Serinina confronts those that are trying to undermine her as she establishes her rule over her homeland into the 20th century

Serinina knew this was coming. Sooner or later someone in her administration would find out her true orders concerning the children of the nobles and the peace with the Hekatin. She knew that there were members in her army that would not be happy with her deception.

Ajax sneered, “You have deceived us.”

“Yes,” replied Serinina. “How can you be against what I did, Ajax? Wasn’t it you who agreed with me dissolving the Helot system and making them free citizens of Greece?”

“Yes,” Ajax agreed. “If you remember, not long ago I wanted to free them myself and I was surprised and disgusted when you announced that those kids had no future. I am happy to learn otherwise. I just wish you were honest with us. There are others in the army that aren’t too happy about this.”

Serinina looked hard. Her eyes narrowed and then she spoke, “Assemble the army and the commanders so I can speak to them. I want to talk to them in two hours.”

Ajax agreed and left.

“Can you believe this?” She snarled in anger. “I make sure a few children are free to live their lives successfully and many people are upset.”

Ares materialized in the room and assured his wife, “We support you Serinina. Even my sister will support you in this. Athena loves what you have done in her name. Not the burning of cities and killing but she likes how you were so successful in her name. You really have nothing to worry about. It’s about time to address your people.”

Serinina donned her shimmering armor made by Ares and Zeus and went out to meet her army. She could tell that some of them were upset at being misled.

She amplified her voice and spoke, “I am sorry for misleading many of you,” she apologized, “but I knew that many of you were still stuck to the Helot system and were looking forward to having some of these citizens serving you. I knew you would oppose what I intended. I should have been honest. The Helot system was dissolved. It was unjust and cruel. It would be an abomination to condemn the children of the nobles for what their parents did. I won’t allow it.”

Some were still disappointed until Ares and his sister Athena stood proudly in front. Athena spoke, “We support Serinina and I love her. My brother is her husband. The Helot system id dead. If any of you oppose Serinina then you oppose us. All of you who oppose her step forward and face our wrath!”

That pretty much solved that. None of them wanted to be seen opposing Athena.

Xxxxxx

Serinina had known that she was pregnant for over a month now. She had to finish this campaign and get everything settled. But it was here and it would not wait. When she had not gotten her period,she knew. Ares was happy and informed her that she would have a human baby since her body was human, but the baby would have some very enhanced powers. Giving birth would be messy and painful for her.

Serinina had already begun to experience her morning sickness and the rushings to the pot. She knew it was time to accept it and slow down. She knew that she needed help and called her sister Emily and Cassandra to inform them.

To Serinina's annoyance, her sister and Cassandra entered her chamber as she was recovering from another bout of morning sickness. With the two women, she saw her Mother Aanya and Actonia. Ares was behind them and Actonia was smiling.

But Actonia approached first and demanded, “Where is Patinea? What have you done with her?”

It made little difference. They would be long dead before she encountered Patinea again. “There is a new order in place. Patinea was immaterial so what difference does it make Actonia? Can't you see what happened to her?”

“Not with you nullifying my abilities.” Actonia shot back. “I can't see, but she wasn't executed.”

“I had her secretly executed. She is gone Actonia and you have to accept that or you will be visiting the chopping block. Now leave. I don’t need you to advise me. I don’t trust you. You should be thankful for the peace between our religions. That can always change!” Serinina threatened.

Actonia got the hint and left. But she didn’t believe that Patinea was executed.

She glared at her mother and demanded, “What are you doing here? You aren’t my mother, Aanya.”

That hurt Aanya’s motherly heart and she looked sadly at Serinina. “I was your mother for years. How can you be so cruel Nina?”

“You had a boy named Serin. You acted as if you loved him all of those years. The only daughter you have is the one you loved and sided with all of those years. You destroyed and killed your son. He no longer exists. You didn't have Serinina. You are not my mother. My mother was Penthesilea. She was the one that loved me, and helped me learn to accept being female. She made me strong and helped me when all you wanted was for Patinea to rule and be strong. You wanted to keep me weak and under control. You weren't my mother. You hated Serin and you hated me. You are not welcome here. I only want those that really love me here to help me during my pregnancy. You may leave.”

