The Trial

I had all the members of the church and those in positions of power within the station lined up in the throne room. I made sure that this trial was broadcast throughout the Empire. Minsha was sitting next to me upon the dais. Looking down at all the people that I needed to judge and sentence, but I had to seem like a was not a malevolent ruler.

“You are all charged with treason, intentionally harming citizens of the Empire, and contempt of the Crown. Those who wish to submit to my rule are asked now to kneel before me.” There was no one that took a knee. I wondered if they thought I was to week to punish them.

“I see, well I will share what I have found since I have taken the throne. The Empire was stolen from Queen Alana when her brother Minthral decided he thought he should rule instead of her. He then took away the women’s right to hold places of power. Minthral was unable to produce a male heir. Upon his death the Church of Mintral was formed and placed itself in the place of power. The Church has taken away all women’s rights so that they were nothing but property of men.”

“This brings us to me, Queen Alana managed to accomplish several things that Minthral was unable to undo. Prior to her escaping from being murdered by her brother, she locked down this station so that you did not have the full knowledge of the empire available to you. This knowledge was to be locked until an heir of Queen Alana would sit on the throne with the crown. She also locked away the key for control of the Queen’s Rage in Queen’s Vault below the spire. The knowledge of that vault was locked away in the Spires AI. Lastly, she escaped she took the crown with her.”

“Now you may be wondering how I came into possession of the crown. I was told by the Royal Transport that Queen Alana used to escape, because I am a descendant of Queen Alana. That is how I was able to unlock all functions of the Queen’s Spire. This is how I was recognized as your Queen and how I now have the key that controls the Queen’s Rage.”

“I do not wish the Empire to fall into a civil war. I hope that the people of the Empire will embrace me as your Queen and support the path back to greatness as the Empire once was. Now that you know what happened and how futile it would be to go against me, do any of you wish to challenge me to trial by combat?” I put this out there for the group to give the people a demonstration of just what an educated and trained woman could do. I needed to prove that women were not inferior and weak.

The former General stepped up. I smiled as he walked up, he had courage and skill. I hope I did not make my reign shorter, but this would be a good example. “General, you impressed me when you spoke to me honestly about your lack of willingness to follow me. As a military leader I respect the service you have given to the Empire. Unfortunately, you have chosen to follow the losing side. We fight with knives and no armor. This will be decided on skill alone.”

Minsha looked at me with a worried look in her eyes. She did not want me to do this, but she has also never seen me fight in hand-to-hand combat. I stood up and removed my armor. Underneath I had the jumpsuit I woke up in two and half months ago. This was so they could see that I hid nothing to gain an unfair advantage over him. Tren and Kal walked up to me and opened a box that I had them bring down. Inside were two identical knives I grabbed one. “Please set the other knife in the middle of the floor, ladies. Minsha, trust me I know what I am doing.” I gave the three women a smile and stepped aside.

Once the knife was placed in the middle, I motioned for him to go for the knife. I stood some distance away from him, so he felt safe going for the knife. “Please, General, check the knife. Make sure the knife is real and sharp. I want this to be an equal and fair fight.” He stepped forward and grabbed the knife and looked over it.

“Usurper, this is not a fair fight. There is no way you can beat me.” He said as he grabbed the knife with the blade up and held it back by his hip and his other hand in front of him in a fist. He looked comfortable in his stance.

I took up a boxer’s stance with the blade down. “General, first rule of military tactics is never underestimating your enemy.” We danced around getting a feel for each other before striking.

“Girl, you don’t even know how to hold a blade properly.” He said with a snarl. I just giggled in response. I realized that he was going to rely on his size and strength in the fight. He also was not very light on his feet. He looked a little stiff in his movements.

My laugh is what caused him to rush forward, and as expected he thrust from the hip in a well telegraphed strike. I easily side stepped the thrust and slashed across his forearm. We separated again and he looked a little more closely at the way I moved. My slash did not do much damage to his arm but that was not the point. The point was to show that I could draw blood. They must not have much of a martial arts program in the Empire because when I switched my stance and transferred my knife to my other hand, he looked confused.

