*
True to her promise, Darla delivered a splendid-looking gown to her sister. Mihai grinned with delight, striking different poses for the mirror. Each movement caused the sky-blue silky cloth to dance this way and that. She stopped in a pose, standing at an angle, hands gracefully outstretched and curtsied. “Hello, my Lord PalaHar. It is such a pleasure to have your acquaintance this evening.” She laughed and turned, repeating her action. “Well, well, my Lord Ardon, does our wise councilor approve of my attire?”
Pretending she was arrived at the coming council meeting, Mihai offered her gracious salutations to several others she expected to meet there. The tingling sensation of the fabric on her skin and the way it floated up like a billowing cloud as she turned made the woman laugh. As her feeling of sensuality grew, she began to slowly dance to a tune in her head.
A young, flirting maiden suddenly appeared in the mirror. “Why certainly you may not kiss me, you cad! When my lover hears of this, he will thrash you with his scolding tongue!” She bowed again. “Yes! Yes, the dinner has been so fine. Never have I tasted truffles prepared so splendidly.”
Closing her eyes, the girl flung her arms out and head back as she gracefully twirled on one foot. She did not see the mesmerizing beauty in the mirror, or the feminine charms she revealed. Firm, toned muscles, accented by the woman’s full, round features and milky-white skin enhanced her appeal. Her breasts bounced in rhythm to her moves as her buttocks rippled in tight little waves as she shifted her weight from one long sinewy leg to the other. What a sight! Oh, what a sight!
Spinning around one final time, Mihai stopped and, with a lissome move, bowed before the admiring audience. She peered into the mirror, examining the face staring back. Most pronounced were the piercing blue eyes, accented by golden eyebrows crowning a strong forehead. The face was misleading for, at first glance, one could see the semblance of a child not yet out of her teens. A closer look revealed a sharpness like hewn stone, weathered by the ages.
High cheekbones, a long, straight-bridged nose and a determined jaw gave Mihai a hardened, proud appearance of a noble leader, while her full-bodied, rose-colored lips and compassionate countenance suggested a guileless maiden. Whichever way a person chose to view her, there was no denying the breathtakingly handsome beauty this woman possessed.
Satisfied, Mihai stood upright and did a half turn, striking another pose. Laughing, she snapped her head around to observe her stance, making her golden tresses float high in the air, revealing hidden secrets. The laughter died from her lips when what she saw resurrected painful memories.
Slowly, she reached behind her back to pull the golden tresses aside for another look. A jagged scar started at the base of her neck and trailed to the right, across the shoulder blade, and down her rib cage. And what had she accomplished from the near fatal experience? Nothing! Her kidnapped sister was still not free, and now her traitorous brother was making a big, diplomatic ‘to-do’ about it.
The Stasis Pirates’ ion trail had been easy to follow…too easy, now that Mihai thought about it. She followed it along the Outer Corridor, past the Trizentine and into the Frontier. Nearing hostile territory, she disembarked from the battle cruiser in her fighter, telling its captain to remain there on patrol. The fighter stealthily passed the Frontier, following the pirates’ trail far into forbidden territory.
The Stasis had made directly for ZemiaKone, meaning ‘Lost Rabbit’, the enemy’s westernmost territory bordering on the Frontier. It was believed to be little more than an outpost - at least that is what was agreed upon at the armistice. As Mihai drifted toward its surface, dodging radar and sonic detection, she felt there was way too much chatter on the communication channels to be coming from a few lonely outposts.
Her ship settled down in a desert canyon a few miles from where the fighter’s instruments indicated the pirates landed. Following the gullies and ravines, she gingerly made her way in the direction of a distant space terminal. About a mile away, she found a narrow draw, leading down to the plain far below. Soon the rocky walls stretched high above her head.
A sudden chill raced up the woman’s spine. Something was wrong. Instinctively she twisted away from some unknown assailant. Mihai’s prescience saved her from death, but not from injury. A plunging, razor-sharp claw from a guard droid caught her as she spun around, driving her toward the ground. She could feel its icy-cold blade tearing through the flight suit and into her flesh. Then came a sickening sound of cracking bones and snapping tendons as the beast ripped a deep gash down across her back, slamming her, facedown into the dirt.
