SWNOVELS Chapter 15
"Yes it is for the best I promise." I look at Patrick he has a look of deep sorrow and a bit of anger in his eyes.
"Do you truly think that isolation will keep you from hurting anyone else?" the captain asks.
"Yes captain it would be the best possible outcome. Even if the Raspites do find me my survival instincts would kick in and they would be destroyed." the captain look at Patrick and then back at me.
"And how will you know the difference between friend and foe whenever you need supplies delivered?" He seems to be full of questions.
"I haven't thought out all the details I just know that this is the best solution." I insist as I somehow know deep down being alone is better than being owned.
"Lieutenant Wolf also expressed that he feels you may be hiding some details that may help you in this endeavor." I look at Patrick.
"I have told Lieutenant Wolf what he needs to know and nothing more. The details I leave out are in my best interest. My father said I should trust no man completely and I don't." I say looking away from Patrick as I say those words. I know he doesn't understand how I can love him but not trust him.
"Even if you care for this man as much as I suspect you do." I look at Patrick as though he had said something to the fact I had fallen for him as well. He has already known about Patrick's feelings for me but I have tried desperately to hide my feelings for him. "Don't look at him I have figured it out on my own. I see the way you look at each other and there are video feeds in the elevator as well as hallways." I look down and blush, but quickly shove the emotions behind me as I look back up at him.
"So then you yourself don't trust people on your own ships. So you can understand why I do not trust people. No matter my feelings for them." I say in a strong intimidating voice that makes me seem so much stronger then I actually am.
"It's what she wants captain." Patrick says still saddened by the idea.
"Yes so it would seem." The captain says.
"I think we should give it a go to get them to change their minds. Who is to say better than the one who has the powers what should be done with them?" I look at Patrick. He steps beside me and stands erect. The captain looks at both of us. It is as if he is trying to judge if there is any give in my stance on being isolated.
"If this is what you want to go for, then I will try to persuade the council to send you to the Mandowa system there are several planets there that are not too dangerous and yet isolated from humanoid life forms due to the creatures that do live there but with your powers I do not feel you will have an issue." The captain looks at a man who has come from the conference room and signaled him that the others are ready.
"It is what she wants and I will support her decision." Patrick says and I look at him but he will not look back at me this time. I almost second guess my chose from the pain in his eyes, but I remind myself, that getting to close to him would only bring about his death.
"We should get in there the council does not like to be kept waiting." The captain motions for us to go forward. I am drawn back to the fact that I had heard a woman's voice as well, but I do not ask them who it was. It left me wondering if I was just hearing things. Who could they have been talking to? Perhaps it was council woman Maggie or some other council member that is for the isolation. We make our way back to the conference room. We sit at the table in the same way as before and wait for the council members to all come back on screen. Maggie is the first to speak again.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the council, Captain Harshbro, Lieutenant Wolf, and Princess Laoonica thank you I do hope you had an adequate lunch break." She is wasting time on pleasantries and as annoying as it is I have to bare it as it is part of their culture.
"It went well council woman Maggie." The captain says. I look over at Patrick but he still won't look back at me so I return my gaze to the screen.
"If we could I would like to know where everyone stands as far as isolating me." I ask looking at the center screen.
"During our lunch I spoke with each of the council members to hear what they were thinking." She says.
"And where do we stand on it exactly." I ask.
"We have so far the larger part of the council agrees that a well-guarded facility on our base planet Nabotia will be the best place to put such a powerful weapon." I feel a little appalled at the ideal that I am being treated as nothing more than an object with no feelings or thought process.
"Council woman I am not a weapon I am a living breathing being. I deserve to be treated as such." I can feel the anger in me growing at the idea they had no regard for the fact I am alive.
"Well Princess given what we have seen of your abilities it seems that you are more valued as a weapon." The red head man from before chimed in and I look at him with a glare that seems to make him a bit frighten, but before I can object again I am interrupted.
"She is not a weapon council. She has emotions and feelings. She is an amazing person and to speak to her as though she is a programmable device is rude and arrogant on your behalf." I am completely shocked by the fact that Patrick has intervened.
