Chapter 51: Visitors
A/N: Wow, longest delay between chapters yet. Sorry for the wait on this one, I hope everyone can understand that the current situation in the world is causing some unexpected events and incidents in just about everyone's life, including my own. Fortunately, despite a close call, I have kept my job (though nearly half of my co-workers did not), and things are starting to stabilize.
That being the case, I think it's likely my writing will be speeding up again soon. Also I have recently decided to enter a SenshiXShittenou writing bang, complete with artist pairings, so look for that story sometime in the next six months.
"
"Be brutally honest, do I look good?" Endymion asked, looking down at himself to carefully judge his formal outfit, feeling his fingers up and down the front buttons as he examined the many frills and medals on his lilac and white uniform.
"I'm not in the practice of lying to you about such superficial things, Your Highness," Kunzite said, standing right in front of the High King. "You look perfect."
"I don't know about this greeting," Jadeite said, pressing his back up against the closed doors of the palace entrance, slowly looking around the entry room, judging the pristine marble surfaces and alignment of art and sculptures. "Shouldn't you two be on your thrones? Receiving special guests like this, the King and Queen should be on their thrones."
"We're not trying to intimidate them," Zoisite countered, standing behind Princess Serenity, gently adjusting the way in which her white and yellow gown was laying on her shoulders. "We've already had this discussion, a greeting in the entry hall is best."
Endymion turned his head to the right and looked down, finding Chibiusa standing between him and his wife, Serenity's left hand down towards the young child to grasp her tiny hand. Chibiusa was also wearing her finest outfit, white with traces of pink.
"Sweetie, if she starts to act up, you'll take care of it?" Endymion asked, managing to get a curt nod out of his wife. "Thank you."
"Two secundas." Nephrite said, standing several paces behind the High King with his finger to his ear.
"Okay, everyone, this is one of the most important days in Earth history, let's do it right," Endymion said, folding his hands together in front of him.
"And be careful with cultural gestures," Jadeite suggested. "For all we know, offering to shake hands is how you declare war where they come from."
"Can you not?" Zoisite asked. "You're confusing everyone with talk like that. They've already met with the royal houses on Uranus, Jupiter, and Mars, and nothing happened. I think these people are more like us than you'd think."
"One secunda," Nephrite said.
Endymion took in a deep breath, slowly exhaling it. "Form up."
Quickly, Nephrite and Zoisite shifted so they were standing directly behind the royal couple and the young Princess, Kunzite and Jadeite shifting to their sides. Kunzite nearest the King, Jadeite just a short distance from the side of the Queen. In silence, the final beats counted down.
Before long, the large marble doors began to swing outward, opening via hidden mechanism, allowing a stream of sunlight into the entry hall and exposing the outside world to the collection of seven esteemed individuals. The gathering right outside the large doors, just past the long series of steps that lead up to the palace entry, became more and more visible as the door opened all the way.
A dozen members of the royal guard, all uniformed identically, were gathered around three thin women wearing tight-fitting black outfits. The middle one had short black hair and silver earrings, the one on the left had short brown hair and a large forehead, and the one on the right had a mop of silver hair. The leftmost one was the tallest of the trio, and the one on the right the shortest. Even though all of them had already known what to expect, Endymion still took a moment to marvel at how similar they looked to them.
After being beckoned by one of the palace guards, the three women moved forward into the palace slowly, needing only a handful of paces to enter the Earth Palace.
Respectfully, they stopped about five paces short of the royal couple, standing there and smiling, allowing the High King to dictate terms of this meeting.
"You know, people of this galaxy have dreamed of exploring beyond our solar system for centuries," Endymion began. "The question has always been, will we find life out there? But I think even the most optimistic of us always thought that we'd start with single-cell organisms, or amoebas at best. And that it would take countless years of meticulous searching to find it." He stepped forward, Kunzite carefully moving in lockstep with him. "But to find life so similar to ours, to where you could so easily blend in among our populace with no one being the wiser, and for you to come find us...it's an absolute miracle."
The three women bowed towards Endymion. "Your Highness," the middle one spoke. "It's an honor and privilege to be able to meet with you today."
