Categories > Original > Sci-Fi
War is all Hell
0 ReviewsMalaqhai Andorra knows about war. Gunfire and bombs exploding in your ears, dead soldiers littering the ground around you, screams of wounded friends, and the gnawing, aching hunger for food, and d...
War is all hell.
Gunfire and bombs exploding in your ears, dead soldiers littering the ground around you, screams of wounded friends, and the gnawing, aching hunger for food, and drink, and peace.
Malaqhai Andorra knew this well. He wasn't a decorated militia soldier, of course, hardly noticed at all. If he were to die, right there in that God-awful trench, his body would be ignored in favor of more fighting, left to rot and then forgotten, save for the few who would spit on his red-haired corpse. Considering his birth, he would not be surprised if it ended just like that.
Malaqhai was born before the war, on a spaceship bound for freedom and not on the native soil of either parent. That might have been best, in the end, because it let him choose the side he would believe in, the side he would fight for. It was only several short months later that he arrived as a new-born on free Alaqhai soil, and he was named by his parents in honor of that gift.
When Malaqhai was four-and-a-half-and-eight-days old Alaqhai declared independence for its sovereign Koatreq. For two years, Alaqhai held in its grasp the freedom is so yearned for. But two years were all they had, because Koatreq declared war on its insubordinate planet, and invaded.
At seven, just a year into the war, Malaqhai met a boy his age named Sai, the only one to ever look at him and not see the red hair of Koatreq heritage. On the battlefield, Sai defended his friend from fellow officers who looked at him -like that- and dared sometimes to do more. It never mattered that his skin was just as pale as theirs, or his eyes just as dark, or that he spoke and lived just the same. All that mattered was that the blood of their enemy ran through his veins, and they hated him for it.
Malaqhai remembered being sixteen and standing before the militia recruiter. With Sai at his side, Malaqhai had braved going; with Sai at his side, Malaqhai could brave anything. The recruiter had stared him down, agonizing second after agonizing second, before he'd grunted in disgust and signed Malaqhai up. Afterward, the recruiter thrust a violet bandana at him and told him to cover the 'revolting red crap' on his head. He made no attempt to lower his voice when he told the next volunteer in line 'better one of him dies on that battle field than one of us.'
The next in line was Sai, who wasted no time following him into the ranks of the Alaqhai Militia, and then decking the recruiter. Later, when he and Sai had gone out and gotten high for the last time, Sai confessed that he didn't really care about all this war stuff. He hated both sides, but he'd follow Malaqhai onto the battlefield and to the end, if he had to, to protect him from his fellow officers.
Sai wouldn't remember saying it the next day, but his words would haunt Malaqhai for years.
Malaqhai was put under the leadership of Commander Avishai of the Alaqhai Militia, who was a genius. Judicial kept putting off promoting Avishai to General, but it was no secret to the people that he was a Commander with an army the size of a General's, and talent enough to be promoted as high as Arma. But most importantly, Avishai had yellow eyes.
The Commander's Koatreq ancestry wasn't nearly as prominent as Malaqhai's, of course, even if he did have eyes as yellow as any enemy soldier. Otherwise, Avishai would never have made it to the rank of Commander in the first place. Sai ranted sometimes about its unfairness; he was sure Avishai hadn't become General yet because of his Koatreq blood, and that the Alaqhai government was going to get them all killed with their bigot discrimination.
Malaqhai had asked once why Sai hated his own people so much, why he defended Malaqhai's Koatreq blood like honor even when Malaqhai himself felt it hardly mattered. He had hoped, just a little, that Sai would tell him that he had lineage that traced back to their enemy just as Malaqhai's did. Instead, Sai had said to him that Alaqhai harbored evil in its soul, not freedom, and he'd seen that with his own eyes far too often not to be jaded against it. Malaqhai, disturbed, never asked him what he meant. It was three years later when he regretted that decision.