"Lieutenant Wolf is there something the council needs to know?" his father speaks now as he seems to peer right through the two of us and I look away from Patrick to him now. What will they think if they know of our love? It did however, seem the captain kept that bit of information to himself not allowing the details of Patrick and my relationship to leak out.
"If I felt as though I could control my powers perhaps I would agree with you how ever I have no control and even the simplest of things can set them off and you would willingly put so many people in danger." I try to change the subject but it doesn't go over.
"Is there more than a professional situation between you and the princess?" Council woman Maggie asks this time.
"Why do assume he answers for me? Why does it seem that you all are so willing to speak directly to him but not to me? I am a princess of my planet destroyed or not I deserve the same respect of anyone else." I again try to defuse the loaded question. This time I got everyone's attention as I hadn't noticed the faint blue glow starting to illuminate slightly around me. Not quite as hot as it could have been but present in my frustration of being treated as a child.
"Laoonica pull it in." Patrick whispers as he has noticed. I take a deep breath and allow myself to calm down. I look at the faces on the panel and worry that perhaps this slight show of control would somehow harm my argument. I look at the faces all staring back at me. Each with a level of fear and curiosity. They should be afraid; they should see the truth. I look at them waiting for any response to this slight exertion.
I watch as a great silence falls over the council that seems to last forever. "What we should be focused on is the fact that the Princess can lose control of her powers at any minor emotional situation." Patrick says as he held his hand toward me as to indicate that, that was what had just happened.
"She seems to have pulled it back in on her own." The council woman says. I am not looking at her but rather the smirk on the face of the man I now know was Patrick's father. Has he truly been the only one who realized that it is Patrick that pulled me back?
"I have shown you all the video from what took place in my office quarters just a few days ago." the captain is sticking to his word. He speaks up as he is trying to aid me in my fight to be isolated from contact with people. Yet again it seems to fall on deaf ears.
"Yes and as we saw Lieutenant Wolf was able to pull her back in from completely destroying your ship which brings us back to the question of some sort of relationship between the two." Maggie speaks again.
"It is not the concern of the council that which lay in the princess's personal life but rather what happens when her powers are released. I am sending you files with the pictures from the small trade vessel she destroyed in an effort simply to defend herself from an assassination attempt." The captain presses a few buttons on the computer that is built into the table and in a few moments I can see the council members doing the same. I look down for a second and see the pictures of the melted bodies and turn quickly away. It still haunts me that I caused so much death and I couldn't stop myself.
"These pictures as gruesome as they are, do not change my mind in the least Nabotia is the best place for her." The red hair man says.
"On the contrary it should, this is what could happen to so many innocent guards just trying to do their job." A woman next to Patrick's father says.
A tiny thin looking man in the lower right corner spoke up, "Yes but on an isolated planet she would not have interactions that could help her learn to control this curse as she called it earlier."
"You are right, but she also would not be able to wipe out an entire planet of innocent people." another man speaks up this time.
"If we could isolate what it is inside you that creates these burst of so called powers then we ourselves would be able to harvest and use them." A man that I have not noticed before says. I look at him with a wild fiery passion in my eyes as I want to pull him through the screen and slap him.
"You don't think that for one minute if it was as easy as isolating it my own people would have been able to extract it from me. It is in every cell of my body and is affected by every emotion and every thought I have. I am trying as hard as I can to maintain my temper now. I do not wish harm to come to those in this ship." It is the first time I have actually ever wanted to hurt someone to prove my point, but this ignorant man pushed me to the brink.
"You, council man Woorm, are the only member of this council who would suggest such a disgusting idea. I council woman Hunts move to dismiss his statement and ban Mr. Woorm from the rest of this meeting." I can't believe it they all turn against him as quickly as he spit out such an awful idea.
"I council man Wolf Sr. second that motion. All in favor say I." every other member of the council says I. There is not a single one saying nay. The council man's screen goes blank and he is banned from the meeting. Perhaps they do see me as somewhat alive after all. Not much as I have been referred to as a weapon but a little at least not to subject me to experimentation.