Imperious Will, Task Force Bride Price
Zenith Point, Edenstar System
Pentagram Cluster, Solar Hegemony in Exile
"It appears as if our arrival has stirred them up a bit," observed Lizrael from the ceremonial command deck sheltered in the pagoda like superstructure shared by all Zindari starship designs, even before the advent of screens. For many uses of the Formal it helped greatly to be able see your target, with your actual eyes. The Imperious Will of course had a secondary command centre buried in her armoured guts, behind an entire secondary pressure hull, the Zindari weren't entirely divorced from common sense.
Reports from various staff departments echoed about the command deck but Lizrael only paid them little heed, such minutiae were for the ship's captain, who was a reliable sort of fellow, or he wouldn't be where he was. She could very well see for herself that there were two warships of cruiser-ish size, one larger and one smaller, defending the 'Zenith Point' they had jumped to. Through the formal she could feel their surprise and consternation.
She could also feel their wariness and determination not to start a new war, especially one they might lose. She could also feel the cold machine intelligences further out in the black, waiting for the command from their Atani masters to pounce. That was somewhat concerning, machine-warships were a hassle in space war, but nothing that couldn't be handled in the end.
"Indeed," agreed Prentice Verathun, "although not quite as much as I would have expected, their sensors and early warning must be better than initially estimated."
"All the better to detect and fight our enemies Prentice Verathun" said Lizrael.
"As you say."
"Very well, Captain! Now that they are quite sure we aren't going to immediately start blasting them, let us hail them."
"Yes, my Lady, we are doing that now." replied Captain Kellin Roeder, himself a scion of one of the old blooded Atani families within the Zindari Empire, that melding of the ancient Red Zindar of old Valeriand and the No’old Qing'daii Traditionalists of royal stock (and their Atani retainers) who were exiled by their Reformist brethren. His family had been providing spacy and army officers to the Zindari for generations upon generations, and had been rewarded lavishly for their loyalty.
Picking up a spare head-set from the communications station, he listened in to the conversation between the Solarian vessels and his communications operator.
"Unidentified Vessel! This is the SHV Princess of Dixie You have entered Solar Hegemony territorial space, state your intentions!"
"Princess of Dixie, this is his Imperial Majesty's ship of the line Imperious Will, we come under flag of truce to negotiate an opening of peaceful relations between the Solar Hegemony and the Empire of the Zindar, and alliance by royal marriage."
"Stand by Imperious Will, we are relaying that to higher authority. Request modify course and heading to achieve station keeping in the meantime, Imperious Will. Our task force is withdrawing fifteen light seconds, Princess of Dixie out."
Captain Kellin nodded and replaced the headset on its peg and clapped the crewman on his shoulder, before turning to his Lords and reporting what they most likely already knew from listening to his thoughts, but such was the ritual of command.
"My Lords, we have made contact and the Task Force in front of us is relaying our request for parley to their command structure. There's no telling how long that might take, my Lords."
Princess Lizrael smiled, "There, you see? It's like my own foster-father, your master says, you can get more of what you want with a kind word and a big aetherichymical war-chimera than you can with a kind word alone. Now we wait. Prentice Verathun, shall we resume our sparing in the meantime?"
...
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Sauvage Pen to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.