24. Georgiana

“Madame Georgiana,” a woman in green says my name. I open my eyes. “It’s time for you to return to Earth. Get up, use the bathroom, and put on your clothing. We don’t have much time.”

I don’t question her. It’s the same woman who took me to see Lia. I get up and put on a dress, stocking and boots then follow her out of my room. There are four guards instead of two following us. I notice one of them is carrying a bag. I assume that is extra clothing for me.

I’m guided through the quiet palace and I assume it must be the middle of the night as most of the hallways are deserted. When we exit the palace, the sky is dark purple, it looks like it’s just before dawn. The woman puts a cloak over my shoulders and a hood that covers my head. No doubt this is more to hide my appearance than for warmth. I’m guided out to a waiting transport. I recognize the man waiting for me. It’s Ren from the Hio. It’s good to see a familiar face. But he doesn’t look pleased by this arrangement though.

“Madame Georgiana,” he says.

I wonder if he knows the truth of what has happened here? Will the Hio crew hate me for having lied to them? Are they going to be punished for what Axl and I lied about?

“Good to see you, Ren,” I say and I mean it.

“Happy to be of service,” he replies as he follows me into the transport. Then he helps me strap in. “It’s just a quick trip up to Space Port One and then we are ready to depart. “You are the last passenger.”

I don’t know how to respond. Is Axl onboard too? I wonder, but I’m afraid to ask. I want to hope that he’ll be there and I don’t want my hopes crushed until the final moment when I get onboard and discover he’s not.

We reach Space Port One and Ren encourages me to keep the hood to my cloak up as we walk through the station. It’s not as busy as it was the last time I was here. Then we quickly board the Hio. Once onboard Ren shows me to a bunk in a room I’ll share with others. I no longer have an imperial status which means Axl is not here.

“Any other humans onboard?”

“You’re the only one,” he says as he puts my bag down. “Once we clear the Empire’s territory, prepare to strap in to jump. There’ll be an announcement.”

“Will you be returning me to Earth directly or Alliance Force?”

“Alliance Force. They must process you.”

“You mean erase my memory?”

“I don’t know the system.”

“Thank you.”

He nods and leaves me. Wherever the other passengers are they aren’t here. It might be breakfast time, I don’t know. I don’t care. I’m happy to be returning to Earth, but upset not see Axl here. I wonder if I’ll ever see him again.

After the initial jumps, we are free to move around. The other passengers are Alliance citizens, merchants passing through Alliance Force selling their goods. None of them are maximum class and they are all men.

Unlike Axl’s family they have met humans many times before and know a lot about Earth and the Alliance Force. I ask them as many questions as I can to try to gauge my situation and what all my options might be, no matter how limited.

“We all know about what happened,” the oldest of them says. His hair is more silver than black. “It was obvious when Commander Axl returned with you. And the health reports couldn’t be explained away.”

“What do you mean ‘health reports?’”

“The matching heart beats, the breathing patterns. That is love and you both have it for each other. All the slaves put wagers on whether or not you were really married or if the High Priestess would make you marry.”

“What do you know about that?” I ask.

The men all smile at my naivety. “There are no secrets in the Empire. Everyone knows Imperial Fleet Reserve Commander Axl is a fixture in the High Priestess’s Punishment Rooms. We all suffer with him when he suffers.”

“What do you mean?”

“He only does the Empire’s dirty work. What none of us want to admit happens illegally in the galaxy. The small dark details that keep everything in the Empire running smoothly. And for this, he carries a lot of guilt,” the eldest man says.

“But he’s not a bad man. So he carries this burden heavily,” adds another man.

“That’s why he visits the High Priestess and she tries to beat the guilt out of him so that he can see the light of the Empire,” the older man explains. “But as he gets older, the less he’s able to recover.”

“Then he showed up with you and surprisingly everything changed. Everyone knew Commander Axl’s days at the palace were numbered.”

“We are outside the Empire but there’s still a woman here,” the youngest man says.

“Are you talking about me?” I ask. “I’m not an Alliance woman. I’m hardly going to repeat anything you say here.” The men all shrug and look away. I try to get the conversation going again and ask, “Did you think the High Priestess would make us marry? How did you know we weren’t?”

“The slaves from House Zu confirmed it. And, yes, I thought the High Priestess would make you marry.”

“It was a surprise that she didn’t,” another man with only half a head of silver hair says. “We knew then it was the Empress’s jealously that stopped it.”

“What?”

