END of LINE: Humanities Last Stand - part 3 (2 page)

Growing up in the Palace on Lexon II had been difficult for a four cycle old Princess Satrina before her mother, the Queen, had died. There were always lessons on polite
behavior or how to properly eat ones meals. Given her golden red hair, emerald green eyes, and tiny, pointed Lexonian ears, she had grown into a beautiful
young woman. Her petite frame and barely five foot height made her tiny even for a pureblooded Lexonian. Her mother, the Queen, had died when she was only
a young girl. A victim of a horrible accident while on a trip to Haven’s seaside their had not even been time for Satrina to get to know the kind of love that only a mother can give to her child. Her upbringing had been left to nannies and females who had yet to enter into their mourning periods on the Sanctuary planet where all Lexonian females went to spend time after the loss of a husband or rejection by a chosen mate.

She had been raised her entire life on the Sanctuary planet after the death of her beloved mother because her father, King Le`puix, didn't know what to do
with a female child. Soon she would reach her eighteenth birthday with the age of adulthood getting nearer each year. This year she would face the first of
many choices. She would soon have to decide whether or not to remain on Sanctuary or take her rightful place at the Palace. While she had come to call the
grand halls and polished marble of the towers that made up the Order of Mourners home, she missed being around people who laughed and played without the
constant burden of loss hanging in the air around them. Her biggest decision today was whether or not to join her elder brother, Prince Zeprik, on a trip
to the Royal Summer Palace on Haven. Satrina had until the end of the day to decide if she would accept her brother's invitation to attend the celebrations
with him.

Haven had been the first home of the Royal Family after the Lexon sun had gone super nova. For cycles the Royals and another group of survivors called
Humans had lived together peacefully sharing the planet. It was only after the great Warrior, and Dragon Flier,
Jon Connell
, had reunited the
Royals with the rest of the Lexonian people that the Royal Family had moved to Lexon II and built the present day Palace. The Palace on
Haven had been built as part of a great survival ship that had carried the entire Royal Household and their servants to Haven. Only the Royal Family knew
the real reason that they had begun again on the forest covered world had been because evil males had plotted to kill the then Royal Household due to debts
owed to that Regent. When
Jon Connell
of cycles gone by had uncovered the plot to murder the King he had completely wiped out the threat on Haven
and later out among the rim worlds as well as the central planets making it safe for the then King to move his household closer to the center of the galactic
government.

The survival ship had been designed to be dismantled in space and brought down to the planet in pieces to be set up on the surface. The part of the ship
that had housed the Royals had been kept up as a Summer Palace for the Royals to spend time away from the duties of running the government. Haven still
remained a frontier planet out on the rim of known worlds with only limited manufacturing. Its biggest exports were its agricultural products and a rich
power crystal that was mined on the outer planets of Haven's solar system. One of the biggest products to come from Haven was the most well liked beer in
the galaxy. Named for the family recipe that created the beverage, Cook's Original Lager Beer was to this day highly sought after out among the stars.
There was also a very lucrative trade in the fur from a native saber-tooth tiger that only lived on Haven. Its fur was valued in the production of cold
weather clothes and expensive apparel for fancy females.

The Royals usually only went to Haven for their twice yearly vacations and for hunting trips. This trip was to be a special occasion and her brother had
been ordered by their father to attend. This year was the two hundred fiftieth anniversary of the reunification. The King had decreed that the Royal House
was to be represented at this year's Connell's Day or Reunification Day celebration. A huge party had been arranged with delegates from every township on
Haven, along with ranking members of the Lexonian Royal Court attending. Also attending the event would be common Lexonians and the new race of mixed breed
people that had been created as more and more humans interbreed with Lexonians. There were even rumors that a living relative of the legendary
Jon Connell
would be in attendance. In the end, the chance to meet one of the legendary human giants is what made Satrina decide to accept her brother’s invitation.

