Charlie said, “Oh, hello Rose. I didn’t expect you to be there. Don’t you have work tomorrow?”
I said, “I do, but I’m living in the royal quadrant now. I just moved in two doors down.”
“Who’s that in the background and why is his watch off?”
Conner said, “That’s my brother Atri. Alex gave a speech about how we are all united and stuff this morning after we were attacked for being aliens. We don’t have to pretend we are humans anymore. I just feel more comfortable like this.” Charlie had his watch off too, but turned it on when a servant came in. Conner said, “So did you have something you wanted to tell me or are you just calling to chit chat?”
“I called to tell you something. Who’s the guy in the wheelchair?”
I said, “That’s Jackson’s best friend Tucker. He’s living with me. He broke his wrist and can’t wheel himself around anymore.”
“Why can’t he live with Jackson?”
Tucker said, “Your highness, he’s pretty banged up himself. I’ll probably move in with him, unless Heidi decides to. She’s planning to care for him.”
“It seems I missed a lot in one day. Conner, I can call you back later since you are entertaining.”
Conner said, “Or you can just tell me whatever it is you called to say. They can keep a secret.”
“Alright fine, the reason I came to Malerie’s planet is because she is expecting my child. We are staying here until the baby is born. If it is a girl, we are coming back, but if it is a boy, we will stay here.”
“And why is that?”
“They will need a boy for their throne. If we have a girl, her father gave us permission to come home… back to my ship.”
“So, if I want my best friend back, I need to want a girl?”
“Pretty much, how is my ship?”
Theo and Sky came into the room and Sky said, “Charlie… why did you answer them and not me? This isn’t your ship anymore. Theo’s brother is changing everything for the better. You can’t just walk in when it’s done and call it yours. It’s our ship… our home. It even has a new name now. It’s called Unity because we are all united.”
“Sky, I’m sorry. I’ve just been really busy. They called me at the right moment. I’ve got to get going for some dinner of my own.”
Conner seemed really bothered by the fact that Charlie just lied to his sister and apparently hadn’t told her anything about the baby yet. He said “Charlie, you need to talk to your sister. She misses you.”
“I’ll call you tomorrow Sky. Love you.”
She told him she loved him too. She seemed so disappointed. She said, “Conner, you don’t have to keep inviting me to hang out with you. I know I’m just an annoying little kid.”
“I like hanging out with you. You are not annoying at all. In case you don’t remember, before I met Rose, I didn’t have any friends. I wasn’t exactly popular. Did you invite the twins by the way?”
“Yeah I did. They said I was making it up that you invited them. They still refuse to leave their room.”
“Okay, then we are taking dinner to them. Atri, can you box some of that up for me?”
Atri boxed up the dinner and we made a migration to the twins’ room. We ran into Heidi and Jackson in the hall and invited them to come with us. We got to the twins’ room and set up a movie. Alex called his brother about halfway through the movie and he came to join us too. The twins were beautiful without their disguising devices. They were sparkly silver, but they had colored patterns like Sky. They seemed so happy to be included. Heidi had brought her son with her, so the twins were playing with him mostly. It was adorable to watch.
Jackson accidentally asked Sky what she thought about becoming an aunt. He was talking about Charlie, but thankfully she thought he meant baby Peter. She said that it was her favorite thing in the world, and she loved the baby so much. He didn’t realize she still didn’t know about Charlie and said, “So do you think Charlie’s baby will be a girl or a boy?”
Sky said, “I don’t think he’s ever going to have time for a baby, at least not for a long time. I hope I have a niece one day, but it’s more likely from Ella and Luke.”
“Oh, well a niece would be nice. You can play dress up with her.”
Sky went to the bathroom and Jackson said, “Didn’t she talk to Charlie?”
I said, “He’s avoiding telling her at the moment.”
Sky came back really quickly and said, “Avoiding telling me what?... Wait, Jackson were you talking about a baby now? Like is Charlie going to be a dad?”
“I… um… I was just making conversation.”
“You all know, don’t you? Why didn’t someone just tell me?”
“We were trying to let Charlie tell you. He’s nervous about it for some reason.”
The twins said, “We didn’t know either.”
She stormed off and Theo followed. Jackson said, “And this is why I don’t talk to people. Heidi, we better get Evan to bed.”
“You just feel awkward and want to leave now.”
“Well yes, but he’s little and is also sleeping in a toy box at the moment.”
Heidi went and got Evan from the toy box he had fallen asleep in during the drama. Tucker was sound asleep as well, so I decided it was best to leave and head back to my room. I told the twins we could make movie night a weekly thing. They agreed but told me there couldn’t be as much drama next time. Alex pushed Tucker for me back to my room.
Conner said, “If he wakes up and realizes you are pushing him, he’s going to freak out.”
Alex said, “Then don’t wake him.”
We got Tucker in the room and he woke up just as we got him to the bedroom. I switched places with Alex before he realized who had pushed him. He said, “I can go somewhere else if you two need to have a private room.”
Alex said, “No, it’s okay. You are her friend and hopefully can be mine too. Rose, do you need help getting Tucker into bed?”
