Star Angel: Prophecy

by David G. McDaniel

  Jess nodded. “I do.”

  “You learn to speak,” Nani worked for it, “when here?” like speaking any foreign language, broken but understandable, “When here with this people?” Bad verb conjugation, but Nani could speak it and Jess was simultaneously impressed and amused.

  “Yes,” she smiled.

  She was so happy to see them. All of them.

  “These are what we’ve waited for,” said Galfar. Tentatively he reached a hand for the cubes.

  “They trigger memories for me,” Arclyss agreed in his rich voice. He looked directly to Jess. “With your second coming I become more aware.”

  Galfar passed the tip of his finger over the nearest cube. “You had to hide these long ago,” he said.

  “What are they saying?” Bianca asked. Before Jess could answer Nani translated, getting it mostly right. Though the substance of their comments caused confusion.

  Before more questions could be asked, nervous at how close this conversation was already getting to things she did not want to reveal, Jess reached in a small compartment at the beltline of her armor.

  “I brought this,” she took out the small USB stick, adapted for use with the Kel hardware. The one given to her by the resistance network on Earth. She handed it to Nani. “This was developed by an Earth resistance group. There’s a lot still to tell you, but I met them on Earth. Right before I left they executed a mission to plant this in the Kel command and control infrastructure.” Nani took the USB stick. “There’s an acid ampoule in it,” Jess cautioned. “Be careful. From my understanding there’s code on there they intend to use to insert hacks. Things they could use to disrupt or even control Kel functions.”

  “I’ll take a look.” Nani turned the stick in her fingers. “We have maybe a few more days till everything’s ready on Anitra. I was hoping we’d find you on this attempt, otherwise we might’ve had to wait. Things are going to happen quickly.”

  “Understood,” said Jess. “That,” and she pointed to the USB in Nani’s hand, “can probably help.”

  Everyone’s attention had come back to rest on the cubes.

  Incredible.

  Bianca’s voice was hushed. “What do we do with them?”

  Jess sighed. “Right now … nothing. My goal was to get them. Now we have to secure them. Figuring them out is the next step, but it might take some time.” Then: “We’ve all been on the run, and I’m sure everyone is as exhausted as I am. For the moment we’re safe and we’ve got a few minutes to breathe. We should take those minutes. We need a moment for ourselves. Time to regroup and recharge.” She looked at the small group. “We’ll go to the castle,” she decided. “We’ll eat and we’ll rest. Then we’ll take a fresh look in the morning.”

  **

  “You dare even suggest this!” Cee was furious. Voltan was on-screen, though he was aboard the same ship as she—she had no desire to speak with him in person—and he had the gall to suggest they revisit his original strategy. Voltan wanted to use the deposed human leaders to fill gaps left by the slaughtered Bok.

  “It makes strategic sense,” his voice had an implied shrug to it, though he held himself erect, posture unflinching. Managing, as always, to be infuriating.

  Cee wanted to punch him through the screen, glad she’d chosen to take his call remotely. “It is because of that very strategy we fail. It is from the breach in your measures that the Bok are dead. It is your failures that allowed my ship to be raided. This very ship!” She had to take a moment to steady her composure. It was an outrage! “That that was even possible is cause enough to have you jailed!” She gave that a moment to sit. “We are no longer doing things your way. This world will be crushed into submission and we will rule it as we should have from Day One. As overlords! Not soliciting their agreement!”

  Voltan said simply: “I disagree.”

  “You’ve moved too slow!” She always felt like she was taking the bait with him. Should she have him executed? She was suspicious of his machinations, knowing him to have been laying careful groundwork, bringing others into the fold. She had no illusions of the repercussions if she had him killed out of hand. Her case for his treason was not yet solid enough to act. If she did so it would seem just impulsive enough, it could backfire.

  But he needed to be handled.

  She calmed her approach. “These weak, pathetic humans have outmaneuvered you.”

  Voltan just stared at her. That one good eye, impassive. As if he thought her sadly ignorant. An obstacle to any hope of success.

  She decided to snap off the channel.

