We awoke to the gentle ringing of a small handheld gong, held by a servant girl. “Good morning my King, my Queen, Emperor Sonkei just contacted us. He will arrive within the hour,” she said. “Thank you, and please return in half an hour to escort us to a convenient place in the palace to await the Emperor,” I said, wiping the sleep from my eyes. “As you command,” she replied. As was our ritual, Keesha and I hugged and said good morning to each other, and then went about our business preparing for the day.
The servant returned 30 minutes later, just as we were finishing up. The servant took us to a sitting room near the front entrance. We sat talking no more than 5 minutes before the shuttle arrived and we went out to greet them. The Emperor said, “We must go back inside and talk for a while. We have plenty of time before the ceremony.” Feeling a little oppressed, I said, “No…we need to take an aerial tour of your magnificent capital city before the ceremony.”
He paused briefly since he was not often spoken to in an assertive manner, except by the now exterminated Zet hierarchy. Then he quickly complied. Keesha took me by the arm and out of the corner of her mouth whispered, “David…be nice.” I gently squeezed her arm to my chest signaling my understanding and compliance. Then we climbed aboard his Imperial Shuttle and I began greeting everyone as a good diplomat should and complemented the Emperor on his healthy appearance and his attire. He was adorned in a golden loose-fitting silk-like shirt and pants, gold slipper-like shoes and an ornately embroidered white and gold robe. These complements mended his pride and he began pointing out the sights with newfound effervescence and zeal. He truly loved his capital city and his people.
We arrived at the Emperor’s palace and were greeted by his wives and children. As I mentioned, he had 16 children and they were born of five different mothers who were of varying ages, but all of the Emperor’s wives were very beautiful.
Unconscious in the hospital, Bob thought: “Polygamy is not right, it is in direct opposition to the will of God.”
Keesha looked over at me and said, “Oh no you don’t, one wife is plenty, don’t you even think about it.” I smiled at her and winked so I didn’t look overtly submissive to her in the presence of the Emperor. She gently put her fingers over her lips as if to say, oops sorry. Then she started playing with the children and talking to their mothers. I sat down with the Emperor and his staff and discussed the day’s festivities.
The festivities began with a martial arts demonstration performed by about 2,000 elementary school-aged children. Remember, earlier I said a couple of the species of this sector of the galaxy had a propensity toward violence. Well, besides us, the other species were the Tetrian, probably due to our parallel evolution. The kids were great fun to watch, and highly skilled. The art was reminiscent of Chinese Kung Fu, but no weapons were used. They considered weapons such as knives, spears or swords barbaric. I agree, in principle, but there are few things more dazzling than a Kung Fu Master demonstrating Chinese broad sword technique.
Then a large group of their finest musicians played for about an hour. I had never heard anything like it, and I find myself lost for words to describe it. So, I considered it only mildly tolerable, and Keesha flat out hated it. I know this because, after the first ten minutes of the performance, she clutched my arm, kissed me on the cheek and through clenched teeth said, “Oh my Gosh, did you bring any aspirin?” I smiled, hugged her arm and briefly laid my head on hers and the music played on.
After the music, they had a military parade in our honor, with neatly marching men and women carrying flags and banners, while shouting slogans and chants. I was quickly becoming bored stiff. Then came the time for speeches; they orated speech after speech after speech, each one more boring than the next, because each speaker repeated the same rhetoric that the last speaker affirmed. Then, to my surprise, it was my turn. I had no idea what to say, so I’d have to wing it. Well, at least I finally picked a name for our new Empire. I got up and approached the microphone.
I turned to Keesha and said, “Sweetheart, I’m going to do this in their language, would you like an interpreter?” “Yes please,” she replied and I called an interpreter over. Then I turned back around toward the crowd and began.
“I am King David, master of the universe. I stand before you the Ruler of an Empire without a name. And, I stand before you now to give it a name. All the species of all the known worlds are welcomed in peace to our Empire. We are now the Terreus Empire! [Cheers!]
The word terreus is from the ancient Earth language of Latin, meaning sprung from the earth or Earth-born. I was born on Earth and therefore I honor the world that gave me life! [Cheers!] I will endeavor to bring a golden age to the galaxy, ruling with kindness, truth, honesty, integrity, and honor. I will not allow enslavement or coercion of any species. All species deserve the right to live with freedom and to govern their own planets as they see fit, and I will see to it that they all have that opportunity. Thank you!” [Standing ovation!]
I walked back to my chair and Keesha said, “Not bad…not too bad at all.” Then hugged my arm and kissed me, her precious face beaming with pride. The Emperor then walked to the microphone and proclaimed that this date, each year would henceforth be known as Jiyu (freedom) and will be celebrated as a global holiday evermore. The people cheered and I rose to my feet and bowed. The entire populous followed suit and with that, a new tradition had begun. The ceremony was complete and we adjourned to the Emperor’s palace for a feast and polite conversation. The food was excellent and the conversation proceeded for hours. Keesha loved talking to the children and holding the small ones. She got to know the aristocracy of this planet very well and appreciated the fact that most of them didn’t act like aristocracy.
