The Lost Princess

by K Bledsoe

  “First, I need you to arrange things here. Order enough food for two days, to cover anyone who might be wondering why you don’t leave your room to eat. Make sure some is covered in heating containers to eat later. And if you could, make some of that order local food that children will enjoy. We have some new guests.”

  He gave Lenore an odd look but went to the computer on the desk near the window. As he placed the order, she flipped through the files in the box, noting that there were papers from every year of the last fifteen. Hm.

  He returned to the chair and plopped down with a sigh. “It shouldn’t take too long. Most of what I ordered is packaged, and the kitchen won’t need to prepare it.” He grinned. “And it is what I usually get when I vacation here. I hinted that I wasn’t alone and didn’t want to be disturbed.” He blushed and looked away again. “I hope you don’t mind.”

  The blush threw Lenore temporarily. She had formed explanations on all the inconsistencies with this man but was still confused. Jonah appeared confident, knowledgeable and experienced in many ways, but his complete lack of comfort even with the suggestion of sex did not jibe with most of her conclusions. She needed answers.

  “Who are you, really?”

  Jonah’s head snapped back to her. “What?”

  “You say you’ve been at the palace a long time, evidently since you were about twelve or thirteen if you were there when the princess disappeared. You were close enough to follow the investigation and are somehow still involved because you will not let it go. You have implanted tech that is extremely rare and no doubt expensive, that not even the prince and his Companion have. You seem to be intimate with the king and yet have no influence on matters outside the palace despite the fact that you have extensive skills in certain areas, not to mention access to some serious funds. There is no such person as Jonah in the database near the time you were born and no records of you emigrating to this planet. And I am pretty sure that you probably have a tattoo on your person, given your reaction to my earlier question to Lavan.” Those last two were only a guess, but Lenore felt confident she was correct as she leaned back to await his answer. Her theory was a private agent planted by outside security or perhaps even the slave trade itself. A less likely scenario would be a distant relative or perhaps bastard child of the king. She watched him closely as he worked through her words.

  “How…”

  “Do I need to say yet again that I am good at what I do? Well?”

  The look on his face turned to awe. “Is it safe to speak here?”

  Strange that he is only asking this now and not when he first arrived, thought Lenore but she affirmed a lack of surveillance.

  Jonah strode to the window and hit the switch to make it translucent. He spun back quickly and reached inside his jacket.

  Lenore drew her stunner before he could complete the motion and pointed it directly at Jonah. He froze.

  “I need to show you something,” he said.

  “Slowly.” Lenore was betting on identification for private security.

  But instead of reaching into a pocket, Jonah undid the fastenings and let his jacket fall open. Slowly, he unbuttoned his shirt. About halfway down he pulled the shirt open to reveal a small tattoo over his heart.

  “My real name is Sundeep Barad. I was the betrothed of Princess Maya.”

  Chapter Forty

  “Curious….hm…don’t like that…that doesn’t make sense. What?”

  “Mumbling to yourself again, Alli?” asked Diarmin from the command console.

  “Huh?” She looked up from the screen she had had her nose in from the moment Lenore had left to go meet the reviewer. She blinked distractedly at her father. “Was I mumbling again?”

  “Yes, pet. A problem?”

  “Well, yes and no, well…I don’t know.” Allison crashed a fist into the tabletop. Diarmin’s attention was fully engaged now. A frustrated Allison was very rare.

  “Try to explain, please, before I have to pound the dents out of my ship.”

  “These files that I hacked from the slavers. I was tossing and turning in my sleep, thinking I couldn’t have been successful that easily.”

  Diarmin didn’t say what he was thinking, that a full day of steady decrypting would probably not be considered easy to most. Allison went on.

  “Reading more closely, they really don’t make sense. These ship manifests, for example,” she flicked her fingers at the screen. “They don’t match up with any logged schedules from the time they were supposed to have happened.”

