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  The royal guards wore red and white uniforms, that wasn’t what I was wearing. I had on a red flowing dress with white accents that was more appropriate for a dinner party than for a guard. So, I wore the colors, just not the uniform. It also had all the same abilities of a ship suit, minus the ability to physically seal itself from vacuum, only a shield for that. It also had the cloaking, AG, and hologram technologies. Of course, if we ever left the planet I’d have to switch back to a full ship suit for safety, then back in the dress for planet fall.

  Being in a dress, weapons were a bit of a challenge. I had the implant of course, which could deliver plasma or non-lethal shocks to take out an opponent, like a stun gun using both sonic or electrical attacks. Because money was no longer an issue for me, I had a second palm device installed in my left hand. I also had a knife in a thigh sheath. The only thing I couldn’t carry was a blaster, but I could live with that.

  I had to admit, I looked damned good in the dress, but I wasn’t sure how I felt about being used as a political weapon. The theory was that his competition would be hard at work trying to figure out who I was, how I fit in, and just to be a general distraction. Exotic human female in a dress around the emperor, it was bound to cause wagging of tongues, confusing theories, and keep his enemies off balance. Of course, that kind of thing had a limited shelf life, but we all hoped by the time the novelty wore off the empire would be stable again.

  I’d do the best I could to act helpless, except of course if shit went down. Eventually, people would find out the truth, if not the full truth. I didn’t really want anyone to know I was a genetically enhanced freak, born to be an assassin, and a lab test.

  Anna said, “Myra is calling.”

  “Accept,” I paused a moment for her hologram to appear, “Hi Myra.”

  Myra looked me up and down, and then grinned, “Looking good mom.”

  I supposed it was silly, but Jillintara and I really were the parents, the creators, of this new wave of A.I.s.

  I blushed at the compliment and asked, “What’s the word?”

  Myra said, “Both ideas were a success, to a certain point. The new weapon has to be fired a good way from the ship, at least a hundred yards or it causes problems, but the wormhole testing was a complete success.”

  I nodded, “I have Vik’s permission to build a new ship. I still have more work to do on it, but here are the specs for the hull and room layout so you can get started. I need to work on some of the systems in engineering, and design the ship’s auxiliary complement. I also have the final design for the multi-function spheres.”

  I sent the data. The tiny softball sized spheres would be sensors, missile replacements, and an essential part of the wormhole drive advancement. It wasn’t so much an advancement, but another avenue of study that was discarded because the power requirements were too high. With the new reactor I designed that wasn’t an issue anymore. Power I mean. The orbs could also spoof EM to look like a full-sized ship, create holograms, cloak itself, and achieve four hundred gravities of acceleration. Of course, all of that would be supported by its home ship.

  The hull of the ship itself was flat, without emitters, plasma turrets, or sensor arrays. It was in essence, a big ship suit made of a strong metal composite with tens of thousands of embedded dimensional ports. Much like the implant in my hand opened a dimensional port to create fields and feed in plasma, or the ship suit used shield emitters in the base station through dimensional ports, the ship’s hull would work similarly, but on a much larger scale. Shields, sensors, cloaking, weapons, all would be through dimensional ports, which meant the area size of the hull wouldn’t be a limiting factor. There would be thousands of shield emitter ports, weapons ports, sensor ports, far more weapons than could even fit on a dreadnought’s hull in their full size.

  The sensors and the other hardware, would actually be inside the ship, in engineering, and still other components off the ship. It was still a balance though, I had to make sure the ship was still functional and combat ready even if it lost its auxiliary complement. I estimated a ship would survive without its auxiliary compliment for about a month, even if it would be less effective in combat, it could still fight. The weapons integral to the ship were the backup weapons.

  Myra whistled, “I want one.”

  I laughed.

  “I’ll try to get the rest to you over the next week. I need to get going now though, breakfast meeting with my lover and the pesky in-laws, then a meeting with the governors.”

