The Cimalian Princess: Clone
by AJ Marks
Part 21
Randy walked onto the bridge of the Akagi taking a look around at the activity going on. Kim had made her way back faster than he had and already seemed to be making preparations for anything they might encounter on the mission. He nodded in her direction as she looked over at him before heading back out and towards his office mentally going over the mission.
He would be taking the majority of the second fleet, three battle-cruisers, four cruisers and seven destroyers to go with two patrol ships. The Hood had recently finished repairs and now was in the same configuration as the Akagi and the fleet would include the Eagle, the newest ship in the fleet.
Sitting down behind his desk he figured the biggest problem might be communications especially if the government wanted him to open a dialogue with the Cimalian Empire. HE had no idea if such an action would even be possible considering everything he heard about them so far.
A knock on his door made him look up. “Enter!”
He hoped he managed to hide his shock when Meia entered his office as she once again had blue hair, which seemed to fit her better than the blonde earlier.
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” Meia asked, slowly walking into the room.
“No, just going over mission reports and such, how about you, need anything for the upcoming mission?” Randy asked.
“You think this mission can succeed?” she asked.
“I should be asking you that question,” Randy replied. “After all, the entire mission is almost centered around you more than anyone else, if you can’t succeed then it will fail.”
He watched her give it some thought before finally saying anything. “I’ll try my best, but we must be ready for anything,” she said. “Now that I think about it, I think we should do fine.”
“If you feel that way then I have no doubt the mission will succeed then,” Randy said. “Everything will work out.”
“I just wanted to stop by and ask, I’ll head back to my quarters then and make preparations then,” Meia stated.
“We’ll need you to be at your best,” Randy said to her. “The fleet will be leaving in a couple of hours as most of the fleet is already assembled. We only need to finish resupplying and we’ll be on our way.”
“Then I should also get some rest,” Meia stated.
“I’ll let you know when we’re about ready for the final jump so you can be on the bridge and ready,” Randy said to her thinking about her hair.
“Thank you.”
“When did you change your hair color back,” Randy finally asked having debated to bring up the subject.
“I decided to have them rinse it out when I was in town, do you like it?” Meia asked catching Randy a bit off guard.
“Um, well, yeah, I do,” Randy stated. “It looks more like you than the blonde hair.”
“Thanks,” Meia said.
Randy watched as she seemed to want to say more but stopped before walking out of the office. He paused thinking she was acting a bit strange but decided it had to be due to her being nervous about the upcoming mission as a lot was riding on her abilities. He’d keep an eye on her to make sure she was all right.
*****
Meia made her way down the street trying to avoid any enforcers which had been anything but easy since it seemed like they all knew about her escape. A few times she managed to avoid a group rushing past her talking about an emergency at a laboratory which she assumed was the one she escaped from. She took her time to move not really in a hurry to be out in the open continuing down Charles Street wishing to see Yaal Street.
Looking carefully both ways for any enforcers she realized the very rules of Cimalian society allowed her to move so easily, yet also impaired her progress. In the Alliance she could use the crowds of the street to conceal herself, here the empty streets allowed enforcers to see her so cameras were not needed.
She ran across the street taking a second to gain her bearings still not seeing the street in question. A noise behind her caused her to stiffen before looking behind her to see two figures standing there. She didn’t need to be told who they were, their uniforms said it all, enforcers. She noticed only two and they always traveled in groups of three, until she knew where the third was she was in deep danger.
“I think our search is over,” one said moving towards her.
“Told you if we waited in the alley way she’d come to us,” the other one said almost boastfully. The tone in his voice grated on her nerves and she had a feeling he was a higher class citizen, probably a Beta even as her hand tightened on the pistol she had as she looked around for the third.
“Don’t give us any trouble, you’re worth more to us alive than dead,” the first man stated even as Meia caught sight of a glint of a reflection off metal giving way the third man.
She calmly stood having all three men and faced the two in front of her. “Sorry, but today isn’t your lucky day,” she said to them quickly firing off several shorts in the direction of the third man hearing a satisfying grunt before turning on the other two men who appeared stunned by her actions.
She fired first, her reflexes a bit quicker than theirs were and caught the first man in the chest as he dropped to the ground. The remaining man launched himself at Meia and tackled her before she could fire another round knocking her to the ground and the pistol was knocked out of her hands.
“Well, looks like I’ve got the drop on you this time,” the man said with a smile and Meia knew he weighed more than she did. She managed to surprise him catching in the groin allowing her to slip out from under him and standing back up. He recovered quickly and snarled at her. “You’ll pay for that one.”
