Shadow of the Blue Ring by Jerome Kelly Read Free Book Online

to just to throw someone away like that,” said James, “I thought he would have at least tried to talk his father into letting you stay.”
    “No, you don’t know Tasos like I do,” said Melina, “the revolution changed him, made him arrogant, made him think he’s invincible. He’s going on about how he survived the most dangerous mission of all time without a scratch when the only reason he’s here now is that the Vulians wouldn’t have dared shoot an Artennes, not with the power his father still maintained. They let him survive because of his family name, he wouldn’t have lasted ten seconds in that battle otherwise. I really can’t believe he’s going to be leader of both the Tolian republic and the Freedom alliance council one day. I can’t see how he’ll keep everything together when his father still does everything for him even at his age. He even tried to book himself into the penthouse suite simply because he thinks he deserves the best room in the city. Thankfully Ravenn overruled though, reserved it for his daughters, downgraded Tasos to the diamond suite… Ha, can you can even call that a downgrade?”
    “Kaydenne, don’t worry about him,” Isha had to wait for a break in Melina’s rants before she could get a word in, “just ignore him, I’m sure he wont be staying long, his father will take him straight back in a day or two. Just try to enjoy your time here.”
    James would have thought the Artennes family would have been more open-minded, especially as they were the ruling body on Tolis and on the alliance council, not to mention the most famous family in the history of the alliance. He imagined the Andurians would not have been too impressed at the leader of the alliance branding an Andurian ‘unworthy’ to date his son. With all the difficulties in rebuilding the alliance, the last thing it needed now was a division between the races and a war of words between leaders.
    “He’ll grow up eventually,” said James, “he’s young, he’s lived his entire life in a shell, unable to do what he wants and go where he wants because of his family name. Give him a couple of years and he’ll grow out of it.”
    “I still dread the day he succeeds his father on the alliance council,” said Melina, “with his current attitude, he’ll destroy the alliance that his father worked so hard to rebuild. As much as I don’t like that guy for what he said about me, I have to respect the job he’s done in putting the galaxy back together. It would be chaos without him. As for Tasos though, he can forget about ever trying to win me back, I deserve better, I…”
    “Change the subject please,” Isha interrupted her, “as much as we love hearing about your problems with your ex, we’re on holiday. Can we talk about something a little less depressing please?”
    “Fine,” Melina huffed, the whole situation still clearly hitting a nerve or two for her, “so then, Isha, how are you finding life working for the Human fleet?”
    “I said less depressing Kaydenne, not more depressing.”
    “Oh wow, that bad is it?”
    “It has it’s moments,” said Isha, “but yeah, it is pretty depressing being stuck on the ship the whole time.”
    “Well you wouldn’t have had any more luck back home,” said Melina, “our fleet has done almost nothing except patrol the Varduran borders and transport resources to the other alliance worlds for the last few years. Our government is refusing to sanction any sort of exploration mission until the galaxy settles down a bit so everyone gets stuck doing the boring stuff.”
    “I’d be surprised if it’s different anywhere,” said James, “it’s not like anyone has the resources to spare for exploration right now. I’d be surprised if anyone did anyway, the last group went missing.”
    “Missing?” Said Melina, “what do you mean missing?”
    “Just something I heard from the admirals,” James explained, “a couple of Churian exploration ships went