Endymion put his hand out towards this black-haired woman, Kunzite observing diligently. "The honor is mine. The Kingdom of Earth has been ruled by my family for over a thousand years, and here I stand, the first to greet a visitor from another galaxy."
She picked her head up and looked at Endymion's gloved hand. Slowly, looking somewhat unsure of herself, she picked her own up and clumsily wrapped it around his. Jerking it up and down a couple times, she released it.
"Your palace looks absolutely beautiful, Your Majesty," the right-most woman stated. "You should be very proud."
"And you must be the Queen," the one on the left said, looking over behind Endymion, towards Serenity. The High King was finally able to notice that, though this one appeared to have short hair, much of it was concealed in a tight, thin ponytail behind her neck. "You look absolutely lovely, Your Highness."
"So, how about names?" Endymion asked. "I'm High King Endymion, that's Queen Serenity, down below we have Princess...well, also Serenity." He then put his hands out to his sides. "And my four loyal generals. Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Kunzite."
"Seiya," the middle one stated simply.
"I go by Taiki," the brown-haired one answered.
"And I'm Yaten," the silver-haired one said. "We're explorers of sorts, and let me just say, we're absolutely thrilled to find such a thriving civilization like this. Believe me, our people were equally pessimistic about finding so much as a trickle of water outside of our galaxy."
"Are we thriving?" Endymion asked with a clever little smirk. "You three would be the best judges of that. Given that you've managed to get here, I think it's safe to assume that your civilization is a good deal further along than ours."
"I wouldn't assume that, Your Highness," Seiya said. "It took us more than twenty horases to get here from our galaxy."
Endymion blinked a few times, closing his mouth before giving an awkward nod. "Well, you must be hungry after all that travel. We'll have plenty of time for discussing the fine intricacies of measurement of time later."
"
"It's amazing," Zoisite marveled, watching Yaten put a shrimp in his mouth. "You look like us, you're physically capable of speaking our language, your bodies work like ours and can digest the same foods, it's truly amazing."
"It does speak to evidence of a shared ancestor," Taiki acknowledged. "Now that would be a truly universe-shattering revelation."
The collection of Earth royalty and foreign visitors were gathered together at the northern side of the banquet table, King and Queen at the very head, Kunzite to the immediate right, with the three guests right alongside him, and the other three generals lined up on the left. The section of table was packed with an assortment of the finest seafood on Earth, fish and lobster alongside shrimp and caviar.
"So, I have to ask," Endymion said, leaning forward and pointing his tiny seafood fork over at Seiya. "The probe you found that led you here, what did you do with it when you found it?"
"Oh, uh, well...we stopped it, examined it, pulled it on board our ship, disassembled it," Seiya answered. "The information inside the probe allowed us to retrace its path, and the data it had about your galaxy allowed us to calculate how your central star has moved in the time since you launched it."
"You still have this probe, then? The parts, they're on your ship?" Endymion inquired, stabbing the small utensil into a cut of trout in front of him.
"Yes, yes they are," Seiya confirmed, suddenly looking a little uncomfortable. "Is there a problem?"
"No, no, believe me, if that probe helped lead you here, it has more than done the job it was built to do," Endymion said. "I was just wondering if maybe we could have it back. Those probes were built through a joint effort of this galaxy, largely spearheaded by Earth."
"Absolutely," Seiya said quickly. "We'll make sure to hand it over before we leave."
"We launched hundreds of those," Zoisite chimed in. "In all directions. Still, the odds of you happening upon one like that are astronomical."
"Your mastery of our language is striking," Kunzite interjected, intertwining his fingers in front of his mouth as he stared over at Taiki. "Hardly any imperfections in your speech patterns. You say you learned it from studying the probe on your way here?"
"We had plenty of time on the way, and fortunately, people in our galaxy at least make the same sorts of sounds to string words together," Taiki explained. "Once we learned that there were other successful civilizations out there, we wanted to make sure we had a chance to communicate."
"So, Your Highness, are you sort of...the leader?" Yaten asked, turning her head to look over at Endymion. "If I might ask?"
"Um, of Earth?" Endymion asked, looking around the large banquet room. "Yes, certainly."
