Aerv sat on the boat dock behind the old family house, dangling her feet
in the water of the river. The Rhynne was wide and sluggish here so
close to the sea. A mixture of scents hung over the sun-warmed water:
The slightly muddy smell of the river; the faint scent of grass from the
surrounding meadows; the sea to the West; and best of all slow-grilling
fish. Aerv was hungry, her Father having marched her around all the
neighbouring households today, to say goodbye to their tenants.
Fveirrolh i-Ra'tleihfitr'Aime sat down beside his daughter. for a while
he said nothing, simply joining her in gazing across the river.
"It's not too late even now."
"Yes Father, it is," she replied. "Everyone knows that it's been too
late to change these orders since the moment I got them."
She dug the PADD from her tunic pocket and looked at the formal heading
of her orders to report to the USS Charon:
'The Impirator, Senate and Rihannsu People, request and require...' it
began. And the equally formal conclusion:
'Whereof, fail not or you will answer the contrary at your peril.'* She
read this last part aloud in her best impersonation of a Senator's
manner. Fveirrolh laughed.
"I told you, you weren't ready to be a diplomat, and barely are you out
of the Academy than they give you the trickiest diplomatic assignment in
the galaxy."
"But it's better this way," Aerv said, "much safer. Imagine being in
such a situation when I was your assistant in the Kiith Mverhoqq'ghi. I
had no standing then except as your daughter. Now though 'The Impirator,
Senate and Rihannsu People, request and require,' I'll be in uniform
following Imperial orders, like a good little soldier."
Fveirrdh looked at her sharply. "and you think that makes it safe?
Elements..."
"NO!" Aerv interrupted. Looking around at suddenly alert faces, she
lowered her voice again. "I said it makes it safer, not safe. Of course
it's a dangerous, for all the reasons we've discussed. And those same
reasons make it a once in a lifetime chance and I don't mean a hevam
lifetime either." After a pause Fveirrolh got his smile back.
Aerv bounced to her feet and over to the cook. "Hvai'mos Miral, you've
tortured me long enough. Hand over that fish!"
*[OOC I filched this from history. Royal Navy orders in the Napoleonic
Wars were routinely begun and ended this way!]
