To compensate for the muck I did with Getting Fired Up here is a snippet from book in an apparently completely different genre… hard sci-fi – which may not be released till after Arturo’s final Roman book, Book 5.

The Princess & The Privateer

Chapter 1

Year 843: Imperial Palace, Kimeria

   The thrown open door crashed against the dark stone wall with a wooden clunk as Her Imperial Highness Gizel Alexa Verena Dorotina Desnoute stormed out of the room, her two attendants following after a quick bow in the direction of Gizel’s parents. By hurrying in a manner most unbecoming to the two Imperial Attendants, they finally managed to catch up to their eighteen years old charge just as she reached her suite in the old east wing of the palace. Gizel was above average in height, lithe and fit, her schooling including physical exercise of a semi military nature as well as academic courses. She had light brown or dark blond hair depending on the light, green eyes and at this moment a deep furrow in her brow she showed her displeasure with all things to do with her Imperial parents. Dressed as she was in a simple dark blue pants suite with a cream bolero jacket she marched easily. Her two companions on the other hand had to skitter along in a most undignified manner dressed as they in the more formal tight court dresses the Princess’s parents struggled to get her wear.

   The stone corridors echoed to the feet as the Princess stomped to her room followed by the two hurrying attendants. After crashing the door there open in like manner, Gizel threw herself onto her bed and made various noises which her two attendants ignored, not venturing to address Her Imperial Highness until Her Highness had calmed down somewhat. Gizel was known to throw things when really enraged and her aim was superior. After a period of time stretching well past the quarter hour Her Highness stopped clenching the bed clothes and mouthing horrible swear words under her breath and turned to glare at the two women patiently standing by the door.

   “Well?” She said overly loudly and somewhat harshly given her tantrum had nothing to do with either of them. “What do you want?” Although she perfectly well they couldn’t leave her side until she gave them leave to do so. They had both found that being an Imperial Attendant to Princess Gizel was not a calling that was at all appealing at times.

 Seeing as the Princess was not actually armed with any objects that could be thrown in their direction, the taller and older of the two spoke up. “Did you want us to get you something Your Highness?” The girl who was maybe a year or two older than the Princess paused. “Some jeric perhaps?” Jeric was a semi-legal drug that was supposedly non-addictive and had a similar effect to alcohol on the human body, although slightly more hallucinatory and with more activation of the pleasure receptors. It was the recreational drug of the Empire. Personal use was not prohibited but it was expensive to buy, deliberately, so there was a flourishing black market for the drug which was not that costly to produce.

“No. Leave me. No wait. One of you ask Lena to come here please. That will be all. Goodnight.”

Lena Travgar was her best friend. They had known each other since secondary school when Lena’s military father had found the money to get his daughter into the very private school Gizel had attended. His elevation to head of Imperial Security and being ennobled with a Barony meant Lena had become an ‘acceptable’ friend for the Princess so they were able to see each out of school. Baron Travgar and family now lived in the protected enclave adjoining the palace where other bureaucrats of high rank and important government officials were encouraged to buy their houses.

It didn’t even occur to her highness that her friend might be doing something herself, or perhaps had plans for the rest of the evening. Being Princess of the biggest star realm in the region she sometimes forgot that people were not objects for her to use. Generally, she remembered sooner or later and apologized profusely but it was one of her traits that most infuriated her mother.

Lena turned up an hour later having got a lift to the palace with her brother who was on his way into town for a night with friends. As he was used to his sister using him as a taxi he was not overly miffed, more resigned than anything. Lena was admitted to the Princess’s room without fanfare.

“Hey Gizel, What’s happening?” She asked, bouncing into the room.

“Lena! Thank god. It’s terrible! My parents are such fogies!”

“Well yes, so you keep telling me. What have they done now?” The tall lithe girl queried.

“They’ve refused to let me go to Starfire again! Not even for a few hours. They are so restrictive. I can’t believe they refused me this year!” She complained getting up and stomping around the room. Her friend simply perched on the end of the bed and watched her, being used to Imperial temper tantrums. “It’s not like I’m a child anymore!” She wailed. “I’m eighteen now and graduate in two months. Yet they won’t let me do anything!”

   “Did they say why?”

   The Princess stopped flouncing around. “Oh yes. Security of course. Just like every other thing I really wanted to do!” Her friend made no attempt to correct this view of things. If anything, the Princess was too indulged, Lena thought. She certainly got away with a great deal more than Lena could get past her own parents.

