by Juliet Sem
"An excellent idea," Keestu agreed, smiling at the officious tailor. He was so formal it hurt, but the man did know how to combine fashion with comfort.
"Now, what about informal clothing?" Vakon was poised over his electronic catalog. "Skirts or pants?"
"They do wear pants where we're going, so those are more than acceptable."
"Okay," Vakon muttered to himself, punching in instructions on his screen and watching the results. "Oh, dear, no. Pleats are out and have been for a while. I thought that program was updated!" He continued muttering to himself as he scrolled through recommended choices.
"There!" He was triumphant, making his choice. "Plain wool cloth for all those, pattern 1-21, as you can't go wrong with a classic suit. I think she should have one each in black, purple, and green, with matching shirts, skirts, pants and pocket accents for the jackets in black, white, purple and green as well. She should have both hot and cold shoe styles, one each in black, purple, and green."
Keestu leaned over his shoulder and looked at the classic suits. They had been popular for both sexes on Sandar over the past 200 years. Keestu knew from experience this style was comfortable to wear for long periods of time and should serve Rue well.
The door chimed as Vahin entered the suite. "I have your headdress, Your Highness," he said.
"In there," Keestu motioned for him to go to the adjoining private room, beckoning Rue to join them, away from the cacophony of sounds coming from the sewing and cobbling equipment while the tailor and his crew did their work.
Vahin opened the case he was carrying, pulling out a container that held a metal headdress. It was made of gold, had a Crown Princess's three prongs, but was hung with four gold beads on gold chains that depended from both the thinly wrought outer uprights and the center gold crossbeams instead of the traditional tassels. Keestu was surprised to see it was made of gold instead of wood or the lightweight resin materials that were currently popular for noble and royal headdresses. On top of each of the upright rods was an opaque blackstone gem, with a larger one on the center rod and two smaller ones flanking it on the outer prongs, and while the additional embellishment of blackstone gems was unusual, Keestu couldn't argue that they detracted from the headdress's appearance. In fact, she thought it looked more like a tiara with the addition of the gems.
Vahin's voice interrupted her inspection of the piece. "We need to be secure, Your Highness."
Keestu went to the desk's control panel, thumbing the button to seal the room. The bolts rattled into place.
"This headdress holds the video and audio recorder that Rue will be wearing for the mission," Vahin explained. "It's got a remote control worked into a matching ring in the shape of your family's crest," he continued, pulling out the ring, which fit Rue's left forefinger.
Keestu looked the ring over; the cursive R stood out in bas-relief above the horizontal midline, which divided the top from the bottom, and the bottom was divided in half with a vertical line, and there were five bas-relief diagonal lines on the bottom left and three bas-relief waves on the bottom right. It was the royal family seal, and not the older and simpler Ranell family seal used by Count Osnor of the eastern continent and the rest of the Ranell family.
"All you have to do to record, Rue, is to press on the two outer edges of the ring. It will look like you are playing with the ring, as activation is completely silent to human hearing and easily overlooked by surveillance equipment when others are in the room. You must insert the matching electronic pin in here," he indicated the bottom of the ring, where the recessed button would remain hidden against Rue's finger, "To deactivate it. This will avoid any accidental cycling of the recording mechanism. The case has an automatic download and storage feature built into it, so all you have to do to transfer recordings is place the headdress in the box in the proper position and close it in order to activate data transference and storage. There are additional hard storage backup microchips embedded in the bottom support of the headdress as well. If you wish to identify a speaker with his or her face, turn so that the blackstone gem on the top center is facing them. It's a camera lens specially cut and faceted to look like a blackstone."
"That should be easy enough to keep track of. Whose idea was it to put it into a metal headdress? We don't wear metal headdresses," Keestu asked of her protocol adviser.
"Yes, but the Autocracy doesn't know that Sandarian headdresses aren't made of metal, do they?" Vahin explained with rare levity, "King Ismer has had the royal jeweler make matching metal headdresses for Mewa and Hemda to wear while the Autocracy contingent is here, and we are going to test this equipment at dinner tonight. Prince Dinus should assume it's a different type of headdress for a different formal occasion, and think nothing of its presence on a formal diplomatic mission. Rue will wear one of your normal headdresses for everything but the formal private negotiations, of course," Vahin concluded.
"Okay," Rue said, "That makes sense. How long is the recorder good for?"
"Since most negotiation meetings don't last more than four hours at a time without a break, it's set up to go eight at a time. If any longer meetings are scheduled, you can request a break and go back to your room. Once there, you will download the footage while you are 'freshening up'."
"Those components must be quite sophisticated," Keestu commented. "To be so tiny and do so much!"
Vahin explained, "Compliments of Uriel's electronics division. They sent the specs on the components so the headdress would be ready to receive them."
Keestu closed the box and handed it to Rue, who reopened it and placed the ring inside before closing it again. Vahin keyed the case to both Rue and Keestu, having them press their thumbs to the lock so that either of them could open the case to access the headdress and matching ring.
"I'll have a list of concessions written out for you by the King well before you leave, as the Crown Princess, being inexperienced, would be expected to have something and someone to remind her of things she can and can't agree to," Vahin concluded.