Connell's Day had come around once more. Which meant that Jon would try to stay at his family home and away from any public celebrations. It was bad enough
that his genetics had made him some kind of freak, but his name had been one of those things that had caused him unlimited heartache ever since junior high
school. His classmates and even his teachers, all had their own ways of making him feel like he was less than a real man and it all boiled down to him
being so much larger than everyone else. Making jokes about his name was just one more of their petty jabs directed at either him or his family. It wasn't
his fault that he had grown to be so much larger than everyone else. His uncle had also been a pure human male and the two men both stood well over six
foot tall. There were times when the taunts and torments of his peers made Jon so mad he wanted to smash the kids faces. That was the main reason why Jon's
uncle had taken him out to the planets during school breaks. No one working on the outer planets cared how big Jon grew as long as he got them their
supplies and took their crystals safely back to the mineral market on Haven. Those trips and being allowed to become a licensed FTL pilot before his
eighteenth birthday were what had kept him out of trouble.

This year he was faced with a dilemma. This year marked two hundred and fifty cycles since the human and Lexonian ships had come to Haven and set up
colonies. For the humans it marked their arrival at a place of safety after the Earth had been destroyed and their first contact with an alien race. For
the Lexonians it marked the date when the original Jon Connell had reunited the Lexonian Royals with the rest of the Lexonian peoples. For this special
occasion, the town elders had specifically asked for Jon to attend the celebration to represent the Connell name. His aunt had already accepted the
invitation and she insisted that he go.

“Alright Aunt Galaxiey,” Jon finally agreed, “I'll go, but only because you asked. You know how much I hate these things.”

“Yes my sweet son. Thank you for making an old female proud.” Galaxiey told him. “Your family name is a proud name filled with honor and goodness. Never
forget that. Without your ancestor none of us would have been able to find our way to living in peace. Had the men who plotted evil against the King
accomplished their goals, our people would have been locked in a war that would have brought both races to the brink of extinction on this planet.”

“Auntie Gala, we all get older each day, but you have retained all of your beauty. I know why uncle Billy loved you so.” Smiling at the blush on his aunt's
face, he thought that because of the humans intermarrying with Lexonians, it was the human race that would become extinct soon enough. Jon
asked, “How is it that you always know so much more than our history teachers about the early days of life here?”

“Today's instructors are not as knowledgeable as those who taught me.” she smiled. “Now hurry up and get dressed. I've laid out your silver and black tunic
along with your black leggings. It is the color of the Connell household males. I will wear the gown of the family's females. My marriage to
your uncle gives me the right to wear it. I always feel blessed by your uncle for loving me whenever I wear the family colors. Together we will represent
our family in all of its glory.”

The celebration was being held at a large log cabin up higher in the mountains. The place had always been called the Lodge after the building it had been
modeled after on the human home world. It was the first meeting place built as both a vacation resort and meeting hall for both the Humans and the
Lexonians when they had joined to form their own government on Haven. With the single exception of Jon, everyone there was either of mixed Human, Lexonian
race or from one of the races that populated one of the over one hundred other planets that made up the Consolidation of Combined Planets. By far the one
group that had the largest number of attendees were the members of the Lexonian Lesser Royal Household as haven was their home.

Jon proudly walked into the main hall with his tiny aunt at his side and marched to the front of the gathering where he and his aunt were formally
introduced to Prince Zeprik and his sister Princess Satrina. Without paying too much attention to the Prince, Jon nodded in the manner that his uncle had
taught him was proper when first meeting another male and then when he turned to the Princess his heart stopped. Here before him sat the most beautiful
female he had seen in his young life. When she suddenly lifted her hand to him, he gently took it and planted a soft kiss to its back as he bowed before
stepping back away from where she sat. “Your Highness.” he softly whispered as she nodded in reply. Not only was this female strikingly beautiful, she
tasted as sweet as the wild honey he had found once when he was a boy. He wondered if she would sting if he went back for more the same way as the small
insects that made the honey had stung. It seemed to him that even life's sweetest pleasures often came at a terrible price.