   Generally, it was only large public events like this that her friend’s parents drew a line with. Starfire was the single biggest music and cultural event in the known galaxy. It was also the most disorganized. A huge tract of desert on the small southern continent was given over to a week of folk festival, music performances of all types, crafts, hobbies, carnivals and foods of all kinds in no real order. The organizers laid out temporary guides to designate areas and left up to the performers, vendors and traders to sort themselves out. Outside the entertainment areas there were marked parking areas for aerial vehicles of all kinds from small winged flyers to space to ground shuttles and small space ships.

   Twenty different transport companies laid on round the clock high capacity people shuttles from the major cities and spaceports around the planet. As many as two million people would likely attend this year, possibly even a record number if the weather forecast continued fine. Five different security firms subcontracted to provide security, the continental police force set up temporary offices around the site and even Imperial Security had a presence although exactly what they did nobody was told.

   Given the total chaos that obtained at Starfire, Lena doubted the Princess’s parents had ever considered letting her go for a second. To let the Princess attend would be security nightmare of epic proportions. She could imagine her father’s reaction, a sort of goggle-eyed look accompanied by sounds like he was choking. He’d looked like that when promoted to head of Imperial Security completely out of the blue in front of his whole family at an Imperial birthday party.

   “Well I can’t say I don’t understand Gizel. Either how you feel and how your parents regard the idea. I, for one, would not want to be in charge of your security!” She said seeing her friend had calmed down a little.

   The Princess roller her eyes. “Oh, I know all that. But my idea was simple and easy. I would go in disguise and no one would know. I could take a couple of young security people in plain clothes to keep an eye on me and it would have been great.” She wailed.

   Lena rather thought that the idea was stupidly dangerous, but she didn’t say so. Instead she tried to sound sympathetic. “Of course, that would have been fine! No one would have known it was you. Even if someone had said anything all you would have had to do would be laugh say you get that all the time and wish were as rich as the Princess and everyone would think you just looked like you and weren’t you at all.” The fact that this sentence was somewhat convoluted was ignored by the Princess.

   “Exactly Lena. That is just what I tried to tell them. No one would think it was really me at all without the whole circus along. We could have asked for Teron to be the male guard and you could have come too and had fun with him away from all the prying eyes here.”

   Lena smiled at this. Teron Longarm was her current boyfriend. As yet, they had not gone far beyond a quick kiss when not being observed. Lena was not sure she of how attracted she was to the rather handsome Teron on any more than a physical level and was keeping things tame until she felt herself to have real feelings for him.  “Well, there’s nothing you can do about it now Gizel. If you could have got out of the palace Teron has that runabout he bought last year. I’m pretty sure it can go suborbital so getting to Starfire wouldn’t have been a problem.”

She said this in part to sound helpful to her friend, but she was not really serious. If nothing else, Teron would not risk his career for anything so stupidly dangerous. She was immediately sorry she’d opened her mouth she discovered.

“Yes!” Gizel shouted. “Oh, Lena you’re a genius! I can get out of the palace tomorrow night and Teron is off duty then so we can meet in the city somewhere and three of us can fly south. No one will know till the next morning and we can hide in the crowd at Starfire!” By now she was literally bouncing around her room.

“But Gizel, you can’t do that. Everyone would go ballistic!”

“So. Serve them right!” Gizel stated firmly an evil smile on her face.

“How would your sneak out anyway?” Her friend asked, but Gizel simply shook her head refusing to say. “What I thought. You can’t sneak out, can you?” Lena continued.

Gizel smiled at her like a cat that swallowed the canary. “Yes I can. Which is more than you can do!” She snorted.

Her friend laughed. “I don’t need to sneak out, I’m not an Imperial Princess!”

Gizel stuck her tongue out which caused her friend to laugh even more. The Gizel spoke again. “Okay then it’s all set. Starts in two days. Tomorrow night I’ll sneak out of the palace and meet you at that coffee shop next to the library.”

Lena stopped dead realizing to her horror that her friend was serious. “You can’t Gizel. Even if you can get out of the palace think of the effect. God my father will have a fit. Your dad will go ballistic!”

“Serve them right.” Gizel said. She realized her friend wasn’t really in favor of the plan. “It will be great Lena. Really. I will be disguised so no one will know who I am and we can have a wonderful time without watchdogs all over the place. We fly down there, and spend the day and night then fly back the next morning and I sneak back into the palace.”

Lens doubted it would be as easy to get back in if she did indeed manage to get out. “As if. You may well be able to sneak out, and I have my doubts as to that, but there’s no way you’ll get back in after being missing for two days.”

Gizel smiled. “Probably not. But what are they going to do to me?”

That is a good point Lena thought to herself. She still didn’t want to be involved but having made the suggestion in the first place couldn’t think of any useful arguments to get out of it. “And if Teron and I won’t help you, what then?”

