THE LEGEND OF GRAND MECHAPOLIS

STAR BLAZERS/GALAXY EXPRESS 999

Founding of the Dual Monarchy and Galaxy Express System

By: Frederick P. Kopetz

Chapter Three: Rehabilitation and a Beginning of Vengeance….

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I. WAKING UP

Planet Pellias

The City of Beltane

Royal Hospital

Sunday, March 31, 2233 (Easter Sunday)

0805 Hours: Local Time

Nova Wildstar slowly awoke in a bed in a strange room with pink walls that she couldn’t see all that clearly since she had sleep in her eyes and, honestly, she wasn’t terribly alert.

“Where am I?” she murmured aloud to the wall.

Then, her vision began to clear, and she looked around. She was in a hospital gown with an IV connected to her, and her legs were under a blanket.

The room was sun-dappled, and someone was lying in a bed about two meters away from her.

Nova rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, and yawned, and realized that she was in Royal Hospital sharing her room with a roommate.

“How come I don’t get a private room?” she muttered.

“Because how could you talk with me, you adorable chowderhead?” said a familiar voice from the other bed.

Recognition came to Nova as her eyes cleared and she recognized the voice. “Oh, hi, Derek. Looks like I have myself a roommate! Your arm’s bandaged again?”

“Yeah, I caught two bullet fragments in it,” Derek said as he yawned. “You caught a good hunk of a .30 caliber bullet in your stomach and they had to operate on you. I’ve been awake longer than you, and I’ve spent the past twenty-four hours watching you and wondering when you’d wake up.”

“My body must have gone into that Healing Trance thing,” Nova said as she sat up a little in bed and felt her stomach. “There’s a little pain there, and I have a dressing on under this…gown…but, hey, I’m managing. My mouth is so dry…”

“I asked the doctor before, and he said you could take liquids by mouth as soon as you woke up; your gut is healing up nice and fast,” said Derek as he shakily got out of bed and got Nova a drinking cup with a straw that was nearby.

“I don’t think you’re supposed to be up yet,” Nova said weakly, but Derek just smiled and handed Nova the Styrofoam cup.

“Drink this, you half-demented Space Marine,” Derek said with a smile.

So, Derek was sitting in his hospital gown in a chair, patting Nova’s hand and watching her sip at her cup of water when Desslok came into the room.

Nova caught the haunted look on the Leader’s face and she said, “Desslok, are you all right?”

Derek looked at Desslok with concern as the tall Gamilon said, “I am just as…all right as someone would be, under the circumstances. Be thankful to Adonai you have each other to lean on. Grimslade and myself insisted that you two were to be placed together in the same room. I hope she’s been good company for you, Derek.”

Derek nodded, as Nova, with a fuzzy mind and in all innocence asked, “How’s Astrena? Is she in the hospital near us? If so, I’d like to get a wheelchair, robe, and slippers and go see her. She could use the company, I’m sure…”

“Astrena is in the hospital,” Desslok said with a very drawn face. “In a morgue drawer in Pathology…what’s left of her, anyway…”

“She’s dead?” Derek snapped.

“Oh…my…God, Desslok…I’m so sorry!” Nova said as she grabbed at her friend’s gloved hands. “What happened?”

“A weapon was fired. It was hideous. She jumped in front of the energy beam and defended me,” Desslok sighed. “After that energy surge hit her…she began to age rapidly…too rapidly for her to do anything about it. She died in my arms looking as if she was over a thousand years old. Then, she crumbled into bones and dust. What’s left of her…is in Pathology for you to study when you’re ready to get back on your feet, Nova. I’ve put the State Funeral on hold until then.”

“I understand,” Nova said softly, tiredly. “Who was it that you were consulting with here on Pellias?”

“Lady Rezine,” Desslok said. “You know her well, she was…”

“Astrena’s Steward,” Nova said. “Thank you, Desslok. Please send Lady Rezine out here to meet with me.”

“Right now?” Desslok said.

“Yes. I’m capable of holding a conversation, Desslok,” Nova said with a smile.

“Desslok, I recognize that tone of voice,” quipped Derek. “I would strongly advise you to listen to her. Otherwise…”

“Ah, yes, you are both resolute and strong and you both have tempers,” Desslok said. “I’ll make sure she sees you today, Nova.”

“Desslok…are you going to be all right?” Derek asked.

“I…will…survive,” he said stoically as he bowed and left.

Derek then looked at Nova. “His heart is breaking, Nova. He’s putting on a very good act.”

“Oh, that he is,” Nova said. She opened a drawer in her bedside table and found what she was looking for on the first try. “Look, Derek…my Scepter.”

“I remember it,” he said as he looked it over. It was a silver wand about as large around as a large Magic Marker but it was about sixteen inches long with some carving and a larger ball wrought of silver at its head. Like Nova’s actual circlet, it was rather plain and unadorned.

“I was supposed to have given this back to Astrena on Good Friday, but now…”

“It resides with you for now, Nova, even though I take it that the Lady Rezine was actually wielding your authority in your absence.”

“Yes, as Astrena was when we first found Pellias those years ago,” Nova said.

A moment later, there was a flash of light, and a woman in a very light violet gown appeared in the room. She had short white hair, and a simple tiara on her head.

“Majesty; M’Lord,” she said in a soft voice as she bowed to Nova and then to Derek before genuflecting before Nova’s bed. “I am elated to know that you are well, High Queen.”

“I’m still running on just six out of eight cylinders,” Nova said with a yawn. “Oh. Please get up.”

“Majesty?” Steward Rezine said as she stood beside her Monarch’s bed. “The expression about the cylinders? It means…?”

“It refers to a type of fossil-fueled engine which is old-fashioned on Terra, but common here on Pellias,” Nova said. “It is an idiom meaning that I am not yet up to full capacity, but we can definitely meet, you and I. Much can be discussed. I know I can command you. Would you consent to Derek also commanding and advising you as Lord Admiral?”

