Moment Fourteen
Queen Thalira of Peladon looked down at her newborn daughter. Princess Zarita, like her two-year-old brother, Prince Lenesh, had been born into a world which had undergone many changes. The planet Peladon had traditionally been a feudal society, but, over the last ten years, Thalira had begun to modernise, starting by appointing Gebek, one of the lower-ranked Peladonians who mined trisilicate, as her Chancellor. It had been the Doctor who recommended Gebek, saying the fact that the man had no title was no reason not to promote him.
The Doctor. As a child, Thalira had heard stories about a man called the Doctor who came to Peladon when the planet was on the verge of joining the Galactic Federation. Fifty years later, he returned, by which time Peladon was in the middle of a crisis involving a group of Miners who were opposed to the Federation, a crisis which was being secretly exploited by enemy agents from Galaxy Five. Thalira, now Queen of Peladon, was struggling to control the situation, but she was young and unsure of herself. And the fact that, as a female, she had no power in her own right didn't help.
But things were now changing. Following some sound advice on something called "Women's Lib" from the Doctor's friend, Sarah Jane, Thalira had found the courage to stand up for herself. She had later decreed that, from now on, a woman's opinion was to carry the same weight as a man's, particularly if that woman happened to be a Queen.
So Thalira, the Queen who had only been crowned because her father (who had married late in life) had no sons, began the slow process of modernising her planet. Among other things, she had put an end to summary justice, ordering that, from now on, criminals were to be given proper trials and should only be punished if they were found guilty.
Thalira looked round as the door opened and a strange creature entered the room. The creature looked something like a giant upright caterpillar with a single eye and six arms. This was Peladon's Federation Ambassador, a native of Alpha Centauri; his name was unpronounceable in any humanoid language, so he was generally referred to as "Alpha Centauri" and addressed as "Ambassador". When he spoke, it was in a high-pitched voice.
"Is the new Princess well, Your Majesty?"
"See for yourself." Thalira held Zarita so that Alpha Centauri could see the infant properly. Alpha Centauri inspected the child for several moments before he spoke again.
"She has inherited Your Majesty's beauty. Truly this is a day for rejoicing."
Thalira nodded in agreement. "I will present her to the court in seven days' time. And . . ." She paused, then continued. ". . . I'm also going to make an announcement. If Prince Lenesh fails to produce an heir, the line of succession will pass to his sister, Princess Zarita." Such an announcement would have been unthinkable not too long ago, but, with all the changes which had happened on Peladon, maybe it was time for Peladonian Princesses to have an official place in the line of succession.
Under Thalira's rule, Peladon was beginning to shake off the barbarism of the past and the young Queen hoped her son would continue her reforms when he came to the throne. And she was going to see to it that both her children were taught that, just because something had always been done a certain way, there was no reason not to try a different way. Such as not dismissing a female as "unimportant" simply because she was female, an idea which some older people still found difficult to accept. And, in particular, she wanted both her children, but especially Zarita, to learn the lesson which Sarah Jane had once taught her. That there was "nothing "only" about being a girl."