Now might be time to put my Army Combatives training to good use. A nice armbar would make a point. I just needed to get in close to be able to take him to the ground. I jumped in for a quick jab to the face which he blocked easily. I had jumped back out of reach before he could strike with the knife. I did this a couple times, to make him raise his guard up. Next, I feigned another jab causing him to strike out with his knife where he thought I was going to be. I grabbed his wrist and did a hip throw, flipping him onto his back. Then I dropped into an armbar and broke his arm with a quick thrust of my hips.

The General was screaming out in pain as I let go of his arm and rolled back into a standing position. He had to pick up the knife with his off hand and I could tell he was not doing good with the pain he was in. The crowd around were staring in shock at the fight. Here was a smaller woman totally dominating this trained soldier. I should have put him out of his misery, but I had a point to make. As I swept his legs out from under him, he dropped the knife as he struck the ground and cried out in pain. I rolled over and stabbed his other shoulder taking out both arms.

The man was writhing on the ground, I went in to grab him by his hair. I got cocky though and missed him throwing a punch at my jaw. The strike made me stumble back a little and busted open my lip. That will teach me to keep my focus until the job is done. He still couldn’t get up off the floor and he was getting close to getting his knife, but I got there in time to kick it away. Stepping on his wrist, I slashed the inside of his elbow cutting his tendons. I knew he was out of the fight now. I grabbed his hair and lifted him to his feet and held him in front of the crowd of traitors.

I slashed his neck and let his body drop to the floor. “Does anyone else think that I am a weak and stupid woman?” I grabbed the other knife and walked over to Tren and Kal and placed both knives back into the box. They both looked at me in shock after what I had just done.
Sitting back on the throne, I looked at the Grand Cleric, and spit some blood on to the ground. “That’s seven, still think I am not capable of killing. Guards take these men to nearest airlock and push them out.” My lip was sore, and I was sure it was swollen but I couldn’t show that pain to anyone.

My ladies walked me down to the med bay to get my lips looked at.

The Arrival

Minsha and I sat in my suite talking. I was reminiscing about Earth. I felt alone up here so far away. I had good people around me, but I still missed home. I wanted to go back and visit, but how could I do that? Who would I even visit? My extended family thinks I’m dead, I’m sure. Imagine the stir I would cause just flying a ship to Earth. It still broke my heart to realize that I was never going to see my home again.
Minsha tried to console me, but she couldn’t relate. She was home and always had been. She was born here on the station, along with everyone who surrounded me. I was the outsider, and I always would be. It would be fun though to fly back and land in the middle of Lafayette Square and ask for volunteers to join me in space. I know there would be a lot of people who would jump at the chance.

I needed to get to a planet and feel the ground under my feet again. I have been locked in this giant tin can for weeks after spending two months in a tin can. I felt I needed to stretch my legs a little. I didn’t understand the entertainment on this station. I suppose that’s what you get when you have guys making shows for guys. The former slaves that I had living in the palace slowly dwindled down. Many of the working girls took my offer to work in the brothels. I was also working on reuniting children with their mothers, which was not going so well. The children felt no connection to their mothers. After seeing some of reunifications it broke my heart to see the pain on the women’s face as they cried.
It was a tense time in the station. I didn’t see any more fights on the station, I think my demonstration with the General made people realize that I wasn’t playing around. The training program for the women was going slow. They were so undereducated that it was proving difficult to try to catch up with them.

Overall things on the station were improving, I think. The rest of the Empire was not going as smoothly. I had seized all the money from the Church, but they still had support out amongst the rest of the systems. I feared that I would never be able to completely root them all out.
I received notice from the space port control tower that a massive ship just jumped into our space. My gauntlet let me know that it was the Queen’s Rage. I took my group of ladies to the observation deck so that I could get a good look at it. Massive was an understatement when I saw it moving towards the station. The ship was almost half the size of this station. It was curved triangular shape with a rounded nose. I was so impressed, I wondered what size crew was on the ship. I wanted to go aboard so bad I was giddy with excitement.

My hands found their way into Minsha’s hands. As our fingers intertwined, I looked up at her. “Doesn’t that ship look beautiful?”

“Yes, Kara that ship looks amazing and scary all at once. Never have I ever seen a ship that size.” She looked out at the ship with a shocked look on her face.