  Myra snorted, “You really shouldn’t call the queen mother pesky, or the princess.”

  I ignored that, and I really didn’t think of Solyra as pesky, just Dessia. I liked Solyra. Dessia on the other hand disapproved of me, and treated me like an invisible servant. Snooty bitch.

  “Do you really want to be on a ship?”

  Myra nodded slowly, “This place doesn’t really need a dedicated A.I., we can do both, and even share the responsibility.”

  I nodded, “I’ll see what I can do, but the first ship is Jill’s. I also need to look into getting you and your sisters into bodies.”

  Myra grinned, “Dibs on number two, that’s one nasty little ship.”

  I snickered, “Noted. Thanks Myra, I’ll be in contact soon.”

  Her hologram disappeared, and I looked into the mirror again. I smiled, I did look rather good in the dress, it would definitely annoy Dessia. Time to go to work.

  I walked into the hall, and to my right was the security door to exit the royal wing, straight ahead across the hallway was Telidur’s quarters, and to the left was the royal wing. There were several studies, offices, a dining room, kitchen, the emperor’s suite, and suites for the immediate family members. There was another wing for offshoot royal family line guests, as well as another guest wing for other guests.

  Sadly, there were a lot of empty rooms, way too many.

  The dining room was large, and when I walked in Vik’s eyes widened a bit, and he looked me up and down with undisguised admiration. I felt a surge of warmth, and totally ignored the bitch’s glare. Solyra was also there, and gave me a friendly smile. Telidur and Jillintara were also at the table.

  Dessia hissed, “I do not understand why you must share our family breakfast with the guards, and your ship’s A.I.”

  Vik frowned and shot me an apologetic look as I sat down.

  “I’ve told you mother, Telidur is a close friend, Lori is my lover, and Jillintara is both my friend and my interface to the other A.I.s in the empire. What else they are matters outside our doors, but in here that’s all that matters.”

  I had to admit, my whole body tingled when he named me his lover.

  Jillintara blushed, and I winked at her. I took stock of the room, exits, and who was present in the back of my mind, formed a map of the room quite automatically, while I pretended not to hear Dessia’s comment at all. Then I sent Vik a smile, and gave Solyra a grin. She felt like a little sister, even if she was three years older than I was, in truth I was a lot older in experience.

  We were silent while we ate breakfast, and I interrupted the silence as we finished up.

  “So, what’s the plan of attack.”

  Dessia scowled, “Attack?”

  “Of course, politics is war.”

  Vik snickered, but shot me a behave look.

  “Rumors are rampant, and my brother left a mess. In short, we need to regain their trust, make sure the rulings I sent out are respected, and try to make sure they’re at least happy enough not to want to overthrow me. It’s more a strategy than a plan, I don’t think we have enough information yet, not until we hear their concerns and can address them. I’m sure one of the things they’ll be worried about is security, given the rising tensions between the empire and the Stolavii and Suaterans, not to mention the two empires sitting on the fence line. Any ideas?”

  I nodded, “We’re low on ship numbers, so versatility and freedom of movement are the most important factors right now. I’d put ten sh
ips around the five member planets, and the three ship building systems. Ten is more than enough to counter any local traffic hijinks. The other three hundred and eight should be out system. We’ll see if the Stolavii or Suaterans make a move on the probe network, if they do we’ll see where they’re going, and those three hundred plus ships can be to any planetary system to intercept them within ten seconds via wormholes.”

  Telidur said, “It’s a decent defensive tactic.”

  Solyra asked, “So we won’t preemptively attack?”

  Vik shook his head, “Our ship building will give us ten more ships than the enemy every month, so time is on our side. We also need to clean house first, or chance facing a feud with our own empire member planets. Not to mention, Denik was far too aggressive, I’ll need to take a defensive tack, and only respond with great force when the enemy attacks, or they’ll believe I’m just another war monger like our brother.”

  Solyra looked thoughtful, and finally said, “You’re right.”

