Escape of the Glitter Princess

by Chad V. Holtkamp

  “What about the snakes and frogs, Agent Wagner?” Weisman asked.

  Dom wasn’t in the mood to hear any more about the reptiles.

  “Well, sir, I see a few of them slithering and hopping around,” Dom said. “Honestly, based on the looks of the frothing, withered dead creatures all around me, I’m trying to stay as far away from them as possible.”

  “Well, since Major Saunders released them, you get to put them back in the crate,” Weisman said. “You still have a shipment to deliver to the scientist on Polarus.”

  “What is this?” Dom asked. He was incredulous. “We just saved the day again and you still want us to be your cargo boys?”

  “Dom, shut up and round up the cargo,” Weisman ordered.

  “Yes, sir,” Dom replied. “Any suggestions on how to do that?”

  “Well, you’re in luck,” Weisman said. “Those aren’t just any snakes and frogs. Find the crate they came in and look for a small box hidden under the lid.”

  Dom did not want to go find the crate, but duty called. He slunk into the tent, the inside still the glorious Alien ruse it had been for the auction. He located the crate by the doors to the auditorium. It was the one place he never wanted to be again.

  “Yes, sir, I located the crate,” Dom relayed to Commander Weisman. “It looks like a fancy ring box with a whistle inside.”

  “Take the crate to where most of reptiles are and lay it on its side. Once you have it set up, blow the whistle and stand back!”

  “So that’s all I have to do?” Dom asked, relieved. “I don’t have to pick up any of the slimy bastards? I don’t want to get bit. That’s all I need after being sold to a wart.”

  Commander Weisman had no idea what he was talking about and ignored him, which made Dom annoyed. No one seemed to care that he was almost to a kinky giant whale creature. He shuttered at the thought of it.

  “Nope,” Weisman replied. “Those are specially trained reptiles. Lucky for you they respond to that whistle. You should have them rounded up within minutes.”

  “What about the ones that got squashed underfoot, do you need those back?”

  “Yes, those you will have to pick up,” Weisman said, happy to torture Dom just a bit. “Scrape them up and put them in a separate container. And then get that cargo back on the ship and activate hibernation temps as soon as possible.”

  “Roger that, Wagner out.”

  Dom called out, “Desire, we need your snake charmer skills! Commander Weisman wants me to round up all these reptiles,” he said.

  She stepped back into the tent, and the world turned technicolor yet again. She felt safe and secure, but her mind knew it was a trick, that beneath the glitz and glamour sickening things had happened here for far too long. But that was now at an end.

  “Really?” she asked. “What about the dead ones?”

  “Those, too, but first you have to watch this,” Dom said, trying to impress her.

  He pulled the whistle from the box and put it to his lips. He took a big breath and blew into it, but no sound came out. He took it out of his mouth and looked at it. He didn’t see anything wrong, so he blew it again. There was still no sound. No sooner had he taken the whistle out of his mouth again, then hundreds of snakes and frogs made a beeline towards the crate. The shiny slick mass looked like a rolling black river over the floor as the reptiles came over and entered the box.

  “Wow, that’s impressive,” Desire said.

  “You’re telling me,” Dom replied. “As soon as we get the live ones rounded up here, I’ll start hunting down the dead ones outside. Care to join me?”

  She thought for a second. After the crazy night and all the commotion, she didn’t have any problems hanging out with Dom and some cute little reptiles again.

  Though they had been through so much, Desire felt like she hadn’t seen Dom in days. They hadn’t been partners for long and only spent a few days together in the grand scheme of things, but she’d gotten used to having him around. She thought back to the last time they were on the TX alone together before everything went down with the princess. She’d been looking into his eyes, realizing what all the other girls saw in him.

  “Are you coming or what? We have to make sure we’ve got them all,” he yelled. She snapped out of her reverie and hustled along to join him, a bit awkward in her heels.

  “Damn high heels don’t work well for missions,” she said. “I should have changed into my boots in my locker.”

