February 11th, 2485 - Frontier Space, a Nameless Planetoid – The Chapel of Ulgara

They knelt below the silvery crystal, hands clasped together in prayer. Light, reflected from the planet below, spilled though the stone windows, illuminating the crystal. Something had been bothering Clerica all day, Grace could tell. She exchanged a worried glance with Dei, who stood up, wiping the dust from her cyan robe.

‘Are we gonna’ talk about this, Clerica?’ Dei asked, her voicing splitting the silence and echoing in the dark.

‘I almost killed her’, Clerica grumbled. ‘There’s nothing to talk about.’

‘You wouldn’t be moping if that were true’, Dei sighed. ‘You want to talk about it.’

‘I’m a warrior—a Sister of Ulgara. I do as Ulgara commands … and Ulgara commands that I take the lives of my enemies, that I become numb to the pains of heartache, and that I value the life of my Holy Mother above all else’, Clerica replied.

‘So you awakened your Mystik Art and it went badly’, Dei said. ‘So what? The first time usually isn’t anything spectacular—there was screaming, crying, a bit of blood—at least you have nothing to be ashamed of there, it was spectacular. The girl was fine—she just had a little concussion. So what’s the problem?’

‘You aren’t numb, are you Clerica?’

Grace surprised herself with her words. Clerica turned to look at her, an expression of shock on her face.

‘You didn’t kill her—’

‘—but I almost did!’ Clerica said with a grimace, standing up and pacing across the room.

‘That’s no bad thing.’

All three girls turned to look for the source of the voice. The Holy Mother entered the chapel, and Dei stepped out of her way, as she came to a halt beneath the crystal and bowed, then quickly rose again. She stared up at it, eyes transfixed, and said nothing for a while.

‘I’m failing you, Holy Mother’, Clerica said, quietly.

‘Let me tell you something …’ the Holy Mother replied. ‘Long ago, I was married to a man who was much, much older than me. He was a tyrant and a brute. He carried for no-one but himself … but worst of all, one day, I discovered that he had been keeping something from me … God, my children. He was keeping God from me. Yes, salvation at the hands of Ulgara was just beyond my grasp, and he was holding it there, taunting me. Can you imagine a man so selfish? The greatest riches of the universe, ripe for plundering, so much that could have been MINE—I’m talking about Ulgara, o-of course a-and the light of God’s word, obviously. I took this crystal from my husband and fled with my life.’

For the first time, ever, the Holy Mother seemed genuinely angry, although she was doing her best to hide her hatred. She turned to Clerica, and Grace felt a shiver run down her spine, as the Holy Mother’s eyes passed over her.

‘I have built a place where all who flock to me shall be saved’, she told Clerica. ‘You must be prepared to kill anyone who comes in the way of that dream. We must do all in our power, to crush the unbelievers—it is the only way to create a galaxy free of tyranny! It is them, or us, and my children, it must be us. Value your Sisters, but do not pity them. They fight for the same goal as you—the only one that matters. You are on the right path, Clerica.’

With that, the Holy Mother turned and left the chapel. The three girls stood in stunned silence for a moment. This time, it was Grace who broke it.

‘I disagree’, she said, softly, quietly, meekly, her voice barely a murmur.

Dei and Clerica turned to look at her, eyebrows raised and eyes wide with surprise.

‘I think that maybe you don’t see the purpose of, well … killing all our enemies?’ Grace continued, her voice just a little louder.

‘Grace—!’ Clerica began, but Dei interrupted her.

‘I agree with Grace’, she said. ‘I love the Holy Mother, and Ulgara, for saving my life … I might have died in that slum on Sanctuary if not for her, but … just because someone disagrees with us, if they’re not hurting anyone, I dunno’ I just—’

Dei’s face turned bright red, and she turned away to hide it from her friends. Grace felt it; an overwhelming desire to speak, to say something, anything, to reaffirm her friend’s statement, to vocalise whatever it was that she was sure they, too, felt. In the end, all she could muster was honesty.

‘I lived on a planet called Leuctra’, Grace began. ‘It’s not a Human world … but my parents and I lived there in a small settlement, with other alien races, from all across the galaxy and we were happy. When a warlord came one day and killed my parents, and burned down our settlement, even though he was an alien, I never felt any resentment towards other aliens … he was just a bad person, who happened to be an alien. I don’t think the Holy Mother … gets that. I’ve tried to explain it to her—but she tells me that I’m delusional, and that I was too young to realise the truth—that only in a world where everyone worships a single God, and lives life by his law, can there be peace.’

‘There was a Haalojan on Sanctuary, who always gave me money when he passed me in the street’, Dei said. ‘I was living in what may as well have been a cardboard box then … just another urchin, in a stinking cesspit of urchins. He didn’t have to do that for me, but he did. They were opening up soup kitchens and homeless shelters in my district when the Holy Mother found me … I often wonder what would have happened if I’d just stayed in the slum. I often wonder whether it was really me who chose to leave…’

At last, Clerica turned to look at her two friends, and said, ‘We can’t tell anyone about this.’

Grace lit up. She had known Clerica for long enough to realise what that meant; It wasn’t just that she wasn’t going to rat them out to the Holy Mother … she agreed with them.

‘Just promise me one thing, Clerica’, Grace said. ‘Promise me that you’ll always stay true to yourself. You aren’t wrong to see the good in others.’

For a while, Clerica said nothing, but then, she nodded, quietly.

‘You big softie!’ Dei said with a grin, and punched Clerica playfully in the arm.

Clerica smiled, and replied, ‘Enough of that … come on Dei, we have a match to prepare for. I expect you to keep us in check, Grace. You do that better than anyone I know...’