“But that’s crazy,” Bouchard said.
Hayes nodded.
“Yes, it is,” Hayes said. “But she’s the one person who might think, of the conflicting information coming out of the Palace, that the actual truth is the correct story. Because she can’t imagine anything worse for her, that must be what’s going on. We’re all scheming against her in particular.”
“But that’s what actually is going on, right?” Dominica said. “I mean, we are plotting against her. Her and her cronies.”
“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean you don’t have real enemies,” Hayes said.
“How are things going with all the preparations for Friday?” Parnell asked.
“Really well,” Hayes said. “All the production stuff is going to be fine. The public is excited about it. Everybody loves a coronation. We’ll probably have eight hundred trillion or so people watching it in VR.”
Parnell nodded.
“And the military preparations?”
“Goulet assigned those to Amanda,” Hayes said. “She’s been working directly with the Imperial Marines and Imperial Navy on his authority. Which ensures they will do what they’re told without trying to sabotage that part of things.”
Parnell nodded. That was smart. Nobody ever said Goulet was stupid.
“And the Five Musketeers?”
“Their VR is already being tracked. Amanda is going to run the operation. She’s using all Fleet elements, so there won’t be anything going on at the military bases on-planet where they might hear something. You don’t need to worry about that part of it at all.”
“She’s going to run the operation?” Bouchard asked. “I thought she was going to be on the dais.”
“Yes, Marie, but she has nothing to do after she sits down,” Hayes said. “She’s going to be running the operation purely in VR. She wants to see the look on their faces.”
“It really was a mistake to cross her,” Dominica said.
“None bigger,” Hayes said.
“What about the moving, Dan?”
“Moving you and Marie into the Imperial Residence?”
Parnell nodded.
“The head of Housekeeping asked for volunteers,” Hayes said. “People who would be willing to forego watching the coronation in real-time – watch the recordings later instead – and make the moves. Basically the entire Housekeeping staff volunteered. So once you two and Goulet go down to the Throne Room, Housekeeping is going to descend on your apartment and the Imperial Residence like a horde of locusts. By the time the coronation is over, you will already be moved in.”
“What sweethearts,” Bouchard said.
Hayes nodded.
“Never underestimate Housekeeping,” Hayes said.
“And then there’s the coronation after-party,” Dominica said.
Bouchard raised an eyebrow.
“The last two coronations,” Hayes said, “everybody went up to the Imperial Residence and had drinks and hors d'oeuvres, then a big dinner to celebrate. It would be you two, Goulet, Amanda, us....”
Hayes turned to Dominica.
“Who am I forgetting?”
“The Guardsmen who bring out the Imperial cape.”
“Oh, yes. Them, and their wives. And anyone else you two would want to invite, I guess.”
“I don’t know anyone here,” Bouchard said with a shrug.
“I think you also forgot General MacFarland and his wife,” Parnell said.
“Yes, that’s right,” Hayes said. “He’ll do the Call of the Sector Governors.”
“What’s the timing on all this, Sandy?” Bouchard asked.
“The coronation begins at eleven-thirty,” Hayes said. “We’re locked into that timing to have the sunlight on the Throne through the skylights. It will be over about one, because you have the Call of the Sector Governors, and that takes time. So the after party should run to about four. Then there’ll be dinner. Even with delays, all the excitement should be over by seven or so.”
Bouchard nodded.
“Sandy, it’s a quarter to noon,” Dominica said.
“Oh, yes,” Hayes said. “Thank you, dear.”
Hayes stood and waved everyone to the railing. They looked out, down the length of Palace Mall. The sunlight was just starting to light the statue of Ilithyia II.
“No matter how many times I see it, I never get tired of it,” Hayes said. “It’s magical.”
After Parnell and Bouchard had left, Dominica and Hayes went into their sitting room to chat.
“What do you think, my dear?” Dominica asked.
“Well, she certainly is beautiful. She’ll have a positive impact, no doubt about that. You know. ‘Oh, look at our beautiful Empress.’ I think putting her out there is a good call.”
“He’s no slouch himself. They’re a handsome couple. But what about her personally?”
“She seems very bright,” Hayes said. “She asks good questions. She’s very personable. And poised, especially for her age. She reminds me a lot of Amanda, in fact.”
“That’s what I was going to say as well. It seems as though Bobby picked well, and so did Dan.”
Parnell and Bouchard had their own after-action review once back in their apartment.
“What did you think of Sandy and Dominica?” Parnell asked.
“I like them a lot. They have your best interests at heart.”
“I think so, too.”
Parnell sighed.
“I’ll be happy when this is all over. There’s so much up in the air right now.”
“Yes,” Bouchard said. “But you have good people handling it all. Leave it to them, and relax. You don’t want to be so nervous about other people doing their part right that you mess up your own. The secret of being Emperor is delegation. Isn’t that what you told me?”
“Yes. Absolutely right. But I’m not Emperor yet.”
Preparations
There were several rehearsals during the week. These were necessarily closed, just for the participants themselves. If video of one of these got out, there would be no point to the subterfuges being played out in the information allowed to leak from the Palace.
