We’d ridden for two days to get where we were. I rode on the back of Caleb’s equine as he led the Earthlings to the Capitol City, the epicenter of The Euthenia Nebula. The place we were about to take over.

If everything went right.

Capitol City was where all the people from Earth had arrived when they came to the planet. I had been there before, but it had been so long ago my memories seemed to have warped.

All immigrants were registered, physical images were captured, and in the first three years of taking in the immigrants, implants were placed on their wrists to track them.

They stopped that practice as the Earthlings cut them out soon after getting to the settlement. Earthlings did not like to be tracked.

So only physical images and a little bit of paperwork were what was filed for each person who came from Earth to make this planet their new home.

Once documented, all who came in on the ship from Earth were placed on a hover barge and taken to the settlement. The desolate area away from the last civilized town.

The same few sentences ran over and over again as we rode the eight-hour trip on the barge. ‘Do not leave the settlement for any reason.’ ‘Do not come into the towns for any reason.’ ‘Do not procreate irresponsibly.’

Seems like we’d all done all those things. We’d only been here ten years and had quadrupled our original numbers.

I looked around and thought the streets looked shinier than I’d remembered. The silver dust sparkled in the sunlight. I looked at my husband, Caleb, to find the palace looming ahead of us.

It looked like a pearl in the midst of brilliantly colored flowers. The palace was surrounded by gardens, each with its own palate of colors.

On each side of the enormous palace, there were gardens of blue varieties of flowers. Right in front, the color scheme was purple. All the flowers in that garden were in various shades of purple.

The place was very beautiful, and I hoped nothing was going to be destroyed in our take-over. It weighed heavily on me, the attack we were on the verge of.

Things were too quiet as we entered the first city after we left the fields we weren’t meant to cross. No people were out and about as I thought they’d be.

The royals were away and most of their guards, but a few had to have remained. I wondered where they were.

Why wouldn’t even the regular citizens try to stop them?

It was all too easy and too easy was like too good to be true. Things just didn’t work out like that.

Town after town seemed to be deserted. Not even the bark of a dragon-dog or the purr of a lion-cat could be heard.

Birds still flew overhead now and again. Other than that, no form of life was showing its presence.

The men and women of Euthenia were more muscled than the people from Earth. Though none of the citizens were allowed any weapons, I was sure they could find ways to make some.

The need to see someone, anyone was making my wheels spin. Something wasn’t right.

I wanted nothing more than to live a simple life with a man I thought he wanted that as well. Instead, I found my new husband was a military leader back on Earth, and the people who wanted to take over the planet wouldn’t take no for an answer from the military hero.

Only one week had passed from the day we were married to the day they were about to engage in what would surely be a battle to gain the palace. I still barely knew the man I was married to.

Our nights had been spent making love, and he was a passionate man. I knew that much about my husband. His touch set my body on fire, and I would do anything to stay with him.

I supposed it was love that held me to him. I told him it was anyway. With not any real love in my family, I knew little about the emotion.

Caleb was my family now, and he came with a pack of brothers who followed just behind us. Hundreds of settlers were behind us.

My father and his cohorts were even back there somewhere. All knew they were not to bother Caleb and me. We were the leaders, and we were to be listened to, not spoken to.

Caleb made the rules, and everyone followed. Even his father and brothers, both older and younger did what he told them to without saying anything more than, ‘yes, sir.’

Some of the men carried weapons they’d fashioned from metals and woods they found. A few had managed to obtain some of the Euthenian weapons.

That in itself concerned me as not even the citizens of Euthenia were permitted to have weapons. Somehow they’d gained them from guards, and that meant there was a problem with the royals themselves.

Caleb had made for me and himself a matching set of swords, and I had fashioned them each in the protective clothing we wore. We matched in the black and white ensemble.

Belts held our swords around our waists, near our left hips. Caleb had taught me to use the sword to defend myself, but I was no fan of the sharp weapons.

