The Days of the Golden Moons (The Two Moons of Rehnor, Book 5) (21 page)

Chapter 30

Shelly

I
was overwhelmed.  The plane was soaring above the most beautiful city I had
ever seen, and beyond it was a sparkling blue ocean lined with white sugar sand
beaches.

“That's
the SdK complex.”  Thad leaned over my shoulder and pointed out the window. 
“Doesn't it look like Kalika-hahr?”

“It
does,” I agreed.  “Except for that giant clock tower.”

“You
think we could go in and look at our office, Shelly?” Janet called from the
seat in front. 

Janet
and Jerry had met us at the orbiting Imperial spacebase so that we could all
fly down this last leg together.  They both look terrific, tan and slim.  Jerry
had become a vegan, and since moving to Derius, Janet had given up red meat
too.  The two of them looked very happy.  In fact, they both seemed to glow.

“I
don't want to waste any time here looking at my office,” I replied as the Palace
came into view.  “I want to spend every waking and sleeping moment at that
place.”

“Oh
my God!” Gina gasped.  “Isn't that fabulous?”

We
all craned our necks as we passed over the buildings encompassing the Palace of
Mishnah.  I was so excited I could hardly sit still.  Tim was looking out the
windows with a frown on his face.  His eyes were very alert though so I could
tell he was working really hard not to enjoy himself.  The plane touched down
into the central courtyard within the Palace walls although the courtyard
itself was probably a mile long and half a mile wide. 

“Sit
down,” Tim snapped at me as I bolted from my seat even though we were still
moving.  Janet and Gina were also up grabbing their bags.  I couldn’t help it
if the men weren’t as excited about this as we were.  I pushed past Tim and
grabbed my own bag.  The plane's door slid open, and the stairway extended and
so help me, it was a race between us three girls to get out the door first.

“Calm
down, ladies!” Jerry called, but we ignored him and bolted down the stairs.

“Oh
my God!” Gina exclaimed again spinning around on the landing. 

It
was warm, and a delicious breeze was blowing in off the ocean.  The courtyard
was filled with flowers of every sort but what was truly outstanding was a huge
garden of white roses near the very center.  Rose bushes, easily twenty feet
high but immaculately groomed, surrounded what appears to be a solid gold
fountain in the shape of an icicle mountain spewing rainbow colored water. 

“Cool!”
Janet breathed.

Jerry
cleared his throat.  “Ron always had a thing for white roses.”

“They
are the simple of everlasting love,” Gina cried dreamily.   “A love stronger
than death.”

“Always
all over Katie's cabin,” Jerry continued. “The only person in space who had
fresh flowers in her cabin every day.”

“Come
on,” Thad pushed us all down the stairs.  “You can walk the gardens later.” 

We
followed Thad across the landing area and onto a walkway.  There were lots of
people in the courtyard.  Some appeared to be on a guided tour with cameras and
expressions as awestruck as our own.  Others looked like they worked here and
practically ran along the pathways heading from one building to the next. 
Several women were, in fact, running straight toward us.

“Jesus
H. Christ!” Jerry yelled.  “Caroline Adamson, is that you?”

“Jerry!
Jerry! Jerry!” Caroline screamed and threw herself on Jerry.  She was crying,
he was crying, and then they were laughing and carrying on like you wouldn't
believe.

“I
can't believe you are here!” he gasped when they finally settle down and just
stared at each other.  “You look fantastic.”  He waved his hands at Caroline's gown
which, Thad whispered to us, was a traditional Mishnese tunic dress which all
the women here were required to wear when in residence.

“Do
we get to wear them too?” Gina asked hopefully.

“You
mean, do we have to wear them too?” Janet snapped, wrinkling her nose.

“Guys,”
Jerry interrupted.  “Let me introduce you to a very old friend, Caroline
Adamson, who was my absolute best nurse aboard the Discovery.   Katie, Caroline
and I made quite a threesome.”

