by Kyle Larson
“We will see each other soon. Once you’re finished with your service to Mercury, then your father and I will arrange to meet you before you go to Venus. I promise, Kelvin. Until then, I need you to do what Riz says, as well as your teachers. Remember what I said about your schoolwork.”
Kelvin smiled and his mom tried to hide a tear from sliding down her eye. She walked back to the platform they stood on earlier and the glass bubble closed up around her and whisked her off the bridge. Riz walked back onto the bridge, as soon as the queen was gone.
Prince Kelvin Sellwood was ready to begin his journey.
“Hey Riz,” Kelvin said, aloud the empty bridge.
“Yes, your highness,” Riz said, appearing immediately.
“Let’s get going to Mercury.”
CHAPTER FIVE
“THE BEST PLACE to be during the launch will be the Royal Cabin,” Riz said, as he quickly escorted Kelvin off of the bridge. Riz could tell Kelvin was on the verge of crying after saying goodbye – not to mention his father had not come to send him off – and he wanted to turn Kelvin’s focus. Riz had never met Kelvin before, but he knew all about the boy from his conversations with the king and queen. Riz wanted to make sure Kelvin thought of the Monarch as his home.
They returned to a glass bubble ship, only now Riz referred to these ships as moths, which Kelvin thought must have to do with the Monarch’s name. They rode the moth across the vast city within the Monarch, all the way to the other side of the ship. As they got closer, Kelvin could see dozens of people moving about the hundreds of ramps and walkways along the inner walls of the Monarch. Some of them were walking, others were riding bicycles or float-cycles. The ones on float-cycles occasionally launched themselves off the walkways, floating down to another one a few hundred feet, and then continuing on to their destinations. The city in the Monarch was very much alive.
“The Royal Cabin is the home your grandfather had built here in the Monarch. It is where you, your friend Amelia, and your caretaker Holloway will be living,” Riz said, as he moved the moth closer to a large home, built right into the wall.
The largest building in the center of the Monarch appeared to be the Royal Cabin. The moth came to a stop right next to it and then started to rise again.
Kelvin could see that the Royal Cabin was connected to all of the other walkways of the Monarch, though there weren’t nearly as many people bustling through. As they rose higher, eventually leaving the interior of the Monarch, and coming to a stop on a landing platform at the highest point of the Royal Cabin. The moth touched down on a landing platform, of which the walkway went right into the Royal Cabin. It was starting to get dark on Earth, so all the windows of the Monarch were lit up. Kelvin looked up at the Royal Palace next to them, lit up just the same. For a moment, Kelvin wished he was going to his home at the top of the Royal Palace.
Riz could tell that Kelvin was somewhat overwhelmed. He tried to slow things down for Kelvin. The glass enclosure of the moth opened and the two of them stepped onto the platform. It was getting windy, but the breeze felt good. The recycled air of the Monarch was already apparent to Kelvin, who took in his last few breaths of Earth’s atmosphere while he still could.
“I know it's a lot to take in, my lord, just one thing at a time. You have a long time to get to know this ship. Come on,” Riz said, leading Kelvin up the walkway.
They walked right into the Royal Cabin, but there was no one else inside. The front room of the Cabin was huge, with high ceilings and giant windows. There was something about it that made it seems old, maybe because it was mostly made out of wood when Kelvin was used to his surroundings being somewhat metallic. The furniture also looked like it was very old and very valuable.
“Come on, I’ll show you the observatory. That's the best part,” Riz said, excitedly leading Kelvin up the stairs.
As soon as they were on the staircase, Kelvin looked up and it looked like it went up forever. It had to be at least three-hundred feet of stairs rising high into the different floors of the Royal Cabin. Behind it, the entire wall was glass, with the twilight of Earth behind it. It was a beautiful sight. Kelvin wondered if there was an elevator instead of all the stairs. Something told him that Riz preferred to take the stairs.
When they made their third turn of stairs, a young woman was on her way down.
“Holloway, there you are,” Riz said, waving to her. “Kelvin, I want you to meet your caretaker and your teacher, Holloway. She's our best.”
