“You’ll see her again,” Saraceni said as Gabriel cut across the training room, “and Gretchen, too-in a few hundred years,” he added half-jokingly. Saraceni exited in his dress clothes toward the transport.
“I know,” Gabriel said to the empty room. He turned off the light and the gentle amber glow of The Cupel held steady in the corner. He looked at it and exited toward his room. A week later, walking down the same long corridor, the night of the celebration seemed it had been long ago and his memory of it was only in flashes of images:
-The men in pressed outfits of navy, white and silver. Jack had tied his silver cord into a double-wrapped bowtie-style, very old-school Hollywood, while David Running Wolf had used it to incorporate a braid pattern into his long hair with the silver accent.
-The women had appeared in gowns of either white or silver, each with a sapphire bodice. The only one who seemed at ease was Chandra, having grown up in the land of debutante balls.
-Phoebe shouting “I look like a princess!” as they all rode the transport to the central palace, passing the point where the old world stone structure architecture gave way to the futuristic glass city as the white cherry blossoms lining the streets were punctuated by a carpet of bluebells.
-Most of all, he remembered the gratitude of his True Earth colleagues over Molior’s success in opening the gate and his discovery of the latge door behind which was a small lake of iridescent light-infused water.
“This was the place I always used to see as a kid. I dreamt of this!” he exclaimed to his parents. Athena had taken his arm on one side, and his father’s on the other.
“Of course you did!” she replied with a knowing smile.
Now he stood next to the Cupel in a dark room, his stare of growing concern barely illuminated by its’ amber light. Saraceni arrived and, too, looked at the Cupel.
“It’s not safe, you know," Saraceni confirmed, “ Valswak and the Dark Janae won’t stop. We’re in for a lengthy battle.”
Gabriel sighed, “I know.”
“We’re handing out new permanent team assignments tomorrow. You will be one team Captain.” Saraceni held out to Gabriel the small silver bars to affix to his collar indicative of the rank. Gabriel paused.
“And what will I lead?” he asked.
“The charge against the Dark Janae.” Gabriel then accepted the silver bars, feeling the full heft of their weight in his hand as he did so.
In a distant corner of quantum space, Valswak watched the exchange between Gabriel and Saraceni on his own surveillance monitor. Alone, he smiled to himself.
“You’ll lead a whole lot more than that, Gabriel. The Aquilas will lead a revolution.”
The End
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Acknowledgments
For the thousands (and I do mean thousands!) of hours of science fiction “education” growing up, I wish to thank my Mother first and foremost. In addition to the unending belief in me, encouragement, instilling a deep love of reading and the old adage to any question, “look it up”, I will forever be grateful for your love and support. If we could categorize some of those as grade “Z” science fiction films, though, I would say there are a few I could have done without. (Anyone need only ask my sister for confirmation on this). Thank you to my capable and wonderful daughter, who has endured years of my own lectures on scientific concepts, research principles, and philosophy. You are a BA terminatrix who has shown amazing resilience and will always be the shining star in my life. You are destined to follow a beautiful path. I appreciate your dedicated editing, but more so your mere existence, fun energy during hiking expeditions, and just being you. Likewise, I must thank Dad for having been Dad, and this book has me hoping he has found himself hanging out there somewhere with the other good guys. My sincere gratitude to my good friend and author, Brian Bailie, Jr., for the joint editing process of our books and to his family for tolerating our occasional need to micro-analyze ad nauseum. (We know when we’re being like that). My best friend, Tina, who is more like a sister to me, thanks for knowing all the history back to age 11 (and appropriately keeping it to yourself!) and for having three beautiful children and allowing me to be a part of their lives. Thanks to Kevin for the encouragement early on, without which I probably wouldn’t have started this book, for helping me grow up, and for your unique outlook. Kate Wyman, thank you for having the artist’s vision of what I could only see in my head and producing the cover art. To all my other friends and family who have been wonderful people for the many years I have known them, too many to name, I am happy to say, a huge collective thanks and looking forward to some serious fun in the near future. Thanks to every Starbucks on the planet, but especially the crew at 30th and Arapahoe in Boulder. Lastly, to all the teachers, scientists, soldiers, artists, writers, historians, adventurers, dreamers and everyone who gets out of bed in the morning and makes it their aim to contribute something to the greater good-we inspire each other.
The Cupel Recruits Page 30