by Reiter
“Might have had something to do with your family waking up and being anything but the family you remember,” Elbon offered. “The power of emotions, after all.”
“Yes, they are quite powerful,” Eesa returned as she reached into the woman’s body and removed the kidney, teleporting it away.
“You might want to stop there,” Elbon stated as his body started to glow. “You’ve used one of the weakest forms of your light but remember, Eesa, it is your light!”
“And it will be read as such,” Eesa concluded.
“The actual recipient of that last measure was the wounded organ,” Elbon said in a calming tone. “The ambient light will burn off eventually. But if you do any more, directly, you will leave an indelible mark on her body.”
“And I suppose my newly acquainted, nameless ‘what’ has something indirect in mind?” Eesa said, smiling up at the glowing form.
“I am Elbon,” he replied, flying down to stand between Eesa and the constable. “Let me act as your filter. Lend me the energy to enact a few things I’ve learned along my travels, and we will create an entity worthy of her desired station and purpose.”
“So be it,” Eesa said, sending her light into the entity.
She knew this Elbon was not a starling, though that is what he played at being. What she trusted, however, was the love she had found at his core. As her light traveled into him, through him, some of his light moved toward her. She welcomed it and gasped at the input her body received. She and the constable were teleported away from the city, milliseconds before it was destroyed by the crushing fist of Cak. The entire expanse of the city was caught in his grasp with everything burned away, save for the imposter starling who was too weak to evade capture.
“You are colored with a light that is not your own, creature,” Cak said, gazing at the ghost-like form. “Tell me where I can find Eesa and I will release you.”
“You’re better at searching… than you are at lying,” Elbon strained to respond. “And yet you have not found what you seek. How deeply do you think I have taken your deception?”
“It matters not, creature,” Cak replied. “I have caught you and I will keep you. I will take you to the Conductor of the Chorus and we shall–”
“It must be so aggravating to be so powerful and to know so little!” Elbon shouted as light flared in his eyes. “You think you can threaten me?! I’ve already died once, and for the greatest of causes. This time will be even easier. Farewell, saytrah. Farewell, kommis!” The light in Elbon’s eyes grew brighter and Cak intensified his grasp over the entity’s form.
“You do not realize what has taken you, creature,” Cak said as the form in his clutches burned star bright before fading from this existence, embracing, at last, a true death. “This is quite a discomfiture!”
Eesa could see the event from where she had been sent. To mortal senses, it would have been worse than destitute to have been sent to a place of waste and filth. But it was not simply normal refuse that surrounded her, some of it was the byproduct of tri-nuclear systems and was so radioactive that her skin was already beginning to bruise. Her shell, however, was simple carbon and thusly easily reconstituted. The act, however, captured her mind and held so tightly to her heart that the star shed a tear as she witnessed the death of Laejem Mulvan of the Vinthur. In the sharing of light, he had given Eesa all of his memories, she lived his life with him… the fall of his mortal form at the hands of Tohgrunn warriors that were following the orders of Kiaplyx… his unwavering love for his sister and her chosen mate… the Master Traveler… the Star Chaser… the Unknown Entity!
Eesa smiled, allowing the tear to remain for as long as it could in this environment. The one called Elbon deserved that and much more. In the terminology used by many of the mortals of the Rims, the hampered Star had been played! Elbon had never intended to make a herald for Eesa, he believed that she already had one, she simply did not know who that herald was. He had removed the burden of that lack of knowledge from her, and he had even dared to give her a suggestion as to how to proceed with the many challenges still ahead of her.
Floating through the walls of the automated transport vessel on its way to a nearby star, Eesa allowed her black light to enshroud her. It was a fair distance back to her domicile, and she would need its power if she was going to receive her herald anytime soon.
“Thank you for a very fine luncheon, Elbon,” she said, whispering to the vastness of space. “I wonder though… what did you do with Jazmynn?”
** b *** t *** o *** r **
Expecting to receive another helpful albeit harmful lesson, S’Vrili was a little surprised to see something of a formal gathering awaiting her in the room she had just entered. The Beta Forms, in formal attire, she immediately recognized – especially Beta-Arrjeeh and Beta-Chiaro who were the instructors from whom she had spent most of her time at The Campus receiving instruction on a very much appreciated mixture of subjects. The two blue-skinned people, however, the Witch had never seen before. One of the students called out the Affiliate’s name, and all heads turned to look at her.
“Place your eyes upon me,” the female commanded as she departed from the group of Beta Forms, walking toward S’Vrili. “… and tell me what you see.”
“You appear to be Malgovi,” S’Vrili started, taking one step toward the approaching woman. “… high born and still possessive of her skills with the manipulation of EnerJa.” Looking into the gold eyes of the female, S’Vrili smiled, feeling a familiar sensation. “… and of close relation to Dungias.”
“I believe the word among your people would be ‘sister’,” Danatra stated. She stopped walking only when she was within reach of the Fazbred female. “Is there anything else?”
“You are also given to applications of ThoughtWill and prefer it to iro,” S’Vrili added. “Then there’s the cap.”
