Free The Heart of Matter: Odyssey One by Evan Currie Page A

to smile slightly, despite being a little uncomfortable. “Ithan Chans is an adherent of the Old Ways. Most people here are, probably as much as ninety-five out of a hundred or more. The Old Ways include the Oath; however, they hold it in extremely high regard and do not speak of it easily.”
    Eric nodded, thinking back to his first impressions. He’d been right to assume it was religious, then, and probably better left well alone.
    “The Oath, in its simplest form, is ‘Do No Harm,’” Tanner said after a moment. “Though, there are degrees and long sections describing guardianship and so forth.”
    “Sounds like what our doctors swear,” Eric replied with a slight smile.
    “Pardon?”
    “Our doctors have to swear an oath before they are allowed to treat a patient,” Eric said seriously. “I don’t know exactly how it goes, but I think is starts with, ‘First, do no harm,’ meaning if you are going to treat a patient, your first responsibility is not to harm him any further.”
    Rael nodded. “That is remarkably close to the Oath sworn. Perhaps there is a connection between our people, after all.”
    Eric shrugged. “Maybe. Probably, in fact, but that oath isn’t that old by your standards. Two, three thousand years, at most.”
    “Very young, indeed.” Rael nodded. “Still, a connection, even if only in spirit.”

NACS ODYSSEY

Ranquil Planetary Orbit
    ▸COMDR. STEPHEN “STEPHANOS” Michaels stood in the doorway to the Archangels’ common room, eyeing the nine people sitting inside. Other than Paladin and his wingman, Lieutenant Samuels, who were out on the CSP, the entire group was here. With the losses to the flight, they’d gotten permission to recruit back up to strength, but as he’d found out the hard way, the current Congress wasn’t interested in expanding the flight past its current size.
    During the war, the Archangels had served as a Special Operations flight group, flying missions deeper into more dangerous territory than any other airborne group in the Allied Nations. In a world wired for sight and sound, their exploits had become legendary practically overnight, with major news networks running full-color, high-definition, and often holographic documentaries compiled from their onboard computers.
    While even Stephanos, who was as huge a supporter of the Archangels as it was possible to be, wouldn’t claim that the Archangels were anything more than another part of theframework that had eventually won the war, to the public, they were quickly turned into the symbol of victory.
    Since the war, however, Steph had learned the hard way that symbols of victory were the first to be stashed safely out of sight. He didn’t mind the assignment to the
Odyssey
, though it was largely just to get him and his team out of the Sol System and away from cameras. In fact, he had to admit that he reveled in it to a certain degree. The last time they’d come out they’d been able to prove that the Archangels could take on the neighborhood bully in a much bigger neighborhood, so he couldn’t quite manage to regret the assignment, despite the losses.
    Losing Flare and the two other Archangels who had given their lives hurt, though. They had been flying comrades for several years, and for a while, it was like he’d lost his own right hand.
    Now he had two complete rookies in the flight, plus Jennifer Samuels.
    Jen earned her wings, though
, he had to admit. She’d claimed three kills in the last battle they’d fought in this very system, which was a respectable number in that particular furball. That still left a couple of new people who had yet to be blooded, and while they were working out well enough in training, he had to keep a close watch on them.
    I can’t imagine what it was like for Eric
, he thought absently just then.
We used to get three, four new guys for practically every second or third mission
.
    Times change, I guess
. He supposed that was true, but now he had to worry about