Gone for a Spin (The Two Moons of Rehnor, Book 16), Page 3

  "I'm not going to Planet Vegas, Gran." Jim smiled, and tried to make a quick exit. He knew full and well the reason Shelly was asking, and he knew how she would respond if he told her the truth. "See you in a few days, I hope." He kissed her cheek and waved to the driver of his limo, one foot already out the door and down the step.

  "Oh no, you don't," Shelly insisted, grabbing her grandson's arm. Like a four-legged Tractoderian, a reptilian creature from a planet on the outskirts of the former Empire, Jim and Shelly wobbled across the steps together. "Jimmy, I want to know where you are going and exactly when you'll be back."

  "Gran." Jimmy sighed and unlatched her claws.

  "Is he sending you somewhere? I may be old, but I'm no fool."

  "I never said you were," Jimmy replied. "In fact, I could have sworn you were clairvoyant just now."

  Shelly was surprisingly perceptive, even now, past her centennial year. When Jimmy made a frowning face, rolled his eyes, and pretended to deny it, she knew immediately his destination was Planet Earth.

  "Now, Gran..."

  "He's sending you to find them, isn't he? Well, lucky for you, I've already packed."

  "Oh, no you're not," Jim insisted. "I'm doing this alone."

  "Oh yes, I am." Shelly waved for the droid to fetch her bag. "I've known Katie longer than anyone, and if anyone can find her, it'll be me."

  "Gran," Jimmy sighed again, "It might be dangerous. It might be fruitless. It might be incredibly boring. He might kill us when we return empty handed. In any case, it won't be any fun. Furthermore, what about Grandpa Tim?"

  "Tim is fine with your sister, Gwen, and his new droid companion. He sleeps all day, anyway. He won't notice that I'm missing for at least a week. Put my bag in the trunk,” she ordered the droid and sat down in the limo.

  At this point, Jimmy realized, he had no choice. With a heavy sigh, he loaded his own bag and joined Shelly in the limousine’s back seat.

  "I haven't been to Earth in several decades," Shelly giggled happily, buckling her belt and leaning back. "If we have any extra time, we ought to drop in on your uncle Larry at The Home."

  As it turned out, Jimmy was actually glad that Shelly had insisted upon joining him, for she immediately diffused what could have been a very awkward situation. When they arrived at the spaceport to board the SdK spaceplane, much to Jim’s surprise, it was already occupied by Shika’s ex-wife, Joanne.

  “Hello Jim,” Joanne said, turning her face away from the window, where she had been dispassionately gazing out at the rainy tarmac. She was dressed in a traveling suit, her hair tied back in a severe bun, and sitting next to her was a similarly dressed, Carolie, as well as young Rory.

  "Well," Shelly exclaimed, kissing Joanne on the cheek. “How lovely! We’ll all be traveling together.”

  This was followed by a slew of appropriate grandmotherly comments regarding Carolie's beauty and Rory's growth. More small talk was exchanged, as seat belts were fastened and carry-on items stowed, followed by a brief few moments of near suffocation as the plane departed the Planet Rozari, and burst into outer space.

  "I hate space travel," Jimmy murmured, ordering his first drink of the flight.

  "Just like your father," Shelly replied. "Thad got spacesick practically every time we flew anywhere. Of course, the SdK planes have eliminated most causes of the sickness, but I remember when the boys and I used to go visit Tim on commercial flights. Invariably, one or both of them would throw up, and they'd spend the next twenty hours sitting in wet and stinky clothes. One time, your uncle Larry must have eaten this..."

  Jim and Joanne exchanged glances as Shelly continued to reminisce, until Joanne nodded her head slightly, and rose from her seat.

  "Excuse me." She smiled politely, heading toward the lavatories in the aft.

  "Excuse me." Jim rose and followed her back.

  Carolie looked up from her book, eyeing them both as they walked away. Rory, in the meantime, had fallen asleep.

  "What are you doing here, Jo?" Jim hissed, when they were away from the earshot of the others. "Do you have permission to be here?"

  "No,” Joanne hissed back. "But, I don’t care. I’m escaping from that hellish Empire, and never coming back. I’m taking the kids to Earth, even if we have to beg all my cousins to let us sleep on their sofas."

