Starrider: The Birth of L5

With long, flowing black hair that poured from her crown and waved in the slight breeze as she moved toward us. A large, white toothed smile was stretched across her lovely face. She offered her hand to me as she approached.

"AV-AH!, Praetor!" She joyfully greeted.

We all rose as she approached, wobbly upon our long legs and having the wash of the marsh rush down our bodies.

"AV-AH!, Jehanne! It is good to see you!" I said embracing her in a hug.

Jacell, Foril and Ladro as well embraced the young human female in gleeful welcome. We surrounded her with warmth and excitement at seeing her once again.

Jehanne was small compared to us, and we towered above her at around 2.7432 meters or so as she stood at about 1.6764 meters tall. We hugged as a group, none-the-less, and she gave us all an affectionate kiss.

"We have not had time to discuss your being here." Ladro apologized. "Had I known Praetor would head our way so quickly, I would have indeed not begun our connubials with such abandon in the marsh."

I added. "Had his brain not been so fogged over with love and sex, I would have perceived your arrival here, young one."

"No problem." She answered us all. "I was willing to wait for you to slate your thirst."

"Why are you here, Jehanne?" I asked taking her hands in mine.

"Love has sent me."

I raised an eyebrow of surprise and queried. "Indeed?"

"Yes, my space cat. My space cat has taken off, I am afraid." She said shaking her head in mild disbelief.

"Oh? And where could the creature have gone?"

She pursed her lips and said with regret. "Earth."

We all groaned in disbelief. "OOOoohhhhhh!!"

"Yes, I know. I know! I don't know how he got away from me. But that is where he has gone."

Jacell, quickly surmising the coming events interjected. "Jehanne! You do not mean to tell us that Love would have Praetor return to that feted sewer to retrieve that small beast?"

"Aggghhh!" I groaned. "You have ruined my euphoric mood with the worst possible news, little one."

"I am so sorry, Praetor. Please contact Love yourself and see if I am mistaken."

"No, no. You are not. I sense it already making headway into my foggery. It is the truth." I said shaking my head with disappointment.

Ladro included. "The beast does not belong on the Earth. It will include anomalies that could prove harmful and out of sync with current directives."

I nodded. "Yes. Yes, I can perceive that happening. This is not a spiritual matter yet, and it would be best if it did not take on spiritual consequences as has been the case in the past when that which did not belong on the Earth made its own intrusion into the balance. That was quite the disaster."

Jacell hugged me closely. "I do not wish for you to leave."

"My love, what has a fort night to do with the span of Starrider life?" I asked her while stroking her back. "Stay with Ladro and Fornil, here in the marsh, and I shall return momentarily."

"I am so sorry, Jacell!" Jehanne told her with sad expression.

"It is not your fault, little one." Jacell told her and then she released me and turned to pace off into the marsh with her head hung low.

I turned and looked down into Jehanne's eyes and she looked back up at me whilst biting her lip.

"We never enjoy separation." I told her.

"My space cat has gone to the home of one of my family's descendants. I think he felt drawn there for some reason."

"Well!" I replied. "That is quite unexpected."

Ladro mused. "OOhhhhh... perhaps, there is a greater reason behind this then... something none of us can perceive as of yet."

I agreed. "You may have something there brother. It is perhaps not merely a rescue mission after all. If the space cat has sought out a descendant of Jehanne's family, and has not acted in some random spurt of animal mischief, then perhaps there is more here than is at first evident."

I reminded her. "I despise Earth, you know this."

She nodded. "I know. Love knows. We all know."

"I will retrieve the space cat. I will discover the mission it has sent itself upon. I will return to all of you. I love you all, never forget that."

We will not! They all answered. I turned and walked a few paces over to my Jacell-Aroo, who stood forlornly in the marsh looking away from us and out over the horizon at the setting sun, the rising moon. I walked up behind her and held her to my breast. She leaned into me without a word.

"I will return. You know I love you only."

"Humans are destructive..." She whispered, though whispering was pointless to us.

"I am for you."

"I am for you" She replied.

