defend yourselves."

"Yes, but that’s for close-in fighting. I think it will be better if I don’t have to fight them close up, don’t you?" Roderick insisted.

Katherine nodded. "All right. This evening we will hold a class for anyone who wants to learn how to load and fire them. I can’t let you fire them, though’ because we might need the ammunition for actual fighting later, but you can practice aiming."

Two days later They reached the second Station on the route, Angel Hair Falls Station. The couple who ran it, Jordan and Mia, already had their wagon packed, and had made a gather of the long-haired sheep and goats being watched and kept bunched up by the herding dogs. Angel Hair Falls also had a large flock of the huge multi-colored flightless birds, which still needed to be gathered for the trip. The birds could be found making a colorful display in the trees above the camp. Ostamus were highly prized for their colorful feathers used for hats and clothing and their spicy meat. Their DNA had been adapted from several large breeds of birds from Old Earth and the first colonists had nicknamed them Otsamus. The birds were mean-tempered, territorial and notoriously hard to drive. They had long razor edged talons on their feet, which they weren’t shy about using when they were displeased. Most bird wranglers used the stunning end of the Force Wand as an incentive to make the birds move in the direction wanted. It helped to have feeders filled with birdseed attached to the back of a cart. The cart traveled slowly enough for the birds to snatch