Chapter One
Keith stood in the
docking bay, his arms crossed. A smile
played across his lips as he watched the sleek silver fighter land without so
much as a thump only a few feet away from him.
The pilot was showing off again, but he was used to it—the first time
this had happened, the docking bay had echoed with his voice, but at the ripe
old age of 47, he’d learned to mellow out.
A little.
The years had been
kind to him, he was only graying at the temples, and as far as everyone was
concerned, Admiral Keith Porterfield, King of Arus, was not a man you wanted to
cross. Of course, that particular bit of
advice made no difference at all to his family and close friends, and the
dinner table was the one place he wished mightily that his authority made any
difference at all. For her part, Allura
found the whole situation amusing, especially since she was the one with all the coveted authority. They still bickered, each finding something
to rattle the other at least once a day, but if possible, they only loved each
other more as the years went by. Even
after all this time, Allura still chafed underneath the mantle of royalty but she
complained less these days and he liked to think that it was because she was
happy, happier than she had ever been in her life. More than once, he had caught her looking at
their family portrait when she should have been going over reports or the
various other mundane duties that the Queen of Arus had. The days had gone by too fast and they found
themselves the parents of three impressive young adults.
Keith shook himself
out of this thoughts as the pilot hopped down from the cockpit, dressed in a
plain navy blue flightsuit with the royal insignia on the high collar. The King allowed a full-blown grin to creased
his lined face.
Elisabeth
Porterfield took off her helmet to reveal short raven-black hair and stunning
sky-blue eyes that always seemed to sparkle with merriment. In Keith’s opinion, had Allura been given the
same life her daughter had, she would not have been much different. Bethie, as she was known to those close to
her, grinned her mother’s grin at her father, her cheeks a rosy red as she had
not yet calmed down from the natural high she always got when she was in the
air. The young Princess was also something
of a beauty but was just as prickly as her mother when it came to suitors. She was happy being with her friends, less
happy when she had to take care of duties that the heir to the throne could not
get out of, but her life was filled with more light than her parents’ had at
her age. She proved to be an intelligent
and capable leader and Allura was slowly giving her more responsibilities to
prepare her for her future role as the Queen of Arus. Bethie tackled her work with gusto…until she
grew bored and dragged her father out for a little flying.
Whenever he looked
at her, Keith felt a strong sense of completion, and not a little pride, that
what they had gone through twenty years before had not been in vain because
they had made the universe safe for their children. Her movements crisp and efficient, she
reached his side and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.
“That was a nice
run,” he said as they walked out into the corridor.
“I wish I could get
more flight time but mom’s got me chained to my desk like I did something
wrong,” Bethie groused. “I doubt that
you or mom memorized the Arusian code of laws…”
She paused, studying him. “Okay,
maybe mom didn’t.”
“You don’t need to
memorize, but getting the general idea of them will help you do your job better
when the time comes.”
“Can’t the Queen
write her own laws?”
Keith laughed
despite himself and Bethie smiled wryly.
“Maybe once, but
with the changes that your mother has done to the Royal Charter, it won’t be so
easy this time around.”
“She always was too
self-sacrificing for her own good. So, did
you like that reverse barrel roll I had to do to get target number eight?” she
asked, done talking about her less exciting activities.
Keith smiled down
at her and she grinned back. Ethan had
said once that his older sister should have been born a bird and he was not far
off the mark.
“It was a little
tight and I didn’t think you’d be able to pull out of it,” Keith admitted,
giving in to his paternal instincts and needing to chastise her.
Bethie
snorted. “When have I not?”
“Don’t be so sure
of yourself, My Bethie, because I’m going to catch you off guard and shoot you
out of the sky,” a voice said behind them.
Whirling around, Bethie
let out a happy shriek as she hurled herself into the arms of her childhood
friend. Keith smiled at the young man
over his daughter’s shoulder, surprised to see that the rail-thin boy he
remembered had filled out into a powerfully built IAF lieutenant. It had been two years since Keith saw him
last, but it was two years that were not spent idle.
“Jack,” he
said. “When did you arrive?”
“Just an hour ago,
Uncle Keith. I’ve got a little down time
before I’m back on duty in the Nautilus
so I decided to go to the one place where I know I’ll have a good time,”
Lieutenant Jackson Branegan said, moving to hug Keith when Bethie let him
go. “It’s good to be home.”
Keith surveyed the
lanky brown-haired lieutenant whose face was the perfect mixture of his
parents. With Link’s gray eyes and
Lance’s expressive mouth, Jack was a good-looking boy who had done his damage
on Arus and at the IAF Academy. If Lance
had been irrepressible as a young man, his son was his punishment for all the
times he had driven Keith to the edge of his sanity. When Jack had announced he was going to the
Academy, no one was more relieved than his father. A year younger than Bethie, they had been
inseparable as children and she’d cried buckets when he’d left for the Academy,
but as Keith understood it, they spoke often and were as close as ever. He had to smile. It seemed appropriate that his daughter and
Lance’s son share the same ties that their fathers did.
