by J. Naomi Ay
“We have a hospital here in the Palace and an infirmary. Perhaps I'll go by there tomorrow.”
“Now you do that,” she said. “You take as much time as you need. I'll be right here handling all your calls and directing your business.”
I didn't know if that made me relieved or more worried. I sat down at my own desk and proceeded to flip through my messages. My vid buzzed.
“Lord Berkan for you, sir,” Deka said.
“He’s going to attack Rozari,” Berkan started without any preamble. My chest clenched again. I grasped at my desk and took long deep breaths. “Fuck him, Taner! I mean it. He’s going to start a bloody war with the Alliance, and there is no fucking reason! What does he want with Rozari anyway? He hated Rozari. For the last twenty fucking years, all we’ve heard from him was how hot and dry and miserable Rozari was and now he’s going to blow up some bloody planet.”
“Rozari?” I gasped, willing the pain to subside and my ribs to relax. “He’s going to blow up Rozari?”
“No, no!” Berkan roared. “He’s blowing up some bitty old planet or moon in the star system. It’s a show of force, Taner. He just wants everyone to see what he can do so they’ll all be frightened out of their wits and let him come back to Rozari to do whatever in the hell he thinks he needs to do there.”
I took slow steady breaths and counted to ten. The pain was going away. My heart was pumping loud and strong. I wasn’t having another heart attack. It was angina or stress or perhaps even indigestion. I would change my diet. I would stop with the chocolate tortes and puddings. I would eat only low fat meats.
“Are you listening, Taner?” Berkan shrieked. “I just told you, he’s going to blow up a bloody planet, and you aren’t even responding.”
“With his finger?” I whispered. I had too much caffeine. I drank far too much coffee. And alcohol too. I would change my entire diet and exercise more.
“No, he’s not blowing up the planet with his finger. He’s ordered the ISS Queen of Altaris to do it. As far as I know, it might even be done by now. He’s been in conference with his Admirals all night.”
“Alright, Berk,” I nodded. “I’ll check into it.” I rose from my desk and left the room.
“Check into it, Taner?” Berkan screamed behind me. “What’s the matter with you?”
“Nothing.” I headed to the infirmary to check myself in there instead.
Chapter 6
Jerry
I was sitting in a coffee shop with a venti mocha with extra chocolate, nonfat milk and whip. I also had three whoopie pies, but I was eating them slowly, savoring them.
For a moment or two there, I craved a bacon cheeseburger, remembering how I savored one of those even when they were synthetic meats. I figured this craving must be due to low protein, so I decided to head to the market after my coffee and pick up some tofu and vegetables for a stir-fry for dinner. I had been experimenting with grilling my tofu on the barbeque, but it tended to crumble before it even got close to the bun.
It was another incredibly beautiful day outside. The locals said the rainy season would come around in another couple of months, and I was actually looking forward to it because to tell you the truth, all this endless paradise type weather was a little bit boring.
I thought of Janet for a minute back on Rozari, probably going to work as usual and cussing me out to every nurse in the hospital. If I was still there, I’d be married by now and probably still eating cheeseburgers. I’d be spending my day running from patient to patient and training the interns or lecturing the residents. I might even be saving a life or two. I didn’t need to do that anymore, and I guess I was glad I wasn’t married. Janet would never have let me grow a beard or become a vegan. I thought about Katie and wondered if I had married her instead, would she have let me become a vegan?
I picked up my tablet and thumbed through a book about finding one’s inner Chakra and spiritual peace. I studied the Lotus Position and the Downward Facing Dog. I imagined myself doing the Hero’s Pose. It relieved constipation. That was good information. This vegan diet was really tough on my digestion. I decided to learn about all the poses and then I could counsel my patients on yoga as well as prescribe tinctures.
My coffee was about half gone and I had eaten two whoopie pies when I figured I had studied enough for the morning and flipped on the Galaxy News Service. First up on the headlines was Ron’s latest escapades.
