Mountains of Antrana, Book Three
INTRODUCTION
There was a time when I, Sheri Jordan, thought that a slave was someone who
possessed no power, no ambition, nor personality.
That was before I worked on Taleon.
After graduating, I took my degree in Criminal Justice, caught the wave
known as the “Expansion,” and left Earth.
I came across a job posting for a security officer and arranged off-world
travel.
But I missed the connection and spent the night in an orbiting transit
station in the Robbins System. There I met a man returning from his
vacation. Lieutenant Reginald
Burgess, Robbins Station Security Officer. Hell, he looked old even back
then!
I canceled my flight and worked for Burgess almost six years when he finally
convinced me to pack up everything again and move farther out, to Taleon of
all places.
Taleon is on the edge of nowhere. It was a pay raise, a
promotion, and I didn’t have to work nights all the time.
I made a name for myself putting away bad guys. It was mostly minor stuff.
Until Louis Corrigan came to town.
Corrigan was a Class A bad motherfucker. He was a gun runner, murderer,
extortionist, escapee, and so on.
One dull afternoon I found inconsistencies in the station logistics records.
I put together a team and we caught Corrigan by complete surprise. We held
him six
days until the closest Federal Ranger, Alexi Malind, arrived to take him
away.
Tall, dark-haired, and strong, Alexi made an entrance one would not expect:
he was friendly, warm, and pretty damn funny.
Alexi and Captain Burgess were long-time friends. After reliving old war
stories, Alexi hung out with my crew. We discovered we shared a love for ice
hockey and we had the same dark sense of humor.
I went to his overnight quarters to fuck him. But I had just got his clothes
off when all hell broke loose.
Corrigan had set up a diversion and escaped from the holding cell. He took
out a couple of our officers on his way to a space craft.
Alexi, in true Ranger form, gave chase.
Captain Burgess got one of our extra-planetary crafts up an hour later and
we pursued the cold interstellar trail.
We looked for hours.
We looked for days.
Alone, I searched for months.
Until…
And only then did I understand what it means to be a slave: to possess
selfless power, unfailing determination, and strength of character.
I learned this before my time in the lands of Asil.
But what I did not know, at first, was that I set off a series of events
that forever changed a world and forever changed my life.
This is what happened…