Eros was too horrified to make a sound and took off running. She turned to see if an inquisitive serpent was following her and ran straight into a tree. The tree did not seem to mind, but Eros’ skull was instantly rendered unconscious.
Guard1 suppressed her desire to laugh at the combination of Eros’ terrified face bouncing off the tree and a shaking, petrified Karolita in her arms. The racket was so loud it was difficult to think.
Hopping, scurrying, and slithering creatures eagerly violated Eros’ personal space. In seconds, her unconscious body was covered with a continuous flow of motion — creatures found her mouth, nose, and ears. Some even found their way up her dress.
“I guess this is why Lord Smigyl wisely forbade any of these aggravating beasts from invading our beautiful sanctuaries,” Guard1 offered, mostly to herself.
Karolita shook uncontrollably.
“My Goddess,” Guard1 said, congratulating herself for using this appellation in anticipation of Karolita soon resenting that she was being held like a baby. “May I introduce you to something that has a greater noise-to-mass ratio than even The Garbbler.”
Guard1 carried Karolita closer to a tree and pointed to a creature a little larger than the size of her thumbnail. The tree frog was glowing a rich deep green with an elegant red design across his head and down his back. He clung to the tree bark with the suction cups on his toes. His red eyes were almost as big as his wide-open mouth. He was yelling so loudly that Karolita thought her head would explode.
Seeing the creature responsible for making the trees yell helped Karolita collect her senses. Guard1 felt Karolita shift in her arms in an attempt to get down, but Guard1 directed her attention to the forest floor that moved with life and then to Eros’ body, where a curious green serpent had become keenly dedicated to identifying the source of the strange smell Eros’ nose emitted.
“Yuck,” Karolita cried. “Let me down. Make some space for me or just squash em.”
Guard2 raised her foot, aiming at a massive green frog with skinny legs twice the length of its body.
“Stop,” Guard1 yelled.
Karolita glared at Guard1, pushing her face closer so they were nose to nose.
“My Goddess. That will make our situation much worse.”
“Just crunch ‘em. And let me down.”
“Karolita listen to me,” Guard1 said softly but firmly. “We are on a Mansion World III sphere. These aren’t just the stupid physical creatures we once had on Planet Eden. These are the Gods of those stupid physical creatures. If just one of them is killed in anger, it will send shockwaves through the entire local Morontial network and will call every Valkyrie within a hundred kilometers.”
Karolita, still agitated, listened. Even with her self-servitude, arrogance, greed, and vanity, she was still Lakshmi’s oldest daughter, a Demigoddess, with the intellectual capacity of a Demigoddess. Karolita sighed heavily, looking down at the crawling ground, looking around to see if there was anywhere less repulsive to stand. “Over there,” she said, pointing to a moss-covered rock that would give her at least some separation from the ground.
“Yes, my Goddess. Good eyes,” Guard1 said, trying to determine how to get there without crushing some slithering thing underfoot.
“Just shuffle your feet,” Karolita said.
Guard1 nodded.
The rain slowed to a sprinkle, although by that point small pools of water were everywhere.
She heard a groan. Eros was waking up.
“My Goddess, the ropes in your purse. We need to stop Eros before…” Guard2 started to say. Guard2 remembered the small coils of rope in Karolita’s purse, brought with the hope of capturing some unsuspecting pigeons, giving them a good thrashing, cutting out their eyes with Karolita’s Destiny blade, and then stabbing them to death.
“I know that,” Karolita fumed. Guard1 knew that it aggravated Karolita when even she, her primary bodyguard, spoke to Karolita. Having Guard2 give Karolita instructions as if she were nothing but a common servant was much worse. Guard1 knew Karolita would have Eros give Guard2 a painful lesson in protocol shortly after their arrival on Glamoria.
Karolita opened her purse and rooted around in it, eventually pulling out her large Celestial weapon to get the ropes. Guard1 opened her mouth to say something, knowing that the Celestial weapon would send out a beacon to any Valkyrie close enough to see, but Guard1 knew she was already on thin ice and kept quiet.
