by J. Naomi Ay
"Hey cutie," a girl called from the next doorway over. All of us guys smiled back at her except for Randy who was trying to talk to Yula. "Want to have a good time?"
"We are having a good time," I called back.
On the next block over, we found a noodle place where for only one coin each, we could have a giant bowl of noodles. There was some kind of broth and something else in there too that might have been meat or maybe some kind of vegetable. You had to eat from this bowl with two sticks instead of a spoon.
"I think the lizard-man should have been crab-man instead," Geor was saying. "A crab-man could regrow his claws after you sliced them off with your lightsword. That would make level fourteen more of a challenge, don't you think?"
"I agree," I agreed dropping a whole bunch of noodles onto the table. I wasn't very good at eating with sticks.
"Are you going to finish that?" Geor asked.
"I'm trying."
"Here dude, you can finish mine," Stevie said and pushed his bowl over to Geor. Randy wasn't eating his either, just leaning on the table with his elbows out wide.
"I opened this portal and then watched the guy's keystrokes," Randy was saying. "I could do this because I was using a tool written by the famous Xerox. That's why I took the hacker name Xorex because Xerox was like the hacker god and he's my hero."
"I've heard of him," Yula cried. "I think I've used his tools too. When I was in security back in the university on Corganus, I had cracked all the holes in the Lunix operating system."
"What was your hacker handle?"
"Ha, see if you can figure it out. Remember the Yucknet Worm tunnel that messed up the Alliance last year?"
"That was you?!?" Randy gasped.
"Well, partly." Yula blushed.
Just at this moment, a Corganian guy walked in.
"Yula!" he shouted. "What in the hell do you think you are doing here?" He came right up to our table and grabbed Yula's arm.
"Leave me alone, Ike," Yula snapped and tried to shake him off.
"Come on, Ike," Geor said and rose to his feet.
"Hey dude, back off," Randy ordered.
Ike sized him up, and then socked him in the mouth. Randy fell backward and clutched at his bleeding lip while Ike grabbed Yula and tried to drag her out of the place.
"Get out of here, all of you!" the proprietor screamed. "I'm calling the police! You Corganian ruffians and SpaceNavy hooligans!"
Stevie bolted up from his seat and caught Ike and Yula at the door.
"Let her go," Stevie ordered grabbing Ike's arm.
"Back off," Ike yelled and took out a knife.
Yula screamed and I screamed, but Stevie jumped in the air and the knife went flying. Geor grabbed Yula and I grabbed Randy and the four of watched while Stevie let loose. Tables were smashed and chairs were tossed and in about thirty seconds, that restaurant was toast.
"I didn't know he knew martial arts," Randy muttered licking his lips.
"I didn't know either," I gasped as Ike fell on his back. His head hit the floor and he was down for the count.
"You killed him," Geor shrieked.
"Good riddance," Yula said.
"You destroyed my restaurant!" the proprietor yelled.
"Kari-fa!" Stevie swore as a police speeder drove up. "Get Korelesk!"
The police captured Stevie and took him away.
"Fricking, fricking, Korelesk. We are all completely dead."
Chapter 13
Elana
I wasn't sure exactly what I suppose to be doing by standing in this doorway, calling out to all the men who passed by.
"Come on, sweetheart," Ike said. "Show them your stuff."
"What stuff?"
"Shake a little of that Cyganian bootie."
"I'm not wearing boots."
"What planet have you been living on?" Ike narrowed his eyes and frowned.
"Cyganus," I pronounced. "This is my home."
"Are all the girls here as stupid as you or are you something special?"
"How dare you?" I cried in voice that sounded like my mother's and I reached up my hand and whacked him across his face.
He grabbed me by my shoulders and yelled something unintelligible. Then, he hit me in the head causing me to fall back against the door. He punched me in the jaw and I felt a tooth break before he punched me again in the eye and then all I saw was stars. I don't know what happened after that as I awoke in a bed with a monitor beeping over me and nurse smiling down.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
"Horrible," I tried to say but my mouth felt as if it was stuffed with cotton balls. I wasn't in pain. I wasn't in anything. My head and my body were just floating aimlessly in space.
