Mate I never wanted

Time to return

Vivian

The first message was from the academy.

It said that the training would end early for everyone who passed all their tests. The spaceship will leave at noon, and it will take everyone that are free to go home, while the rest will be retailing exams.

Well that's good, I guess, because it means that I will no longer be locked in this place. I have a lot to do when I get back and one of the most important things is to contact the Auctioneer and sell a few more designs, before I completely run out of money.

The next message was from my old master, who taught me about spacecraft design. I'm not sure how he got though the firewall of the academy or how he got this number, but he told me that he had sent me something and, as he did not know about my situation with the Cliffwind's had changed, he directed it to my home. He apologized and hoped that I would be able to retrieve it from them.

I was still a bit confused as to what he sent me, but I knew better than to question that man. But he would not contact me if it was not really important that I get whatever he sent to me.

The other message was from John.

It was just a short message telling me that he was happy to hear that I aced all of my tests and that he really wanted to take me out to dinner to celebrate once I returned.

The message was so sweet that I could not help but smile at it. I stopped myself from answering, because I was not supposed to have received it until I returned to that academy and John did not know that I had the connection returned to me. If he knew about this, it could bring him trouble, so I decided against telling anything about this to him or even answering him right now, so I moved to the next message.

And... and it was from the Queen.

What the hell?

How did she know my number?

Better yet, why did she care even to need to message me?

Was I in trouble?

Quickly, I skimmed over the short message and my heart stopped in my chest.

Dear, miss Vivian.

I hope your training went well. I am aware that your finishing time is yet to be certain, but I would like you to invite you for tea at your earliest convenience.

On the day that you are supposed to depart home, a prive spacecraft will take you directly from the ship to the royal palace.

Yours sincerely,

The empress of the planet Alpha,

Queen Angelina.

I stared at the message for a few moments, trying to wrap my head around it.

Sure, I had seen her in person when Lucien returned back to school the first time... but this was directed at me officially.

And I was invited to the freaking emperor's palace.

This is way beyond honor.

I read the message a few more times as I started to take uneven breaths... but wait... this has to be related to Lucien on some levels and me dealing with anything related to him has to stop, before I get really involved and get my heart broken to more pieces than I could ever pick up.

My mind was going at crazy speed as I tried to make sense of all of this, but one thing was clear, there was no denying her. I had no choice, but to go meet Lucien's mother, no matter how much I hated the idea.

Slowly, I moved to the last message and it was from Lucien.

Air got stuck in my throat as my finger hovered over the message.

Guessing by the time stamp, I knew that the message was sent only ten minutes ago, and it probably woke me up. But the time it came also meant it was a message from Prince Ninth... which meant that the chances of the message being about anything good are below zero.

Before I could open the message, my bracelet vibrated, flashing a message. The message was a short one.

Please report to dock five. Private transport is waiting for you.

Okay, so there is no question that it was the spacecraft that the Queen mentioned. Not waisting a moment, I jumped to my feet and walked out of the room. As I was walking out the door, I could not help myself, but lingered there for a moment. This room... was a special place for Lucien and now in daylight it looks so different.

Knowing full well that I had no time to be sentimental, I forced myself to move. As the spacecraft was already waiting for me, I had no time to shower or change, but meeting the Queen in my uniform felt wrong... maybe even disrespectful, but I guess there was no other choice.

I fixed my messy hair on other reflective surfaces as I waited for a lift that would take me directly to the docks. From reflection on the wall in front of me, I could see that my current situation left a lot to be improved, but it's not the worse I had ever looked.

Once the doors to the docking stations opened, I felt the familiar breeze and the smell of engine fuel. It took me two minutes to walk up to docking station five, and I was impressed when I saw the modern white spacecraft.

From the outside it looked innocent and simple, but I knew that the settled exterior was hiding something very fast and strong inside. By the marking on the side, I knew that this was one of the Queen's personal spacecraft, and it had to be something impressive.

As I stepped into the docking station, I was greeted by two guards dressed in the royal guard uniforms.

"Miss Vivian, we have been waiting for you. Step this way."

I gave them a short nod and entered the ship.

"From there you will find a private room, with your own personal shower and an outfit for you to change into. The Queen, thought that you would like to use the flight time to get ready, and you would be a lot more comfortable dressed appropriately."

My cheeks went red at the extent of thought the queen put into inviting her here.

"Thank you."

I whispered to the other two men and walked in the direction they pointed me in. The doors opened into a lovely small bedroom equated with a white queen-sized bed.

There was no denying the recurring theme here.

On the bed in front of me I saw a beautiful white dress. It was made of some sort of mate fabric. The dress looked simple with a few sharp cutouts at the collar, but other than that, I am sure that it would be a simple form-fitting dress with a pencil skirt.

I wanted to touch the dress, but I was worried that I would get it dirty, so I turned to the door that could only lead to what could be the bathroom.

And I was right.

Not wanting to take too long, I quickly showered and got dressed. Now clean and freshly dressed, I walked back into the main area and I sat down on one of the couches in the middle of the room.

The dress the queen got me fit me like a glove and was so comfortable.

As I sat down on the couch, I pulled out my phone and remembered the text that I had yet to read.

I unlocked my phone and opened the message app. My finger lingered on the last unopened text message as nervous butterflies started to rise in my stomach.