Rhaella sat in the belly of the strange metal creature that was flying through the air. Surrounding her were the remains of her family and the people who had stolen them away from the castle that had been both her home and her prison. A part of the queen could barely comprehend what had happened. Aerys was dead, and while she had not held any real love for her husband, it was still difficult to grasp that the mad king was dead.

Rhaella thought back to her time as a young woman, when she had dreamed of a simple like as the wife of a tourney knight. Bonifer Hasty had been a righteous and chivalrous knight and the two had been in love. She could still remember the tourney so long ago. A favour gifted upon a young man who had unseated all challengers. A crown of flowers placed in her lap and the title of queen of love and beauty rested alongside it. How she had missed those days over the course of her life since her marriage. It was too late though to ruminate in those thought. She was a woman wedded and bedded, with children and grandchildren, and he was a knight of the seven, leading men as pious and holy as himself.

As she found herself thinking back on her life with Aerys, she stroked Viserys' head as he laid it in his lap. The young boy had been woken from his sleep by the abduction, and after an initial bout of excitement and wonder over the strange beast they now resided in, had fallen asleep beside her, where he had rested for the last few hours. Rhaella wasn't sure of just how long they had been moving through the air, but given past experiences in travel, she guessed they had been moving for something approaching three hours. Across the small space, she saw Elia and Ashara tending to Aegon and Rhaenys. The princess' daughter and son were even younger than Viserys, and had long since drifted off to sleep. The dornish princess craddled her son to her chest, eyeing the spartans that surrounded them with suspicion. Rhaella understood her caution, she too felt a sense of danger any time one of the frighteningly capable warriors got too close. At least they seemed to realise it, and so while Rhaella, Elia and the rest of the royal family were stuffed deeper into the space, the spartans were crowded near where the wall had lowered and opened up. They were not the only ones however, Rickard Stark and Ethan Glover were seated near them, with Princess Lyanna finding some space between the two groups as she glanced at her father.

"Father." She said softly, trying to move towards him along the metal seats that they had settled into.

Rickard spared his daughter only a look before scoffing and turning back to the spartans. One of them reached up, showing that above the seats there seemed to be small compartments, and pulling out a rectangular piece strange reflective material. The spartan pulled at one end, and she Rhaella heard the sound of crinkling befroe they pulled out what looked like some kind of block of something. The spartan handed the block to Lord Rickard before pulling out another reflective block that Rhaella realised must be some kind of wrapping or covering. Repeating the action, he handed another block to Ethan Glover and the two began to bite into the block, tearing through it and Rhaella wondered when the two men had last been fed was. She knew that life in the black cells was torturous at the best of times, and neither Rickard Stark nor Ethan Glover had been given any comforts, despite their statuses. In fact, with the war raging across the continent, it was likely that they were treated even more harshly in many an attempts at breaking their wills. It whatever methods used, it had not worked, and it seemed that the North would get back its lords.

Or would they? Rhaella realised for a moment that she had no clue about just how the Lannisters intended to use them now that they were hostages. Perhaps Tywin intended to marry her children and grandchildren into his own family and claim the throne through them. There would be little they could do in such a situation. Neither the kingsguard nor the thousands of guards in the Red Keep had been able to hold back less than a dozen spartans from abducting or killing the entire royal family.

As she thought about the fates that might well be in store for her family, she noticed Jane staring at her from her place with the other spartans. Rhaella averted her gaze instantly, trying to fight the deep ache of betrayal. Of course she had known for a long time that Jane had come to her to forge a politically expedient connection, but Jane had always been upfront with her thoughts and emotions, and had long since stopped trying to pry into Rhaella's affairs. The queen chastised herself, no one in King's Landing was ever what they seemed, why should she have expected Jane to be.

'Because she was your friend.' Her mind sung back treacherously, thinking back to the countless times where Jane had gone out of her way to help and be kind ro Rhaella, even when both of them knew that she hadn't needed to.

'Was is all a game to her?' She wondered abscently, stroking Viserys' hair. 'Was everything false? From the very beginning?'

