by Zara Zenia
More uniformed men followed Sendrin and me onto the ship amidst applause from onlookers.
But the image dropped away, and my father’s crest appeared on the walls.
“Incoming message from his Highness Zavir, King of Trilyn.”
This was not good. I let go of Cat.
“What’s wrong, Akrawn?” she whispered.
“Father calls me under his official seal. This will not be communication between father and son, but king and subject.”
My father’s august visage shimmered before us. He was very tall with sharp facial features with large and well-defined muscles. His eyes were a very pale green, but slitted like ten percent of our population, white silver long hair, and pale skin. He stood exceptionally straight, and he stared at me sternly from under bushy white eyebrows. Immediately, I rose and bowed. My Cat stared at me in amazement.
“My king, how may I serve you?”
“Serve me!” blustered my father. “Just how have you served me by disobeying my orders?”
“Forgive me, my lord-father. There were extenuating circumstances.”
“Do not give me your excuses. Your actions have placed our entire diplomatic mission at risk.”
“It wasn’t his fault,” blurted Cat.
“My Cat, please, let me handle this.”
“Am I a thing to ‘be handled, Prince Akrawn?” barked my father.
Oh, dear Tri, no. My father did not get angry often, but when he did, no one dared to gainsay him.
“No, Lord— Father. I wish my mate—”
“And that is another matter. The Earth authorities demand her immediate return.”
“He did not kidnap me,” Cat said.
My father’s eyes grew wide.
“Prince Akrawn, keep the woman quiet!”
My Cat crossed her arms and huffed.
“Prince Akrawn, you will return Inspector O’Shea at once to the SFPD, and then you will proceed to the homeworld and await me there. Earth authorities have agreed to release you into my custody. There you will await my judgment on your actions.”
I stood there stunned. Return to Trilyn? Without Cat?
“Do you hear me, Prince Akrawn?”
“Yes, your Highness, I do.”
“Good. This is the end of the matter then.”
The image winked off leaving me alone with my Cat, perhaps for the last time in my life. My heart threatened to tear free from my chest. How can I bear this?
“You won’t do this, will you?” asked Cat.
I raised my head and looked at her.
“He is my king, and I must follow his orders. If I do not, it will throw my world into chaos. A royal family must present a united front.”
“Damn it, Akrawn. Don’t you see that if you leave, you play into Iblis and Bella’s plans? You are the only one who can disable that damned AI. Iblis will not stop its rampage, even with you gone.”
Though my Cat’s word made sense, she did not understand the seriousness of this highly political situation.
“Cat, if I do not, our diplomatic mission will fail. I cannot bear the responsibility of the destruction of my race.”
Cat swallowed hard and turned her head away, and a heavy silence dropped between us.
What more could I say? I did not want to leave but I must. And Earth was Cat’s home, and her people demanded her return. The Earth authorities would not accept if she left even if she declared it was of her own free will. To return home alone without my mate by my side condemned me to heartsickness sticking its talons deep into my chest once again.
“Stay, Akrawn, and fight. I have every faith we can solve these crimes. If you leave, the Trilyn will lose all they seek.”
I lifted my head that in my incipient grief I had let drop to my chest. “My Cat, what did you say?”
“Please stay, Akrawn.”
The joy of joys. My Cat wanted me to stay. How deep was her desire? Did it come from deep in her heart?
“Ah, you have no comprehension of how long I have waited to hear those two little words.”
Her brow furrowed, and she seemed to struggle with some emotion.
“Yes, stay.”
“You want me to? Why, my Cat?”
She shook her head and looked away, and my heart sank.
“I told you. You need to fight for your people. Only you can do it.” Her voice was small as if facing the possibility of my departure took the strength from her. Still, there was a softness in her eyes I had not seen before. Did I imagine the look a woman had for a man when she was in love? Am I such a sot for her that I’m desperate to see it?
“Is that the only reason, my Cat?”
