by J. Naomi Ay
"Not yet. However, it may come to that, so you must be prepared, just in case."
Kiman was prepared. In fact, he prepared himself again nearly every day. It had come to the point where he would be glad just to get it over with, for truly he despised Marik's big toothed smile.
Now, Kiman was being summoned by Lord Taner.
"Can you arrange to come to Mishnah, right away?" Taner had asked. "We need to meet with you in private and document your knowledge of Marik Korelesk's activities. Our legal counsel is suggesting we get him removed from Command post haste. Your deposition is necessary to provide the proof."
"Of course, Lord Taner," Kiman replied as Taner obviously didn't know about his covert mission. "In fact, Sam is taking the child to Karupatani. I can travel with him and be there next week."
"Very good," Taner nodded. "Thank you for your time, Commander. I look forward to seeing you again."
Kiman packed his kit, his clothes, and his weapons. After the staff meeting, he went down to the sickbay to collect the child from Dr. Hannah while Sam prepared the plane.
"Don't you want to go, Sara?" Hannah asked the girl, who clung to the woman's side and buried her face in Hannah's shirt. "Come on, sweetie, you'll love Karupatani." Hannah knelt down. "Remember, I told you I grew up there." The girl nodded although her eyes were filled with tears. "Your grandparents will be so happy to see you."
"No, they won't," Sara replied. "Grandma Seesi doesn't like me and Grandpa Rekah is always in a bad mood."
Hannah raised her eyes and looked helplessly at Kiman.
"Can't I live with you?" Sara begged, pulling Hannah's hand. "You can adopt me."
"I'll tell you what." Hannah knelt down again. "If you're really, really unhappy there, you ring me, and I'll come get you."
"Doctor," Kiman warned, studying the girl with an odd expression on his face. He didn't like false promises and the child's whimpering was getting on his nerves.
"It's alright, Commander," Hannah insisted. "I'm sure she'll be fine once she gets there. Okay, Sara? You give it a try for a little while, and send me a letter and tell me how you are." Sara nodded sadly as she let Hannah lead her to the door. "Commander Kiman and Commander Sam will take good care of you." She gave the child a kiss on the top of her head.
Kiman forced his mouth to form a tight smile, and took the girl's hand, as they walked to the docking bay.
Fortunately, Sam was doing his final walk-around inspection of the plane. Sara immediately dropped Kiman's hand, and ran to the Talasian.
"How are you doing, Princess Sara?" Sam picked her up and carried her aboard. "You're my very special passenger this week. I'm going to make sure you have a great flight."
Kiman watched them disappear through the hatch, an odd thought occurring to him. Maybe, there was a better placement for the child, especially if the grandparents didn't want her.
The first part of the journey was uneventful. The plane performed flawlessly, and the stars were clear. While Sam went off to read Sara a bed time story, Kiman filed a report with his commander in Covert Ops and informed him of his impending arrival in Mishnah. After meeting with Taner, Kiman would rendezvous with the covert group. Regardless what Taner wished, the covert team took orders only from the Imperial Couple. If they told him it was time to take out Marik, he would, and he would know it was upon the Empress's order that he acted.
It was then that Kiman heard a strange noise coming from the engine room.
"Sam?" He called. Mechanics had never been Kiman's thing. Strange engine noises bothered him, and he began to get a little paranoid. "Sam! What the hell is going on now?"
"Coming, coming." Sam hurried from the little girl's room to the bridge where he ran a system diagnosis. "Hmmm," he mumbled. "Fricking Houston, we've got a problem."
"What is it?" Kiman demanded, nervously.
"Oh." Sam pushed a bunch of buttons. "We've got a strange fault in engine #3. I'm just going to shut it down. We'll be fine on the other two. No need to worry, Kiman. We're good. Three engines on this type of plane are redundant."
"Sure." Kiman nodded although that didn't make him feel any better, especially when engine #2 started to alarm.
"Ah phooey," Sam said, running another diagnostic scan. "Same fault, but again no explanation. Ok, I'm going to shut this one down and divert us to the nearest spaceport." He typed a bunch of codes while Kiman rang the Queen ship.
