The Choice (The Two Moons of Rehnor, Book 8)

by J. Naomi Ay

  "My mother isn't the Empress."

  "Oh, right." I punched him in the shoulder though he was busy looking at the console.

  "Hey Stevie?" Sam pressed his hand on the instrument panel causing a few indicators to flash in front of our faces. "We've got a critical warning. Our hydro level is way too low." Now, he adjusted the Nav scans. "We're too far from the Queen to turn back. Fricking, fricking," he swore under his breath. "I knew we shouldn't have taken the Puffin."

  "Chill your beans, Sammy dude." I powered down some of the redundant systems. "We're almost to the disabled. It looks like a freighter. Yeah, it's some junker that has deferred maintenance issues going back at least a century. We'll make a quick pass, try to see what's going on and then head home to the Queen ship."

  "Aren't you listening, Stevie?" Sammy practically screamed. "We can't. If we don’t dock somewhere quick, our systems will freeze and shut down."

  "No, they won't," I insisted. "We'll switch to low power and that way we'll only use a fraction of the hydro fluid. We'll have enough to get back. Don't worry, Sam. I've got the Golden touch."

  "I'm telling you, Steve," Sam began to shout. "These new generation scouts operate differently. If you took the Sim training like you were supposed to, you'd know that. We can't fly on low power. Fricking, fricking. Hold on, there's a spacebase not far from here." He switched the com over to hail the Queen ship and requested permission to dock at the spacebase.

  "What the hell are you two idiots doing out there?" Korelesk barked back. "I give you a simple assignment, and you end up needing to be rescued!"

  "Can it, Marik," I snapped. "I've got this situation handled. Either get us the fucking permission to tie up, or I'll call over to the station myself."

  "What the fuck did you say to me, de Kudisha?"

  "Steve!" Sam screamed as the engines groaned and the power systems flickered.

  "Marik, you're a fucking asshole, and you've always been one."

  "Oh you think so, Your Imperial Fuckhead?"

  "Steve!" The ship rocked, the systems whined and then everything went black and shut down. We were stalled out here in nowhere land, not even an asteroid to keep us company. "Queen Ship Rozari, Queen Ship Rozari." Sam pounded on the dead console trying all hailing frequencies.

  "The radio's dead, Sam," I said calmly as I got up and stretched. A light in the aft cabin flickered on dimly. It was a warning indicator of our emergency systems. When it died so did our oxygen. I wasn't worried. Somebody would come rescue us soon.

  Sam tried every hand position on the console, pushed all the manual buttons, and pulled all the levers.

  "Ship's dead," I called from the passenger seat. I stretched out my legs and adjusted the head rest. "Too bad there isn't any flight attendant aboard. I wouldn't mind some food and some female company."

  "We're going to die out here," Sam moaned and began to pace the short cabin. "Fricking, fricking, fricking…"

  "Don't worry, little green one. I told you, I am Golden."

  I took a nap. Well, maybe it was longer than a nap. My cell didn't work, and I wasn't wearing a watch, so I didn't know exactly how long I had slept. I woke up because Sam was screaming in a good way. Vessel Assist was outside and hooking us up for a tow. That was a really good thing because it was damn cold inside this ship and that indicator light in the back was blinking as the air supply started to dwindle.

  "See," I told Sam. "There was nothing to worry about."

  "Right Stevie, except for the cost of the tow, the damage to the Puffin for running without hydro fluid, the failure to complete our mission and the court martial for all of the above. Cmdr. Korelesk is right. You are a fuckhead."

  "Whoa! Sammy! That's some pretty harsh language from you." I stood up and went to clap him on the back. "Don't worry it, bro. I've got the situation handled. We'll be back to the Queen in no time, and I'll explain everything."

  "No, Stevie. You've gotten me into too many scrapes before, and this time was the last. I made a huge mistake by listening to you when I should have known better and not taken this plane. We could have been killed. We still may be court-martialed. I have a family to think about, and they're much more important to me than you. I am no longer your friend." He turned his back and slammed the door to the cockpit.

