The Starlight Prophecy; pgs. 166-171

Chapter 27

AURU LEFT the Death Legion War Council and tried to leave his alarming thoughts behind, heading for his Zaagon command center. Along the way, a peculiar idea struck him. The Vaangeez galaxy was nothing more than an irritating speck of dust in the scheme of things. Yet, the Aagaa Zaagon were willing to die for it.

Aagaatar, a cold-blooded killer made it so. Auru was aghast, thinking it tragic that a demented Aagaa Zaagon leader held the fate of the Vaangeez galaxy in his black claw. He entered his command center and Aleana’s dazzling smile ended his dark reverie, he wondered whether rumors about the Earth aliens were true.

* * *

Garlig burst from the photon pulse tube on Aagaatar’s Zaagon Citadel. He was ablaze in its energy and triumphant as if he had single handedly defeated the Star people. He could hardly wait to tell Aagaatar that he had won over the Death Legion Commanders, and they had surrendered to his will and war plan—the Thaaton Death Formation was already in progress.

In the meantime, Soulmaa sat nervously waiting for Garlig to return following her union with Taaya. She wanted to wait until Aagaatar and Garlig were distracted before going to Lyn’s rescue. Once Lyn’s condition was stable, she would contact Mala; and they would join forces to help the Stargirls. She felt the weight of the universe on her shoulders, knowing, she alone could save her. Finally, she sensed Garlig’s black aura and went to Lyn. She hoped the curative herb Moria she had prepared would restore Lyn’s health.

Lyn lay motionless as Soulmaa entered the cell. The deadly smell of OT seeped from Lyn’s flesh, infusing the cell with a virulent odor. The drug meant to paralyze Lyn’s body and control her free will. She lay nude, shivering in cold sweat, while a foul-smelling blanket lay beside her.

Soulmaa shook her. She was unresponsive.

Soulmaa whispered in her ear, fearing detection by Zurkaas. She lifted Lyn’s head and mopped her face with her robe, then covered her with the filthy blanket. She sprinkled Moria’s white powder into her palm and gently blew the potent drug into Lyn’s face. She stopped and listened to her breathing, short and irregular, that broke into a gasp for life while her white face transformed into a pink rose complexion. Lyn’s breathing eased; she coughed and opened her eyes. Her pupils were dilated and unfocused. “Lyn, its Soulmaa. She waited for a response for what seemed forever. “Lyn, can you hear me?” She vigorously shook her and said, “Wake up.” Soulmaa’s third eye stared, as if willing her to rise from the dead.

Lyn’s voice cracked. “Yes.” Soulmaa smiled. “Can you see me?” “Everything’s a blur.”

“Good, your vision returns.” “Where am I? Who are you?”

Lyn’s questions were the product of memory loss from OT—but an encouraging sign of her increasing awareness of her surroundings.

Soulmaa hesitated, knowing Lyn would soon recover her memory. A spine-tingling scream caused Soulmaa to jump. She quickly silenced the scream with her hand over Lyn’s mouth. Lyn’s body thrashed to free herself from the nightmare that imprisoned her. Her screams were now subdued.

Soulmaa wrestled to control her, shouting in desperation, “Lyn, stop, stop, and look at me.” Lyn’s brute strength shocked Soulmaa, who released her hold on Lyn’s mouth to pinion her shoulders to the floor.

She kicked furiously . . . then suddenly stopped and relaxed.

Lyn stared at the strange olive-brown face with a distinctive set of three eyes that floated above her. Bewildered it was a human-looking face, she said, “Soulmaa, is that you?”

“Yes.”

“How can this be?”

“Looks are deceiving. Truth lies deeper than snakeskin.” “I’m confused.”

“Little wonder, after all you’ve been through.” “What happened?”

“You were drugged and near death.”

Lyn heard Soulmaa’s words, but jumbled in her mind. Her mind whirled in chaos, images of the Afar and Max’s death to the cataclysmic quake and their journey to the center of the Earth—and beyond, to Bhatra, Garlig’s terror, and Aagaatar’s living hell. She struggled to put the pieces together when Soulmaa’s words—near death—shook her.

Then clarity, like tumblers to a massive vault, fell into place and freed her mind. She grasped reality and gently brushed Soulmaa’s cheek. “I think I’m back, but what of the Stargirls?”

