by Frank Carey
"Ease your mind, Captain," Rock said as he gently took Harm by the arm and led him to a gangway leading up into the ship. "The captain will explain everything."
They made their way to the command deck where the ship's captain, helmsman, and navigator sat watching an image of the Hephaestus. "Rock, contact Deltafish and let them know we have Capt. Aymar safely aboard," the woman in the command chair said.
"Aye, Captain," Rock replied as he tapped his earpiece.
"Captain Aymar, you will be happy to know the Deltafish has reached minimum safe distance from the Hephaestus," the captain informed him. "Clare, time to detonation?"
"One minute, ma’am," the navigator said as she and the helmsman stood up and faced Harmon.
"I know you both," Harmon said.
"You know us all, Capt. Harmon Aymar," the captain said as she stood up and faced him. "Except for Rock. He’s kind of new. Capt. Kestra Mrantz at your service."
He looked at her and saw the young Lyseckan woman who had knocked him out over a decade ago. "Captain, my complements on one mighty fine uppercut," he said as he rubbed his chin.
"Captain, ten seconds," the navigator announced.
They all turned and watched as the Hephaestus disappeared in a ball of superheated plasma.
"Not even close," Rock quipped.
"Not even," Kestra agreed. "Helm, contact Deltafish with my complements. Tell them we'll meet them at Melgassa Arcology. Give them our ETA. Meanwhile, I have a lot of explaining to do."
"Aye, Captain."
"Rock, why don't you join the captain and me for tea?"
"Yes, ma’am. This way, Captain," the impossibly large person said as he led the way.
Harm looked around and felt at ease for the first time in many years. I could get used to this, he thought as he walked into the captain’s Day Room to have tea with a ghost from his past. In the viewer, the sea reclaimed what remained of Hephaestus. The nightmare was over.
Chapter Fifteen
Three weeks later...
Harmon sat and drank iced tea while everyone around him frantically prepared for the awards ceremony. All around him, members of the royal staff hurried about as they made sure every prop was in its place and every dignitary served a drink. It was pure, controlled chaos.
Harm wished he was anywhere else, but what could he do without a ship in which to escape, hitch a ride back into town?
Harmon Aymar, Hero of the League, awarded the Elven Medal of Daring Bravery... Yech! he thought as a waiter handed him another tea. I’m Harmon Aymar, ex-smuggler, ex-hacker, and ex-freighter captain.
Unable to escape, Harmon opted for glowering at one of the tree rodents who was attempting to steal a piece of fruit from the buffet.
"Cheer up, brother. It's almost over," Tannith said while sitting down next to him and stealing his drink. "Hmmm, this is especially good tea. Earl Grey?"
""Yep. Did you know I used to smuggle it into Altura where it's tariffed something horrible."
"A typical day in the life of Harmon, the Smuggler Elf. You miss it?"
"Sometimes. Sometimes I wonder how the hell I made it to my thirtieth birthday." He looked around. "Where's Penny? You two have been inseparable since we returned from Maranta Five.”
Tannith blushed. "About Penny and me..."
"You and Penny are dating, I know. I've known since the day she walked up and asked my permission to see you. Something about an elf tradition," he said, retrieving his drink before she dropped it.
"What did you tell her?" Tannith asked in wide-eyed shock.
"Let me think... I said yes, told her there was no tradition, hugged her, and set her up with that limo ride you two took. Oh, I also got her reservations for the chef's table at Top of the World. The chef owes me big time for a box of truffles I got him on the QT. I hear the date went well, by the way."
Tannith said nothing as she grabbed the drink back and rubbed her forehead with it. Finally, she looked at her brother and asked, "And you have no... You know..."
"Are you two happy?"
"Yes, very."
"The only problem I will ever have is if someone hurts you. Otherwise, I am as happy as that tree rat who just got lucky," Harmon replied while pointing to the little rodent scampering off with a prize piece of Norta melon. "But, there is something I should have told you a long time ago..."
"That you're adopted? Mom told me on my tenth birthday. Not a problem, bro. I'll still kick your tail if you get out of line."
Harmon leaned back in his chair and laughed, realizing how good it was to be alive. He was so happy; he let Tannith keep the drink while he raised his hand to order another.
