RNP Chapter 596 Good Taste
Chapter 596 Good Taste
Chapter 596 Good Taste
The moment the imperial ship received the emperor’s shuttle, the captain brought up the shields and began heading to Mars.
Aron and Rina stepped out of the shuttle into the boat bay and met the side party that had been arranged to greet them. The ship’s executive officer, Commander Shannon Robinson, came to attention and saluted. Aron returned the salute and asked, “Permission to come aboard?”
“Permission granted, Your Majesty, and welcome aboard Imperial One,” Commander Robinson replied.
The bosun announced, “Terra arriving!” Then he pulled an old-fashioned bosun’s pipe from his hip pocket and whistled the tune for arriving royalty.
“If you’ll follow me, Your Majesty, I’ll show you to your quarters. The captain is currently on the bridge, but he should be with you shortly,” Commander Robinson said.
“The side party is a nice touch, Ms. Robinson.” Aron smiled at the competent officer as she led him down an impeccably decorated passageway to the imperial quarters.
“Tradition is important, Your Majesty, and it seemed like a good one to maintain.”
“Indeed, Ms. Robinson. Tradition is indeed important.” Aron fell silent as they continued walking.
“Overcompensating?” He spread his arms wide and slowly stalked toward her as their close-in protection aegis guards nodded to each other and discreetly left the quarters. “Overcompensating for what!?” he jokingly screeched as he launched himself in his wife’s direction.
Rina laughed and playfully dodged, throwing pillow after pillow at him as he chased her around the room, much like any normal pair of newlyweds would.
As it turned out, emperors were men just like anyone else.
......
Time passed as Aron and Rina were cavorting in the imperial quarters aboard Imperial One. Imperial One, much like the ships escorting her, was capable of warp travel, but using an Alcubierre warp bubble inside an inhabited solar system would be a downright terrible idea. After all, whenever a warp bubble was disengaged, it would throw debris and deadly radiation in a cone centered on the direction of the vessel’s travel, and that debris and radiation would make life miserable for anyone caught in that cone.
Thus, they were proceeding at a fairly sedate pace. In fact, even civilian traffic, should any have been allowed within the protective envelope of Imperial One’s escorts, would easily be able to keep up with them even without engaging their gravity drives and relying on thrusters alone. And from the inside of the ships, nobody would be able to tell they were in motion unless they looked at the display showing Earth as an ever-shrinking circle.
Still, though their pace was sedate, they would still be arriving at Mars a little over five hours after they began the journey.
And despite the Sol system being the safest place the emperor could be (short of the Cube on Avalon Island, anyway), Imperial One was still filled with entire battalions of ARES troopers, two reaper teams, a full company of the emperor’s aegis, and legion after legion of robotic auxiliaries in addition to the oversized naval crew. The crew was even held at general quarters whenever the emperor was aboard, and could move to battle stations in under a minute.
No matter the length of the trip the emperor was taking in the Terran Space Fleet’s most advanced, well-protected ship, the security would remain on a hair trigger.