by J. Naomi Ay
I forced myself to leave the safety of the bathroom and return to the passenger cabin. At first I didn’t see Senya and was surprised how relieved I felt. Then I realized he was in the front of the cabin sitting on the floor in the corner by the windows. He looked asleep but probably wasn’t. He looked like he was cut from stone, as if he wasn’t altogether there. His fancy jacket was on the floor across the room, his silk blouse hung loose and open. On the floor next to him lay a rubber strap, a used syringe, and a baggie of white powder.
“You are stoned!” I cried. “You have been stoned all this time!”
“Shut the fuck up,” he mumbled.
I was so angry I felt like my head was going to explode. I forgot that I was in shock thirty minutes ago. I stormed over to him and stood above him.
“You know what?” I seethed. “Yesterday you were completely drunk and now you are stoned! I can’t believe this! I don't care what just happened back there, when we get back to Spacebase 41, I'm out of here. I don't ever want to see you or any other asshole Rehnorian again.” Storming towards the back of the plane, I ripped off the gold lace thing. “Where the hell is my bag with my clothes?”
He didn’t respond. He just sat there with this weird catatonic look on his face which I now recognized as the same weird catatonic look he had all last night at the wonderful Karupatani banquet where I got to eat meat with my fingers, get ogled by his cousin and get molested by his drunk lecher of a father.
Scrambling through the compartment of the plane, I began to search through the overhead bins until I found my kit along with his attaché. Then, I stood there and ripped off this beautiful silk dress with all the ropes of pearls and other stuff. I dropped everything in a heap upon the floor and pulled jeans and a S/S Discovery t-shirt out of my bag. One of the stupid pearl ropes must have broken when I dropped it because now thousands of little round balls were racing across the carpet.
“Damn it!” I shouted and stooped to pick them up. The ship tilted slightly, sending hoards of tiny pearls scurrying towards the starboard side before I could even begin to grab them.
“Stop yelling,” he moaned from the front of the cabin.
“Oh, I’m so sorry if you are hung over,” I hissed. “But I just broke that stupid pearl thing! Those fricking pearls are everywhere!”
He took off his shoes, exposing silk socks torn to shreds at the toes.
“Damn it!” I swore again, watching thousands of pearls rush past me as the plane now tilted to the portside.
“Can you keep your voice down?” he sighed, holding up one of the shoes. Instantly, every one of those pearls flew out from underneath the seats and corners of the carpet. They shot across the room and dropped into the shoe. He put the shoe down and pressed his thumbs against his eyelids.
“What is that?” I snapped. “Like some kind of magnetic shoe or something?”
“No,” he replied. “It is just a fucking shoe.”
“So you did that,” I concluded brilliantly. I dug through my bag for a sweater and thought about this. He could move things by telepathy like pearls and plastic horses. He could make things come from nowhere and go back to nowhere like cigarettes and knives. He could read your thoughts even if you didn’t speak the same language and he could do all of these things without even seeing you. I hugged my sweater and tried to swallow. On top of all that, he was…he was…”
I glanced at the fancy dress coat that lay tossed on the floor.
“Oh god.” My stomach turned. How could I have been so blind?
He rubbed his temples.
“Did you make all that glass explode, Senya?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper, my heart pounding in my throat. “Is that something you can do too?”
No response.
“Did you intend to kill those people? Did you purposely make the glass fall on them or was that accidental? Please tell me it was an accident.”
Nothing.
“Oh god.” What did I just do? Did I really just marry a man who could and would willfully kill people just by thinking about it? “Oh god,” I muttered again and took a deep breath, trying to calm my racing heart.
On the other hand, I swallowed hard, while grasping on to this thought, we were nearly back in Allied territory.
Grabbing the runners from my bag, I headed to the aft of the plane, while shoving them on my feet as I did so.
What happened on Rehnor, stayed on Rehnor. Nobody knew. Nobody saw. I wasn’t legally married as far as the Alliance would be concerned.
Reaching in my pocket, I pulled out my cell and then I walked down the corridor searching for a signal. Two bars came up. My first instinct was to call Spaceforce Command and tell them I had been kidnapped again or even just to report in my position. My phone vibrated with seven unread message and then my signal died before I could begin to place a call. The clock on it told me I had nearly seven more hours of hell in a spaceplane until we got to the spacebase. I shook the phone and yelled at it to come back online.
That’s okay, I told myself. I can survive seven hours. I will get out of this.
“Ay yah, you are in deep shit,” Senya laughed from the front room. “You scored the big one. Rehnor's most eligible bachelor.” Totally stoned.
“Shut up,” I yelled. “Nobody is talking to you.” I headed back to the bathroom and locked myself in again.
Sitting on the toilet lid and staring at my blank cell, I repeated my mantra. I will get out of this. I will get out of this. Spacebase 41 was only six hours and fifty-two minutes away.
Opening my messages, I considered sending an SOS which would go out as soon as I got a new signal. What would it say?
Help, I’m stuck in a luxurious spaceplane with Dr. de Kudisha, President of SdK Corporation and galaxy renowned brain surgeon?
