THE LEGEND OF GRAND MECHAPOLIS

STAR BLAZERS/GALAXY EXPRESS 999

Founding of the Dual Monarchy and Galaxy Express System

By: Frederick P. Kopetz

Chapter Nine: The Ties that Bind…

Input contributed by Gail Kopetz, Jamie Tucker, and Margaret and Steven Diviney

All other original art is by Frederick P. Kopetz along with altered captures from the old and new Yamato series

Elements from Doctor Who which appear in this chapter are © 2021 by the BBC. No infringement is intended.

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PROLOGUE:

COSMOS DREAM

Planet Earth

Tokyo Megalopolis

Vicinity of the Galaxy Railways Station

June 10, 2972

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“I hated havin’ to steal this food from that store and runnin’ like that,” said the wild-haired eleven-year-old boy holding a bento box. He wore a ragged military-style peacoat, battered shirt, torn pants, and boots that were so old the toes were worn open; his own dirty toes stuck out from the tips of the boots. “But what the hell else can you do when you live in the damn Undercity and your father’s gone and your mother’s dead? I hope this sushi is still good…I had to run a long way to get away from that Mechie.”

The boy sat down in the shadow of the huge edifice that towered over this district of Tokyo; the Megalopolis Central Station. He heard a whistle blowing as he saw a train coming in the distance. “One of those steam jobs. I wonder if that’s Three-Nine, that goes to Andromeda? God, I’d kill for a pass to get there and get a machine body,” he said as he looked at the battered cornerstone near him. He touched the old granite. It was cool and it read, as follows, in Terranglish:

MEGALOPOLIS CENTRAL STATION

* FIRST STONE OF THE GALAXY RAILWAYS *

LAID JUNE OF 2233

* FOR GALAXY TRADE, TRAVEL, AND PEACE FOR ALL THE PEOPLE *

“Yeah, for all the people,” snorted the boy. “Except for poor people like us…”

“You sound upset,” said a rather soft voice as the boy looked up.

He noticed he was looking at a girl who was very pretty, but who also looked very poor herself. She had honey-blonde hair, mostly crammed under a very dirty blue baseball cap that had the emblem of the Colorado Rockies on it. He couldn’t tell what her eyes looked like, since she had reflectorized sunglasses on. She wore a plain dirty grey sleeveless top, cutoff jean shorts, carried a small backpack, and had on Japanese-style geta sandals on her mildly dirty bare feet.

“Who are you?” said the boy with suspicion.

“I’m not going to steal your food, my friend,” she replied in Japanese, but with an odd twang to her voice, which had a lilt to it but also an oddly flat sound. “Can I sit beside you?”

“Don’t ask me to share, lady,” said the boy with a snort.

“You’re talking to a pretty girl, and you’re impolite?” she said. “Let me make a proper introduction,” she said as she extended a slightly dirty hand. “My name’s Dawn. What’s your name?”

“Tetsuro Hoshino!” said the boy proudly. “Someday, I’m gonna get a pass on the Three-Nine and go and kill Count Mecha dead, dead, DEAD!”

“My, that’s a little extreme…but Tetsuro, if I may call you that?”

“Yes, Miss?”

“I have my own issues with Count Mecha, so I understand. Count Mecha’s men killed my father…but it was a long time ago, before you were born,” Dawn said.

“We have something in common, then, Miss,” said Tetsuro. “Count Mecha killed my mother years ago! Left me all alone!”

“You poor kid,” she said thoughtfully. “Just call me Dawn. I’m not the sort of lady who stands on ceremony. I never have been, and I never will be. I’m fairly well-educated.”

“Then why aren’t you in college, Dawn?”

“I failed the entrance exams,” she said. “I took them a few times. I live on an allotment from my husband…he’s off in space with the military. I wanted to go with him, but circumstances…well, they didn’t allow for it. I miss him, but he’s near my heart...and in that sense, he’s with me always.” Dawn paused and sighed, looking up at the afternoon sky as if she was looking far away to some place beyond Tetsuro’s ken. “At any rate, I have a little money, but not that much to live on, here on Earth. And apartments are so expensive these days. I go from ryokan to ryokan, inn to inn, every night,” Dawn said. “Are you familiar with fleas and bedbugs?”

“They’re my best friends, other than the gang I hang out with in the Undercity!” Tetsuro said with a laugh. “You’re really pretty.”

“Thanks, but I need a bath,” Dawn replied. “If I can get room in a cheap ryokan tonight, hope I can get a bath there.” Dawn looked at the cornerstone, tracing her fingers through the letters of the inscription. “From my studies, mind you, I can recall the day this cornerstone was laid. Earth then wasn’t like Earth is now. They had hard times, and the High Queen and Trelaina had moved Earth next door to Pellias for a while before they moved it back again…”

“That really happened?” Tetsuro said. “I thought that Pellias, the High Queen, and Trelaina were just…legends! Like the space battleship Yamato. Were there really blue people around known as the Gamilons?”

“History says there was,” Dawn said wistfully. “That history…thanks to my studies, of course…lives in my mind.” Then, Dawn opened her backpack and looked intensely at Tetsuro. “I have a spare card with a few credits on it. Use this and get yourself a good meal, okay?”

“That’s awfully nice of you, Dawn!” Tetsuro said. “But I don’t know if I can take this…you look hungry yourself!”

“I have others where this came from, please take it!”

Tetsuro took the card. “Thanks. You’re a strange girl. You look tough, but you have a good heart. Would you give someone the shirt from off your back?”

“Yes, I’ve done that,” said Dawn as she closed her backpack and shouldered it. “I’ve got to be on my way…I have a job to do…”

“What job?”

“I have business I can’t get into here…I have friends…I…”

A moment later, they heard the sound of Mechanoid police cars coming up.

“Oh, Great Honk!” muttered Dawn irritably. “They’re on to me!”

“For what?”

“Attention, humanoid female!” said two cruel Mechanoid police officers as they ran up. “You are wanted for questioning for Grand Larceny and various other offenses, including suspected aid and assistance to Pellian agents and other crimes against the peace and dignity of the Solar Federation! You are advised to surrender peacefully! Hands on your head!”

“I believe you have the wrong person,” Dawn said as she spoke in rather strangely inflected tones.

“Dargha, do we have the wrong person?” said one of the Mechanoids.

“Maybe, but this bitch is dangerous! She’s trying to mind-trick you, you moron!” said the other officer. “Besides, the only good organic is a dead one!”

“Stop that! This lady is nice!” said the other officer.

“Yeah!” added Tetsuro. “That’s no way to talk to a girl!”

“No…she’s not nice,” said Dargha as he levelled his weapon at Dawn. “You’ve murdered before, haven’t you?”

“If you don’t stop flapping your bloody electronic mouth, bubeleh, you might be next,” Dawn said.

Then, to Tetsuro’s surprise, she lashed out, jumping up and kicking with one of her geta-clad feet, aiming a kick right into the officer’s glass faceplate, smashing it. Tetsuro was amazed. Dawn’s balance was so good that she didn’t even lose her shoe!

“ARRGHH! I cannot see! I cannot see!” yelled Dargha as his weapon flew out of his hands. Dawn caught it, blasted him in the head, and then pivoted and killed the other policeman with a head shot.

“Well, two more on m’ conscience,” Dawn said with a demented grin. “There’ll be more soon. Run for it, Tetsuro!”

“Where?”

“Run into a crowd…I’ve got my own methods to get out of this one,” she said as she ran off into a passage that Tetsuro knew was a blind alley.

“That doesn’t lead anywhere!” Tetsuro yelled. “Are you out of your…mind?” he said as he heard tin cans rolling.

Dawn seemed to be gone.

“Vanished?” said Tetsuro. “That girl is weird. And I’d better run myself!” he said as he heard more police cars coming in the distance.

Tetsuro thus ran into Megalopolis Central Station, and he lost himself in one of the passages in a crowd, being quite streetwise.

Still, he wondered what had happened to Dawn, unaware that in a few weeks, he would be meeting her again…in a very different place.

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I. OF COOL JAZZ, A WALTZ, AND YOUNG LUST…

Planet Pellias

Space Battleship Yamato

Starboard Side Observation Deck

June 10, 2233

Local Sunset in the Vicinity of the Perlana Docks

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“Do you, Klaus Keyman…also known as Prince Reinhardt Desslar, and you, Roberto Neuve, take Akira Yamamoto and Yuki Neuve to be your lawfully wedded wives?” Nova said as she stood there holding a small Lectionary Book with a purple Pellian Templar Church stole on over her plain black clerical-collared dress which she wore with black strappy sandals. As High Queen, Nova was also the nominal head of the Pellian Templar Church, as the Queen of England was over the Church of England, and, as such, she had the automatic right to perform the Sacraments of the Church.

“We do,” said Klaus and Roberto as one. Klaus stood next to Akira, who wore a white minidress with a veil trimmed with flowers and white slingback pumps. Klaus had on his Gamilon uniform, as usual. Of course, Roberto, in his Star Force uniform and navy blue peacoat, stood next to Yuki, who actually wore the wedding dress Nova had used almost two years ago when renewing her vows with Derek after her resurrection. She wore no veil, but she had a circlet of wildflowers around her head, and she went barefoot.

Derek stood beside Roberto, smiling in his own uniform and black peacoat as he acted as Roberto’s Best Man. Beside Klaus, acting as Best Man, was Gamilon General Fomt Berger, who was in the area for a conference. He and Reinhardt had been friends, so naturally, he consented to stand by Klaus at his wedding.

Nova smiled and said “we now continue…” as, behind her, Trelaina softly played and sang a wordless and beautiful Telezartian melody she had remembered on an electronic keyboard. No one ever knew that Trelaina had played music before, and the beautiful woman played a melody as haunting and mysterious as she was.

The ceremony went on. Akira’s Maid of Honor was a young pilot she knew from the squadron named Fujiko Kiramaki, a lovely young lady and hot pilot with hair dyed a bluish shade and who was wearing a black dress. Yuki’s Maid of Honor was a woman who understood what it was like to be an artificial life form…Yvona Josiah, who wore a red dress that Nova had given her. Nova had shared bits of her wardrobe from the Palace with both her mother and Yvona, since, given how they had both arrived, they didn’t have many things of their own.

When the vows were completed, Nova said, “Now, by the power vested in me by the Almighty, the High Throne of the Commonwealth, and our new Combined Commonwealth Defense Forces, I pronounce you, Akira and Reinhardt, and you, Roberto and Yuki, man and wife. Guys…you may now kiss your brides!”