  Dom looked at her suggestively. “Don’t change just yet.” Desire popped into his mind and liked what she heard.

  “So how many do you think are missing?” she asked, changing the subject.

  “No idea,” Dom said. “Guess we’ll have to see how many we can peel off the floor. It sure is a mess in here.”

  That was an understatement. In all the chaos of the raid, tables and chairs were upended all around the room. Not one chair remained upright, save for one at the very back. Dom pushed a table out of the way.

  “Found the first one,” Dom said, using the edge of his platform wedge to scrape it off the ground. “It seems to be stuck. Guess one of the warts squished it pretty well.”

  “Gwarts,” Desire said and giggled. “It was a Gwart.”

  “Whatever,” Dom said, brushing it off. “I don’t ever ever ever want to think about that again.”

  “I dunno,” Desire teased him. “She really seemed to like you, Dom.”

  Dom ignored her and decided to focus on the squished reptiles.

  Desire stepped carefully over the dead carcasses. The frogs were the messy ones, as their guts had popped like water balloons. As she hunted for more dead ones, she found a bag one of the slavers left behind. She held it open for Dom to deposit their grimy guts. They plopped one after into the shallow darkness of the bag.

  After making their way from one side of the auditorium to the other, they managed to scrape up every last one. The stage was still littered with gems, baubles and trinkets, a final reminder of the last slave auction ever to be held on Veibos.

  “Guess the slavers were in too much of a hurry to pick up their stash,” Dom said. “It’d be a shame for the Federated Union to impound it all.”

  He leaned forward, reaching for an ornate ruby ring. He turned to Desire and slid it on her finger. “Just your size, how about that?”

  She smiled at the gesture. “Too bad I don’t see any others,” she said. “Turnabout is fair play.”

  “It’s alright,” Dom said. “I’m not much for jewelry.” He gave a few other pieces a once over before tossing them aside. His eyes spied a massive piece of shiny silver in the pile. “I’m sure Jock would look great with this giant pinky ring. It would really make his outfit.”

  “Yes, it’s perfect,” she said. “Maybe we can find something for his princess, too. Jock seems to care for her quite a bit. No wonder he seemed so bitter around non-Humans like me.”

  “I always wondered about that, too,” Dom said. “I just thought he was a stick in the mud GOON.”

  Jock took a seat on the edge of his bed. He held out a glass of water as Princess Amaratis sat upright. She was still beautiful despite the soot smudging her face and hair.

  “I thought I’d lost you,” he said. “And I hated the thought of going back to tell that to your father.”

  “Why did you have to bring him up now, Jock?” she asked. The smile quickly disappeared from her face. Her eyes misted over and she looked beyond Jock, focusing on the doorknob, anything to avoid thinking about her father. She still wanted to run away. She’d do anything to avoid going back home and facing her destiny.

  “We can still run away, you and me,” she said. “We can take your ship and get out of here and go where no one could find us.” Her words rang hollow, as she struggled to convince herself.

  Jock knew the truth. Their love wasn’t meant to be. Their time together had long since passed. She was a princess and had to fulfill her duties to her father and to her people. He was a
GOON and had to fulfill his duty to the Federated Union.

  Jock still loved her, though. He always would. He moved in close and kissed her forehead, holding his lips there, smelling the smoke still lodged in her hair. He started crying, but he didn’t care. This woman, the one he’d loved with all his heart, a piece of him long-since buried, belonged to another world.

  The princess cried, too, black trails streaming down her pale cheeks from the tears mixed with soot. They dripped from her face onto her dirty white tunic, staining it even blacker with droplets.

  She wrapped her arms around Jock and buried her face in his chest. She remembered how good it felt from long ago and wanted to stay there forever. But she knew this would be their final goodbye. They sat there for a few minutes in silence, as they both made peace with their star-crossed destiny.

  She took a deep breath and was first to let go.

  “Time to get cleaned up,” she said. “Time to be a princess again. My father and my people will be waiting. I need to take a shower and get out of these nasty clothes. Care to join me for old time’s sake?”

