Star Brigade: Resurgent (Star Brigade Book 1) (6 page)

Jeremy had been a terror those first few months; the adamant refusals to follow instruction, the explosive tantrums, the tearful incapability to grasp why his mother or his new baby sister were never returning. And Habraum, out of his depth as a parent and out of his mind with grief, at times had secretly wished he had left the boy with his grandparents on red rocky Cercidale. Habraum still recoiled from that former desire like one would a healing scab.

Things began to turn around after a few months, particularly when they returned to the familiar settings of Union Space.  The good days slowly began to outnumber the bad. Before long, Habraum began to discover what a wonderful child he had as they learned to be father and son.

It had been a long string of good days over the last couple of months; they now had a routine. Jeremy readily recognized Habraum as the primary parent, present for all the milestones, not the cool dad with an infrequent existence in his life when off-duty. And Habraum had gotten the swing of being a single father—despite never wanting to get the swing of walking this journey alone.

He looked up and smiled at the pale-blue sky overhead, unspoiled by any clouds. In its center, the star Rhyne shined like a radiant ball of bullion, quickly warming Habraum’s dark brown skin once he and Jeremy stepped outside. Habraum walked briskly through the greyish ferroment walkways with Jeremy in tow. Many sentient beings were milling about today and observing the variety of animals in their natural environments. A Kintarian, with short grey fur and pointy ears stood at a petting kiosk, hungrily eyed a frightened little rhomerax curled up in a furry red ball. A family of stalk-eyed Galdorians ambled past them, heading toward the Garden Sector of the zoo.

Aside from being able to spend time with his son, the sights and sounds of the Corowood Zoo wowed Habraum, at least on a superficial level. Jeremy would point, exclaim and shake Habraum’s arm at everything he saw. The design for this zoo’s spires and dome-shaped structures was breathtaking. Most were smooth and rounded, yet unorthodox due to the mix of architectures from the many species within the Union. This type of design was largely seen at the multi-leveled Aerie where many sub-species of Terra Sollan myryposes and other avian creatures inhabited.

The Aerie was a semi-transparent globe; silvery and unflawed in appearance on a thick cylindrical base at least 20 stories high, a gift from the Thulicans at the end of the Ferronos Sector War. One could see the graceful gliding of the myryposes through the silvery globe, as they astounded the zoo’s visitors with their aerial superiority. Despite all this grandeur, Habraum realized with a sad smile, that it was never enough to fill the emptiness. Not the sight of his son’s smile or their improving relationship, not even removing himself from almost anything connected to Star Brigade.

There was no escaping this ever consuming black hole in his heart.

A year and some weeks had passed since his wife…and unborn daughter’s death.

A year and some weeks since his combat team and various other Brigadiers had been slaughtered.

Habraum had visited the graves of his family numerous times, struggling to live with their loss, dulled a large sum of the pain. But not nearly enough.

When it came to his Star Brigade family, Habraum’s wound was still as raw as that devastating day on Beridaas. His failure to save all but one taunted him still, a barbed nettle repeatedly puncturing a hole through his chest, making the thought of visiting their gravestones still too agonizing.

He suddenly wanted to talk to Jennica—right now. A few days had passed since his last letter. Yes, Habraum had promised to start weaning off what started as a grieving method during his darkest times. But his pride regarding his progress with Jeremy was overwhelming. He wanted to tell Jenn about the father he had become for Jeremy…the father he should have been when she was alive.

Would she have approved of him leaving the career he loved to focus on Jeremy?

Might she have seconded his choice to stay on Terra Sollus, so Jeremy would be close to her family—despite how they felt about Habraum? He wanted to blurt out these prideful musings, before his own overthinking ruined it all. This cycle had become a pattern when the bad days began to be less frequent, wondering if the decisions he made regarding his current life had been out of fatherly duty to Jeremy or out of remorse.
Remorse from missing so much of Jeremy’s life beforehand?

“You’re thinking of Mommy again, aren’t you?”

Habraum stiffened. He looked down and saw the worry on his son’s face. “How did you know?”

