When the World Stopped

Posted on Sat Dec 28th, 2024 @ 11:44pm by Princess Royal Giana Orsini & CJ Zajak

Mission: Historiae Terrae Et Imperii
Location: Royal Apartments
Timeline: Date 2371-10-27 at 1730
3001 words - 6 OF Standard Post Measure

The Imperial Palace in Rome was unusually quiet. Sure there were servants and regular visitors to the imperial family, but otherwise the halls were emptied of the droves of nobles, who typically crowded them. Events, balls, luncheons, and galas kept a certain young class of nobles almost constantly pleasant under normal circumstances, but the last several months had brought that activity to a screeching halt.

Nadiya Singh had served as Court Chamberlain since Antonius had become Emperor, and she wielded the resources and influence of the Royal Household with efficient toughness. In tough times, however, she noticed that difficult news typically fell to her to give. It wasn’t a role she relished, but it had to be done. She’d managed to survive thus far with her career intact. She didn’t expect that to change anytime soon.

The Indian woman walked quickly down the cavernous huge corridor outside Princess Giana’s apartments, her royal blue pants suit neutralized by her cream colored flats. She approached the guards standing watch outside.

“I must see the Princess Regent with urgent need.” She said, as if that alone should open the door. Generally, anywhere in the household, it would, but she didn’t know what orders they had been given.

“One moment.” One of the guards replied and opened the door to step inside and close it behind himself. It was a moment later that the door opened again, and this time the guard held it and gestured for Nadiya to enter.

Giana was sitting at a small table near the window with a glass of milk and a plate with one and a half chocolate chip cookies sitting on it. She was dressed down, wearing a blouse over a pair of high quality black silk pants - she was done for the evening obviously, but quickly wiped off her fingers and stood when Nadiya walked in. “Good evening, Nadiya.”

“Please, Your Highness. There’s no need to stand.” Nadiya said. She was one who had served their family for decades, and she was in Cosima’s Private Office when Giana was born. She had been very young, but still, she had been there. “I won’t be long, ma’am.”

Over the past weeks, Giana had been settling in rather well into her new role. With the support of Lord Price by her side and the opposition of the errant lords and senators handily cowed, things had proceeded quite well. The celebration over their victory at Axanar had been beloved by the people, and Terra seemed to flourish with the burst of renewed morale. Things in her personal life hadn’t been so clean. She and Sacha had drifted apart once more and he had made the decision to leave his new job and the spotlight to return to military service. Giana had of course been very upset, but he had gone anyway. That anger had festered for nearly a solid two weeks before she had finally relented and reached out to him. She had apologized, asked him to come home, and he had agreed to do so after this last mission was finished.

Giana gave a slight wave of her hand. “What can I do for you?”

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but I’m afraid I have bad news. It will be breaking on INN in just a few moments, but Regent Ramsay wanted to make sure you heard it first.” Nadiya said with a frown. She was tough, but even her constitution had limits.

Giana frowned and her shoulders lowered with weight. She let out a sigh, anticipating some scandal to be laid at her feet but she couldn’t imagine what. “What is it?”

“153 Marine Regiment has been stationed near the Romulan Neutral Zone. They landed on a planet in a remote system scheduled for war games and mutual training with the Romulan Army. Before the Romulans arrived, a Klingon fleet warped in and laid waste to their orbiting ship. They then bombarded the planet. Whom they didn’t kill, they took as slaves.” Nadiya paused then, shaking her head in a sign of mutual grief. “Colonel Lavigne died defending his men. His body was found among the remains. I’m so sorry.”

The princess stood there and listened, but her expression didn’t change. After a moment, she crossed her arms and turned her head away as if she were mildly irritated. “No, I just talked to him yesterday. He’s coming back after the war games.”

“This happened just a few hours ago, ma’am.” Nadiya responded in a gentle, accented voice.. “I’m afraid it’s true.”

“That can’t be true. He said he was coming back.” Giana replied adamantly. She walked over to her desk and pulled up the console, tapping her fingers irritatedly against the controls so she could reach out and make contact with Sacha’s ship again. “I’ll show you.”

“The Marine Ship Jagger was in orbit around the neutral planet. It was totally destroyed, ma’am. I promise I am telling you the truth.” Nadiya pleaded as she watched the call Giana started to fail and return to the Imperial seal.

Giana tried a few more times with each attempt becoming more desperate, then suddenly she stopped. Her fingers fell softly on the console, but she finally turned her head to look at Nadiya with wide eyes and a frown on her face. “Wh-what?”

“He’s gone, ma’am.” She said, stopping short of touching Giana. “He’s gone.”

