by J. Naomi Ay
“Kari-fa!” he swore, covering his eyes with his hands.
“What’s wrong?” The Neanderthals were all lying down on their stomachs in front of us. “What are they doing?”
“They think I'm their god.” He scrambled to his feet, pulling me up with him while keeping his eyes tightly closed. “Damn silver eyes. Can you get a shuttle down here so we may go? I've got to tend to that kid who broke his neck.”
The Neanderthals were grunting or moaning, I couldn’t tell which. The rest of our group returned from the water's edge, and someone was calling for shuttles while Les barked orders about cleaning up the bodies.
“How many did we lose?” I yelled to him, but the grunting was getting louder, so I didn’t hear his answer.
I saw that all of the shuttles and spaceplanes on the ground were damaged beyond repair. A few new shuttles were starting to land. Zem bounced onto the grass from one of them, and I felt like running over to hug him, I was so happy to have him back here.
I led Senya over to Zem's shuttle, and all the Ambassadors came with us, including the Altarians who no longer had spaceplanes to return home. The Altarians were trying to talk to Senya, Ambassador Flake was demanding in a shrill voice to know why the Altarians didn’t want further meetings with her and the two Neanderthal men were trying to say something in their language and board the shuttle, too. Ambassador Yun stepped past me and mumbled something about how he hoped we had some strong liquor aboard the ship.
“Let's coordinate our reports,” Les said as I stood by the door about to close it. “I'm not entirely sure what just happened here.”
“Sure, Les,” I agreed and sealed the cabin door.
I collapsed in the seat next to Zem because Ambassador Flake was already across from Senya and though her hair was in tangles and her dress covered in mud and sand, she still practically tried to climb into his lap. The Neanderthals were sitting on either side of him and making lewd gestures at Flake. Senya was holding his head as if he had a migraine which I suspected he did. The Altarian Ambassadors were sitting across the aisle from Senya and instead of arguing, they seemed to be having quite a jovial conversation, and if I wasn’t mistaken, I kept hearing Rehnor mentioned again and again.
“So what happened this time?” Zem asked with a smirk.
“You don't want to know,” I replied.
Rising from my seat, I went to stand behind my husband, pressing my thumbs into his neck and shoulders, kneading away at the migraine that would plague him until his beta protein levels came back up to a normal level several hours from now.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“No,” I said trembling. In the dark of the night, I lost my bravado. Everything all came back to me, and I realized how close I was, we were to death. Seven of my crew died today, nine of the Excelsior, and we had a sickbay full of wounded and frightened people. “We almost got eaten,” I cried, my eyes leaking and my stomach churning.
He pulled me against him and I sobbed into his chest.
“Shika would have been an orphan,” I wept. “I don't want to do this anymore. You can't risk your life like that, and I don't want to leave Shika alone.”
“I would never let you get hurt,” he said into my hair.
“If you didn't come, we would all be dead.”
“Shhh, it's alright. It won't happen again. Everything will be quiet and boring from here on out.”
“You promise?”
He paused for a moment. “Mostly. But nothing you can't handle. Katie, listen to me. In the morning, I'm going back, and I'm taking Shika with me. You're going on a long cruise, and you'll be in the dark for most of it. This is your last command. We'll see you in a few months when it is over.”
“Where are you going?” I swallowed hard.
“Home. I have to be there now.”
His rings flickered in the darkness as he stroked my face.
“Did your grandfather die?”
“Not yet. He had a stroke and relinquished the throne. He will die in the coming days."
“So you're it now.”
“I am King It now and you are my Queen It.” He kissed me.
“Maybe I should come with you now?”
“Come at the end of this next cruise. It won't be much longer, and I won't have any time to spend with you now anyway. You will get your…closure this way.”
“Shika?”
“He'll be fine. There are things he needs to learn, and Berkan's kids will take good care of him.”
“Are you sure?”
“I will miss you every minute of every day and I will await your return.”
