The Golden Huntress and the Seven Presidents
Season 4, Episode 4
Babel Tower [megastructure]
Washington, D.C. [capitol city], Earth [planet], Sol [star system]
09 June; 10:11:51 Hours
A monolith of glass and steel stood where the White House once sat, as its power and presence shot up through the clouds and nearly out of the atmosphere of the backwater planet. Its top floor had a view of the world like no other as several men stood in front of the east side’s portion of the wraparound window, their backs to the elevator which chimed before its doors began to open. Two Presidential Guards exited before a raven-haired woman who was wearing golden mail.
“I don’t appreciate being summoned like a dog,” she, Helena Madds growled as she walked into the Presidential Chambers. “Especially when we were hot on the tail of Crystal.”
“Were you spoken to?” one of the four men, 2nd Associate President Simon Fyres snapped at her as he turned around.
Helena’s face contorted with her brow furrowed and nostrils flared as she grit her teeth.
“Now, now, Simon,” the tallest of the four, Chief President Bruce Starus chuckled, “our Huntress has some reason to be irritated, not much of a reason but an ounce.”
“Not much? I would have had the Hex in my possession if not for you bureaucrats acting like I’m some bitch with a leash you can tug on when polling dips!”
“How dare yuh—” Simon was yelling when the third of them, 1st Associate President Cullen Powers interrupted him.
“Helena, please, polling means nothing to us. Especially when it’s all a show anyway.”
She slightly bowed her head in a gesture as to ask for forgiveness.
“Are you aware of what your fellow KOG Knights have been up to?” the final man, 5th Associate President Franklin Conner asked while he still looked out the window.
“Excuse me?” Helena said with an uptick.
“I didn’t stutter.”
“I’m hunting them down, of course, I’m aware!”
“Hunting them,” Simon laughed, “More like selectively so!”
Helena grunted as she stepped in Simon’s direction, but Bruce raised his right hand as to say to restrain herself. He then sat down in the center chair of the long stretching table between the five of them, saying, “Why is it that the GDC appears to know more about their movements than our Huntress who spent a good portion of her life fighting beside them?”
“They got lucky,” she said through her teeth.
“Luck? Please don’t insult us!”
Simon sat down to Bruce’s left. “I told you all this was a mistake!”
“And we’re beginning to agree with you Simon,” a woman, the 6th Associate President Jennifer Gage acknowledged as she and two others materialized via three-dimensional holograms in their respective seats at the table.
Helena began laughing. “What is this? Some kind of intervention?”
There at the table were the Seven Presidents of the Union: Bruce, Cullen, Simon, 3rd Associate President Jericho Draax, Fourth Associate President Olivia Jasper, Franklin, and Jennifer. Each of the seven looked at Helena with straight faces. Yet Helena continued to laugh, though it slowly transformed into a low chuckle as her eyes panned from one president to the next.
“This is not a laughing matter, Miss Madds,” Olivia, the youngest of the seven, made clear, “We thought that your old Title was the perfect vessel for the Hae'Laektaes, one to ensure that peace was brought to the universe but now we can see that was a mistake.”
Jericho leaned forward in his chair, eyes narrowed as he looked directly into Helena’s. “And from the intel coming in, perhaps it was even a mistake that YOU were chosen to be the bearer of one.”
Her eyes opened wide, eyebrows arched and Helena started to yell, “If it wasn’t for me—”
“If it wasn’t for you, what?” Simon barked. “Did what happened on Gavilun not happen despite you? Have you not failed at recovering the four Hae’Lektaes from your brethren? Have you not FAILED US?”
“Simon, enough,” Cullen said as he turned in his chair toward his fellow president.
“No! Let him,” Helena yelled, “because I want to know who he would have you all send in my place! Who is this Knight that could withstand the raging fires of Klaus? Who is this Knight that can navigate the unrelenting terra of Gabe? WHO is this Knight that can extinguish the darkness of Theo… of Beelezika? Who?”
The chamber went silent as Simon sat back in his chair, and looked to his left in order to avoid making eye contact with Helena as she turned and began walking back toward the elevator. Though the two Presidential Guards stood in front of her, blocking the elevator, Helena’s nostrils flared as a charge of electricity surged through her body and up through her face. The two guards took a step back as they looked into her brown eyes that changed to glowing yellow in a flicker.
“You’re not dismissed, Helena,” Bruce’s voice bellowed.
She slowly looked back over her shoulder to him, her eyes still glowing and her nostrils flared. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me… You have not been dismissed.”
