Outliers of Tirano

By Shawn Thompson

Planet Tirano creates a unique milieu for the stories of the series The Encircling Belts of Tirano Saga. Planet Tirano’s aristocracy consists only of pureblooded descendants of the leaders of the mother ship that landed two millennia ago. An order of genetically engineered women, all of whom were conceived in vitro, control Tirano’s computer network and hyperspace portals. The Vhirko, clones of women who died valiantly in battle, guard Tirano’s monarch at all times. Tirano has been at war for decades with a savage alien species that becomes sentient only if mentally linked in groups of four or more.
Tirano’s King Mhikhel unleashes fundamental, and uncontrollable, changes to this milieu when he acknowledges as his child an illegitimate son of a commoner and raises the child (Tarnlot) as a prince. Despite the aristocracy’s antagonism, Mhikhel grooms Tarnlot to serve as the Lord Chancellor (the highest governmental post, which is normally held by a member of the aristocracy) when Mhikhel’s heir (Prince Zhun’Mar) assumes the throne.
In A Bastard’s Oath Tarnlot must rescue the throne for Zhun’Mar’s by foiling both an aristocrat’s coup d’etat and the aliens’ coup de main. In the series’ second installment, A Dream Is A Pinhole In Time, Tarnlot and Zhun’Mar escape an ambush in deep space by entering a hyperspace fissure that strands them on a planet in an unknown galaxy: present day Earth. The third installment, Outliers of Tirano, begins the stories of Siniastra, Zhun’Mar's daughter.
Even though the installments occur in chronological order, each is an independent story. Accordingly, you can read the stories in any order.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shawn Thompson
• Release date: Mar 27, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301052424

Book preview

Prologue

On the planet Tirano, my mother leads an order of genetically engineered women, the Sisterhood of Sibyls, who do not marry and produce daughters in vitro. The Vhirko, clones of females who died valiantly in battle, guard Tirano's monarch at all times. To be a member of Tirano's aristocracy, the Archonan, one must be a pureblooded descendant of the leadership of the mother ship that landed almost two millennia ago. Imagine the inbreeding that has resulted during those two millennia.

Nonetheless, in this milieu, I'm the one stigmatized as a bizarre creature. Not because of my shoulder-length red hair, whitish skin, and stubby physique, but because of the happenstance of my birth. First, I am only half-Tiranoan. My father is an indigen of a planet called Earth that is located on the other side of the Black Cavities. But even more damning, I am the only child ever naturally conceived and given birth by a Sibyl, and to make matters worse, a male child.

However, I'm not a Sibyl. The manner of my birth and a certain part of my anatomy disqualified me. That's fine with me; I've never desired to be a Sibyl and be cloistered most of my life in the Sibyl Compound. Nonetheless, Mom insisted that I be educated in Sibyl schools and used her authority as High Sibyl to have me admitted to the secular classes. I enjoyed legal studies and graduated with a legist degree.

Because I'm the only male ever to be Sibyl educated, I'm the only male who knows how to manipulate a Sibyl fire opal pendant. As a result, I can use my pendant to contact Vision, the Sibyl's vast computer network. Among its other attributes, Vision's research tentacles reach every library in the galaxy, some of which aren't meant to be public, including the only library that I am prohibited from accessing - the Sibyl classified files. The ability to access Vision has proven to be the best gift Mom could have given me, and I never remove my trine necklace that holds my pendant.

Mom could give me an education, but she couldn't give me friends. I only have one friend, Siniastra. Why? We're two mules in a herd of assess. Even though we were raised as if we were Archonan children, we weren't. Like me, Sini had a parent who wasn't Archonan. Her mother, the Vhirko Mirae, was the clone of a peasant child. Thus, under Tiranoan law we were legally classified as KaNoa, not Archonan, something the Archonan children who populated Arvor City never let us forget.

It didn't matter to them or the law that the peasant child had helped save the life of King Mhikhel or that Mhikhel's son, King Zhun'Mar, had married Mirae and that Sini was their child and a Princess. Nor did it matter that my father had discovered the way for King Zhun'Mar, Mirae, and my mother to return to Tirano after they'd been stranded on Earth following the Mhorg's Caerwin Ambush. That he'd also discovered how to restore the vine on Tirano also meant nothing.

But those events are subject of another archive. This archive concerns Archonan subversion of everything Sini and I represent.

-1-

Royal Council Chamber

Arvor Castel

Planet Tirano

All of us at this table know that Princess Siniastra is a wonderful young woman. And none of us doubt her, ah, Count Hoj Rohfek paused, leaned back in his chair, and pinched his double chin, ability to produce an heir capable of assuming the Golden Vine Throne. Unfortunately, as we all also know, many members of the Archonan Assembly do not share our confidence. Overlady Petrella's proposal for a nondurable marriage with Lord Fiotr has provided a solution. It would permit Siniastra to produce a child and demonstrate that her line would not be defective. And it would produce a Tamok scion in our royal family. We would no longer have to worry about obtaining Tamok sihlcon. After the marriage term ends, Siniastra would be free to –

Enough Count! I won't do that to my daughter. The sharp tone of Consort Mirae's voice bounced off the Royal Chamber's muhrwood paneling and echoed in the Chamber's golden dome. I will never consent to Siniastra marrying Fiotr Lok.

Mirae's face turned scarlet and her cobalt-blue eyes narrowed to slits. How could you even contemplate such a thing? He's the son of Mhorg. You act as though Mhorg did not murder Tarnlot. That he never tried to kill Zhun'Mar, steal the Golden Vine Ring, and usurp the Golden Vine Throne.

She clenched her jaw and spoke through closed teeth. Unlike you, I was there. Two dekas may have passed, but I will never forget. Nor will I ever forgive.

From my vantage point in a chair against the inner wall, I was so shocked by Mirae's unexpected outburst that I released my grip on my Sibyl pendant and ceased transmission of the notes I'd been sending to my archiver. Mirae seldom said a word during Royal Council meetings. She hid behind a stone face that never expressed any emotion. But I vibrated with the same emotion. I shared her repugnance at the thought of Siniastra married to Mhorg's son. While on Earth, not only had Mhorg Lok and his brother, Bhradvin Lok, murdered Tarnlot. They had also tried to destroy my father and abduct my mother. I was one who believed the Tamok should have been forced to disavow all of Mhorg and Bhradvin vile acts and to have paid reparations in the form of sihlcon. Instead, upon his return, Zhun'Mar negotiated a treaty with the Tamok to purchase sihlcon chips. Evidently, that's not enough for the Tamok. Now, they want to be rewarded with Sini's marriage to a Lok in addition to the outrageous price in assignats that we must pay for the third generation of sihlcon chips Tamok Mining produces.

Mirae turned her glare across the circular muhrwood table to her husband, King Zhun'Mar. Zhun'Mar's blue eyes widened, as if cold water had doused his curly salt-and-pepper hair. He slumped his broad shoulders back in his chair, spoke softly. We must consider the value of this for the future of Tirano. There is no other source of sihlcon. At the current rate, all of the Belts' sihlcon chips will malfunction within two loops. We must have the new chips.

Mirae didn't say a word and continued to glare at Zhun'Mar. After a few milli, she fixed her glare on the gray-haired, heavy-jowled man