Free Stars of Blood and Glory by Joe Vasicek

knees
quivered with excitement, but she stared at the seat in front of
her and made sure not to make eye contact with any of the other
passengers in the cabin. They were packed shoulder to shoulder in
the tightest seating arrangements she’d ever seen, with barely
enough room in the aisle to turn around. It was fascinating—was
this the way ordinary people lived and traveled? A baby screamed in
the distance, and someone behind her muttered a rude word under his
breath that would have earned a scolding back in the palace. She
giggled a little, unable to hold it in.
    Behind her, the roar of the engines died down
to a low whine, and the invisible hand that had pressed her against
her seat slowly released her from its hold. She risked a glance
across her neighbor’s lap out the porthole, and saw, to her
astonishment, a sky as black as night, even though she knew it was
day.
    “ Ladies and gentlemen,” came the
pilot’s voice over the intercom. “We have just left the planet’s
atmosphere and are preparing to enter orbit. Please remain in your
seats as our local gravitics equalize.”
    Hikaru’s stomach fluttered, and a brief wave
of nausea washed over her. She noticed her bangs drift upward as if
they were as light as air, and realized that she was weightless. It
didn’t last long, however. A new hum sounded in the bulkheads, and
the comforting sensation of gravity returned.
    I wonder what Katsuichi is
going to think once he hears that I’m gone, she thought to herself. That was her
one regret—that he would probably worry himself sick about her. But
surely he had to see that she couldn’t spend her whole life in the
palace. And besides, it wasn’t like she was going to be gone
forever.
    She didn’t have much time, though—she wanted
to experience as much as she could before she went back. And if she
was going to get the most of her time away, she had to seek out the
things that her tutors and nurses would never let her see—dirty
things, vulgar things. Things that a princess would never get to
do.
    One thing was certain: She had to go
somewhere where no one would recognize her. Would the New Vela
system do? Probably. She reached into her apron pocket and fingered
the passport datachips she’d taken from her maidservants—at most,
she only had a couple of days before the palace guard caught on to
her ruse. She’d have to take an interstellar transport before then,
or perhaps hire a smuggler to take her in secret. A smuggler—the
thought of meeting such a shady person made her hands quiver even
more.
    “ Attention, ladies and gentlemen.
This is the pilot again. We’ve entered a low planetary orbit and
should match trajectories with the station in little less than half
an hour. Gravitics are fully online now, and you are free to move
about the cabin. On behalf of myself and all the crew, I wish to
thank you for choosing Shinihon Spacelines as your orbital carrier
today.”
    The passenger on Hikaru’s right got up and
squeezed past her into the aisle, presumably to go to the restroom.
She took advantage of his absence to look out the window. The
horizon bent into a glowing blue arc where the planet met the
darkness of space. In the distance, little specks glistened against
the velvety black backdrop. She realized with a start that there
were other spacecraft, moving around in orbit with them. With the
bright white storm clouds covering the planet’s surface, it was a
sure thing that Fukai-Nami had submerged by now, but that was
okay—she didn’t miss it. Everything around her was so new and
exciting, she doubted she ever would.
     
    * * * * *
     
    Katsuichi stood in the center of the bridge,
hands comfortably behind his back as he observed the dozen or so
officers working at their stations ringing the edge of the room.
The stars shone down with their soft light through the domed
windows that stretched from floor to ceiling, giving him an
unparalleled view of the exterior of the ship. As he watched, a
flight