by J. Naomi Ay
“What?” I cried. “What are you talking about?”
“Luci is supposed to be coming to live with you next month. After that, you're being recalled to Mishnah to give birth in the Palace. Your little monster has to be born in the same place your big monster was born just like all the kings before them.”
“The hell with that!”
“Hey, I'm just the messenger delivering the news I heard over the wire,” Thad said. “Chat later, Kate.” He hung up.
“That's it,” I decided and went back to work. I didn’t need to sit around and gestate and I certainly was not going to sit around waiting for Luci to move in. Admiral Tim had a project for me. I put my uniform back on, I snapped my Commander bars onto my epaulets and I took my Lexus to Landbase Rozari.
When I was at work, I snapped at everyone and I don’t think it was due to my hormones. I had tolerance for nothing. Admiral Tim liked this version of me. Command liked this version of me. I was given a window office and more projects to keep me here as long as I wanted.
I spent all day and half the night in my office. I took the Captaincy exam and passed it with flying colors. I returned home to see that Senya had been there. The Andorians had done the laundry and I saw which shirts he had worn because they were freshly pressed and hanging in the closet. His shoes were polished and lined the racks on the floor. Everything else was clean and orderly, straightened by the Andorians the moment we left. Our house was like a hotel and we were strangers that passed in the night, checking in and out of the same room, never seeing each other. If he slept, it was in another room or while I was not there and then the bedsheets were quickly straightened before I returned. Perhaps he didn’t sleep at all.
The annex buildings adjacent to the house had been completed. The Andorians and other people lived there but I only interacted with the Andorians. I saw people going in and out of the offices on the second floor and across the sky bridge I heard Mishnese being spoken. The Rehnorians had taken over my house. They had taken my husband. I would not let them have my baby too.
Luci moved in. Actually, she moved into one of the apartments in one of the other buildings where the staff lived. She was sitting at my dinner table when I came home from the Landbase. I was about four and half months along and she looked like she was ready to pop at six months. Marik was sitting at the table in a booster seat tossing peas on the floor which Siria promptly picked up.
“Sit down,” I ordered Luci as she struggled to get her bulk out of the chair.
“Madame,” she said and insisted on standing. I looked at her feet, which were puffed to about double the size they should have been.
“Luci sit down and stay down,” I sighed, taking off my dress coat and handing it to Tilia. I was half the size of Luci but I felt equally enormous. I sat down at the table because I was starving which was a symptom of my condition. Every time I ate, I was hungry again in a matter of minutes. Siria left Marik's peas on the floor and fetched dinner, which was grilled chicken without spices or sauces. She put an enormous glass of milk down beside me too. Luci sat in front of her plate and waited for me to pick up my fork.
“Luci eat for heaven's sake!” I said. She blushed furiously and then picked up her fork again. Marik threw his peas at me.
“You're mean,” he said. “And crabby.”
“Marik!” Luci shrieked and Siria came rushing to my defense, blocking me from the pea attack.
“Stop it, all of you!” I yelled and glared at Marik. He pursed his lips and stared me down.
“Who are you?” he demanded.
“Marik, I told you,” Luci said calmly. “This is Her Roya….”
“I'm your Auntie Katie,” I said, pursing my lips just like him and staring back.
“I don't have an Auntie Katie,” he protested.
“Well you do now,” I snapped. “So get used to it.”
Luci looked at me aghast.
“Ok,” Marik agreed. “Is this your house?”
“Yep.”
“How come you need that thing to talk for you?” He pointed at the Universal Translator sitting on the table.
“I don't speak Mishnese and you don’t speak Rozarian. Do you?”
“Nope.” He shook his head and then looked to Siria, holding out his arms to be picked up. “I'm done.” Siria lifted him out of his chair and he proceeded to scamper off into the courtyard. Siria looked to me for instructions.
“Go ahead,” I shrugged, “make sure he doesn't destroy anything, I guess. And keep him away from my guns.”
