Among Bright Stars... (24 page)

“The consecration of a temple to sacrifice
to God shall prove indeed beneficial. We couldn't have reached this
point without Falcanian backing.”

“May I quote you on that Rabbi?”

“Lark!” Nadia beamed.

“Your Highness, I wanted to personally thank
you for my invitation.” The reporter pushed into the cluster of
Sharr and his gaggle of wives. She watched Sharr Khan unabashedly
gaze at her up and down, admiring her curves, sheathed in a simple
black dress.

“Lark, allow me to introduce my husband,
Sharr Khan.”

Douglas extended her hand, and gave the
Shotar a glowing smile. Sharr kissed it, said: “I read the piece
you wrote about Nadia.” His tone held the underlying suggestion
that he did not much care for journalists. In truth, Lark would be
the nearest he had been to a reporter in decades, as he did not
grant interviews, even to Falcanian journalists. “Very well
written.”

At that Lark grinned. She couldn’t wait for
the summit to get underway.
So exciting!

Fafnir T’Skarin loomed over him, Sheela
recently excused herself, and told her Lord Jagirdar, that they
would be together this evening. For the Queen had arranged special
accommodations for them aboard the yacht. Outside the transparent
alloy, across the deep blackness Talik watched one of the FX-24’s
fire its retro-thrusters. A number of starfighters swarmed ahead.
Something seemed amiss to the one-eyed man. “It is dangerous for
you to be here.” Talik said sharply, not bothering to greet the
cyborg-Falcanian.

“You betrayed me!” Fafnir growled, a
synthesized rumble.

At last Talik turned to look upward at
Fafnir, fury intent in his single-eye. “All my life I served your
cause. Made sure that you would have a new body, one that would not
waste away. No more, I'm done – ”

“We could have so much.” Fafnir calmed
himself. He hoped Oberon would return to his fold. He did not need
to lose two sons. Yet, he did all this for another... His beloved
Imogen. “Your brother is a fool!” Fafnir told his firstborn son, in
a low mechanized voice. “A grander prize waits for us out there. I
have seen it.”
Thanks to Kranix
, he thought. “A planet with
such advanced technology, we could become as gods. I – We need
these creatures to get there – ”

“What do you mean? How do you know this?”
Talik had heard rumors of such a planet, something Kulcarin
Aranskrai stumbled across just before Oberon arrived on Vorkrür. He
had known about the
Shiertar’s Dirge,
and that it had been
lost while out on a secret mission for his brother. Yet the
specifics were not known to him.

“I have my means...
Talik
.” The
cyborg emphasized his son's assumed name.

“I will not allow you to endanger
Sharr.”

Though Talik could not see it, a sneer
appeared on Fafnir’s concealed nanometal face. “Such love for your
half-brother,” he snarled. “If I had a heart, it might yet be
warmed.”

“Even when you were human, you lacked a
heart.” An old pain arose in the man who had once been Oberon. “All
your life you sought immortally, und poor Mother. What was she to
you? Talik laughed. “You’d be surprised there are certain... Traits
you and Sharr share.”

Under his concealing cloak, Fafnir turned
away. At last, and finally Uric Kreis gave up on his first born
son. Though it angered him, all was not lost. He had Kheira,
therefore he had religion, and she would be a hammer that could be
used to gain what he wanted. Long after his offspring had become
ash, he'd be a god.

Kheira reached for the chocolate, her hand
bumped into another who also moved his hand down to the platter of
confections. There was a flash, a brief vision:
“Someday you
will be called to seek them out…”
It had been Tanu – Her
mother, who spoke to the owner of the hand which she'd moments ago
touched. The Vralis looked up at the person who stood beside
her.

“Hello.”

“Hi.” Kheira managed, recovered from her
sudden, yet brief vision.

“I'm Guillaume LaSalle.”

“Kheira… Princess Kheira.” Introduced the
girl, distracted by a weird sparking blue aura that enveloped the
human. Such an aura, she witnessed it before, when she had first
encountered Frederika long ago. And of course, Nadia possessed such
a blue-sparking aura, all Morningstars did. The familiar mechanical
sound of Fafnir behind her did not turn the Vralis’s attention away
from LaSalle, who she watched fascinated.

“Vralis,” Fafnir interrupted. “I have been
told your stateroom is ready.”