"No, no, that's not what I meant," Yaten said. "This...this galaxy, this collection of planets, do you sort of...control all of it? You are the only person in this galaxy who carries the 'High King' title, yes? Is that what that means?"
Endymion paused for several beats, glancing around, weighing his response despite the fact that it seemed to be a rather simple yes or no question. Kunzite even gave the High King a curious look, wondering what he was thinking about.
"Ah, well...that's not quite how it works," Endymion said. "But I'm not sure I care to correct it," he added with a laugh. "Such a flattering way to look at it, really. Me, a King of Kings, the true power behind all of the thrones of the galaxy, I wouldn't particularly mind you three leaving here today with that impression."
Serenity silently raised her right hand up in the air, drawing the attention of a short balding waiter in the corner of the room, who hurriedly approached the table.
"The title of 'High King' simply refers to a King who rules over multiple Kingdoms," Endymion said, finally starting to sound more serious. "Of course, I inherited the Earth Kingdom throne from my father, and my wife here was heir to the throne of the Moon Kingdom." He gestured up towards the ceiling, vaguely indicating something up above. Serenity whispered an order to the waiter, who quickly scurried off. "So, when we were married, our two Kingdoms became united, thus making my father the High King, a title I inherited along with the Earth Kingdom."
"That, that makes sense," Yaten said. "The Moon, you say? What's the Moon?"
"A sort of...smaller planet that orbits around us," Endymion explained.
"Oh, yes, we have those!" Seiya exclaimed. "A lot of those."
"It was a great fortune that we ended up falling in love," Endymion continued. "The Moon had fallen into hard times and needed support from a larger Kingdom, so the merger worked in multiple ways."
"Oh, that's great," Taiki said, looking over at the Queen. "Very lucky for you, then."
Serenity just replied with a quick smile, then a glance over her shoulder as the waiter returned with a just-opened green bottle of wine. "Leave the bottle," she said quietly.
Endymion looked over, noticing now for the first time that Serenity's tall, thin wine glass had already been emptied, down to just a few little dregs at the very bottom, but she had hardly eaten any of the seafood in front of her. The green bottle was set down in front of the young Queen, and she quickly grabbed it. "Um, sweetie, how much have you had to drink?"
"Not nearly enough," she replied tersely, skipping the middleman and opting to instead start drinking right out of the bottle.
Endymion pursed his lips, then decided to turn back to his trio of guests and ignore his wife. "Well, then, um...so, you're explorers? I assume you haven't found other signs of life before now? Anything...interesting out there in the great unknown?"
"We've certainly not found anything like this before," Seiya said. "Most of the planets we've found will need to be terraformed to support life at all. Frankly, the reason for our explorations have mostly been to try to find resources."
Immediately, Yaten put his hand out towards the High King. "Ah, uh, please, don't get the wrong idea from my colleague. We have no intention of trying to find resources here, that's not why we're here."
"Well, you'd be disappointed if you were here for that," Endymion replied. "We've done a wonderful job of burning through just about everything here, with no regard for the future."
"Another thing we have in common," Taiki muttered. "Our galaxy is down to the dregs when it comes to energy. All our technological wonders are about to count for nothing, it seems."
"Oh, really," Endymion said, interest seemingly piqued.
"
"It's destiny, Kunzite," Endymion said, setting the front shield of his helmet down on the free desk space in front of him. "You heard him, I know you were thinking the same thing the moment they brought it up."
"Of course it occurred to me," Kunzite acknowledged, carefully adjusting a black lever on the side of the large silver vat, leaning in close to a couple of small meters to read the output. "But there's a problem, I'm sure you see it."
"A problem that we need to overcome," Endymion said strongly as Kunzite released the lever and stepped back from the large container. "You heard them, they're beyond desperate, they're in more trouble than our galaxy by a longshot! Think about it, Kunzite, thousands of years we've had civilization in this galaxy, and not once have we found so much as a single sign of life from deep space that whole time. And now, here I am, with an entire freighter full of the most potent energy source the universe has ever seen and no means to move it with any degree of speed, and boom!" He slapped the back of his left hand against his right palm. "Here they come, practically a mirror galaxy a century into the future from us, using the same substance for energy that we do, with hardly a libra of imperium left in storage! The Gods want this for me!"
