by J. Naomi Ay
“So I ask you again. Who has benefited?” Torim chuckled.
“The people of the Empire?” I offered.
“And who believes he must serve the people, he must work for the greater good above all else?” My Uncle smiled.
“Senya,” Taner mumbled and then his eyes grew wide. “You think he did this on purpose? He sent her away and crashed her ship for the greater good?”
“And you wonder why he is as you say, a ghost of his former self?” Old Man Torim chortled. “I think, Lord Taner, it is time you went fishing.”
“You must find the lady,” my Uncle agreed. “Bring her back and let him atone for his sins to her. He doesn’t need the Holy One’s forgiveness, he needs hers.”
“You are a wise man, Torim, as are you my lord Prince,” Lord Taner declared with a bow.
“I am, in fact, my father’s son.” My uncle bowed his head as well. “And, my son’s father.”
“And I am merely a fisherman,” Timor replied. “And I have seen more sense in a fish than your esteemed son.”
My uncle laughed and then turned back to Lord Taner. “I should like an audience with my son whilst I am in Mishnah tomorrow retrieving my grandson.”
Taner raised his eyebrows again with surprise. “Are you available at 3AM?”
“I will be.”
“It is done,” Taner nodded and walked away.
Chapter 21
Shelly
“What do you think?” Janet said.
“Nice,” I replied. She spun around, and the pink tulle floated like a cloud behind her. “Very pretty.”
“You don’t think it makes my butt look big?”
“No, not at all.” Janet had a nice figure and the dress was just fancy enough. It did make her butt look a little big, but I wasn’t about to tell her that. “You’ll be able to wear that to other occasions in the future.”
She laughed. “I doubt that. Pink tulle? One and done. Do you think I need pink shoes too?”
“White sandals,” I suggested. “And pearls. What kind of flowers are you carrying? White roses?”
“No,” Janet scoffed and turned her back to me so I could unzip her. “Jerry has an issue with white roses. They were Captain Perfect’s favorite and apparently Ron bought up every white rose in the galaxy to give to her. Jerry suggested orchids.”
“Orchids are lovely,” I said as she disappeared back into the dressing room.
Katie did love white roses. She had a rose garden on the sunny side of the house on the coast and the white ones were always the most fragrant. When she was home, she was out in her gardens all the time, fertilizing them, pruning them, deadheading them and doing whatever needed to be done to keep them beautiful. When she and Tim weren’t discussing Spaceforce, they were busy comparing notes on their gardens. Tim missed her immensely though he wouldn’t admit it. She was more of a daughter to him than either of our daughter-in-laws. Of course, I missed her too. I missed Ron and I worried about him constantly.
“What’s the matter?” Janet said, standing in front of me again. “Why, all of a sudden, are you looking so glum?”
“I’m not,” I insisted, forcing a smile. “I’m not glum at all. I’m very happy for you. Do we get to go sample cake now?”
“Absolutely. Let’s do it.” Janet took the pink dress over to the cashier. The rest of the afternoon we sampled cakes at the various bakeries in Takira-hahr. In the evening, we met the gang at an Italian restaurant in the Fashion Mall.
Tim ordered a glass of Chianti for me, while we waited for Thad and Gina. Jerry and Janet were discussing her dress, the cakes, the flowers and the tuxedo he found today while we were at the mall.
“What’s the matter, Shel?” Tim asked, clinking his glass against mine. “Why so glum?”
“See,” Janet interrupted Jerry and pointed at me. “She is very down, Tim.”
“I’m not,” I insisted though I could feel tears pricking at my eyes. “Really I’m not.”
“Did something happen, Babe?” Tim put his arm around me and pulled me close. “Did you hear something?”
“No.” I shook my head. “Janet and I were just shopping and we were talking and I started to think about …about Katie’s rose garden.” That did it. The waterworks started, and my napkin became a sodden mop.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Thad said, taking the seat next to me. “Crying again, Mom? Hey Doc, how about prescribing some anti-depressants over here?”