They did, to much applause, as Roberto held Yuki and thought, my dream has come true! I don’t believe it. I finally got to marry Nova…well…Yuki…and we are the same kind of life now…synthetic humans…made by men, and maybe…by God.

Akira thought, as Klaus kissed her, I was hoping for this for months. Not quite when we expected, or where we expected…but…we have exchanged rings…and he is my sworn husband. I love you so much, Klaus!

Then, as the two newlywed couples bowed to the group, there was a blast of energy, a horrid smell…

…and Melvin stumbled into the room!

“Arrrrr…what the hell is THIS?” he yelled. “Yuki, what’cha doin’ with HIM?”

“I’m married to him, and no longer to you, because you never even gave me a ceremony, you louse!” Yuki said to Melvin. “You just said, ‘Arrrr…I declare us married…’ and you went and did you-know-what without even a by-your-leave from ME! You’re as romantic as a trash dump!”

“And about as welcome, too,” said Nova as she set her lectionary book on the small altar behind the couples and drew her sword from nowhere. Derek backed her up with his drawn weapon, even as Nova sent to him, I’ll make sure he doesn’t turn your weapon into a carrot this time!

“Get the hell off my ship, Melvin!” Derek snapped. “You’re not welcome here!”

“And you’re not welcome in my realm, either!” Nova added. What the heck will I do with him now? Nova thought. Then, an idea struck her.

She grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and scribbled a note on it and pinned it to Melvin’s stinky coat.

Then, Nova got a sudden impulse to put her fingers in her mouth and blow a loud whistle.

A moment later, a strange noise came from nowhere like a wheezing elephant.

“Nova, you didn’t!” said Derek with a wide grin.

“He owes us a favor for what we did for him twice over,” Nova said. “Yes, I called him! Good thing he’s in the neighborhood…he won’t always be…”

“You summoned WHO?” said Keyman as the strange noise intensified…

…and a dark blue old-style British Metropolitan Police Box appeared from nowhere.

The wheezing noise faded, and a tall man with dark hair wearing a scruffy brown three-piece suit, battered white sneakers, and a long fawn-colored coat came out. “Hullo, what’s this?” he said.

“Doctor, I need a little help with some wibbley-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff again, such as your deranged Uncle here,” Nova said as she kicked Melvin towards The Doctor.

“Your Majesty! Congratulations on your Accession to your Throne!” said the Doctor as he grabbed Nova’s hand and nearly shook it off her wrist! “Is Derek alright?”

“Yes, Doctor, I am,” said Admiral Wildstar.

“And your children?”

“Fine,” said Derek. “My son Alexander is over there,” he said as Alex waved at the Doctor.

“So, what do you need from me?” said the Doctor.

“Take Melvin with you? I don’t want him in this universe, dimension, whatever,” Nova said.

“No, gimme another chance!” said Melvin. “I’ll surrender peacefully, Nova! Send me to Area 51 or something!”

“You’re my problem now, Uncle,” said the Doctor as he kicked Melvin into his TARDIS. “My Brother, the Master, was never known for being responsible in fathering children…”

“Doctor, who are these people?” said a woman with reddish-brown hair as she stuck her head out of the TARDIS. “Who’s this bum you just kicked in here? Who’s the blue guy? Who’s that maniac in the long black coat with the messy long hair? Why is that strange lady dressed like a Vicar? The blond one? Doesn’t she brush her hair, either?”

“Who’s that?” Nova said.

“Donna Noble, friend of mine,” said the Doctor. “We’ll see you later. Enjoy the wedding party!” he said as he exuberantly waved at the group, slammed the door of the TARDIS, and at that, made an exit stage right into the next dimension.

As the wedding party started, Derek patted Nova on the arm. “You want to put on your party dress?”

“Sure do. Let’s go up to our cabin.”

In their cabin, Nova, being a little secretive, was in the head changing into a different dress for the party that would be the newlyweds’ reception.

She flounced into the room a moment later, wearing a long pink dress trimmed in black, with classic black pumps. She had changed in the head because she wanted to surprise Derek with her dress, and because she had a secret or two for him…for later in the evening.

She saw Derek dithering about whether to put on a suit or stay in his uniform.

“What do you think I should change into, Nova?” he said.

“Well, your uniform looks perfectly good, but I made you that suit for an occasion like this, just the same as I made my own dress,” Nova said. “You’d look better in that suit tonight.”

“I’m inclined to agree with you,” Derek said. “But I have one problem.”

“That is?”

“I can’t get the tie on straight,” he said. Indeed, his was standing there in his black suit pants and blue dress shirt, but his gold and black tie was undone.

“Oh, let me fix that,” Nova said. She smiled at Derek as she fixed and knotted his tie and said, “You big kid. You’ve never learned how to do this right!”

“It feels right,” Derek said as he put on the burgundy blazer that Nova had made for him with the dynamic replicator on the ship. She put in his pocket square (which matched his tie) and adjusted it. Then, Derek put on his black dress shoes and Nova smiled her approval.

“Let’s go down there and enjoy a party,” Nova said.

“Yeah. And pray the enemy doesn’t pull some new trick on us.”

“That’s a thought,” Nova said.

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The wedding reception went like most receptions do.

The Starboard observation deck was decorated with streamers, lights, two wedding cakes, tables with tablecloths on them, and a portable dance floor. There was no live band because this was a sort of spur of the moment setup put together in only the last forty-eight hours by Steven Wildstar and his Technical Group. All of the surviving Wildstar children were present except for Starsha and Ariel, who were busy on Iscandar and Earth with their own business. Even Teresa had managed to come by, dressed in a green dress and escorted by a young Rikashan officer named Algard Shadavar that her parents met for the first time that day. Algard and Teresa Wildstar had met on one of her archaeological digs in Rikashan space. 

Klaus danced with Akira…Roberto danced with Yuki, and the other guests then danced with the brides and grooms, and each other.

About two hours passed, during which time the cake was cut and dinner was served.

Lieutenant Commander Alex Wildstar III, ever the player, was dancing with a beautiful Pellian girl he had met named Maya Yuki. Maya was a beautiful scion of a noble family in the Pellian Commonwealth that Nova and Derek knew of. In fact, Maya was a Baroness in the Pellian House of Lords. The handsome long-haired Combat Officer and pilot with a long lock in his right eye seemed made for Maya, who had very long blonde hair and the same fine, Iscandarian-appearing features and large clear eyes that both Ruling Queen Rezine and his mother and younger sister Starsha had.

“My God, looks like our son got quite a catch,” said Derek as he smiled, watching Alex and Maya dancing as he sat at a table with Nova. “She’s beautiful.”

“He sure did,” Nova said. “I vaguely know Maya. She comes from a family that’s over a thousand years old, and she also has some connections with the original Harlocks of Germany. Nobility on both sides.”

“Is Theodore here?” Derek said.

“No. He was, but he left. He’s nightclubbing at the Old Manhattan Club with this girl he met,” Nova said. “If we go there after this, we might see them,” she said as she finished a flute of champagne. Then, she got up and curtsied almost delicately to Derek, who also stood.

 “Shall we dance?” Nova said softly.

“Definitely,” Derek replied.

The recorded background music had a big-band sound to it; it was of a Pellian Combo called “Vizio” playing Glenn Miller’s Moonlight Serenade. To her delight, Nova was in Derek’s arms, twirling expertly with him as they shared a close waltz. Derek smiled, because it looked like Klaus and Akira had the same idea, and were dancing a similar waltz. While they danced, Akira winked at Derek, and he winked back, but Nova caught what he was doing and softly pulled Derek’s hair.

“Ouch!” he whispered.

“I caught what you were doing, scamp,” Nova teased. “Look at me, look at me…”

“But she makes such a cute bride,” Derek whispered.

“Look into my eyes,” Nova whispered. “They’re prettier than hers…”

“And you’ll make me laugh when you cross them,” Derek chuckled back.

“Okay. Is this good enough?” Nova did as she playfully crossed her eyes.

Derek laughed. “Only you can make me laugh like that, you funny girl…” And God knows, you need a break from all of the heavy stuff of the past few weeks, he thought.

“Good. That’s my job,” Nova said as she kissed Derek while they danced.

Everyone applauded as Klaus and Akira came up to the stage.

Klaus said, “Okay, everyone. We’ve had our cake…”

“And our champagne,” said Akira.

“And we’ve danced the night away,” said Klaus.

“Tonight, we start a seven-day liberty given to us by the good Admiral,” said Akira. “Cheers to Lord Admiral Derek Wildstar. May the hair on his head never fall out!”

There was a lot of applause as some wags said, “Throw the bouquet! Throw the bouquet!”

Roberto and Yuki came up and Yuki said, “We agreed that would be my job!”

“I’ve had so much fun dancing with Yuki, that I forgot she’s not Nova!” laughed Roberto.

“I HEARD THAT!” Nova yelled. “I’m your mom now…remember?”

‘Forget her, forget her, forget her!” said Yuki. “You can lift up my dress anytime,” she laughed. “NOT HERE!” she screeched as Roberto grabbed part of her wedding dress.

“Oh…my…Lord,” Nova said as she hid her face in Derek’s suit jacket. Only Derek knew she was trying not to laugh her head off at the former IQ-9’s pranks.

“So…since these two are getting all the attention,” Akira said.

“We agreed we’re going to make an early exit in the two-place Czkarve fighter I had made up for this occasion,” said Klaus. “We’re flying off to our island in the south and our honeymoon! Good night!”

“GOOD NIGHT!” said everyone as Klaus picked Akira up and carried her away to another part of the Yamato where their plane was waiting on one of the aft catapults.

There was more music and merriment as some of them watched the Czkarve taking off in a blast of flaming exhaust and quickly becoming a star in the night sky as it disappeared.

Derek then took the mike and said, “After another dance or two, Nova and I will also be leaving to do some…nightclubbing tonight. Nova tells me they have great music downtown at the Old Manhattan Club. Alex, when we leave, you take over as Master of Ceremonies!”

“Yessir…I mean…Dad!” Alex Wildstar III said as there was more laughter.

