Starblade (24 page)

Frederika's only choice was to fight.

Like a stormangel the Queen stepped forward,
the fog parted for her. Majestic dawn-tinted wings spread out
behind her. Her tail slashed the air. She brandished her vajra as
if it were Indra's own celestial weapon.

Slashing out Frederika charged the
Queen.

With an easy deflection Nadia sent the
dancer back. Nadia's movements were precise and conservative in
elegance. The Queen's fighting style was that of a classically
trained dancer. Pulling her Kraris from its sheath she held it as a
defensive weapon.

“Come now, girl. You can do better!” Nadia
chided. She wanted to see how skilled Frederika was.

She switched into a fluid Kalari movement,
turning on the ball of her foot and angling her shimmering blade
toward the girl. Had she desired, the Queen could easily use her
blade as a projectile to cut down the girl. However it was not
Nadia's goal to hurt her.

Not wishing to displease, the blonde
sprinted forward to catch the Valküri's dense armor with her
vajra.

“Keshla!” Spat out T'Kara.

From the blonde's strike sparks crackled off
the golden armor, yet there was no damage aside from a bit of
tarnish to its outer layer. Clearly the Falcanians had designed a
means to protect against the weapon they had developed.

She waited for Frederik to tire, but the
woman did not slow down. The Queen lurched back now angered. She
brought her weapon above her head poised to attack in a crouching
stance. Nadia growled and in a flash struck back. Frederika bobbed
aside with the easy movement of a cheetah, her enhanced responses
saving her.

“I,” Nadia, said, the sound of sparks filled
the air between she and her adversary. “Have no wish to hurt you
child.”

Blade crossed with the Queen, Frederika
responded, “You won't get a chance!”

They pushed apart and circled each other, a
predatory dance.

Frederika lunged at Nadia who used her jets
to vault away from an on-coming strike to land on a small boulder
in a rock garden. The Queen took up a crouched stance. Above her
head the curve of her claw-knife held outward. Her tail and its
pincer whipped and bucked behind her.

Sprinting off the ground Frederika slashed
at the Queen.

Nadia extended a kick and sent Frederika
back to the ground with a thud.

She fell on the ornate stonework foundation
of the plaza. Frederika's grip slipped on her weapon. Helplessly
she watched as it rotated across the plaza until at last it pierced
a chunk of black granite beside a tree.

A smell of brimstone filled the air.

Wide-eyed Frederika glanced at the sword
that rested in the rock, like a space age Sword In The Stone, stuck
in an anvil which awaited a new hero to pull it forth the
technological blade now slept. Friction caused a seething orange
glow in the rock where the blade's titanium filament edge had rent
apart the block of polished granite.

One last attempt at an assault, Frederika
jumped for the blade, however an unseen force knocked her back to
the ground and prevented her from moving her limbs. Puzzled,
Frederika looked at the Queen. Telekinesis? Nadia made a casual
hand gesture toward her and suddenly Frederika found herself pinned
to the earth.

“In our bones is hrisanar, what you call
Quantum-X. Some of us can utilize the element within us to form
waves of gravity and magnetism.” There was the Queen knew no harm
in telling the girl this, she already knew more about Falcanian
biology then she should already. Nadia sent a telepathic command to
the girl's subconscious. “Now sleep.”

Before passing out, Frederika wondered why
Oberon had placed her in an impossible circumstance. There was no
chance of extraction from this island.

FS-9 Raptors filled the air. Blood red
warships each adorned with gold racing stripes soared over head of
the gathered throng leaving the Island nation heading for
space.

Green, red, and saffron banners waved in the
breeze adorned with the elegant Kaliburn script as well as tharrin
emblems strewn through out the crowd.

An ocean of troops stood and awaited orders
from their Shotar who beheld them from on a platform of steps.
Ranks of golden armored Valküri, red shrouded Drakorian, and the
iron gray of Falcanian Wingmen stood at attention.

Amongst the Falcanian warriors a rabble
stood. At the head was a priest adorned with an OM syllable
tattooed between his eyes. The Falcanian concealed his bald head in
a yellow turban and beside him stood Zoar the Tahru leader, at
their tri-clawed boots were remains, fragments of something metal
and ceramic, it was hard to make out what the wreckage once had
been.