Zander Senreq was a Koatreq Medic, third class, who'd picked the wrong part of the wrong battlefield that day. At nineteen, Malaqhai had captured Senreq as a prisoner of war, his first and last, and Malaqhai wondered when he'd become a soldier. Senreq was just a kid; a shaking, frightened boy of sixteen who had never wanted to hurt anybody and didn't understand why it mattered if his hair was the white of Koatreq deserts and not violet, or if his eyes were yellow instead of Alaqhai black.
Sai thought the kid was pathetic. Malaqhai agreed. They'd watched as Janai, a fierce, dark woman who Commander Avishai held at his right hand, interrogated the prisoner for information on enemy troop movements, access codes, General Rariteq, and the Koatreq satellite in orbit that everyone knew was loosing them the war.
Senreq held out for longer than anyone had expected, but by the time his rescue team swooped in, all red uniforms and hair and tanned features, the kid had told Janai everything he knew.
It wasn't much, but it was enough for Avishai to make a strategy that would turn the tide of the war, if they could pull it off. That night, under the dark canopy of Alaqhai trees, Malaqhai thought back to Zander Senreq, and wondered if that could have been him. The idea made him sick.
Malaqhai had had a girlfriend, once a long time ago. He was four-and-a-half-and-eight-days old, and he'd kissed her on the cheek and promised to marry her. On the battlefield, covered in mud and sweat and blood and trying not to die, Malaqhai met a Lt. Gunnery named Tannai. She was all beautiful blue curls and violet eyes, and she bled steel tears like a true warrior. As he'd dragged her from the line of fire, she'd made him promise to send word to her brothers under Arma Addai, in the East. Soon, blood stained lips spoke only the garbled words of death, and Malaqhai held the woman in his arms as she died, wishing only that he could save her.
He'd loved her, maybe. If he'd loved anybody, it would have been Tannai, the woman he hadn't known save the minutes it took her to die. Malaqhai found himself wishing he was Zander Senreq. He at least had been smart enough to become a medic, and not a soldier.
At the year 3502 CE the war between the desert planet Koatreq and the shadowed jungle world Alaqhai had raged for fifteen long, bloody years. Malaqhai was twenty-one that year. In the middle of defending a siege on Haroqai, Lannoa, Sai received a letter from his sister back home. He abandoned his position, fell back, and ran.
Malaqhai isn't sure exactly what the letter said. It was bad, he knew, for Sai to desert like that. He'd promised to follow Malaqhai, however high he had been, and now Sai was cutting loose and leaving him.
Malaqhai waited three long months for word from his friend. Finally, he received a letter from Sai's sister telling him what had happened. For a long time after, Malaqhai blamed himself for not seeing it, for not asking a second time, for not knowing it would happen.
He blamed himself for not stopping him.
Malaqhai was there when General Avishai surrendered to Major General Rariteq and the Koatreq army after fourteen months under siege at Haroqai. He was one of the thousands of Alaqhai soldiers who were starving and cold and tired and dying, right there, in their trenches, wishing for the end. He was one of the hundreds of Alaqhai soldiers who celebrated their defeat, when it finally did.
Malaqhai was the only Alaqhai soldier with red hair.
["War is all hell." A quote from General Sherman, in reference to the Civil War.]
War is all hell.
Gunfire and bombs exploding in your ears, dead soldiers littering the ground around you, screams of wounded friends, and the gnawing, aching hunger for food, and drink, and peace.
Malaqhai Andorra knew this well. He wasn't a decorated militia soldier, of course, hardly noticed at all. If he were to die, right there in that God-awful trench, his body would be ignored in favor of more fighting, left to rot and then forgotten, save for the few who would spit on his red-haired corpse. Considering his birth, he would not be surprised if it ended just like that.
Malaqhai was born before the war, on a spaceship bound for freedom and not on the native soil of either parent. That might have been best, in the end, because it let him choose the side he would believe in, the side he would fight for. It was only several short months later that he arrived as a new-born on free Alaqhai soil, and he was named by his parents in honor of that gift.
