Winter's Galaxy

by F. E. Arliss

  “You only just fainted for a few minutes, girl. You’re ok,” Jeanie whispered, taking hold of one of Winter’s balled fists. “I think after that display, we can safely say that you and the helmet have a long relationship ahead of you. It wouldn’t let you go for about an hour. Do you feel ok?” Jeanie asked worriedly. “You fainted and were out for a few minutes.”

  Relaxing slightly and withdrawing from her fighting stance, Winter looked at all the expectant faces and said, “I’m really tired. I love that thing,” she added, waving a shaking finger towards the helmet. “It’s like an instant trip through the eons. I loved it.” With that, she almost crumpled to the ground. A gangly Idolum clone-mite stepped forward and caught her before she had the chance to hit the floor. This was her introduction to one of her mites. This one would become known as Lance, for the long lance-like marking that ran up one, long, gangly arm.

  He carried her through the habitat to her quarters and laid her gently on the soft-green bed. Tiny tendrils wove around her and cuddled her in a giant wrap of springy leaves and vines. Queen Altum Juls assured Jeanie and Tate that she would sleep and be healed. They just needed to leave her to rest.

  Tate left happily for a talk with Lieutenant Kor and Jeanie and the Queen retired to have a light meal and discuss the plans for the coming training. Two Idolum mites settled protectively at Winter’s door. Lance, the tall gangly one, was already bonded by his experience catching Winter’s crumpling form. The other soon would be, as his proximity to her during that long night of recuperative sleep finalized the process for him. He was an oddity in Idolum clone-mites, as he had unusually mottled skin. Instead of the pale, almost translucent skin of most mites, his was almost like camouflage. Winter would take one look at him when she arose and call him Cam.

  Tate on the other hand, would keep his mite’s names simple. Tom and Jerry. They were characters out of an ancient vid that was stored in the Clyde’s memory banks. He and Tally had watched it over and over as kids. Even his dad, Dermott, and his mom, Moira, had watched it with them, laughing like hyenas.He’d taken one look at the pointy ears on Tom and the large rounded ones on Jerry, and identified them instantly. Everyone in his family would know they were his mites just by the names.

  Chapter Eight

  Treasure Hunt

  After talking with Jeanie and Lieutenant Kor, Queen Altum Juls had decided to proceed with the Ambassadorial training, but allowing Winter and Tate to mingle with all the warriors over the course of the training in order to form a bond with them and get to know the ones they thought might best serve them.

  Winter had a small side conversation with Jeanie about who could best be trusted and to her delight, the answer came in the form of Fats Domino, who arrived in a small Idolum sloop. He’d tumbled down the ramp in an acrobatic display of physicality and bowed low to Queen Altum Juls. “Fats Domino at your service, my Queen,” he said, a gleam in his dark brown eyes. He was followed by a hand-picked cadre of warriors from the dark side of Uzi.

  “I am delighted to meet you,” the Queen said, extending one huge hand for his tiny, stumpy one. The Queen smiled as she looked at their clasped hands. “This is what we are aiming for, Mr. Domino. That total opposites be made to feel that alliance with us is a friendship.”

  Fats looked down at his diminutive, dark hand, held gently in the Queen’s enormous, palely-translucent one and grinned up at her. “It is a bit of a sight, in’t it?” Fats said in his New Orleans Cajun lilt. “I get your meanin’. No worries,” the little man said solemnly. “I’ll do my best by Miss Winter. She’s a real corker that girl,” he added. “She got a mean left-side back-kick. Just where you don’t ‘spect her to have it,” he added ruefully, rubbing his bulging upper thigh in regretful memory. Queen Altum Juls laughed and escorted the little man to the habitat. They were deep in earnest conversation for the entire trip. The warriors trailed along behind.

  The following weeks the new human warriors, whom Fats had identified as honorable people trying to eke out an honest living on Uzi but finding themselves disillusioned with the crime there, took up training with their Idolum counterparts. All seemed happy to be on Geboren and took to the training like ducks to water. Fats had chosen well.

