The oyabun sat back with a sigh, and rubbed his eyes.
“It seems this affair has been mishandled all around. Remember this, Akio. You’ll find that situations such as this will arise when you least expect them, and handling them correctly is much of the difference between a wise ruler and one who is merely competent. Tell me, what would you do in this situation?”
I’d almost forgotten about the cute guy standing next to the throne. Although, now that I let myself notice, was he checking me out?
His eyes met mine, and I had to fight not to blush. His sharp suit covered a muscular body packed full of military enhancement tech, including enough strength to overpower me easily. Unlike the rest of the court he wore his black hair gathered into a long braid. His expression was reserved, but not the featureless mask most of these guys adopted. But his gaze was so intense, it took my breath away. Like I was the most interesting thing he’d ever seen.
“I believe that a full resolution of this affair will require Lord Kaneda’s presence, father,” he said. “I would send for him, and offer our guests hospitality while we await his arrival. It seems likely that he will owe them an apology, and such things are best handled quickly. Once that has been dealt with we can arrange a joint expedition to investigate this wreck.”
Saburo nodded. “A reasonable plan. What do you say, Dan? There’s no point in keeping all the gold to yourself if you can’t even find it, eh?”
“I shall be happy to be of assistance. Although I’m still not entirely certain that we have the correct ship, a detail I hope that everyone will keep in mind.”
“Yes, yes, you’re still a pessimist. Noburu rarely makes mistakes about such things. If he says it’s the right ship, it’s the right ship. Ritsuko! Show our honored guests to their rooms, and then send a courier ship for Lord Kaneda. I want him here before the week is out.”
A human woman in an elaborate kimono hurried over, and bowed deeply. “Of course, my lord. Captain, Miss, this way, please.”
I gulped. A week of being stuck in the oyabun’s palace? I was a nervous wreck after one little audience. I guess it could be worse, but this wasn’t going to be fun.
Akio’s eyes followed me all the way out of the room.
Chapter 21
The rooms were in an inner section of the palace, where the floors were all a beautiful hand-fitted hardwood. Everything was immaculately clean despite an apparent lack of bots, and the servants all wore funny little slippers instead of shoes. Apparently shoes weren’t allowed or something, because they had us ride to our suite on personal hover-disks so we wouldn’t have to touch the floor.
I slipped my shoes off as we reached the doors of the guest suite, and stepped off onto the floor barefoot. The captain and Naoko did the same, so I must have gotten things right. Chief West and Emla just stayed on their hover disks, and drifted inside.
The guest quarters turned out to be a miniature palace of its own. There was an entry hall leading into a huge living room, with doors opening on a meeting room to one side and some kind of ready room for bodyguards on the other. Past that was a hallway with sliding paper doors along one wall, that all opened out into a courtyard garden. Spaced around the square hallway were four bedroom suites, each of them bigger than my cabin on the Square Deal. The one they showed me to had a living room, a media room with a giant holoprojector and display walls, a fancy dining area, a study, a huge master bedroom and two smaller bedrooms, plus an incredible amount of storage space.
It also came with servants. Human ones. There were three of them, all girls. They were dark and slender, like all the women around here, and only a couple of years older than I looked. The way they bowed to me, you’d think I was a princess or something.
“Welcome to the Perseverance Suite, Miss Long. I am Azalea, and these are Freesia and Iris. We are here to ensure that your every need is met for the duration of your stay. May I inquire as to what arrangements you prefer for your guard?”
“Oh, right. Emla, do you want to take one of the other bedrooms, or what?”
Emla popped the seal on her helmet, and pulled it off. “Are you kidding? I’m not leaving you unguarded for a second, Mistress. I’ll sleep right here with you.”
“I thought you’d say that. Well, sit down on the bed and take off those boots. We can’t have you scratching up the floors. Azalea, I assume there’s a clothing fabricator somewhere around here?”
“Of course, Miss Long. It’s right here.”
She touched a wooden panel in the wall, and it sprang open to reveal a pretty fancy-looking fabricator. So that’s what the machinery behind the wall there was.
Wow, there were a lot of those panels in this place. My sensors picked up all kinds of equipment tucked away inside the walls around us, and a bunch of hidden compartments and secret doors too. I wasn’t sure why the bathrooms were hidden, but whatever.
“May I suggest an appropriate outfit, Miss Emla? It might be best if your status is immediately evident to those you meet.”
“Sure, I’m not picky,” Emla agreed.
Azalea went to the fabricator, and started fiddling with the manual controls on the front panel. Freesia stepped up to take her place.
“Would you care for refreshments, Miss Long? I noticed that your ship’s clock is running a few hours later than local time.”
Come to think of it, I was starving.
“Yes, please. I’m afraid I’ve got a really fast metabolism right now, so I’m going to be eating constantly. Oh, and can I get an outside comlink from here? I’m supposed to be on food supplements, so I should get the ship’s doctor to send you the details.”
Azalea turned to give me a concerned look. “Are you unwell, ma’am? Should we summon a doctor?”
“No, I’m fine,” I protested.
“Alice has a lot of mods that are growing in right now, and the people she was with before were starving her,” Emla explained. “One of these days I really want to make a trip to Felicity, and show those people what I think of them.”
All three of the servant girls looked scandalized for a moment, before they got their expressions back under control.
“I’ll get you that comlink, ma’am,” Iris said quickly.
“Yes. Don’t worry, ma’am. We’ll take good care of you,” Freesia said. “I’ll just make sure there’s always something ready to snack on. We normally serve three meals a day on Taragi, but if you prefer more just say the word. I’ll double all your portions as well.”
“More like quadruple,” I admitted.
“For both of us,” Emla added. “I’m synched with my mistress, so I need to eat like she does.”
“Then I’d best get to work.” Freesia bowed deeply to me, and scurried out of the room.
“That’s going to take some getting used to,” I mused, as I watched her go. “It’s weird enough when androids act like that, let alone humans.”
“Humans?” Emla said. “Wait, I thought you guys were androids like me. Why would anyone use humans as servants?”