To slice a chunk of Euthenian flesh from their perfect bodies wasn’t a thing I wanted to do. I’d promised myself I wouldn’t do such a thing if at all possible.

I prayed for an easy take-over. One that would end peacefully. I was no idiot though and knew it would be the greedy Earthlings who wouldn’t be able to come to an agreement with the people born in the planet of Euthenia.

And the possibility of an easy take-over was getting more and more unlikely. It had occurred to me that the inside of the palace might well be filled with the people who seemed to have disappeared off the face of the planet.

There was just no place else they could be, in my opinion.

I’d found out at the last meeting, just before we left that the royal armada was three weeks away. Someone was corresponding with the main ship. The one the King and Prince were on.

The new Princess as well. The news was she was being held as the King was afraid she had everything to do with the uprising.

Truth be told, Caleb and I had no idea who was behind the uprising. Caleb just told me we were the best people to head it as he had no intention of taking over the planet, just co-existing as he and Prince Kerr had discussed at length when he stayed with them at the palace.

Left in another’s hands, the fate of us and our children would be at risk. I felt a bit better knowing my husband was a good man with good intentions. I would support him and risk my life with him for what he believed in.

He helped me form a belief in his vision as well, but I wasn’t as convinced it would work as he was.

The first sun was nearly setting, leaving the smaller one to light the sky. It became a different color once the first, large sun left the sky.

The odd peach color had always brought a sense to me that anything could happen. Not in a good way, though.

In the sense of things no being right, things could change, things you never expected could occur.

I half-expected to see the royal armada drop out of the sky and annihilate us all with powerful weapons they must have on their ships.

I had no idea what kinds of weapons they had. They were by far a peaceful people in that regard. The only real downfall the civilization had, in my opinion, was the belief men and women were not created equally.

Women had to obey men. All men. When not married they must do as their father says and then once married do as their husband says. But all men must be obeyed.

To show their obedience, a woman must stay a step behind any man she’s walking with. It wouldn’t be so bad if the physical punishment wasn’t included.

The hook and strap were in every home. That included my childhood home. My father, an adamant rebel, used the strap and hook often in our home.

I assumed many of the settlers accepted and used it. Their main complaints were not being able to use the things the other Euthenians had.

Water, the endless supply of free electricity, the shops where you could purchase foods, both raw and prepared.

It was the things that made life easier they sought. But I knew they’d ask for so much more once negotiations began.

If they began.

The clip clop of the equine’s hoofed feet stopped. Caleb’s arm went out, and he made a fist. All the people behind us stopped as well.

Some rode equines, some came in wagons pulled by equines, and others walked. But nearly all the male settlers were part of the group that had come to the capital to take it over.

I was the only female. Caleb had told them that it was his one condition for accepting the role as the uprising’s leader. I was to remain with him, no matter what.

Caleb had been to the palace before. He’d been made to stay with the King and the Prince when he’d first arrived. His military background was something they feared.

He stayed with them for sixty sunsets before they found him to be a changed man and let him go to the settlement territory. Now he would do to them exactly what they feared most.

I hated the fact that Caleb had told me he and Prince Kerr got along wonderfully and he even considered him a friend. Now he was in this position against him.

My husband was a man of great honor it seemed. He was dead set against a rebellion, but when his father goaded him about it, he gave in and took the position.

“Draw your sword, Love,” he told me.

I leaned forward and whispered, “Caleb, there is no one outside. There should be no bloodshed if at all possible. If we come in armed and ready for a fight, we will surely get one. If we come in docile, then this might end peacefully.”

Caleb turned his head just slightly. His words came out slow and stern, “Draw your sword.”

I let out a heavy sigh and did as he told me. The shining palace lay in front of us. It was a beacon of hope to many. It was tearing me apart to be at the head of the uprising.

But I would do whatever my husband asked me to. He had control over the one thing I didn’t, my heart.