  With Queen Altum Juls permission, Winter had asked Lieutenant Kor and Tate to accompany her to the nest site where the Queen and General Freux had birthed the living remnants of Queen Altum Vis’ last nest. Only a few of the hundreds of eggs had hatched, but what did hatch, produced three royal Idolum: the children of Queen Altum Juls and General Freux. Twenty-one warrior Idolum had also been hatched. Today they were fully grown warriors serving the three royal children, General Apollo, Queen Athena, and General Atlas.

  Winter had learned about the nest from a taxing session in the helmet. The darn thing had taken to clasping her firmly and not releasing her until it felt she’d absorbed some important lesson for the day. Yesterday, it had been the existence of the nest site. When she’d asked Queen Altum Juls about it, Winter could tell the Queen was pleased at her curiosity.

  Climbing the steep crevasse now, Winter was exhilarated at the height and sweeping views laid out before them. The nest was up high in a craggy cliff area overlooking the habitat. From the valley floor there was no evidence of any openings in the cliff. The actual entrance was behind a fold of thick, molten rock that had settled millenia past into a clever shield over the entrance into the much larger nest area.

  During the bombardment of Geboren, many boulders had tumbled from the ceiling and walls, creating a barricade of boulders over most of the door. The floor inside was littered with chunks of the black rock from the surrounding cavern walls. Remnants of broken hatchling eggs littered the floor. Any remains had been taken out and offered to the winds, as per Idolum custom for the warrior level.

  The space felt sacred to Winter and she knew that it had harbored some of Queen Altum Vis’ most precious items. Many had been found and removed to underground vaults for protection. Queen Altum Juls told Winter to follow her instincts, as that was how she’d found a multitude of caches of powerful weapons and personal items belonging to the prior queen. It amazed Winter that these items had been hidden for over ten thousand years and yet still remained intact and unblemished. It was like a miracle.

  As she, Tate, and Kor clambered about exploring, Winter rested for a moment on a large flat-topped boulder that had rolled to a stop atop a heap of other rubble. Looking out over the cavern, she saw Kor and Tate also had taken time to rest and were engaged deep in conversation.

  Closing her eyes, Winter let her intuition reach out. Quieting her breathing, as Dolores Kelty, Sasha’s grandma-priestess had instructed, she just concentrated on her breathing and emptied her mind. Winter had come to love the peace of meditation. It was an escape from the pressures of life and the realities of past and present.

  Real time flew by as Winter enjoyed the quiet. What seemed like only seconds, Tate would later tell her was over two hours. He and Kor had simply waited.

  Opening her eyes to mere slits, but still deep in a meditative state, Winter rose and crawled into the narrow crack behind her. Closing her eyes once more, she felt her way along the wall, pausing occasionally to rest her forehead against the rock wall. The rock seemed to whisper to her, urging her on.

  Finally, stumbling several times, but continuing to crawl along the face of cavern, Winter came to a halt. Resting her entire body against the cold, spiny-textured surface of the wall, she felt a bone-deep peace come over her. She was where she was supposed to be. She let the peace and blankness settle throughout her being and just breathed.

  Coming slightly out of her deeply meditative state, Winter was surprised she was so far up on the cavern wall. She’d actually inched along a ledge only a foot or so wide and was now perched perilously on a high landing no bigger than the lid of one of the barrels of fuel the old man back in Saltillo used to deliver for the ancient furnace.

  Breathing calmly, Winter lifted one hand to Tate to let
him know she was ok, as he hovered nervously, fifty feet below. He and Kor looked as though they were ready to leap into action any second. She grinned down at them and waved them off.

  Turning back to the cliff face, Winter looked at it, really looked at it, for the first time. There was a visible indentation in the wall right in front of her shoulders. Shaped like an upside-down U, the grooves carving out the opening looked blurry and worn, as though they’d been there thousands of years. Softly placing one palm on the shape, Winter tried to ‘feel’ what the opening meant.