I turned and regarded Jehanne and my Starrider brethren in a moment of silence. They nodded their agreement and understanding.

With that I rose quickly into the sky, breaking through the ice canopy and out into the vacuum of space. I was alone. I felt Jacell's sadness. My distance began to thin the connection between us as I headed out into space at un-measurable speeds. I wished to be with her, but away from her sadness. As I headed towards Earth, the distance provided a welcomed respite from one and a barrier to the other.

I was, of course, always the servant of Love. Without question. I was unhappy at the need for my separation from Jacell, my love. My life. I was, however, the Starrider ambassador for Earth.

This would have to end quickly.

*******

Before me lay the landscape of the un-fettled city in which the space cat now found itself. I stood upon one of the myriad edifices known as "sky scrapers", high above the darkened city now cloaked in the night, and choked by the industrial waste product of so called modern progress. There was steel, glass and cement everywhere. Artificial lighting pop-marked the facades of the towering buildings with haphazard beacons of small illuminations. Bizarre carriages known as automobiles wound their way up and down the trash strewn boulevards. The stench of human filth rose up to make incursion into my sinuses.

There was a time, long ago for humans, yesterday for myself, when men lived among the land and its nature. This was no perfect combination by any means, to say the least, but regardless, men were closer to the Earth and to one another. As though only a day or so ago, I, myself did remember a time when Earth bore perhaps only 200 million of its human inhabitants. Now, its surface is engorged with around 6 billion, perhaps more. Yet how far away from each other, how distant their hearts, even now as they find little space to make their way about without rubbing shoulders with one another. Without being awash in a sea of strangers.

I scanned the towering buildings with my own consciousness, seeking out the small animal which would jump to me as a hot poker in the blackest of backdrops. The cavalcade of minds I passed over, both near and far, were each locked away, sealed within their own mental prisons and unreachable even by my own abilities. I marveled in disgust at this deplorable condition of life. To be so locked away. To be so cursed with the life of clawing about in the darkness of a society like a blind man who is also deaf.

To have to ask: "Was it good for you?"

There, on the sixteenth floor of a high rise living quarter, within a small room, was the space cat. I quickly swooped down into the gap between the towers surrounding me and arrived at the glass covered entrance, or window, as it were, which provided what little protection from the portentous exterior as it was able. Being up and away from the street level, I surmised that few would bother with placing a lock upon a window that was hardly tress-passable. And I was correct.

The ceiling was only about 8.5 feet high and I had to crouch a bit to stand up right in the darkened apartment. Its occupier was a bit of a slovenly housekeeper and there were used dishes, newspapers, and other opened containers with bits of food and such which were strewn about the living place. There on the small foot rest, a fore the reclining chair, was the Legit-Roos. Its legs pulled up beneath its body and its head resting in slumber upon the cushion.

It was easy to see how Jehanne could make a reference to this animal as a space cat, for it had much the same configuration: head, large ears and eyes, torso, four legs and long, sleek fur which covered its entire body, as an Earth feline would possess. Though whisker-less and tooth-less, as there was little need for predator and flight abilities for one born extra-terrestrial, the animal could easily be mistaken for some sort of mutant feline, or perhaps a birth-accident. For a more kind-hearted than usual human, this would have been one of the more proud moments of "animal rescue" that they would have been heartily involved in.

It sensed my presence and looked upward to me from its lying position. I saw a bit of a twinkle of recognition in its immense green eyes.

"You there." I began. "What have you done to arrive here on this inflamed boil on the buttocks of the universe?"

I walked over and reached down with my elongated and three fingered hand and stroked the mischievous animal's head. It almost smiled at me, and stretched out a paw as though to say "hello".

"You must return with me now." I told him. "You no more belong on the Earth than I, myself do."

I crouched on my haunches and looked about the darkened apartment, whose occupier must be away at the moment, which was a good thing, I surmised. However, though I could have easily made my away with the small creature, I was given pause as to investigate what effects the animal may have entreated already, even in its brief visit upon the foreign world.

