An Imperfect Princess Read online

  An Imperfect Princess

  Catherine Blakeney

  Text Copyright © 2015 Catherine Blakeney

  All Rights Reserved

  Edited by Crystal Watanabe

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Epilogue

  Chapter One

  PLANET YERTARF

  Post-Triumvirate, Year 2

  Herirfirf Village

  "It was a pleasure doing business with you.”

  Eneria d’Munt flashed a brilliant smile as she shook hands with the chief of the small village on Yertarf. The planet was officially occupied by the Konkast, but in this remote tropical region, the military held little sway and she was able to complete a quiet business transaction for the underground smuggling group Perihelion without their knowledge.

  Five small chests of mined jewels, gold, and other precious metals were hers in exchange for basic necessities the village had been denied - seeds, fertilizers, medicines, and invaluable replacement parts. The Konkast had a nasty habit of trying to turn their occupied planets back to the Stone Age in order to prevent rebellions. Isolation and starvation were their favorite tactics. Yertarf had been one of the first to fall to them, partially because the world’s technology was rudimentary even before the invasion. They had been mere primitives, and no match for the invading Konkastians centuries before.

  The village chief, who adorned himself with enough precious metals and diamonds to rival a jewelry store, nodded respectfully to her. He was a large man, with the purple toned skin of the local people of this area and a graying, droopy mustache. He could have made more money from dealing through official Konkastian channels, but he could never have purchased the medical supplies and parts that would keep his village alive. He needed Perihelion for that.

  "Fly safely, Your Highness.”

  Eneria returned the nod, and waved goodbye as she tugged a small anti-gravity cart laden with her purchases behind her.

  “Oh, one last thing.” The chief stepped forward and began to remove a large brooch from his coat. Eneria paused, then tentatively held out her hand.

  "It’s not usual for you to sell finished pieces,” she commented.

  "This was a gift from the other side of the world,” the chief said, and placed the brooch in her palm. “You’re right, we do not usually offer finished pieces. That one seems to be of Konkastian origin, and I’d rather not wear it as adornment. You may have it.”

  She sucked in her breath as she studied the stone. It was beautiful. It was black opal, in a delicate platinum and diamond setting. The stone was half the size of her palm. While the raw gems and precious metals she had paid for were quite valuable for electronics, the finished stone in her hand would fetch at least half as much by itself.

  "I can’t afford to pay for this,” Eneria said, biting her lip. To her practiced artist’s eye, the craftsmanship of the finished piece was inferior’, but the stone itself was of finest quality. It flashed red and blue in the light.

  "It is a gift.” The chief shook his head sadly, touching his arthritic fingers that were too swollen to wear his rings properly. Part of the supplies she had traded them included his medicine. “You have helped our people more than you can know.”

  Eneria dropped to her knees gracefully, which would likely earn a rebuke from Aijo later on. According to the fairy, she was still a princess, even if her world was as occupied as Yertarf. But as far as she was concerned, she and the village chief were equals. “Your generosity will be remembered, sir,” she said, clutching the brooch tightly.

  "Be well, Hope of Lathlor.”

  * * *

  “How’d it go?”

  The chirpy, bright voice of Aijo, her ex-governess, greeted Eneria as soon as she stepped inside her old Lathlian shuttle. The vehicle was her last tie with home, although at this point it was more of a liability than a memory. Lathlians limousines were not exactly common in Konkastian controlled space.

  Eneria pulled the brooch out and glanced at it, then put it back in her pocket. She’d take a closer look at it later on. “With the proceeds from today, we will be able to pay for the maintenance, the upgrades, and the modifications.” She patted the console of the tiny ship lovingly, but finished with a smack. “Within a month, this will no longer be a Lathlian shuttle, but a nice generic custom shuttle from Montares with absolutely no ties to Lathlor or Konkast at all.”

  They were running on borrowed protocol codes, which allowed them to cruise through most space checkpoints without problems. But if they were ever stopped for another reason, or pulled over by the Konkastian patrols, they’d be arrested and likely executed on the spot when the officer saw that their codes in no way matched their actual vehicle. Konkastians were impulsive and often shot first and asked questions later.

  While they broadcasted that they were a small freighter from Montares, they were in fact a fairly beat up limousine shuttle from Lathlor, that same one they had escaped in years ago. Eneria had removed most of the seats from the back and turned it into a somewhat livable miniature mobile home. She had a bed, a desk for her jewelry work, and a tiny bath and shower unit she had installed in place of the old emergency head. It had not originally been designed for long distance travel, but it was all she had to her name.

  The plan was to completely modify the body, registration, and electronics of the little ship to make it appear like another ship entirely--and to eventually do some key modifications to Eneria’s own genetics. There were a few strands of Lathlian DNA that would be a dead giveaway if she was asked to do a spit sample. Lathlians weren’t supposed to be in space anymore. Their planet was occupied, their own space fleet subjugated, their people no longer free.