Kheira did not turn to look at her keeper,
yet she could tell by his tone that something had angered the
cyborg, though she was sure he’d never tell her what it had been.
“Thank you Fafnir.” Kheira had the impression that T’Skarin wanted
to exit the ballroom. “I must retire – seems I’ve a curfew.” She
told the human ironically.

Behind Kheira, the cyborg let out a
mechanical groan.

“Nice to have met you Princess.”

Narjihan Talos worked long and hard to
achieve his posting as commander of the Shotar’s yacht, with it
came the honorary rank of Commodore. Though his crew was quite
small, it had always been considered a great honor to work on the
Mayura Khaihir
. Many young officers were up for the command.
For the most part, serving the Shotar as commander of his arshruk
went without incident, aside from the complications of being
involved with the Imperial entourage of course. Yet Talos enjoyed
it. A readout board pulled in front of him, Narjihan Talos held a
vocator in his hand, which he shouted at whoever was on the other
end of the signal. “Stand down!” Commodore Talos demanded. Narjihan
cut off the speaker, who shouted back at him in Skora expletives.
“Ma’am we have a problem.”

Out the forward windows, Arshira noticed the
trouble before Narjihan could even explain himself. “The
Batjros
!” If the
Mayura Khaihir
were a yacht, then
the
Batjros
would have been a marauder. Privately owned by
house Aranskrai, Kulcarin’s father had given the ship to his son as
a wedding gift, which he soon converted over into a warship. Very
seldom did
Batjros
touch down on Earth. Instead Kulcarin
kept the vessel in a vigilant patrol of the Solar System. The
Skatha commander spent much of his free time aboard his flying
'Black Temple' as it had come to be known. Exactly what went on
inside her hull few people, but for the Skatha inner-circle knew.
With its reaction control jets the
Batjros
rolled around now
nose to nose with the Shotar’s yacht.

“Keshla!” Arshira swore under her breath.
“May I Commodore?”

Commodore Talos handed over his handset to
the Valküri General, she nodded and he put the channel online.
“Commander
Batjros,
you are ordered to stand down, back off,
or you will be fired upon.” Arshira itched to loose cannons upon
these arrogant Skatha. She noticed two FS-9 Raptors had been
deployed from one of FX-24's, and had placed themselves into a
defensive position.

“You have entered our patrol zone –“

“Skatha, space does not belong to you.”
Arshira just barely managed to maintain her composure.

“Who dares command a Skatha?” Asked the
Batjros
commander, amazed that anyone might dare challenge
him.

“Rani Arshira Hol-Drakonis. Disobey me at
your peril.” Breasts heaved under her slinky, scantily revealing
green gown. The Valküri-General did not threaten, Arshira would
blow them out of the stars if she needed to, if it meant protecting
all the diplomats, but more importantly, her husband. “I demand to
speak to Kulcarin Aranskrai.”

“He is occupied by other matters --”

“To whom am I speaking?” Arshira demanded as
her frustration bled through.

“They call me 'Warg'.” Came a snarled reply.
The Skatha grunted from his end.

“They’re backing off Ma’am.” Commodore Talos
Informed.

“Outrageous,” Arshira fumed. “Threatened by
one of our own.” The Valküri literally shook with rage. “I should
have blown him out of the stars!”

[Uncasville, Connecticut. November 9,
2001]

Nadia careened into an orgasm that boomed
off the hotel suite's walls. The couple lodged for the weekend,
high above Mohegan Sun casino. Outside dusk began to fall. In its
descent, the sun painted across the clouds a fiery orange-yellow
luminance. “No,” she took hold of his face. French-tip nails, the
style he favored grazed his cheeks, could sense he wanted rest,
exhausted. Given they'd fucked like rabbits almost on arrival, no
wonder. Sheathed inside her, Sharr continued to pump out the last
of his warm fluid. Nadia's toes curled and unlike her fingernails,
were painted a dark maroon. Long legs angled in direction of the
ceiling, Sharr grasped her ass. Precise muscle control allowed
Nadia to tighten her pussy onto his engorged phallus, not ready to
let him pull out. Did Sharr understand why she could do that? How
she could escort him through a graduated climax by using the
nuances of her body? Things a normal woman had no ability to
accomplish. Of course Nadia's muscles, her very body were like no
other woman alive. Insistent, Nadia exclaimed: “Don't go to sleep
yet!” Downward Sharr gazed, engulfed in those bright-blue almond
eyes. Typically Nadia wouldn't have a problem were Sharr to hasten
off to sleep after copulation. Yet things needed to be said. Sharr
might know his girlfriend to be a telepath, but he did not
understand her to be a product of miraculous technology. This
weekend away seemed to her the best time to explain it. Crazily
Nadia thought it would be perfect to do so in the wake of mind
blowing sex.