Normally, the Emperor came in just for the dress rehearsal, but Goulet also made himself available for the Wednesday rehearsal before the dress rehearsal on Thursday.
Amanda was also in rehearsals. She wanted to make sure she had the energy for her part of the ceremony. It was a small part, but very symbolic, and she had added it to the ceremony herself. It also put her on the stage for the other part of her involvement, the VR part. She had a little bone to pick with the Five Musketeers.
Peters, Parnell, and Bouchard talked about the military part of the plans early in the week. Parnell knew she had been planning them, but he wanted more precise information.
When Peters had laid out the plan, Bouchard questioned it.
“Is this a little extreme, Amanda?”
“No, Marie, for several reasons. Coronation day is an Imperial holiday. Most of the common staff will be gone. The people who will be around are the supporters and close personal staff of the sector governor. The sort of people who knew about and enabled this nonsense from behind the scenes and will again if we let them.
“There’s an old saying: Better ten guilty men go free than one innocent man goes to prison. For treason, Bobby and his sister turned that around. Better a hundred innocent men die, than one guilty man get away. The Throne must prevail.
“The second reason is that deterrence is the greatest defense against treason. People need to know that certain things will not be tolerated, will generate a draconian response. You can’t police everybody all the time, but if you make an example of the ones you catch, you can dissuade others from going down that path. A big, noisy example works best.
“Finally, we are limited to using Imperial Fleet resources in this case. The sector governors try incessantly to penetrate our military bases and their personnel. If we prepared to do anything
with planet-based resources, the sector governors would know through their spies. These don’t have to be military personnel. They could be civilian support personnel on base. It’s almost impossible to keep them from getting spies into our bases, at least enough to know something’s going on.
“And the issue with using Imperial Fleet resources is that they are by nature a blunt instrument. As it is, we are holding the damage down about as much as we can.
“But we really do need to let people know this sort of thing will not be tolerated. It will make Daniel’s rule much easier. People learned not to trifle with Bobby early on. After that, a raised eyebrow from the Emperor would often be enough to get people to see the error of their ways. It was important in holding everything together the last sixty years.”
Parnell nodded.
“I see,” Bouchard said.
Aboard the Victorious-class attack ship carriers HMS Indomitable, HMS Triumphant, HMS Invincible, HMS Glorious, and HMS Sedulous, armored assault shuttles were being loaded with Gravity Demolition Projectiles. There were two shuttles being prepared on each ship, each fitted with two GDPs.
Only one munition from each carrier was expected to be used, deployed from a single shuttle, but ensuring the outcome meant having depth in options.
Meanwhile, their communication centers were using planet-based military communications facilities. Each ship was trying to find and track some AWOL crew members. It didn’t happen often, but it wasn’t an unusual occurrence.
That, at least, was the cover story.
“All right, Ma’am. Just go ahead and step up here and let’s see how close we are.”
Bouchard had stripped down, and she now stepped up on the dressmaker’s stand. She had done a little extra work with the razor this morning. The Seamstress looked her up and down and nodded approvingly.
“That will help a great deal, Ma’am. Let’s go ahead and get this on.”
Her assistants raised the dress over Bouchard’s head and settled it around her neck, then lowered it down her body.
“We haven’t put the buttons on yet, Ma’am. We need to see where we are first. The Hairdresser and her make-up artist aren’t going to want us to put it on over your head Friday. We’ll have you step into it then.”
Bouchard nodded.
“How does it look?” she asked.
“See for yourself.”
The Seamstress pulled a wheeled mirror up for her to see. The dress was too long, and assistants were pinning the hem as she watched. It could use just a little taking in at the waist. But otherwise it was the dress of the avatar Amanda had prepared. It hugged her body like a waterfall over rocks as it ran over this curve and that, then fell to the next. It was complete coverage, yet scandalously revealing of every nuance of her figure. The dimple of her navel, the white-on-white shadow of her nipples, the curve of her hips.
“Not everyone can get away with wearing a dress like that, Ma’am, but on you it looks good.”
The dress showed quite a bit of cleavage, so the crown jewels of Sintar would rest against her skin and not fall down behind the bodice of the dress.
“We have a model of the crown jewels for testing, Ma’am. Let me put these on you.”
The Seamstress placed the glass-jeweled copy around her neck and clasped them in the back. They lay perfectly within the scoop neckline of the dress.
“Oh, that’s very nice,” Bouchard said.
“Then, once your hair is up....”
The Seamstress gathered Bouchard’s hair in her hands and flipped it up onto her head, and there she was. The powerful Empress of Amanda’s avatar. Oh, there was makeup and hair to go, but the dress was as it should be.
At the Wednesday rehearsal, the videography crew was there, with their initial camera setup. They might change them a bit once they saw the rehearsal. The cameras themselves were out of sight where the best angles hit the corners and the side walls, then zoomed in to get the best shot.
