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47: The Tormentor
Constance sat in her holding cell in shock. The world she thought she'd known had just fallen apart, like a broken piece of glass, shattered beyond repair. The fragments of her life kept shifting around in her mind as she tried to make sense of everything that the Malha had told her. There was still a lot of doubt in her mind as to the veracity of what Aurelia had said, but deep in her heart, she knew that it was all true.
She stared at the wall, her eyes glazed over as she remembered her childhood – or rather, what childhood she'd been afforded. Her mother had done everything she could to ease the transitions Constance had had to go through. Now she knew why she had had to go through them.
Constance had known that her mother couldn't remember her own childhood, but now she knew why, and it broke her heart.
A silent tear ran down her cheek and dripped off of her chin, leaving a damp spot on her dress.
The cold, grey walls seemed to close in on her, forcing her collapsing world into a tiny, depressing box.
"How could she do that...? How could she?!" Constance clamped her eyes shut and clenched her teeth as she began to weep – for herself, her mother, the lost past, and the newly discovered family she might never have another chance to know...
The Malha had told her so much – so many unbelievable things, much of it being about the legendary Guardiana line.
She suddenly felt the tiny gold crown and its single jewel. It weighed on her head like a hundred thousand blocks of granite.
Her cell door suddenly opened and in stepped one of the guards she had seen several dozen times in the past few days.
"The Malha has summoned you." the guard droned.
Constance tried to hide her tears, swiping them away as quickly as she could. Then she sighed, and said, "She's ten minutes late."
The guard grunted, annoyed, then motioned for her to follow him, as he usually did.
Constance stood and crossed her cell, finally stepping out of the room and into the corridor. As she followed the guard, he took her a different way than he usually did. Typically their route didn't include any windows. The walk usually made Constance feel even more secluded than she already was.
Then, without warning, just up ahead of them, Constance saw an indentation in the wall. Her breath caught in her throat at the thought of finally being able to see the outside world again. She tried not to show her excitement.
She held her breath as they walked closer and closer to the window.
And then, they were there, right next to the glass pane. Constance turned her head to peer out of her prison, but instead of trees, or desert, or mountains, or anything else she'd expect to see on Gamilon, her eyes were met by the cold vacuum of a starry sky – space, in all its vastness, was laid out before her.
"We're not on Gamilon anymore then..." she despaired, "we're hurtling through space to who knows where." her eyes widened and the tears began to fall once again, "How will I ever leave if I've nowhere to go...?"
The thought terrified her and she felt like screaming, but she held it in, stepping past the viewport and following the guard to the Malha's prescribed meeting place.
"I see you've finally figured out that your little prison is a bit farther away from home than you thought, Mariposa." Aurelia taunted when Constance stepped into the Malha's chambers. "You may leave." she motioned for the guard to go. "So, where do you think your pathetic rescue will come from now, Princess?"
Constance didn't answer.
"Well?!" Aurelia demanded.
"I... I..." the young woman stuttered in response to the verbal attack. "I don't know." Suddenly Constance remembered something Masterson always used to say when things seemed impossible during their trek through Deun's territory. "But Adonai knows, and He will do whatever He wishes to, no matter how you try to stop Him."
"Ha!" Aurelia scoffed, "You have no right to speak of Adonai. The shêdim have told me that you do not possess His Spirit, so you are not one of His followers."
Constance's face fell as she realized that what the Malha said, was indeed true; then she despaired again as she remembered something else Masterson had once told her.
"To possess the Spirit of Adonai is to be untouchable by the shêdim, but to remain undecided is to become a prey for them."
A bolt of fear shot through Constance as she realized that she was utterly defenseless against the Malha and her hellish forces.
Aurelia chuckled, "So I see you've realized your vulnerability. But don't worry. I'll not grant you the power of hosting one of my servants – or even the Spirit of Guardiana itself – at least not yet, not until you're ready to be a suitable host."
Constance shivered, wondering what "not until you're ready" meant. She grasped at anything that might give her an advantage, then she played the only thing left in the hand she had been dealt – a bluff. "By now they all know I'm gone. They'll have sent someone after me. They'll catch you and throw you in a cell where you belong."
Aurelia guffawed as though this were the funniest thing she'd ever heard in her entire life. "You silly girl." she said, "I know they know you're gone. But it doesn't matter who they send after you; they've got bigger problems to deal with than one little lost girl." the woman smirked, "You see, we won't be staying in this galaxy. The time has come to take you back to the one place I know you won't be able to leave."
"And where's that?" Constance asked, a caustic tone in her voice.
"Oh, don't you wish you knew." Aurelia taunted. "But I will tell you this. My Sentinels are there, and they will make sure you don't get yourself into any... trouble after I entrust them to you for whatever time I shall have to be gone."
"Sentinels?" Constance's eyes widened again in surprise, then she thought through the rest of what the Malha had just said, "You're going to leave after you've dropped me off?"
"Oh indeed." the Malha said dismissively, "I've an errand to run once I've handed you off."