Jerry frowned apologetically. “Let her cry a little.”
“It’s just,” I said, trying to get a hold of myself. “It feels so wrong to be happy. And I am so happy for you two!” I tried to smile at Jerry and Janet. Janet beamed back at me. Jerry looked at the tablecloth. “They were our family too.”
“They’re not dead, Mom,” Thad said. “Although, I know a few people who’d like to kill him.”
“You don’t know where Katie is,” I cried. “Nobody knows. She might be dead. If she wasn’t, Ron would have found her by now. It’s been years. Maybe she’d even be better off dead.” I burst into tears again. “I’m sorry. I’m totally ruining this dinner. Tim, can we please just go home?”
“Sure,” Tim said gruffly and started to rise.
“How do you know she hasn’t been found?” Gina asked. “We don’t always hear the news from there.”
“She hasn’t,” Thad replied and looked at his cell. “I’m a follower on the tweet list. Nope, nothing yet.
“So you haven’t heard anything, Thad?” Jerry asked. “Nothing at all? How’s Ron doing?”
Thad scrunched up his face and looked at me. “Are you going to start bawling again?”
“He can’t be doing that bad,” Tim grumbled sitting back down. “He took over half the galaxy even with her gone.”
“Didn’t you say he had some kind of accident a while ago?” Jerry continued.
“Oh yeah,” Thad replied, taking his menu from the waitress. “That was a long time ago already. He’s better, but he’s never going to play football again which means the Raven’s are doomed for all eternity.”
I took my menu and tried to look at it.
“I’ve never quite figured out how he managed to hurt himself so badly,” Janet said. “I thought they kept him locked up most of the day.”
“Well, you know Ron,” Thad shrugged and took a gulp of his beer. “Sometimes he does weird things like fly out the windows and attack She-Bears.”
“So he’s getting on okay for the most part?” Jerry asked.
“Sure,” Thad replied. “I guess that would depend on how you define okay though. Homicidal, suicidal, malicious, cruel, he’s turned into one nasty son of a bitch but, yeah, he’s okay.”
“He’s having a tough time dealing with it,” I sniffed.
“Dealing with being the Emperor?” Gina asked.
“He seems to have that down pat,” Tim remarked.
“Dealing with Katie being gone,” Jerry said, biting his lip.
“Living without her,” I added and started crying once again.
“Geez this is a depressing dinner,” Janet sighed. “Count on Katie to ruin it even when she’s not here. I swear, if this is how my wedding is going to be, I’m going to go find her myself just so I can kill her.”
We ate our dinner in silence until Thad cleared his throat.
“What?” Gina said.
“I’m going to Derius in a few weeks,” Thad replied and pursed his lips while looking at me. “We’re buying and building some hospitals there, and I’m going to go look at them.”
“Derius II?” Tim asked.
“Yes, Derius II also.”
Tim looked away for a moment. Then, he studied the red checked tablecloth.
“What?” I demanded. “Do you know something? Isn’t that where Katie’s ship crashed?”
“I don’t know anything,” he snapped back. “Except this and you didn’t hear it from me. Somewhere on Derius II there’s a facility that Spaceforce uses for bad me
ntal cases.”
“I know that,” Jerry piped up. “It’s an institution for those that we couldn’t do anything with and didn’t have families claiming them on their home planets. We also incarcerated drug addicts and severely spacesick personnel there. I had a nurse who I heard got into drugs and ended up there.”
“Is Katie there?” I practically screamed. “Did you know all this time that she was there?”
“I don’t know anything,” Tim replied. “I am retired now for ten years. I don’t have any clearances any more. I’m just supposing. If they didn’t move her, if they didn’t take her off the planet, if they wanted to hide her, that’s where she would be. I’m not even sure where it is but Thad, it’ll be locked up pretty tight. You’re going to need a good excuse to get in there. If I were you and going to Derius II, I’d have a look around that place.”