Aanya wanted to cry as she turned and walked out. She had had a feeling that Serinina would totally reject her. It made her sad but she had known that Serinina had become increasingly heartless and cruel. This was nothing like the kind and loving boy she had raised. She could not blame Serinina. This was all Patinea's doing and she created the woman Serinina was now. She felt like she had lost her whole family. First, her husband was murdered. Then Patinea rejected her after her coronation so she wouldn’t appear weak by needing her mother. She was alienated by Patinea and that hurt. Then Serinina totally rejected her after learning that she was on Patinea's side during her coup and her coronation. She lost all of her children and she blamed Patinea. She knew much of it was her own doing. She should never have agreed to transform her son. It was a huge mistake.

Now that the unwanted people had left her room, her friends and her husband were what was left. “I suspect that you already know, but I am pregnant and I will need your help to deal with this. As many of you know, I was raised as a boy.”

Ares embraces his wife and kisses her.

Xxxxxxx

Nicholai sat in his old office reminiscing about the past. He remembered his ship sailing into Ellis island looking at the very ironic message under the Statue of Liberty about bringing in the tired huddled masses. He was an exiled noble, and it was about as far from the huddled masses as possible. He wondered if he was even going to be accepted. He tried to make a new identity to hide his nobility but it didn’t work. Many Russians were fleeing to the United States to make a new home and he was recognized. Of course, he was the crown prince and supposed to be the future Tzar. How could his fellow Russians not notice him? But, he was accepted by the port authorities and immigration and let in. He worked at it and eventually was granted citizenship. He ran his own small business and worked as a teacher.

He had kept in contact with his sister during his exile. His eldest sister Patinea kept him updated on her activities as the Tzarina. Patinea occasionally made state visits to the United States at times and he made sure to be there and talk with her. He held no hostility over her seizing the crown at all. It was actually a great relief to him. He dreaded his coronation and hated what could have been thrust on him so soon. He knew his reign would be a disaster. That was made clear during Patinea’s coronation as the new Tzarina. She made some key changes to the event and made sure there was enough beer and food for everyone. He would not have had enough beer available for everyone there and that could have been a disaster. It may have resulted in much anger and a stampede that killed thousands. That wouldn’t be a good way to start a reign at all. By making sure there was enough beer and food for everyone Patinea’s coronation resulted in a very successful event. Nicholai couldn't have been happier that his country would be led by a very competent Tzarina. He was proud of his sister.

Patinea kept writing to him about her frustration with the state of her country. She spent the first six months of her reign educating herself about the modern world. That was curious to Nicholai since she had lived in this world with him all their life. But she traveled to the United States and even went to the Golden Isles to learn about industrialization and the power of the modern world. She learned much about it and was ready to begin her big campaign to fully industrialize her country.

She also resolved to educate herself about the country's religion. Patinea found it very odd that almost everyone in her country, even the women were very devout members of the orthodox church and followed the priests. The priests were hated in her old country. They couldn’t wait to destroy the priests and overthrow that religion in the Golden Isles. But the Russians loved the church and were devout in this male-dominated religion. She educated herself about the Orthodox church and its faith. There was no way to overthrow it or even consider trying to institute a religion of the Goddess here. She was forced to accept the orthodox faith and converted to the church. Nicholai was very confused about what all of that meant.

Patinea was very frustrated that much of the country seemed stuck in the eighteenth century going into the twentieth century. Patinea threw herself into modernizing Russia as quickly as she could. She planned out new mines to ensure there was enough steel and began constructing new enormous factories in her largest cities. She had hundreds of them constructed across the country. It was a painful transition for the country and she did her best to make it as smooth as possible. She made sure there were enough people for the factories and that they would be well paid and provided for. She succeeded in little over a decade and several of her largest cities were full of massive factories making automobiles, modern guns and planes. Her shipyards were turning out huge dreadnoughts to rival the Golden Isles Empire.

