by S. V. Brown
Kings Are Just Men
{[SPITHRA] [Erus] [Darcerus]
[149185/371/43/spring]}
Edrik loved to work with wood. The smell, the touch and the ability to take raw material and create something always made him feel good about himself and life. His mother encouraged him but his father disapproved. It was not fitting for the future Sovereign of Darcerus to use his time in this way. Better to learn the twenty-five Elements of Sovereignty, which contained in each element four to sixteen volumes of how to rule. Better to keep physically in shape and play strategy games than to be educated in carpentry.
However, his father was often away on campaign or off Erus altogether, which meant he could spend some time on his woodworking skills, besides which, his father hadn’t actually forbidden Edrik to learn some basic fundamentals of the trade. Even though Ed hated it when his father got angry he could not give it up. He had once made the mistake of asking why woodworking was called a Lesser Trade. His father had gone into a rage, smashing items across the room. Ed was always doing something wrong like eating too slowly, tripping over something, crying, laughing too loudly, asking stupid questions or not holding his fork right. There were too many things to remember.
Ed looked around his enormous room warmed by a large fire fed with specially grown Inkelda trees. On the wooden floors lay large, soft rugs and one of these lay in front of the fireplace. He would often lie on his back upon this rug, his small face aglow and hot, gazing up at the ceiling dreaming of a different life. His furnishings were all made from the dark red mahogany tree felled from the great forest of Kriendo. His mother was taking him and Ethas on a trip to that very forest the next day.
The two boys nattered all the way, barely giving the countryside a glance. Erianna only partly listened as the boys prattled on about the latest show, Power Dudes. They hadn’t stopped talking since she had put in the Flight Plan.
“Everything checks out, Mistress Varak.” He entered the details for their flight to the forest. “If you decide to travel above two hundred meters you’ll need to submit another Flight Plan via the Onboard Pilot Program.”
A shout of laughter could be heard from outside as the boys were getting overexcited.
“Excited about the trip?”
“I think the latest episode of Power Dudes has their fancy today.”
The clerk nodded. “Another craze. Don’t worry, in a couple of years it’ll be Star Rangers or something.”
Erianna smiled and left the building. They got into the airvehicle Celer and headed off south of Darcerus. Along the way they passed small and intimate villages, contained farms framed like pictures surrounded by trees, the Gulf of Darceria and natural, sweeping wilderness all glorious on this autumn day. Only one in the vehicle enjoyed the scenery in brief glances. The other two were engrossed in their discussions.
When they had arrived at the forest Erianna landed the Celer skillfully. The boys’ attentions were suddenly diverted to the massive forest of Kriendo in front of them. For the first time Ethas could understand Edrik’s fondness for wood. They raced around the ancient trees, playing hide and seek, climbing what they could. With his mother’s permission they had climbed a tree with their lunch and sat in the broad boughs eating and enjoying the scenery.
“Do you like Miss Petula’s class?” Ethas asked as he watched crumbs fall from their laps.
“Na. Unuslingua is sooooo boring. I like Dr. Gilda’s class on time and space. When I’m old enough I’m gonna have my own ship.”
“Don’t you like the crates?”
“They’re okay. But the ships look better.”
“Yeh, but did you see the new Metamorphic Shields? They’re gloro, Ed. The latest have just come out. Dad showed ’em to me last night. I’ll show ya when we get back.”
Ed felt a pang of jealousy. “Yeh. You still going out with Ayala?”
“Na, we broke up last day of school.”
Ed tossed a crust at him. “How long did you go out with her?”
“Five days.”
“That long?”
“Yeh, but I got sick of playing girls’ games. She didn’t like Power Dudes either.”
“Even Juner likes Power Dudes. We’re gonna watch the last episode together next week.” Ed regretted mentioning it, but it was too late.
“Can I come?” Ethas asked excitedly and then shrunk back at a possible rejection.
“Sure, but you gotta bring something to eat.”
Ethas leaned forward, again in high spirits. He rarely got to spend time with a group of friends, only with too many sisters. Ed was happy he had made Ethas happy.
They climbed down the tree and started some rough-housing. Erianna frowned at them from her position on a rug under a tall leafy tree. She was still eating her lunch. “Be careful,” she called out.
“Mum!”
They moved away where she couldn’t see or hear them.
Ethas had Ed in a head lock and Ed kept yelling out, “Cheater!” He was getting grumpy at not being able to get loose.
“Let go.”
Ethas clung on.
“Let GO.”
They shuffled around the leafy earth; Ed fell to the ground, trying to drag the determined Ethas with him.
“You’re supposed to let go … stop.”
Ethas released him and they both fell.
“Bad luck, Ed, how ’bout the best out of three?”
They started again. Ed lost all the mock battles.
The next day Erianna collected him, ready for their trip to visit the Darcerus Chamber of Historical Collections. It began to rain yet he knew that his mother would make the trip anyway. He leaned into the window as far as he could before his head hit the glass and he saw Erianna’s carriage stop at the rear entrance in the courtyard.
