The star which the Centurions called Romulus was the brightest star in known space, an O-class hypergiant nearly four million times brighter than Ge’s G-class sun Helios and five times hotter on the surface. It was so active that the outward pressure of its radiation sometimes overcame its own gravity, and the resulting huge clouds of hot plasma made it difficult to get spectral readings on the star itself at any distance.

The flat, discoid space station that orbited Romulus was aptly named Gehenna in Albionic (or Ge Hinnom in Adamic). Its sole purpose was the trial and punishment of those guilty of capital crimes. Once found guilty, criminals were fired into the “lake of fire” that was the nearby star, using a sort of “gravity gun”. Edwin Bitterroot was being held there, and there the Centurious would deal with him.

In building Gehenna, the Centurions pushed their own high-tech (including state-of-the art applications of metallurgy and ceramics) and Manikin n-crystal hyper-tech to their limits, enabling the station to be placed very close indeed to the ravenous star it orbited. In fact, it was closer to the star than the nearest refractory planet, which world was very nearly the closest thing to an orbiting cinder that Chris Alan had ever heard about.

Chris Alan knew quite a bit about the Centurions, but Autumn did not, so she had Amber Bdellium her Guardian pull up the basic files on that people. What she learned impressed her. In basic appearance, the Centurions only differed from the Adamim in the naturally pale color of their skin and their natural bleach-blond hair. The military uniforms both men and women wore were made of gold-plated armor; gold and many other metals were easy enough to find in the asteroids of the systems they ruled. They were a large, big-boned people with a healing factor that gave them a legendary stamina. Even a typical Lightchild preferred not to battle a Centurion, for short of stabbing with a lit Starblade you just couldn’t keep one down, ever. You could cut off both legs and the Centurion would crawl with their hands after you, just to kill you. It was a good thing that the Centurion Hegemony was a Treaty Power and not a Hostile Power.

“Raphael, docking procedures, please,” Chris Alan asked.

“I obey. Protocols have been established; estimated hard dock in two minutes fifteen seconds; adjusting climate controls.”

“Rub a dub dub, three Catalysts in a tub…” Christina laughed.

“Well, this is one lake in which I plan not to swim,” Autumn commented as she peered at the approaching star. Even under the best filters the Hind had it was an awesome sight. Not even its mostly-ultraviolet radiation could get past Raphael’s shields so long as they stayed up, but should they drop for any reason it would be the Hind’s durin/duringlass hull that would be put to the test, and even that indestructible defense wouldn’t guard from all hazards. The local stellar wind alone was a palpable and turbulent thing.

“These people have real guts.” Chris Alan breathed out hard.

“You afraid?” Christina scoffed.

“Without the White hand actually in me? You bet I am. Remember, I grew up as an astronomer’s son on a Surveyor. I don’t like the idea of being this close to a peculiar hypergiant; this thing is so unstable that it can simulate supernovas with very little warning.”

“They’re still at legal orbital distance,” Christina argued.

“Yeah, but I’ll bet their insurance premiums are real high.”

Chris Alan’s wry, colloquial humor made Christina roll her eyes. “Well, their ships don’t have all the advantages of Fleet ships. For all their precautions they do take risks. Even we are, our meta-tech notwithstanding.” Christina mused for a moment. ”It’s too bad that we have to go into this situation without the White Hand at your full command.”

Chris Alan sat up. “Maybe I can do something about that.”

“How?” Autumn probed.

“I am such an idiot! Why didn’t I think of this before? We don’t have to depart from the Hind at once after we dock. I can place you inside Raphael’s closet, and he can speed up relative time inside. It’ll be four months for you, but only two hours for us.’

“Wow! That’s brilliant, Chris Alan.” Christina hugged her cousin. “I’d forgotten that Raphael’s closet has that capability. Madeline’s certainly doesn’t.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Autumn crossed her arms in disapproval. “Who’s going to help me deliver the baby? And you should be there for the birth, Alan.”

“Don’t worry, I will be. Raphael will monitor when the baby’s coming, and we’ll come and help you.”

“Among my many skills,” Christina added, “I have certification as a midwife. I’ve helped new mothers before.”

Autumn thought about it, then nodded. “Well, you’d better help me,” she said at last with a laugh, “or Crystal and I are thumbing a ride on the next Centurion transport out of here. It’s going to be a very lonely four months in there.”