“I’m sure Garrick would be only too happy to fly me down there.” Garrick Horgarst was a sort of boyfriend to Gizel at school. Lena had never been sure whether they were sleeping together or not but the difficulty for the Princess of meeting up with a boy while continuously attended by guards, sort of precluded any intimacy. Or so she thought although at times Gizel had said things that made her think that perhaps Gizel had done more than hold hands with Garrick somehow or other.

At that moment Lena knew she could not dissuade her friend and so her only hope now was that Princess would not be able to sneak out. “Okay, okay. I will talk to Teron tomorrow. I’ll com you.”

“No. Imperial Security monitors my calls. Just drop in when you can.” She paused and looked at her friend.” You won’t renege will you?”

Lena wondered what would happen if she informed on the Princess. Gizel had always been someone who was very easy going for an Imperial Princess and didn’t hold grudges, usually, unless she felt the person had betrayed her confidence. If that happened that person would never again be welcomed as a friend. Even so, Lena thought a long time that night about what was the right thing to do as opposed to what was the expedient thing to do.

The next day she sought out Teron and told him what the Princess planned. He too was undecided but tended to favor the plan somewhat surprisingly. “It’s only going to be for one day. I’ll be there to keep an eye on her. I’ll make her promise not to ditch me and to follow my orders if I feel the need. You know what she’s like, if I get her promise, she might complain a lot but she’ll will stick to her word.”

“That’s true.” Lena said, resigned to having to face a very irate parent sometime in the near future. She casually wandered over to the palace that afternoon and saw Gizel. The Princess made no obvious effort to be alone with Lena but Lena still managed to give her the okay and the Princes smiled a special smile in anticipation.

That evening Lena and Teron sat having a coffee at Parfetto’s nervously waiting to find out if Gizel could actually escape the palace. Lena’s parents were indulgent enough to allow her out with Teron as long as she was back by midnight. And she was with someone she was not afraid to introduce to her parents. Poor Teron became completely tongue tied and useless in the presence of her father, something she had found worrying till her father had assured her he didn’t hold it against the poor fellow. Going out with the scary boss’s daughter was enough to intimidate anyone!

A blond girl wearing a soccer jersey of the capital’s Intergalactic soccer team slouched into the shop and went to the counter and ordered a coffee. Lena eyed her casually at first then with more suspicion. The girl kept her face down without actually hiding it, rather it was just she just looked so shy and mousey. She was wearing jeans and joggers under her overlarge football jersey. A suspicion entered Lena’s mind as she tried to casually watch the girl and was not surprised when, having received her order, the girl made her way over to them. Teron seemed oblivious so she kicked his shins. He jerked round then spied the blond and frowned at her a second.

“Hey Lena.” Gizel said brightly as she slipped into a vacant seat.

“You did it?” Lena half asked, genuinely surprised that the Princess had actually turned up. Teron was struck dumb at having the Princess sitting at his table incognito. Lena got the impression he was trying to decide between grabbing her, reporting it to HQ or trying to act like he was not there at all. Idly discussing her theoretical appearance was one thing. Actually having the Princess right here, in a public place was something else entirely different!

“Of course. I have used that method before.” Gizel said smugly.

“Garrick?” Lena asked her suspicions possibly confirmed.

“Maybe.” Lena smirked.

“How often have you done this?” Lena queried.

Gizel smirked. “Not telling.” And took a sip of her coffee before turning to Teron. “You bring your runabout?” She asked.

“Um. Yes your Hi…” Gizel reached over and put her hand on his mouth.

“Alexa, stupid!” She hissed. “Tonight I am Alexa.” She whispered, and then grinned wickedly.

Teron nodded. “Yes your, I mean Alexa.” He finished lamely.

“Good. I’ve got clothes for tomorrow in my backpack so I’m ready. What about you two?”

Lena shook her head. “I didn’t think you’d be able do it so I haven’t got anything with me.”
            “Oh.” The Princess said looking disappointed.

“No problem.” Teron said. “We’ll just go to South Fair and buy what you need Lena. The shops there are open twenty-four hours after all.”

Gizel clapped her hands. “Great. Lets go!” But Lena demurred.

“Are you sure you want to do this? I presume they think you’re in your room having an early night, but you’ll be missed first thing in the morning.”

“I know. I left a note saying I would be back tomorrow morning in plain sight on my bed. They’ll just have to wear it. Serves them right!” The Princess didn’t look the least bit concerned with the reaction her disappearance would cause.

“You didn’t tell them where you were going?”

“No of course I didn’t silly. Now let’s get this show on the road!” Her eyes gleaming with enthusiasm.