"It's the meds," the nurse said and showed me the pain button. "Just dose yourself if you feel like you need it. You're at the SdK Medical Centre and the doctor will be coming by to see you really soon. The dentist will be visiting too to talk about capping those broken teeth."
"Dentith?" I groaned. A nurse and a doctor I could handle but a dentist scared me half to death. I felt with my tongue on the roof of my mouth. No wonder I couldn't talk, my two front teeth weren't even there. My buck-teeth were gone!
"Don't worry," the nurse said and gave my hand a squeeze.
I wasn't worried, I was ecstatic. As far as I was concerned, that guy Ike had done me a favor.
"The dentist is my wife," the nurse continued, "and she's exceptionally nice. She'll fix you right up so you'll have that beautiful smile again in no time. We'll get your teeth right back to the way they were. Now, do you want to tell me your name so I can notify your family?"
"No," I cried.
"No?" he asked. "You don't want to tell me your name?"
"No, I don't want my teeth back to the way they were."
He looked at me curiously and took down a note on his tablet. "Okay," he said. "Let's just work on your name."
"Elana."
"Good," he nodded as if I had accomplished a great task. "Nice to meet you, Elana. Now how about a last name?"
"Thyganuth."
His fingers stopped typing. He glanced up at the monitor and frowned. "I'm just going to adjust your meds a little. One more time, Elana, can you tell me your last name?"
"Thyganuth," I repeated as best as I could without my front teeth. "My name ith Elana Thyganuth."
"Okay," he nodded. "Elana Thyganuth."
"No! Thyganuth!"
"Thyganuth" he repeated mimicking my lisp. "Could you tell me who to call to let them know you are here?"
"You had better call my dad, the Printh of Thyganuth."
The nurse raised his eyebrows and glanced at the monitor again.
"I'm theriouth!" I cried and then started really crying because my big adventure in the city had ended with me in the hospital after only two days. Lili wouldn't come back to fetch me at the refugee center at least until the weekend and my parents didn't even realize that I was missing in the first place. "Don't call my dad." I changed my mind. "Can you fix me up by the weekend tho I can juth go home?"
"Well," the nurse replied doubtfully. "We can get your teeth fixed but your face is going to be black and blue for a while yet."
"Make-up?"
"You've got two black eyes. We'll do our best, but if you're trying to convince someone that this didn't happen, you had better hang around for a least another week. Now, about paying for all of this," he typed something on his tablet, "we've already submitted your case to the Princess Lydia Kalila Trust."
"I can pay!" I insisted. "I have money."
The nurse looked at me doubtfully. "You were living in the Corganian refugee camp?"
"My dad will…"
"The Printh of Thyganuth," he nodded.
"No, printh," I tried again and then decided to give up. I leaned back on my pillow and looked out the window.
"Get some rest," the nurse said and left me alone to contemplate my fate.
I wanted to help the Corganians but I was
n't sure how. Just then, my door opened and two police officers came in.
"You're under arrest," the policewoman said. "We're moving you to the jail uptown. You can recuperate there while you wait for your trial."
"My trial?" I shrieked. "What did I do?"
"Soliciting prostitution," the policeman replied. "Indecent exposure, loitering and public urination."
"What?" I shrieked again and nearly bolted from the bed. "I didn't do any of that!"
"You were standing in a doorway with the intent to solicit." The policeman flipped open his pad and started to recite. "Your shirt was ripped exposing your breasts, and your skirt was soiled with your own discharge."
"I wath attacked," I cried. "Look at my fathe. Look at my teeth!"
"Tell it the judge," the policewoman snapped. "Now get out of bed and put on this jumper."
"What about all the Corganianth who were tholiciting too?"
"So you admit you were soliciting? Is that your confession?"
"No! I was just athking. There were girlth in every doorway."
"I didn't see any," the policeman replied.
