The brilliant green light faded from around me and I was able to get the first unobstructed view of my surroundings. I found myself in a cavernous gray chamber that stretched out as far as I could see. Off in the distance, I saw hundreds of smaller triangular shaped ships lined up in long rows. They looked large enough for maybe one or two pilots. But the ship that caught my attention was only a few feet away.

It was much larger than all the others. Perhaps, four times as big with algae patches all over the silver-black hull. This was the ship they had scavenged from Lake Thurmond. This was the ship my parents and I had arrived on Earth in, according to my dad.

A shiver went through me at the sight. This was real. This was really happening. I felt the anger at my parents from earlier stirring. I wished I could remember, but as I stared at the ship, there was nothing, no spark of memory, no recognition at all. It was like it meant nothing to me, and I supposed it didn’t. It was just a ship after all. All the important things were now far below on Earth, and I would soon be leaving it all behind. The thought made me feel like a lead balloon had settled in my chest.

My attention was quickly pulled away from the ship and my gloomy thought at the sound of pounding boots. I looked to the right of the large bay area to find six men marching towards me. I felt my forehead bead with sweat as I stood in anticipation, not knowing what to expect.

These men looked like any others I might find on Earth, except the clothing was definitely different. Long coats of midnight blue hung from neck to ankles. The material looked shiny like maybe it had been polished to reflect light. There were a few lighter blue markings across the front of the shoulders. But what really caught my eye was a round black emblem embossed on the upper arms with a distinct outline of gold around the outer edge. The emblem itself was a braided circle with some sort of swooping glyph in the center and a sword that slashed diagonally through the whole thing.

My breath caught as I felt something rise from the within. A spark of a memory that was trying to shake loose. The memory itself didn’t come, but a surge of familiarity filled me. I knew that symbol. I didn’t know how or when or what it meant, but I know I had seen it before.

My heart thumped wildly and my mind struggled to understand. Was I remembering my past life? Or had I seen it somehow in my time on Earth? The excitement of having the sudden familiarity quickly turned to frustration at not knowing if it was a lost memory or not.

The six men continued toward me. Four broke off to the sides. They spread out in a loose semi-circle around me. They came to a halt and stood at the ready. Ready for what, I’m sure I didn’t want to know. By their grim expressions, I knew I didn’t want to get on their bad sides. My heart beat even faster, but I took a few calming breaths to steady myself. This wasn’t going to go well if I lost my shit before I could even say hello.

The other two men came at a halt just before me. One wore the same dark blue coat as the other four. He was much shorter than the others, but he had a presence about him that was unmistakable. There was no doubt this man was in charge.

The sixth man stood out from the others with his stark white coat, but surprisingly, the color was the only difference. White Coat’s bright shiny garment still covered from neck to ankles, but the black circular emblems on his upper arms were much more pronounced against the white. This man also held a small rectangular device that looked a lot like a tablet of some kind, while everyone else stood noticeably empty handed.

The man in charge spoke, but his words sounded like gibberish to me. The stern-faced man stood for a moment in silence, then he spoke once more in a gruffer voice.

I looked around the circle of men surrounding me for a clue as to what to do next. I received only stony expressions. I turned back to Mr. In Charge, shrugging my shoulders.

“Sorry, I don’t understand a word you are saying,” I said, wondering if he at least understood me.

The man repeated himself once more.

Again, I shrugged, “Sorry, dude.”

Mr. In Charge’s face reddened. Yeah, I definitely didn’t need a translator to tell me he was not happy with the situation. The man turned to White Coat and said something to him, then made an aggravated gesture towards me.

White Coat slipped the device he was holding into his left pocket, and then pulled out something else from the right one. This item was thin much like a pencil and had a sharp silver point at one end. He held up the pointy thing and stepped in close to me.

I stepped back only to find myself backing into one of the men that surrounded me. Hands reached out to grip my arms. I tried to struggle, but they held me firm. There was no getting away from them. I watched wide-eyed as the pointed device came toward my neck.

A moment later, I felt a sharp prick where the needle met skin, and then a warm fire rushed from the prick to the back of my head. White blinding light filled my vision for a second. When the whiteness finally cleared, a wave of dizziness washed over me. I closed my eyes for a moment and took a few deep breathes. When I opened my eyes, I felt more like myself again.

My arms were released, and White Coat stepped back. All the unpleasantness might have been gone, but my thundering heart refused to settle down. I cast a glare at the man in white, wondering what the hell he’d had just done to me. It was then that I realized the man in charge was speaking again.

“Do you understand me?”