"How long will you be gone?" Constance asked, not expecting to receive an answer.
"Oh, several years I should imagine." the Malha sighed in insincere distress, "What shall you do to pass the time?" Aurelia suddenly grinned maliciously, "Oh yes! You'll be instructed by the Sentinels in the ways of the Guardiana."
The look on Constance's face morphed into one of revulsion and horror.
"You didn't just think they'd be preventing you from escaping did you?" Aurelia grinned, "There are many things a princess must learn before she becomes Queen, and you've a lot of learning to do, my dear girl."
"I won't do it." the defiance in Constance's voice returned as she thought of all she would lose if she gave in to this evil woman.
"Oh, you won't, will you? Well, we'll see about that, now won't we." The Malha snapped her fingers and the guard who'd escorted Constance here suddenly reappeared. "Take her back to her cell. And –" the Malha glanced down at a portable display she'd been holding, then smirked, "please tell the navigator to stop the ship."
"As you wish, Malha." The guard bowed to Aurelia, then obeyed and motioned for Constance to follow him.
The young woman did as she was asked, but not before casting a determined look back at the woman who had turned her life upside down within the space of a few days.
"The wrong trail..." Dara shook her head, "I took the wrong trail." she let her head fall into her hands as she slumped down into the pilot's chair, feeling as formless and useless as an uncooked loaf of bread dough. "Where have they taken you, neshamah sheli?" she thought in despair, "What will I do if I cannot find you?"
She was just about to turn the ship around and return to the juncture of the two ship trails she had been forced to choose between when suddenly her radar chimed and she sat up straight in her seat. "A ship!" she exclaimed to herself, then realizing that it would be best if they didn't see her, she hid in the only place available, a mass of unidentifiable debris floating a bit closer to the other ship.
"Oh lovely." Dara grimaced when she realized what she was hiding in, "Garbage."
Getting over her disgust, she studied the other ship as well as she could from this distance. There wasn't much she could make out with the naked eye, but her instruments and scans showed her much more than she had anticipated. Whatever class this ship was, she had never heard of it. It was able to see almost everything about the other vessel: system statuses, the number of people aboard, how big their computer was, their weapons array and its status, even the artificial gravity settings on that ship were now available for her to know about. The only problem was that the computer didn't tell her the one thing she wanted most to know.
"Is my daughter there?" she asked the ship A.I.
"Unknown." it replied, "Please provide a recent DNA specimen for reference."
"But I don't have –" she stopped mid-sentence, realizing that, although she didn't have Constance's DNA, she did have her own, which would have some similarities to her daughter's.
She quickly scrambled to provide the computer with what it asked for. Within a minute she had it.
"Checking for genetic code matches." the A.I. droned.
Dara held her breath as she waited the few agonizing seconds before the computer chimed, "No exact matches found. Two similar matches found."
Dara's brow furrowed in puzzlement. "Two?" then she shook it off, "They must have known a pursuer might do this; it must be a decoy signature, meant to lure me to the wrong location." she sighed heavily, "Then I must choose correctly the first time."
"Give me the locations of both signatures." Dara ordered.
The A.I. complied, displaying a map of the ship in question. One signature, displayed as a blue blip, was alone in a room, not moving very much at the moment. The second one was moving swiftly down what appeared to be a corridor.
"Display the rest of the crew's bio-signatures."
More little blips, colored orange instead of blue, scurried around every area of the ship, creating the appearance of an infested waste bucket.
There was one orange blip keeping up with the moving blue one. But there appeared to be at least two blips guarding the stationary blue one. The stationary one had to be Constance.
Dara watched for a moment, seeing the moving blip turn a corner into a small room and become stationary. The orange blip that had been with it stopped for a second, then continued on.
The blip that was being guarded appeared to pace from one end of a large room to the other, just as Constance might do if she were contemplating escape from her captors.
"At least she hasn't given up." Dara thought as she studied the activity of the other blips, trying to see if there were any patterns to their movements, but she knew she would have to hurry. The ship wouldn't stay here forever. In fact, it was odd that they were still drifting here. Shouldn't they have moved on already? Surely jettisoning the garbage wasn't something that took too terribly long to do.
She shook off the feeling of discomfort that had suddenly come over her. She had a chance to save her daughter from the Bolars who had taken her. It didn't matter if that meant putting herself in danger. It had to be done.
She took a deep breath, then let it out again, trying to calm herself before her daring attempt. It was her against a ship-full of the enemy. Her chances weren't good, at least, not at first glance, but her fierce love for her daughter made it seem just a bit less impossible.
She made sure the ship wasn't going anywhere, then she rushed down to the hangar and hopped into the one-man reconnaissance craft that had come with the ship.
She shot out of the hangar and righted herself so that she was facing the enemy ship. Then, as stealthily as she could, she made her approach.
Dara peaked around a corner, hoping that he way to the next hiding place was clear. To her surprise, it was.
It wasn't far now to the room where Constance was being kept.
