Star People Legacy by Smith, T.L. (feel good books to read .txt) 📕

was just afraid this side might be too tempting.” Lutz touched my arm. “Go to them.”

“I am Bound.” I let myself drift closer to Beth. With one more breath of the pure energy that comprised this universe, I melted down into her. I felt the touch of Casey’s hand, the pull of his soul, his heart, the Bounding of my Spirit to his.

Light burned through my eyelids. I tried to turn my face away from it, but my head didn’t move.

“She’s definitely waking up!”

I didn’t recognize the voice and forced my eyes open. A woman in uniform. A Marine uniform with medical emblems on the lapels. A doctor? We didn’t bring the Marines.

“Capt. Castle, can you hear me?” I tried to answer, but my throat hurt with the slightest thought of it. “Blink twice. You’ve got a breathing tube in.”

I blinked twice, rolling my eyes from side to side. There were other military here, mixed in among the Ci’inkwia. Yazzie popped up next to me. “Thank the Spirits!” She looked genuinely relieved. “We called in the Marines as soon as we realized we were under attack.”

“Though it seems you managed without us. We have troops combing the mountains for anyone that might have slipped past your…” She looked around the plateau. “…warriors. Don’t know exactly what you people were up to here, but these Coyotes made a mistake interrupting your little pow-wow, Captain.”

“It was an honored ceremony!” Yazzie stiffened, looking quite indignant. “The ‘Captain’ is more than…”

Yazzie stopped as I let out a groan, pain, as well as wariness.

She bowed her head to me, but didn’t relent. “There are many tribes and many things YOUR people will never understand. Capt. Castle is a Spirit Woman, but highest among ALL our tribes. She is the Ci’in!” She stood firm against the doctor. “She and those wounded or killed were important to us, including our friend, Sgt. Lutz.”

“I’m sorry if I came off as rude. She is important to us too.” The doctor sounded sincere. “We will take care of the captain and the wounded.” She looked over her shoulder. “We have more helicopters coming any second to start transporting everyone back to the base.”

“Then I will find someone to go with the captain.” Yazzie leaned over me. “Your husband will be with you, as well as two medicine women.”

“It’s a military hospital and there’s no need for assistance …” The doctor pulled out a pocket tablet. “… and I don’t see a husband on record for the captain.”

“Officer Casey Delgado. One of our ceremonies, before we were attacked. And denying the Ci’in access to her own medicine women is a violation of the captain’s religious rights. Do I need to contact the base commander?”

“No…no, no.” The doctor shook her head, her eyebrows scrunching together. “We’ll figure it out.” She tapped at her shoulder, activating the mike on her com. “Alpha flight, the first load is ready to go. Civilian list as follows. One head blunt trauma, one GSW chest. Military injured. One multiple lacerations and burns, one GSW shoulder Two unwounded civilians… medical personnel.”

Getting a nod of satisfaction from Yazzie, the doctor focused on me again. “Is this all right with you, captain?” I gave her two blinks, then looked around me again.

This time I could focus better. I saw Casey and jerked my head his way. She looked too. “He’s been sedated. Bullet shattered his shoulder. He’ll need reconstruction, but we’ll know more as soon as we get a proper scan.”

My eyes went further, to a string of bodies. Bodies… how were we going to explain this? The doctor followed my gaze and as if reading my mind, glanced at me, then at Yazzie. “The commander is going to have some serious questions.”

I blinked again as a helicopters rotors started kicking up dust. The doctor pulled a mask over her face, turning to the other medics. “We need to get everyone out of here now and into detox.” I could see the radioactive biohazard emblem on the face of the mask. She raised a hypo gun. “It’s going to be a bumpy ride, so you’re sleeping through it. See you on the other side.”

CHAPTER

37

 

There were thousands of questions, taking days to answer, but not until I’d recovered enough to tolerate the long sessions. My ‘medicine women’ were Ci’in, with me twenty-four hours a day. Via tribal song, they couched me on the constructed story of what happened in the mountains.

They also brought me witness testimony and updates. Members of our party were being unofficially held on the reservation, at the resort. Not a bad imprisonment. The military had argued against it, but the Cocopah guaranteed they’d not let us disappear. Not wanting to get into a pissing match and lose their indefinite land leases, the government capitulated.

I knew about every interrogation and every answer the ‘witnesses’ gave, including the illegals’ testimony. Most of the hostages refused to speak at all. The few who did repeated what they’d been taught by my father. Not that it took a lot of convincing. They knew no one would believe that a giant snake and his army of mercenaries kidnapped them and was using them as incubators. They blamed the deaths of their people on ‘Coyotes’.

In his turn, Casey gave testimony. Our ‘outing’ was supposed to be a dual event, our marriage by ancient tribal customs, before I ascended to the lofty position of “The Ci’in”, a secretly elevated Spirit Woman to all the indigenous peoples of the Americas. We’d completed the marriage ceremony the night before ascending the mountain for the second ceremony, where we were attacked.

Individually the stories were believable, but adding in the retaliatory, ritualistic nature of our enemies’ deaths, I wasn’t surprised they found the collective story incredulous. The investigators argued about the ‘eye for an eye’ justice and escalated the case. By the time I was fit to testify, it was to an NCIS Inquest.

Since it involved Lutz’ death, attacks on citizens of Mexico and the Nation