The Worker Prince

by Bryan Thomas Schmidt

  The nightmares had come again. A kind he hadn’t had in twenty years—ones that continued to haunt him, even in daylight. Now, Miri had stormed into his private chamber like a charging bull, heading straight toward him. He sighed loudly, but she paid no attention.

  “You asked the Council to reinstate murder charges against your own nephew? I knew you could sink low, Xalivar, but—”

  “Where did you hear that?” He asked, cutting her off.

  “I have friends on the Council like you do,” Miri said.

  “Your son is determined to create problems for me where none existed. I did my best to reason with him, but he won’t leave it alone!” Xalivar was not in the mood for her angry tone. He had responsibilities she would never understand.

  “He’s your nephew! You could have tried harder.”

  “He’s an officer in the army, sworn to serve me. He refuses to serve. He’s also a subject of the Borali Alliance,” Xalivar said. “He’s always shied away from special treatment, so I’m treating him like anyone else.”

  “Don’t give me more lies, Xalivar. I’m your sister. I’ve known you all my life,” Miri said. “You’re singling him out because he defied you.” She turned away, close to tears, staring out the window at the stars.

  “He needs to know his place,” Xalivar said, unmoved by her tears. Always so dramatic.

  “You need to know yours!” She whirled around, pointing her finger in his face.

  Xalivar had never wanted to hit Miri before, but he had to restrain himself this time. “You’d prefer I let him create a huge public scandal and bring the wrath of the entire Alliance down on him? I’m bringing him in, so we can keep this situation from getting out of control.”

  “You’re so sure everyone in the Alliance would agree with you, aren’t you?” Miri said. “I know for a fact many do not!”

  “General public opinion is not my concern. I answer to the Council,” Xalivar said. And I don’t really care what you or they think either, sister.

  “And answer you shall if you turn your back on your family,” Miri said. “You sent his archrival to hunt him down like some kind of outlaw! Do you care nothing about his reputation? His safety?”

  Since when did Miri grow claws? Did she really have the nerve? “Don’t threaten me!”

  “Don’t threaten my son!” Miri turned around and marched back to the door. After a moment, it slid shut behind her.

  Xalivar cursed whoever had betrayed him. He wasn’t sure who’d told Miri, but he would find out. He would not tolerate people playing politics with his family. Perhaps it had been a matter of time, but he didn’t need her enflamed emotions leading her to interfere in his business. He had enough to worry about. They will learn what it means to cross Xalivar.

  The nightmares had reminded him of something he’d written off as inconsequential. He was starting to worry. He wanted Davi back under his nose where he could keep an eye on him. He would instruct Zylo and Bordox to retrace their steps. The search was taking too long. They needed to find Davi—and now.

  O O O

  A week after their argument in the corridor, Davi found Tela sitting at the controls of her shuttle, reading through maintenance charts. He took care to make noise as he entered the cockpit so as not to sneak up on her. She turned her head and frowned when she saw him.

  “We seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot,” Davi said, sitting down beside her in the copilot’s seat. “I’ve been trying to figure out how it happened.”

  “Maybe your charms won’t work on me,” Tela said, not bothering to look up as she continued her work. “I’m pretty good at seeing through people. Especially men.”

  “Well, that’s just it. You seem to have taken some of the things I’ve said the wrong way,” Davi said, hoping she’d reconsider.

  “Like what?” Her eyes remained on the charts.

  “I didn’t bring up your name in class to isolate you from the other trainees,” Davi said. “I was trying to pay you a compliment. I’m impressed with the way you flew the shuttle.”

  “Well, thank you,” she said, still avoiding eye contact, focused on her charts. “But the last thing I need is people thinking you’re showing me special treatment. I’m there to learn the same as them.”

  “And I’m there to teach you,” Davi said, “but someone with your flight experience is an asset for the entire class. You can help me to help them learn what they need to know.”

  “I didn’t sign on to be a tutor,” Tela said.

