"Prince Georg, my sister is in mortal danger! Her blood pressure is falling. She is gasping and losing consciousness. I beg you to help her!"
I jumped up and set off decisively for the hallway. Popori de Cacha, holding Bionica's head in his hands, suddenly blocked my path and asked where I was going. When I honestly answered, my bodyguard suddenly gave a command in Iseyek language. Among all the hissing, I could only make out the words "Triasss Zess" and "Princcce." And in a flash, my personal bodyguard Phobos was attacking me!
Betrayal! They were both working for Triasss Zess! The huge, ten-foot-high praying mantis pressed my throat in his spindly, sharp appendages. I only had the time to think two more thoughts: first, I would never again trust an Iseyek. Second, it was stupid to die in the game once again in the very same way.
After that, I died again.
Insect Mating Dance
I came back to sharply, as if resurfacing from the depths of the ocean.
"Stay relaxed, Prince! I haven't finished stitching up your cheek yet," said Nicosid Brandt, his face hovering over me in concentration. "But I'm not gonna be able to operate on this eye while we're under way, so we'll wait to dock. For now, I've placed some gauze on it."
Despite the unusual angle, and having only one working eye, I was able to figure out where I was. I was lying on a stretcher inside a rescue shuttle, which appeared to be moving.
"Now we can recover together, Georg," I couldn't see Katerina ton Mesfelle, but I immediately recognized my cousin's voice. "I got a deep cut in my left thigh in the explosion. A long, small piece of something went all the way in to the bone. But, it turns out it isn't as scary as it looked at first. The doctor said that it would go away without consequences in a week. He'll also be able to remove the scar later. But the fact that the blast burnt all the hair off the back of my head is much more embarrassing. So now, I'm just sitting here, bald and wearing a bandage on my leg... It must be just a horrible sight to see."
I was very glad that my cousin had survived the explosion. But now, I was more concerned with what had become of the crew of Joan the Fatty. And, by the way, why were we not on it now? I asked the doctor, who was still working on my face.
"I still haven't finished stitching up the edges of the wound, so don't move your lips or cheeks, Crown Prince. It might grow back together uneven. Oorast Pohl, captain of Joan the Fatty, started emergency evacuation of the whole crew after it became clear what state the ship was in. I do not know the whole picture, but there were many casualties on the cruiser. There were six casualties just in the headquarters."
The doctor took some plastic identification cards out of his pocket and started reading the names of the fallen. All four of the young officers who were in charge of the drones... Space Corporal Patrick toyl Sven, my personal pilot and none-too-bad conversation partner... The head engineer of Joan the Fatty...
Nicosid Brandt did not name Bionica among the dead. In the doctor's opinion, the robot had never belonged to the world of the living to begin with. He also didn't mention Deimos the Alpha Iseyek. On top of that, his clarification that there were many dead in the other sections of the cruiser had put me seriously on edge.
My right arm felt weird somehow. I pulled it out from under the sheet and looked at the incomprehensible metal construction that was now on my wrist and hand. There were bracelets on my arm with little moving rods and compression bolts that stretched out of them to a set of rings on my fingers.
"It's nothing serious. Just a simple radial fracture. I've already put it in a cast. I injected healing nanites near the open wounds. They will fill in the fracture with new bone material within seven days. The hand should work as usual but, all the same, be careful with it for a few days.
I thanked the doctor, lifted myself up on my healthy left arm and looked around the rescue shuttle. Next to me, Katerina ton Mesfelle was lying on a stretcher as well, her fresh-shaven bald head shining back at me. Space Lieutenant Nicole Savoia and several officers were sitting in the chairs along the wall. Almost the whole space in the tail of the shuttle was occupied by the Truth Seeker and her nonhuman retinue. I immediately looked back on the episode with Astra having been in danger, and said in an apologetic tone:
"Florianna, I was not able to help your sister. I was suddenly attacked by Phobos, egged on the head of my bodyguard..."
