rOYSTER’S CRUCIBLE…
Chapter 31 of Starfighter! The
Iconoclast
By: Tom Sczepkowski
With editing and clean-up
by: Frederick P. Kopetz
And with inspiration and
aid by:
Copyrights:
STAR TREK is © 2004 by Paramount Pictures, Inc. STAR BLAZERS is © 2004 by Voyager
International, and, STAR WARS is © 2004 by Lucasfilm, Ltd. GARGOYLES is © 2004
by Disney Entertainment. The Technomugar Empire is © 2004 by Frederick P.
Kopetz and is mentioned here by the author's permission. All original elements
of this tale are © 2004 by Tom Sczepkowski. All rights reserved, not to be
copied without the author's permission.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Nokkar
stood outside his underground base for the past three thousand years as he
looked out over the
But
still something felt out of place for a split second as he opened his eyes and
there sitting next to him was Destine
“Forgive
me my old friend.” she said “I had to come.”
“I
know.” Nokkar said in a weak voice “Twilight is upon me and now Light must
fall…..that is the way things are……it’s the way of the Force.”
“If
you ask me the Force is a huge pain in the ass.” Destine said wiping away a
tear from her face.
Nokkar
laughed weakly for a moment “I heave heard the Force described in many ways but
never quite like that.”
“Well
then you know it’s accurate.” Destine said
They
both laughed at the remark as Nokkar coughed heavily…no longer able to support
his weight, he laid back on the ground while tears rolled
down Destine’s face as she held his hand and knelt down besides him.
“Are
you in pain?” She asked
“No.”
Nokkar said “I don’t really feel anything.”
“Is
there anything I can do?” she asked while sobbing.
“For
me, no,” Nokkar whispered. “Your family, however, needs you. You need to find a
way to get to them.”
“I
cant do any good out there,” Destine said
“Everybody is out there doing their own thing I don’t even know where
Vaught is and Star, well she has her own demons to fight….”
“We
all have our demons to fight,” Nokkar said. “You above all else should know
that…..They do, and they love you very much…..”
“This
shouldn’t be about me,” Destine said wiping the tears from her eyes. “It should
be about you.”
“No.
My time with you is nearly done,” Nokkar said as he gasped for breath. “When I
pass through the Force, Vaught will succeed into my place as Master……but he is
caught between two worlds now. Very soon Vaught will be pushed either into the
world of darkness or a brighter existence…rather then his familiar world of the
twilight.”
Destine
tried to make sense of what he was saying then understood that it had something
to do with the mission that he was on.
“Working
with the Star Force is making him see things from another perspective,” Destine
said.
“The
Commander of the Star Force does not consider him the expendable weapon that
Starfleet regards him as…..,” Nokkar said while
gaspingfor breath. “But Vaught’s faith will be shaken and he will fall…..where
or how soon I cannot say…..That’s why you must go to them….for if Vaught dies,
you must seek out the only other person that could intervene…..for if not we
would lose both Starsha and Nova to the Dark Side.”
Destine
looked at him with Shock
“Nova
as in….?”
“Yes,”
Nokkar said. “She serves with the Star Force.”
“Christ!”
Destine said “If She’s on the Argo
and Vaught’s on the Argo….! This was
never supposed to happen….. We took steps to ensure that it wouldn’t happen!”
“Terri
and Karl did as much as they could,” Nokkar said.
“Great!
So I’m the one that’s going to have to contend with Vaught as to why we hid the
fact that he and Astra had twins,” Destine said.
“I
don’t think he knows,” Nokkar said.
“Oh
please,” Destine said “I know that the Forresters had her fangs removed, but
he’s not stupid… he’ll figure it out…..Do they have a lot of contact?”
“They
are best friends,” Nokkar said.
“and this other person…..you’re talking about Trelania!”
Destine said. “Creighton thought that she was the one sending the message to
the Star Force……He thinks that’s what Vaught is up to.”
Nokkar
looked away from her and closed his eyes.
