Lost Worlds Ch. 05

The scandal that had been brewing for nearly a year on the tropical moon broke on a sunny morning after a string of rainy days. The four survivors of the HMS Intrepid had no way of knowing that the arrival of their rescuers would eventually shatter Victorian society itself. But they had been setting the groundwork ever since they landed, and we still cannot tell where the ripples of their choices will end.

---

The seeds of the scandal had begun to grow almost as soon as the four survivors had crawled out of their escape pod. The heat and humidity of the tropical moon quickly led them to cast aside their clothing, along with their sense of propriety. Miss Anabella Locke, who as the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Epsilon Pegasi should have set a proper example, instead joined her former servants in parading around nude.

Had matters remained in that state, it would have been a minor embarrassment. But with minimal supplies, the four survivors had little choice but to share a bed at night. Under such temptation, they had first begun to pleasure themselves, then progressed to touching one another.

Anabella had held out some hope, at first, of saving her friends from social ruin. If they were not with child when rescue arrived, then Victorian society could forgive some improper behavior. But the love they had all grown to feel for one another could not be so easily held back. First Ciara and then Shanti had asked Roger to give them his seed, and now both of their bellies were swelling further each day.

Anabella watched their impending motherhood with an uneasy mixture of emotions. The last desperate vestiges of her Victorian sensibilities insisted that she ought to be ashamed of them for their condition and of herself for encouraging them. A quiet but relentless voice wondered what it would feel like if she, too, had a child growing inside her. But above it all she felt happiness, for her friends' joy and for the bountiful life they were leading, tinged with the fear that it wouldn't last.

---

There was little warning, when the rescue craft arrived. Anabella and Shanti were fishing near the reef when Anabella saw something gleaming in the sky far above.

"Is that a vessel in orbit?" she asked, shading her eyes and pointing.

Shanti looked up from her net. She caught sight of the object and took a deep breath.

"It is, miss," Shanti said. "If they are this close, no doubt they'll be descending soon."

Anabella took Shanti's hand and squeezed fiercely. "We'd best get back and warn the others."

---

"I don't think my uniform dress will fit," Ciara said.

"Most of it, no," Anabella admitted, glancing at Ciara's belly. "I suppose you could wear your old undergarments."

"I turned them into bedding when the mattress got thin," Shanti said.

"I think I have your dress, though," Roger volunteered. He pulled it out of their small chest, and Anabella frowned at it; she'd cut strips of fabric from the bottom and the sleeves until it was scandalously short by Victorian standards. It was less scandalous than nudity, perhaps, but the prospect of throwing on half of a ragged dress seemed less dignified than facing their rescuers as she was.

"Thank you for keeping it, but I'm better off like this," Anabella said. "I'd only sweat through whatever I wore, anyway." She took a deep breath, smelling as if for the first time the salt air and the wild scents of the island behind them. "Let me speak to them first. Whatever my nobility can do for you, it will."

She worried that even her nobility had its limits. Her political and social sway was allegedly derived from her impeccable breeding, after all, and the only breeding she'd had contact with on the tropical moon was of a sort that Victorian society would find shocking. Still, although she expected it to be painful, she would give up whatever she could to help her friends.

The first indication that their rescue was out of the ordinary was the landing craft. Unlike the pods and shuttles from the HMS Intrepid, which had been well-maintained but well-used, the descending shuttle was immaculately plated in gold filigree. Even Annabella's parents, who had purchased her a luxury berth on the HMS Intrepid as a last-minute summer gift idea, only used a few golden accents on their personal shuttle. Whoever was coming to their rescue must be phenomenally wealthy.

"That is posher than I expected," Ciara noted.

"It is," Anabella agreed, trying to decide if this was a good or a bad sign. The Emperor almost never left the Capitol world of Victoria, but he was notoriously intent on purity, so his presence would be bad. Pirates would also be bad. Other nobles might not be terrible - those with wealth could be bribed with scandalous gossip, often enough. But there was no way to know until the craft landed, and Anabella tried to keep herself from speculating wildly as the shuttle glided down towards the bay.

