Heart of the Covenant

By S.L. Dove Cooper

In Heart of the Covenant, five stories explore ties of friendship, family and culture, embracing our differences and our similarities.

Having applied to be an ambassador for her people within the Galactic Covenant, Hedriar has relocated to Cerulean Station, one of the Covenant's largest residential stations. There, she'll spend the next years sharing her own culture and learning about the Covenant's as part of an exchange programme between the two.

Hedriar may not have the most detailed of plans of what, or even how, to share the aspects of her culture that matter most to her, but she's got enthusiasm, family and new-found friends at her side. She'll figure it out, and along the way she'll learn that what people value most may not be so different at the core.

Heart of the Covenant is a cosy, low-stakes science fiction collection with a strong focus on slice-of-life narratives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Kraken Collective
• Release date: Dec 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223969204

Book preview

Heart of the Covenant by S.L. Dove CooperHeart of the Covenant by S.L. Dove Cooper

To all who need a little warmth in dark times.

Table of Contents

Big Skies, Small Wings

The March on Heartful

The Cerulean Sidelines Quest

Hush of a Thousand Feathers

When the Wind Has Laughed and Murmured

Glossary

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Thank you for reading!

Big Skies, Small Wings

Cerulean Main Plaza, the data shell in her ear announced in unfamiliarly accented Nidar, startling Koi Hedriar iol Maichiskoiyo from her doze. She jumped up and scooped her portmanteau from the luggage rack even before any of the other passengers had gotten up. Suddenly self-conscious, she gripped the handles tightly and stood before the door until the tram came to a graceful halt.

She took a deep breath and stepped into… another world. Whatever Hedriar had expected of Cerulean Space Station, it had not included a plaza where the pathways on the floor shimmered a soft, golden brown. They led from the tram stop into the station’s veritable jungle of fragrant flowers. It was far greener than she’d ever imagined possible, plants rioting from the bottom all the way to, it seemed, the top, making her wings itch with the desire to fly and see just how far up it went. No amount of pictures or stories could have prepared her for the reality of a space station.

And now here she stood, all alone, breathing in the intoxicating scent of foreign flowers and dirt fresh from rain, still with not the first clue how she was going to achieve what she’d applied for. The other passengers flowed around her, grumbling in a disorienting mesh of languages as they disembarked from the tram while she stood there. Their closeness made Hedriar twitch and hunch her shoulders, but she was too overwhelmed to move.

The first time she’d seen an alien – truly seen one, not just a hologram or on a vidscreen – had been when she’d arrived at the shuttle terminal and the thought of living among so many, in a place so much more alive than she’d imagined… Hedriar didn’t know what she was feeling.

Undoubtedly she’d make friends. Bring stories back for her people to share. What was she going to give the Covenant in exchange when all she could think of felt so plain now, so common? Almost, she’d decided to turn around, step back in her nest-father’s shadow, the prospect of leaving all she knew too daunting now she’d arrived. It was safer in the shadows, even knowing people might never see her. She wanted, she thought, to be seen. Did she? She’d told the members of Song who’d interviewed her so, because what better way to be visible than to earn the notorious prestige of someone who’d lived in the strange, foreign Covenant. She’d not told them that last part, had used everything her nest-father had taught her to win them over without considering whether she genuinely believed it. Truthfully, she’d had no plan other than to leave Tribesia, and still had none now.

The data shell chimed at her cheerfully. It took Hedriar a moment to figure out how to activate its map again and get it to show her the way to the residences and the home she’d be inhabiting for the coming five years as one of the unofficial cultural ambassadors of the nidar.

The map and the route seemed to float around the back of her mind, more disorienting than helpful. Perhaps I should’ve tried wearing it more often, Hedriar thought, though it wouldn’t have been useful at all back home, and she hadn’t needed it on the flight to Cerulean. The thing was uncomfortable, and made her feel unbalanced.

Taking a deep breath, Hedriar stepped forward. By now she was the last passenger moving from the stop. People flowed along the paths, certain of where they were going as they disappeared behind raised beds of flowers and trees. Hedriar took only the one step, trying to find a way to orient herself on the ground, with the map chiming in some undefined space behind her mind.

Hedriar set out, hopeful she’d finally got the hang of it. Walking with the map shifting and changing in the back of her mind was tricky, even on the long, straight route she was taking. It saw her pass underneath a solitary tree and even the two distant, colourful prugai she’d spotted couldn’t fully blot the annoying virtual map out. With luck, the path she was on was the fastest. She would’ve flown, but it was against station regulations. At least the people walking past her didn’t stare or try to be social. As much as Hedriar wanted to make new friends, she had no desire to start right after the long trip to the station. She wanted to steady herself a little first.

