Chapter 30: Chapter 30

ISABELLE

“So, what is the plan today, boys?” Izzy asked, smiling at James and Lucas as she enjoyed another cup of coffee and just spending time with them.

She could forget the worries caused by her earlier conversation with Prime by being with them. “Not more video games, I hope.”

“Well, we’ve explored most of the ship and talked to the crew,” James said, stuffing a last piece of crispy bacon into his mouth.

“I don’t know, was there something you wanted to do, Mom? Are there any planets to visit on this jump?”

“I could play video games,” Lucas said, making a gun with his fingers and taking pot shots at imaginary aliens. “Those spider-looking things Prime made for us were awesome.”

Izzy frowned at that. She felt snared by Prime and the Sentinels. Picking her because they knew she would never let the Realm continue to exist in its present state.

The fact that Prime now “entertained” her sons with games of shooting spider aliens made her wonder what else the tricky Sentinel had up her virtual sleeve. ~What is she trying to prepare them for?~

“Everything okay, Mom?” James asked.

“Sorry. Yeah, I don’t think we’re seeing any planets today, but I was hoping we could have a chat before you run off. There’s something kind of important we need to talk about.”

“Sure, Mom,” James said, tapping Lucas on the shoulder. “Pay attention, squirt.”

Izzy smiled. “So, I said back on Earth we needed to talk more about what was happening.”

“Yeah,” James said.

“Anyway, the reason why we’re on this ship is because the Sentinels want me to do a very important job…”

“Yeah, we know. You are the queen, and we are the Royal Princes. You have to make a bunch of new laws and stuff. Sus told us all about it,” Lucas said.

Izzy looked at him with her eyebrows raised. “You guys know?”

“Yeah. Sus isn’t very good at keeping a secret,” James joked.

Izzy let out a huge sigh of relief. “Well, that makes this a whole lot easier, but the Realm. It’s pretty messed up, guys. It’s going to take some time to sort out, and I’ll need your help.”

“It’s fine, Mom. I know you’ll be busy. Being a Queen of the Universe sounds like an important job. I’ll look after the squirt,” James said.

“Stop calling me a squirt,” Lucas said, crossing his arms. “I’m going to be bigger than you one day.”

“Okay, well, how much do you know?” Izzy asking hoping to distract the impending argument.

“We know about the Black Palace, the academy, the Sentinels. I think we have a pretty good idea of what to expect. Iry has been very helpful with all of it. She’s also teaching me how Prime works,” James said.

~Somehow, I don’t think even Iry knows.~

“Okay. Promise me that if you guys start to feel homesick, or something scares you, or anything at all, you will come to talk to me. We’re all doing this together, and we need to be there for each other,” she said.

“We will,” Lucas said, and James repeated his words. She gave them a smile and then stood.

“I love you guys.”

“Love you too, Mom,” they both said before Lucas looked at the door.

She rolled her eyes. “Go play video games.”

“Thanks, Mom!” Lucas said, already out of his chair.

As the door opened, she saw Iry standing outside. “Are you ready to continue the butt-whipping, Prince Lucas?”

“Yep. I’m going to get you this time, Iry,” Lucas said.

“Iry, a word, if you please?” Izzy said as James unfolded his lanky teenage body out of the chair and walked to his brother.

Iry came in and stood with both arms crossed across her chest.

“Relax, Iry. I just wanted to ask you…,” she said and looked toward the doors where Lucas was pretend-shooting his brother, and James was pretend-dying.

“Promise me you will keep them safe. This is all new to them, I don’t know if the reality has hit them yet.” A small lump caught in her throat.

“Of course, Dakira Izzy,” Iry said. “No harm will come to them as long as I draw breath.”

“Thank you.”

“Dakira?”

“Yes, Iry?”

“I want you to know that you have my loyalty. I swear that I will serve and protect you with all my heart.”

“Thank you, Iry. That really means a lot to me,” Izzy said. “But why the sudden admission? We’ve only known each other for a few days.”

