For the Love of a Child

It is my son Danton’s birthday today; he is now eleven. I would tell you what exact day it is, but if the enemy ever intercepted this transmission it could be disastrous. I am happier than I have been in a long time, at the same time I am very sad. It is the first birthday that Danton has ever spent with me. If you recall Danton was in hiding on the planet Xefa, I shall now tell you how he has come to be with me again. All of it started about three weeks ago, one week after Orion’s and my wedding. (One quick note, the wedding went lovely we spent a couple days in villa in the forests of Tamaar.) Any way, I received my monthly report from Lya. Lya is pretty good at lying but I noticed an unusual amount of stress in her voice. I was of course very worried; I immediately called Lya on our top secret, high security frequency that we only use for emergencies. She always monitors the frequency, if she’s not awake a droid does it, either way I can always call her up. This time there was no answer, absolutely nothing but silence. Naturally I was extremely concerned and worried for her safety as well as Danton’s. When Gawaan asked my what was wrong, she can always tell when I’m troubled, I said that it was nothing. I didn’t really want to tell anybody, not even Orion, I immediately headed towards the bay area. I picked a fast and strong fighter and blasted into space out of the bay doors, I didn’t wait for clearance at all. I immediately set a course for Xefa and jumped into hyperspace. I was close to Xefa and had been asleep for a few hours when I got a call through a high security rebellion frequency. “Hello?” I yelled into the comlink, I was pretty sure of who it might be. “Chloe where are you?” Orion yelled back, equally as ticked off. I sighed, “in hyperspace.” “What?” he yelled again, “sorry darling. Why are you in hyperspace? Where are you going anyway? Why didn’t you tell anybody?” “I can’t give you all the answers, but I’m going to Xefa.” “That’s where your son is isn’t it? Why are you going there, didn’t you and Lya agree that if you were ever to met Danton it would be back on Tamaar?” “I got Lya’s report today, something’s wrong I can tell.” “Why did you just call her?” “I did, nobody answered,” I replied. “Oh…I’m going to join you, I’m leaving right now, I’m going to bring Gawaan, Sal, and Ken….” He started. “No,” I cut in; “Gawaan has to stay behind to run the rebellion. Bring Sachae instead, and Laura and Mat from Mutant Water.” “Can do, we’ll take a cruiser and three fighters, what for us all right?” I thought for awhile, I probably should wait for them but it might be too late if I didn’t go now. “Bye, I’ll see you in a couple hours.” I shut the comlink off and continued into hyperspace. My fighter dropped out of hyperspace a fairway from Xefa. Two very big battle ships were in orbit around the planet. I could tell by the shape that they were pirate ships from Equari. Xefa does have a large deposit of silver and emeralds so I was not really too surprised only worried. The pirates must have put up temporary settlements and Lya was worried that they had been found out. Perhaps they had been captured and that was why no one had answered, or Lya was just lying low. I doubted the later. If the pirates discovered that there was a prince on planet, especially a Tamaarian prince, they would immediately do everything to kidnap him. If you didn’t notice Tamaar, I am very proud to say, is a very wealthy planet. If ever a prince of Tamaar was kidnapped we could and would pay a lot to get him back. I used my tracking device and was able to track Lya’s signal. She was indeed aboard one of the ships; if she was so was Danton. All I had to do was break into the ship, get to them and get them out, easy right? I brought the ship around to the other side of the planet and landed in a rock cavern. I brought out the float disk, a round floating disk that will move with pressure applied. So I hopped on, leaned forward and the disk and I zoomed across the rocky desert planet. An advantage to the floating disk is that any kind of electronic device can not track it. I sneaked aboard a shuttle and hid. I had to wait a few hours before it finally left, but unfortunately it brought me to the wrong ship. I knocked out a pilot, got into her uniform and took a shuttle over to the other ship. So far pretty easy, but how were they going to let a pilot in the cellblock? So I knock out a guard and dress in his uniform, there aren’t very many female pirates. I was lucky that I could find one female with the same hair color and build as me. I was of course hoping the cellblock guards wouldn’t be looking very close at my ID. (These pirates are surprisingly organized, with different uniforms and IDs for different stations.) To the cellblock guards I just told them that I was here to make a prison transfer and that the order was so top secret it wouldn’t even be in the main computer. Yeah, they didn’t buy it. There were only two of them, so I easily got them. With my tracker I found Lya’s cell. She was very happy and surprised to see me, but Danton was not with her. She told me that Danton had somewhere in the fortress and had not been found. Lya dressed in one of the dead guard’s uniforms and we went back down to the shuttles. I was wearing the pilot uniform underneath and took off the guard uniform. We took the shuttle back down to the planet. They seemed a little suspicious when only a pilot and guard came out, but they didn’t hassle us. There wasn’t much room but we both got on to the floating disk and headed towards the fortress. The fortress unfortunately occupied by the pirates, so we had to enter through a back door a mile away. We had no way of tracking Danton but Lya knew where all his favorite hiding places were. We went to check them, along the way we would occasionally bump into a pirate; we just zapped him and moved on. Lya and I must have been searching for an hour (the fortress is like