"Oddly enough, no, I can't."
Caoimhe stared at the course through the system."How odd."
"This seems like an elaborate hoax," Eleanor said."I wonder if they're trying to do something deceptive for the war efforts?"
"Maybe," Caoimhe said.
"I don't have anything anywhere on that course or anywhere around it," Freya said."At least nothing I can track."She put her tablet down."Maybe she's right.Maybe it's just a hoax."
"It is possible."
A knock at her door made Caoimhe turn."Yes?"
It was an aid to the Senate."Imperial Princess, you are scheduled for a meeting in the Senate chambers."
"Of course."She glanced back at the others."Duty calls."She touched the tablet and glanced at her sister and Freya."Don't mention this again."
"As you wish, Imperial Majesty," Freya said.
Eleanor nodded.
She turned to the aid."Let us be off."She started to follow the aid."Tell me, did you get your mother's ailment taken care of?"she asked as they headed toward the transport that would take her to the Senate rotunda.
While she listened to the young aid's update on his mother, her mind kept dancing back to what she'd received.There had to be more to that.
There just had to be.
It was far too coincidental for nothing to be there on that route.
Usually,when spending a day around the senators, Caoimhe came back exhausted and drained, for there was so much information to ingest.She would devote most of her time smiling and nodding and pretending that she didn't understand what was going on.Many of the senators would spend hours repeatedly telling her things and treating her like a child.
Most would, anyway.
There were a few who knew she was much savvier about the senate's structure and workings.She just chose to seem naive so that she could better learn where the senators' loyalties lie.She hated being deceitful, but there was no other way to handle being in the senate.When she'd first arrived and started attending meetings, she made the mistake of correcting senators when they said one thing, then changed their tune a month later.It got her in a lot of trouble at first.
Before she understood how things worked in the senate.
However, she learned how to work the senate like she worked anything else she needed to.
Today, however, was most interesting.
Because there was a topic that was being discussed--military technology advancement in the Senate.The determination if it was time for the Terran Empire to raise the stakes on their technology.New developments in weaponry, including some cloaking technology that could be used in military applications.
One of the senators had mentioned that the tech was tested and proved stable on a large scale.That they were just working on moving it down to a smaller scale.
When she got back to her room, she was alone and confirmed that she was utterly alone.No servants in a corner cleaning or something because she would test out the idea.And if she was right, she didn't want any witnesses.
She pulled up the route that had been in the message and set up a scanning system along that route.The computer said it could take an hour or two to determine if anything was there.The course wound all through the Terran Empire territories.At sub-light speeds, it was a route that would take months to follow.Almost like a slow cruise ship's journey through the stars.Except this route took the most unremarkable path.She overlaid all the Terran Empire space travel lanes over the top of it.Anything that would be worth seeing this route avoided.Any known paths through the stars this avoided.Carefully.Whoever had created this flight plan didn't want anyone to know that ship was out there.
And if someone was keeping it a secret, then, Caoimhe wanted to know what it was.
She let the tablet run its scanning program, and she undressed, putting on some comfortable clothing and unclipping her hair.She probably could have gotten someone to help her, but she didn't want the assistance.Sometimes, being left alone was the best thing she could ever have.
She laid all the hair clips on her vanity and picked up her favorite hairbrush to work the knots and tangles out of her hair.Each stroke of the brush was like a stressor being brushed away.She'd always liked getting her hair brushed.Her mother used to brush both her and Eleanor's hair when they were kids.It hurt her heart to know that Eleanor didn't remember those things.There were so many things that Eleanor had removed from her memories--rather, that her father had removed.
Caoimhe remembered.
She remembered everything about their mother, including that she had been going to the Rhimodian planet to find a way to make peace between the Rhimodians and the Terran Empire.Find common ground and make a friend.At least, that's what she'd told her when they were heading on the ship.