  The mods on the ship would be fairly expensive but they could be done quickly. Modifying every strand of DNA in her body would be a much more expensive and arduous task--she’d be out of commission for several months. The Pharinae who would do that sort of extensive genetic witchery would need to keep her comfortable and unconscious the whole time. Aijo could technically do it by herself, but it could take a lone Pharina years to change a full sized adult humanoid, and it would take an enormous toll on both of them. Aijo was also not well trained in that craft; her specialization had been languages, psychology, and brain reading. There was a good chance she’d make a fatal mistake and kill them both.

  “Well, that’s good,” Aijo said, fluttering around uselessly as Eneria hauled the chests of gold and precious gems into the back of the shuttle. Gravity did not affect her species, and her shimmering rainbow clothing, made from woven light, shifted with subtle quantum fluctuations in space-time. “You got a message from Vaz while you were down there.”

  “Oh?” Eneria shoved away some boxes, trying to create a stable pile on her desk while still giving her access to her tools. Her father and mother had not been practical in her career training, seeing as she was a princess. She was somewhat skilled with electronics, but her passion was gems and jewelry. The value of the raw gems and minerals was quite a lot on its own, but she would be able to transform some of them into jewelry and increase the resale value during the lonely journey through hyperspace.
Rubies would be reshaped for lasers or earrings, depending on the quality. Gold could be spun into threads and chains. Copper would become wires, or fired with zinc for brass. Her craft filled the long hours of traveling in hyperspace and kept her sane. She was an avid reader, but couldn’t remember the last time she’d been able to read a book in Lathlian; the export of her home world’s culture was completely suppressed.

  “Your mother wants to know when you’re coming to visit her.”

  Eneria grunted in annoyance and ignored the fairy. She took the brooch out of her pocket again and examined it a little more closely. The play of light in the black opal was magnificent. She could examine the workmanship in more detail later, but for now, a brief scan to verify the authenticity of the stone and metal would satisfy her. As far as she could tell, it was a genuine stone, but she wouldn’t put it past the Konkastians to make paste jewelry.

  “Enny, what are you doing?” Aijo came over and fluttered in her face. “We’re supposed to get out of here before we get caught!"

  "Just a minute,” Eneria grumbled, and held up the brooch. “We got a last minute present from the chief.” She set a tiny spectroscopic scanner next to the brooch and waited patiently while it read data back to her main work computer.

  The computer, crafted together with the humanoids from Ulugool and Pharinae, had been one of the few luxuries she had allowed herself since the coup. Comprised of two planes of solid fiberglass, the laptop folded into a neat rectangle only a few millimeters thick. The hinges were made of silver, but the rest of it was transparent. The entire thing was lined and studded with clear silicon circuitry, and lights blossomed into a translucent viewing screen and a keyboard, or whatever else she needed it to be. The pads were touch sensitive on both sides. It could flatten into a tablet or open up like a book. It was also nearly indestructible; nothing short of high voltage applied directly could damage it. It was worth as much as her entire ship.

  Within a few minutes, the portable scanner had analyzed the structure and chemical composition of the brooch.

  “Wow, it’s not even a doublet. It’s a real black opal. The diamonds are real…. but there are some odd readings of silicon and copper and trace elements as well. Platinum plate, I bet. Cheapskates.” She picked up the brooch and pulled out a more conventional jewelers loop to examine it up close. “As I thought, inferior craftsmanship. I’ll have to take it apart, but that might be for the best. Really, that sort of stone belongs on a pendant, not a brooch.” Her aesthetic sensibilities were finely honed, and she knew the stone was too heavy for delicate fabrics. It would make an evening dress droop in a very unflattering manner.

  “Enny, can we go now?” Aijo pleaded, her tiny golden faced scrunched up anxiously.

  “All right, all right.” Eneria forced herself to leave the work behind. Hobbies or business, it would all fall to pieces if the Konkastians found them on Yertarf.

  She returned to the front of the shuttle, settled into the driver’s seat, and started to warm the water-based atmosphere engines up. She slipped on the pair of goggles that brought the view screen in front of her into the full three dimensions. The augmented reality glasses were the non-invasive option; some professional pilots opted to have the lenses implanted directly into their corneas.

  “Once we’re in hyperspace, I’ll compose a letter to Vaz and we can send it once we drop out of the wormhole. The last thing we need is to have the Konkastians detect a Lathlian message coming from Yertarf.”

  "If you say so.” Aijo knew better than to argue with Eneria about the touchy subject of her mother. All the men in their family -- her father, her uncle, her cousin, and presumably her brother -- had died at the hands of the Konkast in the coup two years ago. Her mother had kept Vaz in hiding on Montares, and no matter how much Eneria pleaded with her, vowed to never leave it again. Eneria hated the place - they were Spartan in their tastes and values, and she’d have had to give up her two favorite hobbies if she became cloistered like her mother. No jewelry, no unapproved books. Vaz was a much more physical person and fit in fairly well there, although Eneria knew that she was still stifled and despised having to act as a go between for her aunt and cousin.