“I would and I do, which is why I bowed to him, our Commander,” said Rezine.

“Good. Have you found out anything yet about the assassins?” Derek asked.

“There was a total of twenty of them. Five fled alive, with one of those wounded, and two have been captured by our forces and are doubtlessly being interrogated at the moment as I am sure you or Nova or both of you would have commanded.”

“Did either of them talk?” said Nova.

“No,” said Rezine sadly. “They have quite formidable physical, mental, and psychic defenses. We subjected them to physical persuasion, questioning by our Secret Police and your Terran Mossad from your nation of Israel as your friend Admiral Mark Venture recommended, as well as questioning of the mind by three of our best R’jkharraz adepts in their black robes in their Priory here in Beltane and myself personally. They were most uncooperative brigands. One of them even threw his own wastes at me!”

“That’s not good,” said Derek. “Let me at them,” he said as he cracked his knuckles as he made a fist. “A few punches in the face should do the trick. If that doesn’t work, I’ll use some of the mind-tricks that you taught me, Nova…”

“And, if that doesn’t work, let me at them,” Nova said. “I can put my hand on their foreheads and cause intense mental pain and stress with my abilities, or just enter their minds on my own, although I hesitate to do so.”

“And, Nova, it that doesn’t work?” Derek said.

“Oh, if worst comes to worst, my giving them a high five in their faces with a metal folding chair would work!” Nova said with a wicked smile. “Derek, you have your enhanced interrogation techniques, and so do I.”

“Your Majesty…I…I…” said Rezine.

“If I’m too crude, dear, you can leave the room,” Nova said. “Between you, me, and the gatepost…I sometimes think this court etiquette stuff is….”

“…Bullshit!” Derek said.

“Thank you, dear,” Nova said with a wink at her husband. “I can’t wait to get out of here…I’m starting to get antsy. Very antsy!”

“Is this enough, Majesty?” said Rezine.

“It is. We’ll talk more when they let me out of here,” Nova said. “I’m a doctor, not a patient stuck in some room in her hospital gown.”

“Yeah,” said Derek. “Like, who designed these things? My butt’s getting cold!”

Rezine bowed and left the room as Nova sang back to Derek, to the tune of the Yamato’s march, “Your hairy butt is getting cold!”

“NOVA!” yelled Derek as Rezine heard her Queen giggling.

Some married couples are…interesting Rezine thought.

TWO DAYS LATER…

Nova was back up and about, and was in a room in her Palace on Pellias looking down at the docks. She knew Derek was down there aboard the Yamato, kicking butt and yelling at people so the mighty ship could be repaired and ready to go at a moments’ notice if needed.

Nova blew a kiss to the ship and then felt somber again. Ever since the assassination attempt, she had been wearing black gowns or dresses as the whole Commonwealth mourned Astrena. Nova was, indeed, clothed in black now.

Nova heard soft, silk-slippered footsteps a moment later, and she continued to gaze out at the sea and up towards Earth, as, without even turning around, Nova knew who it was. “Hello there, Starsha.”

“Hello, Mother,” Starsha said formally. The reincarnated former Queen of Iscandar was now the equivalent of seventeen and a half years old; her growth had stabilized and become more normal late last year after her first birthday; during her first year, she grew quickly as all those holding a significant amount of Iscandarian blood did. Pellians did not grow this way, but those who were substantially Iscandarian did. Starsha and her brother Theodore were now both teenagers, although given the memories of her previous two incarnations that Starsha could draw upon, she was far more sophisticated and graver in manner than her fraternal brother.

This was because the blood of Iscandar that ran in both Derek and Nova ran particularly strongly in these children of theirs. Starsha already had the strongest psi-abilities of the surviving Wildstar children, followed by her older sister Ariel.

Starsha, beautiful in a light royal-blue gown that looked much like the ones she had once worn as Queen of Iscandar, stood beside her mother, now another Queen, of course.

“Now, Mother, you remember what I said to you thirty-three years ago on Iscandar in my old Palace?” Starsha said. “Right after you told me that I surely loved Alex Wildstar, as you recall?”

“Yes,” Nova said. She ran a Pellian phrase, long forgotten, through her mind and spoke it slowly, “You told me these words, which I did not understand then. Ha’de gra ‘Pellada…e’shada-ne, Re’ze. Ha’de, e…jiadala. Now I do. I comprehend them as, ‘You are part Pellian, of our Sister People…Majesty. And by virtue of that fact, you are also one of Us.’ And, behold, that is why I was almost a twin to Astra then. Starsha, forgive me, but I wish you would have just told me then.”

“Mother, you were not yet ready for that knowledge,” Starsha said. “If I had told you too early, you would not be the person you are now. You had to live and you had to grow into your heritage, gradually. My heart aches to comfort someone I loved, then was at variance at for a long time, but had to see as only a distant friend and fellow ruler, due to Alex. Yet, I knew Alex was aging and that he would die at some point or another and I would outlive him. It hurts that he is gone and I am no longer bonded to him, but his death and my death could have been what were called Felix Culpas in your Latin tongue…fortunate faults.”

“You’re thinking of Desslok, aren’t you?” Nova said, making it sound like a question when she knew it to be a fact.

“I am,” Starsha sighed. “Mother, there was a time when I was the Master and I could read you as a book. But now, the tables are turned, are they not? I was once the teacher, and now, you are. I thought I once had the most incredible, steadfast fortitude. But it is you and Father who do. My Father. I love him, but he is so much like Alex that it hurts me at times. I see my departed husband in his face; and some of his actions. But Father is nowhere as grim and cold now as Alex was. I find that amazing. We have all suffered a great deal in a hard school of bitterness. Yet, Father and you have the most intact personalities of all us. More mature, more reasoned and thoughtful, but in you and Father, I still see the wide-eyed young man and lady you both were on Iscandar thirty-three years ago when love was new to both of you. Your love for Adonai and each other, that is what kept you both so integrated within, yes?”

