Free The Royal Scam (The Martian Alliance) by Gini Koch Page A

Salute only given to the Andromeda Royal Family. I curtseyed as appropriate to the Captain of the Guard, then the ship’s captain and the toad hurried me on board.
    “Places everyone, now!” the ship’s captain snapped. “You come up to the cockpit,” he added to me.
    “Of course.” I tossed my cloak off and followed him. I was in a one-piece fighting suit, so it wasn’t like I was stripping.
    We passed a dreamy-looking woman. Her hair was almost white-blond and floated around her head. She smiled serenely. “All is in readiness.”
    “Good.”
    She followed us to the cockpit. The captain went to his seat, and I sat behind him. A humanoid man sat in the co-pilot’s seat. Well, humanoid if you didn’t count that he had wings as well as arms and legs, and that his head was more bird-like than human.
    The birdman turned to me and blinked slowly. “Good to see you.” A traditional greeting between strangers from his home world.
    I gave the traditional response. “And to see you.”
    “Strap in, all crew,” the captain said over the intercom. “We have military company.”
    “Right on schedule,” I murmured.
    “Cut the chatter,” the captain said. “We’re lifting off.” He didn’t ask for clearance, which was wise.
    The ship blasted off amid a lot of shouting from the flight controllers. Their concerns and orders were ignored. We had to avoid several small, planet flyers, but we did so with ease.
    “We’ve hit escape velocity,” the birdman said. The ship shuddered as it shoved its way through Andromeda’s atmosphere.
    “And here’s the Royal Armada, right on cue,” the captain muttered.
    The captain tuned the radio to the universal communicator link so we could hear what was being said from the command decks of the other ships. Ships from Andromeda and Diamante were trying to surround us without harming the ship, because I was on board.
    “Don’t hurt them,” I said urgently. “They’re only doing their jobs.”
    The captain shot me a dirty look over his shoulder. “Oh, of course not.” He turned back, muttering under his breath, while he calibrated coordinates, flipped switches, and pushed buttons to ready us for the leap into hyperspace.
    Good spacers were part engineer, part astrophysicist, part pilot, with speed, dexterity, and good reflexes. Great ones knew how to pull it all together and go with their gut reactions. They also made it look simple. I knew the calculations were complex, and if the wrong switch was flipped or the right button pushed too early or late, we’d all be space dust. The captain was barely looking at what he was doing, other than the computer calibrations.
    He grunted with satisfaction. “Maneuvering into position to jump.”
    “Almost ready,” the serene woman said.
    “Need to wait,” the birdman said. “We need the right option.”
    “Running out of time,” the captain said calmly, as he locked coordinates.
    “Unidentified ship, we demand you return Princess Olivia to Andromeda immediately, by decree of King Oliver of Andromeda and Prince Ignatius of Diamante.” King Oliver was speaking from the planet.
    I leaned over and hit the communications button. “I’m sorry, father. I love you and mother very much but—”
    “Now,” the serene woman whispered.
    “Agreed and ready,” the birdman said, just as softly.
    A shot headed straight toward us from a Diamante ship. There was no way any ship would escape this direct a hit. I screamed, as loudly as I could, but I could still hear people shouting on the other ships. The captain hit a button, and everything went quiet.
    Time slowed down.
    When I looked straight ahead, all I saw was the laser beam heading for us, the armada, and the real outline of this ship.
    But when I looked out of the sides of my eyes, I could see something else, superimposed over us. A duplicate of this ship, only a little bit larger. As the beam reached this image, the image shattered and exploded.
    Our ship, the real ship we