Mihai rolled away to her left in a choking cloud of dust just in time to escape a second blow, the blade making a ‘swooshing’ noise as it passed her face. Still tumbling, she triggered her lanner, holstered on her left hip. There was no time to pull the weapon free. The raised arms of the droid were already dropping for the final thrust that would skewer her through.
In one violent kick, Mihai managed to roll right, reefing the gun barrel toward the metallic monster. She pulled the trigger, energy exploding from the muzzle, shredding the holster and sending a searing wall of fire down along the length of her leg into her attacker. After blasting a hole in the droid’s armor, she quickly pulled the gun from its holster and fired a second charge into its open rupture. The infernal machine belched acrid smoke and crashed into the dirt.
Mihai’s head spun in pain, but there was no time to take account of the injury. The guard droid undoubtedly sent a signal to the outpost. Soon the place would be swarming with others, and not droids this time.
She staggered to her feet, struggling to stand, fighting a numbing ache in her back, her right arm hanging limp and in pain. She could feel warm, sticky blood oozing down her back, and there were already large red stains in the dirt. Taking a step, the woman cried out in agony. She glanced down to see pieces of her flight-suit flaking away from her left leg, leaving gaping holes in the silver material. The air stunk with the smell of charred flesh. Fighting back a dizzying sickness trying to overtake her, she shook her head. ‘They’ll know who’s been here when the blood’s tested. No time to worry about that now.’ She needed to get away.
Whirring of servos alerted Mihai to the fact there was more than one guard droid. She didn’t even have the strength to lift her head and look in the monster’s direction. There was nothing to do now but wait to die. Mihai remembered little else. The sound of metal smashing into metal filled her ears, and then silence, no servos, nothing.
Mihai dreamed she was falling, only to be caught up in strong arms and carried aloft on wings, or so it felt. After an eternity of silent flight, the woman came to her fighter, floated through the open cockpit and into the seat. Just before the canopy snapped shut, a voice fell on her ears. “Be well, my Lord.”
The rest was just a painful blur in Mihai’s mind. When she woke in the stillness of the darkened room, she was looking into the distraught face of a woman with smoky-grey eyes and platinum-colored hair.
“Ga… my G…” Gentle fingers rested on Mihai’s lips.
“You’re safe, my darling. Your soul has returned to us once more.” The gentle voice continued to sing little songs of love in Mihai’s ears.
“When the summer grass turns to brown and the leaves die from the tree,
I shall call to you, my love, crying, ‘come back, come back to me’.
The river ever flows and the glade will never tell,
The depth of care our hearts do share and the pain of a fallen dove.”
For some time, Mihai drifted in and out of strange and bewildering dreams. When she finally waked enough to fully comprehend her surroundings, the woman crooning the sweet tunes frowned and scolded, “It should be a blessing remembered and thankful you should be that the Grave-maker happened to cross your path. If not for her, you would be hanging from a pike, drying in the breeze.”
The woman shook her fin
ger in Mihai’s face. “If you ever attempt another stunt like that again, you may find me less forgiving than that droid!” She quickly turned away and left the room.
Mihai was saddened to think her actions hurt the woman so. For six thousand years she had acted like a mother to her… indeed… a mother to thousands, many who never returned from such adventures. And only once had she allowed anyone see her weep.
Other than a nuisance pain when moving her arm, the scar was the only evidence of the droid’s attack, but the lanner blast was different. Skin was now covering the burns that had eaten into her leg muscles, but the rejuvenating nerves itched and ached. She was well aware the pain would exist long after the red blotches disappeared. Even with the use of healing machines, nerves took a long time to heal.
Mihai considered herself very fortunate. The weapon she carried that day - her design - was an energy gun. It activated a chemical compound ignited by an electrical discharge passing across the gun’s chamber, decomposing a portion of a stable agent suspending the very unstable mendelevium. The greater the voltage across the pellet, the faster the breakdown of the stable agent, thus the greater the energy delivered to the target. The power released could easily be controlled by adjusting the voltage capacitor. This lanner had a thumb lever for quick adjustment, giving its user the choice of stunning someone with a heat blast to instantly dissolving flesh from the bone.
Mihai shuddered. Had her leg been bent at the knee and received a more direct blast, surgeons would have been forced to amputate her lifeless leg. To regrow the bone, tendons, nerves and flesh could take years, even with healing machines.
