Leanne frowned, “Sir, missiles are down, and the enemy ship has gone to FTL.”

  He ordered, “All stop. They must’ve realized they’d never catch up, and they aborted the assassination attempt before the fleets could get involved or identify them. Daisy, you considered this a possibility?”

  Daisy replied, “I did believe they’d ambush us if the new prelate’s invite was merely to get rid of one of our celestial knights quickly and cleanly before a war started, though I wasn’t expecting one corvette. The most likely answer is that they do have a rogue element in the government, that does not want peace and wanted to instigate a war with your murder in Communion space.”

  He nodded. Or they wanted them to think that for some reason. Although he couldn’t imagine a reason why, and what it would get them, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a long game being played. Perhaps the pitiful attempt on his life wasn’t even a real one, and they just wanted him to be distrustful.

  He shook his head, speculating wouldn’t get them anywhere. He just needed to go in with eyes open.

  Leanne said, “Incoming transmission.”

  “Let’s see it.”

  The bridge screen came alive with a view of a communion battleship bridge.

  “This is Admiral Victor Cross. Your arrival was expected, welcome to New Blessing. Sending course and coordinates, you’ll be inserted into a high orbit. From there we’ll send a shuttle to dock with your port airlock which will deliver you to the surface, and you’ll be escorted to the Grand Temple.”

  The admiral’s eyes widened, and the sound went silent. No doubt their sensor officer had just picked up the attack on his ship. Unless the man was a really good actor, he didn’t think the admiral had been aware of the attack.

  “Daisy, set and implement course, with corrections for our new starting point. Is there anyway to report back home, I’m assuming their FTL satellites are incompatible with our systems, or at least locked down for access?”

  Daisy replied, “Setting course, but perhaps we should wait for the Admiral to update our instructions?”

  He shook his head, “No, for all we know our ambusher dropped out of FTL a few seconds later, and they’re currently figuring out an FTL return course to drop right on top of us. We need to move.”

  Daisy said, “Implementing course. As for your question we’re close enough to Megara, nine point six light years, to synchronize messages. If not utilize active comms.”

  “Then send a report of what just happened.”

  Daisy replied, “Done, Dacen.”

  He checked the course, it looked like they’d insert into a high orbit right above two military frigates in low orbit. He wasn’t worried about it, exactly. He’d do the same thing, shield the planet below from a potential enemy’s ship.

  That didn’t mean he liked it. At that range they could hit his ship with sixteen missiles before they even knew there’d been a launch. He was starting to feel like his ass was hanging out waiting to be shot, and the mission hadn’t even really started yet.

  Aborting wasn’t an option. If it’d been a serious ambush then he’d have been gone already, but a single ship… He didn’t know what to think or believe about that yet.

  He opened a channel, “Thank you for your welcome, admiral. Implementing a corrected course based on our new location. We’d wait for new instructions, but we don’t know if our party crasher is coming back. Seems prudent to get the ship moving as soon as possible. See you in three hours, out.”

  His words were perhaps a tad too casual for the mission, but then Prelate Aria had requested him personally, and that’s who she was going to get. He’d be polite and casually confident, but he wasn’t going to twist his tongue with the pleasing and empty measured phrases of a real diplomat.

  It was only ten minutes later when the admiral confirmed his new course and approved it.

  Admiral Cross added, “We are also investigating the unfortunate incident, but we don’t have much to go on. The ship’s FTL transponder had been disabled, so we neither saw it nor can we identify what fleet it was a part of or it’s planetary assignment. The prelate thanks you for your forbearance on this matter. May the goddess light your way. Admiral Cross, out.”

  Unfortunate incident. Hell of a description for an attempted assassination of a foreign diplomat. He was also a little annoyed, but he brushed it off. There was no way he could leave the bridge now, not when the ship could be back, and when they were going toward three fleets and a highly fortified planet with military space stations. He’d had plans for that three-hour trip with Leanne, but in hindsight perhaps his cock had hatched them in the first place, and it was for the best.

  At least they got to eat, as Daisy made them a meal and had it delivered to the bridge by a service robot she controlled. It was going to be a long flight, and a very tense orbital insertion.

  New Blessing had a deep blue sky and it must’ve been in the eighties as they headed to the palace from the spaceport. There’d been no other trouble during the trip, and despite being quite tense the shuttle pilot had been polite.

  The ground car they were in was black and long, with large leather seats and plenty of creature comforts, including a tiny bar. He didn’t drink alcohol as a rule, never mind when he was on a mission, but he did make an iced tea for the trip.

  The capital city of New Haven was a sprawling metropolis housing several million humans and the occasional Cheelah, and the Grand Temple was at the center of it. It was more a complex than a single building, and surrounded by a high wall, both being a church and a government it housed the main bureaucracy for the government.

  Just the temple itself was vast, and he had to admit an engineering marvel as the spires reached almost a full mile in height. It was in truth, larger than the palace back on Bright Star, but to be fair the temple hosted thousands of worshipers a day.

