Starfire Insurrection

Chapter 1 - Council

Holly waited with Cyrus by the courtyard pool in the oasis of Khaldir while the high council was summoned. She rested her feet on the edge of the pool listening to the sounds of the water pouring from its four decorative fountains with faces like the Delith. She watched the shadow move on the pool's central pillar. It was a tall white marble-like pillar with blue and teal streaked flakes throughout it. It had seven stones surrounding it at equidistant intervals. It was used, she assumed, to tell the time similar to a sundial but for the Seraphim. But then as their world was a ring world, perhaps not. She listened to the breeze softly blowing through the trees.

Looking up Holly could see the rings of Paragosis. It was a world comprised of three rings surrounding a star. The rings were joined at the top and bottom at an axis point. They had land and oceans on the inside of the rings facing towards the sun. The atmosphere surrounded the rings. The ring's primary source of thermal energy was the sun. This massive superstructure supported all life on Paragosis. It was so big Holly could only see two rings on either side of their current ring. The rest was too far away to see. Even the other sides of the rings disappeared curving upward into the blue atmosphere. Looking up at their magnificent mind-rending scale and architecture was always awe-inspiring, but left her dizzy and she had to look back down.

Holly wondered to herself how many Seraphim lived on the superstructure. What would it be like to live in a culture where everyone was privy to each other's thoughts? Her first instinct was that it would be invasive to her privacy. But the more she thought about it she couldn't help but think that was a bit egocentric. She had to begin to think like the Seraphim to understand them. This closeness afforded them a bond she was only beginning to understand. Sure their faults and weaknesses would be more evident...yes. But so were their triumphs and victories. They never suffered from isolation or loneliness as humans do.

They had only visited the Seraphim homeworld one other time and already she was missing this place. The culture, the hum, and the flow of it. There was a strength to be said of this race. They carried a light within them individually and collectively. Caius had told them that humans also carried this light or Ruach. He had said they often were not aware of it or forgot it altogether as they went about their busy lives. This light was hope. It was what bound them together. Holly had found a kindred people. She wanted to know more about this bright epicenter of life found so deep in space, a pocket of life and light in vast depths of stars galaxies, and the cold void of space. That was why they were here after all was it not? To warn the Seraphim of the imminent danger. They had discovered the treacherous plot that was in store for the Seraphim's destruction. Earth had spied out the Seraphim and deemed them a threat. A threat they only knew one way to deal with. And just like that, a singular government ops program decided the fate of an entire race of hundreds of billions of lives on Paragosis...Not while she drew breath anyway. She did not know what one girl could do. Nevertheless, she would stop them no matter the cost she mused darkly.

Holly was drawn out of her reverie as she watched Cyrus nudge Kimberley with his elbow as he talked to her while she smiled. He had brought such kindness out of her they never even knew was there. The real Kimberley that was hidden all this time. The diamond in the rough. Cyrus had a gift that way she thought looking at her feet. He had a way of taking doubt and despair and turning it into hope and love. His strength carried Holly through the days when she had not the strength to stand. His love was a refuge and a safe haven. Holly drew from that security like a deep well keeping her safe when all other sources of surety dried up. He was her constant. Her solace. Her bulwark and bastion.

Holly looked up again seeing Cyrus taking Kimberley's face in his hand as he talked softly to her brushing her hair back over her ear. Doubts shadowed the foreground of Holly's mind for the possibility to find someone with his capacity for kindness one day. She had never met anyone that was as tender and compassionate. Most of the guys she knew from her school were petty, and shallow in their ever self-serving ambitions. They were always trying to assert their particular brand of posturing vainglorious narcissism on others. Her mom said that guys grow up sooner or later in most cases, but she was starting to have her doubts about some of this lot. It was just as well though. Who has time for all that kind of drama in high school? She had been more focused on getting good grades. And surviving. Then she remembered mom still had Tracy and Molly her precious pair of baby Delith! Holly knew they would be fine, but she missed them already.