Iry looked at her sons, still goofing off as they waited for her. “I see you with the princes, Dakira, and I see how much they love you. My family was taken from me when I was barely out of my egg.

“I was the only one to survive the raids on the colony outpost. It was the captain that saved me by sending me to the academy and giving me a place on his ship. I think you will be a great queen.”

Izzy smiled at her, and Iry crossed her arms briefly before turning to her sons. She was thankful for Iry now. James liked her, and she’d already taught him a lot.

She would never forget the sight of Iry with Simon’s blood in her sharp teeth, but Izzy knew after her words that her sons would always be protected when they were around her.

As the door cycled shut behind her, the dishes on the table were consumed by a wave of nanites, and Izzy made her way to the lounge. “Right. Where were we, Prime?”

“One moment, Dakira.”

As Izzy sat, she felt that strange disconcerting sensation of a jump and pressed her hand to her head for a moment to relieve the dizzy spell.

“Amy has just woken up, Dakira Izzy. You commanded me to summon Captain Mikhlas, Silian, and Amy when they were all awake. Would you like me to summon them all now?”

“Yes. I need to have words with all of them.”

***

“Prime, give me another lounge here,” she said, gesturing.

“And make a doll. I want you in this conversation, and I don’t want to have to keep looking at the ceiling. I get a crick in the neck just from looking up at Mikhlas and Silian.”

As nanites swarmed around the room making the changes, Izzy heard the bell that indicated her guests to this meeting were here.

“Come on in.”

As the swarm settled, Izzy saw a Prime doll sitting on one of the couches with its legs crossed, looking nonchalant. She turned and saw the three she’d summoned.

Silian’s face was expressionless as always, but Amy could not hide a wide grin. She caught Mikhlas looking at her and she swallowed.

~Come on, Izzy, keep it together. Don’t let your brains fly out into space every time the man looks at you.~

Izzy took a seat, crossing her jeans-clad legs and waving at them all to hurry up. The men both stood in front of her and did the arm crossing salute.

“Go talk to Prime for a moment,” she told the men as Amy sat down next to her.

“So…?” Izzy asked.

“So, what?” Amy’s eyes were fixed on one thing, and her mind miles away.

Izzy turned to look and saw Silian bending down to speak to Prime. “Amy, look at me,” Izzy said. Amy tore her eyes off Silian’s rear end and turned to Izzy.

“Spill,” Izzy said.

“I can’t,” Amy whispered.

“Why not?” Izzy whispered back.

“I just can’t, not yet.” Amy widened her eyes and gestured over to the men. ~Ah~, Izzy thought, ~she doesn’t want to say anything in front of them~.

“You’re not fooling anyone,” Izzy said, giving Amy a look that meant they would discuss it later.

“So, why did you call us all here?” Amy asked in a normal tone of voice, that made the men turn around. “And why is there a Prime doll here?”

Izzy nodded. “Because I’m a bit pissed at her, to be honest, and I think I might get more answers out of her if the three of you are here as well.”

Prime’s doll didn’t have a face, but the black mannequin tilted its head as if rolling its eyes.

“What’s got you all riled up?” Amy said, frowning.

Izzy pointed at Mikhlas and Silian. “They are slaves.”

“What?” Amy said her voice going up a full octave.

“And apparently I own them.”

“Are you fucking serious?!”

Silian and Mikhlas exchanged a confused look before turning back to them. “We’re not slaves,” Mikhlas said.

“Really?” Izzy said, leaning forward. “So if you decided you wanted to become a potato farmer instead of being a Fleet Captain, could you do that?”

“Well, no,” he admitted.

“Were you ~taken~ from your mother at birth and sent to the same academy that apparently ~my sons~ are supposed to attend?”

“Yes,” Silian replied, “Men of the Fleet are always—”

“How long is your term of service to the Crown?”

“Until we die,” Mikhlas said. “Yet we have access to Prime.”

“What do you mean? Why is that important?”

“A large portion of the population has restricted status,” Prime said. “This means they are not permitted to use any of my nanite-empowered services, like healing or physical care.”

