Kira had met him at the airlock personally, just so she could watch the eyes of her Security Troopers goggle as the Emperor himself came aboard with only two bodyguards and no aides. They’d managed to escort her and her guest back to her office without tripping over themselves, but an unnatural number of crew members had found an excuse to be in the main corridor, mostly as witnesses.
She wouldn’t remain in command of Arteshbo much longer. Probably. Perhaps she would, and the whole crew would trade the silver for the gold.
A new empire had dawned over the last month.
They were alone in her office now. Kira had gestured Adric sit behind the desk, but he refused so they ended up in the two chairs on this side of the room, knees almost touching.
“I have read all your reports,” Adric began. “You have justified my faith in you a thousand times over.”
“However?” she asked, catching the hint in his voice.
“I’m going into business with Dalou?” he asked with a twinge of concern.
“No,” Kira smiled. “The Empire and the Hegemony have both chartered a joint development company operating out of Ladaux under Aquitaine law.”
“The difference?” he pressed.
“You, as head of the Imperial Household, control enough shares to appoint one director to the board,” Kira replied. “The Hegemon has the same number of shares. The Republic of Aquitaine has the third minority stake.”
“I’m reasonably confident I don’t understand,” Adric said with a prompting smile.
“Heather Lau has an amazingly well-developed business sense that she doesn’t talk about,” Kira smiled. “Or the right advisors. Kohahu Kugosu, Kim Ward, and myself represent a majority of shares in a separate, private partnership that owns the rest of the development company.”
He studied her now.
“Minority stakes,” he said.
“Many of the worlds around the mouth of the Cluster, close to Vilahana, are technically unclaimed,” Kira said. “Or the claims are dubious and generally unrecognized. Thus, piracy has been rampant through there. Gloran and Dalou have the best claims. This corporate agreement allows both nations, with the assistance of Aquitaine, to sort out such things, and start developing those worlds, with an eye towards trade that will be coming.”
“And the three crowns are minority owners,” he continued dubiously.
“It keeps each of you engaged for a profit motive,” Kira smiled. “Kim is a most sneaky woman when there is money to be made. Her crew has also invested as an entity.”
“Why?” he finally asked.
“We’re backwards barbarians, Adric,” Kira turned serious. “That’s what Aditi and Yaumgan considered us before Aquitaine arrived and showed everybody what the future could be like if we’d gotten our heads out of our collective asses. Dalou is moving that way. Ewin might. Pigs might fly, but they might. That leaves us to either step up or be left behind. Dalou or Ewin. Simple as that. Phil Kosnett made sure that Harinder assigned legal affairs staff to help negotiate things, even when Kohahu and I were representing private individuals, because he believes very strongly that money will be what drags everyone else around. If they can get rich, they won’t want to go back to the old ways.”
“So you’re going to be rich, young lady?” he asked her with a smile. “As a member of the Household, you will never want.”
“Adric, nobody ever starves in Gloran,” Kira fired back now, maybe a little angry. “The Standard Income guarantees that and allows warriors to train. But that doesn’t mean I don’t remember my childhood deprivations. Bad meat and pasta intended to keep us alive. When this gets going, I might be in control of more money than you have right now. I will never want. But I will never have to rely on someone else, either.”
He shut his mouth, presumably chagrined. The Imperial House was more of a concept than a place. Scions lived in luxury so they could learn and train. Become leaders. Captains. Governors. Emperors.
“So what does Kira Zaman want?” he asked after a few moments. “At one time, I would have expected Adham Khan’s head on a stake in the corridor outside, but you walked right past that and never looked back.”
“I don’t need it, Adric,” she replied. “I’ve spent too much time around Heather, Kohahu, and Kim. We’re going to make the Balhee Cluster a better place. The rest of you can keep up. If you can.”
“And I’m on your board of directors for now, so I’ll stay involved,” he nodded.
“According to Harinder, it will work, because at some point we will have to have a biannual board meeting somewhere, which means you and Jirou Kugosu will be there as private citizens,” Kira said. “No politics. No diplomacy. Tea and finger foods. Worse, if Kohahu is serious, she intends to marry Crown Prince Shingo at some point, meaning the future Emperor of Dalou will be there as a mere spouse attending.”
She watched that implication course through his eyes. Gloran and Dalou had always largely ignored one another. Aditi in the center and Ewin on Dalou’s other flank, plus the mouth of the Cluster leading into nothingness.
At least until a shark appeared out of those dark depths with a message.
“What about Aditi?” he asked her. “We’re cutting them specifically out. Won’t that make enemies?”
“According to Heather, Aquitaine intends to approach Aditi in another decade or two about selling their minority stake to the Consensus, putting them on the same footing as you and Dalou,” Kira grinned. “I told you Harinder had some sharp people on her staff. They have this gamed out a generation or more.”
“In that case, extremely well done, Kira,” he smiled at her happily. “What happens if I decide I want you as an heir at some point?”
Kira blinked. Almost felt her brain reboot.
“What?” she managed weakly.
“Heather is right, you know,” he grinned. “You might have been in command of Glanthua’s Stand, had your father been willing to acknowledge you at the start. Your talent and hard work is why I kept sending you places when I needed things done. I sent you to Aditi for results and you got me a treaty, an apology, and enough funds to rebuild the colony. And that was before you went off and decided to take over the Cluster with your new friends. It would be criminally negligent of me not to put all that on the scale at some point. I won’t say it is a done deal, because you haven’t met some of the others in the running, but I’d have no regrets adding you to that short list. None whatsoever. Which brings me back to the first question. What does Kira Zaman want?”
“She wants to belong,” Kira said, falling into a weird third person. “All of her life, she’d been an outsider, looking in the window while standing out in the snow, watching while others feast.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. And seemed to mean it. “No more.”
“There are others,” Kira felt a hint of anger inside now. “It is not enough to save one little girl. I’m sure I have other cousins whose mothers were paid off and sent packing, never to be seen again. And it isn’t just the Imperial House. It is an entire way of life, Adric Kerenski. An empire that produces results like that. The Penal Fleet is just an expression of something fundamentally broken. It all needs to change.”
“Then it’s a damned good thing that I know just the person to tap, isn’t it?” he smiled. “Exactly the right advisor, with all the relevant experience, to lead all of us out of that darkness and let us explore what Gloran could have been. Should be. Will you, cousin?”
She stopped to consider it. The implications. The hard work, but when had something like that ever stopped her?
“I will,” she answered. “Do your damnedest.”
“I don’t have to, Kira,” Adric said, holding out a hand that she took. “You will.”
Kira Zaman nodded.
She would.