Chapter 9

2077 a.d. – Spring

Sunshine, Peppermint and Rainbows

Béla awoke to the sun shining through her balcony window and right into her face. It was blinding bright. Laughing with pure delight, she was out on her balcony and into the air with her wings extended even before she was fully awake to suddenly realize it was still freezing outside. Nevertheless, she flew several summersaults in the brightly-lit sky before she returned to her balcony and the warmth of the manor.

‘Now they can get that damned carrier out of my back yard!’ she thought excitedly.

The small transport had arrived powered by the last of the infrared rays emitted by the southern sun and what was left in the carrier’s storage battery during the first week of darkness. The infrared rays emitted by the cooling crystal sun hadn’t been powerful enough here at the equator to enable it to return to Southern. In fact, the carrier had had barely enough power to land without crashing. The pilot, a member of the old race, stranded at the Goddess’ Manor, spent his leisurely winter teaching the bard Geoffrey about aerodynamics. Now, he could return back to the familiarity of his ship and crewmates.

‘And get some decent food... ‘ Béla heard the pilot respond in her head as he walked out wearing a heavy thermal suit to protect him from the freezing temperatures he would encounter on his return voyage, ‘and gravity that doesn’t pull you flat against the floor.’

Béla looked down from her balcony and waved goodbye, smiling. The pilot gazed up at her and smiled back, causing her to realize that she rarely saw any happy expressions on those wonderfully familiar, thin blue faces of the old race.

‘Good journey, Antor, my friend. Tell my father I miss him, ‘ she sent lovingly into his thoughts. ‘He should come and visit. Tell him how pleasant it is... ‘

She knew the pilot hadn’t been comfortable in the centrifical gravity here at the equator. Having spent her life on Earth, she was used to the constant pressure, as were her sisters. But the alien crewmembers who preferred to stay aboard the great ship were accustomed to a fraction of this gravity. Her father’s people were a space faring race, after all, and were painfully uncomfortable in a constant gravitational pull after having spent thousands of years in space.

Béla also knew that as soon as the sun began to glow, the crewmembers of the great ship would resume the unloading that had been interrupted by the five-month-long night. Soon, her Praetor would be here for the university.

However many Praetors were in use at one time, they were all connected somewhere deep inside the central core of the great ship, where all their collective data was stored. As a result, what one Praetor knew, they all knew. The entire history of civilization, the entire stored scientific information in the galaxy would be available for study in the new university.

Béla was distracted from her thoughts as a cheerful wave of radiant joy flowed through the room. ‘Elaine’s awake!’ Béla realized, and happily returned the flow up through the ceiling and into Elaine’s chambers. Then she turned and rushed back to the glass doors of her balcony, again opening them to the freezing air and the noisy drone of the passenger carrier taking off.

Stepping out, she found she was in time to watch Elaine swan dive off her third floor balcony. Forming her wings just before she hit the ground, Elaine made a sharp right angle recovery and skimmed along only inches above the frozen surface.

She felt Elaine’s sudden rage as her sister realized her mistake. She was too close to the ground to flap her wings or change her body angle to take her higher without scraping the ground and coming to a somersaulting, flesh grinding halt. Plus, she was quickly running out of flying space and the hedge wall was rushing toward her painfully fast. She had to make up her mind; go face-first into the frozen snow or headfirst into the hedge wall. She couldn’t even bank to make a slight turn.

‘I should do her a favor, ‘ Béla realized, grinning as she squeezed her eyes shut and fiercely concentrated, intending to pass on the favor her brother had done when she had been in similar difficulty outside Father’s lab that first time she’d tried to fly.

Mentally, she surrounded her sister with her own awareness and wrenched her out of normal space, then smiled as she heard the thin scream of terror her sister emitted into the sudden darkness. Béla remembered screaming exactly like that when her brother had teleported her that first time. Focusing on a new location just below her sister’s balcony, she pushed Elaine back out into normal space, still traveling in the same direction and speed – only this time she was several meters higher.

“ ... eeeeeaagh!” Elaine finished her terrified scream as she realized she could see and feel again.

It only took a second to figure out what had happened. Then, furious, Elaine looked back toward the manor, spotted her target and banked sharply, aiming herself directly at her older sister.

‘I’m going to remind you to warn me next time you do that!’ she blasted furiously into Béla’s mind.

She glided purposefully toward the balcony where Béla stood, fully intending to ram her sister clear across her bedroom and into the fireplace. Eager to play Elaine’s little game, Béla created another image and broadcast it to her sister.

‘Okay darling, here’s your warning... ‘

Image of Elaine suddenly materializing thousands of feet high in the middle of the hurricane winds buffering and separating the calm inner core of New Eden from the surface traveling at hundreds of miles per hour. Elaine’s wings being ruthlessly torn out of their sockets by the fierce winds and she plummets helplessly to the ground, making an unrecoverable smear on the inner surface.

Startled by Béla’s projected intentions, Elaine abruptly changed her trajectory and slammed into the side of the manor instead of her sister, then dropped limply to the ground, two stories below. She appeared to be unconscious, but Béla could still hear her thoughts. She was still angry, somewhat confused and in a considerable amount of pain.

‘There are those who simply refuse to be helped... ‘ Béla sent to her sister, lying on the ground below.