Escape of the Glitter Princess

by Chad V. Holtkamp

  “No time to get to my ship hidden behind the far dune,” Chief Rygel said. “We will steal a ship from one of my guests as collateral for their next visit to Veibos, ha ha!” He wasn’t sure which slave ship, but he’d have to find one in a hurry.

  Captain Andana looked back at the tent. He could see his former fleet, the Glitter King’s men, forming a defensive perimeter around the compound.

  “We have company, Chief,” Captain Andana yelled. “We have to do this now. We don’t stand a chance again the Glitter King’s men. Trust me, I trained them!”

  Chief Rygel assessed the grave situation. A moment later, he pulled out his blaster and shot a boisterous Yubror he recognized. He managed to catch the creature’s comm chip just as it flew out of his hand and before the creature fell dead.

  “Success! Ha ha!” he said to his captives. “This sacrificial Yubror has been one of my better patrons over the years. He has a wickedly fast ship. Change of plans, slaves. Ha ha! We’ll make the final transaction in my secret Alien war shack on Niovis. Then everyone will be happy!”

  Dom cringed as he thought of his future life with the flipper wart. Desire hoped the Laswon wouldn't like Centaurian blood. The princess only hoped Captain Andana would have second thoughts about betraying her father.

  Dom tripped as his eye twitched. He blinked rapidly as he felt an odd sensation in his head. Someone was trying to get a read on his implant and it wasn’t Desire. “Wait,” he thought, “is that JAXX? Is Jock still alive?”

  Commander Weisman sat in his office in the early morning hours before anyone else arrived at work. The solar storm had kept him awake most of the night. After lying in bed for hours counting sheep til the cows came home, he got out of bed and got a start on his day, hoping for any kind of communication with his team. The last transmission he’d received was that they were under attack by pirates. No transmission had come through since then due to the solar storm.

  Being a Friday, he figured he’d just have to survive the next eight hours, but that included formulating a proposal to stop an impending war with the Frorees stuck on the edge of the Sol system. And figuring out a way to save Dom from the Adjuster. He would definitely need a drink at the bar later.

  JACOB interrupted with an urgent message from JAXX and Major Saunders. JACOB was relaying info so fast that Weisman had trouble making heads or tails of it.

  “What’s this about a princess and a Captain heading to the Boru system? Wait, what? They had to make an emergency landing on Veibos instead? Where’s that? Captured by slave traders? Dom and Desire? Jock escaped, he dated the princess??? Jock? Really?”

  “Yes, sir,” JACOB said. “The solar storm was raging so hard Jock had no other option than to seek out the princess’s father on Aesneia. Jock flew back with a royal fleet from the Fedlin system. The Glitter King’s men. Now Jock and the men are terrorizing the slavers with a bunch of snakes and frogs.”

  “Oh, no, don’t tell me they released the snakes and the frogs?” Weisman yelled.

  “I’m sorry, sir,” JACOB replied, “he used them to create a diversion in an effort to rescue the Agent Wagner, Special Liaison Wilhelm and the glitter princess. There was a crazed assortment of slave traders that were not immune to the snakes and frog’s poison.”

  “Damn, those were a gift to a friend of mine in the Doral System, and highly dangerous,” Weisman said. “They were supposed to be delivered today. They were really expensive, too.”

  “No matter, sir,” JACOB said. “Based on my knowledge of those particular species, it’s most likely the slavers who are in trouble. JAXX is tracking Agent Dom through his retinal implant and leading Jock and the Glitter King’s men to them now.”

  Commander Weisman was completely baffled as to how a routine cargo mission could spiral so far out of control. He knew he had to do something to get it back on track. “JACOB, what squadrons do we have nearby?”

  “Captain Breck is out on maneuvers with his team near Rathier,” JACOB said. “Remember, their remedial target training you assigned them after the Frorees got the jump on them with the Alien shock wave?”

  “Oh, yes,” Weisman replied. “Of course they’re in the neighborhood. Send them an urgent message and have them get over to the Boru system on the double. It’s not much, but at least it’s some friendly fire backup. As luck would have it, Breck’s team is testing out a next-gen plasma missile. That might come in handy for something like this.”