"So you're going with us," Keestu said. "Has anyone else been decided upon?"
"So far, both Tenget and Gontu, with Gontu being assigned to Rue for the duration of the visit, while Tenget will watch out for you."
"Right," Keestu said. "So you'll you sit in on all the negotiation meetings?"
"I should be allowed to attend most of them, since I am known as your adviser. The Trade Administer will remain here on Sandar examining the information we've been given on their barter system and he will forward information on to your Aunt Shina at the Hub after the trade agreement is signed, so you needn't worry about the finer points of the treaty."
"Are they going to set up a barter kiosk at the Hub in addition to shipping products directly between our planets?"
"Yes, King Ismer thinks that's what they have in mind."
The door chimed, and Keestu looked her question at Vahin. "Yes, we're done here for now. Don't tell anyone about the true nature of the headdress, on King Ismer's orders. Only King Ismer, Prince Korin, Queen Mewa, myself, Tenget, Gontu, the royal jeweler, and you two know about the recording equipment. Everyone who is accompanying you must know about the recorder in the event they need to retrieve it for King Ismer, but your siblings have only been told it's a new style of headdress Ismer commissioned in order to impress on our visitors what a prosperous planet Sandar is."
They nodded understanding, and Keestu pressed her thumb to the door lock to release the seal. The bolts slid back, and after a perfunctory knock Vakon entered.
"We're ready for Rue's first fitting," he said without preamble. "Plus, I'm supposed to tell you your mail is here, Your Highness."
Vahin gave both girls a stiff half bow and left without further comment, taking the box with the headdress and ring with him.
"Have my mail brought in here, and I'll work on it at this console while you fit Rue. I'm supposed to stay and observe and advise if I think the clothing looks formal enough after the fitting for our t
rip."
"Well, I'm off to it, then," Rue said as she followed the tailor.
As she left, a servant brought in a small box. It contained the usual, a hand-held recorder, a variety of recorded data chips that were audio only while others were video messages, several hand-printed missives, and one larger reinforced box, the kind that was used to protect fragile items.
Keestu chose to open the box first. She smiled at what it contained. It was an unfinished clay wish ball, a traditional item of young girls on Sandar, who would take a solid or hollow clay ball, which was slightly flattened on one side so it would stand on a shelf without a special holder, and then baked until hard. After that, girls would decorate them with bright paints, using pictures or words, though some used both. They would keep their wish balls in their rooms to remind themselves of what their wishes were. Rarely, a girl would later paint over her wish ball as her wishes changed. Some wish balls became family heirlooms, passed from mother to daughter, having become symbols of what was important in those families. Keestu noted that this ball had been baked, but had never been painted. She searched the box and found an accompanying video chip. She placed it in the reader, smiling as a young girl's face greeted her. Keestu thought she looked to be about Hemda's age.
"Hello Princess Keestu," the girl said. "I'm Dierta, and I live in the second barony of Westique--in the sticks--and I hear you answer all your mail. My friends all say that you royals don't care about us out here in the sticks, but my parents insist you do, and so my wish is to prove to my friends that my parents are right. I was hoping you would have time to write something on my wish ball and then send it back to me. It doesn't have to be much."
Keestu carefully set the ball and chip back in their padded box and set it aside, starting the special attention pile. She was certain her mother and father would want to see this video themselves. She spoke into her personal recorder. "Wish ball for Dierta in the second barony of Westique. She wants it decorated by the Crown Princess and sent back as proof that the royal family actually cares for everyone on our planet. I think the entire royal family should write something on it for her."
She went through the rest of her mail, using her recorder to save personal greetings, birthday and other special day wishes, and answering questions, which ran from the benign "What do you eat regularly" to truly puzzling ones regarding personal habits of other members of the royal family.
Rue came in several times to model her new wardrobe. Keestu looked her outfits over with a practiced eye and questioned Rue closely about fit and comfort. Realizing Rue would have to sit for great lengths of time during negotiation meetings, Keestu advised her to take her new outfits and sit in them a few minutes to see if there were any binding seams, then stand and walk around for another few minutes to see if the shoes began to pinch after inactivity. Since they were custom fitted and expertly made, they shouldn't, but occasional glitches in the hand-run equipment did happen, making a seam slightly uneven here, or a shoe just a little too snug there.
Several hours later, Rue had her new wardrobe. Keestu called for servants to take all of Rue's new clothes to her in-palace suite. Keestu knew Rue had generous closet space in her suite, but until now didn't have a lot of outfits stored in it.
Seeing Rue admiring her clothing, Keestu realized what a bonus it was for her to be given these as part of her compensation for being the Crown Princess's handmaiden. She motioned for the tailoring crew to stop what they were doing, and called Vakon over. "Vakon, I would like for you to make some everyday clothes and shoes for Rue, as well. She spends so many nights overnight here; it makes sense to provide her with some everyday clothes as well so she doesn't disgrace the palace by leaving looking disheveled in day-old clothing. Your payment for these clothes is to be taken from my account, with the charges listed as part of my living expenses. I think two weeks' worth of everyday clothing should be sufficient for a start."