She wanted to speak to her friend, find out just how much of their time together had been a ruse. A ploy to ingratiate herself to the queen for the purpose of killing her husband, her child. Jane knew how much Rhaella loved her children, even with everything Rhaegar had done, she still loved her first-born son. She had held him in her arms as Summerhall had burned. She had listened as he learned the harp and the lyre. She had loved him, and now her son was dead, her grandchildren robbed of a father, and she still couldn't find it in herself to truly hate the woman. Perhaps it was her, perhaps she just wasn't built to hate. She shook her head at that. She had hated Aerys, not violently, or even in a way that showed on her face, but she had hated her brother as his madness took control and he spent countless nights raping her. Even under that hate though, there was pity there. She tried to summon up that hate for Jane, tried to despise the woman for doing what she had done, but she couldn't. She only felt a deep sadness in her stomach, making her heart ache as she wondered if she was doomed to lose all that she loved. She gripped Viserys' shoulder, trying to draw him closer to her and keep him from danger, danger that now surrounded them and had them in close proximity.

"Jane." She turned as Lord Kurt emerged from a door.

She couldn't see into the next room, if there was another room in this metal beast, but she heard Elia and Ashara gasp slightly as they looked at the lord and then past him. Whatever they saw, they didn't get the chance to see it for long as the door slid shut, which she thought was strange.

"Yes sir." Jane said, standing at attention as Rhaella had seen her to for the man during his infrequent trips to King's Landing.

"We'll be landing at the Plataea in about half an hour. Prep the natives for departure, we'll be setting them up in some of the officer suites until we get rooms fully prepared in the main settlement."

"Of course sir."

"Good."

The lord didn't give any of his hostages a second look at he retreated back through the door, which slid open and closed just long enough to let him through. Rhaella let her eyes roam over Jane, who's eyes roamed from Lords Stark and Glover, over to the royal family before she finally settled them on her fellow spartans.

"Alright." She said, eyes hardening to steel. "We'll be disembarking soon. You'll be moved to special quarters and confined there for the duration of your stay, until we can secure a suitable arrangement for your return to your homes. Your cooperation in this matter is requested, but not required."

She waved her hand and made a few signals that Rhaella thought she had once seen directed to Ser Shane or Ser Robert during their time in king's landing. Jane's two teammates, alongside a few of the other spartans, stepped up.

"We will be escorting you to your quarters. Do not cause trouble for your guards and your stay will be comfortable."

Rhaella wondered what 'trouble' might be, though considering that this whole situation had likely been engineered by Lord Tywin, she hoped that she and her family might live to see King's Landing again.

It a while yet before she felt a slight lurch in the beast and the disappearance of the strange high pitched sound that resembled the shriek of the wind during storms. The strange door opened up again, and Rhaella wondered just how long they had been traveling and if she had lost track of the time. The strange environment outside the beast was awash in light, so bright that she wondered how the day could have come so swiftly. She and the others were ushered out and immediately she looked up, trying to see just where the sun rested in the sky to determine what time of day it was.

To Rhaella's surprise, there was no sun in the sky. Instead, dozens of strange lights, far colder than the warmth of the sun, shone down on her and her family. She looked over at the others, finding them also transfixed and staring at the ceiling. Even Lords Stark and Glover were doing so. The spartans, by contrast, did not so much as glance up. How common must it be, she thought, that they seemed utterly unimpressed with many small suns that hovered over their heads.

"Rhaella, hurry up." Jane was next to her, reaching out as if to take Viserys from her. The queen, or former queen now, she supposed, gripped her sleeping son tighter in her arms, glaring at Jane.

The spartan woman showed not an ounce of emotion on her face, but Rhaella spitefully hoped that her rejection hurt the woman. Over her time in the Red Keep, Viserys had grown fond of Jane, and Rhaella had liked to believe the feeling was mutual, given how many of her carvings were gifted to her son. The queen held her head high, walking with all the grace that she could as she held her child and was escorted out of the brightly lit room. The rest of the spartans directed the other out with her, but she led the group behind Jane.

