Chapter 05: Curia Regis
"When you're ready."
Kunzite pushed a lock of his long white hair out of his face, back behind his head, and then reached forward and touched the middle of the desk right in front of him.
Immediately, the entire surface of the desk started to show detailed images, each one flashing by in the blink of an eye. A traditional Earth wedding ceremony, a grassy field full of cattle, a fleet of fisherman boats, a sword duel between two armored knights...each one barely rendering before it disappeared to make room for the next one. To blink would be to miss one or two of them entirely. So Kunzite did not blink.
An entire secunda worth of quickly flashing images, ultimately a hundred of them, about four per beat. Finally, the parade of pictures was over, Kunzite quickly flickering his eyelids up and down to reset his vision and lubricate his eyeballs.
The desk then began to project out ten of the hundred images, two rows of five images. Immediately, Kunzite tapped the leftmost top one, a image of a spaceship shooting towards Saturn, and a numerical pad popped up on the screen. Tapping in the number '17', the image disappeared, replaced by one of a trio of scientists handling a green-glowing crystal.
Working with a rapid, methodical pace, Kunzite continued to select each image before assigning a number to it, placing each one in the order he had seen it flash by initially.
Other than his fingers tapping on the surface, the dimmed classroom was silent. A middle-aged bald man with harsh features watched him work.
Eventually, Kunzite had worked through all one hundred of the images, having ordered each one with a number from one to a hundred. With that prompt, the screen began to show a tiny representation of each image, ten rows of ten images each, in the order Kunzite had placed them in.
He scanned these rows, eyes dancing back and forth across each row. He reached forward towards the fourth row, taking the two rightmost images and dragging them so they switched places. He repeated this switch down on the seventh row, and then performed one final swap between one image in the top row and one in the eighth row, both of them very similar pictures of big, muscular men playing outdoor handball.
Kunzite leaned back in his seat, tapping the edge of the desk right in front of him with his fingers. The screen went black, and then a single large display popped up along the whole surface.
100/100
Clap. Clap.
Kunzite looked up at his mentor, who was very slowly smacking his hands together in front of him, an amused grin on his face.
Clap.
"Phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal."
Kunzite glanced down at his own knuckles, tiny marks and welts just barely detectable on the skin of his fingers, evidence of the discipline Alvy had meted on him for giving substandard results on this particular test. Perhaps, finally, his ruler had struck those fingers for the last time.
"You can't be fooled. You can't be tricked. Nothing gets past you." He nodded slowly, walking up next to the teenaged general-in-training. "I need to see no more from you in this discipline."
Kunzite felt his body relax slightly in the seat.
"Kunzite, you have exceeded all expectations. When you were brought here, I knew that you had tremendous potential, but even I did not imagine you would achieve this level of universal mental and physical expertise."
"Thank you, Master Alvy," Kunzite responded.
"You will be the finest of Earth Generals. The finest of guardians. You will be the most trusted of Prince Endymion's protectors and advisors, there is no doubt in my mind." Alvy put his hands behind his back. "He will trust you above all others. And anything he requests of you, orders of you, needs of you, wants of you, you will be able to provide."
Kunzite glanced over towards the lone door to the room, over to his right.
"Something on your mind?" Alvy asked.
"Oh, I'm just...I'm trying to imagine a scenario where my service to the Prince will involve much more than…" he gave a tiny smile. "More than...keeping appointments and finding new books."
"Well, he's ten years old," Alvy reminded him. "You never know how a person can change."
"Just...difficult for me to picture it," Kunzite muttered.
"He will have other guardians when he gets older, of course, but...you, Kunzite, you will be his most valued one. I promise you that. That's a tremendous responsibility, a tremendous burden. And you will carry it."
"I will carry it gladly," Kunzite agreed.
"Next year, you'll be sent to Venus for two years. To learn combat tactics and battle strategy under the tutelage of the elders down there. Nowhere else in the galaxy can you learn as you will learn there. When you are done, you will be uniquely equipped to protect the Prince, physically and mentally, from any dangers to him." Alvy glanced over at the whiteboard behind him on the wall, blank and clear. "When you return, the Prince will be a teenager. Perhaps by then, he'll have surprised you, and you'll find your specialized skills useful."
