Storm Princess

by M. Garnet

  What have I done…I have escaped from one prison, my father's, and put myself into another, my own? How had the Gods made such a beautiful male and put me in the same universe? Seeing him turn and walk away caused a pain to shoot through my head.

  I fell back on the hard pillow and tried to resist the need to cry. There was nothing to gain from crying. At a small noise of a machine over my head, a healer came in to check on my readings.

  The male healer checked everything and commented about my blood pressure being a bit high and my endorphins showing. I forced a smile and told him it probably was from the pleasure of having a personal visit from the Heir.

  He agreed that he would have the same reaction. At that moment, a young military male stepped up and knocked on the doorframe before entering.

  "Princess, I am Marshall Bower. I was just told to bring you these clothes and wait to show you up to your suite. If you approve my presence, I am willing to serve as your guide." He looked down and then up with a smile that seemed to be shy.

  I thought about the military that I had been surrounded by and I don't think I had ever seen them smile, even the young ones. I think the humor and kindness were beaten out of them at an early age. I also remembered how careful they were to keep anyone that I might flirt with away from me. I would not flirt with this young male. Still, he was nice looking with his shy smile.

  "I would be grateful for your help, Marshall Bower. If you would step out long enough for this helper to unhook me and I can get dressed, I would love to see my suite." I returned his smile, perhaps a little larger.

  I now had an opportunity to really look at this city within a mountain. No wonder that the barricade that I read about in the old news reports couldn't really reach the people on this planet. The planet itself protected those who lived here.

  Chapter Five

  I was to be introduced to the cavern in a different way. By a young military male who was not in a hurry.

  First, I loved the clothes that he had brought to me in the medical room. There were leather pants that were so soft that they felt like I was being caressed. They were not tight and not loose, just a comfortable fit that moved as I walked or bent. How magical.

  The soft underwear was one piece and opened at the crotch to slide on. I would have said this clinging brown material was the same as the thin white material that I had worn in my landing, except it was not see through. It held me comfortably in all the right places.

  The full top had long sleeves and reached my knees. If I twirled it would swing fully into a circle, but the matching tie held it to my waist. I had nothing to hold my hair, so I just tucked it under the top against my back. I didn't put the shoes on, as I wanted to feel the mountain, so I carried them under my arm.

  I went out to follow my Marshall and was shocked that after a long hallway, we opened out onto the hanger area. We were up against the back wall of this gigantic open space that could hold dozens of space vehicles.

  Yet the most astonishing part was that under my feet was polished rock. So, these beings that had developed on this world and had welcomed others into their lives had treated their world gently. They used the rock without destroying it.

  What drew my eyes was the fact that the other end of this cavern was open. I could see a faint flicker of a clear force field. Beyond it were the ocean and a storm so grand and full of lightening and clouds and waves so high that it was beyond anything I had ever seen. I wanted to go beyond the force field and let the storm whip at me, to cleanse me.

  I looked around at the activity on the floor and it wasn't the equipment and the piles of items that amazed me. What I saw were people. They were working and repairing and using large machines. There was still something different.

  There was some stopping and just talking. Closer, I could even hear some laughter. These people were working because they wanted to, not because they were being forced to.

  My Marshall waited patiently as my eyes continued to wander. On my left and quite a distance away, I could see a group of soldiers that seemed to be training. There was a large balcony about two floors above that area and on it were two individuals watching the training session. Those two were too far away for me to see any details about them.

  There weren't any barriers on the main floor to show the training area, but no one approached it. There weren't any machines, no floating containers, nor were there workers that went anywhere near the training section.

  What I did see were some small children off to one side, trying to do the same exercises. They would fall down and laugh and then rise to continue their play of being soldiers. I thought that in the future, some of them would belong in those black exercise outfits.

  In this massive open area in front of me, I couldn't make out any details of the two who leaned against a railing, watching the soldiers working up a sweat and their muscles. Still, I knew that they were important beings.

  I had been able to sneak out once to the landing field near the King's residence. This rock floor was as large and held as many vehicles for space as land and water. Off to one side, out in the water was an area for several vessels that obviously traveled within the ocean.

  I finally saw the damage.

  "Marshall Bower, as I stand here now, does this planet have a north and west, etc…," I asked the question without looking at him. I wanted the information to learn about my new home.

  The young male actually came to attention. "Princess, the opening faces south. The wall there where Commander Sachim is watching his new ones train is west. Does that help with your question?"

  "Thank you, I love that opening. I could sit in front of it for hours and watch the storms." I had a thought. "Are there other cave cities on this planet?"

  Now my Marshall felt important. "Oh yes, there are many. Everyone has the main opening facing south because of the storms. We have the storms because of our two moons."