“Actually,
I’m Lady Taner now,” Caroline smiled broadly and showed off a beautiful diamond
ring.  “I am married to Lord Taner, the Lord Chamberlain.  I dearly hope,
you'll be able to meet him sometime during your visit here with us.”

“Oh
Caroline, congratulations!”  Janet beamed and moved to hug her too.  “I'm
Janet.  I used to be Ron's nurse back at RSI and then SdK.  I was Janet Kersey
then.”

They
giggled like school girls and hugged like old friends though they had never
met.

“Come
on,” Thad groaned.  “Let’s move along.  Taner around, Caroline?”

“In
his office, Thad,” she replied.  “He and Lord Berkan are expecting you in a
bit, I think.”

“Great. 
I’ll just head up there after we get everyone settled in.”

“Of
course,” Caroline said pulling away from Janet.  “Let me introduce Kira and
Noka who are here to assist you during your stay.”

Two
slightly blue women in the same Mishnese gowns came forward.  I notice that all
of them had a matching diamond pin on their bodices.

“Andorians,”
Tim mumbled under his breath.

“What
is the meaning of those brooches,” I asked as we followed them along the
pathways to one of the buildings.  “Why do you all have the same one?”

“We
are all members of Her Imperial Highnesses staff,” Caroline replied.  “The
brooch is made up of our lady's initials, in the Mishnese alphabet of course, KdK. 
If you see any men wearing royal blue sashes, that's her personal regiment.”

“That
her would be, Katie?” Janet asked.

“Yes,”
the one called Kira replied with a sneer.  “And you'll get thrown out of here
real quick if you call her Katie so don't even try it.”

“Ok,”
Janet whispered. 

“Don't
worry, we'll go over all the protocols with you,” Caroline said.  “Luci, Lady
Berkan is head of Her Imperial Highnesses staff and will come visit you this
afternoon.  She'll make sure you don't breach anything and end up with your head
on the ground next to you.”

“What?”
Gina gasped.

“Kidding.”
 Thad rolled his eyes.  “She's kidding, Gina.  Calm down.”

“This
building we are about to enter is where you'll be staying.  We have some
beautiful rooms for you on the second floor.  Most of the higher ranking staff
members live in this building.  Taner and I have a suite on the third floor as
do Luci and Berkan.  Noka and Kira live on the first floor.  Katie's mom and
her brother and his family live in the next building on the third floor.  Also,
HIM's grandmother the dowager Queen and his uncle Loman who is a duke, all have
apartments over there.  Visiting royalty from the outer planets stay in that
building and council members, ministers, and the governors of our planets stay
in the adjacent building over there when they come for meetings.”

“What
about…um...them?” Gina asked as we enter the foyer of our building. 

Magnificent
would be an understatement.  The same pink marble with gold veins that was in
the Takira-hahr mansion made up the floors and much of the walls.  The
staircases were also in marble, and there were fabulous oriental style carpets
everywhere.  The furniture was something that would make Louis XVI drool. 
Gilt, gold, highly polished woods, crystal and more marble were everywhere the
eye could see.  Fresh flowers were in gold and crystal vases on nearly every
table, and there wasn’t a speck of dust or dirt to mar anything.

“Them?”
Caroline asked.  “You mean HIM and Her?  That's how we refer to them.  They
live in that building down there.”  She pointed to the other end of the Palace
on the ocean side.  “Prince Shika has a suite in that building next door to
them as well as Prince Sorkan, HIM's father.”

“We
will get to see them, won't we?” Jerry asked hesitantly.

“You'll
get to see her,” Caroline replied.  “I know she's very excited about you all
visiting.  As far as HIM goes, who knows?”

“We
lived here a long time already and never saw him once,” Noka said.  “Not even
walking from this room to that.”

“I
saw him once when I got a seat in the gallery during Parliament,” Kira put in. 
“I had to wait seven hours for it, and then my boss yelled at me for being late
to work.”  She glared at Caroline.

