Publicity
The afternoon was a never-ending rush of people until the little gift-giving event. They hadn't even intentionally stopped to meet anyone, just made the rounds between the two promenades on the carrier proper, and then one in the Leeward 'tower' of civilian homes that had been installed in a frigate bay.
Eleya was being real sly, but there was a gleam in her eye that Alex had caught - she was having a good time. She concealed it, like she did with everything. But Eleya could not fully hide that she loved being out among her people, interacting with something other than politics and secrets. It invigorated her and she had little trouble finessing everyone they ran into, easing one startled Tsla'o after the next down from the most formal greeting they could muster.
It was Lamasha, after all. Winter did not care for such petty things as titles, so there should be little recognition of one's station at the festivities.
The loads of plainclothes security around said otherwise, but nobody was pointing that out. Their retinue had doubled when she joined them, cloaked guards no doubt not far away. It may be her ship, but the specter of Alex and Tashen almost being assassinated by those who opposed her still hung in the air.
The event was set up in a gymnasium just off Leeward's promenade, so that is where they ended their tour. The supervisor of the tower had set it up - it was a refuge from the rest of the celebration, a vast reduction in noise and crowds. A place to wind down for a bit, without having to go home. Very popular with parents, particularly those with young children who were easily overstimulated by everything going on outside. The kids could still play, the adults could still socialize, and there was still a lot of food.
The little kids were having the best time of it. Most of them didn't remember the Cataclysm simply because they had been too young. Adana, for instance, was two when he was evacuated. He recognized Alex when he had come up to get a toy, which wasn't too big a surprise given how many Humans there were on board. The boy had waved to him, holding on to his father's hand and still silent, taken a stuffed animal from the table of toys and toddled off without a care. The father had thanked them.
The teens, or almost teens... They understood what was going on. Had a better idea of how tight things were in the Empire. A lot of them were still going through their own pain. Alex and Amalu spent a half hour sitting on the floor with a fourteen year old orphan, just letting the kid talk while he built a LEGO set. Ranu had grandparents in a city the Empire couldn't evacuate. The shielding was holding, but the port they could land shuttles at was surrounded by mountainous terrain and had been damaged by caldera debris, then buried under a landslide. They couldn't even depart from that side of the city anymore. Even now, the Navy didn't have ships to spare to survey the area. There was no guarantee a shuttle could actually land, and if it did, they would have to make people march through ashfall in bad terrain to it. Evacuation from that site was a low priority because of the unknowns involved.
The kid got it. He understood the details, the why of the situation. He still missed the only family he had left, and hated it because it wasn't fair.
It wasn't.
Alex knew about mass casualty triage. He'd seen the bag with the tarps, and been trained how to use them. One of the first things you learn when working in space is that space is perfectly indifferent to your continued existence at best, so the Scoutship program taught basic trauma care for all sorts of real bad situations. Pressure on wounds, tourniquets, stuff like that. Patching people up to keep them alive long enough to get to a mediboard, or some other low-tech medical help. There was a day dedicated to other situations you might be ordered to help with, or clean up, if shit went south on a station or larger ship.
Sometimes a living person has to be put on the black tarp because there's nothing that can be done to keep them that way, so you focus limited supplies and hands on people you can save. Maybe give them something to ease their pain, if you can.
Alex didn't tell Ranu any of this. It wouldn't help, the kid had already seen that arithmetic up close and personal. He didn't need somebody telling him that they understood where the Empire was coming from.
He did wonder if the Empire had asked for help doing those surveys. Scanning anything in, or through, ash was going to be a shitshow. It sandblasted anything you flew through it and caked on to nearly any other surface, so it would be a one way trip for any particularly delicate equipment - which was the hardware that got you the most useful information, of course. Alex was absolutely sure the Confed Navy could find a hundred thousand pilots willing to abrade a few ships into the scrap heap to get it done, though.
Getting the Navy to write off the lost equipment would be more difficult, but the potential to save a few hundred thousand extra people would be good motivation - even if they were aliens.
Of course, having a sub-millimeter accurate terrain map that said there was nowhere safe to land wasn't the outcome you wanted, but it is one you could end up with. Evacuation goes from 'low priority' to 'we hope the shielding holds until the ash stops falling. Please make sure the list of citizens trapped is fully up to date.'
Alex was pretty sure he'd prefer 'low priority' if he was stuck in that situation.
"What do we have going on here, young prince?" Eleya said as she added herself to the party, resting on her heels beside Amalu. The specialist looked a little freaked out every time Eleya appeared without warning, something she was very good at doing.
