Among Bright Stars... (27 page)

A spray of gunfire sent the crowd in a
stampede to try and avoid the carnage. A reporter fell, but his
microphone got taken up by a young woman – Lark Douglas, normally a
print reporter directed the cameraman, focus on the action! “It
looks like…” Lark hesitated, more gunfire erupted from the
battledroids. “Attempts on the Imperator and Shotar… Three of the
Falcanians security bots have opened fire.” An explosion over her
shoulder, Lark ducked to avoid shrapnel. “As far as I can tell,”
estimated the reporter. “Sharr Khan, his brother Talik, and Romulus
are on the ground – Status unknown.” Lark took a deep breath, this
was a disaster. News! “It looks to me like one, or maybe two of
them have been hit.”

Sharr, first to recover noticed his brother
Talik, lay wounded on the tiled shimmering road. It did not look
good.
We would have done wonderful things together,
thought
the Shotar regretful, when he realized Talik probably wouldn’t
survive his wounds. His brother took the brunt of the attack. Blood
seeped into the golden boulevard. Next Sharr Khan eyed JR Giovanni,
who appeared bruised, dazed, with a scrape on his cheek that bled
down his face, and an ugly stain on his stark white uniform. Yet
not that much worse for wear, all things considered. At least that
proved a small relief. The Imperium's leader dying, while his as
his guest would have proven messy. Not that this situation hadn't
become a problem already. To be sure, the summit could be derailed,
at least in the short term. For his own part Sharr Khan found
himself unwounded – Thanks to Oberon's sacrifice. Drakorian Guard
came to Sharr’s side, Temujin and Arshira at their lead, weapons
ready.

Valküri formed a tight shield to protect
T'Kara and Sharr’s other wives.

Among the chaos, a white shrouded form
dispassionately observed the events unfold, briefly the tiny figure
caught Nadia’s attention, as she protectively clutched onto Shikar,
before it vanished into the pandemonium.

“Someone must be operating them.” Arshira
deduced.

“In the city?” Temujin asked, and fended off
one of the mad robots with his vajra.

“We need to override their commands,” Sharr
growled. “Before anyone more gets hurt.”

Noorani howled, jumped and managed to grab
one of the offending droids, rode it like an untamed stallion, he
wrenched the arms of the robot upward, and under the force of his
tremendous strength the alloys creaked, until at last he broke off
its gun-arms and threw the formerly deadly appendages to the tiled
road. Now harmless, without weapons, or so the superman had
thought, Darius jumped to the ground in a crouch, knife out in the
circle of Sharr and his fellow Morningstars.

“My thanks.” Sharr said, impressed by
Darius’s prowess.

Noorani nodded.

BOOM! The armless droid exploded, shards of
ceramic and metal fell everywhere. Ball bearings, bits of glass,
and other chunks of debris scattered. The droids were programmed to
be giant IEDs packed with shrapnel.

“Clear the area!” Sharr commanded.

Hot pieces of metal rained onto the crowd
when another of the droids exploded.

With full force Drakorian, among them
Children of Morningstar took down the remaining Thunderstrike
Droid, prevented it from doing further damage.

“Arshira,” Sharr ordered. “Temujin, you’re
with me.” The Shotar asked of Darius. “Stay with the Imperator and
my brother.”

Heads-up display on, Arshira switched to
battle mode, became an unrelenting killing machine. Threat
assessments scrolled over her eyesight, and she calculated where
the infiltrator, who must be at the battledroids controls headed.
An advantage which she held over other Falcanians, save for Nadia,
and Temujin, who shared her Morningstar anatomical structure. An
electronic-pulse toughened Arshira's inorganic flesh and muscles
into bullet refractive armor.

“I shall protect them with my life.” Darius
Noorani swore as he took up a defensive position.

Medics urgently tended to Jagirdar Talik’s
wounds.

“Nadia… ” Talik managed, blood spurted from
his mouth.

Between the medics and guards Nadia pushed,
and then knelt down beside Talik Kreis. His good eye focused onto
her, yet seemed to look by her into a far off unseen horizon.

“I am here.” Nadia said.

“Shikar…” Talik coughed. His vision tunneled
into a ring of fire. A shadow, an outline of a figure extended its
hand to him. He absently took hold of his nephew’s hand.