When Malaqhai was four-and-a-half-and-eight-days old Alaqhai declared independence from its sovereign Koatreq. For two years, Alaqhai held in its grasp the freedom it so yearned for. But two years were all they had, because Koatreq declared war on its insubordinate planet, and invaded.
At seven, just a year into the war, Malaqhai met a boy his age named Sai, the only one to ever look at him and not see the red hair of Koatreq heritage. On the battlefield, Sai defended his friend from fellow officers who looked at him -like that- and dared sometimes to do more. It never mattered that his skin was just as pale as theirs, or his eyes just as dark, or that he spoke and lived just the same. All that mattered was that the blood of their enemy ran through his veins, and they hated him for it.
Malaqhai remembered being sixteen and standing before the militia recruiter. With Sai at his side, Malaqhai had braved going; with Sai at his side, Malaqhai could brave anything. The recruiter had stared him down, agonizing second after agonizing second, before he'd grunted in disgust and signed Malaqhai up. Afterward, the recruiter thrust a violet bandana at him and told him to cover the 'revolting red crap' on his head. He made no attempt to lower his voice when he told the next volunteer in line 'better one of him dies on that battle field than one of us.'
The next in line was Sai, who wasted no time following him into the ranks of the Alaqhai Militia, and then decking the recruiter. Later, when he and Sai had gone out and gotten high for the last time, Sai confessed that he didn't really care about all this war stuff. He hated both sides, but he'd follow Malaqhai onto the battlefield and to the end, if he had to, to protect him from his fellow officers.
Sai wouldn't remember saying it the next day, but his words would haunt Malaqhai for years.
Malaqhai was put under the leadership of Commander Avishai of the Alaqhai Militia, who was a genius. Judicial kept putting off promoting Avishai to General, but it was no secret to the people that he was a Commander with an army the size of a General's, and talent enough to be promoted as high as Arma. But most importantly, Avishai had yellow eyes.
The Commander's Koatreq ancestry wasn't nearly as prominent as Malaqhai's, of course, even if he did have eyes as yellow as any enemy soldier. Otherwise, Avishai would never have made it to the rank of Commander in the first place. Sai ranted sometimes about its unfairness; he was sure Avishai hadn't become General yet because of his Koatreq blood, and that the Alaqhai government was going to get them all killed with their bigot discrimination.
Malaqhai had asked once why Sai hated his own people so much, why he defended Malaqhai's Koatreq blood like honor even when Malaqhai himself felt it hardly mattered. He had hoped, just alittle, that Sai would tell him that he had lineage that traced back to their enemy just as Malaqhai's did. Instead, Sai had said to him that Alaqhai harbored evil in its soul, not freedom, and he'd seen that with his own eyes far too often not to be jaded against it. Malaqhai, disturbed, never asked him what he meant. It was three years later when he regretted that decision.
Zander Senreq was a Koatreq Medic, third class, who'd picked the wrong part of the wrong battlefield that day. At nineteen, Malaqhai had captured Senreq as a prisoner of war, his first and last, and Malaqhai wondered when he'd become a soldier. Senreq was just a kid; ashaking, frightened boy of sixteen who had never wanted to hurt anybody and didn't understand why it mattered if his hair was the white of Koatreq deserts and not violet, or if his eyes were yellow instead of Alaqhai black.
Sai thought the kid was pathetic. Malaqhai agreed. They'd watched as Janai, a fierce, dark woman who Commander Avishai held at his right hand, interrogated the prisoner for information on enemy troop movements, access codes, General Rariteq, and the Koatreq satellite in orbit that everyone knew was loosing them the war.
Senreq held out for longer than anyone had expected, but by the time his rescue team swooped in, all red uniforms and hair and tanned features, the kid had told Janai everything he knew.
It wasn't much, but it was enough for Avishai to make a strategy that would turn the tide of the war, if they could pull it off. That night, under the dark canopy of Alaqhai trees, Malaqhai thought back to Zander Senreq, and wondered if that could have been him. The idea made him sick.
