Chapter 95: 94. Exile

The Demeter's mess felt a little crowded with all nine people inside. We'd grabbed the desk chairs from two of the cabins and now almost everyone was squeezed in around our big old dining table. And there'd been another round of introductions when the last two crew from the Persephone joined us.

Sergeant Bixby was still recovering from his injuries but like I figured he was more interested in talk and drink than following my medical advice. With him was the Persephone's cook and medic, Corporal Cheryl Yates.

When Bixby and Yates arrived they had a case of local beer with them, which they set on the table. A few of our guests helped themselves, though most of us stuck with coffee or water.

Yates was petite, though not quite as small as myself. She was young too, about the same age as Gwen. She had bright pink shoulder length hair, she was wearing a knee-length black tunic-style dress and a pair of sneakers on her feet.

Finally we had Jenny here with us as well this time, after Rebecca all but ordered her to participate. Rather than pull over another chair she was standing just inside the forward bulkhead, leaning against the wall. And looking at her, I found it really was hard to believe she was an AI using an android body. Her body language made it clear she was uneasy being around strangers and it was obvious she'd rather be elsewhere. I could guess she'd elected to stand next to the door so she could quickly escape forward into her cabin or the cockpit if she needed to.

Gwen still looked like she was in shock from Captain Nieves' confession, and for now the tall brunette captain seemed to be the one in charge of that group.

"Sergeant Bixby," I addressed the stocky redheaded man, "How are your injuries doing? You really ought to be taking it easy you know."

He shrugged, "It's fine. This other stuff's more important right now."

After a gulp of his beer he added, "And can we drop the formal bullshit? Just call me Blix."

"If that's all right with you, your highness?" Captain Nieves looked to Rebecca.

"We don't bother with rank on the Demeter," Rebecca replied. "So yes, it's more than all right."

Nieves nodded, "Thank you. In that case I'm Tan, Blix is our mechanic, my navigator here is Pots, and Cherry there is our cook."

Our boss nodded, "You can all just call me Rebecca, ok? None of this 'princess' or 'your highness' stuff."

After a sip of her coffee she stated, "So let's get to the point. Tan's told us about your secret mission, Gwen knows she's been set up, and whether you think I'm your missing royalty or not I have no intention of going to Vysalis-4 regardless. So what do you all want with me?"

Nieves, or rather Tan, glanced around the table at her crew and Gwen, then looked back at Rebecca and admitted "We really hadn't thought that far ahead, to be honest? They all wanted to meet you before making their decisions. I've already told you where I stand, and Pots is with us."

She looked at the other two, "Blix, Cherry, what do you think? Me and Pots and Gwen have majority so the Persephone stays with us, but if you two want to walk you'll get your share of the money."

The tough redhead had a couple gulps of his beer then shrugged, "I already told you I'm in with the ship. If the ship's with team princess then so am I."

He glanced at Rebecca and added, "I ain't gonna bow though, royalty or not."

"I think she could convince me to bow," Cherry grinned as she gave our boss what I could only describe as a hungry look. "I might even get down on my knees for her. Rawr."

Tan rolled her eyes, "Inappropriate. She's a princess Cherry, try and keep your panties on."

"I'm not wearing any," the flirty pinkette replied without any shame whatsoever. "Anyways yeah I'm in. Go Team Princess and all that. So what's next?"

Rebecca and Sarah and I all shared a look, and I got the feeling none of us really knew what to make of these people. It seemed like one surprise after another with them, but at least they all appeared to be on our side. Or the boss's side anyways.

Tan looked to the only one who hadn't responded yet and asked softly, "Gwen? How are you doing ma'am?"

The young noblewoman seemed to finally snap out of her daze. She looked at the tall brunette and commented, "That's the first time you've used my name."

"Sorry," the tall brunette apologized. "None of us wanted to get too friendly with you before, when we thought we were going to ditch you somewhere."

Gwen just stared at her for another few seconds then sighed, "How am I doing? My whole world just crumbled and collapsed. I've just found out I was used, lied to, betrayed, and sent into exile. That bloated balding jackass that I served for the past two years of my life spent who knows how many millions of public credits to ship the five of us all the way out here and make us disappear, so he could keep his stuck-up pompous ass in a seat he doesn't deserve to kneel before! And that bastard is going to get away with it while I'm stuck out here a thousand systems away from home. So I'm not doing well. Not at all."

