by J. Naomi Ay
He rolled his head back and the silver light bounced off the ceiling.
“Do you really not understand or are you just pretending to be ignorant?”
He was definitely pissed off. I glanced quickly at the windows which seemed to be fastened securely in place. Of course, there was no wind out there in space either.
“Ach, fuck it Katie! If I'm going to be the King then you are going to be the bloody Queen!”
I stopped my pacing and stared at him. I thought I was going to lose my lunch except I already did. “I can't do that,” I managed to choke out.
“Kari-fa! Why the hell not?”
“I'm an Allied Spaceforce Commander!”
He slumped in his chair and held his head, muttering something in some other language.
“Did you know all this back when you popped into my bedroom twenty years ago?”
“Of course I did,” he snapped. “Fuck it.” He tossed a fresh cig into his mouth and lit it with a flick of his finger. “Get out of here.” He waved his hand dismissing me. This is what someone who is a future king could do. They could order people out of their presence when they got annoyed and if they didn’t go, they could slice your brain with a piece of glass if they wanted to.
“Ok.” I walked to the rear of the spaceplane, retaining all of my brain. I would have liked to go outside and scream even though we were flying through deep space. Instead, I went into the back stateroom and shut the door. I screamed there and when I was done screaming, I lay down on the bed in a fetal position.
What was this planet Rehnor? I stared out the window from my prone position. It was an Earth compatible planet. It was not part of the Alliance. It was also not part of anything else. Rehnor was just a dinky little planet of a billion or so people wracked with poverty and a bunch of Neanderthals running the place. They had light swords because they were too backward to outlaw them but they didn’t have starships. SdK had better spaceplanes than the government. At least this one was. Hell, the Karupatanis looked like they only had horses.
“A thousand years ago they were more advanced than the Mishnese. More advanced than the Human race.”
I didn't hear the door open. He was leaning against the doorway, a cigarette on his lip.
“Do you recall how I told you this? They nuked Rozari and left in their starships to the nearest inhabitable planet which was Rehnor.” He exhaled the grey smoke. “They have spent the last thousand years de-evolving.”
“What about the Mishnese?”
“They are the descendants of the Sainted People of Rozari. They are called Mishnese after Mishka Kalila who brought them to Rehnor and became their first king.”
“If you are the grandson of both kings, does that mean you are descended from both the Infidel and the Saint?”
“Ay yah. My mother was the Princess Royal, Lydia Kalila.”
“But the people on Rozari don't know this? Otherwise why would they be making such a fuss about you being the Infidel?”
“Only Kenak, Donak and Shelly know this.”
“And they know you are this Crown Prince dude?”
“Ay yah.”
“Shelly knows this,” I repeated.
“Ay yah.”
“And Thad?”
“Ay yah, Thad too. Thad has been to Mishnah several times.”
“What about Admiral Mattson?”
“He knows nothing.”
“I see.” I pulled myself off the bed and walked past him back into the passenger cabin just in case he thought that my lying there was an invitation which it most definitely was not. I found a new seat. At this point, I had tried just about every seat on this plane. He walked toward the front of the cabin and sat down across from me, stretching his long legs out in front of him.
“I suppose it should have been pretty obvious even to someone as dense as me,” I said.
“You did not wish to see that which was in front of you.” He took a long drag on his cig and blew grey smoke into the clean cabin air.
“Look,” I said, wringing my hands. “Senya. I thought I loved you. I really did, but I didn’t know you. Besides, I’m totally the wrong girl for this. This is all way, way over my head. If you really were just Dr. Ron then yeah, this is something I could do. I could live on Rozari, I could help you manage SdK but that's not how it is. You're...you're this. I'm not a princess. I can't be a queen. I don't know anything about that kind of stuff. I don't do bowing and scraping and besides that I hate pearls. You obviously think it’s okay for you to go out and kill anyone that pisses you off because you're Mr. Future King of the planet but that just doesn't work for a law and order type like me. Besides, shouldn't you be with some Rehnorian or Rozarian princess instead? Isn't the whole point of a queen to make the king an heir and a spare?”
“You think you cannot do this?”
“I...I kind of researched it and the chances of a Human and Rozarian successfully conceiving are like a billion to one.”
“You would like to have a baby?”
“Well, not right now but eventually. But that's not the point. You're this...this prince guy. It's not like we could have a normal family life.”
He nodded. “This is true.”
“I'm so sorry. I just don't think this is the job for me.”
“You would like for me to marry someone else?” His silver eyes blazed into me. “You would like to go back to your vessel examinations and not be Queen, yes? These examinations are more important to you than I am? Loving me and helping me is not a good enough reason for you to forgo your career?"
“It is my career. It's what I chose to do,” I protested. "Why should I give up what I want to do so that you can do what you want to do? And you lied to me! I don't even know who you are anymore."
"Again,” he sighed. “I did not lie. I did not tell you about that which you had never asked."
"That's the same as a lie in my book. If you loved me you would abdicate or do whatever so that I could have my career and you could continue to be a doctor. Isn't that enough for you? Marriage is a partnership. We don't just play by your rules."