The director and his people were already ensconced in guest apartments in the palace complex. The videography crew would also be restricted to the building until the coronation was over. Once they had seen the rehearsal, they weren’t leaving until it was over.
Thursday was the dress rehearsal. Bouchard’s hair was up, though not as elaborately as it would be tomorrow and not entwined with flowers. She was wearing the dress, which was complete. It was perfect.
When Bouchard stepped out into the apse of the Throne room, everyone else was there. She walked across to the dais and everything stopped.
“My word,” Parnell said. “I love that dress. You are the Empress.”
“Your Empress, my love.”
Peters came over to her.
“Your dress is perfect, my dear. One stop short of scandalous. Don’t shrink from it. Wear it with pride and hauteur, because you can do it justice, and other women can’t.”
Bouchard straightened and pulled her shoulders back, which made her breasts and cleavage more pronounced. She raised her chin, which dialed up the projection of power.
“There you are, my dear. Remember. You are the Empress of all humanity, and your actions are always above question by any but His Majesty. No other may dare.”
They ran through the rehearsal twice. The first time through, the director stopped them at one point and came up to Bouchard.
“Ma’am, rather than stand with your arms at your sides, could you put your left wrist on the back of the Throne here, and let your hand rest on his shoulder here?”
He arranged her, then stepped back for a look.
“Perfect. Remember that. OK, let’s keep going from here.”
With Bouchard on the dais, the videographers adjusted some camera positions, until they had the best shot of her. This would be a recording for the ages, and they wanted it perfect.
The second run-through was at the correct time, to check on everything in the correct lighting coming through the skylights above. They were located to light up the Throne at noon. During this run-through, precise timings were made. Peters needed these for tomorrow, and everyone was cautioned not to speed anything up or slow anything down.
When Bouchard stood on the dais under the sunlight, the dress shone brilliant white like the robes of an angel and the jewels on her breast sparkled with blue fire.
The videographers checked their shots again and let them be. They all nodded to each other with satisfaction.
On the morning of the big day, Bouchard was on the lower of the two Imperial Residence floors getting her hair done. It took over an hour to plait and braid her hair and weave the multi-colored roses – thorns carefully removed – into her hair. She then spent the best part of an hour in the chair for the makeup artist.
When she had shown the makeup artist the avatar Peters had made for her, the makeup artist had nodded.
“I see the effect you are after, Ma’am. I can make it even more effective by crafting it specifically to your face, rather than a simple overlay in an avatar editor.”
Bouchard had nodded and let her go to work.
In the end, the makeup artist was as good as her word. The effect was even more powerful than on the avatar, and Bouchard approved.
“Thank you so much. That is absolutely perfect.”
“Thank you, Ma’am.”
The next stop was to the Seamstress, just down the hall. Bouchard walked down the hall and into the Seamstress’s shop. She kicked off her shoes and stripped out of the MCUs she was wearing and mounted the dressmaker’s stand nude. She held onto the assistant’s shoulders to keep her balance as she stepped into the dress they held for her. They pulled it up her body, she put her arms into the long, belled sleeves, and then they buttoned her into it at the back.
“For the check-out, let’s put the fake jewels on again,” Bouchard said.
“Yes, Ma’am.”
The Seamstress put the imitation crown jewels of Sintar around her neck, then pulled up the wheeled mirror. Recalling Peters’s instructions
, Bouchard straightened her shoulders and raised her chin
There in the mirror was the beautiful and powerful Empress of all humanity, beyond reproach by any save the Emperor himself.
In orbit around Stanton, Fremd, Vandalia, Lauda, and Mantua, Imperial Navy attack ship carriers launched armored assault shuttles. They had filed spacing plans with planetary traffic control for the Imperial Fleet Base on each planet. Such flights were routine, usually for dropping and picking up crew on planet leave. Each ship launched two shuttles, and they made their way to the planet on precise schedules.
In Imperial City, on Center, the crowds had been gathering all night for the coronation. Nowhere near all the people who showed up could be accommodated even in the giant nave of the Throne Room, but large display screens were set up at multiple points down Palace Mall. The sounds of the ceremony would also be played out over the Mall.
While most people thought it was better to watch at home with friends, some people thought there was no substitute for being there, even if you watched on the displays outside. You still knew the events you were watching were actually happening, right there in the building in front of you.
All across the Empire and beyond, people were watching the pre-coronation shows on various newsfeeds, either in VR or on displays, at home or with friends. There hadn’t been a coronation in over fifty years, and nine hundred trillion people were tuning in to see it in real-time.
In one of the anterooms of the Throne Room, off to either side of the apse, Jerome Goulet – the Emperor Nerva – and Daniel Parnell met. Steven Dillard, the Emperor’s Personal Secretary was there, as was Imperial General Sean MacFarland, the commandant of the Imperial Guard. Goulet and Dillard were wearing business suits, Parnell and MacFarland were in MDUs with the gold fourragère of the Imperial Guard.
“Good morning, General Parnell,” Goulet said.
“Good morning, Your Majesty,” Parnell said.
“Are we ready?”
EMPIRE: Succession Page 21