Dysfunctional Imperials
Copyright© 2025 by Ogreface
Chapter 6: Legitimacy
When Olaf joined the rest, he found two more huge marine shuttles standing in front to the villa. The original one was still on the side of the villa. All of them had their ramps open with a few new marine faces around.
“Come, My Lord,” Lieutenant Corbin said as he waved at Olaf to join him. Alice was standing next to the colonel behind one of the other shuttles. She glanced at Olaf and gave him a shy smile. “Can we ride up front?” Corbin asked the pilot as they came out to check up on their load.
“Sure, go ahead and buckle in,” the pilot said. Inside the shuttle, the back of the shuttle contained most of the servants as well as a pile of luggage under a cargo net. Becker was not there but Olaf got big smiles from a few of the kitchen girls.
Olaf also had a great view of the city of New Oslo as the three shuttles cleared some clouds before they found themselves thousands of meters above the city. His eyes instantly locked onto the island off the coast. Then he searched for the school building. It soon became obvious that they were headed to the opposite headland from where the school was.
The city was located on a large bay with a low mountain ridge arcing from the coast around the north and east of the city. The ridge was no more than about two to three hundred meters above the sea. The part of the ridge that was closest to the sea was the highest. The top of that promontory was flat, and with a huge E-shaped building in the center of the flat section. Between the building and the edge of the plateau was a garden. Behind the legs of the E were three shuttle landing pads. That was where they were headed.
As the lead shuttle made a grand arrival, the other two, including the one Olaf was on, flew a few hesitant circles before also landing. Olaf was sure the lead shuttle was the duke’s shuttle, but when Corbin led him off the shuttle, with both of them surrounded by servants, Olaf saw the duke getting out of the other shuttle, not the lead shuttle. Colonel Crenshaw and Alice walked out of the lead shuttle.
Olaf was immediately whisked away and into the rear of the three-story building. He was led by three Ceres militia, with three imperial marines in the rear, and two civilians. From what he could see, the building consisted of three wings parallel to each other with a base section connecting the three wings, forming the capitol letter ‘E’ with the open end of the ‘E’ facing him and away from the city.
“Excuse me, My Lord,” the older of the civilians said without slowing down. “I’m the assistant butler. My name is Desmond. We are taking you to your quarters. This is Alex Tremaine, assistant to the chief of staff. He can get you anything you want and will also act as your guide until you get a better idea of the layout of the palace.”
Based on Olaf’s natural sense of direction, he got the idea they took him to the second floor on the outside wing away from the sea. The militia, men with closed-face helmets that were designed to look intimidating, led the way into a double-door halfway down the long passageway as two of the marines took up station outside the door.
The room where Olaf found himself in was a very grand lounge with three doorways leading out of it. The lounge had huge patio doors leading onto an open balcony. The patio doors were open, but the curtains were closed and gently moving in the light breeze. The three militiamen did a quick search of the lounge and the other attached rooms before they came back, saluted him and then left.
“I will leave you two alone to get acquainted,” Desmond said before he left as well. Instantly Alex Tremaine took over.
“This is your bedroom,” he said as he opened the far doorway. “Your bathroom is behind that partition. That door leads to a second bedroom with its own bathroom. The middle door leads to a small kitchenette and some servant’s quarters.” Olaf looked around without touching anything. The place was way fancier than the suite he shared with Herman.
“You were going to give me a tour of the palace?” Olaf asked. Alex looked to be a man in his early thirties and had an air of confidence around him.
“In a nutshell, this is the east wing,” Alex said. “This entire floor is your living quarters, yours, your concubines and your wife, if you happen to have one. The third floor is the nursery, currently empty. The ground floor is where your office is. The west wing, on the far side of the palace, is the quarters of the duke of Ceres, his concubines and the duchess. The middle leg is where the kitchens, armory, laundry, and staff quarters are. The front of the palace is where the public rooms are located, the ballroom, the dining hall, the library, the breakfast lounge, and the offices of the butler and the chief of staff. The duke’s office is on the ground floor in the far corner.”