The shuttle did not circle the landing site or hesitate to perform a proper scan. Instead, it extended its landing gear and settled onto the narrow strip of beach a hundred meters down, closer to the lagoon. Whoever was piloting the shuttle was quite skilled, Anabella thought. That didn't significantly narrow down the possibilities.

Anabella shrugged. "Shall we greet them?"

They walked down the beach. Anabella took a deep breath, trying to quiet the thousand anxious possibilities in her mind. Unconsciously, she reached out to take Roger and Ciara's hands, knowing that Roger would do the same for Shanti. Their touch was comfort, and she told herself that as long as they were together, she still had the only thing she could not lose.

The shuttle doors opened, and a ramp descended sedately toward the sand. At the top of the ramp, three figures stepped forward, squinting in the bright sun. Anabella caught her breath, her heart racing faster than she'd thought possible. The center figure was Princess Helena, the Emperor's eldest daughter and heir to the throne. She was flanked by her two suitors - Kaito Sakai on her right, and Liam Erikson on her left. Anabella had heard rumors, back at Epsilon Pegasi, that Kaito and Liam were close, perhaps even closer than Victorian society would countenance, and certainly they had both been courting Princess Helena for years.

It was adorable, in its own way, how the princess and her two escorts' expressions changed once their eyes adjusted to the moon's bright light and caught sight of the four unclothed survivors. Liam looked at the ocean, Kaito stared fixedly up at the vessel in orbit, and Helena scrunched her eyes shut in an unrefined yet becoming fashion.

Anabella's mind raced. If the Princess had been sent here, it meant that the world had not yet been officially added to the Victorian Star Empire. There were well-developed rituals around the addition of a new world to the Empire, rituals that were meant to strengthen the bonds between the Emperor and his subjects, but which gave Anabella a glimmer of hope almost as blinding as the sun in the sky.

"Welcome, your majesty," Anabella said, curtseying as properly as she could without a dress to grasp. Roger was bowing deeply, and Ciara and Shanti were being as respectful as their bellies permitted.

Princess Helena recovered her wits quickly, even if she kept her eyes shut. "Thank you," she said. "We did not realize there were survivors of the Intrepid. Are you...have you been ill treated?"

"Not at all, your majesty," Shanti said.

Anabella spoke up quickly, before the opportunity vanished. "But we are happy to welcome you to Lost Cove, our humble world. And we are eager to bring it into the Empire's fold."

Roger looked over to her in confusion, wondering why she pursued such a question.

"Trust me," she whispered.

"Always," he replied.

"I am sure that your induction can wait until we can find you some clothes," Liam said.

Ciara glanced over at Anabella with a smile. Anabella couldn't say for certain if Ciara understood some of her plan, or if she was simply playing along as best she could, but Anabella paused to let her speak.

"I am sorry, your majesty, but once a request for admittance into the Empire has been made, it must be answered."

"Her majesty knows the rules," Kaito said, glancing over at Ciara.

"We know she does," Roger said. "And we trust in her sense of duty."

"We can't keep to the traditional form, though," Liam said with a smile. "The first tradition is for the Imperial representative to dress in the traditional garb of the inducted world. You don't have any, at the moment."

Anabella smiled primly. "This is our traditional garb," she said.

The princess and both suitors looked at her, shock and embarrassment at the thought of being naked outdoors flooding their expressions. And yet, beneath it, Anabella detected a note of familiarity. Unless she missed her guess, Liam and Kaito had seen each other naked before.

"The very cheek of it," Princess Helena fumed. "We come all of this way to save you from being marooned, and instead of being grateful for a royal rescue, you want us to strip?"

Shanti sighed and looked down at the beach. "Imagine our position, your majesty. Marooned for almost a year, and two of us with child. Any honor or legitimacy you can give us will be a bulwark against the scandal."

Princess Helena sighed. "I understand," she said, with a good measure of sympathy, "and I am not unwilling to help. But you could have waited until we had given you clothing."

"By tradition, we had to deliver the request without leaving our planet's soil, and as soon as a representative was present," Anabella said.

Princess Helena wrinkled her lips in a highly improper yet rather becoming fashion. "And you are clearly deeply concerned with tradition."

"We have our own traditions," Anabella said.