Nova nodded. “You changed the subject quite well, daughter, my Princess of Iscandar. You are thinking of Desslok…as I said…”

“I was and I am,” Starsha said. “I love you and Father dearly, but I know the time is coming soon when I must go to Iscandar and claim my birthright. Sasha, my one-time daughter, now, in this life of mine, my cousin, wants to abdicate her throne. She and I have spoken of that by night, Mother. When I am on Iscandar, in that day, if I can eventually love Desslok, a lonely man himself, at my side, we can alleviate each other’s loneliness at last, and given how long I know I shall live, he need not be alone again.” As Starsha said that, she knew that even though her parents would be alive for several more centuries, that she and Desslok would both outlive them by about three hundred to five hundred years.

“A kind sentiment, but it is too soon, Starsha,” Nova said. “Desslok’s grief is too fresh, and you are just barely of age.”

“Then, Mother, you do not advise it?” Starsha said for the first time in a while since her earlier childhood with some heat in her voice.

“No, Starsha. I never said that, and it is most unwise to fill my mouth with bitter words that are not there!” Nova snapped herself. “I did not say ‘no’ to your idea,” Nova said as she turned around and placed her warm hands on her daughter’s semi-bare shoulders. “I simply said it is too early. Time is needed, and you must act as an honorable, decent woman of breeding, and not jump into the sack like Ariel and Anya were given to, even though your sister Ariel is happily married; oh, how I wish Anya had lived and was in the same situation with her R’Khell lover,” Nova sighed. “Your sisters had to walk their own paths, but I made it clear to them that I did not approve then of their…handing out their favors so readily. Your sister Teresa, I pray, is more like me in this area.”

“You mean?” Starsha said.

“It goes without saying, or it should,” Nova said gently as she hugged her daughter, an inch shorter than she was in this incarnation, also probably because Nova herself had become one inch taller since her resurrection; Nova now stood five feet and eight inches tall. “Court him…when the time is right, but give him the privileges of a royal bride only after you are properly wed.”

“So, you support me?”

“I do, Starsha,” Nova said softly. “One reason you will need to wait is your Father. He is a very good man, but I know how protective he is of you. If it became known that you would be courting Desslok if he was not prepared for it, Heaven Itself knows what he would do. He could act so rashly that not even I could stop him. Your Father does have that side to his personality. There are a few times in our lives when I had to stand between him and an enemy or rival that he was prepared to do rash things to. Of course…I am also not innocent in that area. I took a few rash, angry actions myself, including one time, and only one time, when something I believed that your father did upset me so badly that I rashly turned a knife on him and threatened to leave him. I was that angry for only two minutes until your father, for once, calmed me down and made me see how mistaken I was and then we reconciled.”

“Mother, what happened? You are so gentle most of the time, and this is most unlike you!”

“I know that all too well. It was one of my worst days, and it was my own fault. It concerned an operative for ISO who has since sadly, gone missing. He was a genetic experiment made by taking an embryo that myself and your father made in our love out of my body and implanting him in another woman when I had what they told me was a Fallopian cyst but was actually a tubal pregnancy. This was before even your brother Alexander and Ariel were conceived or born. I did not even know I was pregnant, but General Stone, God damn his soul, gave orders that I was to be an experiment and guinea pig while I was under and that the child was to be taken from me and implanted in someone else.”

“Mother, that’s horrible!” Starsha said.

“Yes. It was. I wrongly thought your father was in on the plot, but he was not. He grieved for our lost child, whom was later found, just as much as I did, and he had evidence that they were hiding this from him and lying to him, too, and he was as angry as I was. And, when we found him again, we loved and aided him…until he went missing recently; missing, and presumed killed in the line of duty. Then, both your father and I mourned. We have done this too much, recently. Therefore, be careful and most discreet, Starsha. But I do foresee, when the day comes, I will walk down the aisle with you and your father arm in arm to give you away…”

“Thank you, Mother,” said Starsha, who stood on tiptoe to kiss her mother. “I think, out of respect, it would be best for me not to attend the funeral. I do not wish to meet Desslok…yet…are we agreed?”

“I agree, Starsha. Ariel is back on Earth with her family; and Teresa is staying with them in our home in the Tokyo Megalopolis. They will be watching via video. However, I pray that you will remain here, at the Palace, and watch. You are a little girl, no more,” Nova said. “Now, you are a Queen in Being…as I was. But I will walk this path with you…as long as I live. You know we have a common enemy.”

“Yes,” said Starsha as she looked up at the sky beyond Terra and thought hard about their mutual enemy, Queen Promethium.

II. THE DIET OPENS

Planet Pellias

The City of Beltane

Diet House: The Lords’ Chamber

Saturday, April 6, 2233

1000 Hours: Local Time

“All RISE for the Steward of the Pellian Realm, Lady Rezine!” called out the Sergeant of Arms of the Pellian Diet as Rezine came in to hearty applause, walking slowly in a black gown of a similar cut to the sort that Astrena had worn as the Ruling Queen, Empress of Gamilon, and Nova’s Advisor. This proceeding was being televised throughout the entire Commonwealth; both on the worlds allotted to Pellias, as well as on Earth and its colonies.

As Rezine entered between four heavily armored Pellian Border Legion guards, a band in the Hall where the Six Hundred and Twenty members of the Diet were gathered began to play an instrumental version of a piece of Terran music that Astrena had liked to symbolize the Ruling and High Royal Lines: the beautiful, yet solemn Concerto for Three Harpsichords in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach. Much of Pellias’ ancient music had been lost when the original world of Pellias had been destroyed, and Rezine remembered that years ago, when Nova had played this piece on a stereo for herself and Astrena that it fit the Ancient Line quite well.

