I won’t lie, I was nervous. I’d supped with important people before, but that was different… this entire thing was different. I was going to be dining with people who had control over entire planets, not just a few million people. Compared to them, I was nothing, insignificant. But I had to present myself as being anything but. I was representing my people, and technically, only my people. But I was also now the only other representative of what could be considered an Alliance species, so I had to make them look good too. I suspect Intra was going to do the same for her own people, after all if the Imperium ever opened up relations with the Alliance, they should have a good outlook on the digital side of things.

The outfit Intra had crafted for me was… well, snazzier than the stuff I currently owned. It had all the little hidden things that my clothes normally did these days, but it was certainly far more fashionable as well. I felt… strange wearing it, like I was someone else, and it didn’t help that a servant had worked on my hair either. That just felt weird, like having your mother cut your hair but it’s not actually your mother.

I stood outside the door to the dining hall, finding myself still flanked by the ever silent drones. All of a sudden, a hand landed on my shoulder, adorned with simple rings and just by looking at this hand I knew it was Intra.

“You shouldn’t sneak up on people like that.” I say, and she chuckles, moving into view. She’s dressed wildly out of character, no longer sporting the ancient style robes that she normally wears, but a sleek, purple dress with gold and white accents. Even her hair is different, and she’s… wearing makeup? I’ve never seen her wearing that sorta thing before.

“Well it’s hard to not sneak up on people when one is made entirely of projected light. But I’ll endeavor to not do that in the future.” She smiled, then her expression turned a little more concerned. “It’s okay to be nervous you know.”

“I know, I just… I’m less worried about my appearance and more about what I might say. I fear I might make a fool of myself.”

“You’re young Ula, making a fool of yourself is almost guaranteed. It’s what you do after that matters. Even if you stumble, don’t stop trying to move forward. Don’t look back, don’t hesitate, just keep moving forward.” She looked like she was about to say more when the doors started to open and she straightened herself up. I followed her example and we were admitted into by far the nicest dining room I’d ever seen.

“Ambassador Ula and Lady Intra!” A servant announced, and we realized that we wouldn’t be dining with just the Imperial family, but the court as well. Even Intra seemed surprised by this, for I saw the corner of her mouth spasm and even her eye did the same. Maybe that was just some sort of graphical glitch or something though… Either way, there had to be at least forty extra people in attendance, milling around while waiting for the Imperial family to arrive.

We were suddenly the center of attention, and I was rather glad Intra had picked out my clothes, because I was easily on par with everyone else in the room. “Intra, I think we’re being watched.” I say softly, and she looks at me with a raised brow and a soft smirk.

“Are they? I hadn’t noticed.” The doors closed behind us and we were suddenly presented with a strange looking man who was clearly not Eltrani, but something else. Intra ran a quick search through the public archives of the palace and then sent the results to me as well.

He was an Oh’u, a very large species. They were one of the few species that was not primarily organic in nature, but would be classified by the Alliance as a Lithoid. They were-according to the archives at least-a very martial people. And this was further evidenced by the posturing we were now being subjected to.

“I do not recognize either of your species, are you new to the Imperium?” He said, his voice rumbling like magma, and I shot a lance at Intra, who returned it before speaking for the both of us.

“We are, though we are not subjects of his majesty. Merely newcomers.” She said, and he squinted, leaning down towards her a bit. He had six eyes… Or something close to eyes.

“Then why are you here?” Ah, he was fishing for a fight, I would just stay out of that then and gladly took an offered drink when it was presented, though Intra politely refused, a drink of her own materializing in her hand.

“Well, I presume it would have something to do with the fact that we returned Crown Prince Zreeth safely to his family, and in the process took down an enraged Kel’kari.” She said that so blandly, and we both heard the surprised but gentle gasps from the other guests.

“You lie, nobody has killed a Kel’kari in over a thousand years!” He scoffed, and went to poke Intra’s chest in a threatening manner, only for his finger to pass right on through her and out her back. Her image fluctuated a bit as he recoiled in surprise, and while yawning she took a swig of her drink.

“Firstly, I do not lie, I actually can’t lie, it’s not allowed in my programming. And secondly, please do not attempt to touch me, it won’t work and it makes my code feel weird.” We noticed then that the room was deathly silent, and people were starting to creep backwards away from us.

“Y-you are a digital being!” The lithoid said, and Intra nodded. “H-How did an A.I. get to be here!? We’ll have you purged from the system!”

“H.I. if you please, there’s a distinct difference. And I should hope you don’t, I am an Imperial guest after all, I don’t think his majesty would be overly happy if you murdered one of his guests, even a digital one.” She suddenly smiled and did a curtsy, bowing her head slightly. “My name is Intra, H.I. of the Terran Alliance and I come in peace.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

He and the others hardly seemed convinced, but Intra disengaged herself from this little show and turned to a servant who was shivering slightly in fear, leaving me with the large lithoid, who swallowed in a rocky sort of way.

“And uh… I’m Ambassador Ula, of the Imrani. Not an H.I., purely organic for me.” I say, flashing a hopefully calming smile up at the man, who does seem to relax a little.

“H-How did your people make something like that and survive?” He asked, as others crowded around me now to hear my answer, I felt what little confidence I had start to shrivel up, but I pressed forward, just like Intra said I had to.

