Celestus had temporarily returned to his ship, currently sunk beneath the North Sea, off the coast of Scotland and was considering his next move. He was aware that he was probably the only member of The Balance, whose background was still completely unknown to Labyrinth. He again warned Oracle and the Ziru Sirkan embassy to beware of hacking attempts or espionage aimed at collecting information about him.
Furthermore, he had a few outstanding personal issues to investigate. Magnus needed to know how the Terran girl Bethany had come into possession of a protection seal of the Ziru Sirkan Imperial Royal Family, and whether the mysterious Gis Kagaar, the only Ziru Sirkan pupil at her school noted in the Embassy records, had something to do with it.
The presence of the Royal Seal on this backwater planet was the most pressing. That meant interviewing the girl around whose neck it resided, in the hope that time had weakened her resolve to not discuss the matter with him.
The answer to that lay in a visit to Claremont Academy and a meeting with both Gis Kagaar (though he was apparently no longer a student there anymore but another Vilani student was or were they the same person?) and Bethany.
Celestus was aware that the girl Bethany’s estranged father might be linked to Labyrinth. As a result he wasn’t totally sure he could trust her, despite Bethany having the full trust of the other members of the Balance.
Oracle had uncovered that a few years before one of the Vilani Emperors nephews had been on Terra visiting the Embassy. It wasn’t anyone he knew from Court, but he had been a Prince of the Vilani Imperium and would have had a seal. This Prince Tamesha Naasirkaa had died (been killed) whilst on a visiting Zultasian battlecruiser on a ‘diplomatic visit’ from the Breakaway Star Khan’s territory. Something about the whole affair hadn’t rang totally true to him.
Some members of the Balance had been present for the exchange, but he wasn’t ready to ask them yet. He wanted more information, especially if the Terrans had killed the Prince themselves as rumoured by some Zultasians stationed here on Terra.
He was willing to risk a quick chat with the Balance’s AI Frankie who admitted that a youth called Ashen (now interning with the Cymru Dragons) had masqueraded as a student from the Ziru Sirka to prevent the Zultasian Ambassador from investigating the school further.
The Star Khan had believed they had a pupil from the Ziru Sirkan Empire attending the school and wanted his ‘roaming ambassador’ to meet with him and refused to accept that they did not have a Vilani pupil attending. In reality, they did and apparently didn’t want them to find out whom.
So Ashen, an albino Meta, became Gis Kagaar from the planet of Khunsgulur; a race, Vilani-descended, who had similar looks sufficient to fool ‘Duke’ Sebastibol from the court of the Star Khan.
It had subsequently resulted in a three-way fight in the school. Frankie was not able to find out more as the school wasn’t willing to say anything further though they were willing to agree to a visit.
No time like the present. He went in his Magnus identity rather than in his Celestus persona and was immediately ushered into the head teachers office where he was vetted by the head teacher, a Mr Summers who wanted him to confirm his reasons for visiting.
Mr Summers was friendly but refused to state outright who he had been covering for though the later ambush (or ambushes as there were apparently two different groups of off-worlders involved – yes he admitted that it was very confusing!) confirmed that they were justified in their paranoia, but thanks to Celestus’s links to the Balance his request to meet with Bethany and ‘one other’ was agreed.
Interestingly, he’d been scanned several times by concealed weapon detectors and asked to wear a power inhibitor collar while on school grounds though that didn’t affect either his enhanced strength or his newly gained powers though it did prevent him from flying.
He was directed to cross the school grounds to the mansion on the hill where he would be met.
He assumed he would be speaking with Bethany, but instead he was meet by a congregation of people. The first to greet him was a ‘sport’, a spine-headed genetically bred Bilanidin “Vadaka-aii” a psychic mutant with grafted in alien physical defences (her missile-like spines). One of a series of such breed to be guards to the Vilani high nobility. Wary of him when introduced she asked to be called Rhan, just Rhan – no titles, rank or other identifier and with her was a very familiar face – his youngest step-sibling Ishugi!
They were accompanied by several Terran females in body armour immediately taking up defensive positions around the room and the young prince. Mysterious magical forces, psionic and meta abilities intermingled in these school girls, and he was sure that the angry-looking red skinned female hovering beside the Prince would be able to give him a worthy challenge physically if necessary. In addition, the blonde female manifesting shaped pyrokinetic abilities would also prove difficult though for some reason it was their leader with her calm demeaner and the young girl beside her with the skull-faced markings on her face that he was sure would be his biggest threat if they elected to attack.
