Despite the threatening tone of the speech, the praying mantis didn't skip a beat, immediately chirping back something in his language. What he said, I did not understand, but the Chameleon immediately calmed down and even bowed in imitation of human body-language.
"My second note is directed at you, Crown Prince Georg royl Inoky. Yes, you personally enjoy high respect and trust among my species. Perhaps my race will consider you worthy to be our leader. But, excuse my directness, people are not immortal. What will happen to my kind when you die? Wouldn't Duke Paolo or some other close relative of his become viceroy of the Sss system? For my species, that would mean the end. These disgruntled aristocrats would never forgive us for making such an agreement with Crown Prince Georg."
"Popori de Cacha, it is up to you and your assistants to make sure my life will not end prematurely," I said, finding myself. "When my time as viceroy is up, my heir would be one of my children, or..." then I started thinking and smiled, having found an interesting option. "Or I will declare Miya the new viceroy. Knowing my Truth Seeker's reputation, no one in the Empire would even think about trying to lay claim to something that belongs to her."
It seemed that my brave bodyguard suddenly began cowering in fear.
"Better you, Crown Prince. Miya is not only frightening to Imperial citizens. While you and her were visiting Sss, the Truth Seeker made quite the strong impression on the rulers of the Ravaash race," the Chameleon admitted.
I laughed, took one of the admiral's two glasses, and the three of us loudly clinked a toast to reinforce our agreement.
* * *
"Dad! I missed you so much!" the young Princess ran up and jumped onto my shoulders, and I happily spun her around.
"Lika, have fun. You can have anything you like today in any amount, except wine."
A dark-haired, modest girl in a long, light-colored dress had come together with my daughter. I was somehow more accustomed to seeing the captain of Warhawk-4 in the Orange House Space Fleet ceremonial uniform, to which I had already twice pinned medals for bravery, so I did not immediately recognize Tamara Vuzhek in civilian attire. I introduced everyone around to the best frigate captain in the whole fleet.
"My Prince, I think you have me confused with someone else," the girl laughed. "Your Highness only ever tells me how upset I'm making him, or threatens to rip out my still nonexistent male sexual organs, or promises to do something else I don't understand, which would also clearly be unpleasant."
"Lieutenant Vuzhek, you are wrong," Nicole Savoia commented forcefully. "In the last battle, the Crown Prince used you as an example for the rest and compared you with the legendary Maur Cassei. And he gave the other captains such a tongue-lashing that the staff officers even took notes so as not to forget any of the especially juicy expressions."
"Dad, does this mean you know how to swear?" Lika, who was sitting next to me, was honestly surprised.
"Of course not, the girls are just joking. It's fleet humor. You wouldn't get it." I could feel myself blushing.
When an alarm siren went off at that exact moment, I was forced to shudder in surprise. I suddenly answered an incoming message from the headquarters. There were panic and worry coming through in the officer's voice.
"My Prince, there has been an explosion of an unidentified but very powerful charge near the Tesse station! Some fleet ships have been quite badly damaged! Most frigates have lost energy shields! Red alert! The automatic cameras on Joan the Fatty have gone offline! Positioning systems have gone offline! The fleet headquarters is blind! We have no map of the battle!"
"Commander!" An unfamiliar voice joined in the conversation. "This is the captain of the battleship Master of Tesse, Anzor ton Art. Many instruments have been damaged, but our shields held out. Locating Alien ships in system! It's an unknown type of frigate! The ship is motionless!"
I yelled with my full voice:
"All ships, fire! Kill that bastard now before it turns on its thrusters and moves out to open a portal!"
A few tense seconds passed by, then Anzor ton Art reported:
"Mission accomplished. The Alien ship has been destroyed. We are detecting severe background radiation. Other than that, our instruments are reporting an unending stream of antimatter: positrons and anti-alphas. The source of the antimatter has been located. It is four hundred miles from the Tesse station. Approximately ninety miles from the wreckage of the Alien frigate."
"My Prince, we are detecting many new objects," I recognized the voice of Valian ton Corsa. "Computer analysis underway... One second... With an over ninety-six percent probability, we are observing the wreckage of the Alien battleship! A very strong beam of light from the epicenter of the explosion spoke to the ongoing nature of the antiparticle annihilation reaction. The light wave will reach the planet Tesse-III in twenty-two minutes. At such a distance, it will no longer be dangerous. And also... on the backdrop of all the chaos, the shredded remnants of all four tugs have also been identified. We will send out rescue teams to look for survivors."
"Crown Prince Georg, I know what happened!" one of the Chameleons stated, appearing before me.
I went with him a bit further from the alarmed celebration guests and demanded that he tell me all he knew. The Chameleon began babbling very, very quickly:
"When we were searching the Behemoth on your Highness's order, we noticed huge empty halls next to the main cannon towers with no atmosphere. They contained a vacuum. It was in those halls, hanging in magnetic holders, that we saw many balls approximately three inches in diameter. Our instruments showed that these balls were made of antimatter. They were the cannon rounds for the Behemoth. We didn't risk getting closer to study the precariously balanced construction. There was too high a chance of upsetting something in that delicate balance. But before taking the battleship with them, the Emperor's messengers had to turn off the Behemoth's warp drive, because the tugs wouldn't be able to haul a ship through an interspace tunnel with its drive turned on. Given that their experts did not have a diagram of the electrical grid and simply turned off the switches one after the other until they got to the warp drive, they may have turned off something they shouldn't have that made the antimatter arsenal unstable. And when the ship went into warp, one of the gaseous antimatter balls touched a wall and..."