She sadly walked from the mirror, the little girl having been chased away by the gloomy memories and sat on the edge of her bed, staring down at her hands. The woman became introspective, searching inside herself for answers to questions unasked… unasked out of fear… fear of what might be revealed. The time was now passed for such self-indulgence, for remaining in the world of pleasant indecision. Choices had to be made. To keep her sanity, changes were necessary.
She had been field marshal for too long. For over a thousand years, she ruled the army as ‘lord dictator’. Her decisions were final. The greater the slaughter, the more willing the people were to follow her. They had obeyed her commands without hesitation…never once a complaint. The long war never really ended. The armistices only gave pause to it, allowing the enemy time to rebuild his forces. And what of the last war, the Great War? What had it accomplished?
Stargaton…twenty thousand lost in one hour…friends and lovers. And what had they achieved? A miserable little rock floating in a forgotten part of the galaxy! Memphis…two corps destroyed because she had calculated the enemy incorrectly. Through four years of bloody conflict, she had sentenced over three million of her people to pour out their blood for this holy war. How much closer to the end were they now? Had the price been worth it?
Those battles were over fifty years ago and the dying was still going on. Oh yes, there was an armistice, but the enemy still found excuse for the occasional bloodletting. How much longer would death keep devouring those she loved so much? How many more would be butchered because she thought it necessary? Mihai closed her eyes and shook her head in despair.
What else could have been done? They followed her because she was their leader. Her people would have fought without one. At least they didn’t die for her or some imagined reward. Everyone was aware of what was at stake. Billions of innocent lives depended upon their success. The destiny of generations gone, present, and even those coming hinged upon the outcome of events.
But had the people not already paid the ultimate price? Was death really the supreme sacrifice? She thought not. The age of innocence was gone for them, destroyed forever on the fields of blood and betrayal. It mattered little the outcome. Her people would never be able to completely forget the death and suffering. ‘Like a maiden violated by her guardian and protector…’ Mihai nodded her head. ‘except he has raped both the flesh and spirit.’
Mihai no longer feared her own death. In fact, there were times when death appealed, ending the guilt plaguing her mind. She could manage the daylight hours, but…but in the quiet of the night, when the rest of the world slept, accusing voices of all the slain would sing out in her head, their scolding faces passing in visions before her eyes. No matter how she made excuse or sought absolution, she could still see their blood dripping off her hands.
Mihai’s thoughts conjured up visions creeping from dark corners of her mind into this waking moment. There suddenly appeared heaps of bodies, torn and mangled. In horror, she watched while her fingers went probing open wounds, seeking bloody flesh to satisfy an insatiable hunger. While Mihai’s stomach churned in sickness, her lips smacked with anticipation, squealing, “Is this all there is?! Are these tiny morsels all you have delivered?! How are we to survive on such paltry rations?! We are hungry! We are hungry!”
Mihai shook her head violently to drive the ugly dream away. With many curses and outcries, the demon slowly crawled back to its hiding place, threatening a return. It would come again. It had promised. She dropped her head in dismay. How much longer could this continue on before the mist of insanity would completely envelop her? Did she have a day…a year…an hour?
A bitter chill swept the room, raising an army of goose bumps marching across Mihai’s sweaty skin. She involuntarily shivered, more from the encounter with her monster within than from the cold. There was no more wondering which of Destiny’s roads she was to take. One and only one path lay open. It was no longer a matter of choice. The time had come for her to speak of this while a small piece of innocence still resided within her heart, while she still retained mastery of her own mind.
It was time to leave. No longer did this room…this little world of her youth… have the power to drive away the evil. She was the evil. It was a part of her living being. Until it was driven away or destroyed, it would be part of her. There was no longer any need to hide from it. No place could protect her. Mihai gritted her teeth. She was determined to become whatever she must in order to defeat this enemy.
Standing, Mihai reached for her officer’s cape and cloaked the beauty of the dress. She faced the door, willing to endure any storm that might come. Lifting her head high and throwing her shoulders back, the woman marched into the courtyard. No longer was she going to seek shelter from her fate. What tomorrow would bring, what battles there were to confront, no matter the results, they were going to be faced head on!