Once Burned
The Captain's Table #5
Excerpt
First Encounter
You never forget the first man you kill.
Man.
Well...that may be an exaggeration.
I was fourteen seasons at the time, a youth on my homeworld of Xenex. My father had died several seasons before that, beaten to death in the public square by our Danteri oppressors as a signal to all my people that we should know our place. It is my everlasting shame that I did not immediately retaliate. Instead I stood there, paralyzed. I can still remember my older brother digging his fingers into my shoulder, keeping me from attacking. That was what I wanted to do at the time. I wanted to charge from the crowd, leap upon the man who was inflicting such punishment upon my father, and sink my teeth into his throat. I wanted to feel his blood fountaining between my teeth.
Unfortunately, I was a child. My brother was probably concerned - not without reason - that I would be cut down before I got within twenty feet of my father's tormentor. So I stayed where I was, and watched, and wished the entire time that I could tear my eyes from my sockets, block out the cries from my father's throat.
... read full excerpt from Star Trek: New Frontier: Once Burned: The Captain's Table #5 ebook
