“T hat son of a bitch,” I hissed under my breath as I listened to the conversation .

Neither of them could see me from where I was hiding out, but that was okay. Without Jordan knowing that I was there. I had the upper hand. As he led Clara to the brig, I slipped into the control room and snatched one of the interplanetary communicators from where they sat in a pile on the dashboard. Clara would have to wait for just a little while longer .

If I didn’t warn both planets right away the fallout would be catastrophic. Clara would never forgive me if I chose her over saving billions of lives. I slipped back into the narrow air vent just as Jordan reappeared. He would hear me if I made the call there. I carefully backed away from the main control room, taking care not to make any noise that might alert him to my presence there .

When I was safely in the upper cargo hold, the only location that didn’t have cameras, I punched in the royal call code that wouldn’t need clearance from either planet to go out. For the first time in my life, I was thankful for my status as a royal. Getting through all of the red tape otherwise would have cost us precious time. The other end rang through to the royal ship that I knew my fellow princes were on .

“Vessel sixty-three oh niner, what’s your emergency,” answered one of the guards .

“This is Rizor, of the royal household. I need to speak to one of the crown princes .”

“Rizor? I’m afraid I don’t recognize the name as a royal. You’ll have to call back through the main dispatch .”

“Are you kidding me? Of all the Dragselian on both planets you are telling me that you don’t know who I am? Midris? Rizor?” I stammered .

“Oh, you are that royal,” he muttered. “Sorry, but I don’t count you as a real prince. Maybe on your home planet you are one, but not here. You can call back through the dispatch like everyone else for all I care .”

“Do you have any idea what I can have done to you for this insubordination? Both Vaxvia and Dragselian are in jeopardy, you are wasting my time with your petty games. If you don’t patch me through now and both planets are attacked, I will make sure that you are the one taking the blame for it .”

“Have your people come back then to try and fight? I guess I’m not surprised, honestly, we all thought you were a traitor to begin with. Don’t know why King Zaruv let you live this long .”

“Are you kidding me?” I hissed at him. “The Federation has taken down the Vaxvian shield and you are trying to blame me for it? What the hell is wrong with you? Either patch me through or kiss your life goodbye .”

“The Federation?” he stammered .

“Yes, you moron, now do as you are told, damn it!” I said once again .

The line was silent for a second and I wondered if he had hung up. When a voice came back on the line, I let out a sigh of relief. It wasn’t the same foolish guard, but a familiar tone that I was all too happy to hear after everything that had happened. It was Zaruv himself. I had forgotten that he was coming back with the princes to do a tour on Vaxvia. It meant that things would get done, but at the same time, it meant that he was in even more danger by not being on Dragselian .

“Rizor?” he said, sounding like I had woken him. “What’s going on? We will be to Vaxvia in less than half an hour .”

“Zaruv, you have to listen to me,” I stammered as I filled him in on everything that was happening .

Before I could even finish the story, I could hear him barking out commands to his crew to place the needed phone calls and get the rest of the ships in flight .

“Do you know how much time we have?” he asked me .

“I would guess not long. He has taken the ship hostage, but I can deal with him. Right now, you just need to sound the alarms on both planets. I have no doubt that he is working with someone on Vaxvia, but we weren’t able to find out who. There was no time .”

“We will send a ship to help you out .”

“No,” I said quickly. “Don’t worry about us, just get to Vaxvia and Dragselian and get those sons of bitches before they kill millions. We will take care of this little shit here .”

“Everything is already in motion. How long ago did this all happen?” he asked .

“Maybe an hour? He sounded the alarm though, I know the Federation is on its way. You will need to head them off. This shit would have gone a lot easier if your communications director hadn’t given me so much shit, just so you know .”

“Wow, it’s not like you to voice your anger at a person. He must have really pissed you off .”

“You haven’t seen anything yet. If someone on this ship dies because he felt like arguing with me then there will be hell to pay. Right now, I just need to take care of things on my end and you can take care of things from there. He’s got a bomb here, but I don’t think he will detonate it while he is still on board .”

“Nothing like a coward with a little bit of power. Be careful, brother, I don’t want to lose you .”

“Likewise, take care of them,” I said carefully as I ended the call .