“When you stare off into space,” Jeremy blinked, squeezing his hand. “But you do it less now.”

Habraum smiled at this. He knelt beside his son, cupping Jeremy’s face in his hands. Just looking into his son’s large eyes, he saw the sincerity there. “What can I say, Jer? I miss your mum very much.”

Jeremy frowned, “If it makes you feel better, I miss her, too.”

“I know,” Habraum kissed him softly on the forehead, his heart swelling with love for his son. “But it makes me happy that you help remind me of all the good things about her.”

Jeremy blushed and grinned, bashfully shuffling his feet. But Habraum had thought enough about his late wife. It hurt more than helped his broken, empty heart.

“So, I got a permission slip from your teachers,” Habraum said, as he stood up and continued to walk. The walkways had finally thinned out, making it easier to get around. “It’s about going to the Manoff Museum on Calliste, six weeks from now.”

Jeremy smiled brightly. “My class gets to see the Earth museum during Earth Memorial Week.”

Habraum snorted contemptuously. Even after 26 years, earthborn and Terranborn humans still milked the Earth Holocaust like it was a cow with inexhaustible udders. He stopped as he saw Jeremy look down sadly at the ground. “Some of my friends don’t think I should go.”

“Really?” Habraum frowned in surprise. “Why not?”

“Remember the picture I drew of old Korvenite ancient stuff for my art class history project?”

Habraum’s golden eyes narrowed as he recalled. “Yeah, I do.”

“After I showed it to my class, some of my friends called me a race-traitor and a blekdritt lover—.”

“What!?” Habraum froze in his tracks, not believing his seven-year-old had just said that word. “They called you that?” His disbelief gave way to anger. “Sprouts these days,” he shook his head in outrage.

“Daddy, what does blek—?”

“Jeremy,” Habraum moved Jeremy off the walkway and knelt down, taking his son by the shoulders.  “It’s a bad insult to Korvenites. Never say it or think it again. Got me?”

The younger Nwosu nodded obediently and a bit fearfully, his hazel-grey eyes wide.

Realizing how harsh he sounded, the Cerc stopped himself. Jennica had always been better at chiding, rarely raising her voice with the boy. Before Jenn’s death, Habraum had been a little too piss and vinegar, taking after his earthborn Nigerian father in discipline.
How would Jenn handle this?
he’d been telling himself for months now, continuing more softly. “You still want to go on this trip?”

Jeremy nodded so eagerly that Habraum feared his head would fall off.

“Then go.” Habraum declared conclusively. “No matter what other people think. Oh, and find some new friends. Those klonks aren’t even worth your breathing space.”

The boy looked down with such shame that Habraum felt his heart break a little. Children were so impressionable at this age—and cruel. “Have you ever been to Earth before the Holocaust, Daddy?” Jeremy asked as he looked up again.

The question surprised Habraum. His face soured immediately at the memory. “A few times, when I was a tad of a lad, younger than you. It was a grubby, overpopulated dump,” he stated, causing his son to laugh. “You know this planet used to be the Korvenites’, yea?”

Jeremy nodded. “They said in school that Earth humans discovered it before the Union was created.”

“That’s right,” the Cerc smiled at his son’s knowledge and mussed up the boy’s fro of hair. “The earthborn colonized this world because it was so close to other Union memberworlds. Back then, the Korvenites only lived on a fraction of the planet so they had no issue with humans using what they weren’t.” Earth history came to Habraum as easily as breathing. It had become a hobby for many children on Cercidale after the Earth Holocaust.

“By the mid-2200s,” he continued, taking a captivated Jeremy by the hand and walking slowly down the footpath. Visitors strolling down the same path had picked up significantly. “Humans from Earth, Mars, Cor Leonis and other earthborn colonies were immigrating here in droves. The Korvenites were the minority on their own planet. Even the lands that they occupied were now being taken if they didn’t meet some population quota.”

“They said that in school, too.” Jeremy frowned in confusion. “What’s a quota?”

Habraum looked down at his son for an awkward moment. The boy was so bright that sometimes the Cerc forgot he was just seven. “The lowest number needed to qualify for something.”