an above and underground town.) We had searched all Danton’s favorite places but we did not find him. Then Lya starting taking me to just general hiding places, anywhere that she thought Danton would think that the pirates wouldn’t see him. After awhile I decided that we should spilt up, I headed towards the deep underground parts of the fortress and Lya headed for the surface. It seemed like forever, I carefully searched every room and corridor. I decided it take off the pirate uniform in case Danton saw me, when I didn’t see him. I was very deep underground, perhaps half a mile; I had not seen a living soul. I caught a flash out of the corner of my eye, I spun around, and it had gone into the room across the corridor. “Danton?” I pushed the door open. There he stood, my little son, Prince Danton Mauva of Tamaar. I smiled at him, the last time I’d seen him was when he was only a couple months old and didn’t have any teeth yet. This was not the happy reunion I’d always dreamed off. He was not smiling, he did not recognize me, and he was pointing a blaster riffle right at me. “Get out of here before I blow your head off!” He said it so forcefully you’d never guess he was only a small child of ten. “Danton, I don’t mean you any harm. Lya and I have been looking all over for you, I’ll call her up right now and tell her I’ve found you.” He seemed to believe because he lowered the riffle. I pulled out my radio, “Lya, I’ve found him.” For awhile there wasn’t a reply, “good, meet you at the back door.” Her voice was not happy but strained and forced. I pulled my tracker out, Lya was outside the Fortress, which only meant one thing, that she had been found and captured, again. Danton and now completely set down the riffle he seemed to believe me now. “Who are you?” he asked as he took a step closer to me. “Name’s Chloe,” I said pulling out my blaster, “can you actually use that thing?” I pointed to the blaster riffle. “No,” he said as he pulled out a blaster, “this is my specialty.” “Good you might need to use it, Lya seems to be in a bit of a situation. “But she said that she would met you by the back door,” he said very confused. “That’s what she said but I could tell by her voice,” I opened the door into the hall, “come on.” He followed me up to the surface holding his blaster in his hand. I came to a side door and peered outside, Lya was tied up on the ground and there were about a dozen pirates milling around. I knew there would be more, I did not want to bring Danton into this, but I would never be able to get them all myself. “All right we’re going to rush out and shot them all and then untie Lya, alright?” I looked down at Danton, and he nodded. “Sounds good to me,” a familiar voice said behind him, “but the kid can’t be coming is he?” I turned around it was Orion, Sachae, Ken, Sal, Laura, and Mat were behind him. “Glad you could make it,” I smiled, I gave Orion a quick kiss and Sachae a hug. “Alright let’s go, I’m sorry Danton but it will be too dangerous, you have to stay back.” “Oh, so this is your Danton!” Sachae smiled at me and at him. All seven of us marched out of fortress straight for the pirates, we all had our blasters drawn, except for Laura and Mat. Mat sent a burst of flames towards the pirates; we followed with blaster shots. Laura came in behind them and slashed them with her claws. It didn’t take very long and we cleared them all. I rushed forward and untied Lya; we were just getting up, when I heard the sound of many blasters clicking. I turned around; over twenty pirates surrounded us. This was not good. They had brought Danton out to join us. “Well, well, if it isn’t her Majesty Queen Chloe Mauva of Tamaar,” a pirate leader walked towards us. “So how are the gold mines on Tamaar coming along? I’m sure millions worth, at least enough to pay the ransom of their queen, and I guess prince too.” He looked at Danton. Suddenly fire surround all of us and the pirates as well, Mat had created a fire ring, I think he miss calculated. The pirate grabbed Danton and pointed a blaster to his head. “Tell your mutant to die the fire and he lives,” he yelled. I quietly spoke to Mat, he stopped feeding the fire, but it didn’t die down. “He dies for all the aggravation you’ve caused me, and then we’ll see about you lives.” “Stop!” Lya yelled, before I had the chance to. “Kill me let the other’s go!” He grinned evilly, “alright.” “You swear? You swear on your mother’s grave, that if you take me, you will let the boy and the others go.” Lya asked. “Yes,” he bowed deeply. Lya stepped to his side, the fire died down then. “Go all of you now, unless you wish to see your friend die. “Aunt Lya no!” Danton cried and rushed forward, Orion caught him and scooped him up, and carried him away. I boarded the cruiser with Ken, Laura, and Orion. The cruiser lifted off the ground and into the sky, I found Danton crying in lounge. “I will miss her too,” I said sitting down next to him. He whipped his eyes and looked at me, “you’re my mother aren’t you?” I nodded, “and I’m a prince?” I nodded again, “that man back there, is he my father?” “Yes,” I replied, “not your birthfather, he died over five years ago. Orion is my second husband though, I hope you will come to think of him as your father.” “Are we going to…what’s it called…Tamaar?” “No, you see Danton, among being a queen, I am also the leader of the rebellion against and that is why you will be living on….” (I did tell him the location of our base but for security purposes in this transmission I can not say). That is how Danton has come to live with me, and why am happy. I am said because I have lost a good friend, but she didn’t to save Danton and us. She did it for the love of a child.

Xefa

This is a ground picture of the rocky desert planet where my son Danton lived for his fist eleven years.

Rebellion Fighter

This is the fighter that I took off in to rescue my son Danton and his nurse Lya.

Pirates

This is what one of the pirate ships looked like.