[The Princes, Book III, unknown chapter] [Escape Pod] “Let’s go boys, rise and shine.” Prince Mischief was awake in seconds and out of his bunk followed by Prince Malice a moment later. Today was the twins ninth hatching day and the promise of presents was too great a lure to lounge in bed. Prince Malice stopped at the port window and looked out at the nothingness; the House Kitsune Battle Carrier was still at light speed. “Are we there yet?” asked Malice. Mischief stood impatiently fidgeting as his personal attendant pulled a tunic over his head while Malice’s personal attendant was trying to get his charge into a tunic also, but the young prince wasn’t cooperating. “I can do it myself,” said Malice. “Oh just let them, you’ll hurt their feelings,” said Mischief. “I don’t care, I’m not a baby,” pouted Malice. “Fine, more presents for me, I’m going now,” replied Mischief. “Zam, wait up.” “Stop calling me that.” “Why, I like that we get to use those names, it’s better than Prince this and Prince that, it’s like we’re normal.” “I don’t know about you, but I am normal.” Malice allowed the attendant to pull the tunic over his head and then ran after his brother. “Really, how many people do you know can teleport all over the place?” “It’s not teleporting, it’s trans-dimensional jumping.” “Yea, real big difference.” The boys continued their argument as they ran through the corridors’ for the dining room where their presents should be waiting. The princes slid into the dining room and stopped. “Huh?” “Where’s are presents?” “Did they forget?” The dining room was full of crew members eating breakfast and chatting among themselves, but no one seemed to notice the hatchlings arrival. The boys walked towards the food line looking in every direction for a table that might be piled with presents but there wasn’t so much as a single decoration or present to be seen. “Hey, there’s Uncle Ryota and Aunt Tage,” whispered Mischief. “Let’s go ask them.” The boys switched directions and headed over to their table. The two Carinians were enjoying a light breakfast of fish and fruit in the Carinian fashion and looked up as the princes approached. Uncle Ryota was really their older foster brother, but at nearly two-hundred years old it seemed more respectful to call him Uncle. “Hi, Uncle Ryota,” said Malice. “Where’s our presents!” exclaimed Mischief. Malice shoved his brother, “That was subtle,” said Malice. “Good morning boys,” said Aunt Tage pleasantly. “Happy Hatching Day.” “Morning, Aunt Tage,” the boys said together. “Presents?” replied Uncle Ryota. “We thought you two might be getting too old for that kind of thing, after all, you’re what? Fourteen, fifteen?” “We’re nine!” said Mischief almost in tears, an effect Malice would have mirrored if he hadn’t been the one to be given primarily Demonian genetics and without the ability to create tears; wasting body fluid on Demonia could be lethal. Mischief on the other hand had been given mainly Kitsune genetics and was capable of crying, and he was close to it right now at the thought that everyone had forgotten their hatching day. “Oh stop teasing them, dear,” Tage gave Ryota a scathing glare. “Don’t worry boys, nobody forgot.” Ryota stood and raised a hand, the dining room became quiet and the lights dimmed. A procession of cooks appeared from the kitchen carrying a massive cake between them. The crew began the obligatory hatching day song and then Emperor Sionnach, their father, entered with several attendants. Mischief and Malice could see that two of their father’s attendants’ were carrying one present a piece. The boys didn’t know whether to look at the cake, or the presents. “Happy Hatching Day, Sons,” Sionnach grinned at his boys, “were you worried.” “Not for a second, father,” said Mischief. Sionnach motioned for the attendants’ to hand over the presents and the boys grabbed them and inspected the packages. Mischief’s present was nearly four feet long and a foot wide and Malice’s was two inches by two inches. Malice stared in disbelief at his present. “Don’t judge a box by its size, son,” scolded Sionnach. “Go ahead, open them.” The boys ripped into their presents, the crew gathered around to watch the brightly colored wrapping paper fly in every direction; most of which was Mischief’s present, Malice opened his a bit slower, the box was so small. Prince Mischief’s eyes went wide and his jaw dropped as he held up a samurai katana sheathed in a plain wood with the fox symbol of House Kitsune engraved into it. “Father,” whispered Mischief, “it’s beautiful.” Mischief slowly pulled the sword from it’s sheath and held it up, the metal was a deep red, the finest Demonia steel forged in the deepest and hottest mines of Demonia located in the mantel of the planet, this metal was nearly indestructible. Mischief held the sword out to show his brother and noticed Malice hadn’t finished opening his present, then he realized just how small the box was. “Open it,” said Mischief feeling very uncomfortable now. Malice pulled the rest of the paper off