  The main temple was where the prelate lived, as well as her immediate staff, and the brothers and sisters that gave the almost non-stop homilies to accommodate the millions in the city at least once a week. The large part of the bureaucracy and functionaries were in different buildings.

  He also noted as they drove through, that there was a lot of security. A lot of ground forces in unpowered body armor with multi-function rifles and side arms. If things went south, it’d be a nightmare and probably impossible to escape. Even if he got lucky, the spaceport security was just as tight.

  Of course, it was just he and Leanne when the government car pulled up in front of the temple. Daisy had to stay with the ship, but he did have an open commlink with her and could seek her advice. If he wanted.

  Riesa looked meek and quite attractive in the light blue and white servant’s dress she had on. It was conservatively cut, but the body in it still gave it lots of sex appeal. She looked the part, and she was acting it. Even he couldn’t spot the truth if he hadn’t known it. The only way she could’ve pulled that off was by believing it herself. She might be a strong guardian, but she’d committed to the idea of being his body servant during this mission, such that even his body magic wasn’t picking up the false note.

  And after three days he also believed it, she was that, for him. Which was fortunate, because if he didn’t their hosts would’ve picked up that false note from him.

  The door opened and he got out slowly. The front of the temple was all glass and steel, or an amalgam of that, and he couldn’t even see the top of the glass spires as they disappeared into the clouds. It was partially domed, no doubt the public sanctuary inside the temple was grand, but he guessed there was at least thirty floors in the rest of it. Vast and behemoth simply didn’t do it justice as a description, and he pushed down the intimidation factor in that.

  Not so much the building, but him being in the center of power of another interstellar government.

  The guard said, “I’ll escort you to the audience room. The prelate wishes to meet you formally before her people, and from there you’ll be taken to your guest room.”

  He took that to mean before any real business was done, they’d have time to settle in and refresh themselves, before they started to discuss the treaty that his monarch had in mind. They’d had a treaty of nonaggression with the last prelate, and his mission was to walk out with another signed by the new prelate, Aria.

  To discover her intentions.

  As far as before the people, that probably meant her audience room and public dealings were openly viewable for the populace, while their actual negotiations would be done in private.

  He also had a diplomatic pouch on his side, with private missives from the king to Prelate Aria, and the audience seemed like a good time to deliver them. It outlined what the king hoped for, and it would give Aria a starting point with him when they settled into the give and take of politics.

  The assassination attempt was still annoying him and nagging at his mind, but as usual on the outside he looked relaxed and confident, just short of cocky really. He still had no idea what it was about, but one thing he was sure of was the prelate wanted something from him. She might want him dead, but she wanted something else before that.

  Or… she wanted peace, but if that’s all it was about then she wouldn’t have requested him personally by name. He wasn’t just being paranoid, there had to be more to it, even if she wasn’t expansionist and did want peace, which wasn’t guaranteed at all.

  It wasn’t easy for him to acknowledge, but he was at the mercy of these people. Sure, he could do a hell of a lot of damage before they took him down, to make them regret their plan. But he was just as sure he couldn’t win. If nothing else, they’d wear him down with numbers, his magic wasn’t inexhaustible.

  He nodded in acceptance, “I’m honored by the opportunity. Lead on.”

  The guard turned and led them toward the doors. He followed, and Riesa walked slightly behind and to the right of him with her eyes lowered slightly. That wasn’t about them, so much as appearances. It was absolutely essential they didn’t break role from that point on.

  The room of worship for the masses was as large as he’d imagined. Almost the length of a football stadium, and the arcing ceilings were several hundred feet high. They weren’t taken into that room though, and rather went to the right into a hallway from the entryway.

  The hallways were richly appointed, with paintings of the goddess as well as past prelates, not to mention full sized statues in the hallway’s alcoves. There was also a pair of security guards at every corner and intersection they passed, as well as guards every hundred feet in the long hallways.

  It was a good five-minute walk, before the guard turned to him before a door and bowed his head in respect.

  The guard waved at the door, “Go right in, Ambassador Black. Your body servant can wait here, it won’t take long, and you’ll both be escorted to your rooms directly after.”

  He turned to Riesa and nodded casually, which was the right thing to do. She was his servant, and wouldn’t accept the orders of others without his approval. He’d also been half expecting it, so it didn’t take him by surprise. Lastly, it almost didn’t matter, he would sense it if something went wrong or she was attacked, from only one room away and a lot farther than that if necessary.

  The guard added, “May she light your way,” and then walked off. A standard farewell formulae in the church of the one goddess.

  He took a deep breath, then opened the doors and stepped inside.

  Both the room size and the prelate herself took him off guard.

  The room was smaller than he expected, a lot smaller, which probably meant large crowds were not given audience, and that she met with people one at a time. The room was perhaps twenty feet wide and thirty feet long. He’d expected something far grander, like the King’s throne room.

  The prelate was on the opposite side of the room on a raised dais, and she was sitting in an uncomfortable looking throne. Behind her and above was a stained-glass window of the goddess looking down in benediction, lit up brightly by the sunlight streaming into the room. There were four guards total in the room, with two on either side of the dais, and two on either side of the door he’d entered.