"He may not take my extended leave well," Kunzite mentioned, looking up at Alvy. "He's...he's grown fond of me."
"Of course he has," Alvy agreed. "But, I'm sure he'll be fine. And it's far more important you equip yourself to protect him later in his life." He gave a crooked little smile. "And, as a side note, Kunzite...Venus also plays host to the most beautiful women in the galaxy."
Kunzite rolled his eyes. "...noted," he mumbled.
"Off the record, Kunzite...it's not a bad place to have some fun. And if you were to, perhaps, have a little fun during your stay...I would hardly judge you." Alvy gave him a suggestive little look. "You're a young man, and we haven't neutered you, you have needs. And, once you get back...your opportunities might be thin."
"I'm sure I'll be quite busy on Venus," Kunzite said dismissively. "Thank you for the...suggestion, though."
"Very good on the record answer, Kunzite," Alvy said, giving a knowing nod. "And, yes, when you leave next year, be ready to be quite busy. However you view Prince Endymion right now, understand...a royal guardian can find himself doing literally anything in service to his charge."
"
Nephrite opened up the small, hand-sized, rectangular box, pulling a deck of thin playing cards out. Discarding the box to the floor, he set the deck down on the square table in front of him. "Jadeite."
Jadeite lifted his right hand up, pointing his fingers at the fresh deck of playing cards from the other side of the table. The cards began to levitate a few finger lengths up in the air, and then began to scramble all around, shuffling themselves into a randomized order.
"I still think it's a bad idea to allow him to do that," Zoisite muttered dryly, watching the deck mix up and down, the cards scrambling around between each other, from his seat to Jadeite's right.
"For the last time, my powers are purely physical," Jadeite said, only a fraction of his focus on utilizing his telekinesis to shuffle the deck of cards. "Come on, Zoi, you know that, I have no ability to see what's on those cards unless you put them in front of my eyes."
"Says you," Zoisite countered, propping his elbow up on the table surface and resting his chin in his palm.
"Says the people who trained me on Mars," Jadeite replied. "Believe me, if I had mental or spiritual powers on top of...this...they never would have let me leave Mars." He blinked a couple times as he continued to wash the deck about in mid-air. "I'd be kept in a cage, pumped full of stimulants, my blood constantly being drained so they could try to...replicate it."
"I don't think they're that uncivilized over there," Nephrite commented as Jadeite set the deck of cards down in the center of the table.
"Oh, everyone's civilized until enough power gets involved," Jadeite said. "Alright, Full Deck Tyson?"
Before his fellow guardians could answer, the door to the small game room opened, admitting the elder member of Endymion's guard. Boots muted by the carpeted floor, Kunzite swiftly moved towards the square table.
"Deal you in, old man?" Jadeite asked.
"Sure," Kunzite said, quickly glancing around the room before going to the lone vacated seat and taking it. Jadeite began to use his psychic powers to distribute out the deck, taking the top card off and whisking it over to Zoisite, and then Nephrite, then Kunzite, then himself, repeating this process over and over.
"Stidham mix?" Jadeite asked, reaching his other hand up towards a shelf of crystal glassware over against the near wall, a single crystal tumbler levitating and floating over towards the table.
"Yes, thank you," Kunzite said. Immediately, a cabinet next to the shelf opened up, two bottles zooming through the air over behind Kunzite's head.
"How's the Prince?" Zoisite asked as the entire deck was eventually meted out to each of the four guardians, all four of them having thirteen cards.
"Very good, actually," Kunzite replied. "Wanted to be alone with Serenity." His face clouded a bit for just a moment. Behind his head, the two bottles had a portion of their contents poured into the glass, mixing the two concoctions together. A small plastic stick flew over and dipped into the drink, stirring it around energetically.
"Full Deck Tyson's the game," Jadeite mentioned as he reached forward and cautiously picked up his thirteen cards.