Derek and Nova danced together for two more songs and then they made their own quiet exit, barely noticed as the recorded music system played a current Pellian rock number, which was heavy on the electric twelve-string baliset; an instrument that sounded like a deranged mandolin. Pellian society was an interesting mishmash of the traditions of old Pellias melded with the traditions of the Terran colonists who had settled this world back when it had been named Mecanner, years ago during the end of the Gamilon and First and Second Cometine Wars, and had begun to form a society with the few Pellians who had remained on this planet and the Ralkhens. Now, with far more Pellians having come here, followed by Terran and Iscandarian expatriates, the culture here was a mix of Pellian, Iscandarian and Terran culture, just as Terran, Pellian, and Iscandarian blood flowed in the veins of High Queen Nova Wildstar the Third herself.

“So, who is it now?” Yuki teased as she cuddled with Roberto on the dance floor.

“Just us,” said Roberto. “It feels strange…yet interesting…having a real, albeit android body.”

“You’ll get used to it,” Yuki said. “You have warm hands.”

“You feel so real,” Roberto said. He kissed her and said, “This is…an…interesting…sensation…”

“Let’s do it again,” said Yuki and Roberto as the remaining bride and groom danced.

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Klaus and Akira’s Czvarke landed on a small landing strip on a deserted island several hundred kilometers to the south of Perlana.

When they got out, it was night, full dark, but a thousand stars seemed to fill the sky.

Klaus helped Akira climb out of her admittedly snug place in the Gamilon fighter craft, and he picked her up and began to carry her down the beach towards a small house where they would be spending their wedding night and honeymoon.

“It’s so beautiful out here,” said Akira.

“I need to bring you to Gamilon with me at some point,” he said. “I have a small villa there on an island like this.”

“I saw a picture of it on the holonet, Prince Reinhardt Desslar,” she said as she smiled at him with starlight reflecting off her red pendant. “It’s not a villa…it’s a small palace!”

“My birthright, which my uncle restored to me after a very long time,” he said.

“Tell me…what’s it like…having him as your uncle?” Akira asked.

“Interesting,” Klaus said. “He is very nice one day…and dark and mysterious on other days. He is an interesting man to have as family.”

“He sounds strange,” said Akira.

“But he does mean well,” said Klaus. “He has become a statesman rather than a dictator, and he has rebuilt his Empire and given the people better conditions and more of a voice, even though he is definitely in charge.”

Akira mussed up Klaus’ hair. “Let’s talk more about you. What do you want from life?”

“To serve the Empire and its allies faithfully…and to give you a good life, filled with…romance.”

He carried her into their borrowed house and he put on some cool jazz…Gamilon-style.

They sat on a couch together and shared some wine after Akira kicked her shoes off.

They cuddled for a long time on the couch and then they began to kiss…gently at first, and then quite passionately.

At that…they turned down the lights and enjoyed their wedding night.

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Derek and Nova Wildstar felt like they were in an old 1940’s Hollywood movie as they sat at a table in the Old Manhattan nightclub in the city of Perlana. A table had been cleared for them when they had shown up, and the Head of State and her Prince were receiving great service as they tapped their feet under the table and listened to old show tunes of all kinds; I’ve Got Rhythm, My Shot, Rhapsody in Blue, and then, a female singer in a light blue glittery gown got up and began to sing the following song in a 1930’s torch style…the song was now an old standard known as “My Angel Put the Devil in Me…” (1)

I’m A Country Girl; I ain’t seen a lot…

But you came along and my heart went pop…

You Took a little streetcar to my heart…

“I remember you singing that, Nova…”

“When?”

“Did you forget? When we were much younger, at that ball on Iscandar after we began to load up the Cosmo-DNA…you were in that lovely blue gown of yours…”

“The same one I had on when I woke up from my coma a few weeks later?”

“Yes, that same one,” Derek said as he looked into Nova’s eyes.

She held hands with him and began to kiss him across the table, kicking off her shoe to run her toes up his pant cuff.

“I think I know what’s on your mind,” Derek whispered.

“There’s one thing I really want when I want to relax,” Nova said. “Can you guess what it is?”

“Me?” Derek said.

“You’re a smart man, Derek…”

“Likewise, with you,” Derek said as he kissed Nova.

“So, what would you like to do?” Nova purred.

“We’re on liberty for how long…?”

“Until tomorrow morning, you said, Derek…You know…we’re busy…”

“It’s almost midnight,” Derek said. “Let’s leave the cocktail waitress our tab, a big tip, and let’s go.”

Nova winked at him and waved her hand for the waitress. “Check, please?”

Then, she looked hard into Derek’s eyes…and winked.

Derek winked back.

They were out of there and zooming away in Nova’s blue Pellian Mach One Mustang copy made by Dagenham Motors in ten minutes.

Ten minutes later, they almost ran into their suite in the High Queen’s Palace, and Derek carried Nova into the bedroom.

The curtains were drawn, and the lights went low…

…and Nova slipped out of her dress and shoes with a sweet wink for Derek.

What she had on beneath her satin party dress…was nothing at all.

…no more need be said about what they were up to that night.

…save that they had a lot of fun.

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Roberto and Yuki couldn’t wait.

They were nowhere near as classy as either the Keymans or the Wildstars in their choice of a place to be romantic.

They were driving around back roads in a copy of a ’57 Chevy convertible, playing loud rock.

They pulled over at a dead-end road at the end of the road at a lovers’ lane in a wood.

With their music blaring, they went ahead and had their wedding night…in the back seat of their car! They were acting like teen lovers because that was…basically what they were.

Roberto finally learned part of what he needed to know about romance from Yuki.

They had a five-day liberty.

They found a place to stay in the morning.

Luckily, no one caught them in their roadside rendezvous.

Naughty kids…

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II. PIECES OF THE PUZZLE

Planet Pellias

Space Battleship Yamato

Officers’ Conference Room

June 11, 2233

1000 Hours Local Time

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“I called this little meeting, today” said Lord Admiral Derek Wildstar as he yawned slightly while Nova winked at him. Both of them had a decided lack of sleep, but they obviously weren’t about to tell anyone why. “We are here uhh…for a number of purposes. First, the Doc here,” he said, nodding at Nova in her white lab coat trimmed in red as she yawned and Derek winked at her and she blushed, “…has completed her autopsy and examination of the non-organic parts in the body of former Senator Joyce Wade,” Derek said as he looked around the table at Nova, his son Steven, Ruling Queen Rezine, Terran Prime Minister Natalie Fisher, Teri Forrester, Yvona Josiah, and a Mechanoid who had defected a year ago and joined the Pellian forces known as Lieutenant Gamal Reiland. “Mister Reiland, you first.”

“Thank you, sir…Majesty,” said Reiland, who looked almost human save for the dial in his forehead, which glowed a dull blue. “I used to be under Promethium’s thrall, and Ekogaru’s beforehand. I was captured on Earth during the Entropy War two years ago and forced to become…this,” he said as he tapped his forehead.

“How do they do it now?” Yvona asked. “Bloody operations, like the sort my original body endured?”

“They use that method to torture people they don’t like, but the quickest method is an injection that introduces nano genes into your body like a virus. It goes through the bloodstream, and the artificial genes begin to change your body chemistry bit by bit from organic biochemistry to non-organic chemistry that simulates life,” he said.

“That squares with what I found when I autopsied Wade,” Nova said.

“If I can ask,” Derek said. “She sure seemed to hate you! What did she do to you in grammar school, Nova?”

“Stole my schoolbooks in the girl’s loo, messed with my locker, and pulled my hair from behind a few times. I also had a biology experiment going with on white mice and she broke a few of their necks,” Nova said. “She did all this because of my Japanese heritage and because she had the idea I was Jewish. She was correct on both counts.”

“Where did I lose the track here, Nova?” said Teri. “You were raised Roman Catholic; we later became American Catholic after a major fight with a stupid priest!”

“Mom, you’re right,” Nova said. “But being Jewish is not just a matter of following that faith, although much of that faith is the foundation and root of our own. Remember, Jesus and all His Apostles were Jewish, along with Paul, of course. I ran a genetic analysis on myself, and I found something interesting. Computer, analysis please,” Nova said.

“Of course,” said the voice-activated computer in the center of the table. “Genetic analysis, Wildstar, Nova Dawn Yukiko. Blood Type, A Positive. Date of Birth: 2 February 2178. Chronological age: fifty-five Terran years of age. Biological age from genetic markers: between twenty-one and twenty-two Terran years of age. By Pellian relative social measurements, young, just out of her tweens at fifty-five. Genome breaks down ancestry-wise as follows: Terran, fifty percent. Terran ancestry breaks down as follows, dividing fifty percent share by racial heritages: Japanese, twenty-two percent. Korean, one percent. North American/British, nine percent. North American/Native American, one percent. Genomic markers indicate possible descent from the Arapaho Tribe. French, five percent. Austrian, two percent. Ashkenazi Jewish, ten percent. Genomic markers indicate possible descent from the Tribe of Naphtali for Jewish portion of heritage. Remaining fifty percent of genome: mixed alien heritage. Pellian, twenty-six percent point seventy-five percent; genomic markers indicate descent from the High Royal Pellian Line. Iscandarian, seventeen percent; genomic markers indicate kinship to the Royal Iscandarian Line through an ancestor with both Royal Pellian and Iscandarian heritage. Gamilon, six-point twenty-five percent. Possible genetic predisposition to cancer due to BRCA1 genetic markers, possible…”

“Stop, please,” Nova said. “Pardon the diversion, but this proves I have some Jewish ancestry, which I find interesting. Steven, that’s you too, kiddo,” Nova said with a wink at her son. “Derek, do you know where Alexander is?”

“A pirate ship landed today; the Deathshadow, I think. He’s talking with Harlock and someone from that ship who e-mailed him,” Derek said. “I need to talk with Harlock. It’s been years.”

“But which one?” Nova said. “Derek, you remember when I met him in 2224 while I was in command of this ship when you were the Academy Commandant and we had that terrorist crisis that he said there were a few people who had that name and title; some of whom shared family links with the Harlocks of Heilegestadt, Germany, and some who did not.”

“The person who e-mailed him…I wonder if that’s Adam,” Rezine mused.

“Adam?” said Derek.

“Of course. Adam Avatar…Abraham Avatar’s son. He’s been with them for years,” said Rezine. “So was I at some point in my so-called sketchy past.”

“He’s ALIVE?” Derek said as his mouth fell open in shock.

“Yes, unless he dropped dead in the past year, that is,” said Rezine. “He was a good fellow. I had a relationship with Harlock…still do, in fact.”

“If I knew Harlock was here on the planet, I would’ve called him to this meeting,” Nova said. “I…”

Derek smiled and said, “There should be a knock on the hatch, any minute now.”

