Cami sis Nep stepped to the open door of the simple dwelling she occupied with her sisters, admiring the view across the wild valley they nestled on. It was almost five standard years since she had arrived on this distant planet, a frontier world named, rather prosaically Devon V. An average sized world it had a fifty- fifty ratio of water to land and had two rather small moons. The land masses fortunately had separated into several medium sized continents. Located in the sixth cluster, it was one of several worlds currently being terraformed in the medium sized galaxy called Domininos.
Transported here along with the rest of the survivors of the doomed planet Ti Lepus by the orders of the Dark Lord, she was just a couple of months into her twentieth year. Looking out the door, she watched two men, one stocky and younger, the other taller but older, almost plain with forgettable features, both walking along the newly paved street towards her. She smiled at them as she knew both of them well. One was Sessi Dark gen Wattar, late of the Secret Police and now a senior member of the local police and an easy man to underrate! The other man she knew even better, it was Tremma, her brother.
After her dramatic appearance on the screens of Ti Lepus, her siblings and friends had questioned her relentlessly about the Dark Lord and her relationship with Him. Cami had stoutly refused to answer any questions about ‘Him’ and denied any ongoing contact between the two of them. The questions had abated over the years but had started to resurface recently, due to a relationship that had grown publicly over the last two years between her and an older man, Isk was his name and he worked at one of the plants finishing the minor amount of terraforming required for the making the planet reasonable palatable for hominids.
“Hello Cami, how are the two brats, killed them yet?” Her brother smiled as he walked up to the house.
“She’s the brat!” Yelled Koral, the middle sister. “Mooning over the tri-d picture of her and her love.”
Watching from a few paces back, Dark wondered to himself if murder was imminent. The look that Cami threw into the house clearly showed that sudden death may be in the air. On a sudden impulse, he spoke.
“Tremma.” The young man turned around. “Before you get to close, better check to see if Cami has anything sharp in her hands!” From the glare that he now drew from Cami, he felt that discretion was the better choice.
“We’ll talk again later Tremma. It is a serious choice that you are considering.” Looking at Cami, the former member of the secret police raised his hat, something that he had picked up from the locals, and bid farewell to Cami and her sister. The youngest, Kinna came to the door and waved.
“See yah later!” She called. Going back inside, she gathered her bag of books and, with her older sister left to catch the ground transport to their separate schools. While Kinna was in her second to last year of secondary school, Koral was doing a specialised course in interdimensional space travel. The trip to their new home had excited her and she had applied to, and been provisionally accepted in the legion navy. This course and others were required upgrading for final acceptance. Both were considered beauties and had their attention amongst the male section of the planets population. The youngest, Damma was still in junior school and enjoying it.
Cami stood back from the door and waved her brother in. “You do want to risk it, don’t you?” She gave a tight smile. Tremma took a closer look at his little sister, she had grown up since that terrible day just over five years ago.
“I’ll risk it.” He smiled as he stepped into his sisters dwelling. Looking around he noted, once again, the sameness with his and Dammas, his younger brother, house. These houses were where the remaining people of Ti Lepus had been settled by the empire after the tragic events leading to the planets destruction.
The house was simple, a living/dining room, kitchen, three bedrooms and a bathroom. They had received the basics, beds, table and chairs and placed into school. Same decorations had been added, mainly pictures and some ornaments while Cami and her sisters had repainted the dwelling.
Sessi Dark gen Wattar had taken a paternal interest in Cami, her family and friends and, along with one of the few others who had escaped the ending of their planet, had become their formal guardian. But now Cami had left school and was working in the administration of one of the many industries who had found a profitable existence on the frontier world. Cami was a beautiful twenty year old woman. As well as her looks, a sense of mystery around her attracted men but it seems that she had settled on just one.
Tremma had never met the man, he was working as a cook in a factory, but had formed a plan to deliver meals, properly prepared and cooked to workers in the field, an ongoing problem for many companies. In this he was being assisted by the planets government, eager to remove any potential causes of unrest. But that wasn’t his worry, his oldest sister was.