He was taller and Meia knew she’d have to rely on her quickness to survive this battle. She feigned left and went right trying to surprise the man who still blocked her attack.
“Is that the best you can do little girl, then you might as well give up,” the man said laughing at her.
Meia crouched down lowering her center of gravity even lower than the enforcer could do he had size, but Meia understood it did not mean everything if you knew what you were doing and her training had been extensive.
“This shall be fun,” the man said then attacked himself.
Meia realized he had quickness but her smaller size allowed her more room in the alleyway than he had. She ducked two attacks before rolling out of the way of a third with the realization she could not do this forever as she risked more enforcers stumbling upon her location.
She dodged another attack which put her back up against the wall and a chuckle from the man as he closed in on Meia. She had seen such looks before when someone thought they had already won against her never knowing a battle was full of ups and downs. The battle was not over until the end and luck and chaos were your only friend.
He attacked again throwing a punch towards her face, this time Meia moved as fast as possible to the right hearing the impact of the man’s fist on the solid wall behind her before turning to face the man. His hand was in pain by the way he held it, his face no longer as confident but full of rage. H only needed a little bit more egging.
“Still having Fun?” Meia taunted. “You know, no wonder you’re an enforcer, no reaction time, if you were a pilot you’d be dead.”
“You little piece of,” the man stammered before growling and lunging forward at Meia.
She waited, timing her counter to perfection spinning out of his way before countering with an elbow to the back of his head as he passed by her. He fell to the ground motionless. Meia quickly grabbed his communicator and tossed it down the street before doing the same with the other man. Picking up the small pistol she continued on her journey to get away.
The next street over was Charles Street and felt a bit relieved. Now she had to make sure there were no enforcers around, taking a cautious look around she spotted no one before heading to the building and hoping that Carl and Ewa did exist and were willing to help her.
Quickly looking through the list of names while keeping an eye out for enforcers was a harder task than she imagined but she couldn’t stay on the street much longer. She went down the list finally spotting the names Carl and Ewa before pushing the button and hoping they were home.
“Can I help you?’ a male voice asked after a few heartbeats.
Meia hesitated for a second unsure what to say, so she said the first thing which came to her mind. “I’m a friend of Trina.”
“And you are?” the voice asked back.
“Meia,” she replied deciding to be honest, the only thing she had going for her was the truth.
“Just a moment,” the voice said back. Meia waited a few seconds before the door buzzed indicating it was now unlocked. “Apartment 305 on the left, third floor.”
Meia quickly walked through the door hoping to find whoever was on the other side sympathetic to her otherwise her escape would be short lived. She walked up the stairs before heading down the corridor looking for 305. With a firm grip on the pistol she knocked on the door waiting a few heartbeats while listening to any sounds which might be coming from the other side of the door. A middle aged man opened the door taking a second to look down at her then a quick glance up and down the hallway before back to her and looking at the pistol in her hand.
“It’s dangerous to be carrying a weapon like that around in public,” the man said, and Meia assumed he was Carl.
“Its more dangerous for me to not carry one right now,” Meia replied waiting.
“Get in,” the man finally said, opening the door wider allowing her into the small apartment and looking around not seeing anyone else and she relaxed a bit as Carl shut the door. “Where’s Trina?” he asked turning around to face Meia.
“I’m sorry, she’s dead,” Meia replied. “She was trying to help me escape but was shot by one of the guards. She told me to come here and you could help me.”
“So you’re Meia,” he said, sitting down and scratching his chin while looking her over a bit more critically this time. “Don’t see what’s so special about you for her to one and on about you.”
“I could say the same about you, Trina held you and Ewa in high regards to send me here,” Meia replied back to him. She had relaxed a bit but still had yet to discover if they could help her or not, it all could be a trick.
“Nothing special about me, just another Gamma citizen in the clog of the Empire, the ones the higher ups like to stomp all over,” Carl said, his voice holding resentment in it. “I’m just trying to make it through each day with my wife Ewa.”
“Until a few months ago I thought I was only an Epsilon class citizen working as a pilot on board the Kitakim during an invasion of the Alliance and thinking I’d get revenge for their killing my mom,” Meia replied back to him watching as he seemed to look on thinking about something.
“Are you really who Trina said you were?” he asked, almost wanting confirmation about something.
“Who did she say I was?” Meia asked hoping they were thinking the same thing.
“Boris’ daughter.”
A simple statement yet it meant so much more to them than anyone else could imagine. Carl asked the very question which went to the core of everything and Meia understood the answer while a simple yes was more complex than anything else in her life.
“Yes.”
The answer seemed to hand in the air between them.
End part 21