Chapter 33

There were a lot of meetings during the binary cycle before our visit. Mostly they were briefings and security updates. Generally, the subjects of the planet were massively in favour of the visit and excitement had been building since the announcement. However, certain groups had made their extreme unhappiness known and threats to disrupt the visit had been made. There had also been a few arrests when certain rebels had been caught with various devices as well as hand written instructions on anti-personnel devices. Certain politicians within the Diadem Republic had also threatened war if Amanda visited the ‘seized’ worlds, though the Republic government itself remained sullenly silent on the matter. A lot of that had to do with the Hegemonial Ambassador informing the Republic’s president that if they did try anything, the Hegemony would withdraw and let the Empire settle matters ... though in slightly less blunt terms, even if the meaning was very clear.

Still, the day came when we were to travel up to the Gloriana to begin the three day journey to Asha, escorted by a flotilla from the Home Fleet. Tensions had been high at our farewell as, though she hid it well, Amantil was a little worried for her daughter. This was mostly down to a possible lone predator style attack as ImpSec believed they had tabs on pretty much all the organised groups.

“We’ll be OK, mum,” Amanda informed her as they hugged farewell. “I trust my bodyguards as well as the others around me.”

“Still, be careful, my love,” Amantil replied.

“We will.”

“Go and throw the final switch on the disintegrator holding the rebel hopes,” Herrick stated as he hugged Amanda.

“We intend to, dad.”

“Good, it’s been a long, hard road for the people and the Empire and they deserve to see you visit. Make the Empire proud.”

“We will, dad, I promise.”

The three day trip went smoothly, though we were passed on from the guardianship of the Home Fleet flotilla to that of the 18^th Fleet. Of this we were simply informed of the fact when we awoke one morning, the transfer of security happening whilst we’d been asleep.

Asha Station, like its twin orbiting Sanctify, was also a military base for both Fleet and Ground Force, though the main Fleet base hung stationary above the southern polar region. This meant our escort in not only contained hundreds of civilian craft, but several Fleet vessels as well, all with landing lights running as well as illuminated hulls. Of the civilian vessels, all were careful not to stray too close to the Gloriana’s approach path or the ship itself as Fleet had warned of severe repercussions if they did so, which the civilians understood and accepted.

Asha Station’s observation decks were also packed with sightseers, both civilian and off duty military personnel and the number of banners of welcome swirling above the crowds made the sight look incredible.

“More banners than the Grav Ball final,” I chuckled as I got the scenes down on pseudopaper.

“Yes,” Amanda nodded. “I’m looking forward to meeting some of them.”

“Can’t see any protestors,” Haelee noted.

“I don’t think they’d be very popular here today.” Torric chuckled.

“Probably not, no,” she replied with a sunny smile.

Docking was swiftly accomplished and after we thanked the Crew of the Gloriana, I escorted Amanda along the docking tube, emerging into an open area to be greeted with almost deafening cheers as well as an honour guard.

“Princess Amanda, it is an honour to greet you,” Station Commander Loxx stated after a military salute, which was duplicated by Amanda with great precision.

“It is a pleasure to be here, Commander,” she replied before being introduced to the senior station staff.

Then, as expected, Amanda moved down to greet the crowds, speaking to many as well as accepting pseudopaper flowers from the myriad of children who all appeared overjoyed at meeting her. All this I got down in preliminary sketches, noting no signs of hostility anywhere.

“Whilst I doubt we worried over nothing, it seems unlikely that anything will happen here,” I commented to Liono.

“Seems that way. Probably different on the planet as they’ll not have been able to do the security checks that will have happened here,” she replied, scanning all around us.

The noise levels increased as shrieks of joy rang out when Amanda reached what had to be a school group of young girls waving banners of welcome festooned with pseudopaper flowers. All of them looked absolutely thrilled with the chance to speak to Amanda as she paused to ask them who they were and which school they represented. One of them even had the nerve to ask Amanda if she could visit the school and looked stunned when Amanda accepted the invitation and asked the AI to schedule it for her.

All good things though finally came to an end as Amanda reached the guest quarters where we would stay before attending a reception and adapt to the planetary time zone of the capital, Euphoria.

“Oh, weren’t they so lovely,” Amanda enthused as we finally had some group privacy.

“In general, or specifically?” I asked.

“Both, but I did enjoy the schoolgirls as they were absolutely fearless in their questions,” Amanda giggled.

“Yes. Unusual to accept an invite like that,” Haelee laughed.

“Well, my schedule is flexible and they did ask nicely,” Amanda smiled. “Plus, I didn’t have the heart to say no.”

“They seemed more surprised when you said yes,” I chuckled.

