Gun Princess Royale: Awakening the Princess, Book One

by Albert Ruckholdt

  “Yes.”

  I frowned faintly as I bit my lower lip. “Ghost said that Limbo was the space between universes.”

  He looked a tad surprised. “So you know about that.”

  I nodded. “So does this have something to do with the multiverse theory?”

  “Yes.”

  “I thought it wasn’t possible to travel between universes because the theory states that they are each moving apart at lightspeed and it’s not possible to travel faster than light”—I blinked sharply when I remembered my father’s work—“Trans-space! Traveling through the center of trans-space. Is that how it’s done? Is that how you move between universes?”

  “Not that I know of. Though some scientists and theoreticians on our side have proposed the idea no one has been able to make it work.”

  “They failed?”

  “Yes, despite our science and technology being far in advance of yours.”

  I started to laugh softly. “So I guess my father’s wasting his time.”

  Tobias grew pensive before shaking his head gently. “Maybe not. Sometimes it takes a fresh approach. He may think of a way our scientists haven’t. He could succeed where the people on my side have failed. In any case, your parents’ research is funded by the Sanreal Family and they control the Telos Corporation that employs your parents.”

  My eyes grew impossibly wide. “Your family? Your family owns the Telos Corporation?”

  Tobias inhaled slowly yet deeply. “You’re going to blame my family for taking your parents away from you.”

  I clamped my lips together, having been read like an open book for a heartbeat as the thought had indeed crossed my mind, but then I shook my head firmly. “No. My parents made their own choices. The Telos Corporation merely agreed to pay for their flight of fancy.”

  Tobias bowed his head a little. “Maybe. But it’s quite possible the Sanreals put the idea in his head. My family has been looking for a way to travel between universes that doesn’t involve….” His voice suddenly trailed away.

  “Involve what?” I asked, frowning at him with suspicion. “Involve what, Mat?”

  A faint struggle had broken out across his face.

  I decided to press him for answers. “How do you do it? How do you move between my universe and yours?”

  He reached up and rubbed a palm across his face. “We use the Artifacts.”

  “Artifacts?”

  “Machines—devices—left behind by somebody or something a lot smarter than us.”

  “Something?”

  He nodded grimly at me. “Yes. We don’t know what they were or where they’ve gone, but they left their machinery behind and humanity on my side figured out how to use some of them. One of those machines generates a tunnel, a shortcut through the fabric of the universe, opening a connection between my home universe and yours. We don’t know how it’s done, only how to operate it. We also know that the bridgeway is only possible between these two universes.”

  “Mine and yours?”

  He nodded.

  “Why?” I asked.

  He looked away and stared at the wall separating the cabin from the corridor. “Because someone on this side had the same idea as someone on our side. They both built a device to bridge between universes, and they both turned it on at the same time. It goes back to the theory that the multiverse expresses all possible possibilities. Whether it was fate or an act of God, someone here and someone over there flipped the switch on at the same time and formed a bridgeway through Limbo, connecting both our universes together.”

  I stood stock still, my mind desperately trying to break down this revelation into digestible pieces for a long while, before I finally pointed out, “Then that would mean there are Artifacts in my universe. If the same people on your side created the bridge as those on my side, then surely they left Artifacts behind in my universe.”

  Tobias gave me a reluctant nod. “Why do you think the Telos Corporation invests so much into archeology and space exploration?”

  “But it’s not just them. There are other companies—”

  “Other companies controlled, owned, and run by the Noble Houses from my realm, all of them looking for Artifacts. The truth is the technology is kept under lock and key. Its research and its usage is strictly regulated, and travel between the universes is carefully controlled and monitored on both sides by the Imperial Family.”

  I took a step closer to him. “Imperial Family?”

  The shadow of a grimace flitted across his face. “Yes. The Imperial Family, House Aventisse.”

  “…wow…,” I whispered. “There’s an empire on your side?”