  Ignoring the fact that she had probably done some serious hacking just to obtain those, Diarmin ventured a suggestion. “Well, they were probably unscheduled, off the grid.”

  She looked away from the screen long enough to give him a disgusted look. “Obviously that was my first thought but when I checked, I realized that several of these entries match up at a no-launch time, you know, gravity issues, one of the moons in the wrong position, that sort of thing. Nobody would launch at those time. Nobody could. And,” she began to twist a lock of her hair, another rarity that showed her confusion. “These kinds of places usually have at least some legitimate entries, you know, supplies, shipments, to make it seem nothing wrong is going on. But those don’t even make sense.”

  “That is strange.” He winced as he said his next words, but he had to say them. “Could you have mistaken the code break?”

  “No, the decrypt is accurate but…” her voice trailed away, and it was a testament to her concentration that she didn’t even take offense at her father’s suggestion. “I am thinking this might be a Chanis cypher.”

  “As usual, I don’t know what you are talking about.”

  Allison sighed, not stopping her continuous tapping at the keyboard. Her eyes didn’t shift, but he knew she was going into “lecture to the ignorant” mode.

  “A Chanis cypher is a cypher within a cypher. Most people stop at the first break, thinking they were successful and that’s the end. BUT, a woman with the last name Chanis, nobody knows her first name, is rumored to have created a code that is either piggybacked within the first code or laid underneath it. A person needs both to read the original entries.”

  “Okay, so use that.”

  “I have never seen one, and there is no evidence that they even exist. It’s just a rumor, but I have a sinking feeling that I am looking at my first one.”

  “So how do you crack it?”

  Allison pushed away from the console, sliding her chair back with a very loud scraping sound. She bent over to put her chin in her hands, elbows on knees.

  “The rumor, or theory, or whatever you call it, is that you need the code key. Undecipherable otherwise.”

  “I thought you always said nothing was unbreakable.”

  She rolled her eyes at him as she slapped her hands on her thighs. “I said this code was undecipherable, not unbreakable.”

  “Okaaaayyyy.”

  “What the key does is reword the already broken code into legible data. I could shift words and numbers around all day but without the key, we don’t know which are correct. There are billions of possibilities.” She tapped her finger on her mouth for several seconds. “I suppose I could rig a program that might give me options, but it would take me at least a day to write and probably many, many more days to sort through the possibilities. If it’s even possible.” She grabbed her personal pad, drew her feet up on the chair to make a surface to set it on and began doodling. Diarmin knew he would hear nothing more from her for a while, so he went back to monitoring the surrounding space for any moving object. The shuttle was due soon, but he wasn’t taking any chances after their dramatic escape from the slavers.

  A red light flashed on the right side of the console and he grimaced. Another grav plate was failing. He quickly rerouted the other ones to compensate, but they were now down to seventy-five percent capacity. He knew his family had no problem with zero gee, but the young ones were another story. The last thing they needed was f
or little tummies to be upset and spewing; they were scared enough.

  The light changed to green as the reroute finished. The only indication something had changed was a slight tremor that was barely noticeable. They needed to put the new ones in soon or there would be no gravity.

  Diarmin spun the chair and half stood to go check on Quinn and the rescued children, but another light began blinking. He plopped back down to help guide the shuttle in.

  ***

  The short trip in the shuttlepod fascinated Lenore. The way Jonah, Sundeep, gripped the arms of his seat, despite the double buckles, indicated his nervousness. The continual swallowing showed his nausea in zero gravity, indicating that he had never been offplanet. Yet he was still alert enough to ask intelligent questions.

  "I noticed when you checked in, you called this a 'shuttlepod' and the man called it a 'shuttle.' Is there a difference?"

  "A shuttlepod is a small ship-to-surface craft whereas a regular shuttle usually has transwarp capabilities," answered Lenore as she maneuvered the pod onto the landing platform of their ship.

  His relief as the pod shivered into the ship’s grav field was palpable. Never having been offplanet would definitely have limited him in searching for his lost betrothed.