"Is there anyone back home you can reach out to for help?" Jenny asked. Her voice almost startled a few people, she'd been so quiet I figured some of them forgot she was there. "Perhaps you can get the Regent's treachery exposed so you can all return home."

Tan shook her head, "Official channels are closed to us."

"So what about unofficial channels?" I asked. "There's a business here in Port Ecclestone that can send FTLs into the Imperium. It takes about a half day but they should be able to get a message through."

Rebecca asked Gwen, "Do you have friends back home? People you can trust? As I understand it, the whole reason the Regent wanted you gone was so nobody knew you'd found your princess."

The noblewoman sighed, "I can trust my family, but ours is a smaller noble house. We don't have much in the way of political power. And anyways, if word got out that the sole surviving member of our royal family was working as a freighter captain out on the frontier, it might put your life at risk your highness. I can't take that chance."

"I'm pretty sure the only threat being princess brings to my life is from your Regent," the boss responded. "Nobody out here's going to give a damn. Nobody's heard of Vysalis-4. Maybe if they thought I was an Imperium senator that'd be different? But some noble title from a world nobody's heard of is pretty meaningless around these parts."

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"In that case why not accept the crown and become queen in exile?" Jenny asked.

She cringed slightly when everybody else turned and stared at her in surprise, but our AI pushed ahead and continued sharing her idea.

"You've already made it clear you won't go to Vysalis-4," she said to Rebecca. "If nobody in the Gorath Sector cares about a noble rank from a world a thousand systems away then why not accept the title? As I understand it, that would officially place you as commander in chief of the Vysalis System Defence Force. You would be able to issue legitimate orders to Captain Nieves and her crew, along with the rest of that military force in the Vysalis system. You could order the Regent to be taken into custody for treason. All you need is for Lady Magniveen to transmit the information and evidence she has back to her family and get them to disseminate it to the rest of the government and people of her homeworld."

We were all silent for the next minute or two, with everyone still staring wide-eyed at Jenny.

Finally Rebecca looked at Gwen and asked, "Is she right? If we do that, will your planet keep sending people to bring me back home with them? Or what will they do?"

From the look on the noblewoman's face I could guess her mind was racing through the possibilities. She had an intense, thoughtful expression for the next several seconds before she finally seemed to reach a conclusion.

"I can't promise they'll stop asking you to come back," she replied. "But if they believe us, if they accept who you are, then almost everything else she said is correct. You wouldn't be queen in exile, coronation can only happen on our homeworld. You'd be the crown princess in exile, and you'd still be head of the monarchy. You'd be in command of the defence forces, and the head of one half of our government. The other half are elected officials, including the prime minister."

Sarah looked at the boss and smiled, "Planetary government leaders have immunity within the Imperium. Even if you don't plan on going back, it might be nice to know the Imperium can't legally touch you."

Rebecca raised an eyebrow but all she had to say about that was "Huh."

Meanwhile Tan asked, "Gwen, do you think this will really work? And if it does, what do we do?"

"I think we have a chance," the young noble replied. "My family are royalists, most of the nobility are. As long as we can get a message through to them and they can get something back to us to keep us in the loop, it might just work."

She added, "As for what we do afterwards, I really don't know."

"How about I name you the new Regent then send you home?" Rebecca suggested. "Or if not Regent then whatever title means you're acting on my behalf. I'm sure I could absolve the rest of you of whatever charges you're facing, throw in some field promotions, and you all get to go home heroes?"

Blix barked out a laugh while Cherry giggled, and both Pots and Tan just smiled. Meanwhile Gwen looked momentarily stunned, before she blushed and admitted "I'm already Secretary, that's the role you're talking about. Instead of Secretary to the Regent I'd be Secretary to the Crown."

"All right," Rebecca grinned. "When I woke up this morning I wasn't really planning on overthrowing any governments today, but I guess that's on me for not thinking big enough. So let's talk strategy and make some plans."