I spoke at length about the outstanding job that Fleet Commander Mattraya did during the organization of the fleet and the interstellar transit to Tetra. I requested that she be assigned as my liaison to her government. They strongly objected because they already had someone else in mind for that job. So, I insisted. They capitulated and informed me that the transfer would be completed the next morning and she would report to me in the afternoon. I thanked them and then went looking for Keesha.
I found her cradling an infant and talking to the infant’s mother through an interpreter. “Hi precious, I hope you don’t mind, but I asked to have Kindra Mattraya assigned as our liaison to her government. I trust her and know she can handle herself under pressure.” “That’s fine; I like her and trust her too. She said leaning over and whispering in my ear, “Just remember you’re mine.” I whispered back, “all yours forever precious.” I hugged her and left her with her new friends, while I continued hob-knobbing.
It was getting late, so I decided that it was time to go home. I found Keesha and we walked up to the Emperor. “We had a wonderful time, but now we need to go home to rest. Goodnight.” As we turned the Emperor stopped us and said that he would summon his shuttle, but I declined and told him that I would fly us home in our ship, Pegasus. We exited the palace and walked out to the rear courtyard were Pegasus was parked.
The courtyard was brightly lit and I could see signs that many people had been in the vicinity of my ship. As I looked closer, I saw burns on the lawn and other signs of attempted tampering. I looked over at Keesha, smiled and pointed out what I saw without saying a word. She said, “They tried to get in, didn’t they?” “Yep,” I confirmed. “Why would they do that?” she said. “Probably just out of curiosity. By now they know they can’t get in, so I don’t think they’ll try it again.” She agreed then questioned whether they were searching through our stuff back at our palace. I said that they probably were, but as long as they didn’t take anything, I didn’t care.
The flight back to the palace was uneventful. As we walked up to the palace, we were greeted by two servants who escorted us to our bedchamber and prepared our bath. I told them, as I dismissed them for the evening, that I wanted to meet with all the servants of the palace in the morning after breakfast. They agreed to inform the others and departed. “Did you have fun today precious?” I questioned. “Well, the dinner and stuff after the ceremony were good. I met a lot of nice people today. They’re just like us. But that music has got to go! I’ve heard better sounds coming from a broken washing machine.” I laughed and gave her a big hug. “Yep, that ceremony was pretty awful wasn’t it? Well, except for the kids who demonstrated their martial arts.” I shared. “They were so cute,” Keesha said in agreement. We climbed into the bath and further discussed the day, before finally going to bed.
I awoke to a bright sunny day on a world that was as much like Earth as you could ever hope for. No one woke us up this morning, so we slept in a little longer than usual. I woke Keesha with gentle kisses to her exposed, smooth athletic belly. “Stop, that tickles.” “Good morning precious,” I said, as I cuddled her up in my arms. “Good morning,” she said. I told her that I was going to throw some clothes on and go exploring. “I’ll come and get you when I find breakfast.” She giggled, “Okay, I’ll get dressed in a minute”. I got dressed and I left her lying on the bed looking around the room at its ornate grandeur.
I walked out into the hall and began walking toward the front of the palace. A servant girl saw me and quickly walked over to me. “May I help you, my King?” I explained that my wife and I were awake and would like breakfast.
She walked me down to a huge formal dining hall and asked me to be seated. “No,” I said, “this setting is much too formal for breakfast. Is there a less formal place to dine?” “Yes, my King, but it is used by the servants,” she said and I replied. “Are they using it now?” “No, my King.” “Is it clean?” “Yes, my King.” “Then we’ll eat there,” I proclaimed. She took me there and I asked her to go ask the Queen to join me and sent her scurrying away. I sat down and asked the time. Another servant girl said, “8 o’clock my King.”
I asked one of the cooks what was for breakfast, then without waiting for an answer, asked the servant girl that told me the time to gather all of the servants in the entry hall at 9 o’clock. She complied. About 5 minutes later the other servant appeared escorting Keesha. We sat and enjoyed a beautifully prepared fruit plate of exotic fruit, which was foreign to us, but delicious.
At 9 o’clock all the servants were assembled in the entry hall. There was a total of 25 staff members who all spoke English (they’re very fast learners), 20 young women that cared for the interior and 5 men that cared for the exterior and maintenance. Randomly, I chose a young girl and asked her to come forward. She was very frightened. Keesha seeing the fear in the young girl’s face said, “Don’t be scared we won’t hurt you. Why are you afraid?” “I’m afraid that if I displease you King David will kill me.” Keesha took her in her arms and said, as the girl wept, “He would never hurt you, no matter what you did. I promise.” I asked the girl why she was here if she was that frightened of me. She conveyed that all the servants were ordered to attend to us. They were taken from their homes and jobs and moved into the palace. This really pissed me off. The girl saw the anger in my face and immediately passed out. The others seeing her fall turned and ran. “STOP!” I shouted as Keesha attended the girl. “Get back here right now, she’s alright; she just fainted.” By this time the girl was awake with her head in Keesha’s lap. I asked them to listen.