“Through
the Force I see dimensions within dimensions, wheels within wheels, plots
within…everything is confused….but when I see Vaught there is order and
stability surrounding him………Nothing must interfere with what they need to do
but both of them cannot be sacrificed……they….”
He
reached out and touched Destines face. As he gasped again, his eyes opened wide
“All……Your ……experiences……and……wisdom…….have brought you…….to this
moment………….Have faith in yourself…………It is your………Destiny……………”
Then
Nokkar breathed out his last and closed his eyes.
Destine
sobbed for a few moments as she looked to the sky at the stars. She began
singing very softly.
Dona, eis………Dona, eis……..Dona, eis
pacem………….Dona eis Pacem.
Requiem aeternam Dona eis, ET lux perpetua luceat eis……….. lux perpetua
Dona Nobis…………. Dona Nobis………. Dona Nobis Pacem…………..
Dias, maius
Lieuchent taieis....
Tears
flowed from her eyes as she picked up Nokkar very gently. However in an
instant, his body was gone, having been enveloped by the Force. All of the
people that were with her through her lifespan were now gone. She was the last
of her generation now and that made her feel lonelier than ever.
******************************************************************************
The
White Comet maintained her course and her heading towards Earth.
Zordar
sat in a chair having a drink with his daughter Invidia. This was his time to
relax ….His battle plans already been drawn his fleets deploying….and Desslok
engaging and destroying the Star Force……
Life
was good.
But,
as always, General Gorce could be counted on to disturb his relaxation.
“Always
on the move, my Romulan friend,” Zordar said over his glass.
“I
have good reason, my Prince,” Gorce said.
“The Federation again?”
Zordar asked.
“Does
it not disturb you that our intelligence has the
“Not
in the least,” Zordar said “It’s just the usual Federation Political Damage
Control……But what of these rumors of the Captain of the Earth Space Battleship Andromeda?”
“The
Tal Shair believes that there may be truth to the
rumors,” Gorce said. “Starfleet hasn’t commented one way or the other; however,
there is a lot of movement of Starfleet ships and according to my sources a lot
of surveillance of the Brumus area. “
“What of General Naska’s fleet?” Invida asked. “He was supposed to
take Brumus!”
“It was mostly destroyed….Gorce said as he flipped a switch
activating the floor Video Panel. An image appeared as he said, “It is also
confirmed that Starfleet Weaponry was used in the battle.” Gorce said. “Naska
managed to get these visuals of the Starfleet vessel…and her pilot.”
Invida
looked at Zordar and hissed.
Zordar
leaned back into his chair and rubbed his chin for a moment.
“Darth
Hawk,” Zordar said. “The role is being played by Maestro Vaught Corsair Major,
Starfleet Marines. This is most
interesting. Yes!”
“What
is that thing strapped to his back?”
Invida asked.
Zordar
chuckled, “That, my dear, is the “Sword of Kahless” the Bat'leth. It is the maestro’s weapon of choice.”
“You make good use of your intelligence structure, my
Prince,” Gorce
said.
“Only what interests me,” Zordar said “And the maestro is
an interesting subject, to say the least.”
“But not one to be left unchecked, Father,” Invida said.
“Isn’t he supposed to possess the same power as Trelaina of Telezart?”
“It is rumored as so…yes,” Gorce said.
“It is also rumored,” Zordar said while clearing his
throat, “That he and Trelaina are related in some happenstance.”
“Perhaps his older sister,” Gorce said. “We don’t have
that many details to our personal reports….but we do know he is extremely
dangerous and wherever he is, Admiral Nechayev isn’t too far behind…..and behind
Neacheav is Chekov and Destine……and that’s Starfleet.”
“If Starfleet is giving tactical support to the Star
Force then perhaps they are a bigger threat then we were led to believe,”
snapped Invidia. “Father, they must be dealt with! We cannot leave such a
threat to that renegade Desslok!”
Zordar
raised his finger lightly to silence her.