and opened the box and pulled out a small command key. “Father?” asked Malice confused. “This is a command key for a Dart ship.” “Yes it is,” replied Sionnach. Malice stared at the key not yet understanding, even Mischief was confused about what his brother was supposed to do with it. “Maybe you should go put the key in your Dart ship,” explained Sionnach. “Unless you’ve changed your mind and don’t like to fly anymore.” Malice’s jaw dropped, “Seriously?” “It’s in the aft-hanger bay, should I have it sent back?” Malice took another three seconds to comprehend and shot off at a dead run with Mischief right behind him. “Well then, anyone want some cake?” asked the Emperor. The boys found the Dart ship in the hanger bay, a big ribbon wrapped around the sleek ship. Malice already had a Class 4 license thanks to Uncle Raven and dreamed of getting a Class 5 Combat License. Mischief explored the new Dart ship for awhile with Malice before getting bored; flying wasn’t his interest at all and wandered off to an open area of the bay and ran through several drills with his new sword. The new sword was light as a feather and balanced perfectly in Mischief’s hand; this was his interest. Mischief had always been interested in swords and the forest and wilderness, or what passed for a wilderness on Kitsune and Demonia; the boys alternated one month on each planet and Mischief always took the opportunity to explore out into the wilds. Malice would rule Demonia one day when Prince Vengeance passed away, but until then he wanted to build the first real Air force of Demonia and Mischief would rule Kitsune if his father ever passed away, until then he would be Lord of the Moons of Kitsune where the defense bases of the planet were located. The title also included being Supreme General of the Kitsune Samurai Forces; the entire defense of the planet would be on his shoulders. Mischief was on his fifth set of practice drills when an explosion ripped through the ship knocking him off his feet. Bits of metal torn from the bulk heads shot through the air and the ship shuttered and lurched and rolled to port. Screaming from the wounded rose above the secondary explosions as flames raced across the bay. Mischief watched in horror as flight crews rolling across the listing deck were incinerated instantly. The wall of flame hit him and rolled past without harm; he was half-demonian and fire wasn’t a danger to him, but open space was. Mischief was rolling towards the breach in the bulk head, crew members that had survived the flames were no better off as they were sucked out into space. Mischief could see the nothingness beyond the ragged hole in the bay, the ship was still at light speed, if he were thrown out there his body would be ripped apart by the light speed envelope that surrounded the ship. Mischief frantically tried grabbing at the metal ground, there was nothing to grab, he could see Dart ships rolling towards the breech in the bulk head. The first Dart ship hit the wall and ripped the hole larger, then other ships followed and slid out of the Carrier Bay. Something shot past Mischief and he grabbed desperately for it; a rope… no, a cable… a grappling cable. Mischief wrapped his arm around the cable and then was being pulled towards a Dart ship sliding across the deck; it was his brothers Dart ship, Malice had fired a grappling hook for Mischief to grab. Mischief couldn’t hold his sword and the cable at the same time, he had no choice and let go of the sword and watched it slide across the deck and out into space. The cable started to retract and he used the momentum to stand and run in an arc towards the lowered ramp of the Dart ship. The Dart ship was picking up speed and didn’t have long before it too was rolled out into space. Mischief timed his leap and ran up the ramp and into the Dart ship. Malice was in the rear pod waiting and grabbed his brother’s arm. “We have to launch,” yelled Malice. “It’s our only chance.” Malice turned and crawled towards the cockpit, and by blind luck only, didn’t make it. A beam from the collapsing ceiling above fell and crushed the cockpit. Mischief looked back out the open ramp, they were at the edge and the ship was tipping upwards and would be out in space in moments, but with the cockpit crushed, this was no place to stay. Mischief grabbed his brother’s leg and concentrated on the interior hanger bay and trans-jumped. Mischief was the first person to evolve the ability to trans-jump, a combination of the ten-thousand year genetic breeding program of the Kitsune, and the countless unknown eons the Demonian Hatching Mothers had manipulated their own DNA to produce the next stage in humanoid evolution; the result was Prince Mischief. There was very little known about trans-jumping, but it was theorized that attempting a jump at light speed could have dangerous effects. Mischief and Malice were about to experience one of those effects and came out of the jump at nearly two-hundred miles per hour and rolled up the listing deck. The upward roll saved them