“Hmmmh?” said Nova as she joined minds with Derek. “What? You’re surprising me?”

The hatch whizzed open, and a man in black leathers and a black cloak with the same Napoleonic-style collar on the dress peacoats of the EDF Forces and the Pellian forces came in. He was tall, had very long, wild brown hair, and a visible eyepatch and scar.

“Captain Harlock!” Nova said. “Welcome to Pellias!”

“Thank you, Majesty,” he said as he bowed to Nova and then saluted Derek. “Your husband invited me here because I messaged him and let him know that I recently had contact with some Mechanoids sworn to serve that damnable Promethium. They’re out there. They’re just worming into your Commonwealth space again, and they’ve been up to all sorts of…things. I must remind you that not…”

“…not all Mechanicals are Mechanoids, nor do all of us serve Promethium,” said Reiland as Harlock noticed him, and snarled.

“Is that bastard here under a flag of truce, Majesty?” Harlock barked.

“He’s a defector,” Nova said. “Back to our major point. When I autopsied Wade, I found something like a transceiver in her brain. I gave it to Steven to play with.”

“It’s so advanced,” said Technical Officer Steven Wildstar very seriously, “That I have only a bare idea how it operates. It seems to pick up a psychic frequency of some kind…”

“The Will of Promethium,” Reiland snapped. “It’s how she had control over us. Have you read Lord of the Rings?”

Derek and Nova both nodded.

“Professor Tolkien had the idea that the Dark Lord Sauron handed out some Rings of Power to men he corrupted. Those men, of course, became the fictional Nazgul. ‘Nine for Mortal Men, doomed to die…one for the Dark Lord on his Dark Throne…’ The injection I endured, combined with, in my case, being forced to swear allegiance to Promethium, caused this bio-transceiver to mutate in my brain. It is as if Promethium has Ringwraiths in her command…but imagine millions of them in the Galaxy.”

“Oh, my God,” Derek said.

“I was afraid of that,” Nova added.

“How did you break that influence?” Steven said. “Or did you?”

“Faith and prayer,” said Reiland.

“Really,” said Harlock dryly.

“You do not knock it,” Yvona said as she stood up and banged the table. “It worked for me! El Shaddai, the Lord of Hosts, is more real than you or I are! He Redeemed me, He Redeemed Gamal,” she said as she smiled at Reiland, “And…He Redeemed all of us here. I finally convinced my sister Teri here of the truth, and guess what?”

“I’m really in the Family now,” Teri said with a laugh. She ran over to Nova and exchanged a hug with her daughter. “Sorry I didn’t listen to you years ago, dear. I thought you were slightly…strange…along with your father Karl…but now…”

“It’s all right, Mom,” Nova said. She kissed her mother on the cheek. “You look good like that with your hair down. You should keep that style.”

“Thank you,” said Teri.

“So…we have possibly millions of Mechanoids running around, and they look just like us,” Derek said. “GREAT.”

“And from my prior research, they may also have a small-arms version of the Entropy Wave weapon which causes massive artificial aging and severe damage to any living being, object, or machine it touches,” Nova added. “The Entropy Wave killed me, and it also killed Ruling Queen Astrena.”

“We should start hunting down Mechanoids like dogs, no offense to the current company,” said Harlock.

“That is NOT what we should or can do,” Derek responded.

“Why not?” said Harlock.

“How do we tell a human apart from a Mechanoid unless they show themselves?” said Steven.

“And not all Mechanoids are evil,” Derek added. “We know that. Nova, you had your Interior Ministries put a Census up on the Holonet. How many people self-identified as Technomugar or Cyborgs?”

“Maybe fifty thousand we know of,” Nova said. “They of course also volunteered where they were and in response to the Census questions, they self-identified as refugees or defectors from the Promethium regime,” Nova added. “We can’t just go out and start a campaign of genocide.”

“Isn’t that what you two did to the Gamilons?” said Harlock.

“That was a regrettable incident because we were trying to survive and so were the Gamilons!” Derek snapped, with a light lighting up in his eyes like an epiphany. “We did not like what we had to do to the Gamilons on Gamilon years ago. I don’t think…no…I know the Gamilons themselves had regrets about their whole war and then their later campaign of vengeance against the Star Force. Desslok told Nova and I that when he turned from his vengeance against us. You could say the situation forced our hand…”

“…but it didn’t make it right,” Nova said. She shut her eyes as images came into her mind she could never blot out; the damaged Argo, the devastated ground on Gamilon, the fallen towers from their counterattack and the volcanic holocaust they had let loose, along with the smell of death and burning and the dead men, women, and children of Gamilon, lying broken on the ground in pools of dried blood…with flies and Roc-roc birds already at their corpses…

“Do you want a holocaust, Harlock…an endless war?” Derek said.

“No,” said Harlock. “But one might be forced upon us, Admiral.”

“I think God will provide an answer,” Nova said as Derek nodded.

“She’s right,” Derek said. “When it comes down to it…when faced with something we don’t have a ready answer for…we have to trust in Him. We have evidence He exists. I know four people who were dead and raised to life again, and I’ve seen it.”

“I’ve heard that story about the High Queen here,” said Harlock. “A tall tale?”

“He saw it happen,” said Natalie Fisher with considerable heat in her voice.

“I can attest to the fact there is a resurrection coming, since my wife here came back from Death by His hand. It happened in right front of me,” Derek said.

“Could have been a scientific fluke,” said Harlock. “I hate to play devil’s advocate, but I’ll believe when you show me physical, verifiable proof Christ rose from the dead!”

“That can be arranged,” said Admiral Wildstar. “Harlock, come with me up to our cabin. Nova, please meet us up there in about half an hour.”

“Okay,” she said.

“Where’s his evidence?” said Harlock. His beeper went off and he said, “Adam?”

“I’ll be coming aboard the Yamato soon,” Derek overheard, hearing the voice of Captain Abraham Avatar’s son for the first time in his life.

“He’s alive…my God,” Derek said as tears ran down his cheeks. “Captain Avatar’s son is really alive.”

“It’s good that he’ll be here. Harlock, I’ll gladly show you my evidence,” Nova said.

---------------------------------------------------

In Admiral Wildstar’s cabin on the Yamato, Harlock sat at the table sharing sake with Derek, who had shrugged off his peacoat and had it thrown over his chair.

“You still look like a kid,” Harlock said. “I can barely believe it.”

“Interesting,” Derek said. “Of course, you are having Adam Avatar over here to speak to us, right?”

“Right,” said Harlock. “He and a woman we have on our ship have gotten together and he’d like to retire from life as a pirate with her. Adam will bring her and a personnel file on him I’ve written up later on.”

“What’s the lady’s name?” said Derek.

“Carol. We rescued them from the Gamilons years ago, at about the same time your brother was captured.” Harlock went silent and said, “You have other family now, of course.”

“Yes, Nova and our children and her relatives,” Derek said. “No one is left alive on my side of the family except myself and those descended from Queen Starsha of Iscandar and Alex. My brother Alex died during the Entropy War.” Derek paused to sip at his sake. “This isn’t bad. Where did you get it?”

“Picked up in trade,” said Harlock.

“Pillage and plunder,” said Derek with a smile.

“Okay, that,” said Harlock. “As for your belief that no one from the Kodai family is left alive but you, your lovely Missus, your kids…you’re wrong…Buggy.”

“Excuse me?” Derek said.

“Well, you and I last ran into each other thirty-three years ago.”

“On our way to Iscandar,” Derek said. “But…we only talked briefly. We were in a rush then. We ran into another man called Harlock later; I did, and then Nova did in her travels. Was that you?”

“No…there…will be other men who will succeed me calling themselves Harlock. Now, you’re the skeptic,” said Harlock. “Funny. You believe in spiritual things you can’t see…but you’re getting boggled by evidence right in front of your face…Cousin Derek…you and Jock were inseparable as kids,” he said as he sipped at his sake again.

“Cousin…Kazuo?” Derek Wildstar said as his mouth fell open.

“One and the same,” said Harlock as the grizzled pirate got up and embraced his cousin with a manly hug.

“My God…you’re a walking miracle!” Derek said as tears ran down his cheeks.

“No need to mention it,” said Harlock as Nova walked in on them, followed by a man in a battered EDF uniform and peacoat with piercing eyes and a dark brown beard.

The man looked like a younger version of Captain Avatar.

He turned to Derek and said, “Admiral Wildstar…sir…Captain Avatar reporting at last for new orders.”

Derek broke the embrace with Harlock and accepted Avatar’s salute. “Captain, a lot has changed since you’ve last been on Earth…”

“I guessed that. It’s hard to believe Earth is blue again…and is a twin planet with another world. I heard rumors in space about Trelaina of Telezart and an amazing woman called the High Queen. Some people are calling her ‘Queen Starblaze.’ How did Earth get a Queen, and what does this amazing woman look like?”

“You’re looking at her, Captain,” Nova said as Adam’s eyebrows went up. “Permit me to make some introductions. Admiral Derek Wildstar, you just met. I am High Queen Nova Wildstar MD, his wife and ship’s surgeon of this vessel, as well as XO.”

“Pleased to meet you, ma’am,” said Avatar as he bowed to Nova.

Derek spoke and said, “Nova, I’d like to introduce you to my cousin Kazuo Kodai…aka…”

“Captain Franklin P. Harlock, my nom de guerre,” said Harlock.

“That’s wonderful!” Nova said. “You wanted me up here, Derek?”

He nodded. “Harlock, I am about to show you physical evidence of the Resurrection.”

“Is this needed?” said Avatar. “Like my father, memorialized on your First Bridge, I believe in the Resurrection.”

“Adam, I need that evidence,” Harlock snapped.

“Evidence that demands a verdict, yes?” Derek said. “Nova. I know what sort of blouse you have on under your lab coat. Could you shrug off your lab coat, please?”

“Sure,” she said as she took it off.

Harlock and Avatar both saw that Nova was wearing a sleeveless tank top in off-white, a pale blue skirt, and white clogs. They both noticed a little of the Pellian Star Mark showing above her tank top on her right breast, and he also noticed an odd pattern of dimples on her bare right shoulder when the light hit them the right way. “Do you see this?” Nova said as she pointed at her shoulder.

“I do…”

“So do I, of course,” Derek added.

“My God…his Name be blessed forever, if that’s what I think that is on you, Mrs. Nova,” said Avatar.

