State Visit

[Dalahn Stormrage]

The Narlin ship sat gently on the landing pad near the presidential residence. Before the engines had finished spooling down an access ramp lowered, and armor clad guards exited the ship. The had six foot spike tipped halberds slung ovee their shoulders. Banners had the blue and gold split tailed pennants that were favored by the Narlins. They whipped in the breeze like angry snake tongues. Someone with a some sort of ram's horn trumpet blew a series of haunting notes that bounced off the walls of the city buildings.

The Royal Guard was followed by an entourage of solemn faced Narlins and Hylons all dressed spectacularly. Several sported the gold vine like crowns worn by the dukes and duchesses of royal dukedoms. They had been independent Kingdoms long ago before Youlan the Great united all of Talaria.

At last Emperor Stormrage emerged from the ship, his wife in her royal splendor on his right arm and his mistress, one of the court's ladies in waiting, on his left arm.

An attendant shouted, "My lords and ladies. May I present to you His Royal Highness Emperor Stormrage of the Narlin Empire. Duke of Tamerale and Kormel, defender of the faith. hero of the Battle of Ev'tel!"

[Cece Ryder]

Cece rolled her eyes as she watched the pageantry of the Narlin visitors. She still held a grudge against Stomrage, she had considered Kahlina a friend and she still questioned how... friendly this new Narlin Empire was. Glancing behind her was Noella. Who also looked none too impressed at the display as well.

"Welcome Emperor Stormrage." Cece said as she approached the group and bowed politely.

[Dalahn Stormrage]

Stormrage ignored her, his eyes were fixed away as if to ask why this commoner would dare speak to him.

An aide stepped forward and bowed to Cece. "Thank you Ms. Ryder. His majesty wishes to speak to the president."

[Cece Ryder]

"His Majesty will have to take a number." Cece said as she handed over a small digital 'number counter'. "And if you wish to be technical it's Lady Carly of the House of May, Clan MacLeod of the Royal Family of Siofra." she said with a bit of an aristocratic air.

"We don't make it public knowledge." Noella stated. "But my granddaughter is correct. We're far from common." she tapped her forehead. "And we're both able to read people. Makes us good diplomats and chiefs of staff." she cleared her throat. "The President will meet with you at the hour on your time chit. Currently he is meeting with a delegation regarding the Imperium border worlds and following that a budgetary meeting..."

"In other words... would you like some tea while you wait?" Cece said with a slight smile.

[Dalahn Stormrage]

Stormrage took the digital number counter and crushed it in his massive hand and let the shattered peices sprinkle onto the ground. He finally looked at Cece, his face was placid despite his obvious restrained rage.

"No, I do not want tea, and I like fake pleasantries less than I like the president sending his minions to greet me. Even if they have some sort of nobility in their blood. And I don't like you. Intelligence says you supported the userper, the false Empress. The fact that our president employs you and sends you out to greet me only furthers the insult. Are our soldiers nothing more than fodder to die in your wars?" His right hand fell to the hilt of his sword but he didn't draw it, but the desire was in his eyes. His royal guards stiffened in response, their eyes wide with tension.

[Noella St. James]

"Quite the opposite. Your people have been saving more lives than they've lost. And as for the President sending her, she controls his schedule. She also controls who he sees and doesn't see." Noella said. "As for me, I'm Secretary of State, which also means I tell the President what our course of action as far as diplomatic relations are." she put her hands on her hips and looked him in the eyes. "You don't intimidate us. But we'll let it slide since that's your way of dealing with people. Now... if you want to continue posturing, there are cloak suited agents surrounding us. President Ryder left us with quite a few useful security measures before he left the office. But this is a friendly visit, is it not?"

[Dalahn Stormrage]

Stormrage stared down at her. Protocol dictated that he should have offered both these women every courtesy. They were associates of the High King or president as these humans called it. He supposed it wasn't the same thing as king since they were elected by all the people of the Alliance including his own. He was just a cog in this wheel.

He relaxed a bit, the insult of Lady Calhoun-Ryder being the one to greet him was still infuriating, but he was a soldier and a general. And he knew by opposing the False Empress he had earned little favor in this court... administration, he corrected himself. She had been very popular with the Humans, and his own commoners. Well, she was one of them, he reasoned.

He glanced over at his captain of the guard and nodded. The captain pounded his fist to his chest with a metal on metal clank and a bow of the head. "Second Team dismissed!"

All but two and the guard captain remained as the rest dispersed, most returning to their ship. The remaining guards stood like statues, their halberds standing in the sky like steel-tipped trees.

Stormrage unbuckled his sword belt and handed it to an aide and finally spoke. "You may show me your hospitality Lady St. James, though I do not require refreshments."

[Angel Ryder]

Later at the Compound --

Angel was sitting in Bella's old office, mapping out some of the fleet movements for the next month. Even though she was on leave, she still made sure to check in, make sure things didn't go completely to hell and made sure Admiral Parros didn't completely burn out. Not everyone could multi-task like she could. She wore only her Admirality jacket over her slim cut grey and purple pinstripe dress and the strappy high heels she wore were hardly regulation, but she really didn't care. What were they going to do? Demote her for uniform code? She wrote the uniform code. Besides, all anyone had to see was the top half of her over a comm. If only some people knew just what was beneath or below that jacket. More often than not, during her leave, she had pretty much lived in swimsuits and wraps. For months she hated wearing anything that was too rough on her back, even stopped wearing bras because the sympathetic pain from the 'wings' still bothered her. Of course it didn't quite bother her husband, they had been intimate more now in the past few months than they had been in the last two years of their marriage. The goal was still to get pregnant again...

"Admiral?" Cece said as she knocked on the door. "Stormrage is here if you want to meet with him. Jon is still in meetings and if we can at least... keep him occupied, he won't get overly grumpy."

"Like I care about his grumpiness but I suppose I can't let you and Aunt 'Eella shoulder that yourself." Angel said and unzipped her jacket. "Lead the way."

Cece smiled slightly and looked at her. "Cute outfit."

"Thanks... I'm taking Becca and Becky out for dinner. Nathan's got crew evals to look over." Angel chuckled and smiled. "I'm trying to get Becca out there more, not that I'm trying to find her a man but at least some friends that have last names that aren't Ryder."

[Rebecca Talon]

"Who says that's a bad thing?" Rebecca demanded. She looked like a fish out of water in her black pencil skirt, blazer, white blouse, and peep-toe pumps. "By the way Angel the Secretary of Defense is looking for Tomarah's fleet readiness report. When can she expect your report on the 414th?"

[Angel Ryder]

"Got it here." Angel held up a small padd and laughed. "Not a bad thing at all. Although Uncle Tony not making a pass at you is shocking. He must be seeing someone again AND not telling me." she chuckled lightly. "So care to go with me and meet the Emperor? For what he did to Kahlina... I want to shove this heel up his ass. Course he may think it's foreplay."

"Been there." Cece said with a nonchalant expression.

"You and I really need to talk more." Angel said with a raised eyebrow. "By the way, remind me when we get home to send Admiral Parros' wife that suit I have in the bag in the closet. She's going to be on the team that's opening negotiations with the Imperium's trade partners. It's lined with SKIN armor and has a built in personal transporter enhancer. Dad thinks it should be standard issue, like there's no reason for non SKIN lined suits to be in anyone's closet. He isn't wrong."