“I am David and my beautiful wife is Keesha. Those are our names and we like people to use our names when addressing us. You have nothing to fear. You must refer to us as my King or my Queen when someone is here on an official visit, but otherwise, call us by name. We are simple people who enjoy simple things. Furthermore, you are not required to stay here. If you wish to leave, you may do so, without fear of retribution. If you stay, you will become more like our friends or family than our servants. Servants are necessary for a house of this size, so we need you. So, stay if you want to be our friends and share our home with us, or leave. We can always ask for other volunteers if some of you go.”
They all stood dumbfounded, their mouths agape and looking around at each other, hoping someone would say something. The young girl got up off the floor and thanked Keesha for helping her, then looked over at me and inquiringly said. “David…I’d like to stay.” I smiled, and then hugged her, “of course you can stay,” and as I stepped around her, Keesha put her arm around her. Everyone cheered and unanimously asked to stay. We were now an extended family. We talked as friends at length about what we expected of them and what they could expect from us.
By lunch we were all chatting over our meal like old friends, laughing, joking and enjoying our meal. As the servants were cleaning up, Commander (now Emissary) Mattraya arrived. She was very happy to see us and grateful for the opportunity to serve the newly created Terreus Empire. We sat and I talked to her about contacting the other worlds, requesting that they assign an emissary from each world. We also discussed her duties, and then I explained my philosophy about our Empire. “I’m going to be an unobtrusive ruler. I will not interfere in the affairs of a planet. I will only mediate between planets and resolve interstellar conflict. I would also like to increase exploration to increase knowledge and invite other species into the Empire.” She was pleased to offer her assistance in such a noble endeavor and said she would start contacting the other worlds right way.
A month had past and Kindra was still contacting worlds and arranging for emissaries to be appointed. She had not only become the representative of her people but my valued personal assistant. By the end of the next week, she was finished with her initial task, and each world of the Terreus Empire was identified, an emissary appointed and she had a detailed dossier on each of the representatives and their worlds.
In total, there are 22 worlds with beings advanced enough to be members of the Empire, in an area that covers 33 percent of the Milky Way Galaxy. There were also several other worlds with sapient life that were not eligible to become part of the Empire but were protectorates of the Empire. Earth fell into this category. Politically, the Earth was divided, with no foreseeable end to its division and petty squabbling amongst its nations. I love Earth, but they are simply not ready; politically, economically, socially or emotionally. Yes, some of the people of Earth are ready, but most are not. Their time will come. Our species has great potential.
Emissary Mattraya became a great assistant and confidant to me and became like a sister to Keesha. We loved her and she felt the same about us. The Emissaries and Rulers of the other 21 planets trusted and respected her for her fair, impartial and kind relationship with the leadership and people of their worlds. She was quickly becoming renowned throughout the Empire. Luckily for us, it never went to her head. She stayed the same wonderful, intelligent, efficient and kind Kindra that we grew to love and respect.
Five years had now past since the materialization of our Empire. Kindra was a constant source of information and friendship. She had planned and hosted the gala 5-year anniversary celebration of our Empire. Everyone was having a great time. All the Rulers, Leaders and Emissaries attended, solidifying our relationships over delicious food and drink, lively conversation and mirth.
The event was being held on a world near the outer boundaries of our Empire, on a planet without sapient life. It was a planet with few land animals and no flying animals, but with vast forests, shrubs and grasses, as well as abundant aquatic life. It was idyllic to me, beautiful and with a perfect climate. One of the reasons we were meeting on this numerically designated, but hitherto unnamed planet, was to decide who would colonize it. The ships that brought us to this beautiful place were in orbit, with several of their crewmembers on shore leave relaxing in the cool clean, sweetly scented air, amongst the trees and flowering plants.
Alert! Alert! “Long-range scanners are picking up a fleet of ships on an intercept course with this planet!” “Configuration?” the captain of the Tetrite ship demanded. “Unknown Sir.” “Communications Officer, contact them and determine their intent.” “Aye Sir.” The Communications Officer took several minutes to decipher enough of the language to ask the interlopers who they were and their intent. As quickly as she could, she asked them.
The answer was clear. They wanted our people off their planet and out of their territory. They were more than willing to use brute force to remove us from their territory. We had inadvertently discovered a new sapient race by allegedly trespassing on their territory. The Captain of the Tetrite ship immediately contacted me and explained the situation. “I understand Captain, I’ll be there momentarily,” I said. The interlopers were 10 minutes from my fleet. My job was clear: I had to protect my subjects, stop a potential interstellar conflict and preserve the peace of my Empire.