  The only other person in the room was a young man with a tablet under his arm, which told him it was probably the prelate’s administrative assistant. He was average of appearance, with brown hair and eyes, and he wore the black robes of a brother in their order. He was a little on the short side, but not especially so at five foot nine.

  What surprised him about the prelate was she was very petite, and that impression was only magnified by the large throne she was sitting on. She couldn’t have been taller than five foot one, and she had a petite and curvy hourglass body, just short of lush for her height. She had long and straight golden blonde hair and sharp cerulean eyes, and her face had a classical beauty about it, neither severe nor soft. She appeared to be right around thirty, but he knew she was probably quite a bit older than that.

  He didn’t dare check for her true age. She was a celestial too, and she would feel his body magic if he’d been stupid enough to use it on a foreign ruler. Although, the church of the one goddess called them blessed, not celestials.

  She also had on white robes, the only member of the church that wore white was the prelate, all others wore black. They were conservative and at the same time flatteringly and lightly conforming to her feminine curves. She was no doubt an attractive woman, but not unusually so.

  Lastly, she’d been clearly assessing him and looking him over, as he had been her for the seconds it took to enter the room and walk a few steps forward.

  He bowed his head in respect, and he waited for her to speak. It was a gesture of respect, but he’d never fully bow before the ruler of another government.

  The man spoke, “Your eminence, I present Celestial Knight Dacen Black.”

  The prelate’s voice was full of authority, but of the soft-spoken kind. Her face was also impossible to read.

  “Thank you, Benjamin,” she turned her head back to him and studied him a moment longer, “Be at ease, Celestial Black. I welcome you here in my home, and I look forward to discussing what brings you here. I believe we have the opportunity to forge a new relationship between our peoples. I trust your trip to the surface and to my door was pleasant?”

  Her words were welcoming, but also vague. He took that to mean she didn’t want to discuss anything that might be sensitive in a public forum. He had no problem with that. He also had no idea if he could take her at her word, his magic was useless for detecting truth in another celestial.

  That would’ve been too easy, only time would tell if she was sincere or if she had ambitions of conquest and conversion by force in her mind.

  Fortunately, it wasn’t exactly a unique situation for him, and he wasn’t feeling out of his depth. He could neither read the royal family or his peer celestials either, after all. So he was hardly inexperienced at taking cues from body language, facial expression, and tone of voice when necessary.

  “Thank you, Prelate Aria. The trip was pleasant. You have a very beautiful city. It’s a pleasure and honor to meet you, and I bear greetings and missives from King Andros. I’m looking forward to exploring what we might accomplish together for our peoples as well.”

  That seemed polite and vague enough, for public consumption.

  She flicked a finger subtly, and Benjamin started across the room.

  He unhooked the strap, and then handed the diplomatic pouch to Benjamin, who then returned to the prelate’s side.

  “Your trip to our star system must’ve been wearying. Benjamin will escort you to your quarters, where you can refresh yourself and settle in. I’ll arrange some time to meet with you once I’ve had the opportunity to review the missives from your king. Someone will be assigned to see to your needs, and if you wish, provide a tour of my home.”

  Yeah, the public and guest parts of it only, he imagined. He also figured that meant she’d completed her initial assessment of him, and he couldn’t help but be curious as to what she’d decided. As for him, he was impressed by her. Her slight stature and golden blonde bombshell appearance meant she must be as tough as nails, if she managed to get herself taken seriously and elected by her peers, archbishops, and bishops. He felt sorry for anyone that underestimated her because of that.

  “Thank you, prelate. That’s very gracious of you.”

  Benjamin walked across the room again.

  “Please follow me.”

  He didn’t hesitate to fall behind Benjamin as the assistant brother led him out of the door, and further into the Grand Temple. In turn, Riesa followed him at a respectful distance. He’d have liked to have heard her first impression of the prelate, which of course was impossible since she hadn’t been in the room. Also impossible, without being heard, and an ambassador wouldn’t ask a servant’s opinion on the matter anyway.

  Benjamin was quiet most of the way, but he did inform Dacen that dinner would be at six that night if he cared to attend in the guest dining facilities.

  Riesa was there to watch his back as far as threats, and to act as his body servant, but when it came to dealing with the prelate, he was on his own.

  The visitor’s suite they were led to put even his palatial quarters on the diplomatic ship to shame. The entry room was generously sized, and it had a couch and two lounge chairs with a coffee table between them, as well as a sideboard cabinet made of red oak. There was a painting of the goddess on the wall, a regular theme throughout the temple, and there was a bowl of fruit and a plate of pastries out. It was obviously his own meeting room of sorts, if he had a need of it.

  Deeper in was the actual living room, which had to be close to two hundred square feet, and it included a television and terminal device. There were two couches, several chairs, two coffee tables and four end tables. The lighting in the room was from a chandelier hanging from the high ceiling, and there were two other doors in the room.

  One led into a full kitchen, despite the fact meals would be served in the guest dining hall three times a day. The hallway led to the bathroom a smaller servant’s room, and two larger bedrooms each with a private three-quarter bath. In all, it had to be a little over two thousand square feet in size.