Alex looked a little freaked out because all of the sharpness was gone from her voice. The features he had come to think of as her imperial tones, her clear and authoritative delivery, had been filed off. What remained was soft and warm and musical. It was still her voice, he could tell it was Eleya. An alternate universe Eleya where she was a friendly kindergarten teacher on a kid's show.
The mental image that came along with that thought was funny.
Ranu didn't look up from his build, gray fingers sifting through a pile of polymer bricks. "Building a... What is it called?"
Alex found it a little presumptuous for Ranu to think that he was the young prince in that statement, given he knew Alex was currently taking up that role. "It's a Lancia Navicella." The translator the teen was using did not care for Italian. It hadn't been built to handle it.
Eleya studied the half-built model, head cocked to the side. "One of your burners, dearest nephew? Should I start asking around to see if one could be procured?"
Damn she sounded weird like that.
"No, it's a reasonably modern shuttle. Ship to shore and planetary stuff, you'll note the very small cabin." While almost as nice as the Masamune, it had an entirely different use case. The compact frame - it could only carry six - was meant to be tucked away neatly. It could probably fit into the launch bay of Carbon's yacht, even with the runabout. "If you did, I wouldn't say no."
"It is seen." She gave him a crooked grin and turned her attention back to Ranu, still unaware the Empress had joined them. "Ranu, is it? Your guardian had to leave to start her shift. As my niece had monopolized so much of her time in conversation, I said I would see to your safe return home so she was not late. I hope this is acceptable for you."
Ranu served up a hearty scoop of angst. His shoulders slumped, then he sighed and rolled his eyes. "I am not a child anymore, I do not need to have-" He also shut right the fuck up when he finally looked away from the task at hand and noticed who he was preparing to be a petulant teen at. He swallowed the rest of his words as his ears and antenna pulled down tight against his head, and immediately started to backpedal. "That- That is fine. Empress. If you require it, but I do not want to waste your time. T-thank you."
"It is your choice, young one. It is barely evening, I will understand if you do not wish to return home just yet." She didn't even try to hide the smirk that change of course put on her face. "While you consider it, I must borrow the prince. His wife would like to speak to him."
"Yes, of course." Ranu hadn't gone back to working on his project, staring up at Eleya with partially concealed trepidation.
"Hey man, it was nice to meet you." Alex reached over and shook Ranu's hand, breaking his laser-focus on the Empress. "Like I said, me and Amalu are going to be off the ship in a few days, but a bunch of his team are going to be staying here - we'll put you in contact with them."
Amalu actually recognized that this was the appropriate place for him to jump in, a bit of a surprise because he was also eyeballing Eleya very hard. The Empress didn't settle herself down beside him, within arms reach, very often. "Yes, Kamat in particular is interested in taketka, he's an avid player. I think you two would get along well."
"Thank you. I- I appreciate that." Ranu was mostly confused, looking down at his first handshake, completely unsure what to make of it.
"You're welcome." Alex stood and dusted himself off. "Send me a picture of that when you're done with it, all right?"
He bowed a little bit. "Of course."
They were a few steps away before Eleya spoke again. "I had not expected that you would be so good with children, young prince." Eleya actually sounded surprised for once. It was subtle, but it was there.
"I had some practice with Jason before I left for the Kshlav'o expedition. Just kinda treat them with respect and it usually works out." He shrugged. Most kids he'd ever run into as an adult had been pretty agreeable to deal with. Having been a kid himself once, he knew there were some troublemakers out there too.
"Your nephew, correct?" Eleya steered them around a buffet table, towards the area where the gift-distribution had been. "I have heard that you handled them well on Arvaikheer, and have apparently found admirers on my own ship... But seeing something in motion is a perspective all its own."
"Yeah, that's him." Even from this distance, Carbon looked tired again. While Eleya found all this social interaction energizing - to an extent, Alex did as well - Carbon was not so inclined to the same reaction. "Good kid. I hope you can meet him some day."
Eleya considered his statement. "I would like that. I would like to meet more of your family, actually. Your mother was very enlightening."
"It was the funicular story, wasn't it?" He grumbled, forgetting for a moment that he was trying his damndest to remain mad at Eleya. She was personable and likable, when she wanted to be, and this 'friendly' voice was disarming.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
This must have been the Eleya that Carbon had grown up with, when she thought they were sisters.
She chuckled under her breath. "I felt it did explain some things."
Carbon waved them over as they approached, slipping an arm around Alex and pulling him close. "Dearest husband." She sounded frazzled, and looked it, too.
"Beloved wife." He had gotten a brief explainer from Eleya that the often superlative adjectives were an expected part of the royal speech pattern. It was something they had done for hundreds of years, so get with the program, dearest prince. He'd use it when they were in public. Maybe when he wanted to tease Carbon a little.
"I know it is early, but perhaps we should depart." She yawned, covering her mouth a moment later.
