To serve a planet

Chapter 1

Ending to begin

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. They are wrong, after all of these years I still hear the screams of my parents and all who were loyal to them as they were spaced. I watched them slowly die, and witnessed the horror and agony on their faces as they floated by the small porthole in the compartment where they hid me. I have never forgotten that day, or the reason why we were there to begin with, and how important our mission was to be.

My grandfather once told me that there is a day in everyone’s life that changes them forever. At such a young age I didn’t understand what he meant, in the years to follow I came to know that day well. Along with the weeks leading up to it. My grandfather was King Thomas of Karn and we were a prosperous people who had inhabited the planet for over 400 years, and with this there were many enemies. I was playing in the antechamber off of the throne room that day and this is what I remember.

It was a warm afternoon with a slight breeze blowing off of the mighty sub regional Tarkian Ocean. King Thomas was enjoying this bit of respite, one of the few times he could just sit back and take in the beauty before him. The breeze was blowing his beard and it was tickling his face, and neck, he smiled at the sensation and squinted into the far-off distance, seeing only what he could see as a feeling of tranquility and euphoria came over him. He knew it would not last and he knew the argument that was about to take place, but it must be done for the good of all his people not just the ones he loved most dear. Then came the gently clearing of a voice from behind him. Yes, Leon is he here? He asked without adverting his gaze. Yes, your majesty, your son, Prince David is here as you requested. Good, thank you Leon please send him in.

Ah, David my boy, I am so happy to see you. Grandfather and Dad embraced fiercely, and then stepped back and grasped each other’s forearms. How was the trip to Station Tira? I trust all went well. Yes, father all is well as can be expected. The new weapons were installed and up and preforming better than expected. We have added an additional 100 kilometers to our engagement range with the new missiles and the point defense lasers are 15 percent more effective. Now that we know of the new capabilities, we can add them to the remaining weapons platforms and stations. I have already ordered this to procced.

Excellent son, I knew that putting you in charge of this project would get it back on schedule. I know you ran into some resistance with this. It was nothing I could not handle father, but please tell me why you have summoned me here with such an urgency. The happiness seemed to drain away and a sense of worry came over grandfather. Please son have a seat we have much to discuss and I am afraid you will not like what I have to say to you.

The sudden change in grandfather visibly startled my dad, and he quickly took a seat on the steps leading up to the throne. First the first time that I can recall grandfather sat beside him, not on the throne, but on the steps, and this startled my dad even more. Father this is not the place for you to sit, your place is there on the throne not on the floor like a commoner. Grandfather just smiled and put his hand on dad’s shoulder. Son I am no better than any of my subjects, I serve them just as much as they serve us, you must never forget this. A king is only as good as he treats his people, if you forget this then eventually the people will remind you.

Now brace yourself for what I have to say. You will not like it, and you will want to argue with me over it, but my mind is made up. Do you understand? Yes sir, but I reserve the right to debate this with you. I expect nothing less than that from you son. This is going to come as a shock to you, but please listen to the end.

We have sent out expeditions to all areas of space, as you know already. Seven years ago, we found a planet ideal for colonization. We kept it quiet, because we didn’t want the Confederation worlds to find out about it. Resources are plentiful, and a nearby asteroid belt is rich with raw materials, it is an ideal world, and it could turn the tide in these never-ending conflicts with the Confederation. I was afraid if word got out about it then they would colonize it and turn those resources against us. It is a years’ travel at maximum velocity from here. Yes, it’s that far away, but the potential is worth the expense that is required to have this planet.

Why haven’t you told me about this before? Did you not trust me? Clam down son and let me explain, remember I said: Listen to the whole story to the end. Dad shook his head, yes sir I remember. Good, now let me finish. Over the last five years I have sending ships there, one or two at a time, some older models with a couple of newer ones. Mostly transports, with supplies and printers to create more items as needed once they were on planet. So far, I have sent One Hundred and Fifty Thousand of Karn’s scientists, and civilians along with poets, authors, and musicians. This is what I was told it would take to create a totally new population of our people. There are also Fifty Thousand members of the Marine and Naval detachments.

Dad was shocked, and the look on his face made grandfather laugh. I also sent along 15 warships to help protect this world. Sir, how did you manage this without the senate and military boards finding out, as well as, the locals when that many people disappeared? I have a few tricks that you didn’t know about. First most of the warships were retrofitted from the boneyard, that was easy since they were already off of the books as usable ships, the transports were misplaced on the roles or the ones we got from the contraband runners. As far as the civilians, when we have a home world of seven billion and another two billion in space, well then it really isn’t as hard as you would think. The military were hand-picked and the loses during combat were, let’s say exaggerated.

