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Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
 
 
 

Stargazing - REVIEW THIS STORY

Written by Cat Smith
Last updated: 01/02/2007 02:01:11 AM

Chapter 5

As usual, the centre of Chandilar was bustling with people milling about. Usually, they'd be buying things, or conducting business, but today, as they had for the past couple of years, the Shi'ar were rebuilding their city. The skeleton of the town was up and running, and there were several people shopping, but most in the town were builders and volunteers. One of them, Remy LeBeau, was feeling unusually happy.

Since he'd left his home planet, Earth, three years ago, he had been habitually depressed and glum. he passed a large slab of some heavy material to the woman he was building with, and he flashed a dazzling smile. The woman blushed, and smiled shyly back. Sauntering over to the pile of slabs, he picked one of them up, and was about to take them back to the building, when a young Shi'ar man, whom Remy identified as a cadet soldier rushed up to him.

"Um, sir? The, the Majestrix wants to see you... it's kinda urgent." The cadet fidgeted and looked any where but at Remy, wringing his hands.

"Is she okay?" Asked Remy, frowning.

"Um, um, yes, I..."

Not waiting for an answer, Remy started off to Lilandra's throne room.

Entering the dull building soundlessly, Remy admired Lilandra's selflessness. She had not, as some royals might, demanded her palace to be replaced immediatly. Instead, she had asked only for somewhere big enough for her to sleep in and make her judgements and other things she had to do. This was one of the reasons Remy respected her so much, but also because her judgements, especially upon him, were more than fair. Though, he mused, it was probably because she was not emotionally involved like the X-Men had been.

Looking up, he stopped outside her open door, and noticed her. She was stood in front of the big, wall screen from which she usually made her communictions. She was staring at it in dismay and helpless anger.

"Lil?" Remy jumped slightly as his voice echoed eerily around the room. Lilandra looked down, her eyes closed tightly, her hands pushing tightly against the controls to the screen. Unsure of what to do, Remy walked forward and gently, carefully put a hand on her back.

"Chere? Are y' okay?" He tried to make his voice as comforting as he could, noticing her back muscles were tense under his sensitive hand.

After a moment, she looked at him with shining eyes, and shook her head.

"No, Gambit, I am not 'okay'." She looked at the screen again. Remy saw it to be a radar, and noticed a clump of dots moving towards a larger dot he knew to be Chandilar. "Those are a fleet of my sister's ships. She is taking advantage of our current weakness, and will attack Chandilar and try and wrestle it from me." Her large, white eyes gazed at him, and he noticed the tear trail down her face. "And I am afraid we will not be able to stop her."

Folding his arms and standing tall, Remy shook his head. "We _have_ t' stop her, oth'wise what's life gon' be like fo' y' people afterwards? Deathbird can't care much f' de people if she attackin' when y' be weak." Glancing away a moment, Remy's mouth worked silently while he thought the beginnings of a plan through. "Majestrix, we got a ship wit' cloak up an' runnnin'?"

Pressing a few buttons on the console despondantly, she looked through the manisfesto of her army's fleet. "Yes.. we have several. What's your plan?"

With a grin, Remy asked "What plan?"

Smiling slightly, Lilandra matched Gambit's stance. "Why do you think I asked you to come? You are an X-Man, you always have plans."

The grin dropped from his face, and he couldn't help but wince. "_Was_ an X-Man. Dey chucked me out."

"Oh... of course, I'm sorry." Lilandra muttered, feeling embarrased, and wouldn't look at him.

Shaking his head free of the cobwebs of the past, Remy looked at Lilandra, and took a seat. "I was t'inking', y' could get y' best pilot t' fly y' most nimble plane an' check out de armoury of Deathbird's ships."

Lilandra blinked, then shook her head. "Deathbird would be able to pinpoint the location of the ship in minutes."

The grin returned to Gambit's face. "Dat's what de best pilot'd be for."

Lilandra chuckled, a sound that, to Gambit's French trained ear was unearthly -- the nearest description he could think of was a songbird warbling. He couldn't get used to the strange sounds of the Shi'ar voice, even though he was now starting to mimick them unconciously. The image in his mind soon changed in a split-second, from songbird to raptor, when an angry smile split her face. "I'm glad you're on my side, Remy." She straightened. "I will contact my best pilot, and you'll leave within the hour -- you'll be the one taking note of the ships, the pilot will do his job and get you both out of there alive." She gave him a passable Earth salute, and handed him a package in a clear plastic.

"What's dis?" He asked, gazing at the darkly coloured material in wonder.

"That is you're uniform, _Commander_ LeBeau." She told him and affixed a silver command insignia to his shoulder. "Get ready. You will meet you're pilot at the docking port in 3 hours."

Remy returned her salute with a grin. "Yes Sir!"

 

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