Among Bright Stars... (3 page)

“The D’Har-Ziral teachings are contrary to
those of the faith of our tharrin.” Talik dutifully explained. The
Jagirdar grasped how this faith had come to be, as well as the role
of the man whom he considered a traitor: Fafnir T’Skarin had in
shaping this abominable religion. A protective impulse stuck at the
Jagirdar's heart. Shikar should not be ensnared by Fafnir’s
schemes, bad enough that Kheira had been caught up in those
manipulations. Oberon knew he could do nothing for her. Yet the boy
however was his responsibility, better to dissuade him from any
notions of this Ziral faith which clearly had its own ideas for
Falcanian destiny.

“Kheira is the leader and she is part of our
tharrin.” Shikar insisted.

“True.”

“Why do people get upset about it, the Ziral
and all?”

Talik exhaled. “I think what angers people
is that the Ziral do not see Kheira simply to be a teacher, as we
look on the Telchar, but as a messiah, who we must devout ourselves
to. More so, they demand we submit to her as the one true way.”

“When will Father be home?” Shikar
chirped.

“Soon I’d imagine...” Talik’s one good-eye
glistened in the midday sunlight. “But I suspect what you actually
wonder is, when will Aria be back?” He shook his head. “That’s not
a thing to pursue Shikar. Your Father wouldn’t approve,” for
reasons beyond the fact that Sharr defiantly owned Aria and did not
broach others eying her. “Trust me; he of all people knows this!”
The irony was lost on the youth. Talik cleared his throat.
“Besides, she is the mother of your half-brother, such a
relationship is unseemly.”

The young Falcanian, despite his tan
complexion became an amazing shade of purple, abashed by his
uncle's implication. It’s true; the Crown Prince already began to
notice the appeal of the opposite sex. Shikar Ramses Drakonis, heir
to the Claw-Throne Jumped from his perch and stood before his
uncle. “I wish to see Maa.” He demanded irate.

“Nadia will return in a few days.” The boy
tended to gravitate toward his Mother. Understandable, knew Oberon,
given that Sharr had taken a rather hands off style of Fathering
where it came to his only son. “She’s aligning allies for us,”
reverently. “Morningstars.”

“Why can’t she bring them here?”

“Nadia will.” Concerned, Talik asked. “Why
are you so addled today Shikar?”

“Things.” Shikar responded
enigmatically.

“Such as?” Talik prompted.

“I feel stuff happening all around me. My
sisters are all out there doing important stuff, while I’m caged in
the palace.” Not just that, at night Shikar found himself restless.
He’d been pulled into Char and called to a quest that he did not
fully understand. “I have these… Visions…”

“Oh?” Talik probed. “What do you see?”

“I come to a fountain, in the water’s
reflection I see a Bengali woman.” Shikar felt uneasy. This subject
bothered him deeply for reasons that he did not understand. “She
holds a young boy.” And there he hesitated, yet finally said as if
he were afraid to give voice to his conclusion. “I think the boy is
my dead brother Krada.” His blue eyes darted around. “There’s a
Vorchar… But before I can follow it, I awake. It’s been going on
for three weeks now.”

Affectionately Talik touched the Crown
Prince’s shoulder. “I’m sure the Telchar will guide you to the
answers which you need to find.” A rote response to be sure.

“Beat you to the lookout perch!” exclaimed
Shikar, and sped away on his wings; Talik promptly propelled
himself after the youngster.

[Himalayas: Temple Of The Vralis]

Zoar, the Vorjah listened while the
D’Har-Ziral cleric talked. The Tahru had not been pleased to lose
control of the Vralis, Princess Kheira, who putatively stood as
leader of this new religion. A face to face appointment between he
and the Vralis had been no easy task to undertake. Her clerics thus
far barred his every attempt. Jangsiin was surprised he even gained
permission to enter the Himalayan compound on this day. They'd
forcefully, and apparently ordered by Kheira herself, ejected him
at least three times before.

Garus, clean-shaven head concealed in a
yellow turban wore an OM tattoo between his eyes. “The Vralis is
indisposed my friend.” Garus reverently explained.

“Once again recounting her prophecy?”

“No, no.” Garus smiled. “She’s with her
Mother.”

The two clerics began to walk among the
temple retreat.

“Change is in air.” Garus observed. “You are
a member of the government Zoar, what’s going on?”