“It's nice to meet you Kelvin. I'm excited to be along for the ride,” Holloway said, in a slightly stiff manner. Kelvin could tell that she was kind of shy and awkward. She extended her hand to shake it and he took it. It was nice to have someone not call him ‘lord’.
“Nice to meet you too, Holloway,” Kelvin said.
She continued on and looked like she was in a hurry. Riz took out his phone and made a call.
“Prepare to retract docking clamps and bring thrusters online,” Riz said into the phone. “Prepare for launch.”
Kelvin got excited and suddenly he could see the clouds in the sky move a little. The Monarch was no longer attached to the Royal Tower, it was free floating. He couldn't feel the movement of the ship, but he could see that the Monarch was moving through the giant windows. Finally, they stopped at a door and Riz opened it.
Inside was a room with a massive glass dome that gave anyone standing in it a total view of outside. Kelvin could tell that the ship was moving away from the Royal Palace. He looked down on the other buildings that were on top of the Monarch’s hull, that were still tall, but the Royal Cabin was much taller. The only structure that dwarfed the Royal Cabin was the Royal Palace, but they were drifting away.
“What do you think? This is the observatory your grandfather had built. It was the last thing he added to the Monarch before he passed away,” Riz said.
“Pretty cool!” Kelvin said, looking in every direction he could to see everything possible. “This is amazing!”
Kelvin never met his grandfather, who’d passed away just before he was born. Aren had, since he’d seen pictures of them together. King Diogo was remembered as one of the great kings of Earth. He’d helped make Earth the second wealthiest planet, behind Jupiter, and had a role in helping build Earth Navy into the fleet it was now. Kelvin wished he had a chance to know his grandpa.
Kelvin heard the door open again and Amelia stepped in.
“Hey Amelia!”
“I don't like this, Kelvin,” Amelia said, shaking her head. “Holloway told me to come up here, but I don't like the idea of shooting out into space like a bullet.”
“Oh, it's much safer than a bullet,” Riz said, jokingly.
“Who's this?” Amelia asked Kelvin, barely looking in Riz’s direction.
“Sir Ristep Aker,” Kelvin said, sounding as official as he could. He caught himself as the words came out and Riz gave him a disapproving look. “Just call him Riz.”
“I’m steering this ship,” Riz said. “Someone told me you don’t like flying very much.”
Amelia wore a puzzled look on her face for a few seconds before she answered.
“Who told you that?” She said.
“I’ve known your mom and dad for years. They let me know you don’t like leaving the atmosphere much, but that you want to be a captain in Earth Navy someday,” Riz said.
“Yes, sir, I do,” Amelia said. Kelvin watched her unconsciously straighten her stance to look more like an officer.
“Why captain? Most people who want in the navy shoot for knight.”
“I’ve read about your missions, sir. On the edge of the Antioch Belt and the Kuiper Belt, you and the king saved thousands of people. You both traveled further than any human ever has and nearly left the solar system. I want to be captain of the first ship that goes interstellar.”
“Well, that’s a lofty goal, Chapman,” Riz said, with a smile. She reminded him of himself when he was younger. He thought of the missions she referre
d to, with his old friend the king. Riz was flattered that a new generation of future naval officers heard of his missions with the king. He wondered if King Erelm knew how legendary they had both become, since he hadn’t spoken to the king in almost ten years. “I’ll try to get you some time on the bridge, once we’ve broken through Earth’s gravity and are past the moon.”
“I’d like that, sir. I’d like that very much,” Amelia said. She tried to keep her cool, but that was an exciting prospect she’d been nervous to ask about.
“It’s a long way to Mercury. You two should stay here, enjoy the view. When we break out of Earth’s atmosphere the moon’s gonna be right there. You’ve never really seen the moon until…well, you’ll know what I mean in a few minutes,” Riz said, as he turned to leave the observatory.
