by Dan Kelly
miss. He knows his boss won’t give him the night off because catering for the Queen is a big deal and he’s going to need all of his employees to provide the quality of service the Queen and her staff expect. He wants to be called again.
Andy agrees to bail him out, but for reasons of his own. Andy is on the payroll of Emperor Eclipse and has been working undercover looking for an opportunity to gain access to the Castle to see what he can ferret out about some connection the Queen might have with some special group of kids. This is the perfect ploy and he pounces on it.
Andy has no trouble passing for his brother and goes about doing his brother’s job of setting up for the banquet. Andy is clever, but not really very bright. Instead of keeping his mouth shut and observing, he starts right in with asking everybody he sees about the kids. Who are they? Where do they come from? Why are they here? Why are there so many of them? One of the people he approaches is none other than Security Chief Shandul who is immediately suspicious. He pulls Andy aside and starts asking him questions. Andy starts to stammer and sweat and says that he is just curious about why there are so many kids attending the banquet. There’s something about this guy that raises the hackles on the Chief’s neck, so he hauls him down to the security office for further questioning.
The Chief looks at the picture of Randy on the security computer and then at Andy. The visual check is affirmative, but there’s still something that’s not quite right about this guy. Why is he so nervous? He takes another look at the picture on the computer and then smiles. He looks up at Andy and says, “Let me see some identification.”
Andy almost passes out. He didn’t think to substitute his brother’s ID for his own. He didn’t think there would be a problem. The problem is that he didn’t think. One look at Andy’s ID and the Chief’s suspicion is confirmed. “Ok, Randy, what’s going on here?”
“What do you mean?” asks Andy. “I’m here to do some catering.”
“The guy in this picture is not you. The guy in this picture has a small birth mark below his left ear. You don’t. The guy in this picture is named Randy. Your ID says your name is Andy. I’ll repeat. What’s going on here?”
So, Andy spills the beans, He tells the Chief everything but why he really agreed to switch with his brother. The Chief buys his story and chalks up his questions to him being a busybody. He lets Andy go with a warning not to ever pull a stunt like this again and has him escorted out the gate. He immediately notifies the owner of the catering company who assures the Chief that Randy will be fired and he will take steps to see that nothing like this ever happens again.
Although Andy was let go, he’s still in a pack of trouble with his brother and the Emperor when he finds out what happened. Andy figures he’ll be lucky if the only thing the Emperor does is fire him. He knows that the Emperor is mean, has a nasty temper and could do a lot more to
punish him than just fire him. He could just sit tight and not say anything to the Emperor with the hope that he’ll never find out what happened, but he knows that the Emperor has informants everywhere and it will just be a matter of time before his foul up is discovered. Andy decides to test the waters for the Emperor’s reaction to him getting caught. He reports in to the Emperor, gives him a blow by blow description of the events as they unfolded, is not surprised at the invective spewing from the Emperor’s mouth, quickly hangs up and heads for parts unknown.
The Chief decides to hold off on telling the Queen what’s happened until tomorrow. Why spoil her fun. Lately, her days have been filled with nothing but hard work and worry. She needs the break. The Chief returns to the Grand Ballroom with his grand appetite primed for some serious action.
All the guests have arrived safely, the food is delicious and there’s lots of it and the music is superb. Everyone in the ballroom is having a ball. At 9:30, the sound of trumpets pervades the Castle and then the Queen’s voice is heard coming from the many speakers throughout the ballroom. “May I have your attention please? The moment you have all been waiting for and wondering about has finally arrived. Please assemble in the Royal Theater where I will join you shortly. Thank you.”
When the trumpets sounded, a hush came over the crowd, but now the buzz of conversation has reached a crescendo that is almost deafening. The anticipation is so great that everyone is practically running to get to the Royal Theater.
When everyone is in and seated, trumpets sound again and soft music begins to play, backing up the Royal Choir singing “Hail to Queen Quasar”. As the choir begins to sing, the Queen makes her entrance from stage right and slowly walks to the center of the stage. She is truly a unique vision of loveliness. There is no one more beautiful on all of Proton.
She is wearing the finest of her ceremonial garb and is an unforgettable sight to behold.
She’s wearing a crown of deep purple velvet which is bordered at its base with a strip of white fur with black spots. Adjacent to the strip of fur is a slightly wider strip of heavily filigreed gold embedded with rare jewels from all over the universe. This gold strip supports four fluted gold crosses embedded with sapphires and diamonds. These crosses are 90 degrees from each other, starting with the one dead center in front. Between each of these crosses is a gold fleur de lie of the same height as the adjacent crosses and they also are embedded with sapphires and diamonds. The fluted crosses support two swan like bands of gold of the same width as the band at the base and are also heavily filigreed and bejeweled. One goes from side to side and the other goes from front to back over the other one, crossing in the center at the top of the crown. Neither of these bands touches the velvet material. A solid gold ball sets on the point of crossing and bears two bands of filigree, one perpendicular to the base and one vertical to the base, crossing
each other at the centers of their circumferences. On top of this ball there sets another smaller fluted cross with diamonds in its arms and a small gold droplet at each end of the horizontal
arm. Perched at the top of the vertical portion is a tiny gold ball. It is wondrously exquisite and its intricacies are unrivaled.
