Codes (Book 2)

Chapter 35: Anna

"No!" I yelled, slamming my fist down on my desk with rage. "We barely missed them! If they had been an inch closer, an inch." 

"It's alright, it wasn't your fault," Silver said encouragingly. "There's no way you could've seen them at that angle. And, besides, we'll have plenty of time to prepare to meet them on Lessaenes. That little piece of junk they're in could take months to get them to the Empire!" 

"You're right..." I trailed off. "But we can't let the Empire know about this. We can't let them see that we're slipping. We have to be the the perfect Icehearts we've always been."

"Alright, I'll Project the Board of Aural Media Control." Alexis reached for the Aural Projector. "What do you want changed in the story?" 

"Don't," I said blandly. "We can't fix this one with a media cover-up. We need to make sure that this entire incident is completely erased from all of our records. Then, as far as everyone knows, it will never have happened." 

"Good idea," Solstice smiled.

"Make sure you erase it thoroughly," I instructed. "Manually enter falsified data if you need to. If the the Council or the Queen find out that the records have been tampered with in any way, we'll be in serious trouble."

"Okay, I'll get to that," she nodded, tapping the air in front of her until an Aurascreen came into view. 

"When are we going to get back to Lessaenes?" A familiar whiny voice interrupted my thoughts as Princess Annalee stormed into the control room, wearing a ridiculous, frilly pink dress and white sandals. 

"In about a week at our current velocity, Your Highness," I said tersely, trying to hide my annoyance. 

"WHAT!?" She yelled. "Dad and Aunt Saralee were going to take me to the Kilaenaian Warmatches in three days! Is there no way we can go any faster?" 

"Yes, there is a way we can go faster," Alexis snapped. "We can jettison the cargo we don't need...like you!" 

"You're mean!" Annalee bawled. "I'm telling Aunt Saralee!" 

"No, no, no, no, no!" I threw my hands up defensively, running to put myself between the angry Princess and the door. "She didn't mean you, she was talking about...er...that crate behind you! Yeah, the crate!" I stuttered. 

"No, she pointed at me!" Annalee crossed her arms. 

"She was just pointing directly behind you...you thought she was pointing at you. I'm very sorry for the misunderstanding, Your Highness."

"...oh," Annalee nodded, walking out the door. "Then throw out that crate, and go faster! I'm not missing the warmatches just because I was sent to some stupid ship!" 

"Alexis, what were you thinking?" I hissed as soon as she was out of the room. 

"I'm sick of her! She's annoying and stupid, I just had to do it!" 

"Well, don't do it again, or Queen Saralee will make us all regret it..." I trailed off. 

"Aren't you tired of it?" I jumped at the sound of an unfamiliar voice behind me. 

Holly Myers, one of the missing former commanders of my ship, stood inches from my face. A tall Rhenan boy stood beside her with his arms crossed arrogantly over his chest. 

"Shh," Holly grinned, pressing an Aural icicle to my neck. 

"Tired of w-what?" I whispered. 

"Living in fear of Queen Saralee," the Rhenan boy shook his head. 

"You're a Flame," Solstice spat. 

"No!" The boy took a step backwards, disgusted. "I'm Teren, but you can call me Prince Teren, or Teren, Future King of Lessaenes. And I'm assuming you know Holly." 

I barely resisted the urge to snicker. Here I was, talking to some delusional Rhenan who had somehow captured Holly Myers and snuck onto my ship. 

"If you're not a Flame, what are you?" Alexis raised an eyebrow. 

"We like to call ourselves the Reformers," Holly said proudly. "The only group in the Empire that isn't corrupt yet." 

"But you probably know us as the Radicals, traitors, outlaws, or idiots," Teren beamed. 

"Yeah, I think I heard something about the Radicals on Auraview last year..." Silver mused. 

"That's us!" Holly chirped. 

"Okay, but what do you want?" I asked, struggling to get away from the point of the heiress's icicle. 

"Ya know, we could really use a ship."