I blinked at Mr. In Charge. He was still speaking in that weird language, but at the same time, I knew exactly what he was saying. What the hell?

“Yes, but how?” I responded, surprised to hear strange words coming from my mouth, but also knowing exactly what I’d said as if I’d spoken in English instead.

Oh that’s freaking weird as hell.

Mr. In Charge motioned to the man in white for him to answer my question.

“You were given a nanite injection, which directly manipulates the language centers of the brain to help a person understand and speak Enic. It’s not a perfect way to bridge our language barrier. Sometimes there can be glitches to the translation process, but it will do until you can relearn Enic,” White Coat explained.

I looked to the pointy object the man in white was now putting back in the right pocket amazed that they had found a way to affect the cerebrum in such a fantastic way. Even though I wanted to geek out, I turned back to the man in charge. I could feel his impatience growing.

“It is disconcerting we had to use that. You do not understand Enic at all?” Mr. In Charge looked like he’d swallowed something sour. He then motioned to White Coat once more. “Check him.”

I wondered what he meant by that, but before I could ask, the man in white stepped forward. I braced myself for another painful encounter, but the man simply held out the small rectangular device toward me as if he wanted to hand it to me.

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“Place your palm here,” he ordered.

I hesitated a moment as I saw faint green lines creating a patchwork of grids across the ultra thin device. I gently laid my hand on the screen. As soon as it touched, the device rapidly pulsed green. I kept my hand still as the pulsing increased. A moment later, the green light disappeared completely. White Coat pulled the device from my hand. I let my arm rest at my side.

The other man stared at the device with a dour expression for a few moments, and then held it out for Mr. In Charge to review it. “The results are clear, Admiral. He is Prince Adar Zahn.”

The Admiral didn’t look convinced as he stood there glaring at the device. He then looked back up to glare at me some more. Long moments passed as he continued to observe me as if he was looking for something and couldn’t quite find it.

“He does have the look of his father I suppose,” the Admiral finally mumbled to himself, but clearly that didn’t seem enough to the man in charge.

He humphed, and then addressed me. “Remeer was supposed to be here. Where is he?”

I figured he was talking about my dad, even though I’d not heard that name before––at least it didn’t sound familiar. This was going to be the tricky part. I had to figure out a way to convince them to leave without him, especially since they had confirmation that he was on Earth––thanks for that dad.

My palms began to sweat as my mind raced for the best way to handle this. I wasn’t sure if the ship was still hovering over the farm, but I had to assume it was. I also had to assume that it wouldn’t take much effort from these people to find my half-comatose dad sitting on the sofa in the house below us.

He knew that if you had leverage with the Ethians in that ship, you’d use it to change things.

I sent a mental thank you to my mother. Everything suddenly clicked into place for me, and I knew how I was going to save my dad from these people. And the irony of it was all I had to do was channel my dad.

That was easy enough. My dad had been someone that I had looked up to and secretly always wanted to be just like. He made me feel safe in every way, but most importantly, he made me feel like I could be strong, confident, and in charge––just like him whenever I chose to be. So I took a moment to touch that place inside me that knew him and respected him, and then I allowed myself to project all that he was.

“You came here for me. You don’t need him.” I said, a little startled with how confident that sounded, even though most of me felt the urge to shrink away and hide in a dark corner. But I resisted and stood tall and straight, fully meeting the hard glare coming back from the man across me. A tactic I had seen dad use often enough as CEO of New Horizons, and even with me when he wanted to make sure he got his point across in no uncertain terms.

“He is a traitor to the Empire,” the Admiral snarled back at me.

I felt the hate coming off the other man. It was clear how he felt about my dad. I wondered if this man had known my dad before he had left Ethia. And then something else clicked for me. Something else my mom had said to me.

They will take him to Ghar­­––the Emperor. They may or may not start the torturing before they get there. It depends on whose commanding the ship, but it’s probably one of Ghar’s most trusted commanders, so that means it will probably start right away.

A fierce feeling of protection rose up inside. Sure, maybe I wasn’t happy with dad right now for lying to me and taking my memories away, but I couldn’t let these people get a hold of him. No matter what he had done, he didn’t deserve that kind of fate. And just like that, what I had been projecting felt like it was now my own. I didn’t need to channel my dad any more, the fire in me resolute to do whatever needed to be done.

“Maybe to you, but he was working in my favor. He is not a traitor to me.”

The Admiral’s face contorted in anger, his face turning a deep red. “The Emperor demands justice for what he did!” he spat out.