Sharr raised an unusual vajra out in a
triumphant gesture for his people, its coruscating blade shimmering
before him. Strangely, Sharr’s hair was strikingly white, a hint of
fading brown-red highlighted his long mane. His goatee also white
hinted still at having been before brown-red. Most strange was the
drooping parted mustache that he now wore, imparting a mystical
quality to the Shotar. It did not seem possible that a Falcanian
could age in such a manner. There felt to be an atmosphere of
profound change about him.

“
Today we go forth. Our people shall be
avenged and Falcania-Vor shall be wrought!” called out the changed
Sharr. He turned his attention to another and said: “You have done
well my little Jhawr...“

Her emerald eyes opened slowly as she came
out of the vision-dream. Frederika heard an argument outside the
cell door. The voices belonged to Nadia and Sitara. It sounded as
if the Queen were scolding her child for her indulgences with the
trinket of the nodor.

She looked through her disheveled curls.
Once her mind cleared, Frederika realized Sharr waited inches away
from her in the cell. She watched his armored tail snap back and
forth, yet he said nothing. He was furious.

Frederika realized she sat on a small bench
up against a cold gray wall. Her hands chained above her head, she
pulled on the exquisitely wrought links.

“Those shackles will hold even you,” Nadia
said as she entered the dungeon cell.

Nadia had no wish to leave Sharr alone with
the girl. He was so angered that the likelihood of him drawing a
weapon and killing Frederika was very possible. What kept him from
doing just that was the fact she happened to be an attractive young
woman, and one he had taken a liking to. It had been a very long
time since she had seen Sharr this furious, almost to the point of
madness. Back then, it had also involved a woman.

Without warning, Sharr slapped Frederika. It
was so unexpected even Nadia jumped where she stood as the echo
bounced around the dim cube of a room.

The Queen stepped closer toward her mate and
their prisoner as a precaution. Should Sharr lose his temper
completely she would be there to intervene.

Sharr grabbed her chin, roughly forcing
Frederika to look at him. “You came here to seduce me and spy upon
me. Why? Who is your government? What is it you seek here?”

“What more can you do to me?” Frederika
asked through gritted teeth.

For a moment Sharr looked as if he might
slap her again. His mate's presence relaxed him somewhat as they
glared at each other.

“What a symmetrical plan,” Frederika at last
said. “Even if in the end it will result in your annihilation. Use
one truth to shield another. Who'd believe it?” Despite her
training, she laughed nervously. This was different, nothing went
as it should have. “You risk repeating history, Sharr. This
preemptive strike will give Romulus all the reason he needs to
destroy your people. Do you think the Imperium will not learn of
this army you are constructing? Or learn that the 'Amrita' is
indeed real? Romulus will not give up eternal youth. He shall bring
all the might of his Empire down upon Vanguard Island to get what
he wants!”

The Shotar's gauntlet started to go in the
direction of Jaikra. He shook with a building rage until Nadia
placed a staying hand on his arm to prevent the forthcoming death
cut. “So you are my upgrade.” Nadia murmured without a trace of
irony or anger.

Curious Sharr glanced at his Queen.

“My Shotar, she is like me, a Morningstar.”
Nadia explained and reached out a motherly hand to caress
Frederika's bruised cheek. She pulled the black collar and Thor's
Hammer from the girl’s neck and forced Frederika to turn her head,
revealing the hourglass tattoo. He knew the GenKon insignia very
well, having long ago incorporated it into the Falcanian symbol
structure. “We two are sisters of a sort,” Nadia sighed, and lifted
Frederika's chin. “My own father placed that freckle upon your
face.”

Nadia glanced at Sharr, telepathically
communicating her wishes to her mate. Nadia made it clear to Sharr
what must be done with this girl who had presumed to spy upon them.
She found her desires to his liking.

Like another slap the revelation hit
Frederika. In her heart she felt a sense of betrayal. Why had
Oberon not told her this?

“What are you going to do with me?”
Frederika asked, sensing a change in the air.