Tucker said, “I will figure it out sir. Don’t worry about it.”
“Tucker please. Just call me Alex.”
“Goodnight Sir Alex.”
We all laughed and I helped Tucker into the bed. He said, “I think Prince Alex likes you.”
I said, “Well we are friends for the moment. I don’t think Alex has time to like me.”
“Fair enough, but the heart does funny things. When you are queen, remember your roommate.”
I just shook my head and told him goodnight. Alex was turning my couch into a bed when I got back to the living room. I helped him and he said, “I can have a second bed brought in. It won’t be until tomorrow, but I can do it.”
“No, that’s okay. This couch is already a cloud compared to the bed I had.”
“Alright, well I guess I better let you get some sleep. Goodnight Rose.”
“Alex, sit down. You obviously have something on your mind right now.”
He sat down and said, “I can’t stop thinking about Steve. Do you think he went after other people? Do you think he was forced to do it somehow?”
“I would say I will go investigate with you tomorrow, but I know you. You will just go without me and end up getting hurt. We can go check his department and then go talk to him now. I won’t be able to sleep either because now I’m thinking about it.”
Alex and I went down to the department Steve had been working in. There was no evidence that anyone had been injured. We headed down to the prison. All of the doctors from the white coats were there as well as the old king and queen. There were a lot more people down there than I expected.
Alex said, “I will work on finding out what they all did and if they are being held unfairly, I will release them. I’ve never been down here either.”
Alex and I walked past Charlie’s dad and he said, “How is the baby? Why are you without a watch?”
Alex said, “Sir, you lost the right to know how the baby was when you gave him away by drone and then attempted to kill his mothe
r and your son. I am without a watch because we are trying a new leadership tactic.”
“We, as in you and this servant girl? She used to work for me too you know and now look at her power grabbing her way up.”
“We, as in me and my royal council. She is a member. We did not come here to speak to you. Have a pleasant night sir.”
He tried to keep talking to us, but we went and found Steve. Alex had him brought to an interrogation room. The guards tried to stay in the room, but Alex said, “Just hook him to the table and leave us. Rose, you can go too if you’d like.”
“I want to hear this discussion.”
Alex invited me to sit with him. Steve was obviously still very angry. Alex said, “I am sorry I had to lock you up, but I didn’t know if you were after me or all of the royals. I was hoping you could tell me what caused you to attack?”
“Royals… Who decided they were royals? Who decided they were better than me? You name this ship Unity and say we are equal, but you have probably never worked a day in your life. The same with all of those supposed royals. I was a royal on my planet. I know how it works. Do you want to know how I ended up working down in the pits? My watch broke one day at royal dinner and I frightened one of the twins. They almost killed me for it, but Prince Charles secretly got me a new watch and set me up at central processing. Now you all are just walking around however you want and suddenly nobody is freaked out anymore. Just go back to your tea parties and leave me be.”
“You are right. I haven’t really done any hard work with my hands. I was always being prepared to lead ships, but I really wanted to be a flight mechanic. We don’t always get a choice. Not all of those royals are like me. My newest five came from the work force. Rose here was a secretary, royal service staff, and now she is serving as my advisor while also basically being a medical student. I have a former military medic as well. I am truly sorry for the way you were cast out of court. You are welcome back if you would like. I am trying to figure out a way to gently take the pedestal from under the royals. You must understand it is all they know, and it would be very cruel to just take it all away at once. I am working on making new royalty merit based rather than money based and also trying to make them all pursue some form of employment. Is there anything else you, being someone from both sides of the fence, would suggest?”
“You make it very hard to stay angry at you. I am sorry for attacking you. Your plans sound like they will do the job. You are really just going to let me go?”
“Yes, but first I need to know something, was there really a hate group?”
“I heard some security officers talking about aliens the other day. They were freaked out, but not violent. I figured with the attack you talked about at the assembly, it would make sense as a way for me to get to the royal quadrant. To my knowledge, there is no hate group.”
Alex thanked him and released him before inviting him to come to his office the next day. He planned to renew his place on the royal court. Alex and I went back to the royal quadrant and I finally got some sleep.
Chapter 32
The Important Days
Mr. Humphrey said, “That was probably one of the most important days on the ship. Can you tell me about a few others?”
“All of them felt important in that first year. Prince Alexander took the ship from a slave ship to a united colony of space people. Each day a small change was made in the rules or what we ate or how we lived. The most important days to me were the days the council got to meet. That is where the big changes came from. After the third meeting, Alex let me take the meeting minutes. I saved all of those books. He let each of the members take turns leading the meetings. They all had such great ideas such as inviting ten work force people to the royal dinner each month. It was amazing to see such hard-working people get to have a night of fun. Conner took the ship very far with his media endeavors. He eventually even made a few movies. Alex loved Unity and I honestly thought he was never going to leave.”
“Can you tell me about the day he did?”