  "Fine, be that way," I replied, though under my breath. What did I need Sam for? Idiot little Talasian twerp. Busy obsessing about his wife's baby when he wasn't even the father. "Some people sure seem to forget who they're speaking to these days," I called a little louder. Korelesk sure did. Nobody was immune from my dad's wrath.

  We docked at the space station a short time later which was really good because I was totally frozen cold. My throat felt extremely dry, and my nose got kind of stuffed. I figured when I got back to the Queen ship I should take a few days R&R and stay in bed.

  Sam still wasn't talking to me when we deplaned through the airlock. I wasn't too worried though. He'd always gotten over his mad-ons in a day or two. I headed toward the nearest bar to get myself a warm-up while he took care of the paperwork with the tow company. I had just sat down with a beer when my cell rang.

  "Yeah?"

  "Shika?" At first I thought it was Korelesk. The voice sounded the same.

  "What do you want, Fuckhead? Are you sending a ship to pick us up?"

  "Actually, son, I am." It was Berkan. I guess he didn't like my greeting as there weren't any pleasantries or inquiries about my wife.

  "Sorry, sir. I thought you were Marik. How's it going?"

  "You need to return to Mishnah, son." He said this as if it weren't optional, as if he had forgotten I was a commissioned officer on contract with the SpaceNavy. "There is an Imperial spaceplane arriving shortly to convey a Xironian General here. You will need to board it as well."

  "Why? Is this something my dad ordered?"

  "No, son. This is something I have negotiated on your behalf. If you wish to retain your commission, you shall return here immediately to serve the remaining term of your contract on ground duty. If you choose not to, you will be court martialed and discharged."

  "What?" Two Beckwads at the bar turned around to look at me, all four heads and eight eyes staring widely. "Bugger off!" I yelled at them. They swore back at me in Beckwadian or whatever fucking language they spoke.

  "Beg pardon?" Berkan replied coldly.

  "Not you! What do you mean ground duty? Are you telling me, I've been grounded permanently?"

  "That will depend on your service at Landbase Mishnah. At the end of your tenure, your commanding officer will submit a recommendation for future postings."

  "Kari-fa!"

  "Shika, this is not an option. You must report to the Landbase immediately upon your return to receive your new orders. Is that understood?"

  "Yes," I grumbled. "What about Hannah?"

  "She has chosen to remain aboard the ship to serve out her contract."

  "Kari-fa!

  "And one more thing," Berkan added. "Try not to piss off the Xironian General."

  I slammed the cell shut before saying anything I might someday regret. After finishing my beer, I wandered back out into the terminal to look for Sam. He was standing by a gate watching a disabled plane being towed off.

  "Are you being punished?" I asked, trying to sound repentant.

  "Demerits," he mumbled, and then tightly closed his mouth.

  "What happened there?" I nodded at the United Starline's plane.

  "A Xironian terrorist tried to blow it up. They wired a kid with explosives because children are never searched. What kind of people use children as bombs?"

  I didn't answer because there wasn't one. "See ya, Sammy," I said instead and went to find a cup of coffee to clear my head while I waited for my taxi ride home.

  Chapter 15

  June

  Vern and I boarded our flight and sat in the last row. I watched as the woman with the young boy carried him aboard and sat down three rows in front of us. She placed the child on
the aisle seat and took the center one herself sitting next to a creature that had two heads.

  "Look." I pointed at the creature. "What do you think that is?"

  "I don't know." Vern nervously belted his buckle and crossed his legs first one way and then another. "I've never been off of Xironia myself. All this space travel, all these new planets and creatures, it's really quite unnerving to me." Then he reached over and put his hand on my knee. "I am grateful you are here with me, June, even though we just met."

  "I think about my ancestors who travelled as this in search of freedom only to be captured when they landed. I hope it will not be the same for us. I hope that this Emperor is all you believe he will be."

  "He is," Vern nodded. "I believe this with all my heart."

  A heart that believes. This was an interesting concept for me. Not long ago, I had no heart, and now I had one that was only just starting to feel.

  The flight attendant started a safety demonstration just then so together we watched him point out the emergency exits and oxygen masks.