Kunzite nodded, reaching behind him and taking the glass, setting it down on the table. He glanced around the table, seeing each of his fellow guardians had a glass of their own.
He turned over to Nephrite. "The Prince needs something from you, actually." He reached forward to his own pile of cards.
"I'm listening," Nephrite replied, sipping from his glass.
"How's your network?" Kunzite asked, quickly scanning his hand of cards before looking back to Nephrite.
"Nine hundred and twenty-one strong," he answered, looking his own cards over. "Should be a thousand by the end of the year."
"And you've got good coverage on all the continents?" Kunzite questioned.
"I'm trying to expand it a bit more in the south, but...it's solid," Nephrite replied.
"Alright, pass two to the right," Zoisite instructed, taking two of his cards and dropping them off in front of Nephrite.
"I need you to call on your network of spies, and tell them to collect some information for the Prince. Specifically, he needs information about black market Imperium synthesizing. The formulas that black market chemists use, and the kinds of results that it produces." Kunzite grabbed two of his cards and set them in front of Jadeite. "The process, the ingredients, the end result, everything. As many as your network can dig up, he wants them."
"Well, that's...an interesting ask," Nephrite responded thoughtfully. "Might I ask why?"
Kunzite ducked his head a bit. "The Prince...wishes to produce a published work. Before his child is born. He wants it to be something...useful, something people might utilize, something that scholars could refer to. He wants to write a comprehensive collection of the methods by which black market Imperium chemists purify it. And he wants...he wants to do it from the ground up."
"Are you sure that's not Zoisite's area of expertise?" Nephrite asked, glancing over at the smallest, youngest member of Endymion's guard.
"Well, no, that's...Endymion doesn't want to refer to things written by others...a year ago, or four cycles ago, or even last cycle. He doesn't just want to sew together other people's findings. He wants to get the actual processes from the ground level, what people are using right now. As in, today, or tomorrow." Kunzite slowly nodded as he looked over his new hand.
Nephrite tossed a black card face-up into the center of the table with a few designs of a sword on it.
"Plus, I'm leaving tomorrow for Mercury for the negotiations," Zoisite added, looking over his cards.
"Still feels inappropriate, to let Princess Mercury negotiate the merger on behalf of the Moon like this," Jadeite mumbled, watching Kunzite toss a black card of half a dozen swords into the middle of the table.
"Shouldn't matter at all," Zoisite assured him. "There aren't any secrets between the Earth and the Moon, we both know exactly what the other has."
Kunzite nodded, suppressing a face twitch. "In any case, Nephrite, is that enough information?"
"I'll spread the word first thing tomorrow morning," Nephrite replied, lifting the drink to his lips again. "I'll report findings to you?"
"Yes," Kunzite answered, Jadeite and Zoisite discarding cards into the middle as well. Jadeite reached forward to take the pile of four cards. "And keep all this as secret as possible, outside of your network of spies I don't want this leaving this room."
"
Endymion gave Serenity's rear end a rough little squeeze, making her squeal and shiver underneath the covers. She looked over her shoulder, a playful grin on her face.
"Endy, what has gotten into you lately?" she asked, turning her body towards his. "These last few days, goodness—"
"I feel good," Endymion replied simply, a naughty smirk on his face as his hands continued to roam around underneath the blanket. "Real good."
"Well...I like it," Serenity said, squirming away from him, giving him something to chase after. "Hopefully, you start feeling...real good more from now on."
"Oh no you don't," Endymion said, quickly scooting over to her and wrapping his long arms around her, trapping her against his body and rolling over so she was on top of her. She gave a playful yelp. "You're not going anywhere without my permission, little lady."
She rested her head against his shoulder. "You might have been...pushing it a bit tonight, though," Serenity said. "Don't get me wrong...I appreciate your enthusiasm, but...putting your hand there underneath the table, with your father and my mother sitting right there?" She shook her head. "Let's not fly too close to the sun."
Endymion just looked up at the ceiling. "I just can't help it. The sun's just too warm." He looked down at Serenity on his shoulder. "And you're just too beautiful."
