The Palace rose at the center of the city—like a needle trying to pierce the sky. It rose so high its tip reached through the clouds and could not be seen from the ground. Its walls were made of black marble—the hardest type known to man, that could only be found on Qreghan VI. Those sentenced there spent their lives toiling in the mines, gathering the precious stone.

The inner halls were a testament to the wealth and power of the Imperium. The walls were made of jewels, the railings covered with emeralds and diamonds. Floors and ceilings were made of solid gold. Expensive paintings and carpets with intricate motifs were everywhere.

Halden stopped at the reception, a little intimidated by so much luxury.

“I... I have an audience with the Emperor.”

The woman at the desk barely looked up. Her voice sounded bored.

“Name?”

“Halden Roche.”

She tapped on her TriVid screen, read for a moment, then nodded without looking up.

“Third floor, second door on the left. If you get lost and don’t report it immediately, you will be arrested.”

He blinked. “Uhm, and how would I report it?”

She handed him a small triangular device.

“Keep this plugged into your wristpad during your visit. Press the side panel if you need assistance. Failure to return it before you leave will get you arrested.”

He stared at the device, then at the woman—who’d already gone back to her TriVid screen.

“Alright,” he muttered, “thank you.”

The woman ignored him.

He plugged the device into his wristpad and walked toward the huge and luxurious staircase at the back.

When he reached the third floor, he found himself at a fork. One hall went straight ahead, another was to his right, and the third to his left. There were doors everywhere.

He blinked. Hesitated.

“Well, no wonder people get lost here...”

He decided the left corridor made more sense and knocked on the second door on the left side.

“Come in!”

He stepped into a triangular room, as richly decorated as the lobby and halls.

A small man sat behind a desk. He looked up with a frown.

“Well, then? What is it? I don’t have all day!”

“I have an audience with the Emperor,” he repeated.

“You do, do you?”

He nodded. “Halden Roche.”

“Well, then, what are you doing here?”

“The reception sent me. They said—”

The man clicked his tongue in annoyance, motioning for him to come forward.

“Let me see your pass. It’ll be quicker.”

He stepped forward and held out his hand.

The clerk tapped on the device, then looked at the data that appeared on his TriVid screen.

“Ah! Yes. Of course. I see the problem. You are not in the right place at all.”

“I wasn’t sure which hall—”

“The problem isn’t the hall. The problem is the floor. You should be on the twenty-third.”

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“Oh. I was told the third.”

“Well, you were told wrong.”

Halden frowned. “Do I really need to walk up twenty floors? That’s a lot of stairs.”

The man rolled his eyes. “Just take the elevator. You’ll get there quicker. You’re already running late, Mr. Roche. You better hurry if you don’t want to get arrested! It’s to the left, at the end of the hall.”

He grimaced and nodded. “Very well. Thank you.”

“Go on, then! I don’t have all day.”

Halden turned and walked out.

He glanced to the left and saw a lengthy hall with many doors on each side. At the very end, another, larger one. He hurried toward it and saw it was the elevator.

As he rode it up to the twenty-third floor, he wondered how he would find the room he was supposed to go to if people kept giving him bad information.

He was relieved to find only one hall in front of him—though he could see openings further down. He went to the second door on the left, crossed his fingers, and knocked.

A buzzer buzzed, a green light lit up on a panel next to the door, and the door slid open.

He walked into another triangular room. This one was larger, with a row of chairs against the wall to his right. Across from him was a reception desk, much like the one in the lobby.

Another woman sat there, waiting for him.

“Yes?” she asked with a smile.

It was a pleasant change.

He stepped up and offered his device.

“Halden Roche. I have an appointment with the Emperor.”

The woman scanned the device, looked at the information on her screen, and nodded.

“You are five minutes late. Alright. Please take a seat and wait for your turn. I will call your name when your time comes.”

None of this was anything like what he had expected.

And if he was late, why did the Emperor not receive him immediately?

He walked to an empty chair and sat.

In the half-hour that followed, two men were called and stepped through a door on the left wall. He never saw them come back out, and that made him nervous.

Finally, the woman called his name.

“You may now go through the door.”

She motioned to his left.

“Thank you,” he said as he stood and went through.

This time, he entered a small rectangular room that was so bare it was shocking. Especially after all the luxury displayed until now. The walls were plain white plaster, the ceiling was wooden, and there were no decorations whatsoever.

All there was was another desk, and a small man who looked up at him with a frown.

“Halden Roche?”

“Yes. That’s me.”

“You’re late.”

“I’ve been waiting for thirty minutes...”

“That’s no excuse.”

“I’m sorry?”

The man grunted. “Take a seat.”

There were two chairs across from the man, so he picked one and sat.

“Is it too late to see the Emperor?” he asked, worried that all these delays might have compromised this opportunity.

The man flipped through some papers that were on the desk before him. He snorted without looking up.

“You people always have unreasonable expectations. Your meeting is with me, no one else.”

“What? But I asked to see—”

The man glanced up. “You really thought the Emperor would receive random strangers out of the kindness of their heart? Come, now! You can’t be that naïve. Now, how about you tell me what this is about?”

Halden stared at the clerk. Was this for real?

“I... What I have to say is for the Emperor’s ears only.”

The clerk dropped the sheets of paper he’d held and placed his hands on the table, palms down. His eyes met Halden’s.

“Do you know how many times I hear that? At least twenty a day. Do you know how many go through to the Emperor? So far, I’ve only had two. In five years.”

Halden cringed, though part of him wondered how those two had pulled it off.

When he asked, the man laughed.

“I’m the one who decides what goes through or not. So it’s quite simple. If you don’t want to talk to me, then you can just stand and leave. Of course, if you do that, you can be certain your message will never reach the Emperor. Your only other option is to say what you have to say and let me do my job.”

The man had a point. Halden thought about it for a moment, then nodded.

“Very well. I’m a technician—”

“We know everything about you, Prof. Roche. How do you think you got this appointment so quickly? Please stop wasting my time and get to the point already.”

“Ah. Very well. I just got back from a trip to Nad’irith, a minor world out in the Tin’kisti Belt—”

“I hope you didn’t come here just to tell me about your vacation.”

Halden was growing annoyed. He clicked his tongue and shook his head.

“What I found there is of vital importance. A source of thilium ten times greater than any we’ve found before.”

The man straightened in his chair—the scientist had his attention now.

“Go on,” the clerk said.

Halden shifted in his chair, trying to find the best way to describe his experience.

“You have to understand, having never dealt with a source of this magnitude, we had no way of knowing what this much thilium could do. But my experience there leads me to believe that... well...”

“Yes?”

“I walked into it, and I found myself traveling through time.”

The man squinted at him. “I see.”

He looked down, tapped on his TriVid, grabbed the sheets of paper, and tossed them into a drawer.

“Thank you, Prof. Roche, for this interesting report. We will be in touch.”

“But—”

“You are dismissed.”

An opening appeared in the wall behind the man.

The clerk had gone back to working on his TriVid, having seemingly lost interest in him.

So was this it?

No one would believe him?

Would he take this incredible discovery to his grave?

He stood and as he started toward the opening, a bell rang.

The clerk held up a hand.

“One moment, please.”

Halden blinked and glanced down.

The man wasn’t looking at him, though he still held his hand up. He must have been listening to a vircell message.

He suddenly stood and quietly walked toward another wall. The clerk tapped on it three times and a new panel slid open. He stepped aside and motioned for Halden to go through.

“The Emperor’s right hand has decided to grant you an audience. If you’ll please...”