by Reiter
“Then I will see to our General while you gather the masses,” Gregoran stated.
“You have a candidate in mind?”
“No, my Baron,” the High Priest replied as he turned to walk out of the room, “but I know you do. I will do what is required to regain her talents and make them our own.”
“I declare, your awareness and guile may be the only things that exceed your faith.”
“I will never be that gifted in the trappings of thought,” Gregoran admitted. “But our faith has led us thus far, I shall trust it a little longer. I have your leave to–”
“Do whatever you feel you must, Gregoran!” Hanvashi commanded. “You have my blessing and my hope.” The doors closed behind him and Hanvashi looked at them for a moment. He allowed himself a slight smile before turning back to look out of the large window. Renatus was nearly out of sight as the ship turned, but it was enough of a glance to sustain him… to empower him with faith and hope.
“I must say, it is nothing short of breathtaking to see truly dedicated men,” the female spoke softly from the shadows of the room. “Some would call you a fanatic, though I believe you prefer the word ‘devout’. Is that not so?”
“I have kept our agreement,” Baron Zoll replied, ignoring the inquiry he knew was hardly an earnest question. “… but it does not make it any less distasteful to lie to my goddess.”
“Calm yourself, Baron Zoll,” the woman quickly returned. “Did it look like the source of your newfound technology was of great concern to her?! Xaythra did not even ask what you meant by the tenth moon before she cast herself off into the heart of that planet. Her mind is set on other things… and whatever it is she plans on doing with Renatus. I must say, for her to say that everything will take a year sounds promising.”
“She could have done it in an instant if she had chosen,” Hanvashi quickly defended.
“Then let us hope that her mind is not as blinded as you are!” the female retorted, moving toward the place in the room where she had first appeared seven days ago. “That is, if her true objectives are contrary to her stated aims, and I feel they probably are given the way she decided to take her leave of you.”
“What are you talking about?!” Hanvashi barked. “Xaythra lends her touch to our new home!”
“And you actually believe that the incarnate expression of gravity needs a year to work out how to keep a gas giant together?! Tell me again how you came to a downfall here?
“She passed through the planet, Vohlbred,” the woman said, pressing a button on the small cube she kept in her left hand. It summoned a portal to take her away from this ship. “Amazing how when one is using a gas giant as a curtain how hard it is to see what is happening on the other side of it. I will save you the trouble of sending a probe. You will find the remains of a gravimetric breach. She literally ripped a hole in the fabric of space and made herself a doorway. Now, where that door leads is your mystery to fathom. You kept your word and my energy matrix actually worked; we both have what we truly need.”
“Indeed, mysterious one,” Hanvashi agreed. “I trust we will be graced with your presence in a year’s time?”
“I… wouldn’t miss it for the world!” the woman said before stepping into the portal, activating its power and process. The light cast against her body only revealed that she was tall and shapely, wearing a form-fitting bodysuit and a silver-lined black cloak. “And call me… Sylundaree.”
“Baron Zoll,” the helmsman called over the intercom, “our course is set. We await your orders.”
“Engage engines,” Hanvashi said as he watched the light of the aperture diminish and fade away altogether. “And tell the navigator to be on full alert! We will be increasing in velocity shortly!”
As the spacecraft pulled away from the newly named and still-forming gas giant, Naf moved from behind one of the moons. With his eyes still fixed on the vessel making its way through the fabric of space, a sphere of light formed in front of the Baton of the Celestial Chorus. A creation of his own making, the sphere used light to connect Naf with his brethren.
“What have you found, Naf?” Khiea inquired.
“The agent responsible for the falling of Eesa did not do so out of malice,” Naf reported, “but ignorance. The assembled entity was unaware of Eesa’s presence in the star she, the one called Xaythra, used as her own personal dwelling.”
“How could sharing the star diminish our Sister?” Cak inquired.
“It was not how the entity entered Eesa’s dwelling,” Naf replied. “… but how she departed. There is so much confusion, rage, pain, and strife still lingering here… so many lights lost... Eesa departed in the wake of the act that extinguished the light of so many. I cannot see where she has gone.
“But there are many lights that have passed since Eesa’s departure,” Naf added as his eyes looked to one particular place. The image of the vessel containing the Legerian slowly took form. “This one has taken a new craft, but he is one we recognize.”
“He still lives?!” Tilu asked, remembering the essence from before the Chorus put themselves to a deep and restful sleep.
“Yes he does,” Naf stated. “… but this one is but a shadow of its maker and master. The true collector rests as our brethren still do, awaiting our return.”
“Still, this does not tell us the cause behind our awakening,” Khiea noted.
“Agreed,” Boj added. “It brings to mind a note of curiosity, but this Chorus must first be concerned with the orchestrations of the Cosmos! We can return to fathom the enigma of L. Austin Eveentoos once we can resolve why we were stirred from our Restoration Cycles.”
“There is harmony,” Khiea declared. “Return to us, Baton. We have absorbed the ambient light of our sleeping brethren and still we have questions. Perhaps the answers will reveal themselves when our light shines throughout the realm.”
