******
As she stared at the computer screen, trying to think of what should come next, Li'ren Amani found herself reflecting on the series of events that had brought her to this point in her life. At times, the process of thinking about it made her head spin. Here she was, twenty-five years old, and she was the Empress of the entire Ailian Ascendancy, or at least the part of it which was still under her control. Billions of people, all of them her subjects, distributed among thousands of planets. To think that a mere ten years ago she had been back here on Arbaros, getting ready to accompany her mother to Lirna for her posting on the homeworld. Just five years after that, bonded with the love of her life, she had been the second most powerful woman in the empire.
-And now I am the youngest Empress in over five centuries,-
she said to herself. She took a shuddering breath and closed her eyes.
-I never wanted this. I just wanted to be happy. But now I must keep my people from tearing each other apart.-
Li'ren sighed and opened her eyes again. The words of the half-finished speech she was working on were still there, staring back at her. As much as she might have wished it, just having the desire for all of this to go away would not make it so. But she had been working all afternoon and she still had a lot left to write. This was a speech she was supposed to give in the morning, and it looked as though she would not be getting much sleep tonight. Her eyes hurt, and she longed for a break, but there was just so much work.
Thankfully, a knock came at her bedroom door, and she pushed her chair back from the desk, looking towards it. The distraction was a welcome one. -Yes, who is it?-
The door opened, and one of Li'ren's guards stepped inside. -Someone to see you, m'lady,- he said. He moved aside, and in stepped a person who had become a very familiar sight to Li'ren over the past few months. Though the family resemblance was somewhat diminished owing to her sister's current assignment, the orange-furred young woman who entered was still unmistakably the second-eldest of the Me'lia family.
-Sami,- Li'ren said with a warm smile. Her spirits lifted right away at the sight of her friend. While she'd been grieving for Kri'a, visits from Sami had kept her going by giving her a chance to remember the good times. The Empress turned off her computer screen and waved a hand at one of the soft armchairs in her room. -Please, sit down. I was forgetting what time it was. You are well?-
Showing proper respect, Sami bowed to Li'ren. -Very well, m'lady. I hope you are.- She came into the room and sat in the chair. For a while now, the two of them had been keeping an unspoken appointment with each other every evening. On occasion, they would be up into the early hours of the morning, just talking and sharing stories of their lives. Li'ren needed the escape from her mounting duties as Empress.
-I am quite well,- Li'ren said. She looked to the door. -Thank you. You may leave us.- The Royal Guard left the room, closing the door behind him, and Li'ren got up from her chair to take the one near Sami's. She smoothed down the front of her royal blue-and-gold robes, the colors that she had been wearing ever since the ceremony. -I'm very glad you picked right now to come by. I could use a break from work. Things are getting quite busy around here.-
-I've noticed,- Sami said with a wry grin. -Aria tells me that she's having to work lots of overtime, checking out everyone who comes to the governess' residence. She is very stressed, but I think she likes it. And of course, Jack helps her to relax.- She giggled then, covering her mouth with one hand. -She thinks she is being discreet, but our rooms are right next to each other. I hear them.-
Li'ren couldn't help but laugh as well. -I can imagine. Aria is quite intense when it comes to her professional life. I cannot picture her being any different in regards to her personal life.-
Still smiling, Sami's eyes drifted over to the now-dark computer screen. -What were you working on, m'lady?-
-Ahh.- Li'ren leaned back against the cushions of her chair. -I have to give another speech tomorrow. This is going to be an important one, and I've been working all day on it.- She gave a heavy sigh, letting her eyes close. She felt so tired, but she knew that if she fell asleep now she wouldn't wake up for a long time. -I have to announce to the rest of the Ascendancy that the slave trade will be abolished.-
Sami's mouth fell open in shock. She just stared at Li'ren for the longest time, not sure that she'd heard correctly. -You will end the slave trade?- Sami had trouble wrapping her head around the concept. Slavery had been a part of the Ascendancy for thousands upon thousands of years. In the distant past, when the Ascendancy had not been a unified government, groups of Ailians warred with each other, taking slaves from other groups as trophies. Ailians were still bought and sold as slaves, either as a way for them to pay off their debts or as punishment for crimes. In the war with humanity, thousands of colonists and prisoners of war had found themselves sold into slavery. For them, it was just a fact of life.
-I have to,- the Empress said. -Right now, I am trying to end a war and forge an alliance with the humans. I am much more likely to be successful if I can at least free all of the humans who have been taken as slaves.- She opened her eyes again and looked out of the window in her room. -And how can I do that while leaving as slaves the millions of our own people who find themselves as such? It would not be fair, and it would cause much more unrest than I am willing to deal with. This is an issue which has been lurking in the background of politics in the Ascendancy for centuries.- Li'ren looked back at Sami. -Kri'a talked of doing what I am about to do. Neither of us cared much for slavery. I know that your family does not, either. I imagine there are others who share the same sentiment. I am very much hoping that it will be easier than I think it will be.-
-I...I hope so as well,- Sami said, still somewhat taken aback. -I know that Aria would love to be able to take that collar off of Jack. We all feel terrible that he has to wear it.- She started to stand up. -If...you need to work, I can leave and let you concentrate.-
-No, please,- Li'ren quickly said, leaning forward and putting a hand on Sami's knee, -sit and stay for a while. I need to rest my brain, or I'll lose it.- She looked at a clock on the wall. -Have you eaten yet?- Sami shook her head. -I was going to stop for dinner soon. My mother and I usually eat together, but perhaps you would care to join me this evening? We don't even have to go anywhere, I can have it brought up here.-
Settling back down into the chair, Sami looked very pleased to be invited. -I usually eat with my family as well,- she said. -But they will be just fine without me. I would love to have dinner with you, m'lady.-
******
Meanwhile, at the main military spaceport in Ar'bre, Aria was in the control room where all space traffic heading into and orbiting around Arbaros was tracked. Though it was outside her area of expertise, she liked to come up here every once in a while to see how things were going. She had given her word to Empress Solan to make sure no harm came to Lady Amani, and now that Lady Amani was herself the Empress she considered her promise to be even more important. Having the Captain of the Royal Guard in the control room let everyone else know just how vital the task of keeping Arbaros secure was.
