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I ordered the bridge officers to engage.  I didn’t know what they
were engaging.  I didn’t care either.
    “Now
deploy,” the Captain said.
    “Deploy,”
I commanded.  On the screen in front of us, a flash of light shot across our
bow.  It lit up the screen like a comet, heading toward the ice planet. 
    “Reverse
thrust, Light-3,” the Captain ordered and the ship moved quickly backward.  A
moment later the whole screen lit up.  The ice planet had exploded!
    “Dude!”
I screamed, and even the other officers on the bridge cried out.
    “Spot
on!” the Captain yelled, and a cheer went up.  We switched vectors and the ship
veered away from the chunks of rock and ice debris, heading out of the system
and back towards the Capital Planet.  “Well done, Prince Shika,” the Captain
said as if I was responsible for all this myself.
    “What
did we do?” I asked, getting up from the chair.  I had just ordered the
destruction of a planet.  I had sat at the helm, I had given the command.  I
had done something that no one anywhere had ever done before, and I wasn’t sure
whether I was thrilled or horrified by it.
    “We
have just captured the planet Rozari and the Rozarian star system for your
father,” the Captain replied.  “For the first time in a thousand years, the
mother planet will belong to our people again.”
    I
gave him back his chair and went and sat next to the windows to think for a
while.  I know I didn’t really do it.  I didn’t capture Rozari.  I just gave
the command because somebody, my dad maybe, wanted me to do it.  I didn’t know
why and I didn’t really care. 
    Capturing
Rozari by destroying an ice ball might be a good thing.  It was better than
nuking them and killing a bunch of people.  Being part of the Empire would
probably be good for them too.  In any case, I wasn’t about politics and
acquiring planets.  I was about flying.  I was about being up here in space
among all the stars, soaring across the galaxy faster than even light could go.
    By
the time we pulled back into the spacedock above the Capital Planet, my whole
life was laid out before me.  I knew now what I wanted to do.  I knew where I
belonged.  I was born in space.  This was my home.  I was never going to be a
king, and that was okay because being king was frankly a lousy job.  I wanted
to join the Imperial SpaceNavy and wear this uniform for real.  I wanted
stripes to cascade up my sleeves as my mom’s uniform used to have.  I would
work hard.  I would study, and I would become a starship captain because I
would deserve it.  I would be the best damn captain this Imperial SpaceNavy
ever had.
    When
I returned to Mishnah, I rang Petya and told him about my ride on the Starship and
how we blew up the ice planet.  The two of us started texting and talking like
old times.  A few months later, both of us were admitted into University of New
Mishnah.  I didn’t have the grades of course, but I took a bunch of equivalency
exams and being who I was, they let me in any way.  We made plans to start
there in the fall, and we even got a dorm room to share.  I planned to get my
Bachelors of Science degree in Astrophysics and after graduation, go to Officer’s
Candidate School. 
    For
the first time in years, I knew where I was going and where I would end up.  I
knew also with certainty that my mom, when she came back, would approve.  I
also knew with certainty, that even though I never really knew my dad, even
though I never spoke to him, he heard my prayers after all.

 
     
     
    Chapter 8
    Jerry
     
    My
last patient that morning was a Talasian with a bad skin affliction.  There
were little pustules all over his body from his scalp to the soles of his feet. 
It almost looked like acne.  If I had a scope here, I would have biopsied some
tissue and had a good look at it. 
    “Is
it fatal?” the guy asked.
    “Acne? 
No, not at all.”
    “No,
it is,” the guy argued.  “My cousin died of