Amateur Author

The spaceship “Lady of the Stars” gently set down in the hangar bay of space station Auracar. A little while after it had powered down most of it’s systems, the brandnew, state-of-the-art vessel excreted its passangers by means of a teleportation beam. Jaydon and Emma Octar appeared on the deck. Almost a year had passed since they first met.

Emma looked at her timepiece. ‘We are supposed to meet Nakita in the Luccai Bar in half an hour,’ she said. ‘That darn ion storm certainly knocked our schedule out of wack.’

‘Yeah, I know. I’m just glad we even got here in time. For a minute there, I didn’t think we would make it,’ he concurred.

‘Why don’t I book us a room while you go to the bar. I’ll catch up with you,’ she proposed.

‘Sounds like a plan,’ Jaydon smiled, and gave her a quick but lovingly pech on the mouth. He walked towards to hangar exit, leaving Emma to make the necassary arrangements.

After Emma had booked a nice bedroom for two with a romantic view of the nearby gas giant, and its third and seventh moon, she strolled in the direction of the Luccai bar, where Jaydon would be. In the opposite direction, a man walked towards her. Emma hadn’t forgotten the events just after her `birth`, and was on her guard.

It was an elderly gentleman, with grey – almost white – hair, a beard in the same colour, and retreating hairline. His face had a friendly smile, but she noticed his eyes were weary. ‘Excuse me, miss. I need to speak with you,’ he said as they passed each other.

Emma stopped, and turned around towards him.

He did the same.

‘If you’re looking for a cargo runner…’ she started to say.

‘No, no. It’s not about any cargo. But I need to speak to you in private. It’s important,’ he replied.

His long coat fell open, and she noticed the collor, indicating he was a priest of the House of God. Emma froze for a second. She hadn’t forgotten what the House had done to her orignal, and had tried to do to her. ‘I’m not a big fan of the organisation you work for, father,’ she calmly stated. ‘Who send you? What do you want?’ She took a step back, just to be safe.

The priest grinned. ‘Technically, you send me here to deliver a message. Many many years ago.’

Emma felt as if she was struck by lightning. She send her a message? It was possible; she could see the future, and probably knew that Emma would be here at this particular point in time. Lacking the powers herself though, she wasn’t sure they actually worked like that.

‘She warned me you would be wary. Your name is Emma, isn’t it?’ he probed.

‘She told you that too? But you have to admit the leaders of your church probably all know that, so it’s not really proof, is it?’ She took another step back.

The priest stayed exactly where he was. ‘When you were captured by that cult, the Brotherhood, the man you were with invited you to stay with him. She told me to tell you that if you still weren’t convinced.’

Again, lightning struck Emma. ‘Only Jaydon and I know that. We never talked about that to anyone,’ she gasped.

‘She saw it. She saw it all. And she told me. She told me to meet you here today to relay a message, and answer some questions you have. But not here, in private.’

Emma nodded. ‘My room is just around the corner. We’ll be private enough there,’ she suggested.

‘It will do just fine,’ he replied, and followed her to it.

Once inside, he sat down in a chair, and moaned a little. ‘At my age, my legs tire quickly,’ he explained.

She felt a bit sorry for him. ‘Would you like to have a drink or something?’ she offered.

He politely declined. ‘There is much to discuss.’

She squeezed her lips together from tension and nodded. ‘Please, go ahead.’

The priest leaned forward. ‘I’m father McDougan. I became a priest about fifty years ago, and as all priests back then, part of my initiation was a private meeting with the Lady.’

Emma had tried to get as much information about the last Lady and her life, in hwe quest to understand more about herself in a way, but this she hadn’t learned up to now.

‘It’s a practise kept secret within the House. The idea is that the Lady would know what path to put a priest on. A path best for his career, and most importantly; the House itself. I was a young man at the time, and she was roughly the same age you are now. You look exactly like her, which is no suprise considering your background.’

Emma appreciated that he stayed clear of the word `clone`. Although she was, she always felt it had a `you’re not a real person` ring to it.

‘Later, they told me the Lady rarely had such short talks with initiates. But of course it is a taboe for anyone in the church to ask about anothers conversation with the Lady, or to tell people about it. I was dissapointed in one way, but on the other hand, I was very excited; she told me to go to the Argolanis system for five years and then return to her, exactly five years after setting foot on the fourth planet for the first time. I knew little about such things, but I knew for certain she very rarely asked someone to visit her again later.’

‘And you went?’ Emma asked.