“Bruce,” Cullen said under his breath, but Bruce sat up straight in his high back chair as he tapped a holo-disc in front of him and a mission file generated.
“You have not been dismissed from your duties, despite how much Simon would like that to be the case.”
Helena turned back to the seven, nostrils eased and her eyes dimmed slightly. “Excuse me?”
“You will be ceasing your chase of Crystal Fernandez and the Hex.”
“I will?”
“We’ve intercepted GDC intel on the last encountered location of Theo Walker and what shell of KOG is left - That will be your prime directive.”
The holograms displayed various pieces of intel; the planet Mur, photos of Talon, and several POV recordings from the Rangers’ helmets that each showed Theo mercilessly slicing them down in the hall. Helena’s lip quivered as she watched.
“Do note,” Jericho added as he pointed to the holograms and they shrunk before another set of POV recordings materialized, “Theo isn’t just traveling with Drake, Sarah, and Cole Winchester… His sin from Gavilun festers!”
The recordings showed Dax as she mercilessly attacked and killed the Rangers in the stairwell. Their screams and the whistling of Shine ripping free from Aelysah filled the Presidential Chambers. Helena’s fists clenched so tightly as she watched that her knuckles cracked, and her eyes lit up gold. The only words she could manage to say were in a deep growl, “When do I launch?”
“ASAP,” Jericho answered and the holograms dissolved.
In an instant, Helena turned and stormed past the two guards toward the elevator. Its doors were just opening as she approached but before she could step foot on it, Bruce called out to her, “Do know that if you fail us here, you will be dealt with.”
Helena froze for a second, one foot on the elevator and the other still in the chambers but as quickly as she stopped, she boarded it and pressed one of the hundreds of buttons. A loud chime echoed and the doors closed in front of her, breaking the eye contact she had with the seven.
***
One hour later…
Loud chirping filled the private courtyard of Babel Tower as trees surrounded the small sitting area where Helena sat. She looked to the pond in front of her where several different species of fish, both earthly and alien, were swimming around. Though she quickly looked up to her left at the sound of a voice.
“They are beautiful… just like you.”
“Don’t patronize me,” Helena growled, “Cullen.”
Cullen walked from the small pathway that led to the sitting area and stopped in front of Helena who slowly arose from her seat and the two kissed. Their lips lingered for a moment before he smirked. “I’d never insult you in such a way.”
“No,” she gave him a playful shove before saying as she folded her arms, “you’d just allow that little rat to launch his inquisition to have me dealt with.”
“Oh please, Helena, Simon is of no need to be concerned about.”
“Really? Isn’t he directly after you?”
“These titles: Chief President, First Associate President, Second, and so on… They mean nothing but to lull the masses into a state of comfort and ignorance to what truly goes on.”
“And what exactly goes on, Cullen?”
He smiled again before playfully flicking up her chin with his index and middle fingers. “Politics, my dear.”
“Is that what you seven call it? Theo would’ve called it malicious deceit.”
“Ohhhhh, Beelezika - He could’ve been an unstoppable weapon—”
“He is, Cullen.”
Cullen’s eyes narrowed as he tilted his head slightly toward Helena, as to say to go on.
“There’s a reason I only scarred his face, and I barely was able to do that.”
“You didn’t mention what you’re eluding to in your debriefing.”
“For the longest time I laughed at that stupid nickname, hell, I thought the whispers of what happened on Rulic were just some boogeyman story that mutated out of reality… but, but there is something.”
“S-something?” Cullen asked with a breathy whisper.
Helena’s eyes teared up as she simply thought of what she encountered on Gavilun but before she could answer him, a massive being who appeared to be wearing armor from head-to-toe walked down the path. He, Baghul who was of the species Knights whose skin was a living steel, stopped ten feet behind the two where he announced in a deep and bellowing voice, “Commander, our shuttle is ready.”
“Excuse us, President Powers,” Helena said as she nodded to Cullen, and then proceeded to head up the path and past Baghul who lingered for a moment.
The two locked eyes with Baghul’s glowing entirely crimson while his tattered crimson cowl swayed behind him in the breeze. After a minute, Baghul finally turned and headed off after Helena which left Cullen standing alone. He ran his hand back through his hair, took in a deep breath, and then grabbed his Tether from his back pocket before he dialed a number. Two rings rang out before he said, “I want the helmet footage of the attachment unit to KOG from the Gavilun event.”