The Kingdom of the Seven Stars: Chaturanga

Chapter 1

Far out in the nebula, a storm was raging.

Lightning twisted and crackled among the red and purple clouds. The huge mass of interstellar dust, thousands of light years across, filled the night sky above the planet Magenta like a mountain range, stretching out all the way along the horizon. The storm clouds rolled and tumbled, turning darker than the rest of the nebula, looking angry and restless. The night sky around it was the usual peaceful black of deep space, glittering with stars that stretched away into the galaxy, including four of the seven suns of the Kingdom of the Pleiades.

Prince Alex Tarquin stood on the roof of the palace and watched the nebula. The rooftop garden was paved with small tiles in long spiralling patterns. Sculpted trees stood in large plant pots. A low wall carved from white marble ran around the edges of the roof. Everything shone white and silver in the reflected light of two of Magenta's moons. Alex was thirteen. He was short for his age, but slim and well-proportioned from plenty of running, swimming and fencing practise. Alex had inherited the Tarquin family's famous light blue eyes, but his thick, curly, copper-coloured hair had come from his father. He was dressed in the neat, dark blue uniform of Magenta's most prestigious military school, which he had washed and ironed himself last night. His sword, with its sweeping steel hilt, hung in its scabbard at his side. His favourite telescope stood on its tripod in front of him.

Alex raised his head from the eyepiece and frowned at the storm. He could see it clearly without the telescope, which meant that it had to be millions of miles across, even though it only looked like a tiny, dark red patch in the middle of the nebula. It was not unusual to see electrical storms in the dust cloud, but this was completely the wrong time of year for them. There had to be some unusual astronomical, gravitational or dark matter phenomena that was causing it, perhaps even all three. Alex reached for his computer pad and its pen and started to write down all the astronomical data he could see. If there was a chance that the storm could affect any of the Kingdom's planets or their shipping, he would need to call the astro-meteorological office and let them know...

"Your highness? Prince Alex?"

"Hmm?"

Alex looked up as the royal steward hurried up the steps onto the roof. The steward was a tall, thin man in his sixties, with short wavy brown hair that was going grey at his temples. He had a lined face with a large, hawk-like nose and very piercing grey eyes. He was dressed in a long black tailcoat which was not officially part of his uniform, but he had been wearing it for so long that Alex was fairly certain it would be adopted by his successor whenever the steward eventually retired. He saw Alex and came quickly towards him. The expression on his face told Alex instantly that something was wrong.

"What is it?" said Alex, turning around. "What's happening?"

"You need to come inside at once, your highness," said the royal steward. "It's your grandfather. He... The doctor fears it might be time."

Alex's eyes went wide. He dropped his computer pad and pen, which clattered on the tiles, as he ran past the steward and down the steps into the palace.

* * * * * * *

Inside the royal bedroom, the lights had been turned down low.

It was a small and comfortable room. Alex's grandfather had moved out of the palace's master bedroom twelve years ago after his wife had died, wanting to sleep somewhere that would not feel so empty without her. The four-poster bed made from dark Eridanian oak took up most of the space. The bed was made with silk sheets in royal purple and a small banner displaying the silver chalice of Tarquin family crest hung on the wall. A medical console clicked and hummed softly in the corner.