Prince Liberator (The Prince of Britannia Saga Book 6), page 9
“It’s not that way at all,” Scott answered. “I struggled with concepts like this when I first became ambassador to them. You can’t fall into the trap of trying to stamp our morality onto their civilization. We don’t willingly sacrifice warriors without a purpose, and we seek to avoid it. To the Swarm, that’s how you use your warrior caste. And it’s not unheard of in Earth history. How many American bomber crews sacrificed themselves to destroy critical targets during World War II on Earth? Sure, the leaders of those forces abhorred the losses, but they kept sending the crews out because the outcome was important for the war effort.”
It was suddenly silent in the room. O’Reilly wondered if Edmund Randolph remembered how he’d left his force to face the Swarm alone in the Echo system. A handful of ships to hold off a huge Swarm attack force while the rest of the fleet escaped.
“I think this will solve some of our issues,” Duke Henry said. “I might add that I wouldn’t be against asking the Swarm for help with our logistics for the rest of the fleet. As Scott pointed out, they’re experts at it. The question is, gentlemen, are you prepared to explain this to the empress?”
* * * * *
Chapter 7: Families in Crisis
December 1043
Though Hazard was the crown prince, it was several weeks before Hiroko received the personal messages the scout ship had brought from the Serenity star system. She poured over every one, savoring the small portion of him each message contained. And there were a lot of them. It seemed to Hiroko that Hazard might miss her as much as she missed him, because it appeared he recorded a message every day. Then there were the individual messages he’d recorded for Edward.
Thus, it was two days before she got to the last message he’d recorded. The message about Nicole. Hiroko hadn’t known her nearly as well as Hazard, but it brought tears to her eyes. Not only because she’d thought of the woman as a friend, but because she knew how much the loss would affect Hazard. He’d even shared with her Nicole’s last message. It hadn’t surprised her that Nicole was in love with Hazard; Hiroko had seen the way she looked at him. But she knew there’d been nothing physical between the two. Neither person would have ever allowed that to happen.
When Tom O’Reilly’s face appeared on the vid screen, she got right down to business. “Tom, I know this is well below your pay grade, but I need some information.” Hiroko could see the surprise on the grand admiral’s face.
“Good morning to you, Hiroko,” Tom replied. “How may I be of help to the crown princess?”
Hiroko chuckled. “I suppose I am taking advantage of my position, Tom, but I didn’t feel like wading through the bureaucracy of Fleet Headquarters. I need the next-of-kin information for Nicole Daniels.”
It took a moment for Tom O’Reilly to process the request. “You want to reach out to the family?” At Hiroko’s nod, he continued. “Frankly, as important as I am—” he stopped and gave her a big grin “—I don’t know how to do that. But—” Tom raised a hand to stop her next question “—I have people who can figure it out. I’ll have a trusted member of my staff get the information to you within the hour.”
True to his word, Hiroko received the information from O’Reilly’s chief of staff, Morris Drake, forty-five minutes later. Fifteen minutes after that, she was talking to Nicole’s parents.
* * *
To say the last week had been unusual for him would be a gross understatement, Kevin Daniels reflected as he stared out the window of the limo he was riding in. First, there’d been the news of his mother’s death. Kevin had been upset by the news, but not because he mourned the loss of his mother. He was upset with himself because he didn’t. Why should I grieve for her? I barely knew her.
As far back as Kevin could remember, his mother hadn’t been around. She was always off doing her duty as a fleet officer. As far as he was concerned, his grandparents—his mother’s father and mother—were his parents. He even called them Mama and Papa.
Then friends of his mother came by to visit and expressed their condolences. Their surprise that Nicole had a son fanned the flames of that anger. Was she so ashamed of me that she didn’t tell her friends she had a son?
Then came the message from another of his mother’s friends. This one knew Nicole Daniels had a son and asked Mama and Papa to bring Kevin to visit her in the city. The young boy thought that was strange, since the rest of his mother’s friends had visited their home. He commented on it to Mama and Papa, and they told him the woman was in poor health and couldn’t travel.
