King Reyard took
the podium, and called for quiet…and finally got it.  Tears stung his eyes,
as he gazed down at the two flag draped coffins that lay on a platform before
him.
        “My friends – we are brought here today
– to pay the last respects of two of Meldaron’s most valiant warriors.  Corporal
Inari Vanstar and Commander Whitetail.  Both served with honour, distinction
and valour – and courage.  Now, we shall consign their bodies to the flames,
not with heavy hearts, but with joyous ones, as we know, that they’re spirits
have gone, to a much more beautiful place.”  Spoke the King quietly.
Lt. Cmdr. Deerinea reached out, and dragged the sobbing Corporal Glider, then
buried his head against her furred chest, and stroked the back of his head comfortingly,
her own tears sliding down her furred cheeks.  Wails of grief and torment
come from the gathered soldiers and civilians, as the guard of honour troopers
raised their rifles and fired off a 21 gun salute, as the flags were slowly slid
from the coffins and folded, then handed to King Reyard.  He accepted them
gravely, then stepped down and approached Lt. Cmdr. Deerinea and Corporal Glider.

    Alpha Barracks,
Later That Night.

    As Maloner base slept, Corporal Glider
sat alone in the barracks, cradling the blood stained helm that had been all
that was recovered, when they found the remains of Cmdr. Whitetail and Corporal
Inari.  Corporal Glider sat on his hard military bunk, the same bunk, which
his late, beloved daughter had slept in.  He stared down at the helm, and
the inset crystal catching the light and reflecting it back, mirroring the tears
that ran down his cheeks unheeded.  As he gazed deeper in to it, something
ran its whisper like fingers through his mind…and there came a plaintive cry,
a voice, he knew all too well….
    “…Father…. help me!….”  Come the tortured
plea, as if from a thousand light years away.
Corporal Glider screamed and dropped the helm, then burst in to tears, as he
tried to banish the voice from his head…the voice of his deceased daughter.

    “No – ” Corporal Glider wept.  “Please Millar – have
I not suffered enough?  Please do not torture me so….”
Leaving the helm lying on the ground, Corporal Glider rose and fled the barracks,
tears streaking down his face.  From no-where, come the cry once more…tinged
with fear and agony that was beyond mortal comprehension.
    “Please…help me!”
Softly, the voice faded away in to silence, leaving Alpha Barracks silent once
more….

    Lt. Cmdr. Deerinea’s
Quarters, Maloner Base, Maloner, Pearldinea.

    When a startled Lt. Cmdr. Deerinea
opened the door – she squealed as Corporal Glider leapt upon her.  With
a yelp, she sidestepped instinctively and her paw smashed down across his neck
– driving him to the floor.  Corporal Glider collapsed like a bundle of
sticks and Lt. Cmdr. Deerinea blinked, then moaned and dragged him up in to
a sitting position.
    “What – ” Corporal Glider gurgled, as he clutched at his
head.  “Did you get the number – of that Starcrusher?”
    “Corporal – ” Lt. Cmdr. Deerinea moaned.  “I
could have killed you!  What in Millar’s name has gotten in to you?”

Corporal Glider gurgled and put his head in his shaking hands, as he burst in
to tears.  Closing and locking the door, Lt. Cmdr. Deerinea knelt and took
his hands in her paws.
    “Corporal – what’s wrong?”  Lt. Cmdr. Deerinea whispered.

    “I – ” Corporal Glider wept.  “I heard her – ”
    Blinking, Lt. Cmdr. Deerinea looked at her friend. 
“Heard – who?”
    “Inari!”  Corporal Glider wailed.
    “Oh sweet Millar – ” Lt. Cmdr. Deerinea wept, as she cradled
Corporal Glider’s head and wept.  “Glider – she’s gone….”
    “You – do not understand!”  Corporal Glider wailed. 
“She’s not dead….”

    Tenderly disengaging the clinging
human, Lt. Cmdr. Deerinea fixed him a stiff Altarian brandy, then pressed it
in to his quaking hands.  In one swallow, he drank the potent liquor and
choked, his eyes watering…but it brought him to a semblance of rationalisation.

    “Corporal – ”  Lt. Cmdr. Deerinea began quietly. 
“Corporal Inari – and Commander Whitetail – were killed….”
Shaking, Corporal Glider set down the glass and looked at her.  Lt. Cmdr.
Deerinea’s ears slicked back, and her eyes widened as she saw the very real
intent within his haunted eyes.
    “You – ”  Lt. Cmdr. Deerinea began.
    “You remember that crystal inset helm Inari always wore?” 
Corporal Glider whispered.
Lt. Cmdr. Deerinea nodded slowly.
    “I do not know how – but somehow….”  Corporal Glider
began.  “I…was holding it in my hands…thinking about Inari – and somehow…it
was so clear!  I heard her voice!”
    Sadly, Lt. Cmdr. Deerinea patted the humans quivering shoulder. 
“Corporal – she is gone….  I know it hurts, and I am sorry if I sound
so cruel – but there is nothing we can do, to bring her, or Cmdr. Whitetail
– back.”
    Corporal Glider leapt to his feet, then glared at her. 
“You don’t believe me – do you?”
    Lt. Cmdr. Deerinea sighed sadly, then looked down at her
paws.  “Corporal…Glider…how can you expect me to believe such a thing?”

    Corporal Glider stared at her a moment longer, then turned
away and walked towards the door.  “You do not believe me – and I can not
hold that against you.  I will however – prove you to be wrong – may Millar
herself be damned, as Inari is alive…and I’ll prove it.”