  Vik said, “I also don’t want you or mother there, but I want you both watching so you’re up to date on things, just in case. The five rulers of the empire are about to be in the same room, it would make a very tempting target if there are dissidents angry enough out there to retaliate. Especially since our brother just mass murdered thousands of citizens with the self-destruct. We’ll talk about it, and I welcome both your input and suggestions later at dinner. Any other thoughts?”

  I said reluctantly, “They’ll ask for concessions against your power, they won’t want to risk another Denik, even if it might take another two thousand years to happen.”

  Dessia looked scandalized, and I held in a giggle.

  Vik nodded, “I’ve already considered that, and have two changes in mind to prevent a recurrence. But… I won’t tolerate a large government bureaucracy either. It’s the one thing I won’t compromise on, and if that means the empire collapses and Isyth stands alone, so be it.”

  Vik looked at Telidur and then at me, “Be alert, all four will have their own royal guards. Technically, they are ultimately under my authority, and yours, but realistically be wary of them. I don’t expect any of the governors to betray the empire, it’s far more likely to be someone attacking all of us if it happens, but keep it in mind.”

  I was going to do that anyway, but I just nodded in agreement.

  This should be fun.

  Chapter Seven

  The room was large, and there were seventeen of us in it.

  Telidur and I stood behind Vik against the wall, who was seated at the head of the conference table. Two palace guards were at the door, they answered to Telidur and I. Then the four governors, who also had two royal guards behind them. I’d studied them all, and didn’t think they had anything planned but wouldn’t let my guard down anyway.

  Vik started us off.

  “It is good to see you all well. What my brother did and stood for was regrettable, and a failure of the royal family. It has also led to opportunities, I have to believe that. We will either pull together in this room, and the empire will grow stronger, or we will falter, and the empire will fall. I want to hear your honest thoughts about what is needed to regain trust. Not only your trust, but the trust of all our citizens.

  “A few things before we start. The fleet is in a defensive posture around all five worlds in equal measure, with a large out system force to respond quickly and decisively to our enemies’ movements. I will do my best to defuse the situation, but Denik’s actions against the Stolavii and Suaterans won’t be easy to mollify at this point.

  “I’d like to, if we can, focus on our five worlds, and the empire at this time. We need to clean up Denik’s mess, and make sure the empire is not only stable but returns to its previous prosperity before we look outwards to our enemies.”

  Jervistad hissed, “We must find a way to prevent a power-hungry madman from gaining complete power and control again.”

  Natalya cleared her throat, and looked apologetic as she said, “I agree. It is good to see you well nephew, but Jervistad is correct. The days of absolute power are at an end.”

  Neither Tek or Xylla spoke, but I could tell from their body language they agreed.

  Vik said, “I agree, to a point. The emperor will always have the absolute power to enforce law, and run the military to protect the people. I won’t change that.”

  Jervistad hissed, but Vik held his hand up.

  Vik continued, “The power isn’t the problem, my power is already limited to defending the law and our empire from outsiders. The root of the problem was in that the emperor could arbitrarily and at a whim change those laws. Now that the laws have been restored to what they were, it will work fine, as I am bound by those laws.

  “The first change I propose, is that the emperor retains that absolute power to execute the laws, but not to create new laws. Only the emperor will be able to propose new laws, but before any new law becomes active three of the four system governors will need to agree with the new law. In other words, if that was in effect Denik wouldn’t have been able to charge money for food, or institute a tax without your cooperation. If he had tried anyway, he would have been arrested.”

  Vik looked around, and so did I, and it seemed at least Xylla and Natalya were mollified by that idea. Jervistad and Tek looked sour, so I wondered if they were hoping to wring more power out of these talks. Probably.

  Vik said, “There is one more thing that must be done. Even without being able to make laws, the emperor currently has full control of the A.I. overrides. In essence, even with that new law setup, an emperor could hold the whole empire hostage and do what he wants, against the law or not. That too cannot stand.”

