by J. Naomi Ay
“Are you staying overnight?” I asked. “Do I need to have his apartment readied? Must I inform my father and inform the King?”
“He said we will stay at the Palace tonight and tomorrow. He wants an audience with the King late tomorrow or early the next day,” Thad replied. "But I think Dickon already knows this."
“Very good, Thad,” I sighed. “Even you can be a courtier.”
Thad thought this was funny. “Yep. Love that Palace Hotel. Tell them to get that Chocolate Torte thing ready too. Oh and Berk? I just heard the news from my mom. Katie's going to have a boy."
"She's pregnant? How is that even possible?" I gasped.
“Uh… blood meal fertilizer?" Thad laughed. "Works great on tomato plants too."
I rang Luci and told her not to expect me for dinner. Frankly, I would probably be at the Palace for the next few days so she shouldn’t expect me at all. Luci was cranky. She was pregnant with our second and not enjoying it.
“Stay as long as you want,” she snipped. “Don't bother coming home to help me at all. I'm sure you don't care to see your first born son either.”
“Senya is coming in,” I said wearily.
“Great. The two of you can have a raucous time getting drunk and blowing up stuff then. Just don't tell me about it if he decides to kill somebody.”
“He's coming in for SdK business,” I tried to explain, just as another call started to buzz. “I've got to go. I'll ring you as soon as I can. Yes?”
“Berk?” It was my father.
"Dad?" I tossed a couple of headache pills into my mouth. It was just starting to pound at my temples and the back of my neck and with Senya and Thad arriving soon, I could guarantee it would be a pulsing migraine before long. The door to my office opened and Leesa, our CFO came in for our weekly budget meeting. I waved for her to sit and continued my conversation with my father.
"Did you get my text about the Supreme Court?" he said.
"That it no longer exists?" I replied. "So what. I've got my own problems. Senya's killing me.”
"Not literally," Loman snapped. "He did nearly kill the Chief Justice though. Do you know what is going on with him? He's been very difficult lately.”
“Well, he hasn't been feeling too well and he's working around the clock, so I imagine he is a bit tired. We all are."
“Is he ill?” My father asked. "Seizures?"
“Yes, actually,” I replied, thinking rather that I was the one who was ill and needed to be hospitalized or at the very least, go on vacation. “Thad told me Senya had a seizure last week and caused all sorts of havoc. He's very depressed too. I imagine having to take all this on right now is rather overwhelming. Katie's been away in space and they were fighting about the payoff to the Alliance. Now with the baby coming, and your demands and our demands, it may all be just too much for even Senya. He and Thad are en route here right now so I will try to talk to him tomorrow and see if I can calm him down a bit.”
“Do that, Berkan,” my father ordered. “Why don't you plan on attending Lord Dickon's audiences with him as well? You are to be his Chief of Staff. It's time you got involved. And how are my grandson and Luci doing?”
“Fine Dad. Overstressed and difficult too, but in general, fine.”
“Well, she'll be better after the baby comes,” Dad said and then paused. “Did you just say that Senya is overwhelmed by the baby coming and our demands and your demands?”
“Oh,” I coughed, having realized what news I had let slip. “That is what I did say, didn't I.”
“Berkan?” My father narrowed his eyes. “Are they to have a child?”
“Well actually, yes. I'm told it is a boy.”
“Are you absolutely certain?” Now my father's eyes grew wide.
“Thad's mother, Dr. Mattson was just with Katie,” I reported and as if on cue, my migraine started to pound full bore. “She said Katie is a little more than three months along.”
“Well,” my father exclaimed and scratched his chin. “This is indeed very exciting news.”
“Indeed,” I replied though less exuberantly than he.
“Wow,” said Leesa, who I had forgotten was still in my office.
Within minutes, even before Senya and Thad arrived, the whole planet knew.