“I hear the command of our Conductor,” Naf declared as his body started to glow. “I am compliant.” A flash of white light burst from his chest, fading as quickly as it had come. When the light was gone, so was Naf. He had taken his power and his presence with him, but it had failed to register to him that he had not been alone… another presence of the Stars was nearby and it had observed the exchange between Naf and his siblings.
“Yes,” a soft female voice said. “You are compliant… and for the life of you, dear Brother, you cannot say why. But I was not awakened by the same light that brought you from your sleep. My light came from another. I fed off of her rage and it nearly became my own… but then I receive sentience… vision, awareness, and great regret. I know how so much life came to an end here, and I know why it was done… but until you came, my brother Naf, I did not know what I was. Your light has filled my heart and my mind. What I was deprived at your awakening you have given me.
“But you will not hear me as you are,” Eesa concluded as she slowly started to take form. Her long, thick, wavy hair took the color of a soft red mixed in with a deep mahogany brown. “There is a taint to the light that awakened my kin and it has become part of them. Only a greater light will reach them, cleanse them, and set them free. I have not the power to make such a light… not as I am.
“Still, my movements must be soft and quiet,” Eesa added as she looked on her skin that was beginning to form as well. It was of a dark, mocha complexion, smooth and supple, flowing all over her body, and she blinked as her eyes became a mixture of slender stripes of brown, green and blue all coming to a black dot in the center. “… when my kindred emit their light, I must be where I can read their light but not be read by them… or where they will expect me to be without knowing what I have become. Yes! I will hide, for now, in plain sight and wait for their starburst to ebb. Then I must fathom how I can achieve a light which is currently beyond me.” Eesa turned and placed herself back in the star of the Tau Upsilon. There she went about the business of creating a false image of herself; diminished and nearing extinguishment.
** b *** t ***
o *** r **
Naf returned to the Chorus and Khiea was about to signal the gathering of her siblings when she took note of Poma gazing at the stars. It was clear she was not merely observing her kind; she was reading, and the subject matter was most engaging to her.
“What is it that you see?” Khiea inquired. She spoke in a voice that would register with Poma despite where her attentions may have been.
“The sparks,” Poma stated. “I can see the sparks who attempt to read shards of our light. They are searching… with great intent… for something…” Poma turned away from her gazing to look at Khiea. “Something that I cannot see but that I know to be there.”
Khiea thought for a moment, reviewing the light Poma had read to come to such a conclusion. She then looked out into the cosmos and read the ambient light, quickly coming to the same findings. Another mortal light, another spark, had come to their realm and yet nothing of the spark’s arrival could be seen.
“How is that possible?” Khiea asked, sharing with her siblings both her findings as well as Poma’s investigation. “Such an event is not in our memory!”
“Something new has happened!” Cak declared, glowing in anticipation.
“It does not change our position,” Khiea stated, turning away from Poma. “We must unite and send out our light. Perhaps in this burst we will see this matter more clearly.”
“Indeed,” Poma agreed as she walked to join her siblings.
Joining hands in a circle around Naf, blinding shafts of light burst from the chests of the Chorus into Naf who collected the energy, adding his own, awaiting the guiding hand of Khiea. Her crystal eyes were soon alive with light as she focused her will through Naf.
“I can feel them,” she said. “The sparks. They almost speak with one voice… they are nearly a Chorus unto themselves. But while their objectives are similar, their passions are scattered. They play the same note but they do not speak in one voice. They will miss the light yet again.”
“I will suggest,” Boj offered. “… with the sparks peering so heavily into our shards, we should not use the light which is the most available to us.”
“I agree,” Tilu added.
“There is harmony,” Khiea declared. “We will use then… the Black Light!”
Black starlight burst from Naf and spread quickly through the Rims. It passed through all realms and all dimensions adhered to the Rims, giving light and taking light as it reached the edged of the Outer Rim. It then returned, engaging in the same trades; though the offered light had been changed by all it had gained and thus what it received in the second trade in return was also different, augmented by several degrees.
The light returned, passing through every object in the Rims, even Tau Upsilon where Eesa read the light, giving the false light-image of her slow and eventual death. Naf received the burst and gave equal portions to each of his siblings and the gem which had initiated their awakening.
Much had happened since the Chorus was last conscious… much more was still happening. They still had no answer as to what force had called them from their slumber, but the mystery of how and why they had slept past their appointed awakening time had been added to their massive list of questions. It did not dawn on them to awaken the rest of the Chorus. They were too fixated on this ghost that still evaded their senses. A ghost with the touch of foreign Starlight attached to its form. Not only did it have to be found, but it had to be destroyed!
The beginnings of a path need not always be named so long as they are not overlooked or dismissed before the first stride can be taken.
The First Star Chaser
(Rims Time: XII-4112.15)
Dungias approached the platform and looked at the approaching fighter-craft. Taking a moment to check his brace-com, he saw Satithe’s scans had already been analyzed. The new engine design was performing better than he had anticipated. To Dungias, it was still inadequate, given what he had learned in his travels to the Rims, but it exceeded the local region’s definition of adequate. It was now all a matter of what Jocasta thought of it; the vehicle landed and floor-mounted hooks locked into place.