"Your drink, sir," a female voice said. Harm turned and saw Her Majesty, Queen Losira Irithyl of Ventos Prime standing behind him and holding a glass of iced tea.
Harm nearly fell out of his chair as he scrambled to kneel in respect, his phobia about her not helping in the least bit. "Your Majesty," he said as he forced himself not to scream and run away.
"Harmon, it's all right," Losira said as she reached for his hand to help him stand.
He took her hand in his.
The world exploded as thousands of images, feelings, and experiences flowed into his mind while his hand felt like he had grabbed a bare power cable. Images of his birth, a room full of people, someone taking him away, his parents, Tannith, Atmar, the Spindrift, Segue Six, all washing over him like a tidal wave. Then the wave parted to reveal a baby girl looking at him from the other side of a mirror, her arms held out while she mouthed the name Lucien. She was in danger from whatever was happening and he had to protect her, so he reached in, gently taking her in his arms, shielding her from the onslaught.
###
Harm opened his eyes and found he was holding Queen Losira while she held him, each protecting the other. She looked up at him with eyes filled with wonder. "What the hell just happened?" she asked.
"I don't have a plarking clue. Who's Lucien?"
"Prince Lucien Irithyl, the Queen's long lost identical twin brother," a familiar voice said. Harm and Losira looked around and saw they were standing in a field full of sheep. Next to them stood Xura in her black dress and stilettos.
"Xura, we've got to stop meeting like this," Harm said. "Xura, this is Losira, Queen of Ventos Prime, and she is really too busy for all this."
"Where are we?" Losira asked as she carefully pulled away from Harm while maintaining a hold on his hand.
"My mind, I think," Harm sighed. "Your Majesty, let me introduce Inspector Xura. She's not from around here."
"You really work the dress," Losira said as she checked out Xura.
"Thanks. I've got a designer in Paris who performs absolute miracles."
"I hate to break this up," Harm said, "but what the hell is going on?"
"Did you know that you two haven't stopped holding hands since arriving here?"
"So?" Harm asked as he and the Queen continued to hold hands.
"It's a twin thing. You two are exchanging feelings, data, even energy through the contact made between the skin of your hands. All elf twins do it, especially the identical ones. Watch Gloria and Royce. They’re constantly sneaking in a touch here and there."
"Yes, I studied that in med school," Losira said. "What does that have to do with us? We're not twins?"
"Really?" Xura asked as the sheep chortled. "Enjoy your party."
Reality returned.
###
"No! Do not separate them," a voice ordered. "I need a DNA scanner, stat!"
Harm opened one eye to see if there were any sheep around. Seeing the coast was clear, he whispered to the Queen, "They're gone."
Losira opened her eyes. "Does that happen a lot with you?"
"Yeah. Frightening to think I'm getting used to it," he said as he tried to get up.
"No! Stay put until we're finished checking you," an imperious voice said. Harm looked up and saw a large Alturan doctor holding both his and Losira's free wrists. "This is on
e for the textbooks," the doctor said.
"Care to fill us in, Dr. Triptych?" Losira asked.
An assistant ran over and handed the doctor a scanner which he ran over Harm and the Queen. "It's confirmed. Welcome home, Prince Lucien."
Harm gave Losira a perplexed look as the people around them oohed, aahed, and generally murmured. “Who the hell is Prince Lucien?” he asked.
“Prince Lucien was my identical twin brother. He died… Mother!”
The sun blotted out as a tall, imperious-sounding woman walked up to stand in front of Losira and Harm. Tree rats scattered while everyone gave her room, lots of room.
“Shit!” Harm said as he quickly helped Losira up before going to one knee. Standing in front of him was Queen Mother Lenora Irithyl, previously the Warrior Queen of Ventos Prime, and the only other person Harm was frightened of. “Your Majesty,” he said as he tried to choke-back his abject fear.
Lenora reached down and gently helped him to his feet. With tears streaming from her eyes, she hugged him. “Lucien! By all the gods, you live.”
“Mother! You told me he died at birth,” Losira said angrily. “Why?”