  She left the anteroom for the larger hold without. This section of her flagship had been made restricted, in the larger hold her highest-level technicians hard at work on her latest prize.

  The gate.

  It sat at the center of the room, a wide metal ring, her most trusted men dissecting it. She was practically salivating at the prospects, expecting they might find another world for conquest at the other side. Their initial prognosis was that the gate could be cracked. She watched her techs, connecting still more sensors to the operating parts. It was an ancient relic. An ancient Kel relic.

  To her it was a thing of beauty.

  CHAPTER 44: A TRUTH REVEALED

  This was so much fun. Egg was next and she could hardly wait. Bianca had just finished braiding Jessica’s hair and was about to do hers.

  “It looks so pretty,” she told Jess, for about the tenth time. Bianca had looped the braids in Jessica’s hair and they curled at the back and the top loosely, kind of asymmetrically, which Bianca did on purpose, and it really was gorgeous. Egg hoped Bianca would do something as amazing with hers.

  “Let me have the mirror,” Jess asked for it. They’d been passing around the small metal mirror, about the size of the cover of a book, just big enough to see your face in, and for the last bit of Jessica’s transformation she’d been avoiding the mirror on purpose. Now that Bianca was done she was ready to see.

  Nani handed it to her. It was just the four of them, Nani, Bianca, Jess and Egg, and they were up in one of the highest rooms in one of the highest towers of the amazingly beautiful castle, having more fun than Egg had had in a long time. After deciding to take time to recharge Bianca had officially declared it a Princess Party Night, and after a lifetime of grey dullness as a citizen of the Dominion Egg was absolutely loving it. The whole experience, being there with these girls she loved, so much, doing this … it was a high she didn’t ever want to end.

  “Whoa,” Jess studied herself in the shiny, archaic metal mirror. “B, this is …” she glanced to her friend, then back at the mirror, “wow.”

  “Stand up,” Bianca beckoned. Jess had been sitting in the chair while Bianca stood behind her doing her hair. Egg was sitting nearby in another fancy, hand-crafted chair—all the stuff in the castle was so pretty—watching in rapt attention as Bianca worked. Nani watched too, but mostly she alternated laying on the bed or walking around while the three girls fussed over each other.

  Jess stood as requested.

  She was so pretty. Egg almost said it again. At Bianca’s insistence and as part of the festivities they’d all put on embroidered gowns, something sent up at Jessica’s request, making their little transformation party complete. Jessica’s dress was the shortest, knee-length and shimmery red with gold trim, and with her hair done like that she looked positively regal.

  Bianca pointed across the room. “Show us.” Then, in a funny accent: “Do a little turn on the catwalk.”

  Egg didn’t know what a catwalk was but she grinned at Bianca’s goofy voice, then again as Jess responded by doing a little curtsey and stepping theatrically across the floor. Jess and Bianca had been best friends on Earth, and their bond in moments like this was clear. Jess did a very exaggerated twirl before continuing on toward the far side of the room with a flourish, one hand on her waist, swaying side to side with wide sweeps of her hips, alternating looks over each shoulder with what Egg could only imagine was
supposed to be a pouty, sexy stare. Apparently that was the way one did a turn on the catwalk. She laughed and the others did too. It looked more like Jess just smelled a fart.

  “Fabulous, darling,” Bianca continued with the silly voice. “Fabulous.” She clapped her hands so lightly it barely made any sound, also pouting.

  Jess stopped across the room just inside the archway to the balcony, posed before the fireplace, then strutted back the same way. Disdainful looks at all the unworthies around her. Such a queen.

  Egg loved it.

  The large room was archaic and old but perfectly maintained, clean and amazing. Bianca and Jess both said it was like something out of a fairytale. Egg had no similar reference, no Dominion fairytales with castles like this, but everything was so warm, with the fire crackling and just the right number of torches on the walls, wonderful orange light bathing the stones, keeping out the chill of the beautiful night, heavy fabrics on the two canopy beds, embroidered hangings on the walls …

  Pure magic.