Erianna’s favorite horses stood patiently waiting the arrival of their friend. As much as Edrik enjoyed the speed and agility of the airvehicle Celer, the honor of being carried by live animals was exciting. In the Joiran Cluster one was not permitted to simply harness animals for transport or labor without the prior consent of the animal. How that consent was given Edrik did not yet know. This knowledge would be imparted to him when he turned anywhere from between ten to fifteen years of age.
His mother had a special relationship with the Noble Pintos. She also had a helmet associated with her days of professional riding that she kept tucked away in her closet. She had shown Eddie just once a few months ago. His father had made an awful comment about her love of the beasts and a confused Eddie asked her what he had meant. She smiled at him and when they were alone took him up to her chambers. He rarely entered into her private rooms, attached to his fathers. In the closet lay a large carved box and Eddie had run his hands over the carvings. He fell in love with the intricate design of horses and mountains.
She told him that she had competed many times in the Conglomerate Games when she was younger and still lived on Apis. Her father had been the Port Master at Dragon’s Eye. Her mother had been the champion of the horse events and a strong contestant in jousting and mock battles in both the local and the Conglomerate Games. One year a group of local rebels had staged an actual attack on their home planet, not satisfied with their previous result on certain issues during or after the games. Her mother had led her only daughter and a group of horse riders into the fight and had won the day. The daughter had excelled in battle and was rewarded with a special helmet, the helmet of Kara.
“That was you, Mum,” Ed had exclaimed, wide-eyed. “Why don’t you play in the games now?”
“I have many responsibilities, Eddie. One day, though, I plan to play again.”
That was enough for Edrik but he was so busy touching the grooves in the helmet that he missed the sadness in her eyes. When he looked back at her she had quickly hid the look behind her custom smile.
They travelled in silence but sat close to one another. A temporary canopy had been drawn over them. The rain stopped and a cool breeze gently pushed the
spring clouds away. The journey from the castle to the capital took over two hours by carriage. The castle was the main home of the sovereigns; occasionally the council met there but most of the business was held in Darcerus at Sovereignty House. As they approached Darcerus they passed a sparsely populated housing area. Most people lived out on farms or in thinly spaced villages. The roads were spread out in a series of concentric circles from a huge park dedicated to the Elysians. They turned into one of the connecting roads that led to another circular road closer to the park
Many people looked or waved at the two in the carriage. Most other people were walking, had different models of the airvehicle, were on cycles or rode different animals. There were no traffic lights on Darcerus; they used round-a-bouts everywhere. Edrik liked this city; he hadn’t visited any off-world cities but had seen 3D visions of them. Darcerus had trees, flowers and lawns all over the place. Flowering vines grew on many of the buildings, scenting the streets during spring. Ed breathed in deeply, laughing as he realized his mother had done the same thing at the same time. They turned right at an intersection and then stopped.
They arrived at the grand building; it was a huge grey stone structure with massive pillars on each corner, as well as one on either side of the wooden doors. He and his mother stood in front of the open entrance, dwarfed by the gigantic doors that had been swept outward in welcome. Their shoes click-clacked as they walked on the smooth, marble floor down the great hall.
The curator rushed over to them and received them warmly. The tall, thin man leaned down to shake Edrik’s hand. He remembered the firm grasp from another occasion, as a couple of his fingers cracked, as well as the big, beaming smile.
“How do you do today, Master Edrik?”
“Good.”
Had his father been there he would have been told off. The curator continued to smile and turned back to Erianna and after a brief discussion with his mother, he left them to return to his duties. As Edrik walked alongside his mother, holding hands, he was about to ask her a question when her mobile beeped.
She was frowning and looked at Ed. “This is very sad, Eddie. A little girl, a bit younger than you, was kidnapped. We have been asked to keep an eye out for her.”
“What’s her name?” Ed asked, wide-eyed.
“Serafina. She has brown hair and golden eyes.”
“Gold eyes!” he exclaimed. “I wish I had gold eyes.”
Erianna laughed. “She must be very important; there are two crates and two space ships looking for her.”
“From the Space Corpus?” That was exciting. “I wish I could join and help find her. She must be very scared.”
“Yes, she must be …” his mother’s voice drifted off quietly into deep thought.
She showed Ed the picture of the girl. He stared at the clear image on her phone.
“She looks a lot younger and smaller than me. She’s got lots of freckles. I wonder why she’s laughing. I wonder why she got stolen? Can I tell Parax and Juner and Master Trent?”
“Yes to all. We have to make an announcement in the Darcerus Eventus. I’m sorry, Ed. I will have to do this now.”
“Can I come, please, please …”
“Let me think for a moment.”
They left the building but returned home, where Mum picked up some warm clothes for the trip. When she gave him a nod after he gloomily stomped up the staircase he raced up in excitement. They had to travel back into Darcerus but this time they travelled in the silver Celer. The sleek lines of the vehicle and the metallic surface reflected the bright moons. Ed loved travelling at night; he would stare ahead as far as the lights would illuminate the road. The internal lights on the vehicle were almost magical in displaying their different readings of blue, green and yellow.
