Alex suppressed a grin as he watched Monty try to see everything at once. He was glad he put restrictions on the android bodies, otherwise she would be doing things that weren’t physically possible with Human or Alandran neck musculature. The inside of the palace was old, dating back to when most of the lands were not yet unified. The idea of voting in a new Empress every so many years was strange, but they had made it work.

Turning to the the new Captain of the Guard, Mon’Kelron, he asked, “I saw that the gate house was closed and there seemed to be a large throng of people in front of it, is everything ok?”

Mon shook her head, “I doubt an advanced species like yours has what we have started calling ‘crazies’, but we sure do. What you saw was the Eastern gate house coming in, what you did not see was the Western gate house has an entirely different group of crazies. One group believes that Humans are our saviors, and that they brought us from ignorance and had they been longer lived they would have kept the Howron from ever coming to our planet. The other group believes that the Howron are somehow protecting us from worse species out in the universe and that by aligning with the Humans we will lose their protection.”

Alex nodded, “So why are they both picketing the Palace, why are they not arguing with each other?”

The Captain sighed, “Oh, they are, all over the planet. But the ones here are the leaders, and they both believe they have the right to bring their concerns to the Empress. We’ve had full scale riots in some cities already. The Empress is trying to quell the problems with radio broadcasts explaining the current situation, but conspiracy theorist on both sides think even she has ulterior motives.”

As they turned yet another rounded corner in the palace they found themselves in a large hallway with red carpeting. Mon’Kelron brushed her hair back behind her ear before she spoke, “Will you require separate rooms or will you only need one accommodation?” She asked, coughing a bit in embarrassment.

Monty spoke up before Alex, “Oh, definitely separate rooms! Kara has complained enough about his snoring, I don’t want to be subjected to that!”

Alex glared at Monty while sending her an instant message through his HUD, “We’re computers, we don’t sleep, or snore!”

Monty grinned happily as she replied to his instant message, “Just selling the biological story big guy!”

Mon’Kelron coughed again and nodded, “Very well, these first two rooms will be your quarters for the evening. Feel free to freshen up, lunch will be in two hours, my guards will bring you to the Empress’s dining room at that time.”

Alex nodded and handed Monty one of the bags he had been carrying. Mon’Kelron half expected her to drop it to the floor when he let go, but was surprised when she took it with almost no effort. “Stay out of trouble, I’m going to relax for a bit before lunch.”

Monty sighed, “You’re no fun!” She stated as she stuck out her tongue.

Then they both turned and entered their private rooms. Mon’Kelron sighed as she looked to the two guards, “Keep a constant watch on these rooms, we haven’t had any trespassers in the palace proper yet, but now would be the time for one of those idiots out there to try something foolish.”

________________________________

Alex locked the door behind him as he set the duffle bag down on the overstuffed fitting chair that sat beside a full length standing mirror. He took off his flight jacket and threw it on the back of the chair before sitting down on the couch and pulling out a small book. Once done he left his android form and entered the common room VR.

Monty was just fading in as he sat down on the couch beside Kara, “Did you hear the Captain after we shut our doors?”

She nodded her head vigorously, “Of course I did! Sounds like things on the planet aren’t exactly peachy.”

Alex took a moment to examine that turn of phrase, Monty was much older than him and sometimes used very old fashioned terms. “Yeah, I have a feeling that the guards aren’t just for looks. We’ll get to ask more questions at lunch, in the meantime, catch up on the mining drones while I fill in Kara.”

Twenty milliseconds later after describing what he saw and heard in the Imperial palace Kara simply nodded her head. “That seems in line with what our stealth probes have been recording over the past year. The ministry of secrets has attempted to hide most of this, but I have to assume that Kel’Taraan knew that she couldn’t keep this from us.”

Alex shook his head sadly, “She wouldn’t want us to concern ourselves over their problems, I’ll visit her later today and see how she’s holding up.”

Kara eyed him wearily, “She’s of advanced age Alex, no doubt the crew of the Days of Prosperity gave her nanite infusions, allowing her to outlive everyone around her, but even medical nanites have their limits. There isn’t anything other than repairing her broken hip that you can do for her, there is no cure for old age.”

Alex gave her that lopsided grin of his, the one where he knew something she didn’t. “That’s not entirely true…”

Kara sighed with exasperation, “I highly doubt the rebellion gave you some secret to biological immortality.”

Alex shook his head, “Well, not biological immortality.”

Then Kara received a ping, and opening the message she felt her jaw drop. “Alex, these are the plans for the equipment to transfer consciousness into a replicant matrix.”

Alex nodded, “Yup, part of what the rebellion was fighting for was the equality of all Humans whether they be biological, replicant, or AI. If I was one of the captains in charge of rebuilding the rebellion if it failed, I had to safeguard the technology to make new replicants. Thus they entrusted me, and a few others with these designs.”

Kara put her hands on the table, “Are there any more secrets you haven’t shared with me?” She asked with a little heat in her voice.