  “I’m on it, sir,” JACOB replied.

  “So much for getting a quiet start to the weekend,” Weisman thought. Then he remembered the Adjuster. He worried that he had followed Dom into the fray.

  “JACOB, any news on Adjuster Peitz?”

  “Yes, sir,” JACOB replied. “My sources say that the Aliens gave him Dom’s location and we tracked his ship to Veibos.”

  “Oooh, that’s not going to be pleasant,” Weisman said. “I hope Jock punched the daylights out of that shiny red buffoon.”

  “Yes, that could quite messy, JAXX said. “Let me send this message off to Captain Breck. Then I have some information that might spark your memory of the princess story.”

  “Hmmm…” and then he thought, “Amy?”

  18

  Rathier System

  The small fighter moved into position on the far side of the crusted moon. The rest of the squadron formed a circle around the center, providing coverage in case anything went wrong. The gunner went through his pre-flight checks, pulse racing as he lined up his shot. The clock was ticking, and he struggled to hold his line, the sweat from his brow forming a small river in his cap. All eyes were on him, and all the men were counting on him.

  He shifted course and made a re-approach, getting into a better line of sight. He pulled up as close as he dared and took a deep breath. The target comm lit green, and he pulled the trigger, releasing a blast of plasma unlike space had ever seen from the nose of his ship.

  The target never had a chance. In an instant, a full coat of plasma gel suspended it in stop-motion, an eerie green glow radiating outward.

  “Nice shooting, Raj!” said Captain Breck. “Now that we have the ball in play let’s split up and get this game going!”

  The rest of the squadron paired off in 1s and 2s, and soon they had a killer match of space football going on. Now all they had to do was shoot a few laser blasts, and raise the stakes on the game.

  Suddenly an urgent new message from JACOB on the Constellation interrupted Captain Breck’s fun.

  “Breck here,” he said. “Hey JACOB, what’s up? We’re just getting started with the Plasma Bowl.”

  “I’m sorry to interrupt such an important mission, Captain,” JACOB said. “Our transmissions have lagged due to the solar storm, but we’re just now getting caught up. Commander Weisman needs you to stop the reindeer games and get over to Veibos in the Boru System right away.”

  “Veibos?” Breck asked. “That’s just a short hop from here. What’s going on there? Last I heard it was just a bunch of desert nomads living in tents.”

  “Major Saunders is heading there to rescue Agents Wagner and Special Liaison Wilhelm Desire and the princess of Aesneia. I’ll fill you in on the way, but this mission is top priority. Get there ASAP.”

  Breck knew it was serious if Commander Weisman was pulling his squadron off their weapon testing mission. But he it wouldn’t take long for them to get there.

  The squadron was just getting set up for the next goal attempt when they had to abort the shot.

  “Okay, boys,” Captain Breck said over the comm stat, “time to pack up the game and get over to the Boru system. We have some agents in need.”

  With the order delivered, twenty fighters lined up in attack formation and made the short sub-warp jump to the Boru system.

  Chief Rygel flicked the comm chip off and on to try to locate and power up the dead Yubror’s ship. He heard a large craft roar to life in the distance. As they approached, they saw it was midnight blue metal, a new Clipper c
lass ship, with a double output fusion engine.

  “See, I told you he had a spectacular ship!” Chief Rygel said as a group of King’s men raced toward them. “It will be a grand escape just in the nick of time.”

  Dom tripped over Desire as Captain Andana and the guard Urali rushed them to the Yubror’s vessel. Chief Rygel never broke stride, simply dragging Desire and the princess along the sandy ground. The larger Veibon guard picked Dom up like a feather and threw him over his shoulder as Chief Rygel opened the ship’s ramp. “So this is what it feels like for a woman,” Dom said through the gag. Desire and the princess were not amused. Captain Andana hit him the butt of his blaster to shut him up.

  They picked up the pace as the sound of the approaching men could be heard from all directions. The king’s men were rushing from the tent, blasting stun rays at any trader or creature they could see.