An excellent student with a solid grounding in many areas, although less so in others, she was, in Tremma’s eyes, innocent and naïve. I guess that every older brother thinks the same about his younger sisters he conceded silently. Well, I might as well dive in to it, he finished the thought.
“Cami, we need to talk.” He began. A sigh was suppressed as he watched Camis chin go up in her characteristic gesture of stubbornness.
“Cami, please sit and listen for a fraction.” Tremma pleaded.
Giving her brother a straight stare, Cami lowered her supple body into a chair. Using her well-formed and tanned long legs she hooked a footstool and placed her feet on it. Tremma decided that this was all being done for dramatic effect and silently admitted that he was not unaffected. His sister had matured from an exceptionally pretty fourteen year-old girl into the beautiful woman she now was. The short shorts and crop top that she was wearing only emphasised the fact.
“This man you are seeing, he is from off planet, so what can you tell me about him, please?”
“Well,” Cami considered her reply, her fist holding up her chin. “He has a beard.” Cami hid her smile at her brothers’ obvious frustration so added. “He is well formed and strong!”
Tremma groaned. He reflected once more, as he had in the past, about his sister and her relationship with the Dark Lord. He didn’t know how deep it went and how one sided it was. When his sister disappeared and returned without saying where she had been and what she had done, it had concerned him. Her flat refusal to discuss the Dark Lord and Ti Lepus or the family they had left behind was also a worry. Dealing with an off-planet lover was just another layer.
“Thanks, Cami, for that image! I assume then that he is from some heavy gravity world then?” Tremma retorted. “You haven’t even shown me your picture of the two of you.”
“Well, I guess I could do that.” Cami reached for the comm, stretching out as she did so.
“I hope that you don’t dress like that when there is the two of you.” Her brother grumbled.
“Of course not.” Cami replied indignantly, then impishly. “When we are alone, we’re naked!” At the shocked look of her brother she added for good measure. “How else could we make love?”
As her brother surged to his feet, a look of outrage plain, Cami laughed.
“Oh brother, you are so easy!” Gulping down another laugh, “We have done no such thing and I only dress like this around the house.” She gave her brother a direct stare the reminded her brother of something or somewhere he couldn’t quite remember. “This you know!”
At his sister’s laugher, Tremma subsided. No longer angry, he was annoyed and let his annoyance show.
“I resent you behaving like that to me. I don’t deserve it. You have kept this man away from us and I only found out by accident when one of your coworkers let it slip.” He smiled. “Being from Ti Lepus helped. I never let them know that I didn’t know, about … what’s his name?”
Pursing her lips, Cami decided that it was time to tell some, anyway. “Isk, Isk von Sabera, and he’s from the Kingdom of Findus. I’m not sure what he does. He told me that he is a consultant," Cami shook her head, “Of some kind anyway.”
“Findus.” Tremma nodded thoughtfully looking at the picture she had shown him. It told him nothing, so he decided to have some fun. “Maybe I’ll ask Dark to look into him.” He looked musingly at the ceiling. “Findus has a good rep however and the company pays on time.” Glancing at his sister, he was surprised to see that she was smiling back at him.
“To late bro. Dark has been there, done that!” She laughed at her brother’s chagrined expression. “He just told me that Isk has a good rep as you said.” A meditative expression appeared on her face and she looked away. “When I asked for more, he just said that I would have to find out for myself.”
Tremma nodded, he would speak to Dark, although he doubted that the policeman would say anything to him that he wouldn’t say to Cami. “So how long have you been seeing this suitor for your hand?” he grunted, thinking he would have to leave soon.
“Four, almost five years.”
Stunned he stared at his sister. “But, but that would mean that you were fifteen!”
“Brother, I was displaying my body for sale when I was fourteen, remember?” Her expression hardened. “Isk has been a complete gentleman all this time, even after I turned eighteen and become of legal age.”