Prince Ishugi Naasirkaa, the youngest Son of the Shadow Emperor, stepped out from behind the crowd and stared at him. Celestus had once saved his life by ‘interfering’ in a formal duel to protect him and as a result, was exiled. He was now a teenager, not dressed in the royal uniform he was entitled to wear, but dressed in the uniform of this school.
“I’m Ishugi Viisarikaa and you are…?” Then enlightenment crossed his face followed by a spectrum of emotions… Doubt, surprise, fear and then apparently joy as a big smile crossed his face. “Prince Shilekhtus! It’s good to see you, brother!” He immediately rushed over and, to Celestus’s utter surprise, hugged him.
Ambassador Archduke Ty’dea Viisarikaa — Ishugi had taken the Archduke’s family name – did that mean he was aware of Ishugi’s presence on Terra and was helping to hid him?
He hugged the boy back as his Amazonian cadre of bodyguards and Rhan relaxed. “What brought you here to this system so far from home, little brother?” He pushed him back slightly and looked him up and down. “Though little no longer, you’ve grown!”
Ishugi smiled. “I was sent on a quest by our High Father, to seek out the origins of the Sphere barrier starting here in the hope it might be used to blockade in the Star Khan and his fleet. Unfortunately when I arrived here I was betrayed by the Zultasian staff in the Embassy though they thought me a cousin rather than an heir. I was saved by the Ambassador who knew my true identity and some local heroes. It ended my quest as I had to hide here in this school. I am a failure brother, I have not uncovered the source though in fairness I do not believe it’s here on this planet but is located in the system somewhere but without access to a ship to explore…”
When questioned, Ishugi admitted he had a fondness for Bethany but had kept his distance in case The Star Khan ever discovered his deception, as he didn’t want her to be endangered because of him but had gifted her his protection seal as a gift.
They spent the next hour just talking and as he left Celestus promised he would return and visit the boy again soon.
As he left the school, that only left him the other mysteries to resolve; such as who his mother was and how she had been able to gift him the powers of a Star Knight.
He suspected that she had been a Star Knight herself who had been captured by his father’s soldiers and made his concubine… The only background he know about her was she had been captured in Dagudashaag Sector, which is 100’s of parsecs away during a local rebellion… the Star Knights were a myth and a legend across the whole Imperium. He had no idea where to find out more, other than possibly through his dreams..?
The sphere, the mysterious forcefield that had made travel inside its area dangerous if not deadly, was another matter. He’d heard the others discuss an alien city located in the outer reaches of the solar system, and he wondered if he might find a clue to the barrier there.
While he could survive in space, he needed his ship repaired to cut down on the travel time needed to reach there. So that quest had to be put on hold while he tinkered around trying to fix and make it space worthy again.
- NOTES: The Ziru Sirka contains 27 sectors (Typical density is 350 to 650 solar systems per sector) with over 15,000 inhabited worlds and over 500 sentient races so they had little incentive to investigate such a deadly area as the Sphere until it collapsed and Daedalus arrived from Terra…
- The barrier was active for 25 parsecs around the Sol system that caused severe misjumps stopping ships from outside the barrier from entering the sphere. It vanished over a hundred years before, at approximately the same time as meta-humans began to appear on Earth.
Daedalus estimates this occurred in or around the 30 June 1908; the date of the Tunguska event. The Russians claim this was the date the first meta appeared — the west however believes it occurred a year later… - The first official contact with aliens was contact with the Ziru Sirka on the 11th of November 1990 when a Vilani diplomatic mission entered the Solar System and broadcast their peaceful intensions to the entire world, but the fact that G.R.E.E.T. was already in existence at this point showed that the UN had been expecting such a visit. Permission for the Ziru Sirka to set up a diplomatic mission on Earth was subsequently agreed after several years of negotiation.
- In the 1980s Daedalus is believed to have built what the Vilani describe as an experimental jump-3 starship which made contact with the Ziru Sirka in the Vega system resulting in the decision by the Ziru Sirka to send out a diplomatic mission to explore the area of the sphere starting at the epicentre of the barrier — which led to the discovery of the Sol system and Terra.
- It is now understood that an alien race (known as the Ancients or Preservers) likely visited the Earth about -28,000 BCE and some scientists (both human and Vilani) believe this apparently reptilian-like race may have removed humans (both Homo sapiens and other sub-races) before genetically adapting them to live on other worlds across the galaxy. This is believed to be the first contact with alien lifeforms and may be the origin of the various human races that exist.
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 