She crept down the hall, darting into the cross-corridor, which was also mysteriously unoccupied. She repeated this until she could see the door to the room in question. There, stationed just as she had seen on her ship's display, were the two guards.
Right now they seemed relaxed, chattering to each other about something in a language Dara didn't know, but going by their tone of voice it was probably something akin to discussing the most recent sports competition on their homeworld.
Dara rolled her eyes and thought in minor exasperation, "Men... At least they're distracted."
A moment later the sound of metal clinking against metal made the guards look down the corridor, but by that time it was too late. The stun grenade was at their feet and they had no time to get out of the way.
Dara smiled to herself as she stepped over the two unconscious men and broke into the large room. It was rather simple to get through the lock's encryption. The electronic lock pick she'd been provided with had cut through it in under ten seconds.
The door slid open, allowing her to enter, then it shut behind her, leaving her standing just inside a very dark, very lonely room. There were two large viewports, one on either side of the room, displaying the grandeur of space and simultaneously letting its cold fingers in through the glass. The room was just a hair above freezing – at least, that's what it felt like to Dara after spending so many years near Gamilon's equatorial region.
"Connie!" she whispered loudly, "Connie, where are you? I'm here to take you back."
Footsteps approached from out of the darkness.
"There you are." Dara said, "Come on, before the guards wake up."
The form continued its slow progress towards Dara.
"Didn't you hear me? We have to hurry. Come on now."
The figure reached the viewport set in the left bulkhead. The sheen of red hair was easily seen in the light of the stars, as well as the glow of lightly-colored skin, but then Dara saw the glint of violet eyes pierce through the shadows and she felt like she'd been stabbed through the heart.
"Who – who are you?" Dara pointed accusingly at the phantasm who bore many similarities to her daughter, but was by no means Constance.
The woman laughed, "Dara, Dara, Dara. I should think you would at least remember me to some extent. After all, I visited you a number of times in your younger years."
Dara stood in shock. "But – but you – I haven't – what?!" Confusion swirled around inside Dara and, as much as she tried, she couldn't stop it. "You... you're younger... How...?"
"Oh, I have my ways." the woman smirked, "And by that ghostly shade you've turned it appears you do remember."
"You..." Dara whispered, still in shock as something from her past suddenly reappeared in her mind's eye, "You took me... You're the reason I came to be under that nachash's 'tender mercies.' You threw me to the wolves..."
"Oh Dara, don't be silly. I didn't 'throw you to the wolves' as you put it. I merely strategically placed my resources."
"I am not a sack of potatoes that you may toss wherever you wish." Dara was suddenly very angry. "I am a person whose life you stole!"
"My dear girl, I may do whatever I so please." the woman retorted condescendingly.
"No. You. Can't." Dara enunciated every word.
"And who's going to stop me? You? Your daughter? That new Gamilon Leader of yours?" the woman scoffed, "I think not."
A thick silence fell between the two women. Then Dara finally spoke, "Where is my home, and why did you take me from it?"
The woman chuckled, "Oh, so you don't remember everything then." she laughed again, this time louder, "Your home is obvious, is it not? You've been to Gamilon. You've seen her people."
"So Gamilon is my home then." Dara said.
The woman laughed, "Did you ever have any doubt about that once you arrived?"
Dara thought about it for a moment, then realized that, once planet-side, she had felt more at home than she could ever remember feeling during the portion of her life that she could remember. "No..." she admitted.
"Now... as for the 'why,' I'm afraid that answer must remain my little secret. But, I will tell you that your Mariposa has grown into a fine princess."
"Princess?" Dara asked, "You know of her heritage?"
The woman guffawed again, "I should think so!"
"As the daughter of the Cometine Prince – "
Dara was cut off by the uproarious laughter that emanated from the woman in the shadows, "Oh, you fool! You can't see what's right in front of your face! You daughter may be the child of Prince Zordar, this is true, but she is also much, much more than that, Lady Daratina of Gamilon."
Dara's eyes widened in disbelief. "Wha – I – it cannot be! Lady Daratina was lost... about the time... I was seven years old..."
"Making some connections are we?" the woman asked, obviously amused. "It's just too bad you didn't discover them sooner. Perhaps you might have been the once I sought out instead of your charming daughter."
Suddenly Dara felt two hands grab her shoulders in a vice-like, iron grip.
"Ah, it's about time you showed up." the woman said to whoever had grabbed Dara. "Take this... woman... to a life pod and prepare to jettison her on the nearest habitable planet."
Dara's captor turned her towards the door, but before they could make it all the way out the woman stopped them again.
"Oh, and Fiske, please do make sure to retrieve her ship from the garbage cloud. It would be such a waste to leave a perfectly good ship floating around out here with no one to use it."
"Yes, Malha." the man named Fiske replied.
Something clicked in Dara's head and pieces began to fall into place as she put together things from her past and things that the woman had just said. Then she realized the reason that there had been two near DNA matches when she'd searched for Constance. "Malha!? The Malha Guardiana! Aurelia Guardiana... My own grandmother..."
With that realization, she began to weep.