The Queen spied Talik's ring, that chunky
jewel which he used to inflict pain, and turn her telepathic
abilities against her. For a moment she thought Talik might be
okay, yet a stray thought, and the grim look on the Falcanian medic
told Nadia otherwise. The bullets had damaged several vital organs
beyond repair. Death assuredly waited Sharr’s brother.

“…Don’t let… “ Talik tried.

She leaned closer, Oberon’s voice a
whisper...

“Fafnir...” Gasped Talik, his chest
heaved.

Static, the blasted static that prevented
her from reading him remained in place and Nadia knew nothing about
the technology to undo it. What is it Oberon had been trying to
tell her? Why did he worry over Kheira’s preacher, at what he must
have known to be his last living moments?

“Fafn –“

Talik’s single-eye clouded over, his chest
rose in one last gasp of air. Oberon, brother of Sharr, son of Uric
journeyed onward. Fire, he passed into the ring of fire where he
met the black silhouette that stood before the gate of Char. No,
not black but rather a blue shape outstretched a hand. Talik took
hold of the firm grip.

“
Welcome to your final resting place, son
of Uric.”

Surprised Talik asked. “You are Ishbol?”

The Blue Guardian laughed, the tenor of
his voice seemed oddly familiar to Talik. A voice he knew from
another life.
“I had wondered if we’d have this chance to
speak.” Ishbol said. “Stand, look into the ‘Eye of
Heaven’.”

Before Talik rose a great tower constructed
from metal that hummed with power.

“
This is my home.”
Ishbol
informed. For a moment the Blue Guardian’s garments shimmered neon
blue, and reminded Talik that he had turned into a ghost inside a
machine. “Come, there is much for us yet to do.”

Talik’s shade followed Ishbol into the tower
of Ishballa.

“Secure the Jagirdar’s body,” Nadia command
her Valküri, while her son cried in her arms at the loss of his
beloved uncle. Though few would believe it, she to mourned Oberon’s
passing. Oberon saved Sharr's life pushed him out of the way of the
automatons gunfire. For that Nadia always would be grateful. On the
Queen’s command, Valküri Sisters took special care with Talik’s
jewelry. There were secrets to be learned from it.

Gunfire exploded behind her, on bionic legs
she jumped from building to building. Kasumi 9 was sure that she
had taken down the Imperator, yet Sharr himself flew after her.
Coilguns unleashed rounds and even struck true, which caused frayed
wires to appear under her simulated flesh. The Synthicon closed
down the artificial nerve endings, and bypassed the commands to her
limbs so that they might remain functional. Kasumi 9 chose to
explode the droids, in hopes that she could take out other targets.
Her purpose, do as much damage as she could with the shrapnel that
the Guilthari Vorskrai loaded inside his attack bots.

From gilded roof, to gilded rooftop she
jumped, no need for wings in the direction of the harbor, where a
boat awaited that would carry her to safety. Encircled on a rooftop
by Drakorian, and directly facing Sharr Khan as well as the
Valküri-General Arshira, Kasumi 9 pulled out her twin guns, opened
fire on the Falcanian leader. Bullets whizzed past him, and
exploded.

Arshira examined the Synthicon before her,
realized Nadia to be correct. Synthicons were crude fabrications.
Enhanced eyesight let Arshira deconstruct this lethal animatronic
doll. Judged Kasumi 9 lacking by comparison to her own sublime
robot chassis. Little more than a cosmetically enhanced
endoskeleton with a primitive storage medium for a brain. Even
Kasumi 9's sexual characteristics were merely decorative. Silicon
breasts that could never suckle a baby, and a body which could not
produce life. All paled before the splendor of a Morningstar.

Bullets struck Arshira, flattened on impact,
yet she remained undamaged.

The Valküri-General ignited her
lightening-blade, took aim with her VX-7 Starcracker, the companion
weapon to Nadia's gun, fired. CRACK! CRACK! CRACK. The first shot
ripped a hole in Kasumi 9's false skin, wires frayed, the second
hit her arm, causing the Synthicon to lose a gun, and the last
bullet grazed an alabaster cheek revealing her ceramic jawline.
Arshira looked on appalled by a Synthicon's frailty.

Sharr launched himself at the Synthicon, his
own sidearm blazed. The odds were soon not at all in her favor, so
Kasumi 9 continued on for her means of extraction, that tiny,
almost coffin like boat that would allow her to sneak past the
great fleet moored in the bay.

