Tag looked at his daughter, “Rose, you’ve been pretty much running the Realm since you were thirteen. Danielle was only queen in name; you made all the critical decisions. You need to be the final authority and having us here only allows those who don’t agree with your decisions another outlet for their grumbling. You job will be easier after we’re gone.”
“Rose, we were forced to keep you in Castle Gardner as a child because we were constantly fighting the Algeans during your childhood,” Danielle added, “The Realm is at peace now and Tommy is not going to be secluded during his learning years.”
“I turned out ok,” Rose fired back, “are you saying my development wasn’t good.”
Tag looked at Danielle, “No, we’re not saying that.”
Rose raised her head and looked over her nose at her parents and said, “But…”
Danielle came over and put her hand on Rose’s shoulder, “Rose, you have no understanding of what the normal everyday citizens of the Stars Realm go through.” Rose started to protest but Danielle held up her hand, “I’m not through. I know you can see anything that happens on any of our planets; however, you see it from a distant perspective and you don’t really feel what life is like for our citizens because you’ve never lived it. You will rule the Stars Realm; that is your destiny. Tommy will live pursuing the direction he chooses. We are not going to deprive him of being a part of normal life and learning from the experience.”
Rose stared at her parents, “Just how are the two of you going to make that happen? Do you think you’ll just go buy a house somewhere and settle in? You’re the two most recognized faces in the Galaxy. There’s no way you can make this happen.”
Tag embraced his daughter, “It’s just that fame that will make it easier to hide. You are going to help make this happen.”
“Just how am I going to do that,” Rose asked?
“You are going to announce that your parents are going to take Tommy and explore new galaxies,” Tag said. “We are going to take an extended vacation of exploration in one of our best starships. We’ll have a huge party for our sendoff and then we’ll take a shuttle to leave for our ship. We’ll announce that the name of our ship is being kept secret to insure our privacy and we will check in on the Realm occasionally.”
Rose furrowed her brow and Danielle said, “Tgon-Gee will meet us and provide a different shuttle that we will use to go and establish our new identities. He has a cover for us already established and jobs waiting for us.”
“You can’t mean you’re going to work!” Rose said loudly.
“I’m afraid so, little one,” Tag said smiling. “And we’re going to live within our budget, too.”
Rose decided to fire her last shot, “Are you considering Tommy’s happiness in this decision? You’re taking him away from his friends, matter of fact from his best friend. How do you think Wes will take him leaving?”
Tag looked at Danielle and Rose could see that they were troubled by her observation. “Got-ca,” Rose thought.
The library door opened and Leila walked in from her office. “You know, you should turn off all the communication devices when you’re having this kind of disagreement,” she said. “I’ve erased any recording of what you’ve been saying so no one will hear what you’ve discussed but everyone here knows that this conference room automatically records anything said.”
Rose looked guilty and Tag and Danielle looked at her with an expression that indicated that they did not know they were being recorded. Leila looked at Rose, “Oh, did you not tell them that you ordered the recordings?” Rose just looked at Leila and didn’t know what to say.
Leila turned to Danielle, “Leaving Wes will not be a problem; I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
Rose said, “How can you say that? You know he’ll be hurt by this decision.”
Leila looked at Rose and said, “Of course he’ll be fine; he’s going with them.”
Rose, Tag, and Danielle’s mouths all fell open. Danielle recovered quickly and said, “What are you saying Leila?”
Leila looked at Danielle and said, “Eric and I have been worried about Wes’ development. Do you know what Eric and I do on our vacations? We go back to Earth and spend time with our parents to make sure that we stay grounded. Being here at the seat of total power in the Stars Realm can cause one to lose their perspective. I’ve already seen some of that in Wes.”
“As we have in Tommy,” said Tag.
“We can go wherever we choose because we are behind the scenes here at Castle Gardner. But even we are recognized by a large number of those around us.” Leila paused for a moment and said, “Tag, Danielle, I want you to take Wes with you. We’ll arrange visits when possible but he needs to get out of this castle and see what the real world is like.”
Rose looked at them and said, “What about me has made you decide this? Obviously I’m doing something that has caused you to make this decision.”
Danielle came over and said, “Rose, you have absolutely no understanding of your importance to your subjects and the role you should play with them.”
“What do you mean? Of course I understand my importance.”
“Rose, did you know that last week when you went to the opening of the new wing on the Fleet Academy that there were more than a hundred thousand people there to see you.”
Rose thought for a moment and said, “They were there to see the opening of the new wing.”
Tag said, “No they weren’t, Rose”
Rose looked at Leila for help and Leila turned on the wall screen and pressed some buttons on the desk console. On the screen headlines from the off world and local news organizations appeared, “Queen ignores huge crowd gathered to see her.” “Rose is a hidden flower.” “Disappointment rules the day.”
Rose read the headlines and she heard Danielle say. “A year ago you gave a little girl at one of your public visits one of your old bunnies you played with as a young child. Do you know that the little girl comes from a middle class family that barely pays their bills? She was offered ten million credits for that little bunny.”
Rose’s eyes widened.
“That’s not all, Rose,” Tag said. “A bidding war ensued and the price got up to forty million credits.”
Leila looked at Rose and said, “The little girl turned every one of them down. She wanted to keep her bunny.”
“Unfortunately, with the value of the bunny being so high her family was forced to put it in a bank for safe keeping,” Danielle said. “I secretly went and visited the little girl’s family and took them one of your other bunnies. I then asked that they sell the bunny that caused the problem to remove attention from them. I made them promise to keep the new bunny’s origin secret and the little girl told me, “I don’t care about being wealthy or famous for receiving this; I am just so happy that Rose gave it to me.”
Rose looked at the floor and thought about what they were saying. Then Tag ended her resistance when he said, “Since the age of thirteen, you have only gone out four times to see the subjects of our Realm that love you so much. None of those trips were alone; you accompanied Danielle on her trips. You have no idea of what our family means to the Realm and we take responsibility for that. You’ve never spent time among our subjects.”
As Tommy sat in his room on the ninth floor of Castle Gardner listening to his parents discuss their plan, he heard that he was leaving. He immediately thought to Wes, “Wes, you might want to hear this.”
Wes thought back, “What? What’s going on?”
Tommy began sharing what he was hearing with Wes.
Rose lifted her head and said, “I’ll get out more and visit the Realm if you’ll just stay.”
Danielle said, “Rose, you need to get out more whether we stay or not. It’s not only that, Rose. You’re missing the point. There are many little things that show us that you don’t have a real understanding of normal life. We think that while there’s time, Tommy should not be isolated from those experiences. It’s the right thing to do in our opinion.” Danielle paused and said, “Are you saying that you want Tommy to be kept from seeing what we think is important for his maturity?”
Rose knew she was being selfish. She didn’t want to give in but after reflection, she looked at Leila and said, “I’m leaving it to you to make sure they are not discovered.” She then turned to her parents and said, “You know that Tommy is hearing everything you say and I suspect he has included Wes.”
“Oh Crap,” Wes thought.
“I agree,” Tommy thought. “Play dumb.”