Over the next few hours all nine of us were involved, some more than others. Gwen had an extensive knowledge of the politics and political landscape of her homeworld, and quite a bit of that information was gradually shared with the rest of us throughout the afternoon.

We learned that despite being a monarchy, Vysalis-4 also had a separate, democratically-elected government which handled most of the actual governing. That included a prime minister and a cabinet. On the other hand most of the people elected to rule were still drawn from the noble elite, and many of them were royalists. Or at least they claimed to support the monarchy.

Gwen also explained that the crown wasn't just a figurehead, the position did carry some power and authority. Rebecca would be in charge of matters of planetary security, which was more than just the defence forces. She'd be in charge of the planet's legal and justice systems, like the courts and police.

The one place our captain wouldn't have any direct involvement was with the Imperium itself. Like Gwen explained earlier, the monarchy was part of the planet's internal government and therefore had no say in the Imperium's political or military dealings. As a head of state of a world in the Imperium Rebecca would have diplomatic immunity, but other than that she was just another civilian as far as the Imperium was concerned.

The noblewoman explained that was because the official line of communication from Vysalis-4 to the Imperium went through the Prime Minister's office rather than the monarchy. Except for one small point. As one of the founding worlds, Vysalis-4 had two seats on the senate. One of them was an elected official who reported to the Prime Minister and ultimately to the people. The other was an appointed position who answered directly to the crown.

"Right now that senator was appointed by and answers to our Regent," Gwen added. "You could cancel that appointment and replace him with someone loyal to you. That would give you direct control of a seat on the Imperium senate. It still wouldn't give you control over the Imperium, but at least you'd know what they were up to, and you'd have a voice in the Imperium. Maybe even two, if the elected senator was loyal to the crown as well."

"I'll keep that in mind," the boss responded. "For now let's take a few steps back from the big picture and look at our next steps for the short term. Before we can do anything else, we need to know we have allies on your homeworld. So Gwen, you need to compose and send a message back to your family. Tell them as much as you feel is necessary, as much as you trust them with I guess? Then it's just a matter of waiting to hear back from them, before we know whether or not we can rely on them to help."

The noblewoman still had some concerns about sending sensitive or secret information through civilian channels, but we didn't have much of a choice. Any attempt to contact the Vysalis-4 government through official means would be blocked and probably tip off the Regent what was going on. Which lead Sarah to ask a question that I'd been wondering but didn't want to voice.

"You've talked about exile and about abandoning Lady Magniveen on some world out here," the cute engineer commented. "I'm wondering though, if Gwen and Rebecca are such a big threat to the Regent wouldn't he be better off having them both killed?"

Tan grimaced, "I can answer that. Treason against the crown is about the only capital offence on the books back home. And the way our laws work, if someone orders a subordinate to commit a crime then the person giving the order is considered guilty of the crime as if they'd done it themself."

Gwen scowled as she added, "If he can keep your existence a secret, he'd be able to down-play all of this as no more than the usual intrigue between noble houses. Had he ordered my or Princess Rebecca's assassination and that became public knowledge, his head would be on a block. And the rest of his family would likely be stripped of their titles."

"All right," Rebecca stated. "We're probably looking at a message lag of two days, not counting however long it takes your people to react once they hear from you Gwen. So none of this is going to be happening immediately. Meanwhile I need to get my ship refuelled and restocked, I've got port fees to take care of, and I need to find us another cargo. So we'll stay in touch, but don't expect the Demeter to be hanging around Port Ecclestone indefinitely."

By the look of it Lady Magniveen wasn't too happy at the idea of her princess flying off on potentially risky freight jobs, but at least she understood there wasn't much she could say or do about it. And Captain Nieves could tell that our boss was wrapping up the meeting.

Tan got to her feet and suggested, "Blix, Pots, Cherry, let's get back to the ship. I don't like leaving our freedom ticket unattended too long, especially not in a place like this. Gwen, I imagine you'll want some time to compose your message? Then we'll escort you to that FTL company Rebecca mentioned."

"All right captain," the young noblewoman sighed.

The others all stood up as well, and Blix picked up the last few beers to take with him back to the Persephone. Cherry took the opportunity to try and flirt with Rebecca some more, she bowed and kissed the boss's hand and stuff. The princess wasn't swayed by her charms though.