Feeling punch drunk Tremma stood, as he moved to the door, he turned back. “Kinna and Koral, do they know?”
“Some, I have left a few hints for them.” She paused, “I do have one more thing to tell you. He will be back in a few days. He says that there is something he has to tell me and then I will have to give him an answer to the question he gave me when he left.”
At the intent look on his sisters’ face, a sense of dread settled on Tremma’s shoulders and in his chest.
“The question was, will I marry him. Unless there is something extraordinary in what he has to tell me; my answer will be yes. You see, I love him”
“Oh.” Was all Tremma could summon up. At his sisters direct stare he remembered where he had seen it before. It had been when he met the Dark Lord that one time.
*********
At the announcement that they were in stable orbit Isk von Sabera smiled. The smile vanished when he considered what he had to tell Cami. He wondered what her reaction would be when he revealed the secret he had been hiding from her. What will she say when I tell her that I am a prince in the royal house of Findus? He thought, then put the thought aside. He would know soon enough.
His assistant appeared at the cabin door.
“We’ll be ready for the shuttle in point one of a fraction, your Royal …”
At Isks’ upheld hand she stopped. “I’m sorry sir.” She said, biting of the comment that everyone likely knew anyway. She knew about Cami, of course and bit her tongue on that subject as well. An efficient and hard worker, she was not a native of Findus V but of one of the incorporated worlds that made up the Findus Kingdom and had gained her position through merit. A rather tall and plain woman whose looks belayed a keen intelligence, she was completely devoted to Isk.
“We are not in Findus, Minska, so we will play the game out.” He added with a smile. “This is my last visit anyway.”
Minska Renaulti nodded, I have your schedule, it has the usual meetings.” She frowned, “Are you sure that you want to leave in seven days?”
Sitting back in his chair, Isk stared at the wall, the ceiling and the floor. “If I don’t get the answer, I won’t be staying.” He said. Then, pulling himself to his feet, he smiled and, moving to the door added, “Well, let us be of and play our little roles.”
Watching the way her employer had acted, Minska had stood in silence, uncertain once at what to say. Following Isk out the cabin, she thought about Cami and her possible reaction. Girl, if you hurt my boss, pray to whatever gods you honour for mercy because I will hurt you! She wondered at the current kings’ attitude towards Cami. When Isk had first informed King Naylor, two years prior to the current visit, there had been muted but clear, reservations. However after a week of talks and several family negotiations, to the astonishment of the rest of the family, the king had suddenly reversed his position and proclaimed his approval. This had happened after the king had eaten and taken his regular solo walk in the palace grounds. Minska had learned that a red headed lady had walked with him for a short while then left. The king had walked for a bit longer, shaking his head then returned to the family council and announced his change of position. He had never revealed who the lady was.
At the shuttle bay, Isk watch the controlled pandemonium that reigned at such times as loading expensive and fragile equipment. This was the replacement for the original machinery that incubated and preserved the plants and other organisms that controlled the oxygen balance. It was slightly different on this planet as the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere had been high, rather than low.
And this was the last delivery to Devon V, so it was the last visit for Isk von Sabera to the planet.
After watching the last container of machinery loaded, Isk and Minska boarded their own shuttle and, altogether the small convoy exited the cargo carrier and began their synchronised dance to the landing site. For most, the landing site was a temporary one located near the target factory.
The shuttle with Isk and his secretary were routed to the main terminal where an appropriate committee was waiting. The welcoming dignitaries were a small group as the Kingdom of Findus had been involved almost from the beginning with the terraforming. They still had several teams in the field assessing the local flora and fauna for both uses and dangers. This occupation was in itself dangerous and the teams had to be very careful. They had already had several nasty surprises, some deadly.
Landing close to midday, the official welcome was quickly completed and the group dispersed. Isk went first to the factory for updates then to his accommodation where he unpacked carefully and had a late lunch. Then, taking a deep breath, he picked up his comm and contacted Cami.
