From the complaint department to the emperor of a planet by D.A. Sanford - HTML preview

The journey home

Chad is now a couple of weeks old and is medically okay to travel, so we start to make the plans. It is Donna that wants to surprise her father so she has been very insistent that he not be told of the birth.

We do not have to worry with the exception of Fred.

If I saw him in camouflage and a rifle I would not be shocked. He is taking Donna’s instruction to heart. There is only a few times that you do not see him guarding his little brother. Those few were to quickly eat one of those large flowers and he would bee line right back.

“You know that mom only meant, when she told you to protect your brother, that you should be there for him but you didn’t need to be here all the time. When he is older, he will get bumps and bruises. That is a part of growing up but what she meant was just be there for him in times of trouble. As for now, mom will protest your brother.”

Fred is not buying it.

“How can I protect him if I’m not here?”

I swallow hard with what I am about to tell him. I hope that he does not take this as literally as he took protect but I have to figure out something.

“Protect him means that you will guide him in the direction that he becomes the best plant eater. You are to help him when he seems to be going the other way. We do not want him to become a meat eater, do we mom?”

Donna has been listening.

“If you remember, your father rescued me from that grabber plant. It was a meat eater. There will be times that his friends want to do some things wrong. If you see that you will protect Chad by sitting him down and give him advice. You see, to a child, there are somethings you do not want to talk to parents about, that is where a brother comes in. He will be able to talk to you and you to him.”

Now I finish,

“Things that you discuss are only between brothers, with the exception of doing something harmful or destructive. Only if you cannot talk him out of it, you will tell him that you will need to discuss this with mom and dad. That way you do not break his trust.”

Then I get really serious.

“I need you to remember the trouble you got in when you told us to go out and mate. We may have other children. If one of them is a female, she will be your sister. Sisters are different. If a male comes near and looks to be a meat eater that wants to mate. I give you permission to chase that one off.”

Donna hits me and gives me a sour look.

Fred now understands.

“I am protecting by guiding, I understand. I have learned from my mistakes with dad. I will give good advice. Dad, those who chase after my sister will go into a grabber pool.”

With that he proudly walks away as my chip board is ringing with a red light flashing. That is Jack’s signal that it is very urgent.

I pick up the clip board and answer.

“What is the problem?”

Jack asks if Donna is with me and I tell him that she is. You can hear the hesitation but then he says,

“All of you need to come home right now. I’m sorry Donna but the Emperor has died. The regent has put himself in charge.”

I just don't like the regent. He is a sneaky weasel He wants to be the emperor himself

Donna is in shock as I tell Jack to get a large transport here within the hour. That will be for the staff and our belongings. Have my limo here. Tell the driver two weeks bonus if he can be here before the transport.

I yell, “Fred!”

He comes in quickly.

I now am talking to Fred but also to Donna. I am holding Donna as she cries, I address the both but look at Fred.

“Mom’s father, the emperor, has died. That regent has taken over and I feel that he had something to do with it. We are going back within the hour. I’m sure that he heard that your brother was born. Your brother is the next in line for the throne. I feel that he has made his move and will try sometime soon to take your brother. Can I ask you to make sure that it does not happen?”

“I will guard him with my life. I need to talk with my fellow slimes in this area to send word to the capital. By the time we get there, there will be most of the sentient slimes there. We will protect my brother.”

This is the first time we do not see ego, bravado or anything like that. Fred is dead serious and runs out to the edge of the property where quite a few slimes come out to meet him. Then he returns and tells us that it is done.

“He will not get anywhere near my brother. I’m sorry mom and dad, they will be guiding a grabber near to our home. Anyone that I do not know will be in that pool.”

With that he is back to standing guard.

I lead the stunned Donna to another room and tell her my feelings.

“That son of a bitch was smiling as we left. He was the only one that knew you were pregnant.

He wanted the power. Now that Chad is here, your father was an obstacle to his ambitions.

We will beat him at his game but just in case. I’m going to have Jack do something that is not going to sit well with the regent.”

I call Jack.

“I do not care what anyone thinks, I want a private shuttle in our back yard. Tell Karl that I am sorry but family over flowers. I don’t know how he did it but this has to be the work of the regent. There are too many convenient circumstances for it not to be him. I will talk to you when we get back.”

Donna now asks Jack,

“When is the state funeral going to happen? What did the medical people say was the cause of father’s death.”

Again, you can hear the hesitation

“According to the regent, with his last breath, the emperor said that he did not want the medical staff cutting him apart. He wanted to be put in the vault and have it sealed. No funeral.”

She gasped. Looking at me she said that he stated many a time that he wanted the state funeral. The pomp was required for the world to see. He wanted to be laid to rest next to mom.

He wanted their mausoleum to be opened so I could visit and pay my respects.”

Now the grief turned to almost feral anger

“That bastard killed my father. Fred is right, a grabber pool is what is needed. Fred will you help us find what we need to convict him? You have a wonderful network.”

You could see that the final stage of his development has been reached. He now has a flesh color to him. More defined and fully clothed, you would swear that he was human. With one statement he showed it all. He walked over and kissed her hand and said one word.

“Family!”

Now he stepped back and said

“I’ll watch my brother. You get ready. Our limo should almost be here.”

It was.

We were now back at the mansion. Jack is there and much to the chagrin of the neighborhood. There was a shuttle sitting at the back of the property. Karl picked out that area.

It is mostly just grass. The formal gardens were more towards the front.

I thank Jack and before he could say anything, Karl came in and talked to me.

“This must be Freds doings. There are hundreds of slimes that are on the perimeter of the mansion property. I came to warn you. It looks like they brought a grabber but they seem to be controlling it.”

“That is Fred’s work. Once he heard that the regent was involved, he vowed that he and his fellow slimes would guard his brother Chad. No one will get to him.”

“The slimes have not even touched my flowers.”

He sees Fred.

“For their help in protecting, would you tell your fellows that I’ll plant again as they eat. Their reward for doing this.”

Fred walks over to Karl, grabs his hand. I would swear that he almost had tears as he heartly thanked him. He just says

“We protect family. You and the ladies here that treat me so well are my family. We will protect family.”

Karl and the staff are all full of tears. That’s my son.

Jack now spoke

“I will tell you that I think the shuttle is proper. I have sent to the regent that, per corporate orders. That shuttle is for you and your family to be able to flee at the first threat to any of you.

Corporate has informed them that if any attempt on you and your family’s life all will be removed, including those staff that want to go, to the platform where there is now a corporate transport waiting for the shuttle. It will not stop at the platform. It will land in the transport. At that time the space platform will be shut down. Our corporation now owns it.”

He looks at me,

“David, Fred is right. Family. What is the corporate motto?”

I am shaken but looked at Fred as I say,

“We consider you family. We take care of family,’

Jack then added,

“Enough said. Now Donna for the hard part. You are no longer welcome at the palace. The regent has tried to get your title of princess taken away but the office of the ministers would not allow it, so, barring you is the only thing he can do. I do suggest that you don’t let on about your suspicions. You need to plead with him, through letters and calls to him to allow you to see your fathers remains. We need to continue the, sorry for how this sounds, grieving daughter route.”

Donna thinks about it

“I know what you meant. I am a grieving daughter but I am an angry daughter more. That smile, that smile! You mentioned it David. It was almost a smirk. We need to find something, anything to prove that he killed the emperor.