An Imperfect Princess Read Online Free Page B

technology, then perhaps I can find someone that can help me build an
electrical generator.” 
    “And just how
are you going to communicate with them?”
    Eneria grinned
at the Pharinae.  “You’re pretty fast at picking up languages, aren’t you?”
    Aijo blinked. “Oh,
yeah.”  Her position as governess to the royal family had been earned through
that specialization, after all. “It’s not that fast, though.  It’ll still take
me several days to analyze a spoken language and then another few days to
transmit that information into your mind.”
    “You have to try
to keep me alive,” Eneria reminded her softly.  “This is the only way to do it.”
    “I just hope
they’re vocal humanoids,” Aijo said with a resigned sigh.  "I don’t think
you can communicate with chemicals or through sonar."
    “Let’s also hope
they’re not xenophobic.” 
    The shuttle
approached the blue planet far too soon.  Eneria and Aijo were both nervous. Attempting
a blind landing in a damaged shuttle was probably not a smart idea, but they
had no choice.  They didn’t have enough supplies to last them for very long. 
Aijo’s bond to the d’Munt family dictated that she could not abandon Eneria
under any circumstances. If she did, she would have to commit suicide. If she
did not, her own people would reject her for breaking a promise, and she’d be an
outcast forever. The Pharinae did not form life partnerships lightly.  In Aijo’s
case, her father had been bonded to Narin d’Munt, and when Eneria had been
born, he had given Aijo to her and Vaz as their governess, continuing a tradition
in the d’Munt family that had spanned for many generations.  Aijo was
technically a servant, but she was also Eneria’s only remaining friend besides
Vaz and Seth.
    The planet grew
larger on the small view screen.  The computer bleeped mournfully that it wasn’t
finding an orbital station to feed it a pre-recorded flight path to a landing
site.  The delicate balance between atmosphere and ship was too complex for the
average shuttle pilot, and the auto-pilot would normally receive those vital
instructions and take them down with a minimal amount of fuss.
    Unfortunately,
Eneria was a pretty below average pilot.  She could take her refurbished
shuttle apart piece by piece and reassemble it without breaking a sweat, but
actually flying it was another story.
    That’s where
Aijo came in.  She had a more intuitive understanding of the physics in space
to surface flight and knew she was going to have to take charge in this case.
    “Hit the yellow
button there, it’ll tell the computer we’re going to do a manual flight.”
    Eneria obliged,
feeling pretty useless.
    “Now pull back
the far lever.  That will turn off the main sub-light engine.  We’re going to
be using auxiliary power for most of this.”  Aijo looked over the
instrumentation and let out a small whimper.
    “Enny, we have a
problem.”
    “What’s wrong?”
    “One of the
steering wings is missing.”
    “Missing?”
Eneria pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows.
    “Yeah.  I think
our Konkastian friends may have clipped it off us.”
    “So… what does
that mean?”
    Aijo gulped
noiselessly and said in her tiny voice, “We can’t steer.”
    The planet
loomed closer. The two friends looked on it with trepidation.
    “Maybe we could
stay in space after all...” Eneria began.
    “We’ll run out
of power and then you’ll die and then I’ll have to die out of honor for letting
that happen. Not an option.”
    “Okay, so what
can we do?”
    “We’re going to
try to aim ourselves with the main thrusters.”.”  Aijo grimaced.  "I’m
going to have to do this the messy way.”
    The tiny girl
dissolved her glowing outline until she was nothing more than a hazy sphere of
light. She sank into the keyboard and disappeared into the circuitry.   The
non-incorporated form of a Pharinae was a rare sight; they preferred to stay in
a solid outline whenever