Rezine seated herself in a chair at the lower level of the huge dais next to the Lord Speaker of the Pellian House of Lords. After some more of the Concerto played, Rezine motioned for the players to cease playing.

Then, the Sergeant of Arms rose and said, “Kindly rise and greet Emperor Desslok of Gamilon, our honored, and recently bereaved, guest.”

The group rose again as the orchestra began to play the Gamilon National Anthem. There was a great deal of applause as Desslok marched proudly into the hall beside Talan, surrounded by six black-clad Imperial Guards in their armor and helmets. Desslok’s cloak was lined in scarlet, but his uniform was all black; a uniform of mourning for Astrena.

However, the Leader stopped and almost snarled when he heard a few boos from members of the Diet. His face was dark with anger as he strode onto the dais and Rezine greeted him with “Ghale Gamilon, My Lord!”

“I accept your greetings,” Desslok said gravely. “However, I want you to find those…men who booed me and I want them expelled at once from your Diet, at the very least! I cannot bear such an insult on the day of my wife’s funeral. If this is not done, I shall not remain today and relations between Terra, Pellias, and my Empire shall be breached.”

“Lord, I…” stammered Rezine.

Desslok then raised his hand. “I know you mean well. If you cannot do it, I want Nova to be advised of this insult, and I want her to take due and proper action herself,” Desslok hissed.

Then, Desslok went silent, because he heard Nova’s voice in his mind. She sent, simply, Desslok, my friend, I am already aware of this outrage! I did not know any members of my Parliament felt this way! Trust me... this shall be addressed as soon as I arrive behind Astrena’s casket.

How will you address this insult? Desslok thought.

Leave it to me, Nova responded grimly in Desslok’s head. I shall teach them not to trifle with Us again. It shall be done swiftly, and in my own fashion.

My dear, I trust you, Desslok thought, smiling grimly. He looked at Talan and motioned for him to sit.

As Rezine arose to speak with some of her Councilors, the Sergeant at Arms said, “We now greet the Terran military delegation, led by our Lord Admiral, Captain of the Yamato, and hero of more wars than any of us know, my Lord Derek Wildstar!”

The orchestra rolled the kettle drums, and the EDF March began to play as Derek led a procession of Mark Venture, Sandor, Homer and Wendy, his son Alex, and his daughter Ariel down the aisle. There was great applause as the Yamato’s march began to play while the others sat in the front row near the subordinate Queens, and Derek took a seat beside Desslok.

The first thing Derek whispered to Desslok was, “Did she tell you?”

Desslok nodded. “She did. I am not certain this new soon-to-be replacement for Astrena can handle this…”

Rezine came back to her seat and whispered, “My Lords Wildstar and Desslok, I have the names of the six men and women who dishonored the Emperor. I am about to have them arrested…”

Derek raised his hand. “Rezine, this is a Defense Matter. Her Majesty has advised me she shall handle this herself. She also advised me she already knows who the six disloyal Lords and Members of the Commons are.”

“But I can…”

Derek looked hard at her. “Rezine, with all respect, Nova will handle this on her own. Or, do I need to communicate with her to request she order you herself if you will not listen to your Lord Admiral?”

“My Lord,” said Rezine. “I shall leave this to the High Queen as commanded.”

Then, there was no ceremonial announcement as the orchestra began to play Chopin’s Funeral March. Everyone rose and bowed their heads as an honor guard came in bearing a black casket bearing Astrena’s cremated remains. It was covered with the black flag of the Realm, with the High Queen’s Star in the center. A guard walking at the head of the procession carried the Ruling Scepter as the pallbearers; six Border Legion Members consisting of three Pellians and three Ralkhens carried Astrena’s casket, filled only with her ashes.

Nova herself walked behind the casket, in a black dress wearing a near-copy of Desslok’s cape.

The light of the Imperishable Crown burned on her forehead as she walked along slowly, and proudly, even though tears were running down her cheeks as she followed the casket.

Behind her walked Trelaina, solemn and dark in a black gown of her own.

Not even the members of the Diet who had objected to Desslok’s presence there bothered to make a sound as a feeling of deadly cold ran over them as, in spite of her solemn face and tear-stained cheeks, they could feel the High Queen’s deep anger like a storm cloud as black as her garments.

Then, the procession stopped before the dais of the Diet. Nova knelt in prayer behind the casket, placing a single white rose that Trelaina had been carrying for her on the casket.

Nova then took the Sceptre from the officer holding it. She saluted the casket while holding the Sceptre, and then took the Sceptre herself up to the dais.

Derek and Desslok were still standing. Nova embraced her husband, and then she embraced Desslok as a few gasps filled the hall.

They could be heard clearly in the silence as Nova went up the stairs to her throne, above all of the seats, genuflected, and then stood before her throne.

She was still holding the Sceptre as she said, in a low but very audible voice, “I should have been here almost a week ago. All of us should have been here almost a week ago. Unfortunately, brigands from within and without the Realm profaned our house of worship on Good Friday. In the madness that resulted, they slew our Ruling Queen, Astrena, Empress of Gamilon, as I was about to return the Sceptre to her and reconfirm her place at my side, along with my honored husband at my right hand. I must needs give the Sceptre to another today, but, first, there are some things that must be done.”

Nova stood in a deadly, cold silence as she said, “The following members of the Commons and Lords shall stand as I point the Sceptre at them. Member Dania Ranforth, you, whom I thought I could call friend. You are no friend of mine. You are a snake!” Nova said in a terrible voice. “Member Telbre Haanen, stand up! NOW!”

“Majesty, am I not in your Ruling Queen’s Cabinet?” he gasped.

