6
"So this is what you want?"The Emperor asked Caoimhe.They were alone in the throne room, and the lighting was low.Made him and his throne look high and dominating.Like he was some sort of god.
He loved to intimidate with this room.It was arrogant and dominating like he was.Caoimhe tried not to let his theatrics affect her, but there was a sense of fear when she had this kind of audience with him.
Audience with her father.
How sad was that?Knowing that she had to arrange a time to have an audience with him?
He leaned forward and snarled at her."Peace with those mechanical abominations?"
"We can do this."She kept her posture rigidly straight, and she did not let herself seem even the slightest bit intimidated by his tactics.She was because anyone who came in his presence was.Who she would get--the father or the ruler--was always in question.
"Youthful optimism.You are still far too young to truly understand the way of the universe."
She gritted her teeth."The fighting has to stop.Have you not seen what it is doing to the people?Our resources have been so consumed by this war, we have nearly nothing in reserve anymore.Our people are starving in the streets.Even those who love and support the Terran Empire are abandoning us."She had prepared for this conversation and brought data to back up her claims, ready to convince her father with logic and reason.
That would be something he would respect.
Logic.
He waved his hand."If they are not loyal, then they are our enemy."
Well, she would need more than common sense and logic for her father to listen to her.Rather disappointing if she thought about it.Though now was not the time to think about her father's motives.She just had to get his permission to pursue this.She shook her head."You are so determined to continue this war.What are you hoping to achieve?"
"They stole the Sol system from us."He said it in such a way, it was as if the very phrase was enough to justify a war that had continued for over a decade.It almost made him sound like a petulant child.
"It had been there, unoccupied, for generations.What makes it so valuable now that they have it?"
"It should be ours.The Terran Empire should develop through expansion.Even your mother understood that.Expansion is the only way to grow."
"Not at the expense of another species."
"They're not a species!They are humanoids who were made.They're not a real, organic race of humanoids.They were created."
"So that makes them less than worthy of existence?"
"Of course it does," he said."They call themselves Rhimodians, but they're just Orlicians."
In the back of her mind, that name registered."Orlicia was that planet on the edge of the Alliance that's sun went supernova, isn't it?"Even when she was a child, she remembered hearing about a star going supernova.It happened so rarely; it had been a major galactic event.A lot of systems in the surrounding sectors had repercussions from the event.She hadn't realized that the Rhimodians were connected to Orlicia.Though the Rhimodian white eyes should have been a hint.One of the Orlician trademarks was the white eyes, but she hadn't considered it since their people are gone.
"You're half-right," he snapped."Their sun didn't go supernova.Not naturally, anyway.Your special little manufactured friends blew it up.And then they settled on Sol.Right next door.I cannot have them deciding to destroy the Terran Empire because they felt like it."
She blinked and kept her face neutral.That was one piece of information that was not public knowledge.If it was true, of course.Her father may not be honest about it, however.She had to keep that in mind.One more thing she needed to research before she went to Sol for a peace negotiation.
"They blew up their own star?"she purposely repeated.
"It is amazing what some will do to be free of rules."
She shook her head."But they have culture.Knowledge and compassion."She stopped herself.Her chance encounter with Bahran on the space station would not have revealed that piece of information.She would have had to have more of a conversation--
Her father, surprisingly, didn't catch it.Or didn't care."They are programmed that way," he said."Do not believe they are compassionate because they want to be.They killed your mother with no remorse."
"Mother's death was an accident."
He shook his head."Your mother's death was entirely intentional.It was a planned attack and carried out with perfect precision."
The way he said that made her shiver.It was almost too knowing.