Kevin’s grandparents weren’t wealthy, but neither were they poor. The term they used was that they were “okay as far as money was concerned.” After a quick trip to the capital city on a chartered shuttle, Kevin now rode in the back of a luxury limousine air car. It was obvious this friend of his mother was wealthy.
The limo stopped in front of a large house. Not a house, a mansion, Kevin thought. The limo driver jumped out and opened the door for Kevin and his parents to exit the vehicle. The trio walked through a gate in the stone wall and toward the front entrance. It was during the walk that Kevin received the first of many surprises.
A motion to his left caught his eye, and he turned to see two Marines in combat gear patrolling the inside of the perimeter wall. He tugged on his father’s coat sleeve. “Papa, look,” he said, and pointed at the two armored figures.
“Yes, Kevin, the people who live here are very important and require guards,” Nicholas Daniels said. “I want you to promise you’ll be on your best behavior today.”
Kevin simply nodded and continued walking. It surprised him when the front door opened as they approached, and a man in a servant’s uniform greeted them.
“Welcome to King Manor,” Oliver said to the approaching family. “I’m Oliver Kendrick, the majordomo of the manor.” Oliver addressed the older couple directly, “Mr. and Mrs. Daniels, my mistress would like to meet with you alone first. Then we can bring Kevin in.”
Claire Daniels looked around nervously. “How long do you think it’ll be? I only worry because he’s just thirteen, and I’m concerned about him getting into trouble.”
“It won’t take long, ma’am,” Oliver replied, “and Kevin can wait in the office.” The majordomo inclined his head toward a set of double doors on the opposite side of the foyer. “He’ll be perfectly safe there. In fact, there aren’t many places safer on the entire planet than inside this house.”
* * *
The man had escorted his parents into the library, and then led Kevin into what he called the office. It was a pretty plain room, with a large desk and some chairs, and a few pictures on the wall. Pretty boring. Kevin sat in the big chair behind the desk. It was then that he noticed the picture.
Sitting on one corner of the desk was an 8x10 picture. Kevin hadn’t seen many actual pictures in his life. Most people used video frames that could display various photos. What made this one even more unique was that his mother was in it. She stood with a group of other military officers. His mother stood next to a man in the center of the photo. From their positions in the photo, Kevin could tell that his mother and the man next to her were important to the other people in the picture.
The door opened, and the nice man motioned for him to follow. Kevin, who’d been holding the picture and studying it, carried it with him to show it to Mama and Papa.
The majordomo, I don’t know what that is, led him into the library. He immediately saw his parents sitting on the sofa and rushed toward them, waving the picture. “Mama, Papa, I found this picture with Mommy in it on a desk in the other room.”
“Kevin, is that any way to act?” Claire Daniels rebuked her grandson. “Give that picture to Mr. Kendrick so he can put it back.”
“It’s all right, Mrs. Daniels,” said an unfamiliar voice. “In fact, I’d like him to have that picture.”
Kevin spun to find the source of the voice and saw a small woman. Well, she’s short, but has an enormous stomach, sitting on another sofa, which faced his parents. “Why don’t you come over here and sit next to me, Kevin? My name is Hiroko, and my husband and I were old friends of your mother.”
“So, I can have the picture?”
“Yes, you can!” Hiroko said. “You’d actually be doing me a favor if you took it. My husband becomes sad when he looks at it. Kevin, all the people in that picture were friends, and just like your mother, many are no longer alive.”
“Which one is your husband?”
“He’s the one in the middle standing next to your mother, the one with the scarred face,” Hiroko answered.
Kevin looked at the picture again. He remembered the man, since he’d never seen another man with a scar. “Yeah, I sorta noticed him. I’ve never seen anyone with a scar before.”
