Empire's Son: An Epic Science Fiction Novel Series

I gripped the controller as I watched my Mario character in the crimson red racer bounce across the brightly colored mushrooms. I was in the last lap and halfway to the finish line, but I knew I wasn’t going to make it in time. Princess Peach had blue-shelled me and sped past moments ago. Even if I was lucky enough to get a bullet rocket from the flashing blue item boxes, I knew from past experience that if I wasn’t in the lead by a huge margin this close to the finish-line, I was done for.

Sure enough, as I was rounding the last corner, I saw Princess Peach race across the finish line, which was quickly followed by a loud, “I win!!! Again! Suck it, Mario!”

I shook my head in defeat and resigned myself to the game stats coming up on the screen. Princess Peach had a clear thirty point lead. She creamed me fair and square. I tossed my controller on to the couch between me and the Princess Peach player.

The red-gold haired woman sharing the sofa with me just grinned as she grabbed the cold pizza off her plate and took a large bite like a slice of Joe’s Pizza was some sort of victory prize. Well, maybe it was––it really was that good.

“I’m much better at Forza,” I said to Anna as I took a swig of my beer, trying to ignore the large amount of cleavage peaking from her tight blue tank top as she reached behind me to grab the bowl of chips from the sofa table.

“Oh really? Because I’m pretty sure I’m top dog there too,” Anna smirked, popping a chip into her mouth. She then leaned over, plucked the beer from my hand, and guzzled it down. She handed it back less than half full.

I gave my beer a long sad look, then shrugged and took a swallow. I coughed from it going down the wrong way, and then managed to get out, “You only think you are.”

She threw her head back and laughed in that beautiful way she always did. “No. I am last time I checked, but hey, we can pull up the game stats just be sure.”

I reached over to take her controller and tossed it onto the coffee table. I did the same with my own, and then I slid over to close the space between us. She didn’t even move, just sat there eying me with those wonderful hazel eyes like she knew something I didn’t.

“We can check it later. I want to do something else now.” I reached around and pulled her close.

She resisted the kiss I was trying to lay on her, holding her head back and looking me square in the eye. “You going to be like that then? Just because I’m winning, you’re going to try to change the subject like a total loser.”

I laughed. “Hell, no. I know you are a winner. Why do you think I’ve kept you by my side all these years? If I can’t win at something, then I have someone close by who can.”

“So is that your dastardly plan for conquering the world? To keep me as your secret weapon?”

“Shhh, don’t tell anyone, you will ruin the surprise.”

I leaned forward, and this time she let me come in for the real prize. Our lips met and everything melted away. Nothing else mattered, but the two of us. In that moment, everything was perfect and exactly as it should be.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Except for that damn noise. I kept hearing it, but didn’t know where it was coming from. It wasn’t the game. Anna had exited out of it, and it didn’t sound like anything I’d ever heard from that console. And yet, the sound was strangely familiar. I had heard it somewhere recently.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

A sickening feeling filled me as I remembered were I had heard the noise. With remembrance, the dream began to dissolve. Anna’s apartment disappeared, Anna herself evaporated like wisps of smoke, and I was left with only the irritating sound and a truth I didn’t want to face. All I wanted was to just get lost in Anna again.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

“What!” I yelled.

I was then awake. My eyes popped wide open. The dream was gone. It was back to reality for me. I might have been surrounded in that moment by the softness of bedding and pillows of my new room in the White Palace, but it only reminded me of my current location. I was on Dyniss, in Ethia. Far, far away from Earth, my life there, and Anna. My heart felt like it was breaking all over again.

The door to my room swished open to show a squat little man dressed in white flowing robes. He stepped just past the threshold of the door so that it would close behind him. He then clasped his hand before him and bowed low at the waste.

“Forgive the intrusion, Highness, but I was sent to awake you and prepare you for the morning meal with his Excellency.”

I sighed heavily. My heart still aching to be back in that dream with Anna. But it was long gone, so I might as well get with it. I sat up in the bed, and waved the man further into the room.

“Of course, please come in. You have a name?”

The man slowly rose from his bow. I noticed his graying brown hair was cut close to his head. “Dur-rele, my Prince.” That’s right. The Emperor said he’d come to get me ready this morning.

