Saving the Royal Federation

The three Clementine

Getting back to his chambers, Jack felt exhausted and furious at the same time. He hates these kind of parties. The only ones he can handle are in bars with normal food and drinks. The Inauguration Party and Gold Hall was way over him in extravagance.

It was already 1 AM, but he could not sleep. He got up from bed and went to open an old bottle of whiskey. Pouring it into his glass he couldn’t stop thinking about her. Not just the way her hair smelled, but more about her rudeness. It was just so shocking to him, to hear it from a Princess. He did not know lots about Royals, but everybody knew, that Princesses were always an example of great manners, beauty and self-control. Soft voice, a smile on a face seemed like a given to them. However, he could not understand why he cannot stop thinking about her.

He sat on the sofa and opened his pad. Started searching for “The List of Princesses in Royal Federation”. Going through the first 35 Princesses, he could not find her. “Who is she?” he thought to himself. He kept looking through the profiles and then he saw her.

“Dr. Maeve of Gregory” Jack read her name loudly, sipped the drink and looked at her picture. She was smiling in the main picture. “A doctor princess?” Jack thought to himself surprised. Long curly hair going all over the place. She looked happy, young and her green eyes were radiant. Then kept reading “47th in place for the throne. Currently 35 years old. The first daughter of the Duke Alexander Gregory. Mother Princess Penelope Gregory (deceased). Married to Edward Coolmon. Princess Dr. Maeve Gregory most known for her research in intergalactic travel. Children: son James Coolmon (deceased). Son James Coolman died during the attack in North Surray Academia at 17 years old. Relationship status: Divorced.”

“What?!” he thought to himself. As far as he knew, royals do not get divorced. Royals could do almost anything they wanted, but the one thing that they avoided at all costs is to get divorced. Divorce always means loosing money, so if they married, they married for life.

Then Jack looked into Edward Coolman. Currently 53 years old. Owner of Colo Enterprise. Corporation make guns for the intergalactic spaceships. He was not part of the Royalty, but was fabulously wealthy. That’s why they allowed him to get married to a princess. A royal princess never says no to lots of money.

Suddenly the phone rang. It showed “Caller Unknown”.

“The sun is setting” Jack answered.

“It will rise in the morning” a woman’s voice said from the other side of the phone “How did it go? We have received news recently.”

“It went better than I hoped. However, I think the situation is way worse than we thought in the first place”

“Why do you think so?” the woman sounded surprised.

“The Royal Highness King himself interviewed me” Jack smiled.

“Oh wow! This means we are in a real load of sh*it!” she screamed “Oh man! I will transfer it through.”

“Yes” Jack agreed and went near his huge window. Looked into the clear dark skies and continued “I will know more after they pass all of it to me in two days. Let’s keep in touch after that.”

“Take care, Jack.” the woman hung up.

This was all true. When Jack was informed about the interview to work for the Ministry he hoped to be interviewed by the Royal Prime Minister Gabe Hackett, but not the Royal Highness King Brandon. Not many people earn the privilege to meet him in person and he is rarely seen publicly. Only in truly desperate times, the king starts acting in the place of the Royal Prime Minister and not delegating him.

Jack laid down on the bed and continued reading about the Royalty until he fell asleep.

---

Jack was dreaming the green oceans of his birth planet Polena. The lime seashores and the calming whispers of ocean fish serenades. The water was twinkling and there she was in the distance. Swimming in the vast waters calling softly:

“Jack...” Jack could see her green eyes matching the water. He started to wade into the water in order to reach her:

“Maeve” Jack called her name. Suddenly there was sadness in her eyes, she shouted:

“JACK! RUN! Wake up!”

Jack opened his eyes. “It was all a dream” he thought to himself. He could feel that his heart was beating crazy. He went to his bar and poured another glass of whiskey. It didn’t help, so he dressed up and went for a walk into the terrace outside of the palace. The weather was warm, you could clearly see the three moons in the sky. Then he saw the stars. They were beautiful and twinkling.

“Wait...what?!” Jack thought to himself and reached for his gun. Due to this planets atmosphere, you cannot see the stars during night time. He opened his phone and called the security:

“General, Jack” a sleepy voice answered “How can I help you”

“WAKE UP, GEAR UP and LOOK UP the sky” Jack shouted “Something is coming our way!”

“What?!“ the soldier seemed confused “The monitors show clear sky in and out of atmosphere.”

“I can see it with a naked eye! Something is wrong with your monitor. Reach out to the whole security NOW” Jack hung up the frequency and he could see the stars getting bigger and brighter. He opened another frequency and started running towards the Gold Hall:

“Keira, fire up the crew. Something is wrong in the skies.”

“Yes, Jack” a woman’s voice answered and hung up. Jack almost reached the Gold Hall. You could hear the music in there, the party was still ongoing.

BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!

Three shots blew into the Gold Hall entrance. Jack threw on the ground from the heat wave.

“Sh*it!!!!” he shouted while getting up and reaching for his gun. Then he saw three small Clementine ships flying over it. He shot few shots their way, but missed it. The gun was way too small for that kind of ship.

From a far he could see his fleet coming this way. Then again they seemed to be too far.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Three ships were destroying the palace around the Gold Hall. All the streets and the whole terrace was raining in bricks and dust, you could see the Gold Hall burning and hear people screaming inside.

Jack opened his phone:

“Keira, I see Clems doing the Rose manoeuvre. Shoot the Helen tactic.”

“Yes, Jack” Keira answered. Then few drones shot into the sky. After they reached the sky, the lasers went out of them, which shot the Clementine ships in several places. The ships tried to fly into the far sky, but they were already burning and drones kept following them with the lasers. It looked beautiful like a deadly laser show. Then the two Clementine ships exploded, while one fell in the far mountains up south.

“Keira, send the first crew to the place where the ship fell.” Jack opened the frequency to his fleet commander.

“Yes, Jack, it seemed strange that it did not self-destruct”.

This was common sense with Clementine technology. Whenever they calculated that they will loose, ships self-destructed.

Cars and small atmospheric ships were coming this way, starting to put out the open flame in Gold Hall. Few people were running out of it, some of them still on fire. Firefighters and ambulance workers were running to help them. A group of firefighters went inside with special suits and brought more people from the Hall.

Then he saw her in the distance in the crowd of survivors. Most people were coming from the palace apartments woken from sleep. Maeve was standing far away with a red robe and loose hair. Two bodyguards were beside her. Her eyes were sad, but she did not shed a tear. Then their eyes met. He couldn’t understand what was it, that he could not take his eyes from her. Maeve tightened her robe, turned around and disappeared in the murmuring crowd.

“Thank the Universe, you’re here” Selena shouted while running towards Jack with several soldiers near her. Jack could see Selena’s hands trembling.

“Royalty’s security is jeopardized. I need to see the Chief of Royal Security” Jack said calmly while putting away his gun.

“Chief of Security is dead” Selena said and started crying “along with the Crown Prince Alfred and all his delegation. They were together in the Green Hall in the left flank of the palace. It is totally destroyed.”