Once they were alone, Kelvin could tell Amelia wasn’t trying to hide the fact she was nervous about the flight. They could both see the ground get further away as the Monarch rose into the sky like a balloon. Kelvin thought about all the power the Monarch must have been using to push itself away from Earth’s gravity. From his view, it looked like they were slowly floating away, but in actuality, they were going hundreds of miles per hour.
“This isn’t so bad,” Amelia said. She walked closer to the glass for a better view. Her heart was beating a little faster, but she didn’t feel as nervous as she had before.
“I told you. There hasn’t been any sort of accident in a plane or starship for over a hundred years. This ship is probably safer than the Royal Palace,” Kelvin joked. He took his phone out of his pocket and took a picture as they could start to see the curvature of Earth’s horizon.
Slowly, the blue of the sky outside grew darker until it was the black void of space. The darkness only lasted a few seconds, though, as a shimmering blanket of stars brighter than Kelvin and Amelia had ever seen blanketed the sky outside the dome. They were in space. Both of them felt lighter, almost like they were on a carnival ride and were about to float away. The only gravity that kept them on the floor was the gravity made by the Monarch. If it hadn’t of been for the gravity generators of the Monarch, the two of them would be floating away. Kelvin heard on holidays that ships often turned their gravity generators off so everyone aboard could float around for a few minutes. He thought to himself that he’d have to think of a holiday to declare so that everyone aboard the Monarch could do that.
Then, as if it were coming out to welcome Kelvin and Amelia to the stars, the white orb of the moon glowed in front of them. Earth had suddenly become much smaller. Kelvin and Amelia could tell the Monarch was moving much faster than it had been during take-off. From Earth, the moon just looks like a flat disc, lighting up the night sky. Now, Kelvin and Amelia saw it as a giant rock, tied to Earth, with its own mountains and craters. It was the most amazing and strange sight either of them had ever seen.
“It’s beautiful,” Kelvin said, as if it were just to himself, forgetting Amelia was there.
“Did your mom tell you anything else about the Lunar Guardians, Kelvin?” Amelia asked. There were no doubt a great many people asking who the Lunar Guardians were from Kelvin’s public appearance.
“No one wants to talk about it. Did your parents say anything?”
“No, but I looked it up on my phone. They used to be a separate branch of Earth Navy. They had their own fleet and were the first line of defense for Earth, back in the older days of war. Your father terminated their relationship with Earth Navy, not long after your grandfather died. There’s no explanation, since they were already a secret branch of Earth Navy. Everything else is classified and the Royal Council only has access to it.”
“So they fought for Earth once?”
“Yeah, according to the history books the Lunar Guardians actually freed Earth from the Jovian Imperator, hundreds of years ago. The Lunar Guardians were actually allied with other planets at one point, claiming the moon to be a kingdom of its own. They gave that up to become part of Earth. The Lunar Guardians actually have a history of being a part of most every major battle in the wars before the Nine Kingdoms.”
Amelia handed Kelvin her phone. He scrolled through the article. It seemed odd that some of the greatest heroes in the Nine Kingdoms history were not even taught in his history lessons. All the battles Kelvin saw were ones he was familiar with from his school lessons, but the books provided by his teachers made no mention of the Lunar Guardians. When he scrolled to the bottom of the page, he saw the last picture taken of the Lunar Guardians. There were three of them, standing at attention, in the same brilliant armor he’d seen earlier. The man who stood in the center of the trio was the same person who’d interrupted his speech.
Kelvin pressed the tip of his finger to the man’s face.
“Identify with SolarNet search, use facial database,” Kelvin said. In an instant, a search went out through the SolarNet. Every bit of public information, from Tube broadcasts to archived information, was searched trying to get the identity of the mysterious Lunar Guardian.
Earlos Monson was the name that came up in his search. When he pressed down on the link to elaborate, nothing else came up. Monson was his mother’s last name, and he knew his family on his mother’s side were some of the most heroic soldiers in the wars of old. His mom never talked about her family though. Kelvin never met his grandparents from her side and anytime he’d ever asked, it was the same reaction as when he asked about Aren. Eleyn just told him she would explain it when he was older.
