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  The emergency news broadcast came to an end, and the cartoon my friends had been watching came back on. But we were just sitting in silence, unable to come back to our senses.

  My father had an extremely mixed reputation. There were plenty of moments from his biography that even made me, his doting daughter, blush in embarrassment. All three of Crown Prince Georg's children had different mothers for example, and there was also the unfortunate fact that his retinue contained Bionica, a sex robot. It was the subject of far too many jokes for my liking. The Orange House accused my father of rebellion and upending their legal authority, illegally occupying Perimeter Sectors Eight and Nine, assassinating political opponents, and forcing people to resign from power with threats of violence. But at that, no one, not even his most fervent foes could deny my father's impressive abilities as a fleet commander and diplomat, as well as his leading role in liberating star systems from Alien control.

  Some adored my father and deified him. Others feared and hated him. But both groups could be sure that Crown Prince Georg royl Inoky ton Mesfelle didn't make idle threats! I didn't doubt for a second that my father really would give an order to destroy millions of Imperial soldiers if he didn't get what he was demanding from the Emperor. And I knew that no potential consequences could stop him.

  "Your father has totally lost it!" said my best friend, the Purple House princess, Joan royl Reyekh. And in her voice, I could hear unhidden horror. "Your father's military victories have gone to his head and he has completely lost his link with reality! He clearly didn't think this through! I mean, making an ultimatum to the ruler of the Empire himself? He can't possibly think seriously that Emperor August is going to back down, right?"

  "Well, I doubt he just made the ultimatum off the cuff,” replied Crown Princess Natalie royl Cruz. A former Blue House Princess, she was now a subject of the Unatari State. "Likanna's father is the greatest military strategist of modern times, and he has a very strong space fleet under his command. He would never make such drastic accusations if he hadn't considered all the possible consequences. In the end, Crown Prince Georg decided to make this accusatory speech, so that must mean he thinks he can win."

  "That sounds right," I agreed with her. "But this looks pretty bad for me and you. We are both Unatari subjects, and the Emperor may see us as perspective hostages for trading with my father."

  Natalie nodded in silence, but Crown Princess Joan then grew sincerely indignant:

  "What on earth are you talking about, Lika?! All Imperial Crown Princesses are absolutely untouchable, no matter what Great House they belong to! August wouldn't dare lay a finger on you!"

  I chuckled back sadly:

  "I would also like to believe in justice and the sanctity of the law. But the Emperor did dare to shoot the Unatari delegation to the Throne World even though all diplomats are also supposed to be untouchable. And he tried to kill my father, even though Crown Prince Georg royl Inoky is also theoretically untouchable. Basically, I say let’s wait and see..."

  [Mission received: Obtain a personal meeting with the Emperor]

  [Mission received: Obtain the Emperor's agreement to the ultimatum]

  The messages caught me off guard. I even shuddered. Then I read the text and shuddered again. Just look at that! How was I even supposed to accomplish that?! Crown Princess Natalie raised her gaze to meet mine, letting me know she had also received these missions. Crown Princess Joan, though, for whom these events were of little relevance, remained calm and even went back to watching the cartoon.

  I gestured with my eyes to Natalie in the direction of the neighboring room. There we could speak alone, not worrying about who could hear us. She understood me, and stood up.

  "There is a camera and microphone in the wall over your bed," Natalie whispered to me barely audibly as soon as we'd left the room and closed the door.

  "Yes, I noticed," I confirmed. "These perverts are sneaking peeks at little girls!"

  We both exchanged glances and cracked up laughing. Then Natalie put on a serious expression and stated:

  "Lika, I’m afraid the Emperor won’t try to meet with us. It seems quite likely to me that August doesn't even know we're on the Throne World. And what's more, I’m pretty sure the Emperor won’t try to take you and I hostage. It would cause too much stink. Taking two Crown Princesses against their will would be a big story."

  "That means we'll have to make it happen then," I chuckled and cocked my eye at her. "We need to make such a loud statement that the Throne World news channels will talk about nothing but you and me. That way, August will have to notice us."

  My friend nodded in understanding. A minute later, Crown Princess Natalie was drawing up a press release to send off to the largest Throne World news agencies, telling them to send reporters to the gates of our preparatory school and film the scandalous, illegal arrest of two underage Crown Princesses. I then, from the hacked account of our school's administration, made false reports to the Throne World Security Service about kidnapping threats against two Imperial Crown Princesses and demanded they be provided armed guards and transport to a safe location.

  * * *

  I HELD A WOEFUL EXPRESSION on my face with all my might, trying my best not to crack up. Our plan had its intended effect. It actually turned out better than we were expecting. In just one hour's time, there was a whole host of reporters gathered before the gates of our prep school, camera operators in tow. Alongside them was a separate crowd of curious onlookers who greeted the arriving convoy with an angry roar. The huge number of armed Throne World Security Service personnel that came out of the ships grimaced when they saw the giant crowd of people, but they continued to determinedly muscle their way through the crowd to their shuttle.

  Before taking a seat in the armor-plated Security Service shuttle, I turned to the crowd and waved my hand good-naturedly. The people below gave an enthusiastic shout in response.

