Enceladus 2: The War
Prologue

Queen Amara stood impatiently in her throne room. She was waiting to hear back from her chancellor. Space Enforcement had delivered some puzzling news this morning, about Enceladus.

The chancellor stepped into the room and bowed. “Queen.”

“What is it, Chancellor?”

“The King and Queen of Enceladus were murdered.”

Amara sat down on her throne. She had known they were dead but murdered? The people of Enceladus were ordered to be docile. How did this happen? “Murdered.” The word was like an old friend. She hadn’t murdered someone in quite some time. A week at least. “How were they killed?”

“Brutally,” answered the Chancellor. He was a short, old, balding man with green eyes. The Queen would soon require a new chancellor. “Tortured and dismembered.”

Amara didn’t care much about Enceladus being thrown into a war. She hated the planet so frankly, she was happy. Their worlds had never gotten along. The treaty, which was not her idea, was mainly to keep all of Tethys from destroying Enceladus. Amara remembered the day she decided to go to war with Enceladus, 300 hundred years ago. Somehow Enceladus and Space Enforcement had gotten word of it and all but forced Amara to sign the contract.

“Who will become king?”

“Actually, it will be Princess Cassiopeia, Your Majesty.”

Princess Cassiopeia. Amara had only ever met one of the royal children, Caelum, but she knew they were all spoiled rats who deserved to die. Hopefully this Cassiopeia wasn’t like her mother.

Vela was intolerable and full of herself. She was always pestering Amara. It was like she was actually trying to jeopardize the treaty between their two planets.

Later that day, Amara was still thinking about the Enceladians. She wondered how the murder of the snobby rulers would disrupt Enceladus’ peace. Peace being a subjective word. The only reason they were peaceful was because the citizens were terrified of even speaking under Orion’s rule.

Amara tried to forget about stupid Enceladus as she encased a maid in burning ice for stealing cutlery.

“What is the meaning of this?” The Queen shouted, waving a piece of paper in front of the Chancellor’s chubby face.

He choked on his wine. “Your Majesty.” He stood and peered at the paper. “It seems to be a cancellation of the treaty between Enceladus and Tethys.”

“Why? By who?”

He scanned the paper once more. “It says, ‘The citizens of Tethys have violated the terms of the treaty’. Therefore it has been terminated.” He sucked in his breath. Then he began pacing. “We have done nothing to violate the terms. It was signed by Queen Vela. But . . . she’s dead.” And had been for nine months so how was this just now surfacing?

The Queen’s hands started shaking. She yanked the paper from the Chancellor and threw it, watching it float to the ground, and setting it on fire last minute. “Fine. Enceladus wants chaos? We’ll give them a war.”