“So are you like a servant or something?”

The man’s face reddened and I knew I had insulted him. Shit. Well, that’s what he got for waking me up I grumbled to myself.

“I am his Excellency’s personal aide,” he told me as he stood with pride. “But for the time being, he has given me the task to guide and teach you so that you can become more acclimated to your life here.”

I eyed the little man who had not come further into the room. I also noticed that he wasn’t looking directly at me. His gaze fixed to a place on the floor several feet in front him. “I thought my father was going to train me?”

“Oh, he will, but there are many things you need to learn outside of your Perception Dome-ni and role as his successor.”

I grunted. In other words, I still had a lot of remedial training to do, and he was the one to make sure it got done.

“I see. Well, do I have time to get a quick shower, or is he waiting for me now?”

Dur-rele gave me a slight bow. “You have time to gather yourself together.”

“Good.” I threw off the bed clothes and made my way to the bath room.

After a nice hot shower, I stepped back into the room with a towel around my waist. My bed had been made and fresh clothes were laid out. Dur-rele was nowhere in sight.

I quickly dressed. The blue long coat was a few shades lighter than the one Vang had presented me with on his ship, but the swirling designs were the same. I was starting to become an expert at the tiny clasps down the front of the coat that tightly closed the coat together, and in no time at all, I was dressed and ready to go. Dur-rele still hadn’t appeared, so I decided to go ahead and leave, knowing my luck, I was already late.

I strolled through the door to find the Emperor’s aide waiting for me with his hands clasped together in front of him. He gave me a small smile when he saw me.

“Excellent. Follow me, I will show you where the private family dining hall is.” The little man turned on his heels and moved down the corridor like he was on a mission of great importance.

I followed all too aware of the guards who turned to accompany us. It wasn’t the same two as last night. That much I could tell. So I was going to have a guard everywhere I went, even in the palace? I sighed heavily. Just one more thing to get used to I supposed.

We used the alcove to go down two floors beneath us. This corridor a little longer than the one with my room. We stepped from the transporter and Dur-rele stopped in front of the first door. He palmed it open. He then stood to the side to let me enter. I stepped through and stopped in surprise.

The room was much like the rest of the palace with the cavernous rooms and white stone floors and walls, and vaulted ceilings, but this room had one distinct difference. Along the perimeter, a short wall extended a few feet into the room, creating a raised bed for overflowing greenery.

There was an impressive display of flora in the perimeter garden with varying shades of greens, an explosion of colorful flowers, and even several tall saplings of strangely shaped trees I had never seen before. I couldn’t help but move to the raised bed closest to me to get a closer look.

“It is pleasing to see you have an eye for horticulture.”

I turned to find the Emperor had entered from a door across the room. He quickly closed the gap until he was standing next to me.

“My mom loves to garden. She’d could easily spend hours with her plants.”

“I know. It was something we had common.”

“Oh.” I blinked at the man in front of me. Of course my mom knew him. I wouldn’t be here otherwise. But still…. It felt strange to hear this man I barely knew talk about her with such a softness in his voice.

But the moment didn’t last. It was like the Emperor suddenly realized his slip and I could see a barrier come down in his expression like a reenforced steel gate. His jaw flexed for a moment, and then he quickly wheeled around and marched to the quite large dining table in the middle of the room.

“Come, let us dine. We have much to discuss before I give you off to Dur-rele for the day.”

I was a little sad. It felt like I had just missed something important. An opportunity of some kind. The kind that wasn’t going to show itself much––maybe never again. But the moment was gone, and the Emperor was half way to the table already.

He took a seat at one end of the dark wood table and motioned for me to do the same. I walked to the other end and sat down. The chair conformed around me. I was starting to get used to that. At least I didn’t jump when I sat in a chair and it started to wrap itself to the curves of my body. The chair I sat in while enduring Vang’s long lectures had trained me well.

The gap that separated us seemed immense in that moment as I looked across to my birth father. His back was completely straight as he waited for the white robed servants to set a plate down in front of him. A moment later, another servant did the same for me.

