The Emperor stood to pace. Radko watched him, while the guards on either side of her kept their eyes on the Emperor’s guards. “In the old Alliance, Lancia never had problems placing people.”
“The old Alliance was losing a war,” Michelle said. “This is not that Alliance. This is a new governing body with a different structure. Lancia cannot simply walk in and take over. They have equal power with sixty-nine other worlds.”
“And we agreed to that?”
“We did. You know as well as I do that had we not, we would be a second-rate Gate Union world right now. Or at the top of a third-rate Alliance with maybe ten worlds left.”
“I took my daughter’s advice. Maybe I was misinformed.”
Michelle sighed. “Maybe you are getting bad advice from elsewhere, Father. Or your wits have finally left you permanently.”
Yu swung around. “My daughter certainly isn’t giving me any advice. Other than to stay away.”
The turn placed him face-on to Radko. If he recognized her, he didn’t show it. Radko watched his movements without seeming to.
“Maybe I am not the one getting bad advice. Admiral Galenos also voted against my request.”
He swung around to face Michelle again. “What advice is he giving you, Daughter?”
A flush flamed Michelle’s skin, and fire sparked deep in her eyes. She lifted her chin, and her tone crackled ice as she said, “You should apologize for that. Abram Galenos works for Lancia.”
An answering spark ignited in her father’s eyes. He turned away. Radko thought his lips quirked in the beginnings of a smile, quickly tamed.
“So ready to defend him.” Emperor Yu resumed pacing. Maybe it hadn’t been a smile. Radko couldn’t tell if he was genuinely angry or acting.
“I am the ruler of Lancia. Where is my seat on the council? Where is my vote on matters concerning my world? Where is my voice? Last week, the council voted that each world would crew its own alien ship. What power do we have?”
“Equal power with other worlds, and whatever our alliances can bring. We are trying to build alliances.”
“Daughter, I have been building alliances for longer than you have been alive. Now you tell me I don’t know my job.” He started to pace again.
Michelle’s pause seemed interminably long. “Yes. I am. We are doing what we can to keep Lancia powerful.”
The only reason Lancia had any real power was because their representatives—Crown Princess Michelle and Admiral Abram Galenos—worked hard to prove they weren’t a threat. Radko should have told Vega about her earlier meeting with Yu and Dow.
Emperor Yu stared at Michelle. “Sometimes it seems, Daughter, that you are happy to allow Lancia to decline to a second-rate world, to allow other worlds to bully you.”
Michelle chided gently. “Bullying me in return, Father? That worked when I was five. It doesn’t work now.” She sat up straighter. “I want Lancia to be a power as much as you do. We have to remain in the New Alliance long enough for us to become that power. And I don’t want us feared by everyone when we do. I want us to be a respected ally.”
“Power brings respect,” Yu said.
“That sort of power is not respect, it’s fear, and the problem with fear is that people who are afraid are likely to destroy what they are scared of if they can.”
“My own daughter lectures me on politics. Me, who has twice her experience and ten times her power.”
“We are trying to make a future for Lancia.”
“We?” Yu turned so fast every soldier in the room instinctively put their hands to their weapons. Radko was pleased to see that on average, Vega’s team was a second faster than Bach’s. “You and who?”
“All of us working with the New Alliance,” Michelle said.
“You and Galenos.”
“We are both in charge.”
“Maybe that’s the problem,” Yu said. “Galenos forgets that he is not in charge, that he answers to you. Instead, he fills your head with foolish notions like respect supposedly earned by showing how harmless we are.”
“They’re not just his notions. They’re mine as well.”
“Are they, Daughter? Maybe I left you too long under the protection of a man who chooses not to put Lancia first.”
Michelle opened her mouth to argue. Yu silenced her with a hand. “Do you know what I call someone who refuses to put Lancia first, when they are employed by the government of Lancia?” He waved her quiet again. “Traitors. That’s what I call them.”
“You can call it what you like, Father, but you know as well as I do that Galenos only works for the best of Lancia.”
“Not according to my sources. As head of Alien Affairs, and with his seat on the council, he has more power than anyone in the New Alliance, you included. Has power gone to his head? I ask again. What has he done for Lancia? Where are our ships? Where are the secrets from those ships? Where are our benefits?”
“The alien ships are a shared New Alliance resource,” Michelle said. “Lancia is already getting more access than anyone else.”
“Then why do we not have instant communication with Haladea III? Why are we not jumping ships the way you jumped that alien ship earlier?”
Michelle could still smile. In her place, Radko wouldn’t have been able to. “That was an emergency. One of our bases was under attack. We would prefer not to have jumped the ship the way we did today without a lot of testing beforehand.”
Alien ships moving unplanned sounded like Ean. As soon as this meeting finished, Radko would find out what had happened.
“As for instant communication, is that not what we have done?” Her voice hardened. “Is this not the first time we have communicated between sectors? Between the Lancastrian Princess and a small number of designated ships back in the Haladean sector.”
A lot more had happened than Radko realized.
“Would Galenos have mentioned this if it hadn’t made the evening news? I think not.”
“You would have known once tests were completed.”
“Are you certain of that, Daughter? Of course not.” Emperor Yu moved back to sit on his throne. “It is time to tip the balance of power our way.”
Radko hadn’t thought Michelle could get any stiller, but she did.
“How?”
Yu put his palms together in what might have been a bow, or an attitude of prayer, and rested his chin on his fingers as he smiled. “How many votes do we need for a majority in the New Alliance government?”
“Fourteen. Seven worlds if both the military and civilian councilors vote the same way. They will be difficult to get. We will alienate worlds if we push too hard.”
“I can get you twenty votes.”
“How?” Michelle asked again.
“I have ten worlds who would take full membership in the New Alliance and support Lancia in all things.”
“Who?” If Michelle looked wary, who could blame her? Most worlds were rushing to join Gate Union, sure that line restrictions would soon mean the end of the New Alliance as any real power. That would have happened already if the New Alliance hadn’t had the alien ships.
And Ean Lambert.
“The Worlds of the Lesser Gods,” the Emperor said, and waited for her reaction.
He got a puzzled frown in return. “The Lesser Gods? If they affiliate with anyone, surely it would be Redmond.”
Yu’s smile was wide. “I, too, have been making alliances, my daughter. While you sit in parliament too scared to oppose those who oppose you, listening to the advice of a man who has let power go to his head.”
Michelle’s mouth became a straight line, but she remained silent.