The caspian blue mustang entered the state of New York after over a month of driving across the country. Morgaine had not been back to the east coast since her full realization over a year ago. She had been a student of Massachusetts Institute of Technology before she knew that she was an alien being in a human body. The moment she could remember her past lives she went on a hunt for revenge against the woman who had murdered her previous incarnation Ricardo, Anastasia. Her hunt for the other women ended quickly when she had discovered that she had died fairly recently.
Her next target on that list was Deagol, another incarnation of Jyi’ntol and an accomplice to Anastasia. The old man was clever, far more than she gave him credit for in her last life. He is always up to date on current human technology, and his understanding of alien programming has led to the birth of first Beta and then HAL, even if Keung claimed all the credit.
The help that Myna had given her, by the mending of her fragmented soul, helped her pain. She no longer had the frayed edges of broken up terror, anger, and rage within her, it had been removed or at least smoothed over. After that, the pain had gone, but the actions of her past, when she was in such pain, were still there. She had done so many horrible things that she now regrets immensely. Robert had helped her to fix some of those actions, but there are so many that she simply could not ever atone for.
Robert had forgiven her so quickly, it was far more than she deserved, but when you are telepathic, when you can see into another person's mind, the truth will out. She had lowered her defenses for Robert, she had allowed him in to see the truth of her healing. In the case of a human seeing her transformation, they would likely think that Robert was far too fast in forgiving her, but the month that she spent so far, doing everything she could to remove the damage she had caused, the tears that fell, and the nausea at reliving her past actions, Robert saw that all and understood where she was on the scales of good and evil.
She is now on the side of the angels, as it were.
The mustang roared into the Big Apple and her GPS guided her down the roadways toward their destination.
Keung rolled down the window and looked out at the city.
“I miss the old New York,” He said suddenly.
“You miss the old New York?” Morgaine replied.
“Remember when we were here back in 87?”
Morgaine smiled. “Oh yeah. I remember,” She finished with a little chuckle.
“Remember going into the Statue of Liberty?” He asked.
“When we got to the head?” She asked, blushing.
“Oh yeah. We kicked everyone out and then…” Morgaine stopped, the memory was there, but it was a hard one to relive. She loved Anastasia more than she could have put into words back then. They made love in the head of the statue, Ricardo and Anastasia. But Morgaine and Keung do not have that kind of relationship.
“We should change the subject,” She said finally, looking at Keung, the young boy that sat beside her, she wanted him to know that the past should stay in the past.
“How about the time we went to Cheers?” Keung asked.
“Oh God,” She said laughing. “Now that was funny!”
They had forced several of the patrons to take on the roles from the show and play out some of their favorite scenes. The customers all seemed amused and confused. Ricardo had been a prankster and a man that knew how to have fun, but he was gluttonous about it. He enjoyed toying with people. Looking back it may have been funny, but it was also really cruel. Her smile faded as she went down that line of thought.
They rounded the corner and arrived at the large apartment building where Keung’s friend Galt resides. The car engine idled, running hot, as she waited in line to pull into the secured garage of the building. When they reached the guard at the entrance the arm of the gate dropped to block their passage.
“Good morning miss,” The guard began.
“Good morning my good sir!” Keung beamed from the passenger seat. The guard made a little bit of a face and then kneeled down to speak to the passenger across the driver's side window.
“How can I help you?” The guard asked.
“We are here to see Alfred Galt, please check the guest list for Deagol Sonnenstrahl, we are expected,” Keung continued.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Yes sir,” The guard replied and returned to his booth to verify the information. The guard wrote out a pass and handed it to Morgaine.
“Please park in the visitors parking on the third floor and above. Display this pass on your dashboard and please be mindful of parking within the lines,” The guard noted and then opened the gate.
“Thank you, my good man!” Keung said and tossed three dollar bills out the window across Morgaine.
“Was that necessary?” Morgaine asked.
“Kinda. Do you remember much about Galt?” Keung asked.
“Ugh. That’s right. Galt. Why are we here again?” Robert asked groggily as he woke up in the backseat.