“It
is nothing.” Zordar said “We have more important things to concern ourselves
with. Leave the Star Force and this… musician to Desslok, for he can tend to
them…….Soon the Comet Empire will engage a truly formidable foe….If one is to
be judged by the tasks one assumes, think of Desslok and the Little Children of
the Star Force and Zordar and the Mighty James T. Kirk!”
Zordar
laughed maniacally as Gorce felt a sickness in his stomach.
***************************************************************************
Derek
Wildstar quietly walked on the bridge as Vaught was talking to Sandor and
Venture. Wildstar had some concerns that Vaught and Venture were going to go at
it again; however the two spoke in a normal conversational tone. They were
merely exchanging ideas and theories in finding their destination. Wildstar
felt that this was the way Admiral Avatar had meant the Star Force to be.
Their
conversation continued; now it was mostly between Sandor and Vaught discussing
the technical computations for a space warp. The math had become too much for
Wildstar to follow….and he chuckled when he heard Venture ask them to slow down
because he didn’t know what they were talking about. Wildstar focused on the
picture of Avatar hanging above the command console….He felt small….lost. He
never felt that he was in command of the ship…only that it was on loan to him.
Derek half expected to see Captain Avatar walk through the door and take his
station above the rest of the bridge crew.
His
thoughts became interrupted by the sound of Homer’s console beeping. Homer
quickly donned his headset and called to Wildstar. Venture and Sandor were
somewhat as they didn’t even know that Wildstar was on the bridge.
Before
Homer could even open the channel, Venture had pushed Homer out of his seat and
grabbed his headset off his head by force.
“Hey, ya Pelican!”
Homer shouted. “You’re not backing out in coming forward, are ya!?”
“I’ll
take care of this message, Homer!” Venture snapped.
“You’re
mad as a two bob watch!” Homer yelled
“I don’t go ‘round telling you how to bloody navigate!”
Venture looked over at Homer, not necessarily
understanding his Australian colloquial speech.
“I need this
for Navigation,” Venture said in a slow and careful voice, as if he was talking
to someone he pereceived to be an idiot. “I need to get a radio bearing so we
can plot an exact course to wherever we’re supposed to be going.”
Vaught was about to intervene when he looked over at
Wildstar who shook his head no. Vaught nodded without hesitation and took a
step back.
“”It’s all right Homer,” Wildstar said. “Let Venture
take this particular message.”
The message was broken and what could be heard was a
young woman’s voice in another language. Frustrated Venture was pounding on the
controls and Homer was screaming at the top of his lungs in protest. Vaught however was able to filter it out as
he took a pad and pen and began writing the translation of the words down.
White Comet is near- Danger – No
time –
Wildstar looked over Vaught’s shoulder and saw what
he was doing and saw that he was concentrating on the message which could
barely be heard over Venture’s and Homer’s tirade with each other.
“WILL
YOU TWO SHUT THE HELL UP!?” Wildstar roared spinning around not noticing Nova standing behind him.
The only sounds on the bridge were that of radio
static and components beeping as Vaught continued writing.
This Message- waste no time- The
universe is- We pray that you will reach us in time.
“Nova! I…uh… thought you went to bed,”
Wildstar said.
“After your conversation on the observation deck I
thought it might be a good idea to stay around,” Nova said.
Static now overcame the young female voice as the
transmission ended. At the same time, Wildstar looked over at Venture.
“Bearing 174 mark 15.”
That’s the best I could get.” Venture said.
“Well that’s better then what we had before.”
Wildstar said. “It seems, Vaught, that you can
understand her language….any idea who she is or where she’s from?”
Vaught seemed fixated on the stars for a moment as
he turned to Nova.
“Telezart?” Nova asked.
“Well, the language is definitely Telazar.” Vaught
said. “However, Telezart no longer exists. So I really couldn’t give you any
insight to her identity.”
Wildstar, Nova, and Sandor branched off on their own
conversation leaving Vaught and Venture alone for the moment.
“What the hell is a Telezart?” Venture asked.