  Global fame increase. Current value +9

  Global standing increase. Current value +3

  Geez! I guess it was playing out perfectly! The Security Service officer obligingly threw open the shuttle doors before me and let me inside. Crown Princess Natalie was already there. The door closed on its own, leaving the two of us alone in the small but comfortable vehicle.

  "There's a video camera over the viewport," she mouthed to me.

  "As soon as we get off the ground, block it. We'll leave quietly and blend in with the crowd," I whispered back as quietly as possible.

  A minute later, Natalie and I were already standing on a park path, hidden from the crowd behind a thicket of vegetation. We slinked away from the guards, and now we were observing the armored vehicle, its engines humming in exertion as they gained altitude. It turned toward the setting sun, which was orange in this system. The crowd shouted a bit more after the retreating shuttle and was already beginning to disperse when suddenly... four sleek atmospheric-near-space interceptors dove out of the clouds and launched a barrage of rockets at the shuttle! Leaving a clear white trail in the air, the homing rockets darted toward the vehicle for a few seconds, as it attempted an awkward dodge maneuver.

  Boom!!!

  In the evening sky, there bloomed a huge bright flower. After that, fragments of the armored aircraft poured down on us. Natalie and I were standing, shivering, and staring wide-eyed at the smoky cloud where the shuttle had once been as we listened to the hysterical screams of the crowd. Natalie snapped out of the trance before I did:

  "Holy crap! We were just trying to attract attention. But now, it looks like someone was really trying to kill us! Two Imperial Crown Princesses!"

  The story really had taken a surprising and (why hide it?) extremely unpleasant turn. This was an attempt on our lives and, what's more, it was done before the eyes of thousands of people which clearly played into our hand.

  "Natalie, I think we should go away for a half hour so all the news channels will say that we died. I bet the news will reach the Emperor by then and
, when we appear alive and well, August will be told immediately."

  And that was what we did, simply walking down the park paths away from the scene of the crime. Eventually, we took a seat on a bench in a quiet, desolate area. We were both watching the news on our palmtops. And though the central Throne World channels were keeping mum, all the other channels had our story front and center. There were many versions being told, but the majority of commentators linked the attack with the ultimatum given to the Emperor a few hours earlier.

  Finally, after about an hour, the Emperor's secretariat issued an official press release calling the alleged attempt on two Imperial Crown Princesses mere rumors, and probably intentional disinformation. According to the Throne World's official story, what really happened was that some as-of-yet-unknown criminal structures attempted to hijack a police shuttle, which caused the aircraft to be shot down. There were five corpses found in the wreckage, and all of them belonged to adult males. There were no female bodies there, and certainly no children.

  Nevertheless, the Emperor’s press secretary was not able to answer a direct question from a journalist asking where Crown Princesses Likanna royl Unatari and Natali royl Unatari were currently. He only assured everyone that the location of the two royal children would be discovered very, very soon.

  "It seems like now is the best time to go public," my friend suggested.

  "Yes, I agree. It's time we showed ourselves, now that the Emperor's secretariat has decided to start searching for us."

  We walked unhurriedly to the end of the long shady path and purposely passed by a camera installed near a monument, knowing full well that it was detecting the faces of all passersby and cross-referencing that with a central database. A few minutes later, a police patrol came down the path. A young woman in a severe criminal-police uniform pressed her palm to her helmet in a sign of greeting:

  "Crown Princesses Natalie and Likanna I presume? Would your Highnesses please follow me to the police station?"

  Natalie and I exchanged glances. My friend twisted her face up and said in dismay:

  "And what if we don't want to? You cannot force us to go against our will."

  "Of course not. We never even thought of forcing you," said the second police officer, a buff man with graying hair. It's just that we've been searching for you two for a while, and we want to accompany you to a safe location."

  "You know, I remember a time when we were free to just go on a walk without intrusive round-the-clock observation..." I mumbled for appearances, but then all the same agreed to follow the police. Natalie didn't argue either.

  * * *

  THE POLICE DIVISION HEAD was very happy and even let us hang out in his personal office while they talked over the issue of what to do with us "somewhere up the ranks." They were, of course, elated to have found us two Crown Princesses alive and well. As Natalie and I, sitting on big spinning leather chairs, drank sparkling water and stress-ate some pastries, a reporter asked us tricky questions. It was unclear how he'd gotten access to the police building, though. First of all, he wanted to know why we hadn't flown away in the armored vehicle sent to us by the Throne World Security Service. As I chomped down a cream-filled pastry, I put on my best look of ambivalence and answered:

  "Before bringing us through the crowd of journalists, one of the Security Service officers warned us that it was all just for appearances, to throw off the bad guys and that we wouldn't actually be going anywhere. So, we were led into the shuttle in full view, then secretly taken out the other side. A group of officers blocked us with their backs, and we walked behind some thick bushes and waited there for a while. But then the shuttle blew up, and they all forgot about us. After that, we decided to leave that boring place and just go for a walk."

  "But your Highness, that was very bad judgment!" the reporter gaped. "Whoever organized the attack on the vehicle could have kidnapped you in the park when you were both unguarded!"