“To help you cope. Your father and I did everything possible to find your brother, but the trail came up empty, so for your sake we made up the story that he was dead.”
“Twin-link… ” Ciara said. “Oh my God, Atmar!”
“Darling, what is wrong?” Royce demanded as he and Team One ran up.
“Harm is Prince Lucien,” Tannith blurted out as Penny took her arm.
Losira grabbed Harm’s hand and linked. She remained that way for a moment as a frown deepened. She then released his hand. “No prime twin has ever… Dr. Triptych, Ciara, Royce, Marta, and Tannith, come with me. Lucien, please stay here with Mother and the guests. We shouldn’t be long,” she said.
“Sure,” he replied as Lenora continued to stare at him.
The Queen left with the others in tow.
“Lucien,” Lenora said.
“My Queen…”
“Mother, please.”
“OK, Mother then. This is my daughter, Aerith. Aerith, meet your Grandmother, Queen Mother Lenora.”
“Hey!” Aerith said.
“Hey, yourself. You’re half-human, aren’t you?”
“Yep. I’m an elfling and damn proud. Oh, and this is Sean, my boyfriend. He’s an elfling too,” she said as Sean ran up and went to one knee. “Sweetie, this is Queen Mother Lenora, my grandmother.
Sean’s eyes went wide as his head snapped up. “What?”
Lenora reached down and took Sean’s hand. “Harmon is my son, Lucien. What do you do, young elfling?” she asked, warming to the idea of elflings in the family.
As Sean explained, Harm stepped over to a table and stared at a tree rat which itself was staring at the Queen Mother. Harm found a piece of fruit and handed it to the rat. “Here, buddy, have one on me.” The rat took the fruit and ran off before Harm could change his mind. “What a day.”
###
While Ciara and Triptych worked with Losira calling up data on her office computer, Royce, Marta, and Tannith nervously waited. “Tannith, what the hell happened?” Marta asked while Royce tried to listen in on his wife’s conversation.
Tannith explained. “Losira took Harm’s hand and it was like they had both been tazered. I called for help. Their bodies were spasming while their clasped hands were turning white. I never saw anything like it.”
Royce pulled out his commlink and tied it into the Ventosian database. “Damn,” he said while scrolling through data.
The door opened and Gloria walked in. “What’s going on? Security found me and dragged me here.”
Tannith explained what happened. “Shit!” she explained. “And he lived?”
“What?” Marta asked as she spun the white-haired elf around. “Why wouldn’t he live?”
“Prime twins separated at birth, especially before first link, do not live, period,” Gloria said.
“You lived.”
“Royce and I separated when we were nineteen, and I ducked into a suit when the going got bad, but I knew what to expect. Infants don’t. The stress kills them…”
“Not in this case,” Losira said as she walked up. “Somehow, Lucien was able to channel the pain of separation someplace until he was old enough to deal with it…”
“Deal with it? You mean…” Marta asked quietly.
“Atmar. Atmar was the culmination of almost two decades of deep psychological pain.”
“Pain we added to,” Marta said. “Shit. And now?”
“I’m fine, actually.” Harm said from behind them. “Ciara has confirmed that my evil doppelganger is gone. I have a family, a job, and a life. The rest is the past. It can’t be changed, only learned from.”
Marta walked over and hugged him while he kissed the top of her head.
“Shall we get back to the ceremony?” Losira suggested.
“Good idea,” Harm said as he led the group out the door and into their new lives.
<<<<
About Frank Carey
Frank Carey has been formally writing and publishing works of science fiction since late 2013. Over the years prior, he had dabbled in various forms of writing including haiku poetry, but that all changed when he and his wife, Jo, decided to try their hand at writing and self-publishing. All his work, to date, has been in the science fiction genre.
Most of his stories take place about two centuries in the future when Earth joins the League of Planetary Systems. Many of his protagonists are strong females. He is an inveterate pantser who believes the story will go where the story wants to go.
Frank’s background includes degrees in physics and extensive work as a scientific programmer and technologist.
Frank and his wife produce a podcast—Xtreme Self-Publishing—which details their self-publishing efforts.
Frank can be reached through his podcast at xtremeselfpublishing.podbean.com or via e-mail at [email protected] or [email protected]