Even after all this time, having all those sharp teeth bared a few inches from his face still made Alex a little nervous. Even for something as innocuous as a yawn. "If you're ready to head home, sure. I wouldn't mind an early night."
"We must rescue Neya first."
If not for the utterly banal way she said that, it would have been alarming. Neya wasn't at the table where most of the rest of their team was. Keta and Desaya had headed out a while ago after a lengthy talk with Eleya. They were young and interested in being in the thick of things, but otherwise no one had left. "Where did she get off to?"
Carbon pointed to a table halfway down the gym, Tsla'o idling around between them obscuring her from view, but a glimpse of fluffy lavender fur was telling. "She is trapped."
"Trapped?"
"Neya is sometimes too kind for her own good." Eleya's normal voice was starting to creep back in with that statement.
Carbon rolled her eyes at the Empress' comment and took Alex's hand, the two of them cutting over to Neya. She was deep in conversation with several women, a significant spread of food laid out within easy reach, and as they got closer, Alex understood what Carbon meant.
An adult Tsla'o would understand what her unique coloration meant, the duty it carried. Children found it unusual and interesting, and the tail was simply too much for them. The chair beside Neya contained a napping toddler curled up into a ball, hugging the fluffy appendage with both arms and using it as a pillow. Another, slightly older child was sitting in her lap, engrossed in a picture book that also contained a strangely colored Tsla'o - this one golden.
There were introductions all around, and after a bit of maneuvering to extricate Neya's tail from the toddler's grasp, the group split - Alex, Carbon, and Neya began a long but thankfully not formal string of goodbyes and well-wishes to get out of the gymnasium.
Eleya escorted them the entire way, and was as pleased as could be about how enthusiastic everyone had been to have met her dearest niece and nephew. The exact sort of outcome she wanted from this event: hundreds of regular people working all over the ship, coming away from the holiday with a positive personal impression of the new Royals. Certainly, they would talk to their coworkers about who they had met, their family, their neighbors, perhaps strangers in the lift or the grocery store.
Every positive word bending perception to fit into the narrative that Eleya had flexed her power to make. Turning a gamble into truth.
That was Alex's somewhat cynical realization on the way to the lift. It was necessary, of course, and he was sure that she would have them doing events like this daily if it wouldn't be seen as strange to do so.
They finally shed the security detail at the door to their home, another round of thanks issued before the trio sealed the rest of the world outside for a bit.
Neya turned on him almost immediately, stepping into his personal space and waving a finger in his face. "You are infuriating, young prince."
Alex hadn't even gotten his jacket off and certainly hadn't expected that based on any of their interactions so far - which all had people outside their little circle present, so this was something more personal, through the filter of an alien, so who knows if it would make sense to him. "Ok, fill me in. What did I do?"
Before Neya could start, Carbon cut in. "Remember her stories?"
Neya turned to Carbon, eyes wide as she sputtered, whining. "Why did you have to show him those?"
"Because I have known you for a decade, and he did not know that he was pushing your buttons." Carbon said with a wry smile, using the phrase Alex had taught her for this exact situation. She leaned in and planted a kiss on Neya's cheek. "Now he will be better aware when he is doing so unintentionally."
"Oh. Ok, ok, I know what this is about now." He hadn't been too surprised that Neya's writing had been adult in nature - her favorite book was a romance novel. The the thing that got him was that it mostly skipped straight to the smut, and according to Carbon it was stuff she had proclivities for. He reached out and patted Neya on the head, conscious that this might get his hand bit. "I'm sorry I did that when we were so far away."
Neya tried to look mad while blushing furiously, her ears and antenna pulled down low. It mostly didn't work. "Do not do it again."
"I promise I won't." He hung his jacket up and stretched before heading into the house properly, the lights coming on in the living room as he entered. "Not by accident, anyway."
"I heard that! My- My hearing is excellent!" The indignant reply came from the door behind him, mixed with Carbon laughing.
Alex thought about sitting down on the couch. It was a normal, Human sized, three seat couch. He could stretch out on the cool leather, put his feet up, and immediately go to sleep. A little rude, yes, which is why he avoided it entirely by proceeding into the kitchen for a glass of water. He had paced himself in the beverage department, but that was just alternating between ciders that tasted about as alcoholic as a beer, and deep tea. Not the most healthy choice.
"Do you guys want to do anything for dinner? I feel like I've been eating all day." He leaned on the counter as they came in, gesturing with his glass. Upon consideration, he had started at around six, and hadn't spent an hour since without some food making its way into his hand. "I guess we have been eating all day, actually."
"No." Carbon took the glass from him and finished his water, grabbed him by the front of his daman and pulled him along behind her towards the stairs.