“I’ve got a good excuse,” Thad said, pushing his plate away. “And you didn’t hear this from me either. The Derian stars will be joining Rehnor next month. If she’s there, the Alliance has no hold on her any longer. We’re going to get her out.”
“So help me, Tim,” I growled. “If you tell Spaceforce that Derius is going to Rehnor, and they move her before Thad gets there, I will never speak to you again in this lifetime.”
Tim turned and looked me straight in the eye. “I don’t know a thing about Derius and Rehnor,” he said. “I don’t know a thing about a mental hospital on the north coast. I don’t know what happened to Katie de Kudisha, but I sure as hell hope that someone finds her and takes her home to her mad man husband before he completely dismantles the Alliance.”
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“Dessert?” Gina squeaked.
“I want to come with you, Thad,” Jerry announced.
“You are not!” Janet jumped up from the table.
Jerry pushes his glasses up his nose. “We won’t be gone long. I’ll just go look around the place with Thad.”
“No!” Janet cried. “If you do this, Jerry, I won’t be here when you get back.”
“It’s okay, Jerry,” Thad said and waved for Janet to sit. “I remember what Katie looks like. If she’s there, I’ll find her.”
“You do that,” I said. “You do that, Thad.”
Jerry looked at his hands. Janet looked at the ceiling. Tim stared at the drop of wine left in his glass.
“Gelato?” Gina asked.
Chapter 22
Shika
When we were twelve, Petya and I went to a private boy’s boarding school on the west coast, outside of Turko. Turko was the second biggest city on the Mishnese continent and almost as cool as New Mishnah was on the east coast. We didn’t see much of it though as we were pretty much confined to the grounds of the school. We got to go home during semester breaks, and for summer vacation, I flew right across the ocean to Karupatani.
I didn’t have too many friends at the boarding school because most guys stayed away from me. It took them a long time to realize that I didn’t have my dad’s creepy powers which everyone in the Empire knew about. I think they also thought that if they insulted me or hurt me in a rugby game or something, my dad would use his creepy powers to reach across space and time and kill them or something.
I wanted to tell everyone that my dad didn’t even know or care where I was but I didn’t. Everyone was supposed to call me Sir, which was also really stupid, because how could I have a normal conversation or play a game and everyone was called “dude” except me?
Even the professors had to call me Sir, which was totally embarrassing and made me want to crawl under my desk.
Petya began to hang out with other guys too and so a lot of the time I was left alone in our boring dorm room. I was about fourteen when I started to shoot up.
It was no secret that my dad was a user. Everyone knew how he was raised on the streets in Old Mishnah. Everyone knew he was a Horkin addict and maybe even still using now because sometimes, if you saw him on the vid, he looked totally stoned.
I figured, if he could do it and be the Great Emperor than why couldn’t I? I tried it a few times and frankly, got pretty sick afterward, so I didn’t use it again until later when I was fifteen and my dad started taking over Rozari.
Everyone, my professors, the other parents and the other guys thought that was a pretty bad move. We never took over anyone. All the planets of the Empire came to Rehnor and made obeisance before my dad and said, Please be our king. Rozari was the first one that my dad wanted to invade and everyone said that was because he wanted to fight the War of the Saint all over again, and this time make sure the Karuptas won.
I didn’t know if that’s what he wanted or not, but I did know that I didn’t want to hear about it, or him, and his craziness anymore. The only way I could tune it out was to turn off my brain and I needed Horkin to do that.
I started using it all the time. I would use so much that I would go to class totally wasted. If the professors knew, they never said a thing, because I was Prince Shika de Kudisha of the Empire of Rehnor, and they had to call me Sir even if I was a junky and a loser.
Petya, who wasn’t my roommate any longer at that point, came once and told me to knock it off, or his dad was going to tell my dad and who knew what my dad would do. I told him to go ahead. My dad didn’t care shit for me and was crazy mad anyway. Just let him do something.
