Golden's Quest (The Two Moons of Rehnor, Book 6)

by J. Naomi Ay

Prince Shika, I sighed, was neither a hero nor a conqueror but just a totally lame dude who got himself locked in a prison for twenty-six years on some backwater hell-hole of a planet.

  Chapter 15

  Sam

  "Where are you guys going?" Geor asked as we raced down the street toward the shuttle dock.

  "We've got to get our Squad Leader," I cried. "We need him to help us rescue Stevie."

  "Squad Leader? What?" Geor asked.

  "We told you," Randy replied huffing and puffing as he ran alongside me. "We're in the Imperial SpaceNavy. Stevie is too. We've got to get him out before the ship sails otherwise he'll be AWOL and court-martialed."

  "'Oh, that's bad," Geor said.

  "Really bad," I agreed. "Besides that, the Empress is coming aboard tonight and we all have to be back in dress uniform for formation."

  "You guys go and find out where they took Stevie," Randy ordered as we came up to the shuttle dock. He smiled gently at Yula. "Please? Take Sam's cell and call me on my mine as soon as you know where he is. We'll get there as quickly as we can."

  Yula smiled back and nodded while fluttering her long black eyelashes at Randy.

  "Come on," I snapped and handing Yula my cell, I pulled Randy's arm. The shuttle was about to leave, the Lieutenant in charge was yelling "Last Call". We raced aboard and in about twenty minutes found ourselves in the shuttle bay back home on the ship. The bay was all decked out with streamers and banners welcoming the Empress to the Queen of Rozari.

  "Do you know where LCDR Korelesk is?" I asked a Commander who was walking around with a tablet checking all the displays.

  "Korelesk?" he asked not even glancing up.

  "Yes, Korelesk. Big guy with orange hair and a nasty disposition?"

  "Korelesk," he said again as if he had never heard the name.

  "Please sir," I begged. "It's a fricking emergency."

  The Commander looked annoyed and told us to wait.

  "No waiting," Randy whispered and ran off. He returned a few minutes later with his own tablet in hand. He hacked into the ship's computers and brought up today's schedule. "Come on," he pulled my arm and led me back to a shuttle. "Korelesk is with his mother down on the planet."

  "His mother?"

  "His mother, the Countess is here with The Katie visiting an SdK Clinic. After that," Randy read, "they're having tea and toast points with the Queen of Cyganus and then they'll be touring the Corganian refugee camps. Muster is at 1800. We have to be dressed and ready by then."

  "So we've got less than four hours to rescue Stevie but first we have to find Korelesk and get him away from his mother before they sit down with the Queen."

  The shuttle took off again and twenty minutes later delivered us back down to the planet we had just left. We raced into the street and hailed a taxi this time, ordering him to take us to the nearest SdK Clinic.

  "I got my own tooth fixed there not long ago," the taxi driver started chatting.

  "I don't care about your tooth," Randy said. "Just shut up and drive."

  "I can't drive anywhere because of the traffic," the old guy continued and honked his horn at the cars stopped in front of us just to prove it wasn't his fault.

  "Let's run," I suggested and we bolted out the door, tossing the driver a few coins so we wouldn't get arrested.

  We ran all the way across town again and by the time we got to the clinic, both of us were breathless and completely soaked in sweat. Randy clutched his ribs and leaned against the building just as his cell rang and Yula's voice came through. She told him that Stevie had been taken to the jail and was sentenced to twenty-six years in a cell on the sixty-eighth floor.

  "Sixty-eight years on the twenty-sixth floor?" I cried.

  "No, twenty-six years on the sixty-eighth floor!"

  "In either case, it's bad," I declared as a limo arrived.

  It wasn't a car kind of limo but the flying speeder kind of limo that we had in the Empire. It had the Imperial Crest on the door and it was all shiny black. It landed on the street right in front of us as the doors to the clinic opened and a squad of Imperial Guards came out. Right in the middle of them, was The Katie surrounded by her ladies including the Countess. Korelesk was with them and had his hand on his mother's arm. He walked with them to the limo while Randy and I jumped and waved, calling "Korelesk, Korelesk!" The Countess Korelesk turned and smiled at us and waved her gloved hand. LCDR Korelesk was busy helping The Katie to climb into the car and wasn't looking in our direction.

