Renegade World: Book I

  The boy, third son of a respected chief, knew he was a disappointment to his father. On the brink of manhood, he desperately sought a vision.

  The young woman, a renegade visionary from the future, was a survivor. Could she shape his world to match her vision? She couldn't do it alone. Could the boy be the one?

  Others secretly watched, planned, and manipulated. Did either of them really control their own destiny?

  G. D. Patten

  Renegade World

  Book I

  Renegade World, Book I

  Copyright © 2014 by G.D. Patten

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  First Printing, 2014

  ISBN 978-1-63443-145-3

  Publisher: G.D. Patten

  Acknowledgements

  Thanks to Jonis Agee for her edits and detailed critique of an early draft. Jonis Agee is an award winning author and Adele Hall Professor of English at The University of Nebraska — Lincoln.

  My thanks also to all my friends and family who read my drafts and provided valuable feedback.

  Introduction

  The inspiration for this book was Eric Flint’s book, 1812: The Rivers of War, and his sequel, 1824: The Arkansas War. His alternative history diverges from actual history during the War of 1812. If you haven’t read these books yet, I encourage you to read them.

  Although I enjoyed them both immensely, I found myself wondering about an alternative history that would have branched off earlier, around the time that Europeans first discovered the New World. In fact, I thought about it so much that I wrote this book, the first in a series, which begins a few years after Columbus’s discovery of the West Indies, but well before the massive influx of Europeans.

  I want to pass along a couple of hints based on reader feedback. Many of the characters have, for obvious reasons, names that are based on historical indigenous names or words. Several of the characters gain nicknames as the story goes on. Try making up your own nickname for a character if you find his or her name difficult.

  The list of characters and a brief description is provided in Character Notes. This appendix will give you an idea of who they are without giving the story away.

  The common names for the indigenous peoples are provided in Common Names of Peoples. The story refers to each people by the names used by Mohkave, one of the main characters.

  You can download Renegade World Dictionary from www.RenegadeWorld.com for free. When you load this on your Kindle and set it as the English dictionary, you can highlight the first name of the character and the character’s description will be displayed.

  A small amount of the story's dialogue is in a foreign language. If you don’t feel like reading foreign words, just skip through it. The dialogue is almost always explained in the narrative or it's not significant to the story. For those of you who like foreign words, somewhere over eighty percent of the words have the same or similar root as in Spanish. In fact, probably half of the roots are similar to English. If you absolutely want to know the meaning, the Renegade World Dictionary provides a translation.

  Prologue

  2165 C.E.

  The procession of vehicles crawled through St. Mary's Cemetery, following the freshly plowed single lane. One by one, the cars pulled to a stop, tires crunching the packed snow. In no hurry to join the others as they exited their cars, he pulled his stocking cap down to the top of his sunglasses and then pulled the hood of his parka over his cap. He took a quick look in the mirror, smiling at his pale cheeks and chin. His skin would be back to its normal tan color before he returned to New Mexico.

  The clear blue sky and bright sun did not deceive him. The fifty people huddled together around the gravesite looked miserable. He hated the cold. Even New Mexico was slightly cooler than his native planet, but North Dakota in the winter was unbearable. As soon as he stepped out of his rental car, sub-zero gusts would blast him, so he waited until the priest announced that they would begin before joining the group.

  Even though the deceased, Anita Evangelista-Schmidt, had not known him, he knew almost everything about her, her husband, Frederick, and their nine-year-old daughter, Naamah. Frederick had been killed in a car crash a year ago. The Highway Patrol had ruled it an accident, but he knew otherwise. Anita's death had also been ruled an accident, but again, he knew otherwise.

  While priest spoke, he watched Naamah and the people surrounding her. Naamah. What an interesting human name. Pleasant one. Or… a demonic legendary creature, the mother of divination.

  He knew almost everything about the fifteen humans huddled closest to Naamah. Naamah's grandmother, Dr. Maria Evangelista, stood on her right next to Naamah's cousin, Dr. Rebeka Lee Johnson. Dr. Larry Lieber stood on Naamah's left with his hand wrapped around her. Dr. Ben Lieber, his son, stood next to him. Ben's wife, son, and daughter stood behind them with the Carlson family. Next to the Carlsons stood Dr. Geoffrey Freeman, Dr. Miguel Rojas, Raul Martinez, and Joe Martinez.

  This group had included eight, now six, of the top ten human experts in nanotechnology and genetics. Dr. Larry Lieber was the chairman of the second largest biotech company in the world. His son, Dr. Ben Lieber, was the CEO. Anita and Frederick had become board members six years ago when one of their companies had been acquired. Together, the Liebers and the Schmidts had held fifty-one percent of the company's stock. The Schmidt's stock would now be held in trust for their daughter. Mr. Carlson, Dr. Evangelista, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Freeman, and Dr. Rojas held another seven percent of the company's stock. Between them, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Freeman, and Dr. Rojas owned controlling interest in four more companies.