Spaceforce Command would receive this message and would they then divert a starship to stop and board this plane, or would they court martial me for abusing the emergency signal network?
I will get out of this, I thought and read through my messages.
“Katie, are you okay? Where did you go? Why did you run away from me? I need to know what you are doing. You said you would give me an answer during leave. Is this your answer?” - Jerry
“Katie, Dr. SdK left me to go find you!!!! Call me, text me, email me, talk to me GF!!!” – Caroline
“Katie, your boyfriend Jerry called to say that you're not coming home and you're not with him but that you might have left with some strange alien man who has brainwashed you. Please call us.” – Mom & Dad
“Katie, I found the perfect restaurant in this new shopping village over in Kalika-hahr. Janet and I tried it for lunch today and it was fab! Ring me as soon as you get here and I'll take you there, my treat. Everything going okay? Don't let those barbarians upset you. Everything will be fine when you get back here. Everything will go back to normal.” - Shelly
“How does she know?” I mumbled and slammed my cell shut. “Maybe the barbarian is Senya.”
Six hours forty minutes until I'm out of here. What exactly would be considered normal?
“Katie, come out of there.”
“No.”
“You cannot fly the whole way sitting on the lav. Come out and I will explain.”
I waited another few minutes for good measure and then figuring I really had no other choice, I came out of the bathroom. I marched past him, back into the passenger compartment and parked myself in a window seat in the last row. He took the seat across from me. He looked slightly less stoned and very depressed.
“I'm sorry,” he said, hunching forward in his seat, rubbing his hands on his knees.
“For which part exactly?” I demanded and tossed my cell from hand to hand. I wanted to throw it at him. I wanted to hit him, to hurt him because right now, I felt like I was the one with a piece of glass in my head, bleeding out my brains.
“Everything. All of it. I am sorry that you are stuck with me.”
“Oh, I'm not stuck with yo
u,” I replied, pointedly clearing up any confusion. “I don't care what happened on Rehnor. Rehnorian laws mean nothing to me. We are definitely not married as far as I am concerned.”
His eyes open slightly sending a beam of silver light into my face. “You are bound by Rehnorian laws as am I.”
“Well to hell with that.” I lifted my chin. “I'm never going back to Rehnor so it's not relevant to me what your laws are.” I stood up. “I need to make a few calls.”
“No,” he ordered and grabbed my arm. “Sit down.” He held my wrist like a vise.
“And if I don't, what are you going to do? Break my wrist or send a window pane into my skull?”
He released my wrist. “Please. You don’t have a signal anyway.”
I stood there for a moment and tried to stare him down which was actually really hard to do with a guy who didn’t have pupils or normal eyeballs.
“I cannot do this without you, Katie,” he said.
“Do what? What exactly do you need to do?” I crossed my arms in front of my chest.
“Do you understand who I am?” he asked morosely.
“No Senya, I don't understand who you are!” I cried. “I thought you were this strange kid who grew up and became a brain surgeon who owned a big company that has hospitals and makes medical stuff. Now I see you are a drug addict and maybe even borderline insane. On top of that, I...I...I don't know.” I didn't want to know. I didn't want to know why he was wearing this gorgeous better than Commodore's uniform and had his picture on the side of a building. I didn’t want to know why people kissed his hands and sang his name and got down on their knees before him. “I thought…I thought you were just Senya.” I swiped at a tear that forced itself out of my eye.
He turned away from me, and pretended to stare out the window which he obviously was not doing.
“I am the MaKennah ka Rehnor.”
“Pardon?” I coughed.
“I am the Crown Prince.”
“Crown Prince of what?” I gasped and collapsed in the seat.
“Rehnor.”
“I figured Rehnor,” I snapped. “I’m not that stupid. But which part? The blood sucking drunken cave dwellers or the poofy silk wearing assholes who live in the big palace while the rest of the population is standing outside wearing cardboard and eating rats?”
He smiled a little.
“You have a talent for stating things quite succinctly.”
"That's irrelevant. What exactly are you Crown Prince of?"
"Rehnor," he repeated quietly and frowned. "All Rehnor."
I started to laugh, the hysterical kind of laughing you would do if your worst fears suddenly materialized in front of you. “That's ridiculous,” I said, cockily. “I mean I can see you're all dressed up like it but come on! You?” The silver light flashed in my face. He narrowed his eyes at me and his face became cold.
I was brazen though and recklessly continued. “You're weird Senya and you've got deformed feet and fangs for teeth and you're blind and furthermore you're a doctor. How can you be a Crown Prince? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of those Rehnorians dudes but they aren't all weird like you.”
“That is enough,” he growled.
“And let me tell you something else, Senya.” I was definitely on a roll. “You are no Prince Charming!”
“Charm is not one of your traits either, Madame,” he replied.
“Madame? What the hell is that, Doctor, I mean Crown Prince, Sir?”
He tossed a cigarette in his mouth and lit it, letting it flame up in my face. I glared at him.
