The group of Administrators - former Administrators? No, I'll still need Administrators. These ones though? Maybe... - lead us through the promenade of the Starbase, past the gawking crowds. Now that they're pretty sure I'm not going to start a riot or a war, I had a lot more curious onlookers following a... respectful distance behind. We continued on through the promenade towards a... group of shops? They're small, ramshackle shops, selling hot food and other small trinkets. If tourists came to this Starbase, I'd call it a tourist trap but I have a feeling that many locals relied on places like this for their daily meals no matter how much the Aviens and Mariens said there was plenty of food.

We stood in front of a shop where one of the Insect people was frying something in a large, shallow pan with a flame under it. Oh!

"Rapid River Roaring, what is the name of this species of sapient?" I asked.

"They are known to us as Azurians."

I looked at the Azurian. They were making small efficient movements, transferring food to the large fryer, turning them quickly, and then another person moved the cooked food to a rack to dry.

"Good day, may I have one of those?" I asked gently.

"2 Skys, exact change." They said without looking up. I make a show of patting my pockets dramatically, and then looked at The Smell Of the Ocean and raised an eyebrow.

"You stand in the presence of a Builder! Know your place!" He barks at the Azurian at the fryer.

The Azurian lazily looks up at them, then over at me with my royal blue outfit and crown and wings, and then back to The Small Of the Ocean and says "1 Sky then. Discount."

A laugh escapes me; I really love these Azurians. I needed to make sure they were taken care of. They don't care a single bit about who I was. I looked again at Ocean and say "Well? Pay them please. I would like to try what they're cooking."

Ocean looked at me with a shocked expression. I'm sure they had not planned on this when their day started, but even accounting for that they're still surprised.

You are not how they expect a Builder to be.

Good. Maybe they'll stop trying to treat me like they already know how I'm going to react.

Ocean took out a small purse and digs around and took out a small, green, metallic coin. They plunked it into the box next to the fryer, and the Azurian who was removing the cooked treats handed me one. It was hot and oily and crunchy and delightful.

"These are so good!" I said around a mouthful of food. I swallowed and looked at the Azurians cooking. "Thank you so much, those are amazing." I turned to Ava, Mei and Fer'resi. "You need to try these. Ocean, buy three more!"

The Azurian looked up again. "2 Skys each since they're not Holy."

I looked at Ocean again and raised an eyebrow. They dove into their purse and pulled out six more coins. Three fried treats are produced, and everyone tries them.

Ava gobbled hers down. "Melody! You're right, these are amazing! We have to make sure we can get more from them. I wonder if they'll give us the recipe?"

"Probably, but I know we can't get the ingredients back home." I said with a smile.

"Well then, we'll just have to stay here. These are worth opening up a trade relationship with the folks at home. Mel, Fer'resi, what do you think?"

I looked over and the food is gone. Both of them practically inhaled them. Mei'la was grinning "Melody they're amazing! They taste...familiar. Like a food we ate during one of the festivals."

Fer'resi nodded. "It's very similar to the fried treats we eat during... The Ceasing." He thought a moment.

"The Ceasing?" I asked.

"These days, it's a harvest holiday. When the work in the fields cease and we take a week or two before rotating to our next fields so as to not overwork the soil. It's a time to get together with family and have a party, visit with your neighbors, that kind of thing. There were records of the holiday being related to something else in the old religion, but most people figured it was always a harvest holiday, but now I wonder."

"What, like celebrating the closure of the Gate?" I asked.

"Yes, maybe it originally celebrated when the Builders ceased coming."

Fer'resi looked at his empty skewer thoughtfully. "Well, we can research the history of K'laxi religion later I suppose. And as delicious as these were, why are we here?"

Actually, he's right. I turned to Ocean. "Other than the snack break, why are we here, Ocean?"

With a sigh, he walked between the stands. We follow.