“NOT NOW,” Nova said in rage. “Stand up with Members Daniel McHannity, Kyle Hubbard, Joyce Wade, and Lord Halghen Vironde’!” Nova stood in silence. “I am aware that all of you insulted Emperor Desslok when he entered this Hall! HOW DARE YOU! How dare you drive the knife deeper into the heart of a bereaved man! How dare you act as my friends and advisors when I in fact am aware that you offered aid and comfort to those who would have assassinated us? To those who have assassinated Astrena? To those who wounded and almost assassinated ME?” Nova snapped as she made a fist. “You are all expelled from this Diet, effective immediately, and I strip you of your citizenship in this Commonwealth and order that you are to be placed under arrest, immediately! Guards, take these brigands out of my sight, and turn them over to the torturers so that everything they know can be forced from their diseased hearts and minds before I personally execute them in seven days! GET THEM OUT!”

Nova stood silently as guards dragged the six discommended members of the Diet from the Hall directly to prison in their red and dark blue Parliamentary robes. In prison they were stripped and their torment began at once.

Desslok looked up at Nova, and said, “I thank you, my friend…and adopted daughter per Astrena’s will. You have done well.”

“Desslok, I thank you, Lord,” Nova said. “Now, I must say some words with regard to Astrena.”

Nova stood in silence and said, “Were it not for Astrena, there would be no Pellian people left. Years ago, when Ekogaru the Nameless forced Pellias through a singularity from the Blackeye Galaxy to within a thousand lightyears of Terra, Astrena and her daughter, Aliscea, then the High Queen in Being, held the planet together until it died; long enough for thousands to be rescued alive from under the grasp of the Rikashans, who were then our enemies, deluded by Ekogaru. Were it not for Astrena, Desslok still would be alone. She and Desslok found each other at the right time, to fall in love and aid each other. They had three natural children who are here today: Dellar, the Crown Prince of Gamilon, Princess Aisha, and Princess Alia. These young men and women are the Crown Prince, First Princess of Gamilon, and Second Princess of Gamilon. There is a Third Princess of Gamilon, by the wish of Astrena, as one of her final acts, and by Edict of Desslok, here today. I shall discuss her momentarily.”

Nova paused and said, “Astrena was Ruling Queen of the Pellian Race soon after Desslok offered her people sanctuary in his Empire. I learned it was due to her plea that Aliscea trained me to aid her in Ekogaru’s first defeat, when he almost destroyed Earth in 2202. I learned much from Astrena and Aliscea afterwards, even after Aliscea shocked me by giving ME the Pellian Matrix…and Astrena aided me against Aliscea’s treachery and helped me as I became High Queen in Being, which I was for decades.”

Nova paused again. “As you all know, I passed Through the Fire of death and resurrection almost two years ago, and I became the new High Queen of your People, no longer a High Queen in Being, Astrena advised me to hold the Sceptre myself until the war ended. We indeed defeated Ekogaru, and even saw him repent. He repented and aided us in the defeat of his successor, the snake Promethium, once another trusted friend of ours, a woman who sat in Council with us in the very Blue Council here in this city! Promethium has been defeated and banished back to the Blackeye Galaxy. However, her tentacles have reached even here, since I suspect that she was behind the assassination that happened in our sight.”

Nova then said, “By her advice, Desslok and she adopted me as an adopted daughter in place of Aliscea. And, I understand that in her last official act…she asked Desslok to create a Third Princess of Gamilon. This Third Princess, fourth in Desslok’s Line of succession, has only a small amount of Gamilon blood. Her bloodline is Iscandarian, Pellian, and Terran. O, what an act of irony that a woman of Terra, the world that Desslok tried to exterminate years ago, now is in his Line of Succession at his request! As to who that woman is…she is speaking now, and you are gazing upon her now, since I have been made that Third Princess!”

There was silence, stunned silence, and then everyone in that hall stood and applauded. Even the EDF personnel there were shocked, with the exception of Derek, who was the only one there in the know beside Desslok himself. He smiled at Nova and bowed to her as the applause continued.

In the Diet Hall, a video commentator said, “This is an unprecedented act of union between Gamilon, Pellias, and Terra, akin to the ancient alliances of the Royal Houses of Europa on Terra itself! I am advised that the High Queen is going to make one more unprecedented action before she hands the Sceptre to Rezine…what it is, no one knows…”

Then, Nova said, “As to the matter of my own successor as High Queen. I offered to make one of my three daughters, Ariel, Teresa, and Starsha my successor here today before the open Diet. I must advise you that Starsha has declined, as she is in line to soon become Queen of Iscandar, and, in humility…Ariel and Teresa also both refused to be made my Crown Princess, feeling they were unworthy of this honor.”

Nova stood in silence. “Lord Admiral Derek Wildstar, husband, please come before me and kneel.”

Derek had been prepared for this moment, but his legs were still shaking a little as he stood. He genuflected before Nova and bowed his head.

“My Lord Admiral, my trusted Advisor, my Darling,” Nova said. “You are already my right-hand man, as I have always stood beside you. In the lack of a suitable successor, I create you today as a Prince of the Realm…my Prince…and I also create you as Pellias’ very first High Crown Prince, my successor in being, to serve until a future heir of our bodies chooses to be my Successor.”

Nova then gently tapped Derek’s shoulders with her Sceptre and then kissed his forehead. “We already share a link, and we each share the Matrix. In the event of my sudden death, the Matrix shall pass to you, and you shall be the first ever High King of Pellias. I entrust you with this…and…and…I love you!” Nova sobbed, regal, yet vulnerable as she passed to Derek a link that would assure the Matrix would be his if she suddenly died.

Derek was aware of this, but he kissed Nova’s hands in devotion before he stood. “I don’t deserve the trust you have reposed in me, Darling,” he said.