High King Endymion's 'space yacht', christened The Luise, had taken to it's new intended purpose like a fish to water. A very large space vessel, it was indeed as slow as advertised, capable of less than ten leugas per beat even at top speed. A simple trip from the Earth to the Moon would have taken more than three full days on board The Luise, a length of time that nobody in the galaxy would accept given modern technology, unless the trip was enjoyable enough to make up for it.
But, under the guidance of the High King, the yacht had been outfitted with the finest in luxury trimmings, gold and crystal decorations filling every hall and room, art and sculptures in every corner. A kitchen outfitted with every dish imaginable and waiting for a crew of chefs to prepare it at a moment's notice. Over a dozen small rooms that served as sleeping quarters, equipped with automated massage chairs, personal spas, and sensory pods. It was absolutely the sort of ego-driven luxury possession that a High King might want, and so nobody would question why Endymion would have it.
More importantly, nobody would question why he'd take frequent trips on it, and once he opened it up for use to the wealthy and powerful, nobody would question why there was a large chamber near the back of the freighter that was strictly off-limits to everyone except Endymion and Kunzite. Surely a High King would have some perfectly innocuous and reasonable secrets, and it was more than fair for him to expect to be able to keep them on his own personal space yacht, right?
"Every libra of imperium we sell to Seiya and his crew is a libra of imperium that won't be used in our own galaxy," Kunzite pointed out, observing the large silver vat start to rumble to life and begin to churn. "Remember, we're not exactly comfortable either. That imperium supply is a necessary bridge to keep our galaxy running until we can begin to reliably get imperium from deep space."
"Obviously, it'll be a balance, but one I'm sure we can strike," Endymion said. "How's the catalyst bed?"
Kunzite went over to a long steel trough a handful of steps away from the large vat, towards a small drawer built into the side of the trough. "I'll check it."
"And of course, you're right, we...we won't be able to supply Seiya in our current form, too many bottlenecks for that amount, but there has to be a way. I mean, it's the right thing to do, you heard them, their galaxy is completely tapped out, they've been holding things together with deep space exploration for the last ten years!"
"According to them," Kunzite pointed out, taking a tiny paper strip out of the drawer and dipping it into the trough, which was containing a thick, goopy liquid. "There are other problems, too. They come from another galaxy, how would they pay us? For all we know, they don't have anything in their galaxy that's considered valuable in ours except for imperium."
"They look like us, move like us, have been developing technology along the same tree as us, use the same energy as us, I'm willing to bet they have a few more things in common. As for economic considerations, those won't matter as long as the rest of the galaxy isn't aware of us bringing in precious substances. Whatever obstacles there might be, they're worth overcoming."
Kunzite winced. "I was able to make contact with a disgruntled employee at SpoChem who thinks that she can arrange for barrels of boron crystal fluid to go missing. But she seems to have an idea of how valuable and important boron fluid is to us, and is charging us appropriately. If we go through her, it's going to cost."
Endymion nodded. "Keep looking. Whatever it takes, we have to find a way to tap into this."
"
Serenity peeked out into the hallway, craning her head back and forth, twisting around to make sure nobody was approaching from either side, then she backed into the bathing chamber and shut the door behind her. Quickly, she jammed a large towel into the crack between the floor and the base of the door with her foot, bending down to give it a final couple of shoves with her hands. Satisfied that nobody could enter the room now with the large piece of fabric blocking it, she flicked a switch to the right side of the door, activating a low-humming fan.
Quickly, she moved underneath the fan vent, pulling a plastic carton slightly smaller than her palm out of her left pocket and a small black laser lighter. Quickly, she withdrew a single white cigarette from the carton, letting the small container fall to the tiled floor at her feet. With a mildly shaky hand, she placed the end of the lighter up to the tip of the cigarette, lighting it with a quick flick of her finger that activated a small red laser. The cigarette immediately started glowing a low orange, and she was quick to inhale deeply from the other end of it.
