Chapter 30

“Who the hell was he?” Torun asked after Tillan left.

“Imperial Troubleshooter,” I replied carefully.

“Seriously? You aren’t in trouble, are you?”

“No, just will be going on detached duty for a while,” I replied, seeing Flinn frown then nod.

“Just come through,” she confirmed. “Seriously, that guy has some pull. The orders are official, but no name or source.”

“That’s how they work,” I nodded. “He obviously hasn’t got an official job here yet or that’s what you’d see.”

“Oh yes, you mentioned that you know a couple,” Torun added.

“Yes, Uncle Herrick and Aunt Vilgra,” I replied. “Also Aunt Taisha will be taking bureaucratic oversight of the Troubleshooters when she finishes here.”

“Wow, am I so glad I got to know you,” Torun giggled.

“It won’t help you get nobility status,” I grinned, making them both laugh.

“We know,” Flinn replied. “It just makes life interesting.”

“Yep, problem is now I need to go shopping for civvies to wear, with emphasis on elegant,” I sighed.

“Seriously?”

“Sort of, he needs a not obvious bodyguard that might be ignored if there’s a private conversation going on, yet capable of blending in with the Kingdom’s upper class.”

“Well, let’s get you sorted,” Flinn replied thoughtfully as we finished our drinks.

There were plenty of local shops selling clothing, though none selling the type of clothing I needed. So, we ended up in the exclusive ‘merchant row’ part of the station, not somewhere we’d ordinarily go, but it was stocked with the items Flinn thought I’d need.

“May I help you?” an actual genuine shop assistant asked in suspicious tones as our off-duty fatigues were clearly out of place there.

“Yes, this young lady needs to be fitted and kitted to attend a corporate function,” Flinn stated. “It also needs to be free flowing as well as slightly revealing.”

“Err...”

“Can you help?”

“Yes, though such items will not be...”

“Money is no object,” I interjected.

“Shouldn’t judge a tri-dee viewer by its cover,” Torun added.

“I meant easy to make. Current style is for form-fitting apparel to be worn at such functions,” the assistant temporised.

“Will I be able to do this?” I asked raising my right leg vertically until my calf touched my cheek.

“I know just the outfit!” the assistant replied with a slight gasp.

Several rotations later I was going through my warm-up routine, watched by Torun and Flinn as well as a slightly flustered shop assistant.

“Very nice,” I finally said. “I’ll need at least four, various colours. Also, I’ll need some sort of accessories including a purse.”

“Yes, ma’am. We have several matching accessories,” the assistant, who had moved from being aloof, to confused and then to enthusiastic, replied.

“Thank you,” I smiled, enjoying myself immensely, despite not usually doing this sort of thing.

“I doubt they’ll guess what you are in these,” Flinn chuckled as the assistant moved away to gather some accessories.

“Hope not, the idea is to make them think I’m just eye-candy so they’ll drop their guard in front of me.”

“Should work,” Torun giggled. “Particularly if you do that routine in front of them.”

“I’d rather not, though it’s nice to know I can kick someone in the teeth without destroying my dignity,” I laughed.

The following morning (station time) I met up with Tillan and his party at one of the station’s hotels where a room had been prepared for a soiree for us and others to meet a delegation of ‘entrepreneurs’ from Ilmaine ... though according to the AIs they were mostly spies.

Fortunately, none of the Ilmainian’s had been guests at Taisha’s reception. This was due to the previous lot being recalled after the parole negotiations and regular embassy staff being put in place. I had mentioned this to Tillan, though he assured me that as far as the Florveni knew, the Ilmainians disregarded women as being an irrelevance to serious negotiations, which was why they had such a difficult time with Taisha; she was both female and smarter than them.

So, I ended up chatting to the Ilmainian escorts and a few of their wives as the men got down to the ‘serious stuff’ and basically ignored us. I knew the AIs would be listening in and passing on anything of obvious interest.

“So, you know the Imperial Bureaucrat?” I was asked by a seriously overdressed woman who, the AI informed me, was Eva, the wife of the military attaché ... or one of them, they appeared to have a few.

“Yes, believe it or not she was my babysitter,” I giggled slightly, careful not to overdo it.

“Is that how you get ahead in the Empire?”

“Well, it doesn’t hurt, let’s put it that way,” I alluded to nepotism in the Empire, something the AIs totally prevented.

“The Kingdom is the same, though they overlook the talents we ladies may have,” she sighed.

“Oh?”

“Yes, Larrant, my husband, is always self-aggrandising himself to anyone who will listen. Always going on about his proximity to power ... even if they are just doing the same,” she added with a shake of her head. “Yet he simply cannot see it.”