“How do I call you when I need you?” Olaf asked.
“Your official communicator should have all the people you can call on a list with speed-dial, My Lord,” Alex said.
“How do I get hold of one of those?” Olaf asked, causing Alex to blink a few times in surprise.
“My apologies, My Lord, I should not assume things,” Alex said. “Let’s go take care of that right now. Your communicator should be in your office.”
It turned out between Olaf and Alex, they achieved nothing. Neither of them could activate the communicator or the computer system on Olaf’s desk. Alex gave Olaf a tolerant smile and asked about his medallion.
“The dowager duchess mentioned that she put it in my sire’s room, a month ago,” Olaf said. That resulted in them going back up to Olaf’s bedroom suite and searching the place, only to find the medallion inside a rosewood box under some shirts in his closet.
“This medallion is not active, My Lord,” Alex stated the obvious as Olaf examined the medallion.
“I guess I need an active medallion to do anything around here,” Olaf said.
“Let’s go see the other assistant chief of staff,” Alex said as he headed out the door.
“Which of you two are the senior?” Olaf asked.
“That will be William Kent, My Lord,” Alex said. “He should become the new chief of staff, if the duke appoints him.”
The office where Alex led Olaf into was even grander than the office at the villa. It was also full of people, as well as Duke Wilbur, Becker, Duchess Victoria, and Lady Thelma. Everybody was talking while Duke Wilbur stood looking out the window.
“It seems the new duke is also stuck, My Lord,” Alex muttered after asking another slightly older man something. Then the other man joined Olaf and Alex.
“I’m William Kent, the senior assistant chief of staff, My Lord,” The guy said as he bowed to Olaf. “The duke cannot even formally appoint a new chief of staff before his medallion becomes active.”
Then Olaf noticed a face he recognized. The reception desk in the duke’s outer office had a slender and plain-looking lady sitting behind it. She was slightly red in the face as she tried to access the terminal on the desk and was having no success. The face that Olaf saw was hiding behind a doorway behind the secretary’s desk. Olaf sneaked up to the door with Alex following him, with a confused frown on his face. The next time Ruth peeked out the door, Olaf pushed it open and walked in, causing her to squeak in surprise as she jumped back.
“Olaf! Don’t do that!” she scolded him as she slapped his shoulder. Then her eyes grew big in surprise. “What are you doing here?” she hissed as she pulled him into the room and tried to close the door, but Alex had his foot in the door and joined them. “Alex?” She asked in surprise.
“Better not let anybody catch you assaulting a nobleman, Ruth,” Alex said with a smirk on his face.
“Nobleman?” Ruth asked as she frowned at Olaf. Then her face relaxed into a neutral expression. “I should have guessed,” she muttered. “The marines were tasked to round up all the nobility and secure them somewhere. You are a nobleman. Everybody at school thought you had something to do with the assassinations.”
“And you are my best friend,” Olaf said as he wrapped his arms around her slender body and lifted her off the floor. She seemed to be frozen in place as she looked at Alex and then at Olaf. “Visiting your mom?”
“We were not expecting the duke’s party back yet. She told me if somebody started asking questions about me being here, she would be in deep trouble,” Ruth said.
“Not as long as I declare you my best friend,” Olaf said as he finally put Ruth back on her feet. “No need to hide in here either, is there, Alex?”
“Ruth and her mom are best buddies, Ruth even knows how to act as the personal assistant, having studied what her mom was doing,” Alex replied. “My lord, if she is your friend, then she is welcome as your guest. You can even issue her with a permanent visitor’s pass once the system is active.”
When Olaf and Ruth came out of the storeroom, Ruth’s mom, who was already in a near mental melt-down, just looked at Olaf as her daughter introduced them as friends, and classmates. Then Diane curtsied to Olaf as Duke Wilbur joined them.