"Oh, that's too bad," Captain Korelesk replied, sounding remarkably unsurprised. "Resume course as soon as you are able."
"Yes, Captain," Kiman said, noting the glint in Marik's eye and thinking he should have slit the bastard's throat before he left.
The spaceport was a mere four clicks away, so the plane arrived before the next morning. While Sam took Sara to breakfast at a pancake house on the restaurant deck, Kiman climbed to the top of the observation deck searching for a quiet spot to ring his father.
There were four hundred and fifty steps that lead up to the pinnacle of the station in a tiny tower that included a navigational light and a bell. Kiman was in excellent shape, and so the climb didn't tire him at all. It was what greeted him at the top that nearly sent him tumbling back down.
"Blessed Saint!" Kiman gasped, whipping out his gun.
"Holy shit!" Rent swore, thinking no one would ever find him up there. He had been hiding from Tex, having decided this was his chance to make a break and escape from captivity. Although he had come to like Tex well enough, this outlaw life just wasn't for him.
After Tex had skipped out on paying for dinner at the spacebase's diner, Rent was upset. He would rather return to the SpaceWay Inn and be a hotel clerk, than to cheat some hardworking waitress out of her tip.
While Tex was sleeping on the vinyl couch in the broken ship, Rent had left a note saying he went to go get food. "I need some Cheez-Its and Dr. Pepper, more beef jerky, and some beer. I'll be back before you're up in the morning."
Kiman stared bewildered at the man crouched on the floor, clutching a box of Cheez-Its and a bottle of soda pop. It was like déjà vu all over again as Kiman's head began to swim.
"Who the hell are you?" He demanded, wondering if he was hallucinating. The air up here in the bell tower was probably quite thin. It was generated through hydrogen oxide electrolysis which sometimes didn't work properly. Kiman wondered if there was a spare nitrous oxide molecule or two, which would explain why he thought he was seeing something impossible.
"I don't know," Rent cried, which was the truth since he had no clue, and he never could think very fast on his feet, especially in front of a gun.
Kiman blinked his eyes rapidly, and each time he opened them, the guy was still there. He lowered his gun and instead took out his cell.
"Who are you calling?" Rent protested. "Please, don't turn me in! I didn't know Tex was going to skip on the restaurant like that. I promise I'll pay the bill just as soon as I get home to Darius VI. The first thing I'll do is write a check and put it in the mail. Please, sir, will you let me go?"
Then, Rent leapt on the stair before Kiman could react. He seemed to fly down all four hundred-fifty steps without touching a single one of them. Kiman rubbed his temples and wonder what the hell he should do. It was impossible. It couldn't be. It had to be a trick.
Kiman sat down on the floor beneath bell, right where Rent had previously occupied and tried to imagine how in the universe Shika de Kudisha could have had a brother.
Chapter 15
Zem was playing solitaire on the table by the window. He was using real, old fashioned paper cards because he liked the feel of them in his hands and the pretty pictures of all the suits. He especially liked the face cards.
"You're the Queen of Hearts," he told Katie, turning to show her the intricately drawn image of a frowning red queen.
"Yes," Katie said with a sigh, and tried to force a smile for Zem. "That's definitely me. I look just like that."
"And he's the King of Spades." Zem pointed at the nearly dead body
in the bed. He placed the King down on the table, then, flipped another card on top of it. "Look at that! Here's your son the Jack of Diamonds."
"Mhm," Katie replied absently and went back to reading the morning report. It was boring as hell, and frankly, she didn't give a damn. She switched screens and sent an instant message to Taner. "Is there anything here I need to know?" Three seconds later, Taner responded.
"A skirmish broke out on Andorus III again. There were casualties, so we have ordered the Queen of Talas to their orbit along with four contingents of Imperial Guards, who will land on the planet within the next few hours."
"Good," Katie typed back.
"And here's your other son," Zem said, laying down a Jack of Clubs.
"The Admiral of the Sector 7 fleet is reporting that Captain Korelesk is measuring support for the Korelesk family."
"This again?" Katie's blood pressure spiked. She considered once again whether or not to have Marik relieved of command. "It's so nice to know that our best friends continue to conspire against us."