He nodded his head and she received yet another ping, checking her messages she found yet another set of plans. This time it was of an outdated heavy cruiser design, Mermansk class, and had been out of service for nearly fifty years. “Is that everything?”

He grinned at her, “Yes dear, I really didn’t think it’d matter, since we can’t build the heavy cruisers with the modified shipyards we have now, and I honestly didn’t think we’d find use for the replication equipment until we found more Humans.”

Kara sighed, shaking her head slowly as she was once again reminded of the replication equipment. “Alex, this isn’t something you can lightly offer to these people, you don’t even know if the replication process will work on Alandrans.”

Alex sighed, “I know, but Kel’Taraan practically worships Humans. I don’t know the full story, but I think she had a thing with someone in the last Human crew. Regardless, she would be an excellent resource, and she has little to lose by trying.”

Kara stood up straight and started pacing, “I agree that losing her and her wealth of knowledge would not be good, I just don’t know if we need to throw their civilization into more turmoil than it’s already facing. Did you know they caught an intruder in the Palace grounds just last week?”

Alex raised an eyebrow, “No, I didn’t. Let me guess, you sent me an email on it?”

Kara nodded, “You never check your messages, I had to bring them to your attention even before we joined the rebellion.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Alex came around the table and ran his hand through Kara’s hair, “And I’ve always been grateful for you bringing things to my attention.” He put his forehead to hers, “I’ll try to do better, I promise.”

Kara nodded up to him, “So, are you going to heed my advice or are we going to build the replicant hardware and matrix?”

Alex stepped back and sighed, “I know you’re right, we don’t need to throw too much at them at once. Forget I brought it up.”

As he looked down at the table for something to snack on he felt Kara wrap her arms around his waist and squeezed up against his back before she whispered in his ear, “Fine you big oaf, I’ll start building the equipment, bring it up with her today, but it’s her choice.”

He stood up and spun around to take her in his arms, “I’ll make the offer, if she says no I’ll respect it.”

They stood there holding each other, just enjoying the moment.

__________________________________

Alex closed the book his android had been ‘reading’ for the past two hours. Setting it down on the elegant side table he stood up and took in the room. He hadn’t really looked around earlier, wanting to get back to the VR environment to see what Kara thought of the current predicament on the planet. It was about what he expected, the palace was ancient after all, and built in a time before they had firearms.

Thus the walls were stone, and very thick, with only two tiny windows to allow light to enter into the room. In the past it would have been quite dark even during the day, but overhead lights using electricity lit the room now. From what they could gather from the probes the Alandrans were now about early twentieth century level of technology.

Some things were more advanced, he could tell the bulbs in the light fixtures were LED and not resistive filaments, but he saw they still ran ships and trains off steam. Aircraft were non-existent, whether that was because of lack of technology or something else he did not know. He continued to study the room, some of the walls had tapestries of Alandran women hunting or at war.

The rugs on the wooden floor were also quite elegant, as was the fireplace, which seemed to be powered by natural gas if the sensors in the nasal cavity of the android were to be believed. There was only one other door to the room other than the exit door, turning the handle he found it to be a quite nice bath room.

It was a bath room in the literal sense as well, a huge copper tub sat in the center of the room with copper pipes and valves setup to fill it. There was also a porcelain toilet with a large tank attached to the wall far above the bowl with a pull chain and a porcelain sink with copper valves to run hot and cold water. It was quite odd compared to the thirtieth century rest rooms he was accustomed to, they still used toilet paper, not even a hint of the three sea shells.

Leaving the bathroom he received a message in his heads up display, Monty says it’s time to make our appearance for lunch. Leaving the bath room he closed the door behind him and picked up his flight jacket and put it on. Looking in the mirror he thought it looked rather nice, even if Monty rolled her eyes at it.

Knocking on the door one of his guards opened it, just as Monty was coming out of her room as well. He didn’t miss the way the guard looked him over, “Men must be really rare if she’s checking me out.” He thought to himself as he nodded to Monty.

“We’re ready for Lunch with the Empress, if you two would be so kind as to escort us to her private dining quarters?” He asked as he waved his hand down the hall.

They both nodded almost in unison as one took to the front and the other took the the rear, shepherding them to their location. Alex looked around, exquisite art covered the walls, expensive tapestries were in abundance, as was well crafted and obviously hand crafted furniture in abundance in every room they were led through on their way to the Empress.

Finally they found themselves in a cozy dining room, there was a large wooden table, enough chairs for eight to sit comfortably, some art and tapestries on the walls, but not an extravagant amount. He found that he approved, classy, but not ostentatious. The Empress sat at the head of the table, and a server brought them to either side of her and ensured they were both seated properly.

Empress Shi’Lana put down her tablet and welcomed them both. “I’m pleased you decided to stay a little while this time Alex, and I’d like to get to know you as well Monty.”

Alex decided to cut to the chase, to use one of Monty’s ancient idioms, “We are pleased to be here as well, though we are a little concerned with the current temperament of your citizens.”