  Vik took a deep breath and continued, “To fix that problem, I propose the overrides be removed, they haven’t been needed since the early days when we didn’t understand A.I. as we do now. In that case, an A.I. would be able to ignore any illegal orders, even from an emperor.”

  Jervistad hissed, and Natalya looked thunderstruck. Xylla made considering click noises, and Tek looked downright alarmed at the notion. It was apparent that only Xylla was halfway open to that idea, which was a disappointment to me. I really wanted them freed, although Jillintara already was, so was Ann. I wondered how badly they’d freak out if they knew all my daughter A.I.s, all four hundred and thirty-eight ships, and Myra on the moon power station, were free as well. Jillintara and I hadn’t added overrides to our A.I. design.

  Natalya said, “That’s insane. Overrides are the only way we can stop an A.I. that goes bad. Even if it hasn’t happened in a long time, it could still happen. Humans go bad, and we put them in jail, we need a way to control an A.I. if they go bad.”

  All the other governors looked to agree with that statement, even Xylla was swayed that way.

  Vik grunted, “So what would your suggestion be, the problem must still be dealt with or I fear trust won’t be regained. We can’t just give that power to a governor or another, or it would still exit. I would also note there is no law requiring them, nor has there ever been.”

  No one spoke for several seconds.

  Vik nodded, “Very well, let’s table that for now and think on it. Let me ask, when we do figure out what to do there, will those two compromises satisfy you, and your people? Are there any other concerns I haven’t addressed or thought of?”

  Natalya said, “I would appreciate a more comprehensive report on our fleet, and how you know our build numbers exceed theirs.”

  Vik said, “I’ll have that sent to you and the others after today’s session. Suffice it to say, we have probes in all six thousand star systems in the empire, and know exactly where and what our enemies are doing. You all have access to the secure data net, and can verify the reports if you wish. Any other orders of business or concerns? We could take the rest of the morning perhaps, and lunch to consider my two proposals, and another solution for the latter one?”

  I suppressed a chuckle, Vik didn’t like meetings ver
y much and was already trying to cut it short. I imagined he’d have to grow into being an emperor, he was still acting like the captain of a ship. Not that I was complaining, meetings sucked.

  Tek crossed his arms, both sets of them.

  “The fleet. For myself we would wish a home fleet for each world, still under your command perhaps, but crewed by our own people.”

  Vik said, “I don’t like that idea, we are one empire, and the fleet will equally protect all planets. I will dedicate a small fleet to each system, but the last thing we want to do is start to segregate, especially in the military. As I said in the beginning, we need to move forward together, or risk the empire falling apart. With the recent advances, we are positioned to grow and prosper, but only if we stand as one. Perhaps an armed space station instead? Fixed defenses? Still part of the empire’s military, but assets that can’t be removed by me or future emperors?”

  Tek opened his mouth to reply, when the door opened. At the same time several guards ran inside, Jervistad and his two royal guards drew weapons.

  I subvocalized, “Ann, lock it down.”

  A shield comparable to a starship’s dropped around the emperor, governors, and the table. All the guards including myself were cut off from the table, but there were automated weapons I could activate to take out Jervistad if he started firing. I wasn’t too worried yet, the personal shield Vik wore would take more than a few shots of plasma from a pistol before failing, a lot more than a few.

  I already held plasma balls in both hands, but so far it was just a peaceful standoff. Eight of us, against Jervistad’s original two guards, and four others.

  Jervistad hissed as he aimed the weapon at the emperor, “This is unacceptable, we did not come here to be dictated to.”

  Vik raised an eyebrow, “If you think I’m dictating to you, then you aren’t listening. I’ve already said I was willing to give up two of my powers, two powers that will ensure a repeat of my brother’s treachery toward the empire would never be repeated. When you fought freeing the A.I.s from all overrides, did I not bow to your combined wisdom and say we’d figure out another way? No, I am not dictating to you, but then I’m not kissing your ass either. Is that the problem?”