“Sitara seldom goes far without her cat,” he reminded her. She even took her animal with her on trips to Mars.
Nadia sat up, stretched. Her hand dropped slowly down the curve of her body and came to rest over her womb. She snuggled close to Sharr. Both fell asleep and Krürashi attempted to get between them.
The Kuras mansion’s arboretum was a thing of extraordinary beauty. Nadia admired the exotic trees and flowers adorning the domed room as she strode beside her mother. This had been she and Sharr’s first home after they had moved to the Subcontinent. Queen T’Kara was pretty sure that her twin daughters had been conceived in this tropical garden.
Nadia sighed and sat on a bench. “We knew sooner or later at least one Morningstar child would find their way back to us.”
“Frederika is a remarkable piece of work,” Ambika said. “It’s hard for me not to see your Papa’s hand in her creation. I hope they’ve all turned out just as magnificent!”
“Don’t underestimate their impact on the world. Who’d have thought the 12th Imam would have been born from an artificial womb?” Nadia grinned. “It is perhaps a boon that you and Papa engineered him like you did. In a way, you’ve helped end a conflict that could have brought the Earth to near ruin by fashioning a religious reformer in Darius Noorani.”
“GenKon wanted soldiers and overseers for the transition to ‘New Humans’. That they set a Morningstar up to be a religious figure makes some sense. Darius Noorani’s arrival as the 12th Imam would have served GenKon in population control.” The Grand Matriarch's face became prideful and nostalgic. “I often wonder what became of those who have fallen off our radar. Where Uric and his son hid them, what kind of people they’ve grown into?”
“I’ve done some checking,” Nadia said. “There’s reason to think the Antares twins are Morningstars.”
Ambika nodded in agreement. “I would not be surprised if Uric sold the babies to a disenfranchised KGB agent with dreams of a restored Soviet glory. Uric didn’t hold any moral qualms about selling a Morningstar baby to Al-Qaeda.”
“Did Uric Kreis really think he’d be able to maintain control of all these super children?”
“Had it not been for the last World War, I think Uric and his son would have had a better hold on this network of superior humans. Think of it, Nadia. Each nation belonging to one corporation? Their loyalty would have been enforced by telepathic means. We were strictly forbidden from giving our Morningstar children that power.”
“Now I see why Oberon didn’t warn Frederika about my powers.” Nadia smiled grimly. “He’s a crafty one for sure. When they arrive, I shall have my Valküri closely watch him, be he Sharr’s brother or not. There’s more to Oberon than meets the eye.”
“Well,” Ambika began, she wondered what plans her daughter had designed for her other granddaughter. “You’ve wed one twin to a Drakorian. What are your plans for the other?” she asked with a matriarch’s keen interest.
“You make it sound so sinister, Maa. As if I use my children like pawns.” Truth be told, the Maharani knew she was equal to her own mother when it came to the matters of manipulation.
“Are we to have that old argument once more?”
“I’ve long adjusted to the idea that you and Papa manipulated biorobotic protomatter to build a daughter.” When Nadia first learned about her own Morningstar nature she had been less than philosophical. In fact, she was disgusted at the idea of Ambika, a devout Hindu could gleefully play as a goddess with life. “I’m proud to be Papa’s Sampo, manifest in our world.”
This brought great joy to Ambika. She and Nadia had some troubled times when her daughter was young. Nadia had been an exceptional child and never really fit in with her peers, always so deep and smart. It was good that her perfect little girl had come to accept who and what she was, thanks to Sharr.
“Nadia, I’m just curious what you’ve in mind. Let's be honest. Empires are dependent on such alliances.” She read the expression in her child’s bright eyes. Ambika pushed forward. “You have someone in mind? Who is he then?”
“Noorani.” Nadia said. “He is strong and respected by most nations.”
“An Ambitious move. Darius would make a good match for Ariel, both genetically and politically. But you knew that already Nadia.” The Grand Matriarch cocked her head. “Have you heard from Shalimar?”
“I’ve not spoken with her since our visit to Japan. She’s still upset and doesn’t understand why Sharr dealt with their loss like he has.”
