Among Bright Stars... (21 page)

Realizing that his Queen gave him an
accusatory glance, Aranskrai tried to refocus. “You’re her parents,
the Shotar, order her home.” There could be detected the slightest
hint of obsession in his voice, it would be easy to assume it might
be worry for his mate, though the fact of the matter is, that the
creature wanted to know what had become of its offspring.

Sharr refrained from being amused, yet he
found Kulcarin’s suggestion funny. “Once she chooses to do a thing,
Sitara is not easily removed from her course.” Saying it, Sharr
felt the holocompass that he wore on his belt. “I’d think you would
know that Kulcarin.”

“Kulcarin” Nadia said, her tone dripped with
reserved anger. “I blame no one for this but you.”

“Nadia --”

“No Sharr.” The Queen halted her mate. “He’s
been treating her like trash since they married, consumed with his
army.” No small measure of her anger was elicited by the fact she
had arranged this union.

The Shotar, stunned by his mate’s complete
lack of diplomacy, highly unusual for her to be sure, yet where it
concerned her children Nadia could be vicious, found himself glad
in her pinpoint logic that Nadia didn’t turn this on him. The
Skatha wouldn’t have risen to prominence without his own expanded
martial agenda.

“With respect my Queen, I have always done
my duty.” Kulcarin suppressed a grin, yet added. “You two aren’t
exactly the right people to talk about healthy relationships.”

Nadia began to rear-up, ready to lash out at
the young man. How dare he speak to them in such a manner! It
surely was not his place to lecture his Shotar and Queen.

“Mama, mama!” Kievron called out in his
unmistakable, cat like cry, as he, on all fours bounded out into
the laboratory, and jumped right up into Nadia’s arms.

The Chitraka became most agitated, its
orange black spotted fur stood starkly on end. He hissed at
Aranskrai, large yellow-green eyes became two huge discs on his
whiskered face. Kievron’s tufted ears twitched about.

“Calm, be calm!” Nadia spoke in her most
soothing voice. “What bothers you my precious one?”

But the beast-boy did not respond, he hissed
and his tail thrashed about.

Then, all of a sudden the electronics and
other equipment in the Queen’s lab flickered on and off which
caused back-up generators to kick in, which left the
compartmentalized lab in a blue dimness. “An attack?” wondered
Nadia. “I didn’t hear any bombs?”

Nestled in its incubation chamber, the
metallic gold egg began to vibrate. Tiny fissures spider-webbed
from the tip of the ovum, an orange glow, like that of a smoldering
flame seemed to burn inside the egg. The Queen intently watched as
her creation began to hatch. Her instruments had been shorted out,
no doubt she figured because of some kind of electromagnetic burst
that originated from the egg itself. There would be no record of
this moment. In an eruption of fire it hatched, oil slick, with a
coiling tail, and wings of flame. Small still, not yet mature, or
to its full power the creature cried from behind the separating
glass.

Nadia watched, wide-eyed, while Kievron
shook in her arms, his hair on end. Sharr took hold of his wife,
pulled her away from the glass. He felt her lean close, look from
over his shoulder at the writhing oil black creature which she
wrought. “What have I done?” She asked in a small voice and
understood this thing, this corruption of a Falcanian, to be an
abomination to all that they were. Her goal had been to create a
god, yet what she witnessed before her now was no less than a
demon, a twisted form of all the potential she observed in her own
people.

“Kulcarin!” Sharr commanded. The creature
that had just hatched transfixed the Skatha.

The Shotar drew his vajra, and pulled out
his coilgun. He was not so sure however discharging his sidearm in
the lab would be a good idea, yet there seemed little choice.
“Aranskrai are you here?!” Sharr commanded bringing the Skatha back
to the moment.

“I am my Lord.” He said and cocked his
coilgun.

A flash of light, the glass shattered.
Shards of what was supposed to be bulletproof, hermetically sealed
glass showered the laboratory. Instinctively the Falcanians
shielded themselves with their wings. The oil black creature flew
into the room, sniffed at those who stood before it. Kulcarin put
himself between the beast and the Imperial couple, now eye to eye
with the thing.
No my brother
, Kranix’s voice echoed in
Aranskrai’s brain. It telepathically communicated with its younger
self.
You are not yet ready to take a body. There is much yet
for you to learn out across the stars.