  For some odd and inexplicable reason, the thought of never seeing Joanne again sent Jimmy's already depressive mood into a tailspin.

  "Are you going to find Steve?" he asked morosely, although he tried to sound upbeat. "I'm supposed to look for him and his brother. And, his mother. Somehow, I’m supposed to convince them to return, although I suspect they’d rather stay on your cousins’ sofas."

  "I don't give a damn about Steve, or any of the rest of them," Joanne snapped. "Good luck and good riddance searching the planet. When you find them, tell Steve his father already issued us a divorce. He got it all, no strings attached, and I got nothing."

  "That's probably a good thing," Jim replied softly, now his heart strangely elated by this news. "I’m sure you don’t want anything he has. What about Sara?" He looked around, as if he just realized that Steve's teenage daughter wasn't there. "Who has custody of her? I can’t imagine the Evil Emperor even remembers her name."

  "I doubt that,” Joanne scoffed, and made a move for the restroom door. “She wasn't granted permission to leave, so she had to stay there. I left her at the school. She’s a nice kid, but when it comes down to it, she’s not mine. My own come first. So there you are."

  Joanne shrugged, and went inside. Jim heard the door lock click behind her. For a moment, he stood patiently in the hall, studying the emergency escape instructions next to the fire extinguisher. He hummed a little to himself, some nameless tune from an old movie, one of Shelly’s favorites from back in the day.

  “It’s Barlan Rando Marathon Week on the Classic Movie Channel,” Jim recalled her saying. “I used to love Barlan Rando. I’d watch anything he was in. My favorite was that one with Lois Lay. It was called…”

  “Right, Gran,” Jim had interrupted, hurrying out the door as if he had someplace important to go.

  Now for some odd reason, there was a Barlan Rando song stuck in his head, and no matter where he diverted his thoughts, it kept on playing.

  “Your turn,” Joanne announced, returning from the loo, and heading back to the passenger cabin at a rapid clip.

  "Hey, Jo?” Jim called. “Maybe, you and I could...”

  "No. I’m done, Jim. No more princes, no more dukes, no more Rehnorians.”

  "But, I'm not. I'm from Earth, like you. I’m only a duke because of Thad, remember?"

  "Sorry." She slipped around the corner and took her seat next to Shelly. The last thing Joanne needed was another man in her life. That last man Joanne wanted was Duke Jim.

  Jim Mattson, Duke Kalika-hahr, stood in the bathroom hallway, surprised by his feelings of regret. The last thing he needed was to get entangled with a woman. The last thing he wanted was Steve de Kudisha's ex-wife, Joanne, yet for some odd reason, he kept imagining her in bed.

  Chapter 4

  Sara de Kudisha was surprised when no one arrived to pick her up at school. All the other students had already left for their school break vacation, including her step-siblings, Carolie and Rory. Actually, they weren't her step-siblings anymore, according to her former step-mother, Joanne. Her grandfather, the Emperor had annulled Steve’s marriage, and so now they were all back to being just acquaintances.

  Sara wouldn't go so far as to call them friends. She and Carolie, once closer than sisters, barely managed to speak civilly to one another this entire semester. Carolie didn't like any of Sara's friends, and Sara didn't like the fact that Carolie, and her half-brother, Arsan were dating. On top of that, someone had started a rumor that Sara was pregnant.

  That was totally, and completely not true! Sara didn't know who would be spreading such malicious gossip, although she suspected it might have been Carolie. Just because Sara
was sick for a few days, and couldn't manage to keep her breakfast down, didn't mean that she was THAT kind of sick, and Carolie knew it.

  Sara decided she wouldn't miss having Carolie for a sister, although she might miss Rory a little bit. As far as brothers went, he was pretty cool. Certainly he was better than that weird Arsan, who Carolie had been so flipped over until he ran out on her. Ha! That served her right. She deserved it.

  Coincidentally, that was when the rumors about Sara's non-existent pregnancy started popping up, as if Sara had anything to do with Arsan’s dumping her.