  “Okay, I think we’re good to go.” She flipped on the signal that broadcasted the false codes to the orbital military base surrounding Yertarf. As far as they could tell, she was a normal freighter picking up much less valuable wood and fiber products for delivery to Konkast itself. “We’ll be traveling four days to the dark matter clearance and the node we want.” Her fingers flew competently over the dashboard. Although she had never been taught how to work on shuttles growing up, she had learned fast when it was the last possession she had from her old life. There were still some quirks to the ship she had yet to figure out, but she hoped the skilled engineers of Perihelion who would transform it could tell her about those things.

  “We received the all clear from traffic control to launch.” Aijo settled into her gilded cage and turned on her sunlamp using the special electromagnetic switch Eneria had installed for her. The Pharinae were a light-based race and Aijo needed to spend most of her time basking in an artificial or natural source to recharge her energy.

  "Up, up, and away,” Eneria replied. She carefully engaged the horizontal repulsors, then lifted the shuttle off with a warm hum. The computer took care of most of the hard work of piloting it, but this old model still required a human operator. Most of the newer shuttles from Ulugool ran on auto pilot.

  They accelerated through the atmosphere quickly, achieving sub-orbit in less than five minutes. The clean burning engine only released water vapor as its byproduct. Soon they were clear of the atmosphere and they saw the Konkastian orbital fortress in the distance, tethered to the planet with an efficient and economical space elevator.

  In a moment of pique, Eneria shot the station a very rude gesture.

  “Someday, we’re gonna get you assholes back,” she vowed.

  “Enny! Language!" Aijo still considered herself Eneria’s governess, even if she was more of a co-pilot and friend these days. When Eneria had opted to leave the safety of Montares, Aijo had insisted on going with her, claiming that she was still honor bound to protect Eneria with her life if necessary.

  “Admit it, Aijo. You want to tell them to go to hell too.”

  "Vulgar gestures and sentiments will accomplish nothing, Your Highness.”

  "They make me feel better!"

  "That is nothing more than a brief emotional victory.”

  “So you admit it’s a victory?” Eneria grinned to herself. Sparring verbally with Aijo was fun.

  "I admit nothing.” Aijo stuck her delicate nose in the air. In addition to having the universal humanoid shape, the Pharinae also shared similar gestures to their physical matter counterparts, gestures they imparted to the humanoids they influenced. Eneria chuckled at her friend’s prissy attitude. Aijo still believed they were the legitimate rulers of Lathlor, and mildly disapproved of Eneria’s decision to abandon her royal upbringing in favor of survival. But she would stick with her no matter what. You couldn’t put a price on that kind of loyalty.

  Before long, they had cleared the orbital station and were on their way out of the solar system. Once they were out of the planet’s gravity well, Eneria felt safe enough to return to her work.

  “So they just handed you this extra thingy and you took it? Was that wise?” The fairy had settled onto the bookshelf above Eneria’s head, her delicate wings emitting photons with each slow flutter.

  “Well, I couldn’t exactly say no.” Eneria reached for a tiny set of screwdrivers to start prying apart the stones.

  “You’re too trustworthy.”

  "The chief wouldn’t sell me out.” She sorted the pulled out diamonds into a pile to be cleaned further. “His village can’t survive without us smugglers.”

  "I suppose.” Aijo watched her work for a few minutes, then yawned. "I’m going to take a nap. Wake me if anything exciting happens.”

&nb
sp; “Hey, I’m the organic being here, I should be the one napping,” Eneria replied, but she smiled as the tiny fairy curled into a ball. She had often wondered why the Pharinae needed to sleep at all, let alone how they could fall asleep at the drop of a hat like glowing hyper narcoleptics. It wasn’t as if they needed to forge new neuron connections or anything. She doubted they even had anything analogous to neurons in their unusual bodies.

  Before long, Eneria began to yawn herself. It had been a long day, after all.

  “Maybe just a little nap,”” she murmured to Aijo, and set her head on the table.

  Almost immediately, she began to dream of days gone by.

  * * *

  “Isn’t it pretty, Mother?” she said, holding up her latest necklace.

  “It’s still crude looking,” Emerita said, looking down at her daughter from the ladder on which she stood. Emerita d’Munt, the great artist Queen, had been working on a giant landscape when her daughter barged in. “You need to have more polish, child.” She wore a white smock over her royal robes and her hair had been piled up high, away from the volatile oil paint. Emerita somehow managed to never get smudges of paint on her smock either, which often prompted Eneria to wonder why she bothered to wear it at all.

  “I worked on it for four days, though!”

  “Do you see this painting, Eneria? I have been working on it for four weeks.” She gestured at the panoramic vista, which was coming not from a photo, but from her own seamless memory. It was a sunset on Montares. “It is not done yet, and I will not consider it done until it is perfect. When you have decided you are satisfied with something, you must examine it closely, and then reconsider until you are dissatisfied again.”

  And with that, Emerita returned to her painting, ignoring her daughter. Crestfallen, Eneria put the necklace on anyway and skipped out of the studio, back through the giant echoing halls of the palace. Maybe her mother was right. Maybe it wasn’t good enough. But Vaz would still like it anyway.