“Let’s go take a tour of my new ship.” I suggested to her. I had a huge smile on my face as I looked at her.

“Yes, let us go, see what it is like.” She looked down at me with a smile.

We walked together; my arm wrapped in hers. We both had our armor on today. I didn’t want anything to happen to either of us. We made our way to the Royal Transport. It had been a while since I had been back inside. “RXAI-199 take us to Queen’s Rage.” I got an affirmative and an ETA of two hours.

I spent the time talking to Minsha and showing her where I spent the two months before arriving at the station. I asked RXAI-199 if he could show what Earth looked like as we left. I watched the sight of my blue marble getting smaller as we travelled out into deep space. It brought a tear to my eyes as I had to say goodbye to my home. Minsha, sensing that I was sad at seeing that, gave me a hug. I am still trying to get used to the tickle of her fur when we hug. It’s so soft I am a little jealous that my hair isn’t as soft.

The docking with the Queen’s Rage was so seamless that I almost hadn’t realized we had done it. The air hissed as the airlock cycled to allow us to transit to the Queen’s Rage. I was met by a man and woman officer. Admiral Stook and Captain Bishop. They both popped to a salute, “Permission to come aboard Admiral” I asked with the utmost respect.

I think I may have confused her. “Permission granted, my Queen.” I think both were wondering why I would ask for permission to board a ship in my fleet.

To ease some confusion, “When I was in the military in my home world it was a military custom that any visitor no matter the rank would ask permission to come aboard. Since you are in command here on this ship Admiral that is why I asked you. Just so you both know I was a ground pounder and not on any vessels so I may ask questions you might think would be common knowledge. Just bear with me if I ask any crazy questions. So, now that the formalities are out of the way, who is going to give me a tour?” I had a huge smile on my face.
The admiral still looked confused, “Why were you serving in the military your Majesty? I would think royalty would not want to put themselves in that danger.” Ah ok so I had some explaining to do.

“I was not royalty on my home world. I didn’t find out about my royal heritage till I arrived at Queen’s Spire. Queen Alana’s transport crash landed on my planet in the neighboring galaxy. She had a family with my species which are called humans. This happened three millennia ago. I just happened to stumble upon that transport one day and was brought here. So, while I lived on that planet, I was an average human in the region I lived in. We did not have royalty our leaders were elected by the people. I fought in many battles while I was in the military and was even injured by an enemy. That is the quick and easy explanation, but maybe someday we will talk again, and I can share more with you.” I wrapped my arm in Minsha’s and brought her close. I figured it was good to show where everyone stood.

The captain spoke up next, “We observed your fight with that General. We were quite distressed to find that you had so many malcontents around you. We felt even more distress when you chose to fight in hand-to-hand combat. It was a glorious battle though, and your strategy was amazing. Where did you learn those moves?” He spoke like how a lot of the guys spoke at the bars when they got back from deployments. It was strange that it was a similar mentality.

“Thank you, I have had years of martial arts training and army combatives training. Though that would be the first time I killed a man in hand-to-hand combat. Usually, it is at the end of a riffle.” His eyes got wide with excitement as I said this. I hoped he didn’t expect more stories right now.

“How up to date are you all on the current status of the Empire?” I asked both.

“We knew before we went in cryo-sleep that Queen Alana had to flee it was because of her brother. We were not expecting it to take this long to be awaken by a rightful heir. We have received reports on military channels that there is a call for ships of the Empire to join in the glorious fight against the foul usurper.” I nodded.

“Yes, after Minthral died without a male heir, a church was named claiming he was a god or something of that nature. Anyway, this Church of Minthral has been ruling for several millennia until I showed up. Now I am trying to take out the trash. If you study the teaching of Minthral, you Admiral would never hold your position. You would be a slave. Same with me. I am fighting to make the Empire equal for all.” I will explain to both.

“Women have always ruled over the Caravelle Empire my Queen,” Admiral Stook exclaimed.

“That is not how I rule, Admiral. Rank is given to those who prove they can handle those duties. I will not have anyone promoted or ruling just because of their sex. The old ways are what I believe resulted in the uprising of the men, and the subjugation of women.” I spoke. This caused a shock to both of the officers in front of me.