  “I won’t ask you to be, if you don’t want to,” Davi said. “All I’m asking is if they don’t understand something I’m trying to explain, maybe you can jump in and help me clarify it.”

  “See?” She said, looking up for a moment. “You’re asking me to teach. No thanks.”

  Her eyes turned back to the charts as Davi wondered why he always seemed to choose the wrong words when he talked to her. A familiar buzz filled his stomach as heat rose within. And why was he always so attracted to her when she was mad at him? “Whatever you feel comfortable with,” Davi said. “The last thing I need is someone getting killed because they didn’t understand.”

  “I wouldn’t let that happen,” Tela said.

  “Good. I can use all the help I can get,” Davi said. “I’ve never been an instructor before. And I’ve never been a worker either. It’s all new to me. I pretty much have to relearn who I am.” I wish someone would teach me how to talk to you!

  “You’re doing fine. You explain things well,” Tela said, her blue eyes meeting his for a moment.

  “Was that a compliment?” Davi melted inside like icicles in a desert. He smiled. “I might have to write that down. It might be ages before I ever get another compliment from you.”

  She laughed, rolling her eyes. “Don’t get too cocky, okay? There’s always room for improvement.”

  “Okay, so don’t get mad at me when I suggest areas you can improve,” Davi said. “It’s my job as your teacher.”

  “You can’t improve on perfection,” she said, smiling slyly as she went back to her charts again. Was she joking?

  “Now who’s cocky?” He teased and this time she laughed.

  He added, “Some of the cadets seem to resent me because of my past. They don’t seem to realize, I’m on your side.”

  “Can you really blame them? You’re the Prince.”

  Davi sighed, disappointed. “No, I suppose not.”

  She slid back in the chair and her face softened a bit as their eyes met again. “Give them time. They’ll come around.”

  “I don’t suppose you could put in a good word for me?”

  Tela’s face crinkled. “First I have to convince myself.”

  “But you saw me at the rallies! Do you really believe—”

  He stopped as Tela broke into laughter. “You’re giving me trouble?”

  She smiled and nodded. “I couldn’t resist.”

  “Well, I’d better let you get back to your work here. I wouldn’t want anyone to know we actually had a civil conversation.”

  She smiled at him and his heart fluttered. “You like making jokes, don’t you?”

  “When it makes you smile like that,” Davi said.

  Her eyes darted quickly back to her charts.

  After a moment, he slid from the copilot’s seat. “Okay, well, thanks for letting me explain.”

  She nodded. “See you in class, professor.” It sounded so formal. He contorted his face, and she laughed again, twirling strands of her hair around her index finger. “I’m trying to work here.”

  He nodded and backed out of the cockpit. The conversation went better than he’d expected. She’d laughed and joked with him. It was a start. And she’d twirled her hair—was she flirting with him? Best not to make too much of it. For some reason, all the way back to the command center, he found himself whistling a happy song.

  O O O

  “Retrace my steps and see if I missed anything?” Bordox groused as he sat in the m
ilitary shuttle next to Corsi and reviewed Xalivar’s orders for the tenth time. “I’m sick of that miscreant always making me look bad! Not this time!” He cursed Xander Rhii under his breath for the millionth time and growled.

  They hadn’t even covered a third of the worker community. Plenty of places to hide remained, yet his mission had already been deemed a failure. He cursed inside. He’d been given a chance to best his old rival, and he was determined to come out ahead. Revisiting areas they’d already covered would just slow him down. But after Zylo’s inaccurate reporting of Bordox’s activities, it’s exactly what Xalivar had ordered him to do.

  On their previous visit to one worker neighborhood, he’d found a photo of a man who looked very much like Xander Rhii in one of the houses. He had no idea why workers would have such a photo, but then again, he’d learned from interrogating the neighbors that a man who looked like Xander had been seen there a number of times. The woman had told him the picture was her husband, who’d disappeared twenty years before. In spite of his interrogation techniques, the woman and girl gave him nothing. Still, he’d never been able to shake the feeling they knew more than they’d told him.

