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An Anime Tangent by James King, inspired by Angel's Egg (Mamoru Oshii & Yoshitaka Amano) and DC Comics' Tangent imprint (created by Dan Jurgens)
Angels' Egg
***
The Angel was nervous, and I didn't blame him - my secretary and I outnumbered him 2 to one, and you gotta remember this was years ago, when there was still a lot of (violent) Human resentment over the War. Sure the whole debacle was the result of a misunderstanding, but a lot o' people blamed the Angels for the whole thing, since it was their probes which caused the Gallileo's power-plant to explode.
Of course, recent events couldn't have helped him trust humans any, either.
Remiel (the name in Human records for the Angel in my office) was the Angels' Ambassador?s junior attaché, or some such thing, and he and Ambassador Gabriel were en route to a conference in Avalon when a group of Human thugs set upon them, killing the Ambassador, and making off with an item of value they had with them. I'm ashamed of it now, years later, but at the time I found the image of a handful of unarmed assailants (for unarmed they were) killing a 2 meter tall man in armour mildly amusing. Of course I did realize, even then, that the 'armour' that the Angels wear is actually to counteract Earth's stronger Gravity, and that despite their size, they're really rather weak, but, hey, it was an odd image.
'Now, Remiel, slowly, tell me why you're here.'
The Angel took a drag off his cigarette - which he held in that odd reversed grip the Angels generally adopted for the things. 'Didn't I tell you, Mr. Spillaine?'
'You told me what happened to the Ambassador, nothing I didn't already know. That doesn't explain why you came to me.'
He stretched his wings, and curled them around his body, and fell silent. I still don't know what I did, but I had spooked him. I took his cigarette and placed it in the ashtray, and sat in my chair waiting for him to come out of it. The big guys spooked easily...I've always wondered if it was a result of the War, or the fact that they had lived almost without conflict for millennia before it.
When he came out of it, he was shaking. 'I'm sorry, Mr. Spillaine, I'll try to be more concise. We need you to find the....' The word that finished that sentence was an Angel word. Jeanie and I both winced at the sound of it. Remiel frowned, and fell silent again. He didn't wrap his wings around himself protectively, so I obviously didn't spook him, so I couldn't figure out why, till he spoke. 'The closest word I can think of in your language is 'Egg'. It is an important item in our...for lack of a better word, religion.'
Jeanie took out a recorder. 'Can you describe this 'Egg'?'
He hesitated. 'It is....usually....forbidden to speak of our religion, and especially the 'Egg' to humans - which is why we wish to enlist you rather than the Earth authorities to retrieve it.'
'We can't do that unless we know what I'm looking for.' Jeanie turned the recorder on, and placed it in front of Remiel.
Remiel nodded. 'To be sure. It is a gemstone - a ... Pigeon's Blood? ... well, red diamond. Naturally formed into a perfect sphere 0.53 meters in diameter, said to be the Sun's Egg. We understand this to be - scientifically speaking - nonsense, but the symbolism is important to us. It would be distressing, at the best of times, to lose the 'Egg', but these aren't the best of times, when it comes to not having the 'Egg'. It is coming to an important festival, for which the 'Egg' is very important. Please, Mr. Spillaine, will you find the 'Egg'?'
Jeanie spoke up. 'We'll see what we can do.'
