Photo of Gillian Anderson (representing Christina Alana Starbright)

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At length Chris Alan Starbright and his wife Autumn Harvest Selene returned from the desert planet. There Chris Alan had indeed solved the case of the dead king, and it had turned out to be an old, sad story. Callista Brandywine had inspired Prince Brian’s fiancée to poison the king, because she was a Maid of the Chalice. Obey, Callista’s so called prophet, had lost to Chris Alan in a showdown of miracles, and Edwin Bitterroot had barely escaped with his life when Chris Alan came after him. Only the fact that Edwin could teleport, Chris Alan could not, and Amethyst Bellatrix was nowhere around on this mission got Edwin out of the way of Light Without Measure at Need in time. 

Despite the millennia-old bad blood between them, Callista escaped with Edwin and was picked up later by some of her father’s Daimonae, then escorted back to Callista’s Planet. Edwin had learned that Callista was more useful to him alive than dead; the more the Undying Singer could be kept running around, the less danger there was of him keeping the Shadow Master constantly on the run. 

Now in the fifth month of Autumn’s pregnancy, the Starbrights had returned to Ge in the *Hind of the Dawn* and were looking forward to some rest. Waiting at the landing pad in Geopolis was a young-looking female Adami. Thanks to the onboard video cameras, Autumn could see a Guardian hovering in Rest Mode over the young woman’s right shoulder, marking her as a Lightchild. She was wearing the uniform of Fleet Intelligence as well, which told Autumn much. No doubt the woman had a special message for Chris Alan, but Autumn just wanted to rest. Whatever the mission was, she wouldn’t go on it. Maybe she could stay with her family on Mahe’alani…

What was she thinking? Her unborn baby still carried the White Hand, and if Chris Alan stepped outside of a very small radius, he would lose access to it. This was no problem in-Sphere, but if the mission took him out-of-Sphere she’d have to go with him and stay very close to him whether she wanted to or not. Maybe Chris Alan could be persuaded to let someone else handle whatever this woman wanted. He was now unequaled among Lightchildren, yet he had many skilled and powerful peers; and to Autumn it seemed more logical that a fully trained Fleetman rather than a sensitive and pacifist Starbard (however skilled in martial arts) should be asked by Fleet Intelligence to go on a special mission.

“The woman’s Guardian is not identifying herself,” Amber Bdellium, Autumn’s Guardian, informed her Bondmate. The two of them normally operated the communication and sensor arrays from Autumn’s station.

“That’s odd. Alan, Raphael, who are they?”

“Well, now, that would be *telling*, wouldn’t it?” Chris Alan replied with wink and a grin. Slate guffawed at the antics of his Captain, whose Inspirer-style combination of seriousness and zany charm was winning his respect step by step.

The *Hind* landed under Raphael’s guidance and the crew departed. Slate would also leave them for a short time; even he felt that he needed a break. As prearranged, he’d take the next Guild ship outbound to Cosmopolis on Senka’ur, where he’d track down Hilo his closest Elemental friend, and then they’d find the best surfing on the planet and take it on. Maybe they could then learn at the local Fleet starbase where Susan Starrider was, go there and challenge her to a high-speed airbike race – maybe even before a big crowd. Even Susan’s tremendous Strength at Need would get a workout against these two mighty Elementals, and win or lose they’d all love the challenge.