“Less so for you than it would be for me or Christina,” Chris Alan pointed out. “You can catch up on your reading and your music practice.”

“We are now entering the docking bay, Chris Alan,” Raphael announced. “Ahead dead slow on thrusters.”

************

“Why have you called me here?”

“To ask you to participate in the ultimate role-playing game. I’ve been beta-testing it with the help of a good friend, yet circumstances now allow me to add more players; the Catalyst presently involved keeps changing the parameters of the game.”

“Don’t tell me; let me guess,” the Daughter of God in Power said with a laugh. “It’s Chris Alan Ralston.”

“The one and only,” John Barnabas the Realm Master replied with a laugh of his own. “Chris Alan Starbright, in terms of the scenario.”

“Does that surprise you? Catalysts tend to cause change wherever they’re placed – perhaps Inspirers most of all. And this one’s an Inspirer’s Inspirer if there ever was one.”

“True. I know well Chris Alan’s formidable capacity for bringing about change; that’s why I designed the Total Immersion Matrix the way I did.”

“All right, so you want me to participate. Who shall I play?”

“You want me to choose for you, then? Very well. You’ll enter as a baby - and as you grow, you won’t truly know who and what you are, just as the other players have limited knowledge of their true selves.”

“Yet this child matches my persona?”

“Almost exactly.”

“What will be her name?”

“Crystal Torah Starbright. When she becomes an adult, she will change her middle name to Rokeach, in order to reflect her symbolic role as the Chemist or Perfumer.”

“Who are the other players?”

“At present, Chris Alan and several others.”

“You won’t tell me who the others are?”

“Not yet.”

“All right, I’ll play, but this will change the direction of Chris Alan’s timeline drastically.”

“That’s the idea. Becoming a parent always did.”

“So how do I enter?”

“Just walk through the mirrored surface and T.I.M will take care of the rest. May the Lord bless your journey, Mistress Ralston.”

***************

“It is time, Chris Alan,” Raphael warned.

“Very well.” Quickly Chris Alan and Christina went from the bridge to the lower deck. Raphael’s spherical shell was inserted by the door of the Captain’s Quarters. Once the Quarters’ door opened, Raphael opened the door to his closet and the Lightchildren went in.

Christina only took a moment to take in the wonder of the place before following Chris Alan to where Autumn lay on the variable-gravity bed. To Chris Alan, Autumn looked the same, only much bigger; and she was panting.

“It’s close, Alan!”

“I know, dearest, just hold on. Good, Raphael, you have everything ready. Tina will use her Gift of Healing to help you. And so will I, if it’s needed.”

Chris Alan sat down by Autumn and held her right hand while Tina went down to her legs to deliver the baby.

“OK, girl, you can do it, just push.”

“AAAARGH!”‘ Autumn screamed.

“We’ve got you, dear.” Chris Alan and Christina applied blue energy and the birth became much easier from there.

“I see the head! Come to cousin Tina, baby girl.”

Once the baby was clear of Autumn’s body, Christina held the baby and used a small knife to cut the umbilical cord. The baby didn’t cry or fuss; she giggled and laughed.

“She’s got Levani ancestry in her for certain,” Christina laughed in turn. “Even if her ears don’t show it, her joy in living does.”

“It shows that and maybe something more,” Chris Alan remarked.

“Let me see my baby,” Autumn cried out of joy. Christina handed the child to her. Autumn stared into the girl’s face. ”She looks so much like you, Alan.”

“She has your eyes and smile, though.”

“She has the best features of both of you,” Crystal remarked. “She’s going to have a line of suitors at least two blocks long. What’s her name?”

“Crystal Torah Starbright,” Chris Alan replied. “But the Lord’s nickname for her will be Rokeach, the Perfumer or Chemist.”

“It’s a good thing He didn’t use the modern Adamic word for Chemist. Much less euphonic.”

Crystal held out her right palm to Chris Alan, who smiled and marveled, not bothering to wipe his own tears. He responded in kind by placing his right palm on hers.

Light passed from Crystal’s palm to Chris Alan’s palm and transfigured him into glory for a brief, brief moment.

“Oh!” Christina exclaimed.