The grand campaign was on its way around 1905 when the war hit them. The Japanese Empire attacked an outdated Russian fleet at Tsushima. It was a disaster for Russia. The attack was a total defeat. The ships were outdated but they were still powerful warships with large long-range guns. Patinea wrote to him about the crushing defeat by the Japanese Imperial Fleet and talked about how it reminded her of her defeat by her sister Serinina at Trafalgar years ago. That really confused Nicholai too, but he accepted it. That defeat taught Patinea a few important lessons. Her ships shouldn’t have been defeated so easily, but the Japanese Naval training was superior. She resolved to upgrade her navy and new large drydocks were built, and new classes of ships were being constructed. She realized that her seamen needed to be well trained on her ships for them to do any good. This would not happen again. The Golden Isles, Germany, Austria, and even the United States were building new classes of very powerful ships. Russia needed to join them or be left behind.

Russia was very prepared when the great war hit the world. It was almost as if Patinea saw it coming. Some damn fool thing in the Balkans started the war. A Serbian terrorist group assassinated the Austrian Arch Duke in Sarajevo. The Austrians clamored for war against Serbia. They mobilized their army and sent the Serbians an ultimatum which the Serbians promptly refused. Austrians went to war followed by Russia who was allied with the Serbians. Then the Golden Isles mobilized and even the United States entered the war.

That war was long and bloody. The Golden Isles against the Russians seem to be a very personal war to the two sovereigns. The brutality of that war was shocking. And the Golden Isles were especially brutal. They instituted the first use of gas on the Austrian and Russian trenches. Thousands were killed in the gas attacks. Serinina seemed to reserve her most deadly weapons against the Russians and their trenches barely survived. Hundreds of thousands of Russians were killed in that war. Nicholai didn’t understand it. But their armies seemed to be very equal this time and the lines stagnated into trenches. Russia barely held its own against the Europeans. But Patinea sensed trouble in her own nation by then. Many people were very upset at the enormous cost of the war and were considering rebellion. Russia descended into a bloody civil war during which Patinea often went to the front lines to rally her troops.

The Bolsheviks didn’t stand a chance this time around. The war took years and nearly ripped the country apart. Millions died in the war but in the end, Patinea’s Imperial forces won and destroyed the Bolsheviks. Lenin was publicly executed and they were destroyed.

Patinea’s letters to him seemed very curious during the great war. She seemed very surprised that they could campaign in the winter months. But in some places, there was only the winter months. She was shocked that they could conduct campaigns in the subzero weather and the snow. She seemed used to waiting until the spring like Europeans usually did. Russians preferred the winter and were always prepared for it. She learned to conduct military operations in the snow and conduct their war against the Bolsheviks.

Lenin and Trotsky frustrated her, those two were a good team but Patinea was very intelligent and kept her army together and their mobilization and industrialization in the years before the great war and her leadership ensured that they survived the civil war and finally defeated the Bolsheviks.

Once that chaos was solved, the two great sovereigns of the world gathered to find a way to avoid war in the future. To Nicholai’s surprise, it seemed that the two great sovereigns really loved each other. Empress Serinina really loved his sister the Tzarina Patinea. They had a great conference to discuss ways to avoid their empires going to war in the future. They resolved it by both punishing the Austrians for bringing their two empires into war. They both agreed to occupy and take a piece of Austria. Their Kaiser Wilhelm was surprised at the result. Both mighty empires going after his realm was horrifying but he was helpless. Since that measure didn’t entirely solve any future issues, they both agreed to personally meet if any future issues arrived that could cause them to go to war.

The United States’ President Wilson tried to intervene and form some hair-brained council he called the League of Nations. Patinea and Serinina both rejected it out of hand and told the United States to butt out of European affairs.

xxxxxx

Serinina had just returned from another bout of her morning sickness and was cleaning herself when there was a knock at her door. She went to open the door to see a young woman she had not seen before. The young woman was stunning. Her makeup was flawless and she was wearing a light blue gown with the laces on the sides. She was a little small in the chest but some women were like that.

Serinina felt a little weak now. She looked into the strange young woman's face trying to figure out who had come to visit her. The young woman said acidly, “You really got your revenge against me for choosing Patinea, didn’t you milord. I am sorry for that, but I was helpless against her power and when it wasn’t in effect, she was the King and my Lord that I was afraid to disappoint. You of all people know how ruthless and uncaring she could be when she was angry. But you have proven you can be even more ruthless to those who betrayed you.”