“Oh,” Jeremy digested the answer then looked back up at his dad again. “Why didn’t the Korvenites try to keep their world?”

“The Korvenites did try, ya know. They protested, rioted and everything,” Habraum stated, recalling the Korvenites’ plight with a saddened tone. “But it was just too late. The earthborn had officially made this world their homeworld. It didn’t help that the Korvenites hadn’t thought to appoint an official representative for Terra Sollus’ or the Union’s government until the mid-2300s.”

Jeremy frowned as his father’s words sunk in. “So the Union took advantage of them?”

“Yeah, lad,” Habraum stopped on the side of the walkway. “The Union kinda did.”

“That’s mean,” Jeremy put the most indignant frown he could manage on his adorable face, making Habraum choke back laughter. “Is it why they attacked Earth?”

“It was never an attack, Jer,” Habraum said after he composed himself. “Which was why such a tragedy happened to a planet as heavily fortified as Earth. It was just a dozen Korvenites trying to make a peaceful statement about their plight and emblazon it on Earth’s atmosphere. But then…there was an accident.”

Images of Earth burning, and refugees fleeing the planet in thousands of ships were fresh in Habraum’s mind as if it had happened yesterday and not 26 years ago. Nor could the Cerc ever forget his own father’s heartbreaking grief. Almost all of Samuel Nwosu’s family still lived on Earth, except for a younger brother, a crimsonborn wife and his six children including Habraum. It had taken Habraum’s father years to make peace with the fact that the Korvenite race as a whole shouldn’t be punished for the stupidity of a few. Habraum pushed those memories away and focused on his son. “Remember how Earth’s atmosphere was a wreck from centuries of pollution and World War 3 back in the 21st century?”

Jeremy nodded his head fervently. “Yep.”

“We say ‘yes,’ remember?” Habraum corrected him gently.

“Sorry,” Jeremy said contritely. “Yes.”

“Whatever went wrong with the Korvenite’s ship and Earth’s defense arrays,” Habraum knelt down at Jeremy’s level to make sure his son grasped the severity of  what he was telling him, “ignited most of the atmosphere…killing over half of Earth’s citizens. Back then, the population was about 15-16 billion.” In recent history, Habraum could only recall the last of the Terminus Wars producing a greater death toll than the Earth Holocaust. “And now Earth is uninhabitable,” he said, barely suppressing a shudder.

Jeremy gasped at the disturbing information. “That doesn’t sound like an accident, Daddy,” he replied, using his most hushed inside voice.

“But it was,” Habraum countered. “No one was supposed to even get hurt.”

“How do you know?” the boy challenged, curious as always.

The Cerc let out a bittersweet chuckle. For weeks after the Earth Holocaust, he and his twin brother Heithoniel had scoured every data source they could find on the TransNet to make sense of the tragedy. And what they found had kept them from hating the Korvenites unlike many others then. “Actually the culprits stole a ship and left no record of their trip to Earth. The Korvenites as a species had nothing to do with their actions.”

“But did they find whoever caused the Earth Holocaust?” Jeremy asked.

The question reignited Habraum’s long cooled anger over the massively stupid choice the Korvenites made, which sealed their collective fate. “The Korvenites wouldn’t give up the culprits, which made any denials of their involvement seem like lies. And with that, most of them got rounded up and thrown into off-the-grid internment camps. The ones that tried to defend themselves…” Knowing what had happened to the poor souls who fought back, Habraum went cold all over. “…they didn’t survive.”

Jeremy didn’t look too convinced by this revelation. “But in school they said the Korvenites were just kicked out of Union Space,” the boy insisted.

Habraum sucked on his teeth, irritated. “
Rogguts
, the dreg they teach you sprouts in school nowadays.” He stopped directly in Jeremy’s path, meeting his gaze. “Jeremy, would I lie to you?”

The boy shook his head. “No.”

“Sometimes, what you learn in school is just a wee bit of the whole story. You understand?”

Jeremy was about to nod again, until something behind his father…or someone made the boy light up like a halolamp. Habraum chuckled, not even having to guess who it was.