Hilarity Ensues Episode 9, part 2

   They were taken across to the space station and locked up in a suite of rooms that were utilitarian but not uncomfortable, clearly designed for accommodating prisoners.  Two rooms containing bunk-like beds opened out of living area.  There was no gravity there or anywhere on the space station- the astroninjas seemed quite at home without it.

   But their surroundings were not their first concern.  Apprehensively the travellers gathered silently in the living area, where Will and Zoe were engaged in a discussion that occasionally flared into argument.  

   "We can't accept this rebel's succession, whoever he is," Zoe said vehemently.  "Will, you can't possibly want to give in! After everything they've done to us, what kind of king would he make?"

   "I know, I agree.  I'm not going to tamely give in and go back to Bognor as this man's vassal.  I'm not going to be used to give him legitimacy.  But..."

   "But?" 

   "What good does it do if we get ourselves killed?" Will said.  "I think we should go to Earth."

   "You can't abandon our people!" Zoe exclaimed.

   "But what good will it do them if we are dead?"  Will said.  "Zoe, we can't help them now.  But we have other responsibilities too.  We took our friends away from their planet without their consent, and got them mixed up with all this.  I know we didn't mean to, but they're still our responsibility.  Why should they have to die when it's not their fault?"  

   Zoe turned on him.  "You're just afraid of death!" she shouted.

   "Maybe I am," Will replied, ashamed.  "But it's still true."

   Zoe looked around at them.  "But...exile...being marooned on Earth..." 

   "There are worse places it could be," Will said.  "And besides..." He leaned in closer to her and spoke in a whisper, afraid of being overheard.  "If we're still alive, there's always the chance that in the future we might be able to do something to help our people."  

   Zoe looked at him silently, turning away to think.

   "Can we have a chance to say something now?" Ernest asked.  "It is our lives you're discussing too."

   "You want to go home," Will said bleakly.  "I know.  Like I said, I know it's our responsibility.  But you have to understand, we have been brought up to lead, to serve the people of our planet above everything else.  We can't acknowledge someone else as ruler.  But to go to Earth is like an acceptance of that too.  It's hard for us to acknowledge that we are defeated.  That...we don't have a home now.  I'm sorry."

   "You must do what you think is right," Ruth said.  "I understand."  

   "We have been brought up to lead, to make the right decision on other people's behalf," Will said.  "But now I don't know what to do."

   He stared bleakly at the floor, and the others began to drift away and whisper among themselves.  For the first time, Ruth saw, the other travellers were beginning to have some pity for the royal siblings.  

   "We should never have left Bognor," Will said suddenly.  "It's not done any good to anyone."

   "You couldn't foresee what would happen," Ruth said to him.  "Don't blame yourselves."  

   He looked at her in surprise.  "How can you say something like that?  Because of us, you nearly died!"

   "You didn't intend that to happen," she said.  He shook his head, still confused.  

   None of them slept much that day (or night).  Although the ninjas were by far less unpleasant than the Pserpentese, there was an underlying sense of menace surrounding their prison.  Although their surroundings were clean and obviously in much better repair than the Hilarity and in fact far more what the travellers had expected of a space station, the air seemed tense.  Over the past few weeks the travellers had got used to living in such an inhospitable place as space, and yet now they seemed to realise anew how vulnerable they were, how dependent on their artificial surroundings to keep them alive.  Their captors would not even have to come near them to kill them, they could just press a button and cut off their oxygen supply and they would die, completely unable to help themselves.  They might not even know until it was too late.  

   This idea, once conceived (no one knew by whom) began to haunt the travellers until they were all jumpy and jittery like children in the dark.  Few people dared to sleep, for fear of never waking up.  They sat around, starting at the smallest unexplained sound or blink of the lights.  Even those who thought the idea unlikely were infected by the general atmosphere of fear and were unable to relax.

   Yet the coming of the chief ninja took them by surprise, for with his escort he moved down the corridor silently in the weightless world, and opening the door suddenly caused several people to start and some to suppress a scream.  

   "It is time for your answer," he asked, as Will and Zoe straightened themselves up to face him.  They had spent some time earlier whispering together, and seemed to have come to some sort of decision.  "So, what do you choose?  To return to your home and promise to serve your new master?"

   "Never!" said Zoe firmly.  The chief of the astroninjas looked at Will.

   "Zoe's right," Will said, a little shakily but trying to sound firm.  "I would never- we would never- accept such an offer."  He stopped a moment to pull himself together.  

  "I cannot accept his succession.  But I do not want to die, or to sentence my friends to death in a cause that is not their own.  Return them to their planet.  They are not part of this quarrel, they can do you no harm.  And then- I agree with my sister.  We cannot accept this usurper's attempt to seize power."

   "Either you all return, or none," the ninja said.  The tension in the room increased even further as everyone's attention focused on the chief and the royal brother and sister.  Will looked at Zoe.  She nodded, resignedly.  

   "Then we all go to Earth," Will said.

The story continues...