Serenity giggled. "Well, I suppose before we know it, we won't be able to do this, so...let's have fun."
Endymion's bedroom was even bigger and bolder than Serenity's, and unlike hers, nothing was wasted. No space of wall was left bare, every section being used to support some painting or artifact, a seemingly endless ode to the countless gifts the Earth Prince had been granted in his life. Sculptures, studded with jewels and gems, carved by hand into complex designs inconceivable by most, were against many of the walls. The massive, four-poster bed was gilded with gold trimmings and covered in the finest silk in the galaxy. Marble pillars extended to the ceiling high above. On the left wall was a door that lead to the monstrous walk-in closet, and on the right wall a door that opened into a giant bathing chamber.
Excessive, yet not quite gaudy. Perfectly cultivated to Endymion's taste over years. A bedroom worthy of the heir to one of the most powerful Kingdoms in the galaxy.
He reached down towards Serenity's stomach, rubbing it gently. "What do you think? What's your...intuition? Boy or girl?"
Serenity gave another giggle at the stimulation of her sensitive belly. "Uh...you know, Endy, I just can't bring myself to care which." She kissed his neck. "As long as he or she is...healthy, I don't care, so...I don't even think about it."
She squirmed away from him slightly, lifting her right foot up, placing it up on Endymion's stomach and picking the blanket up a bit. Endymion looked down, finding a small beaded anklet wrapped around her ankle. One of the beads was red, the others white.
"Mars gave me this," Serenity explained, Endymion getting up into a semi-sitting position, reaching down to grab her ankle and lift her foot up to examine the little piece of jewelry. She twisted herself down the bed, orienting herself upside down to give Endymion a good look at it. "It's something they use down there, it...it's good for the baby. Eases the spirit, she said."
Endymion released her ankle, looking down at her head down by his knees. "That's good, Serenity. I like that."
"Mm," Serenity said, rotating herself back around on the bed. "You know, I need a nickname that you can use. Serenity, too many syllables, it's not fair that I get to call you Endy and you don't have anything for me."
Endymion ran his fingers through her golden blonde hair. "I don't mind."
"Seren is no good, that's...that doesn't sound right," Serenity muttered. "I don't know what it could be, though."
"Maybe I'll...come up with something," Endymion suggested. "Oh, sweetie, uh...I might be spending some time here or there away from the palace over the next handful of cycles. Maybe a day here, a day there...I don't entirely know, it's something with Kunzite."
"Is there a problem?" Serenity asked, cuddling up next to him.
"Oh, no, definitely not, it's...he wants to teach me some things now that I'm almost twenty. Some things that...well, I'd rather not get into the details." He nodded. "It's important, though."
"I believe you," Serenity replied.
Endymion reached up to the wall behind him, fingers finding a velvet rope. "White cake?"
"Oh, you just know me too well," Serenity responded as Endymion's fingers pulled the rope down slightly.
"
With a mechanical whir and hiss, the steel doors spread wide open, Kunzite being granted access to the massive warehouse. As he stepped out onto the metallic catwalk, he looked around the giant chamber, spying a row of assorted spaceships, docked into little bays along the ground. There was a wide variety of them, ranging from A-class transports, able to carry four people and a little cargo, meant for little jaunts to and from the Moon, to some even as large as C-class mass transit ships, holds large enough to carry perhaps sixty individuals to anywhere within the inner solar system. The room was not large enough for anything bigger, with the D-class ships and upward being held outdoors.
The clanking of Kunzite's footsteps drew the attention of two men in dark blue uniforms, standing close to a small control panel built into the catwalk. Both of them holding portable screens in their hands, they both stiffened on seeing the Earth General approach.
"U-uh...sir!" one of them called out, raising his right hand up to his forehead in a salute. "I...I wasn't told—"
"Yes, you weren't," Kunzite said simply. "Are you in charge here?"
"I...I have...some degree of authority," he stammered. "I don't own the place—"
"You supervise the scrapping of spaceships in this room, deconstructing them for scrap metal and equipment?" Kunzite asked, looking down at the row of ships beneath him. The air was full of metallic crunching and whirring as dozens of other workers buzzed about, pulling ships apart into small, manageable pieces. He glanced up at the man's chest for a brief moment, finding the nametag. "...Antonius?"