Even though it was highly unnecessary at this point, Serenity again twisted her head left and right, as if someone might have somehow materialized in the sealed bathing chamber in the last few beats. Satisfied that she was still alone, she tilted her head back and blew a plume of smoke up into the fan.
It was almost scary, how easily she had taken to tobacco in recent days. Mostly, she found it to be a stress release that she desperately needed right now, being constantly reminded of her husband's activities and the danger he was flirting with.
But there was some part of her that embraced the rebellion of doing something she shouldn't, just like she had that one day down in the bunker, when she was practically waiting for a news report that Endymion was dead. She didn't have the courage to turn her husband in, not when it would ultimately cost her everything as well. She couldn't even stand up to Endymion in private anymore. The best she could do was this, a vice that should have been beneath her social class.
She only had a few secundas to herself before her communicator started buzzing, nearly shocking her into dropping her cigarette. Mumbling to herself, she whipped the disc-shaped device out of her pocket, lifting it up to her mouth.
"Hello?" she called out after tapping the center button.
"Your Highness, where are you?"
"Umm...who is this?" Serenity asked, looking around evasively.
"The palace guard, Your Majesty, your mother is looking for you," the voice answered, sounding a little confused.
"Oh, oh! I'm...I'm here, I'm in the palace, just...hold on," she said, awkwardly trying to fan the air in front of her with her hand holding the cigarette, pushing the smoke vapors up to the fan. "I'll be in my room shortly!"
Ending the call and absentmindedly tossing the communicator to the tiled floor with a loud clack, Serenity rushed toward the latrine and tossed the tobacco stick in, mumbling to herself.
"
"Is there something wrong with your bathing chamber?" the Elder Serenity asked, sticking her head through the threshold and glancing around the impeccably cleaned and maintained lavatory adjacent to the royal bedroom of the Earth Palace.
"W-what do you mean?" the recently-crowned Queen asked, nervously stroking her fingers through her right tassel of hair, watching her mother glance around.
"Isn't that where you were? The palace guard said he could hear an echo on the call," she replied. "You were in a bathing chamber, right?"
"O-oh, yes, I...no, nothing...nothing like that," Serenity answered meekly. "I was just...over there on that side of the palace and...suddenly, needed to go."
"Mm," her mother answered, seemingly satisfied. "So, how's she doing?"
Serenity blinked stupidly a couple times, glancing down at her feet, finally remembering that Chibiusa was standing there right next to her, holding a small tablet in her stubby fingers, staring down at the screen with a determined scowl.
"Oh, um, really good," she replied with a put-on smile. "You know. Same as always. Is that what you came here to talk about?"
"No, sweetie, I was actually thinking about Endymion," her mother explained.
Immediately, the younger woman tensed up, hearing his name enough to put her on edge.
"Obviously, the transfer of power happened suddenly, but we're coming up on a month now since he took the throne, I'm wondering where we are with the coronation party. We should try to have it while him being in power feels new and fresh."
Queen Serenity scratched the top of her head, turning away from her mother in the most casual way she could manage. "Um, mom, he...he's already been crowned, r-remember? The...the temple?"
"That was the coronation ceremony, Serenity, you can't honestly think that was supposed to be it! It's the crowning of a new King, it only happens once every few decades, it has to be properly celebrated!" She squinted over at her daughter. "You...you haven't been planning anything?"
"Uh, n-no. Not really. I don't think we're going to really do anything, um, we might just...let it go without a party," she said uneasily. "We don't need one."
"Serenity, imagine if you two didn't have a public wedding, how would that make you feel? This is one of the most important events of Endymion's life, not to mention in the history of Earth." The elder member of Moon royalty raised her eyebrow. "Come on, we have to do something. Obviously, we'll call for a day of celebration across the planet, but we have to do something here."
"Oh, I don't think...Endymion was that interested in making a big deal out of it," Serenity said evasively. "I don't think we need to do anything. He wouldn't care."
"The galaxy cares, Serenity. And what makes you think he wouldn't care? Of course he would! If he said he doesn't, he's just trying to be modest, I'm sure he's expecting that you'll arrange something. So, we need to invite all of the regional and local governors, that's key." The former Queen wandered over towards the eastern wall of the bedroom, staring out the massive windows, deep in thought. "Definitely open it up to everyone on the Platinum Philanthropist list, you know that one? They publish it in—"
A soft click behind her was enough to interrupt her and get her to turn back around, looking at the bathing chamber door she had just been peering through, which had closed in the handful of beats since she had walked away from it.
