The moment the imperial ship received the emperors shuttle, the captain brought up the shields and began heading to Mars.

Aron and Rina stepped out of the shuttle into the boat bay and met the side party that had been arranged to greet them. The ships executive officer, Commander Shannon Robinson, came to attention and saluted. Aron returned the salute and asked, Permission to come aboard?

Permission granted, Your Majesty, and welcome aboard Imperial One, Commander Robinson replied.

The bosun announced, Terra arriving! Then he pulled an old-fashioned bosuns pipe from his hip pocket and whistled the tune for arriving royalty.

If youll follow me, Your Majesty, Ill show you to your quarters. The captain is currently on the bridge, but he should be with you shortly, Commander Robinson said.

The side party is a nice touch, Ms. Robinson. Aron smiled at the competent officer as she led him down an impeccably decorated passageway to the imperial quarters.

Tradition is important, Your Majesty, and it seemed like a good one to maintain.

Indeed, Ms. Robinson. Tradition is indeed important. Aron fell silent as they continued walking.

Rina looked around at the lush purple carpet, the tasteful wallpaper, the gilded Corinthian accents on the bulkheads, and the bas relief decorations on the overhead. She let out a low whistle and exclaimed, You really went all out on the decorations, didnt you?

Blame Felix, Aron laughed. You know what a history nut he is, and he spent hours browbeating me into it. You absolutely HAVE to have the appearance of power, he told me, and I still dont necessarily agree with he gestured to the opulent surroundings, all of this. But I eventually caved.

Yeah, that does sound like something he would do, Rina giggled. So did he come up with the decorations himself?

Aron shook his head. No, although he really wanted to. But he couldnt carve out the time, and frankly, his tastes run to the gaudy, so I created the imperial design agency specifically for the purpose of interior and exterior design. You have no idea how flabbergasted and shellshocked all those fashion designers, interior decorators, and architects were when they got a call from Gaia inviting them to a new government agency, he laughed, remembering the surprise on the new recruits faces.

Still, he continued. It really seems to have worked out for the best. At least our empires decor is unified, and not a mishmash of hundreds of different styles based on ideas from hundreds of different designers. And, well, I obviously couldnt do it. I mean, youve seen what my personal taste runs to.

Rina laughed so hard she bent over and could hardly breathe. Yes, yes I have, she wheezed in between fits of laughter. Arons sense of style was truly... lacking would be putting it mildly.

Aron conceded the point and the group continued heading toward his quarters.

I like their style, Rina finally announced as they reached their quarters. The decorations continued the elegant, understated luxury theme, but with hints of techist designs here and there. It was a blend of old and new, and having grown up in the Rothschild compoundwhich was basically old money personifiedshe felt very comfortable there.

She especially liked the king-sized bed and the sunken jacuzzi tub that looked like it could fit four people in it. But the color scheme, full of rich, royal purples and warm greens that contrasted nicely with the shining gold and silver accents, was also very much to her liking. And it contrasted nicely against the muted gray bedding, embroidered with the imperial coat of arms, and the marble tiles in the head.

One good thing about your grandiose, overcompensating drive to build Really Big Things is that it gives you room to fit something like this into them instead of cramped quarters like you see on most normal-sized pleasure yachts. Rina grinned at her husband.

Overcompensating? He spread his arms wide and slowly stalked toward her as their close-in protection aegis guards nodded to each other and discreetly left the quarters. Overcompensating for what!? he jokingly screeched as he launched himself in his wifes direction.

Rina laughed and playfully dodged, throwing pillow after pillow at him as he chased her around the room, much like any normal pair of newlyweds would.

As it turned out, emperors were men just like anyone else.

......

Time passed as Aron and Rina were cavorting in the imperial quarters aboard Imperial One. Imperial One, much like the ships escorting her, was capable of warp travel, but using an Alcubierre warp bubble inside an inhabited solar system would be a downright terrible idea. After all, whenever a warp bubble was disengaged, it would throw debris and deadly radiation in a cone centered on the direction of the vessels travel, and that debris and radiation would make life miserable for anyone caught in that cone.

Thus, they were proceeding at a fairly sedate pace. In fact, even civilian traffic, should any have been allowed within the protective envelope of Imperial Ones escorts, would easily be able to keep up with them even without engaging their gravity drives and relying on thrusters alone. And from the inside of the ships, nobody would be able to tell they were in motion unless they looked at the display showing Earth as an ever-

shrinking circle.

Still, though their pace was sedate, they would still be arriving at Mars a little over five hours after they began the journey.

And despite the Sol system being the safest place the emperor could be (short of the Cube on Avalon Island, anyway), Imperial One was still filled with entire battalions of ARES troopers, two reaper teams, a full company of the emperors aegis, and legion after legion of robotic auxiliaries in addition to the oversized naval crew. The crew was even held at general quarters whenever the emperor was aboard, and could move to battle stations in under a minute.

No matter the length of the trip the emperor was taking in the Terran Space Fleets most advanced, well-protected ship, the security would remain on a hair trigger.