In the morning, I packed Shika's bag with all his toys. He wouldn’t need any of his clothes there. Everything would be new. We went down to the cafeteria for breakfast, and I let him pick out whatever he wanted even if it was both pancakes and waffles with ice cream. Senya had coffee and a dozen eggs, but I could barely swallow just coffee.
Jerry came by with a full tray.
“Thanks for your help yesterday, Ron,” Jerry said, sitting down at our table. “Couldn't have done it without you.”
“How's the kid with the broken neck?” I asked.
“He'll be okay,” Jerry replied. “We're going to have to offload him at the spacebase, but he'll live.”
“I'm getting off at the spacebase, too,” Shika said.
“That's too bad, buddy. I'll miss you. Who am I going to eat ice cream waffles with after you get off?”
“I'll miss you too, Uncle Jerry,” Shika nodded. “I won't miss Annie though. I don't like her playing with my trains.”
“The trains are for everybody to play with,” I scolded him lightly.
“No, they are mine,” Shika declared. “I don't have to share with anyone if I don't want to. Isn't that right, Daddy?”
Senya didn’t answer. He had a cigarette hanging off his lip and his eyes were sparkling, but his mind was far away.
“Shika,” I instructed. “Those trains are not yours. They belong to the PlayRoom.”
“Everything is mine,” he replied smartly. “Because my daddy is the King and I am the Prince.”
“Really?” Jerry asked.
“Who told you that?” I gasped and glared at his father.
“Lord Taner.” Shika made a mess of his ice cream waffle with his spoon. “I can do anything I want now.”
“Taner did not tell you that,” I said.
“Wasn't Taner that Rehnorian guy who had the heart attack on his freighter last year or so?” Jerry looked at me.
“Lord Taner said…” Shika continued.
“I don't care what Lord Taner said,” I interrupted, taking his waffle away from him. “You go wash your face and hands right now, Mister, and when you come back you need to apologize to Uncle Jerry for behaving like a spoiled brat.”
“No, I won't,” Shika raised his voice.
“You will do as your mother says.” His father woke up finally and commanded so Shika instantly shut up. He scooted out of the booth and headed toward the bathroom with his lower lip stuck out and his eyes filling with tears. I felt like crying, too.
“Lord Taner?” Jerry cleared his throat and raised his eyebrows.
My cell buzzed with a text, and I saw that we had docked, and the airlocks were open.
“We're here,” I announced.
“Good.” Jerry wiped his face with a napkin and jumped up to leave. “I want to get that kid on his way to a ground hospital.”
Senya stubbed out his cigarette and got up. I left my untouched coffee on the table.
“You're never coming back here,” I realized.
He shook his head.
“What about Takira-hahr? What about our house?”
He didn’t respond, just touched my face with his fingers. Shika came back and stood in front of me.
“I'm sorry, Mommy,” he said and burst into tears.
Sweeping him up into my arms, I proceeded to lose it. I carried him down to the airlock and into the spacebase bury
ing my head in his hair so my crew wouldn’t see me bawling like a baby.
At the private spacedock, two gleaming SdK planes were waiting. Taner was standing on the dock with the Altarian Ambassadors as well as the two Neanderthals. They all bowed low as we, as Senya walked by. I followed him into one of the planes.
“The Altarians are coming with you?” I asked, letting Shika down. He immediately jumped into a row of seats, skipping between them and singing a song about a baby shark.
“They will follow in the other plane,” Senya replied, taking off his shoes and dropping his bag. A servant collected them and whisked them away.
I lost it again. “Senya!” I cried and burst into yet more tears.
“Ach, Kate,” he said and gathered me in his arms. “This is how it is supposed to be. Go back to your ship, finish this cruise and then you will come home and begin a whole new life.”
“I don't want a new life, I want my old one,” I sobbed.