"Your Highness, everything is fine with Astra," Nicole said, turning toward me. "I watched with my own eyes as Phobos carried the Princess, wrapped in cloth, into the shuttle hangar. Astra tried to get away and object, but the praying mantis just silently crammed her into the rescue shuttle before crawling in himself."
Phobos saved the Princess? So he's not a traitor after all? What did he attack me for then? My brain just couldn't find a way to make sense of the two contradictory events. What had Popori de Cacha said to the praying mantis? And, by the way, where was the Chameleon commander? I asked Nicole to give me a general picture of what had happened. The girl gave a strained sigh and lowered her eyes:
"There were many casualties, Crown Prince. We can confirm the death of Admiral Nill ton Amsted and the captain of Master of Tesse, Anzor ton Art, as well as his two assistants. The battleship Master of Tesse was very badly damaged and is in serious need of repair, but the officers who survived managed to get it a bit further from the mined Behemoths to a safe distance. Bride of Chaos is in somewhat better condition and was also able to escape, but it also needs repair. No less than eight heavy cruisers were lost, including our flagship. Joan the Fatty's warp-thrusters and electric shield generators are disabled. The reactor started melting down, and was shut off automatically. The ship has not technically been destroyed yet, though it is within the blast zone of two mined Behemoths and has no chance of surviving the explosion, because there is no protective shield remaining whatsoever. As such, Oorast Pohl ordered it evacuated."
The shuttle gave a slight jerk and came to a stop. Almost immediately, the doors began to hiss open. My stretcher was grabbed and quickly carried out, as I noted with great surprise that I recognized one of the people carrying me as the corporal that was supposed to be under arrest, waiting for the military court's verdict. The young man sentenced to death met my gaze, though he said nothing. The stretcher was taken out of the shuttle and wheeled down a barely illuminated hallway. After that, I heard the voice of an Iseyek I had never met before, who was wondering in badly broken human language how he could be of help.
"We need a space with a flat hard surface and good lighting for the wounded Prince! I need to operate immediately or the Crown Prince risks losing an eye!" Nicosid Brandt's voice rang out, and I was once again wheeled down an endless corridor.
I suddenly saw a Chameleon. It was not Popori de Cacha himself, but one of his subjects. I ordered the people carrying me to stop and asked my bodyguard where his leader was.
"Tuki-tuka-de-sa, Popori de Cacha commanded me to bring you and other people from Joan the Fatty to the closest Sector Eight Fleet ship. When we flew out of the dock, my leader was still on the cruiser. He was trying to convince Captain Oorast Pohl to get into a rescue shuttle with the other crew members. Perhaps Popori de Cacha will quickly be coming here to Umoyge-4, though he may be setting off for a different ship as well."
What? Captain Oorast Pohl was refusing to leave the doomed cruiser??? I demanded the people around me to immediately, no matter how, get me a line open to Joan the Fatty. In ten seconds, a screen was brought to me.
"My Prince, I am glad to see you are in a safe place," Captain Oorast Pohl was wearing a ceremonial uniform and standing in a room on the cruiser that was in such a bad state as to be unrecognizable. "Your Highness, the crew has been evacuated. As captain, the officer's codex states that I must remain with my ship until the very last second. Just three officers are still with me on Joan the Fatty, of their own will. They are also refusing to leave the ship."
The voice of Space Corporal Valian ton Corsa could be heard off screen:
"This is our
choice together, Prince. No one forced us to sacrifice ourselves. Let me remain the same in your Highness's memory as I have ever been!"
What nonsense is this? Why had Valian chosen to stay on the doomed ship? I had simply lost all understanding of the situation before me. Fortunately, Florianna came to help at just the right time:
"The girl is seriously burnt. Forty percent of her skin has been singed off. Her face took the brunt of the damage. The left side is basically totally black. The girl has been injected with painkillers, which is the only thing keeping her from losing consciousness."
The Truth Seeker's hint explained a lot, but I still couldn't make peace with her decision.