“But…” Giana protested weakly and began looking around, seeing Sacha’s things dotted around the room. “But he can’t be gone…”

Nadiya seemed to be at a loss for words. She wasn’t particularly good at this part, but it fell to her so often because of her role in assisting the Emperor with managing his family. Her lips parted somewhat helplessly, but before she could respond, the door to the room opened again and a familiar face walked in.

Camilla Zajak wore a double-breasted black blazer with embossed white buttons and edges, a black skirt, a white heeled shoes. Her face was a mask of inscrutable urgency as she walked up to the pair. Taking note of Giana, she understood that she was too late.

“Madam Chancellor.” Nadiya said, uncertain of why the head of government had barged in. Perhaps it was some scheduled meeting that just happened to be incredibly ill-timed.

“Madam Chamberlain. I sent word that I should be the one to tell the Princess Regent as soon as I received the news. Why was that request not honored?” CJ asked, her head lifting slightly in challenge.

“Because it wasn’t received. Besides, CJ, you don’t exactly rule the roost in the Imperial Household. I do.” Nadiya shot back, her tone professional, but with a definite pointed edge.

“I know, Nadiya.” CJ said, her tone softening as much as it could. “The Princess Regent and I have a good rapport and I wanted to be here. Do you mind?”

“Not at all. I’ve already done what I came down to do.” Nadiya said with a formal, reserved shrug. She turned her eyes back to Giana then. “I’m very sorry for your terrible loss, ma’am. If I have your leave, I’ll leave you and the Chancellor to talk.”

Giana was vaguely aware the two women were bickering over something, but the words sounded like static. Her blue eyes continued to dance around the room, trying to will Sacha to just appear, but she became aware the two women had stopped talking and were staring at her waiting on her to answer some question she had missed.

“Does my mother know?”

Nadiya bowed her head slightly, turning her eyes to CJ in a clear indication she hoped the other woman would answer first. Though CJ kept her eyes on Giana, she made no move to open her mouth. When Nadiya recognized she was in the hot seat, she spoke.

“Your mother is in the Vulcan sector on a brief tour. I got the information directly from the office of Dr. Ramsay.”

“Right…” She had known that of course, Cosima had been gone for days and Giana had even seen her mother off. Her head continued to move back and forth, but it was so fluid it almost gave the impression it wasn’t natural. Finally, it stopped and she looked at the two older women again. “Sacha’s dead?”

The women looked at her, both understanding exactly where she was in her mind. Shock, plain and simple, had overtaken the Princess Regent.

“I’ll leave her to you, CJ.” Nadiya said, figuring whatever rapport they had would be better suited to the situation in the long run. She turned and walked out of the door, leaving CJ and Giana alone.

“He is, ma’am.” CJ said, standing before Giana. “Unless the reports lie, and there’s no reason they would.”

Giana just stood there blinking, and then turned around to walk to the couch where she sat down mechanically. She didn’t look at CJ, merely stared out to the wall opposite of her. “Why?”

“The report says that the Klingons somehow discovered their position. But I have some suspicions about that.” CJ said, giving the answers straight. “They knew exactly when and exactly where, which means they were told. And we know the information didn’t come from our side.”

“So… someone betrayed us?” Giana asked, her neutral mask slowly lowering into a frown.

“I suspect so. I have the Foreign Affairs Department making inquiries, but it likely won’t turn up anything. You’ll remember our allies, the Romulans, have been less than helpful in the war.”

“Yes… I remember.” She confirmed. At least she was pretty sure she remembered that. “Well… we’ll have to do something about that, won’t we?”

“Yes, but.. ma’am, your mother is in charge of that situation. And, if not her, it’s a military affair. Both she and Ramsay have wanted proof before action is taken.” CJ said, taking a step closer. “Do you think you should grieve and leave it to them?”

“Wanted… proof?” Giana frowned deeper. “They waited on this?”

CJ sighed, licking her lips. “This government has three heads, ma’am. In depth conspiracies tend to fall through the cracks. The documents from the Defense Department were in your boxes, but your mother didn’t want to antagonize a friend without an obvious and confórmenle reason. Some people might call that wise. But this tragedy certainly shows one of the potential consequences of the way things are right now.”

CJ sat down next to Giana then and sighed. She sat up straight, cold and poised as usual.

“Secretary Malik wants to know if you would like to inform his family.”

“I read the documents… I thought they’d handle it.” Giana’s expression scrunched a bit more. She was three steps behind CJ, obviously struggling with every part of the information she was being presented with. “They were supposed to handle it. I would have handled it. Why didn’t they?”

“Some people don’t see conspiracies behind every corner. Just like you, they are bombarded with information which is confirmed and actionable on a daily basis. I think these suspicions were not as high a priority.” CJ said. “Rumor and suspicion is everywhere in our work, and much of it is nonsense. But yes, ma’am. I believe you would have done something about it. As would your father.”

