The Cimalian Princess: Clone
by AJ Marks
Part 16
Randy waited a few moments after everyone started to leave the conference room before turning to Meia.
“I’ll meet you back at the shuttle,” he told her waiting for her reply.
“Sure thing,” Meia answered, standing and heading out of the room with the rest. Randy turned towards his father who stood waiting for the rom to empty as he walked over to him.
“Quite an interesting mission I see,” he said to him.
“Yeah, there were a few times I didn’t think we’d make it back, or that the mission would even be close to any success,” Randy told him honestly.
“Well, I’ve learned not to underestimate either of you two,” Jack replied back to him. “Speaking of Meia, she looks different with her blonde hair.”
“I did a double take the first time I saw her like that,” Randy said, pausing before continuing. “I’ll admit, I like her blue hair better.”
Randy looked at his father who was quiet for a few seconds wondering what he was thinking about. “I’m not sure, but something else seems different about her,” Jack finally said.
“She had a rough time on the planet’s surface, and any contact with the Cimalian Empire is bound to affect her,” Randy said a bit defensively.
“I know, just, well she checked out right?” Jack said to him.
Randy looked at his father wondering when he began questioning Meia so much before answering. “Yeah, Doctor Leaver pronounced her fit.”
“Good, just making sure son,” Jack said. “You should probably get back to your ship. I need to get ready for the council meeting later on today to go over your findings and recommend a course of action. I’ll let you know what the decision is after the meeting. Right now I’m going to recommend you lead whatever mission we decide.”
“I’ll be ready, I’m keeping my flagship though, she had a good crew,” Randy said.
“I understand, and I don’t think anyone is going to challenge that. I know a good crew is hard to find,” Jack said to him obvious he had been there as well.
“I should get going then, Meia’s probably waiting, and we have to decide on a place to eat,” Randy said.
“Oh, a date, is that wise?” Jack asked him, looking more like his father than the commanding officer.
“Just a celebration for a successful mission, that’s all,” Randy replied. He noticed his dad did not seem to object and merely shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, take her somewhere nice, but remember what I said, something seems off with her,” he told him.
“Okay, I will dad,” Randy replied. He headed towards the Akagi’s shuttle where the pilot and Meia were waiting to head back to the ship. He entered the shuttle giving a nod to the pilot to take off before taking his seat.
He looked over at Meia as the shuttle lifted off wondering if his dad was right, or was he being paranoid about something.
*****
Henry watched Mia walk onto the small transport ship which would take her into the Alliance territory. Everything had been taken care of and another potential problem would be eliminated. Ann was only going to be a short term solution to the Meia problem and the Alliance. Mia would kill Ann and take her place within the Alliance with her superior memories.
“Everything is in place emperor,” Jezic said talking about the procedure to getting Mia into the Alliance.
“Ah, soon Jezic, all my pieces will be in place one more,” Henry stated with pleasure. He knew Jezic did not share Henry’s optimism but he also did not know everything. Jezic would understand soon enough about what would happen.
The tall man had been an important part of his plan for years. He had helped out eliminating his brother almost twenty years ago and now he would help eliminate and replace Boris’ daughter, the right heir to the throne.
“Once Mia has taken Ann’s place prepare the 1st CF for combat. We’ll be going on the offensive once more,” Henry said.
“Sire, our fleet has yet to recover from its losses in the previous invasion,” Jezic replied.
“There is no time anymore,” Henry said, looking out as the ship lifted off. “The time for patience is almost over, and the time for action is almost upon us.”
“This goes against my gut feeling, but the fleet will be ready admiral,” Jezic finally said.
“The fleet is the only thing which you should be concerned with admiral,’ Henry said to him.
He watched the transport until it was a dot in the sky. Soon everything would be in place.
*****
Trina glanced around her work place. Ever since she noticed Meia in the work area she understood exactly what they were doing. She also had a feeling that any rebellious action would probably not help. It all means she had a problem. She had to maintain her duty despite not wanting to do any of it.
Her rebellious side wanted to help out Meia. She figured she owed that much to her friend Didi. Her friend’s daughter needed to be protected and she had the ability to help. The only problem was figuring out how she could help out.
“Trina, what’s your number?” her boss asked.
“Point four, within normal sir,” Trina said quickly looking at her screen and not looking up again. She wanted no one to know her thoughts of rebellion. Actions against the Empire has severe punishments including death.
She dared to look back over at Meia once more, understanding that the young woman was more than a lowly Epislon citizen. The woman was the daughter of not only Didi, but Prince Boris Cimal.
Didi always said Meia was blessed. She realized that the funding for cloning increased dramatically after henry Cimal became emperor. Her mind froze at that thought. He had planned to make a clone of her.
“Is everything all right Trina?” her boss’s voice said booming across the room.