“Asyrn,” Serinina said in disbelief looking at the stunning young woman standing in front of her. How could this girl have possibly been Asyrn, a boy?

He looked embarrassed. “Yes, it's me Asyrn. I am still biologically male. I have learned many ways to hide that so I can appear as naturally female as my heart desires. That's all thanks to your curse. I understand your intention was to hurt Patinea and it worked wonders. She was so hurt and disgusted by my change that it crushed the love she had for me. I couldn’t be happier. But she forbade the Hekatin to give me the blessing I so desire.”

Serinina smiled, “I will see to it that they give you the blessing.”

Asyrn leaped into Serinina's arms and gave her a big hug. “How I have suffered desiring to be female above everything else. And not able to. Unlike you who were cruelly made female against your wishes but your desires and mind were still male. You have suffered far more.”

“Yes, I have,” Serinina said bitterly. “It was a struggle but I finally was able to find peace with this body. I have been able to reform my image and my mind to make peace with my body. It was an epic struggle. I have learned how to reform people's minds like I did for you. I had no desire to inflict suffering on you. I could have ‘blessed’ you but Patinea may have just had her witches reverse it. Unless I made it so strong that they couldn’t. But that would have hurt you. Making you desire to be female was perfect. You could reform your image and your body, and Patinea would be helpless to prevent your desires unless she wanted to hurt you. All she could do was watch the increasing feminization of the man she loved. It was so sweet.”

“She caught me and she upset me,” Asyrn admitted. “Saying what I was doing was demeaning myself. What's so demeaning about being a woman? She thinks so since that's how she was raised to look up to in a male culture and their desires. She wanted to be male and still sees males as above females despite some of her rulings that inheritance can only go to females. It was good you changed that. Only your Spartans were burning people out and claiming the land for themselves. I don’t feel demeaned at all. I can see how you did and that was their intention. I also don’t feel angry at you for doing this to me. I am grateful. I want to be changed into a female.”

Serinina smiled, “I will make sure you become the prettiest female you can be. You are already so beautiful that any man would be happy with you.”

Asyrn blushed and smiled sweetly. Then he asked, “My Lord, Serinina. Are you still angry at being changed?”

“Yes,” Serinina said harshly. “Unlike you, I never had the desire to be female. It was a crushing violation and humiliation that almost destroyed my will to live. It made me wish to die and I actually made plans and tried to carry them out to relieve me of the pain my life had become under my sister. It wasn't done to help me in any way. They made me female to demean and destroy me so my sister could seize my crown. If they wanted to help me learn the lesson of how they lived under the Church of Maxis. I would have been happier. But they didn't want me to learn anything. They just wanted me to suffer so I am returning the favor. Their religion will be destroyed under my Goddess Athena and my husband Aries. I am just waiting for them to make a mistake so I can implement Edict sixty six.”

Serinina gave Asyrn a wicked icy smile that sent shivers down his spine. Then Serinina stood up and rushed into the washroom again.

Xxxxxx

Aanya was nearly in tears as she sat in her bedroom totally depressed. She had lost her entire family. Her two children seemed to hate her now. They both felt totally betrayed by her actions. Her eldest daughter totally rejected her after she gained the crown. She did not want to appear weak relying on her mother to rule. Patinea pushed her aside and ignored her, even rejecting simple displays of affection from her mother. It left her feeling rejected and cold.

But that doesn't even approach the feelings of her son/daughter Serinina. Serinina's reaction wasn’t totally unexpected. She saw it coming before the transformation. She knew her son Serin and how he would feel about it all. Everyone rejected her warnings beforehand and they pushed her to go through with it. It was the will of the Goddess and she knew things had to change. Aanya wanted things to change for women.

But she knew Serin would refuse to understand and feel nothing but cheated and betrayed by his own family. She was right. She saw his hatred after the transformation when he refused to speak to her, after realizing she was behind the transformation and was on Patinea's side. From that moment on, Serin would have nothing to do with her. He totally rejected her as a mother or anything to him. It crushed her motherly heart, but she couldn't blame him. Even Patinea was surprised by the level of hatred from her brother when he threatened her life a week after the transformation. He felt so cheated from the crown and swore to regain it no matter what he had to do. It was all he could talk about from that moment on. It became an all-consuming obsession to regain his birthright. His hatred only grew. She knew he was on the right path when he left for the Amazons. She knew that he had gained the favor of another goddess and then she married a god.