Luci went pale.
“Just kidding,” I winked. “They're locked up in my office.”
Luci and I ate in silence and then we both went to our beds as I was tired from working all day and she was tired from traveling. I thought it very cruel of whoever had decided to send her here to babysit me. I was sure she would rather have been at home in her own house with Marik and her own husband.
In the middle of the night, I was wide awake. The baby was doing somersaults. I lay there for a while marveling at a sudden lump in my belly, which a moment later disappeared as he swam into a new position. The moon shone in from the deck door lighting up the night, so it was very nearly as bright as day.
I wondered where Senya was. I had been back on Rozari for more than a month and had neither heard nor spoken a word to him. I didn’t understand what was going on, why he was purposely avoiding me. Since I couldn’t sleep, I reached for my tablet and checked my email. There was a message from Captain Richard asking me to call him and so I did, having no idea what time it was on the Discovery. I expected to leave a voice mail, but in fact, he answered.
"Captain," I said. "You asked me to call?"
"Captain," he laughed. "You're a full captain now too, Kate. You get the privilege of calling me by my first name.”
"I’m honored, Richard," I said cautiously. He laughed again.
"Listen, Kate," he said. "I've already spoken to Admiral Mattson, so I know he's okay with this. Tony Fong signed on as Staff Captain for the next cruise but was offered command of the Lexington. Now I've got a vacancy I need to fill. You want it? I don't need to tell you if you take Staff now, you're direct in line for the top spot when I retire."
"I know that," I said quickly, thinking through the implications. Staff Captain was one chair away from commanding the ship. That's what I've always wanted, right?
"You need to think about this, Kate?" Richard asked. "I'm a little surprised."
"I'm pregnant," I reminded him. "I'm trying to imagine how I'm going to handle it all."
"You can take your leave and do what you need to do. I'll hold your chair for you."
"You won't need to do that. If the Admiral is willing to release me, then I don’t see any problem with it."
"Awesome," Richard said. "He asked for four weeks so you can finish the project you're working on. We'll pick you up at Spacebase 35 on the 5th of next month."
"Yes, sir," I replied and signed off. The baby kicked me hard in the rib. "I'll assume that means you concur," I told him.
The Rehnorians thought I would be coming back to Mishnah with Luci on the 15th. They would be in for a little surprise when I disappeared on the 5th.
Screw them, I decided. Screw every last one of them including and especially Senya. My son was going to be born aboard the Discovery, somewhere in space. He was not going to be King of Rehnor and if I could help it, he wouldn’t even know he was half Rehnorian.
"And besides that, your name is Steven," I said out loud. “Just like my grandfather.”
In four week’s time, I was going to walk out of this house just as I did every morning and I wouldn’t come back. Ever. I would get my dad to file for my divorce and I would change my name back to Golden. I would be Captain Katie Golden and her son Steven Golden and we would be just fine. That's what I was going to do. After that, I had no problem sleeping.
"Berkie's coming in for meetings next week," Luci told me.
"That's nice," I
replied. I would be gone before he got here. I was leaving in two days but nobody knew this.
Luci and I had taken to sitting out on the deck in the evening. Sometimes we even fell asleep in the deck chairs because they were so comfortable. For Luci's sake, I had made an effort at learning Mishnese. I wanted her to feel like she had accomplished something before I ran off. I hoped she didn’t think it was her fault that I ran away. I hoped she wouldn’t get in trouble because of me. I really liked Luci and Marik. If things were different and I ever did go live on Rehnor, I could imagine that Luci and I and all our boys would be very close. We'd be like family.
"I think His Royal Highness will be here as well," she said, glancing cautiously at me. "I think that's what Berkie said."
Perfect, I thought. I will be long gone. Let His Royal Highness try to explain to everyone how he got dumped. Of course, on the other hand, maybe he has been waiting for me to leave. Maybe he knows I'm going because he always knows everything. Perhaps, all this time he was just waiting for me to get out of the house before he came back.