Malaqhai had had a girlfriend, once a long time ago. He was four-and-a-half-and-eight-days old, and he'd kissed her on the cheek and promised to marry her. On the battlefield, covered in mud and sweat and blood and trying not to die, Malaqhai met a Lt. Gunnery named Tannai. She was all beautiful blue curls and violet eyes, and she bled steel tears like a true warrior. As he'd dragged her from the line of fire, she'd made him promise to send word to her brothers under Arma Addai, in the East. Soon, blood stained lips spoke only the garbled words of death, and Malaqhai held the woman in his arms as she died, wishing only that he could save her.
He'd loved her, maybe. If he'd loved anybody, it would have been Tannai, the woman he hadn't known save the minutes it took her to die. Malaqhai found himself wishing he was Zander Senreq. He at least had been smart enough to become a medic, and not asoldier.
At the year 3502 CE the war between the desert planet Koatreq and the shadowed jungle world Alaqhai had raged for fifteen long, bloody years. Malaqhai was twenty-one that year. In the middle of defending a siege on Haroqai, Lannoa, Sai received a letter from his sister back home. He abandoned his position, fell back, and ran.
Malaqhai isn't sure exactly what the letter said. It was bad, he knew, for Sai to desert like that. He'd promised to follow Malaqhai, however high he had been, and now Sai was cutting loose and leaving him.
Malaqhai waited three long months for word from his friend. Finally, he received a letter from Sai's sister telling him what had happened. For a long time after, Malaqhai blamed himself for not seeing it, for not asking a second time, for not knowing it would happen.
He blamed himself for not stopping him.
Malaqhai was there when General Avishai surrendered to Major General Rariteq and the Koatreq army after fourteen months under siege at Haroqai. He was one of the thousands of Alaqhai soldiers who were starving and cold and tired and dying, right there, in their trenches, wishing for the end. He was one of the hundreds of Alaqhai soldiers who celebrated their defeat, when it finally did.
Malaqhai was the only Alaqhai soldier with red hair.
~Alexandrea E. Ober
12/03/06
["War is all hell." A quote
from General Sherman, in
reference to the Civil War.]
Gunfire and bombs exploding in your ears, dead soldiers littering the ground around you, screams of wounded friends, and the gnawing, aching hunger for food, and drink, and peace.
Malaqhai Andorra knew this well. He wasn't a decorated militia soldier, of course, hardly noticed at all. If he were to die, right there in that God-awful trench, his body would be ignored in favor of more fighting, left to rot and then forgotten, save for the few who would spit on his red-haired corpse. Considering his birth, he would not be surprised if it ended just like that.
Malaqhai was born before the war, on a spaceship bound for freedom and not on the native soil of either parent. That might have been best, in the end, because it let him choose the side he would believe in, the side he would fight for. It was only several short months later that he arrived as a new-born on free Alaqhai soil, and he was named by his parents in honor of that gift.
When Malaqhai was four-and-a-half-and-eight-days old Alaqhai declared independence for its sovereign Koatreq. For two years, Alaqhai held in its grasp the freedom is so yearned for. But two years were all they had, because Koatreq declared war on its insubordinate planet, and invaded.
At seven, just a year into the war, Malaqhai met a boy his age named Sai, the only one to ever look at him and not see the red hair of Koatreq heritage. On the battlefield, Sai defended his friend from fellow officers who looked at him -like that- and dared sometimes to do more. It never mattered that his skin was just as pale as theirs, or his eyes just as dark, or that he spoke and lived just the same. All that mattered was that the blood of their enemy ran through his veins, and they hated him for it.
Malaqhai remembered being sixteen and standing before the militia recruiter. With Sai at his side, Malaqhai had braved going; with Sai at his side, Malaqhai could brave anything. The recruiter had stared him down, agonizing second after agonizing second, before he'd grunted in disgust and signed Malaqhai up. Afterward, the recruiter thrust a violet bandana at him and told him to cover the 'revolting red crap' on his head. He made no attempt to lower his voice when he told the next volunteer in line 'better one of him dies on that battle field than one of us.'