"Besides, your majesty," Ciara said, "surely you can agree that our world is truly beautiful, and a welcome addition to the Empire."

The princess nodded, uncertain what point Ciara was driving at.

"So, I ask you," Ciara said with a sly glance at Liam and Kaito, "what else could improve the scenery?"

Princess Helena blushed, deeper than she had before. Liam and Kaito both tried to place a reassuring hand on her shoulder or her wrist, which had the effect of diverting her thoughts further onto the subject that had made her blush in the first place.

She would either be furious, Anabella thought, or her curiosity and her kindness would be enough for her to play along. The Imperial family had long had a reputation of being capable of both vast compassion and merciless adherence to tradition and propriety. Anabella could do nothing but wait and hope that her assessment of the princess's character had been correct.

Helena narrowed her eyes at Anabella. "You had best not make me regret this."

"I shall endeavour not to," Anabella replied.

"Good," Helena replied. "So come help me with these buttons."

"Will your companions require any assistance?" Roger asked.

Helena smiled, sharply and quickly, before she took on her regal bearing once again. Anabella was not meant to have noticed, she was sure, and she lowered her eyes as she pondered the implications and let the princess reply.

"I'm sure that they can help each other."

---

Helping the princess undress was a more involved process than Anabella had expected. When she had worn clothing, back in her parents' houses on Epsilon Pegasi, their servants had been on hand to help her into and out of it, and she wished she had been more attentive to the ways in which they'd done it. Beyond this, Helena's dress was quite intricate, with four layers of petticoats that she'd already started to sweat through in the few minutes she'd been on the moon's surface.

Beneath the dress, though, Anabella had to admit that the princess was quite attractive. She had a number of curves that had presumably gone undetected before this moment - a generous backside and a rather lovely valley between her breasts. Helena did not seem to notice Anabella's glances; she kept looking nervously at the shuttle door, from which she would emerge in a few moments, to be seen by her two suitors. Anabella couldn't tell for certain how much of the princess' nerves came from apprehension and how much from excitement, but she could see both of them in some proportion.

It seemed a bit unfair to Anabella that she was seeing this much of the princess before Liam and Kamito were. Judging by Helena's excitement, she would have liked to let them see her like this, and yet it had been forbidden so thoroughly that she'd never dared it. So many barriers placed between people and their perfectly healthy desires, and for what? Apart from the Emperor's overweening sense of control, and the smugness of a few meddling busybodies, it was hard to see who had gained.

Helena took a deep breath, then another. Anabella hesitated, then held out her hand.

"Shall I help you with the stairs, your majesty?"

Helena laughed sharply, and smiled through her apprehension.

"Yes, please."

Anabella took her hand, and they stepped back down to the beach together.

Liam and Kaito were standing near the surf. At first, they looked away, not wanting to make Princess Helena feel any more awkward than she already did, but Anabella knew full well that their resolve could only last so long. They both met her gaze, and blushed along with her, by the time she was halfway down the steps.

Anabella, in turn, couldn't help but look at them. They were both a bit more slender and less muscled than she and her friends, but she reminded herself that they lived in a markedly different social circle. Anabella could hardly avoid noticing that they both also reacted in an undeniable fashion to the sight of Princess Helena. Anabella's hope burned brighter; it seemed that their attraction to her was just as true as their affection for one another, which meant that her plan still had some chance of success.

Liam and Kaito glanced at one another, then turned back to Helena.

"You grace us with your august presence, your highness," Liam said, as if speaking for them both.

Helena blushed furiously, although she tempered it with a bashful smile.

"You are cheeky, sir," she replied.

Kaito glanced, momentarily, at Liam's exposed backside. "You do not know the half of it."

Ciara, never one to stand on ceremony, guffawed. Shanti and Roger could not help but laugh along, and both Kaito and Liam grinned at one another.

Helena shook her head, even as she grinned. "One minute on the moon and they're as bad as you."

Anabella smiled. I certainly hope so, she thought, although she was savvy enough to keep the thought to herself.