from serious injury, but they still hit the far wall hard enough that Malice broke his arm and Mischief felt several of his own ribs crack. But blind luck was still on their side. They had rolled past the emergency bulk head slamming down, had they not come out of the jump at such speed they would have been trapped on the other side and suffocated in the vacuum of space. “My arms broke,” cried Malice. “We’re half-Kitsune, we’ll heal soon,” Mischief gasped through the pain of his broken ribs. “What do we do?” asked Malice. “Crawl, we have to get out of here,” replied Mischief. The boys crawled and made it to the corridor that led through this section of the Carrier and started running, but their luck was about to run out. The ship shuttered again and a massive rip ran past them and then the deck started to fall away. “Now what?” shouted Mischief. “Oh no, these old Carriers were designed to break apart into sections when damaged, the damaged part would break away so the rest of the ship could still fly and fight,” explained Malice. He had studied every ship ever built. “Look, there’s escape pods, we can use those,” shouted Mischief. “We are still at light speed,” said Malice. “If we go past the light speed envelope of the ship we could be lost.” “No choice lets go, you take that one,” ordered Mischief. The escape pods only had enough room for one person each. The boys climbed into the two escape pods and sealed the door and launched. The escape pod computer read the situation and fired thrusters to keep the pods inside the Carriers light speed envelope. Mischief could see his brothers pod off to his left, they should be safe now. He craned his head around and got a better view of the damaged Carrier, the entire port aft section of the ship was breaking apart. Pieces sailed past his pod and narrowly missed. Then their luck ran out. Mischief saw a large metal chunk graze his brother’s pod and sent it spinning, the thrusters were trying to correct to bring it back away from the edge of the light speed envelope, but there was already too much momentum. He had to stop his brother’s pod. Mischief pressed his hands against the sides of his pod, calculated the distance and trans-jumped his entire pod in front of his brothers escape pod. Malice’s pod struck Mischief’s pod and the collision acted like two pool balls colliding. Malice’s inertia stopped and Mischief’s escape pod was pushed outside the Carrier’s light speed envelope. With the sickening momentum and the pod spinning Mischief knew he would pass out soon and would be lost if he didn’t catch up with the ship. Mischief pressed his hands against the side of the pod again and attempted to trans-jump back inside the envelope. Mischief did not get the desired effect, the trans-jump coupled with already being at light speed and that he really needed to see where he was going first and had jumped blind sent him shooting through space at incalculable speeds. Mischief’s escape pod travelled nearly two-hundred light years in three seconds by going under the universe in a trans-jump at light speed. Mischief lost consciousness and the computer took over for the unconscious pilot. The pod came out in normal space traveling many times faster than any ship had ever achieved before. The computer scanned for planets and found a possible solar system. The escape pod scanned each of the planets as it past but didn’t find a habitable one until it reached the third planet from a yellow sun. The computer calculated a breaking maneuver that involved using the yellow sun’s gravity to provide a breaking maneuver. The escape pod soared past the third planet and scanned for a landing site then continued on towards the sun. The computer guided the escape pod in an orbit around the sun and then back towards the third planet, a blue planet consisting of mostly water. Mischief remained unconscious, perhaps from his injuries to his ribs, or from the intense speed. The maneuver only took thirty-two minutes and then another forty-minutes as the computer used the planet atmosphere and skipped around the planet to provide additional breaking. The escape pod orbited the blue planet eight times before it decided enough speed had been bled off to land. The re-entry plume lit up the night sky as the escape pod descended towards the planet. The computers last act was to fire the breaking thrusters and then eject the interior compartment. The escape pod shell hit the planet and exploded in a fireball that could be seen for hundreds of miles. The interior compartment containing the unconscious Mischief floated gently down to the ground on three parachutes that deployed and safely brought it’s passenger to the ground. Life support scanned the unconscious Mischief and kept the interior compartment sealed from any dangers outside until the passenger was ready to open the pod and begin the arduous task of survival on the Primordial World he was now shipwrecked on. Mischief wouldn’t wake until morning, alone and lost. No one would even know where to begin looking for him.