The next in line was Sai, who wasted no time following him into the ranks of the Alaqhai Militia, and then decking the recruiter. Later, when he and Sai had gone out and gotten high for the last time, Sai confessed that he didn't really care about all this war stuff. He hated both sides, but he'd follow Malaqhai onto the battlefield and to the end, if he had to, to protect him from his fellow officers.
Sai wouldn't remember saying it the next day, but his words would haunt Malaqhai for years.
Malaqhai was put under the leadership of Commander Avishai of the Alaqhai Militia, who was a genius. Judicial kept putting off promoting Avishai to General, but it was no secret to the people that he was a Commander with an army the size of a General's, and talent enough to be promoted as high as Arma. But most importantly, Avishai had yellow eyes.
The Commander's Koatreq ancestry wasn't nearly as prominent as Malaqhai's, of course, even if he did have eyes as yellow as any enemy soldier. Otherwise, Avishai would never have made it to the rank of Commander in the first place. Sai ranted sometimes about its unfairness; he was sure Avishai hadn't become General yet because of his Koatreq blood, and that the Alaqhai government was going to get them all killed with their bigot discrimination.
Malaqhai had asked once why Sai hated his own people so much, why he defended Malaqhai's Koatreq blood like honor even when Malaqhai himself felt it hardly mattered. He had hoped, just a little, that Sai would tell him that he had lineage that traced back to their enemy just as Malaqhai's did. Instead, Sai had said to him that Alaqhai harbored evil in its soul, not freedom, and he'd seen that with his own eyes far too often not to be jaded against it. Malaqhai, disturbed, never asked him what he meant. It was three years later when he regretted that decision.
Zander Senreq was a Koatreq Medic, third class, who'd picked the wrong part of the wrong battlefield that day. At nineteen, Malaqhai had captured Senreq as a prisoner of war, his first and last, and Malaqhai wondered when he'd become a soldier. Senreq was just a kid; a shaking, frightened boy of sixteen who had never wanted to hurt anybody and didn't understand why it mattered if his hair was the white of Koatreq deserts and not violet, or if his eyes were yellow instead of Alaqhai black.
Sai thought the kid was pathetic. Malaqhai agreed. They'd watched as Janai, a fierce, dark woman who Commander Avishai held at his right hand, interrogated the prisoner for information on enemy troop movements, access codes, General Rariteq, and the Koatreq satellite in orbit that everyone knew was loosing them the war.
Senreq held out for longer than anyone had expected, but by the time his rescue team swooped in, all red uniforms and hair and tanned features, the kid had told Janai everything he knew.
It wasn't much, but it was enough for Avishai to make a strategy that would turn the tide of the war, if they could pull it off. That night, under the dark canopy of Alaqhai trees, Malaqhai thought back to Zander Senreq, and wondered if that could have been him. The idea made him sick.
Malaqhai had had a girlfriend, once a long time ago. He was four-and-a-half-and-eight-days old, and he'd kissed her on the cheek and promised to marry her. On the battlefield, covered in mud and sweat and blood and trying not to die, Malaqhai met a Lt. Gunnery named Tannai. She was all beautiful blue curls and violet eyes, and she bled steel tears like a true warrior. As he'd dragged her from the line of fire, she'd made him promise to send word to her brothers under Arma Addai, in the East. Soon, blood stained lips spoke only the garbled words of death, and Malaqhai held the woman in his arms as she died, wishing only that he could save her.
He'd loved her, maybe. If he'd loved anybody, it would have been Tannai, the woman he hadn't known save the minutes it took her to die. Malaqhai found himself wishing he was Zander Senreq. He at least had been smart enough to become a medic, and not a soldier.
At the year 3502 CE the war between the desert planet Koatreq and the shadowed jungle world Alaqhai had raged for fifteen long, bloody years. Malaqhai was twenty-one that year. In the middle of defending a siege on Haroqai, Lannoa, Sai received a letter from his sister back home. He abandoned his position, fell back, and ran.