"Not me either," the policewoman said. "Get up and get moving or we'll add resisting arrest to your charge."
"You can't do thith to me! I'm Printheth Elana."
"Right," they both laughed. "Tell that to the judge."
The door opened again and in came a woman.
"Are you my lawyer?" I called. "Help me, pleathe! They want to take me to jail."
"I'm sorry," she replied and looked at her tablet. "I'm the dentist. I'm here to look at your teeth."
"She'll see a dentist in the jail," the policewoman said.
"She'll need crowns, maybe even implants," the dentist protested. "Could I just quickly take a look? I'll write up some notes for the dentist at the jail." The police relented and the dentist looked in my mouth. She made all sorts of humming noises and jotted notes on her tablet. "Implants," she decided. "That'll be the best route. If the jail won't do it for you, come see me when you get out. I'm Dr. Marilyn Adamson and I'm at the clinic downstairs."
I nodded even though my jaw ached and reluctantly I got out of bed as the dentist left me alone again with the two police officers.
"I really am Printheth Elana," I mumbled. "You can even call my dad."
"Sure," the policeman replied. "Why don't we just call the Queen?"
"The Princess Elana had two big buck-teeth," the policeman said as they cuffed me and led me downstairs.
At the front door of the hospital. Dr. Marilyn was standing with her husband the nurse, both drinking sodas and watching me leave.
"You take care, honey," she called and her husband showed me his thumbs.
"I really am the Princeth," I called to them and they both nodded and smiled. "I really am Princeth thtupid."
Chapter 14
Steven
I was cuffed and shoved into the back of police car, which unlike Rehnor, still drove on the ground on wheels. It took about an hour to get through the traffic. Half of the time we weren't even moving, just stopped between other cars waiting for someone else to go.
I considered jumping out and running back to the shuttle, pleading with Korelesk to get me out of here. On the other hand, when this hit the press, I would look like a chicken and a fool.
"I'm in the Imperial SpaceNavy," I called to the men in the front seat since I wasn't in uniform but old jeans and a Kalika-hahr Cougars jersey. "I was just trying to help out the girl."
"Save it for the judge," one cop replied and shut the window between us.
We arrived at a building that was easily seventy floors high. The policemen ushered me out of the car and into a waiting room where I was photographed and finger printed, stripped and searched and then dressed in an orange jumpsuit and re-cuffed both hands and feet. My rPhone and wallet and even the old pack of gum in my pocket were all confiscated.
"This is ridiculous," I protested. "You're treating me like a criminal!"
"You are a criminal," a cop replied. "Now shut your ugly face."
I was led into a courtroom where I sat on a hard wooden bench next to a girl whose face was smashed and her front two teeth were missing. Her hair was black but it looked like a bad dye job as her real brown color showed through at the roots. She had red streaks of makeup on her face too.
"I wath trying to look Corganian," she said when she noticed me staring. It was hard to understand her without her front teeth. She frowned sadly and looked like she was about to start crying. "I juth wanted to help." She had pretty hazel eyes that stared anxiously at me as if somehow I could help her get out of whatever predicament she was in.
I was in my own predicament and had no clue how to get out myself so all I did was smile back apologetically and asked what she did to end up here being arraigned.
"Nothing," she whispered back. "I got beat up by a guy and now they're blaming me. What did you do?"
"Nothing too," I insisted. "A dude was attacking a girl so I knocked him down and saved her and now their blaming me. Okay, a few chairs and tables got broken but I still don't understand what kind of whacked out justice system they have here."
"Ith not whacked out," she lisped puffing up her chest and sitting up straighter.
"Yeah, well it certainly could use improvement. When the Empire takes over, you'll see it will get a whole lot better."
"We don't need the Empire here," she spat and I mean really spat as saliva came flying out of her toothless mouth. "We were doing juth fine without the Empire'th help."
"That's not what I heard," I replied and then shut up as the bailiff came over and glared at the both of us.