I looked about me for clues, perhaps touches of DNA I might perceive that would lead me to find the absent resident. I could, perhaps, make a brief scan of the physical nature of the person and decree as to the extent of the effects of the alien animal upon its human host. I saw several objects off in a corner which I suppositioned to be musical instruments, indeed, guitars. One was electrically capable and the other two, acoustic.

"Hmm." I mused. "A musician."

I rose and turned about the room as I was able, small and cramped with a bed and a dining table, and a small area for meal preparations, the recliner and the ottoman, and also some electronics. I understood these to be a television and a stereo unit. There was a book case filled with some literature and other electronically recorded disks in covered cases. I decided to peruse the books and covers for more clues as to the human I would inspect. The books were eclectic, titles ranged from: Fifty Shades of Grey to The King James Bible, The Prophet to Harry Potter, Nephillhelm: Rise of the Giants to Sun Tzu's Art of War. An interesting mix which held a common thread that ran beneath them all.

There were also movies which concerned themselves with an all too familiar subject matter. Their titles ranged from the likes of Star Trek and Star Wars, to Alien Abduction and Space 1999. I pursed my lips at these and nodded my head knowingly. There were good and bad points to be made as to the presence of these humanistic views of life in space. Little did the general Earth public know of their outrageously inaccurate view points, and for that matter the future of mankind, or even its true place in the whole of Love's home - the reality of the universe.

Only a few humans in high places knew of the failure of the space program. The first astronauts were met upon Earth's moon with a contingency of the universe's life forms, both shipped and un-shipped, and warned off of the moon. In fact, they were told that mankind was not allowed to transverse from its own world. Not in the current cursed state in which it existed. Not until Love had seen to bring an end to its wretched existence in its current form. Earth and its inhabitants were an anomaly in all the universe, and I, myself sometimes wondered why Love chose to allow its continued existence. However, thus was indeed Love's decision, and it was not my place to question such things.

I investigated the refrigeration unit, which was filled with the force of life contained in natural fruits and vegetables. There were no proteins readily available in the form of beef, poultry or fish. There were also plenty of small bottles of purified water. And, to my amusement, a small hooka bottle. The contents of the bottle at one time was easy enough to decipher as cannibus. On the wall of her small kitchenette area was a poster in garish hot pink, vibrant blue and deep purple colors which admonished the viewer to "make love, not war".

On the far wall of the apartment there was a large sheet of paper that had been stretched across the wall and tacked down on all four corners. Further inspection revealed a chart which had been written in by hand with the use of common lead pencil. It was a genealogy chart, and had many erasures and scribbles across its face, but the period it covered was from the current day until the Earth year of nine hundred and five. At the top of the chart, the current year, and the name of the current living relative: Connie Robin Wilcoxin. I surmised that this must indeed be the female human I was looking for. I traced the branches of the chart downward in years, going back to 1410, an Earth year I was most familiar with. There, in a branch of the tree was the name Pierre, and the sister of Pierre, Jehanne, or as she is known in this part of the Earth: Joan of Arc.

"Fascinating!" I told myself. I then mused, She knows! This would save much time in explanations for the events that may have to take place if indeed my scans proved there were Titipian-cron anomalies within her blood stream due to exposure to the space cat.

In a small closet, there was a collection of WEAPONS! I had hardly expected this, however, intrigued, I investigated further. There were several oriental style blades and swords, small throwing stars, and a long stick as is used in battle training in the Far East. There was also two or three jacket, pants and belt outfits that seemed familiar in the practice of martial arts such as Karate or Kenpo and the like. There was also another outfit, which seemed strangely out of place but was indeed included in the closet contents. This was a torso body suit of black with a field of stars, like those out in space. There were boots and shoulder length gloves that purported the same design. I marveled at what sort of costume this could indeed be. These were the articles of war, not peace and love. What, indeed, was going on in the mind of this human?

I shifted my gaze to a small aft room where I sensed there would be smatterings of DNA with which I could record a personal pattern to track down the human female. There, in the receptacle of what must be a waste disposal unit, were strands of hair, newly deposited, still moist and entangled within the drain. These would serve me well.

"Stay where you are." I told the space cat. "I shall return anew."