  "Carolie has issues," Sara decided, and shifted her position. Perching on a suitcase wasn't all that comfortable, but her alternative was the cold, hard cement of the sidewalk, or the muddy, wet spot of grass right next to it.

  By this time, she was practically the only person left at the school, and as far as she could tell, there weren't any approaching speeders in the sky.

  "Someone will come for you," Joanne had said, loading Carolie and Rory into her speedster. She had arrived in one of the pool cars, one of the identical black boxes with the SdK logo on the side. They were heading to the spaceport. "You're not allowed to come with us," Joanne continued, giving Sara a perfunctory kiss on the cheek. “Someone will take you back to Takira-hahr. Have a good vacation, sweetie. We'll see you soon."

  Soon? What exactly did that mean? Carolie had already posted on her Footbook status that they were moving back to Earth, while Sara...well, Sara was stuck on a suitcase on a sidewalk waiting for someone to take her home.

  Sara remembered being homeless before. After her mother died in a spaceplane crash, she wandered from relative to relative in Karupatani. Eventually, she ended up with an ancient, old lady named Garinka, who had been her first father’s grandmother, but was really something like Sara’s great-grand-Aunt. Garinka was okay. She was full of stories, and there was always food on the table, although most of the time, it was mutton, which Sara didn’t like.

  After several months of pretending that she was a Karupta, Lord Taner fetched Sara and brought her to his estate in Turko, where she stayed for about another year. That’s when Sara first met Carolie and Rory, and because they were little kids, and didn’t have issues, they all got along great, swearing they’d be best friends forever.

  About a year later, Sara was summoned back to Mishnah, where she met her real grandmother, Katie, and lived with her for a while at the Imperial Palace. Carolie got really jealous then, or at least that’s what Sara thought, even though she tried not to brag about being a princess.

  After Katie went away, and Steve married Joanne, they all moved in together, and pretended they were a family. Except, Steve was never home, and when he was, Joanne was usually mad. An inter-species, galactic Brady Bunch they definitely were not.

  Now, at nearly sixteen years old, Sara wondered why she had been abandoned again. Everyone she ever loved didn't stick around for very long. Not even Steve, her one constant these last few years, had gone to Earth, leaving only a cryptic message. What if this time, Sara was left completely alone?

  "I'm almost an adult," she told herself, searching the skies yet again, for the hint of a limo with the Imperial crest, or even an SdK speedster. "I can manage," she insisted bravely, when those skies revealed only dark puffy clouds. She would be strong like Katie. Katie wouldn’t worry about being alone.

  In fact, Katie would probably welcome it and look forward to the adventure. She wouldn’t sit around on a suitcase waiting for someone to rescue her. Katie would grab a speeder and hot wire it, if that’s what it took.

  Unfortunately, Sara didn’t know how to drive yet. Her learner’s permit was a low priority for Steve, and she hadn’t the first clue how to hot wire anything, especially a car. But, there was a bus, and Sara had some money on her birthday paycard!

  "Maybe, I'll go to Earth too," she thought. "Since, everybody else is going there. I look enough human that no one will ever know I'm something different. I can start my life over, and tell everyone I'm really twenty-one. I'll be an actress and a film star. I can be anyone I want. I’m Sara Golden, ordinary human girl from…" Sara couldn’t think of the names of any places on Earth, as they hadn’t yet covered it in her Intergalactic Geography class.

  “Oh well, I’ll make something up,” she decided, and comforted by this thought, she glanced up to see a tiny blip in the eastern sky. As it drew closer, it revealed itself to be an SdK pool speedster. “Crap,” she said out loud, although in truth, she was a bit relieved.

  "Princess Sara?" a woman's voice called, pulling the car up on the curb in front of Sara's suitcase. The door popped open and a young brunette stuck out her head. "Are you..."

  "Yeah," Sara said. “That’s me.” She dragged herself to her feet, and loaded her bag in the back of the car. "Where are we going? Where's my official home for this week?"

  The woman laughed, although it sounded a little forced.

  "Back to Takira-hahr, I'm afraid. Don’t you like it there? My name is Jullee, by the way. I’m sorry, I'm so late, but I was just told to come get you."