  "Are you sleepy?" Vern asked when I yawned.

  "A little."

  "Go ahead and rest then. I'll wake you up if anything exciting happens."

  "I hope there is no excitement. I hope all shall go smoothly, and we shall arrive swiftly on Cascadia for your meeting."

  "I hope so as well," Vern agreed.

  As he spoke, the woman with the child turned around, her eyes flickering across us, listening to our conversation, searching our faces. Then her gaze doubled back, lighting upon Vern as if she recognized him and was the one whom she sought. She smiled a little, though not with her eyes and now this new heart of mine quivered with an inkling of fear.

  "Do you know her?" I asked.

  Vern frowned and shook his head, worry lines wrinkling across his brow as he studied the child.

  "We'll be departing the spaceport within the next few minutes," a flight attendant announced over the intercom system. "In the meantime, just sit back and relax. You may also preorder your meals or entertainment on the vid screens in front of your seat."

  I closed my eyes again not wanting to waste my last few coins on a movie or food. My head slipped a little and ended up resting on Vern's shoulder. How strange it was that I, a former slave could now take such liberties with a master. The plane lights blinked, the engines made a noise and I started to drift off until Vern's cell rang loudly.

  "Sorry June." He shifted my head upright while reaching into his pocket to extract the phone. He had a short conversation. I didn't pay much attention until he bolted up from his seat and reached down our bags from the overhead bin. "Come on."

  "Sorry sir," a flight attendant approached. "We are about to depart. You can't move about the cabin now. You must stay seated and belted."

  "No," Vern insisted. "We need to get off. We can't take this flight." He shoved the attendant aside. "Come on, June."

  Vern grabbed my arm and pulled me up the aisle as the woman with child stood up and stepped in our path. She pushed the child at Vern though he tried to cling to his mother's legs. It was then that I noticed a cord hanging from his shirt.

  "Vern!" I screeched and pointed at the boy.

  "Go June!" He pressed his cell into my hand and shoved me toward the door. "Get off this plane and call Lord Berkan!"

  I ran. I didn't know why, but I did as he said, while Vern threw himself against the child and pinned him to the floor.

  Just as I crossed the threshold of the open airlock, I heard the detonation and screams of the passengers. My legs nearly collapsed beneath me. Was it not for a gate attendant, who had been standing right there, I would never have made it back into the terminal. The passengers and crew raced from the plane, some stepping on my legs as the gate attendant pulled me forward. Medics came, police too, and somehow I ended up in a seat again near a potted palm watching from the safety of the window.

  I sat there for hours, Vern's cell grasped in my hand as everyone deplaned. Some came off with shocked expressions on their faces. Others had blood or tears soiling their clothes. A few floated off on gurneys with family anxiously running by their side. The last were wrapped in body bags accompanied by the medics and the police. I waited for Vern though I knew, he had already passed.

  I sat there until the terminal was empty except for a few police who stood milling about. The lights around me had dimmed simulating the evening, and I hadn't eaten for many hours. Still I sat. Finally, Vern's cell rang in my hand and startled me out of my shocked state. I stared at it, wondering what I should do as the Imperial Eagle Crest appeared on the screen.

  "Yes?" I pressed the button to answer the call and was greeted by the face of a Rehnorian man.

  "I am ringing for General Verneyus on behalf of Duke de Korelesk," he said. "Would you kindly connect him with me?"

  "I'm sorry. The General isn't available. He has asked me to speak with you in his place. My name is June."

  "Alright then, June, the Duke is sending an Imperial spaceplane to bring the General to Mishnah as their meeting has been relocated to his office there. Kindly tell the General it shall arrive within a few hours. You may wait for it at the private docking bay of the space station. You'll recognize the plane as it shall bear the His Imperial Majesty's crest. I suspect you'll enjoy your travel much better than you would have on the United Starline's craft."

  I thanked him and hung up the phone, holding it in my hand as if it gave off some warmth. Should I go to Mishnah myself and meet with Duke Korelesk or should I just go on to Cascadia and disappear? I wasn't certain, so I did nothing but sit and wait for fate to push me in whatever direction it wanted me to go.

