| Chapter Three Matt woke to the noise of someone in his quarters. His hand went instinctively to the small blades at his side. "There's no need to use those," squeaked the intruder. A small elf stood a few feet away from his bed with a platter of Neptune grown food and a red-orange colored liquid. Matt rubbed the back of his head. "Uh, sorry, put that tray down there." The Kidd motioned to nightstand beside his bed. "The Queen sure did put you in a more favorable light than this. Hmph!" With a curtsey the elfin girl scurried out of the room. Matt grazed his hands against his face trying to wake himself up. It was much harder to tell the difference between night and day on Neptune. He looked over at the food on the tray. After dabbling with it for a while he found that the drink was very good, but the food that looked like cherries was very displeasing. A tiny head with large pointed ears peered around the doorway. "Don't pick up the knife!" It squealed, "When you're done Queen Hannahoko wishes to see you. The bathroom is over there if you want to freshen up." She smiled a little before running off again. Matt traced his steps back to the lounge. Inside the room the Queen was staring out the large window that overlooked Balthasaar. "You rang?" he paced into the room. Hannahoko jumped when he spoke and turned around. "Oh, its you Kidd," she smiled but it quickly faded. "Where's Erin? You know, you really shouldn't be without a guard, especially during wartime," Matt chided. "Oh, yeah, I know but Erin went away on business. I'm fine. There's been another attack." Matt growled quietly, "Where?" "Aakkar, last night, late." "Any casualties?" "Six injured, one fatally wounded. I don't understand Russia‘s logic. They broke contact with us and began to demolish our city. Secondly I am at wit's end to figure out how they made it past out Planetary Defense in the first place. They funded our expenses, but were not given secrets or codes. Are there spies among us?" "Your highness," a high-pitched voice spoke, "commander Stamatkin wants to speak with you. May I admit him?" It was the same elf that gave Matt his food that morning. Before the Queen could consent Anday pushed his way through. "Move it pip-squeak." "Anday! I should hope you would treat my servants better in the future. I'm sorry Alyx, thank you, you may go. As for you, Stamatkin, you had better have a good excuse for your foul behavior." "Yeah, yeah. Hannahoko, we can't just stand around while our cities crumble around us. Allow me to fight." "No, Anday, we have already lost too many men to the Russians. We cannot afford to lose you now. Give it time, we will fight back." "Hannahoko, I can take them. Squirt and I can hold back their assaults easily." "Number one, you exaggerate your abilities. And number two, even if I did let you go to battle, we don't know where they will attack next. In time we will, or better yet, we might have peace. We have reason to believe they will allow our diplomat to have a meeting with the Russian leader, Erika." "You want to send Tyler to make peace with Russia?! Are you absolutely mad!? That goof? You might as well give up now, throw in the chips, give up the game!" "You have a very uninviting way of heightening yourself and putting others down. I believe Tyler might just give us the chance we need." "Yeah, and Ballenger here might grow facial hair. One can dream," Anday scoffed. "Hey! Well, yeah," Matt rubbed his chin. "Please Anday, I'm asking you as a friend. Hold off," the Queen pleaded. "Fine, but if Tyler does anything wrong, I'm out of here." After those words Anday stormed out of the room. The Queen turned and looked out the window again letting out a little sigh. "Hannahoko, may I ask you a question?" Matt queried. "Yes?" she looked over at him. "If you didn't have enough money to build up your planet, I mean, Russia had to fund you, correct? Than why do you have such an extravagant palace?" "It was donated," she replied flippantly. "Donated?" Who would just present you with a palace like this?" "No, no. It wasn't like that. Japan built it for us along with a good portion of this town in order to be given immigration access. I thought you knew all of this, Matt." "But why would they want that?" Matt pushed. "Because they're overpopulating their island and they believe Neptune is a good opportunity to send some of their people off. Japan has a slim chance of ever conquering any land on Earth. Japan tried ways of conquering other nations other than force attack. They invented video games to warp the minds of American children. Like the game Tetris that invades the child's dreams, no wait, that was Russia. Anyway, they ended up melting their own children's minds, too. So, they sent citizens here where they could lay a small claim to the new world." "Why don't you ask Japan to help you then?" "Because none of their colonies are being attacked." "And America?" Matt questioned. "America is not the country it once was. They have spent a lot of money setting up colonies here and on Mars. Right now they do not have the funds to support us, and they don't want to wage a war against Russia on Earth." "But you're an American colony." "It doesn't matter, we live so far away from Earth that most Americans forgot we're out here. Sure we show up on the news from time to time, but most Americans think this endeavor was a waste of time and a waste of American taxes.” "So what you're saying is, only American colonies are under siege?" "Yes Matt, why do you ask?" Hannahoko grew agitated. "Just asking," he shrugged. "Sheesh." |