“Hmmph,” I said aloud, reading all about the eighth planet in the Rozarian system being blown to smithereens by one of Ron’s ships. The Alliance was shouting about this clear act of aggression although as far as I could tell nobody was killed. The planet was just an ice ball, way out there millions of miles from the star. “They ought to just shut up and accept the fact that he wants Rozari. He always gets what he wants.”
“He does indeed,” the guy sitting next to me remarked. I glanced over at him. He looked familiar, long black hair streaked with grey, dark reddish skin, deep black eyes.
“You’re the fish guy.”
“I am,” the guy nodded and held out his hand. “Tuman.”
“Jerry.”
“Dr. Moonbeam of the Holistic Health Clinic around the corner?”
“Yep. Jerry Moonbeam, child of Earth. Tuman no last name?”
“Tuman no last name,” he replied. “May I see what you are reading there on your tablet?”
I handed it to him, and he read through the article switching the language translation from English to Mishnese. I didn’t speak Mishnese, but I could recognize it as it was starting to appear on public buildings and signs. He finished the article and handed the tablet back to me and then drained his own coffee cup.
“Rozari will belong to the Empire whether she wants to be or not,” he said. “Do you think the Alliance will fight because of this?”
“I think they’ll make a lot of noise but then probably hightail it out of there.” I picked up my last whoopie pie. I opened it up and licked the frosting from the middle, eating the cake part last.
“I think there may be animal fats used in that frosting,” Tuman said.
I dropped the whoopie pie. “I didn’t know that.”
Tuman shrugged. He rose to his feet. “When you are no longer a vegan, I will treat you to some swordfish steaks. They are very nice right now and plentiful.”
“Thank you,” I nodded and watched him leave. Swordfish on the grill basted with butter and lemon didn’t sound too bad at all. Except, I was a vegan. I tossed my whoopie pie in the trash and headed to the market to look for tofu.
Chapter 7
Shika
“Dude, your cell is ringing,” my cousin Tuman said. He tossed it to me from where it sat on the fence post.
“Thanks a lot,” I replied as it landed in the dirt smashing a corn seedling. I took off my gloves and picked up the cell, noting the number was from the Palace, and it had already gone to voicemail. Shoving it in my pocket, I straightened up the corn sprout. “Do you think this will grow still?”
“Dude, who cares?” Tuman replied. “We’ve got a whole fucking field of this shit.” He waved his hand at the valley where millions of sprouts just like mine were erupting from the dark, rich soil.
“Yeah, but this one is mine.”
He laughed and took out a cig. “Let’s go find some girls. I want to go riding.”
“Dude, you are crude,” I said and stood up, wiping the dirt off my leggings and inspecting the rest of my garden. I saw a tomato plant that needed staking. “You go ahead. I’ll catch up in a few minutes.”
“Ah come on!” He tossed his cig in my garden. He needed me. He always scored better when I was around. I didn’t kid myself. It wasn’t my coolness or my entertaining personality although I wasn’t too bad in either of those areas. I was Prince Shika, son of the great but mad Emperor and Tuman was just a lesser de Kudisha prince. “Let’s take your speeder and head over to Turko. I want to go out with some hot college babes.”
“Well,
fix up my tomato plant for me,” I said and reached back in my pocket for the cell that was ringing again. It was Lord Berkan.
“Hello, son,” he said. “I trust you are well?”
“Yes, sir. I’m fine, thanks. What’s going on?”
Tuman tied my plant up to a stake and then spat on it as if this was a total waste of his time. Getting drunk in a college bar at the University of Turko and taking home a couple girls was about the only thing he didn’t consider a waste of time.
“I’ve got some news for you and something you might be interested in doing. I’m sending a limo for you. It should be there shortly.”
“Okay.” I hung up my cell. “Sorry dude. I gotta go.”
“Why?” He followed me into my granddad’s house and sat down on the couch putting his feet upon the table.
“Get your dirty feet off my table,” Gramps yelled from the kitchen.
“How do you know my feet are even on your table?” Tuman yelled back.