"Yes, sir," Antonius replied quickly. "I supervise."
Kunzite crossed his arms over his chest. "One-three-seven-eight-one, does that number mean anything to you?"
"U-uh…" Antonius ran his finger along his portable screen a few times, tapping it frantically. "That...that sounds like, yeah, er, yes, I have that right here! B-class transport, one of the Notre models from seven years ago, could seat about twenty people, we...uh, scheduled for deconstruction later today, actually."
"So it's still in one piece?" Kunzite asked.
"For the moment, yes," Antonius replied. "Actually, it's, uh…" he turned around, looking down the giant chamber, then pointed his right index finger off towards one of the ships beneath him. "I believe that that's it, right there!" He turned back to Kunzite. "Is there...some sort of problem?"
"Why is it being scrapped?" Kunzite continued, ignoring Antonius's questions as he spied the old, out-of-date starship off in the distance.
"Uh, it's old, sir, I...it was being used by a small corporation as a transport for its employees to and from company events, the...internal lighting gave out, and it wasn't really worth fixing because it was so old. These models, they...they were never that popular anyway, their regular cruising speed isn't that fast. They...they're one of the few B-classes that can jump through the asteroid belt, but that's not that desirable, so...it got retired." Antonius's eyes were dancing along the screen, taking in as much information as he could.
"But it still flies?" Kunzite asked. "It can safely make trips into space, through the asteroid belt?"
"I...based off what I'm seeing here, the only thing wrong is that all the internal lights went out. Not that I've tested it, or anything. But...I don't understand, it's out-of-date—"
"You are to reschedule the scrapping of that ship to another day. Tomorrow, if you'd like," Kunzite instructed. "And then tonight, you're going to let me in after closing, and I'm going to take it. Then, you will retroactively reschedule the scrapping of that ship to earlier today, and if it ever comes up for any reason with anyone, it was scrapped today. I'll bring assorted scrap with me tonight so you can put it in storage so things line up in the books."
Antonius, as well as the man standing right next to him, appraised Kunzite with a befuddled look.
"Uh...sir—"
Kunzite reached inside his gray uniform and pulled out two bundles of currency bills, pulling them out just enough to show them to the two men before tucking them back in. "Yes?"
"I...I don't understand—"
"I'm not asking you to understand. I'm not offering you three months' salary to understand," Kunzite continued. "You let me have that ship, I give you an equivalent amount of scrap, and you go about your life as if you scrapped the ship and that I was never here."
"...y-yeah, uh, yes! Yes sir, I can arrange all that!" Antonius said quickly. He turned to look over his shoulder. "Claudio, get down there and make sure that ship isn't touched!"
Before the worker could buzz off with his instructions, Kunzite took a few large steps forward, reaching inside his uniform again. He leaned forward towards the man, ducking close to him and shoving one of the bundles of creds into his chest. Taking the hint, Claudio quickly shoved it inside his own uniform's inside pocket, then spun around and ran off.
"Now, Antonius, if you were to somehow fall short in covering my presence here today up, and any knowledge of this ship's disappearance were to extend beyond me, you, and your underling over there...I'm going to find you, and I'm going to take far more than my money back." He pulled another bundle from inside is uniform out, quickly distributing it out over to the scrap supervisor.
"I-I know who you are, I believe you!" Antonius said. "That ship, we scrapped it today, it doesn't exist anymore, that's all there is to it!"
"I will see you tonight," Kunzite said, turning around and walking off. "There will be another three months' salary in it for you when I get the ship. Pleasure doing business."
"
"Believe me, Princess, I know gaudy," Zoisite said, an amused smirk on his face as he looked around the large bedroom chamber surrounding him. "I can admit that. I'm not going to pretend that I don't live in a giant palace filled with priceless artifacts and art, but this…"
Like the rest of the Mercury Palace, it was very clear that whoever had designed the bedroom of Princess Mercury wanted everyone inside it to know that they were in the room of someone who was fantastically wealthy. More than that, fantastically exceptional.