  Again he grimaced. “My world, my reality, is a complicated place. Humanity on my side isn’t what it is here. It’s hard to describe. I said that our technology is well ahead of yours, but in some areas it lags decades behind. We don’t have conflicts on a grand scale anymore, but there is oppression and inequality. The Noble Houses under Imperial rule are constantly jostling for supremacy, often at the expense of the people, and my family is equally guilty having embarked on various ways to regain their Alus status that have subjugated our people further. The Gun Princess Royale is but one avenue they are following, and truthfully it’s brought them mixed results. As my family’s champions, the Princesses haven’t proven their worth so they were discarded and a new group selected for this year’s competition.”

  “Discarded? What does that mean? Were they disposed of? Were they killed?”

  He looked aghast. “No. No, they were set free. Their agreements were terminated. They were cut loose. However, steps were taken to ensure their confidentiality.”

  I frowned worriedly. “Steps?”

  “Their memories were locked, and they are prohibited from revealing the truth about us—about the alternative reality. In fact, I’m not sure how much they knew. As far as they were concerned the Gun Princesses and everything about the Princess Royale is black technology. I doubt they would want to talk to anyone about it.”

  “So they were threatened into silence.”

  He shrugged his shoulders and smiled noncommittally. “Maybe. Maybe not. But it’s not just our noble House that takes measures to ensure the cooperation and silence of the Princess Meisters. Other Houses do the same.”

  I took a half step closer to him. “Mat, why the Gun Princess Royale? Isn’t it just a game? Why is it so important to your family?”

  “The Gun Princess Royale is a competition the Noble Houses use to compete against each other. It’s something that’s grown steadily popular, year after year, with the people from my realm, my universe. It’s actually served to sedate and quell the prospect of rebellion amongst the masses, though there are organizations and groups that continue to work to undermine the stability of the empire. But it’s become an important tool for the Noble Houses and the Imperial Family, so the honor and prestige the Gun Princess earn their representative House has grown as well. And with it comes influence and power. With it, a Noble House can earn favor with the Imperial Family.”

  I exhaled loudly, feeling frustrated because his answers were setting free more questions. I feared an avalanche within my mind, one that would bury me, leaving me unable to make choices in the very near future.

  Maybe Tobias sensed my predicament because his expression quickly grew concerned. “Cass, there’s a lot I can tell you, but honestly I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I don’t know why you were chosen. I don’t know the details of the decisions my family makes regarding the Gun Princesses and the Gun Princess Royale. All I know is that they’re planning to make a comeback, and they’ve chosen three girls to make that happen—three new girls here in Ar Telica.” Shaking his head, he added, “I don’t know about the situation in the other city-states. Clarisol hasn’t told me.”

  “So you knew about Mirai—about Project Mirai?”

  “Yes. Clarisol told me about her. She said Mirai rep
resented the future in a number of ways, and some of them had nothing to do with the Gun Princess Royale.”

  I frowned upon hearing that. “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know,” he admitted readily and looked regretful. “I’m sorry, Cass. If I knew more I’d tell you. And if I knew what to tell you, I would. Please believe me.” His shoulders rose and fell, and I sensed his frustration. “All can I say is that Mirai is something—no, she’s someone—that my family and the Telos Corporation have been working on for years. She’s a Simulacrum unlike any before her. She’s quite literally the future.”

  Though I was looking at him, I was also looking beyond him, trying to digest his words. The very idea that Tobias, someone I’d known since middle school was from another universe, and the member of a noble House, threatened to jam the wheels and gears inside my head and bring my thoughts to a juddering halt. If not for everything I’d seen and experienced thus far, my mind would have stopped working a long while ago. Then again, considering what I’d been through, my mind should have stopped working a long time ago yet it continued soldiering on. Was that one reason why I was chosen to be a Gun Princess?

  I looked down at him sitting on the edge of the bed. “Mat, can I ask you one thing?”

  “Sure….”

  “We play the Gun Princess Royale as a championship—a league—here in my universe, but what about yours?” I tipped my head slightly to a side. “Is there a Gun Princess Royale in your universe?”