  Chief Rygel laughed as he could see the Human, Jock, rushing into the fray to stop them. When the last inches of the ramp closed between them, he said, “Ha ha! I will sell these slaves after all and you, Human, will never see your beloved princess again!”

  Jock fired off volley after volley of blaster fire in a vain attempt to stop Chief Rygel and Captain Andana. But they narrowly escaped. Jock saw that they were too late. He grabbed a few of the king’s men and ran towards the TX, screaming, “JAXXY, get her into flight mode and keep track of that Clipper.”

  “Yes, Major,” JAXX said. “We’re ready for takeoff as soon as you fasten your seatbelt.”

  JAXX’s safely rules annoyed Jock. Sometimes a man just needed to run with scissors.

  As Captain Breck’s squadron pulled out of the sub-warp jump one after another, the flash from each ship lit up the night sky above the moon. As they made their approach toward Veibos, Breck and his men could see several ships lifting off from the desert. From what JACOB had told him on the way, he guessed they could only be the escaping slavers.

  Breck ordered his squadron to form a semi-circle to ensnare any ships escaping the Veibos moon. A few ships had already made it past, but JAXX alerted them that according to the coordinates of Dom’s implant, the ship carrying the agents was still not off the ground. Breck told the squadron to let the others go while they kept a close watch for the enemy vessel.

  “Team, flag the IMO IDs from any ship getting by,” Captain Breck ordered. “Alert the Federated Union to deal with them later. We have bigger fish to fry.”

  “Coming up on the outside now,” Captain Breck said. He moved to the right-hand side of the squadron and idled for a few minutes, keeping his eyes peeled. From what JACOB had told him, the Veibos moon was a vast wasteland of debauchery. The threat of slave traders sickened him. He’d seen enough of it on Earth with human trafficking.

  According to JACOB, Veibos attracted the worst of the worst and the scum of any planet. Breck had no love loss for any of them. If he weren’t on a mission to rescue his old friend Jock and a few agents, he’d be the first to head over and give a surprise welcome with his next-gen plasma blast to those who were evading. “Another time perhaps,” he thought.

  Chief Rygel fired up the engine and lifted off Veibos just as Jock and the king’s men got off a few worthless blasts. He thought he was home free, and would soon be at his Alien war shack on Niovis. He saw the rest of the king’s men scramble in the desert below as they flew out of the atmosphere. A few got off some laser cannon blasts, but at that distance and speed, none of the blasts caused any real damage.

  With nowhere to stash his captives, he left them in the salon with Urali and Captain Andana keeping watch.

  Desire shivered. “I’m cold, do you have any warmer clothes or a robe or tunic?” she asked feeling more self-conscious than ever. She looked around the lavish red salon adorned with silk floor to ceiling, hoping for something to cover up her bare skin. A corset wasn’t the best clothing choice for the jump into the cold areas of space. Dom even zipped up his sequined jumpsuit the rest of the way, feeling a cold draft running down his chest. The princess was the only one who was sensibly dressed, but tears stained the front of her tunic.

  Urali and Captain Andana ignored Desire’s plea as they were enjoying the view too much. In the meantime, Dom moved in closer, and the three of them huddled together for warmth. Desire stirred as she read Dom’s thoughts about his twitchy eye and gave him a hopeful look.

  Jock strapped into his seat on the TX with the king’s men in the back as they launched vertically and raced off toward Chief Rygel’s clipper.

  “Major Jock,” JAXX said, “I finally reached JACOB on the Constellation and filled Commander Weisman in on the situation. He told me that there was a squadron on maneuvers nearby. Captain Breck’s group is on their way now.”

  “Breck!” Jock said. “That’s damn lucky. See if you can relay the clipper ship’s info to his squadron and have them head them off before they make any warp jumps.”

  Jock took off after Chief Rygel, pushing the twin engines of the TX as fast as he could. “Wow, she’s fast,” said one of the king’s men trying to hold on as the TX lurched forward at a steep incline. Jock attempted to climb as fast as possible in order to gain ground on the chief.

