I hope the times of the verbs are correct. If they aren't, my apologises çç

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I felt cold. A damned cold. I knew that was normal and equally I knew that soon my dynamic space suit would have controlled my corporeal temperature and that impression would have fly away, as a bad dream. Yet, in that moment, I couldn't think no more: I felt the cold caught my body, every layer of my skin. The temperature's change, in the Nuranian's flights, is absolutely normal, but even if I've passed so many years in the Imperial Ships, every time, for me, is the same. And so I can't accustom to it anymore.
The contact of Nao's hand on my left shoulder, induced me to watch in her direction. The cunning grin was usually on her lips, but it never lighted up her eyes. It wasn't possible, for me, remember how many times I've pondered that grimace, pure fulcrum of malice. It wasn't possible to explain the dangerous sensation that it could communicate. If there was someone I mustn't underestimate, then, that was Nao, my Second in the Kiyohime command.

- Captain, have you troubles with the transit?

Even if she was smiling at me, her voice was modulate, sharp and sly. I adopted the usually glacial and distant tone of voice, the tone that only who haven't the need to shout can take. How many pains. How many masks? I knew I have to wear them in every situation, to prevent loss of power. The Captain Shizuru. Shizuru the dearest daughter. Shizuru the Imperial Navy's Gem.

I rested my head on my right shoulder and closed my eyes, gripping my fingers against the metal arm-rest of my seat: an instinctive gesture to control my anger, while Nao was sitting down in her place, near to me. All around us, in the Kiyohime's command hall, the crew members were slowly coming back to life, and I already could hear excited voices dictating vocal commands for the route indispensable adjustments. Only a degree out of the axis. I smiled broadly, sliding my eyes on Mai's direction. She was there, between her workplace and the crystal blue slab where a list of command shone vividly. As if the flight ace have felt my glance on her, slowly she turned on me, lifting the right hand with her forefinger and the middle finger stretched to symbolize the umpteenth Victory. Mai. On the screen in front of her, I could clearly see Mikoto's features, jammed by the normal interferences due to the dimensional "jump", her technical glasses around her neck, as an unusual necklace, and the omnipresent, innocent smile on her lips, as if she was only a child. Mikoto. How many harmony is needed between the first pilot and the first board mechanic to translate a colossal ship, as Kiyohime was, with the stylishness of someone accustomed to dance on the thread lying on the heart of Universe?

But, there was no time to ponder.
There was a task to accomplish, I knew very well. And we had to hurry up. I half-closed my eyes, taking a deep breath, while the torpor left my body. Finally, I had cleared my mind and I could take again the ship command. When my voice echoed through the diffusers in the command hall, I smiled.
I could estranged my mind from them all, I could rise over my consciousness, fly away, free, faraway from all the chains. But the tone of my voice, no... it never ever could be changed. I knew very well its effects on the people near to me. I knew very well how few words – modulated with the native pronunciation of my Country – could infuse quiet, calm... serenity. Oh, I knew very, very well. An imperturbable quiet, as the grin on my mask. But, that was the secret to manage Kiyohime's crew. The due to pay. In spite of that, however, every time I rose up, I felt myself forced to turn my eyes on the distant matrix of my conscience. I felt myself bounded to that surface of imperturbability that was Captain Shizuru, as the eyes of all the world saw me. And I was scared.

"Why? Why anybody can see the stormy streams chase each others beneath that mirror of quiet? Why I can't cry, I can't shout all myself, from the deepness of my personal abyss? Why I can't break these golden chains to run away from all of you, over the threshold that divided what is granted, from what isn't? Why I can't sail to everything is now precluded to me?"

A part of me knew very well that nobody couldn't bring answers to those questions. And the other part of me, that part of me that now grant me life, lied in silence, praying all the Gods without faces and without names to find someone who could break that grin on my mask.

- Lieutenant Nao, establish the contact with the Empire!