"Sweetie?" she called out, marching back over to the bathing chamber door. "Are you okay?"
"Oh, uh, it'll be fine, just...I don't feel so well!" Serenity answered through the closed door, leaning her back up against it and closing her eyes. "Just, uh...I just need some time." She slid down towards the tiled floor.
"Do you want me to call the doctor?" she asked. "How are you feeling bad, what should I tell him?"
"N-nothing, tell him nothing, don't call him!" she protested. "It's not like that, I just...don't worry about it!"
"O-okay, sweetie, just...think about it! Endymion deserves a real celebration, it's not every day you get crowned High King!"
The young Queen folded her arms over her steepled knees and bowed her head in her arms, ears practically perked up so she could make out her mother's footsteps, hopefully going away and leaving the room. She thought she could discern a faint, soft squishing noise that might have been the carpet compressing under her mother's feet.
"I'll...just hang around here and watch Chibiusa?" From the volume, it was clear her mother had stepped some distance away from the bathing chamber door, but was still in the room. "Can I take her for a bit? Just around the palace?"
Serenity's head suddenly perked up, lifting off from her thighs, inspiration striking her just before she was about to curl up into a ball and try to forget about everything in the world for as long as she could manage to get away with it.
"
"You two sure you can get away to meet like this three times a cycle?" Princess Venus asked, staring out the circular window into the depths of space.
"I'm the High King, Venus, I can do whatever I feel like," Endymion said, sounding just a little surly.
"That's not really the answer I was hoping to hear," Venus said, turning back around to look over at the King of Earth and his most loyal general. Both were standing on the opposite side of a long table, the entire steel surface covered in tall stacks of bundled cred bills. "There's nuance between being allowed to do something and what you do raising suspicion."
"I think what Princess Venus is trying to say, is that you don't necessarily need to be here for this," Kunzite offered. "We're just dividing up money per our agreement."
The luxury Class-B ships of High King Endymion and Princess Venus were, once again, mated together out in the middle of space, connected via docking tubes, far away from anything else important that might be happening in the galaxy.
"Sort of the most important part of this whole arrangement for me," Endymion countered. "I'd rather not be millions of dolichos away while it happens."
"There really won't be much to see," Venus said. "Just math." She slowly strolled away from the port window looking out into deep space, shoes clanking on the metal floor beneath her, staring right over at the massive mound of paper money. "In any case, we were able to successfully sell every single uncia of imperium that you provided me with eight days ago, so we can consider this first batch a roaring success. Alright, Kunzite. How much money do you see here?" She swept her right hand out towards the long table.
Kunzite stepped back a bit, putting his hand up in front of his mouth and slowly scanning the fortune in front of him. "I would estimate about one billion creds, assuming denominations are honest. Perhaps closer to one point one?"
"One point one," Venus echoed. "That's our count as well."
"Seems light to me," Endymion said, putting his hands on his hips and shooting the blonde Princess a piercing look. "I recall our agreement was three point six, split evenly. You must be paying your street dealers extremely well."
"Well, they are taking on far more risk," the Princess said deftly. "But, you're correct. Three point six, minus four hundred million for the dealers. It's fair, given they're risking decades in a cell on The Savery by dealing your product."
"Perhaps," Endymion said, resting his hands atop a mound of bills on the left side of the long surface. "You're still light."
"Well, I don't know if you're aware of this or not, Your Highness, but your imperium doesn't just teleport from my hands to my dealer's pockets. It has to be smuggled down to the surface, through many layers of tough security, and then delivered out to the dealers. Those smugglers are staring down the barrel of a guaranteed life sentence if they're caught, so they don't work for free. They take a quarter billion, and frankly, we should feel lucky it's not more. Then, we need a hundred and fifty million for network managers, who arrange for the dealers to get their supply."
"How did you come up with these numbers?" Endymion asked. "I'm assuming some real thought went into these figures, but you know what they say about assumptions."