“It was my home,” Vaught said. “It was destroyed in
an interstellar war.”
“Oh….” Venture said quietly. “I’m sorry.”
“It was a long time ago.” Vaught said. “I was only a
child when it happened.”
“That doesn’t make it all right,” Venture said
“Stuff like that stays with you for along time. My little brother is still
wound up over the Gamilon planet bombing.”
“How old is your brother?” Vaught asked.
“Seven.” Venture said.
“Ah.” Vaught said “They’re very inquisitive at that
age.”
Venture chuckled, “And don’t I know it….! One day
when we were at port I took him to work with me for a day…Man, he wanted to
know everything!”
Vaught let out a slight laugh. “When my daughter was
seven, anything electronic in the house was taken apart.”
“You made her put it back together?” Venture asked.
“Oh yes.” Vaught said.
“Same here.” Venture said. “We better be
careful….they might be engineers one day.”
“I hope so,” Vaught said. “Right now, my Starsha is
more of a destroyer.”
“Nova mentioned she’s a Marine?” Venture asked.
“Yes. Combat aggressor squadron,” Vaught said.
“Like her old man, huh?” Venture said. “You don’t sound happy about it.”
Vaught simply shrugged, “I’m not,” he said quietly.
“Well, what did you expect?” Venture said. “After
all…I’m sure life with father had its adventures.”
Vaught smiled at the remark thinking how right
Venture was, as numerous memories of his daughter’s childhood briefly flooded
his mind.
“It was all too brief, Mr. Venture,” Vaught said as
he turned his attention back to his station and glanced for a moment at Nova.
For some reason, Venture thought the glance was rather wistful.
Vaught shut his eyes and again thought, With Starsha….it was all too brief...
******************************************************************************
It was late afternoon on Iscandar……The air was still
hot and humid from the afternoon…although a thundershower was just clearing, it only made the air hotter and heavier.
Alsarida was walking down a grass field where she
met up with Spock who seemed to be meditating…..or perhaps he was just ignoring
her. She always felt uncomfortable around Spock; in fact he made her downright
nervous which caused her to pace back and forth.
Spock opened his eyes and sensed her uneasiness. He
cleared his throat as Alsarida stopped pacing.
“I just got a call from the
“Indeed.” Spock said.
“You’re going to stand there and expect me to
believe that you didn’t know that?”
Alsarida snapped. “I get the same intelligence reports as you do,
Ambassador Spock. I know what you are trying to do and it’s not going to work.”
”I don’t need your approval, Colonel,” Spock said.
Alsarida looked at him sternly. “That sounds almost
sounds like a challenge,” Alsarida said
“Perhaps.” Spock said in a total monotone.
Alsarida looked at him angrily as she shook her
head, “You know, I keep wondering what it is that I did to you, other than the
fact that my grandmother left you at the altar 100 years ago on Vulcan.”
Spock turned to look at her and raised an eyebrow.
“She was a conniving bitch and you know it!”
Alsarida said.
Spock let out a soft sigh “Your emotional outburst
is highly illogical,” Spock said. “It is most… unseemly.”
“Crap.” Alsarida said. “I embarrass you because I’m
a Vulcan and I don’t follow the rules.”
“On the contrary, you don’t embarrass me, Colonel,”
Spock said. “I understand that you weren’t raised on Vulcan and to accept
another philosophy at such an age is highly impractical, However
it is you who seemed embarrassed around us.”
“Because all of you look at me like a skunk at a
wedding,” Alsarida said as her communicator pin beeped.
“Neri,” she said as she walked away from Spock who
now couldn’t hear what the transmission was about but by her body language he
could tell that it wasn’t good news. The conversation was brief as Alsarida
looked at the sky and swore to herself and walked back to Spock.
“Bad news from the
“That was Destine,” Alsarida said. “Master Nokkar
cashed it in last night,” Alsarida said as she sighed heavily.
Queen Starsha knew of the News from the
“Thank you,” Selar said as she began to walk out of
the room.