“Friend of yours, Olaf?” The duke asked as he looked at Ruth, so Olaf made the formal introductions, including introducing Diane. “Oh, yes, I will be confirming your appointment as my new personal assistant. Olaf, the colonel wants to talk to us. Unhand the girl and follow me,” Olaf still had his arm around Ruth’s waist. She never objected to him holding onto her, except she got even more embarrassed when they realized everybody had noticed.
“The Merope is about to dock to the space station, Your Grace,” The colonel said. “Since it is a weekend, and because of the tragic events of a few days ago, the news media is going to broadcast it live to the entire planet. We can go watch in the library. I understand you have a huge monitor there?”
“Okay, everybody, to the library, Diane, you stick close to me from now on, and think of somebody to take your place as your assistant,” The duke said. Olaf was looking around for Ruth, but she was already next to him, quietly slipping her hand into his as she looked straight ahead with no expression on her face.
“Aster is going to be so jealous,” Ruth muttered. “She got into a fight for standing up for you when some seniors accused you of being part of the conspiracy.”
The screen in the library was huge. The older people, the duke, duchess, and Lady Thelma all sat down as everybody gathered behind them. When Lieutenant Corbin joined him, he introduced Ruth the officer.
The screen came alive as an anchor person explained that it was the first time in the history of Ceres that two Imperial navy cruisers were docking to the Ceres space station at the same time. Then the view switched to outer space before the camera slowly panned towards the kilometer-diameter double-ring space station. The Taygete was still docked to the station’s central axis, and seemed to double the space station’s central axis.
Then the Merope came into view as it slowly moved closer to the central axis but on the opposite side from the Taygete. Using the space station’s measurements, which most young men knew off by heart, the two cruisers were at least six-hundred meters long and a hundred meters in diameter.
“This is incredible!” the anchor exclaimed off-screen. “We have just been granted access to new footage, footage that is happening as we speak.”
The view cut to a news drone somewhere over the back of the city. The drone had the whole city in its view as five marine shuttles in a V-formation slowly came down over the bay. Then the five shuttles banked towards the right while keeping in formation. The next moment Olaf could see the ducal palace on the bottom corner of the screen.
“Duke Wilbur, Dowager Duchess Victoria, Lord Olaf, please join me outside the palace,” Colonel Crenshaw said. Olaf noticed he had a communicator to his ear. “Lord Olaf, unhand the girl, you can get her back afterwards.” That resulted in a fair amount of laughter as Ruth again blushed bright red. “Everybody else, please stay inside.”
Olaf followed the others outside to where the three large and now empty H signs were. He automatically looked up as the five shuttles slowly and silently drifted down in formation. They were drifting at what looked like a walking speed but were over the paved section of the palace in mere seconds. The first shuttle, the sharp point of the formation opened its rear ramp and hovered about a meter off the paving. Nearly instantly a large number of imperial marines exited the shuttle and formed an expanding circle around the landing pad as the shuttle drifted away again. Olaf watched as two more shuttles disgorged their marines before they took up position around the other shuttles. Then another shuttle came down, but this one actually landed. Again, a group of marines as well as a group of black-clad people came hurrying out and surrounded the shuttle.
“Form a line in order of seniority, please,” Colonel Crenshaw hissed. Duke Wilbur looked around in confusion and then stayed standing as the duchess pushed in between the duke and the colonel. Olaf did what came naturally and stood on the outside of the colonel. “I was referring to rank, not age, My Lord” the colonel said as he stepped around Olaf.
Olaf had seen pictures of the emperor. There was one hanging in the entrance hallway of the school. The man who walked out of the shuttle was dressed in a business suit and had a medallion around his neck, a huge medallion. The ribbon also had the official colors of the Pleiades Empire, black with silver trim. The man was also surrounded by more people dressed in black. It was only as Duke Wilbur bowed that Olaf got his brain engaged. He followed the duke’s example and also bowed as Duchess Victoria curtsied. The colonel was saluting.