Venus sighed. "Smuggling large quantities of imperium down to the surface of Venus might be one of the riskiest things to do in the whole universe. My smugglers get compensated appropriately for the value of their work. Believe me, they all know how much that product is worth."
"I'm sure Cronus's smugglers knew the same thing," Endymion countered impatiently. "You think Cronus was paying his smugglers that much?"
"He didn't pay his smugglers anything," Venus said. "He didn't have smugglers, he had a robust infrastructure of freighters that he was already using to move his pharmaceuticals around. That was the brilliance of his operation, everything was hidden inside his above-board medicinal empire. You want to spend the next ten years building a galaxy-spanning corporation to conceal the imperium inside, be my guest, but that's what it takes."
Endymion bit the inside of his cheek, glancing over to Kunzite for a moment. "Does it occur to you that it's completely because of your meddling that I'm not still working with Cronus as we speak?"
"I'm sure there's a point in there somewhere," Venus retorted. "I just can't imagine what it would be."
Endymion gave an annoyed grunt. "Fine, um...smugglers, network managers, this pile is still light by three hundred million. And don't tell me it's all for equipment and supplies."
"Equipment, supplies, and hazard pay for our distribution network," Venus explained. "Next time, I'll print out a receipt, if you're having issues with this."
"Hazard pay." Endymion furrowed his brow. "Because you're not paying your dealers enough as is?"
"Since we started working together, a handful of my dealers have been picked up and imprisoned. It's unavoidable when you're running an operation of this size on a planet like Venus, no matter how cautious we are. Those dealers represent a tremendous threat to us. They know more than enough to disrupt a huge chunk of our distribution network, and quite possibly, eventually, expose things all the way up to me. So, this is how we buy their silence."
"And here I thought you were actually somewhat competent at this," Endymion snarked. "If your dealers are being put in a situation where they might end up in prison for decades, then you should make sure they don't know anything compromising."
"That wasn't possible," Venus retorted. "My dealers were recruited into the operation with the promise of helping overthrow my parents, so they'd have to know I'm at the top of it. So, this is how we do things. When our dealers get picked up, we make sure we take care of their families and friends. In exchange, they keep their mouths shut."
"Does it occur to you that this information was relevant to us? Were you planning on telling us about this massive hole in your arrangements, which could easily get back to us?" Endymion asked, starting to sound agitated. "If it leads back to you, am I to believe it somehow won't lead back to me?"
"My dealers are solid, as long as they're taken care of," Venus pushed back. "They knew the risks when they got involved with me, and they knew the risks when they agreed to deal black market imperium. We take care of their interests, and they keep quiet in prison. That's how this works, this is what you do."
"Your dealers seem to have very expensive interests," Endymion pointed out. "You wouldn't happen to have a...I don't know, some sort of expense sheet? Seems to me an awful lot of people are getting filthy rich off our operation."
"Um," Kunzite interjected, rubbing the bridge of his nose evasively, trying to discharge the building friction. "Your Highness, Princess Venus's dealers get twenty-year sentences if they get arrested, there's a...a need to establish a long-term fund for them. I assure you, none of their dealers or their families are getting filthy rich off of this."
After a tense moment, the blonde Princess pointed her right index finger over towards Kunzite. "I was going to be far more condescending, but, basically, yes. We need to make sure we have enough money to keep our imprisoned dealers satisfied for the duration of their sentences. Believe me, you want them to keep quiet just as much as I do."
"That sounds like a threat," Endymion practically snarled. "Actually, this whole thing sounds like blackmail to me. We pay or they turn us in?"
"Ah, I...I'm sure this was part of the agreement with the dealers from the beginning," Kunzite said, sounding a little meek, edging between his charge and the Princess, as if putting his body between the two might somehow discourage the fight.
"I don't expect you to know this, since it seems like you jumped into this business without really thinking anything through, but let me assure you, this is how things work in the criminal underworld." She held her open hands out in front of her, laying them flat. "Compensation is key to keeping your people in line."
