Agra no longer found herself in the drop ship descending through the gray atmosphere of Meridian Prime. The deafening whine of the shuttle engines as the craft plunged through cold biting air was replaced by the soothing warmth and tranquil calm of a silent realm of stars. Agra couldn’t help but squeal in giddy delight as she raised wispy intangible arms into being to grasp at the twinkling light. The inky silhouetted shapes stood out against the brilliant backdrop of stars. She had done it. She had found her way back to this place.

  “Is there anyone there?” she called probing the darkness with her voice. Her confidence rose when nobody answered. “I’m right here come and get me.”

  Nothing but the barely perceptible whispers of the stars responded. Agra tsked disappointment. She’d actually wanted to see the queens again. They were family of a loathsome sort after all and she could not avoid them forever. Agra narrowed her gaze at the fathomless gloom before shifting her amber eyed gaze back to the matter at hand. She was here to subvert the will of the queens imposed upon her kind on Meridian Prime as she had done on Altaire IV. She told herself it would be that simple as she skimmed her hand through the swirling cloud of glowing stars. Each tiny ember of light flared to life with even the briefest touch of her clawed fingers. Each intense jolt of feral anger and fear cultivated by the queens rebounded on her with a sickening intensity. The rising roar of their wordless overlapping whispers threatened to crash against her like a wave.

  “Hush now, I am here,” Agra soothed as she ran a caressing hand through the swirling kaleidoscope of multicolored stars. Shards of raw stinging emotion cut into her like glass as she churning maelstrom of hate roared to renewed life around her. Love could not be easily rekindled in so many souls for whom touch only meant pain

  “You’ve suffered so much,” Agra cried as the storm raged around her. “We’ve all suffered at the hands of the Queens. I more than anyone understand your plight. I will not use you. I will not abandon you. I am nothing without your light!”

  She raised her hands as the storm broke against her. She let it. Agra vanished, utterly consumed in the flood of light until only a dull ember of her remained at its center. There Agra ceded herself entirely to the flow of voices until she joined in their howling call. The small part of her which remained sank into a starless void.

  “So you’ve come as I foretold,” something purred. To call the all encompassing presence of mind and body a voice failed to capture the absolution of its existence. What it said became absolute truth, its musings reverberations in the abyss. Their ephemeral form could neither exist or be said to have never not existed. They were the space between stars.

  “Remember thyself. It is not your place to remain here.”

  Agra burst back to ferocious life. The essence of her being exploded out in all directions as the unanimous voice of the stars joined with her own. They had recognized and accepted her as one of their own. Hatred and anger refocused against a common enemy.

  After that Agra only remembered falling. With a gasp she surfaced in a churning sea of glistening black. A wave crested and she was deposited as a choking heap against a sloping bank of dark crystal sand. What had happened? Agra struggled to preserve what she had felt and seen but the effort was in vain. Like a dream any memory of the voice in the dark quickly faded as she awoke to a new reality. Thousands of stars now outlined her form, the dazzling lights forming a shimmering silver outline. This meant that she had done it. Agra laughed with disbelief. She had done it. Pride swelled within her as she stood to take in the flecks of light now dotting her form. Agra placed a hand against her feather tufted chest. It now felt as if a thousand hearts now beat in rhythm there. Her mind still thrummed with thousands of voices though now she could barely differentiate what they said from her own thoughts. Agra flexed a hand and relished the euphoria pulsing through her carapace. If this is what it felt to join with thousands then what might it feel like to bond with billions as the other queens did? Agra shuddered at the thought.

  “It feels nice doesn’t it my dear? A distant hissing voice mused. Agra froze in stunned surprise as a red eyed wraith stepped out of the starlit gloom. The inky black silhouette of its shadowy form blotted out the stars as it approached Agra with outstretched arms. She spoke in a seductive tone brimming with pride. “Those first four represented an impossible feat. Now you have effortlessly drawn thousands into your fold. It’s no wonder why my sisters fear you.”

  “You’re her aren’t you,” Agra demanded calmly, “You sent the Navigator.”

  “I am,” the Matriarch confirmed with a wispy hand pressed with a flourish against her chest. She stalked around Agra stooped low with her hands now clasped behind her back.