  Outside was no less beautiful. Egg could only see a slice of it now, through the open balcony doorway, but she’d spent more than a little time standing out on the high balcony absorbing the spectacular view. The castle hung above a mirror-perfect lake, its placid serenity fed by a plunging waterfall and a river that wound off between the soaring mountains. Looming over the mountains, their towering peaks dwarfed by the vastness, was the giant blue planet. Embracing them, stupendously close, like a mother holding its children.

  Mmm. She closed her eyes briefly. Pure, absolute, magic.

  Egg knew well what they were in the middle of, knew well what waited back on Anitra and what was coming, but then so did everyone else in that room, and they’d made a collective decision to throw all that to the wind—to hell with it, at least for a night—to forget it for a little while, and this was their time. Inviolate.

  A true Princess Party Night.

  “Your turn,” Bianca said and Egg pulled her attention from the marvelous Jessica. Jess sat back in the chair and Egg eagerly turned her own chair and sat straight so Bianca could work.

  Bianca went around behind. Egg tingled with anticipation.

  “You’re going to look so good with braids,” Jess told her.

  “Totally,” Bianca agreed and took a few experimental handfuls of hair, deciding where to begin.

  Egg had never had braids before.

  Her gown was yellow, also with gold trim. She put her hands excitedly in her lap, mesmerized by the tug and pull at her scalp, Bianca combing through her hair and dropping it. Egg relished the tactile sensation as she worked. For a moment her eyes fixed on the ruby red bracelet on her wrist, the one Jess gave her. Jess hadn’t asked for it back. Jess had said nothing about it tonight, other than to comment on how it looked good on her. Egg had a feeling it was given to Jess by a boyfriend. Jess never said. Egg herself never had a boyfriend, and even if she did he could never have given her something this exquisite. Not in Dominion lands.

  She smiled at her friend. “I can’t believe I’m actually here.”

  “Yeah,” Bianca agreed behind her. “This is pretty awesome.”

  B—that’s what Jess called her—continued working her hair and Nani said something, then Jess said something else, and soon the three girls were talking, discussing this or that thing while Egg just listened and let herself go. Transfixed by the pulling and tugging, the little fires around the room and the girly chatter, the presence of friends—all of it transcendent. And as she watched Jess she could not stop thinking how incredible she was, how great it would be to be like her, and, as she heard Zac’s name amid the words of their conversation, thought how perfect it was that Jess was dating the Dominion’s greatest Kazerai. A guy who was, for the longest time, their greatest celebrity. Zac and Jess were the perfect couple.

  “His beard is cute,” Bianca was saying.

  Jess pretended ambivalence. “I don’t know. I kind of liked him without it.”

  “What’s it like kissing it?”

  Egg perked up. This whole night just kept getting better. Were they actually going to talk about boys?

  Jess shrugged. “It’s soft, actually. I expected it to be all bristly.”

  “So weird,” Bianca spoke over the top of Egg’s head, tugging and twisting. “How can he have a soft beard and yet be like he is? It really feels normal?”

  Jess nodded.

  “How does he cut his hair?”

  Jess shrugged.

  Behind her it felt to Egg like Bianca was shaking her head. “Seems like his hair would be indestructible too.” Then: “I bet he can’t shave.”

  Egg kept looking at Jess, watching her every expression. At the mention of Zac’s indestructibility it seemed—though Egg wasn’t sure—Jess got a little sad.

  Nani spoke. “The Kazerai were always a mystery,” she added to the conversation, speaking from where she lay propped on the bed, leaning on one elbow. Of all of them Nani looked the most awkward in the gown. Egg had the weird feeling, like a hunch, Nani had never really worn a dress. Nothing girly at all, in fact. She seemed so out of place.

  “Yeah,” Bianca agreed. “It kind of hurts your head when you think about it.”

  “He’s all normal,” Jess assured them. “I don’t know how he works either, but no matter how close you look or feel or anything …” she sighed wistfully, and Egg could see how much she missed him, “completely normal.”