  “Yes, there is….”

  His answer made me hesitate. “Does your family have a team on that side?”

  “They do, and it’s not very successful.”

  My next question was a little harder to ask. “Do your people know about this universe?”

  His throat bobbed a little as he swallowed. “Only a few. Those in the upper levels of administration and the noble families. Of course, the Imperial Family knows as well, but the rest of the populace doesn’t know. Most are ignorant about the Artifacts as well. Information regarding the second universe is carefully controlled. Any leaks are plugged quickly.”

  “So there’s a Gun Princess Royale on both sides….” I wet my lips slowly. “Mat, what would happen if the Princesses on this side proved successful?”

  He shook his head very faintly. “I don’t know. It’s possible my family would consider having them replace the Princesses in my universe. In other words, have them represent us in our home Gun Princess Royale.”

  A chill slowly spread through me. “Are you serious?” He nodded and I slipped into a long moment of silent contemplation before asking, “Mat, are your people planning to invade us?”

  His eyes widened and he raised his hands quickly. “No. Not at all. Definitely not.” He started to laugh nervously. “Cass, the Empress has no intention of doing that. Believe me. A war with humanity on this side would be catastrophic for us.”

  “Really? Why? Don’t you have superior technology to us?”

  He lowered his hands to his lap. “Trust me. It would be a disaster for us. Besides, movement of objects between universes is limited. There’s no way we could move the Imperial Citadel or Noble Citadels between our realm and yours. It would be like trying to squeeze a cruise ship through a garden hose.”

  Wondering what he meant by citadels, I noticed that again I was biting my lower lip and hastily stopped as an unrelated thought circling around the back of my mind made its approach. I listened to it, and took a couple of slow breaths before asking, “Mat, why are you adopted?”

  I’d expected it to catch him off guard but it did.

  Tobias blinked quickly, and his mouth opened and closed a few times but he failed to give me an answer, and was spared from doing so by the quiet knock on the cabin door that startled us both and drew our attention.

  The door opened and then Angela poked her head into the cabin. “Excuse me?”

  I turned bodily around toward the girl, and her eyes widened as she regarded me.

  “Oh…,” she breathed out.

  “What do you want?” Tobias asked her frostily, rising to his feet and standing beside me.

  She flinched at his cold tone, and the glare Tobias directed at her complemented the animosity in his voice. After glancing away, she cleared her throat and said, “I came to fetch you. We’re almost there.”

  Tobias sucked in air loudly through his nose. “The Proving Grounds?”

  Angela hesitated before nodding as she stepped into the cabin, and then it was my turn to be stunned by her attire.

  I had noticed that she always wore her school uniform slightly loose as though to hide her body. It was a puzzle because having seen her in physical education classes during the year, I knew she was quite trim and curvy in all the right places. She certainly had nothing to be ashamed of, and before Shirohime joined our class the boys had unofficially designated Angela as our classroom goddess, and it surprised me such a beautiful girl would ever decide to associate with me. But as I looked at her now, I was shocked by the difference a year could make on a girl’s developing body, until I remembered that she was a Simulacrum like me, and I wondered if this body she wore had been enhanced in certain places at the whims of a certain somebody.

  Angela had changed out of her school uniform into a black outfit that appeared painted onto her skin. Her large breasts were tightly gloved by the outfit, and pushed up high such that they hardly bounced when she stepped into the cabin, their tops exposed but for the fine black webbing that covered them. Gazing over her, I saw that her midriff was also covered in the gauze like webbing, revealing her toned abdominals and pierced belly button with butterfly ornament. Her hands were gloved and the boots she wore were thigh high with a chunky three-inch heel. A headband resembling a black tiara adorned her hair that was tied back into a ponytail.

  Beneath my breath, I commented, “That’s a new look….”

  Angela blushed and started to cross her arms over her breasts.

  “Let me guess,” Tobias said, “that outfit is Clarisol’s idea.”