“Because they always are!” Gramps came out carrying a plate of sandwiches and a pitcher of ice tea. We had plenty of women here in our village that gladly would have worked in Gramp’s house and done all this for him. He didn’t want any of them here though. He liked to do stuff like this all by himself and to make me help. Uncle Rekah had a whole bunch of servants and Tuman never lifted a finger at his house. I had to wash dishes, sweep floors and even clean the toilets.
“I gotta go to Mishnah,” I announced, heading to my room to pack up my bag. “I got summoned to the Palace.”
“Cool!” Tuman cried with his feet still on Gramp’s table.
Gramps followed me into my room and stood in the doorway looking very worried. “Who summoned you?”
“Lord Berkan.” I tossed my game system and my toothbrush into my bag. Then I took my Palace clothes out of the closet and started to change. “He didn’t say why though.”
Gramps nodded. He stared out my window at the corn field.
“Do you know why?” I asked. “What’s going on? Did my dad do something weird again?”
“It’s your mom,” he mumbled and looked straight at me. “She’s been found.”
I dropped my bag on the floor, and my game system fell out. “You’re kidding, right?”
He shook his head. “I don't jest with you, grandson. Your mother is on Derius II, and she seems to be fine, but she’s not coming home just yet.”
I reached down to pick up my game system but for some strange reason, just decided to sit down there on the floor with it. I picked it up and flipped it over and over in my hand. She wasn’t coming back, not even to see me.
“It’s not you, Shika,” Gramps said and then lowered himself to the floor next to me. His knees creaked, and he said, “Ooph” as he sat down. “She’s been in a mental hospital these last few years. The Alliance was giving her all sorts of drugs to keep her asleep. She’s very confused now, and your dad thinks it’s best if she just does what she wants for a while.”
“If he made her come back, she’d probably try to run away again?”
Gramps nodded. “He’s not going to make her come back. She’ll come back when she’s ready.”
“Can I go there?”
“No.”
“Not even for one day to see her?”
“No. Your father says no.”
I threw my game system across the room. It hit the wall and made a small dent in it. The system bounced on the floor, and the battery cover fell off.
“I’m sorry, Shika,” Gramps said and rose to his feet. “Hopefully, one or the other of them will come to their senses soon. In the meantime, have a good time in Mishnah.”
“Kari-fa!” I swore when he had left and then I picked up my bag and headed to the landing strip.
All the way back to Mishnah, I kept thinking it was my fault that my mom was staying in Derius. She probably heard how messed up I got in boarding school. Someone had to have told her how I ran away when I was seven and stayed with Grandma Moira for more than a year. My mom never liked Grandma Moira. She probably thought Grandma Moira poisoned my mind against her, and I would hate her now too. Or maybe she thought I had turned out just like my dad. In my head, I went over all of the reasons why she didn’t want to see me. Somehow, all of those reasons ended up being my fault.
Lord Berkan and Lord Taner tried to talk me out of it. They kept insisting nothing was my fault. I finally just agreed with them because I was sick of hearing about it and I wanted them to shut up.
“She’ll be home soon,” Berkan insisted. “She’s not going to stay out there in the forest running around for very long. Wait until the rainy season starts.” He thought that was pretty funny. I didn’t.
Anyway, that wasn’t the only thing they wanted to tell me. The real reason they summoned me back to Mishnah was because my dad wanted me to go on a starship. Apparently, he had woken up from whatever coma he had been in and remembered that I not only existed but was still very much alive. I didn’t rate high enough to actually get a few minutes of his precious attention, but I did merit enough to receive an official command to board the ISS Queen of Altaris before it left on its next mission.
“What am I supposed to do there?” I asked Taner and Berkan.
“We are not entirely sure,” Lord Taner said, and Lord Berkan shrugged. “But you’re supposed to go there.”
The next day, I took a spaceplane to the Imperial SpaceNavy’s orbiting spacedock and from there I boarded the ship. This was the first time I had ever been on one of our starships and the first time I had been in space since I was a little kid. I had to get all dressed up in the Dress Blue uniforms of the Imperial SpaceNavy, but I didn’t have any stripes, so I looked like a cadet.