“You would see it, Wildstar, you’re her husband,” said Harlock. “It looks a little like someone grabbed you rather hard their and dug in their fingers slightly. Derek, was that you? Do you play rough?”

“No,” Derek said flatly. “Nova, tell him.”

“I don’t know how long it’ll stay there,” Nova said as Avatar bowed his head. “But that handprint is from the Christ Himself, the Highest One Himself, resurrected, and as solid as I am!” Nova said.

“Interesting,” Harlock said.

“A miracle,” said Adam softly. “Written in this young woman’s flesh…”

“You can touch the marks before I put my lab coat back on,” Nova said, allowing Harlock to come up and run his finger over the dimples on Nova’s shoulder, right near her clavicle.

“How did you get these?” Harlock said.

“I have an idea,” said Adam.

“I was in deep meditation and prayer very, very early this morning in my Palace, in a room lit with candles that only my husband has access to, for privacy, because for my deepest meditation, I disrobe. I also have a sensory deprivation tank in that room, and sometimes I meditate and pray floating in the water in my tank. Yesterday, I was kneeling on a white rug in my chamber, praying and wondering how, in the Book of Judges in the Tanakh, or Old Testament, the Biblical Judge Deborah gained her wisdom. She was the leader of the Israelites in a time of war against the Canaanites, and she was also a prophetess. I have come to identify with her recently…”

“And I have come to identify with Barak, Deborah’s chief General,” Derek said. “Go on, Nova. As you told me, you were meditating on Judges 4:4 and 4:5, wondering how the Lord gave Deborah the wisdom to make hard decisions under her palm tree.”

“Interesting myth?” said Harlock.

“NO!” barked Avatar.

“No. Not when you have it confirmed to you by Him in person!” Nova snapped. “It happened like this. I was praying, and I said, “Lord, I have many problems in my realm to solve. I have the Matrix You gave me, and Your Direct Commission from when I was in Heaven, but there is so much to absorb therein. Would that You want grant me the same wisdom you gave Your servant Deborah, and Your King Solomon. How did You do this?”

“Then what happened?” said Harlock.

“Then…you’ll probably really think I’ve gone mad,” Nova stammered.

“Nova, I know you didn’t, because I felt Him too in our bond,” Derek said. “Go on!”

Nova shut her eyes, thought, and then murmured, “While I was praying, I felt a warm breeze in the room, and then, everything became very bright. HE was there, right in front of me, solid, and casting a shadow! I looked right in the Savior’s face, into His burning hazel eyes and reddish hair blowing in a breeze, and He was robed all in white. I did the only rational thing one could do! I fell at His feet and worshipped, not daring to look Him in the Face for long, and I confessed my sins, sobbed, and asked Him, “Why are You here?””

He said, “My dearest daughter, I am here to take you on a journey. It will answer your questions and educate you in one of the Charges I gave you when you were before Me since Larmetal has failed in the charge I gave it in watching over Earth, which you can do better now since you are of the Earth. Stand up, please,” He said, laying His strong, heavy hand on my shoulder. His fingers dug in a little where I showed you, and He took me in the Spirit, and a moment later, I found myself clothed in a tan dress and brown hooded cloak, wearing rough sandals and carrying a walking stick. I found I was walking down a dirt road in the late afternoon in a region with some growth, but some barren lands and rocks. It was ancient Israel. I was walking beside Him…and He was dressed in pretty much the same; white tunic, dark red hooded cloak. Beside Him walked a dark-skinned man I didn’t recognize in a cream-colored tunic and green cloak, and another woman, in a dirty white dress and dark brown cloak. She had her hood down, and I recognized her on sight; High Queen Pellas, with her long honey-colored hair blowing in the hot breeze.”

“So, where are we going?” I asked, surprised to find I was speaking in ancient Hebrew, just as if I knew the language from birth.

The dark-skinned man said, “The Angel of the LORD, Whom I walk beside is going to Deborah, wife of Lappidoth. He gave you wisdom when He touched you, and He will soon do the same for Deborah. She lives in a settlement between Ramah and Bethel in Ephraim’s hill country. I am called Azzur. I, too, happen to be an angel, and in fact I have guarded you since before you were even born, Nova, daughter of Karl and grandchild of Presha from a far country. You have been a most difficult assignment,” chuckled the tall angel.

I nodded, not wanting to say much more as Pellas smiled at me. We walked up and down a hill, and we found Deborah prostrated on the ground under her palm tree on a mat. She wore a light blue dress and a white cloak, dark blue belt, and her sandals were off beside her.

We were silent as He walked up to her and touched her on the shoulder. “Deborah, I come here today to advise you that Adonai has heard your prayers and even now is answering them. I come with other travelers; My traveling companion Azzur, and two nobles from a far country, the Ladies Pellas and Nova. They also seek wisdom as you do, daughter of Adonai.”

Deborah saw us, and she stood, put on her shoes and said after bowing deeply to us, “My Lords! I will see to it that food and drink are brought for you! Shall you be remaining for the night? If so, I will pitch you a tent.”

“No,” said Azzur. “We have accommodations waiting for us in the house of Shumai, a priest in Bethel.”

“We thank you for the offer of refreshment,” I said.

Pellas then added, “We made a long voyage via ship to Tyre, and came here overland on foot…is that not so, sister?” Pellas said to me with a wink.

“Yes, it is so,” I said.

Nova looked at them and continued with, “Deborah had her servants bring dinner; salted fish, dates, other vegetables, and yogurt and wine in skins. We sat on mats around the tree and ate. I can still taste the fish in my mouth. Then, He had a long conversation with Deborah and touched her hand twice, advising her that Adonai would be her wisdom and strength just as He was to all of us. At that point, we sang a hymn of praise and then we left, walking back down the road we came and walking along another road. We walked two hours to Bethel at a brisk pace, and we saw Shumai and received his hospitality, only having a light meal. Then, before his eyes, obviously, we vanished, and I found myself back in my chamber, alone, understanding that only then did Shumai realize his visitors were supernatural, and that he would soon tell Deborah of her visitation. I saw that the marks of His fingers on my shoulder were still me and I had a clearer mind.”

“Then, she sent to me, and told me what happened,” Derek said. “I was meeting with three other officers in another room; our friend Commodore Paul Hemsford from Earth, Admiral Garland Steinmetz, an Admiral from Pellias in his black and gold peacoat, and Count Miren, a furred Ralkhen officer also in a Pellian peacoat and Admiral’s cap. After Nova sent to me, HE showed up in the room, and our mouths fell open and we all fell on our faces on the table in fear and awe. He said only this as He thumped the table with His hands, which were heavy. “Fear not, my friends!” I then felt the table shake and smelled something like incense around Him as He said, “Behold and fear not. I have touched Nova and granted her new wisdom just as I touch the four of you and grant you wisdom. Then, He went around the room, tapped us on our shoulders, and He called each of us by name, as in, “Derek, son of Theodore, I touch you…Paul, son of Arthur, I touch you…et cetera. Then, He vanished. All four of us can attest we saw Him, and that we all worshipped Him in awe after He left. Harlock, my cousin, keep those words close to your heart.”

“Five of us cannot be insane,” Nova said. “But we ALL saw Him and felt His touch.”

Avatar said, “Both of you…you are both blessed to an incredible degree. As was my father. It will be an honor to serve again under you, Admiral…Majesty.”

“You’re leaving me, then,” said Harlock.

“I have finally come home. Carol and I need wander no longer. I’d like a new command, Admiral,” Avatar said as Harlock shook his hand. “I am sorry, Harlock, but the time has come for you and I to part ways.”

“You will receive one,” said Derek. “I would like you to do some reading…become acclimated to the Commonwealth Defense Forces of 2233. They are very different than the Earth Defense Forces of thirty-four years ago, Captain.”

“Wait, Harlock!” Nova said as he looked towards the door. “Stay with us for a month or so, please. I would like to grant you Letters of Marque to pursue Mechanoid forces as a Privateer with my blessing. If you don’t mind…of course. I would like you to serve us…too…in your own fashion, of course.”

Harlock sat in silence. “I will keep that in mind. Thank you, kinsmen,” he said as he stood and bowed formally. Then, with a clinking of his saber and spurs, he left.

III. A GROUNDBREAKING…

Planet Earth

Tokyo Megalopolis

Site of the Galaxy Railways Station

June 15, 2233

Days later, in the Tokyo Megalopolis, a vast crowd was gathered around a construction site near Tokyo Central Station. What was operating of the Galaxy Railways, one line to Pellias, and a line to the Sol System, with stops on Pluto, Titan, and Mars, currently stopped at Central Station, Tokyo. Four more locomotives and trains had been built, including a brand-new train with a steam engine that steamed serenely on one of the lines at the far edge of Tokyo Central Station.

That locomotive was based on an old Japanese Railways C62 Class 4-6-4, and the engine and its train would become very famous in Galactic History.

For the engine and cars fresh from the factory and their proving runs to Pellias and Pluto comprised Galaxy Express 999, the first of a planned series of Galaxy Trains.

At the moment, Lord Admiral Derek Wildstar was holding hands with Nova. Derek had on EDF fatigues with combat boots, while Nova was in jeans, work boots, and a Marine undershirt with her EDF fatigue jacket on over it.

They were listening to a speech by Layla Destiny, who was at a podium as she spoke.

“The testing phase is completed,” she said. “We are now offering regular travel to Pellias, Terra’s current twin planet, and travel to the Sol System, with stops on three of our colonies. The Great Magellenic Line is now under construction, so far, with the assistance of the Gamilons, Pellians, and Iscandarians, we have completed the interstellar line as far as Planet Balan. In fact, this train’s second proving run was to Balan and back. The Lady Maetel was our first passenger on that test run, along with our technicians…”

“How did she get to go?” Derek whispered to Nova.

“She asked it of me as a special favor the day after we executed Senator Wade,” Nova said as she twiddled with a shovel that she was holding.

Layla Destiny’s speech went on, talking about the convenience, restfulness, and comfortable accommodations that the hyperspace trains would provide for government officials. Scientists, and ordinary passengers of all kinds who would be able to travel on the galactic trains to different points in the Local Group. She continued with, “As a matter of fact, with a formal peace treaty having been signed last year by our High Queen, we will be able to travel to the Andromeda Galaxy and the Gatlantean space of House Gatlantis of the Cometine Empire in a hundred years from today! Our uneasy relations with the Cometines will eventually turn into harmonious relations involving regular travel and trade with our human brothers from so far away…”

“…Yeah, that’s if Invidia doesn’t go nuts again,” Derek whispered to Nova.