Now here is the hard part, son you are going to the planet and you will rule in my place there. I was floored, I ran out to grandfather and asked why was he sending my dad away what did he do wrong. He had for gotten I was there, and caught off guard, but only for a moment. Now, now, Ben it’s ok don’t fret so, you and mommy will be going with him, but you have to promise not to tell anyone, it is very important do you understand? Yes, grandfather I understand. I will not tell anyone I promise. What else would a ten-year-old say to the King. Now go little one and let me finish talking to your dad. I left, but I didn’t go far I hid so I could listen to the rest.

Grandfather started talking to dad again once he thought I was out of ear shout. Son you, your wife, Ben and all of your servants will go along with members of the royal guard and five of our newest warships. Two Dreadnoughts, Two cruisers, and a lone destroyer, along with the Royal transport. It will put as a goodwill tour to some of the independent planets, and once you are in position the ships will be programmed to automatically jump into hyper and begin the journey. Once the point is reached there can be no return. This is for your safety, no one must come back and let the people what is going on for the first two years. We will have your doubles go around and handle the visits and if all goes right no one will ever know the difference.

You must tell no one son, I fear we have spies in the royal court, and if this gets out the consequences would be dire for us all. Sir may I at least ask what the name off our new home is? It has no name as of yet, it will not have one until a member of the royal family arrives and gives it one. It only has a designation, and you will be told that once you get near the jump point. I have no choice in this then father, no son you don’t. You must do this for the good of us all. You have one week to prepare, now go.

That week was like a whirlwind, everybody was always in a hurry packing this and covering up that. It was a time of excitement for most of us, but you could see the worry in dad, and grandfathers faces. At the time I couldn’t understand, the innocence of youth. On the way up to the royal transport, I saw my home planet for the first time from space. The colors of blue, white, red and green were dazzling, it was the most amazing thing that I ever saw. As I stood there looking out the view port with wide eyes, I thought what a great adventure this was going to be. Like I said the innocence of youth.

Over the next several days I was allowed to run and play where ever I wanted to, except the bridge of course. My double Ket and I would go to engineering, or crawlspaces, anywhere and no one stopped us. On the fourth day I turned eleven, I thought everyone had forgotten but me. I was upset, why had all of these people, even dad, forgotten, so I got mad and decided to show them I went and played in the garbage recycler. Someone was going to have to clean me up and it served them right, forgetting something as important as my birthday. Even when I came from the recycler and headed to my rooms no one paid any attention to me, it was like I wasn’t even there.

Danske, at last saw me, and boy he was not happy. Danske was my personal servant; he was supposed to attend to my every need. Your farther will be furious with you sire, where have you been to look like this. Do you know how much effort we put in to preparing your party and for you to show up like this, he will have my hide. Now let’s go and get you cleaned up for the party.

Just then the ship came out of hyper to sub light and you could feel the ship turn and reverse thrusters. Dad came out of his office in a hurry, but slid to a halt when he saw me and gave me that look. The look that says you will be in big trouble for this later, but he ran to the bridge. The breaking maneuver lasted my whole party, just enough time for me and Ket to say goodbye, this is when they leave us and we head on. The meeting of the other ships and transferring of the guard and the gear and clothes gave me and Ket time to run around the ship on last time. We were both laughing and running around the aft observation compartment when the other ships left. We never even saw them go; besides why would they leave when my double was still on my ship. We heard our ships engines start to engage and we knew we were in trouble.

We ran to the bridge as fast as we could, we had to let them know, that they made a mistake. We ran on to the bridge just in time to see the escort ships jump into hyper. Our ship started to jump and then it happened. Everything went dark, the ship was dead. Emergency lights flickered on, and everyone was frantically trying to figure out what had happened. I heard the captain tell my dad that without power and our escorts we were in trouble, and to head to the life pods in case something were to happen.

Dad grabbed me and was surprised to see Ket, then he ordered him to follow us to the pods. All of a sudden, the emergency klaxon was blaring, and the captain was saying prepare for impact, then the first missile hit and everything was a blur. We ended up in our quarters and dad Gave me to Danske and whispered something in his ear and made that you promise me face, Danske shook his head yes. Danske took me away and we hid in a crawl space as the ship was hit continuously by missiles.

After an eternity I heard a strange voice over the ship com say: Prepare to be boarded. The fight did not take long, we had no guards to protect us, but the ships crew put up a fight. Danske took off my waist belt and using a vibe knife he carved a sixteen-digit code in it; he told me to put it back on and gave me the vibe knife. He was going to check and see if the passageway was clear. That’s when they caught him, they gathered up all the remaining crew and members of the royal family, and marched them to the starboard airlock. Without a single word, they opened the hatch, and spaced everyone. I can still hear them scream as they were blown out into space. The last sight of my mom, with her face full of terror and pain, was of her floating by the porthole to the crawl space that I was hiding in.