Among docked ships Sharr Khan and his
Drakorian landed still in pursuit, not far behind the sound of
their claw-boots touching down in her ears Kasumi 9 spotted her
salvation. The stealth craft was hardly noticeable besides
Imperator Romulus’s personal vessel. Trajan had made sure her
escape had been tended to. Sliding open the cover, Kasumi tucked
herself in. She let her own systems interface with the tiny craft
which called the torpedo to life. n time to see the wake of Kasumi
9’s stealth craft go under the water and speed away, Sharr Khan and
his warriors landed at the harbor’s periphery. Sharr turned to
Temujin commanded: “Order your men to pursue.” Sardur had already
gotten on his comlink to send the command. For the moment there was
a blip to track, the sound of Falcanian ships in an attempt to
pummel the tiny craft could be heard across the island, yet it
managed to escape to the open ocean for parts unknown.

[Tariksar Tower, Vorkrür City Evening]

“So close!” Dmitri raged disgusted. “What a
debacle.” He railed in the direction of his twin, who looked at him
with an odd dumbstruck expression. Natalia could be so absent
minded. “Whoever attempted to kill them, screwed us all.”

Natalia restrained her expression, she much
preferred to be lost in the fog that her body felt from her recent
encounter with Sharr Khan. She only half-listened, as her brother
complained at the stupidity of the failed assassination. Had he
engineered it, this would have succeeded declared the Russian
ruler! The dark haired girl shook her head.

“My problems would be solved were that Sharr
and Romulus had been killed! Two birds with one stone and I could
have rightfully proclaimed my innocence.” Dmitri Antares stroked
his beard and looked over at his twin, completely lost in her own
world. “Worse, Nadia appears to be gathering our brethren: Temujin
Sardur, that Frederika girl, Darius Noorani. I’m sure she knows
where the others are. We need allies who are like us.”

“There’s Odin Battenberg.” Chimed in Natalia
at last. “He doesn’t seem to have committed himself to the
Falcanians.”

“Odin's a puppet.” Spat Dmitri, who didn’t
regard King Odin Battenberg with much love. Antares believed the
English King weak. “When we stormed Moscow, we were power
incarnate! Our superior intellects let us cut the strings of our
KGB masters. Battenberg allows himself to be used to further that
weak human's political career.” Dmitri fondly recalled removing the
former Russian Premier. They had been nothing but children, two
brilliant, driven Morningstar children who rushed into the city,
behind them loyal soldiers. “Nadia thinks to have us side with
her.” Dmitri had long ago deduced the Falcanian Queens goal. Unlike
his sister, Morningstar or not, the Tzar did not respect Nadia. “We
will not become slaves as has Darius --”

Absently, Natalia smiled, but it had nothing
to do with what her brother schemed.

“Are you paying attention Talia?”

“Hmm, yes Dmitri.” Natalia snapped back.

“There are others like us, Morningstars. I
know of a woman,” he grinned, weighed the prospect. A machine, who
designs machines. “Eden Rhys, a robotics engineer, brilliant
software designer, and gorgeous socialite, all rolled into one.”
Proud of his notion, Dmitri proclaimed. “I shall make her mine, and
she will help build me an unstoppable robot army.” Annoyed the Tzar
said angry. “Natalia, If I didn’t know any better I would think you
were on a drug. You’ve been very strange since the party last
night.”

“I’m fine Dmitri, perfectly content even.”
Quickly added. “Tomorrow begins the summit, and we’d best be
prepared.” Fearing that she might give away her secret, or provide
her twin with an excuse to cause undo trouble, Natalia strode into
her adjoining room, along the way she casually dropped her clothes.
Once alone, Natalia jumped into the lush bed, and imagined being in
Sharr Khan’s embrace being used by him all over again.

[Narshin Thryak Complex: Imperial Funerary
Temple]

“He was my brother… ” Declared Sharr Khan
over Talik’s shell, which lay on the funeral kiln. All around him
people were shrouded in the color of death, white, yet the Shotar
stood apart, garbed in black. Sharr Khan refused to ever wear
white. “…Only in these past few years had I come to know him.”
Spoke Sharr in a low voice, those close to him could detect the
sadness in his controlled tones. “Talik… Oberon, though our first
meeting had been born out of conspiracy, I think in his heart my
brother was truly noble, that he wished the best for our world and
the kingdom we built.” Only now, he stumbled. “I wish I could have
gotten to know him better...”