Starshine: Neutralizers to plowshares (In progress)

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Starshine: Neutralizers to plowshares

It had been a few minutes since she had made her grand proclamation. That she was the Prime Director, a title she had never heard of before. As if it had some greater meaning to anyone who could hear it. As if it would heal all the wounds of all the lives around her. That they would be so grateful for her delivered salvation. Her feelings slowly drained down a funnel. Leaving her more empty than before she had set out for the Starshine armor months ago in West Virginia. She looked around at the barren landscape. A lifeless, ruined, corpse of a planet. Nothing like the memory from the anomaly. A chill seeped into her soul, something that became bitter. Her words felt foolish. Impossible to either believe or take it seriously. Who was she? What had she done to deserve... anything? Then she became aware of the loneliness. On an alien world. No one had answered her calls. No one had come to meet her and ask her why had she come. No one came to see the battle that followed. See her kill Raak, and drive away the Deathbird, smash the portal, and rebanish all those Dire Wraiths who had invaded Galador. She wrapped her arms about herself. As if protecting herself from the cold she could not feel. What had she done? Why did she let herself do all of this? Thoughts of returning to Earth crossed her mind, but she squashed them. There was a truth she did not want to face back home. Something that she did not want to think about. Something that added to the chill she felt. The desperation... The little weight that settled all about her body.
In the anomaly, the woman she was felt confident in herself. A leader who had been tested many times. Someone who had a purpose, a need to live and be strong. She had a family, a people. She had experiences that enriched her, either through tragedy or triumph. In her mind, she took a breath. Already she had gotten farther than she ever felt she could have. If she had done nothing and stayed on Earth. Stayed in West Virginia, stayed in her home waiting for the inevitable. She did not want to think about that anymore.

The boy.

He was there.

She knew nothing of him. Yet, she knew that the woman in the anomaly would have made it her mission to save him. She knew that she was that woman. She could be her. Galador needed Starshine to be her.
She looked around the crater. Her eyes surveying the landscape. It was a mud pit, and her sensors detected radiation. It was light, but given enough exposure, it would kill. The twin suns of Galador shined down into the crater. The soil was soft and water seeped into the crater floor from tunnels and pipes that poked into the crater walls. An idea came to her...but it was blocked by the presence of the radiation. What could she do about that?

Prime Director. The primary purpose of the Neutralizer is to eliminate and break down radiation.

It was not a voice, but a message on her display. It was the device, Axadar, speaking to her.

[Chevaux]

A flood of information rushed into her mind. Things that she had been told or instructed on in events that she knew were not of her memory. Experiences that had happened in the anomaly, but not to her. The her she had become living in West Virginia. Though the anomaly had passed, the divergence it left behind seemed to remain in the back of her being. Accessible, or reaching out to guide her, she could not discern which. It was not Axadar, she knew that, but it was there as well. A different and intelligent object obviously willing to answer her questions. Then she looked out toward the Cyrovaults of the Halls of Science. Where the remaining humanity of all who volunteered to be Spaceknights waited. Remains that had been defiled and rotted away never to be reclaimed. One of those volunteers was with her as well. She remembered the images brought to her when Axadar repaired her armor. The diamond-shaped head with a long tassel of hair from the top of it. She remembered that well. Landra. The previous occupant of the Starshine armor. Landra had been there since she was removed from the armor. Always. She knew that now; either lending her strength, her insight, or her warnings. Starshine was not alone. She would never be alone for as long as she lived.

She had been floating above the mud-caked earth for several minutes. The idea that had formed in her mind started to take shape. Her outstretched hand that held Axadar opened and it floated away from her.

"Axadar." she said with calm authority. "Begin removing all the radiation from this crater."

"At once, Prime Director." It moved immediately to obey Starshine's command. It tiled to the ground and fired off a wide, red beam of light. Sweeping as it moved about to cover as much area as possible.

Starshine floated toward the pipe where the boy had been seen. She reached out with her sensors and scanned the area with her Light Eyes. She found nothing, but she knew...somewhere...the boy was there. It stood to reason that if there was one, there were others, and she intended to help them. They would be hungry. They would need to feel safe. They would need ...hope.

She turned away and floated toward the wreckage of the portal. It would have to be removed, as would all the other machines the Wraiths had employed. Most of it had been reduced to charred hulks of burnt metal, but one machine seemed to have survived. One of the generators that had powered the portal. It had a scorch mark from a glancing hit of her Light Eyes, but it did not seem damaged. It had value to her.

With both hands, she reached into the mud and lifted the immense machine. Adjusting her hold as it climbed into the air. As she set it down into an open clearing on the edge of the crater, she knew this would work. The pieces were coming together.

The rest of the metal in the crater was worthless and just needed to be tossed aside for now. Then any rock or large stones needed to go next.

Whatever had happened here to cause this crater was a mystery. Maybe she would talk of it to Axadar when the machine finished its task. It really didn't matter. Her plan required more things that needed her attention. She paused, and let herself calm. Opening herself the touch of things unseen. A subtle touch, a gentle shift of her attention, or whatever else that happened in the past she attributed to Landra's guidance.

"I am going to help them," she said to the wind. Imagining that Landra was nearby to hear her promise. "I am going to help them all."