Poor bastard, James thought. No matter what he did, Prince Henry could never escape his birthright — and the curse that came with it. But out here he can carve out a life for himself.
“Admiral,” he said, “there have been developments. I need to speak with you at once.”
“Understood,” the Admiral said. There was a pause as he checked their location, halfway from one tramline to the other. “I’m on my way.”
James rubbed his eyes. Had he caused Uncle Winchester so many problems? Probably not, he decided. Winchester had been on Earth, not a starship. And James hadn’t been trying to hide his identity. He’d had no compunctions about using his birth to secure a place in the Royal Navy.
That’s why you like the Prince, a voice at the back of his head said. He isn’t trying to use his title and connections to gain rank.
And, James knew, the voice was right.
Chapter Fourteen
It was hard, almost impossible, to get any privacy on a starship, even one the size of a fleet carrier. Henry had been shocked when he’d discovered just how little privacy he and his fellow recruits had, even though he’d managed to hide his reaction before anyone had noticed. Learning to ignore certain activities — or naked female recruits — had been part of his training as much as learning how to fly a starfighter.
But there were a few places where someone could go and be assured of a little privacy, if one didn’t have any immediate duties. Henry had walked into the observation blister, settled down on the uncomfortable chair and started to stare up at the stars, feeling a surge of conflicting emotions running through his mind. The Captain had been right; here, light years from Earth, the Palace and the hordes of reporters, he could be his own man. But he also wanted to prove that he could be his own man.
Moving out of formation had been a mistake, but socking North had also been a mistake; he’d understood that from the moment he’d been forced to face the CAG. And yet North’s accusations of glory-seeking had stung, because they’d been accurate. Henry hated to admit it, but North had been right. He was desperate to acquire glory on his own merits.
The Captain hadn’t grown up in Buckingham Palace. Aristocrat or not, he couldn’t even begin to understand the stresses and strains endured by the Royal Family. Henry had learned, from a very early age, that anything he did was likely to be plastered across the datanets, with snide and downright unpleasant commentary attached from thousands of people who thought they knew better than the King and Queen. His parents had been blasted for everything from letting Henry play outside in the cold to taking him on vacation to expensive places, some of which had even been free of media interference. They just couldn’t please everyone.
It wouldn’t have been that bad, Henry had told himself, if it hadn’t been for the Palace’s PR staff. They thought the Royal Family could please everyone and, if they responded to each and every little complaint, they would eventually achieve a 100% approval rating. Henry had learned, rapidly, that they were chasing an illusion, but that didn’t stop them telling him what he should and should not do. And he wasn’t allowed to tell them where to go. His father, in one of his few unguarded moments, had confessed that he’d had the same problem when he was a boy.
Henry sighed, feeling hot tears burning the corner of his eyes. His father had withdrawn into the kindly persona, the kindly constitutional monarch, so deeply that it was hard to see him as anything other than a soulless puppet. The Queen had withdrawn too, making a handful of appearances and otherwise staying in her rooms, while Henry’s older sister seemed to have embraced following in her footsteps. Henry loved Elizabeth, yet he didn’t understand why she allowed the courtiers to treat her as a doll, one they could dress as how they saw fit. And yet, even she had had bad moments, when footage of her first love affair was broadcast around the world. Who else had that sort of attention from the media?
He’d considered running away, more than once. He’d considered suicide, to the point where even his parents had noticed something was badly wrong. He’d considered simply following in the footsteps of an earlier prince and surrendering his titles. And, finally, it had taken a mixture of threats and promises to get into the Academy. Henry knew he’d trodden on hundreds of toes and simply didn’t give a damn. All he wanted was a chance to prove himself.
And he had it, he knew now. But he’d fucked up badly.
And you were punished as a normal rook, his thoughts insisted. But normal rooks aren’t yelled at by the Captain personally.
He stared up at the stars, burning endlessly in the darkness of space. His schooling had been shared out between headmasters who were sycophants and headmasters who believed, probably correctly, that their royal charge needed more discipline in his life. He’d verged from being given awards and honours he hadn’t earned to being harassed and punished for things he hadn’t done. But now… he’d thoroughly deserved both the lecture and the punishment the CAG had assigned. He could have learned from his experience instead of starting a fight.
There was a click behind him as the hatch opened. Henry turned, wondering who else had come to seek out some privacy, and saw a dark-skinned girl, maybe a year or two older than himself. She was wearing a Lieutenant’s uniform — he couldn’t help noticing that it fitted her perfectly, revealing the shape of firm breasts — without a starship insignia. One of the Admiral’s staffers, he decided. He couldn’t help wondering if she’d been chosen for her looks rather than her competence.
“Hi,” he said, nervously. Talking to women had never been easy for him, not when he’d been Prince Henry. But Charles Augustus didn’t have that burden. “Do you want the blister?”
“I just came to sit down and think,” the Lieutenant said. She held out a hand. “I’m Janelle, Janelle Lopez.”
“Charles Augustus,” Henry said. Once, it had been hard to make sure he never told anyone his true name. He’d worried endlessly over accidentally saying Henry and someone putting two and two together. Now, it was almost second nature. “Pleased to meet you.”
She smiled. Henry couldn’t help noticing that she had a lovely smile.
“Pleased to meet you too,” she said, as she sat down and looked up at the stars. “You’d think they’d move, wouldn’t you?”
“We’re not moving fast enough for the stars to move obviously,” Henry said. “Even the fastest ship in the fleet couldn’t move that fast, I think.”
“Maybe the Magellan sees the effects of moving close to the speed of light,” Lopez said. “I wonder, sometimes, what they will think when they reach their destination.”
Henry had to smile. The Magellan had been the first attempt at sending a starship out of the Solar System. It was really nothing more than a hollowed out asteroid, a generation ship aimed at the star system that had later become Terra Nova, when the tramlines had been discovered. Who knew what would happen in the meantime on an asteroid starship that was effectively a city in its own right?
“I don’t think they’re moving that fast,” he said. He’d read about the project once, when he’d been looking for ways to escape. The best drive technology of the time had been able to do wasn’t good enough to come close to the speed of light. It still wasn’t. “But I wonder what they will make of Terra Nova.”