Malaqhai isn't sure exactly what the letter said. It was bad, he knew, for Sai to desert like that. He'd promised to follow Malaqhai, however high he had been, and now Sai was cutting loose and leaving him.
Malaqhai waited three long months for word from his friend. Finally, he received a letter from Sai's sister telling him what had happened. For a long time after, Malaqhai blamed himself for not seeing it, for not asking a second time, for not knowing it would happen.
He blamed himself for not stopping him.
Malaqhai was there when General Avishai surrendered to Major General Rariteq and the Koatreq army after fourteen months under siege at Haroqai. He was one of the thousands of Alaqhai soldiers who were starving and cold and tired and dying, right there, in their trenches, wishing for the end. He was one of the hundreds of Alaqhai soldiers who celebrated their defeat, when it finally did.
Malaqhai was the only Alaqhai soldier with red hair.
["War is all hell." A quote from General Sherman, in reference to the Civil War.]
War is all hell.
Gunfire and bombs exploding in your ears, dead soldiers littering the ground around you, screams of wounded friends, and the gnawing, aching hunger for food, and drink, and peace.
Malaqhai Andorra knew this well. He wasn't a decorated militia soldier, of course, hardly noticed at all. If he were to die, right there in that God-awful trench, his body would be ignored in favor of more fighting, left to rot and then forgotten, save for the few who would spit on his red-haired corpse. Considering his birth, he would not be surprised if it ended just like that.
Malaqhai was born before the war, on a spaceship bound for freedom and not on the native soil of either parent. That might have been best, in the end, because it let him choose the side he would believe in, the side he would fight for. It was only several short months later that he arrived as a new-born on free Alaqhai soil, and he was named by his parents in honor of that gift.
When Malaqhai was four-and-a-half-and-eight-days old Alaqhai declared independence from its sovereign Koatreq. For two years, Alaqhai held in its grasp the freedom it so yearned for. But two years were all they had, because Koatreq declared war on its insubordinate planet, and invaded.
At seven, just a year into the war, Malaqhai met a boy his age named Sai, the only one to ever look at him and not see the red hair of Koatreq heritage. On the battlefield, Sai defended his friend from fellow officers who looked at him -like that- and dared sometimes to do more. It never mattered that his skin was just as pale as theirs, or his eyes just as dark, or that he spoke and lived just the same. All that mattered was that the blood of their enemy ran through his veins, and they hated him for it.
Malaqhai remembered being sixteen and standing before the militia recruiter. With Sai at his side, Malaqhai had braved going; with Sai at his side, Malaqhai could brave anything. The recruiter had stared him down, agonizing second after agonizing second, before he'd grunted in disgust and signed Malaqhai up. Afterward, the recruiter thrust a violet bandana at him and told him to cover the 'revolting red crap' on his head. He made no attempt to lower his voice when he told the next volunteer in line 'better one of him dies on that battle field than one of us.'
The next in line was Sai, who wasted no time following him into the ranks of the Alaqhai Militia, and then decking the recruiter. Later, when he and Sai had gone out and gotten high for the last time, Sai confessed that he didn't really care about all this war stuff. He hated both sides, but he'd follow Malaqhai onto the battlefield and to the end, if he had to, to protect him from his fellow officers.
Sai wouldn't remember saying it the next day, but his words would haunt Malaqhai for years.
Malaqhai was put under the leadership of Commander Avishai of the Alaqhai Militia, who was a genius. Judicial kept putting off promoting Avishai to General, but it was no secret to the people that he was a Commander with an army the size of a General's, and talent enough to be promoted as high as Arma. But most importantly, Avishai had yellow eyes.
The Commander's Koatreq ancestry wasn't nearly as prominent as Malaqhai's, of course, even if he did have eyes as yellow as any enemy soldier. Otherwise, Avishai would never have made it to the rank of Commander in the first place. Sai ranted sometimes about its unfairness; he was sure Avishai hadn't become General yet because of his Koatreq blood, and that the Alaqhai government was going to get them all killed with their bigot discrimination.