  The Liebers were well known outside of academia. Dr. Freeman and Dr. Rojas were mainly known as the two eccentric professors who finished off the diamond cartel with their synthetic diamonds. Dr. Johnson and Dr. Evangelista kept very low profiles, even in academia, publishing only the most mundane of their work. He knew what humans outside of the group did not. Most of the breakthroughs made by the group over the past fifteen years were kept secret, even from others in their own companies.

  All sixteen humans shared something else, genetic modifications. About eighty-seven percent of his DNA was the same as a typical human. Although it was against regulations, he had meddled with the genetics of eighty humans during his four millennia on Earth, mostly during the last century. Prior to the last century, he had limited the changes to less than ten thousand base pairs. Over several generations, he had introduced more than a million base pairs to some of the younger humans in this group. Naamah had more than three million.

  Beyond this group, there were three others with genetic enhancements. One teenage male had almost two million base pairs. Naamah and the teenage male were the only humans who shared any of his shapeshifting DNA. While he was capable of significant physical change over a period of hours, it was extremely unlikely that either of them would manifest his ability. He did sometimes wonder if Naamah might be subconsciously drawing on these genetic enhancements to make tiny continuous changes over much longer periods of time, or maybe she was just exhibiting unusual human growth.

  He had been almost certain until a year ago that neither other humans nor his enemies knew of his work. With Anita's death, he was no longer certain.

  She and her husband had introduced their own genetic modifications into humans, including their own daughter. A shadowy group of right-wing religious zealots, opposed to any kind of genetic modifications in humans, was responsible for their deaths.

  Prophet Avram.

  Yes, Sarai?

  As you predicted, the cemetery is being observed.

  By whom?

  Six human males. I can tie one of them to Lilith and Samael.

  Four millennia ago, the Confederation of Planets had selected him as the lead advocate for humans, and he had chosen Sarai as his assistant. While this was her first assignment, he had been lead advocate twice before and an assistant advocate once before that. All three planets had been offered memberships in the Confederation. He was proud of his record, and he wanted to retire with one more success.

  Lilith and her assistant, Samael, were prosecutors. This was only the second time that he had to deal with prosecutors. In the previous case, he had established a synergistic working relationship with them. However, in this case, Lilith and Samael had ignored all of his attempts at direct communications for nearly a millennium.

  Historically, seventy-two worlds had been assigned advocates, but only eight had been assigned prosecutors. Three times, prosecutors had filed for an order to minimize a species. Twice, the Confederation had voted to minimize.

  He didn't disagree that the humans were the most violent species since the Azazelites, and like the Azazelites, humans had an extremely high birth rate. The humans now numbered almost ten billion people, thirty percent more than the Azazelites had numbered when they began their conquests for more living space thirty millennia ago. They had conquered fourteen planets over two millennia before their empire collapsed during the final hundred standard years, even their home planet minimized.

  Most Confederation planets had populations between fifty and three hundred million. Ganadn, his home planet, had the highest population in the Confederation; at just under a billion, it was spread across an area almost twice that of Earth. Lilith's home planet, Idumea, the first planet conquered by the Azazelites, had
a current population of just over twenty million. During their subjugation by the Azazelites, the Idumean population had been reduced from fifty million to less than three million.

  Lilith was the first and only prosecutor from Idumea. When she had been assigned as prosecutor two millennia ago, he had worried that the Idumean experience might bias her view of humans.

  While advocates were permitted limited interaction with the natives, prosecutors were not. Unfortunately for the humans, Lilith was even more biased than he had expected. He knew she had been covertly manipulating humans, almost from the day of her arrival, but he couldn't prove it because Idumeans had the ability to hypnotize humans. Humans had no idea that what they thought were their own ideas were hypnotic suggestions from Lilith or Samael. He was certain that the religious zealots were among those influenced by Lilith.

  Two millennia ago, less than one percent of humans were resistant to the Idumeans' hypnotic suggestions. Today, almost a quarter of humans were resistant, thanks to his initial genetic modifications. Just as he couldn't prove Lilith's manipulations, she couldn't prove that his manipulations hadn't been a random mutation that was inherited by many humans over the two millennia.

  She had also been unable to prove the existence of the two time portals. The portals permitted travel back in time from any time in the future back to any time after the portal was built. She had come close to discovering the Chaco Canyon time portal nearly 800 years ago. After only three uses, he dismantled it, fearing that Lilith suspected its existence.

  The other portal buried beneath Dr. Rebeka Lee Johnson's farm had never been used, and he was positive that Lilith didn't suspect its existence. He had hoped that he would never need to use it, but now, he wasn't sure.

  The priest finished the short ceremony with the words, “May her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace.”

  He watched Naamah, seeing through her calm exterior to her tortured soul as he said, “Amen.” He prayed silently, Adon, bless her, show mercy to her, immerse her in your love, and show her the path to peace.

  He became aware that Naamah was studying him from across the gravesite. He looked directly at her, and gave her a small bow before retreating to his car. I wonder what Lilith would think if she knew that Naamah had a little Idumean DNA in her. He chuckled to himself.

