{"id":89,"date":"2011-11-09T10:13:36","date_gmt":"2011-11-09T15:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/?page_id=89"},"modified":"2013-02-12T10:54:46","modified_gmt":"2013-02-12T15:54:46","slug":"test-of-honour","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/shannon-haddock\/test-of-honour\/","title":{"rendered":"Test of Honour"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“This could be a problem,” Lyndsey said, peeking around the corner.<\/p>\n

Martoz looked concerned.\u00a0 “You <\/em>think something could be a problem?\u00a0 You, who thinks ten to one is not a fair fight when you’re the one because it’s too easy<\/em>?\u00a0 Let me take a look.”<\/p>\n

The large Mugdaran man peered around her, and then looked Lyndsey right in the eyes.\u00a0 “This could <\/em>be a problem.”<\/p>\n

“Told ya so,” Lyndsey said, checking the charge on her blaster.\u00a0 “Got a plan or do we just charge in and pray for the best?”<\/p>\n

“We stay right here and hope they don’t see us,” Martoz said sternly.\u00a0 “And if they do, we take as many of them with us as we can.”<\/p>\n

Lyndsey looked up at the ceiling and then, her bright blue eyes twinkling, back at her husband.\u00a0 “Boost me up there.\u00a0 I got a better idea.”<\/p>\n

“Tell me what it is first.\u00a0 I don’t want to have explain to Ana — or Val — <\/em>that you got yourself killed.”<\/p>\n

“If this doesn’t work, we’ll both be killed, so you won’t have to do that,” Lyndsey’s tone was flippant, but his mention of their wife and very young son were making her have second thoughts.<\/p>\n

“I like the sound of this even less then.\u00a0 It’s my plan we’ll use then:\u00a0 stay here.”\u00a0 His tone had a finality to it that even the impetuous, temperamental Lyndsey rarely argued with.<\/p>\n

She sighed.\u00a0 “Yeah, guess you’re right.”\u00a0 She touched the mj\u00f6llnir pendant she always wore and said a silent prayer for victory, strength, and courage.\u00a0 And then another for the gods to take care of her wife, son, and unborn daughter if she and Martoz didn’t survive.<\/p>\n

Martoz checked around the corner again.\u00a0 The enemy soldiers were advancing on them. “How’s your weaponry?”<\/p>\n

“Hands and feet are intact, got about a half dozen shuriken left, half a charge on my blaster, and my blades are sharp.\u00a0 You?”<\/p>\n

“Less charge than I’d like, some sharp knives, and what the gods gave me.\u00a0 We might be able to take some of them with us at least.”\u00a0 He shut his eyes, very briefly, and whispered a prayer to his gods and ancestors for victory.\u00a0 He didn’t pray for strength or courage because to a Mugdaran those were seen as essential traits of being an adult, especially one who walked the warrior’s path.\u00a0 Needing to pray for them was seen as cowardice.\u00a0 In less tense situations, he and Lyndsey had engaged in what they termed “spirited debate” about this.\u00a0 (Everyone else called it arguing.)<\/p>\n

Martoz ached to pull Lyndsey tight against his chest one last time, to say goodbye properly, but the enemy soldiers were advancing much too quickly.\u00a0\u00a0 Instead he\u00a0 took the safety off his blaster and sat, expressionless, waiting for his foe to arrive.<\/p>\n

Lyndsey, usually happy when facing danger, rushing into deadly situations with a grin and a laugh, sat with a cold expression on her face.\u00a0 She’d sworn an oath to one of her many sisters years before to not get killed on a Dagger mission.\u00a0 If she was going to have to suffer as an oath-breaker for all eternity, the foe who caused it was going to suffer in the present.<\/p>\n

The Gristin soldiers saw them and opened fire.\u00a0 While Martoz fired back, Lyndsey strode forward, her katana in hand.\u00a0 “Any of you guys wanna fight fair?” she asked, having suddenly remembered that Gristins tended to be an old-fashioned lot, and tales heard at her grandfather’s knee of the old ways of Galfarran combat.<\/p>\n

Martoz drew in a deep breath, resisting the urge to scream at his wife.\u00a0 She’d been the first to realize the situation was desperate and now this?\u00a0 He wondered, not for the first time, if on some level she was<\/em> suicidal.<\/p>\n

The ostilin who commanded the platoon loudly ordered his soldiers to cease firing.\u00a0 He walked over, and in Galfarran almost too accented to be comprehensible, he spoke to the small human woman.\u00a0 “You are a warrior?”<\/p>\n