“You do, Derek. You were my Prince from the day we met, long ago. Now, you ARE my Prince until I breathe my last. Take this honor and rank in good health. If you need my aid, I will help you…and if you need Adonai’s Aid, you know He is ever there for you and loves you with an everlasting love deeper than mine.”

The Diet sat in shock, and then they rose and applauded.

Desslok looked at Nova and Derek in surprise, and he bowed and said, “Majesty…I must say…you have made an incredibly wise and prudent choice under the circumstances. I salute you now, Derek. We are now almost peers and equals, you and I…once my enemy…once my rival…now one of the greatest of my friends after Talan, and a Lord and Royal yourself by my daughter’s love and wisdom. May you reign long as our Nova’s Prince, and be assured that if this chaos bereaves you of Nova as it has me of Astrena…I will stand faithfully with you, O, High King in Being, King over many Queens as Nova is a Queen above Queens.”

“Thank you, Desslok.”

Nova then handed Derek the Sceptre. “Derek, this is my authority. Give it to Rezine as Ruling Queen as we arranged, but be advised should we again be bereft of a Ruling Queen, I will place this in your hands first to rule if I cannot find anyone more suitable.”

Then, Nova embraced Derek and kissed him on the mouth before the whole assembly.

Derek then turned from Nova and went down the stairs to Rezine, who knelt before him. “In the name of the High Queen, I give this to you on her orders, and make you the new Ruling Queen of the Pellian side of the Dual Monarchy. Open this assembly now. Nova and I order it.”

“Yes, My Lord Prince,” said Rezine as she took the Sceptre from Derek, who sat down by Desslok. “In the name of the High Queen, I declare this Assembly open!”

Then, she banged on a gavel.

The Diet was open.

Nova kept her interest up by sheer willpower as the Diet argued motion after motion, law after law.

Ten laws passed before the Pellian Diet. All of them were approved in turn by Rezine, who looked up at the High Queen before banging the gavel for each to be sure Nova was not exercising a veto, hers by right.

Rezine, needless to say, was inexperienced and barely in accord with the High Queen. She could not easily exchange thoughts with a glance at Her High Majesty as Astrena or Derek could. The laws concerned defense, internal security, aid to the poor and dispossessed of the Realm and of Terra.

By the time the Diet was about to close, young Rezine was literally shaking in her boots and close to tears as she said, “I now give the gavel and…this assembly back to Her Majesty, who has some final words…”

“I thank you, Queen Rezine. You have done well, and have well responded to the trust I have placed in Thee,” Nova said.

“I must end these proceedings now,” Nova added. “I shall be following Desslok to Astrena’s tomb as one of her pallbearers myself along with Derek and others I have chosen,” Nova said as Talan, Derek, Grimslade Halleck, Mark Venture, Trelaina, and Ruling Queen Rezine took their places along the dais to follow Nova to bear Astrena to her rest. No Ruling Queen was laid to rest with so many heroes and lords accompanying her, and, indeed, there would not be a Royal Burial with this much honor accorded to the Departed until more than seven centuries hence, when Nova’s own dead body would be borne to her tomb in great honor by some of the very same pallbearers.

Nova paused and said, “We were not able to finish this hymn on Good Friday. I shall now take the liberty of leading all of you in it now; “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”, Fourth Verse, as follows:

Nova then began to sing alone in a hymn taken up by all of those at the dais and then the entire Diet and everyone present in the hall as they sang:

That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth;
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.

Nova and the other pallbearers then took up Astrena’s casket behind Desslok, who was now openly crying, as Chopin’s Funeral March began again, played now by a Pellian military band, as solemn bells rang and the assembly bore Astrena’s remains to a waiting caisson outside, surrounded by a huge amount of Pellian, Terran, and Gamilon troops as artillery men of all three nations sounded salutes on cannon.

Then, the band began playing a Pellian funeral march that only Nova had heard before. It had been written by Astrena years ago, as a piece of music remembering Aliscea after she had turned traitor and become nameless for a while. Nova and Derek thus walked hand in hand solemnly to the Royal Tombs behind the caisson, right behind Desslok behind this doleful march that Astrena herself had written, unaware that it would be played at her own funeral.

Likewise, years later, after the loss of another one of her children in war, a heartbroken Nova would write a dirge for this lost son, which would be played at his State Funeral on Pellias…and which, centuries later, would be played at his mother’s own State Funeral here on Pellias, as Nova’s body would be taken down some of these same streets on the same caisson.

It began to rain as they walked to Astrena’s tomb.

Desslok had never been so depressed…or so bitter…in his life. Not even the devastation of Gamilon had hit him like this.

III. CORONATION: OPENING THE TERRAN PARLIAMENT

Planet Earth

London, England

The New Houses of Parliament

Monday, April 8, 2233

1100 Hours Local Time

The Yamato arrived on Earth from Pellias at 0600 Hours London Time, landing in the sea near Britain and cruising up the Thames to London, where she docked.

There, a company of the Beefeaters of the Queen of England in red and a company of EDF Space Marines in dress blues along with a ceremonial company of US Marines in their dress blues awaited the arrival of Nova, Derek, soon-to-be Terran Prime Minister Natalie Fisher, and the rest of their party as they came down the Yamato’s gangplank.

Natalie was a solemn figure with her dark brown hair swept up, with highlights of red and dark blond in her hair as she received the cheers of the crowds as she stood near Nova and Derek. However, she was in no mood for celebration as she entered the High Queen’s white Rolls-Royce.

Derek sat between Natalie and Nova as Natalie said, during the slow and solemn drive, “I never expected to become a Senator and the effective ruler of Earth, nor that my best friend would become a Queen and be married to a handsome Prince here, my Lord Admiral Derek.”

