The Cimalian Princess: Rebellion
by AJ Marks
Part 14
Greg waited for an answer to his question.
“Maybe I do, why do you want to know?” the man replied back sounding cautious.
“I’ve run across some interesting information about her recently, she is the one of the 3rd CF?” Greg asked seeing a slight nod from the guy. “Its very interesting indeed. Quite a remarkable pilot coming from a Epsilon household, mother a teacher and no father.”
“No, her father was Prince Boris which makes Meia the rightful ruler,” the man replied back.
“Possible, as I said, very interesting,” Greg said back to him. “First off, I’m Greg, and you are?”
He watched the man hesitate for a few seconds before finally answering.
“Well Brad, I think we can agree that Meia’s had a very interesting life so far and I’d like to meet her very much,” Greg said. “We have a lot in common, including some people.”
Greg wanted to see if Meia looked anything like her father but didn’t say anything about that. Few people still realized he had been a friend of the late prince. He waited in silence to hear the reply.
“If you want to meet her it will take time to get there,” Brad said finally.
“How long?”
Brad went quiet for several seconds before finally replying. “At least a day’s travel.”
Greg’s eyebrows rose at that statement but said nothing. Instead he gave it some thought and figured he had misjudged where Meia was at the moment or his informant had been wrong. It was interesting as normally his informant was very accurate.
“If you want to go we need to plan quickly, I’m on a tight schedule,” Brad said glancing at his watch which Greg noticed had two sets of time on it. It intrigued him and he finally made a decision. He had to see this Meia personally.
“All right, only if I can meet Meia.”
“Very well, let me inform Liam that I’ll be gone for a day or so and not to worry,” Greg said knowing that any business which needed to be taken care of Dave could oversee. He pressed the buzzer waiting as Liam to get everything in order.
*****
Greg looked at the shuttle then over at Brad. The pilot looked at them both as Greg never expected this. They were headed off the planet to meet Mia which had not expected at all. Greg looked the pilot over for a second seeing the uniform and on the shoulder a yellow patch.
“You are aware the military is patrolling space, we’ll never get though,” Greg said hoping this had not been a mistake now that he agreed to go.
“We don’t’ have much time,” the pilot said interrupting any reply from Brad. “The Dragon will be back in ten minutes, things are very exact.”
“If you want to see Meia, this is the way,” Brad said.
“You sure?” Greg asked.
“Positive, but its dangerous for her to be planetside now,” Brad said. “All the enforcers know is what she looks like and has natural blue hair. That makes her stand out too much which is why she’s not on the surface.”
Greg nodded recalling that bit from the file he had read on her. He suspected there had been a lot of information which had been distorted due to the Emperor. He made up his mind and entered the shuttle. Looking around as he strapped himself in he realized not much had changed since his days in the military and wondered if any of the other rumors were true that he had heard.
“It might get bumpy, we have a storm forming over us. It’ll help conceal us from prying eyes, but after that I’m hoping for a short, quick flight,” the pilot said to them.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Greg said, in a way wishing he was at the controls. He was a fair pilot back in the day and relying on someone else was a bit nerve racking and hoped the patch didn’t indicate the skill level of the pilot.
*****
Randy sat back in his chair looking over the paperwork. Considering most things were on the computer it still amazed him how much was in paper. He had spent a while with Meia avoiding this work and now instead of actually working he was looking at the clock. The Dragon should be calling in soon and reporting on the mission and what might happen next.
“Admiral, report from the Dragon,” Kim’s voice said interrupting his thoughts.
“Transfer it to my station,” Randy replied back anxious to hear what the situation was. He only had to wait a second before the information was relayed. It was a quick message from the captain before they jumped. They had discovered someone who might be able to help them and quickly pressed a button waiting.
“Yes?” Meia’s voice said.
“We have a guest on the way, just picked up by the Dragon and will be here within the hour,” Randy said.
“Any idea who?”
“Captain Russell didn’t say who, only that they had someone,” Randy replied back waiting a few seconds for Meia’s reply.
“Guess I need to get ready,” Meia said.
“Relax and be yourself and things will work out,” Randy told her knowing she did better that way.
“Easy for you to say,” Meia replied. “I’ll be ready.”
“Good,” Randy said knowing that the next step was making sure the ship was ready. He next needed to contact Kim. He only had to wait a few seconds before she replied back to him.
“Admiral?”
“Kim, inform everyone on board to enact plan Cimalius, we have a visitor coming, and let everyone know we have one shot at this. We need to make it count.”
“I’ll let everyone know,” Kim said.
“Good,” Randy said as the communications ended. He wondered how this would go and what type of person they were actually meeting with. Up until now it had all be only discussions and planning. The real mission would begin now and the stakes were high.
*****
Meia sat nervously at the desk waiting for the signal she could enter the meeting room. Randy thought it might look unprofessional if she was already sitting in the room waiting for their guest. She wanted to protest but knew they had to maintain a show as well and looked up as Kim knocked on her door and entered the office.