"Are you crying, Katie?" Luci asked.
"No, no." I shook my head. "I just have a speck of dust in my eye."
"He's been busy, Berkie said."
"I wouldn't know."
"He's been at the Palace for meetings every day and then back in his SdK office for meetings every night."
"I'm sure Berkan has been busy too," I replied.
"Oh very," she said.
"But he still manages to call you."
Luci had no response.
Two days later, I packed my uniforms and other items in my kit, and headed out. Before I did, I stopped at the offices on the second floor. Kinar, I assumed he was Kinar because that’s what the placard on his desk said, jumped up and bowed to me. He spoke to me in Mishnese and explained that His Royal Highness was not in at the moment. I shook my head and tried to indicate that I really couldn’t care less where His Royal Highness was.
I walked into Senya’s office despite Kinar's protestations and looked around. There were no drawings of medical equipment anymore on his desk; no jars of brains or other parts. What had been the lab was now a conference room. There were stacks and scrolls with the Eagle Crest letterhead embossed in gold. Every page was filled with something written in Mishnese and waiting for a signature at the bottom.
I opened the top drawer of his desk and found gold pens stamped with this same crest. There were cigarettes with gold foil tips lying about waiting to be smoked. I took off my wedding ring, the ring worn by Mishka Kalila's Queen and dropped it in the drawer with the pens and cigarettes. Then I left. I took the Lexus to the spaceport and abandoned it there. In two days’ time, I was aboard the Discovery wearing Captain's bars and taking over as Staff Captain until Richard's retirement next year when I would become Ship Captain. Now I was home.
Chapter 14
Leesa
I used to dream about the MaKennah. Even when that dunce Mariya and my other girlfriends called him ugly and a dirty Karut, I wanted him. Even when I was barely old enough to realize what this wanting was, I would touch myself and pretend it was his hand. I would kiss my pillow and pretend it was his lips. I didn't care that he was raised on the streets of Old Mishnah and half Karut. If anything that made him sexier, more exotic, more desirable if that could even be possible. I would stare at the pics that lined the walls of my dorm room, especially that one with him on the rearing black stallion and I would vow that someday, somehow I would have him.
It’s funny how life happens. First he was dead. Poor idiot Mariya, who was sure she would be Queen, because she was his closest Mishnese cousin, saved herself for nothing. She should have been a Sainted Lady and spent the rest of her days on her knees praying for world peace and good weather or some fucking thing. Not me. I screwed every guy with a dick and some without. Then my dad lost his company to Akan and pals and instead of fighting back, he swallowed a bullet.
Where did I go? Not home to Mummy who now got to pick which of her many limp wristed lovers would become her next husband. No, instead I went to the Child Moon to hang with Mariya and watch the muscles ripple on their merry band of half-naked men prisoners.
And, what did we find there? We found the golden ticket of course.
I called the Palace. Me! I called the secret number the other Karut gave me and asked to speak to Captain Loman.
“Who are you?” Captain Loman demanded. He was a huge Lightie with a fist big enough to break my neck.
“He's alive on the Child Moon,” I gasped because at this point, I was so scared I could hardly speak. What if Akan found out about me doing this? I'd be forced to swallow a bullet too.
“Where on the moon?” Captain Loman barked.
“The quarries,” I whispered. “He’s a prisoner in the quarries with another Karut.”
The vid clicked off and I was standing there in the middle of the decrepit ruins of the Clock Tower Mall looking at a blank cell. No, thank you, sweetheart. No million dollar reward. I just saved him. I just saved Rehnor and not even a fuck you.
Shit! I walked home to my flat.
I decided to go back to school and then graduate school to get an MBA. I had this ridiculous notion that I would get hired on in my dad's old company, rise to the top and then buy it back again. Stupid maybe. I knew it wouldn’t bring my dad back, but maybe it might bring me a little satisfaction. Nothing tastes sweeter than a little revenge.