The rest of her ensemble consists of a long, flowing, deep purple robe with a high pure white fur collar and its hem is edged with the same white fur. The robe is kept closed by two wide gold hooks at the top that fit into gold edged openings just large enough for the hooks. Beneath her robe she’s wearing a magnificent white on white satin gown and she’s walking in beautiful white, brocaded, medium heeled shoes that are the envy of every woman there.
The way the Queen is attired has every one guessing even more wildly than they were before as to what this grand occasion is all about. It has to be something really special.
The Queen walks forward to the front of the stage and begins to speak. She doesn’t need any notes as she’s memorized what she wants to say. “Good evening every one. Thank you so much for coming and sharing this very special event with me. I hope you’re all having a wonderful time. I decided to hold this extravaganza because there’s someone I very much want to honor and commend.
“This individual is exceptional in so many ways and I’m very fortunate and thankful for his loyalty and service. He is someone that quietly goes about performing his assigned duties and many more unassigned duties without ever asking for anything in return, not even a thank you. He is a superlative administrator, a brilliant scholar and an extraordinary teacher. He’s been with me now for almost ten years and I don’t know what I would do without him. The Stellar School for Special Students was a dream of mine that would never have become a reality without his active participation. Of course, I’m talking about our very own Headmaster Herby. Headmaster, will you please come up on stage.”
While every one is waiting for the Headmaster to make his way to the stage, a low murmur of speculation spreads through the audience. The guests don’t have a clue about what the Queen has in mind. As the Headmaster climbs up on stage and walks somewhat nervously over to where the Queen is waiting for him, it is clear to everyone th
at the Headmaster doesn’t have a clue either.
“Headmaster Herby, this night is for you. I can think of no better way to recognize you for your exemplary service to the Crown than to bestow upon you the highest honor within my purview. Headmaster, please kneel.” As the Queen is saying this, an assistant comes out from behind the curtain carrying a small wooden chest inlaid with mother of pearl in one hand and a highly polished ceremonial sword with a gleaming gold handle in the other. The assistant walks up to and stands slightly behind the Queen to her right. Taking the sword, she lightly touches the Headmaster’s shoulders with the point of it and simultaneously says, “Headmaster Herby, I hereby dub you Sir Henry Harold Herby, Knight of the Serpent, the Order of the Arts and Sciences. After doing this, she commands, “Rise Sir Herby.” The Queen then reaches into the
chest that her assistant has opened and takes out to two sashes. One is red with a white star that is worn around the waist with the star in front and the other is white with a red star and is worn
over the shoulder and across the chest with the star in front. The white sash has a hook to hold a ceremonial sword. In a very unusual gesture, she hands the ceremonial sword to the
Headmaster and tells him to attach it to the sash. She then says, “Sir Herby, these trappings are yours to keep to commemorate this very special time for a very special man. Turn to our guests and be recognized.” The Queen smiles, the guests cheer and applaud and Sir Herby faints!
Sir Herby is carried back stage, placed on a couch used on one of the sets and comes to a few minutes later. The first person he sees is the Queen. He remembers what’s happened, is greatly humbled by all that she has done to make this evening one he will never forget and tells her so. The Queen couldn’t have been happier.
The guests are filing out of the theater to return to the Grand Ballroom and resume their celebrating and the Queen and Sir Herby bring up the rear. The rest of the evening is enjoyed even more than before because now everybody knows what their celebrating.
Chapter 24
The first thing the next morning Chief Shandul is in the Queen’s office telling her about Andy the catering guy. “I’m having second thoughts about my letting him go. His reason for asking so many questions could have been a cover up for nosing around for somebody else, somebody like Emperor Eclipse whom we know is searching for information about the Power Pack and where they reside. He was quite nervous over being found out and might have given us more truthful answers to my questions under more intense interrogation. I might have goofed, Your Highness.”
“Don’t second guess yourself, Chief. The mind game of should a, could a, would a never has a winner and all the loser winds up with is a headache. To be on the safe side, let’s assume that Andy is working for the Emperor. Let’s further assume that the Emperor has somehow made a possible connection between me and the Pack and has instructed this Andy character to find a way to gain access to the Castle, so he can poke around for any evidence of any unusual relationship between me and a bunch of kids. When Andy’s brother asks him to fill in, it’s the perfect opportunity that he can’t ignore.
“It might have worked if you hadn’t been on your toes and sensed something was out of whack. Fortunately for us, Andy is not the brightest bulb in the chandelier and asked too many questions, too soon and sought answers from the wrong person. So, assuming that our assumptions are correct, what’s our next step?”
