Page 8 of King from the Sky

“It is dangerous for you to go anywhere without your guards and dangerous for you to not tell anyone where you are going. For all we knew you had been killed and that would have left us without a king and highly vulnerable to attack.”

“I don’t have to report every move to you. And I am capable of taking care of myself. I don’t need a crew of bodyguards with me. I was in the army if you remember. I am a very capable fighter.”

“That must be why we found you wounded and close to death.”

“The damage had been repaired already and I was just waiting for my body’s natural healing defense to kick in. The atmosphere on Earth stunted that mechanism a little bit. But I was fine. Besides if anything really did happen to me my brother would take over.”

His staff looked at each other with fear in their eyes.

“We would rather that not happen, my king,” Aron said. His voice was soft and humble. He rarely spoke out of turn but when he did his words were often powerful.

“I know that my brother Josh is a bit of a radical, but he is still young. He will grow out of it and he would be a very effective king one day.”

“Sir, he is only twenty-one years old. He is a bit of a lay about and has none of your qualifications or your father’s good sense. If he were to lead us at this moment, then we might very well be doomed as a society.”

“I understand all of that, but I was not in any danger I could not handle. It is not your job to dictate to me what my safety measures are. I tell you. And as your king you had better get used to that. After breakfast I want you to prepare the Cylinder.”

“Sir, you are not seriously going back,” Aron said.

“Damn right. I was in the middle of a mission that you may have fouled up so bad that it can’t be completed. Besides there is a woman there who needs help. I’m not sure how or why, but she came into my life for a reason and I can’t get her out of my mind.”

Alex had not stopped thinking about Emily. She was so sweet and kind to him. And her beauty was the most astounding thing he had ever laid his eyes on, but there was something else drawing him to her that he could not place. It was a feeling in his gut. He knew that she was in danger. She needed his help.

“Sir, I must forbid that you take this mission at this time. You have a lot of duties to tend to as King. I’m sure if you send a scouting party they can complete this mission for you.”

“No. It is mine and I choose to do it alone. You will have to reschedule my other duties. I will not be held prisoner in my own kingdom.”

“You are being unreasonable; your father never acted this way. His kingdom always came first.”

“I am not my father. You will quickly learn that about me. I don’t bow to ancient doctrines that dictate my duty and I don’t take orders from my staff. After breakfast you will prepare the Cylinder for my mission back to Earth.”

“If you don’t hold a press conference today to accept the position of king then we will have no choice but to have your brother do it and name him king. The other planets in the colonies can’t know that the new king has failed to take the reins of leadership of his new kingdom after a week has passed. We have been kingless for seven days in their eyes. I realize your father’s body isn’t even cold yet, but you must follow that protocol to keep order in the planet and with the colonies,” Beth said. She went back to eating her breakfast.

He knew that she was absolutely right and that he did need to do this for his people but the longer he waited the more danger he might place Emily in and his original mission would fail to. It was clear that he was never going to see the end of this bantering and that his staff was going to have to force his hand and keep him under their thumb. Was that what his father had to deal with? Was the government really run by a committee that he had little to do with? He didn’t think so, but if it was that way then they were in for a rude awakening because they had no idea who they were dealing with.

He was going to have to try something drastic.

“Fine. I’ll tend to my Kingly duties and accept the position in front of the people, but soon I am going back to Earth. But after my other duties have been taken care of and I can leave my brother to act in my short absence.”

This seemed to please Beth and Aron as they smiled at each other. He could read it in their beady eyes that they had no intention of letting him go back to Earth. If he did it was going to be under heavy supervision which would have ruined it all anyway.

* * *

Alex leftthe podium and walked back towards the curtain, but not before giving the huge crowd in attendance and the people watching on Vision Scan around the world a big wave and a smile. He had given his speech that had been carefully prepared for him by his primary speech writer, which he had memorized while sitting in the makeup chair for two hours to make sure his hair and his face were groomed just perfectly. Then he had to be fitted for the King’s robe, which was heavy and hot under the warm suns that bore down on him. He was glad both suns were farther away than Earth’s one sun or they would have all been fried in seconds.

As he walked back towards the dressing room to finish taking everything off so he could be himself again the two large security men who followed him everywhere now stomped menacingly behind him. Each man had to be seven feet tall and double his own body weight. And they never said a word. But Alex was sure that they had brains somewhere in their humongous skulls.

As they rounded the corner to the dressing room Alex held up his hand and pointed to the restroom. The men barely grunted as they followed him to the restroom.

“I got this one guys,” Alex said as he closed the door behind hm. He waited a second to see if they would indeed follow him into the restroom, but they did not. He breathed a sigh of relief and quickly hopped up onto the sink and shimmied his way through the window he had opened before the press conference.

A second later and he was out and on the loose. It felt like a huge weight had just been taken off the top of his head as he rushed along the outside of the corridor and towards the other side of the palace from the Coliseum. He was lucky that everyone was still in the Coliseum watching the end of the press release when he snuck out. It was during the midday eclipse so he was able to run under the cover of darkness, but this would only last for another fifteen minutes.

He had to get to the Cylinder and quickly prepare it for a trip back to Earth. He only hoped that he would be able to get out of Zula before anyone noticed he was gone. After that it would still take him three hours to get to Earth.

He knew that Emily was in danger and he had to save her. If it weren’t for her he might very well have died on Earth. She had saved his life.

Now it was time for him to save hers.