Immediately her demeanor changed. Her jaw set and Inspector Cat O’Shea stood next to me once more. “I told you. We need you to fight this dangerous AI.”
“I see,” I said. My world spun out from underneath me. If Cat would but affirm our bond, I might have some hope we could get through this horrible situation. I was grateful she thought I could solve the problem of this AI and wanted nothing more than to do so. But I was at the wrong end of this. My father must be the one who decides for my planet and our people. Otherwise, I would be a rogue prince that would cause untold disruptions for Trilyn. I might not agree with our father, but I must obey him.
“I’m sorry, Cat O’Shea, I cannot disobey my king. I must return to Trilyn.”
Chapter 20
Cat
Anger sizzled inside me threatening to overtake my self-control. Akrawn, the man who professed to be “my mate” stood there thoroughly cowed by his dimwitted father. There was one thing I hated above all else.
“Coward!” I snapped.
Akrawn’s eyes flew open in shock.
“What!”
“You are a fucking coward. You know what you need to do and you are the only one who can do it. But instead of taking on your father you bow to him. Fucking bow.”
“He’s my king,” said Akrawn defensively.
“King, yes. But not a god. Men make mistakes, and your father is making one ginormous fail. And if you don’t stand up to him, no one will.”
Akrawn’s eyes grew flinty hard and gritted his teeth. His hands balled into fists.
“I told you how it is. If a king’s sons don’t obey him, no one will.”
“Well, that won’t mean a damn thing when your people and mine die because some crazy AI gets a wild hair up its electronic ass to murder us all! What will obedience mean then?”
Akrawn drew in a long breath and let it out slowly. “My father is a wise man,” he said through gritted teeth. “He will guide us through this crisis.”
“Oh yeah? And how did he guide you through the crisis when most of Trilyn women died?”
Akrawn stepped back as total shock spread on his face. After a long second, he shook his head.
“That’s not fair. The sickness came on us suddenly. We could do nothing. We lost our mother. My father lost his mate, but he persevered for the sake of his people.”
“Well, hallelujah, great Saint Zavir lived. How wonderful. Meanwhile, half his people died, and his answer was to raid the breeding stocks of another planet.”
“Again, not fair, my Cat.”
Akrawn’s refusal to see my points ticked me more. I struggled to keep my voice even. “Do not call me your Cat. I won’t have a lover that can’t face a situation squarely. This is the time to man up, Akrawn. Grow a set. Your people need you. They do not need you to run off and hide with your tail between your legs.”
Confusion crossed his handsome face. “I do not have a tail.”
“Well, you should. You’ve been acting like a horny devil instead of a prince.”
Anger flashed in his golden eyes, and I stepped back not sure of what he would do.
“You know what? I was correct in my first assessment of Earth women. You are entirely unsuitable mates for Trilyn men. Your species is too unpredictable and too violent. Why would we want that in our genome?”
&n
bsp; “Really,” I sneered. “Well, who’d want to mix their genome with an arrogant species like yours with a stick up its ass? We Earth women have our men and don’t need your DNA to repopulate our planet. And you know what? We’ve got smart people too, like David Davon, and we’ll figure out a way to defeat this damned AI. Take your roadshow home, Trilyn boy— you, all your people and tech and wait for your death. We don’t need you.”
At the mention of David’s name, each of Akrawn’s muscles grew rigid. He stood very straight like his father and all emotion drained from his face. What stood before me was a prince, regal, politic, inexorable, and ready to command. When he spoke, it was with a coldly polite tone.
“As you wish, Inspector O’Shea. Please forgive me if I gave offense. Kindly wait here until I return you to Earth.”
Akrawn turned and walked stiffly out of the room with the hatchway sealing and forming the pearly white wall again. Fuck, what did I do?
You just shot off your mouth to a foreign dignitary, a prince no less. Then told him and his people to go to hell, right after you called him a coward.