“
Is something wrong?” Sharr kissed her as
they decoupled.

“
I'm...” Nadia reached for her wireframe
spectacles over on the nightstand. Aside from glasses, and hoop
earrings, she wore nothing else, as her clothes, and underthings
were strewn about the room. “Not human.” He looked at her confused.
Not unexpected. “My parents, they invented sophisticated,
biorobotic people.”

“
I know Turhan, and Ambika are genetic
engineers--”

“
DNA doesn't have anything to do with it,
not precisely. Yes they began their careers as geneticists. What
they do now sprung from it. Papa's discoveries are way beyond
splicing DNA in petri dishes. Morningstars are different.
Chromosomes graven from polymers. That is the sort of stuff I'm
constructed out of.” Nadia explained while he held her in his arms.
“Turhan...” Bit her lip, hoped it all made sense to him. Or he
could just easily enough think her unhinged. “Papa, he discovered
what he calls Raidun90. Essentially biorobotic protomatter. That
bat, Garuda in his laboratory,” more plainly she spelled out. “It’s
an automaton, one of my very few forerunners.”

“
So,” Sharr swallowed. “You're trying to
say that --”

“
That I'm a robot, yes.”

“
No.” Sharr grinned. “I was going to say
Neo-human.”

She adjusted her position, crawled on top of
him, leaned in for a kiss. “This heart,” Nadia clutched his hand,
brushed it against her nipple and pushed his open palm over her
heart. “Pumps blood, not oil through arteries and veins.” Proudly
told him. “However I'm more resilient than any homo sapien. By no
one's reckoning am I human.”

“
I must have missed the glowing spine.”
Sharr joked.

Gods, thought Nadia, he sure took this
better than she anticipated. Almost too placidly. Like every day
you learn your girlfriend is an advanced form of robotic life.
Nadia half-expected him to recoil in disgust and bolt out of the
bed. Yet he didn't. That made her love him even more. No doubt the
mind blowing sex kept him where he lay. “By any measure, I am a
machine.” Were it not for Shalimar's father, a minor government
official, her parents would not have secured a forged Indian birth
certificate. True she had been born, well decanted really, but not
in any hospital. “Technically I have no rights.”

“
But you're a person.” To Sharr personhood
rested on an ability, or potential to do specific things. “You
moralize.” That being the prime requirement. Animals and certainly
machines could not moralize or choose. “And feel. I've seen you do
it. Wrestle with big, human problems. Machines, lower animals don't
have the capacity to think beyond themselves.” He shifted topics.
“You keep calling yourself a robot.” Clearly he enjoyed the thought
of her as the awesome android babe. “And yes, I know the words
origin. Explain to me, what makes you, you?”

“
These blue eyes have better than 20/20
vision.” As Nadia explained she modulated her eyesight so that she
could peer into his circulatory system. His heartbeat, afflicted by
an irregular valve defect in his thorax. “They can peel back each
layer of your anatomy, your heart, body heat, everything I am able
to fathom.”

He took the glasses from her face. “Then I
guess these are just for show.”

Nadia tried to capture for him the glory of
her being. “I've seen things... Data flowing through electronics,”
she stated. “Light no human eye can discern. Tonal patterns move
through my very fiber. The universe sings in a way for me that you
can't begin to comprehend. If I could only share what it’s like to
be me.” She caught an errant, entertained thought mingle in his
brain as he considered how he would explain all this to his
friends. “Yes,” Nadia said what Sharr refrained from speaking for
fear it might offend her. “That would be just like Oswald,” she
giggled pleasantly. “To call me a plastic woman.”

“
How strong are you?”

“
Very!” Nadia trilled. “My muscles are not
meat.”

It dawned suddenly on Sharr. “That's how you
um... Do that a – Thing with your...”