Everything was diamond-studded. It would have seemed excessive if it wasn't so overwhelming. The picture frames, the bed, the statues, the cabinets and shelves...even Endymion's bedroom would be put to shame by the conspicuous consumption showcased within the resting chamber of Princess Mercury. Rare, ancient, valuable trinkets from all across the galaxy covering everything. Thick tomes of leather-bound, gold-gilded books filled in the gaps between those baubles.
"It's...it's my mother, really," Mercury insisted, blushing a bit as she looked around the room. "I, I'm not such a big fan of it...it is a little obscene, I agree entirely."
"Oh, far be it from me to criticize anyone for showing off, Your Highness," Zoisite insisted. "If I had the means for it, I might do the same thing."
"Mercury's just...such a small planet," Mercury mused. "I think my mother gets a little self-conscious about that, tries to beat people over the head with wealth." She looked around the room again, shrugging. "But, if I changed things in here, it wouldn't match the rest of the palace, so…"
Zoisite pointed over at a golden urn on one of the shelves across the room. "Interesting choice, sleeping in the same room with the ashes of Lord Sexton of Neptune."
Mercury's interest was immediately piqued, looking over at the urn Zoisite indicated. "H-how did you know from here?"
"The way the urn is rounded at the neck, distinctively a Neptune design," Zoisite replied quickly. "From twelve hundred earth years ago, approximately. And then, if you look very closely at the lip, those little black dots were used to signify the importance of the individual within when he or she was alive. I count ten dots, which means the person within was...very, very, very significant. During that particular art era on Neptune when urns were made in that manner, I can think of only two people who would have been considered that significant. And I know that the ashes of Queen Riswald are kept in the Neptune Palace, along with the ashes of the rest of the royal family of Neptune, meaning…Lord Sexton of Neptune."
"Okay, if your goal was to impress me...consider me...moderately impressed," Mercury said with a small smile. "Now do the Ocarina on the shelf right below it."
Zoisite languidly looked over at the small, oval-shaped wind instrument. He got up and walked over to it, quickly giving it a once-over. Bronze-colored with a slightly rounded tip and a couple of little symbols etched into the neck, Zoisite quickly turned back to the Princess of the planet closest to the sun.
"Luna, one of the shrine maidens of the Deva Shrine on the Moon nine hundred years ago. She composed the Hymn of Light on this Ocarina. The symbols on the neck give it away, please don't tell me this impresses you." He turned back to Mercury.
"Oh, how were you not born on this planet?" Mercury asked, propping her chin up on her elbow.
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I was educated on this planet," Zoisite pointed out, going back to the desk against the wall where Mercury sat.
"I know, but...your mind, it's more than just the classes and lessons you had here, it's...you should be here, uncovering the secrets of the universe with us, you'd fit right in. Maybe even more than just fitting in." Mercury turned back to the large sheet of paper in front of her on the desk.
"Well...here, I wouldn't stand out," Zoisite reasoned. "On Earth, I stand out, that's kind of nice." He walked back over to the desk, stopping behind Mercury.
"Prefer to play the big fish in a small pond?" Mercury asked, almost tauntingly.
"Between Earth and Mercury, which planet do you think would make the most sense being equated to a small pond?" Zoisite teased back.
Mercury pointed over at Zoisite. "See, that's the kind of talk that makes my mother put diamonds in everything." She looked down at the sheet in front of her. "Alright, we...we should get started on figuring out how this merger is going to happen."
"
"Once again, so, so incredibly sorry, Your Highness," the maid jabbered as she nervously straightened out the outfit hanging from the metallic rack, hands shaking. Endymion sat on the right edge of his bed, clad in a purple silk robe and slippers, observing her shaking form pull the rack over towards him. "There was a mixup, t-this should have been here before you woke up, I'm so sorry, it will never happen again."
Endymion just took in a slow breath, smiling over at the servant girl.