As they left the large room, which Rhaella had not gotten the time to look at well, she noticed that one of the spartans, the one carrying Ser Jaime, had not joined them, instead he was being carried out in a different direction. She didn't have time to contemplate the implications of that however before they were instead brought into an equally well-lit corridor. The walls seemed to be made of metal, or at least something so close she couldn't tell the difference. Rhaella wondered briefly about the rumours of the Plataea. Some of the more fanciful tales painted it as being made of steel. A castle made entirely of metal. She had dismissed the idea at first, not even the rich cities of the east or the Lannisters themselves had the kind of wealth necessary to even mine that much metal, let alone pay for the forging of an entire castle made of the stuff.

If that was true, then just how wealthy could House Terra really be. Faced with a myth that she had long dismissed she wondered about the other tales that were whispered in the keep. She considered asking Jane, but smothered that idea before the words could leave her mouth. Jane had used her, why would she go back to the woman just because she had a few questions. Well, it was more than just a few questions.

As they continued to walk, they were moved through a set of strange doors into a large room. Jane pulled Rhaella to the side, allowing the others to file in. Together they filled up the room, and Rhaella wondered if this was going to be their quarters for the time being. It was more bare than even the black cells, but at least it appeared clean and bright, two things that dungeons were not known for. Jane reached out and touched the wall and Rhaella's eyes were drawn to what looked like a number of square-shaped protrusions from the wall. They each had a number next to them, and they took up a good portion of the wall. The doors that opened and closed on their own, something that still amazed her, shut and in a moment there was a lurching of the room. Rhaella wondered what it might be, but was instead struck with a strange sensation. It was like falling, but strangely not, like she was falling very slowly.

A dinging chime rang out, and the doors opened again. The group was again led out and down another hallway and Rhaella wondered why they had even entered into the room if they were just going to leave it after so short a time. Eventually, they came to a series of doors. Jane led her to one, while Elia, Ashara, Lyanna, Lord Rickard and Lord Glover were also led to seperate ones.

Jane pressed a hand to a strange object just to the side of it, and the door slid open. Inside, Rhaella saw a set of quarters that were modest in size, at least compared to her chambers in the Red Keeo, but were still on par with the guest chambers usually given to visiting lords when at some of the smaller castles. Briefly she asked herself why, with all of the extravagance she had seen so far, that the guest's rooms should be so sub-par. Then again, they were technically prisoners, so perhaps she they were being kept in the cells. She discarded the thought, unless they kept their cells next to their guest rooms, considering Lord Stark was being ushered into the room right next to hers.

As she entered, the door slid shut and she looked around.

The bed should be big enough for both of you, unless you want us to give him his own room."

Rhaella jumped slightly, whirling around to find Jane standing in the room with her, door closed.

"You won't be used to modern ammenities, so we have to explain a few things so you don't hurt yourself." She said.

Jane reached out her hand, pointing to a small switch that appeared embedded in the wall. Rhaella hadn't noticed it before, but given she had only just come in, that wasn't surprising.

"This controls the light, just turn it to switch them off." She demonstrated, flipping the strange switch and leaving them both in utter blackness.

Rhaella gasped, clutching Viserys' sleeping form closer to her chest. She was thankful that her son hadn't woken up during the joruney. The lights came on, and the queen saw Jane's hand retreat from the switch.

"It's the same for all the other switches here." She pointed at a few other things.

There was a similar switch next to a mirror and a washing basin, but there was some kind of strange metal item over it. she also pointed over to a strange object on the nightstand, it was tall, with a cylindrical white material at the top. there was some kind of thick string leading from it to the wall, and there was another of the switches on the string.

"This is the sink." Jane again pointed to the water basin, but more specifically to the metal thing over it. "You can put Viserys on the bed, it's probably more comfortable."

Rhaella wanted to snap at Jane. Tell her that she could stop pretending to care for her son or for her, but she bit back the biting remark, it would be better to have Jane be at least somewhat on her better side. Laying her son down, she approached Jane where she took hold of what looked like a handle at the top.

"Pull it up for water." She did so, and Rhaella was shocked to find clear water flowing down into the bowl.