  She unstrapped as the docking clamps took hold with a solid thunk and stood as her passenger did likewise. She grabbed some food packages and indicated he precede her through the door that was opening. He picked up his luggage and the remainder of the food, then stepped through the hatch cautiously, peering around at the empty corridor.

  Betrothed fifteen years ago, at thirteen or fourteen if she was guessing accurately. How well would he even know the princess? It did explain why he was still at the palace and knew the king, though not why his identity was hidden. But was he looking for her out of loyalty to the king or a sense of duty? Well, that may not even be important, especially since his attention seemed to be on this information broker. Maybe Sundeep, (Jonah, she reminded herself since he had asked her not to tell anyone of his true name), wanted to know the princess was never coming back so he could move on with his life.

  Lenore squeezed past him and saw Diarmin exit the bridge and head down the corridor toward them, holding out hands to help with the packages. She passed them along as she tried to help Jona-h with his food.

  “I can manage,” he said.

  Is he being chivalrous? Lenore didn’t know. Outdated manners were often seen on various worlds but unless they were necessary for a disguise, she didn’t care for it.

  “We need to drop the food off in the lounge, down that ladder. Holding that box will be awkward enough.” She gave Jonah a small smile, intended to put him at ease.

  He smiled weakly back and passed over all the food, keeping hold of the box of papers and bag over his shoulder that held his personal effects. They descended the ladder and Diarmin led them to the lounge/galley.

  “This is Reviewer Jonah.” She indicated the young man then turned to him. “Jonah, this is my chief engineer, Diarmin.” The words “husband” and “wife” rarely entered their discussions with outsiders. “How are our other guests?” she asked Diarmin.

  “Still asleep,” Diarmin held a finger to his lips as they entered, and he indicated the children sprawled in the far corner of the dark lounge. Quinn was also still asleep on the sofa. Jonah’s eyes widened perceptibly, but he said nothing. Diarmin continued barely above a whisper. “I am sure they will be awake anytime now and probably hungry. I am assuming that’s what these are for?” He held up the packages.

  “Yes, and this,” she tapped the box Jonah held. “Is for Allison, the beginning of our new assignment.”

  “Ah, good. Shall we bring it to her now?”

  “If she’s not busy,” said Lenore.

  “Well, kind of, but she should start on this. It would do her good.”

  “Since we are on this level, I’ll show Jonah the guest room first,” said Lenore.

  Diarmin’s face looked like he was wincing inwardly. “I wasn’t expecting a guest,” he said.

  Comprehension dawned as Lenore realized that the guest rooms were in no condition for anyone.

  “He can use my room,” came a whisper from the couch. Quinn hadn’t moved an inch, but his eyes were open. “It’s no problem. I will be in here with the children anyway.” He rose slowly, his eyes on the little ones in their pile of blankets and pillows.

  “Is that food?” he asked.

  Diarmin nodded and jerked his head toward the galley. Quinn relieved Lenore of her bags with a tiny smile and followed his father.

  Lenore led the way to Quinn’s room where Jonah deposited his personal duffle on the bed. He followed her up the ladder to the bridge, eyes silently taking in everything and looking a bit more comfortable with climbing a ladder while carrying a large box. Lenore admired his adaptability. He was turning out to be a most extraordinary young man.

  “Allison, meet Jonah,” said Lenore before they were completely up the stairs, but to no effect. As they both finished the climb, Lenore noted her daughter sitting in her usual chair, intensely focused on her pad.

  “Allison,” she repeated. No response. Lenore grabbed her pad out of her lap.

  “Hey,” she said, hands reaching for her property, but she snatched them back and stood quickly as she caught sight of the stranger. “Who—”

  “This is Reviewer Jonah, Allison. Jonah, our Computer Chief. Don’t let her age fool you.”

  “Oh yeah. You’re the guy I saw on the video feed before you cut me off.”