“That I am.”\u00a0 Her voice was clear and confident.<\/p>\n

Martoz now had no idea what was going on, and from the chatter and confused looks among the Gristin soldiers, neither did many of them.<\/p>\n

“What is the strange weapon you carry?”<\/p>\n

“It’s called a katana.\u00a0 It’s from my father’s homeworld, Earth.”<\/p>\n

“I have never heard of this ‘Earth’.\u00a0 Have I heard of your father?”<\/p>\n

“Maybe.\u00a0 He’s Viktor Blue, Slayer of Drochslem and Hero of Culs III.”\u00a0 The pride in the young woman’s voice as she stated the titles her father so detested was unmistakable.<\/p>\n

“I have never heard either appellation.\u00a0 What of your mother?”<\/p>\n

“Renata Kavaliro, Dagger, inventor of the HIR87 maneuver drive.”<\/p>\n

“Those I have heard of.\u00a0 They are what allowed us to reach this moon easily.\u00a0 And Kavaliro is a name I have heard, though not with ‘Renata’.\u00a0 Were they, of old, guardian faeshir?”<\/p>\n

“Some still are, but I’m descended from Kalem Kavaliro, the last guardian of Polthaina.”<\/p>\n

“Polthaina fell four human generations ago.\u00a0 Are you sure of this descent?”<\/p>\n

“As sure as anyone can be of such things.”<\/p>\n

“Are you as honorable as your faeshir ancestors?”<\/p>\n

“I believe so.”\u00a0 Martoz was surprised, and a bit proud.\u00a0 His wife tended to sound cocky, almost arrogant, when asked questions like that.\u00a0 This time, she just sounded confidant.<\/p>\n

“Then I accept your challenge of a ‘fair fight’.”\u00a0 He drew the slender blade he carried from its sheath on his side.\u00a0 The tall insectoid man brandishing a sword in Lyndsey’s direction looked so fierce that many would have quaked with fear.\u00a0 If Lyndsey was afraid at all though, it didn’t show.<\/p>\n

The swords met with a clang and for a moment the two combatants were a swirling storm of metal, then the ostilin fell, clutching his abdomen.\u00a0 “You have bested me.\u00a0\u00a0 The Spirits have spoken through you.\u00a0 You are the more honorable one this day.\u00a0 We will let you go.”<\/p>\n

Lyndsey, now breathing a bit heavily, inclined her head.\u00a0 “Thank you.\u00a0 You fought well.\u00a0 Your honor must be nearly equal to mine.\u00a0 My husband is allowed to go too, right?”\u00a0 She tried to say that last part nonchalantly, but didn’t quite manage.<\/p>\n

“He is.\u00a0 He is a very lucky man to have such an honorable warrior for a wife.”<\/p>\n

“Thank you,” Martoz said, coming out from behind cover for the first time.\u00a0 “I know I’m lucky to have her, but it’s nice to hear someone else recognize it occasionally.”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He was smiling, he still wanted to yell at Lyndsey, to ask her what she would have done if her challenge hadn’t been accepted — which, as informally as it was phrased, wouldn’t have surprised him — but he was proud of her.<\/p>\n

Lyndsey, her usual self once more now that the extreme threat to her well-being was over, bowed deeply to the ostilin.\u00a0 “Name’s Lyndsey Katherine Kavaliro-Blue, by the way.\u00a0 In case you want to tell people who bested ya.”<\/p>\n

“My name is Ostilin Krigthrikis do Vild’g and it was an honor to fight with you.\u00a0 Kalem Kavaliro lives on in you.”<\/p>\n

“Thank you,” she said quietly as she and Martoz began walking away.<\/p>\n

Once they were out of hearing range, Martoz grabbed her shoulder to stop her.\u00a0 “I’m glad you thought of that, but next time tell me before you do something like that, <\/em>I thought you’d finally gone mad!”\u00a0 He yelled as he pulled her into a tight hug.<\/p>\n

She smiled at him.\u00a0 “That would spoil all my fun though.\u00a0 You’re sexy when you’re mad.”<\/p>\n

Both laughing, they walked on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“This could be a problem,” Lyndsey said, peeking around the corner. Martoz looked concerned.\u00a0 “You think something could be a problem?\u00a0 You, who thinks ten to one is not a fair fight when you’re the one because it’s too easy?\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":14,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-89","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P1Y5CS-1r","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/89","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/89\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":366,"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/89\/revisions\/366"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}