THE COMMAND TO 'CHILL'
1119 Words
Chapter 12: The Command to 'Chill'
The moment of quiet closeness in the study broke like thin glass. Damon snapped the lid shut on the little smiling doll's box. The soft sound seemed very loud in the silent room. He cleared his throat. The cold King was back.
“The ship is too quiet,” Damon stated, turning away from Roxan to stare at a big screen on the wall that showed stars flying by. “Kaelen, play ‘Command Audio Channel Gamma-7.’”
The computer voice answered right away. “Playing Command Audio Channel Gamma-7.”
Suddenly, the room was filled with loud noise: static, the roar of massive engines, and the sounds of soldiers shouting orders on a far-off planet. It was a stressful noise that seemed to make Damon feel calm.
“Better,” Damon muttered.
Roxan just watched him. He was a man who needed the sound of war to relax. It was totally crazy.
“You use war sounds for background music?” Roxan asked, shaking her head.
“It is a white noise that reminds me of Order,” Damon said, not looking at her.
Roxan walked over to the main control panel and turned the volume down until the shouting was just a low buzz. Damon instantly turned to glare at her.
“Queen Roxan! I need that sound at full level to focus!”
“You need peace and quiet to focus, like normal people,” Roxan shot back. “You’re just used to noise. It’s bad for your blood pressure. You need to ‘chill.’”
Damon stared at her. “Chill? Explain this term, human.”
“It means relax. Calm down. Stop being so serious all the time.”
“I conquer systems. I do not ‘chill’,” Damon said, using air quotes around the word ‘chill’.
“Well, you should,” Roxan said. “If you want to think clearly about your breaking water filters, you need a clear head.”
He looked at her, his dark eyes studying her face. He seemed to be fighting with himself. For some strange reason, he often listened to her silly advice about human life. He seemed to respect her sharp mind, even if he hated her messy ways.
“Fine,” he ground out through clenched teeth. “Kaelen, mute Command Channel. Play ‘Quiet Sounds of Earth Planet’ as chosen by Queen Roxan.”
Roxan smiled, feeling a small victory. “Okay, Kaelen, how about ‘Rain sounds for sleeping’?”
“Searching… Playing ‘Heavy Rain on a Tin Roof, 8 Hours Version’,” Kaelen said happily.
The loud shouting of the soldiers was instantly replaced by the soft pitter-patter of rain. It was very peaceful.
Damon stood stiffly for a moment, listening. He tilted his head.
“This… ‘Rain’ sound… it is inefficient,” he said, but his voice was softer.
“It makes you feel calm,” Roxan said. “It is efficient for stress relief.”
Damon turned away and walked back to his desk, sitting down in his big, scary chair. He picked up a data slate, but Roxan could see he was listening to the rainy sounds. He wasn't typing. He was staring at the wall.
Roxan sat in a smaller, cold metal chair across from him. The quietness, broken only by the fake rain, made the room feel very private.
“Why did you really take me?” Roxan asked softly. “Desmond would have given you anything you wanted without me having to move to space.”
Damon sighed again, the loud grinding sound. He put the data slate down.
“Your father is a liar,” Damon said simply. “He makes deals he cannot keep. I needed something he loved more than money to force him to be loyal. I needed a true hostage, an insurance policy.”
“So I’m just a thing to make my dad behave?”
“You are my Queen Consort,” Damon corrected. “You have a title, a role in my new order. You are not a thing. You have duties now.”
“Duties like fixing your water filters and listening to you complain about paper towel boxes?” Roxan asked.
Damon almost smiled again. Those weird, shark smile.
“Yes. And other duties. Official duties. You handle humans well. You used logic to stop the General earlier. That was useful.”
Roxan felt a complicated rush of feelings. He was awful, but he also saw her worth. He respected her mind in a way her own father never did. Desmond only saw her as a daughter who didn’t want to take over the family business. Damon saw her as a smart person who could help him run an empire.
He’s a murderer, Roxan. Don’t forget that.
The rain sounds filled the room. The tension was still there, but it was a quiet tension now.
“You seem to care about that boy who made the doll,” Roxan said, pointing to the closed box.
“I care about efficiency and loyalty,” Damon said quickly, his voice cold again. “The boy was loyal. That is rare.”
“Loyalty starts with kindness,” Roxan said. “You can’t just force people to be loyal with fear forever.”
“It has worked for seven kingdoms and three planets,” Damon argued.
“Only because they are too scared to fight back,” Roxan said. “If they feel respected, like maybe you care about them a little bit, they will fight for you, not just run away from you.”
Damon looked at her like she was speaking a different language. “This is human weakness talk.”
“This is smart leadership talk,” Roxan argued back. “Which one of us figured out the water filters in five minutes?”
Damon’s jaw tightened. He hated that she was right. He hated that she could talk to him like this, and he didn't want to vaporize her on the spot.
“You are pushing your luck, Queen Roxan,” he warned, but his eyes were not angry. They were just thinking hard.
The ship was quiet. The rain sounds played on. The two of them sat there, the human girl who wanted kindness and the alien king who wanted order. They were in the middle of a very strange peace treaty. Roxan realized that this strange dance—this mix of comedy, anger, and strange respect—was her new life. And maybe, just maybe, she could change the monster sitting across from her. Or at least teach him how to properly ‘chill.’
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