With that I made my way out into the cloistering atmosphere of the city once more. My sense reaching for the DNA pattern I had recorded. It was not long before I discovered my quarry. Bending light once again to suppress my form from human ocular discovery, I made my way to a small "village type" area not six streets from the home I had just visited. There, among shops and eateries which had been closed for the night, was a small shop which served heated drinks and sweetened rolls of bread. In the center of a crowd of humans, all attending and seated at various tables, was the object of my search.

A sign on the wall read in the Earth language of English: Girls with Guitars night. Tonight, Connie Robin Wilcoxin on stage.

Invisible, and standing among the humans, I regarded the object of my search, the guitar playing female human who was, as evidence would supply, Connie Robin Wilcoxin. Auburn haired, with a wool knitted cap pulled over the back of her head, and a frumpy shawl across her shoulders, she sat on a stool on the stage holding a guitar in her hands and playing an acoustic set of music. She wore an awful, floor length, tie-dye style dress and had sandals upon her feet. Her toe nails were painted in various colors from toe to toe. With lovely green eyes, much like the space cat itself, and bow shaped lips, her voice was also a treasure to listen to as it made its way languidly across the candle lit coffee shop. Her guitar playing was melodic and most apropos.

I was, however, taken aback by the words I heard in her song, and postponed my scan of her physical nature for the current moment in time. With an incredible emotive and sonorous voice she intoned:

Yesterday we used to sail through heaven's pearly gates

Then we touched down on the stars, thalo worlds that we had made

Be fret of fear and trembling, we knew no death of life

With equal parts gave up our hearts to an unseen world of light

Spirit Wings that we once loved

Strong as a stone, soft as a dove

Spirit Wings that buoyed me and you

Long ago, before this place

No hunger, fear, shame or disgrace

Above the flames on Spirit Wings we flew

Our universal truth

Yesterday I saw a man I thought that I once knew

To me reached out with his bare hand, his soul was badly bruised

This is not all that we have, we'll fly again real soon

A spark within was kindled when, he recognized me too

And he said to me:

Spirit Wings to rise above is all I ask to receive of

Spirit Wings to leave this life with you

Long ago, before this place, a single thought was all it takes

To fill this void, our hearts in deep commune

On Spirit Wings we flew...

Needless to say, I stood frozen, my mouth agape at what I had heard. The possibilities for her particular personality were indeed many, but few could compare to the blatantly obvious description of "hippie chick". Regardless, and perhaps fortuitously, she was well versed in the subject matter at hand, i.e, spiritual matters, life and death and their meanings, higher forms of consciousness, and the like. This would be most helpful. Naturally, as would be the case, some of her information was misplaced and some was surprisingly accurate, but these things were wholly dependent upon the random imaginings and figurings of her now limited human mind, and therefore of little wonder to myself. Even a broken clock is correct twice a day.

She sang several more songs for the audience, mostly of love, and one long and sad piece whose subject was of LOST love. She was quite good, very emotive and an excellent, heartfelt songwriter. Even my own emotions were touched by her velvety tones. Her ancestor would be most proud of the direction her family had taken.

As she finished her musical reverie for the evening, I took the time to scan her physical condition. I frowned at the results. She had indeed been compromised. I would have to take measures to restore her natural state of physical being. This was very disappointing to me.

I would have to plan my stratagem as to how to approach the young human female in the directive of introducing myself and then explaining what needed to occur and also, why those things needed to occur. She would no doubt head home after her set, as the hour was late already as it was. I would have to present myself in a manner and time when she would NOT feel trapped and threatened by my sudden appearance. I pondered just how I was to explain my appearance and subsequent alternate life form reality which to her mind, as was most of the Earth's, either a thing of unproven facts or straight out fiction.

She soon finished her show and then thanked the audience for their attention and applause. I got the impression from her gratefulness that perhaps at sometime in the past she had performed before a more hostile or perhaps less attentive audience. I waited patiently as she chatted with audience members, her fellow band mates, who had played slight instruments of bass and a rhythm box, and then finished the night with a shared joint.