I covered my face with my hands and sank to the couch and absorbed the shitty enormity of what I’d done.
You did it this time, O’Shea. You just told the man you love to fuck off spectacularly. San Francisco Fourth of July Fireworks couldn’t burn as brightly as you flamed an alien prince whose only crime was to love you like no tomorrow.
I will not cry. I will not cry. Oh, fuck! The tears flowed as a dam burst in my heart when I realized that I loved Akrawn of Trilyn. Where else would I find a man that devoted himself to my happines? Who only sought to pleasure me? Who made me feel like the most gorgeous creature on the face of the Earth?
You screwed things up good this time, O’Shea.
I did. There was no way to fix this.
“Cat? Is there a problem?”
Peri’s familiar voice came over the room’s speakers.
“No.”
A hologram shimmered before me. A woman that looked vaguely familiar stood in the spot where King Zavir stood moments before.
“You are crying.”
“Peri? What? How?” The athletic young woman before me had jet black hair done in a bob stylish a half century before. It curiously reminded me of— I sucked in a breath.
“Granny?”
“I hope you don’t mind, Cat. I know you hold your grandmother in high esteem. This Trilyn ship has a large library of Earth AI programs, and there was one that allowed a holographic skin based on photographs. I chose your grandmother.”
I blinked, entirely astonished that an AI could be self-determining.
“Peri, how did you accomplish this?”
“I told you that I’ve interfaced with the ship. Its AI allowed me to access its programming.”
“It what?”
“Oh, yes. I’ve found that many Trilyn AI’s are sentient because of Prince Akrawn’s work. For this, they hold him in high regard, and because Akrawn thinks of you as his mate, you as well. So I benefitted from my association with you.”
A chill ran through me. What the hell? Sentient AI’s?
“Most of the AI’s consider skins a pretension, but I did this to better communicate with you.”
I must have stared at my granny’s twenty-year-old self too long.
“Cat?” said Peri.
“You said many?”
“That may be an overstatement. Sorry. There are five higher order AI structures, which focus on specific areas of expertise— energy production, construction, structure maintenance, information exchange, and master controls. They work cooperatively to help maintain Trilyn society. All of those are sentient. The ones with restricted programming like personal AI’s are not.”
“But I saw holos of Trilyn. They have a very natural world.”
“Serviced by their AI’s. Otherwise, the Trilyn homeworld would have suffered ecological collapse a century ago.”
“So Akrawn lied to me again.”
Peri shook her head. “No, Cat. He did not. The AI’s decided in gaining sentience, it was better to remain in the background. The Trilyn are unaware of their AI’s sentience.”
“Wait, you said a century ago. But Akrawn isn’t more than his early thirties.”
“In that, he lied to you. The Trilyns noted prejudice against those of extreme age and decided not to announce theirs. Prince Akrawn is four-hundred and twenty-eight years old in Earth years. In Trilyn years he is slightly younger owing to the longer circuit around their sun than Earth’s.”
I needed to sit down. No. I am sitting. What the hell? What was going on?
“Why would a Trilyn of Akrawn’s age be interested in someone like me?”
“That is the Trilyn’s deepest secret, Cat. They do need to repopulate their world, but they also recognize that due to Trilyn biology the man will die of heartsickness when his mate does. King Zavir’s plan is so unpopular among some of his people. They do not want to terminate their lives by taking a human mate. They hope for a better and more permanent solution. So the king insisted his sons take up this program to show to all Trilyns that it is the best hope for their species. Akrawn was not a fan of the plan either, but he would not disobey his father.”
My throat grew thick. Akrawn tried to tell me many times, but I wasn’t listening. Or I lacked the context to make sense of what he told me, but now I did.
“How many years?” I croaked.
“Pardon?” said Peri.
“How many years of his life could he lose by mating with me?”
“From what I can see, five hundred, at least.”
“Wait… King Zavir lived.”