  "We've got to get his attention," I cried so Randy, like a bull, charged through the crowd of people, pushing aside the guardsman until he knocked into Korelesk.

  "What the fuck are you doing?" Korelesk raged grabbing Randy by the neck and lifting him in the air. "You're dead, whoever you are!"

  "Commander," I screeched racing up as quickly as I could push my way through the crowd. "You've got to help us, please. It's about Ensign Golden."

  "What?" Korelesk glared and dropped Randy. He clamped his hand over my mouth and whispered in my ear. "Where the fuck is Gold-en? What did he do now?"

  "He got himself arrested," Randy tried to explain. "He was sentenced to sixty-eight years on the twenty-sixth floor."

  "No," I spat through Korelesk's hand. "He's got twenty-eight years on the sixty-sixth floor."

  "No, that's not right," Randy insisted. "It was twenty-six and sixty-eight but now I'm not sure in what order."

  Korelesk made a groaning noise and then smiled innocently at the Empress who was gazing curiously at all of us.

  "Marik?" the Countess asked. "What's going on here?"

  "You and your mom have the same color hair," Randy pointed out.

  "Did you say Ensign Golden?" The Katie nodded, staring directly at me.

  Marik let go of my mouth and I gaped at the lady, the legendary lady, that Katie lady, the Empress of all Rehnor type lady and then I fell to my knees, my tongue freezing stuck. Randy was dumbstruck too and dropped to his knees next to me. The Katie looked down at the both of us and then glanced at Korelesk.

  "Uh," Korelesk stuttered. "Uh, I'm sorry, Auntie Katie. I need to get back to my squad. I've got a little problem to deal with right now. Sorry, Mom. I'll see you later tonight. Dinner with the Captain, right?"

  "Yes, dear," the Countess replied.

  The Katie looked down at me again and narrowed her eyes. "What did you say?" she demanded and for a moment my life passed in front of my eyes. If she was the Emperor, I'd be dead already. Maybe I had a chance if I explained myself quickly.

  "I said," I began but felt Korelesk's boot on my back. "I said, my Uncle Zem says hello."

  "Zem?" Her face relaxed as she smiled at me and her fabled blue eyes seemed to get brighter. "Well say hello to Zem for me back and tell him to come visit. We haven't seen him in ages. Go ahead, Marik, go do what you need to do."

  She climbed into her limo with all of her ladies and took off into the air. Korelesk pulled up both of us guys and practically dragged us down the street. We hurriedly explained to him about the guy and the girl and then Stevie being carted away.

  "We've got to get him out of there," he muttered, "and back on the ship before 1800 tonight otherwise there will be hell to pay."

  Chapter 16

  Steven

  I started to compose a letter. I didn't have anything to write it down on or type it into so I just started reciting it in my head. I figured if I said it enough times, I'd memorize it and then eventually when someone let me have a pen, I'd write it all out and send it to my mom.

  "Dear Mom," it was going to say. "I'm sorry for being so lame."

  That's as far as I got. I couldn’t think of anything else. I lay on my bunk in my orange jumpsuit and tried to count the minutes to figure out how long I had been here. A guy in the cell next to me started singing some song which interrupted my counting so after about five minutes I lost track. His song was really depressing, like a funeral dirge type melody so when he took a breath, I kindly asked him
to stop.

  "You don't like my singing?" he barked and pushed his face through the bars that joined his cell with mine. His skin was all wrinkled and his hair was long and stringy. He had only four yellow teeth and his breath smelled like cabbage.

  "Well, uh…"

  "It's my birthday song and nobody else is singing to me."

  "That's Happy Birthday?" I asked.

  "Yeah, here on Cyganus that's how we sing it."

  "That's pathetic," I mumbled. "Why is it so depressing?"

  "I don't think that's depressing," he argued. "I think that sounds happy. You should hear how we sound when someone really dies." He sat back on his bunk and started singing again.

  "Hey dude," I called putting my hands over my ears. "If I sing it to you, will you shut up?"

  "Would you really do that?"

  "I guess so."

  "Do you have a birthday present for me too?"