  “I must confess that I did not expect to find you here again so soon. I’ve been waiting to meet you for some time, though not like this. You and I have much to discuss and neither the time or luxury to do it here. We will not go unnoticed by my sisters for long.”

  “Then why come at all?” Agra asked.

  “I’m impatient and bored,” bemoaned the Matriarch with an exaggerated sigh. “You are by far the most interesting thing to come into my life in years. Why should I let an opportunity like this slip through my fingers however brief it may be?”

  “Who am I to them?” Agra demanded as she spun around to track the matriarch’s appraising gaze. The Syn lost herself to a manic fit of laughter. The terrible choking hiss dragged on with growing intensity as Agra stood by bewildered.

  “Oh, you poor stunted thing,” The Matriarch chortled with a sympathetic shake of her head. “Surely you must jest.”

  Agra’s silence spoke volumes.

  “Oh dear,” The matriarch mumbled to herself. “You truly don’t know?”

  Agra meant to speak outrage but stiffened when she sensed the others emerging together from behind the curtain of shimmering starlit gloom. The Matriarch spat a disgusted curse.

  “We’re out of time. It was a pleasure to meet you Agra Anson.”

  “Wait! Please tell me one thing,” Agra exclaimed as she clamped an arm around the Matriarch’s wrist. The Matriarch felt her touch and stared at her with wide red eyed fear. Agra pleaded with her own amber eyed gaze. “Please tell me one thing. Our people, what is our name?”

  The Matriarch smiled at Agra as the other queens encircled them. A malevolent energy filled the air. With a sweeping flamboyant flourish she gave voice to the name of their shared identity.

  Agra choked on bile as she lay trembling on the floor. A viscous froth pooled with blood at the parted corners of her beaked mouth as she gasped for air with trembling hands folded against the chest.

  “Fascinating,” Minister Margret Singh said as she loomed over Agra with an unsympathetic hum of interest. “A physical reaction,” she waxed aloud. A quick gesture had one of her guards at her side. Agra gurgled and croaked as a booted foot pushed her onto her back.

  “Harmless now,” the Minister smiled as she noted the guard’s hesitant expression.

  Quintek raged, but the cold barrel of two plasma rifles at his back had him pinned in place. The snap of his beak and the low rumbling growl in his throat filled the silence of the bridge. His black feathers bristled with hatred. The Minister showed him a pleasant smile with a menacing gaze.

  “Return them to their cabin and double the posted guard. Expedite preparations for our departure.” The Minister said with a satisfied smile. She had turned to leave when a woman leapt to attention behind her console

  “Sir we’re detecting an unscheduled temporal sink forming outside the defensive cordon. Please standby.”

  Quintek spun around to face the nearest window as the steady hum of fear anticipation spread throughout the bridge. They had all been briefed on the inevitable consequence of this mission. If Agra interfered here then the Queens would come as they had above Altaire IV. The Minister stood by with her arms folded across her chest as she studied the blank holographic projection of the empty space outside with stern faced expectation. In an instant it was there, the unmistakable faceted triangular shape of the Navigators ship.

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  “We have positive computer identification. It’s the same Syncline ship which violated the SMCAF defensive sphere. A priority bulletin has been issued by High Command. The ship is listed as commandeered by both Syncline and their human collaborators.”

  The Minister thought on this for a moment then waved off the information with an authoritarian tone.

  “Follow protocol and destroy them as soon as they are in range.”

  “They are requesting permission to land.”

  “You have your orders,” she reiterated sternly. She spun around to watch as Agra was rolled onto a stretcher. Quintek stood in stunned contemplation. So much had changed in so little time. The guard behind him prodded him with the barrel of his rifle and barked for him to move. Quintek complied without complaint. He was far more interested in the Navigators ship as it appeared suspended in the flickering beams of the holographic projectors. Another view depicted the human ships as they sailed in tight linear formation. Cross hairs tracking the Navigators ship locked into place one by one as Quintek’s mind raced with possibilities. He cast his gaze over the room as he quickly formulated his plan, lingering on were Agra helplessly lay before snapping back to his guards. She would not be pleased with what he was about to do.