  "Yeah, well, what were they gonna do? I mean, we're Imperial Crown Princesses and so we're absolutely untouchable..." the end of my phrase was drowned out by a worrying clanging sound coming from down the hall.

  All three of us exchanged surprised glances, not understanding what was going on. A few seconds later, from behind the closed door, we heard gunfire and angry shouting. The reporter who'd been questioning us (or maybe it wasn't a reporter at all, based on the short-barreled laser rifle and light armored vest he took out of his briefcase) ordered Natalie and I to go away from the door and sit in the corner of the room. He, clearly having a lot of experience, assembled his weapon and very nearly shot when the office door opened abruptly. But it was the head of the police division. He was wounded and holding his lifeless, bloody left arm in his right hand.

  "It's pretty rough out there!" he blurted out, hurriedly locking the massive door behind him. "The whole first floor and hallway of the second have been captured by assault troops in heavy armored suits. Based on their emblems, they're from a nearby military outpost. Why they attacked, I have no idea. My lieutenant tried to find out the reason for the invasion, but they didn't listen to him, just shot him full of holes. Basically, they're shooting everyone. Even people who surrender, or ones who never had weapons to begin with."

  "What are they armed with?" inquired the false reporter, already having managed to strap into his armored vest and shoving extra clips and grenades into his pockets.

  "The attackers have high-speed plasma rifles, cluster grenade launchers and infantry combat resonators."

  "Not exactly the weaponry you'd bring to an assault, if you wanted to capture anybody alive..." our protector said gloomily, and the police head nodded back without a word.

  "Is the video camera still live? Can anyone not in the building see what it’s filming?" asked Natalie. The questions sounded inappropriately chipper in my friend's sonorous feminine voice, given the terrifying situation.

  Both men turned and stared at Natalie and me. The reporter looked at the device attached to his tripod and confirmed it was transmitting.

  "Alrighty then!" Natalie exclaimed, growing joyful and turning to the camera. "I, Crown Princess Natalie royl Cruz ton Unatari, officially declare that I will be outside the doors of my prep school in two hours. And I demand that Emperor August royl Akad provide for my safety which he, as the ruler of the Empire, must provide to all upper aristocrats. My friend, Crown Princess Likanna royl Georg ton Unatari-Mesfelle will be there too, and she also needs protection. And now," my friend turned to our defenders, "I ask you to turn off all the recording equipment. Lika and I are going to escape this besieged police station and do not want to leave any clues about how we got out or where we went."

  The "reporter" was too surprised and intrigued by the little girl's words to argue. Just after he turned off his camera, my friend pointed to a small ventilation shaft in the wall and shouted: "In there!"

  The police head looked where she pointed and hurried to object:

  "It’s no use, your Highness! The ventilation shaft back there is too narrow. A person would never be ab..." he said, stopping mid-word with his mouth hanging wide open, as Natalie and I just went in. Without even taking off the grate.

  * * *

  THEY WERE OBVIOUSLY waiting for us to show up. The whole area around our prep school was lit up with bright spotlights, surrounded by soldiers and armored vehicles, and covered with a defensive force field. In the twilight sky, there were dozens of recon drones hovering, and combat aircraft patrolling. The armed soldiers gave way, letting Natalie and I through. Their ranks closed behind us just as swiftly, leaving the many gathered journalists and curious onlookers blocked off.

  Right at the very gates of the prep school, arms crossed behind his back, there was a gray-haired medium-height man standing in a luxurious bright-red robe. In his silvery ashen hair I could clearly make out the golden band of a crown. I read his information:

  Julius royl August ton Akad, Duke of the Empire

  Age: 189

 
Race: Human

  Gender: Male

  Class: Aristocrat/Artist

  Relation to you: Your great uncle

  Achievements: Primus inter Pares, Collector, Gained respect, Maecenate.

  Fame: +99

  Standing: +108

  Presumed personal relationship: Unknown

  That's what I'm talking about! The man waiting for Natalie and I turned out to be the Emperor's own oldest son, first in line to the throne and one of the most influential people in the whole Universe! I was immediately reassured. I knew I could trust this man. Duke Julius wouldn't attack two young Princesses no matter what. Doing that could sully his flawless reputation as an honest and noble man, which he had spent practically two centuries to earn. In accordance with courtly etiquette, Crown Princess Natalie royl Cruz and I stopped three steps from the senior aristocrat and gave delicate bows. We managed to do it in unison and gracefully. The Duke smiled in approval.

  "So here are the little Princesses who've got the whole Empire so worked up, while they flit about walking through parks and disappearing. Get into the shuttle, girls. The Emperor would like to see you in the Silver Palace for a personal conversation."

  We bowed politely to Duke Julius once again and got on board his luxuriant shuttle. It was a true flying palace, decked out in gold, platinum and gemstones. The pictures on the walls were from famous artists, and the viewports were carved of artificial sapphire crystals. I had only ever seen such luxury before on Queen of Sin, my father's personal yacht.

  No less than ten aircraft of various types accompanied our take-off, and two of them followed us the whole way, constantly maintaining a defensive shield around the Duke's shuttle. Only when the vehicle had gained altitude and speed did the escorts fall back.