“Everyone’s in there waiting, good luck,” Kim said to her.
“Thanks,”Meia said, glad to no longer be sitting there waiting, but now as anxious for a different reason. She now had to actually act like a leader.
Opening the door she noticed Randy, Brad, Captain Russell, John and a stranger she did not know. She realized he must be their visitor and after a brief second to look at him she moved over to the head seat to take her place.
“I was expecting someone else,” Meia said, looking over at Brad.
“My contacts informed me he disappeared shortly after our escape,” Brad replied, both talking about the upper class citizen in the rebellion she had seen when escaping.
“I see, so you are?” Meia asked looking at the man waiting, hoping to put as much authority into her voice as possible.
“Greg Vesta, Alpha,” the man replied and appeared to be staring at her a bit too much for her liking.
She managed to mostly resist the urge to fidget under his stare. Of course the fact the man was an Alpha didn’t help things out and years of Cimalian society still wore heavily on her considering she considered herself an Epsilon for most of her life.
“I didn’t believe it until I saw you,” Greg finally said relaxing back into his chair. “You know you have your father’s eyes.”
Meia blinked slightly stunned by what Greg had said to her. A meeting to start the process of a rebellion had started out with him mentioning her father and his eyes.
“Um, no I didn’t,” Meia finally said never having met anyone who said they knew him.
“And it seems you have his reflexes,” Greg stated.
“I thought all Cimals had great reflexes,” Meia said recalling the fight between her and her uncle who had infiltrated the Alliance.
“True, but I’m talking about pilot reflexes. I looked up your scores and you were even faster and better than Boris,” Greg said to her.
“You talk like you knew him,” Meia finally said a bit confused by the conversation. It wasn’t going like she expected and the others appeared content to listen in.
“I did, he was my friend while we were in the military,” Greg said. “We were wingmates on board the Illustrious before and during the time he met your mother, I’m sorry about her.”
Meia went numb at what she had heard while another part of her leapt at the thought that someone knew her father, and maybe her mother and wasn’t her uncle Henry.
“So, what can I do to help you?” Greg asked.
Meia took a second to recover her senses and focused on why they were there. “I’m here to take my rightful spot as ruler.”
“I thought so. There is more than the rumor which the Emperor says there is about you,” Greg replied back to her.
“What’s he saying?” Randy asked speaking up and Meia looked over grateful that he was stepping in. Greg seemed to consider the question before replying.
“The unofficial rumor is that the daughter of Boris has returned, someone who is the rightful leader. Of course the Emperor is saying you’re a lowly Epsilon who has been brainwashed by the Alliance to overthrow our entire empire,” Greg stated.
“Interesting, considering he kept me drugged and under his control to prevent any real memories from coming out,” Meia said.
“He was always over-zealous about power even when he was younger,” Greg said.
“Yeah I know, he did try to clone me which almost worked. They were very similar except for the memory transfer, it didn’t work too well,” Meia said recalling her recent capture.
“That’s only the tip of it all. I’ve been doing some research lately and discovered that both Empress Terresa and Emperor Aaron died of the same thing. Take your father out and the younger brother went to the Alliance as a spy and Henry had a perfect path to the throne. The only thing which bothered me was why he waited so long,” Greg stated.
Meia sat there listening as something clicked in her. “Me,” she finally said.
“You?”
“Yes, he needed an heir to the throne. The moment Boris and my mother conceived me his plan was hatched. You are aware that Empress Terresa ordered my father’s death?” Meia asked wondering if his research uncovered that part which she had been told.
She watched as he looked thoughtful for several seconds before replying.
“Nope, they’ve covered that very well,” Greg finally said.
“You know, you’re family is nuts,” Randy said speaking up again making Meia slightly grin at that statement. It was something she had thought as well as Greg continued.
“Somehow it doesn’t surprise me though. Boris had ideas and thoughts which went against the standard,” he said. “He treated the lower classes kindly which probably is why he fell for your mother and couldn’t say anything. In fact he only mentioned her in passing.”
“What did he say?” Meia asked knowing it had nothing to do with the mission.
“I recall it because it was an interesting conversation and up till then I never heard Boris talk about another girl that way before,” Greg said looking at the wall as he recalled the memory. “Looking back on it all I should have put it all together but we were young and idealistic. High classes didn’t mix with lower classes, especially for marriage or anything like that.”
Meia wondered if she would have ever been accepted by her father’s family even if he had remained alive. She had so many questions in her mind but had to stop and refocus on the present.
“So, where do we go from here?” Greg asked. “The resistance won’t help much, they are controlled by the Emperor. Ii only managed to find out because a source inside the Emperor’s staff said you were back on the planet. Seems like they were wrong, which means you’re uncle has bad information as well.”
Meia gave it some thought knowing where they were going to go with this all. It would end with her overthrowing her uncle.
End part 14