USS Eagle

“Moving now from grid eleven to twelve.”

Kirby detected some irritation in Iziraa’s voice.  It seemed it was beginning to bother her that she hadn’t located Prince Jahk yet.  He could understand, as it bothered him as well.  If something bad had happened to the prince, they could be linked to the failure of an important mission even though they hadn’t done anything wrong.

“I’ve got something,” said Iziraa, the tone in her voice changing.  “It’s definitely the prince, but he’s moving quickly and something large is following him.”

A predator!

“Kirby to transporter room.  Lock onto the signal and beam it directly to sickbay.  Hurry.”

The atmosphere became tense as Kirby waited long seconds to hear if they had been in time.

“Sickbay to bridge, Weaver here.  We’ve got Prince Jahk.  He’s battered and bruised, but he looks okay.  I’ll let you know more once I’ve done a full work up.”

Kirby sighed audibly.  “Thank you, Doctor.  Iziraa, contact King Limmar and tell him the good news.”

“Aye, sir.”

Hopefully this was the worst that would happen.

Equamar

“What were you thinking?  You know how dangerous it is to fly alone.  You still don’t understand how important the wedding is,” said Limmar.

“I don’t care how important it is,” said Jahk.  “I keep telling you I don’t want to do this.”

“Yes, yes, but we’re long past that,” said Limmar.  “Since you’re not taking this seriously, you leave me no choice.  You’re confined to the premises.”

“What?” exclaimed Jahk.

“You’re staying here, under strict security.”

“You’re treating me like a prisoner!”

“I’m sorry you feel that way, but you did this to yourself,” said Limmar.

Canbolla

“That is good news,” said Yari.  “I didn’t want anything to happen to him.”

The room fell silent and Yari studied Berathor.  She was adept at reading body language, but she was never able to read his.

“Do you need anything before I report back to the king?” said Berathor.

“Just a way out of this,” said Yari.

Berathor’s face tweaked ever so slightly.  He didn’t answer right away, as he seemed to be pondering something.

“There is a way….”

USS Eagle

Kirby stepped into the cargo bay and found Lieutenant Saunders.  “What did you find, Nick?”  The chief engineer led him to the wreckage of Prince Jahk’s glider.

“To start, I’m impressed at how similar this hang glider is to gliders built on Earth,” said Saunders.  “Sound engineering principles work everywhere.”  He chuckled.

“Anything else?” Kirby could understand why an engineer would feel that way.

“The glider doesn’t just rely on air currents to fly, it also has a small motor and a propeller.”

“And?”

“It gives the rider more control and the ability to fly faster and higher.”

“So why did it crash?  Pilot error?” said Kirby.

“Sabotage.”

Kirby’s blood ran cold.  He knew something would go wrong.

“The motor seized and the wing braces collapsed because they were weakened.  It took me almost no time to find all this, which makes me think whoever did it either didn’t expect someone would analyze the wreckage or they didn’t  care.”

“Why didn’t the prince notice any of this?”

“He wouldn’t unless he was looking for it,” said Saunders.

“Thank you, Nick.”

“Yes, sir.”

All Kirby could think was how much worse could things get.