Sword of stars

A Call From Home

"Princess Raibyn! Princess Raibyn! Wake up."

"Helah the sun hasn't even come up yet. You better have a good reason for waking me up this early."

"Your friends from the Burner are calling. Hurry and get dressed!" I threw the covers back and jumped out of bed. Then threw some clothes on.

Helah was waiting by my door. "Where do we go?"

"Follow me." She lead me to a tower door. The stairs not only went up, but down as well. "Down there."

"How far down?"

"Far."

"You're not giving me much information tonight, are you?"

"Come on we have to hurry."

I managed to not fall too often as we descended down the stairs. All the light we had to go by was Helah's candle she brought. It seemed we had walked for a mile or so down.

I was glad when Helah stopped and we made it to the bottom. There were several tunnels. "This way," she said. We went into the tunnel on the far right.

The tunnel wasn't very long. As we got through to the other side we came into a high celling tunnel, and a sight of a carriage. We got in and they took off at a high speed.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see."

I opened the curtain to see where we were heading. It seemed like a straight shot. The ride was a lot more smooth then the rides I had to take to the market street or school.

We stopped abruptly. "We're here."

We hopped out and went through an automatic door. "Hadn't seen one of those in a while," I said. The room was several rows of up right computer consoles. There were a few missing seats, but for the most part it was packed full of people at each com.

At the back of the room was a huge screen that nearly filled the wall. The door we came in from was on top of a small helm. There was stairs on either end the lead down to where the consoles were.

"I didn't know this all existed." I knew technology was forbidden on the planet surface, but we did land the shuttle I rode to get here in an underground landing bay. We must have been close to where it was located.

I walked up to the Emperor and Queen who were waiting for me. "There is someone here who wants to talk to you."

"Who?"

"Sarah? Is that you?" On the viewer was my Mom's face. I took me a minute to understand. I hadn't spoke in English for a while.

"You're here in transmission range?"

"Yeah, we're taking a slight detour back to Earth. How are you? Look at your hair!"

I started to laugh. "Where has your travels taken you? I want to know everything."

"Well, it would take us a while to tell you everything, but while we're going through your system, why don't you come and visit?" I jerked at the mention of leaving the planet. Even if it was for a short time.

"Raibyn, you have responsibilities here." The Queen had put in a translator and was over hearing our conversation.

"They're heading back to Earth. I may never see them again. Please." The Emperor pulled the Queen to the side.

"Will they not let you come?" My shoulders sank. I shrugged.