“No, I don’t want to tell them. They’ll probably be happy.” The shock was starting to give way to anger. “What… what happens now? Is… is there a body…? Can I see…. Can I see him?”

“This is only a few hours ago, really. The protocol is that they gather the bodies of the fallen and bring them back draped in a flag. Sacha was a hero, and he would be honored as one.” CJ answered, making no attempt to comfort Giana at the moment.

“I want him brought here. I want to see him.” Giana’s voice was taking on a sharper edge, it wasn’t a request, it was an order. There was a flash of anger on her face, but it immediately dissolved into sadness. “I need to see him…”

“I’ll take care of it, ma’am.” CJ said, her cool eyes settling on Giana without any pressure. She knew the moment had nothing to do with her and had no need to make it about her either. “As for solving the mystery of how this all happened, I believe the Secretariat, the Security Apparatus, and the Military must work together. Unfortunately, things are divided in such a way that it becomes..difficult to do so. I have a proposal for you.”

She lifted a glass tablet from her side, logged in, and handed it to Giana.

“It’s an Imperial Decree establishing an inter-agency commission to investigate the incident and report back. If it’s signed by all the regents, I’ll have enough authority to get this done.”

At first, Giana didn’t take it, and when she finally did it looked like it took significant effort for her to even move her arm. She gripped the tablet, but immediately dropped it to her knee while looking at it. She knew she should read it, but she couldn’t even fathom doing so right now. “I can’t.”

“I can’t make you, ma’am. And I know you’re hurting. But this happened because no one was monitoring the situation. All it requires is your signature, but if you need time to process your feelings, I can start with Ramsay and your mother instead.”

Giana frowned and then looked down at the device in her lap again. The words seemed like a jumble, which wasn’t surprising considering her brain was just giving her static and there felt like there was a hundred pound weight at the base of her skull and in her chest. CJ had been a friend to her, and while Giana was well aware that CJ had her own motives, she had never done anything that didn’t somehow benefit Giana - yet. Surely CJ wouldn’t betray her in this moment of all moments. She took a deep breath and touched her thumb to the scanner on the tablet which glowed red and then shifted to blue, her DNA confirmed, her signature appeared on the document.

CJ accepted the document from Giana without a word for a while. She waited. When nothing came, she leaned a bit closer.

“It’s not your fault, ma’am.”

“Isn’t it?” Giana returned in a strangely conversational way. “He left his job and went back to the military because I made him unhappy.”

“Did you?” CJ asked, placing her hands on her knees and pulling them together in an unusually girlish move. “How do you know that’s why?”

“He said he needed to be away from me a while. That he didn’t know who I was anymore and he missed his Gigi, not this person who replaced her.” Giana replied, looking out into the room. “We talked last night… I said I was sorry, he promised to come home. I think at least he knew I loved him before he…”

Her voice caught and then she drifted off for a moment. “It’s time for you to go now, CJ.”

“Yes, ma’am.” CJ said without any resistance, though she only stood and lingered for a second. She looked down at Giana. “Are you different because you have power, ma’am?”

Immediately, Giana looked distressed. The last thing she needed right now was CJs cryptic messages about how she lived her life. Tears welled in her eyes, and she swallowed hard. “No.”

“I didn’t think so either.” CJ said simply. “I’ll be in my office at the Pyramid.”

With that, she turned and started for the door.

For a long while, Giana simply sat very still in the silence of her room, letting numbness consume her while tears began to roll down her cheeks. Eventually she stood and left the room.

It had been quite a while since she had been here, and the looks she was getting only served to reinforce that fact - though perhaps it was because she was still crying and still in her silk lounge pants. That didn’t really occur to her until she had almost reached her destination. The double doors parted to the spacious room.

“Get out.” She ordered immediately with a shaking voice. The attending looked at her, confused, and one of the doctors opened their mouth to make an obvious protest, but it was cut off by Giana.

“GET OUT!” She shrieked in a visceral way that made even one of the imperial guards jump. Deciding that this was not their issue to deal with, the medical staff immediately fled from the room, leaving just Giana, the guards, and the still form of the Emperor in his bed. Again, there were a few beats of silence and then suddenly, she began sobbing. Her body shaking, she half walked, half stumbled to her father’s bedside and collapsed half into the chair, half onto the man’s chest.

“Papa… Papa…” She cried into his gown. “Sacha… my Sacha…”

Her fingers curled around the fabric he was wearing and she cried inconsolably. Eventually she even reached out and pulled his hand up to place it on the top of her head, pretending that he was giving her comfort, pretending he was telling her he would make them pay. Maybe he wouldn’t have done any of those things, but she simply couldn’t face that possibility. She needed him, and this was all she had.

Why had the gods cursed her so?

END