Right around that time, I also discovered that the girls from the academy next door liked me. Our school had dances and parties with them and I decided that being with them was almost as good as shooting Horkin or toking Barkuti and if you had both at the same time, dude, it was totally awesome. The girls would do anything for me and to me and so I let them. I enjoyed myself then and when you are fifteen you know you can enjoy yourself a lot.
The day that I overdosed was a particularly bad day for me. I failed two exams because I didn’t bother to study and the professors weren’t cued into the fact that they should give me 4’s just because I was Prince Shika de Kudisha. I knew my dad would never see my grades but Taner would and I would never hear the end of it from him. Petya and a bunch of his new friends had purposely knocked me out in rugby, and I was pissed about that too.
Then, some other kid whose father was a general from Cascadia or one of the lesser planets, started harassing me because my dad had fired his dad. My dad let his dad live, which I thought was good trade-off and the kid should have been happy enough with just that. We got into it, though. He and I, and a bunch of guys took up bets on who was going to win and were whooping and hollering and egging us on.
I was a pretty good fighter. After all, I had spent some time in Karupatani and my cousins there taught me what to do. Also, when I was little, my mom used to teach me mixed martial arts. She and I had a special work out room at the house in Rozari, or we’d work out in the gym on board the Discovery. We’d stand in front of the tall mirrors, and she would teach me moves. I think I got all the way up to a green belt before she left us. On top of all that, at fifteen and a half, I was a pretty big guy, almost as big as my dad.
Anyway, I pummeled that kid good and broke his nose and a few ribs in the process. He was expelled for picking a fight with me and I was confined to my room on social discipline for a month. Social discipline meant no girls and that was hard to handle when you are used to having them. I turned to my stash of Horkin, and maybe because I was feeling so bummed, I didn’t measure it right. Maybe just because I wanted somebody to get me out of this hell hole of a school, I did too much and went into cardiac arrest. Lucky for me or maybe unlucky, the dorm monitor was walking by a few minutes after that and saw me passed out on the floor.
I woke up in the infirmary, and then two days later, Berkan came and took me back to the Palace. I was confined to my room for a while, and all my stash was taken away. I was really sick because once that stuff gets in your system it’s tough to be without it. When I was finally clean again a week or so later, Gramps took me to Karupatani and I started living with him the
re.
I was kind of pissed at having to stay there with him. I liked Karupatani fine for short visits, but Rekah told me in no uncertain terms, I wasn’t going anywhere until they decided I could. It seemed a little unfair to commit me to Primitive People on Horseback Hell just for having a little too much fun. After all, dear Gramps was a drunk and Daddy was a stoner so why should I be the only one punished?
Gramps made it clear that he was going to do right by me since he did so wrong by my dad. I thought that kind of ironic especially since my dad wasn’t exactly doing right by me this time around. Gramps made excuses for him, you know the usual, he’s so busy kind of shit. So what if he’s got forty-seven billion people to worry about? Exactly how many sons did he have? Just me as far as anyone knew.
“He’s not been right in the head since your mother left,” Gramps said which didn’t make any sense.
You’d think if I was all he had left of her, he’d want to see me more, not less.
I fought it for a while, and got thrown off that damn horse more than a few times. If I had my dad’s powers, I’m sure I would have killed it and maybe even killed Uncle Rekah a few times too.
In hindsight, I could say I was really glad I wasn’t like my dad then at all. It was probably a whole lot harder to hold back from destroying stuff you didn't like than simply learning to accept it and move on.
I really did straighten out while living in Karupatani. Gramps was there for me every day and for the first time in my life, I realized someone was. My cousin Tuman became my best friend and all my little cousins were cool too. I learned to speak Karupta passably well, and while I never did Horkin again, and only limited my Barkuti intake to religious occasions. I did get to be with a lot of Karupta babes and let me tell you, the Karuptas grew fine women.
Chapter 23
Sorkan
I stood outside my son’s office at 3AM the next morning and waited for Lord Berkan to open the doors to admit me. He looked very tired and was showing his age. He also looked very much like his father now.