Karolita threw the ropes at Guard2 hoping to hit her in the face, but she caught them easily. She tied Eros’ legs together and her hands behind her back. Guard2 then helped the semi-conscious Eros to her feet. She dragged her to a tree and then strapped her to the trunk in a standing position, facing Karolita.
Eros, now awake, looked down at Guard2 who was brushing away some of the creatures still clinging to Eros’ clothes.
“If it starts to scream, stuff this in its mouth,” Karolita said as she tried again to hit Guard2 in the face, this time throwing a rubber sphere with connecting straps.
“What the blue weird-show is that?” Eros shouted as she was ripped into full wakefulness. She jerked her hands to smash whatever was crawling up her leg.
“Untie me you piece of…”
Guard2 inserted the rubber ball in Eros’ mouth and quickly tied the straps together at the back of her head.
“Evidently there’s something crawling up its skirt,” Karolita said calmly from the safety of high ground, gently tapping away anything that attempted to share her rock.
Guard1 and Guard2 approached Eros and lifted her skirt.
“Wow. Smells like crap,” Guard1 said as she turned her head away from the smell.
Eros had soiled herself at the first onslaught of tree frog songs, and now Eros’ underpants were moving.
“I don’t think even Eros’ shit moves like that, do you my Goddess?” Guard1 asked Karolita.
“No, probably not.” Karolita chuckled. “Can you tell what’s in there?”
“No. Well, no, I’m not really sure,” Guard1 said, standing back, continuing to lift Eros’ skirt with one hand while burying her nose in the crook of the other.
“Here,” Guard2 said to Guard1, handing her a long stick. Guard2 stood back at a safer distance upwind. Guard1 took the stick and used it to hold up Eros’ skirt. Guard1 twisted her head, studying the phenomena, trying to ascertain what was in Eros’ underwear.
“I’m still not sure,” Guard1 said, “but whatever it is, it appears to have a taste for shit.” By now Eros had lost her cool completely, wrenching her hands against the ropes, screaming obscenities to the rubber ball in her mouth, her face flushed in rage.
“Oh don’t be such a baby,” Guard1 said apathetically, using the exact phrase Eros used when Guard1 screamed in agony while Eros tortured her.
“How stupid are you?” Karolita taunted. “We’re on a Mansion World III sphere. If you crush one of these Gods, it’ll call every Valkyrie within a hundred kilometers. Is that what you want?”
Eros ignored her and continued to struggle against her bindings. “I asked you,” Karolita shouted. “Give it a good slap.”
Guard1 dropped the stick and slapped Eros across the face so hard her eyes rolled back in her head.
“Good job,” Karolita said.
It took a moment for Eros to recover. When she finally looked at Karolita, Eros seemed more composed.
“I asked you. Is it your intention to call every Valkyrie within a hundred kilometers to me, just because you can’t control your fear?”
Eros glanced at Guard1. Guard1 was focused, borderline sinister. Eros could hear Guard1’s knuckles crack as she made a fist. No doubt, the slap was just a warm-up. Eros gave a little shake of her head, and then held her eyes and face downward in submission.
“Remove her gag,” Karolita ordered, intentionally switching to ‘her’.
“My dear Karolita,” Eros said to a ground that was squirming with life. “Please forgive me. But all this is so bizarre. I was t
errified.” Eros would have never admitted she was terrified. Yet at feeling Guard1’s sting and seeing her hand balled into a fist, she knew it was time to grovel.
“Of course, my darling Eros.” Karolita said. “These are trying times for all of us.”
Oceania
General David Pesagniya approached Oceania’s enclosed, high-security SAS docks.
“Halt. ID, please Sir.” The sentry’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts.
“Yes, Ma’am,” he replied politely as he quickly unzipped one of the many pockets in his battle armor. He handed his ID badge to the middle-aged female Angel, while at the same time confirming her identity, matching her face to the person who he knew would be on duty tonight. He noticed a dozen or more Valkyrie guards in various strategic locations — their weapons already drawn — aimed directly at him. With a single word from the sentry, they would drop him in an instant.
