Alex sat at the desk in the office he’d been given, writing up request forms, letters, a statement for Callahan regarding the incident with that diplomat, who had, in fact, lodged a complaint.

Lisril, who had posted herself by the door, shifted from foot to foot. “Do you need to sit?” He didn’t look up.

“No,” she said. “I’m fine.”

He rolled his eyes. “Let me rephrase that; take a seat; we’re not stopping once we’re out in the city.”

She sighed but did as he asked, and he smiled. “Thank you,” he said. “For your help this morning.” Their English lesson had gone pretty well. He had scratched out the alphabet in his, not amazing, handwriting, and she’d helped coach their pupils through them.

It was strange because they couldn’t learn how to speak the sounds without mechanical assistance but could develop a sense of phonetics by what they could hear. Lisril still spoke her ABCs with an odd accent, even to that day.

“Of course,” she said. “How could I do otherwise? Do you know when you’ll be done with that?”

“Soon,” he promised. He could understand her sentiment; this sitting around didn’t really agree with him either. “In fact,” he said. “Why don’t you call for someone to come escort us and get these where they’re going, I’ll finish this up, and we can go inspect our building space.”

She nodded, and he finished his letter as she did as he asked. When she returned, he pushed his pile of documents toward her.

It was a small thing, but she would appreciate the chance to dote a bit. She took the offered pile, and he stood.

“No.” She held up her hand. “It will be a little while; no need to get up yet.”

He resumed his seat, and she took his packet to the MP, and he knew it would be an MP because Lisril wouldn’t have waved a woman down, not a human woman, anyway, she’d asked to deliver their message.

She returned and took her seat with a sigh, glancing at his candle and the light filtering through the slit window. “We might be late, meeting with Dr. Liang.”

He looked to the window himself. “Should we postpone our inspection?”

“No,” she said. “Eli will be there, better to snub an electrical engineer than an Empress.”

“Suppose it is. Anyway, I doubt the doctor will mind; I’ve heard he’s pretty mild.”

“Then that settles it.”

There was a knock, and she stood, offering him her hand. “Shall we?”

He took it with a chuckle, rose, and pressed her fingers to his lips. “I shall be very pleased to accompany you.”

She laughed, and they walked to the door, paused while she straightened his jacket, then she opened it and followed him out.

A guard greeted them, not one of the silent honor-guard sort, just a regular guardswoman. He nodded to her. “We’re to inspect the construction site.”

The guard nodded. “Yes, sir, this way.”

She led them down and out to the periphery of the palace; he would have preferred a dedicated building, but there were political considerations, so the palace it was.

He’d specified a large room near the edge of the structure and on the ground floor to make running cable to it easier. He hoped what was on offer would be sufficient; it would be awkward to tell his host he needed something better.

Finally, they arrived at what appeared to Alex to be some kind of ballroom or feasting hall. He stopped in the doorway, surveying the scene. It would be big enough; he looked up at the ceiling, implants automatically providing exact measurements, probably.

He told Lisril to make a point of getting the room’s exact dimensions, no need to rely on a single data point; then went to join their host.

Elliza stood before a mess of crates stacked along one wall, which contained components that had been sent ahead of them.

She noticed them and offered the shallowest of bows. “M’lord,” she said. “We are pleased to see you.”

He nodded to her. “Thank you, your Magnificence. I see you’re having a look at the supplies.”

“Yes, We confess to having lacked time to inspect them previously,” she said.

He looked at the boxes. “I hope we haven’t inconvenienced you with this meeting.”

She waved him away. “Nonsense, this is a most agreeable moment, and We are pleased to have the opportunity. Might We inquire as to the function of the arrayed?”

He nodded and joined her before the crates. “It’s all a bit technical, and it might be easier to give more details when it’s all assembled, but the simple version is this will allow us stable, instant communication between our planets.

She nodded, he’d given a much better explanation last night, but this was all political theater, the Empress showing official interest in her partner's projects. So the actual details didn’t matter.

“Is it necessary that the device be so large?”

He cocked his head; that was a relatively interesting question. “Yes and no,” he said. “If you only want to send one message, we could make it almost small enough to fit in the palm of one hand, but all this,” he waved his hands at the packages. “Is required to get repeatable communications. This isn’t all of it either; the brain, if you will, the part that sends and receives the messages, is quite delicate. It probably wouldn’t survive coming down on a shuttle; once the rest is finished, we’ll construct a space elevator for that, and I’ll install it myself.”

Elliza nodded. “Something to that effect had been mentioned to Us during Our discussions on the matter.”

“Good,” Alex said. “I think this is all I need to see for now; thank you for taking the time to meet me.”

She repeated her little bow. “No, it has been a pleasure to accommodate you. But, on the subject of accommodation, would m’lord be amenable to taking his supper in Our quarters this evening?”

