by J. Naomi Ay
"We have no choice," Father said shutting the drapes yet again. "We are and have been suffering this invasion of the Red Aliens from Corganus for several years now and the Alliance refuses to do anything about it."
"They are crossing into our space, landing on our planet, taking our resources and all the while we must feed and care for them as if they were our own," Mother snapped still not looking up from her sewing. "Our people, our government cannot sustain them any longer."
"Our treasury is going broke," Father added. He sat down heavily in his favorite chair and put his blanket over his knees. The room was cold as all our rooms were. Mother didn't believe in wasting money on electricity to heat them and the fire in the corner was nearly out of wood.
"Let's just ask the Alliance for more money," I suggested. "That's why there is an Alliance, so we can all support one another. Earth is still wealthy; they'll lend us the funds we need."
"Earth is practically bankrupt!" Mother said finally tossing her sewing aside. "They have their own problems to deal with and are busy creating money out of thin air to continue to finance the Alliance." Mother rang her maid and demanded some tea. "And put some brandy in it," she yelled into the phone.
"If it were our own people," Father lectured me in his professorial voice. "That would be one thing. But these people are all invading from any entirely different planet. We shouldn't have to support them. We shouldn't have to take them especially when they are coming uninvited."
"But you can't throw them out again," I insisted. "That's inhumane and morally wrong."
"We have a system set up for émigrés," Mother said. "A very good system set up by my own dear mother. If these Red Alien people wished to come here legally, there is a path for that. If they follow our laws, if they do as we ask, we will approve them and make them good citizens. If they don’t, if they come here uninvited, they are breaking our basic tenets and we should be allowed to throw them out, Alliance be damned!"
"Calm down, Mother," I nearly screamed myself. "You are always blaming the Alliance for all of our problems. Maybe it's not them at all, maybe it's you!"
My last words hung thickly like fog in the room. For a brief moment, I wished I could bite them back.
"Elana," Mother said. "If you wish to succeed me, if you wish to become Queen of Cyganus after me, you will need to get your head out of the clouds and start seeing what is happening on the ground in front of you."
"Queen of Cyganus will be a useless title when you submit yourself to the rule of the Emperor of Rehnor," I retorted. "You think you have no power now, just wait until you hand it all over to him."
"You have no clue you foolish girl," my mother snapped and ordered me out of her presence.
"I can't believe she is doing this," I cried to my maid, Lilibet as she brushed my hair one hundred strokes. It was a deep chestnut brown and floated like a cloud around me. Some said it was my best feature. Maybe it was. Unfortunately, I wasn't a particularly beautiful woman. I had an okay figure. I had a nice face. I had nice hazel colored eyes and a nose covered in freckles no matter how much I avoided the sun. I also had two large front teeth that unfortunately when I smiled made me look like a rabbit. I took after my father who had all of these features including the teeth but somehow they seemed to look better on him. In fact, my dad was downright handsome and my mom was stunningly beautiful and yet somehow they produced plain ordinary buck-toothed me.
Father was a mere professor at the university near the Palace, teaching economics and disagreeing with all his colleagues when it came to the Alliance. He had always believed in small government and self-rule even when it wasn't fashionable and common thought went that bigger was better.
My grandmother, then Queen Elana I, heard him speaking and invited him to the Palace to discuss his theories more in detail. He became a chief advisor and from there, he met my mom. They took one look at each other and history was made. One and one became two and then three and four.
My sister, Marie looked just like my mom with her long straight blonde hair and sparkling emerald green eyes. Her figure was both slimmer and rounder in the right places while mine was fatter and narrower in all the wrong. Marie was the beauty and I would be Queen and as too many princes had said, it was a pity we couldn't be one in the same.
"Maybe it won't be so terrible," Lilibet said putting away the brush and knotting up my hair for the night. "I've heard very good things about Rehnor."
"The Emperor is mad!"
"Not anymore. He's been quite mellowed out for some time."
