Miranda of Daris

By Juliana Rew

After 300 years, humanity has crept outward from Earth as far as the Sigma Draconis star system, popularly known as Dragon Stead. The Faranan colony wages war on the rest of the solar system and tries to wrest power from Erenarch, the capital planet.

Recruits for the war effort include a Darisian street urchin named Miranda Powers. After years spent fighting in interplanetary war theaters, Miranda distinguishes herself as a battle-hardened officer in Network Command, but her true talents lie in strategy and training young recruits. The next phase in Miranda's career will be grooming young geniuses for leadership at Erenarch Academy.

But just as it appears that peace across Dragon Stead is finally within reach, a startling discovery on Daris calls her back to her home planet.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Third Flatiron Publishing
• Release date: May 25, 2023
• ISBN: 9781732218918

Juliana Rew

Juliana Rew writes science fiction and fantasy. She also publishes work by other authors under her company, Third Flatiron Publishing LLC.

Book preview

Chapter One

The Urchin

She looked down at her right side, which was tingling a bit. A hole had been torn in her armor, which was smoking. She cursed and slapped at the hole before it began to burn her. As usual, the exercise was using live ammo, in this case the Rannett 9600 stunner set to kill.

I feel the same way about you, she shouted, and jumped out from behind the wall, stunner blazing in the general direction she had seen bursts from a moment ago.

She stopped firing. Silence. Her eyes scanned the horizon in front of her. Where had they gone? She crouched, about to dash back for cover, when something heavy hit her in the back of the head. She fell to her knees, fighting for consciousness, then did a perfect face plant into the cream pie of blackness.

***

Miranda sat with a sullen expression listening to Colonel Kurten's postmortem of the exercise while absent-mindedly stroking the huge raven sitting on her arm.

Corporal Powers, you totally lost it out there. That's a sure way to get yourself killed, he said.

I can take care of myself, she retorted.

That's obvious, or else you wouldn't be in this class, he said. He briefly recalled all the deadly battles she had survived just being a child on Daris. What happened this morning? He didn't particularly enjoy seeing his students get concussions, but they had to get the message somehow.

They wrecked my armor, she said. It cost a million Korunas, and now it's trash.

Listen up, all of you, Kurten said loudly. "The armor is worth only as much as the person wearing it. Don't worry about what it cost. Just worry about watching your ass.

Speaking of watching, tomorrow's exercise is going to be in teams of two. If you can't watch your own back, Corporal Powers, maybe one of your buddies will do it.

***

Miranda was mortified and went to Kurten's office to complain. Even though Kurten often put her in command, she was a leader, not a nursemaid. She'd lived alone since she was eight. She would die alone, if it came to that. Everybody did at some point.

I don't want to put my life in someone else's hands, she complained.

You will do that tomorrow. When you finish training, you will be helping other people, and this will be a good lesson in thinking of someone other than yourself.

She scowled but said nothing. I think of other people plenty, especially the ones I'm trying to help go to Hell.

Kurten watched her depart his office and shook his head.

***

Miranda's home planet of Daris Prime was on the outer edge of the Sigma Draconis (Alsafi) solar system, popularly known as Dragon Stead. It had taken humanity three hundred years to creep out this far from Earth's solar system. Most of the colonies on the seven reasonably habitable planets were taking hold, interrupted only by intermittent landgrab warfare and squabbles over resources. The capital planet, icy Erenarch, was remotest from Sigma Draconis, which was a star only slightly larger than the rest in Daris' sky.

Daris was the most backward planet in Dragon Stead, often undergoing a war, a revolution, or an ethnic cleansing. Miranda nearly hadn't survived her childhood on Daris, living hand-to-mouth and suffering the indignity of being helpless against the abuse of family and enemies alike. She was only ten Earth-years old the day she discovered a stun weapon on a corpse lying in the street. Luckily it was pointing in the right direction when she curiously pressed her finger against the red circle.

A blue spark jumped out from the stunner, and chips of stone exploded from the concrete wall in front of her. It had been set to deliver a deadly blow to anything in close range. The hole looked familiar, just another pockmark like in all the buildings in the neighborhood.

Miranda pushed the small green button next, but nothing happened. Apparently that was the safety. She clipped the stunner onto her belt and pulled her shirt out to hide it. It was getting late, and she needed to get off the street.

She had waited a little too long. A group of limbers was coming around the corner, laughing loudly and bragging about the old couple they had just mugged. And here, to the boys' delight, was fresh meat.

Hey, little girl, where you headed? the leader said. What's that under your shirt? He put his arm around her neck.

Miranda didn't reply and tried to pull away.

Let's see what you got, the leader said.

Miranda twisted and ducked out of his grasp, and the stunner found its way into her hands. She pressed the red button without thinking. The boy fell to the ground, twitching.

Get away from me! she screamed.

The other boys held out their hands and backed away.

As Miranda ran down the street, she realized she hadn't killed him. Maybe the green button wasn't a safety, but a set on low. Whatever. Screw them.

That night, when she went to bed without any supper yet again, she hugged the stunner tightly against the cold night and stared sleeplessly into the dark. Instead of dismally pondering the possibility of finding food tomorrow, as she usually did, she felt herself float dreamlike into a sunlit vision in which a crowd of ragged onlookers parted for a young woman warrior wearing a stunner on her belt. The woman climbed aboard a space transport and left Daris far behind.

***

Miranda was part of a recent effort to civilize Daris, which was poor in resources and inhabited by supremely disappointed citizens. Miranda hoped to get off Daris someday, perhaps to visit Erenarch or Tarant, but for now, she was concentrating on rising up the military ladder of her continent on Daris, New Sudeten. A lot of the population was descended from Czechs on old Earth. She would become a Peacekeeper when she finished her training.

Kurten had discovered her two years ago, running wild, grabbing food from terrified street vendors and looking and smelling like she had never had a bath. She even ran her own gang, some older teenage limbers who looked to be her muscle when bravado alone wouldn't do the trick. She was making a living extorting tribute from the local shopkeepers in exchange for protection from her group of ruffians. And she had a stunner.

Kurten observed her and her buddies from the cover of a dark corner as they worked their way down the street. A regular mudlark, he thought, eyeing her filthy clothes. The clothes looked like cheap bioplastic, made for wearing once and discarding. They were degrading right before his eyes. She had braided her long dark hair and twisted it at the nape of her neck, the only evidence that she took any notice of her appearance. He approved, remembering that ancient warriors kept their hair out of reach of opponents. No use getting run through with a sword while someone held you by the hair.

Hey, Miranda, one of the boys called. How about one of these apple fruits? He picked one off a cart and held it up.

Yecch, I find apples to be abhorrent, she replied. She grabbed it from his hand and threw it against the wall, narrowly missing the vendor's head. The splattered juice dripped down the wall.

Kurten had to stifle a laugh. The kid had a vocabulary. An inappropriate one, to be sure, but she obviously wanted to show off her superior intelligence.

Eventually Kurten approached her. May I have a word with you, miss? And your friends too, if you wish.

"They