Mountainous Stretch of Wind

By Meyari McFarland

Etsuko delighted in the challenge of meeting a new species on a new world. Meeting new aliens, learning of their cultures, was her greatest joy. Not as joyful was dealing with new coworkers who seemed to view her as an odd little threat to their much more important experiments. It would have been fine if their Commander hadn't ordered Etsuko to smooth the way in their tiny habitat.

Mountainous Stretch of Wind is a humorous SF story of learning to deal with unexpected circumstances and finding joy no matter what's thrown your way that you're sure to love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: MDR Publishing
• Release date: Apr 9, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311426666

Meyari McFarland

Meyari McFarland has been telling stories since she was a small child. Her stories range from SF and Fantasy adventures to Romances but they always feature strong characters who do what they think is right no matter what gets in their way. Her series range from Space Opera Romance in the Drath series to Epic Fantasy in the Mages of Tindiere world. Other series include Matriarchies of Muirin, the Clockwork Rift Steampunk mysteries, and the Tales of Unification urban fantasy stories, plus many more. You can find all of her work on MDR Publishing's website at www.MDR-Publishing.com.

Book preview

Mountainous Stretch of Wind

By Meyari McFarland

Other Books by Meyari McFarland:

Fitting In

Artifacts of Awareness

A Range of Debts Collection

The Nature of Beasts

Captured Debts Collection

Repair and Rebuild

Infinite Horizons Collection

Tales from the Dana Clanhouse

Storm Over Archaelaos

Infinite Dreams Collection 2

Coming Together

Tales of Adventure

Tales of Romance

Following the Trail

Crafting Home

Transplant of War

Infinite Travels

Copyright ©2015 by Mary Raichle

Cover image © SpinningAngel | Dreamstime.com - Abandoned Alien City With Dying Sun Photo ID 18252521 © Angela Harburn | Dreamstime.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be emailed to [e-mail]

This book is also available in TPB format from all major retailers.

Dedication:

This story is dedicated to Mayumi Smith of the Nippon Business Institute for inspiration and for encouraging my husband and I to learn about and explore Japan.

Table of Contents

Mountainous Stretch of Wind

Transplant of War

Afterword

Mountainous Stretch of Wind

1. Ascent

Wind battered at Etsuko. She leaned into it, hands thrust deep into her coat pockets. Not that the pockets helped. The wind stabbed through the coat, through her gloves, through all of the clothes she wore, even her heavy insulated underwear. Cold enough to bite and hard enough to steal her breath, the wind was like an enemy intent on killing Etsuko before she could take another step.

It was glorious.

She'd missed wind since she left Japan to explore other planets and other cultures. Certainly, while on world she got to experience actual weather but most of her time was spent on space ships and those could be so dreadfully dull. Even if the Commander shared Etsuko's sense of humor and indulged in little prank wars with her the vast majority of her time shipboard was dull. Uninteresting. Boring.

Every time she tried to look at the path ahead the wind whipped tears into her eyes. She grinned, wiped the tears away with one cuff, and kept looking despite the wind that slipped under her safety glasses and into her eyes. So nice to have that struggle!

Even through the tear-blur Etsuko could see that they had far to go yet. The path stretched upwards, a bare rocky foot trail leading through boulders and scrubby grass that whipped in the wind like tentacles reaching for Etsuko's feet. There were other plants, tiny purple creeping plants that slowly moved over the soil with tentacle-like branches functioning as limbs. Their white flowers were more like dots against the purple stems than the flowers that Etsuko was familiar with.

She wondered what they smelled like, if the pollen they released to the driving wind would cause her eyes to