Aanya was horrified by the level of Serinina's wrath when he cut a path of blood and ash from one end of Europe to the other. She united much of Europe under her iron fist in ways Patinea wished she could. Then Serinina invaded the Golden Isles and her wrath upon the people of her homeland was vicious. She exterminated all of the noble families. Every single member of the five noble families was executed one by one. Thousands were killed daily. From the leading heads of the families on down. Lord Baldic Wensae was beheaded in front of Patinea. He was her love and one of the first to go to her side. Killing that man brought much delight to Serinina. She had the Malnaes executed. Even Nemeria was beheaded by the executioner. Serinina enjoyed watching that. Nemeria, lady Nemeria her mother and her father. Her siblings were all executed. It brought a lot of joy to Serinina to watch the extermination of the Malnaes. She held Nemerias head in her hands and thought of their relationship. Her mistake was wanting to keep Serinina as a woman and not wanting her to be restored. That was the time when she would have given almost anything to become a man again. Then Nemeria’s mistake was proposing, and wanting to be her husband in the marriage. It would have been fine but she wanted a more traditional husband and wife marriage where he took her name, and she ruled as a man. That was completely unacceptable. Serinina could have taken the Malnae name. Her own family failed her. But in the age of the goddess being restored to the land, and female inheritance and rule of women restored under the goddess. Serinina as the wife should have ruled over her husband. Nemeria should have accepted a submissive position under the wife and mother. But she refused that, so Serinina couldn't accept the marriage and called it all off. And she had aspirations to take control of the Malnae family and use them to combat her sisters rule and claim the crown as a Malnae. And with only Patinea and Aanya left, that family would be dissolved and the Malnae’s claim the Denae lands and holdings. That would have been a great punishment for Aanya to watch her family get dissolved and lose their lands. But it never happened. All of the Wensaes then the Fawnaes and Malnaes to the Denaes royal family. Every member of those families was executed. Serinina took so much pleasure in ordering those families extermination. They no longer existed on the Golden Isles. She exterminated the hekatin and left fields and towns a pile of smoking ash and charred bodies. Even Aanya who knew the level of Serinina's rage was horrified by what she had done here. Nothing would ever be the same. But Serinina regained her crown and reigned as the queen. Patinea was dead for all she knew. Her homeland was a pile of smoking ash. What was left of the witches were cowering in terror under the degrading peace treaty Serinina forced them into. She knew the peace would not last. The peace was a humiliating submission that would eventually render them out as irrelevant, and they would eventually be phased out of existence under this peace. The Hekatin would fight it and that was exactly what Serinina was counting on. That was going to be a mistake that would give Serinina the excuse she needed to totally exterminate the rest of the Hekatin for all time.

Serinina's wrath was horrible. And as a mother, she knew that even after getting everything she ever wanted, Serinina was still not happy. She still felt empty. Serinina's last words to her mother let her know that Serinina felt Aanya must have hated her son. She was pregnant with Ares child, and Aanya was forbidden to ever see her grandchild. That was the most crushing punishment of all. Aanya felt so rejected, alone and depressed. This was the most depressed she had ever felt. She knew nothing would ever be the same. The culture of the Golden Isles was being transformed. The old families were wiped out. The old culture and the religion were being transformed into something very ugly under these new gods. An incredibly militaristic new society was taking shape in the Golden Isles. The warriors and the military would rule. This was going to be a very powerful empire. And all of it was under Serinina's iron fist. Aanya could do nothing but watch the horror unfold.

Xxxxxx

After the great war between the Golden Isles and the Russian Empire, an uneasy peace settled between the two great empires of the world. Serinina threw herself into guiding a new weapons project and dumping much of the empire's wealth into it. About ten years after the civil war with the Bolsheviks, she finished the project. Then Serinina called all of the other great heads of state to witness the new power of her regime. This was mainly a way to intimidate her sister Patinea. She figured it would work wonders.