The sentry pulled down the headgear attached to her helmet — headgear that was tuned to the many symbols embedded into his badge — all cross-referenced to Pesagniya. The sentry took her time, carefully scanning the badge, correlating its data with his eyes, fingerprints, and other features of both the General’s Celestial and Morontial bodies.
Whether they be friends, acquaintances, or unknown, with these tense days in the Eden Theatre, the last thing any Valkyrie sentry wanted to do was appear lackadaisical in front of General David Pesagniya.
The sentry removed a sealed packet from the pouch on her belt. The packet contained an individual mouthpiece. She carefully opened it, maintaining sterility. To one end, she attached a tube that ran to an analyzer in the backpack she wore.
“Please breathe into the mouth-piece, Sir,” she said as she offered him the other end. Pesagniya complied, absorbing a deep breath, leaning forward, clenching the mouthpiece in his teeth, and blowing a long exhale of prana.
The sentry watched the biological data as the analyzer fed it directly back into her headgear — matching the results to his ID badge. The ayurvedic clinics of Satania had become so adept in breeding specialized Yukta Yogis, it had become necessary to construct machines to carefully examine multiple aspects of physiology. What a coup d’état it would be for the Overlords if they could build spies, formulating Celestial-Material hybrid bodies to match King Joshua’s worshipers. The Overlords had expended tremendous energy into accomplishing this task. So far, they had not been successful.
Machiventa Melchizedek’s offices had recently compiled an extensive database of biological data. With this latest generation of scanners and breath analyzers, Salvington’s engineers believed the Overlords would never be able to do anything beyond tricking the naïve. Before leaving on assignment to Satania, every member of The Sisters of Mercy and Valkyrie were thoroughly scanned.
It was always dangerous to have so much data lying around where the enemy could seize it. Minimal data was transmitted to SAS outposts, such as Oceania, on a need-to-know basis, and only when needed to identify the senior officers who were frequently exposed to top-secret information — such as Colonel Josephine Doulmahel and her senior staff. General David Pesagniya was at the very top of that short list, second only to Josephine. Yet, he was the only one who had the power and authority to report directly to Havona and therefore El Elyon. There was no information his eyes were not cleared to see.
After confirming his identity, the sentry returned his badge, activated the door to the airlock, came to full attention, and saluted. “Thank you, Sir.”
“You’re welcome, Jean-Marie. A pleasant evening to you,” Pesagniya replied with an equally sharp salute and a serious, understated smile. He entered and the outer door shut behind him. Inside, there was a second sentry. Along one wall of the airlock, behind soundproof, three-inch thick windows, additional security personnel had their weapons targeted on him via remote control.
A second inspection ensued. This sentry was a tough old Melchizedek, a lieutenant colonel by the name of Herman Hernandez. Hernandez and Pesagniya turned their backs to the others, so their lips could not be read. Hernandez asked him several questions, some of them pertaining to personal events, the answers to which only these two knew. With his identification confirmed, Hernandez handed him a sealed, brown envelope.
Written on the outside was: ‘Eyes Only. General David Pesagniya.’
Hernandez gave his head a slow shake. “Good luck on this one, Davie. It’s a firestorm. Really getting bad down there. Michelle, Laura, and their teams are right on the front lines, deep undercover, personally coordinating forward air control, laying some serious hurt on Beliar. Last we heard, Zohar had high-tailed it back to Elysium, like the little bitch he is. But, I guess they could really give two-shits about that evil mother — small potatoes in the scheme of things.”
Hernandez continued. “It was personal enough with Janene getting killed. You might know Brittney, one of Aniel’s little sisters. She was in Venom when Beliar attacked. She gave Aniel a full update on everything she knew. Thousands of Angels were captured and tortured. Of course, all the females were raped. As if that wasn’t bad enough, when Michelle heard about the ‘feast’ on Elysium, she lost it.
“Josie was against Michelle and Laura going back until they had healed. But you know how Michelle is. I have no idea how many assassins they took with them. At this point, I don’t think they give a crap about the treaties. Azakaman has moved to DEFCON3, and right in the middle of an election year. You know, I think it was really smart for Josie to move command as close as possible. You’re gonna need minute by minute Intel if you’re gonna keep this one from blowing up in our faces.”
