—OK. Say it is. What do you want to do, Rose? Stage a coup d’état?
—You mean you and I? Well, no. We can barely make breakfast, we can’t stage a coup. The empress won’t either, it wouldn’t work. But I don’t think she has to, not if things keep going the way they are. The regions aren’t equipped to deal with this, mass protests, terrorist acts on a daily basis. Back home, we’d have called in the army, the National Guard, a long time ago. If this keeps escalating, they’ll want to give the empress more power. They’ll want the Imperial Guard on the streets. They’ll beg her for it.
—I don’t see how that helps us. Even if everything you’re saying is true, she doesn’t need us.
—Maybe she doesn’t. Maybe she does. I won’t pretend to understand everything there is to know about these people, but the empress does. We have no status here, no power whatsoever. Our one card is that we somehow inspire these people to rebel. That might be useful somehow. I don’t know.
— …
—Vincent, it doesn’t matter if any of this is true. We need the empress. She controls our fate. We’ll die here if she doesn’t help us.
—I’ll talk to Enatast again. Maybe he can set it up. But first, I have to find Eva.
—You won’t find her now, not if she doesn’t want to be found.
—So, what? I just wait for her to come home?
—Well, you know where she’ll be this afternoon.
—Right, the protest. Damn, she’s stubborn.
—The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
—I’ll tell Esok I changed my mind. Eva and I are going to have a long talk when I get my hands on her. Is it considered bad parenting to ground your child for life?
—Good luck with that.
FILE NO. EE426—PERSONAL FILE FROM ESAT EKT
Interview between Vincent Couture and Ipet Estoteks, representative of the empress
Location: Imperial Palace, Osk region
Translated by Vincent Couture
Note: I make her sound very formal in her translation even though she didn’t speak any differently than Enatast does. But, man, did she sound entitled! The tone. The posture. The demeanor. It felt as if she’d been waiting her whole life to look down on someone. I took a shower when I came back home.
—Greetings. I’m Vincent.
—Greetings, Vincent.
—How should I address you?
—You may not address me. I represent the empress Iksidits, daughter of Yotekot, sovereign of the Ekt. My words are hers.
—Thank you—thank the empress?—for granting this meeting.
—Speak now, Vincent Couture.
—OK. I … I am here to request assistance in ge—
—You wish to go back to Terra.
—Yes. I do.
—The empress cannot assist you. Only the Council can.
—So I’ve been told.
—Then why are you here?
—What? I just told you why I’m here. I’m here to—
—Why are you asking the empress for help if you have been told that she cannot help? It seems … insane.
—I … I’m asking the empress for help because the Council is not helping.
—You should know that the Council will never help you. There are many on Esat Ekt who feel the Council created this problem by visiting your world and needlessly killing so many of your people. There are many on Esat Ekt who feel the Council should be abolished. I can tell you that its members will not compound their mistake by admitting they have committed genocide on an alien species.
—This is insane! This. Your people, the Council, they send giants to our world and kill millions of us, then they punish us when it has consequences here. We didn’t do anything. You did this.
—Neither I nor the empress approved of the decision, but you are correct.
—What can the empress do to help us?
—The empress, as always, only wishes to help her people. But the law prevents her from doing what she so strongly desires.
—What does that mean?
—The empress does not wish for you to suffer for something you had no part in only to serve the interests of the Council.
—Then send us home.
—Again, our laws, as they stand, prevent the empress from following her heart.
—But …
—But what?
—Well, I’m hoping you didn’t ask me to come all this way just to tell me that we’re going to die here and that there’s nothing you can do about it.
—That is precisely why the empress asked you to come here.
— … No.
—I do not understand.
—No. You don’t meet someone only to tell them that things are utterly hopeless.
—Why not?
—I don’t know, you just don’t! It’s … rude.
—It was not our intent to offend you. Perhaps you are still unaccustomed to our ways.
—Sure. I may be a little off when it comes to Ekt customs, but there has to be more. There’s something you’re not telling me because …
—There is nothing more I can say as a representative of the empress.
—Ha! There we go. How about not as a representative of the empress?
—Speaking for myself, I would say that your only hope to leave Esat Ekt is to take command of a vehicle yourself.
—We’re well aware of that part.
—A giant like the one that brought you here would be your best choice, perhaps the very one that brought you here. But, as you know, the giants are controlled by the empress. Even if you managed to find a pilot capable of taking you home and found your way aboard, the giant would not respond to your commands. One would have to allow you to leave before you could do so.
—Again, not helpful. How would we go about making sure someone does allow it?
—The empress and her army are bound by law to obey the Council. To go against their will is a crime. As I said, the empress is deeply saddened by this situation, and she wishes nothing more than to help you, you and everyone on Esat Ekt. If she were allowed to do so, if she were in charge, she would gladly give each and every one of her subjects, including those with mixed ancestry, the same rights people enjoyed before the Council came to exist. You could come and go as you please. She would resume relations with other worlds, restore the empire to its former glory. But the Council is in charge, not her. Our institutions are strong. They cannot be destroyed with a few bombs. They will survive this period of civic unrest. That said, if the empress were the one to bring this conflict to an end, if she were able to bring down the Hand of Yetskots to—
—I’m sorry, the hand of what?
—The Hand of Yetskots. That is what they call themselves. They have claimed responsibility for acts of violence in all the districts. If the empress were able to stop them, it would go a long way to help her effect the changes she believes her planet needs. As I said, the empress would do anything to help her people.
—What’s any of that got to do with us?
—Several regions have asked the empress for help. They feel that this insurgency must be stopped now before it grows out of control.
—What was your answer? I mean the empress. What did she say?
—The empress will not set herself a task she cannot accomplish. She does not wish to fight people she cannot see, to be bogged down with this situation long enough to lose the confidence of her people. If and when the empress gets involved, her actions must be swift and decisive.
—I’m not sure what I can do to help. I don’t know anyone in this Hand of Yetskots.
—Your daughter does. A man by the name of Etat Ityets. She is also well acquainted with some of his associates. I would like you to tell me what their names are and where we can find them.
—My daughter? She knows people from the shelter she works at. These people, they’re not … They organize protests, they don’t blow up things. They have nothing to do with that Hand of yours.
—I would like you to get me the name and location of everyone involved in organizing protests in Etyakt. Do that, and you will have the gratitude of the empress.
—Her gratitude?
—That in and of itself should be enough.
—Well, it would certainly mean a lot.
—It is also entirely possible that someone will inadvertently unlock a certain giant and allow it to leave this planet unscathed.