Among Bright Stars... (13 page)

“In other words,” said Kvaltar. “This
Morningstar woman is your immediate contrast. Where you are a
devoted Hindu, who dances with Ayn Rand – This girls a straight-on
Nietzschean.” He exhaled. “I'd be very concerned if very many of
your fellow Morningstars are prone to such thinking. I'd rather not
live to see '12
^th
Daughter of Kobol's' rise of the
Robots...” The Vizier moved closer, patted Kievron on the head,
compressed his hyper aware ears. The Chitraka sniffed. The
cat-creature licked the Grand Vizier’s hand. “What do you want to
do about Aria?”

“I don’t know yet.” Nadia nervously bit her
lip.

[Vashan IV. Kri-Skar Outpost]

“I’m surprised they let you off world.”
Brigadier-Colonel Krolev Gar said as he fanned out his purple wings
under the clear sky of this barren world. He glanced over at his
landed vessel, where crew offloaded supplies and brought aboard
various things that had been found on this lonesome outpost. “Out
here in the vast nothingness of space, the Tahru would certainly
fear losing one like you, a Kalita, born from The Heart of The
Phoenix, and given life by the Telchar themselves. Aren’t there
only a few dozen of you?” Krolev clearly was bored. “Some say the
Lords Of Char shall manifest by way of similar means. A child of
the Telchar, lost in the lonely dark. Zoar wouldn't be happy.”

Professor Shura Naidu grinned at him while
she brushed off an artifact and continued to listen as her
commander droned on from his spot over the dig. Krolev had been at
it for hours now; actually it was more like days. Space like he had
rightly observed, truly was vast and empty.

“We’re out here at the edge of known space,”
Exhaled Krolev impatient, and growing ever more edgy as uneventful
each day, followed uneventful day. “Out of contact with Earth,
alone on a planetoid which looks to have suffered a massive
bombardment.” Indeed large craters and a decimated starbridge,
along with its control center indicated that someone, or something
wiped out the Kri-Skar stationed here. “One must wonder who did the
bombing? Given we’re hard pressed to stumble on anyone else out
here.”

“They haven’t been here for awhile,
centuries at least Krolev.” Shura told him as she labeled the
artifact which she'd been dusting off. Examination of the ruins
determined that the destruction occurred thousands of years
ago.

“Whoever did this Shura, they didn’t want
others to find the planet on the other side of that
starbridge.”

“Likely a direct route to Tashdan.” The
Kalita said, and moved a hand through her metallic bluejay colored
hair. Her genetic code, a recombination of various core members of
the Phoenix Project. Her tiny frame and features were decidedly
Asian.

“Don’t you mean ‘Falcania-Prime’?”
Brigadier-Colonel Gar jokingly asked.

“You’re correct, clearly whoever attacked
this place intended to cut off the planet from the rest of the
universe.” Shura said suddenly super-serious. “From what we know of
‘Tashdan’, it and its systems were hidden by the Kri-Skar in a fold
within space-time.”

“What we know of that place is little. That
we even learned of this planetoid is a surprise.”

“We can thank our brother and sisters, who
in Iraq ‘rescued’ a golden disc etched in cuneiform from a museum
that told us such a world even existed.” The young archeologist
said to her commander. “Without that disc, we’d not have discovered
this star system. To think it sat there years and no one understood
its true meaning.”

“I lost a clutch-brother to that
mission.”

“I know Krolev --”

Then the planetoid began to rumble, a low
hum filled the air. Colonel Gar launched himself, and hovered with
Shura beside him, they surveyed the valley. “What is that?”

Shura shook her head. “Sounds like ships
maybe?”

Three Winged Discs, circles to which two
outstretched wings were affixed entered the valley. The saucer
shape had a familiar look to it. Not a surprise, given that the
winged-disc happened to be an abundant symbol to be found all
across the Near East. One of the Winged Disc vessels loosed an arc
of red light, and destroyed
Shiertar’s Dirge
. The FS-9
Raptor heaved apart, exploded, and sent shrapnel up into the sky.
Parts of the broken vessel crashed in a thud across Vashan’s arid
surface.

Beams from other discs coalesced into
creatures: Saurian, veliceraptor-like soldiers. These were the
Grall. Dark green and scaled, multifaceted eyes focused on their
blood sport. They were perfect cold blooded killers. The Falcanians
began to fly to meet their enemy in combat. In a very efficient
manner the Grall either killed them with energy weapons, or
captured them in gravitic nets, from which they could not
escape.