There was an opening at the bottom, something that she had never seen before and was briefly shocked that the water flowed down it. Why would they waste any amount of clear water.

"Pull it to each side for temperature. Left for hot, right for cold." Again she demonstrated, and Rhaella found herself transfixed as within moments, water what steamed before her eyes came out, and then stopped as Jane pushed down on the handle. The water flowed away and Rhaella wondered how she was to clean her face if the water was not kept in the bowl. It seemed that Jane had expected that however, and held up a black object.

"If you want to pool the water, just stick this into the drain." She slotted it into the 'sink' as she called it, and the proceeded to lead her around the room, and then into the 'bathroom'. Inside it was a bathing tub that had another of the metal objects Jane called a faucet. The same principle applied in the tub, pulling the lever up and to each side for warmer and colder water.

Her tour around the room entranced Rhaella, and she found herself curious about every new thing she found. Most were simple, the strange switches that lit and extinguished the small suns on the ceiling, others needed no explaination, like the closet that contained sets of clothes. The room had apparently been prepared for her and Viserys.

By the time Rhaella's eyes started to droop, Jane had shown her most everything about her chambers' functions. Many of three still perplexed her, and she asked time and time again about the 'lights' as they were called. A rather obvious name, and one that Rhaella found wholly uninformative, but she received no answers from the Spartan woman. Likewise she marvelled over the water that came from the 'faucet'. Where did it come from? Where did it go? How did the little lever make the water flow and why did pushing it to each side make the water hot or cold.

Jane answered none of her questions, only showing her enough to assure herself that Rhaella would not hurt herself. The queen of Westeros received only a curt goodbye from Jane, as well as a recommendation of 'toothpaste' and brushing one's teeth before she was left to her own devices.

Rhaella wondered whether or not she might be able to escape, but considering that there was no handle to the door to her chambers and she barely understood the 'faucet' in her 'sink', she doubted she would be able to make her way through this metal monster. Even if she could, Fair Isle was an island, and the Farmans and Terras controlled the only ways off of it.

Seeing Viserys sleeping peacefully on one of the pillows, the boy had not so much as stirred since he had fallen asleep during the journey, she decided that nothing would be solved, nor any decision reached tonight. Pulling out the sleepware Jane had pointed out to her, Rhaella found it odd that instead of a nightgown or similar dress, she was met with a set of rather plain sleep clothes that looked more for men than women. Still, as she put them on she found that the loose pants were comfortable, and the night shirt, while large on her smaller frame, was in no way disruptive. switching off the 'lights' and laying down beside Viserys, Rhaella allowed the long night and the exhaustion of so many strange events to pull her down into the land of dreams. With any luck, she would awake, back in the Red Keep, with Jane still as her friend and Rhaegar still alive, waiting for the birth of a new grandchild and hoping for a swift end to her husband and son's war.

A little short but not really. I am trying to make up that missed chapter, but honestly May has been crazy for me and so for now, I will be sticking to the schedule as much as I can. I might not be able to make a chapter for next week, with finals for this year coming up. I hope you all understand. Still I will try my best in order to keep up my rhythm and keep pumping out content.

Omicron is a success. We see just the beginnings of the culture clash between the Westerosi and the UNSC. honestly it's kind of funny introducing the small things. Like a Pelican or a slipspace drive will be so advanced that magic will be the accepted answer no matter the explaination. The smaller but honestly more important things like electricity and indoor plumbing are fun to look as since the sheer insanity of clean running water on demand would definately be something the natives would freak out about. I honestly think I'll do a bit where Rickard gets a shave and is shocked by the options of haircuts. It would be funny.

Rhaella really took the spotlight this chapter, and honestly I never planned for her to be as prominent as she is in either this or the story in general. I like it though. She's ostensibly an OC since we don't know nearly enough about her character but I want to keep her withing the bounds of what we do know. This chapter was meant to switch between Rhaella and KL, but it just ended up being Rhaella.

Next chapter we see the reaction in King's Landing, and then soon after we see the rest of Westeros (you know, travel delays even the best of gossip).