“Just because there are slaves worse off than you doesn’t stop you being slaves.”

“And we receive payment for our service—”

“And you have no families to support, no choice to even have families. You spend your entire lives alone and fighting for a cause that you are on the ~wrong side of~!” Izzy blazed.

Mikhlas stiffened. “The Fleet cannot disobey a command, no matter what it is.

“We must do as the Monarch commands, but if enough captains and commanders believe that the command is an unnecessary waste of resources, we can call a temporary cease until the matter is reviewed again.”

“As it stands now,” Silian said, “the Fleet is used mostly for fighting the rebels, to execute the Taking Law and all the laws of the court, and to ensure that anyone who breaks them is punished accordingly.”

Amy was almost hyperventilating on the couch next to her, her eyes looking wild. “The Taking Law? You take children from their mothers and feed them to this academy that you said you barely survived?”

“And the laws of the court?” Izzy spat. “That viper’s pit you spoke of made up of the entitled few who sit in their ivory towers and determine how everyone else lives?

“The Fleet is the hammer they use to enforce their privileged status.”

“How many are there? In the court?” Amy asked.

“At the moment, there are three hundred families,” Prime responded. “All are noble and entitled by the previous Monarch.”

“How many of them are actually good for the people of the Realm?”

“Five men, that I know of,” Mikhlas said.

“Five people? From three hundred families, I can only trust five people? Are you kidding me?”

“It’s not what the Fleet was built for,” Mikhlas said. “We are not alone in the Universe. There is life everywhere, and not all of it is pleasant. The Fleet was built to protect the people of the Realm, to serve them.

“Before the Dark King, the men of the Fleet could retire, but since the Dark King came to rule, things changed.”

Izzy turned blazing eyes upon the Prime doll. “Why? Why did the Sentinels select a man they knew would turn out to be an authoritarian despot?”

“Survival,” Prime replied. “In a time of war, difficult decisions must be made to ensure short-term survival that in the longer term are not appropriate to ensure a healthy society.”

“She’s right. The Dark King wasn’t always bad. At first, the Realm needed a strong king, ruthless, who would bring us out of war.

“He did, and things were great for a while. But then he began using the red smoke and it all changed,” Silian said.

“What’s the red smoke?” Amy asked, frowning.

“It’s a hallucinogenic poison that when burned, gives off a deep-red smoke,” Mikhlas said. “It sent his mind into chaos and he became paranoid.

“He confined himself to the Palace and left the Realm in the hands of his greedy court.”

“And Zaftar is his Doge, and he’s in charge now, until I’m crowned?” Izzy said.

“And his running bitch, Kasana, tried to get you to stop this ship so she could board it,” Amy said. “Does anyone else find that highly suspicious?”

“What? I didn’t know that!” Izzy said.

“But Silian disobeyed a direct order from a superior,” Mikhlas said. “Zaftar will most likely hang him, and me.”

“No, he won’t. I order you to disregard anyone’s orders but mine until we know who we can trust.”

“But Dakira,” Silian said gently. “You are not yet the Queen. You don’t outrank him or Kasana.”

“So, we’re basically fucked, then?” Amy said.

“He cannot make any new commands. He can only ensure that the old laws are enforced until you have a new Doge.”

“When can I replace him?”

“When you get to the Palace, the Sentinels will come see you one at a time. As soon as they are done, you can choose a Doge to ascend to the position.

“It takes a few days, but once one is accepted, you will be crowned. Then, the Realm is yours.”

“However, the princes are already royalty and outrank both of them,” Prime said as if laying down four aces in a high-stakes poker match.

Izzy spun to look at the faceless doll. “How can they be royalty if I’m not ascended?” she asked.

Prime stood and glided to the large window. She turned to face them all. “The ascension process imbues you with the power contained within the Sentinels. This process is only expected from the Chosen One.

“As the only way to not ascend is death, your children are automatically given Royal status. They do not need to ascend. After your death, they will no longer hold a Royal status, but fall to nobility.

“This is how it has been for centuries. From the moment you became the Chosen One, they became Princes of the Realm.”