  "Uh…" I looked around my cell. It was surrounded on three sides by bars, one of which I shared with the guy. The cell on the other side was empty. The floor was cement and there was a tiny sink and toilet but other than my bunk, there was nothing else there. "Can I give you something later?"

  "Later? Like when? Today is my birthday and I won't have another for an entire year."

  Just then I saw something flickering on the floor of the next cell. I jumped up from my bunk and scrambled over to the bars. I lay down flat and reached as far as I could with my arm and just with the tip of my fingers; I was able to touch the stones. I rolled them back to me, these two tiny stones of silvery metal. Fermium. What were two tiny nuggets of fermium doing here? We had fermium generators aboard the ship and fermium power stations on all of our planets. It was fermium fusion in fact that had built the Empire; that had given my dad the means to take over half the galaxy.

  "Dad?" I called staring up at the ceiling. My dad had a weird way of being in two places at the same time.

  "I'm not your dad," the guy said and stuck his hand through the bars. "Is that my present?"

  I looked at the two tiny rocks in my hand. Fermium. What could this mean? "Sure, dude," I replied and handed him one of the rocks. The other I held tightly in my hand, feeling it warm up my palm.

  "Where's my song? My Happy Birthday song?"

  "Right," I started singing. "Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday dear fellow inmate. Happy Birthday to you."

  "Thanks," the guy smiled and even shed a tiny tear. He clutched his fermium rock and sat on his bed.

  "How old are you anyway?" I asked lying on my own bunk and studying my rock.

  "Oh, about nine hundred and fifty million years."

  Just then the door to the cell floor burst open and in came Korelesk along with Sam and Randy.

  "Gold-en," Korelesk roared.

  "Hey Stevie," Sam called.

  "Faster guys," Randy urged and stuck the key in the cell door. "Yula, launch the attacks on the lifts now," he yelled into his cell and through the speaker I could hear the beginning strains of our tomato hack song. "We've got sixty-eight floors to climb down while they try to figure out what's hit them."

  The door to my cell swung and Korelesk came in, snatching me by the neck and pulling me from my bunk. "Do I have to keep my eye on you every fucking minute?" he growled. "I let you have shore leave and you end up in jail. You broke things and killed a guy. Does it run in the family? You'll have detention until your retired, Gold-en. You're just damn lucky I don't get you kicked out of the SpaceNavy."

  I wisely kept my mouth shut instead of trying to explain and let Korelesk pull me to the fire-escape.

  "Hey," I said before we disappeared down the shaft. "What about that other guy? Can we let him out too?"

  "What other guy?" Randy asked. "You were all alone here on this floor."

  "No, I wasn't," I insisted. "There was a guy in the cell next to me."

  "Nu, uh," Sam said shaking his spikes.

  "The Happy Birthday guy?" I showed them the fermium rock in my hand.

  "Shut up!" Korelesk snapped.

  Forty floors later, I was ready to pass out. The fire escape seemed to get smaller and narrower with each floor that we descended. I was wearing jail flip-flops instead of real shoes and my knees were shaking with every step. I was feeling really claustrophobic and I wasn't the claustrophobic type. We were descending single file as the staircase was wide enough for only one and each of us had a hand on the bannister too. Korelesk was behind me kicking me in the back as he stepped, while Randy and Sam were leading the way.

  "When you get to level twenty in the Imperial Quest," Randy was saying. "You'll have to come down a staircase from the top of a bell tower. On each landing there will be a challenge and a monster you'll have to beat."

  "Can you imagine Geor playing as Thad?" Sam laughed. "He'd never get beyond level two. Thad's got to be one of the lamest characters in the game."

  "Like Lord Berkan," Randy added. He's pretty lame too."

  "Hey!" Korelesk barked.

  "Prince Shika's definitely the lamest," Sam said as we stopped for a moment on the landing at floor twenty-eight.

  "Hey!" I barked too and just as I did, I heard Korelesk mutter, "I'm hot," and then before I could react, he toppled down on top of us. The three of us fell like dominos on the hard concrete floor. Korelesk's head hit the pavement and we heard a terrible crack.

  "Kari-fa!" I shouted.

  "Fricking! Fricking!" Sam screamed.

  "Oy!" Randy muttered as we scrambled to our knees.