“Thanks to our daughter, you know too much
about us to be let loose into the world,” Nadia answered. “More
than that, you are an asset.”

“You will remain here,” Sharr told her.
“Become one of us.”

The Shotar watched as Frederika raised an
inquisitive brow. Sharr offered her Rashalon. She had expected to
die, not be remade into a new being.

“My own people are as threatened by the
Imperium’s expansionist plans as your own. I propose an alliance
between us.” She had just switched sides. Had she just chosen fire?
“My government has developed a new starfighter. As part of the
alliance I would offer it to you.” In those few words, she betrayed
her people. Yet Oberon had not told her about her connection to the
Falcanians. Frederika did not like that. This woman, the Queen, was
the closet thing she had to blood family.

What did Oberon gain by omitting these facts
about her background?

“Do you have the authority to make such a
proposal?” the Shotar asked.

“I am the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg, if not for
my Blackeagle there would be no Dukedom.” Frederika peered up at
him emerald-eyes wide. She pulled on her bonds once again. “My
actions are for the good of my nation as well as your own. We all
risk being destroyed by the Imperium’s boot.”

Frederika considered if Falcania's claws
would be any better, but she felt she could manage Sharr's ill
begotten war plans.

“Guten tag!”

The wolfish grin of Oberon Kreis filled the
huge holoviewer in the Command and Control tower of Vanguard
Island. The Prussian did not seem the least surprised that
Frederika had contacted him so directly, and on a channel
controlled by the Falcanian Khanate.

“Ah, Sharr! It is good to see you again.”
Oberon spoke with a casual familiarity toward the Falcanian Shotar.
“I suspect that you do not recall my face. Time has not been as
kind to me as it has to you.”

Both Nadia and Frederika leaned forward from
their place beside the Shotar. The expression upon the Queen's face
was one of recognition. Nadia recalled him from Genetic Konnections
Incorporated many years past.

“Security Chief Oberon Kreis!” Nadia
exclaimed. “Appointed by the Director himself to oversee
Morningstar... or rather, the Lucifer's Children Project.”

Intended as warning Nadia reached out and
touched Sharr's arm, pressed tightly to indicate her concern over
this development. Oberon's involvement in this matter indicated to
Nadia a deeper conspiracy existed. Motives that went beyond mere
spying upon fellow nations were behind Frederika's coming to these
shores. Chance did not bring this constellation of events into
play. She was sure of it.

“It is now Colonel Kreis of the Blackeagle
Knights, Doktor Korelia,” Oberon said. “It is a pleasure to see you
again. The first Morningstar herself, on which many others were to
be modeled.”

“Oberon,” Frederika addressed the viewscreen
with a commanding voice.

“Ja, my child.” His remaining one-eye came
to rest upon his charge. “I assume you 'failed' in your mission or
you would not have contacted me in such a manner.”

“All did not go as planned, Colonel.”
Frederika bit her lip. She didn't want to sound like a traitor with
what she was about to say. “However, as the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg
I have chosen to make an offer that is best for both our
peoples.”

Kreis's brow rose up, but he smiled like a
man who had just won a great battle.

“An alliance of mutual interest,” Frederika
continued. “Involving the production of Nemesis-class starfighters
und the creation of a special division of Blackeagle Knight to
protect our Dukedom.”

“I see,” Oberon said. “Und what shall our
Dukedom gain by this alliance?”

“Much,” Sharr told Kreis simply. Your
augmented division of Blackeagle shall join the ranks of Falcania,
becoming as we are, a very formidable warrior caste.”

Oberon nodded. “This would bold well for us
both, my brother.”

Sharr stiffened at the casual camaraderie
displayed by Oberon. “Do not presume familiarity with me,
Kreis!”

“Most assuredly, Sharr Khan, I am not simply
being familiar.” He smiled all too pleasantly at the Falcanian. “We
two are sons of the same sire. We are family.” Oberon allowed the
meaning to sink in. He savored the moment when each one of them
realized that what he said to be a fact.

Her fists clenched with pain and anger, she
looked hard into the holoviewer. Frederika’s expression betrayed
profound annoyance and disappointment in this old warlord whom she
greatly loved. Again, Oberon had lied to her.