The event was scheduled to last for three days, however, Jon had determined that he would only make one appearance. He had already overheard several of his
classmates making remarks about how he must think that just because he carried the family name that he had some right to be here where he obviously did not
belong. While those remarks cut at his happiness at being invited to the celebration, seeing the sheer joy in his aunt's eyes and her enjoyment of the
event he was able to control his anger. That is until he heard the class bully, the son of a half Lex/half human male who owned the contract to supply the
Summer Palace with all of its food stocks, telling some of his friends that Jon's Lexie female must be one of the pleasure females from the local houses.
Who else would show up to a function of this importance wearing a gown with all of the Lexie house colors blended together? The female had surely been bought
with a price to appear in public with such a giant freak as Jon Connell.

Jon immediately lost his tight control, grabbed the bully by the front of his tunic and lifted him off the floor with one hand. Bringing his other hand
back to punch the bully in the face, he let loose with the strongest punch he had ever thrown, striking the bully in the nose easily breaking it. The bully
passed out and Jon let him fall in a bleeding pile on the floor before turning on the group of classmates who had all heard the boy insult Jon's aunt and
thought it all very funny until Jon had gone off on the leader of their group. “Say whatever you will about me,” Jon bellowed, “but never again insult the
female who raised me and loved me as if I were her own offspring again.” Pointing at the still unconscious bully he told the group, “Get this piece of
garage out of my sight!” Turning away from the scared group of both classmates and dignitaries Jon saw the shocked look on his aunt's face before he hung
his head in shame at what he had done. “I'm sorry auntie Gala. When he called you a pleasure female who had to be paid to appear in public with me, I lost
myself.”

“You are so much like your father and your uncle, JP.” Galaxiey told him. “How can I be angry with the brave male who would defend my honor before the crown Prince?” she asked loudly enough to be heard across the room to where the Prince and Princess sat. Reaching up and giving Jon a gentle pat on his
check she continued, “I think we have stayed at the celebration long enough. Perhaps we should go home.” Before walking out she turned to the still
spellbound crowd and told them, “I wear the colors of all the Connell females since the time of Leadora, the first of our kind to mate with a human. These
are the colors that the Legendary Dragon Flier, Warrior
Jon Connell
himself picked out for all of our family's females for all time. When my son
mates, his female will be given the right to wear these same colors, as will any female offspring the Goddess blesses him with! That female must find
herself to be just as proud as I am to wear the Connell family colors.” She then reached out and hooked her arm in Jon's to have him lead her out of the
Lodge.

Rubbing the back of her hand where she still felt the heat of his kiss, Princess Satrina watched in silence as Jon Connell and his aunt left the meeting
hall. Deep in her heart she knew that the giant male who had so bravely defended his heart mother was to be her mate. 'One day, Jon Connell, I will proudly
wear your house colors. This I swear to you.' she said to herself. No matter how she had to make it happen, Jon Connell was her mate and she would win his
heart.

Graduation was over. Jon was now free to start on his plans of becoming a cargo pilot. If he got very lucky he could land a berth on one of the
interplanetary cargo ships and finally leave this place that had never really been home. The only place he had felt accepted was out among the planets
making the FTL flights through slip space. His uncle had taught him the secrets of making the slips and coming out close enough to a planet that very
little fuel was used to enter orbit. This saved them a lot of credits on each trip. So much so that his aunt Gala would never have to worry about having
enough credits to live on for the rest of her life.

This morning Jon had taken his small two seater hover craft and was happily cruising above the treetops on his way into Jonsville to pick up the
daily mail. The once small community had grown into the planet's capitol and been named for his ancestor. He had put in his application for a crewman's
berth on any of the local system shuttles and on one of the larger FTL freighters that traveled between the different solar systems two weeks ago. He had
been flying into town each morning to pick up the mail in case he got a response.