Chapter 33
Leaving Unity
It was one of my toughest days on the ship. It was a few days after Charlie’s baby was born. It was a baby boy, so he stayed on Malerie’s planet. Alex was making arrangements for Conner, Sky, Theo, Ella, Luke, and baby Peter to go visit Charlie when he received an emergency beacon from a nearby planet. A meteor had hit them, and the planet was going into chaos.
At first, Alex just sent some of his father’s rescue ships, but there were too many people on that planet for just the rescue ships. Alex had to make the decision to call his father’s entire fleet to the area. He had me in charge of preparing any available space and food on the ship for these people who had just lost everything. Alex greeted the first rescue ship and those people were in rough shape. They were all very much in shock. It was all women and children at first. Alex appointed one of the women as a delegate to her people and gave her a translating device. Her first question was when they’d go back for the children’s fathers. Alex started checking other ships. The oldest male resident of that planet that had been saved was ten years old. Alex decided to lead the rescue mission to go save the men. He left the ship without telling anyone except for me.
After the first day, I thought he was just being stubborn and refused to leave the planet without helping save every citizen. By the third, I realized something had to be wrong. It was the day of the council meeting and Alex never missed a meeting. Some of the other ships in his father’s fleet started leaving the area. The planet had apparently become too dangerous to land on. By noon on that day it was just our ship and Alex’s father’s. Alex’s father boarded our ship and came to our council meeting. He asked where his son was and everyone else thought he had been on his father’s ship. I had hoped he was, but I had the hard job of telling his father that he wasn’t aboard ours. It was during that meeting that the planet had broken to pieces and the shockwave of the event sent our ship into Alex’s fathers as well as in all kinds of twisting motions. Thankfully not many people were injured because one of our engineers set of a lockdown alarm just before it occurred.
The ships were not too badly damaged from the collision as it was just the very tips that touched. Repairs were started immediately followed by a memorial service for Prince Alexander. Theo was with Sky on Malerie’s planet, but they were all sent for, so they could attend the service. Malerie’s parents would not let their royals leave to come to a ship with a bunch of refuges onboard. They threatened to keep Charlie’s son from him, so he could not return to take back the ship. Theo refused to take the ship because he said he was too young and couldn’t live up to what his brother had made it into. The king put the council in charge of all of the major operations and began the search for the worthiest royal aboard the ship.
After a lot of deliberation about how Alex would want to run things and who he would want in charge, Atri was chosen as the new king of the ship. A week went by with Atri as king and Alex’s father left the ship. He took Theo, Sky, Ella, Luke, and Peter with him. Theo wouldn’t go without Sky and Sky wouldn’t go without the others.
Although Atri was king, he worked from the conference room. He, like everyone else, refused to go into Alex’s office. Then, we needed a file that was in there about ordering supplies for the ship. Conner, Jackson, Atri, and I stood in the hallway for twenty minutes just staring at the door. I went in and my heart half expected him to be there asleep among a pile of papers as he always was. His office felt so incredibly empty. His coffee from the day he left had seeped through its cup and was all over the desk and papers.
I got Atri the file he needed and then sat down in my chair besides Alex’s desk. It was the first time I really let losing him set in. Conner came in and held me, but I decided Alex wouldn’t want us sitting around. I cleaned up Alex’s desk. I boxed up his pictures and knickknacks to send to Theo. I had the filing cabinet moved to the conference room for Atri. He decided to go through it. I went back and went
through Alex’s desk one last time. Once it was all cleaned out, I made sure to securely shut his office.
I went to work helping the refugee families find their loved ones on other ships as well as find their place on ours. Atri offered some of them a seat on the royal court for their bravery. It was Monday cleaning day and the service staff had a new member. She went into Alex’s room to clean it without realizing who the room belonged to. Sally was yelling at her in the hallway when I just happened to walk by. I thought Alex’s family had cleaned out his room, but when I walked by it was as if he had been in there just moments before.
After Sally and the service staff member left, I went in and cleaned out the refrigerator. I took the trash out and cleaned the dishes that were in the sink. I boxed all of the clothes from his closet and prepared them to send to Theo. I found his journal among a box of pictures under his bed. As tempted as I was to read it, I decided Theo needed it more. Sally came in thinking I was a service staff member. She was ready to yell, but when she found me making the bed, she said, “What are you doing in here?”
“He’s not coming back. He wouldn’t want this room to go to waste. I am cleaning it out for someone to use. Just like we did with Charlie, Sky, Ella and Theo’s rooms.”
She helped me finish the cleaning. I contacted Theo about his brother’s clothes and he only wanted one of the suits. He told me to give the rest to someone who needed them. I gave them to the newest royal court members. They were all from refugee families. After cleaning the office and Alex’s room, I went and helped Atri go through the filing cabinet. When I walked into the conference room, he handed me a file with my name on the tab. There was a sealed letter addressed to me as well as Alex’s will.
Alex’s father returned to the ship for the things I had for Theo and came to speak to me. He sat me down with Atri and said, “Rose, it has come to my attention that you were made a royal under Alexander’s crest. You are the only resident of the ship under the crest. The ship is rightfully yours. Atri I apologize for mistake. I did not think my son had any descendants. You will remain as a council member, but Rose is the Queen.”
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