Okay.

I should have been writing something else, but I saw an old post, and something stirred…. Any way for your enjoyment.

What if…?

“Doomed planet. Desperate scientists. Last hope…. ”

The child ran along the beach, splashing through the surf laughing, and giggling, long dark hair curled and fell in waves across sun kissed shoulders. A simple cloth covered the young child’s loins.

“Callie come to momma” Ebony skinned and statuesque, the African Amazon stood in the shade of the trees. Philippus watched the five year old skip and with an impossible turn of speed alter direction. Callie came to the Amazon with all the enthusiasm of youth. In that split second the three thousand year old warrior found herself lost in memory.

The comet had come across the night sky a red fire ball, a warning to the already astonished Amazons. The women of Themyscira received another shock to their previous unchanging trimillenial civilisation.

It was confirmation. A sky chariot from alien gods. Evil times had come. Philippus had been so sure of it.

What else could this mean. How could any of this have happened?

First a baby in the hands of the Queen, a living breathing vision of loveliness cradled against the majestic breasts of her beloved Hippolyta. Then had come the fiery warning – crashing into the wildlands beyond.

The Queen had eyes only for the babe, giving ear to no one, not even her most trusted advisors. Not Menalippe the sage, or her - Philippus the Queens General, the commander of the defence of Themyscira. Hippolyta’s right hand. It had been both her title and responsibility. Defend.

The Queen had not cared about the impact of the thing from space. Her monarch would only look transfixed with love into the baby blue eyes of her miracle child, Diana.

So she Philippus had resolved to face whatever the horror the gods had unleashed upon them, leaving the capital determined. Leading a squadron of the Guard.

Angrily she had ridden hard to where the ground of Themyscira had been torn asunder.

“Great Hera.” She had cried. “What horror has Ares sent today?”

With a word of command her loyal sisters of the Guard had stood alert. Watching with worry and consternation as Philappus alone risked all. She had leapt into the smouldering track and into the crater.

That had been five years ago.

“Momma.” Callie-girl said. The child was always inquisitive.

“By the gods, you grow stronger each day.” Philappus said.

Her hand drifted to her waist. There lay the dagger. The weapon never to be drawn unless the time were to come.

Five years ago, she had found the alien cylinder in the blackened dirt. Philappus had ordered the intruder be carried to the Temple of Athena. There wisdom and strategy would guide the Amazons.

Menalippe the seer would perceive meaning in the mystery of this comet come to their land.

Yet nothing – not even the first baby on Themyscira for three thousand years, could prepare the women of the Themyscira’s Isles, for what the meteorite contained.

Menalippe had the magic touch of the ancients, and the cracked egg had broken open before her.

The scream from within was of another babies cry, and it was a cry of pain and anguish.

The seer Menalippe had acted on instinct, grabbing the shard of green rock that was embedded into the broken egg. With determination the Amazon had wrenched the glowing stone from out of the metal cylinder.

“It must had been the goddesses.” Philappus had argued. “Look how the green stone has punctured the adamant skin of this cylinder – our own weapons cannot!”

“If Hera’s hand struck down this metal egg, why send it here?” Menalippe asked. She held out the green glowing rock – it’s luminescence painted the walls around them. “This strange crystal has magic that is not of Olympus.”

“It makes the baby cry.” Hippolyta had said. She had remained silent until that moment.

The Council turned to her. Each leading Amazon waited on her word. All the while her darling Diana remained quiet in her mothers arms.

The baby Hippolyta spoke of was lay within the sky-cradle. Philappus had thought, this is but a changling child of Ares. The General was certain that the War god, their enemy was responsible for this breach of the invisible barrier that separated Themyscira from the Patriarchs World. That this child had been sent to taunt them. Why else would this happen so soon after the birth of the Princess? Philappus struggled even now to think of the baby called Diana in this way.

“Is that your answer General.” The Queen had said, Diana gurgled against the Majestic arms of the Amazon’s monarch. “To take this green stone and smash the child’s head?”

Philappus crossed her arms. “What other reasons would the gods provide us with it?”

“You are so certain this baby is evil.” Hippolyta asked her.

Philappus frowned deeply. “What else can it be, it is…” The word stuck in her throat, she couldn’t bring herself to say it.

“Momma.” Callie asked her. Taking her hand the child squeezed. Shaking her from past back to the present.

“Hera!” Philappus snapped. “Be careful child, you don’t know your own strength.”

Callie’s face puckered up to cry. Philappus melted. Her arms wrapped around the child. How could it have happened? She asked herself. How could she of all the Amazon’s, find her heart melted by the love of a babe in arms. A child not her own, a changeling from the heavens. Had that been her Queens intention all along. What were five years to an Amazon. Philappus measured her life in tens of centuries. Yet she alone had raised Callie on this isolated atoll farthermost of the Themyscira’s Isles, for five short years.

Hers had been the task of guarding the sky-orphan babe, to instruct and observe. Hers was the burden of the knife. To judge and dispatch. She was a soldier, her Queens soldier in chief.

Then Hippolyta had rested her hand on her shoulder. “General, should the time come and this baby proves to be the monster you see it to be, then yours will be the hand that ends that threat. However to ensure Themyscira’s safety, you alone shall watch over the child as it grows. Only by close observation will the true character of this child’s soul be seen.”

Along the beach back to the simple home she had built for her and this changeling child.

Darkness came, and with it she placed Callie into the child’s bed.

“I’m good, aren’t I momma?”

“Yes Callie.” Philappus had said.

“Why don’t I have a front bottom like you?”

Philippus had dreaded this day. Her hand fell to the knife by her side. She had rehearsed her answer a thousand times, knowing the question would surely come. Angry she looked at the dark haired blue eyed cherub. “Because you are a…” she coughed, the word stuck in her throat like the foulest of curses. “…a boy.”

“A boy?” Callie asked. “What’s that? Is it bad.”

For three thousand years Philappus would have answered this yes three thousand times yes, but in five short years her world had been turned upside down. Before she could hesitate, before she could second guess herself, she said. “No darling, you’re not bad, your a good boy – my Kal-E’L