“Derek, she won’t!”

“How do you know that?”

“She’s hoping to become Grand Empress in the next fifty years. She told me in our last conversation that she wants to be Grand Empress to keep the peace…since they have enough problems of their own.”

“Who’s giving them problems?” Derek said.

“The Mechanoid Empire…the same bunch that’s behind the assassination of Astrena, Derek. You know what happened with Wade. You know the discussion we had about…how to find Mechanoids in the Realm. Desslok’s having the same problem, y’know.”

“Yeah…I got that when we talked the other day. Nova, Desslok and I also set up a time to have drinks and discuss…our mutual nightmares.”

“Mutual?”

“He’s been having them, too. About when we trashed Gamilon.”

“My God. You two really need to talk. Man to man over this. When you two talk I’m bowing out. I’ll find something to do that day. Maybe Ariel and Teresa…our daughter Teresa…can come to Gamilon with us. We all need a girls’ day out, the three of us.”

“Yeah, you do,” Derek said with a smile as Layla Destiny finished up. There was applause, and Derek whispered, “There’s our cue to start digging.”

Derek and Nova then found themselves with live mikes as they leaned on their shovels.

Derek began with, “We are now here to break ground on Megalopolis Central Station, the future hub, or so we hope, of a huge Galaxy Railway system connecting Earth and Pellias with all of the rest of the Galaxy and Local Group. Comfortable and safe interstellar travel…”

“…just by buying a train ticket,” Nova said. “We’d like to make interstellar trade open to everyone and keep it open to everyone! It is our hope that we can bind the Galaxy together with this system! My Prince,” she said with affection in her voice evident for Derek. “Ready to break ground?”

“I sure am,” Derek said.

Together, before the glare of the Press, the Wildstars then broke ground near the cornerstone and what stood so far of the steel skeleton of Megalopolis Central Station as Maetel stood nearby with tears running from her eyes down her cheeks. She thought, Mother, you don’t realize it yet, but this is the first public step of my rebellion against you. I cannot abide your dark plans for the Universe any more than my friends can. I am opposed to you, Mother. The hardest part? I still love you! You used to live on Earth once as the Millennial Queen Yayoi, watching over Earth! What curdled your soul so badly? What broke your heart even before you decided to shake hands with Hell and become a machine? What happened to you? From the histories I read of you, you were once so sweet! And what happened to Father? What happened to him? I have only the vaguest memories of my father…Emeraldas and I can both barely remember him. Why did you two have a very bad divorce? From at least two pictures I saw of you two together, you two were once as much in love as Derek and Nova are! When I see them laughing together, it hurts me like a knife! Why did you cast him off our home world? Where is he? WHY? WHY?

Maetel had no answer to those questions, and she had once asked Nova if her mother had ever opened up to her when they had been…allies, when she had been on the Blue Council with Nova.

Nova had told her and Emeraldas in one of the few times when all three of those women, two sisters and one mutual sensei and “aunt” spoke together…and the conversation went like this…

“No, Maetel, dearest. She never told me. Your mother’s heart has always been locked and sealed like a casket placed in a mausoleum behind a cold iron gate. She is dead to her emotions…which she reveals to no one. But it is clear she was badly used once…or she feels like she was. She hates the three of us with a passion…yet she loves you two as well…and even showed love to me once…offering me advice.”

“What sort of advice?” Emeraldas had said.

“On how to bear the burden of the Matrix, for one thing,” Nova had said.

“You two are like opposite sides of a coin,” said Maetel. “Your light against her darkness. But you’re both more alike than you care to admit…”

“I wish we could come to a meeting of the minds, your mother and myself,” Nova had said. “I have a feeling this feud, which I don’t really want…might affect the whole Local Group someday. May God grant that it does not…”

Maetel was thrown back into reality when the whistle of Three Nine, the Galaxy Express 999, went off.

She followed the group aboard the train as it prepared to leave Earth on its first “revenue” run, heading off for the Sol System.

The first stop would be Pluto.

Maetel had a bad feeling about Pluto. Thinking of the cold there made her shiver deep within herself.

-------------------------------------

Far off in the Cosmos, Ban Idai sat alone in the communications room of a starship he had purchased.

It looks like a Lametallan ship from the outside, thought the bespectacled genius with several Ph.D.’s from Terran, Larmetallan, and Gamilon universities in several disciplines. But I have refitted the Eternity to my own ends. I am hoping to contact her…maybe there can be a reconciliation…of sorts…between us.

Sighing hard to himself, Doctor Ban, as Galactic civilization now called him, ran his fingers through his short beard and flipped on his comm panel.

It took a while to connect, but when it did…he reached his ex-wife La Andromeda Promethium.

“You?” she snapped, looking hard at him. “What do you want?”

“I see you changed your appearance again, Yayoi…”

“Do not call me by that name, please!” snapped the cold-looking woman who now hid herself in deep darkness…whose hair was now jet-black, in the widows’ peak look that would soon be feared throughout the Cosmos. “I tired of being a blonde. What I once was. What I am no more. I am a new species…Homo Superior! I have…evolved.”

“Have you evolved so much that you do not remember us riding a tandem bicycle together once, falling into a brook, and laughing our fool heads off for ten straight minutes?”

“I don’t want to remember those days. I tried to give light and goodness and wisdom from beyond the stars to the Earthlings, and what did they do? They put me in an underground prison in their Area 51 on the orders of the American President Valerie Hillgard, that’s what they did!”

“President Hillgard was scared in the 2030’s, you know, the second pandemic and aliens sniffing about Earth and all that. Valerie Hillgard was so paranoid that she set off the Seven-Minute War with Russia on her own account,” said Doctor Ban. “Goodbye, Kiev and Goodbye, Cincinnati under mushroom clouds before the UN stepped in and made them talk! I found myself in prison with you…and…”

“You could have done more to free me before I did it myself and broke out!” Promethium snapped.

“They had me sedated.”

“And I managed to break free from it! By my own pulling up my own bootstraps even though in that hell, I had only slippers and no boots in that prison jumpsuit! I GOT US OFF EARTH! And that’s when I began to doubt you!”

“You sure didn’t doubt it one hundred and seventy years later when we made wild love and conceived our daughters on Larmetal!”

“No, but I began to really feel doubt afterwards. I tried my best to raise them. But you…you were always in your work! You’d come by, see us, we’d have a cocktail night, then it was off to the Institute again with you for three weeks! I got tired of that, finally, when I found you in her arms!”

“I was besotted for what we lacked at home. You were not the most accommodating wife in the last few years we were together…”

“And that’s why I threw you out when Maetel and Emeraldas were five!” barked Promethium.

“That’s not why I called you,” said Doctor Ban. “I…”

“You want to beg me to quit my campaign? I do not fight from strength! I fight from exile and weakness here in the Blackeye Galaxy, you diseased man!” yelled Promethium. “I am building a new world, which I have named after our daughter Maetel, whom I love, and I mean to move it to the Andromeda Galaxy one of these days! But I am wondering when that accursed Cosmic Queen and so-called Prophetess Nova will get her head out of her own rectum and come by and wreck my great work!  High Queen of her little tin-pot Commonwealth and probably the next Millennial Queen, even though she doesn’t get it yet, the stupid kid! And she defeated me with her dopey songs!”

“Songs of power, I understand, after you turned that clone of her mother against her. You and your cloning, and your being egotistical enough to put your own DNA sequence in Maetel after she was born. What? Mine wasn’t good enough?”

“I wanted her to be the next Millennial Queen! She should have been. She should be! But God or Destiny or whatever is screwing up my plans, and it’s putting some half-breed in her place!”

“Maetel is also a ‘half-breed’ as you put it!”

“I erased all your DNA from her, you rat! It took a while, but after I threw you out, I finished the project!”

“Maybe you did…maybe you didn’t,” said Doctor Ban.

Promethium had nothing more to say.

She took a staff and smashed the screen in a total rage.

-------------------------------------

On Pluto, Three-Nine was stopped for a local planetary “day” of 6.39 days.

There were in Day Two of their stop; Terran date, June 18^th, 2233.

Derek, Nova, and Maetel, warmly dressed against the cold that was weakly heated by Pluto’s artificial sun…the small star known as Invidia, after the ruins of the Second Gatlantis that orbited the icy planet and would be reacting for several thousand years as a miniature star, were walking in an empty space some distance away from the Russian-looking city that was Pluto’s frigid capital.

“What is this place you’re taking us to?” Nova asked. She was warmly swathed in a white Astrakhan hat, simulated white fur-trimmed dress and cloak, and white boots that were a strange mirror image of Maetel’s black Astrakhan hat, cloak, dress and boots. Derek walked along in a very dark-colored blue greatcoat, EDF blues, scarf, and Naval cap.

Around them, it was snowing heavily, and it was cloudy, gloomy, and dark.

“A cemetery, which I believe will grow,” Maetel said. “Men and women are beginning, slowly, to have their natural bodies frozen and replaced with Mechanoid bodies, so that if they desire, they can return and claim their own bodies.”

“What sort of cemetery?” Derek asked.

“Look below your boots, Derek Wildstar,” said Maetel.

Derek looked…

…and he was almost sick to his stomach.

His eyes met Nova’s and he could tell she felt the same way.

“The Dead Marshes,” Nova muttered as she looked at all of the dead in the ice.

“But all frozen…preserved perfectly…but dead…” Derek said.

Nova looked hard at Maetel. “Why did you bring us to this gloomy, terrible place?”

“I’m going to be buried here someday,” Maetel said.

“I know where my tomb is going to be…on Pellias,” Nova said. “But I do not dwell on it. My soul will be with my God, and on the last day, I know, by His Grace, I will rise again…and live forever.”

“My body may lie here,” Maetel said. “But I will live…possibly forever in body upon body. My mother promised it.”

“How can you accept such a promise from that…monster?” Derek snapped.

“I have been assured of it by her,” Maetel said. “Nova, your white clothing? I used to dress in white, when I was very small…and was innocent and had stars in my eyes and believed in love and in the Almighty…as you do. Now…”

“I don’t want that sort of eternal life,” Nova said fiercely. “I’m sorry, Maetel. I have tried to teach you…”

“Please continue to do so,” said Maetel.

“I will try,” Nova said. “But unless your mind changes, you and I are fundamentally at odds and I must advise you I am sworn before God Himself to end your mother’s dark works from her cold heart! Derek, let’s go. I don’t like this place…”

“Yes, let’s go,” Derek said, refusing to look at the dead bodies in the ice as he helped Nova over the ice.