  "Marik?" I crawled over to his head. "Are you okay, dude?" I slapped his cheek a little. He moaned and opened his eyes for about a half a second and then he passed out again and lay there crooked on the floor. Next to him were two broken white teeth and blood was seeping from his mouth. "I think he fainted." I told the guys. "He said he was feeling hot. We're going to have to carry him down the rest of the way and then find a dentist."

  "Carry him?" Randy whimpered. "He weighs something like four hundred pounds."

  "No, he doesn't," I insisted, "in any case, we'll need some help. We've got to move quickly too."

  "Call Geor and Yula," Sam told Randy. "Between the four of us, we can each take a limb."

  "I'll get Elana," I cried jumping to my feet. "This is the twenty-eighth floor, right? She should be here."

  "What if they catch you?" Sam asked while Randy called Yula on his cell. "It's too dangerous. Who's Elana anyway?"

  "Elana Thyganuth," I replied. "I'll go really fast. Randy, can you please unlock this door?"

  "Ok, honey," Randy said sweetly not to me but to Yula on the phone. He pushed buttons and unlocked the security door and I raced into the women's section of the jail.

  "Elana!" I called. "Elana Thuyganuth? Where are you? It's Steven, the guy who you were sitting next to."

  "I'll sit next to you," a woman called through the bars. I glanced quickly at her but turned away. She was way too old and had on way too much makeup and her boobs which she was showing to me were way, way too big. "I'll even sit on your face," she offered.

  "Elana!" I yelled, my voice climbing higher.

  "I'm over here," Elana called back and stuck her arm out of the bars. "Theven? What are you doing here?"

  "Rethcuing, I mean rescuing you," I replied and realized I didn't have any way to unlock her door. "I'll be right back." I raced back to Randy who followed me in and smiled at the lady who offered to sit on his face. Randy used his tablet to hack into the program which controlled the lock on Elana's cell door. I heard the strains of my tomato song.

  "Awesome hack, Sheik," Randy punched me in the arm.

  "What about the rest of us," a woman called as the three of us ran to the stairwell.

  "Next time," I called. "Only Elana's number came up." When we got back out to the landing, Geor and Yula were there.

  "Elana?" Yula cried.

  "Geor?" Elana said.

  "Yula?" Geor looked at his sister.

  "You all know
each other?" I asked.

  "What happened to your face?" Yula asked Elana.

  "Ike beat me up. What happened to Ike?"

  "Steven killed him," Geor replied. Elana looked at me with either horror or admiration.

  "Oy," Randy sighed. "Come on everyone, let's lift."

  Twenty-eight more floors down carrying Korelesk through the narrow staircase was worse than the first forty floors just carrying myself. Periodically, we stopped to breathe, and so Randy could let loose another virus which would keep the jail guards running from one alarm to another. When we finally reached the street and bolted out into the afternoon, we realized we had only one and a half hours to get back to the ship. Korelesk started to wake and groggily looked at the sky.

  "What happened?" he mumbled and felt for his teeth.

  "We can't go back," I said, "not with Korelesk like this."

  "Why not?" Sam asked.

  "His mother," I quickly lied. "She'll kill us if we bring him back without teeth. Let's take him to a clinic, to a dentist and get him fixed up first."

  "I know a good dentith," Elana raised her hand. We all looked back at her doubtfully. "Theriouthly," she continued, "at the eth DK clinic juth down the threet."

  "We were there," Sam jumped up and down. "I know the way to go."

  "Come on, Marik," I urged. "We're going to take you to the dentist."

  "I hate dentiths, Thik," he mumbled but let me pull his limp arm. Half way down the street, we bumped into Lenny and Kiman. They immediately stood at attention and saluted.

  "Oh hey guyth," Korelesk muttered and smiled toothlessly.

  "Wow," Sam whispered, "he must have hit his head harder than we thought."

  "Go back to the ship and tell them we'll be a little late," I told our bunkmates. "Tell them LCDR Korelesk has given us a special task."

  "Do you need any help there?" Kiman asked furrowing his brow.

  "What if the ship leaves without us?" Randy wondered now holding Yula's hand. "We might have to stay longer, wouldn't we?"

  "We'll get Korelesk fixed up and make the last shuttle. If we don’t, I'll find us a spaceplane and we'll meet you at the next spacebase."