Wolf Heart

Chapter 1

Planet: Kestra

First Insurgency War

RAYAN

Lights tore through the smog and danced with the holograms which partied on the firescapes and windows of buildings. Cross-legged with everything he needed to share his view, he drew on his sketchpad, listening for the sounds of Sanctum floats full of enforcement personnel. Cars rolled through the solar highways, where the exits flashed their greens to alert the drivers of a safe point over into the city of Odaport. He followed the lines of the skyscrapers, with the Sanctum tower as a focal point, a shining star with a cloak of the gas giant Kestra orbited, Eruda — but to view from the highest point would do the foundation a disservice to his sketch. He sat on one of the rooftops of District Omega, where pubs blasted music. Drunken patrons partied and argued. He sat there and listened to it all, and added it to the colours he saw.

Too bad I can't draw people.

He never sat in one place in the District for too long. Whenever a shadow of an enforcement float hushed nearby, he rushed away down the metallic catwalks to another roof-bridge. Rayan packed up his pencils and practice sketches back into his bag when one such float hovered nearby, rushing across a bridge connecting the two roofs. Transport ships lifted off from the distant spaceport to race into the clouds. Rayan bounced off the first fire escape, balancing on a small plank attached to another one as the float moved over the alley. He hit the ground with a huff, double-checking his bag.

Everything he needed was in place. He shoulder the bag and shuffled down the alleyway, where his boots left trails through the rustic dirt. One man stepped out of the back, throwing garbage into the chute beside the steps. Rayan froze when they eyed him with sharp grey eyes, but ignored him further as Rayan stepped into the gated square.

Graffiti lined the walls. Starlight, shooting upwards past the tower. Broken chains. Rayan followed his usual path back out of Odaport, straight to the half-working holoboard.

DISTRICT OMEGA, with the insignia of the Elites crossed out in splattered black paint. Rayan frowned down at it, but continued on his way to catch the transport pod back to the outskirts. Out of the smog and the taste of dirt, he rushed up to the transport pod as one rolled into the station. Cold air brushed through the door when it opened, and he climbed on. In the back, a couple of adults spoke in low tones, so he took a seat near the front, holding his backpack tight while another boy his age entered the pod.

Rayan sucked in a breath when they hesitated and gave him a look. "Rayan Falae?"

"Alein," he mumbled under his breath as Alein sat in the seat across from his.

"I heard you were suspended," they said as they shuffled through their own backpack.

Rayan pursed his lips. "It's not like it happened a couple days ago." The transport pod rolled out of the station. "Usually word travels faster than that, so, who split it?" Arms folded, he leaned back and tried to bite down on the heat growing in his hands and heart.

"Bowie did."

"Through his broken teeth?" Rayan grumbled.

Alein shrugged and stopped shuffling through their bag. "Maybe that's why it took so long."

Rayan dug his fingers into his palm, but breathed out his frustration. "He got suspended too, so it's not like he has any room to talk." He lifted his head when the next stop flashed on the sign at the front of the transport pod. His stop, with his house on one of the hills hugging the cliffs which snaked their way through the Kestran salt flats. He stood up, ignoring Alein's appraising gaze as he stepped off the transport pod. He waited while it rolled by, and then headed up the hill, past the gates into the front lawn.