She fell silent for a long time, staring into the fire. It seemed as if life itself was draining out of her.
"Did you ever foresee a day such as this?" she finally asked him sadly. "When our own troops would be fighting each other — and apparently with no way to stop them?"
"It is disturbing," the Secretary replied. "I know for a fact that orders to desist are flying out of every military and diplomatic post we have — but sad to say, they are being universally ignored."
The Empress sipped her drink. "I know there has been disdain between the two forces for many years. But…"
She let her voice trail off.
"As in other cases of history, my lady," the Secretary told her. "It usually doesn't take much to strike the match. Rivalry and distrust can last below the surface for only so long. Then they become combustible, just waiting for something to ignite them."
"It all seemed to start with that invasion a month ago-short-lived as it was," she fumed. "The Solar Guards did not react well to it."
The Secretary lowered his glass a moment. He wondered if he should level with her, at the same time knowing he had no other choice, as it was widely rumored, and on good authority, that the Empress could read minds.
"I'm sure you've heard the same whispers as I," he said.
"That the Solar Guards lied about what happened at the end of that curious action?" she asked.
"They did lie, my lady," the Secretary told her. "One of my men had to die to prove it, but prove it he did. We retrieved his readings. Nothing happened out there. The invaders vanished, and the REF had no idea where they went.
"But even stranger — the REF's activities out in the area since the supposed battle have been very curious, to say the least. While earlier in the month their search for answers had been intense, lately it seems just the opposite is true. In fact, I've seen some reports that indicate they are not out there at all for long periods of time — and then suddenly, the No-Fly area will be filled up with them again."
"Are you saying the REF is flying in and out of its own forbidden zone?" she asked, puzzled.
He shrugged. "Appearing and then disappearing is the better term for it. And zipping at quite high speed to other points in the realm, only to return to the Two Arm — and disappear again. Very strange behavior. But whatever the case, they certainly didn't want anyone to see what they are doing out there. As I said, the man we sent out to investigate it all paid with his life. It is his murder that led to this fighting."
The Empress went silent again. The fire paled a bit. Then she looked the Secretary straight in the eye and asked, "Is Hawk Hunter involved in this?"
Again, the Secretary knew he had to be careful with what he said here. "There is a good chance he is. And if I can be so bold, there are reports that your daughter, the very beautiful Xara, may have had liaisons with this rogue."
He paused. "Have you heard any news about her? Where she disappeared to? Or Vanex for that matter?"
The Empress shook her head. Her emotions were rising slowly to the surface, a rare occasion for her.
"They are still looking, or so they tell me," she said. "I'm hoping she is just off somewhere. In a snit. Furious for some reason. But safe…"
"I pray that is so, my lady," the Secretary said.
Another long silence.
"You can read tea leaves," she said to him. "Is it too much of a coincidence that all these things are happening to us? Missing people? This invasion out on the Two Arm. Now this war between our own forces — and even talk about a coup against the Imperial Court? Not that I think it wise to believe in coincidences, but…"
The Secretary bowed his head slightly. "My lady, a wise man once said, 'If coincidences don't mean anything, why do they happen so often?' I tend to agree with him."
"Then why didn't we see this coming?" she asked.
"Some people did," he replied. "It just wasn't anyone up here, on our lofty heights, who read the tea leaves, as you put it. Up here, we drank, we reveled, we swam in the riches that come as a result of this great empire that's been handed to us. Meanwhile, down there, in the back alleys of that great city below, out on the periphery of the periphery, where the thinkers, the prophets, and the poets reside, they saw this coming a long time ago."
He locked his eyes on to hers, trying to find something beyond the extralong eyelashes and gobs of atomic mascara. It was a futile search.
"Is that a surprise to you, my lady?" he asked her. "That things are so different down there?"
The Empress laughed darkly. "Down there? I haven't been 'down there' in more than two hundred years.' "
The Secretary just shook his head. "Well, if I might be so bold," he said, "therein might lie part of the problem."
With that, he stood up, turned on his heel, and left.
The Empress retreated to her bedroom and conjured up another bottle of slow-ship wine.
She felt very uncomfortable now — and not just because the Secretary had taken such an ungracious leave of her. She was now alone; that was the problem. She didn't particularly like her own company.
And all this uncertainty only made the isolation worse.
The Empire might be crumbling or it might not be, but one thing was for certain: it was changing, and she didn't like change, either. How would history see her role in all this? Certainly she would have no direct link to the Fourth Empire's fall — if indeed that's what was going to happen. That blame would be put on O'Nay's head alone. After all, what imperial wife has any impact on her husband's work? Not she.
Yet on thinking that, the empty feeling in her stomach became that much deeper.
She sank into her floating bed and sipped her first goblet of the new wine. What would she do if the Secretary was right? Where would she go if all this nonsense eventually did reach Earth? She couldn't return to Venus; she was sure her relatives were leaving that place in droves by now. And if the SG fleets really did take over the One Arm, then the Solar System, and maybe even Earth itself — well, absolutely no one of any merit or grace would want to be within one hundred light-years of this place.
Perhaps it was wise then to take the Imperial Guards' advice. Maybe she should go to one of the other arms. It would be a new experience for her. Even though she was Empress of the Galaxy and had been for more than 300 years, she'd never even left the Pluto Cloud, never mind venturing out beyond the One Arm. But where would she go, exactly? Not into the Ball, of course. Though she was adored by billions in the peaceful center of the Galaxy, the place was so boring, she'd rather die here than flee there.
No, it would have to be to one of the arms. But which one? She'd never heard anything good about the Two or the Three Arm and apparently the Five and Six arms were just dreadful, as were the Eight and the nearby Nine.
And the Seventh? No, there was nothing at all out there. Besides…
Suddenly, she felt a drop of water fall on her cheek. She reached up and touched it, only to find two more. Then another. And another. What was going on here? Water was spilling from her eyes. Her breath caught in her throat. She didn't realize it at first, only because it had been so long, but she was crying.
What kind of a mother are you? a voice whispered in her ear. It was a good question and one that she never wanted to face. Her daughter was missing. Had been for a month. Yet practically all she had done in those four weeks was party on Zros. Had it ever occurred to her that Xara might actually be in peril? Or even dead?