Senya and Thad arrived in the evening. Our leadership team assembled around the large conference table in our best conference room, eating pizzas that I had ordered in. As soon as Senya strode in though, all conversation and all pizzas were dropped. Thad was dressed in a suit and tie but Senya was wearing only jeans and a torn t-shirt. He looked rather rough, unshaven and unkempt. His hair was inordinately long and cascaded in curls down his back. Among ourselves, we described it as if he had been sleeping in a tree for the last few days, which he may have very well been doing, if he had slept at all.
“Congratulations, Sir,” I said as he walked right past me.
“The news is out already? Where's the white board?”
“Right here.” I illuminated the white board and found him the stylus. “How is she feeling?”
“Abandoned, I'm sure,” he smirked, already scratching some formulas. “And your wife?”
“Abandoned too,” I chuckled. “Our children will be the same age. I hope they will be friends.”
“Ay yah,” he stopped his scratching for a moment and looked away.
“My father suggested I start attending your meetings with the Lord Chamberlain.”
“Ay yah,” he said again distractedly, while filling up the entire white board with calculations.
I sat down in my chair and threw two more headache pills into my mouth. The back of my neck was throbbing, sending shock waves throughout my skull.
“What I have written here is the process by which we will combust fermium,” Senya announced to the board room without preamble. Typical of him, he dived straight into the topic and left as soon as the discussion was settled without bothering for pleasantries or wasted time on irrelevant subjects.
“What exactly is fermium, Sir?” someone asked and the Chief of Engineering, Franks proceeded to explain that it was a base metal which was found in the same soft rocks from which we extracted coal. Up until now, fermium was discarded as there was no apparent use for it.
“There is energy inside it, however,” Senya explained. “Through the process I have outlined here, that energy can be tapped, liquefied, fused and gasified again hundreds of thousands of times, generating more and more energy.” He pointed at various figures on the white board which were all a blur to me.
“And the exhaust, Sir?”
“We will use off-gas filtering such that the only by-product generated will be water,” Senya replied. He pointed on the board at the chemical equation resulting in this.
“And how do you know this energy exists, Sir,” the Chief Engineer inquired. “If it has up until now been undiscovered?”
“I have discovered it,” Senya replied simply.
“Where, Sir?”
“On the Child Moon. I spent a fair bit of time there and am quite familiar with the soft rock and sediment that we extracted for coal and shale.” Senya sat down next to me. I felt his cool hand on the back of my neck and it eased the throbbing.
“But how did you discover the energy in the fermium, Sir?” someone asked.
“I can sense energy in my hands that you cannot,” Senya replied, massaging my neck. “For instance, there is an abnormal energy here in M'lord Berkan's neck but we shall get to that in a moment. I have written down here the basic process of converting the fermium for you. I want you to take this and turn it into the energy source for our propulsion systems. We do not have time to spare as we are already significantly behind schedule. Leesa will report your progress to me at the end of this week.”
“This sounds like a tremendous development, Your Royal Highness,” Leesa commented.
“It is indeed,” Senya responded, turning to her and studying her for a moment.
She looked back
at him with surprising boldness. “I recall there was an abundance of apples on the Child Moon too,” she said coyly. “Will we be using those as well, Sir?”
Senya raised his eyebrows. He frowned at her.
“Thank you, Leesa,” I stated and then quietly spoke to Senya. “Shouldn't I be managing this, Sir?” Now, he turned to me for a moment and looked at me curiously.
“No, Berk,” he replied, narrowing his eyes and resuming the massage behind my ears. I felt a relief I hadn’t felt in the weeks I suffered from both nagging and piercing headaches.
“Thad, ring over to the medical centre,” Senya ordered. “Berk needs an OR and a room for a few days. As I have said, you've got an abnormality here. I suspect it's a bit of aneurysm.” He did circles with his thumb at the base of my skull.
“A bit?” I squawked.
“Well, a little more than a bit,” he replied. “Probably a fucking big one. You're damn lucky it didn't blow. We'll just snip it right off.”