        Temple
of the Eye of Infinity, Blue Moon Valley

    After the Tashan shuttle had touched
down on the Temple’s landing pad, Corporal glider met the tired looking human
priest and marched purposefully in to the main chamber of the Temple, clutching
the helm in his shaking hands.  Reverently, he knelt at the altar and laid
the helm on it and bowed his head.  After a few moments, he felt the presence
of Millar’s and heard her soft sigh of pain.
    “Millar – ”  Corporal Glider began.
    “Glider – I know why you are here….”  Come
the telepathic voice.  “This is unforeseen – and unfortunate.”
    Corporal Glider nearly exploded in rage, as his hands clenched. 
“Unfortunate?  My daughter is dead…and you stood by and did nothing!”

There was a moments silence, then Millar’s telepathic voice snapped out at Corporal
Glider, nearly driving him mad with its intensity.
    “I did nothing?”  It raged.  “Nothing? 
Do you think I stood by and let my child get destroyed…because I so wished
it?  Do you think so little of me?  I was incapable
of doing anything…  Had I known another of the Dark Star Dragon’s
existed…do you think I would have dared to allow two of my chosen –
to go in to battle so unprepared?”

    Corporal Glider rose slowly, then
faced the altar and leaned heavily on it, then struggled to withhold his growing
anger.
    “You’re a Goddess….”   He growled. 
“You’re meant to prevent these sorts of things!”
Without warning, a bolt of emerald lightning leapt from the statue and smashed
in to Glider’s chest, throwing him ten feet backwards in to the pews. 
Gasping and choking, he lay there, as if stunned.
    “I may be a Goddess – that is true,”  Millar’s
rage surged around him.  “However – even the Gods and Goddess’s make
mistakes!  I admit it!  Yes…I made a terrible mistake.  We
are not infallible human…as your pathetic race seems to think. 
You are not even one of my children!  I gave you your powers – and
this is how you repay me?  How was I too know…that there was another
Dark Star Dragon?  When we imprisoned them – it was in the belief that
all of them had been destroyed or imprisoned!  I know the Schinicin
Emperor had slipped through our net, but through Silverfox Relahstar, who fulfilled
her destiny…and destroyed him….  What I did not know – was that
he had a daughter!  Yes – human – he had a daughter…and
now – my two greatest warriors have been cut down, and I am powerless to do
anything about it….  You dare too come before me…and accuse
me of doing nothing, when nothing is exactly…what I am allowed to do?”

    “I….” Corporal Glider wept.
    “There is nothing I can do Glider – as when the Deities
that survived imprisoning the Dark Star Dragons…were sworn to never interfere
again. All that I can tell you – is that we invoked two ancient and powerful
artefacts…. These artefacts were even more powerful that we were – they
were infinitely more ancient, than we ourselves. We were like children playing
with fire – such was how we felt when we used these artefacts to create the
Dark Star Dragon’s prison, and to lure them in to the trap…and it was hoped
– forever entrap them. Once our achievement had been completed – the two artefacts
– were sundered and scattered to the winds of the universe. No one – be they
human, anthro, Dark Star Dragon or God – should ever have such power
in their hands. No – it is my fears – that this young Dark Star Dragon – is
even now, searching for the pieces of the two artefacts. What frightens me the
most – is that a Dark Star Dragon – can – given the time, sunder the
locks of the prison and return their evil to our Galaxy once more. If this happens,
then we can do nothing to stop them…as they will destroy not only us, but all
within the Universe….” Come Millar’s scathing reply.

    “If – ” Corporal Glider sobbed.
    “If – ” Millar echoed. “Someone does not find the
pieces of the artefacts first – then all will be destroyed.”
Corporal Glider crawled back to his feet, then once again approached the altar.
An emerald glow formed before it, and from this shimmering field, stepped the
Goddess’s avatar. It turned its head to stare at Corporal Glider, who wilted
under that pupil-less gaze.
    “What – do we do…to save Inari?” Corporal Glider wept softly.

Sadly, Millar’s turned to look down at the crystal inset helm, and then she
bowed her head and sighed.
“Nothing – as there is nothing that I can do to help her….” Millar’s
replied. “I wish there was.”

    In The Depths
of Space

    Alone in the hostile blackness of
space, floated a massive reptilian form. From nose to tail tip, it measured
over 300’ long, with ebony black scales on its back, a greenish/white under
her throat and down the stomach and belly. Its eyes were closed and to all accounts
– it appeared to be dead. Far from being dead, it was in a deep meditative state.
After its crushing defeat and its failure to destroy Corporal Inari – it had
flown in to a rage unrivalled in the history of the Galaxy, since the capture
and imprisonment of its people – the Dark Star Dragons. It had never suffered
such a defeat – and its rage was incalculable. As it meditated on how this had
happened – it came in to awareness of itself – and its purpose.

    It had a name – Bloodfang – and she
was the sole child of the former Schinicin Emperor. He spoke to her in her dreams
– telling her their legends, their history…and above all – how they had been
trapped and imprisoned…with a single handful managing to foresee the trap, and
escape with their lives. Like the sun rising above the rim of a world – Bloodfang’s
eyelids cracked open and their silvery glow blazed out in to the darkness. As
she came fully back to consciousness, her eyes blazed with a silvery incandescence
– that rivalled the bright stars in the firmament, that glittered like precious
diamonds scattered over the velvet of space….

    Yes – she had a name – and now
– she had a purpose…revenge for that which had befallen her people…and
she would not rest, until she had found the key – and then in turn, unlocked
the dimensional prison that the Dieties had banished her people too…. 
This time – the Dieties would not be so complacent – as they would be
stricken from the memories of all…as when the Dark Star Dragon’s returned,
they would bring this Galaxy to its knees….

End?…