“Victoria, my deepest sympathies,” the emperor said as he reached down and took the duchess’s hand, pulling her up. Then the emperor turned to the duke, who was now also standing upright. “You too, Duke Wilbur, at the death of your brother. Don’t worry, the news media is not getting audio or any detailed images of us. I specifically asked not to show any faces.” He added when the duke stuttered something in response. “This must be the missing heir to the heir of the previous duke,” the emperor said as he extended his hand towards Olaf. Olaf found that his vocal cords also seemed to be malfunctioning as he shook hands with the emperor. “Let’s go inside so the marines can relax,” the emperor said.
“Your Majesty, welcome to my home,” Duchess Victoria said once they were inside the library, which seemed to have been cleared out of people. “I will let Wilbur claim the palace once he has his own support and housekeeping structures in place. The old goat never married, and is too old to take himself a duchess now,” she added as she smirked at her brother-in-law.
“I am very glad that there is a continuation of the line of the duke,” The emperor said. “I also gathered, from the reports I got on my way here, that neither the new duke nor the new heir is at all comfortable in their new roles. Duke Wilbur, you might consider letting Duchess Victoria stay on as your cultural and social advisor.”
“I certainly would appreciate her advising me, Your Majesty,” Wilbur finally got his voice under control.
“Now it is time to educate my two newest noblemen into the intricacies of your symbols of office, your medallions,” The emperor said. “I understand the duke’s medallion was with him when he died. Was there any obvious damage to the medallion?”
“Not as far as we could figure out, Your Majesty,” Wilbur said. With that he pulled the medallion out of his pocket and offered it to the emperor. The emperor took it and did a brief examination.
“These medallions have some very intricate micro-electronics inside them,” the emperor said. “The technology to produce these micro-electronics came from our ancestral home, from Terra. We understand the concepts inside the electronics and can reproduce it on a much larger scale, but not on a scale where it would fit inside a medallion. The key here is that the medallion needs to be worn, have physical contact with the owner. It does not have to be all the time but if the medallion is separated from its owner for more than a month, it will go dormant. The same will happen if the medallion determines that the owner has died. Then it goes dormant instantly.”
“I understand you are the only person who can reactivate a dormant medallion, your majesty?” Wilbur asked.
“Not entirely true,” the emperor said. “I am the only one who can activate a new medallion. If you were the legal heir to the previous duke, this medallion should have been reactivated with you as its owner just with you touching it. When a nobleman identifies and appoints a natural or legal heir, he introduces the heir to his medallion. Then, if the nobleman dies, the heir can claim the medallion and reactivate it himself. If Viscount Carl Vasa was still alive, he only needed to touch this medallion to activate it.” the emperor explained.
Then the emperor lifted his own medallion and pressed the two medallions together. The ducal medallion came to life as some intricate lines and whorls became visible on its surface, but then went dormant again. Then the emperor handed the medallion back to the duke.
“Press your thumb firmly against the back of the medallion for a few seconds,” the emperor said. They all watched as Wilbur did that. His eyes grew big as the luminescent lines and whorls became visible again. “There, all done, your medallion is now active and keyed to you only. If you are convinced that young Olaf is your heir, then you do exactly what I did; touch your medallion to his and then have Olaf press his thumb to his medallion.”
Wilbur didn’t hesitate, he held his hand out for Olaf’s medallion and paired the two. Then handed it back for Olaf to press his thumb to his medallion. Olaf felt a faint prickling against his thumb and when that faded, the medallion had its own set of lines and whorls, similar but different from the duke’s.
“Congratulations, Viscount Olaf Vasa,” the emperor said as he shook Olaf’s hand. “I understand that you are attending a public school. Officially I would suggest completing your schooling in private, but that is just a suggestion. You will need a body protector of your own, your permanent shadow, similar to these guys.” He said as he pointed towards the four black-clad people, three men and a female who took up position around the room at each door. “If you want to go back to school, your body protector will have to go with you, to each class. If you want to do it incognito, your body protector will have to look young enough to fit in with you and your peers.”
“Your majesty, I’m sure you have been informed that the body protectors guarding my brother both died in the explosion,” Duke Wilbur said.
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