The Martial Unity

VMMM…

A young lady slept peacefully in her cabin aboard a frigate, snoring softly as she hugged a teddy bear. Her limbs were flung about wildly, messily, while she drooled lightly on her pillow. Her hair was a stark golden, as if woven from strands of pure gold, even if messy and untidy.

The cabin was dark, save for the streaks of light that shot past the airtight window, a characteristic view of FTL warp travel. At such speeds, the dotted lights of stars were turned into lines, and lines were stretched into planes. A heavy, but beautiful stellar rain that washed past every frigate in FTL.

VMMM…

She stirred in her sleep as a slight disturbance moved her.

VMMM…

She slowly opened her eyes.

Her irises were of a rich amber, one that was normally full of life and alacrity.

Yet, this time, they were filled with a hint of annoyance.

VMMM

“Damn, gravitational micro-tides,” she groggily muttered with a hint of irritation as she got up, stretching her arms up. “This is why I hate sleeping in while in FTL. When is Interstellara going to fix this?”

She turned towards the window as her expression softened, heaving a sigh of deep appreciation for how the universe looked in FTL transit. They were moving so fast through space that the very universe looked like it was made up of comets running in the opposite direction. It was a sight she always appreciated every time she had the opportunity to see it.

VMMM VMMM VMMM

“Tsk,” she tutted with irritation as more gravitational micro-tides washed over her senses. This was the reason she didn’t like traveling in FTL. Because ships were constantly entering and exiting FTL, because micro-wormholes were constantly being opened and closed at every star system, it generated micro-tides of gravity across space that were imperceptible to the average person, but were extremely perceptible to a Martial Master like her.

It was a bug that had yet to be fixed in the thirteen years that had passed since the Era of Expansion by any of the major corporations that manufactured frigates and spaceships.

The fact that she was sensing them more frequently meant that they were getting closer and closer to their destination, so she didn’t even need to refer to the time with her neural inlay.

“They should have their licenses stripped for such an inhospitable ride,” she muttered, getting up as she stretched her limbs again, feeling a surge of relief.

BZZZ

The door to her room slid open with the push of a single button, revealing a familiar figure standing guard outside her room. A powerful, but older presence with a short beard and short hair, wearing black Martial attire and a serious expression.

He turned towards her the moment she stepped out with a respectful and soft nod. “Your Highne—.”

She glared at him. “I told you to stop calling me that, Sayfeel.”

“But Your Highness…” “Shhh!” She pressed her hand against his mouth, sealing it shut. “What if someone hears you?”

The Martial Sage simply nodded with a resigned expression. He understood why the princess didn’t want her identity to be known, but as far as he was concerned, it was truly a shame. He would much rather her presence be graced with the reverence that she deserved.

If everybody in the ship knew who she was, they would press her head against her feet and beg her for forgiveness for treating her as informally as they did. She knew that, of course. That was exactly what she didn’t want. In many ways, it was the one thing she hated more than anything about her life more than anything else. She recalled that when she was very young, she had always wanted to be a princess, not a particularly unusual dream for a young girl. Then, a little later in her life, she found out that she was actually a princess.

Not just a princess.

The princess.

The most famous princess in the world.

She still recalled how amazed she was when she spotted a giant statue of her father in Quarrier City in what was now Gaia Prime. The statue was magnificent and awe-inspiring; of course, it was even made of an esoteric, glass-like substance to capture his strange translucence. She would clap and squeal at how amazing it was, while wondering in confusion why people made a statue of her father like that.

More and more hints piled on like that, but her parents never told her. It was only when she actually learned that her parents’ names were not ‘mama’ and ‘papa’ but some of the most famous names in the entire world, did she understand the full gravity of who they, especially her father, were.

When the beans were finally spilled, it became official, and the world they had hidden from her had flooded her all of a sudden.

At first, it was exhilarating, of course. To actually be treated like a princess was truly a novel experience. Then, the full reality of it all hit her like a frigate in FTL. When people saw her, they didn’t see her at all; they saw the shadow of her father looming over her. She was no longer a person.

She was just… a tool that people could use, only because her father was who he was.

She hated it with a venomous intensity from the bottom of her heart. It was the worst phase of her life, and had defined many of the choices she would go on to make. Including the choice to be in this little private frigate in the middle of nowhere at the age of eighteen.

“Huff…” She heaved a sigh, shaking her head as she tried shaking off the memories of old in her mind. “Just…”

She removed her mouth from her trusty guard, pointing at him. “…don’t say that again, alright?”

He nodded.

She heaved a stressful sigh, heading back into her bathroom as she began readying herself up for another day in the stars.