Stars Gods Wolves by Dan Kirshtein (good books for 8th graders .TXT) 📗

grown more and more common as Gally got older. After a moment, her mother straightened her posture and responded. “I didn’t come for him,” she said, forgivingly.

Gally blinked again, tossing her head back as she sniffled. “Yeah.” She nodded and carefully averted her eyes, picking literally anything else to stare at while she gathered her thoughts. “Well.” When she eventually did look back to her mother, it was with a sudden and forced positive energy. “You wanna meet some of my friends?”

Her mother smiled gratefully. “That would be nice.”

Gally wrapped an arm around her mom, as if they were old college buddies, before walking off with her.

The two ladies approached a man dressed in a forest green military outfit. It was rather ceremonial, but still sleek and minimalist. Upon being poked on the shoulder, the tall man turned and erupted into warmth and solemnity. He hugged Gally with all his might. “I am so sorry,” he said, earnestly.

Gally wished people would stop saying that to her, and the tone in which she thanked him may have given that away. She stepped back after breaking from the hug and motioned to her mother. “Major Sims, allow me to introduce my mother: Ariel Baker.”

Ariel stuck out her hand to give a weak, unpracticed handshake. But Major Sims turned it and placed his other hand on the back of it before looking the unprepared woman in the eyes. “I’m sorry for your loss, ma’am.”

No one had talked to her with such sincerity for some time, and—though it was very subtle and probably went unnoticed to Sims—Gally watched her mother go weak at the knees. “Oh,” Ariel nearly blushed. “I love your accent. You haven’t lived here long, have you?” Ariel was suddenly a teenage girl. Gally rolled her eyes.

“I’ve been stationed here for five years.” Though the rest of him remained stoic, a very subtle smile appeared on the major’s lips.

Gally interjected, happy to change the subject and distract her inappropriately curious mother. “When are you getting deployed?” She hadn’t meant to blurt it out, and her face recoiled at the sound of doing so. But it was an earnest question; one that kept her up at night. She wanted her father to be avenged, even if she couldn’t do it herself.

The question took Sims by surprise, though he handled it with the manners of a scholar. “Sorry?” he turned, with his eyebrows up.

Gally rephrased the question, though it retained her usual firmness and persistence. “Are they keeping you here for the war?”

Sims seemed lost for a moment, then hesitantly landed where he thought she was going. As he spoke, he suddenly realized he was breaking bad news to her. “Gally, there isn’t going to be a war for this.”

Whatever lightheartedness remained on Gally’s face quickly dropped. “What? They violated neutral borders. They attacked a vessel full of military non-combatants!” While she wanted to stop there, she couldn’t. Her words came spattered, as if any one of her next thoughts might convince him. The awkward silence and curious stares from the other mourners only made her angrier. “In cold blood!” Sims’ eyes darted uncomfortably as Gally lost her nerve. “For shit’s sake!”

Sims’ lips twisted as his face awkwardly switched between being a soldier and a friend. “High command doesn’t feel we’re ready for another war.” His sympathy seemed to fall on deaf ears, so he continued. “They decided that an apology would suffice.” He trailed off, realizing that half of that sentence was spoken to Gally’s back. She had stormed off.

Her mother followed—although she made sure to wave goodbye to the Major as she left. “It was nice meeting you!” she called out before turning to her daughter a few feet ahead of her. “Gally! Gally, wait! Where are you going?”

“Home!” Gally snapped, her face turning pink.

“In the craft?! They’re not leaving for hours.”

“I’ll call a cab!” Despite being so slight, Gally always managed to make people move out of her way.

Ariel possessed no such talent. She huffed as she chased her daughter through the crowd [of human (and other) obstacles]. “Nonsense! Let me take you. But please! Oh, excuse me.” She bumped into a portly man. “Honey, please slow down!”

Gally finally slowed to wait for her mother, who grappled her arm as if she might bolt again at any moment. Gally watched her mother struggle to catch her breath. She wanted to say something, show concern for her mother’s health, or ask if she was okay. But the words never arrived; they were blocked by the years of a motherless childhood.

But she did wait. “Ah,” she carefully wiped her eyes with one finger, trying to avoid smudging her eyeliner. “Goddamnit.”

“Oh,” her mother caught her breath. “Honey, come here.”

“No.” Gally blocked a hug, putting a hand on her mother’s sweaty shoulder. “No, I’m okay, Ma. Can we just, please?”

Ariel stepped back and her face changed to hurt again. “Okay,” she said. “Okay, let’s go.”

Heru: Dwarf moon of SabileUndisclosed location

He heard every one of his breaths reverberate off the steel walls. Every time he coughed, cleared his throat, or shifted position, it bounced back at him as if through a metallic filter. It was jarring at first, but, after so long, he’d grown accustomed to it. In fact, he couldn’t recall what he sounded like without it.

Three steel walls, which sat atop a steel floor, dimly reflected his actions back at him while one glass wall held his only view of the outside world. When the sun rose the whole room would turn white. While the room was climate controlled, it possessed no curtains, no blinds; not even bedsheets to block the blinding light. For a few maddening hours every morning, he could see nothing. He told himself he didn’t mind, as there was nothing else to do in the cell. So, he would sing at the top of his lungs. Mindless songs, songs he hadn’t actually heard in some time. And when he could see again, he moved.

As his first