“Will you do it, Senya?” I asked not sure if I should laugh or cry. In truth, I was scared out of my wits. It wasn’t every day one discovered your headaches were caused by a brain aneurysm.
“We've got competent people here, Berk. You know that.”
“Please?” I whispered and begged.
“Alright, sure,” he agreed. “I'll be happy to cut open your head. I’ve always wanted to do it and I haven't gotten anything else important to tend to right now other than this whole fucking planet. Where is Kinar?”
“Right here, Sir!” Kinar called from the back where he had taken a seat next to Thad.
“Ring over to the Lord Chamberlain and tell him, I will meet with him on Friday instead. I should like an audience with His Majesty on Saturday. Also ring Captain Loman and tell him, I shall be staying four or five nights now.”
“Of course, Sir,” Kinar replied as an orderly knocked on the door and then entered with a wheelchair. Senya removed his hand from my neck as I stood up. A piercing pain seared across my skull again. I collapsed in the chair and immediately, he put his hand back on my neck. The pain disappeared.
“What are you doing?” I cried.
“It’s kind of like acupuncture with energy,” he replied, holding my head. “I am neutralizing your nerve endings. I'm going to put you to sleep now, yes? We'll chat on the other side.”
“Thanks, Senya,” I said. “Did I hear you right? Did you call me m'lord?”
“That's right, Berk,” he said as the world went dark. “I've made you Earl of Korelesk.”
A week later both Senya and I went home. He went first to Karupatani for a day and then on to his home on Rozari and I returned to my house in New Mishnah where Luci parked Marik on the bed next to me and turned on his cartoons while she went to lie down on the sofa. Marik ate little oat cereal things while watching all sorts of animated chaos on the vid and our bed was quickly covered in little bits of them. He laughed and pointed at the silliness and I began to feel better just watching his joyful little face.
"You're getting a new brother soon,” I told him during an advertisement. “And a new friend.”
“I don't want a brother,” Marik replied smashing some of the oat things.
“What about a friend?” I asked.
“A friend is okay.” He tossed a handful into his mouth. Most ended up on my sheets. “As long as he doesn't play with my toys.”
“Oh, I don't think he'll do that. I think you'll want to play with his toys. Your friend is going to be a prince and live in the Palace where grandpa works. Perhaps you and your new brother will be able to visit him there. Would you like that?”
Marik nodded. “What's his name?”
“Prince Shika de Kudisha,” I replied. At this moment, my father and Luci walked in.
“Prince Shika de Kudisha,” my father repeated. “Still safely tucked away in his mother's womb and already causing problems.”
“Is he?” I asked. Marik's show was playing again.
“Shhh!” he told us, putting a finger over his lips. “Zip it up, Grampa!”
“Can you take him out of here, Luci,” my father asked as Marik started to scream in the way that four year olds do when they do not get what they want.
“But I want to hear what you are saying,” Luci whined, picking up the boy.
“Well, park him in front of the other vid,” I suggested and told my father to sit down.
“How are you feeling?” My father lowered his bulk into a chair that strained beneath him.
“Much better. Perhaps tomorrow even I will get up and go back to work. Senya said my aneurysm was the size of a golf ball. It would have killed me if it burst.”
“You were fortunate he noticed it. What brought him here anyway?”
“He wanted to meet with our team regarding the propulsion systems on the new ships. He's developed a process to combust fermium and use it as the energy source.”
“Ah,” my father nodded. “That was why he has deeded all the waste soft rock from the Child Moon to SdK. The fermium lies within that.”
“Deeded it?”
“The moons are his duchy,” my father scoffed. “Frankly, all Rehnor belongs to him now as the King defers everything to him.”
“So that was the point of his audience then? Was there anything else interesting in Lord Dickon's discussions?”
“The MaKennah is effectively Regent now. There is always business to discuss. A billion people require a fair amount of governance.”
“How does he propose to manage the planet as well as the company?” I asked as Luci rejoined us. She sat heavily on the edge of the bed. "He can't go on like this. It's obviously wearing him out."
