The Dinner-Plates Are Shifting
27 Apr 2021User319792
"Cadence..."The pitch of his voice raised slightly at the end and he overly accentuated the A-sound. I could see the brief flashes of hurried movement entering and exiting the holo's sensor-range and what sounded like an engineer's tool in the overall din of the comms, which was a lot louder than normal. I matched his pitch and cadence,
"Yes?"
His head remained motionless and his face unflinching. He blinked twice before continuing,
"Is there a reason we've gotten reports of you in Nova Imperium faction space?"
I looked away briefly before meeting his holo's gaze. The engineer's tools cut in and out for short periods and the loudness of whomever else was in the room with him swelled every couple of seconds. I repeated, but this time with certainty, my pitch lower than the last time,
"Yes."
He looked over his left shoulder, slowly nodded his head, and immediately jerked his head to the right. He straightened his back and his right arm shot out of the sensor-range before returning, then disappearing, then returning again. He looked at me without turning his head toward the holo, looked toward the nothingness to his right again, and then looked over to me. He stared long and hard into the holo before speaking in slow measured tones.
"Would you care to share that information with me, Cadence?"
I gave him as blank a stare as I could manage before slowly repeating myself, but with a no. His lip curled and his head rocked back. He squinted his eyes, leaned in and raised his eyebrows, reopening his eyes wider. I lolled my eyes upward,
"It's none of your business."
"IT'S ALL MY BUSINESS, CADENCE!"
It was my turn to rock my head back. I looked at him for a long time. I could see him reacting to the things happening behind him. It looked like he was trying to avoid someone jostling him but nothing else showed up in the holo. He looked back at me and seemed to regain his composure. We sat in front of our holos, looking at each other for a long hard minute.
"I'm not your slave, you know."
I regretted saying it, immediately. He shrunk slightly into himself and when he returned my gaze his eyes had gone glossy. He turned away from the sensors and took a deep breath.
"They're saying its Hadrian. If they're saying it's Hadrian, what do you think they're gonna say about Aisling?"
His lips puckered into a half-smile, immediately and his eyes lit up. He managed a curt, "What?" before clearing his throat. He was trying not to laugh and I began to second-guess whether or not I should have regretted the thing about being his slave.
"Are you not paying attention to what the news is telling everyone? GALNET is reporting Hadrian is responsible for organizing the NMLA. Something about leaked ACT documents."
His eyes darted off-screen and back in eight different directions almost simultaneously. He took a few deep breaths before looking back at me, his lips still twisted around,
"What?"
I squinted,
"His bid to be recognized as a member of the Imperial Family was just shot down and Aisling was publicly supporting him. Her father was just killed by NMLA forces and she saved Hadrian's life. What do you think The Emperor and Denton, not to mention that awful ghoul Torval are going to be trying to do to The Empress?"
He released a long-held breath that began when I started explaining.
"Oh... sorry... I've never heard you call her by her first name."
He paused, his eyes scanning.
"Yeah... It looks particularly rough on Aisling. Well, it's not as if she doesn't have her own history with Nova Imperium."
The matter-of-factness with which he was talking about this irritated me.
"So she didn't support his faction in a bid for power maybe four years ago, so what? If,"
I paused for dramatic effect, something he taught me in our Speaking For Diplomatic Effect master-class.
"... If he was the actual mastermind behind the NMLA as an organization, what do you think his increasingly close political relationship with The Empress is going to suggest to everyone else? She accepted an invitation to a gala dinner with the Marlinists during the Galactic Summit. What's gonna happen when The Emperor, Patreus, and Torval decide that the pot is sweet enough to ladle out to one another?"
He squinted his eyes and his lips slowly loosened into a smile. He lifted his hand and extended his index finger, waggling it in a circle toward and away from me.
"What if she's behind the NMLA, Cadence?"
I backed away from the holo, feeling my heart-rate explode. He started laughing.
"I'm kidding... sorry. Go on..."
I leaned back toward the camera, shooting him a look that I hope he felt deep in his heart. He choked down another laugh before beckoning me to continue.
"What, she killed her own dad? You're gross. I hate you."
"Sorry... sorry... you should know the phrase "the pot" doesn't have anything to do with cooking"
He choked down another laugh before beckoning me again to continue.
"What do I know about cooking? I used to serve the food when I was a slave before I became yours."
He cringed again and I felt good about myself.
"Whatever is going on with the ACT, I don't trust it. 'Leaked' document? How do we know it isn't just garbage one of The Emperor's people working there produced to weaken anyone else's base of power?
He shot me a look,
"Stop it, Cadence. Aisling's never once said anything that would suggest she's angling for the throne. Go on."
I lowered my head and tried to look over my shoulder without turning.
"She isn't supposed to. It wouldn't be 'appropriate behavior for a member of The Imperial Family to suggest anything of the sort.' How do we even know it isn't just garbage someone cooked up? I don't trust the ACT or the rest of the Imperials, to begin with."
"Cadence,..."
He sighed, trying to choke down another laugh before burping.
"Ha, you burped."
"... Why would the Imperials try to cook up some nonsense about Hadrian being the mastermind behind the NMLA?"
I squinted, trying to figure out if he was asking a stupid question on purpose.
"Are you asking a stupid question on purpose? He's the head of a faction that went to war with The Emperor's rule. He has what would be the most legitimate claim to the Imperial throne after The Emperor herself and, guess who, The Empress."
He sat in silence for a long minute, his eyes scanning below the holo's sensors again.
"You do know that Denton's been linked to certain groups, too, right?"
I rolled my eyes.
"So Denton's people cooked this up to try to isolate the Emperor by eliminating Hadrian and The Empress? Maybe you're right. Come to think of it that makes a lot of sense. That might explain why they were 'dating.' I wonder if he's that much of a snake that he'd have tried to lure her into a sense of security at the arms of an Admiral of the Imperial Navy while setting something up like this."
He shook his head vigorously and I could hear some of the voices behind him yelling "Hey, watch it with that," to which the man in the black suit looked over his shoulder with a laugh. I shifted my eyes about, trying to figure out what was so funny about that. He continued laughing for a minute before taking a deep breath and looking at me, again, with a twinkle in his eye
"So what were you doing in Nova Imperium territory, Cadence?"