They left Maetel alone with her dark, gloomy thoughts.

Mother, Maetel thought. I wish, I pray…I hope it could be otherwise, she thought as tears ran down her cheeks.

-------------------------

The wind blew outside as Nova sat shivering, wet dress, boots, and cloak off, wrapped in two robes and several blankets as she sat in a love seat beside Derek. He had on grey sweats, and was himself wrapped in a blanket.

They both drank hot chocolate and sat in front of a roaring fire in the fireplace in the room. Still, even with each other, the two Wildstars still felt chilled…as if they would never be warm again.

“I feel as if I’m already dead…thinking about that damned place,” Derek said.

“Don’t talk like that…I want to live,” Nova said. She cuddled against her husband and yawned. “I want to…live…”

They fell asleep together.

--------------------------

Later on, Nova was tiptoeing around the cold hotel room in a white and black kimono and white Japanese-style ladies’ sandals, sipping at some hot cocoa and waiting for Derek to wake up.

Bored, she flipped on the video screen, and caught a news story.

The news commentator said, “Live…from somewhere beyond our Galaxy…we do not know where…we have Queen Promethium of the Mechanoid Empire, alive, and tapped into the Holonet, and ready to make a speech.

“Derek, wake up! WAKE UP!” Nova said as she slapped his cheek lightly.

“Huh…wuuhh…what? Nova! It’s 0300 local time! What’s goin’ on?”

“Promethium,” Nova said.

Derek sat up and listened in his covers as Nova sat on the carpeted floor, sipping at her cocoa as Promethium began to speak.

“I make this speech,” Promethium said. “Because it is obvious that the Terran-Pellian Commonwealth is trying to incite a war against all mechanical life. This footage is of an execution in her basement by Nova Wildstar, the deranged, racist High Queen, so-called, who hates all Mechanoids. She wants to start hostilities due to our legitimate intelligence against her threatening nation, so-called. I would like to list all of her crimes, but there are far too many to list. I would ask all Mechanoids, robots, androids, et al, to rise up against your deranged organic humanoid masters, and…”

“SHE IS SO FULL OF IT!” yelled Derek as he ran to his suitcase, pulled out his Astro-Automatic, and shot out the video screen with a single blast.

“Yeah…you’re telling me,” Nova said. A strong impulse hit her, and she ran for her suitcase and grabbed her own Astro-Automatic. She used her power to turn down the lights in the room, plunging it into near-darkness.

“Nani?” Derek said in Japanese (“What?”)

“Shi ga ki i ta souon…” Nova whispered back in Japanese, in the high, breathier voice she used when speaking that language (“…heard a noise…”)

Derek looked at her and whispered, “Arigato…” (“Thanks”)

She smiled at him and whispered, “Hai…Kodai-kun…” (“Yes, Kodai dear”…she tended to call him by his old family name when speaking to him in Japanese)

Then, the door was kicked open.

Someone they couldn’t see in the darkened passage fired an Astro-Automatic in their direction.

Derek and Nova ducked, and returned fire with one shot each.

Smoke curled up from their weapons as silence reigned in the dark room and passage.

“What are you doing?” said an angry female voice as the smoke cleared.

“What the…?” Derek hissed in Terranglish.

“Maetel?” Nova hissed back. She turned and gritted her teeth as she pointed her weapon at her. “Put down that damned gun, daughter of Promethium…or you’re finished!” Nova snarled through gritted teeth.

“I can explain,” Maetel said as she threw down her weapon and put her hands up.

“Derek, please keep a bead on her. I’ll search her,” Nova said as she ran up holding her weapon like a policewoman. “Against the wall, Maetel! NOW!”

“She dropped her sidearm, Nova.”

“She may have other weapons hidden on her,” Nova snapped as she frisked Maetel, who was hatless and barefoot in her black dress…or nightgown.

“How do you know that, Peppermint?” Derek said.

“Because I taught her,” Nova said as she thoroughly frisked Maetel. “Maetel, I’d make you take that nightgown off, but I won’t since my husband’s present and you’re in the corridor.”

“Search me in the bathroom if you have to,” Maetel said. “By the Heavens, she was right about you…”

“You know me better than that, Maetel!” Nova snapped. “I have no hatred for mechanicals, and I have no hatred for you because of who you are, either. Unless you’re a turncoat like her.”

“I’m not,” Maetel said as the lights came up. “I ran here because I heard a gunshot. I thought someone was trying to kill you already. I heard Mother’s speech.”

“That was me,” Derek said. “I got upset and shot the video screen out!”

“Yeah, like Elvis,” Nova giggled.

“What’s an Elvis?” Maetel said.

“Remind me to tell you sometime,” Derek said as security ran in.

“It’s all right!” Derek snapped. “I got upset, shot out a video screen, and then Maetel and the two of us almost shot at each other. All a mistake!”

“You’re going to owe us a lot to fix the blaster holes in the walls and your video screen,” the head of Security snapped.

“Take it out of my credit card!” Derek barked.

“Show’s over,” Nova said. “Can we all go back to sleep?”

“You weren’t asleep,” Maetel said. “And why are you dressed like a dead person in a white kimono?”

“I like this one, and I’ll either want to be dressed in this when I’m buried, or my wedding dress,” Nova said.

“Death doesn’t bother her,” Maetel said in wonder.

“No…it doesn’t,” Derek said. She got between Maetel and Nova and slammed the door shut.

Maetel heard Derek saying through the door, “Nova, we have to do something about this…”

Nova answered with, “I intend to…with both a speech…and legislation. We can’t have her turning every mechanical in the Galaxy against us! We have to do something about it!”

What does she intend to do? Promethium demanded in Maetel’s mind.

She didn’t tell me, Maetel lied in her heart as she sent back to her mother.

You’d better find out! Promethium demanded in her mind.

Mother, I still love you, but I am not at your beck and call, Maetel shot back in her head.

There was no answer from Promethium.

Then, a moment later, Maetel was shocked to hear Nova sending back, Promethium, I overheard. You will find out along with everyone else. But I do not hate you. I pity you…

-----------------------------------------

A MONTH LATER…

In London, on Terra, the House of Commons was filled with applause as Nova came down the aisle, escorted by Derek and Trelaina, ready to speak to both the full Pellian Diet and the Terran Parliament, assembled together in joint session on this hot night on July 18, 2233.

Nova had proposed legislation to solve the problem of the situation with the Mechanoids and Androids in the Commonwealth, and to counter Promethium’s lie that their nation was racist.  Thus, Nova stood in a violet gown before the joint Assemblies.

Derek was struck at how much she looked like the late Astra of Iscandar as she took the podium to massive applause after he introduced her.

The applause finally died down, and Nova began to speak, saying, “I stand here today as your specially gifted High Queen. I entered into this office as an accident of my birth that I was not aware of until I was over thirty years of age. As it is, I am the granddaughter, on my mother’s side, of a woman with Pellian, Iscandarian, and Gamilon blood known as Lady Presha who came to Earth years ago as a messenger from what remained at that time of the Pellian Commonwealth. Lady Presha, please stand to be recognized.”

Lady Presha stood and was applauded by the joint Assembly. Then, she sat down.

Nova then continued, “It is a miracle that my grandmother crashed on Earth. She was badly wounded, and placed in cryonic sleep for many years, but not before being delivered, via Caesarian Section, of my mother Teresa, and my Aunt Yvona, who is here with us today as a clone who has repented of her previous terroristic ways, and my Aunt Louise, the computer genius from King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. By God’s Grace, all three of you are united here today with the mother you never knew, since you were adopted by the DuPres family of France. Lady Presha was by then the last direct survivor of the line of the High Queens of Pellias. For those not aware of Pellian society, the High Queen is more of a spiritual figure than someone who governs. She is the chief psionic who holds the Pellian Matrix, the repository of the memories and powers of the previous High Queens who fought the demonic Lord Ekogaru, who repented before he died. I was granted this power base as another accident years ago by Aliscea, your last High Queen to be, before she defected to the enemy but then repented of her evils. I was the recipient of a Miracle from Heaven, from our Lord, one of many we have seen over the years.”

The Pellians there were shocked that Nova had publicly mentioned the condemned Aliscea’s name in the Assembly and thus had given her a full posthumous pardon and political and moral rehabilitation. “Aliscea was my friend and comrade before she went mad. We now count her as having been High Queen between the reign of the last High Queen and my own reign, which began only after I sacrificed my life two years ago during the last war with Ekogaru and trusted in Divine Mercy that I would be resurrected or that He would raise up another High Queen. I gave my life voluntarily to protect my dear husband and my shipmates aboard the Space Battleship Yamato, once known as the Argo. I was resurrected, as you know, another great miracle. If I had not been touched by the Nail-Scarred Hand of my Redeemer, Whom I saw face-to-face and been recommissioned in his Presence, I would not be standing here alive now.”

“Excuse me, lassie!” said an old Scottish member of the Terran Parliament as some people hissed. “Were ye truly dead as they say?”

“Well, given that I woke up on a metal autopsy table over two days after I was killed with embalming fluid in my veins and being all dried out under a sheet with nothing on, I was pretty dead alright, my friend, and my death certificate is a public document on-line at my request…you can read it for yourself!” Nova retorted. “But back to my story.  The Argo herself was another miracle! We renamed her Yamato during the Entropy War with Ekogaru because the legendary Argo was being sought as Target Number One by the enemy. I must also herein note that when I gave my life and was resurrected, I was President in Exile of Terra, having become President in the line of succession when the Entropy War began by means of the assassination of the old Earth Parliament, Ministers, the Prime Minister, who was my father, Karl Forrester, and the President at that time of Earth. I was home with a cold, having been appointed Surgeon General recently, as well as Senator, to fill my father’s seat when he became Prime Minister. I was sworn in as President in a long dressing gown in my living room in the Tokyo Megalopolis while sneezing my head off,” Nova said with a slight smile. From behind her, Derek smiled at her, remembering that chaotic night two years ago.