Derek smiled as Nova said, “It’s a long way from eating ramen soup as we lived together in that little room in the underground city of Tokyo, isn’t it, Natalie? Remember how hard we worked there up until I was selected for the Star Force?”

“I feel guilty that I didn’t choose to come with you,” Natalie said. “You wanted me on the Argo, didn’t you?”

“She did,” said Derek. “But you made your choice then, Natalie, and the choice you made was the best one for you. Nova and I both understand that.”

 “Still…I…” Natalie said.

“Oh, hush!” Nova said. “Natalie, you were there for me on that lonely year on Earth when Derek was away on the Argo before the Comet Empire came, and you were there for me again as my Maid of Honor at our wedding, when we rode from that church in this same car,” Nova said as she patted the car seat. “Now, you will be there for me again to run Earth under my authority while I will be…frequently away with Derek.”

“You’re taking off to try to find those assassins?” Natalie said.

Derek nodded. “We’re going to pursue every clue, Natalie. I know that Nova and I will be undercover here on Earth later this year under assumed names, since a friend of ours in the Gamilon Secret Service has some clues for us. He’s undercover right now on Earth serving as a pilot under the name Klaus Keyman, but his true name is Reinhardt Desslar, and he’s Leader Desslok’s nephew.”

“Good luck to you guys,” Natalie said. “I don’t envy you your jobs.”

“Thank you, Natalie,” Nova said softly.

There, while salutes fired and solemn bells rang Nova’s and Natalie’s party was conducted to the Houses of Parliament, where four Terran Heads of State stood ready to salute the new Terran High Queen in homage and to witness her official coronation as United Terra’s first Queen with the ancient Hungarian Crown of St. Stephen, one of the few original diadems of old Earth that had survived the Gamilon War under guard in the nearly empty underground city of Budapest.

Finally, when Nova, Derek, and Natalie entered Parliament, there was a huge ovation while the five hundred members, Senators and Representatives, of the New Terran Parliament stood and applauded along with the Chancellor of Germany, President of the United States, Chairman-General of China, and President of Argentina to greet Nova, Derek, and the new Terran Prime Minister, along with the remaining eighteen crowned heads of Terra from Queen Elizabeth IV of Britain to young Emperor Mutsuhito of Japan along with Claudia I, the dark-skinned elected Queen of Sirius, which was at present the only colony world of Earth to be ruled by a Monarch.

First, in a brief ten-minute ceremony, the Pope and Archbishop of Hungary placed the heavy Crown of St. Stephen on Nova’s head as she knelt and formally assumed the Terran Throne under the style of “High Queen of Terra, Holy Roman Empress, Queen of Hungary”. The office of High Queen of Terra was new, while Earth had not had either a Holy Roman Emperor or Empress or King or Queen of Hungary in centuries.

Then, the Heads of State present and the Kings, Queens, and Emperors present bowed in homage to Nova as she stood for a moment wearing the heavy crown before the Pope took it away and gave it back to the Archbishop of Hungary.

Nova gave a very brief coronation speech, ending with, “while this was to be my day here on Earth, due to our continued mourning, it is not. I remember Queen Astrena’s memory in honor and I am here to honor and bless the one who shall truly act as Head of State of the new United Terra, my friend and soon to be Prime Minister, Natalie Fisher.”

Then, Nova led Natalie through an Oath of Office with their hands on a Bible. When finished, Natalie kissed the Bible and Nova ordered, “Please Open the Terran Parliament, Miss Prime Minister.”

Natalie bowed as Derek escorted Nova back to her ceremonial throne as Natalie opened the United Terran Parliament at exactly 1130 Hours, London Time, on April 8, 2233, which was held to be the formal beginning of the new Regime on Terra.

Many laws were proposed and passed as Natalie, still standing there in her black dress of mourning, assumed the true power on Terra, guiding her Parliament to a consensus as thirteen laws were argued upon and passed in a five-hour session.

Then, Parliament was closed, and Natalie and the others attended a subdued Inaugural Ball in a reception hall in the rebuilt Number Ten Downing Street, which was to be Natalie’s seat of government for the next forty years.

A long month passed.

Finally, in the beginning of May, 2233, the Yamato took off for Gamilon to assist Desslok in investigating some information regarding Astrena’s death.

It was there that Nova and IQ-9 found themselves working together in the City of Gamilstadt.

“What are you doing, Nova?” IQ-9 burbled as he watched her in a Pathology Room in Imperial Hospital on Gamilon. The assassination attempt had been over a month ago now. The days that had followed had been days from Hell.

“I’m about to do a post-mortem on the assassin,” Nova said. “I have a theory that he was driven to his deed by being mentally controlled from somewhere.”

Nova was looking intently at the body of Nicholas Perlmutter, one of the enigmatic assassins of Astrena; and almost her own assassin, as a matter of fact.

If I had been able to stop this man, she wouldn’t be lying dead in her tomb on Pellias, Nova thought as she assailed herself with guilt.

As gruesome and hard to face as it would have been, Nova had wanted to perform the post-mortem on Astrena’s body herself. But Desslok refused to allow it. Nova felt that Desslok was trying to protect her from the horror of what had happened to Astrena.

Why did the Lord allow this horror? Nova thought. He must have His own Will in this matter, I guess. But it is obvious that alien tech was involved in that business. I just hope Doctor Lyzer brings me the slides I requested from her body. Nova thought. She shut her eyes and prayed for God’s Grace and Will to be done with respect to the confused soul of Nicholas Perlmutter of North Dakota. With that done, Nova said, “Knife, please, IQ-9 Activating voice recorder. Subject I am performing post-mortem on: Perlmutter, Nicholas David, born on Terra, Fargo North Dakota, 6 June 2205. Age at time of death, twenty-six. Body is reasonably well-nourished, musculature is normal and unremarkable, height is, old measure, five feet ten inches, weight, one hundred sixty-two pounds. Evidence of no diseases or illegal drug use. Beginning with opening of chest cavity for full exam…”

Three hours later, Perlmutter’s body had been closed by Nova with mortician’s sutures and plastiskin. She knew his parents were coming by tomorrow to receive his body, which would be returned to Terra for his funeral services and burial.