"That's why I'm here now," Taner typed back, anticipating Katie's next question. "Kiman should be here in a few days. Once we debrief him, we'll have a better understanding of what Marik's intentions are and then we can make a decision as to what to do next."
"Alright."
"The tax audits," Taner continued, but Katie interrupted.
"That's enough for now." She set down her tablet and got up to look out the window. The same ocean, the same rock formations and the same overcast sky were still there as every day. "This is really getting old," she muttered.
"Yep," Zem agreed. "So are we, but it's better than the alternative. Oops. I lost again." He gathered up the cards and deftly shuffled them, making a bridge between his hands. "Feel like gin rummy, Captain?"
"No thanks, Zem."
Walking over to the small dresser, Katie removed the hairbrush and body lotion, before proceeding to pull the brush through her husband's long, black and silver hair. Static electricity sparked like tiny flames in the Emperor’s tresses. Then, she ran her hand along his beard wondering if it was time for a shave again. He never liked it long, just neat and trim. Maybe tomorrow, she'd ring for his barber. Maybe, tomorrow he'd wake up and do it himself. Maybe tomorrow, this whole nightmare would finally be over.
"Here we go again," Zem called, slapping more cards on the table. "Five and six is eleven. Eight and three is eleven. Seven and four are eleven, and I have twelve toes." He thought that terribly funny.
Despite herself, Katie smiled at her companion.
"Maybe you should play twelves, then," she suggested, rubbing lotion on her hands. Katie massaged her husband's feet, taking care around his toenails. She had cut herself more than once when she didn't pay attention.
"Oh, here you are again." Zem joyfully flapped the Queen of Hearts at Katie.
"There I am.” She sighed again, as a knock sounded on the door.
"Come in," Zem called. "We love visitors here." The door cracked open, and a young nurse hesitantly stuck in her head. "Hello!" Zem waved. "What have you brought for us today?"
The girl stepped into the room, her eyes large and wary. She glanced at the Emperor and then, knelt on the floor as she had been taught.
Katie shook some more lotion into her palm and started to rub it on her husband's warm dry hands. She examined his fingernails, which were starting to crack.
Katie decided she'd call for the manicurist at the same time as the barber. She hated when Senya's hands were less than perfect, even though her own nails were a chipped and chewed up mess.
"Madame," the nurse said softly. "Might I speak with you, please?" Her voice trembled as she spoke directly to the floor.
"You'll have to speak louder," Zem remarked loudly, now shuffling his deck again. "Us old folks can't hear you when you whisper. We might not hear you when you shout. My ears are shot from too many years flying in space. In fact, to me it sounds like you are talking underwater."
"I can hear her fine, Zem. What do you want?"
Katie finished rubbing her husband's hands and gently laid them down on thin hospital blanket. Placing the cap on the bottle of lotion, she put it away in the top dresser drawer. Then, she took out a tube of Denta-clean and unwrapped a new tooth brush.
"Madame." Nily began again. Daring to lift her head, she watched the Empress tend to the Emperor, while feeling as if she were intruding on a private moment
"Go ahead," Katie snapped, getting annoyed with the girl as she tried to brush the Emperor's teeth. "Damn it!" His longer than normal, sharper than normal canines sliced through the bristles of the new tooth brush. "Forty years of marriage and I still haven't figured out how you keep your teeth clean."
"Bones," Zem remarked, slapping a Jack. "Does he gnaw on bones in his spare time?"
"Probably." Katie cleaned up the severed bristles. "I used to have bites on my leg that I never could account for." She glanced back over at the nurse. "What did you say you wanted from me?"
Nily was ready to turn around and run, even though the crazy Talasian and the Empress were both staring at her. She decided she didn't want them as her in-laws. In fact, the more she thought about it, she didn't even want their money.
"I'm sorry," Nily squeaked and started to crawl out of the room.
"Better say what you came for," Zem advised. "Oh, look! I won. I've got all the cards in my stack."
"I'm pregnant," Nily blurted out and then, bursting into tears, she started to wail. "The Imperial Prince is my baby's father."
"Uh huh." Zem shuffled his cards again.