  “I’d love to,” Jock said. “But I need to check on the others and get things wrapped up before we take you back home.”

  He watched her undress and step into his shower, enjoying one last sight of her, bringing back fond memories of days long since passed.

  She turned on the water and stepped inside as he made his way out of the room. He pulled the door closed behind him, pausing to take a deep breath. He looked back toward the door, and thought for a second.

  Then he went back inside.

  Dom and Desire got the last of the dead snakes and frogs into the crate. Dom blew the whistle one last time, and a few stragglers slithered and hopped into it. He plopped the top back on and he and Desire exited the tent. Outside, he motioned for a few of king’s men to help him carry the crate back onto the TX.

  Desire stood and looked up at the night sky. She loved looking at the stars from other planets, seeing them in a new light. She thought she saw Orion in the distance, pointing to her home, far, far away. She knew she’d need to go back at some point. Maybe soon she’d have a reason, to show off a new friend.

  As Dom and the king’s men stepped onto the ship to put the crate back into the cargo hatch, he could smell the damp, fragrant air coming from Jock’s cabin. He smiled as he imagined what was going on in there, so he had the men quickly drop the crate and body bag into the cargo hatch.

  Not wanting to tip off the King’s men that Jock and the princess were together, he motioned for them to go. “Thanks, guys. Got it from here. Thanks for all your help.”

  The men were more than happy to get back on their ship and head home. Not wanting to interrupt Jock and the princess, Dom put the flooring back in place and stepped back outside to find Desire. He saw her gazing up at the stars and suddenly grew nervous again. She was still dressed in her red corset and micro-mini and even through the darkness he could see the purple streak in her auburn hair flowing down her back. He couldn’t get over how beautiful she looked even though the soot.

  “So, you seemed to have amazing stage presence,” he stammered, not sure what to say. “You had those slavers eating out of the palm of your hand.”

  “Yeah, they seemed to like what they saw,” she said, quickly doing a shimmy to tease him. “I haven’t seen a crowd go that crazy since the last cadet class graduated with honors and ransacked the bar on the Constellation.”

  Dom smiled and put his arm around her, as they looked out over the dark desert landscape. “You must be cold,” he said. “I’ve never been a big fan of the desert, myself. I love sand, but only if it’s near water,” he said. “What would you say to a nice vacation to Turks and Caicos?”

  “Well, Agent Wagner, that sounds like a fine idea,” she replied. “Though I think we should bring Jock along. He could use some company to mend his broken heart. I’m sure we could find him a nice girl on the beach to cheer him up.”

  20

  Jock stepped out of his cabin dressed in a fresh flight suit, ready to face his destiny. Their next stop was to get the princess back to her father safe and sound.

  Desire and Dom boarded the TX and walked back to their respective cabins to get cleaned up as well. Dom felt like burning his clothes, something, anything to get the stench of soot and desert out of his skin.

  “I feel worse worse than getting shit on by the shit monsters in the asteroid belt,” he thought. “But, not quite.”

  He stepped into his shower, the stale stench of black soot mixing with the fresh water. He almost gagged again, grabbing a bar of soap and quickly lathering it to wash his face and hair. He watched the trails of black cascade down his body, circling down the drain below. He stood there for a minute, the scalding water from the rain shower pulsing down on his body. He was tired and ready to get back to vacation. And the thought of Desire being on the beach with him was more than he could hope for. “That wouldn’t be a bad trip,” he thought and smiled.

  Despite its association with slavery, Desire hated the idea of throwing out her corset. She felt powerful when she wore it, commanding the attention of all of those creatures. Once she took it off, she realized there was no saving it. Not even the best dry cleaners in the galaxy could rescue it. “Maybe I can find another one like it the next time I’m back on Earth,” she giggled. “I’m sure Dom would help.”

  Jock sat down in his chair in the cockpit and reviewed the flight logs. He scrolled through and found the one he wanted.