The rift between Sharr and his Kajra Re broke Nadia's heart. The two people nearest and dearest to her in the world no longer seemed to care for one another.
“No parent should suffer such pain, trust me, I understand.” Ambika said sadly. “Perhaps Sharr has been dismissive of her feelings over Krada’s death? I never hear him talk about it.”
“It's not his way. He coils his emotions up. Shali doesn’t know him the way I do. She can’t appreciate how Sharr must deal with his son’s death. The alternative would be violent. He mourns his son I assure you.”
“My girl, you’re amazingly tolerant of Sharr’s flaws.”
[Vorkrür: Narshin Thryak December 3, 2030]
Sharr leaned back in his claw-throne. With his head resting in his hand, he looked rather disinterested and lost in his own thoughts. Nadia sat on a golden ottoman, a loving hand on his arm. Frederika waited at his side against the throne's post.
Shuriken Kra stood a step down on the dais, a tri-claw boot on the step. He insisted that he return to Vorkrür for this encounter. Never mind that he and Frederika had struck up a very pleasant relationship since they had met back at Kuras.
Kvaltar waited also in the court. It was dubious as to if Oberon Kreis were truly Sharr's brother, though certainly Vron did not doubt the possibility given the nebulous facts which encircled Sharr's paternal lineage. Why not a half-brother?
The Drakorian fingered their weapons with agitation. Trained to be watchful of threats to their Shotar, the Imperial Guard grumbled at the whole idea of this meeting. Worse still, Oberon brought with him members of his own elite military and their beloved Bashir, Kulcarin Aranskrai received the honor to train them.
A gong rang. The great egg shaped doors of the palace slid on their hydraulics, proclaiming the arrival of Oberon and his party. Vron noticed Sharr leaning forward with interest. He turned his attention back to the Prussian who claimed to be his friend's brother. Kreis marched at the head of his men dressed in a black and silver uniform designed to hearken back to Germany's old imperial days. Oberon held his spiked helmet under his arm, the one-eyed man smiling at the Falcanian ensemble.
The Blackeagle were big burly men. Each looked to be a murderer. None had the pleasant smile of their leader Oberon, though in his case that made him more dangerous. It was not clear as to what enhancements were made to these Blackeagle Knights. Under their starched pressed black uniforms, muscles bulged in an almost unnatural way. These cold, monolithic men were ruthless in their duties.
From behind Oberon, a smaller figure wavered, a white shawl obscuring its features. Perhaps a female? The Blackeagle quickly put themselves between the figure and Kvaltar's line of sight.
“Hail Sharr Khan!” Kreis said with gusto. “I bring the men my Duchess ordered und the Nemesis starfighter.”
In a way Oberon reminded Vron of Nadia's father as he had also been quite jocular and affable in his demeanor. This alone caused him to question the familial link to Sharr who always kept so reserved in public.
“We welcome you,” the Shotar responded with the full Imperial authority in his voice.
The figure in the shawl turned at the sound of Sharr, and Vron caught a glimpse of her face. His eyes flared in disbelief and moved in to get a better look. Nadia glanced toward Kvaltar, struck by the surge of emotion she had felt from him. She looked at Kvaltar with question. He returned the gaze but remained unsure.
“You have done well, Colonel,” Frederika said.
“I am humbled, my Duchess,” Oberon said. “Und now, I bring a special gift for my brother Sharr Khan.”
Kreis gestured and the Blackeagle Knights parted to allow the shawl-mantled figure to step forward so that Sharr might be able to see his gift.
The woman removed her shawl. She was dressed in a pink short-sleeved top and a long black skirt with a slit running up the right side to show a long leg encased in a smoky stocking. Chunky strappy shoes were on her feet.
By Falcanian standards she looked rather average, though beautiful by human measures. Her beauty was simple, a girl-next-door quality about her. Long brown-black hair flowed down her back. A curious, wandering expression crossed her Latin features as she stood there and demurely glanced at the man seated on the claw-throne. She saw Sharr and recognized him for who he was, a pleasant smile curving her lips.