Katie rolled her eyes and pursed her lips.
"Sure, he is. Do you know how many girls have tried that line before?"
"But it's true," the girl wept. "I'm not telling you because I want your money."
"Mhm." Katie sat down in her chair and waved her hand at the beach, the ceiling, and the walls. "Who needs money when they can have all this?"
"It's your grandbaby," Nily begged. "Don't you care?"
"No. But, thank you, you're dismissed." As Nily scrambled out of the room, she heard the Empress sigh heavily. "God, I wish Shika would keep his pants zipped up. I'm so tired of telling girls to go away."
"Yep," Zem agreed as the door slammed shut. He shuffled another bridge of cards and then laid them on the table. "I remember when you were pregnant. Ha! You looked like you swallowed a basketball."
"I remember that, too." Katie picked up her tablet, glancing half-heartedly at the screen before tossing it aside. She glared at her husband's blank face. "I remember how my husband was never around."
"Nope, he wasn't." Zem cut the deck and dealt out two hands for Go Fish. "All you had was me. I was there to keep you company, just like I am here now. Dr. King said, 'Zem, take care of the Captain', and I did because that was my job. I'm taking care of you again while I'm playing cards with Caroline. Do you have a seven, Caroline?" He waited patiently for a response before picking up the other cards and glancing through them. "Sorry, Zem. Go fish." He told himself.
"You're a really good friend, Zem." Katie stood up and paced the room. When she sat too much, her back began to ache. It was a touch of arthritis, she knew. It ran in the family. "I'm glad you came with Taner to keep me company."
"We're a team, Captain," Zem replied. "You and I have been flying together for many years. Sorry, Caroline, I don't have any fours."
"That's right." Katie sat back down. She considered picking up knitting or maybe, crochets. By the time they would get out of this hospital, she could have finished ten sweaters. It was then that another knock sounded on the door. "Oh, please," she groaned. "What is it now?"
"Enter," Zem called, using the deepest register of his voice. "Who is it that wishes to speak with Her Imperial Highness, the Empress of all Rehnor?"
"Madame?" It was Berkan, leading Angelica.
Both Katie and Zem glared as they came into the room. In fact, were it not for Angelica, Katie would have thrown Berkan out.
Instead, for the girl's behalf, she kept her cool and smiled politely.
"What do you want?" Katie asked as the Korelesks knelt.
"Angelica has something to tell you. Go ahead, dear. Speak to Madame."
Angelica raised her eyes to the Empress's face. Her heart stopped in her chest as her own face flushed with heat. A bead of sweat ran from her forehead to trickle off her chin.
"Go on," her grandfather urged, but Angelica couldn't say a word. In fact, her stomach was churning and threatening to lurch.
"Oh God," Katie moaned. "Don't tell me, you too? That's insane. No, that's sickening. You're cousins for heaven's sake!"
Zem clucked his tongue and muttered something about boys having to be boys.
"Shut up, Zem," Katie snapped. "Now, you're sounding like Senya."
"No, I'm not," Zem insisted, changing his voice another time. "If I wanted to sound like HIM, I'd say Kari-fa! Shall I cut off his balls with my sword or merely electrocute him by pointing my finger? It's your choice, Madame. How would you like your son punished? In either case, I'll just kill all the girls. Certainly, we don't want any more bastards running around here. We've got enough problems with the bastards we already have, most especially, with those who are named Korelesk."
Katie, Berkan and Angelica all stared at Zem.
"Pretty good, huh?" Zem laughed. "I've always had a talent for impressions. Would you like me to do Taner now? I can do him or his daughter Joanne. I can also do that guy who hosts that game show where the people are trapped on that island."
"Berkan, Angelica," Katie announced after she had recovered her senses. "The two of you need to leave, right now. Regarding your delicate condition, I will discuss it with my husband when he awakes. I assume my son has no interest in you beyond the notch in his belt. I'm sure he's proud to have screwed Marik, more so than his daughter."
"Madame," Berkan tried to interrupt. "We believe the de Kudisha family will benefit from this match."
"There won't be any match," Katie hissed. "Not with the Korelesks and not with Cyganus."