“Yes, he did look a mess when he was here, and exhausted. He insisted that much of what needs to be done can be done from his organization on Rozari.” My father frowned. “He's going to expand his staff there. Kinar will relocate there. You'll probably have to start making trips back and forth when you feel better. He wants Yokaa to continue to be the face of the government while you all work quietly behind the scenes.”
“And what about the baby?” Luci inquired, her hands circling her own extended belly. “Shouldn't she come, and let him be born here?”
“Ah,” my father sighed. “That is becoming a bit of a problem. We told him she needs to be here and be monitored even if he chooses to remain on Rozari but he refused to bring her."
“Perhaps Katie wants to have the child born on Rozari or on Earth?” I suggested.
“Regardless of what Katie wants, the child will be born in Mishnah at the Palace,” my father stated unequivocally. “He cannot become king if he is born anywhere else. When Lydia was carrying Senya, she was monitored daily. As it was, he came nearly six weeks early. If Prince Shika is anything at all like his father, Katie should be under constant supervision."
"Senya is a doctor," I reminded him.
"As he has reminded us. So we have made a compromise. Luci, how is your Rozarian these days?”
“Passable,” she replied. “But Loman, I'm due in four months. I can't go back to work now, not with two babies.”
“It won't be work,” my father said. “You will go to Takira-hahr in about a month and attend the Lady until your time. Marik may go, as well. There will be plenty of servants to assist the both of you and in the meantime, you will get to know the MaKani and try to teach her Mishnese. When you are ready to give birth you will return and the MaKani will come to the Palace for her own lying in.”
"What about some of the other court ladies?" I protested. "Why Luci? How can she attend to the lady when she, herself, is due at any moment?"
"It will not be difficult,” my father insisted. “The MaKani really just needs someone to sit with her and keep her quiet. She should not be jumping around and doing her martial arts and things. She should be calmly gestating and learning her Mishnese. The MaKennah specifically requested Lady Korelesk attend her in this, so Luci it is."
“Oh, Loman,” Luci gasped. "He
chose me? Wait a moment. Who is Lady Korelesk?"
“Oh, right,” I said. "I forgot to tell you that little bit."
Luci's eyes grew wide, as I knew they would.
"I'm the Earl of Korelesk now, fancy that."
Luci shrieked. "The MaKennah made Berkie an Earl?"
“He did,” my father smiled and rose to his feet. He opened the door and shouted. “Marik! Come tell Grandpa all about your new school.”
Chapter 13
Katie
“Who took my dishes?” I picked up the plate that Tilia set in front of me. “This isn't my set.”
Tilia shrugged. She set some gold cutlery down next to me.
“This isn't mine either.” Each piece was twenty-four karat gold and had the Eagle Crest embossed on it. The dishes were bone china and had a thick gold rim with the Eagle Crest embossed in gold in the center. The glass of milk Tilia presented to me was in a crystal goblet with a gold rim and the same embossing.
“Where did all my stuff go?” I asked again.
Tilia looked at me blankly.
“Forget it,” I snapped at her even though she probably didn’t know anything anyway. She just got here a few days ago too. “Don't you have a life?”
“We serve you, MaKani,” she replied.
I got up and left. My house was full of strangers. My stuff was gone, replaced by all this stuff from Mishnah. My husband was gone and didn’t even bother to let me know where he went or what he was doing.
I headed down to the beach for a walk. My OB at the SdK Medical Center said exercise would keep my blood pressure down but I think she was wrong. Nothing would keep my blood pressure down. I rang Thad.
“Do you know when he's coming back?” I said.
“He didn't say,” Thad replied. “Berkan needed brain surgery and then I think he went to Karupatani. Gotta fertilize that dirt too.”
“Very funny,” I muttered.
“I heard you're getting a house guest though,” Thad reported.
“Who?”
“Luci and their little four year old hellion, Marik.”