Vakon's face lit up. "Of course, Your Highness. I think a selection of matching jackets, slacks, skirts, and shoes in both warm and cold weather clothing would be best, so she can choose what she'd be most comfortable wearing."
"That sounds good to me, Vakon," Keestu told the man. "I know I can trust your judgement in selecting appropriate casual styles for a royal handmaiden."
Rue looked at Keestu, her mouth momentarily agape. "Thanks, Kee," she said, now beaming, as she turned back into the tailoring suite.
Vakon, flushing with pleasure, bowed to her and turned to his staff, issuing orders without hesitation. The tailoring crew, to their credit, cheerfully prepared to make the additional clothing.
Keestu left her box of mail in a bin to be sent out later by one of the staff, asked Palace Control where her mother was, and being informed she was in the first level drawing room, Keestu made her way there with the special attention box.
She was startled to find Dinus in the room. Remembering to curtsey to her mother, she regained her composure and spoke only after being recognized. "Your Grace, Princess Keestu received a wish ball from a young girl in the second barony of Westique whose wish it is to have her decorate it. The princess thought it would nice if all the royal family helped decorated it for her. She asked me to bring it to your attention."
"Where is the princess now?" Queen Mewa asked as she motioned for Keestu to hand her the box. The Queen took out the slightly misshapen clay ball and eyed it fondly.
"She's still with the tailor, Your Grace," Keestu replied.
"Well, it's too bad that she's not available now. Prince Dinus and I were just about to go out to his ship and look over the trade goods he brought. However, since the princess is not available, we would like you to accompany us. As her handmaiden, you can describe the goods to her in person later."
Keestu felt herself grinning at her mother's manipulation. "I'm honored by your trust, Your Grace."
Queen Mewa carefully set the wish ball back in its box. "We'll pass this ball on to the King later. We're sure His Majesty will be pleased with the princess's considerate idea." She sealed the box and left it on the table.
The Queen stood, Prince Dinus quickly at her side. "Shall we go to your ship, Prince?"
They left through the northeast door of the palace and strolled to the Autocracy ship. As she approached it, Keestu could see that it was well armed for such a small vessel. She thought it looked quite maneuverable and was probably better suited to short trips and atmospheric maneuvering than interstellar travel.
The ship's hold lay adjacent to the ship's lounge, and as they passed through it, Keestu saw the off-duty crew lounging about. Two were playing a game of Engine Room on a portable board, which nearly filled their tiny table. Several others were crowded around watching the progress of the game, making bets amongst themselves on who would win the game. Keestu saw some items piled precariously on the next table, no doubt the wager put on the game. She thought it odd that they'd bet on the outcome of a simple race game, but if they weren't allowed off ship, they had to pass the time some way. The crowd shifted a little to allow them to pass, and Keestu saw others at a larger table playing a dice game, which had its own crowd of spectators. She'd had no idea that Dinus's entourage was this large.
"Your Highness?" Keestu asked Dinus as they left the crowded room and entered the much quieter hold. "I couldn't help but see your crew is playing games. I know Engine Room, but I didn't recognize the dice game."
"Engine Room?" The prince looked blank for a moment. "Oh, you mean Starship Engineer; that's what we call it. The dice game is called Throw Six. My crew likes portable board games, card games, and dice when stuck on board a ship that lacks the power to support electronic games since they don't take up much space."
"I'm not familiar with Throw Six," Keestu admitted wistfully. She loved to try new games, even if she didn't like them and never played them again.
"The dice sets you saw are used for two games on my planet. Throw Three is a children's counting game that's used to help them develop math skills. The
adult game is called Throw Six and uses six dice per player and a single special die that's handled by a player called the controller. All players throw their dice and place their wagers after seeing their initial hands. Then the controller, who doesn't participate in the hand other than to control the special die, throws that die to determine which of the players' dice get re-rolled before the hands of the players are scored at the end of the round. You want to get as close to a 'Perfect Thirty' as possible, since the only hand that beats it is 'The Mystic's Hand'."
Dinus didn't elaborate further as he had led them into the cargo hold and opened a bin. Several bolts of brightly colored fabrics were inside. They were made of the same satin as his clothing, though this cloth had repeating geometric patterns all over.
Keestu tried not to crowd her mother, who was eagerly examining the bolts.
"Oh, this is lovely," Mewa said, pulling out one particularly interesting bolt. It was done in a three-dimensional square pattern in multiple colors, with each square being made of a set of three shades of the same color. Keestu thought the color didn't look painted on or dyed in, but she couldn't figure out how it had been manufactured.
Seeing her daughter's interest, Mewa passed the fabric to her. Keestu eyed it closely as she felt the softness and drape.
"That entire bolt of fabric should suffice for the one hundred kilograms of fresh hirot vegetables, I think," Mewa commented as she took it back from Keestu, "Considering the hours it took to grow, tend, and harvest the fields and process the stalks compared with the hours it must have taken to produce this cloth."
"Yes, Your Grace," Keestu remembered to respond, as she was still trying to puzzle out how the fabric was made.
Prince Dinus nodded agreement. "It sounds like a fair trade to me," he said, as they continued to browse the offerings.