Patinea was surprised to get an invitation to witness a demonstration in the Golden Isles. She was reluctant to accept anything from Serinina. Serinina's brutality during the great war of 1914 and the way her empire totally slaughtered entire Russian divisions and her use of gas on the troops in the Russian trenches horrified her. The sadistic brutality of the Golden Isles during the war was shocking and horrifying. Patinea was enraged. Only her armored divisions held the troops of the Golden Isles back. That war introduced the world to a new level of brutality. But even that did not match the brutality of the Civil War. Trotsky's brutality made Serinina's look kind by comparison.

But Patinea accepted. Whatever demonstration of a new weapon that her sister possessed was an important development which she would be wise to witness. It would have an impact on them either way. So Patinea made the arrangements to fly to the Golden Isles and witness this demonstration. It was January and with her dignitaries in toll they boarded a large four-engine aircraft from their capital in St. Petersburg. They flew from there to the City of Denaerk in the Golden Isles. She thought it would feel very nostalgic and almost like visiting home.

It was anything but that. Then Patinea did a palm face and almost kicked herself. What in hell did she expect, the medieval walled city guarded by enormous castles and man at arms? She faced the Empire of the Golden Isles and saw their army. They were dressed in green, had modern arms and even armored vehicles. They had a very powerful air force and bombs. Modern artillery and dreadnoughts bombarded their coastline. Their army had modern artillery that bombarded and lobbed gas at her troops. She should have expected to see a modern city with numerous smokestacks belching black smoke into the air. This was a modern industrialized city. It looked nothing like the Denaerk she left. Patinea felt sad.

Her large state aircraft leveled out to land at a large military airbase outside of Denaerk. She felt the large wheels hit the pavement and they slowed. The doors opened and she exited with her guards and diplomats and generals.

She saw Serinina there wearing a royal gown of an empress, and the crown she wore in the sixth century. Her husband was beside her and her generals. Patinea swaggered up to her still little sister and greeted her in Russian.

Oddly, Serinina returned her greeting in the old language they learned in the Golden Isles of the sixth century. The language didn’t change one bit and she half expected the language to evolve to what was spoken in the United States. But they still spoke a very early dialect of English. Serinina refused to allow the language to evolve. Some of her generals also spoke ancient Greek along with early English.

Patinea struggled to remember her old language and said to Serinina, “Praise the Goddess. This city has really changed since the last time I was here.”

“Cities change in thirteen hundred years, dear sister.” Serinina shot back sardonically. “I know you aren't that old now. But your cities have radically changed since the sixth century. I should have sent you back during the Mongol invasion. But I sent you back on the eve of the February and October revolution to see if you would survive or suffer the fate of the Romanov's in the other time. I should have known you were far more competent than your other brother Nicholai. You're all alive. The Bolsheviks are dead. Praise Athena.”

“He took it far better than you did. He said it was a great relief. He didn’t want to rule. He was happy that I took the crown,” replied Patinea.

“That crown looks far better on you than mine did. I was competent. I wanted to rule,” Serinina said harshly. “And unlike what you did to Nicholai. You kept me there, imprisoned me, and humiliated me beyond anything. Imagine if you entrapped Nicholai and turned him into a girl to be mocked and humiliated. You know you could have. Then I’m sure he would feel much like I did.”

“If I did that, I don’t think it would have gone well with the other nobles and members of my family. The church wouldn’t have supported me then. Unlike the revolution of the Golden Isles. This one wasn’t for some feminist goddess that saw being changed as an elevation and a great blessing,” Patinea said.

“As Tzarina, you can do anything you want,” Serinina replied. “Ekaterina murdered her husband and had another boy imprisoned for his entire life. He lived in a prison since he was a little boy. I think he was Ivan the sixth. If that can be done. I’m sure you could have used some of your power to transform Nicholai and it would have been totally accepted.” Serinina smiled.

Patinea was troubled that her sister seemed all too eager to see another boy transformed like he was. She was very troubled.