“Well uh, you see we didn’t. My people are… honestly, compared to you we’re primitives. We don’t even have anything like this, let alone the numbers or the smarts to spread across the stars. If anything, it was Intra who inadvertently played a role in our creation.” This caused a few more surprised gasps, but even the surly lithoid seemed intrigued.

And for the next ten or so minutes, I became the life of the party, telling them all of how my people came to be, and our current predicament… Minus a few things like the fact that we were technically fugitives and such. As surly as he was, Lord Ambassador Balvunn as he was called could actually be fairly nice. Before long I was talking freely and had them all eating out of the palm of my hand as Intra would say. I realized I was fitting in easily enough, though that might not last once their curiosity was sated. But for now I would bask in it.

Intra, meanwhile, stood off to one side, near the wall and watched with only a smile on her face, letting me handle the crowd without aid.

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

I watched Ula as she played the crowd. She had found her element, I only hoped it didn’t go to her head. Some good people had turned sour after getting a taste of this sorta life, and I didn’t want to see that happen to her. But she was doing a good job of it, and had relaxed after only a few minutes of continued conversation.

I, meanwhile, had quietly asked a servant to remove whichever chair was supposed to be mine and that when the time came to actually eat that I would not be served anything. They had looked confused by all of this, till I reminded them of my particular form of existence. The look of dawning understanding was priceless, and they oh so quietly removed my chair from the table, which I replaced with one of my own. Considering the palace did not have a hard light system, I couldn’t actually sit upon any of the furniture here.

I turned my attention briefly to the room itself, meandering around while Ula talked and cavorted, and I appreciated the fine works of art on display, though I ended up noting I needed to avoid the head of the table as there was some defensive tech within the seats of the Imperial family that messed with my projection, and by extension the rest of me as well.

Time can fly, even for a digital being and we all heard the doors open one more time, the Imperial family striding in. In silence we all moved to our appropriate places at the table, and waited for the Emperor and his family to be seated, before doing the same.

Ula and I were sat right next to one another, and strangely enough she was placed right beside Zreeth, which I found interesting. We were placed to the Emperor’s right, and across from Zreeth was his twin brother Rutaq, who seemed… bored. Or perhaps he was just focused more on his work as the Lord Inquisitor more than anything else.

With his wife on his left at the head of the table, the Emperor looked over all of his guests and then stood, beaming as much as he could with a beak. “Honored friends and esteemed guests of far flung reaches, tonight we are gathered to celebrate the safe return of my son, and to honor the actions of those that returned him to us. Tonight we have two individuals from outside explored space, two individuals who risked life and limb to return Crown Prince Zreeth to us.”

I was smiling softly, as was Ula, but my eyes detected a near invisible twitch from Rutaq when his father called Zreeth the Crown Prince. I would have to keep a watchful eye on Rutaq I felt, in case he tried anything that would pit him against his family, and against us.

“To Ambassador Ula of the Imrani, and Lady Intra of the Terran Alliance, may they live long and prosperous lives, and bring glory to their people!” The Emperor toasted, and the others raised their glasses in toast. It had Ula blushing fiercely, her cheeks turning a rich shade of purple and even I blushed softly. I was rarely ever toasted, nor praised. With that out of the way, the Emperor sat and sighed, before clapping his hands together. “Now, let us eat! And I would like to hear from you both exactly how you came to be in this region of space!” He looked at us expectantly, and I just knew that we would be talking for a good long time.

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

Elliot Kirkland had been in the brig several times over his career, but this felt different. Worse. For one thing, the service was terrible and the food was somehow worse than an MRE. How that was possible he didn’t know, but it was, and it was awful. The guards were decent though, for the most part. One of them would play chess with him whenever they got the chance, so that was nice. At least he wasn’t going to die of boredom anytime soon.

Perhaps most annoyingly though, he had had to relearn how to live with only one working arm, they’d disconnected his robotic prosthesis before incarcerating him, which left him with just the one fleshy arm and let’s just say certain activities tended to go far more smoothly if one had both arms.

Today he was leaning against the wall of his cell, eyes closed when he heard the distinctive whine-crack of a rifle going off somewhere else in the facility. His eyes snapped open and he pushed himself into the farthest corner on the same wall as the door. If someone was here to kill him, they’d have to work for it because he wasn’t about to just roll over.

He heard the rushed footfalls of guards passing his cell, then the continued sound of gunfire before heavy footsteps approached, followed by the sound of a brief struggle and some muffled speech. Promptly, the door was blown off its hinges by the body of a guard hitting it with extreme force, the two sliding into his cell and going still against the far wall.

Without waiting to see if the newcomer was friendly or not, he rushed the door and cocked his fist back, swinging with every ounce of strength he had before his hand was caught, and a familiar voice spoke.

“Tsk, Admiral, really? Is that how you greet an old friend?” The figure asked, clad in heavy armor, complete with a full helmet. Even through the built-in speakers he knew that voice.

“Horus?” He questioned, and the figure nodded.

“In the flesh, so to speak. Here, I figured you could use a hand.” The H.I. said while holding up Kirkland’s robotic arm. That earned him a glare as the Admiral locked it into place, the prosthesis coming online quickly.

“The hell are you doing here?” He asked, and Horus glanced over his shoulder.

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m breaking you out. We all know the charges against you are bogus, and those of us on your side want you safe. Especially after what happened to High Admiral Keramati.” Kirkland’s blood ran cold, and he frowned before planting a hand on Horus’ shoulder.

“Tell me everything, but do so on the way out.”