  She didn’t have to concentrate long. As though by magic, the hard-feeling rock simply crumbled away, revealing a narrow opening. Bending slightly, Winter peered into the small, dark space. A small box, beaten and rough looking, strapped with a still-shiny metallic band rested inside. Gently removing it, Winter made sure that the box was the only item in the cache and moved slowly and methodically back down the narrow ledge.

  As Winter reached the bottom, Tate grabbed her by the waist, heaved her easily over the last boulder, and pushed her gently back onto its broad top. “What the hell!?” he practically shouted at her. “You were scaring the crap out of me!”

  “I was perfectly safe,” Winter said calmly, eyes riveted to the box in her hands. “Look! It’s what I was led to in the meditation. It took me right to the niche this was in. I do believe I’m meant to have it. The Queen told me to follow my instincts and it lead me to this,” she said, smiling up at Tate, eyes shining.

  Tate glanced at Lieutenant Kor, “I think you should contact the Queen. She needs to see this,” he said grimly.

  Winter sat contemplating the box and running her hands gently over its worn surface, until the Queen knelt in front of her, with General Freux, Jeanie, and Fats joining the growing crowd. “So, it looks like she’s led you to something meant only for you. I spent hours in this cave finding the things she left for me. This one, I’m sure she left for you. Go ahead, open it,” Queen Altum Juls said with a knowing smile.

  The entire group moved back. One could never tell what was going to come out of these boxes. Some of the ones Queen Altum Juls had found had contained deathly weapons. Ok, so some had been jewels or ancient vids, but one could never be too careful.

  Reverently, Winter read the script engraved in the metal bands, “As these wards protect the gift I’ve left, so they too will protect you.”

  “It’s written in ancient Idolum. I’m very pleased that you are already so proficient in the language,” the Queen said, beaming at Winter, then flapped one long hand to urge her onwards. “Come on, the suspense is killing us,” she added with a grin.

  Winter ran both hands over the gleaming bands looking for a release. Without finding one, the bands seemed to melt, then twisted and in a few seconds had slipped around each of Winter’s slender wrists and morphed into half-foot long, engraved cuffs, ending almost at her elbows.

  “Wow! That’s cool!” Tate crowed. “They’re like protective gauntlets.”

  “Yes, I believe they are, at least, gauntlets and perhaps much much more,” Queen Altum Juls murmured, as Winter held the bracelets up to the light to admire them fully. “Come now, let us see your bequeathment,” the Queen whispered, bringing Winter back to the task ahead.

  Winter carefully opened the lid of the box. It worked without sound and slid open as though recently oiled. Inside rested a small vial of green fluid. It practically glowed with preternatural light. Ornate end-caps on each end of the vial held inscriptions.

  “I believe that is a vial of untouched serum from the Pool of Wisdom. It is the same fluid that fills the ‘queen pools’ and is very very powerful,” the Queen added softly. “Read the inscription. That will most likely tell you how to use it.”

  Winter peered at the small writing on either end of the vial. “Wisdom impart to you; Justice you shall do.” Winter read clearly, then looked at the Queen uncertainly. “What does that mean?” she asked.

  “I believe you have just found a vial of ‘Viceroy’ maker!” the Queen said, clapping her hands delightedly. “The Idolum have not had a Viceroy for millenia! Oh, this is wonderful!” She turned and flung herself into her husband’s arms, hugging him over and over and laughing with her head of long, wild, white-blonde hair flung back in exhilaration. General Freux hugged her back enthusiastically, flashing his Hollywood-smile teeth at a transfixed Tate, who had his teeth filed into a similar style.

  “Why do mine not look quite as good?” Tate whispered to Kor. Kor rolled his eyes.

  “What am I supposed to do with it?” Winter asked dubiously.

  “You are supposed to drink it!” the Queen said, then laughed uproariously at Winter’s wrinkled nose. “It will undoubtedly taste like crap, but will SO be worth it!”

  Cautiously twisting one end of the small tube, Winter found it slid off easily. Sniffing the contents didn’t make the look on her face ease any. “It smells disgusting,” she said forlornly.