  “Who was it that my people killed?” Quintek asked with a low trilling growl and the hungry snap of his platy beak. The question was not directed at either guard in particular, but was effective nonetheless. One guard flinched at the sound of his raspy accented voice, the other tightening his grip on his rifle with a clenched jaw.

  “Keep moving Syn. No talking,” The guard shoving him forward spat.

  “Was it a child?” Quintek wondered aloud with a goading sneer. He spun around and met the man’s gaze. The guard ground his teeth together as he choked on barely subdued rage.

  “I said keep moving,” the man screamed with his rifle raised. His partner followed his example. Quintek raised his hands with a deferential bow and quickened his pace. His next words were a barely audible hiss.

  “Did they scream,” Quintek relished with a malicious grin as he shot a provocative glance back at the man. He savored the stricken look on the guards face with a beaky grin and his wide red eyed stare.

  “I wonder what they tasted like.”

  Quintek reeled back from the sudden crack of the rifle butt slamming against his face. He feigned disorientation, stumbling with a cry as the human moved again to strike. That was one less gun to worry about. Quintek struck first. He ducked low and delivered a devastating blow to the man’s sternum. He then grabbed the man’s arm as they doubled forward and wretched it out of its socket with a meaty crunch. The guard howled in pain as Quintek continued to drag him into the other guard’s line of fire. That man hesitated allowing Quintek to release his comrade and vault over a short railing onto the next tier of consoles.

  In the chaos nobody made a move to stop him. Quintek violently threw a man from his console and shoved all his momentum into a throttle which broke off in his hand. The effect of igniting the bow thrusters was immediate. Quintek lurched forward into the row of monitors with a startled shriek. Sparks flew as the humans around were thrown against glass screens and into banks of computers. The ship around them groaned protest as thousands of tons of steel fought the sudden deceleration. The horrible vibration only seemed to intensify as a voice rose above the overlapping cacophony of panic.

  “Collision Alert!” an automated voice screamed as red lights flashed to life. Quintek blinked as he lay crumpled atop a switchboard as the volume of frantic shouts rose around him. He watched with rapt wide eyed attention as the humans scrambled for control amidst the deafening roar.

  “Evasive maneuvers!”

  Where was Agra? He scanned the churning room of humanity and locked eyes with a number of the minister’s guards. They raised their weapons and fired without hesitation. Quintek leapt into a roll as streaks of sizzling plasma exploded in his wake.

  “Brace for impact!”

  Quintek dived for cover, but the next volley of fire never came. Instead the Vikrant convulsed with the sudden hideous shriek of metal. A shrill klaxon sounded painfully as the slow grinding cry of shearing steel reverberated with growing intensity throughout the ship. The lights flickered as Quintek braced himself against the dizzying sensation of spinning. Meridian Prime was no longer a fixed in place outside the bridge window. The molted brown sphere now spun amidst a shimmering cloud of venting gas and debris. The hologram at the center of the room refocused to a disastrous image of the Vikrant and the next ship in formation broken up at the center of a rapidly expanding debris field.

  Quintek was quickly forgotten in the chaotic aftermath. A human Navigator swept past him as if he were not even there. The Ministers guards, caught in the flood of frantic movement, abandoned their pursuit to fall back to her side.

  “All Sections damage report!” a flustered human cried as Quintek scanned the crowd for Agra. His desperation grew as the true scope of what he had done was read aloud with increasingly dire tones.

  “Hull breach indications on decks 9 through 12”

  Quintek felt physically sick as he failed to find Agra. His blood boiled with worry as he pushed through a mass of humans with a raspy cry of panic. His heart raced. What was happening?

  “Engineering reports critical coolant line rupture, requesting SCRAM authorization.”

  His black feathers bristled with source less rage as terror clawed at his chest. Agra was gone.

  “Primary engines unresponsive, secondary thrusters unable to correct for degree of precession”

  “Damn it!” a man cried as he smashed both fists against a control console. The lights overhead flickered and dimmed with increasing duration and regularity. Another voice yelled called out with a barely contained sob.

  “Cannot isolate master caution cascade in the primary systems control.” A woman’s urgent voice declared.