  "Oh great, we have two moons?" I really needed to find a way to get some history on this planet. This was all so exciting. At this point, with the storm bringing darkness, the inside of this high opening began to glow with floating lights. There were also light strings and light bars everywhere. They were along the railings, above the different levels and upward in this city. Like any city, as darkness approached, the interior lights turned on. I sighed with the wonder of it all within a cave. How wonderful was my new home?

  "Marshall, what am I seeing on these high levels that seem to have lighting and people moving around?"

  Marshall Bower turned around, looking up. "Some of the lower levels are offices and storage areas and meeting rooms. Then as you go higher, these are the living quarters."

  He pointed to an area above her head and she turned to look upward. "I live in a group section with others in my military league. It works out well, as I have one good buddy there and we share a lot of things."

  I remembered only hearing grumbling and fights in the quarters of my father's troops.

  "Princess, perhaps we should go up to your suite now?" The young male was holding a hand out toward a bank of elevators. I again found sites of wonder. All around the cave were rows of these lighted lifts, some in pairs and some in groups of fours. Some of the lifts seemed to go up almost out of sight and some just moved inside. They were all clear, allowing her to see what or who was riding aloft or coming down. There were the units that were stopped at floors in between and the lighting strips showed them just hanging in space over the great opening of this cave.

  I followed him, glad that he took his time so I could continue to look at the people and the cavern and the items moving around. I was grateful that the lift he was taking me on was covered in clear siding. I would be able to have a view as I was taken upward in this towering mountain that was taller than any of the spires on my father's residence.

  "How is it possible to control the atmosphere and temperature in this colossal area? I feel no unusual dampness and no coolness."

  The Marshall was standin
g sideways, almost staring at me. I guess I was ignoring him as I looked around like a gawking youth. I was just wondering about earthquakes when I saw the damage on one wall near the wide opening.

  "What happened over there?"

  "The war. That was the only damage that happened inside to our planet to any of the cave cities." I could hear the pain in his voice. The damage to that area had hurt him or someone he knew. I knew my father was not involved in that war and blockade.

  Now I felt I was somehow involved in something my father had in his twisted mind. I would also do my best to interfere with his plans.

  Then as the elevator moved slowly upward I saw the crowd around one tall male who was moving toward the damaged area. I felt the grip of agony as I realized the Heir was walking among his own people.

  I looked away, trying to find something to distract me and let me control my body. At this point, I was looking down at Commander Sachim and his assistant who happened to be a female.

  "Who is with the Commander?" I was surprised my voice was strong.

  "Oh, that is an interesting story. That is his assistant and his lover. Her name is Joo and she is from off world. She is from a jungle world and loves our top side when the storms are not so severe."

  "How did she get here?"

  Marshall Bower turned and looked down as the elevator continued its slow climb skyward in the cavern. "We rescued a shipload of people that had been taken by slavers. After taking care of them and assessing their health, we freed them. Some wanted to return home. A few wanted to go somewhere else and some chose to stay here. Joo was strange and because of her background, she found it difficult to make the choices offered to her."

  I kept my eyes off the floor. "It looks like she made a good choice." I fought the tears that were pushing against my eyes.

  At last, we were at the top and the doors opened behind me. I didn't want to turn and leave as I looked down at the tiny movements so far below. There were the lights and the shapes of large ships and then I looked around at layer after layer of balconies coming up to become smaller as the cavern narrowed near the top.

  "Princess, we are near your suite."

  I finally turned, thinking that there would come a time when I would walk down each of those layers, just to have the experience. I wondered if the Heir had been on each one, then decided that yes, as a child he had chased and played here.

  There was only a short walk, but like everything else, it left me in amazement. It was a hallway carved from the rock. There was plenty of light and a carpet down the center. I put one bare foot on the side and felt the cool smooth mountain that we moved through.

  We were finally in front of a set of double doors made from real wood. Marshall Bower stepped forward, nodding at two military males in black uniforms trimmed in green. The two males saluted her and stepped aside. One of the doors opened from the inside by a small female child with a smile and a small bow.

  "Welcome, Princess. I am Set. I have the honor of being assigned to you."

  I stepped through the door the small female was holding open for me and thought about this child being here to help me. Then I smiled.

  "Did my servants and those others from my father's world all get returned?"

  Set dipped a knee and answered. "I think for reasons I don't understand, all of those who came with you are being held back on the ship and are being returned to your home. Is that acceptable?"

  Marshall Bower also spoke fast. "I can call and stop the ship."

  I looked at him and touched his arm. "No, no. I want nothing from my father's world, as this is now my world. I only need what it will provide me with, like my maid Set."

  I was going to look at her with a smile when my eyes traveled up and looked at the room we were entering. I could just praise the fates to think what these hardy beings had done within a solid rock mountain.