  As they punched through the atmosphere, JAXX received a comm stat message from Captain Breck. “Jock, old buddy, we’re here and surrounding Veibos. Do you copy?”

  “Thanks, Breck, I read you,” Jock replied. “We just took off following Chief Rygel’s ship. It’s a Carbonari Elite. You should see it any minute now heading in your direction. I’ll have JAXX link you the signal from Dom’s SPOOK retinal implant so you can make sure you get the right ship. It’s a fast clipper class so be ready for it.”

  “Roger, that,” Breck said. “All fighters, be on the lookout for a Carbonari Elite clipper class ship coming up from below. Do not fire unless I give the order. Raj, how’s your power reserve look on the new plasma toy? We might need to bring out the heavy guns for this.”

  “Jock,” Breck said, “we were testing out a next-gen plasma weapon on some space rocks before Weisman called us over here. It’s pretty awesome. We’d love to test it on the chief’s ship. If we can get a good read on him, and it works right, it will disable any warp drives and leave the clipper suspended in a force field. It will be game over. The ship won’t be able to move, and you can teleport over.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Jock said as he careened right after almost colliding with a reckless shuttle trying to escape Veibos. “If we can do that, we might have a shot at getting my team and the princess back. If you do plasma trap him, they’ll be waiting for us to board. He has a few guards. We’ll have to suit up and go in hot. Get in and get out quickly.”

  Jock wasn’t sure it was going to work, since they didn’t all have the coin of Standar.

  “JAXX, we’re gonna have to figure out a kumbaya moment to get us all out safely,” Jock told the AI. He thought back to the mishap on the Froree ship. This time he couldn’t leave anyone behind.

  With nothing else to do but shiver and shake, Desire read the princess’s mind and sensed her angst. As the drugs wore off, the princess softly whimpered and grew angry, plotting her revenge on Captain Andana. She also wanted to kick some butt on these guards. The princess lamented. She was so close to getting away, but this wasn’t quite the adventure she had in mind.

  Leaving her father and her home planet for a new life was supposed to be the easy part. Sure, life was going to be different, but she wanted to try to make it on her own. Now a large part of her father’s army was out after her, wasting time and resources because she didn’t want to face marrying someone she didn’t love. She thought she could trust the Captain, but he betrayed her because she never would have feelings for him like she did for Jock. Unbeknownst to her, that was her ultimate downfall. His jealously and greed had led him to taking her captive and getting rich in the process.

  Now she was destined to be sold if she wasn’t rescued. Or, she would be married off to someone she didn’t love if they ca
me for her. Either way, she was a slave. She missed her old life. “Maybe I can negotiate with my father and stay single instead?” she hoped.

  Desire smiled and patted her back to comfort her.

  The princess calmly accepted her fate. This was her doing, her fault. If she hadn’t run away she never would have been on that ship; they never would have been attacked by pirates; they never would have needed to be rescued.

  It wasn’t the outcome she wanted, but she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and released herself to the cosmos. Desire listened in, hanging on every thought that went through her mind. She decided to speak up.

  “Listen, princess, get your mind out of self-pity mode. This isn’t your fault, so stop blaming yourself for it. If anything, you’ve done a hundred people down the line a favor. You’ve brought exposure to this mess of slave traders that otherwise would have continued on torturing creatures across the galaxy. You and your position as royalty brought an important face to the problem. The rest of the slaves have probably been unknowns, and the only people who cared about them were their families. It may not look like it right now, but there are things in play that may set this right. You may not make it out, we may not make it out, but at least we’ve made some difference, shedding some light on the cockroach-infested underbelly of this system. You’ve probably helped save a ton of people down the way. All of these traders who think they’re escaping are probably being tracked. If the Federated Union becomes involved, they can run, but they can’t hide. So snap out of your pity party. This ride ain’t over yet.”

  Dom’s mouth dropped open. He did a triple take on Desire, quickly glancing over at the princess. He tried to speak but had nothing to add.

  Captain Andana grabbed Desire by the purple streak and slapped her face. “Shut up, slave!”