Pesagniya knew all these details from his own sources, yet was glad to get confirmation through a trusted old friend like Hernandez.
“Thanks Herm,” Pesagniya said as the two old war hawks saluted each other. Hernandez opened the inner door to the airlock.
Pesagniya tucked the brown envelope securely under his left arm and walked into an enormous building bustling with activity. Two hundred berthings available for ships of various sizes and designs lined each side of a long, broad central pier. With the recent activities on Eden, the dock was almost three quarters empty.
There were multiple offices behind the walls of the building — some for command and control — engineering and machine shops — others for security. There were also large lounges, sleeping areas, and cafeterias, so that, when on long assignment, it was not necessary to go through security. Numerous individuals had lived within these walls for decades, locking their biological clocks with the red moon, Lunar1 cycle, thus slowing their perception of time.
Most residents and visitors to Oceania tuned to the green moon, or Lunar2 time where one month on Oceania was equivalent to one year on Eden’s material realm. For those in the compound living on Lunar1 time, one L1 month meant that five years would have passed on Eden.
Pesagniya briskly walked the elevated catwalk to avoid the traffic from supplies and repairs below. He looked for berthing number seventy-five. As he walked, he glanced up ahead and saw four figures waiting for him. Good, he thought to himself. Josie was available after all.
Josephine had originally scheduled their staff meeting to start in her office at noon. Pesagniya had decided it was prudent to move that meeting up ten hours and switch it from her office to aboard one of their medium-sized, stealth command ships.
However, when Pesagniya took a second look, he saw that the female on the dock was not Josephine but Captain Brigettie Sachiel, the head of Oceania security. He immediately thought there had been some kind of accident. Yet, the three men standing with her, Commander Vegu-Aniel Odinero, Colonel Frank Haiguns, and Major Butler Metcalf were all smiling.
He quickly descended the stairs to water level. “Speak to me Captain Sachiel.”
“Uh, sir. The message for Colonel Doulmahel to meet you here at the docks never reached her. She went for a short trip to Belize Isle with Colonel Pasiel Pegasus. We thought she would have returned by now.”
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“Very well,” Pesagniya said. “We’ll assume she’s currently sailing back, so we’ll rendezvous with her at sea.” I wonder why Peg is with her. Wasn’t she booted out of Satania years ago? Did Josie talk Ka into pulling her back in? Past problems with Kuko be damned. We could sure use her skill set right now.
He took a couple of steps up the gangplank to their command ship, but no one else moved. He scanned across the four faces and crossed his arms across his chest. “I had assumed you were all just standing around, telling jokes, hence the amused expressions. Evidently, my assumption is incorrect. Who would like to explain to me why we aren’t already on board?”
No one said anything. “Brigettie? We’re burning daylight.” It was actually the middle of the night, but everyone understood the military vernacular.
“Sir, I suspect that Colonel Doulmahel may have run into some personal matters on Belize Isle, as Princess Parvarti and Lieutenant Collin Striker departed for Belize some hours earlier.”
She hesitated. Pesagniya waited impatiently.
“Sir, more completely, Parvarti tricked Collin into going to Belize so they could be alone. Collin thought they were part of a larger scientific group, however…”
“Very well, Captain Sachiel. Thank you for the update. You other three. Let’s go.” Good grief, Pesagniya thought to himself as he quickly ascended the gangplank, and then descended the ladder into the submarine’s interior. Beliar ripping Northern Venom apart, and Josie playing love games with Collin and Parvarti.
He scanned the control room. But I guess she’s still young, and that’s important in her life, too.
Seconds later, they were all aboard, the hatches battened down. They slipped below the waves, navigated the secure locks, and headed into the deep waters of the Mamsa.
“Helmsman,” he called. “Course correction. Destination. Belize Isle. Full speed ahead.”
Chapter 46
A Love So Deep
Maybe it’s true that I should have been looking into Lord Smigyl’s Etherial realm more closely. But so very many times since then I have wondered what I could have done differently had I truly understood the scope of his insanity.
Lilith: Eden's Planetary Princess (The Michael Archives Book 1) Page 36