  Part I

  1506 C.E.

  Mohkave's Story

  Mohkave awoke before dawn. Another spirit dream. He groaned. Might as well get up. He stood up and put on his breechclout and belt. No one else was awake. He smelled the coals of last night's fire, but their glow was gone. From where he stood, he could feel no heat. Shivering, he pulled a buffalo hide over his shoulders. Ignoring the darkness, he walked twelve steps across the packed dirt floor toward the smell. Kneeling down on the mat in front of the fire pit, he felt for the twigs and dried leaves that his sister had piled there last night. Leaning forward, he lowered his face over the fire pit, feeling for life in the coals. Warmth. He gently blew the dusty ashes to reveal glowing embers. As he blew, he began feeding it leaves, then twigs, and finally two larger pieces of wood. Big enough to warm me.

  He sat back on the mat, flipped his long, dark hair over his shoulders, closed his eyes, and breathed deeply. He tried to relax. The spirit of my dreams? My father? The spirit never had more substance than a shadow. It mocked him in whispers. He had chased the spirit through his dreams but never got close enough to it to see its face.

  He took a deep breath and blew it out. This day has finally come, the day of my vision quest. What will it bring? He felt as if he had prepared for this vision quest his whole life. As long as he could remember, Ohxakonike, his father's brother, had told about seeking and receiving visions and about spirit power. Ohxakonike had explained about the sacrifice and ordeal involved. He had told how most seekers expected their vision to reveal a guardian spirit. The spirit would reflect the Great Spirit within the seeker. Ohxakonike had said if the seeker kept his heart pure, the spirit would remain with him and guide him all his life.

  He felt sure he would see his guardian spirit as an animal. He still wasn't sure what keeping his heart pure really meant. He thought on this once again.

  Others began moving about the lodge, but he didn't open his eyes. He heard the sound of his sister's light, prancing footsteps and of his mother's light, deliberate footsteps. The footsteps of his two brothers and father were hard to tell from one another. His brothers had grown as big as his father. His father was the village chief and had fought many battles against their enemies. His brothers had warrior spirits like his father. Me, a warrior? Not likely.

  During the last moon, he had prepared his place of seeking, lashing together branches to make a platform high in the great tree. The tree stood on top of a hill, overlooking Mantahe Passahe, the great river that provided much for his people. His family and others in his village considered his choice of location unusual, but he didn't really care. Ohxakonike had simply shrugged when asked by others about such an odd place for a vision quest.

  He heard the shuffling step of his uncle entering their lodge. He opened his eyes, unfolded his legs, and stood up. He nodded to his uncle. “Ready.” He turned and nodded to his father and brothers. His brothers gave him solemn nods in return. His father's face was an unreadable mask.

  His sister, who was also of his mother, hugged him. She looked up at him and opened her mouth to say something, but he gently placed his hand over her mouth to stop her. His mother moved closer and hugged him. She released her hug and took his face gently in her hands. “Have faith in yourself, and you'll receive a powerful vision.”

  He nodded. Mother has always had faith in me. His father had delayed the vision quest for a winter.

  Ohxakonike put his hand on his shoulder, led him out of their lodge, and then out of the village. They saw no other people as they walked in silence through the woods toward the great tree. As they approached the fork in the path, Ohxakonike pointed down the hill, away from the tree. At the bottom of the hill, the woods ended. A small sweat lodge stood on the low ground that jutted out into the river, and smoke curled up from the remains of a fire next to it.

  As they approached the lodge, Ohxakonike pointed to the rocks that sat in the coals of the fire. They rolled several rocks onto a piece of wood. They had to crouch as they moved the rocks into the center of the hide-covered lodge. After the fifth trip, Ohxakonike tied the hide across the opening.

  The air quickly grew warm inside. Feels good. He removed his buffalo hide and spread it on the ground. Steam hissed off the hot rocks as Ohxakonike ladled water onto them. My face prickles from the steam. He quickly removed the rest of his clothes, sat down, and closed his eyes. After each ladle of water sputtered off the hot rocks, the air grew hotter. Too hot.

  Ohxakonike began chanting and rhythmically switching his back with a pine branch. Ohxakonike ignores the heat. I can too. He focused on his uncle's chanting and the feel of the pine needles striking the skin of his back.

  He recalled parts of the dreams that had disturbed his sleep, the shadow voice taunting him that he was not worthy of a vision. No. I deserve a vision, and not just a simple vision, but a powerful vision that shows me of my future.

  It felt like he had been in the sweat bath for hours, wrestling with his dreams, when Ohxakonike finally grunted, “Time to prepare you.” They silently painted his naked body with white clay from head to foot. When they finished, they walked in silence up the hill to the tree. Ohxakonike grasped him by the shoulders, looked solemnly into his eyes for a moment, and then released him. Ohxakonike nodded his encouragement, turned, and walked away.

  He looked up at the platform that he had built high in the tree, more than ten times higher than his own height. He grabbed the rough bark and started up. His hands, feet, and knees were tough from years of climbing, the one thing he could do better than his brothers. Ouch. First time I've climbed without a breechclout. Pretending he was a bobcat, he quickly scaled the rest of the distance to his platform and carefully pulled himself onto it.