Like a blade, the emotional wave cut into Nadia. She felt Sharr's emotions rise and fall. First he felt joy, then sadness, and an old jealousy crept into his mind. He was overwhelmed and nearly lost his emotional control. All at once his instincts screamed trap!
From her place beside the Shotar, Frederika gasped. “I did not know. I had no idea!”
Nadia knew what Frederika said to be true. Nadia herself was surprised by what she felt. Jealousy overwhelmed her, more so that such feelings originated within her and not some girl of the harem where the emotion could often climb high. It was not a thing she was accustomed to.
“You have changed, Roderik,” the girl purred, her voice dropping its usual octave as it had always done when she spoke to him.
The effect upon Sharr was immediate. He activated his Garuda's jets and hovered around the throne room. Sharr glided down the stairs, circling his “gift” from Oberon. Carefully he avoided touching her, as if to make contact would destroy him.
“Roderik Visal is dead. Only Sharr Khan remains, Aria.” He looked her over. “You have grown young.”
Indeed Aria DeFalco seemed to be either eighteen or nineteen, not the thirty-three year old that she had been when Sharr had last seen her. That fact left one with all but a single conclusion.
“She’s a reboot, my Lord,” Oberon said again with a pleasant smile.
Revelation of this fact caused much uttered disdain among the gathered Falcanians. Reboots, clones with recorded memories programmed onto new flesh. Falcanians had particular taboos about such practices. Certainly they regarded cloning to be useful, but they also regulated its use.
“I see.” Sharr Khan looked closer at his gift, not really bothered by the moral implications. This individual wasn’t a Falcanian, therefore not part of the networked over-soul. No line had been crossed in her creation. “Aria, what did I give you for your thirtieth birthday?”
“A homemade card. You told me it was supposed to have been a teddy bear, but you ended up sketching your cat because it had been in the room.” The reboot smiled happily recalling the memory “Also you gave me a box of chocolate covered cherries.”
The personal information seemed to satisfy Sharr who hummed to himself while he glanced Aria over. He inhaled deeply around her. She even smelled as she had before. The same lavender aroma and cool body lotion emitted from her slight body. Oberon had been thorough in his recreation, with the exception of Aria's restored youth.
Frederika buried her eyes in the book and glared harshly at the script written in both Trikash and Roman characters. A list of Falcanian female names beside their definitions, she intently searched for what she would be called as a member of this species.
“You do not seem happy, Frederika.” Shuriken said, reading the young woman's ridged body language.
Frederika glanced away from the Falcanian name index. “No, I am not.”
“Would this concern Aria?”
“Yes, but more so my uncle.”
“None of us are pleased by this development. Well, Sharr is, but he… He's distracted more than anything else by her being here.”
Shuriken actually understood all too well the effect that Aria's presence here was having on his friend. Kra had seen it all before and in his opinion it was not pretty. He was surprised Sharr had not had a heart attack when the Shotar had seen the reboot. In fact, Kra once witnessed the Shotar almost suffer from a severe case of hypertension after an extended period in Aria's presence.
“The very sight of her rips open wounds which never really healed,” he added.
“Oberon planned this,” she fumed. “He used me to get here.”
“Perhaps I did?”
Oberon walked into the library. Shuriken Kra let his hand drop to his vajra holstered at his left side and gave a wary look at the Prussian colonel.
Oberon raised a peaceful hand. “General, I assure you I mean no harm to anyone.”
Of that Kra doubted. He glanced at the young woman. “Would you like to be alone?”
“No! What is said can be heard by all,” she told Shuriken and thus made her new loyalties very clear for everyone.
Shuriken stepped back a pace, to allow Oberon to move closer to Frederika at the same time he kept Kreis at a respectful distance from her. The one-eyed German noted the Falcanian had become protective of Frederika.
“Rika, do you truly think that Sharr would have allowed me to come here had I been more direct about my desires?” Oberon asked. He knew the answer, but did as he always would and directed her thoughts to where he wanted them to be.
“No. He is skeptical and would not have believed you were his brother.”
