He looked at her.The look on his face was almost terrifying; it was so menacingly gleeful."I think, my darling first born, that you have given me my answer."
"What are you going on about?"
"You're going to end this war."
The hairs on the back of her neck stood up."That is what I want to do."
"You are going to go.Present peace.Negotiate with those machines."
It was disturbing how quickly his position flipped."You might be surprised.I can bring it around.I have negotiated--"
"I don't care.You won't have to do anything but look pretty."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that when they lower those shields for you, then they'll be lowering them for me as well."
What he said sunk in, and she began to understand exactly how her father's mind worked."You're going to invade them?On the eve of peace?What is wrong with you?How could you even think such a thing?"
"There is no peace.Only breaks between battle."
"I am sure they will notice an invasion army coming in behind the Ambassador's ship."
"Will they?"
She blinked, realizing that he'd use the same strategy he used with the prisoners of war."Cloaking tech.You've got it on all the ships."
"Not all.But enough."
She couldn't believe him.Of course, he'd want to find a way to continue the war even when she tried to go in through peace."You are a fool for telling me this."
"Why?Are you going to run and tell the Rhimodians?Don't think I don't know that you've been talking to them.You had to, to get all these ideas."
"So, what are you going to do about it?"
"Nothing.Because you're going to strike out on this peace mission.It will make your appeal to the people even stronger.You'll be striving for a brighter future for the next generation and all that.You and your sister will go and attempt to bring peace.You'll fail.But your attempt will look proper."
"What if we don't fail?What can you do about that?"
"Blow up Sol."
She blinked."What?"
"You seem to think you know all my secrets, but, child, you don't know anything."
"You cannot blow up a solar system.That would require a kind of fire power and weapon that is just not available.It's impossible to attempt such a weapon.Others have tried.You know this.It never works, and it winds up destroying the people who built it."
Planet killing weapons or even solar system destroying weapons were outlawed in all governments, not just the Terran Empire.For a multitude of reasons, but beyond their destructive power, what they needed to do the job was far more dangerous than the job itself.And no one who wanted a weapon that would destroy an entire planet had the best interests of anyone but themselves in it.
Governments were structured, even Empires, to prevent this kind of power and danger to the sector or even the galaxy.Surely her father knew that.How did he expect to work around that?He would lose all his power over committing any kind of genocide.
"Besides," she said."The Senate would never allow you to make it, much less discharge it.Genocide will remove you from the throne.Emperor or not."
He smiled at her."Silly child.Genocide only matters when the population is at a certain threshold.I have been carving away at the lives on Sol for years.They are just at that line.A few more won't matter."
"Then it's no longer genocide," she whispered.
"See, I knew you had a brain in there."