When Derek came in, he found Nova in her lab coat and clogs, bent over a microscope on a lab table in the room which vaguely stank of formalin and other substances. The autopsy table was again empty and scrupulously clean.

He leaned against the table and tapped the bench in a pattern both he and Nova used, Shake and a haircut, two bits…

 Nova looked up and smiled a little. “Hi, Derek.”

“You find anything yet?”

“Not enough for a full proven hypothesis, but I’m getting warmer,” she said as she looked at a goodly number of microscope slides. Three were mounted on a small turntable on her electron microscope. “That weapon that was used to kill Astrena was giving off energy waves. Now I know what they are. Or were.”

“What are they?”

“Derek, would you like to take a look? One of these slides will be tough for you to look at. It was a bit tough for me to look at, you know.”

“Why?”

“Slide number one was taken a slice of the fixed and preserved tissue from the aorta of a known victim of Ekogaru’s Entropy Wave,” Nova said as she motioned Derek over to look at the slide. “The cellular destruction, as you see, was gross and disturbing. However, there was enough for me to see that this squares with information Ekogaru gave me before he died after he repented. This Wave selectively speeds up the entropic or aging process on both living and inert matter, to the point where it is destroyed.”

“That’s horrible damage,” Derek said. “Nova, whoever this tissue was from…they must have died in agony.”

“She did,” Nova said softly. “At least before she went into shock from exsanguination or total blood loss.”

Derek felt a chill running through him. “Nova, whose tissue are you looking at? You look sick.”

“Even most doctors would,” Nova said quietly. “That is, if they had died and come back to life and they were performing a limited pathological scan on their own tissue.”

“That’s…a piece…of you?” Derek said in horror.

Nova nodded dolefully. “Now you know why I took care of cleaning up the deck on the First Bridge where I died all by myself. It wasn’t just a desire to clean up my own blood; I was looking for evidence for future study. I found what I needed. This was a small piece of my own heart that Ekogaru blew out of my body. Don’t worry; when I was resurrected, everything came back together quite well and the damage was repaired. But we know what the Entropy Wave does. I was using my own sample as a control. Enough of that. Going to Slide Number Two. Have a look.”

“Is this cardiac tissue, too?” Derek said.

“Yes. It was dried, almost dust, but this was a piece of Astrena that was saved for me while I was unconscious by the Gamilon pathologist who performed her autopsy on her remains. The man is named Doctor Ferrel Lyzer, and he did a good job on this. What do you see?”

“Extreme cellular damage. Almost as bad as what he did to…you.”

“I find that very disturbing,” Nova said softly.

“No…I do, too, Nova,” Derek said.

“Good thing you stifled that nasty word, or that would have been another dollar in the Swear Jar,” Nova said. “We need to repent of that sin, you and me both. I was hanging around the Tigers too long. Cursing is an unseemly and sinful habit. Like smoking,” Nova said. “I need to get it out of my life, and so do you. We’re not kids any longer, dear.”

Derek nodded. He couldn’t disagree with his elegant, almost elfin wife.

“What’s the third slide?” Derek said as Nova got it into position.

“I took it from the lamented Mister Perlmutter’s brain; around the hypothalamus, where this was connected,” Nova said as she uncovered a covered clinical tray and handed Derek a small crystal device with a few wires projecting from it; it was a bit smaller than Nova’s pinky fingernail, which she kept trimmed short.

“What the heck is this?”

“That’s the disturbing part. Derek, this is Iscandarian tech. It was connected to Perlmutter’s brain. The third slide is a sample of where those wires went in. The damage is light; it’s gradual near the top of the slide, but gross and destructive at the part connected to his brain.”

“What would Iscandar have to do with this?” Derek barked as he banged a fist on the table.

“I touched minds with Sasha before and advised her of what I found. She said that there were evil Iscandarians in their past who may have survived as they wandered into the stars. Sasha thinks this may have been done by an evil Iscandarian Count who might still be alive; a man who was off-planet when the plague happened on Iscandar; possibly…even the man who caused the plague. What a sick, diseased man.”

“So…we have to find him?”

Nova nodded. “This is going to take a while. It is going to be a hard, long search. Please help me, Derek! I can’t do this alone,” she sobbed as she walked Derek out onto a balcony on the tower that they were working in. It gave a view of the distant cityscape of parts of Gamilstadt, the sky on Gamilon, the sunset, which was one of the few times the sky looked normal on Gamilon, and Iscandar hanging bright and beautiful up in the sky as it began to rise. 

Nova stepped into Derek’s arms as he held her.

Then, Nova sobbed, as she looked up at Iscandar; “Derek, I know we’re here doing this to help Desslok, but I’d rather be on Iscandar right now…than on this cold, bleak planet…”

“Nova, Astrena liked this place…” Derek said, immediately regretting it.

“I’m not Astrena…I’m ME,” Nova sobbed. “Derek…I’m sorry…I…”

“I’m sorry, Nova. What can I do to help?”

“Just hold me,” Nova sobbed. “Hold me. I want to get this done as soon as possible and get back to the Yamato…which feels like home.”

Respectfully, IQ-9 turned his dome away from the scene.

He wanted to give Nova her privacy to weep, and he also didn’t like it when she cried; it made him feel utterly helpless.

I am sorry, Nova, he thought. I wish I could help you when you cry like that…but…I cannot comfort you as well as the Lord Admiral Derek Wildstar. He is a human and your husband. I…am still only a robot.

TO BE CONTINUED…