The dignitaries applauded as Elisa entered the Feudatoriate council hall, high up the same spire that housed the Corzant Pension, and came to stand next to the central lectern.

As the tumult died down, Hamisi Okar began his brief speech.

"Notable Elisa Woodward, it was nearly seventy thousand years ago that you last walked the Earth, and today I have the honor of welcoming you back home."

The assembly cheered.

"May your deeds be an inspiration to us all, as you are the living proof that a Solarite is capable of achieving great things in the face of adversity. Not only did you travel further than any human ever before..."

Appropriating my deeds to glorifying your own tribe, while all we have in common is that we happened to be born on the same rock, Elisa thought, Just like you use the term 'Solarite' to appropriate the achievements of the people of Mars and Luna and countless other places... Her face was locked in a smile and did not betray a glimpse of the inner monologue.

"...you also saved a great many of your crew, and not just them, you rescued a Provider, proving once and for all that we humans have equal value. There are moments when the Providers need us, and it is not always the Providers on top."

Elisa did not like where this was going.

"You have already been awarded for your valor by the Providers themselves as you bear the status of court intendant, more proof that Solarites can and do deserve Provider honors."

I actually put my ass on the line and did something to deserve these honors, Elisa thought.

"For now, all we can do is acknowledge your incredible achievements with honors of our own, thus, on behalf of the Feudatory, I hereby present you with the Golden Person of Merit award."

The cheering and applause began again as Hamisi handed a small trinket box containing a golden medal to Elisa. "Thank you," she said smiling, but was silently glad the aggravating speech had come to an end.

She wanted to make off, but the assembly began crying for an acceptance speech. Elisa grumbled. This was not part of the schedule and had way too much potential to go wrong, but Hamisi urged her towards the lectern and made it impossible to run off without giving serious insult.

"Thank you, thank you so much," she spoke, smiling as the assembly applauded once more. She waved a handful of rebellious locks of hair out of her face.

"Really, I feel humbled by the award you just gave me, as the things I went through involved a lot of luck on one hand, and a lot of hard work on the other. Often when we are in difficult situations, we cannot see the outcome of our choices beforehand. We must make tough decisions and address the problems head-on as they come. In a way, I felt that what I did was not exceptional, as I was merely doing my duty. And to be absolutely honest, I was just doing my damn best for my crew to survive.

Looking forward, I see a bright future of the Messier 39 colony, in no small part thanks to the tremendous help the Providers have given us in the form of resources, personnel, infrastructure, and above all, the marvelous technology that has rendered each and every one of us immortal. These are no small gifts, and we will be forever grateful for them."

The crowd started to murmur. Better just end it quickly now, Elisa thought.

"Of course we will never forget our roots. We look forward to developing a positive future relationship with the people of Earth and the other worlds in the Solar System."

That seemed to brighten the audience up a bit, but overall many people looked as dissatisfied with Elisa's speech as she had been with Hamisi's.

"Thank you, thank you," Elisa concluded.

"Elisa, Elisa," Someone shouted over the disorganized jumble of conversation that followed. The man moved forward to an open microphone, and the hall became quiet once more.

It was Kandun Erem. "In the spirit of our positive future relationship, would you consider pledging to open your colony to immigration from Earth? It would be the right thing to do, considering our terrible living conditions here on Earth."

"I will definitely consider it, but I think it is too early to make such a pledge right now," Elisa said.

Kandun did not relent. "Please reconsider that position," he said. "After all, did you not bring a disposable from some backwater Provider world called Maxproxemix, and granted him the rights to stay at your colony? Surely your real flesh and blood brothers and sisters of Earth would be more eligible than a fabricated creature?", Kandun said smirking. This revelation caused an angry hiss to pass through the audience.

Before Elisa could think of a tactful reply to this disastrous turn of events, a woman pushed herself to the microphone. Haroona Faris, it was announced.

"Elisa," she began in an accusatory tone. "For millennia the Solarites have toiled, expended our limited resources and strip-mined our once beautiful planet to send colony ship after colony ship into space. Our best people were robbed from us. We never received anything in return for this selfless sacrifice that we have made for humanity, generation after generation. Don't you agree it is high time to compensate the people of Earth for all that was taken from us?" She yielded the microphone, and agreement sounded throughout the hall.

Elisa yielded to frustration and snapped back. "Do the Providers not supply Earth with everything it needs?"

"Not enough housing!" "Earth is no paradise world like your colony!" "We suffer under the Provider yoke!", people called out from the audience.

"We lost over half our crew and went through hell to build that paradise, and we only made it through thanks to those Providers!"

"We want compensation for what the colonists took from Sol!" another shouted.

"I took nothing from you! My ship, the Dolya, was not even built in Sol, but commissioned by the Centaurans," Elisa shouted back, her voice hoarse. "In my time, those Solarite ships were constructed in space with materials from the belt and the outer moons. That same belt and those same moons were supplying Earth with resources throughout all this. Earth never lifted any of that to space! They were a net receiver from everyone else in the Sol system!"