"You know, Venus, it seems to me that this is a distribution problem," Endymion spat. "In fact, a lot of these expenses you're talking about seem like distribution problems, and last I checked, distribution was your side of things." He leaned in slightly, tilting his body to look around Kunzite. "Why is any of this coming out of my side?"
"And last I checked, we said we'd be splitting everything. Equal partners. That was our deal," Venus reminded him. "Endymion. If you want to be King, you have to be okay with the crown laying heavy sometimes. And you better get used to it, because hazard pay is an ongoing expense."
Princess Venus turned away from Endymion, casually walking over towards the port window yet again, leaving the High King to fume as he stared at her back.
"It'll be better next time," Kunzite said hurriedly. "We...we won't have to buy equipment again, that was...a significant expense. Those vats and troughs will last years. It can only get better."
Venus scoffed as she peered out the portal, slowly taking stock of the countless stars in her view from this window on the left side of her ship. "Until the boron fluid runs out."
Kunzite winced a bit, unable to stop himself from looking over his shoulder and throwing a bit of a caustic look over towards the Princess.
"You said it yourself," Venus pointed out. "Boron fluid is going to cost us heavily when we run out of barrels to steal from Saturn. It breaks my heart to have to tell you this, Your Highness, but you might have to accept a reality where you're lucky to break two and a half billion creds a cycle," she added dryly. "And I just feel so terrible for you."
"Alright, um, let's...let's just go our separate ways for today," Kunzite said hurriedly, cautiously placing his right hand on Endymion's shoulder. "We can...reopen this conversation on a later day."
"The High King is satisfied, then?" Venus asked, turning back to the two young men and crossing her arms over her chest.
Several tense moments went by, before Endymion offered a shrug and a sharp expression. "It's not as if Venus is known for producing people with brains, I suppose."
The Princess ignored the obvious barb, nodding over towards the long counter of cred stacks. "Then everything on the table is yours to take."
"
"I'll have a word with the Princess about the way she talks with you," Kunzite said quickly, watching tensely as Endymion punched a few final button strokes into the main console of The Bastion, sending it zipping through space at tremendous speeds back towards Earth. "Regardless of our arrangement, she really should treat you more respectfully than that, you are the High King after all." The Earth General scratched the side of his neck, glancing behind him towards the main cabin of the ship. "It's her nature to sometimes be a little colorful, I'll see to it that—"
"Panic doesn't suit you, calm down," Endymion said in a low, commanding voice.
Kunzite cleared his throat, still not entirely comfortable as the High King withdrew his hands up close to his face and steepled them in front of his mouth.
"Um...we're still making more money per libra," Kunzite said. "A bigger piece of a smaller pie. Has to be said."
"Then we need more pies," Endymion answered matter-of-factly, reaching above his head and pressing a button right above him, getting a set of shutters to quickly slide out over the windows in front of him. With the imagery of stars streaking past no longer in his vision, he was able to calm his mind down more. "Seiya and his crew. I don't particularly care what it takes, but we need to find a way to do business with them. That's an order."
Kunzite swallowed down hard. "I-I'll figure it out, Your Highness."
"And keep your ear to the ground for domestic distribution avenues as well," Endymion continued. "The sooner we're not dependent on Princess Venus, the better. I'm not particularly impressed with her way of conducting her operation."
The Earth General, seated behind and to the left of his charge, in the immediate passenger seat by the driver's chair, bowed his head a bit, tapping his right foot gently on the grated floor beneath him. "Your Majesty, as I said, her disrespect is something I will deal with, but her operation is sound. We're owners now, not employees, that comes with heavy expenses. And she's correct when she says that paying off jailed dealers is the only way to ensure their silence."
"The only way she's willing to accept, maybe," Endymion said harshly, dropping his hands into his lap and squeezing them into fists. "People get killed in prison all the time, don't they?"
Kunzite shifted uncomfortably, wincing hard enough to wrinkle his whole face.
"I'm sure she's too sentimental to consider that. No place for sentimentality in this business," Endymion continued, talking to himself more than anything else. "Somewhere out there, in this galaxy, there's a potential distributor ten times better than her. And the sooner we find this person, the better."
Kunzite absentmindedly played with his collar, but then gave a shaky nod. "Yes, Your Highness."