“I’m surprised you get anything done,” I nodded sagely, as if understanding what she meant.

“Truthfully, all power is in the hands of the King, and a few close advisors. My man might talk as if he’s something important, but all the power lies elsewhere.”

“Same in the Empire, though without the silly male thing,” I sympathised.

“So, what’s your manfriend here to negotiate for?” asked Conna, one of the other wives.

“It’ll be for resources in exchange for something the Empire can make better or cheaper,” I answered offhandedly. “He’s a technocrat so will have a pretty good idea on prices.”

“Oh, like the Florveni do?”

“I think so, though that was direct to the Empire. Tillan’s ... a little more flexible.” I replied vaguely.

“Flexible?”

“There are rules on what can be sold ... officially that is.”

“So Tillan can find ways around such rules?”

“Depends on what you want,” I shrugged, keeping the innocent act going, yet knowing the AIs were monitoring everything.

“Oh, it will no doubt be technology,” she replied. “They’re always on about how advanced the Empire is.”

“Can’t say I’ve noticed,” I said after a moment’s thought. “Things just ... are.”

“Mazzim says your computers are better.”

“Better at what?” I asked, looking confused.

“No idea,” she giggled. “Just they all had their pride hurt when your fleet beat ours.”

“I heard that was because your Crown Prince was an idiot, not because our computers were better,” I replied making them gasp, then giggle.

“Well, you can say things like that,” the attaché’s wife replied. “We can’t.”

“True, I guess, from what you said earlier.”

“Well, we can, we just tend not to. Our men’s egos tend to be fragile. That and they simply have no idea how the Kingdom actually runs,” one of the other women added.

“How does it run?” I asked.

The various women glanced at each other and then relaxed slightly as if an unconscious decision had been made.

“It’s ruled by the King, but, it’s run by the spaceborn. The only reason they behave is because we ‘foster’ some of their children,” the woman explained.

“Foster? But ... that’s awful!” I gasped.

“Yes, particularly as the spaceborn’s power grows each year.”

“I’d get in with them if that’s the case, or at least make sure their kids are well treated,” I replied.

“That’s a pretty damned good idea,” she slowly nodded as did several others who were listening in.

“It’s the only one that makes sense,” the woman nodded. “Oh, my name is Mella.”

“Pleased to meet you, Mella,” I replied politely. “I’m Kiria.”

“I think it’s the first time I’ve met someone from outside the Kingdom.”

“Hope I’m not too different,” I replied with a smile.

“No, but you’re far more open in voicing your thoughts than we usually are.”

“Really?” I asked, a little surprised as I thought I was being a bit circumspect over what I really thought about the Kingdom.

“Well you put into words what many of us were thinking over the spaceborn children but had never voiced out loud,” Mella explained.

“It just seemed common sense.”

“It does and I suspect a lot of us were considering it, but no one said anything.”

“Why not?”

“People who speak their minds tend to vanish,” she said, glancing around carefully.

“Oh, that’s awful,” I replied, knowing the Empire protected free speech, yet could and did remove memories of various acts either with or without that person’s permission, including anyone else involved.

“Yes, sadly the Kingdom can be an unpleasant place to live and the lower your social status, the worse it can be.”

“The Empire also has social banding, but it’s not too bad at the bottom of the pile. They all have housing and food.”

“How do you control them?”

“Er ... we don’t. There are laws, we have Guardians and AI observation. They need permission to have children, but other than that they simply get on with it, most trying to raise their ranking.”

“Oh yes, your AIs. We don’t tend to have a lot of them because of what we discovered on Lavio where they revolted and killed off the human population.”

“Ours are friendly and loyal. They’re ... programmed that way.”

“You don’t get rogue ones?” Mella asked.

“Never heard of any, but the Empire is quite big so you don’t hear on the news of anything not local or a major story.”

“How big? The Empire, that is?”

“Three hundred and seventy-eight worlds in three hundred and fifty-two systems,” I replied, the AI supplying me with the data.

“Wow, that’s huge!” Conna exclaimed.

“In size it’s a bit bigger than the Kingdom,” I explained. “We terraform worlds to live on and have plenty to do it with. So, you can cross over from one side to another in about three of our days ... that’s two of your weeks.”

“I’m told your ships are faster than ours,” Mella noted.

“So was I,” I chuckled. “Not sure how faster though.”

“And women are treated as equals?” Conna asked.

“Yes, in all aspects of society. We recognise the differences, but generally technology allows a woman to do most jobs a man can. The only areas we’re different is in child bearing.”