“My
husband spends twenty hours a day with him, and I am his wife's best friend and
I've seen HIM maybe twice in the last year for about a minute each time,”
Caroline declared while frowning at Kira.  “Access to HIM is really strictly
controlled.  It's not like the old days at all, Jerry.”

“This
place isn't exactly the Discovery either,” Jerry replied, his head tipped back
to stare at the ornate frescoed ceiling.

“Does
Ka…Her ever get to see him?” I asked.

“Now,
yes.”  Caroline led us up the staircase.  “When she first got here she didn't,
but that's another story.  Okay, Admiral and Dr. Mattson, this is your suite,
right here.  Lord and Lady Kalika-hahr, you're right next door and Dr. and Mrs.
Waldman, you are right next door to them.”

“What?”
Gina shrieked.

“You
don’t want to be next to the Waldmans?” Caroline asked.

“Actually,
we changed our name to Moonbeam,” Janet said.

“No!”
Gina cried.

“Yes,
we did,” Janet insisted.

“That’s
not what I meant!”  Gina looked from Caroline to Thad.  “What did you call us?”

Thad
looked at the ceiling too as if he had also just noticed the frescoes.

“Lord
and Lady Kalika-hahr?” Caroline repeated.

I
started to laugh.  Tim rolled his eyes.

“Oh
yeah, Gina, I forgot to tell you that little bit,” Thad said and put his arm
across his wife’s shoulders.  “I got upped,” he whispered loudly in her ear.

“Upped!”

“Yeah,
but don’t make such a big deal about it otherwise we might get downed.”  He
winked at us and pulled Gina into their suite.

“Downed?”
she repeated as the door shut behind them.

“I’ll
see y’all this evening for dinner.”  Caroline waved and headed back down the
stairs.

Tim
and I went into our suite.  “I could get used to this really quick,” I sighed
gazing out at the ocean.  “I guess this is the definition of living like
royalty.”

“It's
not too bad,” the old guy grumbled while bouncing his butt a few times on the
canopied king size bed.  He laid down and put his feet up on the silk duvet,
fortunately without his shoes.  “Nice,” he sighed and immediately fell asleep.

“Nice,”
I agreed and lay down next to him to doze off too. 

The
next thing I knew, Thad was ringing us for dinner.  Tim and I quickly got up
and dressed.  We made our way back down the marble staircases to the building’s
foyer.  There we met Caroline and the Andorian girls who were standing with
another woman with bright orange curly hair.  She was introduced to us as Lady
Berkan.  Over cocktails, we were instructed in the appropriate way to speak to
and address Her and HIM, should we be so fortunate to dwell for a moment in his
presence.

“You
don't have to make obeisance,” Lady Berkan informed us.  “Except for the Lord
and Lady of course.  Just don't be surprised if everyone else does.”

“Do
they bow to Ka…Her too?” Janet asked.

“Yes,
but differently.  With Her, we bow from the waist or curtsey.  With HIM, we
must all be on our knees.”

“My
knees couldn't take that,” I said.

“Yes,
it's difficult when you get older and fatter like me,” Lady Berkan chuckled. 
“Fortunately, I never see HIM.  As far as greeting Madame goes, I know you are
all good friends, but you must not take the liberty of touching Her although
knowing Her, she'll probably rush up and hug you anyway.”

“We
can't hug her?” I asked.

“No,
no, no,” Lady Berkan cried.  “If she holds out her hand, which will be gloved,
you may kiss it, but that is it.  There is supposed to be absolutely no physical
contact allowed with the Empress, but like I said, she's not very good about
that.”

“I
used to hug her all the time,” I protested.

“This
is the Capital City of the Empire of Rehnor, Dr. Mattson,” Lady Berkan sniffed. 
“Here you must follow our rules.”

Dinner
took place in a banquet room in an adjacent building.  Although the meal was
excellent, the room was lovely, and the service was fit for an Emperor, it was
just our little group with Noka and Kira.  Caroline and Lady Berkan went off to
attend to Her who sent her apologies but could not meet with us this evening as
some Governors or Ambassadors or otherwise more important people were in town
and she had to meet with them instead.