Serving a princess 1
16 Jun 2020Prochaska
Shortly after she finished moving to Shen Terminal, Zoe received a message that made her wonder. It was an invitation to the Blue Shadow squadronn, signed by Aisling Duval. At first Zoe smiled in disbelief and wanted to delete the message, but then she started researching. The sender didn't seem to be faked, and the squadron had really been founded recently. She then decided to reply and asked to be given a few days to think it over.The idea of working for the Empire would never have occurred to her a few months ago. Apart from the fact that she had grown up with the representation of the Empire in the Federation media from a very young age, Imperial society violated several of her most important personal beliefs regarding values such as freedom, and she could see nothing but ignorant superficiality in the imperial pomp. Yet from the outset, her curiosity to try something new prevailed. When she woke up the next day, she decided to simply ignore her highly moralized remorse and accepted.
Her conscience, of course, was not so easily to be tricked, and so Zoe was bombarded with self-doubts, and the warmth with which she was received in the community only strengthened the voice in her head that cried out loud treason. When she heard that Emily Chambers, another squadron pilot, had shot a woman some time ago when it turned out she had been spying for the Federation, the doubts in Zoe's head suddenly took on a very real, threatening form.
The first meeting with Aisling took place out in space, some of the squadron pilots met outside at the Guardian ruins. Zoe and the princess positioned their ships in front of each other, so they had visual contact and talked. Engrossed in conversation, Zoe, with an unconscious movement of her hand, hit the throttle lever and caused an accident that was very embarrassing for Zoe. Zoe's chieftain "Banshee" absorbed the damage with it's shields, but the princess' Asp Explorer took serious damage from the impact. Even Aisling's assurance that she would not hold a grudge against Zoe's because of the blunder could not fully reassure Zoe.
At another meeting with the Princess out in space at the end of August 3305, Zoe was invited to the palace at Cemiess. The joy over the invitation quickly turned into entirely practical considerations. On the one hand, Zoe had no desire to submit to the palace protocol, but on the other hand she did not want to offend Aisling.
A few days after Princess Aisling Duval's invitation, Zoe flew in the courier "Odyssey" from Shen Terminal in Guuguyni to Mackenzie Relay in Cemiess. She prepared for the visit by dusting off her space suit until it at least looked almost new. Then she took a shuttle from there to the surface of Emerald, and went to the palace. Here she reported to the security personnel at the main entrance, where her personal details were checked. The guard went to his office, relatively bored, and found her name on a list of the Princess' invited guests, but according to the rules of the service, he still entered her data into the computer, and he was quite astonished when suddenly warnings appeared on the screen. The grid search had discovered connections to an FIA officer, and involvement in a company that was listed as having connections to FIA operatives. Immediately, it triggered a silent alarm, which was used to call for backup.
Zoe was standing outside looking around the area when she suddenly noticed two gunmen hurriedly approaching from the left, while at the same time the guard came running out of the entrance building with two other gunmen, laser guns pointed at her, ready to fire. She was about to protest loudly when the commands "don't move" and "hands behind your head" were shouted at her. While she was following this, the four guards had approached, three kept their distance, while one approached her from the left and grabbed her right wrist to cuff her. "What the hell," she wanted to protest, but even before she had finished the sentence, the guard next to her punched her left side with his free fist so that she lost her breath and collapsed. She was then handcuffed and carried into a plain room that had been prepared as a detention cell. The guards left the room and locked the door behind them.