He had to give it to her, Shi’Lana didn’t flinch at his less than delicate statement, she was obviously well conditioned. Looking him directly in the eye she studied him for a moment, then sighed, “The return of your people has had mixed reactions from my populous. As well as the parliament. A small reactive group has dusted off the very charter your people helped us use to unite our people to call for a vote to Impeach me.”

This was news, he would have to get with Kara about it when he suddenly realized something and frame jacked to his highest level. He checked his inbox, yup, two hundred thirty three messages. Using its search feature he found that she had indeed informed him of that, and that she thought that for now it was a fringe group yelling invective, but needed to be dealt with at some point by the Empress.

Returning to normal time, which a biological being wouldn’t have noticed his android body freeze, he simply nodded. “Yes, a fringe group for now, but you cannot afford to continue to ignore them. You have, what, two years left on your current term of office? Which leaves you maybe a year before you have to concentrate on your re-election campaign in the Parliament. I hope you have something in the works to deal with this group.”

Monty sent Alex an instant message, which appeared in his HUD, “I saw you frame jack, you didn’t read Kara’s messages again!”

Alex simply sent her an emoji with his tongue sticking out.

Shi’Lana rang the simple brass bell that was in front of her, at once a server entered from the back room with a note pad and paper, “I would like keldaran hot tea, two sweets, one cream, and whatever our esteemed guests would like to drink. Also, bring out the menus, they do not know what we have available.”

Alex suspected she was stalling for a a moment, but decided to play along, “I’ll have the same, what about you Monty?”

Monty looked a bit giddy, and with a twinkle in her eye she said, “I would like to try the khokoto. I’ve heard it was similar to our hot chocolate, I’m interested in testing it.”

Alex glared for a moment at their resident chocoholic who for all intents and purposes seemed oblivious. The Empress waited for the server to leave the room before continuing, “We have a plan in place, which was orchestrated by Kel’Taraan before her fall. Spy-Mistress Isa’Bella is currently implementing it as we speak. Normally I would find these types of tactics tasteless, but I have no time to deal with these fools.”

Well, if it was cooked up by Kel’Taraan, Alex was sure it was dirty and underhanded, “Would you care to elaborate?”

The server chose that moment to reenter the room with their drinks, then placed a menu before both he and Monty and left by the same door she entered. Once this was complete the Empress took a small sip of her tea, nodded, and spoke. “Well, let’s just say the ministry of secrets has been keeping a very close eye on every member of parliament for the past two hundred years. Until now they have never been willing to open up their private files. Now they see this group as a threat to the Aldarian way of life, and are implementing some quite nasty rumors to the news outlets all over the planet.”

Monty giggled at this, “So the ministry has some information on these Ladies in Parliament and is leaking them to your newspapers?”

The Empress nodded, tapping at her tea cup with a finger nail, “Yes, and some of their doings are down right illegal and immoral. Their own constituents will soon be calling for their resignations. Their group will soon be the laughing stock of Parliament if any survive the information dump the ministry is currently delivering. The civil unrest is something that worries both myself and the ministry quite a bit.”

Alex took a sip of the tea, luckily his android body could show a neutral face, even if he drank battery acid, which wasn’t far from what this tea tasted like. He turned off his taste receptors before continuing, “One group calling itself New Beginnings, and calling for the government to cut all ties with Humanity and respect the Howron as your rightful overlords. Then you have another group calling itself Alandra First, and calling for a full mobilization of the government behind the Humans to defeat the Howrons once and for all.”

Shi’Lana nodded, took another sip of her tea, then answered, “The ministry of secrets believes these two groups are also being funded by hidden members of parliament, they are currently tracking financials. I really wish Kel’Taraan was well, this was just the kind of thing she excelled at discovering.”

She rang the brass bell again and once more the servant appeared at once, notepad and pencil in hand, “I will have the zehwel steak, the tubers, and mixed vegetables.”

Alex, a bit irritated at the interruption simply nodded, “The same, but bring me a beer or ale.”

Monty simply slid the menu over, obviously only checking out the deserts, “I’ll have the loran cream pie.”

After gathering the menus and leaving, Alex turned to the Empress, “I might be able to help with the Kel’Taraan problem. I plan to go see her after our lunch.”

He then received a message from Monty, “Um, what’s going on?”

He responded to her, “A little plan I cooked up and Kara is on board with, just go with it.”

The Empress nodded, “More of that magical human technology?”

Alex shrugged, “Something like that.”

An hour later Alex and Monty entered Spy-Mistress Kel’Taraan’s hospital room. It was inside the palace, so stone walls and wooden floors, but the walls here were painted a glossy white color and even the sheets were stark white. There was no medical equipment monitoring her, but there was a glass bottle on a metal rack above the bed that was draining liquid down what appeared to be a rubber tube into a needle that was bandaged to her arm.

The ancient Alandran turned her head to see her visitors, her voice was barely a whisper, “Come to see me off? I’ve overheard the doctors, they say there is nothing more they can do for me.”

Alex shook his head, “What if there was another option?”

Kel’Taraan looked up at Alex, “What kind of option?”

Now Alex grinned down to her from his chair beside the bed, “Can you keep a secret?”