“The Empress. She’s always had a romantic flair for Commander Axl and there were rumors especially when they were young that they were lovers. Because of that, no woman would ever be good enough for him according to the Empress. That’s why he’s always been single.”

“So he left me at the palace alone because of the Empress?”

“She forced him back. He didn’t have a choice. He couldn’t enter.”

“His sister made it sound like…”

“Commander Axl’s sister benefits from his close relationship with the Empress. She would have killed you herself if the Empress would have asked her to, and then apologized to the commander afterward.”

“I knew that Lia wasn’t fond of me, but I thought it was because I’m human.”

“Commander Axl’s mother and sister have a woman earmarked for Axl from their own circle and approved by the Empress.”

Jealousy spreads through my body. “What’s so special about her?”

“She’s obedient to the Empress, and will enjoy having complete control over the commander.”

Captain Ace interrupts us with an announcement. “Sorry for the delay. We’ve been stopped for a routine check by the fleet. If any of you are carrying contraband you will be put off with your cargo. I made that noticeably clear when you booked passage on my ship.”

Captain Ace seems annoyed. I evaluate the other passengers, trying to guess which, if any of them, might be carrying contraband. In the end, they all look like legitimate traders to me. “What is considered contraband in the Empire?”

“Drugs, humans, other animals.”

“None of us have any of those do we?” the man with all silver hair asks. The other men smile and answer that they don’t. And then we sit there in silence.

I hear the officers from the fleet announce themselves over the ship’s intercom and then we hear distant noises of them beginning to look through the ship. By the sound of their boots there are a lot of them. They’re loud and clearly skilled at this as they’re moving fast. There’s some shouting and then one enters the room we are in.

“In here,” one of the officers says in his comms.

I look at the other men wondering, who is the criminal? I’m speechless at first when two officers grab me by the arms.

“I’m not contraband. I’m going back to Earth. It’s all legal.”

“We have orders,” says one officer.

“No, the Empress let me go,” I say.

The officers proceed to take me off the Hio. I can hear the crew protesting and Captain Ace saying that he will pay for me. But the only reply he gets is that, “She’s already been bought with a higher offer.”

“I’m sorry. May the god’s light your path, Georgiana,” are Captain Ace’s last words as I’m transferred onto the military vessel. There I’m led silently into a room and left alone. Although unlike my room in the Imperial Palace, this one does look like proper guest quarters and there’s even a little window and computer. I open the computer and find out that I’m on an alpha warship, however I can’t find out anything more about the ship or where we are heading. Looking out the window, I can’t even tell if we are moving or not.

I use the computer to see if I can access any information about myself and there’s nothing. I then look up Axl and there’s nothing new. It’s just the same videos I saw before. I must be blocked from seeing myself because everyone else knew we had been to the Grand City Temple and what happened there. I wonder if everyone is blocked from seeing themselves in the newspapers in the Empire? That would make a lot of sense. It would keep people sane with this high level of personal invasion. And you would have to talk to another person to find out what was being said about you. That would change how much you really wanted to know. I decide to look up Lia next. There’s news about her latest accomplishments in the High Council but nothing else that concerns me.

A young man enters my quarters, he is carrying a tray of food. He stays and watches me eat. “Where are you taking me?”

I’m relieved when he answers me, “I don’t know.”

“Are you going to sell me? I want to go back to Earth.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know much. I don’t think you are going to be sold. It’s my duty to make sure you are fed and taken care of. Is there anything else I can bring you?”

“Do you know how long I’ll be here?”

“I don’t know.”

He looks sincere so I can’t help but believe him. “I’m bored. Is there anything I can do to pass the time in this room?”

The young man brings up the computer and shows me a section called ‘the boards’ that I had dismissed before, but now I realize it’s entertainment. In this section there are talks, books, all nonfiction, religious myths, and educational shows. I thank the young man.

“There’s also the bed.”

“The bed?”

He looks embarrassed. “Yes, it has holographic functions for your health.” He touches a button and the menu appears. “It’s self-explanatory.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

The young man bows and leaves. He’s treating me with more respect than I was given in the palace so perhaps this is better?

I look at the computer and begin reading about imperial rule in the Empire. I want to know how powerful the Empress is. Can she really keep Axl from being with me? Maybe Axl doesn’t want the hassle of being with a human? Or maybe this is the end of our journey together and that he really just needed me to get back to the Empire and it was bad luck that he couldn’t say ‘goodbye.’