People were now actively booing Elisa and shaking their heads.

"Don't you dare rewrite history with your colonist fantasies!" Haroona had found her way back to the microphone.

"What do you want from me, Haroona? You want to come to my colony? We have the equivalent of 50 hour work weeks. Want to work in the quarry and take one of our toploaders out for a spin?"

"How dare you! Those Providers have rotted your brain!"

Chaos erupted.

Elisa tried to carry herself through a few more verbal exchanges, until the audience began to physically pelt her with objects. Elisa ducked behind the lectern, then made a quick dash for the side door, leaving her award behind.

She almost collided with Oyana. "Your notability! How did it go... What is happ–"

"Get us out of here! Back to the hotel! Quickly!", Elisa screamed, grabbing the hostess by the arm and dragging her along. Oyana quickly fell into a running trod after her.

Behind them, a group of presently very undignified dignitaries tumbled over each other trying to squeeze through the door at the same time. "You bitch!", one of them raged. "Stop them! Someone stop them!"

Both Elisa and Oyana possessed far greater stamina and more practical footwear than anyone in mass of pomp and overdressed dignitaries. They reached the elevator and closed the doors, with time to spare.

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Minutes later, they barged into the Corzant Pension's vestibule.

"Ah, there you are. I think I should bar the doors. Am I right, your notability?", Lonza stated with his characteristic broad smile. Linzi the cat rested quietly on the counter.

"Please do," Elisa said, still panting.

A second Lonza emerged from behind one of the pillars carrying a tray of refreshing cold drinks.

"You were expecting us?" Elisa asked, as more Lonzas appeared and worked in unison to first barricade the main entrance, and then shove nondescript crates beside each of the pillars.

"Hard not to, your notability. You are plastered all over media."

A holographic projection filled most of the wall behind the front desk and displayed the major headlines. Hysterical colonist leader disrupts Feudatoriate council, it read, amongst a great many out-of-context quotes and soundbites that made it seem like Elisa was spewing unprovoked insults at calm and reserved dignitaries.

Elisa felt ashamed of herself and cursed, having been baited into a trap so easily.

"You might also want to see this, your notability," Lonza continued.

The wall changed to display security camera footage of the lower levels of the sky-rise. An angry mob was assaulting the security officers, and the elevators had been shut down. Compliance's enforcers stood motionless on their pedestals, as if oblivious to the carnage below them.

Before long, a banging noise could be heard against the door. Even though the ground level security hadn't been breached yet, angry people within the sky-rise had joined in on the riots.

Oyana received a message. "Um, Elisa?"

"Yes?"

"The Feudatory himself just summoned you to an immediate audience."

"Well, great, but how do we even get there?"

Lonza interjected. "Your notability, if I may? I am pleased to inform you the Corzant Pension has its own hangar and several aeros to facilitate an evacuation in case of an eventuality such as this one. If you would follow me, please?" he said, grabbing the sleepy Linzi off the counter.

Before long, the exterior wall opened its concealed door and disgorged a single craft, which vanished into the roiling clouds.

Back in the Corzant Pension, the main doors gave way. The vestibule looked deserted, which made the rioters pause. Opposite the entry, projected on a giant red holographic window was the text:

TRESPASSERS WILL BE DISPOSED!!!

A piece of classical music began playing.

The rioters disregarded it, and barged into the hotel.

In unison, a smiling Lonza wearing dark sunglasses emerged from behind each of the vestibule's pillars.

"I warned you," each of them said simultaneously in a teasing voice, raising the pistols they carried in either hand.

As the music picked up, hell broke loose.

Sind Blitze, sind Donner, sang the choir.

The text on the red holographic display disappeared and was replaced by intensely flickering blue strobe light. In an instant, the entire front row of the mob collapsed, crimson blossoming from head wounds. Moments after they sagged to the ground, the second row was felled. The black-suited gunslingers did not let a single shot go to waste, as they divided targets amongst them and slew them with pinpoint accuracy.

in Wolken verschwunden?

The staccato of their weapons fire grew less cohesive as bodies stopped dropping uniformly. The front of the mass of people began wavering, but the pressure of the frenzied mob behind them urged them forward into the killzone.

Eröffne den feurigen Abgrund, o Hölle,

Some of the rioters carried weapons of their own, but they had difficulty bringing these to bear, their line of sight blocked by the mass in front of them, and the gunmen being picked off the instant any of the Lonzas had a clear shot. One rioter raised an automatic weapon above his head and fired blindly over the rest of the crowd. The Lonzas avoided it easily, and the subsequent volley of return fire took care of the arm.

zertrümmre, verderbe, verschlinge, zerschelle

Three more Lonzas emerged from behind the counter and began firing heavy automatic rifles into the crowd from across the vestibule. This gave the rest of the Lonzas on the floor the opportunity to retreat behind their pillars and reload their weapons from the crates full of ammunition that were concealed there.

mit plötzlicher Wut

As they re-emerged, the would-be invasion had turned into a slaughter, and before long, the slaughter turned into a rout. The blood had become a tide that drained itself into the gap below the elevator doors,cascading down the elevator shaft. Across a fifty meter stretch of hallway, corpses lay piled up at least three layers high.

den falschen Verräter, das mördrische Blut!