The canopy opened and she removed her helmet, sighing and shaking her head. “Were you watching?” she asked.
“I was indeed, Captain,” he replied, offering his hand to help her out of the ship. “The fighter’s performance was nominal.” She took hold of his hand and sighed again.
“We must’ve been watching two different shows, Z,” she said, hoisting herself up out of the fighter. “Nominal is not what I got at all.” She turned and jumped up, wrapping her arms and legs around Dungias before she started to cackle. “Z! I freakin’ love it!”
“I would not have guessed that was your opinion,” Dungias remarked as he turned and started down the stairs to the main floor. Jocasta remained a fixture to his body, but her weight was easily managed and Dungias allowed himself a smile.
“I’ve never felt thrust like that before!” Jocasta exclaimed as her head came away from his shoulder. “And what in the name of funky stars did you do to the guidance system?! You can’t turn and bank like that in outer space! I turned off my helmet mike because I didn’t want to bust your ears out!”
“That explains the silence,” Dungias stated as he entered the corridor. “Your consideration is appreciated. As for the turning capacity, that is achieved by the gravitational field the fighter is able to generate. It is linked to the field the Xara-Mansura creates and between the two, it can be made to feel as if you are flying in atmosphere. I have not worked out all of the…”
“Kinks, genius,” Jocasta offered. “The word is ‘kinks’. And yes, it can also be used in a sexual reference, but no one aboard this ship is going to read you wrong on that one.”
“Thank you, Captain?” Dungias returned, not sure as how to take what Jocasta had said. He dismissed the matter and returned his mind to the topic of the projected gravimetric field. The range of applications of such a device was nearly boundless, but he knew that Jocasta was only interested in one at the present. “Once I have completed my research, I will be adding another controller to your console.”
“Two sticks? Why?”
“Because you will have the ability to alter the focus of the field,” Dungias replied, walking into the lift. He looked at a staring and patient Jocasta who was not going to voice what her facial expression was so ably conveying. “The pull of gravity need not remain in one direction. What if the pull was above as you pulled back on the stick?” Her eyes flared wide and Dungias could feel the handholds on his shoulders receive a noted increase of pressure.
“That would be a superfast pull-up,” she whispered as she wrapped her arms around his neck again.
“And with the gravitational field above you, there would be no G’s registering on your body,” Dungias added. “And yes, once I have worked out all of the… kinks… we should be able to project the field into an atmospheric environment.”
“I was right,” Jocasta said softly as she nodded. “You really are a genius!”
“I am merely responding to the needs of my Captain,” Dungias replied. Jocasta smiled before she looked around. She frowned and decided to climb down off of Dungias.
“You’re pretty freakin’ strong, ya know,” she remarked, patting him on the shoulder. “Hauling me from the hangar bay. Didn’t even look like you were working to walk.”
“And yet she somehow missed how she has held up her own body weight, with no sign of strain, for the same length of time,” Dungias thought.
“I am glad to have been of service,” Dungias said.
“You know, that’s one thing we gotta nail down and I mean now,” Jocasta said, stopping the lift. Dungias frowned at the motion but then looked to the floor, opting to say nothing. “What?”
“Did you think we would not have the same measure of privacy at the end of the lift ride?” Dungias inquired. Jocasta’s lips pressed together and she moved her tongue around her teeth as she let the moment pass qui
etly, lifting the lock on the lift car.
“That’s because it feels like we’re in a freakin’ building!” she muttered. “I keep thinking we’re going to get to a floor and find a crowd of people waiting to use the lift so they can check out of the Hotel Roundball!”
“Ah, there is the wit again,” Dungias observed.
“Do you know what the worst part of the test flight was, Z?”
“When you had to turn back to the ship,” he answered.
“When I had to turn back to dock with the prematurely ejaculated bowling ball!” she snapped. Dungias frowned once again, looking as if he did not get the metaphor. “Prematurely,” she offered. “You know, because it doesn’t have the three holes.” Dungias’ face broke from the frown as he recognized what she was trying to describe. “I swear. Do you know what I keep thinking looking at a big ass gray ball in the middle of space? I keep wondering when someone’s gonna break out the Donna Summer record!”
“I especially like Love Is In Control,” Dungias remarked.
“That’s R&B, genius, not disco. I’m pretty sure they didn’t have disco-balls in the cool clubs! That said, it is a good song, but you’re a bass man. You like that bass stuff, which explains why you’ve always got jazz, the blues, Level 42, and posh-twist playing in the lab.” The lift stopped and Dungias stepped out into the corridor.
“Speaking of the lab,” he said without stopping, “there are a few matters I must tend to regarding the test flight data. If you will excuse me, Captain.”
“He asks without waiting for a response,” Jocasta thought. “Yeah, like you’re going to say anything to keep him from making the ride even more kick-ass!” Jocasta tapped her brace-com to open a channel to Dungias.
“Z?”
“Yes, Captain.”
“All jokes aside, I’ve never flown anything like it.”
“All jokes aside, I have never designed a ship for a finer pilot, Captain.”