"Elana Thyganuth," he called and the girl stood up, her eyes filling with tears. She shuffled cuffed and chained to the bench before the judge while the bailiff cited a bunch of crimes that supposedly she had done.
"State your name," the judge ordered. "And don't tell me it's Cyganus."
"But it ith," Elana whispered. "I'm really the Printheth Elana." The courtroom erupted in laughter until the judge pounded on his gavel.
"The Princess Elana has two big buck-teeth," he said. "Shall I call the Queen and have her confirm your story?"
"You can call my dad, the Printh," Elana offered and tried to smile. "My mom hath a really bad temper." Again the courtroom erupted in chuckles which didn't bode well for me.
The judge pounded his gavel and ordered Elana to detention on the twenty-eighth floor. Thirty days for the charges, and an extra thirty for sassing off to a judge.
"But," Elana protested as she was led away. "Ith true! Pleath call my dad."
I watched her go and considered she didn’t look much like a princess but then on the other hand, what did I look like? As it turned out, I was next up. I was pulled toward the bench and stood in front of the judge who glared at me from beneath his white bushy eyebrows.
"State your name," he ordered and I opened my mouth.
"Uh…" I replied.
"Do you know your name, son?" the judge asked and leaned his chin on his hand.
"Steven?" I asked.
"Steven?" he prompted.
"Steven," I repeated and was about to say more.
"Steven Cyganus?" he called to the entertainment of the bailiff. "Do you want me to ring your mother, the Queen?"
"Actually," I whispered. "My name is Steven Golden but I have another name too and my mother is the Empress."
The courtroom erupted in laughter again.
"Another clown today," the judge sighed and looked at the bailiff. "Are you a prince too?"
"No, Judge," the big man replied. "But I stayed in a Holiday Inn last night."
"Actually," I interrupted. "I really am the Emperor's son and if you just call…"
The judge had to pound the gavel long and hard and then the big bailiff had to shout for everyone to shut up. The judge rolled his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Do you want me to call your dad, the Great Emperor too?" he grum
bled. "How long do you think it will take for them to patch me through?"
"No!" I cried. "No, please don't do that. If you think her mother has a bad temper, just don’t get my dad started! Actually, you won't get through to him anyway. You need to call my mom. In fact, she supposed to be boarding the Queen of Rozari today. If you let me have my rPhone 22 back, I'll give you her private number." I nodded hopefully and smiled.
"Mr. Golden," the judge sighed again. "You are charged with murder in the first degree and destruction of private property. After your little performance here, I am charging you with obstructing justice as well."
"But, I didn't do anything at all. I just knocked the dude down because he was attacking that girl."
"You admit the crime," the judge snapped and pounded his gavel.
"The dude's dead?" My heart pounded so loudly I could barely hear. "I killed him?"
"Is that your confession?"
"No! I didn't mean to kill him. Do I get a lawyer?"
"The trial is over. I sentence you to twenty years for the charges plus an extra two for your obstruction and perjury."
"What? That's it? Where are my civil rights? Where is my trial and a jury of my peers?"
"Mr. Golden," the judge snapped banging his gavel yet again. It was a miracle he hadn't pounded a hole through his desk. "You'll be taken upstairs and incarcerated on the sixty-eighth floor.
"You can't do this!" I cried as the guard tried to lead me away. "Please just call my mom, Katie, the Empress Katie, Katie de Kudisha!"
"Right," the guard chuckled and yanked the chain at my feet. I nearly tripped and fell but I turned around once more. "The Empire can't take over this backwater soon enough! You just wait until my dad hears about this, Judge. He's got a habit of killing judges he doesn't like!"
Again the courtroom erupted into laughter and when the judge slammed down his gavel and quieted them he yelled at me again.
"Four more years for that comment, Mr. Golden," he replied. "You'll be an old man by the time you see the outside of this building."
As I exited the courtroom, headed toward my doom, I heard the next guy in line call out, "Hey Judge, guess what? I play Prince Shika on Imperial Quest, therefore I must be a prince too!"