All of the Lonzas had remained unscathed. Inside the aero, classical music played softly. Lonza chuckled, while Linzi licked itself clean in the passenger seat.

===

"Leave us!", Ross Nnamani roared.

As the door was shut, Ross exploded.

"The outrage!", he bellowed in a deep basso voice. "You came here as my guest, were cloaked in glory by my council, and THIS is how you repay me?"

Elisa trembled involuntarily in the face of the well-controlled outburst of anger. Ross' words carried a special kind of gravitas that made them slam home into people's minds.

"Do you have any inkling of comprehension on the amount of chaos you unleashed?"

A holographic projection filled the ceiling of the vaulted office of the Feudatory.

Mobs ran rampant through the streets, lynching any white-skinned contractor they could find. Images showed the bodies of dozens of slain Flow contractors dangling from a bridge, of uniformed servers dragged by their hair from the premises of their restaurants,butchered in the streets by machete-wielding thugs, and a dead security officer being violated by a masked man holding a stun baton.

Elisa did not need to see more of the grotesque images to learn about the devastation that unfolded below. A quick glance out of any of the floor-to-ceiling office windows showed the clouds bleeding an intense fiery yellow in the dark sky. She was silent.

Much to her surprise, Ross smiled, the mask of his anger dropping from his face. "I thank you for this."

"What? I don't follow..." Elisa spoke in a voice that betrayed confusion.

"The helots can devastate the lower levels and slay as many disposables as they please. It doesn’t put a dent in my energy allowance. They’re not inflicting any serious damage. The underlying infrastructure is quite secure."

"You’re condoning the riots?"

Ross shrugged. "Helots desire for banal entertainment. I provide."

Elisa was shocked. "Not everyone enjoys these riots. What about the people that try to lead normal lives?"

"My dear Elisa, you made it to titled nobility, yet you haven’t figured out the system’s inner workings?"

"You had six millennia, I had six months. Enlighten me."

"The Provider Empire is a meritocracy. A person that has a character compatible with anything resembling a functional society, like say, everyone in your colony, is automatically granted citizenship. Here, such people represent a tiny minority. They are free to leave for worlds that suit them better. Regrettably, these are not the kind of people I must cater towards."

"But Earth is humanity’s homeworld!", Elisa protested.

"And these are humanity’s people!", Ross cast back. "We planetary rulers are not here to please everyone. Earth is just one planet of the quadrillion or so worlds the Empire has. And I can guarantee you one thing, the offering is so diverse that any given person is going to be plain miserable on most of them. You yourself left Earth long ago. Why was that? A honest answer, if you please."

"I... did not fit in. I could not use my talents. I saw the Martians and Centaurans were living in much better conditions. Earth’s society was stagnant...", Elisa admitted.

Ross gave Elisa a telling look.

"But the Provider technology could fix all of this!"

"Fix them? You mean change them into someone they are not? How can you fix a person that does not want to change? In the past six thousand years, none of these idiots have spent a minute on self reflection. They fail to realize that they, and no-one else, are the cause of their own predicament. Not the Providers, nor the Colonists, the contractors, or whomever happens to be the scapegoat of the month. Besides, the Providers are very clear. Those that comply with their Policies are to be provided for. Even the helots."

Elisa was silent for a long time. "Why did you involve me in all of this?", she finally asked.

"You? You had the perfect qualifications to stir the pot. A Solarite hero caught out of her own time, holding diametrically opposite views. It’s quite polarizing. Both citizenship grants and emigrations will go up for the foreseeable future. The council's involvement was all the better, using you as a pawn in their silly xenophobic scheme. None of this will be traced back to me."

"So, what will happen now?", Elisa asked.

"Well, the desired result will be amplified if I make a martyr out of you. I'll have to banish you from Earth."

"I see," Elisa said. "No big loss."

"However, I have a small favor to ask of you", Ross continued. "It'd be so much more effective if I had you disposed too. It would send a clear message to the citizen populace that conditions will not be changing any time soon."

"What are you offering in exchange for this... favor?" Elisa ventured.

Ross held his arms wide. "A favor for a favor."

"I prefer equal and immediate trades. A life for a life," Elisa said.

"Details, my dear notability."

"Oyana. Transferred to my colony, today."

"Deal," Ross said without hesitation.

"Excellent. Now, if you don't mind, I'll see myself out."

"I don't mind at all."

She turned her back on Ross, stepped outside onto the balcony, and leaped into the clouds.

Elisa woke to a sunny midday in her Messier 39 colony.

She was home.