He pulled away from me and I looked up into his face, into his brilliant eyes which weren’t hidden by glasses since he lost them yesterday. Yesterday, he changed into the eagle and saved us from pterodactyls. Yesterday, he caused an ocean to swirl into a giant waterspout and saved us from T-Rex's. Yesterday, I found out he was king of a whole planet and he was no longer mine.
He put his hands on either side of my face and kissed me.
“I belong to Rehnor but you belong to me,” he said. “I am with you. I am in you. Look inside your heart and in your soul and you will always find me there. Now, stop crying and go.” He released me.
I walked back to the door of the plane.
“Bye Mommy!” Shika called, still jumping between the seats.
I waved at him as several men in fancy robes and medallions came out of the plane's back office. They knelt before Senya, making obeisance before him as he had done before his grandfathers and I saw the expression on his face and I realized this is who he was. This is what he was created for and maybe all this time, I was the only one who pretended it wasn't so.
“Katie,” Senya called after me.
I turned back and looked at him.
“We have EMP Control,” he said with a slight smile. “You will have thirty-seven minutes.”
“What?”
He walked towards the back of the plane and disappeared into the office.
Taner and the Altarians had boarded the other plane, and so I watched from the dock for a few moments as both planes pulled out and headed towards the airlock, the SdK logo on their tails gleaming. Just before they shot through and out into space, they shimmered and now the eagle crest was shining in gold and silver across the breadth of the wings.
“Those your planes?” Jerry said from behind me. I nearly jumped out of my skin. “They look different. Hey. Are you crying? What's going on, Goldie?”
“I'm okay,” I replied, getting yet another grip on myself. Time to get back to work. It was time to take my ship across the galaxy and back one last time.
Jerry and I walked through the bay in silence but I could see the wheels were turning in his head. I knew he wanted to ask about all of this.
“How did he do it, Jerry?” I said after a time. “How can somebody make the ocean turn into a waterspout just by wanting it?”
“I don't know.” He shrugged. “I remember reading about a race from I can't remember where that had evolved so that they moved things telekinetically. Their hands had shriveled up though and the things they moved were pretty small, not any bigger than something you could normally lift. They couldn't exactly move oceans. They couldn't grow trees from dripping their blood on the ground either.”
I nodded.
“He's not coming back again, is he?”
“This is my last cruise,” I replied. “Twenty years in Spaceforce and this is it.”
“You’ve done good, Goldie,” he said. “You can be proud of what you've done.”
“Thanks, Jerry. You've done good, too.”
“I may leave the force also. Soon. I'm getting kind of tired of it ...and it won't be the same.”
“What about Veronica?”
“She's too young for me. Do you think I might be able to follow you…wherever you are going? You need doctors there, right? Maybe I can be Prince Shika's personal pediatrician?”
“Are you joking?” I gasped but saw from his face that he was not. “I don't know. Honestly, Jerry, I don't know anything. Prince Shika seems to know more than me.”
He nodded and pushed his glasses up his nose. We stepped through the airlock back into our ship.
“Don't get me wrong,” I said. “I want you to come. I want you to be there. I just don't know anything yet. He's obviously keeping me in the dark for a reason.”
“Maybe he doesn't want you to know what he's doing?”
“I'm not sure,” I mumbled. “I'm not sure what Rehnor has to do with the Alliance or why it should even be an issue.”
“There you are, Captain,” a staff officer came running up. “These are the last of today's requisitions. Would you please sign them for me so I can file them before we disembark?”
“We'll talk more later, Jerry,” I said and headed to my office with the lieutenant following.
“What the hell is that?” I said as the image of a huge spacecraft appeared on the screen.
Dinesh looked up from his console and shook his head.
Hevzi whistled through his teeth. “She's a beauty whoever she is,” he said.
I agreed she was a beautiful ship, easily twice our size with a smooth black surface. Vaguely in the shape of ancient aircraft, it had a central hull, two wing-like extensions on either side, and an aft propulsion section. There were several propulsion units underneath and above the wing extensions, as well.
“What is it emitting?” Serena asked. “I don't have a reading on any sort of exhaust.”