“That’s it?” Queen Starsha exclaimed “You give her
the bad news and you just walk away?”
“Starsha!” Alex said in a warning tone.
“What more is there to do?” Selar said “She already
sensed his death through the Force before I even came here.”
“She’s your Niece,
for Trilander’s sake!”
“Starsha!” Alex called again.
“It’s all right Captain…I understand her concern.”
Selar said. “I know our Niece very
well, your Majesty.” Selar said. “She will turn to us in time but for now it
would be best to leave her alone with her thoughts.”
She nodded to Alex who nodded back. As she exited
the dining room, Alex looked over at his wife whose back stiffened and walked
over to the door.
“Starsha!” Alex shouted. “You heard
her…leave it alone!”
She returned his angry glare. “She’s hurting, Alex!
Can’t you see her heart is breaking?”
“Leave it alone.” Alex repeated.
She glared at him again for a moment “No.” She
muttered as she walked towards the balcony.
Alex watched very closely from a distance as Queen
Starsha gently pushed open the balcony door. Starsha Corsair stood there with
her eyes closed and her head towards the sky. She seemed at peace to Queen
Starsha so thinking perhaps Alex was right she quietly began to go back
inside.”
“Aunt Starsha,” Starsha Corsair called out gently
not opening her eyes.
“How did you know it was me?” Queen Starsha asked.
“Your footsteps.” Starsha Corsair said “They’re
very soft…..unlike Uncle Alex’s”
Queen Starsha turned to see Alex standing behind her
as she jumped slightly startled.
“And you were telling me to mind my own business.” Queen Starsha muttered.
Starsha Corsair chuckled as she breathed in deeply
and opened her eyes.
“Star, We’re so sorry.”
Alex said. “We’re just a little concerned about you is
all.”
Starsha looked at him. “Thank you,” she said.
“Starsha, you can’t keep bottling up your feelings
like this; you’re going to make yourself sick,” Queen Starsha said.
“You sound like my father,” Starsha Corsair said.“Yet he would do all the things he would lecture me not to
do.”
“Sounds like your Dad wanted a better life for you.
He didn’t want you following him,” Alex said.
“That’s my choice.” Starsha Corsair said her voice
breaking “I could never hope to be like my Father… I’m not strong enough.”
“That’s not true.” Queen Starsha said, as she
reached for Nokkar’s light saber on a table.
“That’s my father’s light saber,” Starsha said.
“No.” Alex said. “Your great grandmother said that
Nokkar and your father both agreed that this should be passed to you.”
She closed her eyes and clenched her hands, “Why?”
“Because Nokkar was proud of you!” Queen Starsha said. “And your
father knows your potential and wants you to live up to that potential.”
“And it seems to me,” Alex said “That your dad is
proud of you too.”
“And I know he loves you very much,” Queen Starsha
said as she gently placed the light saber in her hands. And so do I.”
Starsha could no longer hold her
composure as she dropped to her knees and wept uncontrolled. Queen Starsha
embraced her niece gently, quietly reassuring her that all was ok. Alex
remembering that his younger brother Derek went through when their parents
died. He crouched down and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
“I want my dad,” she muttered
softly barely above a whisper.
Queen Starsha and Alex heard her
and looked up at each other.
“Your dad has his hands full with
my brother,” Alex said.
“Just like you have your hands
full with me,” Starsha said.
“Believe you me, we got the better
end of that deal,” Alex said. Both Starsha and Queen Starsha looked up at him.
“I love my brother,” Alex said.
“But if I ever had to serve on the same ship with him, I couldn’t stand him for
more than five minutes.”
Starsha stood up, happy that Alex
was changing the subject
“Oh
Alex!” Queen Starsha said, sitting down in a chair. “He’s a complete gentleman!
He never raised his voice once. Even when Nova was abducted!”
“Nova?” Starsha asked with interest.