"It's—"
"What are you so concerned about?" Endymion asked, voice gentle yet commanding. The girl was quite pleasant to look at, a slim figure with good curves visible underneath the red and blue maid uniform of the Earth Palace, short brown curly hair falling down over her face. "Do I look uncomfortable in my robes?"
"It...I'm so sorry, Your Highness." She turned to the Prince, bowing very deeply towards him, head ducking near her knees.
"Come here," Endymion requested. She was quick to comply, coming up just a couple steps away from him as he stood up. "What's your name?"
"J-Julia," she answered, keeping her gaze down towards the floor.
"Julia, I'm about to get married to the woman I love, a marriage that will bring two strong Kingdoms together. I assure you, whatever...issues may have been caused by my new clothes not being delivered to me on time, they are easily forgotten in light of the many wonders in my life right now." He looked over at the outfit hanging on the rack. "Why, I'm quite sure by this afternoon, I'll have forgotten this entirely. Unless, of course, a particular maid were to make such a spectacle of herself over such a trivial matter, that I couldn't quite forget it. Does that make sense to you?"
With wide eyes, Julia nodded. "Yes, Your Highness."
The bedroom door opened, Kunzite's large, muscular frame entering the bedroom chamber.
"Why don't you run along?" Endymion suggested. "Put this from your mind." He reached up to clap her shoulder, causing her to wince. "Next cycle, you'll have a brand new opportunity to deliver my new clothes to me, worry yourself over doing better then instead of what you did this time."
She bowed low again, and then scurried off past Kunzite, who simply watched her go.
"Problem?" he asked as soon as the servant girl was out of the room.
"None whatsoever," Endymion replied, turning to look over his shoulder at his guardian. "And you?"
Kunzite glanced about the room quickly, then turned to his charge. "When you're ready, come with me."
Endymion's expression immediately hardened, detecting the serious tone in Kunzite's voice and sensing what subject matter he was referring to. "I'll be right there."
He began to shrug off his robes, Kunzite turning to exit the room.
"
Endymion couldn't help but feel rather uncomfortable in this unfamiliar territory. It was likely safe, he knew that, but a derelict scrapyard was nothing like the palaces and luxury establishments that the Prince of Earth knew almost exclusively through nearly two decades of life. Everything was dirty, piles and piles of scrap metal jagged and rusty, looking quite threatening. Just being here almost made him feel itchy and anxious.
The two were marching through a dirt path between massive piles of scrap, Kunzite guiding the young Prince through the mountains of abandoned ship parts.
"I just...love the atmosphere," Endymion muttered under his breath. He was wearing a large, hooded cloak, covering his head and upper body, Kunzite wearing an identical one.
After a few dozen more paces, they had arrived at a modest-sized ship, nestled in between mounds of scrap, covered by a giant red tarp that was tied down by several steel chains. A square-shaped, box-like ship, Endymion stopped to survey it from the outside. Black and brown with faded paint jobs all along the sides, it was nothing like the opulent starships Endymion knew.
The hatch up into the body of the ship already open, a metal ladder extending up, Kunzite went up to it and began to climb upward, Endymion right behind him.
The insides of the ship were no better than the outsides, a rusted chamber smaller than Endymion's bedroom, a few long tables providing the only real flavor. A trio of burlap sacks were huddled together in the far corner. Endymion looked around as a flood of lights engulfed the room after Kunzite flipped a switch against the near wall.
The hatch beneath their feet closed, and Kunzite turned to Endymion.
"Alright," Kunzite began. "After reviewing the state of the black market for Imperium, if this venture is to be worth the effort, then we will have to refine and synthesize the product ourselves. Finding black market chemists who will be willing to pay what this raw Imperium is worth would be very difficult, and it's far more lucrative to sell directly to a distributor. As such, I will be synthesizing our product, in this ship." He went over to one of the tables, reaching underneath it and pulling out a drawer from underneath it. The drawer contained a couple dozen sheets of paper, each one filled with detailed writings. "Over the last twenty days, Nephrite's network of spies has collected detailed information on various procedures and formulas for synthesization, his findings being summarized on these." He pressed the stack of papers down a bit.