Now I needed to find Clara and the others and get them out of here, then I would give Jordan what he deserved the whole time; death. I maneuvered through the pipes again, the cramped space making me long for the open skies and the wind beneath my wings. It didn’t take me long to find the lower deck as I dropped down carefully, and quietly so that he didn’t hear me. With my inhuman hearing, I heard Clara whispering to the others a few yards away from me on the other side of the wall, but the ticking bomb was my main concern .

It wasn’t the size of it that shocked me, but the lack thereof. Somehow, my mind had gone a little off books and decided that a bomb big enough to blow up the entire vessel would be massive, but instead, it was the size of a dinner plate. Its weight was what worried me, thankfully, the thousand-pound bomb was on rollers which made sense. A human as weak as Jordan wouldn’t be able to move it in any other way .

Looking around, I saw the row of escape pods and knew that I needed to act quickly. I rolled the bomb over to the first one and lifted it inside, praying he wasn’t watching the monitors as I did. At least if he tried to detonate it now, my body would take most of the blow, killing me, but giving the others a chance at survival. I carefully lifted it into the small, single person pod and closed the door. It creaked loudly, making me wince knowing that there was no way it wasn’t heard .

I was out of time. I shut the door quickly and programmed in one of the few coordinates that I had memorized. As a member of the royal family, there was only three locations and their fifty-two digit coordinates that we had to know in times of war; Dragselian, Vaxvia, and the one that was helping me now, the Federation’s military base planet. No civilians would be there, they weren’t allowed to live that close to things .

Just as I sent the pod sailing out of its hold. I heard the approaching footsteps and quickly ran to the second set of steps leading into the basement. I watched the men and woman of the ship ram into the brig’s metal bars just as Clara saw me and let out a sigh of relief .

“Stop,” she whispered to her crew as I ran to them .

I grabbed ahold of the bars and jerked with all of my power, removing not only the door but the entire front section of the brig. Clara ran to me, throwing her arms around my shoulders and pulling me into a tender kiss. If it hadn’t been for the pressing danger, I would have taken her right then and there, but the gawking and stunned stares of the crewmembers made us pull apart .

“Is this the knight in,” Jen stammered, “flaming red armor? That we’ve been waiting for ?”

Clara laughed. “The one and only, but Rizor,” she said as she turned back to me. “Jordan has the bomb detonator. I know that he heard you moving the bars. We need to take him down right now or else we are all done for .”

“There is no need. I just sent the Federation their own bomb, but I think it might be too little too late. I could hear another ship approaching as I sent the bomb from the escape pod. Our men wouldn’t be able to get here that fast. The rest of the Federation is here .”

“Shit,” she muttered before turning back to her crew. “You guys need to get out of here .”

Jen shook her head, “No, we are staying with you and the ship .”

“Listen, I know that you mean well, but I can take care of Clara and we can get Jordan. It’s not safe for you here .”

Jen glared at me. “And where exactly do you think we should go then? Back to Vaxvia and wait for the Federation?” She took a step closer to me and I could understand why Clara had her as the first mate. She had the same fire inside of her that Clara had. “I don’t care if you need us or not, but I’m not going to go out there to die on Vaxvia. This ship is a freighter, but we still have weapons. We will take down as many of those Federation bastards as possible before we go down in flames .”

“Wow,” I muttered, “she is just like you, Clara .”

Both woman laughed as Clara spoke, “I know, isn’t she wonderful? She has a point though. If we send them out in the escape pods they will be sitting ducks floating through space, barely target practice for the Federation. We can use them here .”

I nodded, happy to get Clara take control given I had almost no experience on ships. “So, what’s the plan ?”

“Me and you go after Jordan, Jen takes the rest of the crew below and hacks into the ship’s flight controls. From there they can start firing against any Federation ships that might come this way and maybe even get the shield back up for Vaxvia from there .”

“I like the way you think,” said Jen as she nodded to the crew and lead them down below .

I knew that we didn’t have time to be romantic, but in the brief second that we had alone, I needed to tell Clara just how much I cared about her. Especially since it could very well be the last time that we were alive together. I pulled her closer to me and kissed her passionately .

“Clara, I love you,” I whispered .

“And I love you, we will get through this together. You just need to have a little bit of faith,” she said as the eternal optimist .

I laughed and took her hand, turning to go conquer Jordan, but there was no need. He was waiting for us, a look of perpetual fear on his face as he saw our hands locked together. The gun in his hand barely moving as his finger dangled too close to the trigger .