At first, the Chief says nothing. He’s sitting quietly on an exceptionally comfortable lounge that faces a large bay window that looks out on a spectacular view of the surrounding mountain range. Several minutes go by and, to an outsider, he would appear to be in some kind of a deep trance, but the Queen knows better. The Chief can concentrate harder than anyone she’s ever met. She remains quiet and lets him think.
After a few more minutes, he begins to slowly nod his head and then he says, “I’ve been reviewing our entire security system here at Castle Capella, including all procedures, protocols, equipment used as well as all personnel under my command. Until last night, I believed our system was flawless. I now know there are additional steps we can take to prevent a reoccurrence of what happened with Andy last evening.
“Your Highness, this is what I recommend. In addition to having the names and pictures of every vendor, frequent visitor, family member and staff member in our computer files, we should also have on file copies of their finger prints and retinal scans. All four of these means of identification should be employed whenever someone is seeking entrance to Castle Capella. These sources of identification have proven to be viable in identifying all known life forms. Had we been using fingerprint and retinal scans, Andy would never have been allowed into the Castle.”
“Very well, Chief. I accept your recommendation and authorize you to implement it immediately. Please submit a list of attendant costs and I will approve the expenditure. Do you have any suggestions regarding how we can further insulate our relationship with Stellar and the Power Pack from unwanted prying eyes?”
“Yes I do, Your Highness, but we’re going to have to be very careful about how we go about it. I don’t want to unduly frighten the Pack or anyone else in the inner circle of people with the right to know, but I think it would be most prudent to heighten the level of awareness on everyone’s part of the increased potential risk of exposure to Emperor Eclipse.
“We know he has escalated his attempts to garner intelligence about the Pack and we should respond by increasing our efforts to strengthen our defenses as much as we can. One way we can do this is to increase the frequency of our reminders to all concerned at Stellar about the need for secrecy and the consequences of not doing so. We are currently issuing these reminders during our monthly assemblies, but I now think we should do this on a daily basis over our internal public address system there. Speakers are everywhere, so it would be very unlikely that the messages would not be heard. Our words of caution should also include reminders to stay alert when around strangers or people who don’t have the need to know. They should be reminded to always be on the lookout for strange behavior and report it immediately.”
The Queen has been listening closely and concurs with everything the Chief has said. “I like your suggestion, Chief, and will wholeheartedly support your efforts by word and deed whenever it is needed. You’ve got a lot of work ahead of you, so I won’t keep you here any longer. Keep me posted on your progress.”
As soon as the Chief is out of the office, she closes the door, takes his place on the lounge, lies down and begins to dwell on ways to lure the Emperor into another trap. This monster really has her dander up and she’s not going to sit idly by and do nothing but wait for his next attempt to bring her down. As so often happens when she’s deep in thought, she falls asleep and dreams develop around what she’s been thinking. When she wakes up, she’s come up with a doozy of an idea.
“This time the trap’s bait is going to be the Pack, but they’re not going to have to do a thing. This time my scheme will be based on an illusion. Although the Emperor is very intelligent, he is also very stubborn about changing course once he’s made up his mind about something. This character trait is the key to the scheme’s success and there’s a good chance it will lead to the Emperor’s downfall.
“The first thing that must be done is to get the Emperor’s attention. This must be done subtly in a manner that does not arouse suspicion yet leads him to infer that something is going to happen that will provide him with a fantastic opportunity to get his hands on the special group of kids he’s been hearing about.”
The Queen has dreamed up the perfect subterfuge. There’s going to be a meeting of the Inter-Galactic Treaty Organization in two weeks’ time. This is the ideal forum for putting her plan in motion. During these meetings, the representatives of the member planets communicate with each other via translation transceivers which automatically convert the speaker’s language into that of the listener. The translation system can do this simultaneously with an
infinite number of languages and an infinite number of participants. Each participant’s transceiver has a dial to select a particular language he wants to have translated or he can select “all” and have all conversations translated at once. A participant can elect to talk with any number of people at once by using the touch screen monitor on his desk. The only members that can listen to a caller are those the caller has selected.
The assigned seating has Proton’s Secretary of State sitting one level below Erebus’s and one desk to the right. There are sound proof partitions on both sides of each desk to provide privacy, so no one can eavesdrop on a conversation.
The plan calls for Proton’s Secretary of State and Chief Shandul to do a little acting just as the meeting breaks for lunch. In addition to the translation transceivers, each desk has a secured outside line for the members to communicate with their respective planets or vice versa. At the exact moment the meeting breaks for lunch, the Secretary is to turn off his monitor, disconnecting his desk from the internal communication system, and at the same time flick a switch hidden under his desk near his right thigh. The monitor’s screen will stay blank for thirty seconds and then come back on showing connections to all of the members’ transceivers, but in reality only Erebus’s Secretary of State will be able to listen to a conversation. The Queen will have Chief Shandul arrange for the installation of the switch and related circuitry. Erebus’s Secretary of State never takes a lunch break, preferring to stay at his desk preparing presentations, responses, rebuttals, etc. He is also very observant and shouldn’t miss what happens on the monitor