Sharr held tightly to his mate, who, despite
her usual ability to be calm under pressure subtly shook in his
firm grasp. He looked at his son-in-law, who stood in awe of the
beast that had hatched from the egg. Rabid, hungry the dragon-like
animal bolted at Aranskrai frozen in his place. Sharr discharged
his sidearm, hit the beast once, this only angered the creature,
and brought its attention toward him and Nadia, yet only for a
moment, it continued to prowl around Kulcarin, mesmerized itself
with the young Falcanian.

Drakorian rushed into the laboratory,
weaponry at the ready, they surrounded Sharr and his Queen, waited
for orders. The Drakorian Colonel lined his men up, and ordered
them to fire their Guass Rifles at the creature, hoped that the
higher caliber weapons would do some damage. Shells shattered on
its tough oily hide, which caused the beast to wail in
irritation.

Rearing on the Drakorian, the fire dragon
let loosed hot blasts of intense energy, and incinerated the
Imperial bodyguards where they had stood. Nothing but piles of ash
remained in the place Major Vaks had set up his defensive
perimeter.

Kranix, though that not yet was its name
returned its interest in the Skatha Lord, it circled Kulcarin
Aranskrai, and listened to the voice of its elder self, which
currently possessed the young Falcanian.
Out in the galaxy there
is a planet that we must get to, technology you must have to win my
brother; there will be time
enough to feast
upon
these animals. Go, go!
Kranix explained and sent a mental
imprint to its younger self. An instant of dissociation as the
memory of the moment hit both he and Aranskrai in a reverberated
time-loop. Aranskrai clutched his head not able to understand.

Nadia watched both fascinated, and yet
appalled by her part in all this. What is it that she had unleashed
upon the universe?

Once Kulcarin had recovered from the causal
assault on his mind, he gazed the beast solidly in its burning red
eyes and then whispered to it in an alien language: “Haeri mai
parata bhrash ingal, Ta-shdi.” The Falcanian commanded in the
ancient tongue of Tāne-Mahuta.

The newborn creature understood, and then
created a field around itself, utilized its highly concentrated
deposits of Q-X, which began to rend space and time apart.
Space-folded around the dragon, a burst of light and air rushed all
around the lab to fill a vacuum. Papers and tools were sucked into
the empty space. Where there had been the beast of living flame,
now there was nothing but a surprisingly hearty Kulcarin
Aranskrai.

Nadia pressed close to her husband, between
them the Chitraka, equally upset as its mother by the events that
had just transpired made little meowing noises. Sharr held his mate
comforting her. He could see that she was on the verge of tears. A
droplet of water cascaded down Nadia’s tan cheek. He took hold of
her chin, made her look at him. Sharr reassured her with his gaze,
and with two fingers brushed aside the teardrop from his Queen’s
almond eyes.

[Archangel 7: Basilica Of The Budjah.
Morning]

“You’re Holiness!” An urgent voice called
into the gardens.

“Brother Ramirez what is the problem?”

“Bad news sir.”

Behind his helmet Styx frowned.

“The Falcanians...” Ramirez stalled. “The
war... Interstellar communications being so slow, we only just
learned. Romulus has not used the virus that the Iksar’rang
developed for him. It would seem that the Imperium and the
Falcanian Khanate are about to begin a peace summit.”

Were Styx not so much machine, he would have
screamed in a fury. Romulus had been his best hope to rid himself
of the Falcanian problem once and for all. That foolish old man
seemed to have lost his nerve. Showing no emotion, the cyborg
Bishop returned his attention to his cultivation of roses in the
Basilica's grand gardens. The Bishop considered, stellar
communication must be updated, a task worthy for his diligent Holy
Order.

Has The Eastern Lion Found His Empress?

By Basheera Darvishi, For Altair Press
International.

At fourteen, the man who would remake the
Middle East formed his Janissary warriors, these 'Golden Lion
Soldiers' branded by a lion tattoo, which proclaims loyalty to the
young messianic figure. With them, Darius Noorani toppled Iran’s
ruling Mullahs. The Janissary marched beside Darius down the Grand
Avenue of the Mahdi, in Iran, where they prayed at his side in the
Jamkaran Mosque, thus inaugurating Noorani's Islamic
Reformation.