The people running the stands stared as we weaved through them, but nobody stopped us or even asked what we were doing. The benefits of being a Builder with the station Administrators I guess. We reached the wall behind the stands and The Smell of the Ocean looked at Rapid River Roaring. "It's around here, isn't it?"

Rapid River Roaring nodded "Yes, but neither we or any of the Mariens could work out how to open it." They turned to look at me. "Empress, the entrance to the Throne is around here, but as we are not Builders...we don't know how to open the door."

I looked out at the wall. It's... ancient. Like it had been here forever. Soot and dust clung to the walls. There had to be a switch or a lever or something right?

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No. It's designed for a Builder to open.

Yes, but I've been a builder for what, two full days at this point and Empress for one? I don't know what I'm doing.

Think like an Empress. Think like a Builder.

Ugh, that doesn't help. Everything I've felt so far as shown me that they're self righteous, demanding people who just... get what they... want... Is it really that easy?

I looked up at the wall again. We seemed to be in the middle, as near as I could tell. Over on one side, it went for 10 meters or so and then ended in a decoration that looked a little like a pillar. I turned and looked at the other side and... yes, it was the same. This wasn't a wall, it was the door.

I looked at the door now, and thought about it. It looked like it would slide into the floor, or up into the ceiling. I bet it hadn't been opened in centuries, millennia maybe? I don't want to hurt anyone who had set up a shop here.

Think like a Builder, Melody. What do Builders do? They Build.

Okay okay. Let's think. If I had enough Nanites that I could make clothes for myself and my friends and I could make a frigging glowing crown and wings then there was probably enough to be able to...

I looked at the wall and concentrated. Think like a Builder they say? Fine.

A breeze erupted from me and a light fog flowed around my feet towards the wall. It clung to the wall until it covered an area that would be a comfortable doorway. A moment passed, and

"Hey, a door!" Ava said. "How did you do that?"

I turned back to her and winked. "I'm a Builder. I have no idea." Ava giggled.

Mei'la looked at the hole. "What happened to the matter in the wall? You can't just make it disappear.

Hmm, I looked around, the walls didn't seem to get thicker, and I didn't think I took the wall material and rebuilt it into more nanites, but the floor... sure was dusty.

"Look at the floor Mei'la, I think it's dust now." Drifts of dust blew at our feet as she looked. I guess it was the same color of the wall. That must be it. I walked over to my new opening and stood there. It smelled of stale air and dust. There were no lights and no air movement.

"Come on everyone, let's walk purposefully into the dark and scary hole I made into the wall without really having a good understanding about what I'm doing or how I did it!" I called out to everyone as I went through the door.

The light from the market illuminated a small patch in front of me. It was just bare, dusty floor. I looked up and see... nothing. Okay, okay, think like a Builder, act like I owned the place.

Because - in a very real sense - you do.

Okay, first thing I wanted were lights. I thought about how I'd want it to be lit, and concentrated and... There was a loud, distant humming sound and with a dramatic flourish, lights came on in the room, in just the color I was thinking. Ava pushed her way in behind me and stopped dead. "Melody... is that your Throne?"

It was breathtaking. About 100 meters from us, nearly 10 meters over our heads was what can really only be described as a Throne, A wide staircase led up to it with platforms every 10 steps or so. The Throne itself was... massive. It was a chair made of a green shimmering metal. Towering and spindly, it reacheed up behind where the Empress would sit, almost organically, towards the ceiling. Touching the ceiling it spread and branched like the roots of a tree and disappeared into the ceiling. I thought it's connected. Maybe data connections? It was clearly meant to impress, though it doesn't look too comfortable to sit in.

"I think it is, Ava. At least the Throne for this Starbase. The Nanites tell me every Starbase had one."

"Do they all look like this?" She looked around, eye wide.

"I don't know. I suppose in time, I'll go and find out."

Mei'la came in and hearing that, turned to me, "So, you're going to stay? Be their Empress? After how many millennia of them not having one you'll just... show up and say 'Hey, I'm in charge now' ?"