I closed my eyes, while Nao's voice came in resonance with the Kiyohime's heart. Something stirred on me. A slim wriggle that lighted my breath, while the ship I was tied accepted Nao's commands. The blue crystal monitors solidified under our glances, arranging themselves on the command hall centre. They was inflamed by a kaleidoscope of colours, dominated by the Gold of the Empire. And then, the Empress's features appeared on the hanging frame, in front of me. I sighed.

- Good job, Imperial Gem. We haven't advances as faraway, in an unknown and so distant quadrant of the Universe as you had. There isn't reason to hide how satisfied the Empress is, for the Kiyohime success.

The satisfaction of the Empress. I ironically smiled. How could a six years old be satisfied by the flight of an imperial ship? Chains. Chains that nobody could break for her. Golden chains. Golden as the hairs of the little Empress Alyssa, unaware puppet in the hands of the Council. Paralyzed in front of me, she was trembling, not speeching a single word.
I shifted my attention from the Empress Child, to Miyu. Now, I could see her vividly, a little distant from Alyssa's shoulders. I could clearly feel her hatred against me in every words... no, in every single syllable of her words. Sometimes, I wondered how many time I could tolerate that foolish game. And, what if I have decided to stop it? To reveal her that silly illusion? Miyu couldn't hurt me, anymore: I did my choice, and now I had to respect it. And with it, all my crew.
The thrust? In the Universe, there was nobody who could help little Alyssa. Her destiny was sacrificed to the Empire. The power? In a world where the only command voice is that of the gold, which fool would abandon the conquest of Universe to become the groom – or the bride – of that little... puppet? Because Alyssa was only that: a symbol without power. Symbol of prestige, for all the people, but in the hands of the Council.
I sighed again, holding Miyu's gaze, my usual grin on the mask that was my face. A long time ago there was someone, a fool, a mad, who could have been able to stop the Council power. But, that fool refused Alyssa's chains, to take others even more heavy. So, that fool looked on Miyu's direction and began to speak, trying to demolish all her hopes.

- We proudly learn about the Empress satisfaction, even though we are aware of the fact that we are only accomplishing our duties, Alabadàr Miyu.

I didn't need to bring back my eyes on her, to feel the slender smile caused by my few words. Alabadàr. Tutor, mentor, and perhaps even something more. How I supposed, I felt a new calm on her next words. Quiet. Quiet and deep sadness.

- As expected from you, Imperial Gem. However, I doesn't need to remind your mission. Empress Alyssa is anxious awaiting your return to personally congratulate with her future... bride?

That word floated in the air for a moment. Then, it vanished.

- So, please, accomplish your last task, catch the most notorious Sharan's Nomad Tribe, and come safely back home.

I felt Nao, at my side, stiffen and grind her teeth, but I shook my head and smiled again. Bride. I couldn't allow that.

- We are aware of our duties, Alabadàr. We'll accomplish our mission.

Few words of circumstance, of necessary diplomacy, rhetoric that I didn't love, but I had to adopt. When I rose my eyes to the crystal monitors, I saw Miyu's hand on the right shoulder of the Empress Child, as if she was protecting her beloved little girl from me. Alyssa was pale. Terribly pale. I felt in pain for her, for the little child who, at last, I love in an innocent and motherly way. Maybe... Maybe marry her would have been the best thing for all us. Maybe I would have had the power to accept her chains on my shoulders. And share the mines with her. But in that moment, I couldn't ponder on that situation.

- May the Gods protect you, Shizuru...

A few words, the only words pronounced by the feeble Alyssa's voice. I grind my teeth and stopped my incoming tears. She couldn't know that her words were, for me, heavy as a death sentence. Then, the awful moment passed and I smiled again to them. I couldn't lay any blame on her. That wasn't right. The communication stopped with the usual noise. Then, the command hall came back at its activities, but nor Nao, Mai, Mikoto... neither me could be able to speak: our minds weren't there.

That night I didn't sleep.