"He'll take away our sovereignty."
"They say he gives it back. It was the Alliance who took it away by making us follow their rules especially when we didn't have the money to pay for them."
"He'll kick out the Red Aliens."
"Maybe they deserved to be kicked out. Maybe Cyganus belongs to the Cyganians first and the Red Aliens from Corganus should only get what we have left over."
"Have you been listening to my father?"
"He was always my favorite professor," Lilibet replied and then buttoned up my nightdress.
"You shouldn't be a maid," I told her for about the four hundredth time.
"If I could have found a job as an economist I would have." She handed me my coat and then ushered me to bed. "As it is, I'll count on you to make me a member of your cabinet."
"Ha," I scoffed and climbed up and in while reaching for my nightcap and four pairs of socks. She drew the curtains closed and started to walk away. "I won't have a cabinet, I won't have a court. I'll just be a useless figurehead subservient to the Great Emperor."
"He doesn't have time to worry about Cyganus. As brilliant as he is, he is still only one man. You'll be more of your own ruler than you would be with the Alliance. He'll just give you the guidance you need so you know it'll turn out alright. Maybe even Cyganus will prosper enough so we can turn on the heat."
"Do you really think this is the right thing to do, Lilibet?" I called after her.
"Yes, Princess," she nodded and waved to me from the door. "I really think this is the right thing to do."
"We will go to the Palace of Mishnah," my mother announced at breakfast the next morning.
"Are you going to kneel before him and declare your allegiance?" I asked selecting some link sausages, freshly scrambled eggs and a pancake, no…two.
"I will," Marie offered looking up from her half cup of coffee and two teaspoons of unflavored nonfat yogurt. "He's so hot."
"He's an old guy," I scoffed.
"He's still really hot."
"He's not that old," Mother added and looked at Father. "About our age, would you say?"
"Indeed. And hot or not, he is slavishly devoted to his wife," my father smiled and took my mother's hand. "He has no interest in princesses or even queens, no matter how beautiful they may be." Mother and Father gazed at each other and blushed like children.
"You guys are so embarrassing," Marie rolled her eyes. "I'm glad nobody is watching us right now."
"You still didn't answer my question." I got up to pour myself a glass of tomato juice. While at the buffet, I selected a sweet roll and some butter.
"Yes, Elana," Mother replied sipping from her coffee. "We will all go and prostrate ourselves before him. Put that roll back. You're going to have to fit into your new gown for the occasion."
"Do I have to?" I asked referring to the prostrating part and the new gown but taking a bite out of the roll.
"Yes, dear," Father said. "He won't make us grovel. It's a simple quick ceremony before the leaders of the Empire. It's just a formality. The details have already been discussed and agreed to with his staff."
"What about our people though? What do the people of Cyganus want? Shouldn't they have a chance to vote or something?"
"They want a free, prosperous and healthy planet, Elana," Mother replied, "for Cyganians. Not for everyone who wants to come here and take over. Next week, an Imperial Starship shall begin patrolling our star system
and all of these invaders in their rogue ships will be turned away."
"Is there going to be a banquet and ball after the ceremony?" Marie asked twirling a strand of her perfect hair around her finger. "If there is, I'll need at least another two gowns."
Father nodded and frowned. "Perhaps Mother or Elana has an old one you can fit in."
"I don't want to meet the Emperor's son in a hand-me-down gown." Marie frowned, her eyes filling with tears. "He's the galaxy's most eligible bachelor and plenty hot too. He might be looking for his future Queen."
"He's not going to be an Emperor or King," I scoffed. "He'll always be a prince."
"Well, I'm not a king and never planned to be one," Father reached again for Mother's hand and they beamed at one another. "And I was only a professor, yet I still went looking for my future Queen."
"You guys make me ill," I muttered and excused myself from the table.
"Put your left-overs back in the warmer, Elana," Mother called after me. "That half pancake will still be good for breakfast tomorrow."