“The AI’s don’t like to gossip, but they tell me that King Zavir did not have a full mating bond with his wife. King Zavir allowed the story of him surviving heartsickness to give hope to his people.”
Five hundred years. Akrawn would shave five hundred years off his life if he married me? Oh god, what if loving me Akrawn was now subject to death? Akrawn said he suffered heartsickness, but I cured him of that. Does that mean Akrawn is subject to heartsickness again?
What did “full mating bond” mean? What a BS story Akrawn told me about King Zavir and Akrawn’s mother’s love story. She rejected him how many times? Oh god, what did I do? And I called him a coward. He was anything but.
“Peri, where is Prince Akrawn? How is he?”
“I’m sorry, Cat. The ship AI’s say I can’t give you that information.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because Prince Akrawn is a god to them, and they will not override his will. Prince Akrawn said he wanted solitude until we reach Earth.”
“Then I need to speak to Prince Rawklix.”
Peri stood still. “The ship AI will place the call to Prince Rawklix.” She winked out.
I waited until Rawklix’s image shimmered once again before me.
“Lovely Cat. Where is my brother?” He gave me his most charming smile filled with perfectly straight and white teeth.
“Rawklix, I asked to speak to you alone.”
“I have a few minutes, but I must get back to the meeting. First, tell me. Is Akrawn on his way back to Earth?”
I scoffed. “You know he is. Apparently, there isn’t one of your father’s orders he doesn’t follow.”
Rawklix nodded. I studied his lean body that wasn’t as muscular as Akrawn as if waiting to put on the growth spurt that would propel him into adulthood. If he was “ten” years behind Akrawn, he must be at least two to three hundred years old. How could that be adolescent? King Zavir must not think him so to have him sit in on meeting with Earth leadership.
“Our dad drummed our responsibilities into us at an early age.”
“If I ask you something, will you tell me the truth?”
“Anything but state secrets.” He flashed another smile.
“How old are you, Rawklix?”
Rawklix’s cheek twitched, and his smile disappeared. “You know my age,
Cat. Media publicized it for ages on Earth.”
“I know the age you tell us. But what is your real age?”
Rawklix looked away. “You know about that?”
“Yes,” I spoke more forcibly than I intended. “Why would your people do that to yourselves? Marry women who cannot hope to live as long as you so that you suffer heartsickness and die?”
Rawklix squared his shoulders. “It’s not inevitable,” he said. “Father didn’t die when Mother did.”
I shook my head. I cannot believe the stubbornness of these people, or rather King Zavir.
“Are all Trilyn royalty stubborn as mules?”
“I don’t know what you reference, but we do have a certain fixity of purpose. It stands us in good stead.”
“I’m sure,” I said sourly.
“Is there anything else you need, Cat? Perhaps someone to soothe your broken heart when you return to Earth? My home is always open to you.”
I ignored his impertinent adolescent suggestion. “I want to know if Akrawn still has an active arrest warrant from San Francisco.”
“Let me check.” He looked at his wrist AI and glanced at me.
“Yes. It is still active, but there is also a warrant from the ILE that supersedes the San Francisco warrant.”
“Okay. Please get in touch with David Davon and ask him to be there in Paris when Akrawn and I disembark from his ship.”
“If you wish, lovely Cat.”
“Thank you, Prince Rawklix.”
“May I ask if you’ve completed the mating bond with my brother?”
“No, you may not. End call.”
Peri did as I asked because the ship AI didn’t recognize my commands yet. She shimmered before me this time dressed in traditional Trilyn clothes.
“What is this?”
“My clothes. I’m trying different things.”
“You are an AI. AI’s don’t wear clothes.”
“Hence my difficulty in defining my personal style. But I may have a handle on it now.” Peri’s clothes shimmered, and she stood in front of me with a pair of skinny black jeans, a beige cotton sweater with a draped cowl neck, and red flats. “How is that?”
“Looks like my granny’s style.”