They went to the Eventus office where the evening staff welcomed Mistress Varak and her son. She detailed the report and together they extracted all the information from the Joiran Database, which was linked to EO, which was the central depot for information. One of the assistants set up Boomer with Ed keenly looking on. The system was encoded with the EO designation and the data was transferred back and forth via the string dimension s-str-d-02. The layout of the paper was discussed next, Erianna always had a clear vision of what she wanted but would sometimes defer to the opinions of her creative team. The information contained detailed accounts of the two main ships in the search, the Pteraspis and the Drepanaspis, both Avarian class crates. Graphics of the vessels were added and final touches made.
The Search Begins
{[JOIRAN CLUSTER] [Drepanaspis] [Orbiting Saxe]
[914876/2577/41/space]}
Captain Sorance Chen had finished briefing his crew on the bridge. It was now time for a quick check of his office messages, something to eat and then back to the bridge. He entered his office and sealed off the door. This was always a clear sign to anyone that he was not to be disturbed. His face relaxed and became unguarded as he rubbed his tired eyes. The office, spacious but serviceable, contained books, Blazers carefully categorized, personal items and his many awards, which were all secured in a display unit behind new, tough transparent material made by someone on Apis. This material had become very popular in space travel.
He glanced around the room, noting items in place or if things had been moved. Everything seemed in order.
He relaxed further and walked around to his desks that had been placed to arrange an L shape; they were to the right of the entrance facing the display unit. He turned his new Desk Computer, DC, on while admiring the workmanship of this latest model from Behemoth. It was sleek and small but he didn’t like the fact it was silver when his own décor was black, blue and gold.
“You can’t have everything.” Though he was sure he came close.
He swiveled in his chair so that he could access his DC on the short part of the L. Three messages had arrived and had been downloaded to his computer. They were all encrypted so he applied his “key” and read the messages. Two were work related and one came from his wife. He read that one first. She was now sorry she hadn’t come on the trip to Saxe but would rendezvous with him at the Us : VA Post. He grinned; she wanted to be part of the search and nothing would stop her. She had majors in Psychology and Detection. Tharini Chen knew when she was needed and would provide over two hundred years of experience in both of her fields. She signed off her message by stating that over fifty other partners of those onboard would be joining her at the Post. She was a strong advocate of not depriving members of a healthy sex life while on long journeys. In the nineteen days since he had sent her a message she had organized her group and sent a message back.
Chen smiled again; he missed her. Tharini had amazing abilities to organize and make people realize things they never even thought of. It was that way since they first met. She had calmly pointed out that they were a first rate team and should bond permanently. Didn’t he think so? It hadn’t occurred to him but after a few years he agreed. She had smiled in that all-knowing way, and he knew she was thinking back to when she had first mentioned the idea to him. So, he liked to mull a little.
He turned his attention to the next two messages. They confirmed his arrangements for the plan, crew distribution and procedures concerning the way the investigation should proceed on each planet. The council had already issued out notices about the girl, in the hope that someone would notice any unusual activity and then report in. They had debated long and hard about keeping it quiet but decided that the Joiran Cluster was simply far too big an area to search in without additional outside help.
What was new to Chen was that he also had to keep updated with the science vessel, the Sordes, which was named after and had the appearance of a flying reptile. It was an Averay class ship with Basic Shielding. They would be picking up the kidnapped girl’s parents from the Cruise Ship Anamoth, still undergoing repairs from the attack, and transferring them to the Sordes. The science vessel was headed toward the Oriri to investigate some unusual movements of the
Elysians. Chen noted this down in his handheld organizer. He set up the rest of his desk by raising the far end so that it would sit at a fifty-five-degree angle; the table made some alarming noises as it inclined and he noted this dutifully down. He moved slightly away from the offending desk. He adjusted his chair to allow himself to reach all parts of the inclined surface, which was now lit up like a large monitor. Even after adjusting his chair so that he was in a supported half kneeling half sitting position, his knees bumped into the bottom part of the desk that had lowered when inclining. He noted this down. The designer of the inclining monitor desk was a friend of his obsessed with space-saving ideas.
The desk surface beeped, startling him. He turned the volume down. He’d missed his meal. It was time to go back to the bridge to prepare for Transcluster Verging.
Some hours previous they had just completed Intergalaxial Verging. As he arrived there the equipment, engines and machines had gone through their final checks. Eye contact was made with all his crew with exchanged nods of greetings and a chorus of crisp “Captain” heard from those who were free from vital duties. Theirs was a standard bridge formation with all the workstations pointing in towards the central table, nicknamed the “Round Table” or “Arthur.” A large desk stood to one side and just beyond that that an expansive screen took up almost the entire bulkhead.
Captain Sorance briskly walked over to take his position at Arthur and was shortly joined by three officers. The Engineering Officer, Jade, was to coordinate with engineering personnel on deck three. The Science Officer, Ross, was to coordinate with the Verger Team in the science division deck two and the Programming Officer, Arran, was to care for the Erge Team on deck four. Each of them inserted a Blazer and a security card into their respective slots in the glowing round table. Four panels rose from the surface.
