Your Princess Is In Another Castle!

Chapter 7: Salvage

King Ajax's date with the woman named Meliboia ended up being breakfast in her hospital room. "So, I lost the starboard nacelle when I hit the last asteroid," she said. "Not knocked out, mind you, just plain gone. That'll be the last of my spares. I managed to level off with retros. I could have bailed then and there, naturally. My Lorica is rated to take a fall from 2,000 meters. But then my ship would have come down who knows where, hard. It could have done a lot more damage. And I have a lot of money tied up in it.

"So, I used a short blast to crack the dome. It was less damage than hitting it at full speed. I went through with only a little more damage. I separated the bridge module from the main hull and let the canopy slow it down. Then I came down in the lake. I ended up in the mud about 40 meters down. I thought about waiting for the search party, but I'm impatient. I climbed out, walked to shore. A couple times, something tried to eat me. I tried not to hurt them." Persephone, waiting at the door, clapped in approval.

"You could have tried to miss my dome," Xaja said, trying to look irritated. "It's worth a lot more than your ship. Or you."

"Please, it was the safest place to land," Mel said. "And all you have to do is get the insurers to pay for a new dome. Ever try to get spare parts for Myrmidon tech? Never mind taking out insurance. Half the time, the adjuster just tries to steal the ship. Besides, I knew you would bring in the guests and as many of the animals as you could. I'm onto you, Xaja. You're a humanitarian at heart. I bet you were even worried about me."

"Well," Xaja said, "we wouldn't be able to talk about what comes out of your pay if you were dead."

Cerasa took his arm. "Of course, we are happy you made it," she said. "There aren't many people who could have pulled that off."

Ajax spoke so he would be heard. "She is named for one spared by the gods," he said.

"You got that wrong," Mel said. "She was the one the gods couldn't kill. With me, they try, hard." She smiled. "Why don't you tell me about yourself, Ajax? How'd you get here, anyway?"

"My brother Hector and I were independent contractors," he said. "We got a call to put in drywall in a university's experimental physics lab. We took our lunch break in a janitor's closet. I was reading a book on Greek myths, he was listening to a tape. Suddenly, the light went out. When I opened the door, I came out in a field in the Lavender Plains. Hector grabbed our tools and followed me. The door slammed shut behind him. When we turned around, it was gone. By then, the Mushroom Folk were already coming out to meet us. We never found out what happened. We still don't know if there is a way back home."

"Yeah, that's probably where I came from, except a long, long time ago," Mel said. "There's humans and para-humans all over the Star Union. Most of them started out somewhere in the World Islands. The ones that remember how they got there all tell the same kind of story. Me, I don't care for backstory. I don't even remember how mine started. To me, that just means I'm a clean slate."

With that, she moved to rise from her bed. "Well, this has been fun," she said. "I've got things to do..."

"You are not leaving," Xaja said. "I talked to the doctors. They found 20 fractures. They're still sorting out the head trauma."

"Try and find someone who would stop me," Mel said.

"Lady Meliboia," Ajax said, "please listen to him. I will stay with you. If you have errands, I will give you my Maidens to attend to them."

"Listen to him," Xaja said. "You already have leave of the hospital grounds. Any of your clientele will be willing to reschedule or meet with you here. Besides, we still have your ship. It's going to take a while to fix."