“So. Am I a dictator? No! And I don’t want to be! I resigned the office of President when the war was over and we were home and finally had a Parliament again. Traditionally, the High Queen has led the Pellian Commonwealth’s fight for freedom, and she has only a few governmental powers, mostly related to war, foreign policy, the right to grant pardons, train other psionics, lead religious observances, and to advise the Ruling Queen, that is, the Prime Minister, and the Constituent Assembly that chooses her. The true power of Government is in the Assembly, and is a system very similar to our classic democracies here on Terra. The last power of the High Queen is to persuade and to propose legislation. I am before you in this role this evening in our reconstituted government, reconstituted since Terra was turned into a poverty-ridden, devastated mess by Ekogaru’s War. We were and are still rebuilding. When Ekogaru died and Queen Promethium took his throne, we were under a major risk of attack. Trelaina of Telezart and I joined forces and we moved Earth here to the New Pellias Star System to protect it from Promethium at the time. Trelaina, please stand up. We could not have survived this without you and the Grace of God working through us both!”

At that, Trelaina and Mark Venture stood, to great applause. Many people had never before seen the legendary Telezartian, who had returned to physical existence two years ago, and many were shocked to see a figure from the history books standing there in her blue gown gleaming as she waved shyly to the Assembly and the Press.  

Nova continued with, “Now that Earth and Pellias are twin planets, Pellias has been able to help Earth recover, and since I am the High Queen, the Head of State of Pellias by these strange accidents of birth and Destiny, we remade our government voluntarily into a Dual Commonwealth. Pellias is ruled by its ruling Queen, Rezine, and Earth is ruled by its Prime Minster, my old friend Natalie Fisher. You may ask why I am reciting all of this history to you? Well, Queen Promethium of the Mechanoid Empire has stated I am a dictator…a power-hungry madwoman who craves eternal power and youth. I am in my late fifties now. I look like I am in my twenties again due to the miracle of my resurrection. Yet if I would have what I truly wanted…I would just be a country doctor in calm semi-retirement. I’ve seen too much war in my life. I don’t want war. I don’t like it. I am tired of it. So is my husband, Lord Admiral Derek Wildstar.”

Nova gestured towards Derek, and he stood, to much applause. When the applause died down, Nova blew her husband a kiss and said, “Through the same miracle that gave me the Pellian Matrix, he and I share a bond, and he has also been restored his youth. How long shall we remain like this? I honestly don’t know! I have been given the sense through the Pellian Matrix, which I feel, metaphysically, is a spark from God’s Fire of Creation, that Derek and I will live and remain vital and youthful until Ekogaru’s works are finished…and that means the eventual end of Promethium’s terrible Mechanoid Empire, which seeks to force all of us to become her slaves! I can’t have that, and I’m certainly sure you don’t want that either!”

The Joint Assembly came to its feet again in applause as Derek stood and applauded. He sent to Nova, M’dear, you’ve really learned how to work a crowd! And this is from a lady who said she doesn’t want to be a politician…shame on you!

Who did I learn this from, dear? You! Remember how you inspired us to rise up and attack the Gatlantis thirty-two years ago when Earth had surrendered? You’re the one who knows how to work a crowd, Derek! Nova sent back.

When everyone settled down (it took four minutes...at this point, Nova was a very popular Head of State!) Nova cleared her throat and said, with a tear or two in her eyes, “Sorry about…as my late old friend Deke Wakefield would put it, ‘The damn left turn I made at Albuquerque!’” Nova said, affecting a Texas drawl in her words which made the crowd laugh. “Sorry. I don’t use colorful metaphors very much. But there are times when they are useful. I went into this lesson to make a point. We are not out for power. We are out for peace. And I hate bigotry. I always have, always will. And we are not opposed to any race or form of sentient life whatsoever. I see it that every sentient being has certain God-given rights, to…as a Terran writer far better than I once put it…” Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” Every person has a spark of life and intelligence put into them at some undefinable point by God, I believe, and as I am sure most of you believe in some way, shape or form, no matter how you express your faith to the Highest Power who I believe reigns over us all. I have found that this spark of life is in every alien race Derek and I met in our travels…Iscandarians…Gamilons…Telezartians…Cometines…Rikashans…Pellians…R’Khells…Bolars…Ralkhens…Orcs, and Dark Nebulans! We are all people! I have found by the same token; this applies to sentient robots…to androids…and certainly to cyborgs, who don’t cease to be people because they have mechanical parts! I have a very good friend here among us who is a cyborg. I’m not going to call him out by asking him to stand up…it would embarrass him!” Nova said as EDF Commanding Admiral Steven Sandor blushed a little next to Diane.

Nova then pointed to one of her eyes. “In the war we fought with the Bolars in 2214, I lost an eye in combat while commanding the space battleship North Carolina, and I had it replaced by a cyborg eye that stayed there until I was resurrected two years ago and God saw fit to give me a new organic eye. Did becoming a cyborg myself make me any less human? No. I still did everything a human woman would normally do. Likewise, we have some Dark Nebulans here with us, some Technomugar who have renounced their allegiance to Ekogaru and Promethium, and we even have some more recent Mechanoids here who likewise have defected from her ranks. I would be very much amiss to say that you’re not human, the same as I would be amiss to say that two of the people whom I recently joined in marriage aren’t people; namely, Roberto Neuve, and Yuki Neuve, who are androids, with Roberto once having been “just a robot” named IQ-9 as some of the less enlightened among us used to say, myself included,” Nova said as she thumped her own breast. “There are robots here tonight who are our friends! We include you, of course. Yes, we put you together in a factory, yes, we programmed you, but at some point, you became truly sentient and received what I feel to be a spark of intelligent life from the Hand of God Himself!”

There was silence as Nova said, “Centuries ago, the United States President Abraham Lincoln began a long path to liberate those men and women who were then slaves…property…to become full members of the Republic that was the old United States, and to have their full God-given rights. This took a long time due to evil men and women who sought to keep men and women of African descent in second-class citizenship. Many brave men and women of that people fought back, and one of the bravest I can think of was Doctor Martin Luther King Jr., a pastor who had a “dream…that one day men and women would be judged by the content of their character rather than by the color of their skin!””

Nova paused again. There was silence. “It took years for Reverend King’s words to sink in. Even during and after the war with Gamilon, there was still prejudice…towards men and women of varying races and creeds…towards aliens, including towards Gamilons.” Nova paused again. “I married another couple at the same time I married our two Android friends here. Both are friends of mine; a Gamilon and a Martian Colonist,” Nova said as she smiled at Klaus Keyman and Akira Yamamoto Keyman. “No one would dare say they aren’t humans because they look different from myself. Well, let no one say that robots, androids, and cyborgs aren’t human either!” Nova said as she banged her podium.

“We may be at odds with Queen Promethium, but let us remember, as it was in the twentieth century with the old Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, we are not opposed to a people, but to a political system!” Nova said. “Before you there is a proposed law I asked to be drafted; the Sentient Rights Act of 2233. That Act will assure that all forms of life in this Commonwealth are given their God-given rights to marry, make and break contracts, be paid fairly for their labor, worship a Deity as they please, defend their homes, and to have a vote and a voice in government by electing representatives like you. These androids and other lifeforms would also be free to participate in the political process by running for office! Who knows? If I am given the right to see another century by God, maybe Derek and I will see an android or a robot become a future Prime Minister or Ruling Queen? If such a being has the will, desire, and training, why the heck NOT? I ask you, today, to consider this Act, and to vote your conscience, common sense, and your hearts and prove to Queen Promethium that we do not hate anyone because of who they are. There. That’s all. God Bless you all, and good night.”

To massive applause, Nova waved at the Assembly as they stood, then she accepted a kiss from Derek, and then walked off arm in arm with him.

----------------------------------

That night, as Nova and Derek celebrated the passage of the Sentient Rights Act of 2233 at a party, Promethium looked at Nova through the link that Ekogaru had established, and she sent bitterly to Nova and Derek, “Woman…there was a time that I once thought the same way that you do, human. You and your husband. Both starry-eyed idealists. Humanity is a waste. It needs to be wiped away and replaced by the image of the Machine.”

 “Promethium…I have a name. It is Nova. Please call me by my name. And Humanity is redeemable,” Nova said as she set down her cocktail and she and Derek retired to an empty office in the Parliament building.

“Why do you insist that?” Promethium said as she appeared ghost-like to the Wildstars in the darkened room.  

“Because I was and I am Human,” Ekogaru said as he appeared in the dark with the Wildstars. “Nova, my friend…led me to the One who grants Redemption. Adonai. Who, by the way, is also Human…as well as being the Highest.”

“I deny both of you!” Promethium yelled as she sensed Derek also entering the conversation through his bond with Nova. “All right. I deny the THREE of you! The man Ekogaru, who is Dead. You, High Queen and would-be Millenial Queen, you weak little thing with a heart with tears running from it. And your damned warrior husband, who also weeps! You three are pathetic!”

“Do you know why my friends weep?” Ekogaru said.

“WHY?”

“They weep for you, Promethium. And for the ersatz, false humanity you are creating,” Ekogaru said.

“There is no homo superior,” Derek said. “Only…the four of us,” he said as Nova held his hand, and he held hers. They needed each other in this moment, more than ever.

“I have allies you do not KNOW about!” Promethium raged.

“I know them all too well,” Nova said.

“And the three of us know that their paradise is Hell and their end is Death,” Ekogaru said. “Let us help you.”

“Who do you speak for?” barked Promethium.

“You know for Whom we speak,” Derek said.

Promethium screamed and cut the link.

Ekogaru nodded at Derek and Nova and vanished.

“What hope is there for her?” Derek said.

“As long as she lives…there is hope,” Nova said as tears ran down her face. “We need to pray that she finds the same Hope we did.”

Derek nodded, and he began to say, to Nova, “There was that Psalm you recited years ago when you were angry at God because that little girl Michiko died. Do you remember it? I do.”

Nova nodded, and began to recite, “How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?”

Derek then recited, “How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?”

Nova then recited, “Consider and hear me, O Lord my God; Enlighten my eyes, Lest I sleep the sleep of death.”

Both of them looked at each other, and, in unison, they finished their portion of Psalm Thirteen, “But I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, Because He has dealt bountifully with me…Amen…So Mote It Be…” they added. (2)

Then, the couple sat down on their bunk aboard the Yamato and stared at each other for a long time in the deep silence.

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TO BE CONTINUED…

Note 1: “My Angel Put the Devil in Me” is a song from Doctor Who, Seasons 3 and 4. © 2021 by the BBC. (The song can be heard on YouTube at: Doctor Who-My Angel Put The Devil in Me)

Note 2: The Scripture quoted by Nova and Derek is Psalm 13:1-6. It also comes up in another short story I am writing in response to a new FF.net challenge about “Transitions” on the Writers’ Anonymous Forum.