Worse, the scents around her were making her giddy and the sheer number of people on the path was far greater than she’d expected. She hastened her pace as much as she dared, resisting the desire to wrap her wings around her as tightly as she could. Between that, the verdure, colours and movement everywhere and trying to watch the map and gauge how it related to the path she was on, she lost her bearings repeatedly.

Then she bumped into something. The map shut itself off abruptly with a chime.

Hey, watch it, a voice said in Standard Siehti. Hedriar looked up from the holographic pebbles she’d been staring at and found herself opposite an alien face paler than hers, without the feathering to the sides and with a triangular protruding nose. Same height as her, though, so she could look straight into the large, round, brown eyes that looked so similar to hers and yet were nothing like them.

S-sorry, she stammered, all her poise forgotten as she tried to turn the shell’s map back on, stay focused on the person in front of her and work through the foreign language enough to at least seem fluent.

You’re looking a little lost there, the stranger said, scanning her up and down. Hedriar tightened her wings a little more. Their nose and whiskers twitched which was… She tried to recall the database on siehti body language, but though she’d passed the exam all her knowledge had deserted her now.

You all right, dear?

I… I… I think I’m lost? She lilted the whole sentence up far too high for a proper question because what was she going to do if she had got lost?

Yes, we don’t see many of your kind around, the siehti said. Come on then. Let’s sit and talk. They had no compunction about hopping onto the elevated ground ribboning the path, so after a moment’s hesitation Hedriar did the same. The siehti proved comfortable to talk to. Mostly they discussed how Hedriar could reach her new home, but the siehti also explained how to turn the shell’s map on and off. They reassured her that one got used to the background presence in time. Hedriar’s disbelief was so great, she lost her near-sight for a while, earning a chuckle from the siehti.

I… Thank you for your help, she said once she thought she understood their directions. She made a proper wingswept bow. I shouldn’t take up more of your time.

Ach, it’s a slow day. The siehti waved off her concerns. Go home. Have a bath. Relax.

I will, thank you. Hedriar thought longingly of familial preening.

And if you’re really lost, the siehti continued, just ask for a guide. The shell’ll provide.

Hedriar bowed again and hurried. The directions proved far more useful than the shell’s map.

Two weeks later, Hedriar thought she was finally starting to grasp how to navigate flat ground and had a much better understanding of why her people eschewed Covenant technology in favour of their own as much as they did. She’d spent a week and a half trying to get used to the way the data shell kept throwing off her sense of direction and ability to focus, then several more days getting used to a data tablet. It was more cumbersome, but it was less disconcerting and, in her opinion, far more user-friendly than the ear shells.

When she wasn’t struggling to handle Covenant technology, she’d taken to exploring parts of Cerulean Station that were noted for their beauty in the hope that one of them would inspire her. She really should not have left Tribesia without a plan, but until she had one she could explore and find her bearings. Probably.

Hedriar was exploring a ground-level farmer’s market not too far from her residence today. It promised delights from all across the Covenant and she was hopeful she’d find some yiba taimekakel, but so far she’d had no luck. She had found half a dozen different fruits she wanted to try, however, so her shoulders were aching. Like everywhere she’d been on the station, the market was a delight of different beings: from the velvety siehti to the scaly ssossiss to the humans that looked almost like wingless nidari and multilingual chatter filled the air. Siehti, she’d learned early on, was not spoken as universally as she’d been taught.

She trudged along, adjusting the straps on her frontpack, wings uncomfortably tight with the busy-ness of the market, until the crowds slowed and thinned near the edge of the market grounds. Opposite the boulevard, right at the edge where it met another pathway, she spotted a small café. It looked less pristine than most of the well-kept lushness of the Galactic Covenant, with paint that was chipped and only a handful of chairs under the parasols outside. The sign above it may have been a little crooked, but it was clear and crisp: The Hop and Skip.

The café’s main appeal to Hedriar right then was that no one was using the terrace, despite the warm artificial summer’s day. Hedriar was dressed in as little as Cerulean’s modesty guidelines allowed because she wasn’t used to the warm temperature and humidity at all. Any kind of coolth was immensely welcome. The café’s interior proved comfortable, more spacious than the terrace suggested and brighter with cheerful yellows and pastel blue accents. A handful of people were seated at the tables and a siehti stood behind the bar. Hedriar frowned a bit before moving closer, but neither near nor far-sight could explain why the person looked familiar.

Are you lost again? the barperson asked, their nose and whiskers twitching. That meant amusement, and now Hedriar remembered why they’d seemed familiar. It was the siehti who’d helped her the day she’d arrived. She smiled back.

Not this time, she said, settling herself on one of the stools, grateful for the space to stretch her wings a little and put her pack down. "More adventurous, though. What’s the best drink