“How long will you
be here?” Bethie asked, linking her arm through his. “How did you manage to keep any of us from
knowing? When are you going to get a
haircut.”
Jack laughed. “One week, I’m smarter than I look, and
tomorrow.”
“Good,” Bethie
said. “You look like a shaggy dog.”
Jack threw Keith a
wry look that made the older man smile.
“This is what I come home for.
Ego reduction.”
“I’ll let you two
catch up,” Keith said as he laughed.
Keith left them and
he made his way to the library where he knew he would find his youngest
daughter. Unlike her older sister and
mother, Alana was more reserved and was the perfect example of how a princess
should act and look. She wore long
gowns, and was always carefully made up, her thick blonde hair always done in a
neat bun. She was a gentle soul that
Keith often sought out when he needed some time away from his desk and his
duties, finding her presence to be a balm to his soul. He knew Allura felt the same way about Alana
as he had spied them walking in the gardens, Alana gently talking to her
stressed out mother and Allura immediately relaxing in her daughter’s
presence. There was something about
Alana that communicated serenity, maybe the kindness that shone in her dark
eyes, but she was the peaceful center of a family that seemed to be constantly
moving.
At sixteen, the
suitors had already come knocking, much to the consternation of both her
parents and siblings. She was third in
line for the throne, but Arus was a major player in the political arena so for
a prince to marry an Arusian princess was no small thing. Keith had to fight back a fit of temper as he
thought of Alana marrying some foppish prince.
They all felt protective over the youngest Porterfield especially
considering her delicate appearance, but Alana was far from delicate. She had a spine made out of steel and the few
times she’d argued with her parents, she’d been a force to reckon with. She had the same attitude with her suitors as
her sister had with hers, but she managed to deal with them with a finesse that
Keith admired.
Seated in a soft
armchair, Alana held a book in her lap, her brow slightly furrowed as her blue
eyes skimmed the page. As Keith entered
the room, she sensed his presence and looked up, a ready smile on her face and
the dimples that had delighted her mother winked out of both cheeks. He sat on the arm of her chair as she closed
the book.
“Hi, Dad,” she
greeted. “How was Bethie’s flying?”
“It was one of
those days that I didn’t wish I hadn’t taught her how to fly.”
Alana laughed. “That’s good then. I’m surprised you didn’t go up there with
her.”
He grinned. “I didn’t want to embarrass her in front of
the ground crew. Besides, I was just
taking a break from the work. I need to
stretch my legs every couple of hours or else I think my muscles will atrophy. The amount of paperwork…”
Alana stood and
pulled him to his feet. “I know, Dad, I
know. I just heard the same thing from
mom. How about we look for her and go
for a walk?”
Keith
hesitated. “I should be getting back to
my desk.”
“Did you two have a
fight again?”
“Not exactly…”
“Yes exactly.”
Allura appeared at
the doorway. Hair pulled back in a high
bun and the sleeves of her jumpsuit rolled up, she crossed her arms and looked
at her husband archly. Gray was now mixed
in evenly with the blonde, but age had not yet caught up with the rest of
her. After three children, her figure
was a little bit more full but Keith was usually more than happy to assure her
that that was just fine with him. Of
course, telling her that was not on his thoughts at this particular moment as
he returned her look with a glare.
“Time out!” Alana
cried, reaching out and taking her mother’s hand. “Let’s go for a walk.”
The commanding tone
of her voice was so like Allura’s that Keith could not help seeking out his
wife’s eyes over Alana’s head. Allura
must have had the same though because her eyes were dancing with amusement as
she looked back at him. Then, they
remembered they were fighting and broke contact. Keith wasn’t even really sure what they had
been fighting about, but he wasn’t concerned about it really. For him and Allura, it was just another facet
of their relationship that kept them on their toes. Besides which, making up was never hard for
them to do…
They started down
the corridor when both Keith’s and Allura’s communicators began to beep. Keith got his out first and put a hand up to
stop Allura from turning hers on.
“Porterfield,” he
said.
“Admiral,” Skech
Jalora’s even baritone came over the line.
“You have a message from Galaxy Garrison. It is marked Priority Zenith.”
Keith’s eyes
widened and when he looked over at Allura, he found an identical expression on
his face. Alana looked from one to the
other.
“What is it?” she
asked.
But her parents
didn’t hear her. They were already heading
for Castle Control, fear etched on their faces.