---

The most widely-known portion of the induction ceremony for a new planet is a feast. Liam and Kaito had brought some food down from their shuttle - cucumber sandwiches, some delicious cinnamon biscuits, some soft cakes, and a sumptuous jasmine tea that none of the castaways could get enough of. Shanti made up some of her spicy fish stew, and Anabella made a sweet yet tart beverage from the fruit near their home. Under normal circumstances servants would have been on hand to serve the meal, but Helena had of course sent a terse message up to orbit insisting that no further landings were necessary, so they all served one another.

There was more camaraderie than even Anabella had predicted. Seated around a simple table, with no reminders of social class and no barriers of any sort between them, it was easier to interact simply as fellow humans. Princess Helena was still gentle with the tea set, but given that it was the only one on the planet this seemed to Anabella to be simple common sense.

"That is lovely," Helena said. "I believe I've been to a thousand state dinners and I never come away feeling full, like this."

"A shame it's considered unseemly for a lady to eat enough in public," Anabella agreed.

"Especially when Shanti did such a wonder with the stew," Ciara chimed in.

Liam glanced between Ciara, Shanti, and Roger. He was frowning, and yet there seemed to be more depths to his emotions than he knew how to manage.

"I must confess, I am not sure I understand your relationship," he said. "I would not compel you to answer, but...is jealousy unable to gain a foothold on this world? Here you are, both with child, and yet you seem to be the closest of friends."

"Being the closest of friends is how we got with child," Ciara chuckled.

Roger gave her a long-suffering smile, then turned to Liam. "The fires of the Intrepid forged something here," he said. "We were alone, and there was no one to gainsay the love we came to feel for one another."

Kaito glanced at Princess Helena. "Victorian society would surely frown on such a thing," he said, hesitantly, as if he would rather not.

"I hope," Shanti said, "that disapproval can wait until at least the morning."

Helena narrowed her eyes. "And you are a part of this, too, Miss Locke?"

Anabella nodded. "I am," she said. "We love one another, and we support one another, and we will support any children that we bring into the world."

"And what of society's judgment?" Helena asked.

"If society endeavours to make us unhappy, we shall still have each other," Anabella said. "Would we be better off, if we made ourselves miserable to begin with?"

Anabella looked at her friends, steeling herself for what might come. She knew that her plan might come to nothing, and they might still be battered by Victorian society's wrath. If it should come to that, she would be with them, but she still had cards left to play. She saw in their faces the same hope that she felt, and conspiratorial glances that told her how much they had guessed of her plan.

"Take your two suitors, for example," Anabella said. "They ventured into the far reaches of space to be at your side. Surely you cannot doubt their love for you."

Helena looked affronted, and beneath it suspicious of where this line of argument was going.

"Their love is more true than any I have seen in court," Helena said. "And you do not endear yourself to me by questioning it."

"And their love for each other is equally true, I can see," Anabella added.

Liam bristled, but Kaito put a hand on his arm to still him. The gesture, the softness and familiarity of it, made any denial imposible.

"Are you suggesting that we should...live as you do?" Helena asked. "You must know that we would shatter the very Empire if we did."

Ciara smiled, a smile that wondered if the Empire cracking would indeed be such a bad thing.

"It's your choice, your highness," she said. "But I think that if you wanted to pick just one of them you would have done it by now."

Helena growled, and only the truth of Ciara's words shielded her from Helena's wrath.

"She does not mean to hurt you," Shanti cut in.

Roger grinned. Anabella could see that he had figured her plan out - he had attended two induction ceremonies when he served Anabella's parents, so he remembered what had until now slipped Helena's mind.

"They only wish to make sure that you know all of the available choices before the wedding," Roger said.

Helena set her soup down, and silence fell over the table.

"Wedding?" Kaito asked.

"It is a traditional part of the induction ceremony," Shanti said.

"Among the parties present on either side, a marriage should take place," Anabella said. "It symbolizes the union of the new world and the Empire."

Helena nodded slowly. "Either on our side, or yours. So either I choose a partner..."

"Or sanctify the union between the four of us," Anabella said. "Or, betray one of the Empire's oldest traditions and risk a schism with the entire Eastern Spiral Arm."

Helena stared at Anabella for a long moment, then chuckled. "When did you cook this up?"