Instead, four years later, I was hired on by a brand new company that just razed the old mall and put up a huge office complex and hospitals throughout Mishnah. It was called SdK Corporation and well, you know who was behind that venture.
I was hired in as a Financial Analyst and quickly worked my way up. I had a new goal in mind. I looked at the huge pic of him that adorned the side of the old clock tower and I wanted him like never before. I was going to get into that exclusive executive suite of offices. I was going to be standing there in my business suit and slowly unbutton each tiny little button of my blouse. I was going to slip off my tight form-fitting skirt and he would see why I had no panty lines. Then I would walk over to him and climb into his lap and I would tell him that he owed me. I saved his life once and now he was going to pay me a big time thank you.
Mariya was dead and the MaKennah was married to a Human. A fucking Human, whatever in the hell that was! To make matters worse, he declared that she, the fucking Human was going to be his Queen! Why wasn’t anyone else as upset about this as I was?
“Because if you don't like it, he'll fucking kill you,” Mummy said in her deep cigarette scarred voice. “You'll end up with a chandelier in your head like your little friend Mariya.”
I didn’t care. I didn’t have to be Queen. There was more than one way to skin a cat and tell me which King didn't have a harem full of mistresses? Even old Yokaa Kalila, who probably couldn’t get it half way up anymore, had a few living the good life in the Palace, waiting for that witch, Queen Moira, to fall over dead.
It might be more fun being a mistress anyway. I wouldn’t have to stand around waving at the huddled masses or holding diseased infants. All my jewels would be new stuff too. He couldn’t give crown jewels to a mistress, but he could commission them to make me anything I wanted. The Human had that ancient ugly rock which the Saint's wife wore. I would get something new, swirly gold and platinum with three or four enormous stones. I would have a few tiaras made too, bigger than the ones the Human would wear. I wouldn’t wear traditional Mishnese gowns either. I would wear something low cut from the top down and high cut from the bottom up so he could gaze at my tits and ass as much as he wanted.
One thing was for certain. I had way better tits than the Human and he was going to want to see them all the time.
Chapter15
Caroline
“What do you think she's doing here?” Jerry asked. He was watching Katie from outside her new office on Deck 11. Commander Markson was leaving, shutting the door behind him.
&nb
sp; “Bad?” I asked.
“Watch out for the horsewhip,” he grumbled. “Are you on budget?”
“Yes.” Jerry nodded.
“Then you'll be fine.” Markson wiped his brow. “I'm going to have to do an all-nighter to rework all my figures. Damn. Somebody ought to do her a favor and remind Captain Dragon Lady that Staff Captain is not equivalent to God.”
“I'll do it.” Jerry winked and strode into Katie’s office. I followed and shut the door.
“Hey guys,” she said without looking up. “Your budget looks good. You don't need to meet with me about it.”
“We're not meeting with you about the budget,” Jerry said and took a seat. He used a finger to push his glasses up his nose. “We're meeting with you about you.”
Katie looked up.
“I spoke to your OB back at SdK Kalika-hahr and she's updated me on everything, but your BP is running high, so I want you to drop in on us every day so we can monitor it.”
“Okay,” Katie agreed calmly, but her eyes were cold. “Will you be able to deliver the baby on board?”
“I think so.” Jerry nodded.
“You think so?”
“I think so unless there is some complication we can't deal with.”
“What kind of complication?” she demanded.
“The kid's half-Rehnorian, Kate,” Jerry reminded her. “That's not something I'm all that familiar with. You sure you don't want to go back to Rozari when it gets a little closer?”
“No,” Katie snapped. “I'm staying here, so figure it out.”
“He screwed you over, didn't he?” Jerry said.
“Jerry!” I shrieked.
Katie turned back to her screen.
“There's no other explanation for you being here now,” Jerry continued. “You were afraid of this. We discussed it before you left. He doesn't want the baby, does he?”
“I don't know,” Katie replied, still staring at her screen. “But I do. So that's the way it is.”