“Well, the other countries are almost ready. They are here and going to the demonstration site. It's time for us to go. It will be amazing.” Serinina gave a very dark evil grin that sent shards of ice rushing down her back. It gave Patinea a very bad feeling. Whatever Serinina had planned. It was going to be horrible. That grin was nothing good. Her little sister was planning something evil.

The trip to the demonstration site was a long one. They traveled north to one of the small isles above what was once Anseys Isles. There was a chain of small islands above Anseys. It was now called Emily's Isle.

She saw Roosevelt sat there in his wheelchair with and his generals and dignataries sitting in a row of seats next to the beach. Patinea saw some of the other smaller countries in South America there. Generals from the Golden Isles were alsothere. Patinea and her people took their seats. She felt nothing but dread here. Total fear clutched at her heart.

Patinea looked behind them and saw large rocket launchers ready to fire behind them. And these weren't like the small launchers from her country like the Katyusha launchers. These were massive launchers. These missiles looked like long-range ballistic missiles.

Serinina stood in front of the group holding the hand of her husband. Then she spoke to the assembled guests. “Welcome honored dignitaries and heads of state. I am happy to hold this demonstration for you. As you can see behind you, those are missile launchers. They are going to fire the biggest missiles that have ever been built. I named them after my husband. The Ares two. These are the second generation of Ares missiles with a range of about ten thousand miles. They are all equipped with a new very powerful warhead. We have mined great quantities of a new element we have discovered we call Uranium 235. They go critical if packed in sufficient amount. We have developed an implosion method to get the element critical.

She saw some of the scientists from the United States stiffen in alarm. They now knew exactly what was going on. Patinea heard one of them scoff, “No way they did it.”

Serinina flashed her evil smile and continued, “Oh no my friends,” She said gravely, “That isn't it. I was disappointed by the very limited yield so we continued developing the new weapon to increase its yield. We started mining new elements called deuterium and tritium. The Fission method is only the trigger to fuse those two elements into Hydrogen. That will increase the puny kiloton yield into millions of tons of explosive. My scientists predict a yield of ten million tons of TNT. The demonstration is prepared. Underneath your seats are shielding goggles. We predict this to be very bright and will destroy your eyeballs if you see the detonation without a cover for your eyes. Please put them on.

Patinea saw everyone putting the goggles on and she felt it was wise to do as her sister said. She put on the very heavy and dark goggles. She could hardly see anything now. She briefly wondered if it was a trick.

She heard her sister issue some commands and the three launchers behind her fired their missiles high into the sky. They went out of sight and wondered if this was a mistake. How could they see anything going on that high into the sky?

The missiles went up fifty miles into the sky and separated. The nose cone separated off and started spinning and descending into the atmosphere.

Then Patinea was thankful for the goggles. They all saw it. An impossible searing brilliant flash of light and heat. The searing heat felt uncomfortable and she realized that brilliant flash would have destroyed their eye sockets. The flash lasted for about ten seconds and it went back into an enormous towering fireball. The brilliant fireball rose into the atmosphere. It must have risen up a hundred thousand feet into the sky. It towered above them and they heard an enormous deafening roar. The explosion must be thirty miles away.

The fireball disappeared into a huge cloud that continued to rise into the sky. Patinea was right. It was a horrifying display of power. And even more, there wasn't just one, but there were three explosions.

Serinina stood in front of them and said, “My empire has built thousands of them and we won't stop until we have tens of thousands of those missiles. I will unleash these on any country that tries to build them. This will be the response to any attack on my country. And dearest sister. I have dozens targeting your cities right now. If you dare attack us again, I will destroy your entire country and turn your greatest cities into radioactive ash.”

She mumbled to herself, “You like turning cities into ash. It must be your pastime. I still remember York.”

Serinina scoffed, “York will look puny compared to what this will do to a city. Does Moscow want a demonstration?”

Patinea realized that even after thirteen hundred years, Serinina was still angry at her. And even as powerful as Russia was now, it could not begin to match the power of the Golden Isles. Serinina was here threatening the entire world.

Serinina stood in front of Roosevelt and said harshly, “You will cancel the Manhattan Project. Or one will be fired right into the Alamogordo desert. What you call the Trinity site.”

“Of course, Your Imperial Majesty,” Roosevelt replied. How could they risk this?