Chapter 3
Sam
My uncle was the best pilot ever to be born on Talas III. There was a statue of him in front of the Government House in the Capital City. My mother used to take me there during school breaks and instead of touring museums, we'd stand by the statue and let tourists take pictures of us with it. She'd make me stand on the base and pose with my chest stuck out and my fist at my hip, just like the statue. I looked like my uncle even though I was short and he was tall. Mom said we had the same face. Unfortunately, my posing only brought my head up as far as my uncle's cast iron elbow.
My uncle was a hero because he had been the personal spaceplane pilot of the leaders of our government and had flown the President and Ambassadors and all the important people to the Capital City in Mishnah, Rehnor and back. He had dodged all the pirates and got everyone there safely, so they could sign the agreement that made us part of the Empire. Not long after that, he was killed when he was flying the Rehnorian Empress to Earth and their spaceplane was attacked. Throughout most of my childhood, that's what we thought. Every year on the anniversary of his death, my mom and my grandma lit candles in front of his picture and cried their eyes out until they fell asleep.
Several years later, it turned out that my uncle was alive and had been held captive by the Alliance for all of this time. Mom and Grandma went off to see him in a hospital in Mishnah. They brought him home and he lived with us after that. Every day after school, I'd come home to find him a different man. One day he'd be sitting in a chair and staring at the vid. He'd watch everything whether it was the news or cartoons or even soap operas.
Some days, we'd have great conversations all about his time in the Allied Spaceforce and all the flying and fighting he did. I heard about the spacebase the evil Rehnorians blew up before the Great Emperor took over and made them good people. I heard about a planet filled with dinosaur creatures and I heard about all the times he dodged asteroids and laser bursts and blew away pirates.
Other days, the worst days, my uncle was lost in his head and counted his toes or sat rocking on the floor.
"His brain was damaged from drowning," my mother said watching him rock back and forth and mumble about being full of water. "The doctors said there is nothing more we can do."
"Unless we want a transplant," Grandma added setting the table for dinner. "They can change the damaged part of his brain. They can give him part of a brain from somebody else."
"But then he wouldn’t be the same guy. He would be somebody else."
"But he would be whole every day," Grandma added and sat down to eat.
Was it worth it? I didn't know. My mother and grandmother had argued back and forth for five years now. One day, on one of his good days, I asked my uncle what he thought about it.
He winked at me and replied, "Sam, none of us are ever whole. We just delude ourselves into thinking we are. Sometimes it's nice to do nothing but sit around and count your toes."
I figured that made him smarter than the rest of us and so the next time they argued, I took my mom's side and said no transplant.
I joined the Imperial SpaceNavy because I thought I wanted to become a pilot like my uncle. I had hoped to be based on the ground and assigned to a transport spaceplane so I would never have to shoot anything. It would be an easy life. I could fly here or there. Park for a few days and then fly again. I wouldn't be working all the time and I wouldn't be stuck behind a desk. Transports never went in danger zones which was good because I hated danger. My first orders came in for StarShip duty which meant I would be trained to fly SpaceNavy shuttles and combat spaceplanes instead.
"This is fricking bad," I thought.
"Enjoy it, Sam," my uncle said. "Life on a starship is fun. Free food, free drinks, lots of entertainment, and plenty of time to sit around being bored."
"What do you do all day then?" I asked.
"Play cards, work on qualifications and hang out with the guys unless something happens and then it's frightening as hell."
I liked the Queen of Rozari and my bunkmates were about the best I could ask for. I was scared to death of LCDR Korelesk but he seemed to focus on Ensign Golden and leave me alone. He really had it in for Golden too and I wasn't sure exactly why. Stevie did some stupid things periodically but all he had to do was breathe around Korelesk and he'd be slapped with demerits. He had so many demerits after our first month, Stevie would be on social probation for the entire duration of the cruise.
Our flight training began the second month of our contract when we rotated departments and Stevie and I both ended up in the shuttle bay.