Endymion went up to the open drawer, looking down at the stack, reaching down into it and lifting them up. He flipped through them briefly, not absorbing any of the information on them, before putting them back.
"Now, all of these formulas do result in a non-trivial loss of purity for the product. Ranging from eleven to thirty-eight percent loss. I believe that a proper following of instruction, as well as a clean environment for the procedure, could reduce that loss significantly. But with a product as pure as this, we are in uncharted waters." He pointed at the bags in the corner. "Generally, the smaller the loss of purity, the more complicated the procedure is, and the harder the ingredients are to obtain. But, I believe I've found one particular procedure that will work for us, and in my hands can produce a purity loss of less than ten percent."
Endymion went over to the bags, opening one up to find assorted jars and canisters, each one labeled. He didn't particularly recognize any of them, and didn't take much time to absorb any of the information within.
"So, here's what we can do. I will fly this ship out past the belt, out into the space zones just beyond the outer edges of the belt. There's little traffic around there. I can synthesize the Imperium out there, dumping the resulting waste and exhaust into space, where it will disperse and never be detected. I return, and then I find distributors with enough capital to afford our product. We keep the ship stored here, the man who owns this junkyard seems perfectly happy to allow us to keep it here so long as we keep paying him. The way I see it, a couple times a cycle, I stop off on the moon, pick up the raw Imperium, head off to synthesize it, and then sell it off. I'll have to be careful, but people aren't going to look twice at a member of the royal guard spending some time away and doing odd things. There will be difficulties, but...it just might work, Your Highness."
Endymion nodded. "This ship is safe?"
"I've vetted it myself. It's old, but it will serve its purpose, I'm confident in that." Kunzite looked around. "I need an assistant for the synthesization, this process needs an extra pair of hands, so…" He turned back to his charge. "Zoisite is going to be busy for the foreseeable future, so not him. Jadeite's powers might prove useful, although his...demeanor gives me small pause. Nephrite should be adequate. I understand neither is the brightest, but that should be fine for my needs. I thought I'd ask you which one you'd prefer to bring in to this."
Endymion exhaled slowly, then ran his fingers along the surface of one of the tables. "I think you've already got your assistant. You're looking at him right now."
Kunzite's forehead wrinkled. "Your Majesty, you can't be serious."
"You said the ship is safe," Endymion pointed out. "Besides, I told you I wanted something to do with my time."
Kunzite sighed. "Your Highness. In the...admittedly astronomically unlikely event that this ship were to be caught by the authorities in the middle of synthesization, you need to maintain plausible deniability. You being on the ship, assisting with the synthesization, would render that quite implausible."
"You're my most trusted guardian and general," Endymion countered. "I doubt very much that I'd be able to deny much of anything either way."
"And beyond that, why would you want to waste your time and effort on something like this? You're the Crown Prince of Earth, you have far more important things to do than play lab assistant."
"Look, I…" Endymion glanced back over at the burlap sacks in the corner for a moment. "When I...when I said I wanted to do this, I wasn't thinking that I'd just send my guardians off to handle everything while I sit in the palace...getting massages and having servant girls practically kissing my feet in fear because they think that minor infractions warrant the death penalty." He rolled his eyes. "That's not what I wanted."
"That's what we're here for," Kunzite insisted.
"It's...it's not fair. Wouldn't be fair to you, it's not right," Endymion insisted. "This is my decision, it would be wrong for me not to involve myself in it. I've already given Serenity notice that I'll be spending occasional time away from the palace in the future, nobody looks twice at a royal spending time alone with his most trusted general and guardian." He nodded. "I'm your assistant."
"...is that an order?" Kunzite asked.
"Does it need to be?" Endymion re-asked.
Kunzite gave a frustrated little glance around the inside of the ship. But, resigned to having to accept the situation, he finally nodded over to his charge. "Well...very well, then." He took a slow step over towards the middle of the chamber. "At this point…"
He gestured around him with both hands, a dramatic little flourish.
"...we're ready to go, Your Highness."