As a matter of fact, it sounded logical. The terrifying blast set off a series of smaller explosions of super-powered antimatter shells flying in all directions, which destroyed the Alien ship together with the tugs. But I still didn't quite understand about the frigate we had detected in Tesse. In any case, I had a confirmation of the theory that cloaked Alien frigates could already be in many systems and tracking the activity of humans, the Iseyek, and their other enemies. The Alien cloaked frigate was too close to the calculated exit point of the tugs from Tesse and had been seriously damaged, which turned off its cloaking system. Well, alright then. We got lucky that time with the Alien frigate. But what had happened to the battleship was vexing...
I spoke clearly and loudly so all my unseen bodyguards would hear:
"The Emperor will be frightfully upset at the loss of such a valuable trophy and even more so if he learns that the Chameleons didn't warn his messengers of the risk. So, not a word to anyone about the halls of flying spheres. Our official version will be as follows: the Alien frigate purposely approached the tugged battleship and somehow blew up the captured ship, itself also going down in the explosion."
Standing change. Chameleon race opinion of you has improved.
Chameleon race opinion of you: +14 (trusting)
A call came in on my communicator. On the line was Admiral Kiro Sabuto.
"My Prince, I received a message from headquarter saying that warp beacons have just been turned off at the Orange House Capital, the Docks, and Nessi."
"Nothing to be surprised at," I chuckled. "The explosion by the station and message about the arrival of Alien ships to Tesse must have frightened the Duke. And he finally decided to follow ou
r lead and turned off his warp beacons. By the way, order that awful alarm signal turned off. Everything has calmed down. The celebration can continue. And we will all prepare to observe a rare occurrence in eighteen minutes. For several seconds, a second sun will rise in the sky from the direction of the Tesse station."
* * *
The burst of light was a bit of a letdown. Instead of the bright star in the night sky I had been expecting, all that came in was a message from the Tesse Security Service on a temporary rise in background radiation, which was not dangerous to people. The guests calmed down, and the celebration went on. I, combining business and pleasure, introduced myself to many of my older brother's ministers and agreed on buying equipment for building an orbital elevator in Unatari and an orbital metal processing complex. I also booked all available ore freighters in the Tesse system for the next three weeks.
The celebration was gradually coming to an end. The three admirals bid their farewells, explaining that they were needed in the fleet. They had to evaluate the damage taken by the ships and send the damaged ones in for repair. It was already the very end of the party when a slightly drunk Kiro Sabuto told me his "big secret:" that by his order, my assistant Nicole Savoia would be promoted to the rank of space lieutenant.
"Many in the fleet don't like being told what to do by a lower-ranking officer. They won't express their annoyance out loud to the fleet commander, but a dissatisfied murmur has been heard. So, she's in for a surprise when she gets back to Joan the Fatty."
The admiral was standing literally six feet from Nicole, but clearly didn’t notice her there. He bid farewell to me, and hurried to the shuttle as it was preparing to take off. The Tesse ministers and a large part of the guests left with the admirals. I sat down next to Nicole, who had grown embarrassed at having overheard the conversation, and filled her glass.
"Congratulations. You have truly earned this promotion with your knowledge and actions in battle."
"Thank you, my Prince. I am really touched. I must admit to you that I got an offer yesterday from the Imperial Joint Chiefs about a permanent position with them. I was promised fast promotions. They want me to give constant courses on new tactics for small and medium-sized fleets. I was going to say ‘no.’”
"Of course. And I wouldn't have let you go. I prefer to keep such a skilled assistant to myself," I laughed. "To my mind, you are the most capable of all the staff tactics officers, so you have every legal right to be a fleet commander's assistant, though such a position usually requires a rank no lower than space major. And also, there are plenty of new tactics for you to see yet. Just wait a few weeks..."
We went silent as Tamara Vuzhek walked by the table, speaking enthusiastically with my daughter Likanna. I noticed how much attention Nicole was paying to the frigate captain' breasts. I suspect that it wasn't only about their size (though that was a possibility), but also about the two medals Tamara had earned for bravery in battle. It seemed that Nicole's lack of combat medals other than the Silver Brooch, which anyone who took part in a battle was given, was a very delicate topic, all the more so after my other assistant, a simple android translator, had received an Emerald Star, a very honorable Imperial order.
"I won't promise any medals," I said, and she noticeably shuddered. I really had guessed her thoughts. "But you will definitely gain new knowledge and skills. After that you’ll be able to rise in rank even faster there, given that such a position requires a larger number of stars on your collar."
"Crown Prince, you are reading my thoughts, that's not fair!" said the girl, somewhat spooked.
"A good commander must know what makes his subjects tick. Otherwise, how can he meet their expectations?" I smiled, satisfied at the effect produced.
