"Alekai, are we back within the rendezvous coordinate location?"
Alekai glanced over at his space-positioning system. "We're dead centered on it."
"Why are they not answering our hailing?"
"Try again." He suggested with little hope.
"This is Jessica Chantal, Second Lieutenant of the Black Warrior Team 5883JCAV. If you can hear me, please respond, Caravan."
Dead silence.
"This is Jessica Chantal, Second Lieutenant of the Black Warrior Team 5883JCAV. If you can hear me, please respond, Caravan. If ANYONE can hear me, please respond!"
…
"Bessie, where was Caravan at the last point of communication?" Jesse triggered Bessie's command mode.
"Calculating." Bessie was silent for a few minutes.
She returned quickly with the coordinates for the last point at which Caravan had transmitted.
As the coordinates flashed on the virtual screen in front of them, Jesse blinked, not quite understanding.
From his Command Deck above, Alekai began laughing.
"I don't…I don't understand…"
"What don't you understand, Second Lieutenant Jessica Chantal of the Black Warrior Team 5883JCAV?"
"The—the coordinates are way off. So far off that—"
"Yes?"
Jesse was silent for a moment.
Alekai switched on the video feed.
She was crying.
Alekai sighed. "Let me get in touch with Tom Duncan. See what's going on."
Jesse said nothing, merely nodded.
It took a few minutes for Bessie to locate Tom Duncan. He had been off doing his tree work, as usual.
"What's going on, Alekai? Is Jesse with you?" The familiar warm sound of Tom Duncan filled the chamber, making Alekai's eyes mist.
"Yeah. Yeah Tom. She's here. But I think something is badly wrong. We have to stay up here for a few hours to recharge, but we need to get back to The Jungle."
"How many hours is a few hours?"
"Roughly about six hours, Tom."
"That will be around seven-ish. I'll have dinner ready for you kids then."
"Okay Tom."
As he hung up with Tom, Alekai ran through a few possibilities in his head. He shared none of those possibilities with Jesse.
None of them were good.
"Jesse, what exactly was my mission? You said you were going to tell me but we got a little busy fighting off some wasps."
She sighed and ran her fingers through the digifiles looking for the appropriate feed.
The date of the data feed was earlier today. It was a brand new mission order.
As soon as Alekai heard the voice of Captain Annapolis Barret, he knew things had gone from bad to worse.
"Hello Jessica. This is Captain Annapolis Barret of the star ship Caravan. If you are listening to this feed, I will assume that you survived your mission, but I do not hold out any hopes. Chances are great that you will have perished."
He could hear Jessica gasp as fat drops of tears rolled down her face. The more he listened, the angrier he got.
"…this side mission was highly critical for the successful execution of the main mission we had been tasked with carrying out.
You and Alekai Vartis have been charged with carrying out the mission-critical assignment of being the decoy to ensure the safe retrieval and delivery of the Crown Prince Alexander Vartis and the Princess Cassandra Harran, back to Taranhara.
Your coordinates were sent to the nearest apoidean star ship and our expectation is that they will send a scout ship to rendezvous with you.
This will allow the Prince and Princess to safely board the ship as all enemy eyes will be on you.
Since Alekai is untrained and is unable to assume the duties of the Striker, you will not have a Striker onboard. Your chances of fighting against the apoidean scout ship will be effectively zero. Your only chance of survival will be evasive maneuvering.
By now, we will have already begun our journey back to Taranhara. Should you be lucky enough to escape the scout ship and survive this mission, you can rendezvous with us when we return to that quadrant of the Universe at the next cycle.
Good luck, and good bye.
This is Captain Annapolis Barret, signing off."
For a long while, there was no sound other than Jesse, softly weeping.
Alekai sat there, still and silent.
His amber eyes were rock steady. A personal grudge began to grow within him.
As he sat there listening to the sound of Jesse crying, his grudge grew stronger and stronger.
Whoever this Annapolis Barret was. Whoever this Alexander Vartis was. Whoever this Cassandra Haley was. They had better hope he never met up with them.
He carved their names into his long-term memory.
This was deeply personal.
After awhile, Jesse's weeping became sniffles. And then the sniffles turned into hiccups.
"Jesse. When is the next cycle when your Captain Annapolis returns?"
"Fo—ur (hic) four years."
"You telling me we have to wait four more years to meet up with this bitch?"
"It's the cycle. It takes that long (hic) to go round trip. Two years from here to Taranhara. Two years to turn around and come back (hic) to Sol."
"Sol?"
"Sorry. That's what we call Earth's sun. Its name is Sol."
"Ah. So if we leave for Taranhara now, we will meet up with them in 2 years?"
"Yes. The chance of meeting them enroute is almost zero since they will be doing various jumps to get from one pocket of the void to another."
"Jesse. I promise I will give you satisfactory retribution within the next 2 to 4 years."
For a moment, her red puffy eyes stared at the video feed of his face uncomprehending. Then she shook her head.
"I don't want you to cross these people. They are scary."
"They threw us to the wolves to die!"
"This is the Crown Prince and the Princess you're talking about. You can't go up against royalty."
Alekai sneered. "What royalty? He's got the same family name as me."
"That's because you're both…" she shook her head.
"Both what?" Alekai stared at Jesse.
"Nothing."
"Jesse. Tell me. We're both what?"
"You're both from the same family!"
"What?"
Jesse sighed. "The Crown Prince Alexander Vartis is your younger brother. He was born from a different mother."
"Then why is he the Crown Prince and I am fodder for the wolves?"
"Because your mother is a Concubine and his mother is the Queen."
"And both of us got sent to Earth?"
"For Hatching and training, yes. You were supposed to be the decoy to draw danger away from Crown Prince Alexander Vartis."
"I'm the decoy?"
"Yes. You've always been the decoy."