  I could spend a lot of time and waste a lot of space describing a room that was too large and too high and too beautiful to be in a rock. I won't, as I will be living here. I will use the same time and space to say what I feel.

  Oh, there is still the heartbreak inside, but such a room as this would be a place to allow the heartbreak to become something to live with and understand.

  Here with the ceiling taller than three men on each other’s shoulders, were many different sets of gatherings of furniture and cushions for conversation groups. Still it was all for comfort, not the ugly cold formal rooms at my father's residences.

  The greatest blessing was one wall that was open and protected by a force field. I could see the ocean for miles and miles until it was out of sight. I started to sit down in front of it and Set slid a pillow under me.

  This would hold my sorrow. This ocean with its storms and its folding waves would let me live with the ache that was inside.

  Chapter Six

  I have a maid, I have a pool to bath in, and I have clothes that suit me. It has been reported that all of those that came with me from the Questes Consortium were sent back home and that there has been attempts by my father to contact me.

  I have requested to refuse all contact from that person and that position of the universe. Set and Bower will answer any question that I ask and I have been supplied with the most marvelous units with floating screens, to contact the outside worlds and study.

  I can look up history and any academic work I want. So what was I interest in? I was interested first in the female Joo.

  There was a planet as hard to survive on as GigasVnee. I sat on my pillows, drinking wine in front of the window and looked up the planet where Joo had been born.

  It had water, not like the great oceans that called to me on this planet, but enough to let life develop. You had only two choices of livable land on Joo’s planet. There were large stretches of desert and dry sand. This desert area was separated from the rest of the planet that got too much rain. Too little rain made the land dry out, too much rain created jungles.

  When off-worlders came to them, they traded plant products in exchange for medical products. They had gone from tribal groups existing off the jungle lands to highly intelligent beings that protected their environment.

  Somewhere in their growth and contact with the outside, they realized it was important to protect their way of life by attaching themselves to someone more advanced. This was a difficult decision, as they wanted to maintain their independence and their own unusual life lifestyle.

  They found the place that would work by volunteering as scouts with the Federated Military. It would seem that even with all the technical gadgets that the Federation had, it still needed individuals who could go to ground to learn information better than a machine. Individuals were needed who could plant listener devices, tracker devices, and sometimes bombs.

  There was a need for someone who was a bit smarter than the smart machines when two people looked exactly alike. Which one do you arrest? The scout would bring both of them back. No machine had been able to replace a live being in the field of war or crime.

  I came from a planet that treated females as second-class citizens. There were only males in the military and in the government. It was a fake government that approved all of my father’s decrees. On Joo’s planet the females were also in the military and some of them served the scouting section for the Federated Military.

  Within the family units, both the males and females took care of raising the children. Teachers were both male and female and the hard way of living deep in the jungle with knives and hand-to-hand fighting was taught to both sexes.

  They were rough beings and raised their young to be tough. Everything they did in their lives they did to keep themselves active and sharp and deadly.

  From what I was discovering in this history, their lives were meant to make them hard and safe, even their sex activity was appreciated in a harder manner.

  I had been trained in so many ways of sex without anyone touching my chaste body, that reading about the activities of others did not
bring a shock to me. I did find it interesting to find out that this was more fascinating to understand since this was real life.

  I had this need to talk to Joo.

  I sat on cushions in front of my window and watched what I was beginning to think of as my small section of the ocean. Set didn’t like the storms and would bring me food and drink, but move back from the open window and wait behind the furniture in this amazing room.

  She told me that people born on this world appreciated what the storms brought to her world, but respected them enough to stay away from them. Set did say there were some that were whispered to be called Storm Drinkers and gained strength from all the hurricanes and thunderstorms of GigasVnee. Set smiled and said that many said the Heir gained power from such storms.

  I had kept within this suite of rooms, learning them. There was first this large soft meeting room and was protected by the rock that it was carved from. My father might have had some rooms in his residence that were larger, but none felt safer or stronger. There was also the fact that all the rooms within this suite had a warm, colorful, and comfortable feeling.

  Although the cave dwellers had been careful to just polish and carve the rock carefully in these rooms, the colors of the rocks were offset by all the soft carpets, hangings, and many cushions in all the rooms. Soft lighting everywhere that could be controlled added a pleasant glow to the different rock levels. There was a certain fascination to look at the layers that had formed this mountain sometime back in history too old to count.

  I had been put into a living space that was warm, comfortable, and safe. This was something that my father, with all his wealth could not provide for his people, even for himself on any of his worlds.

  There was a cleansing room with all the normal items, but there was a pool. Set told me that most preferred to bath in the pools that were in most homes. All residents living in the caves within caves called each individual dwelling their home. It was a word that was important to them.