It is your right.

"I-I think that I could do some real good here" I said, weakly.

You don't need to justify it to them.

"How Melody? You're an Information Warfare Officer, you never even had a command."

You are a Builder.

"But, look at the people here, look at the Aviens and Mariens who are in charge hate each other! It won't be long before they start shooting each other!" I'm feeling panicked and I don't know why. Mei'la is right, what was I doing?

She is nothing. You are everything

Mei'la crossed her arms. "The only person who has said that they hate each other is you Melody. Nobody else on Far Reach who has been to the station has seen it."

They can't see. They won't see.

I looked out through the door to the promenade. "The people that live here sure don't look like they're living a free and easy life. We met a slave! Those food vendors we bought treats from sure don't look rich to me. If you look around it looks like... poverty. Like people barely hanging on. I can fix that."

Mei'la kept staring at me. "How Melody? How will you fix it? You don't know the first thing about how to rule."

I whirled around. "Do you? Please, enlighten me then." Wow, I almost used the Voice. I have to be more careful. That was close. I threw up my hands. "So, what do you expect me to do then, just... go home? With all this that's happened to me, with all that's been given to me, to just waste it on tricks and being able to watch movies without the subtitles? Dr. Irenimum says the Nanites can't be turned off. So now I live for who knows how long with the full package giving me the ability, the knowledge and the power to rule and... I don't?"

Mei'la looked at me, eyes wide. "Melody, what are you saying?"

Ava stood next to me and put a hand on my shoulder. "She's saying she's an Empress now, and she intends to rule."

I nodded without thinking. Ava gets it. Ava gets me. No, wait. What's going on, what am I doing? Ugh, I needed a minute to think, my head hurt.

Mei'la turned away and looked over at Fer'resi. "Fer'resi, you talk some sense into her. She isn't interested in listening to me."

Hey, wait a minute, that's not fair

"Hey Mei'la, that doesn't seem fair. I've got... a lot of stuff that I've just been introduced to. I need time to... process it."

"Fine then, let's head back to Far Reach, we can process it while we go to the next system." She turned to leave.

Ņ̶̛̞̬̲̪̲̝͑́͆̈́͌̈́̊͝ͅȍ̸̡̞̫̖͕͈̮͌̍̆́͌͗͛͛͒̌͘!̶̢̛̫̦̺̣͍͕͇̳̟̂̊̓̀̕͜͝

She stops without thinking. She turns and looks at me, fearful.

I clapped a hand over my mouth. Uh oh. "Sorry! Sorry! What I mean is... No. I'm going to stay here and think things through. You can head back to Far Reach if you want." I looked at everyone "You can all leave, you're free to go anytime, But I'm going to keep going and see what's here for me. I needed to do this." The moment I say they're free to go, the Aviens and Mariens with me bolted. They ran away as fast as they could. Ugh, good Empresses don't have their subjects run from them in terror, do they?

No, Great Empresses do.

Mei'la looked at me sadly. "Goodbye, Melody." and turned to leave. Fer'resi looked at her, then back at me, then at her. "I-I'm sorry Melody." He stammers "I-I-I need to get back to Far Reach and... learn more about these translators you got us. Thank you for them, and for showing us how to wear them." He looked back one more time and left.

Ava smoothly transitioned her hand on my shoulder into a hug. "You aren't getting rid of me that easily. I'm here to see this through. This is too cool just to give it all up and go back to Far Reach and continue on like nothing's wrong." I leaned into the hug. Ava knew what I needed right now.

She's right. See it through.

Fine. If I'm the Empress, then I'll be the Empress. With newfound determinization, I walked up the stairs. I approached the throne and looked at it... There's no dust. It's completely clean, how did they manage that trick? I'll have to ask the Nanites later. I turned and planted my rear end on the Throne, lean back in shock and gasp.