“The cap?” Danatra inquired.
“Oh yes,” S’Vrili whispered. “I’ve never met you… but those gold eyes… that stance… and the way you walked into the room… did Dungias teach you that?”
“What makes you think that he didn’t learn it from me?” Danatra asked.
“No,” the Witch quickly dismissed the notion. “Your demeanor is more pronounced. He caps his presence – as much as he can, at any rate – but only the sharp eye sees someone who has done and seen much. You don’t care to cap yours.”
“Hubris?” Danatra questioned.
“Not in the least. You simply don’t feel the need to keep yourself from being noticed.”
“Shortsightedness?” Danatra inquired.
“More of a conscious decision,” S’Vrili returned as she continued to put things together. “You hold a very important position, but that’s not why you assume the guise.”
“A guise, is it?”
“Very much so,” S’Vrili confirmed. “If you are who I think you are, then you are more than the Star Chaser’s sister. You’re the Mistress of The Campus, a very important position and one in which you are expected to demonstrate a few things. You allow and support those expectations. That way you keep your more impressive abilities to yourself. You siblings are just too much!”
“I will take that as a compliment,” Danatra returned, motioning for S’Vrili to walk with her.
“It is meant as one.”
Danatra chuckled. “Only because you are unaware of a third sibling, Affiliate Thakkelwing.”
“And given your tone, might I presume this other sibling does not appreciate your brother in the manner that you and I do?” Danatra looked over at S’Vrili whose eyes did not waver. “I cannot say that Dungias has delivered my people… at least, not yet… but he makes the same effort for humanity that he did for your people.”
“I was not aware History was one of your fields of study here at The Campus,” Danatra stated.
“Beta-Chiaro found normal combat training lacking in challenge and intensity,” S’Vrili explained. “As such, he was motivated.”
&
nbsp; “A common occurrence among the Beta Forms,” Danatra smiled. “I have spoken to the Light Priest as well as the other masters. You’ve made incredible progress in all of your studies.”
“Is that why the others have been gathered?” S’Vrili asked, looking at the teachers. “Are these to be my commencement exercises?”
“The spells you have woven over my Vu-Prin and those with whom he travels are all but spent, Affiliate,” Danatra advised, revealing that she was a very much informed person. “Only the star-linked advisory remains with the woman called JoJo Starblazer.”
“The others have been exhausted?”
“Either that, or they have been dismissed,” Danatra replied. “The Beta Forms cannot say, as the recipients of those charms are no longer in the dimension of the Rims. They have entered a place you call the Prism Baronies.”
“Black Gate,” S’Vrili whispered, recalling the place and what it meant to enter that region. Her visions regarding the travels were either wrong or the time she had predicted such incidents to occur had been inaccurate. She had seen images of the Terran Triangle in her visions. A great and furious light passing through the system; something S’Vrili had assumed to be the woman who commanded the Star Chaser.
“This detour, if it can be considered such,” S’Vrili thought, looking away from the Mistress of The Campus. “… I saw nothing of its coming! I know the Star Chaser is not yet done with the thread of the Empire that hounds him, but the overall fabric has been severely diminished. Or is that vision in error as well?” A consoling hand found the Witch’s shoulder and S’Vrili jumped at the touch.
“I did not tell you these things to give you grief or tax your mind into a fright,” Danatra explained. “This ‘commencement’, as you put it, has come about because I feel you are needed in the Rims… and also because it is getting more difficult to consider having you take your leave of us. Arrangements are being made to return you to the Rims. Our Travelers are, most unfortunately, taxed with the orders they have been given. While you were right to say Dungias delivered us, there are many in conflict with the truths that deliverance has forced us to acknowledge. That measure of conflict will not remain in the heart for much longer. Soon it will be represented in spilt blood. That is our front to face, Lady Thakkelwing. You have your own.” With a gesture of her hand, Danatra signaled Beta-Zeu Rex to initiate the spell he and The Campus had woven. A bolt of light shot up through the floor tile, sweeping S’Vrili up into its grasp and into the light hanging from the ceiling. A second burst of light saw the departure of another bolt, moving much faster than the one that had delivered the Witch into the hanging lights. Looking at the power of The Campus, Danatra pressed her lips together and shook her head in amazement of the lights and power.
“How long?” she asked.
“Two months,” Beta-Chiaro replied. “Give or take ten days. She will be landing at the site of one of the remaining facilities within the Rims. Beyond that, I cannot speak to her safety.”
“None of us are safe, Light Priest,” Danatra remarked, turning to walk out of the chamber. “Humanity struggles for itself in the Rims and life awaits a very caustic resolution here under these Stars as well. True safety only lies in ignorance, and even there it is not real!”
** b *** t *** o *** r **
“I expected to hear from you much sooner,” the woman said, gazing at the image of her agent.
“I thought I would’ve been able to make contact with you sooner, Mistress,” Rahneece explained. “Things here are pretty sensitive. It took longer than anticipated to work this transmission beam into the network. While the establishment of the matrix is exactly as you defined, serious changes have been made to the operations systems.”