“That’s true, but occasionally I do like to surprise,” Amanda replied.

“You certainly did this time.”

“Good, now everyone get ready for the reception. I doubt they’ll surprise us, but who knows.”

The reception was fun, though there were no surprises and everyone enjoyed it, even if there were few native Ashans attending. Commander Loxx admitted that it was a legacy from the early years of the Imperial occupation that hadn’t been corrected as yet.

“The potential of a terrorist attack causing the station to vent and killing multitudes was a very real risk during the first year,” he explained. “That, plus somehow seizing control and using the defence grid against the ground or Fleet ships.”

“I see,” Amanda nodded. “Meritocrat Devell, this practice will be brought to an end,” Amanda ordered the senior Bureaucrat in charge of the station.

“Yes, Serenissimé. Consider it done,” he replied.

“Good, I understand why it was done, but I believe that the risk is very low these days and that the loyalty of the Ashans justifies the Empire treating them as everyone else.”

“Yes, Serenissimé,” he nodded. “Do you wish this order to be passed on to Sanctify?”

“If you please.”

“To be honest, it wasn’t until you visited that we realised there were issues with security in some areas,” Loxx admitted.

“I’m sure you would have got around to them eventually, but if you do find others differing from the Imperial norm, correct them ... unless there’s a damned good reason not to.”

“Serenissimé,” he replied with a salute.

Other than that small issue, the reception ended without further ‘Royal commands’ and I, along with Liono and Torric, slipped out of our quarters to visit the ordinary areas of the station and meet the people living there.

Though much adapted and modernised, the station was obviously not originally Imperial with far fewer open areas along with bulkhead doors in case of decompression, reflecting the fact that the Diadem Republic were far less technically capable than the Empire. Still, we found a place where some modernisation had been done and I was able to set up and begin drawing the inhabitants as well as the scenery. Torric had taken himself off to the local healing clinic to discuss minor gossip as to how Asha dealt with medical issues and see if any recommendations to the Bureau of Health were needed.

As ever, I soon attracted attention, none of it hostile and all keen to have a sketch done once they’d seen what I could do.

“So what’s it like living here?” I asked an older couple.

“Good,” Jerush, the man, replied. “There’s few issues, unlike the first year of Imperial occupation.”

“We thought we wanted to go back to the Republic,” Anta, his wife, added. “But you ignored that demand and gradually things got better as corrupt oligarchs were removed and the standard of living improved immensely.”

“Empire is sneaky like that,” I chuckled.

“Yes, suddenly our life spans almost doubled, jobs became easier if more interesting and we had more spending power,” Jerush chuckled. “A sneaky plot indeed.”

“There are still some idiots around who can’t accept that we ... the majority don’t want to go back to the Republic though,” Anta sighed.

“The Princesses’ visit must have really annoyed them then,” I nodded.

“Probably, though none of them work or live here. They did try to smuggle bombs up here, so that kind of turned us all who work and live here against them as the Imperials mostly wore armour when out and about.”

“Don’t you regard yourselves as Imperials now?”

“Oh yes, but it was very much ‘us and them’ back then.”

“And now it’s not,” I nodded and handed over the sketch.

The views of Jerush and Anta were echoed pretty much by all those I sketched, though the younger kids had known nothing but Imperial rule and accepted it as the norm. Several of them had plans to join up with either Fleet or Ground Force when they finished their schooling and see a little of the Empire in doing so.

And so having not really come across any background issues we all returned to our quarters to prepare for the planetary visit.

Euphoria was clearly not an Imperial city, even if the spaceport itself was of a modern design. The city itself though looked almost drab with little individual differences from one dull grey block to another. Only around the outskirts were there individual and clearly more affluent designs, with more greenery to be seen. The spaceport though was crowded to capacity with welcomers, some of whom appeared to have camped out overnight for a chance to see Amanda.

“Can’t see any protest groups,” Verlig commented as we watched the scenes from the cube in the shuttle.

“No obvious ones, no,” Haelee agreed. “Despite claims they’d be out there in numbers.”

“I honestly don’t think they have numbers these days,” Amanda observed. “Doesn’t make them any less dangerous though.”

“That’s true, there will be some who believe they need to strike the one good blow to galvanise the people, or show what the Empire is really like if we come down hard,” Verlig nodded.

“Fortunately getting hold of a weapon to get to us up here or even on the ground is not easy,” I commented.

“True, and here we go,” Amanda replied with a smile as we touched down and the main hatchway opened to form a ramp to the ground.

There were massive cheers when Amanda emerged and waved cheerfully to all in sight. An honour guard of what had to be the local equivalent of the Guardians slammed their fists to their chest the second her foot touched the ground.