“Nothing so far as I can tell,” Hevzi replied. “I can't tell what kind of fuel system she is using either.”
“Pull back a bit and let's get a better view.” I said, pretending. Up until now, it had been for the most part an uneventful and quiet cruise. Our time was occupied with the usual vessel inspections and assists with an occasional mechanical hiccup in our equipment that required a diversion to a spacebase or two. There was nothing out of the ordinary, nothing worrisome and I was both looking forward to and regretting debarking in the next few weeks. That was until now.
“Who do you think it belongs to?” Hevzi asked as Dinesh rotated the screen and the markings along the ship’s hull come into focus.
The ship's name and number was printed across the hull on either side in huge silver lettering. The letters looked Rozarian but weren't. Each of the wings bore the Eagle crest shimmering in gold and something was written above it. On the aft section was another marking. Dinesh zoomed in closer. My blood froze in my veins. Now everyone would know.
“Hey Cap'n,” Dinesh called. “That looks like your corporate logo for SdK.”
“It isn't,” I snapped, lying.
“Maybe your company has gone diversified and you didn't know it,” Hevzi laughed. “SdK gave up making medical scanners and is now making spaceships.”
“Open a channel,” I ordered though my voice sounded choked. “This isn't funny.”
Hevzi opened a broadcast channel. “This is Allied Starship Discovery hailing unidentified alien spacecraft in sector 27-B, please respond.”
Nothing but radio silence.
“Hail them again,” I said but as I did so, I could see the ship was moving off. Too quickly, it disappeared, leaving no trace either visually or in emissions.
I was in my cabin, and it was evening. I had to submit a report. I would need to tell Spaceforce Command everything I knew about this ship. The pic of the ship was on the screen above me. I looked at the name scrawled across the hull both port and starboard, written in elegant Mishnese letters. There were three words. The ship was called Katelina de Kudisha. I couldn’t write this report
. Instead, I got out my bag and started packing my things.
“Hey, can I come in?”
“Sure Jerry.” I released the lock and the door swished open.
“Going someplace?”
“Yep,” I replied as Jerry threw himself down on the couch.
“Nice ship,” he said, pointing at my vid. “Yours?”
“Yep,” I choked. "My limo has arrived to take me home." My stomach churned. My hands were shaking so much I could barely toss my stuff into the bag.
Jerry laughed, sort of. "You nervous?"
“Am I?” I asked, refusing to look at him. “Did you get a reading on that down in sick bay?”
“Hey, calm down.” Jerry stood up and put his hands on my shoulders. “You're trembling.”
I leapt away from his touch and started to pace the room, taking deep breaths and trying to regain my calm and focus.
“What’s going on, Kate?” Jerry sat back down on the couch, leaning forward attentively, his elbows on his knees.
“I’m not joking, Jerry,” I cried. “That ship is my ride home.”
Jerry studied me as if I were insane, his big brown eyes magnified behind his thick glasses. He took off the glasses and wiped them down on his shirt before putting them back on again. He cleared his throat.
“You’re serious,” he stated.
"Yes!” I shrieked. “And do you know why he sent that damn ship to get me?"
Jerry shook his head. I rubbed my forehead. A headache was starting and it felt like it was going to be a whopper. If I had beta proteins in me, I would probably be launching tornadoes about now.
"He's announcing it to the Alliance, to the whole galaxy, Jerry. There’s no more pretending!"
“Whoa! Slow down, Goldie. I don't have a clue what you are talking about. What is he pretending?”
“Forget it!” I snapped and hugged myself. I was so cold. “You don't know anything. You don’t want to know anything."
“I don't know anything,” he agreed. “I totally don't know anything but I would like to know.”
“I wish I didn't know anything.” I started to pace again. “I didn't know he was building an empire. Maybe I should have but I didn't. I was totally oblivious and stupid. And do you know what? I think he wanted me to be. That's why he insisted I go on this cruise. He didn't want me to try to stop it.”