He chewed on his lip, thinking back to the previous night’s conversation with Lisril; honestly, he still had his doubts. “I wouldn’t want to impose.”

“No, it would be no imposition whatever,” Elliza insisted.

He shrugged, mentally; what the fuck? “Then how could I refuse?”

“Excellent.” She really did sound pleased, too. “Then We shall eagerly await the evening, and M’lord should, of course, feel welcome to extend Our invitation to his women. Now, if you will excuse Us, We should be mortified if We delayed you any longer.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Alex returned her bow this time. “Thank you, your Magnificence.”

Then, he was alone with a grinning cat. “She likes you,” Lisril whispered.

He rolled his eyes. “Let’s go; we’re late enough as it is.”

She offered no comment but a giggle and followed dutifully in his wake.

They walked together out though the palace’s tall arched doors, into the the courtyard, enclosed by high whitewashed curtain walls. Between the walls and the snow the morning light was dazzling and his eyes were less sensitive than Lisril’s.

She didn’t show her discomfort, though, leading him to the waiting coach and helping him inside.

As soon as the door closed, Alex felt the vehicle jerk into motion, the driver out in front getting the horses moving.

It was an uncomfortable, but short ride, the coach transfering every bump and jerk to the vehicle’s occupants.

The coach eased to a stop and Lisril helped him down into the streets, and he led her into the building.

The power plant was a hideous, brutalist monstrosity growing like a tumor out of the beautiful native architecture, which Alex found reminiscent of the gothic period back on Earth.

He made a note as they stepped through the door, to chew someone’s ear off about erecting a facade to fix that.

Immediately, as they entered, a burly Dyrantisa woman stepped forward to greet them. “You must be the engineer,” she said. “We were expecting you earlier; did you have some trouble?”

He looked around. “Where’s Liang?”

The woman blinked in surprise. “He- the Doctor’s other duties called while we waited, I-”

“Well, go find him.”

The woman gaped, clearly not used to being dismissed by a man. “The doctor is-”

“Employed,” he said. “By the Departments of State and Defense, and will make time for the most important infrastructure project in human history.”

Lisril put a hand on his shoulder and stepped around him. “Please,” she said, seamlessly assuming the role of good cop. “Forgive him. M’lord has a hectic schedule, and we still need to keep an engagement with the guilds to deliver an Imperial writ. So if there’s any way we can speed things along here….”

It wasn’t strictly true; they didn't have a meeting scheduled, but the mention of Imperial business got the woman moving, though she still didn’t look happy.

“Thank you,” he said, once the other woman was gone.

Lisril returned to his back and put her hands on his shoulders, rubbing them gently. “I must say,” she said. “I feel like I’m seeing a new side of you these past hours.”

He leaned back against her, enjoying her touch. “Well, I don’t have to make her happy.”

Her tongue flicked over his earlobe. “Don’t hold back too much,” she whispered. “I rather like it.”

“Save it for the bedroom, Kitten,” he chuckled. “We’re on the clock.”

“You’re not hourly.”

He snorted. “I guess I’m not.”

Still, she backed away, and soon their host joined them. A diminutive little man, Alex didn’t know much about Liang, only, he’d come from China as a refugee when the trouble there had kicked off. It had been a big deal for a little while, and then the media had lost interest.

“Dr. Hagan,” Liang’s voice was soft and high, a little nasally. He spread his arms as he approached. “It’s good to see you.”

Alex nodded and offered his hand to shake. “Sorry I was late,” he said. “I ended up with more paperwork than I was expecting.”

“Not at all,” Dr. Liang said. “I’m just glad you made it, my-” The little man glanced at his forewoman. “Employees have told me the streets are somewhat more dangerous during the day, thieves and the like.”

Alex nodded. “I’m happy to tell you we had no trouble.”

Looking at the man. Alex got an idea of why the forewoman had seemed so shocked at his challenging her; he didn’t think this mousey little guy would stand up to an actual kitten, let alone his.

Liang smiled. “Good, would you care to have a look around?”

Alex glanced at a clock hanging on the wall. “I think I can give you a little time, but we’ll have to make it fast.”

“I’m sure you’re eager to get underway,” Liang agreed.

He, the forewoman, and Lisirl followed the engineer through the building, occasionally stopping as he pointed something or other out. Finally, he stopped in front of a large window overlooking a room where active construction was taking place. “This will be the boiler,” he said. “The first new coal plant humanity will build in two generations.”

Alex nodded. “If you don’t mind my asking,” he said. “Why not fusion?”

“A fair question, there are two primary reasons; the first is, we aren’t expecting too much demand to begin with; a fusion plant won’t be immediately necessary. Secondly, the concept of lighting a fire to boil water is penetrable to the local population; the diplomats thought it would be an easier sell if we started with somewhat familiar concepts, just until the locals saw the benefits of electricity,” Liang paused, looking expectantly to Alex.

They weren’t giving Dyrantisa enough credit; then again, how would he explain igniting a star in the middle of their city?

