Page 54 of Devin
“Oh, child. Who said anything about Terra? There’s a whole wide universe out there to exploit and the Mahdfel have given you enough currency to live anywhere you like.”
“I want to go home!” Charlette actually stamped her foot. “So you are coming with me, and you are going to tell everyone that I hated every minute of it, and that-”
“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not Terran. What makes you think they’ll listen to me?”
“Because you’re a princess. Everyone listens to a princess,” Charlette said as she brought a weapon out from behind her. Val didn’t recognize it, but if it looked like a gun, and Charlette was pointing at them like it was a gun, it was probably a gun.
“Now walk!” Charlette shouted. “That way!”
“Now look here,” Grena started.
“I only need you. You want me to shoot your son’s new wife? Because I can do that.” Grena looped her arm in Val’s and started to walk in the direction Charlette had indicated. A few steps closer, and Val spotted a device on the ground that musthave interrupted the force fence and let Charlette in. She was not working alone.
“You are not thinking clearly, because as she is married to my son, she’s now my daughter. She’s a princess too.”
“She’s a low rent cocktail waitress. And on top of that, she’s a fucking terrorist! You think she’s a proper wife? You haven’t read her record. I have,” Charlette said smugly.
Grena looked from Charlette to Val as if expecting Val to deny it. She wouldn't be caught in a lie. Being transported to Etlon 2 was supposed to be a new fresh start, no matter what she’d done, but apparently almost anybody could read and access the files. Val shrugged.
“None of that will stop Devin from hunting you down to the far corners of the universe if you hurt either one of us,” Val said. “They are very particular about people who kill their women.”
“Stupid. The universe doesn’t have corners,” Charlette said with a huff. “Now move!”
“Oh, darling, you need to learn a lot about royalty,” Grena said, stopping them in their tracks. “First of all, you don’t order them around. You make suggestions, and then you change the subject and circle around so that they can present the idea as their own. Then you tell them what a wonderful idea it is that they thought up. That is how you manage royalty. You don’t tell them what to do, because when they get it in their stubborn head to-”
“Charlette!” A voice called from the forest beyond.
“It took you long enough!” Charlette called into the bush. “If I had to listen to the bitch say one more word,” she squinted her eyes at Grena.
“Secondly, calling them names directly to their face is no way to garner-”
Charlette aimed her gun directly at Grena and fired.
“Bitch, please.”
Before Val could do much more than lower Grena gingerly to the floor, Charlette pointed it at her and the whole world went black.
Chapter 28
Val
Val was cold, and there was a slight vibration around her, like bad air conditioning. She had a splitting headache, like the time she turned 21 and drank herself silly on free drinks at the Painted Rainbow after her lottery left her unmatched for another year. She wiggled her fingers and her toes. Everything seemed to be in working order.
Apparently Charlette’s phaser, or whatever they called it, had been set to stun. She’d marched them far enough away from the camp so that she wouldn’t be discovered with two unconscious bodies, and then zapped them.
But where had they been taken? This definitely wasn’t Etlon 2. Val opened her eyes. After a blurry moment of gray, she managed to focus. Grena was sitting beside her with her back against a wall, her eyes closed. She held her hands out swaying them back and forth in a hypnotic motion.
Val eyed their surroundings. They were in a box. It was a big gray metal box, but it definitely wasn’t a room. It was only about four feet tall, and maybe six by eight feet wide. It was just enough room to stretch out in, but not enough to stand up. Thereseemed to be no visible door or window. The only break in the wall was a three inch square that seemed to be pumping in cold air. At least they didn’t have to worry about breathing.
“Where are we?” Val asked.
“Judging by the size, a standard space freight container. And judging by the artificial gravity, we’ve left orbit,” Grena said.
Val was on a spaceship. In space. Sure, she’d been living on an alien planet for a few months now, but she hadn’t expected to journey through space anytime soon. This was not what she expected her first space flight to be like.
“Where do you stand on capital punishment?” Grena asked calmly.
“What?”