  “JAXXY, set a course for Planet Aesneia,” he said. “Let’s make it quick and get it over with.” The longer Amy was on board, the more he had to think about changing his mind and running away with her. That wouldn’t work. He had a new destiny now and couldn’t let down his team.

  The princess walked in and took a seat beside him.

  “So how long before we get there?” she asked. “Should we send a message to my father to let him know I’m safe.”

  “Captain Vaunias already took care of that,” Jock said. “Besides I don’t think he’d like knowing we’re together.”

  “I know he can come across as the Angry Scary Father, but his bark is worse than his bite,” she said. “He’ll be grateful that you saved his little girl. That makes up for whatever happened in the past.”

  “Are you sure you’re ready to go back?” Jock asked, a tiny part of him hoping she’d say no.

  “I'm ready,” she said, as she gazed deep into his hazel eyes. She knew what he was really asking. “It’s time for me to fulfill my duty as the Princess of Aesneia.”

  Dom and Desire, both in fresh clothes and looking clean and shiny, took a seat in the back.

  “Well, that was an exciting detour,” Dom said. “But I need to catch up on my celebrity gossip. I could also use a nap so that should put me to sleep in no time.”

  “OK, Dom,” Jock said. “Kick back and relax. You’ve earned it this time. And thanks for taking care of Amy.” He reached over and patted her on the knee.

  Desire got serious for a moment and looked at Dom. “Jock, we really never had a chance to say thank you. When we all thought you were dead, it got pretty harrowing.”

  “Yeah, I shudder to think how we all could have ended up if you hadn’t devised the brilliant plan to raid the place with the snakes,” Dom added. “How’d you get out of there anyway?”

  Jock didn’t want Amy to know that he’d left with the servant girl, so he said. “I’m too tired to tell that story right now. JAXXY, let’s get the hell out of here. I never want to see this system again.”

  The TX lifted off and shot into the air, the dark, desert landscape soon a distant memory. As soon as they cleared the atmosphere, Jock launched into a warp jump, setting a course for Aesneia. The king’s fleet followed in a brilliant flash of light, leaving Veibos a baron, uninhabited wasteland.

  As the stars faded into a blur, the princess reached over and took Jock’s hand. The big strong hands that had comforted her ye
ars ago had brought her back to life earlier in the evening. She wanted to remember them, and the feelings they held for her.

  Jock kissed her hand softly, wanting to make his own memories. If there was ever a chance to bottle the scent of her, he could carry it with him forever. The silence between them said it all.

  Desire tried not to pry into Jock’s mind, but she knew he didn’t want to leave Amy. His irrational side wanted to change course and set off for a distant planet with her, never to return. It was a romantic side of Jock she never expected to see. She got out of his head and grabbed Dom’s comm stat. He’d fallen asleep so she could at least do some reading of her own.

  Aesneia, The Fedlin System

  King Iearus was nervously cutting flowers again. He was anxious to have his daughter back. She’d only been gone a few days, but with word of Captain Andana’s treachery, he’d feared the worst. He was over the moon when he got word from Captain Vaunias that she was safe.

  “She was a little banged up and had some trouble breathing,” Captain Vaunias said. “The slaver getaway ship caught fire and they inhaled quite bit of smoke before they could teleport back to Major Saunder’s ship. Jock got them out in the nick of time before the clipper exploded.”

  “Was she alright?” the king asked.

  “She wasn’t breathing, and they had to revive her and give her oxygen. She coughed up a lot of soot, but came to pretty quickly.”

  “Thank you, Captain,” the king said. “I’m grateful you were able to save her.”

  “You should thank Major Saunders for that,” Vaunias said, honorably not wanting to steal another man’s credit. He was the one who kept her from further harm. That Saunders is a good man and brilliant soldier.”

  At the mention of Jock, King Iearus grew uncomfortable. “I guess I do owe Major Saunders a debt of gratitude,” the king grudgingly replied. “It’s hard, though, after what happened between them years ago. But I guess this pulls rank on that experience. The most important thing is that she’s alive and well and on her way back to me.”