  Jonah’s eyebrows shot up. “That was you?”

  Allison shrugged. “Yeah. You blocked it quicker than the usual dopes who get hacked. Pretty slick.”

  “You’re very good yourself,” he replied with a small bow.

  Allison flicked her fingers as if agreeing with him and the bow was her due. “Now if you can tell me how to—”

  “Allison,” Lenore’s warning only stopped the speech, there was no regret in her eyes for asking someone to divulge trade secrets. “Jonah has brought his records on this person he wants us to find and some more about the missing girls.”

  “Sure. Let’s work over here.” She swept her pad and all her accoutrements into a bin kept next to the console for just that purpose. Diarmin, coming up the ladder, hissed softly at the mistreatment of machines. “Da— uh, Diarmin if you could bring that chair for Jonah we can get to work.”

  Clamping her lips shut on her imperious daughter, Lenore noticed Diarmin doing the same as he brought the chair. Jonah sat and began pulling files out, and soon the two were oblivious to all else. Diarmin caught Lenore’s eye then pointed down the stairs to indicate they should leave the two to work.

  They glanced into the lounge and galley and saw Quinn sorting the various food parcels. Lenore thought Diarmin would go in to help, but instead he continued toward the ladder down to the cargo bay. Before either even sat, Lenore spoke.

  “So, what did you want to talk about away from the bridge?” She took the comfortable chair and Diarmin his seat at his workbench.

  “How did you know?”

  “I know you very well by now, Mr. Kelton. If I can read a stranger, you are an open book. Something happened while I was gone that has you very concerned. Spill.”

  “Well, Allison was going over the files she decoded from the, um, the download.”

  Lenore suppressed a grin. Diarmin studiously avoided thinking of anything in terms of a raid or break-in.

  “She has found some interesting discrepancies,” he said.

  “Such as?”

  “Well, such as impossible launch schedules and messages that don’t make sense. Bottom line is she thinks there is another layer of code.”

  “Huh.” Lenore stopped her hand just short of pulling her lower lip. As she knew Diarmin, he also knew her and that was her telltale sign of nervousness. She changed it to a chin scratch and tried to act nonchalant. “That would certainly explain what I got when I applied the X
a’ti’al code to what we found.”

  “When was that?”

  “Late last night, when everyone was asleep.” She looked directly at him. “I didn’t want Allison or Quinn to see.”

  Diarmin looked at her strangely. He knew her enough not to push, but she could tell he was hurt that she had not included him.

  “The messages I decoded also made no sense. Simple messages, refusing to have any dealings with the slavers. Seems very innocent and shows the Xa in a good light, but it felt wrong. What does Allison say about it?”

  “She thinks it’s something called a ‘Chanis cypher,’ a code within a code or something like that. Does that sound familiar at all?”

  “No,” she lied as her gut tightened. Luckily Diarmin had looked away at the sound of a giggle floating down into the cargo bay.

  “Sounds like we got food at the perfect time. Let’s go help Quinn.” She bounced out of the chair and up the ladder so that Diarmin wouldn’t have a chance to object.

  “They’re all awake now,” said Quinn as they entered the lounge, nodding at the sleepy children watching a program on the large viewer. “I reheated enough for everyone.” He indicated the pile of food, plates and utensils on the counter.

  “Thanks, Quinn,” said Diarmin. He started transporting the lot to the table as Lenore piled some selections onto a couple of plates.

  “I will take these up to the other two. I am sure they won’t interrupt research for such a basic thing as food.” She exited the galley before Diarmin noticed her tension. As she slowly climbed the ladder balancing two plates, she thought about the revelation.

  Yes, she had heard of the Chanis cypher. As far as she knew, it was only the highest ranks of the Xa’ti’al that ever used it. Did the slavers steal it, or were they working even closer with her ex-compatriots than she ever imagined?

  Chapter Forty-one

  “How is he, Lavan?” asked the prince as Lavan returned from the King’s chambers.