As he did battle, Krolev glanced over the
carnage. These Saurian warriors had overrun his people. At the
center of the chaos, he noticed a being that seemed to be in
command. Tall, ten feet at least, passably 'Nordic' in appearance,
with curly red hair, and beard. A giant to be sure. Luminous, an
aura emanated from his skin like those Falcanians who suffered from
the rahli’ka. More still, a halo sat afloat in the air above his
head, like a crown of light.

And Krolev Gar recollected:
There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after
that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and
they bear children to them, the same became mighty men which were
of old, men of renown.

The glowing being took notice of Shura and
Krolev up in the sky, and then he turned toward one of his
Saurians, who to, in an ancient tongue he gave orders. Obeying the
Saurian jumped, with great speed across the battlefield, headed for
Krolev and Shura. With ease the Saurian sprang, easily grabbed hold
of both Falcanians, pulled them downward. Krolev fired his coilgun
at the lizard creature, yet it's scaly hide endured the hot bolt.
Finally Krolev activated his vajra, sliced at the Saurian, very
pleased to cut off the arm of the offending Grall which permitted
him to free himself and Shura. “Are you all right?” She looked
frazzled.

“Fine.” Assured Shura about to fly
again.

More Saurians fell to the Falcanian’s
protective vajra, but in the end, the male and female were overcome
by gravitic nets just as many of their comrades which did not
permit them to take for the haven of the skies.

A cool draft of air passed across her body,
in a start Shura sat up, and realized that she had been stripped
nude. In the dimly lit room she glanced down at herself, slowly
self-awareness filtered back, now conscious of the fact that she
had been sexually violated. She felt used, roughed up to say the
least. The humiliation of this began to bubble inside her, yet she
stilled it, came to the conclusion she needed more information. At
the moment she didn’t know where she was, last she recalled the
attack of the Saurian warriors before the gravitic net grabbed
them.

The bed she awoke in was beyond lavish,
utterly huge, it took up a good part of the marble floor on which
it had been arranged. Silence greeted Shura in the dim room, and
she inspected her body. New jewelry adorned her. A thick silver
collar bolted around her neck, a bracelet to match on her left
wrist. Not the wedding collar of a Falcanian T’Krin, but clearly
intended as slave bindings, as there were electronics at work in
the devices.

Alone, Shura felt alone. She no longer heard
the echo of the over-soul. True the
Shiertar’s Dirge
had
passed beyond the line where an effective connection could be made
with the others back on Earth, yet as long as there were other
Falcanians around, a circuit could be maintained. What had happened
to the rest of her crew? Her own special connection to The Heart of
The Phoenix also gone silent... Yet one tick remained. Her trikir
device!

Silently Shura moved about in the low light
of the chamber, all constructed of marble and embellished
stonework, inlaid with gold and jewels. Were they the rooms of a
king or great Lord? Fires blazed in braziers, and the effect
reminded her of a temple. Her armored tail swayed with her hips,
and she concealed her bare form in her translucent blue wings.
Black eyes darted from side to side. Shura turned a column, one of
many that supported the dome of the room. Each footfall silent,
beside an etched column (in cuneiform she noticed, that worried
her) she felt the nearness of her trikir. Suddenly Shura was
startled to see a large cat – The longest, leanest cheetah which
she'd ever seen gnawed on a hunk of raw flesh. Like herself, it
also was collared.

At the sight of the Falcanian girl, the
cheetah growled, yet was stilled by a call in a foreign tongue. One
that Shura recognized to be Sumerian. “My servants call me
Ungal-zaggisi.” A giant, the one who she and Krolev witnessed in
charge of the Saurian soldiers stepped out of the shadows. His now
bare, luminescent form lit the area which surrounded him, and
bathed Shura in his self-illumination, where she stood, watching
him in awe.

Shura’s mouth opened, though no words came
out.

“You’re looking for this.” Ungal-zaggisi
said.

Seemingly, the giant spoke in English, yet
Shura couldn’t be sure that’s what she really heard.

In his huge hands the ten-foot tall giant
held her trikir device. “An interesting mechanism, it helps you
feel the others, a place to capture your dying thoughts as well.”
The giant pondered the tiny Falcanian woman. As an afterthought He
added. “How very pretty.”