“Why just a cig?” I challenged. “Don't do me any favors. Go take another toke from your bong or whatever it is you do. Tell me, does everybody on Rehnor know their Crown Prince is a stoner?”
He took a long drag and his eyes flashed.
“God,” I muttered and turned to look out the window at nothing but blackness and an occasional dot of light from a dying star somewhere across the galaxy.
He smoked his entire cigarette and then tamped it out in his hand. What was left of it then disappeared into thin air.
“Katie,” he said after a few more moments, his voice straining to keep calm. “Please, just let me explain.”
“Sure, go ahead,” I waved dismissively. “Explain away. It's complicated I'm sure, but my small Human brain can handle it.”
He rubbed his temples.
“Just explain this,” I burst out. “Why the hell couldn't you tell me about this earlier?”
“It never came up,” he shrugged.
“It never came up?” I repeated aghast. “It never came up? Not only are you a dickhead, you are a total bonehead. Not once did you think to say, oh by the way Katie, I'm a prince? Just thought you ought to know. We can go back to playing Starcraft XXII now.”
“I'm sorry,” he said. “I am sorry I was not more forthcoming with you from the beginning. I am sorry I am not going to tell you everything you want to know now. This is what it is. The two kings are my grandfathers and I am their heir. Both my father and my uncle were passed over in favor of me. My father chose to drown his sorrows in vodka. My uncle has chosen to attempt to kill me at every possible moment.”
I stared at him. “And each time you got almost killed you dropped in on me. You just couldn't manage to share that little tidbit about why you were getting almost killed? Sheesh!”
“More or less.”
“Damn it, Senya!” I pounded my fist against the window. “You lied to me!”
“I didn’t. I just didn’t tell you everything.”
Damn it, that tear was stuck in my eye again. I swiped at it, nearly poking out my own eyeball. “Well it sure explains why you feel you're entitled to everything,” I snapped. “So what exactly does a Crown Prince have to do besides kill people who annoy him?”
He sort of blindly stared at me for a moment. “I will become King,” he replied as if it were entirely obvious.
“Which is what? Like being a pop star or something? Or do you actually make kingly decisions and will you do that before or after your scheduled brain surgeries every day?”
“I will rule the planet,” he said, still staring at me as if I was stupid. “I will not be a pop star and unfortunately, I will not be a doctor then either.”
I digested this for a moment, and then swallowed it all in one big lump. “The whole planet?”
“The whole planet, yes and...”
“And exactly how many people live on that planet?” I interrupted.
“One billion, more or less.”
“And you're going to be king of all of them, more or less?”
“Yes,” he inclined his head slightly and looked annoyed. I glanced up quickly to see if I happened to be sitting under a chandelier.
“Ok.” My own head started throbbing. Maybe this was all a weird psycho dream. Maybe I never woke up from my head injury last year and I was still in the hospital having hallucinations about my surgeon. Maybe my head was stuck under the Engineering console. That would sure explain the pain coursing through it right now.
“No such luck,” he mumbled.
“Wow.” I jumped up and started pacing the length of the passenger cabin for lack of something better to do. “Sheesh. Geez.”
He sat where I had left him, eyes shining at nothing, flipping a gold tipped cigarette between his fingers and rubbing his forehead.
“I just can't wrap my head around this,” I laughed, sort of. “I mean, I don't know which is worse, you being a Crown Prince of a whole planet or you being a stoner psychopathic killer.”
“I am not a psychopathic killer!”
“Try telling that to the girl with the piece of glass in her head!”
“Katie,” he said sharply and now he sounded really pissed. “Sit down. I have not finished discussing this with you.”
“I don't want to sit down,” I replied, pacing and pacing. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I glanced at my watch. Six hours twenty-two more minutes of hell
in a spaceplane assuming I survived that long. If I continued to piss him off, I might not.
“I did not wish to kill them,” he said, the silver light flickering at me. “I would not have done so if I could have avoided it. I am not a drug addict anymore. I was but not now.”
“Oh, so what was that you were shooting up your arm? Insulin?”
“No. It was Horkin but I am not addicted. Just...just being back on Rehnor is so difficult for me.”
“That's the same Rehnor that you're the Crown Prince of?” I whipped around and headed back the other direction. “You've got to blow out your brains every time you go there? Sounds like you’re going to make a hell of king. Too bad I'm not going to hang around to watch it. It could be very entertaining.”
“Please,” he begged and then looked at me imploringly with his blind eyes. “I need you Katie. I need you to help me.”
“Help you? Help you do what?” I shrieked. “Break things and kill people? It's not exactly my area of expertise. I'm more into fixing things and rescuing people. I'm not exactly into ruling things either. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly a princess and I'm certainly not Rehnorian. I'm Human. Gosh, I thought you knew that.”
“There will be more than just Rehnor.”
“More what than just Rehnor? You're going to kill people and break things on other planets too?” I was practically jogging up and down the aisle now I had so much nervous energy.
“Please,” he cried. “Stop this. I need you.”
“You need me to do what?”