Astra came up to us with Tamara Vuzhek and my daughter. I noticed that my favorite had already managed to swig down quite a bit of booze and was having trouble staying on her feet.
"Dad, I want to show my palace to Princess Astra and aunty Tamara. Can I?" Likanna asked. At that moment, the girl’s eyes were reminiscent of the begging cat from Shrek.
My daughter clearly wanted to show off in front of her new acquaintances. And, after all, why not?
"Alright. But take Beston Maf and Nicole Savoia with you too. They're also very young and will be interested in the palace and the yacht and everything you have. And catch Phobos and Deimos, too. Otherwise, the praying mantises will soon burst from overeating. I give you all two days to have fun. On the morning of the third day, I expect to see you on Joan the Fatty."
Lika gave a squeal of joy and ran to drag the praying mantis from the table to get everyone on the shuttle quickly before her dad had a change of mind. I then turned to my assistant, who was clearly surprised at my decision:
"Space Lieutenant Nicole Savoia, this is an order from your fleet commander: rest and have fun for two days! And also, as senior officer, keep an eye on them. Then, with Lika's immeasurable enthusiasm and Astra's limitless imagination, these two princesses will not only repaint the castle but turn all of Tesse on its head."
"It will be done, your Highness," my assistant smiled before hurrying off after the others.
I searched with my eyes for remaining party guests. Only Bionica and Katerina remained, whispering together in the secluded alcove as before. Everyone else had gone. Perhaps it was also time for me to get back to Joan the Fatty. I turned to walk toward the far-off shuttle, but I was suddenly called out to by Verena:
"Crown Prince Georg, just where do you think you're getting off to? Music is still playing; the fun isn't over. There's still a ton of interesting stuff prepared just for your Highness: exposition gladiator matches in the small arena, races with riders on exotic animals, and an exhibit of living statues, created by geneticists. And also, you are now regent, and your status dictates that you be furnished with apartments in the palace. Another thing, Crown Prince, if you leave, that will be the end of what for me is a very rare moment of celebration. You wouldn't want to make a lady sad, would you?"
In fact, I didn’t want the night to be over yet either, which is why I turned and approached Verena. Roben's wife took me by the hand, and we slowly walked through the nighttime park paths.
"How I envy you, Georg! Today you're in Unatari, tomorrow the Throne World, the next day Tesse, the Orange House Capital or Fastel. A bunch of adventures, a ton of new faces, an aura of glory and power shining above your head... You are free to go where you please, do what you please, and no one can tell you otherwise. Ugh... You don't even know the meaning of the word 'boredom,' when you have to languish cooped up in the same old place, and you're already nauseous at seeing the same old faces."
We walked up to the table and took a glass of wine each.
"My only entertainment in the last months has been collecting exotic marine shells from the crustaceans of various planets. I've actually built up quite the collection. Let's go. I'll show you my collection. You're gonna love it!" Verena was pulling me toward the palace.
We walked in procession through the luxury-saturated halls and ended up in a small room before a closed door. Verena took a surprisingly long time fidgeting with the old-fashioned bronze key hanging from a chain on her neck.
"It's a stiff lock. You couldn't possibly help a lady open it, could you? Set your glass down here for now so it won't get in the way," the beauty suggested, pointing to a small table.
I set the wine glass down and turned, ready to take the key from Verena's hand. And suddenly, at that moment, Popori de Cacha appeared before my face, sharply jumping to the side and grabbing something invisible. There were a few seconds of unexplained bustle after that, and my bodyguard straightened up.
"Crown Prince Georg, one of my tribesmen just threw a capsule into your wine, possibly poison."
The head of my bodyguard took a strange, flat flashlight from his belt and turned it on. The room lit up an unnatural shade of violet, and I suddenly noticed the large number of Chameleons in the tiny room. They were everywhere: on
the walls, on the floor, even on the ceiling. I counted six members of the Ravaash race, one of which was being held down spread-eagle on the floor by two others.
"That is Kupi de, one of the bodyguards given to your brother," Popori de Cacha pointed at his immobilized compatriot. "Now he is subject only to Roben royl Inoky and his wife. I have no more power over him."
"Verena, how should I understand this?" I sharply turned to the lady of the palace. "Recently, I have become quite familiar with the Chameleons' behavior. Kupi-de wouldn't act alone. Did you order him to poison me?"
"Not poison. This is something else..." Verena got a small, flat box out of her bodice and gave it to me. Inside there were a few tablets rolling around.
I read the name of the drug and called up the interactive menu. Aphrodisiac, male potency enhancer? Why? In that time, the woman had managed to open the door with her little key. There was no shell collection behind the door at all. It was the bedroom.
"All Chameleons go out into the hall and wait there! Verena, we need to have a serious talk."
The stunning dark-haired lady got slightly embarrassed at her plans having been revealed, went into the room, waited for me to follow and closed the door. A second later, Verena's white dress had fallen to her knees. The naked dark-haired beauty was carelessly stepping over her clothes and turned to me:
"Yes, Crown Prince Georg. What did you want to talk about?"
Beyond Death (Perimeter Defense Book #2) Page 9