Star Trek: Terra Alpha

Earth - London, England

Victoria Underwood was at a small pub near the Royal Palace having lunch, she had decided to visit her new apprentice Ashley and perhaps curry some favor with her sister the soon to be Queen. They were waiting for some 'nice' weather, although it was England, 'nice' weather was rare. The past few months, she and Abbygale had been planning their trip to Earth and it felt good to actually be off world and even better to not hide their relationship. Not that they engaged in a lot of PDA or threw it in people's faces, but it wasn't their usual coy 'oh we're just friends' or 'we're working on something together' lines.

It struck her as quite amazing how much of London had been rebuilt to how it had been before the Imperium War, although what amazed her even more, the sheer lack of Imperium other than a few random Starfleet officers here and there. Emperor Kaikoa Lei was true to his word, he wasn't going to rule Earth with an iron fist. Britain was actually fairly autonomous for the first time in centuries. Of course, now their borders extended through much of Europe. The soon to be Queen Marissa Windsor had already managed to secure some very lucrative alliances and defense contracts. There was a reason why the Iljuna put Ashley into Victoria and Abby's orbit, while she was simply a Princess at the moment, she was still next in line to the throne. Of course Ashley had tried her best to separate herself from the whole 'royal nonsense' as she called it, the people did love the return of their Princess.

Taking a swig of her ale, she smiled slightly. "You know Abby, I'm going to miss being able to go out in public like this when we go back home. These little dates, this is what I wanted the most. Going on trips. Although I must say the press has been very kind to you, even the camera angles. They're even editing in makeup, could be they see the same beauty I see."

Abby stared down at the ale. She wasn't much of a beer drinker. "Yeah, well I would really rather they just left me alone. Back home I have to deal with it so I can get reelected, but I'm on vacation and I really don't want cameras shoved in my face every where I go."

"Oh I am sure once the hoopla over the coronation starts, they won't give a crap about two lesbians from New Georgia." Victoria said as she took a sip of her ale and whispered. "Tastes like piss I know... but there is a man over there that is an Ajem sympathizer and he has partial ownership of this pub. I'm glad to see at least some of our people still exist, I was worried, but they kept underground."

"You must have built up quite the network," Abby said sounding impressed. "Still, you couldn't have recruited a wine merchant?"

"We have one, but he's been trying to sleep with me for ten years." Victoria whispered. "And he's attracted to short haired blondes too." she rolled her eyes. "Although trust me, tonight I will take you somewhere much nicer. This is partial lunch and partial business. He's telling me via a little code we worked out with peanuts, that there is another Ajem'dasis loyalist near the palace. I need to find out if they are loyal to the order or to me. If Ashley is going to be here for a little while, I want her to have a network too, but I also want to make sure they treat her as my right hand and not a potential turn coat."

"Just remember there's only one person you can truly trust, and that's you."

"Very true my love." Victoria said with a smile. "Well with luck we will have something in place that will allow us an escape route if the time ever comes."

"I believe in redundancy," Abby said simply. "I got something I'm working on myself," she said cryptically with a shrug.

"Oh really?" Victoria raised an eyebrow and smiled. "You just keep finding ways to remind me why I love you." she closed her eyes. "I will admit, there are days when I would be happy to give up this and just be with you. Victoria Porter works... or Abbygale Thorne. I would like to drop Fred's name but it's what I'm known by professionally, anything else would give me a fresh start. Perhaps a cut and color."

"You thrive on this," Abby said. "Just like me, it's what gets you out of bed in the morning. You'd go bonkers playing the housewife."