  Presently, a man came and sat down in front of me, staring out the window as the damaged plane was towed away. I glanced up at him. He couldn't have been Xironian as he was dressed in a blue uniform with two stripes on his shoulders, the Rehnorian Eagle Crest on his sleeve. He cradled a coffee cup in one hand, a cellphone in the other. I watched as he rang someone and then spoke sharply in a language foreign to me. A woman's voice responded, her tone cold and thick. She might have been crying as she hung up on him.

  "Kari-fa!" he said and pocketed the cell. He ran his free hand through his short golden brown hair and then shaking his head, he drank his coffee. "Were you on that plane?"

  Now, he was looking at me with eyes that were almond shaped and deep blue. He smiled crookedly, cockily, flashing shiny white teeth. He was handsome, beautiful even and clearly, he knew it. I didn't understand his words, so he held out his cell and then speaking into it again, it translated for me.

  I nodded. "Yes, I was. I was on that plane."

  "I'm sorry." He shrugged and frowned.

  "I am as well."

  He turned back to the window, and we both stared at the stars. After a time, a spaceplane appeared. It was all black except for this gold and silver writing and the Imperial Eagle crest that shown on its wings.

  "Well, there's my ride," the man said as he stood up. "I'm supposed to meet some Xironian General here and fly with him back to Mishnah."

  "He's dead." I stood up too and held out the General's cell. "I am here instead. I am to speak with Duke Korelesk."

  "You?" The man smiled as he looked at me, his eyes taking in the length of my body, resting for an extra moment on my breasts and then my lips. "Okay. Come on." He indicated with his head that I should follow and so I did, down through the lift to the private docking bay.

  I was given a suite in the back of the plane, a beautiful large bed and a bathroom with a marble shower. The attendant brought me anything that I asked for, the most expensive delicacies and drinks, so I filled my stomach with food, though I still felt empty.

  Afterward, I crawled between the fine cotton sheets and buried myself with the soft goose down duvet. I lay my head on the pillow and fell instantly into a dreamless sleep until sometime in the night when the door opened. The man came in through a crack of the golden hallway light, which for a moment illu
minated half his face. He shut the door and became only a shadow, as he moved silently across the room to my bed.

  "June?" he said. "Do you know who I am?"

  "Yes, Sir." I had seen the portrait of the Emperor and Empress that hung near the cockpit of this ship. He had his mother's deep blue eyes. The shape of his face and his beauty came from his father. It didn't matter who he was for he was clearly a master and even here in the Empire, he could still treat me as a slave.

  "Do you know what I want, June?"

  "Yes, Sir."

  "You're very pretty, June, even for a Xironian. You have fantastic breasts and really nice thick dark hair."

  It was painful to listen to this and worse yet to feel his fumbling, so I let my fledgling heart go silent, and my thinking brain go to sleep. I threw back the duvet and took him in my bed. Afterwards, he left quickly with a hasty thank you and goodbye.

  That was more than I was given by the Master's Man and plenty others who had done the same. For this, I gave the Empire credit. At least, their Prince was polite.

  Chapter 16

  Shelly

  "Just a minute," I yelled at the phone. I was heading to my hair appointment at the Takira-hahr Fashion Mall, and I was already ten minutes late. I waited for Gina until the very last second and then when I saw her speeder start to descend in our drive, I left. Tim was still in the bathroom but yelled to me that he was doing fine and that I should quit hovering over his every move.

  "Go get a life!" he shouted, so I left.

  I slammed the door to prove to him that I was and could get a life and didn't need his grouching at me to do it. I was looking forward to having my roots done, and if I had time, if Gina could stay a little longer, I might even take a few extra minutes and have a quick touch-up mani and pedi.

  I had just taken off and was heading back towards the city when that blasted cell rang, interrupting my thoughts. At just the same moment, a speeder raced into my space nearly broadsiding me and sending us both crashing to the ground. I swore at the driver, even raised my finger in that universal salute, but he already sped off and didn't see it. Even though Tim wasn't with me, I could hear his voice in the back of my mind telling me to be glad the other driver didn’t see it.