  When Bordox reviewed security tapes from the officers’ barracks, he’d spotted the woman and girl on it, chatting with Rhii. All three had a friendly demeanor throughout. This time Bordox wouldn’t let them off so easily. They knew where to find Rhii, and he would find out everything they knew.

  “Why would a Royal be so friendly with workers?” he asked aloud, forgetting Corsi was sitting beside him. Bile rose in his throat at the thought and he swallowed hard, coughing after to clear the taste. “It makes no sense. Xalivar has always led the oppression of the workers. Of course that weak, overconfident Prince has never made sense. He’s totally unfit for military service. Too nice. Too sympathetic. Too independent.”

  Ignoring Corsi’s nod, Bordox turned toward the window, lost in thought. Xander had been given opportunities which should have gone to Bordox. Now Bordox had the opportunity to put an end to the undeserved favoritism. And end it he would. No matter what it took. Proving once and for all that Rhii was the imposter and scum Bordox had always known him to be.

  He arrived with a squad of five men at the courtyard outside the house in question. Everything looked the same as it had the last time he’d been there. He approached the door to the house and waited while his sergeant knocked.

  “LSP, open!” Sergeant Corsi shouted.

  A frightened woman opened the door, two wide-eyed young children hiding amidst the folds of her skirt. Bordox and his men pushed their way inside, looking around. No one else was in the house except the woman and children, who had not been there during his previous visit. The house had been arranged differently inside then—much of the furniture remained standard issue worker, but the pictures and personal knick-knacks had all changed—someone else lived there.

  “Where are the people who lived here before?” Bordox demanded.

  The woman shook with fear. Her children started crying. “I—I don’t know,” she said with great effort, so frightened she couldn’t speak. Good. Be afraid of me!

  Corsi and two soldiers returned from searching the back room. “No one’s here, sir. And everything is different than the last time.”

  Bordox bared his teeth and uttered a guttural roar. He had to find these people—more certain now than ever that they had the answers he needed. Grabbing the woman’s arm so hard she cried out, he pulled her outside. “That’s it. I want all the neighbors in the square right now!”

  He shoved the woman away from the house and then roughly carried her crying kids outside into the square as his men rushed to knock on the neighbors’ doors.

  In a few moments, eight others stood trembling in the yard. Bordox walked among them as his men searched their houses. They all looked as frightened as the first woman. “Some of you I recognize. You remember me from before.” He glanced around at the fearful expressions.

  A few found the strength to nod.

  He sneered. “Good, then maybe you’ll tell me what I want to know!”

  Corsi came back with reports from the men. “All clear, sir.”

  Bordox grabbed an old man from the line and pointed his blaster at the man’s temple. “I want to know right now where the previous tenants of that house are!”

  The workers looked at each other. From their faces, it appeared they didn’t know what to say. Bordox didn’t believe them. Someone had to know something. An older woman stepped forward. “They moved out right after you were here before. We don’t know where they are.”

  “What do you know?” Bordox said, blaster still held to the man’s forehead. Fear had always been his favorite tactic.

  “Please,” another man said, “we do our work. We make no problems for the Alliance.”

  “You’re making a problem for the Alliance right now! Tell me what I want to know.” Bordox said.

  “We don’t know anything!” The first woman said, as her two kids cried and continued clinging to her skirt. “Please, we have no reason not to tell you. I don’t even know those people.”

  “You might not, but these people were here before. They were your neighbors,” Bordox said, ignoring the woman and looking at the others with no effort to hide his irritation.

  “They never mentioned where they were going,” the older woman said. “All I know is the woman who lived there worked at Celedine Technology near the starport.”

  Bordox released the old man, who collapsed to his knees. He walked up the line, stopping a few inches from each of them to stare into their eyes. They really don’t know. He cursed inside. Xalivar had warned him about excessive killings of workers. It would draw too much negative attention. He had to be discreet—the only reason these people still lived.