“That’s my boy,” she replied with a proud smile. “… it’s probably a wise practice to expect that to continue, and make sure you re-verify your set-up before each transmission. So, how is he?”
“That is another surprise,” Rahneece explained. “Dungias has been abducted. The woman he serves is pursu–”
“The woman he serves?!” she asked, very much surprised at the choice of words.
“Yes, Mistress,” Rahneece confirmed. “She is a pirate and is very eager to have him returned to the ship.”
“I see,” she said as her own console showed signs that the transmission had been detected, but not yet breached. It had happened much sooner than expected, but it was not of any real trouble to her. “Well, with Dungias not on board, you should be able to proceed along with the plan more easily than we thought. Contact me again when the job is done.”
“Yes, Mistress.” The image of Rahneece faded just before breach could be attained. The searching parties also did not know the coordinates of either end of the transmission. She knew that her sector was about to become slightly more crowded. Her ship, however, was using thrusters to keep itself from entering an aperture she had erected before the transmission connection had been made. She gave the order to cut engines and her ship was pulled through. Once she was on the other side, she fired an emission pulse to cancel out the matrix she had used to make the aperture.
“The woman he serves,” she repeated as her hands came away from the console. “The man never fails to surprise and impress.
“Abducted… it seems he also still has a knack for finding capable opponents,” she chuckled. “You make it interesting, Traveler. You continue to make it interesting!”
It is the fool who thinks he cannot be fooled.
Joey Skaggs
(Rims Time: XII-4203.04)
Persephone blinked her eyes rapidly as her seatback came up from the reclined position. Once she got over the tubing that was attached to her forearm, she ran through the checklist to find that Daedalus was running just fine. Persephone was still on course for NayFall, which was now only six hours away. She had slept over two and a half days and, as Satithe had predicted, the ship was hot! Persephone initiated a sensor sweep as she put her hand to the throttle to pull it back and decrease thrust. Running diagnostics over all ship systems, she found that despite how hard she had run her star-fighter, Daedalus was not registering any problems.
“Knew he was designing it for a fool, that’s why,” she thought. “Gods can this baby take it!
“You alive back there, Goldie,” she called out.
“Nope,” the young man replied as he yawned and stretched as much as he could, given the space he was in. “Definitely not alive.”
“Cute. Here comes the pinch,” Persephone announced as she keyed for the couplers to release from their forearms. Persephone had been hooked into long-range systems before, but this time she felt as if she had just stepped out of a long hot shower.
“What did he put in the bio-mix?” she wondered. “I’m feeling like I slept nine hours and had a massage!”
“You know, none of this experience has felt as bad as you said it would,” Goldie noted.
“Tell me about it!” Persephone commented. “Z put this baby together and he’s flying like a dream! Internal diagnostics are complete,” she reported. “Everything’s clean and green… except a foreign body in my coat pocket.” Persephone searched her pocket and pulled out a small vial wrapped in parchment. Unfolding the small piece of paper, she could read a message that read:
Captain Starblazer,
Even someone with your kind of willpower can use a boost sometimes. This will work only once, so drink it all…and remember, only when you feel all of you might not be enough… only when you doubt yourself on every level should you drink it. Fair journeys!
With Warm Regards,
Your Desert Witch
“That was some kiss,” she muttered. “Didn’t even feel her planting this on me!”
“Is everything all right up there?” Goldie asked.
“Clean and green, kid,” Persephone replied as her console started making sounds. “And I just found our bird. Damn, the stealth field on this thing is simply no joke. We blew right by them three hours ago.”
“So we have three hours to put down, get to the estate and take them as they’re bringing him in?” Goldie asked.
“Negatory,” Persephone answered. “That was part of Tank’s plan I really didn’t like. We’re assuming where they’ll be taking Z. But we can’t exactly land this bad boy in a public place either. Which means we’ll be getting a little inventive.”
“Uh oh.”
“You didn’t sign up for boredom, so stow it!” Persephone snapped. “I’ve got a job to do and I need to get to it. If you want, you can sit it out here in Daedalus.”
“And miss the chance to watch you work? Never!”
“Then get your flight helmet on and get ready for a rough ride,” Persephone ordered as she made the link between Daedalus’ computer and her brace-com. She started to grab her helmet when she looked at the brace-com. She then keyed in a locking code to protect the controls to her star-fighter.
Donning her helmet, she pressed the button labeled Icarus. Goldie’s seat bottom opened and he dropped into a slender tube that took him to the back of the spacecraft. He had just straddled Icarus when Persephone arrived and landed in front of him on the bike. She secured the extra power unit that was plugged into her weapons belt and placed it in the saddlebag. Taking a moment to look around the tiny chamber, Persephone smirked. They were just between the two main engine ports and against the belly of the craft, and the small chamber was getting to be more than just a little warm.
“You did remember to put up the heat shield, right?” Goldie asked.
“Are you getting nervous on me?” Persephone inquired.
“I’ve been to a number of barbecues,” Goldie explained. “… I’ve always felt for the meat that got put over the hot coals.”