"Captain and all others, I categorically reject your decision. Dying with your ship is not a heroic act given the situation at hand! When the Behemoth exploded, the Sector Eight Fleet lost too many experienced captains and officers. I don't even have enough people to get Master of Tesse to a repair dock. I need experienced captains and officers like never before. Otherwise, I'll have to leave my strongest ship here in Alien territory. So, given that, having four of my experienced officers decide to throw up their hands and wait to die is something I can only look on as cowardice."
I saw the man on the screen lower his eyes to the floor. My words had clearly affected him. Now it was time to build on my success.
"And what about you, Valian. I don't understand your choice at all. What kind of a military officer do you expect me to remember you as, if your last act was choosing to die after nothing more than a little face burn?! I have a thirteen-year-old paraplegic working on equal footing with healthy adults in my fleet already! Do you think what happened to you is worse than Florianna? If someone offered her to change places with you, I have no doubt that she would take it without so much as a second thought! The burns can be treated. I declare that to you officially. Val, I've got a metric crap-ton of money and I swear to you that you will be provided with the best doctors and the best equipment in the whole known Universe. The option of becoming a cyborg or android also exists. You could have whatever body or face you want. Just ask and it's yours. So, my order is for you all: immediately head for Master of Tesse and take command of the battleship. I'll send one of the Empire's best doctors over for Valian right away as soon as he's done operating on my eye."
One second went by. Then another, and Captain Oorast Pohl, clearly having received some signals from subordinates off screen, gave me a salute and reported:
"Sir, yes sir. We will head for Master of Tesse and take command of the battleship!"
The screen was just barely still on when doctor Nicosid Brandt, who had been carefully listening to my conversation, said thoughtfully:
"I have seen her wounds. It is truly a very severe case. Her face is burned to the very bone. The scars could last for a few years after she heals. But you are absolutely right, Prince. The girl can be treated, and I will get to work as soon as I'm done with your Highness."
"Prince, your personal bodyguard Phobos is asking for you. Shall I put him through?" asked a Chameleon, and I replied "Yes."
"My Princcce, what is me to do with your female? At firssst, Astra long-long to refuse crawl shshshe out of cocoon. But now, always to dance and never shshshe to ssstop!"
I did not answer back right away. At first, I was held up by the fact that Phobos didn't think himself even a bit at fault in attacking me, and that was very surprising. That was why I asked Phobos to tell me what Popori de Cacha had said to him before the Alpha Iseyek suddenly attacked me. The praying mantis was clearly prepared to explain:
"The Chameleon to sssay, that Princcce is hit he head and not to underssstand that to go out in corridor for massster is... to die from no air. He to sssay that Phobosss is to need sssave Princcce and do like Triasss Zess. Sssit person to sssleep while he no have sssmart head."
Everything had finally fallen into place, and I even laughed that I hadn't guessed at such an elementary explanation myself. There had been no death or resurrection. My subjects had simply been a bit overzealous in their efforts to stop me from doing something stupid. Now, I could solve the issue of why Astra was dancing for no reason. Maybe she took a hit to the head as well? I asked the praying mantis to turn the camera so I could see it with my own eyes.
Astra really was dancing. With abandon and detachment as if it were the last time in her life. The beautiful girl's naked body was sparkling back in many different colors, reflecting the beams of the dull lamps on the Iseyek ship. Then, the bright flashes gradually started dimming. All it took was for the Princess to leave the strip of light into the shadow. The dancer's green hair was somehow very appropriate to the situation, and seemed to be the only way for this strange dance to make sense. I noted that hordes of Iseyek of all three types had formed a wide circle and were watching the unexpected performance in silence, not wanting to distract the girl and end her dance. Finally, I asked Phobos to call the excessively distracting Astra to the screen. The Princess gave a start, and ran to the monitor on the wall of the large hall at full speed.
"Crown Prince Georg! Oh, what happened to your Highness's face?!" the girl froze in fear, her eyes widening in horror.
"Yep. I bet the Aliens an eye that they couldn't break my arm," I said, pointing to my bandaged, broken wrist in a sling.