Standing next to the Captain on the bridge of the ship, I watched as we left the Capital Planet behind us. We headed over to the Rozarian star system, the whole galaxy unfolding right in front of my eyes.
“Would you like to sit at the Com, Your Royal Highness?” the Captain asked.
I felt a little ridiculous, but I did want to sit there. He stood up, and I sat down in the big chair. I remembered standing on the bridge of the Discovery as my mom sat just like this. My heart began to race. My palms got sweaty, but something was happening to me. I forgot how lonely I was. I forgot how weird my parents were and how I hadn’t seen either of them for more years than I could count. I forgot how neither of them loved me enough to want to see me. I began to remember how much I loved staring out of the windows at the stars, feeling the hum of the engines reverberate through my whole body and that amazing sensation of force as the ship shifted in to Light + Speed and we headed out to the great unknown. I was happy sitting here, truly happy, and I never wanted to go back down.
“Tell them Light plus five,” the Captain whispered in my ear and so I repeated it in my best commanding voice.
The ship engaged propulsion and the stars became blurs, and we were flying. It was nothing like anything I had ever felt before. This ship soared with such grace and such speed, it made the Discovery seem like something from the stone ages. We passed out of the system, past the moons and the stars, through Altaris and then right past the Rozarian sun. We soared past every planet in the system, all the way to the furthest darkest reaches of the system, where the Rozarian star was just a distant pinprick in the sky.
We slowed and then began to orbit Rozari-8. The officers on the bridge were busy at their stations. The Captain was on the vid conversing with an Admiral. I sat in his chair and stared at the giant ice ball planet and wondered what we were doing here.
Finally, the Captain came back over to me and whispered in my ear again. “Tell them to engage,” he said and so again in my commanding voice, a voice not unlike my father’s, I ordered the bridge officers to engage. I didn’t know what they were engaging. I didn’t care either.
“Now deploy,” the Captain said.
“Deploy,” I commanded. On the screen in front of us, a flash of light shot across our bow. It lit u
p the screen like a comet, heading toward the ice planet.
“Reverse thrust, Light-3,” the Captain ordered and the ship moved quickly backward. A moment later the whole screen lit up. The ice planet had exploded!
“Dude!” I screamed, and even the other officers on the bridge cried out.
“Spot on!” the Captain yelled, and a cheer went up. We switched vectors and the ship veered away from the chunks of rock and ice debris, heading out of the system and back towards the Capital Planet. “Well done, Prince Shika,” the Captain said as if I was responsible for all this myself.
“What did we do?” I asked, getting up from the chair. I had just ordered the destruction of a planet. I had sat at the helm, I had given the command. I had done something that no one anywhere had ever done before, and I wasn’t sure whether I was thrilled or horrified by it.
“We have just captured the planet Rozari and the Rozarian star system for your father,” the Captain replied. “For the first time in a thousand years, the mother planet will belong to our people again.”
I gave him back his chair and went and sat next to the windows to think for a while. I know I didn’t really do it. I didn’t capture Rozari. I just gave the command because somebody, my dad maybe, wanted me to do it. I didn’t know why and I didn’t really care.
Capturing Rozari by destroying an ice ball might be a good thing. It was better than nuking them and killing a bunch of people. Being part of the Empire would probably be good for them too. In any case, I wasn’t about politics and acquiring planets. I was about flying. I was about being up here in space among all the stars, soaring across the galaxy faster than even light could go.
By the time we pulled back into the spacedock above the Capital Planet, my whole life was laid out before me. I knew now what I wanted to do. I knew where I belonged. I was born in space. This was my home. I was never going to be a king, and that was okay because being king was frankly a lousy job. I wanted to join the Imperial SpaceNavy and wear this uniform for real. I wanted stripes to cascade up my sleeves as my mom’s uniform used to have. I would work hard. I would study, and I would become a starship captain because I would deserve it. I would be the best damn captain this Imperial SpaceNavy ever had.