“Yes sir,” Trina said snapping out of her though and focusing on the screen in front of her.
“Good, I don’t want to have to reassign you to some other task, there are not many lower jobs for you low class citizens,” her boss said.
Trina said nothing but felt the insult. She wondered if he really understood how smart some in the lower class were. She knew everyone in the room was focused intently on their screen not wishing to be yelled at either.
She figured her first task, surviving the day.
*****
One person stood in the open area of the receiving bay, watching as the slight breeze made trees sway. Looking around as the shuttle landed he felt relieved upon seeing no one else around. Walking off the shuttle was a short woman, her heard covered as she approached the man.
“Any sign of the target?” she asked as she reached him.
“We’ve been keeping an eye on it, we should be able to get you close shortly,” the man replied back to her.
“Good, for now let’s get out of this wind,” the woman said, holding on to her hat.
“Follow me and we’ll get you to a safe house,” the man said as the shuttle lifted off and headed back to the ship it came from. The delivery was complete and now a new mission would start.
*****
Randy made his way across the deck of the hangar to where his date for the evening stood. He contacted Meia a few minutes earlier to see if she was ready and stated she had finished up and adding a few last minute touches. He had been hoping she would wear the dress she wore before they started out on the mission but did not press it.
He glanced over the hangar seeing mechanics working on several fighters. He noticed Ben working on Meia’s fighter. He thought Ben always seemed to be working on her fighter. Of course he did not understand the relationship between fighter and pilot but knew it was a vital part of how a pilot operated. He would not mess with their superstitions.
The elevator doors opened allowing Meia to exit onto the hangar. To him she looked beautiful even with the blonde hair. He realized she was wearing the dress, a deep blue color which was almost the same as her normal hair.
She seemed to glide over to where he stood, a walk he had not quite seen from her before. He wondered what happened to have this display from her.
“Hey, you look great,” Randy said to her.
“Why thank you,” Meia replied stopping in front of him.
“Shall we head out?’ he asked, offering his arm.
“Sure,” Meia replied, accepting his arm. They made their way to the shuttle which would take them down to the surface of Pacifica, and then the monorail to the restaurant.
“Kim,” Randy said into his communicator
“Yes admiral?” Kim replied.
“I’m not to be disturbed unless its an emergency,” Randy told her.
“Understood,” Kim replied.
“Thanks,” Randy said, as they entered the shuttle. Sitting down he nodded towards the pilot who powered up the shuttle in preparation to launch. He looked forward to a meal with Meia and relaxing a bit.
*****
A pair of eyes watched intently as the shuttle came down out of the clouds. The night sky was mostly clear and pleasant for a change with the storms staying away. The figure continued to watch the shuttle descend all the way down and landing on the pad.
Here the figure carefully watched the occupants that walked out of the shuttle. Finally one figure caught his attention and he turned to switch on his communicator.
“Yeah?”
“Target is on the ground,” he replied waiting a second.
“Roger, we’ll take it from here,” the reply came back.
He put his communicator up and walked away, his part of the mission over.
*****
Randy walked into the restaurant with Meia walking beside him before nodding to the hostess who led them over to a table off to the side. He helped Meia sit before sitting down himself and taking a menu from the hostess.
“Your waitress is Sandy and will be with your shortly to get your drinks,” the hostess said before turning to head back to the front to seat another group of people.
“This is a nice place,” Meia said, as they both glanced round the restaurant and he had to agree with her, it was nice.
“Yea, my mother can recommend some great places,” Randy replied. Before he could say anything else the waitress came by to take their drink orders and then left to fill the order. Randy glanced back at Meia feeling that now he should breech the subject.
“Is there anything that happened on the planet you’re not telling us, or me, maybe something personal?” Randy asked hoping he did not overstep some personal boundary with Meia.
“Not really,” Meia replied, and Randy had the impression she was being evasive once more.
“I’m only asking because I, we, care about you and you haven’t seemed like yourself since returning,” Randy aid. He had to make sure Meia was all right as many plans they were forming relied on her and if something happened they needed to know about it.
“Well, perhaps being down on the planet brought back a lot of bad memories that I thought I had overcome,” Meia finally said. “It’s a lot I have to think about. Its easy to be away from it and think about it, another to be back and recalling what I was.”
Randy gave it some thought as the waitress came back and delivered their drinks and asking if they were ready to order. He looked over at Mea who picked up the menu before telling the waitress to give them a few more minutes.
“So what do you recommend?” Meia asked after the waitress walked away from them.
Randy looked at the menu for a couple of seconds before giving a few examples feeling a bit better about Meia. He thought it was logical she would go through something like this after going back to the Cimalian homeworld. He would still keep an eye on her for the missions, or that’s what he rationalized it with.
He knew his father would be relieved with the news, they were pinning their hope to end the war on her and if anything happened to her that plan would fail.
End part 16