Aria was starting to get worried. For over a month now, there had been little in the way of news from Lirna. With the way that her mother had been eager to gloat over her victory, she would have expected there to be something. Oh, of course, the war was still going on. There were battles every day, and territory was still being lost, little by little, to the rebel forces. But she had anticipated more personal contact from Ara'lana. Taunting, more gloating, whatever. There had been none.
-What could mother be planning now?-
she wondered. More than anything, the curiosity was what was killing her. Uncertainty nagged at her every day, but she tried to push through it as best as she could. Instead, she concentrated on the myriad of radar displays which occupied a huge wall in the control room. They watched over the space around Arbaros from every conceivable angle, utilizing both satellite- and ground-based systems. Right now, things were relatively quiet apart from the higher-than-normal number of military ships above the planet. Nearly every ship from the First, Second, and Fourth Fleets was in orbit around Arbaros, and the Third and Sixth Fleets were elsewhere in the solar system that Arbaros occupied. The Eighth and Eleventh Fleets, which had initially reported to Arbaros in the wake of the battle for Lirna, had been sent away by Admiral Te'rou. They had joined the Tenth Fleet, the largest of all the fleets in the Ascendancy, in battling the rebel forces and holding the defensive lines with human space.
-Captain?- a voice said from behind Aria.
Turning, Aria saw another female Ailian behind her, one of her Royal Guards. She was an unusual one in a variety of ways. For one thing, she was one of the few Guards whose fur was naturally black instead of dyed. She was also one of the Guards who had been sent from Lirna prior to the invasion, which made her a precious scarce commodity. Most unusual of all, she was uncommonly short for an Ailian, barely taller than seven and a half feet, which made her look much younger than her true age of twenty-two years. This made it easy to underestimate her, but Aria had sparred with this one during training. And she knew that Lieutenant Mari Ayalis, her executive officer, was most definitely the most dangerous warrior still living in the Royal Guards.
-Lieutenant Ayalis,- Aria said, looking back at the radar displays. -Do you have something to report?-
-Yes, Captain,- Lieutenant Ayalis said. She held up a data reader that she'd brought with her. -I got passed an alert from one of the communication officers down in the crew pit. We have an unscheduled arrival from the Tenth Fleet. A messenger ship, so they say.-
-So they say,- Aria repeated. She took the data reader and looked over the information that was on it. The data told her the ship's position and class, and a few other details about it. -Well, what about this ship warrants my attention?-
Lieutenant Ayalis took the data reader back. -They're requesting permission to land on the planet,- she explained. -They say their ship's guidance systems are malfunctioning, however, so they need our assistance to get down. It's taking up a lot of our resources, because the control system is already strained due to the increased traffic around Arbaros. We've already helped them as far as getting into low orbit, but I need sufficient authorization to bring them the rest of the way.-
Aria could sense that there was something else that the lieutenant was worried about. -So what's the problem?-
-The problem is that once they got in close range, we couldn't verify the contents of their ship, and their identification system stopped transmitting,- Lieutenant Ayalis said. -They're a messenger ship, so they have a jamming system, and it just turned on full blast. It could be tied to their other malfunctions, but...-
Aria immediately felt a sense of alarm, but she couldn't quite place why. -Have you contacted Admiral Te'rou?-
-Not yet. He's in a meeting with Governess Amani and General Soumaren on his flagship. He didn't want to be disturbed.-
-Disturb him,- Aria ordered her. Her sense of alarm was growing, and if she had learned anything in her years as a soldier, she had learned to trust her instincts. Right now her ears were laid all the way back, and the fur on the back of her neck was pricking up. Even if she didn't know exactly what was going on, her position meant that she needed to take every precaution. -Alert the detail at the governess' residence. I'm going to grab the on-call squad and head back there now to double the guards. Get someone up there to intercept that messenger ship and prevent it from attempting to land. I have a bad feeling about it.-
Lieutenant Ayalis nodded and saluted. -Right away, Captain.-
As she walked out, Aria looked back over her shoulder. -And just pray that ship's actually from the Tenth Fleet.-
******
-...And so there we both were, not a stitch of clothing on either of us, and then two of the Nuretan ministers walk into the meeting room,- Li'ren said, tears of laughter in her eyes. -Apparently, someone accidentally gave them the wrong time for the session, and they'd come three hours early! So, of course, I'm just laying there on the meeting table looking for something, anything, to cover up with, and they're absolutely flabbergasted. But Kri'a just stands up, puts her hands on her hips, and says 'We're holding a high-level diplomatic meeting right now. Come back later.'-
Sami was beside herself with laughter as well. -She did not!- The dinner dishes had already been taken away, and now the two women were waiting for after-dinner tea to be brought. Sami had been enjoying herself just as much as she always did when she got to spend time with Li'ren. The food had been wonderful, and today the stories that she was telling her were absolutely delightful. She never would have thought that the former Empress, or Li'ren, could have been so mischievous. -So what did they do?-
Li'ren wiped her eyes, still chuckling. -Well, what else could they do? They bowed, apologized, and walked out.- The current Empress looked out the window again, a smile still on her face. -That was Kri'a...She didn't care what anyone else thought, and she wasn't afraid of looking foolish, either. She was the most confident woman I'd ever met.-