When Wildstar returned on the bridge at 0530 the
following morning and realized that Vaught, Nova and Royster had stayed up all
night trying to pin point the exact location of their mysterious destination,
he was far less than pleased and he pulled the three aside to a private area
where no one could hear him read the three officers the Riot Act. Wildstar stated that there were plenty of
times that the crew would need to push themselves and this wasn’t
the time for such overzealous behavior.
Since they were too tired to argue plus the fact
they all suspected that Wildstar really wasn’t mad at them, but was just
looking for an excuse to give the three a day off without it looking like
favoritism, they simply said “yes sir” and saluted and Wildstar dismissed them
saying he had better not see them anywhere near the bridge or Inferno for 24 hours unless there was an
emergency.
Nova had slept until 1100 hours when she awoke and
couldn’t fall back to sleep. She looked at her violin case sitting in the
Corner and smiled. Then, she quickly got dressed in a pair of jeans and a white
T-shirt. She tied her hair back, and grabbed the violin case and walked out
into the corridor forgetting even to put on shoes.
She became used to the deck being cold on her bare
feet quickly as she stopped by the galley to pick up a bottle of water and then
went down to the lower Cargo hold where Vaught spent most of his time playing
the piano.
As she guessed, he was there playing a piece from an
old twentieth-century movie called Somewhere in Time.
The Score outlived the movie which was in the case of most of the Classical
music from the twentieth century. She
noticed that Vaught was also wearing jeans, sneakers, and a grey sweatshirt
with a skull on it that said:
Vaught knew she was there, as she put the violin to
her chin and began to play. It was the first time he ever heard her. She made
the Violin sing magnificently as she improvised throughout the whole piece as
if it was written for the instrument.
The vast regions of dimensional space were not
enough to keep Vaught from knowing what had transpired in his own universe.
Through the Force, he felt Nokkar’s death, and the pain experienced by his
daughter. He took some comfort knowing that there was family with her to ease
the burden as it also made him realize that she was on Iscandar. How or why he
did not know as the images faded and Vaught opened his eyes, to notice that he
was back on the Argo in the cargo
hold in front of the piano. He noticed Nova standing next to him with her hand
on his shoulder.
“Are you ok?” Nova asked.
Vaught nodded. He said, “Yes I’m fine,” while
quickly wiping away tears that formed in his eyes He just wanted to become lost
in the music and not feel anything for a while. Even though he knew that his
mentor was going to die and was prepared for it, it did not take away the pain
of loss that he felt.
Nova could clearly tell that there was something
wrong. However, Vaught kept on acting as if nothing was wrong.
“I have a challenge for you,” Vaught said as he
pulled a piece of sheet music out and handed it to Nova indicating where he
wanted her to begin playing.
“Challenge accepted,” she said with a slight
smile. Nova raised her violin again and
then she began playing the difficult piece.
It was; Zigeunerweisen, Op.20 by Pablo de Sarasate.
Nova played the complex piece well…almost without effort. The last
two minutes of the selection had a fast tempo and were extremely difficult.
However, for Nova, she made it look simple as she gracefully slid her bow
across the strings making the instrument appear to dance while she slightly
swayed and tapped her toes to the piece. She had a technique that was so unique
Vaught felt that it would have even stunned the greats like Mae, Chang, Sutter,
and even Perlman.
He could tell that playing was her passion, even to the point of
modifying her own violin in a unique manner that would have interested even Antonio Stradivari. With the piece
finished Nova shook and threw her hair back breathing somewhat excitedly.
“Was it good for you dear?” Vaught chided.
Nova laughed at the comment and grabbed a bottle of water
and a towel and walked and sat next to Vaught as he played Sheep May Safely Graze by Bach softly on the piano.
“You’re passionate about your music…that’s good,” Vaught
said as Nova wiped her violin clean with a rag she took from her case.
“It’s like eating potato chips,” Nova said. “You keep on going, because you can’t stop with just one…..I used to
drive my mother mad because I would always play until my fingers bled.”
“You know any orchestra would take you in a heartbeat,”
Vaught said.