“Your sisters live but are close to defeat. I am afraid; a replica of you has fooled them into yielding to Aagaatar’s black claw. Soon he will summon them and use the Golden Star’s power against the Star people. We must prevent this evil. We must contact Mala.”

“Who’s Mala?” “You don’t know?” “No.”

“Lyn, she is your Star Guide, sent to you at birth to raise you as Stargirls.” Lyn, staggered by the revelation, found the strength to sit up. The apparition in her dreams had a name.

“You did say Mala?”

“Yes. Mala is a Star Warrior Priestess.” “Soulmaa, this is incredible.”

“Yes, we must contact her.” “How can you reach her?”

“I have my ways, but that’s not the problem.”

“What?”

“By circumstance, we are enemies; she will think it’s a trick.”

“What are you going to do?”

“That’s where you come in—she will believe you.” She placed an Adacian seed in Lyn’s palm. “Do you trust me?”

“Yes, with my life.”

“Eat of this seed so we can communicate with Mala.”

Lyn chewed the bitter seed, while Soulmaa took her hands in hers.

Their minds left their bodies to find Mala.

* * *

Mala was fighting her own battle against Aagaatar, as psychic barriers sent her reeling into fantastic dimensions of space-time. Lost in astral space, she noticed a rupture in Aagaatar’s Tranpsyonic defenses and attacked.

She burst through several vibration levels when she heard a faint voice call to her.

“Mala . . . Mala.” To her surprise the voice said, “It’s Lyn.” “Lyn it cannot be?”

“Yes, it is your Star child.”

“I had given up hope when hope finds me.” “I came with Soulmma to defeat Aagaatar.”

“What sorcery has Aagaatar conjured to defeat me?”

Lyn’s voice resolute, “Soulmaa is Taaya’s Star rebel leader; she saved me from certain death.”

“Your words are persuasive, but how do I know you are not under her spell?”

Soulmaa cut in, “Your instincts speak to the survival of our species. If we fail to act, Aagaatar’s Final Solution will be our legacy. Do you want that?”

“Your words are correct, but slippery. What proof can you offer?” “Taaya told me to tell you that you are Star sisters.”

“Star sisters—you must be mad to think I would believe that.” “Taaya said to travel back in time to your 30th birthday. The answer lies there.”

“Lies!”

“For God’s sake, Mala, listen to Soulmaa. You are my Star Mother,” Lyn pleaded.

Mala, confronted with her nemesis and not knowing what to think, fearing Lyn controlled by a psychic ventriloquist when her thoughts interrupted.

“Mala, use Freeze Time to imprison us while you seek the truth.” Mala gazed into Soulmaa’s third eye, reflecting her pure intentions. Mala knew what she had to do.

“So be it.” She raised and spread her fingers wide. Lyn’s attention was transfixed on her Star Mother when a stream of cosmic rays bombarded their energy fields, creating a brilliant collision of photon particles that immobilized them. The radical collisions released dark matter that tore the fabric of the universe, causing an alternate reality to bulge through the tear. It gave birth to a ninth-dimension bubble that trapped them, without time.

Mala focused her mind on what lie hidden within the memories of her 30th birthday. How could a personal moment in her past change the future’s course, bringing her, Soulmaa and the Stargirls together to defeat Aagaatar and his Final Solution? The possibility overwhelmed her mind. She wondered whether the past two hundred years of her life and the culmination of all her actions unfolded from a premonition brought on from the past—an anticipation of the choice she just made to trust Soulmaa and journey into the past.

She felt a decision—made long ago—called for her to observe something in her obscure past that would set off a chain reaction, change her possible futures into this exact moment, and establish her past as real. She realized it was a paradox of quantum space-time.

Her mind dawdled like a small child approaching something unknown with trepidation and excitement. At first blush, her response embarrassed her—then she accepted it as natural while zeroing in on what she must accomplish, considering the lives of so many at stake. She focused her psychic powers on the celebration of her 30th birthday, a time that held little meaning until now.

Mala’s journey into the past was daunting even for a Star Warrior Mystic as her mind opened a psychic time portal, and she saw the haze of the universe’s birth and the blur of the universe’s future’s horizon. A brilliant flash of light drew her attention; she locked on her 30th year time pulse, as time flowed backwards. Time vacillated wildly as scenes of her life blurred together, at other times abruptly stopped, making what she heard or witnessed humorous.