“Give it to me!” Shura demanded.

“Oh the creature does speak after all...” A
very human grin came over the luminous being’s face. “We know she
moans.” He bellowed cavernously.

Enraged, Shura launched herself at the
luminous being. A poor choice of actions. With a sweep of his
massive hand, a strong telekinetic blow sent Shura down onto the
cool marble floor where she whimpered. Shura at last sat up; the
cheetah came over and comforted her. “Do not try that again Little
One!” Ungal said in his deep godlike voice.

“What have you done with my friends? My
crew?” Shura cried.

Ungal-zaggisi just laughed.

“You... You’re an Annunaki.” Shura at last
said. The only possible answer knew the archeologist.

Ungal-zaggisi didn’t directly respond,
instead he stroked his curled red beard and said: “So the Adamu at
last have pulled themselves out of the mud of the deluge.” He gave
Shura a lecherous smile. “And they make such beautiful
creatures.”

“I’m not human.” Shura insisted.

“That also is a curiosity.” Ungal-zaggisi
retorted, confounded by this truth. “Your genes are a strange mix.
Remnants of Enki’s first work. Traits switched on that should not
be. A Being not created in our image, yet very close.” He stroked
his scarlet beard. “A peculiar addiction flows inside your blood
Little One. That which Gilgamesh sought saturates your body. Only
the gods and their chosen eat of the fruit of immortality. Where
did you taste of it?”

“On my island, in the jeweled garden.” Shura
knew he must mean the Rishaak fruit.

“Ah yes, and there is another oddity,”
remarked Ungal-zaggisi not hiding his fascination. “Traces of an
element my people only thought hypothetical are in every fiber of
your body.” He cleared his throat. “It's believed by some that our
creator, Iblis Jinn stole that formula – From God's own vault.” The
Annunaki history went, that it was this element The One planned in
the beginning to mold his ideal beings -- Chosen People out of...
That is, until Iblis Jinn absconded with it. “I do not know what
you call it, but in our tongue it is Kalamgiir, --”

“'Clay of the Earth'.” Shura translated.

Biology, and indeed biorobotics were not in
Shura Naidu's ken, history and society were her specialty. Yet, the
archeologist was aware enough there were links between Falcanian
biology and Queen T'Kara's own uncommon origins.

“What did you seek on that planetoid?” Ungal
demanded.

Her mind still on the Kalamgiir, and this
Annunaki's rather shocking and lofty revelations regarding it,
Shura quietly admitted. “The starbridge.”

Ungal-zaggisi became most angered. “What
business do you have attempting to go there?”

“There?” Shura raised a brow.

“Tashdan.” Ungal rumbled. “Do not play dumb
girl.”

“My people learned that it might be a dead
world, one where a civilization once thrived. We wanted to learn
more about it, it would change Earth's history.“

“They were our allies, ‘World-Movers’ we
called them. It was they who seeded your Earth with the first
life.” Ungal-zaggisi sighed. My wife died stepping foot on the
Kri-Skar planet,” Ungal said. “Once we cleansed it of course. Our
other creatures handled the brunt of the warfare. Lead by their
General Kranix T’Raul, he exterminated the Kri-Skar.”

“But why?” Shura’s sense as a historian and
archaeologist overcame her. Despite the degradation that this
Annunaki inflected upon her person, she wished to encourage him to
talk about his peoples past. If she could get the information back
to Vanguard, it could prove useful.

“Power, Little One,” he expounded “Thousands
of years ago, a wholly singular being appeared on Tāne-Mahuta, one
of our slave worlds. It was brought before The Counsel of Anu.”
Ungal told her with firsthand knowledge. “A living fire, a serpent
of oil and flame.” The Annunaki reflected. “We had never seen such
a creature before. None of us knew where it came from. The creature
of fire desired the technology of Tashdan and in gaining it,
promised to free us from our bondage to our Kri-Skar masters.”
Wearily Ungal rubbed his temples. “It needed a host, our bodies
could not sustain it. So like many times before, we built new
servants, and called them Gwareen. This Kranix took possession of
one of these creatures and then lead his armies to Tashdan. But he
was defeated there, cast out, but not before reducing the Kri-Skar
to a handful.”