Hiroko looked away and swallowed hard, remembering the reason her husband had the scar and why he’d kept it. “It’s unusual to see people disfigured that way. Most choose to have surgery to cover up the scar. Hazard—” she turned and looked at the young boy “—that’s my husband’s name. Hazard made the choice to keep the scar.”
“Well, it really makes him look like a badass,” Kevin said.
“Kevin,” Nicholas Daniels said gruffly, “watch your language.”
Hiroko laughed at the boy’s statement. “Knowing my husband, I suspect that had a little to do with him keeping the scar as well. But I didn’t ask you to come and visit me to talk about the picture.
“Kevin, Hazard and I met your mother many years ago when they served together on the same ship. Fleet command appointed my husband captain of the ship, and your mother was his executive officer. Together, they trained their crew and took the ship into combat. I wanted you to know that your mother was a hero.”
Kevin looked at his grandparents, the couple he considered his actual parents. No one had ever explained this to him, and he was confused. “My mother fought in battles and was a hero?” he asked.
“Your mother actually fought in many battles. Before you were born, she fought in the Echo System battle. In the First Battle of Tarrant, she saved the ship and my husband. And she was there at the end, at the battle of Iris,” Hiroko said, listing the battles for the boy. “My husband was dying, the bridge was destroyed, and the ship was all but lost, but your mother found a way to save the ship and its captain. For that, I’m forever indebted to her.”
Kevin looked into the woman’s face. “Why are you telling me all this? I barely knew my mother.”
Hiroko barely choked back a sob. “I’m telling you this, Kevin, because in her dying message, your mother asked me to. She was sad, and she hated that she couldn’t be the mom you needed. She asked me to explain why she made the choices she did. She stayed in the fleet rather than come home to be your mom. If she’d done that, my husband and likely three hundred other crewmen on the destroyer Cheetah would be dead. She made a difference that day in the Tarrant System, just as she did on several other occasions. Just as she did on the day she died.”
Kevin looked around the room. “No one’s bothered to tell me how she died.”
She’d prepared herself to answer truthfully in anticipation of the question, but before she could answer, Hiroko felt a sharp pain in her stomach.
Seeing the woman seize her stomach, Claire Daniels stood and rushed to Hiroko’s side. “Mistress, what’s wrong?”
Hiroko pointed at the library door. “Get help,” she croaked out. And then everything went dark.
* * *
How fast events happened surprised Kevin. A burly Marine in combat gear rushed into the room, followed by a woman.
“Get out of the way, kid,” the Marine barked at Kevin, and he hurried off the sofa and over to where his grandparents sat.
“Jerry,” the woman Kevin didn’t know said to the man, “pick her up and take her to the med bay.”
The young boy saw the Marine easily scoop Hiroko off the sofa and dash out of the room, followed by the other woman.
Oliver Kendrick allowed them to leave the library before he entered to deal with the Daniels family. “Obviously my mistress is having a medical emergency.” The majordomo somehow kept control of his emotions as he spoke to the family. “It’ll take a little time to arrange transport for you back to your home. I ask that you stay here until someone comes to get you.” He didn’t wait for an answer and rushed after his mistress.
“What’s wrong with the nice lady, Mama?” Kevin asked. It was then that he noticed both Mama and Papa were crying.
“She’s losing her baby,” Nicholas Daniels answered for his crying wife. “At least that’s what I think is happening.”
Kevin thought they’d been forgotten when a barrel-chested man in a sports coat entered the room and approached them. The teenager wasn’t an expert about such things, but to him, the man should have been in a uniform. He looked like the Marines you saw in the videos.
“Mr. and Mrs. Daniels, my name is Mike Sondheim,” Gunner said and stuck out a hand. “I apologize. It’s going to take a little time to arrange your transport home. What’s happening upstairs—” he jerked his head toward the library door “—has us all concerned. I appreciate your patience. If you don’t mind, I’ll stay here with you.”
“Thank you for coming and letting us know,” Nicholas Daniels responded and shook the offered hand. “We were feeling like redheaded stepchildren.”
Mike chuckled at the remark. “No, sir, we treat our guests a little better than that.”
