THE GALAXY IS IN LOVE

SHORT STORIES FROM: 50,000 A.D. The Awakening - Henry Matthews from the 21st century wakes up 50,000 years later.

THE GALAXY IS IN LOVE

Princess Pamalia, member of the imperial household from Tulosama of the Great Empreorium Empire, was a royal personage of very high stature in the overall scheme of things. She was eighth in line to the throne and was deeply loyal to both her uncle the Emperor and the Empire. Today was one of those days were her rank was called upon to deal with another person of ‘Royal Blood’. She was a bit apprehensive about the upcoming meeting with the ‘Queen’. She was on her way to the dock that was to receive the Queen’s cruiser. The first discomfort was that the title of Queen had a higher rank than the title of Princess. But since the Princess was from the Empreorium -- who ruled over the Queen’s realm -- she actually had a higher rank than the Queen, a bit of a quagmire.

The current problem was handling Henry’s fame around the galaxy and in particular the Queen’s home world Quinitesselo.

The Princess arrived at the Station dock near the VIP area reserved for people of high rank. The dock manager motioned for her to approach the door of the Queen’s cruiser. She stood at the correct position as per protocol with two of her assistants.

An android was heard to say, “Queen Meir deGraqua”. The door of the vessel opened and a very pretty and young looking Queen emerged.

“How are you Pamalia,” said the Queen.

“I am fine. It’s so nice to meet with you again after such a long time.” Their last meeting was about 75 years ago when the Queen was a young princess and had visited the capital of the Empreorium for the first time. She still looked young.

Later in the Princess’ apartment, they sat down in comfortable chairs near a beautiful coffee table and had refreshments. The Queen told the Princess a rather long story that ended with her being betrothed to Henry. If it did not happen, there was a prophecy that foretold a disastrous turn of events for her home planet. It said that the star would go ‘supernova’ and devastate the complete star system.

The Princess fought strongly to prevent her eyes from rolling over in her head. She had heard all kinds of prophecies involving the Ancient One’s arrival for the last two years, but this one is the first supernova: how to handle it?

One way would be with sarcasm, humor, and ridicule. That would be her favorite way, but it would sour relations with this star system’s government for years to come. Another way would be to counter balance other ‘galactic prophecies’ against the Queen’s version that was completely opposed to it. Therefore, you could make the claim that both can’t be true so maybe both are wrong.

As the meeting continued, the Princess gradually realized the Queen was desperate to meet with Henry. She knew Henry would co-operate and probably use a few cold reading techniques to get rid of her. So she decided to play hard-ball and use a few mind tricks of her own.

“My dear,” the Princess put on her most sympathetic look, “Henry is already engaged to be married and is living with his fiancée.”

“Oh.”

“If you like, I can set-up a meeting, but I know Henry will have a condition. If he finds out you consider him your future husband, he will insist his fiancée attend all meetings with both you and him. He is so deeply in love with her he does not want to indicate any impropriety towards her.”

The Queen sat there speechless with her mouth slightly open. After several seconds of silence, the Princess continued as she poured herself another cup.

“I know this might be a bit hard to take, but you’re not the first one to consider yourself his fiancée. We had an incident last month with the Grand Impalate’s daughter who also wanted to marry him. So far, there have been seven declarations of Henry’s engagement to important women around the galaxy in the past several months. Would you like to think about this my dear?”

“Well yes, I can see your point.”

As Princess Pamalia stood up, she had a empathetic smile on her face as a way of kindly saying, this meeting is over get away from my face.

Later on that same day, she heard the Queen had left the Station. Who knows if she’ll ever be heard from again. She wouldn’t bet against it though.

Here is a video of the characters