“I not only saw that, I felt that,” said Autumn. “In fact, I’d be willing to bet that Romulus felt that.”

Chris Alan, who had jumped up startled, walked out of the closet to the bridge, easily far enough to be more than seventy cubits away from Autumn and Crystal. Once there, he tried to make his right hand shine with Light. It did, brilliantly.

It’s back. The very Power that created everything is back.

Chris Alan felt like shouting, like dancing. A beautiful, gifted daughter and the White Hand, within minutes of each other! Yet something told him that this moment demanded reverence. He gave it just that.

In a few moments, Chris Alan returned to the closet. “The White Hand has returned to me,” he said quietly.

“Obviously,” said Autumn with a warm smile. “Just in time, huh?”

Yeah. Now I’m fully ready.”

*********

Edwin was locked in a transparent sphere covered with two metal straps, pulsing with purple light. He sat playing his harp, the only thing the Centurions allowed him to keep. Edwin said it soothed him.

Suddenly Edwin stopped in amazement. What was that? It felt like the whole space-time continuum, and the Sea behind it as well, just shifted its point of reference.

Point of reference. That means the Locus of the Realms has shifted its position – and even in here, it feels more powerful than ever. Oh, no. You have got to be kidding me.

Ah, well. So much the more challenging. I’ll be most interested to find out just how the Starbrights pulled that one off.

Before half an hour had passed, the warden of Gehenna angrily barged into Edwin’s cell.

“Is there a problem, warden? You seem angry.” Edwin resumed playing his harp, not looking at the warden.

“How did you do it, Bitterroot? Tell me how.”

“Do what?”

“I just found out that you have a lawyer.”

“I never retained one.”

“Special Ambassador Chris Alan Starbright volunteered for the job. I need your verbal voice print permission to allow him to defend you.” The warden was angry, but most angry of all with Starbright – and that Lightchild was one person the warden knew better than to cross. Besides, the Treaty didn’t allow the warden to refuse him.

“Really? The Blond Boy Wonder coming here to defend little ol’ me? I should feel flattered. Who knew he cared?”

“Shut up, Bitteroot, I know that the Special Ambassador’s as subtle in his own way as you are. But I also know that the White Hand he wields is utterly pure. He’s not corrupt, so how you do it? Never mind, I don’t even want to know.”

“For the record, I didn’t do anything. If he wants to waste his time defending me, that’s his affair. But go ahead, allow him to do as he wishes. It should be interesting.”

“That’s official?”

“It is.”

“Noted. You’re dead anyway, because the White Hand’s returned to its rightful owner. So either way, as the Adamim like to say, you’re toast..”

“Returned?” So that’s what I felt. I was right.

“Yes. Our hyperspace scanner picked up the transferal wavelength; it briefly outshone even Romulus’ shadow spectrum. Starbright’s daughter is born, Bitterroot, and Starbright’s back to full power.”

Edwin shrugged as if he didn’t care. “No matter; as you said, I’m dead anyway. I’m just making my peace.”

“That’s right, Bitterroot! you can’t teleport and you can’t influence anyone here. You’re not going to get out of this one. You’ll be shot into the heart of Romulus, and there you’ll die.”

“Want me to tell you a secret…?” Edwin leaned forward to the glass whispering. The warden leaned forward to hear him.

“You are all going to die…” Edwin then laughed madly in the warden”s face.

“Ha! You truly are insane,” the warden retorted. “Not even you can survive being shot into Romulus. This sphere keeps you powerless, and by the time you reach the photosphere, both you and this sphere will be vaporized.”

“Then you have nothing to fear, do you? And the child doesn’t have to worry about me, either. After all, a dead man can’t hurt anyone, can he? It’s not as if I’ll come back in three days like my famous friend.”

“He may think you’re some kind of super genius, but I think you’re a fool for coming back to our space. The judge, jury and prosecutor are all against you. I doubt if even the Special Ambassador will be able to argue your way out of this one – and I for one am looking forward to seeing you fry.”

Without another word, the warden marched out of the room.

Who’s really the fool here? Edwin thought. You were foolish enough to confirm for me that Starbright’s back to full strength. You will all learn the Meaning of Darkness, when you learn that only the Disciple of Light can stop me…”

Edwin sat back down and played his harp.