“We of the religious caste are not apprised
of the Konar’s actions.” Zoar reminded Garus, though of course he
had been made somewhat aware that there indeed was a military
operation recently undertaken, yet he had not been informed of the
specifics.

“Sharr Khan is of your caste.”

“He does not answer to me.” Zoar bristled,
warned. “Nor you.”

“My Lord Zoar.” A gray cloaked figure
greeted, its voice unassuming and pleasant.

Both clerics turned toward the speaker, a
lithe figure hidden from the sun in a gray mantle. There stood the
Vralis herself.

“Princess Kheira, I’m glad you have deigned
at last to meet with me.”

“Never a problem for my Father’s trusted
Vorjah.”

“Interesting...” Zoar half-grinned at the
genuine welcome from the young woman. Not what he expected from
her. Which of course made Jangsiin just a bit paranoid. “I thought
you were determined to isolate me?”

“Nothing personal my Lord. Tahru and Ziral
have yet to discover balance. Both faiths are required for our
future.” To hear Kheira’s voice, it became clear that she had
achieved total nishala, Complete objectiveness, that state of mind
when one is able to look at the whole universe as if from atop a
mountain peak, and from that ultimate pinnacle, see all that
composed creation. Amongst the Tahru and practitioners of the Tarik
Way such a state was to be highly regarded. Most mortal minds could
only maintain it for a fleeting time. “Come, let us go inside, out
of the Sun.” The Vralis retreated into her temple.

“Does the light bother you?” Zoar asked,
he'd observed that those who suffered from the rahli’ka were highly
sensitive to direct sunlight.

“It’s holy vibrations empower me. Yet
consider my Lord, standing at the core of an atomic storm. Could
you endure the overwhelming might? Your cells forced to convert the
raw power over for your use. Starlight is my life, but it is also
my destruction.”

Zoar nodded, and followed Kheira into the
temple complex.

Inside, the Princess pushed back her hood.
No longer the girl child who had been gifted with an encounter
between herself and the future, now three years past, Kheira
Drakonis had become a fully mature Falcanian woman, lovely with her
white illuminated skin and jet-black hair.

“I’ve come to ask you about Fafnir.”

“Yes Fafnir.” Kheira gravely stated. “You'd
be wise Zoar, not to concern yourself with him.”

“Yet I must!” Zoar protested. “Fafnir has
made it...” He hesitated. “Has made it difficult, by raising you to
such a holy state, we find that we are not able to act, or speak
openly.” The Vorjah chose to get straight to the point. “This
schism among our people is dangerous. It must be ended.”

Kheira laughed. “Now I understand. We Ziral
are a threat to the Tahru.”

“We?” Puzzled Zoar, wondered if Kheira truly
turned on her Father? “Teachings of the D’Har-Ziral run counter to
Tarik –“

“Not as much as you might think.” Kheira
eagerly countered. “Since when does my Father seek to oppress our
faith? Or is it perhaps just the Tahru Jahs who feel D’Har-Ziral is
a menace that must be wiped away before it infects all of
Falcania?”

Off kilter Zoar realized the girl to be much
more refined than he'd previously thought. Not as much the tool of
Fafnir as he had come to understand. This was a young woman making
her own choices. “Your Father supports you... He asks only that you
do not undermine him.”

“And what of the Tahru?” Kheira asked, a
black eyebrow defiantly raised.

Zoar admitted. “We Tahru sought one such as
you, ever since the rahli’ka blossomed in our DNA.”

“An idea fostered as much by Aunt T'Kara’s
Valküri schemes, as by Tarik teachings.” The topic of T'Kara evoked
a devilish expression from the girl who savored the idea that she
might one day put the haughty Morningstar Queen in her place.
“Nadia, despite her grand intellect doesn’t begin to grasp what I
am.” Kheira furrowed her brows. “But then,” the Vralis sighed. “The
Queen of Robots is your natural ally, given her beloved papa, Dr.
Turhan Korelia entrusted Radiun90's secret to you. Of course you'd
take her religious position.”

“We use the Raidun90 to heal...”

“Yes, I know,” said the Vralis. “Even
baseline humans can be repaired with Raidun90, though it works best
on Morningstars or Falcanians.” Just to demonstrate her breadth of
understanding to Zoar she stated. “The Raidun90 protomatter is a
vital component in the Rashalon Engine, allows for the radical
physiological rearrangement.” She laughed. “There could not be
Falcanians without Morningstars.”