Malaqhai had asked once why Sai hated his own people so much, why he defended Malaqhai's Koatreq blood like honor even when Malaqhai himself felt it hardly mattered. He had hoped, just alittle, that Sai would tell him that he had lineage that traced back to their enemy just as Malaqhai's did. Instead, Sai had said to him that Alaqhai harbored evil in its soul, not freedom, and he'd seen that with his own eyes far too often not to be jaded against it. Malaqhai, disturbed, never asked him what he meant. It was three years later when he regretted that decision.
Zander Senreq was a Koatreq Medic, third class, who'd picked the wrong part of the wrong battlefield that day. At nineteen, Malaqhai had captured Senreq as a prisoner of war, his first and last, and Malaqhai wondered when he'd become a soldier. Senreq was just a kid; ashaking, frightened boy of sixteen who had never wanted to hurt anybody and didn't understand why it mattered if his hair was the white of Koatreq deserts and not violet, or if his eyes were yellow instead of Alaqhai black.
Sai thought the kid was pathetic. Malaqhai agreed. They'd watched as Janai, a fierce, dark woman who Commander Avishai held at his right hand, interrogated the prisoner for information on enemy troop movements, access codes, General Rariteq, and the Koatreq satellite in orbit that everyone knew was loosing them the war.
Senreq held out for longer than anyone had expected, but by the time his rescue team swooped in, all red uniforms and hair and tanned features, the kid had told Janai everything he knew.
It wasn't much, but it was enough for Avishai to make a strategy that would turn the tide of the war, if they could pull it off. That night, under the dark canopy of Alaqhai trees, Malaqhai thought back to Zander Senreq, and wondered if that could have been him. The idea made him sick.
Malaqhai had had a girlfriend, once a long time ago. He was four-and-a-half-and-eight-days old, and he'd kissed her on the cheek and promised to marry her. On the battlefield, covered in mud and sweat and blood and trying not to die, Malaqhai met a Lt. Gunnery named Tannai. She was all beautiful blue curls and violet eyes, and she bled steel tears like a true warrior. As he'd dragged her from the line of fire, she'd made him promise to send word to her brothers under Arma Addai, in the East. Soon, blood stained lips spoke only the garbled words of death, and Malaqhai held the woman in his arms as she died, wishing only that he could save her.
He'd loved her, maybe. If he'd loved anybody, it would have been Tannai, the woman he hadn't known save the minutes it took her to die. Malaqhai found himself wishing he was Zander Senreq. He at least had been smart enough to become a medic, and not asoldier.
At the year 3502 CE the war between the desert planet Koatreq and the shadowed jungle world Alaqhai had raged for fifteen long, bloody years. Malaqhai was twenty-one that year. In the middle of defending a siege on Haroqai, Lannoa, Sai received a letter from his sister back home. He abandoned his position, fell back, and ran.
Malaqhai isn't sure exactly what the letter said. It was bad, he knew, for Sai to desert like that. He'd promised to follow Malaqhai, however high he had been, and now Sai was cutting loose and leaving him.
Malaqhai waited three long months for word from his friend. Finally, he received a letter from Sai's sister telling him what had happened. For a long time after, Malaqhai blamed himself for not seeing it, for not asking a second time, for not knowing it would happen.
He blamed himself for not stopping him.
Malaqhai was there when General Avishai surrendered to Major General Rariteq and the Koatreq army after fourteen months under siege at Haroqai. He was one of the thousands of Alaqhai soldiers who were starving and cold and tired and dying, right there, in their trenches, wishing for the end. He was one of the hundreds of Alaqhai soldiers who celebrated their defeat, when it finally did.
Malaqhai was the only Alaqhai soldier with red hair.
~Alexandrea E. Ober
12/03/06
["War is all hell." A quote
from General Sherman, in
reference to the Civil War.]
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