“Mr. Sondheim, I’ve been wondering, Mistress Hiroko isn’t just the wife of a military officer, is she?” Claire Daniels asked.
“It’s funny you should ask that. The princess was going to explain it, but other events took over,” Mike said.
The entire Daniels family stopped and looked at Mike when they heard the word “princess.” Before he could continue, or any of them could ask a question, there was a loud commotion in the foyer just outside the library.
For the rest of his life, Kevin would remember what happened next vividly. The doors to the library literally burst open as two men in guard uniforms rushed into the library. Close behind them was the empress of the Empire. She was followed by a man Kevin didn’t recognize.
* * *
Elizabeth quickly scanned the library and finally spotted someone she knew. “Mike, what’s going on?”
“The princess had a sharp pain in her abdomen and passed out, my empress,” Mike replied. “They rushed her upstairs to the med suite, and Doctor Warren is working on her.”
Elizabeth turned and started toward the door, but her husband blocked her path.
“We need to stay here, Beth. We need to stay out of Phyllis’ way,” Henry said to his wife. “We both know how good she is. Let her do her job.”
“I want my doctors over here as quickly as possible,” Elizabeth ordered.
“They’re on their way, love, but remember, Doctor Warren is Hiroko’s doctor,” Henry said. The grand duke noticed Oliver Kendrick in the library’s doorway. “Oliver, I believe all of us could do with a snack.”
“At once, Your Grace,” Oliver replied and disappeared.
Henry guided his wife to the sofa opposite where the Daniels family sat. He knew who they were, of course. When his daughter-in-law had wanted to meet with them, palace security had vetted them.
After settling his wife on the sofa, he stuck out a hand. “I’m Henry King, known on more formal occasions as his grace, Grand Duke Henry,” he said. “I’m sure this is a little overwhelming for you.”
Nicholas and Claire Daniels shook the offered hand, still in a daze. It surprised Kevin when the duke offered to shake his hand.
Kevin was a thirteen-year-old, and the Daniels family were simple folk, so he was unsure of how to address the man who was speaking to him. He decided to keep it simple. “Mr. King, Mr. Sondheim there—” Kevin pointed at the man now standing near the library door “—said the nice lady who wanted to see us was a princess?” He phrased the statement as a question.
“And she is, but she wasn’t born a princess. She’s married to our son,” Henry said and inclined his head toward the empress.
“I apologize for my entrance and my condition,” Elizabeth said, joining the conversation. “I’m sure I look a mess, but I worry about my daughter-in-law and my unborn grandchild.”
“Mistress Hiroko—” Kevin said and then corrected himself, “I mean Princess Hiroko was telling me about my mother when she got sick. Did you know my mother?”
“I met your mother when I gave her a medal for saving my son,” Elizabeth told the boy.
“My mother saved a prince?” Kevin asked. “Wow.”
“I didn’t just give her the medal for saving the prince, but for all the other people she saved that day,” Elizabeth said.
Kevin was about to ask another question when the library door opened. He turned and saw the woman who’d left with the princess reenter the library. This time, though, she was wearing doctor’s clothes, and he could see blood smeared across the front of them.
“Phyllis,” Empress Elizabeth gasped when she saw the physician in surgical scrubs covered in blood. She started to rise, but the doctor waved her back down and crossed to kneel before her.
“I failed you, my empress, failed you and Hiroko and Hazard,” Phyllis Warren choked out.
Duke Henry leaned in and placed in arm on her shoulder. “You could never fail us, Phyllis, not after everything you’ve already done for our family,” Henry said softly to the sobbing woman. “Tell us what happened.”
Phyllis Warren got her crying under control, but not without difficulty. “Hiroko is okay, but the baby—” she began crying again “—dammit, if I’d only been better.”
Elizabeth, tears streaming down her own face, placed a hand on the doctor’s other shoulder. “You did all you could, dear friend.”
“Does Hiroko know?” Henry asked.