“Galt is an ally. He is a piece of Wei’a, a very large piece. He is known as an eccentric, hell he openly admits he’s an alien and people just think it’s part of his strange behavior. Have you listened to any of his albums? They are sprinkled with G’lomin’sitri words and descriptors of the Alliance worlds. He goes by Alf for God’s sake,” Keung said flatly.
“Yeah, but didn’t that guard just give us a pass for Deagol? Do they call up and verify that we are actually expected?” Robert asked while rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
“Naw. They don’t call when you are on the permanent guest list,” Keung stated while Morgaine pulled the mustang into one of the guest parking areas.
“How is he going to react to us just walking into his building and knocking on his door?” Morgaine asked, looking back to Robert.
“Don’t look at me,” Robert replied. “I’ve never met the man,”
“He’ll be fine,” Keung said, exiting the car and pulling the seat forward to let Robert out.
“Are you sure? He always seems two cans short of a six pack,” Robert said while climbing out of the backseat awkwardly.
“Sure. He’ll remember us,” Keung replied, walking toward the doorman who opened the thick glass doors for the young man as he walked up.
“He has never met us,” Morgaine muttered as she followed Keung and Robert.
As the trio walked up to the desk to deal with the formalities of gaining access in the apartment Alfred called home, Keung took point.
“Hello my good man. I am here to visit Alfred Galt, could you please tell me what floor and apartment he is in?” Kueng asked, with the friendly confident manner of a man who was definitely supposed to be here.
The man behind the desk looked at Keung and then at Robert and Morgaine. “Your name sir?” The desk clerk finally asked.
“Deagol Sonnenstrahl,” Keung said confidently.
The man looked through the list for Galt and found the name Deagol was there. Though he was suspicious of the boy before him actually being the man found on the list.
Keung read the man’s thoughts and looked to Robert, who was likely doing the same, through the eavesdropping connection in Keung’s mind.
Robert cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, I am Deagol Sonnenstrahl. My son is a little over zealous. I should be on the list,”
The man looked to Robert and his thoughts found the older man an acceptable candidate for the name being stated, Robert could read his thoughts and he was debating on asking for identification. Robert cut the man’s thoughts off by once more speaking. “Is there a problem? Perhaps you should call up to Alfred. I am sure he would be eager to straighten this all out,”
The guard’s thoughts immediately went to the eccentric resident who lives with more than a few animals of exotic origin. He didn’t want to deal with the musician’s upset this morning. He picked up the guest log-in clipboard and set it upon the desk for Robert to sign the sheet.
“Please sign here sir,” The guard said with very little interest in his voice.
Robert smiled and signed the sheet as Deagol.
“Thank you sir. His unit is on the 18th floor, apartment 1812,” The guard said while taking the clipboard back. “Have a good day sir,” He finished before once more taking his seat to watch the many monitors of the building’s security.
Robert and Morgaine exchanged glances as Keung was confidently walking toward the elevator, grabbing a handful of mints from the guards desk before continuing on.
The three of them walked into the fancy elevator and Robert pressed the button for the 18th floor before the assistant posted could ask him for their destination. The man gave him a glare and Keung laughed at the lack of proper etiquette in Robert’s life experiences.
When they arrived at their floor, the doors opened before them, before them was a wide hallway. A man was sitting at a coffee shop style table to the side of the only door they can see on the floor. The man was dressed in a dark purple suit that gave him the appearance of an FBI agent-pimp dual classed character in a role playing game.
Robert gave a light chuckle reading Keung’s thoughts. Morgaine walked forward into the hall and the other two followed her to the man at the table. “Hi there. We are here to see Mr. Galt,” Morgaine began as he reached the table.
“Sir Galt,” The man corrected.
“No way! He was knighted?” Keung asked excitedly.
“Yes. About five years ago,” The guard replied while picking up his Push-to-Talk Nextel phone and chirped his boss inside. “Sir there are some people here to see you,” He began and asked Morgaine “what are your names?”
“Tell him it’s Deagol Sonnenstrahl,” Keung said, pushing forward before Moragine could reply.
The guard nodded and replied “Deagol and two friends sir,”
There was silence in reply, a long and uncomfortable silence.