“Indeed, had I showed up uninvited at his door it would have proved disastrous to everyone involved.” Oberon said. “However it’s true. Either way, I would have gotten what I wanted. You would have brought back the secrets I had sent you to gather, therefore benefiting our dukedom or the actual end I sought: me standing on this island as an invited guest.”
ISG Shuriken Kra found he admired the strategist in Colonel Kreis while feeling anger at the man for playing on Sharr's emotions to get what he wanted. That he could be so bold to explain his actions concerned Shuriken. It spoke of a dangerous arrogance in the man.
“It is true Sharr would not have been so open.” Shuriken Kra paused and added, “Right away.”
“General, Falcanians are not known for their openness to outsiders. They hardly leave this island or the Subcontinent. We had no choice, but to play this game.”
Shuriken Kra shrugged. He knew it to be the unvarnished truth.
“Und why did you not tell me about my connection to these people?” Frederika demanded.
“Some things are better learned. Besides, then you would have forgotten your mission all together und gone native much earlier then you did,” he said in a fatherly tone. “In many ways, you are perfect, though you do posses a flaw Frederika. You are too intrigued by those whom you must spy on. I've warned you about this often.”
She looked down at her feet and bit her lip. The thought of failure hurt her so. Frederika hated when Oberon chastised her, but he was correct. She failed in what she had set out to do here. There was little excuse for it, even if this had been Oberon’s actual goal.
“Aria, why bring her here?” The blonde latched onto the reboot's presence as an excuse for her own failures. “Why recreate her for him?”
“Aria is exactly as I said,” Oberon explained. “A gift for my long lost sibling. I thought it'd make him happy.” The natural wolfish grin brightened his face. “We all knew at GenKon the love Sharr held for this girl. After all, we had our eye on him for some time. She is nothing more than a gift, a kind of peace offering.” By sincerity alone Oberon Kreis managed to overcome the viceroy's cynicism. Yet Kra did not know what to make of him. He knew the right buttons to push with Frederika which would cow her. Shuriken would keep a close eye on this man. “Let us once again be one, big, happy family,” Oberon declared.
“Ouch!” The facsimile of Aria cried out.
Nadia continued to telepathically probe the reboot while she conducted a checkup. Her assistan
t Priyanka already tested Oberon and this reboot's blood.
Now Oberon Kreis remained a mystery to the Queen. Unlike this reboot which psychically appeared as an open book, Nadia found herself unable to probe his mind. After she’d woken with her new powers at GenKon INC., Kreis had been a wraith to her. Even those with low PSI ratings still were readable, yet for some reason, not him. Kreis's mind existed as white noise to her She could not be sure if it was some biological phenomena or rather technology Oberon employed to hide his psychic self from the telepathically gifted. Nadia surmised GenKon INC., had developed counter measures to telepathy.
“When can I see Roderik?” Aria asked for the tenth time.
“Do not call him that,” the Queen said. “He prefers Sharr. And you can talk to him soon.”
Either it was an implanted compulsion or Aria simply wanted what was familiar to grasp onto. Sharr would be comfortable to her, someone she associated with pleasant memories. Thus far, Nadia found no such compulsion in the girl’s mind. Only a wish to be with someone safe she could trust. The Queen speculated what it must have been like, a thirty-three year-old mind awoken into a body hardly out of adolescence. “Tell me. What do you last recall?”
Aria closed her eyes. “A voice. A voice thundered, calling out to me. Darkness... My death, I think?” Her face blanched at the memory. “Then I woke up in a hospital room. Oberon was there. He told me something bad had happened to me, but he was going to take me home. I imagine he meant here.”
Nadia frowned. Aria's retelling sounded disjointed and slightly confused. “Sharr,” Nadia said, “has missed you very much. He thinks of you often.” Nadia found it hard to not repress her innate repulsion of clones. Being what she was made her view such creatures as unworthy, mere attempts at the glory of a Morningstar. The Queen thought it a shame Frederika had been raised from childhood to think of herself a glorified, recombined clone. All Oberon's fault, he never understood what made Morningstars what they were.
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