"I didn't realize you wanted to be a pilot too," I said getting in line right behind him.
Stevie shrugged and told me his mom had been a pilot so he figured it was a skill he ought to have too. I told him all about my uncle and when I did, Stevie opened his eyes wide and looked really impressed. "Wow," he kept saying over and over. "Wow, that's amazing. Your uncle is Zem?"
"Yeah," I replied, my chest puffing out. "You've heard of him? He must be very famous if you knew of him on Rozari."
"Oh totally, bro." Stevie nodded his head. "My mom's talked a lot about Zem."
The first time I took the controls of a shuttle, I thought it was so cool. I didn't do anything particularly exciting, just the basics which was taking off and landing in the bay after flying a few circuits around the Queen ship. The next time I flew, I liked it even more and I was convinced by then that this was the right path though I had never before had any doubts. The third time I flew was when the ship was in orbit of Andorus II and my assignment was to go land on the moon. My take off was fine, but my landing was crap. The gravity on the moon was weak but much stronger than I had experienced before in open space. I smashed the shuttle down and even damaged a pontoon and the Lt. Cmdr who was my instructor failed me on the exam. I was so nervous after that, I could barely fly home and I messed up the landing in the bay which I had never had problems doing before. My shuttle was damaged and taken out of service and I earned myself four demerits in exchange.
"Fricking, double fricking," I swore as I walked back to our cabin.
"Don't worry it, bro," Stevie said patting my back. "I blew it too."
"But you didn't get four demerits!"
"I think I've reached the maximum demerits allowed," he replied. "I've got so many accumulated, I'll start the next contract deep in a hole."
Something happened to me after that. Every day of flight training my stomach would churn and my hands would shake so badly I could barely steer. I couldn’t sleep the night before an exam and I couldn't concentrate during class. Korelesk called me into his quarters and handed me more demerits.
"What's the deal, Sam?" he growled looking up from his desk. I stood at parade rest and hoped he wouldn't talk too long because even with my Vitamin D, my stomach was giving me problems.
"I don't know, sir," I replied and my stomach rolled a little. I took a deep
breath and thought of something nice, willing it to calm but not to relax too much.
"Your aptitude tests for pilot training were very high. Now it seems like you can't fly a shuttle worth a damn. That thing is practically a bus. I bet even your grandmother could fly it. What's happened, Ensign? What's eating at you?"
I swallowed hard and clenched my stomach muscles tight. "Maybe I'm not a good pilot. Maybe I'm meant to be doing something else."
Korelesk frowned and looked at his screen. "It was first choice on your survey. It was your second choice too. Now you don't like it?"
"I…I don't know," I stuttered and let off a tiny burst of air.
"Are you chicken shit, Sam?" Korelesk stood up and came over, glaring down at me. "Nobody in my squad is a chicken, Sam. You get back in that plane and you fly like an eagle."
"I'm not sure I can," I squeaked. "I'm not my uncle Zem."
"Your uncle is Zem?" He narrowed his eyes.
"Wow, he must really be incredibly famous."
Korelesk put his hand on my neck and picked me up in the air. "You make your uncle proud or I'll squish you like a bug."
"Yes sir," I squeaked again as my feet left the ground. "I'll try." And try I did but unfortunately, my stomach got the best of me. While swinging there in the noose of Korelesk's hand, I let loose some wind, a lot of wind, a virtual hurricane.
"Ugh!" Korelesk cried and dropped me fast. "What the fuck are you doing? Get out!"
I scampered out of there as rapidly as I could. The next day I took my written flight training exam and failed.
"Come on, Sam," Stevie said showing me his failing grade too. "Let's study together and next time we'll both pass."
"Nah," I replied with a shake of my head. "I'm not cut out to be a pilot. I'm going to transfer out. Maybe, I can work in the shuttle bay and help maintain the planes instead."
"Are you sure about that, bro? I promise I'll help you."