  The floor buckled and twisted beneath their feet as a distant rumbling groan shook the Vikrant. The power faltered, lights dimming briefly before flaring to life with the last beats of the ships crippled heart. Quintek had experienced the sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach before. Red emergency lights flashed around him as the same automated female voice from the Eureka marked the death of the Vikrant with a simple emotionless phrase.

  “Planet fall evacuation protocol now in effect,”

  Agra was lost. The voices of the dead thundered in her muddled mind unabated. She drowned in the shrieking mournful cacophony of raw emotions. Agra couldn’t help but tighten into a ball as another wave of crippling pain surged down her spine and numbed her limbs. The endless voices cried. They shouted. The voices pleaded without words. It was a flood that refused to stop. Emotions alien to her own bubbled and crystallized as she crushed her head with clawed hands.

  “Please stop,” Agra shrieked against the ceaseless call of the stars. The thousands of voices in her head refused to listen as the shroud of madness threatened to snuff out the light of reason in her head.

  “Father make it stop,” She screamed with despair as the inky tendrils of gloom drew her deeper into the gaping chasm of stars. When he inevitably did not answer Agra had no choice but to call upon the help of the only others who could.

  “Kill me,” she told the formless wraiths flickering into being in the starlight around her. The Queens raised startled heads as their malevolent red eyes flashed murderous recognition. Long silver claws made of stars dragged pointlessly though Agra’s helpless ethereal form as she continued to feebly repeat her demands with wide vacant amber eyes. She still remained beyond their reach.

  “Please kill me,” she mumbled as another answered her call.

  “We all wish for death at first,” soothed the voice of the Matriarch with a disheartened sigh. She stepped from the gloom as a tall looming mass possessing a pair of sad sapphire red eyes. Her sisters hissed and growled at her sudden intrusion while still acknowledging her with differential bows. The Matriarch clicked disgust. Only in this sacred place would they ever tolerate her appearance.

  “You have no business here abdicate,” one of her sisters sneered with distaste.

  “Your edicts say that she is everyone’s concern,” The Matriarch snapped with a dismissive wave of her hand. They moved aside with hushed whispers as the matriarch knelt beside her heir.

  “Oh you poor thing,” The Matriarch cooed as she stooped to caress Agra’s head. “You should have known better than to accept the suffering of the stars alone.”

  One of her sisters stepped forward with an outraged hiss, the space rippling behind her star lined form as she radiated pure malevolence.

  “Step away from her!”

  “NO!” The Matriarch roared as she rose to her full height. Even without the stars she still managed to strike an intimating figure. Nearly half her kin were barely older than Agra and they shrank from her like the addled children they were. Those old enough not to fear her accepted her challenge with hissing cries. The Matriarchs few contemporaries only bowed their heads in shame.

  “Have all of you forgotten how it feels to suffer for the stars?” The Matriarch admonished with a trembling rage. “To endure the forced severing of the bond is not something I would wish upon any of you. It is an unthinkable tragedy in the eyes of the Divine One!”

  “That devil is undeserving of our sympathy!”

  “This devil is a child ignorant to what or who she is” The Matriarch screamed in frustration. “Who are we to be so certain? How does one even discern the nature of divinity? Why are we so certain that we would recognize the Divine One if she ever truly returned?”

  Some of the queens chattered amongst themselves with scandalized whispers. One stepped forward. The Matriarch recognized her as an old friend and rival. They had been the one to claim the largest remnant of her lost empire. She met the Matriarch’s gaze with her head held high. The others, save for a few, went silent as she shot them a warning glance. She then looked down at Agra as she lay stricken below her.

  “The edicts are clear,” She proclaimed. “The Divine One left us with the expectation that no child of the stars would ever be allowed to suffer alone. Refusing to do so is an unthinkable sin even if she is the instrument of our destruction.”

  At that she knelt to place a hand atop Agra’s trembling form. A diffuse light spread from the point of contact as Agra stilled. The others slowly followed with varying degrees of hesitation as they lent their own healing light. The Matriarch raised her own hand above the prostrated crowd and in a silent blasphemous prayer praised the Devil who had finally appeared to unite the Kindred Stars