‘Of course!’ the priest stated firmly. ‘I was a young man, my head filled with the idea that working for the House is the same as working for God himself. But you see, on Argolanis IV, at that time, there was a world war going on. The House was present there for humanitarian aid, which we supplied, and I was assigned as personal assistent of the archbishop of Argolanis. The conflict was coming to an end, and only two mighty factions had managed to survive the war; the continent of Zadello and the large country of Pucallas. The Pucallians were powerful, and gaining ground on the Zadellans at an alarming rate. Then the Zadellans sought out an agreement with the archbishop; they would convert to the teachings of the House, dropping their own indigenous heathen beliefs, and asked the House to aid them to convert the rest of the planet. To my astonishment, the archbishop agreed, and made arrangements to supply the Zadellans with better weapons.’

‘That’s horrible,’ Emma wailed, adding another reason to the long list of why she didn’t like the House very much.

‘It was indeed,’ father McDougan agreed. ‘The tide turned and within three years all that did not want to convert were irradicated. I love God with all my heart child, but I do not believe he would ever condone genocide in his name. I can’t believe that. It was then that I realized, the House had strayed from the teachings of God, brought to us by the Great Prophets, and was now nothing more then a mallicious political organisation. It was with this insight I was ready to return to the Lady for my real purpose.’

Emma held her breath. She felt a lump in her stomache, but said nothing and listened intently.

‘The Lady told me the House had been abusing their power for centuries, and that the Ladies before her had played an important part in this. Not that it was their choice; they were all indoctrinated and abused by the leaders of the House. She taken it upon herself to take this power away from those who wielded it so carelessly. She explained me that the power of the Lady was twofold; she not only could see into past, present and future, she could also see the alternatives.’

He paused for a moment, and leaned back in his chair. Emma was at the tip of her seat now.

‘She knew I would now help her accomplish this. She told me I would be the only one within the House that would be aware of her plans, and that I would never betray her. She was right of course. She had started to move certain individuals into certain positions for years, and would continue to do so. She set the board so the House would slowly start to loose most of its power. Getting the Lady out of their hands was pivital for these plans. It was she who nudged a young priest named Nacavilla down a dark path which lead him to the Brotherhood with indepth knowledge of the Lady herself. This is how she arranged her own demise, you see.’

‘… and my creation!’ Emma cried out.

The priest nodded concurring. ‘She told me she felt she deserved a life, and this was the only way to have it. She also must have known you would make it out alive and well, knowing part of your true background.’

‘So she knows what my life will look like! Is that her message? Will I be happy with Jaydon? Will we…’

McDougan laughed, and shook his head. ‘Her message to you is this, she made me memorize it exactly. You now know the truth, or at least the part relavent to you. From beyond the grave, I give you this message. You are a duplicate of me, but also your own person. Your `future flashes` will stay with you until death, this I reveil to you. Trust them above anything else, they will save your life on several occaissions. At birth, I was gifted with the power of foresight. You have been gifted with the power of ignorance. Like all humans, you will not be able to see what will happen within your own lifetime. I envy you, my daughter. Live your life as you see fit knowing from here on, you will make your own choices. Follow your heart, and it will take you to places you never thought you could go.‘

Emma had hidden her mouth behind her hands. Dozens of feelings swirled in her mind, some conflicting with others. A tear rolled down her face.

‘You must tell no one of this. It was for your ears only. Even the man you came aboard with,’ McDougan strongly encouraged her to heed.

Emma nodded. She didn’t like to keep secrets from Jaydon, but she realized the advice came from the Lady herself; she wouldn’t have asked if there wasn’t a good reason for it.

‘It doesn’t mean you can’t trust him at all,’ the priest smiled. ‘It’s just that she wanted this to be known to you. Think not too much of it.’

‘I won’t,’ she vowed.

The priest got up from the chair. ‘Now, if you will excuse me, I have done what I came here to do, and have other matters to attend to.’ He smiled at Emma before leaving the room much like a father would smile to his daughter; full of pride and appriciation of they way she was handling her life. ‘Have a good life, child.’ With these words, he left Emma to her thoughts, and made his way to a small shuttle parked somewhere in one of the cargo bays.

It took Emma some time to calm her mind enough to rendezvous with Jaydon in the bar. There was too much to contemplate right now anyway. She realised it would take her many years to give all this information a proper place in her mind, and somehow looked forward to the process.

As she arrived in the bar, she greeted Nakita, and kissed Jaydon.

‘Is something wrong?’ he asked, sensing something was afoot.

‘No, it’s nothing,’ she replied with a smile. ‘Everything is perfect.’

Several thousands of miles from the station, the warpcore of a small shuttlecraft overloaded. Investigation would label it as a pilot error. The pilot had been an old man, in his eighties, who must have pushed a few wrong buttons causing the overload.