Kelvin wished he had asked again before he left.
“Who’s Earlos Monson?” Amelia asked.
“That’s the man that interrupted my speech, raving about the Pirates of Mercury. This last picture is him and he looks a lot younger. Not much older than we are now.”
Amelia examined the photo for a moment and then put her phone back into her pocket. She’d studied Earth Navy history extensively, but had never heard of the Lunar Guardians. Like Kelvin, it seemed like they should be all over Earth’s history books, but were nowhere to be found. Moon City, the only outpost on the moon, was empty. All of it’s citizens had returned to Earth within the last fifty-years, as King Diogo was able to entice them to living in the Royal Palace with the rest of Earth.
Both Kelvin and Amelia stared out at the giant orb on the other side of the dome, as the Monarch glided past it.
“I wonder what that crazy old man wanted. Maybe Riz will know,” Kelvin said. He made a note to himself to ask Eleyn when he spoke to her next. “Have you met Holloway yet?”
Amelia nodded and smiled. “She seems nice.”
Suddenly, the sound of static came from the other side of the observatory. Kelvin and Amelia followed the sound to a small computer terminal that looked like it had been in sleep mode. Through the glass dome, they could tell they were well past the moon, and Earth was very small now. It looked like a blue ball, floating in the darkness of space. Amelia touched the keyboard and the screen came to life and the static stopped.
“Welcome to the Monarch Stellar Listening App,” a computerized voice said. It had the same voice as every other digital assistant Kelvin and Amelia were used to working with on their phone or computer. “Listen to any sound in the solar system. From the rings of Saturn to the Lead Fields of Mercury…all celestial bodies transmit some sort of sound on a frequency. Tap any of the Nine Kingdoms and you can start exploring the wonders of space sound.”
“I’ve totally heard of this!” Amelia said, excited. “This was supposed to be my science project next term, to make a playlist of all the different sounds.”
Kelvin had never heard of the app, but he pretended like he did, nodding along to Amelia’s excitement. He felt like he should have known what it was, especially since he considered himself to be the expert on space. Amelia was much smarter than him, and usually Kelvin didn’t mind admitting it, but it kind of bothered him she knew more about this subject than him. Kelvin shrugged it off and figured his friend could probably help teach him more about the sol
ar system.
“Here,” Amelia continued. “Let’s listen to the Lead Fields!”
She touched the screen and a sound like wind came over the speakers. It wasn’t violent, just a little louder than a breeze. Both of them smiled at each other. What they were hearing was live, it wasn’t a recording. The Monarch’s satellites were able to pick up the noise. There was also a live stream from a nearby telescope near Mercury.
“How about the Antioch Asteroid Field?” Kelvin suggested, swiping the star chart on the screen to where the field would be. It was a dense ring of asteroids they would have to pass through on their way to Mercury, but there were several safe ways to get through it. It was a stable asteroid field, so it was just like driving between boulders thousands of feet apart.
“Oh, yeah!” Amelia said. Asteroid fields were supposed to have the most interesting noises, due to the special combination of rocks and ice constantly changing shape.
At first they heard nothing, then more static. The app notified them that the Monarch’s satellite was adjusting to pick up a strong signal it had just detected. Whatever the signal was, it seemed to be stronger than noise heard from anything natural.
“Kelvin, it’s picking up a radio signal,” Amelia said, confused. “It looks like it’s really distorted. I’ll see if I can try to get it cleared up.”
Amelia typed quickly on the keyboard and Kelvin pretended to know what she was doing. The static slowly turned to something that resembled a voice, and after a few moments, it was a girl’s voice. The voice only said one thing, over and over, but when Kelvin and Amelia heard it, they both looked at one another as if they’d heard a ghost.
“This is Princess Aren of Earth. If anyone can hear me, my ship is stuck in the Antioch Field. Our engines malfunctioned and we are stuck here. Please send help. They are coming for us. We are running out of time and they are coming for us. It’s the Pirates of Mercury. They’re real!”
CHAPTER SIX