“How rude of me, I am sorry for not introducing you earlier. This lovely woman next to me is Minsha, and we are courting each other. Please forgive me for this my sweet.” I apologized to Minsha.

“It is quite alright my Queen; I understand how excited you were to see this ship that you had a momentary lap of judgement. I do expect some attention this evening though.” She replied to me with a little sass. I give him a little wink in return.

The Admiral cleared her throat, obviously not use to hearing such banter. “My Queen please follow me I will show you the Queen’s Rage. It is your flagship to lead the battles ahead after all. We will start with the bridge.”

We made our way to a tram that took us throughout the ship. The center of this behemoth was a garden that was beautiful. I wanted to take a walk through it sometime. Once we reached the command deck, we were escorted onto the bridge. The bridge crew all came to my attention when I entered the bridge. The bridge had twenty stations around the front and three chairs along the back in the command dais. One in the far back and two up in front of it. Admiral Stook gestured to the single chair at the back of the bridge. “Queen Kara would you please take the command chair and activate the Queen’s Rage?” With a smile I walked over to the command chair and took a seat.

As I sat down in the command chair, the sound of the ship became even stronger. The display on the monitors seemed to cycle faster. The AI of the ship sounded throughout the ship. “Queen’s Rage is ready for war my Queen. Weapons cache is fully stocked, shield generators are ready for deployment, and fighter squadrons are ready to deploy. Accessing Caravelle Empire’s communications net. Downloading system information. Sync complete with Queen’s Spire. Welcome to the Queen’s Rage Queen Kara of Earth. Searching system charts Earth located.”
That last announcement caught me by surprise, “Rage, how long would it take to fly to Earth?”

“Calculating… thirty days twenty-six hours fifteen minutes. Do you wish me to plot a course my Queen?”

“No, that’s ok maybe someday but we are needed here right now.” I sighed. I really wanted to go but I could not leave the Empire in such turmoil just so I can get over my homesickness. It will be no different from the four deployments I did. Just to know that I could go back was enough for me right now.

“Captain, I would like to have another chair added next to mine for Minsha to sit next to me. You have control of the bridge, Captain.” I announced as I stood up and walked over to Minsha and Admiral Stook. “Let us see more of this fine ship.”

As we walked off the bridge everyone came to attention once more. On the far end of the command deck was the queen’s quarters. I opened the door to look in; it was immaculately decorated. White and blue adorned the walls and furniture. It had everything I needed to spend long stretches in comfort aboard the ship. Minsha was impressed by the luxury that now surrounded her. “It’s good to be courting the Queen, isn’t it Minsha.”

She spun around looking at everything. “Yes, Kara it is like a dream that I never knew I wanted.” She looked so excited to be here with me. The admiral on the other hand was taken aback by the show of familiarity that Minsha had shown me.

As we continued to tour the ship, we were shown the officer’s mess, the training rooms, the weapons range, and environmental. Environmental turned out to be the huge green forest that was located in the middle of the ship. It processed and filtered the air as well as provided oxygen. They had water reclamation tanks at the back of the bay. This was a self-sustaining environment, well except food. The food stores were immense, but they needed to be with a crew of thirty thousand.

The fighter hangers were huge. Each of the four hangers held squadrons of a hundred fighters. The amount of fire power that was on this ship was nothing but amazing. The auto weapons surrounding the ship were controlled from fifteen separate locations so the guns could be locally fired. There were two main energy cannons on the hull of the ship. They were powerful enough to split a planet which made me wonder why we would ever need that kind of power.

The ship was amazing, and I was glad it was on my side after seeing what it had at its disposal. It would make a statement when it arrived as the flag ship of my fleet whenever I must confront the enemy. After the tour Minsha and I went back to the Spire.

So far, all that I have shown the Empire was that I was not weak and that I had no qualms about doing dirty things. I think that I need to show the empire that I can also bring people together. I figured it was time to bring in the rich and powerful together so I can get them on board with my ideas. A ball where they could all come together and meet with me.

I finally had a palace assistant, and Misty finally joined me in the palace. I made her my lady in waiting so that I could teach her and take care of her, while giving her a purpose. She was quite surprised when she saw her new wardrobe and the quality of the clothes. No longer was she in rags and ill-fitting but made specifically for her.