  “Oh don’t be a whiner,” Jeanie said abruptly, giving Winter ‘the look’, which meant, ‘get it done or else’.

  Winter gulped it down in one go, swallowing quickly just in case the taste made her want to spit it out. In a flash the two metal ends of the tube melted in Winter’s palm and then slid like lightning-fast eels up her arm and curled around her neck. They ended by shooting out of the top of her ear in an ecstatic swirl of joy and then coiled lazily into an ornate ear cuff, draping her entire ear from top to bottom. The elaborate ear-cuff flickered and glowed with sparkling light and intricate flowers and a constellation-like charm dangled seductively from the bottom.

  “Holy crap!” Tate yelped, “Are you ok?” He bent down and peered intently into Winter’s eyes.

  “Oh, just stop thinking that, Tate Quirke,” Winter demanded suddenly. “I am so NOT sick or crazed from drinking the stuff. I am perfectly fine! You two, get a room,” Winter demanded, pointing one small finger at General Freux and Queen Altum Juls. “Your thoughts and intentions are things I can never erase from my mind.”

  “You two are something else, and I’ve seen just about every position known to the galaxy,” she added, waving them away and shielding her forehead in their direction, “Geez, thank you!” Winter added, “That was truly awful!” Then she dropped her hand and laughed at them. “Well, I’ve got a visual now on Idolum tackle. Crikey, Tate. You better keep that thing in your pants. They look dangerous!”

  A floored silence hit them all like a tsunami. After a few moments, Winter said dazedly, “What just happened?”

  Queen Altum Juls had dropped her husband’s hand and knelt in front of Winter. “I believe you received the ‘gift of the Viceroy’, or in other words, you became telepathic and have the ability to read people’s minds and intentions. It has historically been a very rare gift, even for a Viceroy. You are now the judge of all whom you meet on behalf of the Idolum empire.”

  “It is a tremendous responsibility, but one I’m sure you will take thorough advantage of in your new position. I also think it will now be much easier to choose your warriors tomorrow, as you will be able to discern their true intentions simply by casting your mind towards them.” Winter nodded dumbly.

  “You will need to be segregated from people for a while until you learn to manage your gift. Hence, your ability to see my desire for Freux and Tate’s fear for your safety,” she added quietly. “Lieutenant Kor, please see that Galen quickly erects an isolation chamber around Viceroy Winter’s quarters and ask everyone to quiet their minds in meditation for the next hour while we get her settled. Thank you,” the Queen said in Kor’s direction as he scrambled rapidly from the cavern.

  Reaching out one long hand, she said, “Come Winter, we must get you settled and have a long session with the helmet to help you learn about all the Viceroys and their gifts. First, I think a period of rest will be in order.”

  Hauling Winter to her feet, she allowed Tate to carry the dazed girl to her quarters in the habitat. Depositing her on the shelf-bed, they watched a
s a thick growth of tendrils quickly wrapped the newly-gifted girl. “We’ll talk when you arise. Rest now,” the Queen said, gently touching Winter’s face. “Rest.”

  Giving the rest of the party a stern glare, Queen Altum Juls ushered them out the door. “This changes things a bit. Come, we must discuss this,” she ordered, then swept towards the conference room with the rest of them trailing behind in a stunned quartet.

  Chapter Nine

  Viceroy’s Guard

  Winter woke slowly. “Ohhh gawwddd!” she exclaimed, raising one hand unsteadily to her head.

  “Ah, you’re awake,” Jeanie said, sliding gently onto the shelf bed and touching Winter’s forehead. “You got a bit of a fever from the Viceroy’s Gift,” she added. “Queen says it will go away here in a few minutes once we get you upright. Your bed has been hydrating you, so that helps,” Jeanie droned on, flicking a hand at the tendrils still uncoiling from around Winter’s recumbent form. “Go on, you,” Jeanie cooed, shooing the tendrils on their way. “They do so love their person, don’t they?” she chuckled.