Then a particular slice of time struck her funny—when she saw herself as a student engrossed in a time experiment in which she accidentally ran into a younger version of herself. Her younger self was out on a date and spilled a pink drink down the front of her white top, causing her to feel mortified. Mala, shocked by the chance encounter, pressed her time-escape button and fled. It was an improbable quantum entangled moment; her adviser used as a textbook example, illustrating the importance of the emotional aspects of time travel, much to Mala’s chagrin.

Mala now laughed at her awkward response. She had learned to remove herself from the time equation and focused on her 30th birthday. She traveled back with resolve to find the truth, when time suddenly gave up its enlightening secret.

Tears of anguish rained down the cheeks of Mala’s mother, Tia. She tried to hold back her tears afraid her sobs would awaken Mala and spoil her birthday; but despite her efforts, they gushed unhindered. Mala lay quietly listening to her mother’s torment.

Ilona, Tia’s best friend, held her, comforting her, and said, “You did your best, and you did the right thing.”

Tia moaned, “I do not know.” She pinched her forehead to ward off a headache while a deeper pain gnawed at her. “Ilona, our secret breaks my heart. What can we do?”

“We swore an oath to protect Mala from genetic prejudice. Have you forgotten?”

“Never, but I feel regret?” “Tia, we had no other choice.”

“I know, but what tears at me is Mala and your daughter, Taaya will never know they are twins and that you are Mala’s surrogate mother. But, for the sake of Mala, our secret will go to the grave with us—they can never be Star sisters.” Her words imprinted on Mala’s childish mind— which Mala now comprehended. She was astonished that she was Taaya’s twin sister and saddened her mother carried the burden of her birth to the grave.

Mala stared into the image of her mother’s tear-stained face and said, “Mom, I love you—” Unexpectedly, time reversed, sending Mala back to the future, feeling she was reborn as the twin sister of Taaya.

Mala gaped into the ninth-dimension; she felt Soulmaa and Lyn’s energy vibrations. She thought nothing has changed, yet everything is changed. She now understood Quastar’s inexplicable words, “He wages psychic war but is no match for you, and Soulmaa is another matter. She is a proud Trion Warrior; you must discern her intentions for yourself.” She now knew Soulmaa’s intent and looked deeper into the ninth space-dimension bubble she had created, wondering whether their combined powers could triumph over the evil forces they faced.

She raised her hand and unleashed a wave of dark energy, causing the ninth-dimension membrane to collapse and release Lyn and Soulmaa back to three-dimensional reality. They stared at each other. Mala wondered what they had experienced in Freeze Time, while Soulmaa and Lyn were confused about whether they were entering or exiting Freeze Time, with no memory of either. The sudden reentry into the flow of time confused them. The arrow of time held no meaning for them—it seemed to flow forward and backward, hence their perplexed expressions.

Mala realized their time decompression and said, “Welcome . . . back . . . you are . . . okay . . . You’re … just . . . experiencing . . . time . . . decompression . . . welcome . . . back.” Mala’s words strung out in slow motion sounded bizarre and made Lyn laugh.

Soulmaa found her voice first. “Did you find it?” “Yes, I found the truth thanks to you.”

“Fantastic, all goes as planned, except for one wrinkle.” “Wrinkle?”

“The Stargirls are in trouble. Aagaatar created a clone of Lyn that manipulates them to defeat us.”

Mala considered the dire news and said, “Lyn, she is a part of you, and only you can persuade her she is wrong. Then we must switch your bodies, so you can join your sisters to sabotage Aagaatar’s invisible Ullusion Defense.”

Soulmaa said, “I can make the transformation happen.” Lyn said, “But how?”

“You must link with her. Trust your Star power. I will do the rest.” “Mala, I’ll do my best.”

Soulmaa said, “We must have a three-prong attack. Lyn rejoins her sisters; the Avengtrons and I destroy the Zurkaa’s and disable Aagaatar’s Dark-Halo propulsion system; and Stargirls will sabotage the Ullusion shield. Mala, you alert Taaya, so the Nebulan Star Fleet can attack. Did I miss anything?”

“Sister, no wonder Taaya made you her supreme spy.” “Mala, we are all sisters of the Stars.”