“As long as it’s reliable,” he said at last. “I think I’ve seen enough; let’s work out the details.”

Dr. Liang nodded and turned to the forewoman. “Thank you for your assistance,” he said. “Ms. Sezechel, would you be good enough to check on the work crews now?”

She glanced at Alex and Lisril, seeming reluctant, but finally nodded. “Of course, but if there’s aught you need….”

“Yours will be the first name to cross my lips,” the doctor said. “I promise.”

The woman smiled and went off to do as she was asked.

“Have you had any trouble?” Alex asked.

“A little,” the doctor admitted. “Some of the women were maybe a bit more- eager than they should have been, but I think they mostly worked themselves out.”

Alex nodded. “Good,” he said. “I’m glad you’re happy together.”

Liang coughed. “We’re not, that is, I’m her superior, it would be totally-”

“Don’t worry about it,” Alex said. “I won’t tattletale. Come on, let’s sit and hammer things out.”

Liang guided them to his office, sitting and motioning for them to join him. “I understand the energy requirements for this project are rather demanding.”

Alex nodded. “It needs to be constant, and the power needs to be very clean; any interruption in power or significant fluctuation in voltage will destroy the quantum communications array. The first will be solved with a backup generator at the palace, constantly running, so failover won’t result in loss of the array. For the second, I have a schematic with me.”

“Yes,” Liang said. “I’ll have a look at it then.”

Alex pulled the document out of an internal pocket and folded it out onto the table for the doctor to examine.

“I see,” Liang said softly. “Yes, a dedicated line, hm.” He pointed. “These are power conditioners, active ones. Is it quite necessary to have so many?”

Alex shrugged. “Not really,” he said. “But DoD mandated the extra redundancy, you know how it is.”

“I see,” Liang murmured. “Passthrough in case of a failure, it will add to the complexity; how will we manage maintenance?”

“We’ll have a primary line,” Alex said. “And five failover; if everything works, the failover lines should face less wear.”

“Yes,” Liang nodded. “So if we need to move off the primary for maintenance, we can just turn it over to one of the backups. Reasonable, or, no, quite extravagant, but I suppose it is an important project.”

“I wish we had known about this requirement at the outset of this project,” the little man mumbled, more to himself than anything else. “But- no, it should be fine; we can modify what we’ve done to accommodate your needs.”

“I can have a copy of this sent over to you,” Alex said.

“That sounds like a good idea,” Laing agreed. “I suspect you’ll be having a similar talk with our itinerant friends?”

“Yes,” Alex said. “Would you happen to know where they are?”

“I’ve a map,” Liang dug through his desk. “Somewhere… ah!” He put a bit of parchment down, and Alex took it. It was a map of the city, with the engineering team’s expected route for the day drawn on it different stopping points marked with times.”

“You can have that,” Liang said. “If you want.”

Alex shook his head, marking the heading they’d need to take on his heads-up. “That won’t be necessary.” He handed the map back.

“If you insist.” Liang took it and returned it to its place. “And do remember what I said; I’ve no reason to doubt my lady’s warning.”

“I’ll bear it in mind,” Alex said. “But I’ve brought ample protection.”

“Oh!” The little man gasped. “I’ve been terribly rude, haven’t I?” He turned to Lisril. “Please, forgive me; I get so caught up in my work.”

“No, Not at all, we’re here for a particular purpose, and I’m worthless in conversations like this one,” she said.

“Regardless,” the man insisted. “I should have at least said hello since it appears to be too late now; I hope you’ll accept my apology and assurance that it was quite pleasant to meet you.”

She nodded to him. “You are pardoned; think no more of it.”

“Thank you,” Liang said and turned back to Alex. “Can you find your own way out? I should check on the women.”

Alex nodded. “We’ll manage.” He collected his schematic, and they stepped out of the office along with Dr. Liang.

“Good day, doctor,” the little man said. “And to you too, of course, Mrs. Hagan.”

Lisril nodded, and the man was gone, off to corral his workers. “He was nice,” Lisril said.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes,” she said, “he reminds me of a Dyrantisa man.”

“Considering a divorce?”

“Don’t even joke,” she said harshly. “Of course not, just- I worry as to how he manages a bunch of unruly women.”

Alex started walking. “Seems to me he doesn’t.”

“Oh?”

“You didn’t catch it?” he asked. “Why do you think he asked that forewoman to go look after the women? She’s probably the one really in charge, and for good behavior, you get a glimpse of m’lord."

She hummed to herself. “I suppose it makes sense.”

“Anyway,” he said. “Sorry, I’m so unmanly.”

“Who says I want you to be?” She licked his cheek as they stepped out onto the street. “We, Dyrantisa, have also found our true partners.”

He took her hand and gave a squeeze. “Would you care to lead me, m’lady?”

She batted her lashes at him. “Why I would be honored, sir.”