I looked down to the food there. This was different than what I had gotten use to on Vang’s ship. Morning meals consisted mostly of a bowl of sticky substance that had little taste and was the consistency of day-old oatmeal. This was a feast.

A juicy slab of golden meat took up a large portion of the silver plate. Around it were blue round marbles as big as grapes, and around that, a bed of fluffy white substance that reminded me of rice. I picked up a utensil by the plate that resembled a fork, but instead, had two long prongs. I used it to gather some of the white substance and put it into my mouth. It was surprisingly sweet and was much crunchier than rice.

“It’s called denzie, and comes from the Kingdom of Wynn. It used to be one of your favorites,” the Emperor replied.

“Really? It’s quite good.”

“I am glad you approve.” He gestured to the rest of the plate. “The florin and freezas were your favorites too.”

I looked down at my plate at the food there. Once again, this man had deliberately taken me into consideration in his planning. I looked back up to my birth father as I realized all of this couldn’t be easy for him.

I’d been missing for twenty years, and been raised by people who, in his mind, had betrayed him. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure he was angry at them and the whole situation, but he was at least trying to move past it and make an effort to connect with me. So I figured that maybe I should do the same. I eagerly took a large bite of what he gestured to as the florin.

The golden meat tasted delicious. It practically melted in my mouth and reminded me of a flavorful roasted pork. I nodded my approval, and tore into my breakfast. It had been a long time since I had food this good.

We ate in a comfortable silence until most of the food on our plates were gone. But then the Emperor sat back from his plate, took a long sip from a silver goblet, and then gave me a piercing look.

“I assume your accommodations have been adequate?”

I had just put the last slab of the florin in my mouth, so I nodded my head while I chewed. After I had finished the bite, I was able to reply.

“Yes, it is all quite nice. Thank you.”

“Excellent. If you find anything you require, do not hesitate to ask any of the guards or palace staff or even Dur-rele. It is important to me that you are comfortable and consider this your home.”

“So then the restrictions that the Zahnians were under not to speak to me don’t apply here in the palace?”

The man at the other end of the other table pursed his lips. “Vang has told me of your desire to talk to everyone in spite of what might be appropriate. You understand that rule is in place for your protection, and if you had followed it, then perhaps this business with the late Chief would not have happened.”

I swallowed a lump in my throat. Yeah, the thought had occurred to me, and I didn’t much like that he was bringing it up. But he did have a point.

“Yes, I am aware, but I am also far behind on what I should know about Ethia and the ways of this culture, and it would go a lot faster and smoother if I wasn’t restricted in who I could talk to.”

To my surprise the Emperor nodded. “I agree. That is why I have informed those who you will be seeing on a day to day basis that they are free to speak to you, especially if you have questions. I am allowing this because those within these walls are loyal and should not be a security risk to you, but do not expect this anywhere outside the White Palace.

“You are a Zahn, and it isn’t becoming for a Zahn to be engaging in idle conversation to anyone he might come across. You will, of course, have those who you can have more relaxed conversations with, but until you have been more fully trained, I would ask you to restrain your interactions to those that are important.”

What the hell would the Emperor deem as important? I could only imagine. I decided to just nod and agree. There was no point in arguing, not on something like this. It would be far better to ask forgiveness than permission, if it ever came down to the fine details on what was considered important.

“Yes, father,” I replied to placate him, then opted to change the subject to something that had been on the back of my mind since our conversation yesterday. I wasn’t sure how to bring it up, especially with the others in the room. I knew he wanted this to stay private. Would he mind if we discussed this with the servants hovering over us? I cleared my throat and chose my words carefully.

“About our conversation yesterday. I-” but I stopped for a moment trying to figure out the best way to bring up what I was thinking about.

The Emperor gave a signal with his hand, and within moments, the two servants attending to the meal glided through the doors and leaving us alone in the large dining hall. It was at that moment I realized that Dur-rele had silently disappeared some time durning our meal, and the guards who had followed me were nowhere to be found. My birth father sat back in his chair and peered over the long expanse of table between us with a knowing look.

“You think that this unsolvable problem is just a way to manipulate you into doing as I ask without as much strife and conflict. You don’t think there is an unsolvable problem.”