"Well, all right." He didn't expect to be hungry before tomorrow anyway.
"You go on ahead, I must find my tablet." Neya followed them down the hall, ducking into the office as Carbon and Alex turned up the stairs.
Carbon didn't immediately say anything when they arrived upstairs, just took her boots off and threw herself onto the bed, groaning as she sank into the comforter. "I am so glad this is only once a year."
Alex followed suit, ditching his shoes and sliding into bed behind her. The mattress was firmer than their old one, but that would probably work for him. The divot he inevitably formed in that one had started to make his back ache, and depending on how everyone else was distributed, led to being buried under fluffy space heaters on both sides. Then he gets blamed for everyone getting sweaty just because he's the one that sweats without being under duress. "I dunno, it was kind of fun. We'll just plan for you to start later in the day or something."
She buried her face under a pillow and grumbled in reply.
"Lights, ten percent." Alex had found the basic voice controls to be one of those things that were really useful to know how to say in Tsla without looking it up. He continued in English. "Isn't there a summer... Uh, Zenith, right?"
"Yes. It is not the same. More like, what was it your Trailblazer crews did? A cookout?" She unburied herself and rolled over, snuggling up against him. "It is just an evening event."
"Oh shit, count me in for that. I love a cookout." He did, his enthusiasm for the concept of this was pure and unadulterated.
Carbon grumbled again. "I... I had noticed." She laughed quietly at that as Neya finally came up the stairs.
"You seem to have made a good..." She petered off, looking at them snuggled up in bed with a frown, her antenna pulling down and very annoyed. Neya didn't bother taking her shoes off, just climbed into bed and wedged herself in between Alex and Carbon, laying on her stomach, tail switching in the air behind her. The tablet she had been looking for was clasped in her hands, the data vault with Eleya's sigil on it stuck to the back. "You seem to have made a good impression with Varasha, Alex. She says she had intended to ask you to link with her, but due to unforeseen circumstances did not have the opportunity. She has since linked with Kaleta about her experiences with you and found your behavior to be appropriate."
"I got the feeling she was evaluating me." Unforeseen circumstances was about the nicest way he could imagine referring to Sharadi trying to kill himself. "I assume if I had made a bad impression you would not be relating this information."
"You are correct." She scrolled down the screen, humming to herself. "Varasha has always been forthcoming with her opinions."
Carbon wiggled out from under Neya with another annoyed grumble. "I have heard this as well, but never seen it myself."
"Oh, she is only that way with other Zeshen, not... outsiders." She continued to scroll, feet kicking slowly in the air behind her as she skimmed the letter. "Here we are. She did include information surrounding the two incidents I asked about."
Neya tapped around her tablet, reading intently. "The first incident of a Zeshen removal was... Clearly abusive. Multiple incidents of contusions, broken fingers, a broken arm, broken ribs... and the council had the military police involved."
Alex shook his head at that list. "Sounds like the system worked as intended?" Probably would have been nice if it worked sooner, or if it wasn't needed at all...
"Yes, but it is not quite the answer I was hoping for. Love was not involved in this, not in a way I would recognize it." She flipped back to the file system and opened the next item, eyes skimming the page. "Oh, the second was not a removal at all. She merely returned to the village and had an extended stay in the hospital."
"I hope she's all right." He said that before he realized that no matter how well her stay in the hospital went, there was an overwhelming chance that she died in the Cataclysm. Alex shut his mouth and didn't try rephrasing his words to make them sound better.
Neya was ignoring him, thankfully, humming to herself again as she slowed down to read the file with more care. "Uwah..."
Carbon's ear popped up from the other side of Neya, swiveling around to track the source of that rather confused noise. "What is it?"
"She was... She was pregnant." There was more than a hint of unease in her voice.
Carbon popped up on the other side of Neya. "I am sorry, a Zeshen was pregnant?"
"Isn't that, uh, impossible?" It was Alex's understanding that they were sterile, one of the things that had made them a popular accessory for nobles before they were recognized as real living Tsla'o and owning them was formally outlawed.
"Yes, and yes..." Neya's eyebrows were pulled tight as she flipped through pages of documents. "She had petitioned the council to..."
"To what?" Alex and Carbon asked her at the same time.
"She asked for permission to carry a child, using an in vitro technique with material donated by her biological sister and her Aeshen. They conducted research into their relationship and deliberated on this for..." She flipped back a page. "Two years, before finding that her request had not been coerced. While they were cautious about the relationship their investigation uncovered, they did grant permission. The child was born a year later."
Neya stared at the screen, then clicked it off and set it aside, eyes wide as dinner plates as she rested her head on her arms. "That is... I believe there is some precedent to cite to what remains of the council, when we must disclose ourselves to them."