  "It's alright." Sara shrugged, and leaned her head against the window as the speeder turned around and headed back in the direction from which it came. "Is anyone in Takira-hahr, or is the house empty except for me?"

  "Oh, lots of people are still there," Jullee laughed again, even though nothing was particularly funny. "Including me. Although, all of us employees are working and living in the annex. I don't think anyone is in the house except for...well, except for HIM."

  "Great," Sara moaned. "I guess I'll lock myself in my room until vacation is over."

  When the girls arrived in Takira-hahr, and Jullee had parked the speeder in the employee garage, she escorted the princess to the door of the family mansion.

  “You’re not going in?” Sara asked nervously. The thought of being alone in the building with only the Emperor sent chills down her spine.

  It shouldn’t have. Sara knew with certainty her grandfather wouldn’t harm her, although their relationship had been little more than an occasional hello, or an awkward silence at the dinner table when Katie had tried to engage both in conversation. Still, it had been a number of years since she had seen the Emperor, and the rumors surrounding his behavior were more than unnerving.

  “No, I’m not allowed,” Jullee replied, a little rushed, as if she couldn’t wait to get away from the building.

  “Any chance I could stay in a room in the annex, too?”

  “I’ll work on it!” Jullee promised, already half way across the courtyard. “I’ll check and see if we’ve got a vacancy.”

  Sara stood for another moment outside the door, gathering her resolve, while trying to come up with a plan. She could turn around and leave right now, wait for a bus to take her to a spaceport, or hitchhike into the city, and figure it out from there. But, what if the Emperor was actually expecting her? That was highly unlikely, but then, you never know. Chances were he’d send someone to find her, maybe a whole contingent of the Imperial Guard.

  Alternatively, she could go in the house, run quickly to her room and lock the door. For the entire school break, she’d lie in bed, order meal trays from the maids, and watch a lot of movies on her vid. That actually didn’t sound too bad. In fact, it seemed like the ideal vacation to a nearly sixteen year old girl. If only she could pass through this door, traverse the hallway, and make it upstairs to her room.

  “I can do this,” Sara told herself, recalling a lesson taught by Katie years ago.

  “You can conquer anything,” Katie had said. “Especially if you have a gun.”

  Well, Sara didn’t have any guns. All she had was her own fortitude, which at the moment was seriously lacking, so she began to repeat that old mantra of Katie’s advice, something that had calmed her fears in the worst situations.

  "Shoot them first," Sara remembered. "And, if you can't, take the second shot, but make certain your aim is more accurate than theirs. If you don't have a gun, us
e a knife, and if you don't have one of those, use a sword. If you don't have any weapons at all, get a big stick or a giant rock. If all you've got is your hands, scream out loud at the top of your lungs, and with your strongest kick ever, get him in the nuts."

  Sara wasn’t about to get her grandfather in the nuts, but knowing she could with Katie’s permission, gave her enough courage to open the door. From there she stepped into the entry hall, whereupon she was met with a cold, musty gust of stale air from a house that felt empty, and smelled of death. Hurrying across the inner courtyard, now absent any of the beautiful flowers that had once overwhelmed the entire mansion with their delicate scents, Sara ran up the staircase to her bedroom suite on the third floor, not even once glancing around to see who else was there.

  Once inside, she firmly locked the door, dropping her bag right in front of it, just in case. Collapsing on her bed, she listened to the rapid beat of her heart pounding heavily in her chest.

  “Welcome home,” she muttered to herself. “Welcome back to your prison.”

  Chapter 5

  Katie was desperate to get away from the Winnebago. There were far too many people in it. Far too many men. The thing wasn't all that big to begin with it, and there were only two double beds. Worse still, there was only one bathroom. In less than a day, the RV resembled a fraternity house, and the next night became an exercise in frustration over who would sleep where.

  "You are not going to share a bed with him," Shika had declared, when Gabe suggested he and Katie take the tiny bedroom. "Arsan, you're outside. Go find a tree."

  "Why me?" Arsan cried, as Shika pushed him through the door. "I didn't do anything. Furthermore, it's raining. Come on, Steve. That's not fair. That's the thanks I get for saving your life? Next time, I won’t bother. Go ahead and drown."