“What of Fafnir?” Zoar finally pushed.

Kheira sullenly thought.
This poor fool
cleric does not understand I built the D’Har-Ziral to prevent
Fafnir T'Skarin from looking toward his Tahru, and therefore
Raidun90. That I've personally protected him from Fafnir, lest the
old dragon learns it is he who guards the technology and claws it
from his brain. Woe be unto us if Fafnir ever did.
That future
held nothing but darkness. To Zoar she said, almost as if it were
of no consequence. “Fafnir comes and goes as he wills.”

Zoar cleared his throat. “He sows unrest.”
The Vorjah informed with authority. “Many want to find this
‘Falcania-Vor’. We should be laying claim to what is rightfully
ours here on Earth not seeking unknowns out in the vastness
space.”

“And risk extinction.” Kheira declared,
hands on hips. “Understand, what Fafnir T’Skarin preaches is my
word.”

“So then,” grumbled Zoar. “It is with your
blessing that he challenges your Father?”

Kheira wryly smiled, and said: “My Father is
committed to his cause. There will be no turning him back from it.”
She knew her Father well enough. “Our destiny is forward, unto the
stars! Sooner or later, we all shall come to see the truth of
this.”

Consciousness streamed back into her body.
The regular clockwork thump of her heartbeat thudded in her ears,
and in a surge, Nadia Korelia rose up naked, covered in
translucent, scintillating blue goo. Dark auburn hair clung to wet
curves. She stepped out of the upgrade tank, which sat in Dr.
Turhan Korelia's home laboratory. Though well past need for
improvements, Nadia already possessed military grade enhancements,
ever since GenKon injected his daughter with the telepath virus,
Turhan insisted on these routine suffusions in diluted Raidun90.
The upgrade tank allowed him to perform diagnostics to a
Morningstar's systems, and make molecular alterations. A robot's
positronic brain wasn't built of the same stuff as a humans. No
telling what GenKon's animal (feline) based virus had done to his
daughter. If need be, he could've purged the offensive
modification. Against his better judgment however, Turhan never did
so. “How do you feel Nadezda?”

More for deportment's sake, than reasons of
modesty, Nadia pulled on a short satin cerulean kimono, emblazoned
with a silvern phoenix. She hardly bothered to tie-close the
garment, draped over voluminous, outward pointed tits, bouncy, not
quite contained as she shifted her stance on the heated floor. Her
mother would've preferred Nadia be more demure regarding her
generous womanly body. Only Nadia hadn't been programmed to feel
shame. Morningstars were given to stride around as if they resided
in the Garden of Eden. “Fine Papa,” she smiled and stretched.
“These Radiun90 bathes are always quite rejuvenating.”

Removing an instrument, one of the many he
himself constructed, a necessity because of his completely new
technology, Turhan said as he waved the device over his daughter.
“Hold out your right hand, and wiggle your little finger.”

Nadia did as her father instructed.

Turhan consulted his readout. Grumbled to
himself, not that his grumble indicated any sort of problem. The
readings were where they should be, he just hated the notion of
Uric Kreis messing with his daughter and her extraordinary brain.
“Coordination seems OK... No positronic errors. Now move your big
toe on your left foot.”

Unsurprisingly, both Nadia's digits did just
what they should.

“
I'm going to tell Sharr this
weekend.”

“
If you think he's ready to know what you
are.”

“
He is.”

Turhan cleared his throat. “You know,” he
grinned. “Your Maa isn't very happy about you and Sharr going off
alone for the weekend?”

Nadia rolled her bright blue eyes. “Maa does
understand that Sharr and I've been having sex, a lot of it for
awhile now, right?”

“
Ambika's just sort of – ”

“
Hindu?”

“
Old fashioned.”

“
I'm a grown woman. Aren't I?”

“
Of course, and more than capable to make
up your own mind.” Assured Turhan, ever pleased by the miracle that
was his daughter. “But it doesn't change the fact, Ambika wants you
to slow down a bit. We both like Sharr. Wouldn't want to frighten
him off.”

“
Learning what I am won't scare him. I
know it.” Nadia then added with a touch of unhappiness. “Besides,
it’s not as if I could get pregnant...”

“
Don't be so sure --”

“
I find it highly unlikely.”