  She hesitated a number of times before lowering her arms as though in surrender. “Yes.”

  He cocked his head. “It does look good on you.”

  Angela bristled. “Oh, trust a guy to say something like that.”

  I pointed at her hips. “Look, it comes with a whip.”

  The blush returned to Angela’s face. “I—I’ve never used it.”

  “Sure you haven’t,” I said sotto voce.

  Tobias started to snicker but caught himself when Angela’s eyes started to tear up, and I felt a wave of remorse wash over me.

  “Sorry,” I whispered and glanced away.

  However, Tobias chose to step closer to her. “Angela, what does my sister have over you?”

  Surprised by the unexpectedly gentle tone he used on her, I spared him a quick look and saw him watching Angela with regret on his face.

  “What does she have on you?” he asked her again.

  Angela’s lips began to tremble, and for a moment it seemed she would open up to him, but then she bowed her head and shook it haltingly. “I…I can’t tell you…I can’t….”

  “Angela, I can’t help you if you don’t tell us,” he pressed on gently.

  “Help me?” she questioned as she met his eyes. “How? What can you possibly do?”

  “I won’t know unless I try,” he replied.

  I followed Tobias’ lead and stepped closer to her. “Does it have something to do with Felicia?”

  Her eyes turned toward me for a heartbeat, but then she pressed her trembling lips tightly together and held her silence.

  “Why are you doing this?” I asked her. “Why are you a part of this?”

  Her hands clenched and then relaxed heartbeats later.

  “This wasn’t how it was supposed to be.” Her voice was faint as she focused her attention on Tobias. “This wasn’t what your family promised us. We were supposed to watch over Cass. We were supposed to be her friends that wou
ld help her integrate into school life once he became Mirai.”

  A chill bloomed in my stomach.

  Once I became Mirai? That wasn’t what Ghost told me. I frowned inwardly. The bastard has been strangely quiet of late. Is it feeling guilty for what it did to me?

  Angela continued with an edge to her voice. “Clarisol changed everything. Clarisol…twisted everything….” Her voice trailed away but then I saw the hint of hope in her eyes. “Could you really help us? Could you help free Feli and I?”

  “I can try,” he told her. “If you tell me what you agreed to. If you tell me what the big secret is.”

  “No,” she shook her head sharply. “No. I can’t. I can’t tell you. Not without Feli’s consent—” Abruptly she stiffened and I watched her tap the earpiece she wore over her left ear. “Yes. Yes, Mistress. I’m bringing them now. I’m sorry, Mistress….” She tapped the earpiece once more, then faced us. “We’re…we’re almost there.”

  When I spared Tobias a look, I saw his eyes had narrowed and the muscles along his jaw twitched, before he broke into a low growl. “So it’s time.”

  I leaned toward him with a questioning look. “Mat?”

  His shoulders rose and fell a couple of times before he turned his head to look at me, unable to hide his bitter feelings.

  “I guess it’s time for Mirai to make her debut…though I don’t know what that will mean for you.”

  - IV -

  With Tobias bringing up the rear, and me dressed in my trendy marine attire and deck shoes, I felt self-conscious as I followed Angela down the corridor and up a wide staircase to what resembled the first-class seating on a trans-orbit shuttle. I can say this because my sister and I travelled first class on the day before our parents set off for the ends of the star system to conduct their research. The Telos Corporation transported us by private shuttle to the orbital city, and we spent the day with them and bid them farewell. What was supposed to be a year of separation became two, then three, and then stretched out to eight years and counting.

  In any event, I digress since I was simply making an observation on the nature of the passenger deck. However, unlike the bulbous shape of the shuttle’s deck, this one possessed an arrowhead profile due to the superyacht’s overall streamlined design. The deck’s ceiling merged with the windows to form a transparent canopy offering a two-hundred-and-seventy-degree view of the surroundings, enhanced by a night-vision system that turned the outside darkness into late afternoon.