I ignored the heated outburst, and even gave an inward smile, because I knew I had already won this battle. Dad always said that in negotiations it was always better to let the other person get emotional, especially angry. Once ruled by that, reason tended to leave a person, which left an easy win if you could stay calm and cool.

I let that calmness seep into my voice as I made my reply and was thankful for my newfound invisible barrier that blocked the strong emotion and allowed me to do what I needed to do. “Perhaps, but I am here and the man you call Remeer is not, and I will not tell you where he is. Do you really want to waste time looking for him instead of returning me to the place I belong?”

The Admiral continued his glaring assault on me, making me feel like I was a bug he wanted to squash under his boot. But I held firm as I met his glare. Even so, I felt panic course through me. It wouldn’t take much for them to realize that the man they were looking for wasn’t all that far away. I had to end this now before it went any further.

“I didn’t have to come here you know. The man you call Remeer made it clear he would give himself up for me, and then convince you that I was dead. You wouldn’t know any different unless you wanted to tear the whole planet up looking for me. But I did come here. I willingly gave myself up to you, even though I know nothing about my life before coming to this planet.

“Yes, my memories have been locked away, and while I’m not happy about that, I understand why it was done. I was brought here and raised on this planet because life in the Empire had become too dangerous for me. Maybe the man you call a traitor committed a crime towards the Emperor, but in my eyes, I owe that same man a great deal, and I have decided to stand up for him.

“So you have two options, Admiral. You can either forget the man you call Remeer and leave this planet without any more delay, and I will comply with whatever you have set for me to do––I will learn of my original home and do my best to become the person I was born to be.

“Or we can go with option two, which is that I will become the most stubborn, the most obstinate, the most disruptive person you have ever met. I will not cooperate with you, with the Emperor, or anyone else in Ethia. And the way I’m feeling right now, I’m more inclined to go with option two.

“No disrespect to you, to Ethia, or my birth father, but this planet has been my home for the last twenty years, not Ethia. And I have to say, I’m a little pissed that I’m being taken away from it so abruptly, not even able to say a decent goodbye to those I’m leaving behind, but if it will save my dad from some terrible fate, I’m willing to rise above and do the right thing by him.

“So what will it be, Admiral? Are you going to let Remeer be, or am I going to become your worst nightmare?” I gave him a little smirk just to show him how serious I was.

The Admiral’s intent glower did not waver the entire time I had been speaking. He just stood there as if he didn’t hear me at all and that he intended to simply vaporize me with the laser sharpness of his glare. But at this point, it was like the glare didn’t exist at all. I was above it, and I was deadly serious about my ultimatum.

I think the Admiral was finally picking that up, because I saw the glower begin to shift to something else––uncertainty. Inside, I was doing a happy dance. On the outside, I was all business and ready to go in for the kill. I decided to go for one last hit that I hoped would seal the deal.

“So you are telling me the Emperor sent you across the universe for some stupid petty revenge? I don’t know the guy, but that seems a little bit much to me.”

That finally got a response from the Admiral, “My orders were to bring you back to the Empire at all costs.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Really? At all costs. Well then, I guess that settles things, doesn’t it?”

Irritation came over the other man’s face as he realized his mistake. “He is a traitor,” the Admiral spit out once more like a petulant child who wasn’t getting what he wanted.

I had him, and he knew it, but I suspected this man wasn’t used to not having his way. He wasn’t used to losing. That was fine. He could have his little tantrum if that made him feel better. I wasn’t going to back down.

“You have my terms, Admiral. What is it going to be?”

The other man’s face flushed to a deep purple, I expected more bluster, but he surprised me when he wheeled around and started marching away.

“Show the Prince to his room,” the Admiral threw out the order as if an afterthought.

The angry man stepped through a door and left me alone with the other five. I felt myself relax a little, but not enough to let myself show it to the others.

My heart felt like it had jumped into my throat, and my hands started shaking a little. The fire that had lit inside me while facing off with the Admiral was wavering, leaving behind a quivering mess. The exchange had taken a lot out of me, and it had already been a high emotional day. I was ready to collapse from exhaustion, but also relief––that for now, my dad had dodged a metaphorical bullet.

The man in white motioned me to follow him, so I did, and the four men in blue fell in around and behind me. And a part of me realized this was the beginning of a path I wasn’t sure I wanted to walk down, but for better or worse, I had resigned myself to it.

I allowed myself to turn to auto-pilot as I followed the man in white deeper into the ship. I would have to contemplate the fate I had just agreed to at a later time. My mind was too exhausted to consider the full implications of my actions, and right now I just didn’t care. But as I walked further into the ship, a little voice inside told me that perhaps one day, I would very much care.