I thought the girl would laugh at the joke, but the Princess unexpectedly took my words seriously:
"And why would you have done a thing like that, Crown Prince?"
"It doesn't matter," I said, waving off my favorite's strange question. "I'd rather you explain me what made you give a striptease like that on a Swarm cruiser?"
Astra got embarrassed, and tried to cover herself with her hands. Then, she began to tell her version of the events in an offended tone:
"I was waiting a long time for your Highness, but then I fell asleep. After that, I heard a rumbling, and the lights went out. In the darkness, it was hard to breathe, but I didn't have time to get scared, because a huge Iseyek broke into the room with a flashlight on its armor, grabbed me, folded me up in a web and dragged me off. I saw people, called for help, but no one could help me. The praying mantis dragged me to its ship and started to poke holes in my cocoon with its sharp appendages. There were a lot of insects around. I was very scared that they would eat me right up. But then I remembered my mother's words, that insects don't eat women, and that their females perform wedding dances to attract males. So I started dancing to make them finally realize that I was a female and they weren't allowed to eat me!"
I took a surprised look at Phobos. He turned his head to the side, clearly showing incomprehension of the idea that some people were not supposed to be consumed as food. Doctor Nicosid Brandt's insecure voice rang out from the silence behind my back.
"My Prince, I may be mistaken, but I have a funny feeling that I know the answer: your companion is confusing two different nonhuman races. In Perimeter Sector Seven, in the star system neighboring Veyerde, Glorva, there is a race of intelligent spiders that really are somewhat externally similar to the Iseyek. The Glorvians are governed by a vibrant matriarchy. The huge and very aggressive males are not intelligent and serve as their soldiers. They fully obey the relatively smaller, but intelligent females in all matters. I suppose that Princess Astra royl Veyerde could have heard of the Glorvians and come to a mistaken conclusion about the Iseyek."
I laughed so hard that that a fresh gash opened up on my cheek. The doctor ordered me to be placed on a stretcher and brought to the operation room immediately. But right up to the last second, when I was cut off by the drugs, I was looking with a smile at my favorite's information:
Astra royl Kant ton Veyerde, heiress Princess to the star kingdom of Veyerde (under Alien control)
Age: 17
Race: Human
Gender: Female
Class: Aristocrat/Artist
Achievements: Iseyek Mating Dance
Fame: +5
Standing: + 5
Presumed personal
relationship: Unknown
* * *
"Crown Prince Georg royl Inoky ton Mesfelle, finish your breakfast and you can see your visitors. But not for too long now, your Highness. It is counter-indicated for you to spend a long time speaking and using facial muscles," the attending doctor's assistant repeated Nicosid Brandt's prescription once again, and left my room.
The door had barely shut behind the young nurse before I scraped the contents of my plate down the trash shoot. Even in real life I couldn't bear the pressed liquid porridges and purees of unknown origin served in Russian hospitals, but eating that kind of food in a game was basically mocking the taste receptors.
"Who's in line to visit?" I asked Astra, who had grown bored with painting her nails.
The insect dancer had somehow managed to convince the attending physicians to give her permission to stay in my hospital room. How the Princess had been able to convince the normally very strict and uncompromising Nicosid Brandt, I had absolutely no idea, given that I was anesthetized when it happened. After I woke up, the fact had simply been presented to me, and I had been too weak to dispute it. So now, one day after the operation, it was a bit too late to send my favorite packing.
Astra, who was working temporarily as my secretary, was checking her communicator against the list on the screen:
"Your Highness, for the second day in a row now, there are many people who want to talk with you. Popori de Cacha, General Savasss Jach and Nicole Savoia are on Umoyge-4. The general has been waiting to speak with you in the hallway for fifteen hours now."
This behavior was quite uncharacteristic for the highly placed Gamma Iseyek, as he generally hated leaving Tria, and only did so for truly weighty reasons, so I asked General Savasss Jach to be called in first.
Beyond Death (Perimeter Defense Book #2) Page 21