He nodded. “I understand. Unfortunately, though I would like to remain a doctor, abdication is not a choice I can make. And unfortunately, everyone must play by my rules.”
“Then I'm out of the game,” I replied. “I quit.”
He nodded again. “Pity, I killed Mariya. She would have been a suitable alternative. She was fertile and Mishnese and very pleased to become the Crown Princess. I could have resolved the heir issue today. Perhaps I have other cousins who might suffice.”
I stared at him, stunned for a moment. “That was quick.”
“You just told me to marry a Rehnorian woman, did you not? Did I misunderstand you? I can do this. I will remove my protection from you and you will be free to be with Jerry Waldman and have copious offspring and a normal family life. This is what you wish, yes? Jerry Waldman will allow you to make all the rules and follow you where ever you wish to go.”
I couldn’t speak. My heart lodged in my throat so that I could barely even breathe. I couldn’t just go back to Jerry. Jerry or anyone would never measure up. I spent the last year thinking Senya had dumped me and I still pined for him every day. I was already sick with jealousy just at the idea that Senya would be with someone else, that he would have a baby with someone else. I was jealous of the woman with the glass in her head because she was fertile, never mind she was now dead. “Oh why can't you just be normal?” I shrieked.
He stood up and walked across the cabin.
“You have already stated that you will not honor the laws of Rehnor,” he said. “I will not force you into marriage with me. I will take you back to the spacebase and you may return to Earth as you have planned. We have not consummated this marriage yet. You may consider it annulled.”
“Okay,” I mumbled. “I guess all the consummating before doesn't count."
“That was merely fucking for sport," he sneered. "Since I have released you,
I am no longer bound by my promise to you to refrain from all others and so I too am free to do as I please with as many as I please."
“What? That's it, isn't it? You've missed sleeping around with everyone on the planet, haven't you? Mr. Hot Shot Prince Dude! You're such a dickhead, Senya! I'm sure glad I'm finding this all out now before it's too late!”
“Fortunately for you, you now have only six hours and five minutes of hell in a spaceplane," he snapped and headed to the back office, the door swishing shut behind him.
I was ready to scream again. I was ready to break the windows and get sucked out into deep space. I got up and walked around the cabin, grinding my teeth, seething. I pounded the back of a few chairs. I kicked the walls. I looked at the messages on my cell again. Nothing. I stared out the window at the stars whizzing past and realized I was incredibly hungry.
Calming down, I crossed over to the galley and stood in front of the cockpit door. I wanted to look at it last time I was aboard but I was too sick. This would probably be the last time I was aboard an SdK spaceplane so I knocked on the door and poked my head into the cockpit. Two men sat there smoking and chatting as extremely high tech, three dimensional displays flashed and moved about the windows.
“Very cool,” I breathed. Our Spaceforce planes looked nothing like this.
“Your Royal Highness.” The men jumped to their feet.
Whoa. I looked behind me. Nobody was there, just me.
“Um, I was just looking at the controls,” I stuttered. “I have a level four flight license too.”
“Yes Madame,” they nodded.
“I'm not Madame or...or anything like a royal highness. I'm just a Commander. Um, can I get you guys something from the galley?”
“No Madame.” They stood at attention.
“Okay then.” I shut the door and leaned against it for a moment. Whoa.
Time to eat. Opening the fridge in the galley, I discovered all sorts of things like sandwiches, frozen meals, fruit, and drinks. All of the little bottles had gold labels with the Eagle Crest on them. Every package was embossed with it. The dishes and cutlery, even the glassware was rimmed in gold with the crest in the center. I looked out the galley window at the wings only to discover the eagle there too.
Why didn't I notice this before? I laughed. Actually, I laughed in a hysterical sort of way. When I stop laughing and wiped the tears from my eyes, I took two Excedrin. Then I made some eggs. My thoughts immediately went to Senya. The few days I spent with him last year on Rozari, he always wanted me to make him eggs.
I wasn’t hungry anymore. I had just lost my appetite. I sat in the cabin staring blankly out the window for a while trying to understand all this, trying not to cry, trying to imagine how I could possibly spend the rest of my life on Rehnor living in that palace and be happy. I didn’t think I could. I thought I could live on Rozari in the house on the pink beach but not Rehnor. I lost my battle with tears. After all this time, after all these years of looking for him, I was going to lose him again and this time it would be forever.
“Senya?” He was sitting at the desk in the back office typing away on his netbook, a cigarette hanging off his lip. He paused and pressed his thumbs against his eyes again. “What’s the matter?”
“Migraine,” he mumbled.
“Can I get you something?”
He shook his head.
“I know this technique,” I said as I approached him. “They taught it to us at the Academy in my space massage class. “Do you mind?”
He just shrugged so I pressed the heels of my hands into his shoulders, working them in circles, pressing hard at the pressure points and then pinching at the base of his neck. The muscles were tight and knotted up but relaxed somewhat under my hands.
“Helping?”
