“You’re making me feel old,” Sheridan grumbled. Corwin couldn’t help but smile. He’d been fifteen during the Black Star victory.
“Will you be at the bridge later?” the Captain asked. “I have a speech I’d like to give.”
“Of course, Captain.” She smiled again, and bowed, both at the Captain and Corwin. Corwin caught a hint of a dazzling smile, and then the door closed and he looked back at Major Krantz.
“What’s a telepath doing on a ship like this?”
“All of the ships here at Sanctuary have at least one telepath on board. You never know where they might come in useful.”
“I wouldn’t have thought Bester would place his telepaths in danger like that. And isn’t she a little young for a P eight?”
“There were certain… experiments carried out on a lot of early adolescents. It heightened and accelerated their abilities. Telepaths are a valuable resource after all, and the art of leadership is appropriate use of your resources. Wouldn’t you say, Captain?”
“Hmmm? Oh yes. Quite right.”
“Sir?” Corwin asked. “Are you all right?”
“Yes. Just… going over my good luck speech.”
“Your what?”
“My good luck speech. It’s a… personal tradition. I give a good luck speech within twenty-four hours of taking on a new command. With everything that’s been happening lately I think I deserve the luxury of at least one old habit.”
“I never heard about a good luck speech.”
“Well, I’ve been on the Babylon for so long that I’ve never needed to do one. I just… I don’t know. I just need some sort of link to the past.”
“Oh. Well. I’m looking forward to hearing it.”
“I wouldn’t look so smug, Commander,” Krantz said. “The crew will probably want a few words from you as well.”
“Me? But that’s… that’s… I’m no orator. I just… ah…”
“Don’t worry, David,” the Captain chuckled. “It’s not as hard as it looks. Assuming I get this bit. Damn! I’ve got out of practice in giving it.”
“Don’t worry, sir,” Krantz said. “You’ve got at least an hour or two to remember.”
If anyone had walked into the Royal Court at that moment, they would doubtless have been outraged to see Lady Elrisia reclining on the Imperial Throne itself. The Throne was for the Emperor only. Oh, sometimes his First Minister sat there while receiving audience when the Emperor was away, or busy, but still… there were matters of protocol to consider. None of Emperor Turhan’s wives had ever so much as contemplated sitting on the Imperial Throne. (Well except for his first wife in that unfortunate incident with the Drazi Ambassador and the ’live’ banquet – apparently caused by the overuse of the colour purple in the decorations.)
Lady Elrisia clearly had no such compunctions. As far as she was concerned, she could sit wherever she liked. The future Empress could do whatever she liked.
Officially speaking, there was no title of Empress. The Emperor’s wives were always called by the simple title of Lady – albeit with more respect than was given to a noble’s wife. Elrisia was planning on changing that. She was planning on changing a lot of things.
“Did you hear the way he spoke to me? It was an outrage, I am telling you! An outrage. I have a mind to have him flogged!”
“Cartagia dear. Shut up.” Elrisia was getting very tired of his infantile prattlings. If it weren’t for the fact that Marrit was even more tedious and boring, she would probably be with him. She was, after all, going to be his future wife, and Empress.
Empress Elrisia. She liked the sound of it.
But as always, there was a problem. Said problem being Londo Mollari.
He was an anachronism. An ‘old guard’. You only had to look at his hair and hear his accent to understand that. He still believed in the ‘good old days’ of Centauri power. The good old days were gone. Elrisia planned on creating the good new days.
And if it weren’t for people like Londo and her dear husband always standing in the way, she’d have a far far easier time of it.
And she had been trying. A number of assassination attempts had had to be aborted, but she had been certain her gas booby trap in his carriage a few weeks ago would work. It had certainly cost her enough. But no, Londo had escaped that one as well.
“How does he do it?” she asked herself. “He must have all the Gods in the pantheon on his side. How can anyone who gambles so badly be so lucky?”
“Everyone’s luck runs out sooner or later,” Cartagia said.
Elrisia thought about this, and smiled. “Do you know, that’s the first intelligent thing you’ve said all day. Congratulations.”
Suddenly, her personal communicator activated. A fascinating little device, used by Ministers and high ranking military officers to keep in touch. She had managed to appropriate one for her own use. She listened to the message, and then smiled widely.
“How prophetic of you, Cartagia,” she said. “It appears that Minister Mollari has just met with an… unfortunate accident. His personal carriage – a replacement for the last one, I suppose – exploded on his way back to his estates. A problem with the engine, I suppose. The manufacturers really should get these things looked at better, don’t you think?”
Cartagia smiled. He actually looked halfway intelligent when he did.
“When I was twenty-one, I went on a journey to Tibet to see the new Dalai Lama. It made sense at the time. A lot of things do when you’re twenty-one. We had a simple meal… I forget what it was. And afterwards, he looked at me and he said:
“‘Do you understand?’
“And I said, ‘No.’ He simply smiled and said, ‘Good. You will be even wiser when you know what it is that you do not understand.’
“The Dalai Lama may be gone. Tibet, the Himalayas, Earth… they may all be gone, but they live on in our minds and hearts and souls, and in our memories. Someone… very dear to me once told me something. ‘Love holds no borders.’ If love does hold no borders, then neither should memories, neither should hopes or dreams or aspirations. We have all lost a great deal, and we have all suffered.
“It is likely that we will suffer more and lose more. It is likely that we may not return one day. It is likely that our enemies are stronger than we are.
“I don’t really know any of you, and none of you knows me, but this I can promise you. I have spent the whole of my life serving Earth. Just because Earth is gone, that does not mean that we have to stop believing in what it meant for us as a people. Earth survives in each and every one of us, and I will serve Earth – and of all you – in the same way I always have.
“I can make no guarantee that I will be able to keep you alive, and anyone who says they can is lying. This galaxy doesn’t allow for guarantees. I can promise you, however, that I will do all that is in my power in the name of Earth, and of humanity.
“It was an early Earth president who said… who said… damn! What did he say?”
Sheridan floundered, and was greeted with chuckles of laughter from the bridge. “All right,” he said, holding up his hands. “So I’ve forgotten what he said. It just goes to show how much I will be relying on all of you, and how much we will all be relying on each other. Myself and Commander Corwin are new to this ship and to you, but we are ready and willing to do our best by you, by Earth and by humanity.”
Sheridan finished and was met with enthusiastic, if reserved applause. He looked around at the bridge and smiled, one of the first, warmest smiles Corwin had seen on him in a long while. Corwin smiled too.
“I wouldn’t be too happy,” the Captain whispered to him. “It’s your turn now.”