mind.
“It must be difficult for you, Prince Jared. I thank the goddesses that you miraculously survived—and saved one of our transports in the process.”
Speaking of goddesses…where was his wife? He didn’t want to admit it, but he was kind of hurt she wasn’t there, waiting for him to wake up. He’d never pictured a spouse being anything less than a best friend. While he and Keira weren’t there yet, he’d think she’d be concerned about his health, or at the very least his state of mind as the sole survivor of a crash. Damn it, wasn’t she as anxious to meet him in the flesh as he was to meet her? Or maybe she had been at his bedside and official duties called her away. “I would like to see Queen Keira.”
“That is impossible at this time.”
“Impossible? How’s that?”
“Her Majesty is in her exercise chambers. No one interrupts her when she is there.”
“I can’t see my wife because she’s working out? Give me a break.” He realized he’d spoken English again and switched back. “Tell Her Majesty that her husband wishes to see her.”
The prime minister looked distinctly uncomfortable. “But the queen has already made arrangements for your meeting.” He handed Jared a glowing cylinder.
It was a flexible computer screen that was as thin and as pliable as paper. Jared unrolled it. It was a formal invitation to join Keira for dinner, which was hours away. “How nice of her,” he said dryly. “I suppose I have no choice but to wait, do I? I wouldn’t want to inconvenience Her Royal Sunbeam.”
“Beg your pardon?”
“Nothing. Just a little pet name I’ve coined for my dearest wife.”
The man’s mouth twitched, but he said nothing. “Since you’re well on your way to full recovery, I’ll be going.”
“Hold on, Rissallen. I haven’t debriefed you and your staff on what happened outside the wormhole.”
“Our mishap investigation team is already studying the ship. A shame that with all the safety features, this sort of accident can still happen.”
What part about “this was no accident” didn’t the man understand? Jared spoke slowly to make sure he used the right words. “It was an ambush. It had to be. When we came out of the last wormhole, someone, a ship, was waiting for us. They attacked. It was as if they knew we were coming through. If that’s true, you’ve got a major breach of intelligence on your hands.”
“If what you say is true, why not destroy the ship? It seems odd to fire on the individual ejecting pods when simply vaporizing the transport would have solved the issue.”
Jared started to argue but stopped. The prime minister had a point. Could it have been an accident? A malfunction with the ship or the pods? Possibly. His gut, however, told him otherwise. “I think it’s wise to assume the worst. Your intelligence people need to be working on this. I’d like to debrief them as soon as possible. And Earth needs to be told, the men’s families informed.”
“Of course. My staff will see to all the details.”
But the prime minister acted unimpressed. If anything, he seemed mildly annoyed by Jared’s accusations. Jared decided to drop it—for now. He’d find out who the chief of intelligence was and who the military commanders were and make his own arrangements to meet with them.
Was the Coalition so secure in their power that they could ignore an overt attack like this? They couldn’t be that comfortable or they never would have married off their precious queen to neutralize Earth’s threat.
Jared gave the departing prime minister a halfhearted wave. Contact intelligence, arrange a meeting with the military leaders—he had a lot on his to-do list. For now, a more immediate problem needed to be solved: that of his wife’s apparent total lack of interest in her new husband.
The rest of the afternoon was spent settling in to his new quarters. His apartment was probably six thousand square feet. If he ignored the mind-boggling integration of nanotechnology in the decor—walls that changed color at a whim, floors and bedding that altered temperature according to personal preference, sound and smells that could be customized to fit his current mood—the suite of rooms resembled one in a first-class hotel, only five times as big and opulent.
Wealth and good taste infused every fixture in the room, including many works of art in their own right. Describing it as luxurious did the place an injustice. Yet, as fancy as it was, as richly appointed, it was just as distinctly