My palace assistant Tray was a flamboyant Skraggs with an eye for detail. We met together with all my ladies. “We are going to throw a ball in the palace. I want to make sure that we invite all the rich and powerful people who have not pledged their loyalty to the Church. I want them to bring their families. If you need to sell it to them, tell them it is an opportunity to get facetime with the Queen and be heard. We will have a dinner before drinks and dancing.”

“I want everyone to wear their very best clothing, this means I want all my ladies here to have gowns made especially for the ball. I want to have a few places redecorated as well. I want the entryway changed. Lose the red décor, change it to a light blue and gold. I want a ball room set up as well with the same colors. Other rooms that need to be changed are my quarters and the throne room. Tray, please make sure these changes get made as quickly as possible.”

“Please get with Silva to get a meal plan. I would like to have all the plans and invitation list created in five days. I would like to have this ball within forty days. We will need to take care of security for the system and the Spire as well as for the event.”

I always wanted to go to a ball wearing fancy dress, now I can make it happen. This will be a dream come true. I imagine a strapless corset ball gown. Gliding around the floor with a prince or princess in my arms. This was making my heart flutter; would I be able to find real love here? I needed to know which races I would be compatible with.

Pinari are a no though. That would not be something I could go for. I know that there are more races than the main seven, but most of the minor ones limit themselves to their home planets. Nirni, is also a definite no, I just don’t even know how to describe how wrong that would be. I know that I am courting Minsha, but we have not tried anything with each other. We were thrown together by accident, and we are trying to make the best of the situation. I need to talk with her about what she wants.

There are just so few people that I can trust to be close to right now and it makes it hard to build anything meaningful with anybody. It also keeps me isolated. I wonder if other monarchs felt like this.

“Minsha, can we talk for a minute alone?” I asked my girlfriend. I decided it was important to understand what she was thinking about when it came to our relationship.

“Of course, Kara, I am at your disposal.” She said in a polite tone, and had a smile on her face. Everyone left after I asked for us to be alone.
“How are we going to move forward with our relationship? I know up till now we have given the public the idea that we are so very much in love, but I want your honest opinion. What are your ideas for our relationship’s future? Do you want us to become intimate, or do you want to stay strictly plutonic when out of the public eye?” I asked as so that I could get some clarification on how we proceed. I didn’t want to initiate sexual encounters with her, and she felt obligated to go along with it because I am the queen.

“Kara, I didn’t think you thought me attractive because I am not like you. I never considered that I would be anything but your friend in all this while putting up an air of romance for the public. I have seen many emotions from you since we have been together. I have seen your empathy, happiness, pain, loneliness, and your rage, but I have yet to see your love. Are you capable of loving me?”

“That is a good question, I have yet to let myself feel it. I didn’t know if you were even interested in loving a woman. In my home, most women are not interested in women sexually and I didn’t want to assume you were. It is not like I asked you that before we started courting. I don’t want to force you into a type of relationship that you were uncomfortable with. If you are comfortable with it, I would like to see if we are compatible together. From your last response I believe you can tell how lonely I have been. I am just so different than everyone and no one here has the same experiences as I have. I didn’t even know about other species of sentient people till about ninety days ago.”

“Yes, I don’t understand your world from the stories you have shared with me. I have never lived on a planet, but we can teach each other about our pasts. I am willing to try to have a sexual relationship with you and we can see how we both like it. I know that this was not what you were intending to get into but, I hope we can work past this.”

“Minsha, I appreciate your openness and your willingness to make the best out of this situation. Can I kiss you?” She nodded her head yes and smiled. I responded to her smile with my own and moved into kiss her lips. It was just a quick kiss, but it was like any other kiss I have had. It felt good so I went back in for a longer kiss.

When I pulled back this time, I looked at her and she had a savage smile. Her lips curled up and I saw her large canines. “You like is that much, Misha?”

“Oh yes, that was my first ever kiss, and I found it quite enjoyable. I hope we can do more of that.” She replied and moved in closer to kiss me. We made out for a long time. My lips were a little sore after we finished but like she said it was quite enjoyable.

As I lay next to her and stroked her arm, when a large explosion outside the station. We quickly ran out of our room and made our way to the throne room so I could get a briefing on what was happening.