“Yes, thank you.” I continued to massage his neck, pushing aside his hair and the diamond barrette. I thought about taking the clip out and combing his hair with my fingers. Actually, I wanted to climb into his lap and have him tell me this was all some big joke and we would go back to the bedroom and spend the rest of the trip in that big bed. I didn’t want him sleeping with every girl on the planet. I wanted him only with me.
“Do you really want to be King? Aren't you happy doing what you are doing on Rozari with your company?” I pushed him hard with my thumbs.
“I am very happy on Rozari,” he replied distractedly. “I would much prefer to stay there.”
“So, can't you refuse the crown or whatever it's called? It's happened before on Earth.”
“It's not quite that simple when one has been purposely created for the position.”
“That's quite a guilt trip they've put on you.”
“I will not do this because of guilt. I will do this because it something that I must do.”
"Maybe they should have created a wife for you too while they were at it."
He leaned into my hands. "He did."
“The girl who you just killed, was she created to be your wife?"
"No, someone else was."
"Did you kill her too?"
"Not yet," he snapped, now moving away. "But I am seriously considering it. That's enough, Katie. Thank you for the massage. Now go out of here and let me work."
“Fine!” I cried. "Five more hours and we'll never have to see each other again. Just answer me this, why did you have to kill that girl, in front of me and everybody?"
“Because, I promised you I would have no other wives," he shouted back. "And a moment later she also would have been declared my wife."
Oh. She was going to marry him too. “I thought she was there to marry the other guy,” I said meekly.
"I am sure she would rather have had the window pane in her skull than marry him." He went back to his typing.
“So you didn't want to marry her?”
"Of course not. His Majesty chose her. Katie,” he turned back around to me, “I want to marry only you but you have already expressed repeatedly that you do not wish to share my life so I will not force you to. We will part ways and you will do what you wish to do and I will do what I must and that will be that. I have no desire to belabor this anymore.”
"Ok. The king guy, he didn't want you to marry me, did he?"
"No, he did not."
"That's why you had to stay away from me for a year."
"That is correct."
"Ok. For what it's worth, I forgive you for that.”
“Thank you.”
“Did you really have to kill her and the other guy?"
“Yes,” he sighed with exasperation
“But it's...”
“Katie, your ethics do not apply here. You have been raised in the Alliance. Not only am I Rehnorian, but I will rule Rehnor. Our worlds and our mores are different, as are the rules for my conduct."
“Ok,” I agreed. “I think I've been to enough planets that I understand this even if I don't like it. Did you kill that guy because of what they did to me?”
“Not entirely. I will say only that it was time for him to go.”
“Would you have killed the other guy if I didn't stop you?”
He shook his head. “It was not his time. You will know when it is his time.”
“Me?”
“You. You will be the one to kill Prince Akan. Then you may wrestle with your own ethical dilemma.”
I went to the back cabin and took a nap on the bed. When I woke up several hours later the spaceplane was gliding into Spacebase 41. Senya, or whoever he was, was chatting on his cell with someone about a new product release. He was walking the length of the plane and smoking a cigarette. He had changed his clothes into his usual jeans and t-shirt although the diamond clip was still holding back his hair. I stood there holding my duffle and watching him. I wished he could just be this guy, the one who was concerned with product issues and patient loads. The plane's door slid open after the bay was pressurized. Senya was still talking on his phone. I held up my hand and wondered what I was doing.
“Just a moment,” he told whoever was on the phone. The silver light panned my face. He's smiled a little in that condescending way he had. “Goodbye Kate.”
I left. I couldn’t believe I was doing this but I was because I was stubborn and I had said I would. I walked across the bay to the lift and practically burst into tears as it took me up three decks. Was it just two days ago we came down this lift and stopped it between floors? I stopped the lift and then told it to go back down. Maybe I could try it. Maybe I could come live on Rozari with him for a while and just see how it went. Maybe his grandfathers were going to live to be 180 or something and we wouldn’t have to worry about this for a long, long time. I started to run across the bay but the SdK plane was gone. The bay was empty.
Chapter 17
Shelly
“What in the hell are you doing here?” I said. Ron went straight through to his inner office and the door slammed behind him. Brave soul that I was, I went in right after him. “I thought you were going to take a week or so off. Aren't you supposed to be having a honeymoon?”
He flipped on his vid and ignored me.
“What's gotten into you?” I demanded. “Your hair is a mess, you haven't shaved in a week and you obviously haven't washed your clothes because you're wearing a shirt I bought you easily four years ago which was probably sitting at the very bottom of your closet. Where is Katie?”
“Get out of here, Shelly,” he said, lighting a cigarette.
“No, I'm not getting out of here. Where is Katie? She's not here, is she?”
“No.”
“Damn it!” I shook my head. “How did that happen? She took one look at your insane relations and ran the other direction?”
“More or less,” he mumbled.
“Well,” I said, sitting down on the sofa in the corner of his office. “Maybe she'll change her mind and come back.”
“Doubt that,” he replied, leaning back in his chair and blowing smoke at the ceiling. “My behavior didn't help.”
“Hey, Ron?” The door opened and Thad stuck his head through. “Hi Mom. Can I come in for a moment?”
Ron put his bare feet up on his desk and waved at Thad to come in.