  “If any of you see or hear anything, you will contact the LSP right away. Don’t make me have to come back here!” He met each one’s eyes in turn with a cold glare.

  They all nodded, fear evident on their faces.

  “Squad, move out!”

  Bordox led his men back through the corridors of the worker district. They would go to Celedine Technology. He knew where it was. The more trouble it became locating Xander, the more determined he became to win. He would not have his career ruined by that incompetent fool ever again. He would bring him in, no matter what it took. Too bad Xalivar wanted him alive. Bordox would relish ending Xander Rhii’s miserable existence.

  O O O

  When Miri arrived, the Legallis starport hummed with motion—bustling crowds, a buffet of noise, constant activity. The small diner lay out of the way on the end of one of the numerous corridors, which wound their way out from the landing platforms. The only evidence leading to it were the smells of grease, cooking meat and eggs, and other wonderful kitchen scents one’s nose might be tempted by in the surrounding corridors. It would be easy to go unnoticed there. Besides, this time it was just the two of them, and meetings between old friends were not so unusual.

  Kray looked Miri over with concern as soon as she sat down across the table. “You’ve lost weight.”

  “I’m fine,” Miri said, deliberately leaning back to appear relaxed. She hated lying to an old friend, but Kray couldn’t do anything about her sleepless nights in the Palace; her mind working overtime.

  “Don’t lie to me, Miri. I’m your oldest friend,” Kray said.

  Miri smiled. She’d been so busy the past few weeks; she’d had almost no time to actually relax. Sitting here for a moment gave her a much-needed break. “The life of a Princess is always busy.” Even more so with her determination to uncover the truth about what was going on with the workers on Vertullis.

  “Yes, and you’ve never been one to stay bored long,” Kray said, nodding. “Promise me it’s not because of worrying.”

  “A mother always worries, as you know,” Miri said. Kray had three children herself. “But since we last met, I’ve been so preoccupied with other things; I haven’t had muc
h time for that.”

  As the waitress arrived to bring them mugs of Talis, Miri realized it was true. She’d been so focused on saving Davi, she’d had little time to sit around and worry about his circumstances.

  “The information you provided was quite startling, as you said,” Kray said, sipping her Talis. “We have discussed it quite often since reviewing it.”

  “I appreciate your willingness to take the time,” Miri said, leaning forward as her hope rose within.

  “You have our support,” Kray said, her eyes not leaving Miri’s. “But it will require a lot more evidence to validate an impeachment.”

  Miri nodded. “Public opinion will soon be on our side.”

  Kray looked at her with concern. “You must be very careful, Miri. As the Princess, your movements do not go unnoticed, above all when you interact with members of the media. Xalivar has many friends.”

  “So do I, Kray,” Miri said smiling. “It will be handled with the same discretion as our meeting, I promise.” Miri had not involved anyone associated with the Palace. She wanted no chance of leaks, but she knew she would also need to take other precautions.

  “I hope so. Don’t let the fact that Xalivar is your brother blind you in regards to your safety,” Kray said. “He’s never been kind to those who betray him.”

  Miri had seen plenty of evidence of this in the past. She nodded, sipping her own Talis. “I’m taking extra care, Kray. Really.” Miri reached across the table to gently lay her hand across her friend’s.

  Kray’s eyes stayed locked on hers for a moment before Kray smiled, relaxing a bit. “Good. There are few females at our level of power, you know. I need someone around who understands what it’s like.” They both laughed.

  “I have always cherished our friendship,” Miri said, squeezing Kray’s hand atop the table. “So tell me about the children. How are they, these days?”

  They continued chatting at the table for close to an hour as people came and went around them—two old friends talking about life and family. It did them both good to escape like this from the concerns of their lives—Miri from her worries about Davi and Xalivar, and Kray from the weight of government decisions. Miri realized they had not done this enough. She vowed to try and correct that in the future.