  Bianca suppressed a snigger and Egg almost turned to see, but she didn’t want to mess up what B was doing. Plus Jessica’s expression showed a hint of embarrassment, so Egg suspected whatever it was it was some kind of inside joke.

  “You mean, um, no mutant powers?”

  “No, B,” Jess said patiently. “Totally normal.”

  “But he’s got a lot of stamina, right?”

  “Unlimited,” Jess said dryly, and Egg was pretty sure she knew what they were talking about. “Can we just move on?”

  Bianca did. “Speaking of beards,” B was always so upbeat and Egg loved that about her, skipping happily from one topic to the next, “I wonder what it would be like kissing one of these Brotherhood of the Fist. God! Think of it. It would be like sticking your face in an afro.”

  Egg wasn’t sure what an afro was but laughed all the same. Kissing one of these barbarians would be funny. It would probably tickle your whole face.

  She wanted to kiss someone so bad.

  Bianca continued working her hair.

  “And what about that Arclyss guy?” she wanted to know, rambling right along. “I’ve never seen anyone that perfect. It’s like he has no flaws. Like a living statue. He’s so huge! My god, what is he, like, eight feet tall?”

  “I don’t think that tall,” said Jess. Arclyss was incredible. Egg could hardly believe someone like him even existed. Like a living statue, just like Bianca said.

  Bianca continued her marvel. “I mean, you could take any part of him all by itself and it would be sheer perfection. An ear, a finger. Looking at him is almost like sensory overload. I don’t know where to put my eyes.”

  Egg agreed.

  Then Bianca wondered aloud, and Egg had to replay the words in her head before she really heard them and the blush came: “His dick must be absolutely, frickin majestic. Can you imagine? Like you could swing on it.”

  Egg swallowed; tried not to make eye contact with Jess but too late. Jess was surprised too, but not in the same way Egg was. Egg’s heart was beating fast. Jess looked mostly like she was simply annoyed by her friend.

  “Does everything have to be about penises with you?”

  Egg felt Bianca shrug; felt the heat in her face and hoped she wasn’t too red. “They’re fascinating,” Bianca argued. “I mean, don’t you think?”

  Egg thought. She totally thought that subject was … fascinating. She wanted to talk about boys and this was about as “boy” as you got. It didn’t get any more specific. And here she was with girls who knew things—at least Jess a
nd Bianca, she wasn’t so sure about Nani—but Jess and Bianca definitely did and Egg had questions and suddenly she was mute, too embarrassed to speak, and she only hoped they would keep talking.

  But Jess was shaking her head at her friend. “You truly are weird sometimes.”

  “Oh come on,” Bianca defended. “I spent so many years trying to figure those things out. They’re like a puzzle. Guys in general. They’re so hard to understand sometimes.”

  “Guys try to figure us out too,” Jess argued. “It’s not like any of us come with instructions. You’ve got to … figure it out.” She glanced at Egg, like she knew Egg was hanging on the edge of this conversation. “It’s not like it’s not all natural. None of us would be here if it wasn’t. Everything works out fine in the end. I say don’t stress.”

  “Maybe.” Bianca drifted back to her point. “Still. I bet it’s a monster. What would you even do with that thing?” Egg felt Bianca give an exaggerated shudder as she worked the hair at the back of her head. Furtively she turned her eyes to glance across at Nani, curious at her take on all this. Interested to see that the older girl was staring at Bianca, almost like what Bianca was saying bothered her just a little.

  “But I’m past all that.” It felt like Bianca shrugged for Nani’s sake. “I’m a different girl now.”

  Jess turned up one corner of her mouth wryly. “Yeah, right.”

  Bianca said no more, twisting and pulling, making each new braid. Braids within braids. Egg was loving the constant, gentle pressure, the tugs at her scalp.

  Heaven, heaven, heaven. This whole night.

  A long time passed. Or maybe a short time. It was hard to tell. Everyone watched Bianca work.

  “This is all so unreal,” Bianca spoke into the lull. She was really crafting a masterpiece. It felt to Egg like she was getting close to being done. Bianca sighed. “To be sitting here having a girl’s night. So like the good old days. So … not.