He has been lauded as the next Alexander the
Great, meeting the young Persian, you can understand why people
have followed him this far in his reshaping Middle Eastern affairs,
and in his fanatical reformation of Islam. He is magnetic, an
elegant speaker who seems to be carved from a chiseled piece of
marble, a fair-tan complexion and regal nose. A form which women
globally have lusted after. Starlets and young things have often
been seen at 'The Tyrants' (a term his Fundamentalist Islamic
opponents use to denounce) side, but his newest fling is a singular
woman.

Caliph, and Mahdi, Darius Ahmed Noorani,
has at last grown up and chosen the woman who would be his empress,
in the person of Falcanian Princess Ariel Drakonis. Let me tell
you, she is a looker! Like the rest of her race she also is a
product of controlled genetics. Ariel is said to have a literate
mind, and enchanting violet almond eyes. One out of a set of twins,
Ariel Drakonis was last seen accompanying her mother, The Maharani
T’Kara on a diplomatic mission to Athens just before their Khanate
attacked the Imperium, which led to the upcoming 'peace summit'
being held on Vanguard Island. It is this reporter’s conclusion
that the Queen secretly arranged this marriage for her daughter
during her latest excursion abroad.
Rumors abound that the
couple will be married following the peace summit. Such a union
will give the Falcanian Khanate access to one of the largest
Empires on the planet...

Sharr placed his reading tablet down, and
leaned back in his chair, stated: “So much for not creating a media
storm over this wedding.”

“Don’t worry hun.” Nadia assured from her
place in the middle of the room. “Such news had been bound to come
out during the summit, sooner, rather than later.”

“Probably hard to miss, given that half the
Caliphate of Aslan's fleet sits en-mass off the side of our island
People were bound to begin asking why.” The Shotar observed. “I
can't imagine that's playing so well back in New York, among JR
Giovanni's senators”

“Bet the Russian delegation isn’t going to
love this news.” Said Shuriken.

“Ironically, our alliance with Darius will
doubtless strengthen our link to Romulus, even as it irritates the
Kremlin.” Informed Nadia. “It has been politically problematic for
the Imperator to reach out to Noorani. Many in the Imperium see
Darius as no different from those Islamists he removed. However,
Romulus is said to admire the young man.”

“Considering GenKon sold Darius to a bunch
of terrorists, who thought to make of him a prophet, a symbol of
Allah on Earth.” Agreed the Shotar. “Al-Qaeda got its
12
^th
Imam, not though as they had expected – “

“Little did the Al-Qaeda agents figure in
Darius’s enhanced ambition, or innate brilliance.” Nadia continued.
“Their perfect warrior, their ‘Guided One’ ended up turning against
them. Darius has done what Romulus only dreamed of. He struck down
those who turned the United States into a wasteland and began the
liberalization of Islam.” She very nearly giggled at that last
notion. “It’s almost too perfect an outcome when you look back on
history.”

“Turhan’s basic morality is in Noorani.”
Shuriken observed of the young man, thought it likely many of the
Morningstars must be like this. “He comes across as good-natured,
Shuriken glanced over at T'Kara. “Reminds me of your father
Nadia.”

“Yes,” Nadia grinned, hand on hip. “I can
see my Papa had been working his own agenda inside GenKon. I do
wish he briefed Maa, and I.”

Sharr went to glace out his window, down on
the garden below. “Indeed,” pondered Sharr Khan. “Though he is
called Tyrannus by some, mainly those fundamentalist Muslims who
want to do away with him, Darius's rule has been one of a
renaissance, he is a free-thinker, and just what Islam needed most.
No butchery has been committed in his name, and his tolerance of
non-Islamic religions is renowned.”

“Darius is a good man.” Nadia assured. “A
nice match for Ariel.” The Queen sounded tremendously enthused.
Nadia joined her mate at the window. “He will make us a good ally,
not to mention son-in-law.”

“And are you okay?” Sharr asked, he touched
her cheek. Since the incident in her lab she had become slightly
withdrawn. Clearly that monster's very existence traumatized Nadia.
The Shotar knew that his wife did not even want to talk about. For
now he let it rest.

“I’m fine...” Nadia insisted, though her
brilliant-blue eyes said otherwise, she forced a smile, even as
Kranix's oil-black carapace assaulted her inner vision.
How
could I make such an abomination?
“I just want to worry about
the summit, and Ariel’s wedding.”