Warrior Empress (Warrior Empress Series Book 4), page 4
She is young. She needs a mentor and it can’t be me.
So, I began to look through the nearly hundred palace advisors on my staff. I was surprised to find that some were true House names. I’d need to watch those. . . carefully.
But one was from the ancient and honorable House Benet - a house that espoused honor, honesty and integrity, just like my mentor, Lt. General Tor Benet.
Hmm, I wonder.
Her name was Wah-Sin Benet and she had decades of experience in the palace, had previously handled rather delicate financial and treaty work for the Emperor and was content to be in the background when the other advisors were pushing Teesa at me.
I looked at her image floating above my work console. Her work file showed she was about my height, slender, her back and shoulders set in a proud, confident set.
Even though she was over a hundred year-cycles old, she had medium brown fur with pale, graying stripes over her forehead and at her ear tips. Her ear-tails were variegated brown with tan cross stripes.
She had a confident, calm look and had the hard focused stare of a seasoned advisor.
Clearly, she’d been doing this a while.
I turned to Teesa, “Teesa, I’d like you to set up a meeting with Wah-Sin Benet. Prepare a short report comparing our current financial position with a year ago and describe both risks and areas of improvement.”
She nodded and turned to find out who Wah-Sin was and begin to coordinate that.
Three days later, just three days. . . they both set an item in my work calendar to meet for the presentation.
When they did, I watched them both carefully. Wah-Sin stood to the side and slightly behind Teesa who was starting the presentation.
I could see and hear that Wah-Sin had coached her.
The presentation took fifteen minutes and was crisp even with Teesa’s rough presentation skills.
When she was done, she was flustered and embarrassed.
Wah-Sin put her hand comfortably on Teesa’s shoulder just on the other side of her neck, a sign of professional friendship.
I looked at both of them and cleared my next calendar task I’d set. I’d done that intentionally. I boxed her meeting in with a ‘personal’ task so that she’d have to present quickly and it would give me maneuvering room afterward.
I looked at both of them and saw Teesa’s concern when I cleared my calendar task.
I put my hands up and smiled, “Teesa, no fear. I am not going to go into greater details on your report.”
She was still flustered, so I cocked my head in curiosity and asked, “Why are you concerned?”
She frowned tight lipped then nodded, “I know you are going to replace me. I’ve known this for a while. You accepted me at the beginning because they thrust me upon you when you arrived.”
Wah-Sin frowned as well and looked down, expecting the worst, that I was going to remove Teesa from her role.
I almost laughed but managed to keep my failing control over my facial expressions in check.
“Teesa. Wah-Sin. You both misunderstand my interest and my goal.”
They both looked up surprised, Teesa clearly confused and Wah-Sin focused on my eyes, her face assessing mine, her head cocked slightly forward as she concentrated on what I was about to say.
“Teesa, you were right, the other advisors thrust you into me at the beginning thinking they would replace you when you failed. . . “
I could see her face fall again.
So, I quickly continued, “. . . but you have done a very good job and I am not going to replace you. That is not why we are here today.”
Teesa was calming down a little but still looked confused.
Wah-Sin Benet shifted her gaze from assessing to slowly understanding that these events weren’t really so much about Teesa, but about her. She finally got it and frowned, gently shaking her head in dismay.
I looked at her, “Wah-Sin, you are shaking your head. Why?”
She took a deep breath, nodded as she focused her words, “If our task today was not for Teesa, then it was for me and you are concerned about my integrity or work in the palace.”
I interrupted her and raised my left hand to stop her, “Neither.”
She turned her head to one side as she worked through that.
I never thought I was that obtuse.
I smiled at both of them and opened both of my hands at them, “My goal today was simple. I like Teesa. A lot. She does good work, but is so new to this role that I am fearful she will be taken advantage of by the others, jealous of her new stature.”
And the moment I said that, Teesa relaxed a bit and Wah-Sin instantly knew where I was going, and nodded with a tiny smile, accepting what I was offering.
I continued, “For Teesa to grow and be successful she will need a strong and honest mentor. Wah-Sin Benet, I choose you for that role if you will accept it and Teesa does as well.”
Teesa’s face was a mask of surprise. Wah-Sin’s face was a mask of calm and she responded with a pleasant, almost happy nod.
I leaned forward and waved my right hand at them, “The test today wasn’t the report. We already have that information. The test was whether the two of you would work well together and whether Wah-Sin would exert her right to be the presenter.”
I paused for a moment, “So. . . Teesa. Your presentation skills are in dire need of improving if you plan to do a lot of that. Wah-Sin clearly coached you and would need to do a lot more of that, but that is not what I have in mind. If you both accept, I’ll add Wah-Sin as a primary advisor, second to you, Teesa, and she can help you succeed against the onslaught of all of the other advisors just itching for you to fail.”
I leaned forward, looked intently at both of them as they processed that, “Do we have an accord?”
Teesa smiled and was clearly happy with that arrangement.
Wah-Sin pondered it, cocked her head to one side and then nodded, asking, “Why me?”
I grinned from ear-tail to ear-tail, “For three reasons. First, your history shows you work hard, honestly and do so behind the scenes. You do not crave the bright light. Second, when you worked with Teesa, you set her up as the presenter, not taking that role yourself. And, third, you are from House Benet.”
She cocked her head to the side in surprise, her eyes knitted together, “Empress, what does my House have to do with this? It is an honor that you mention them, but why Benet?”
I laughed again and then responded, “My first mentor is from House Benet. He is a dear friend and has taught me a great deal about honor, integrity, survival, battle strategy and fighting. I trust him and, if you are like he is, I now trust you.”
She processed that and moved her left hand forward, “Thank you Empress, who was your mentor, is it someone I may know?”
Okay, I laughed very loudly at that, ever so surprised she didn’t already know, “You may know him, Lieutenant General Tor Benet.”
Her eyes went wide with surprise at that.
I instantly shifted the conversation, “Wah-Sin, I would prefer you to assist and guide Teesa where you both see fit, working together. I’d like you to begin in a week if your senior administrator will accept that. Teesa, please coordinate an office space suitable for both of you on this floor, near mine. No sense you being far away if we need to work together on the issues and events of the Empire.”
I was feeling pleased we’d settled this. I already like Wah-Sin and felt confident she would guide Teesa. Yeah, this felt good to me.
Chapter six
Iwas sitting at my formal office, trying to keep my fingers flat on the gorgeously inlaid desk top my pater had used when he was the Emperor, listening to the Cailan Agent drone on and on about not having enough resources to prosecute the war, slowly working up to yet another request for billions of credits in support of their tech manufacturing and ship building efforts. . . the fourth House to do that this week.
And, while she droned on, I used my internal AI and neural node to search through the last year’s worth of battle reports to try and determine what if any progress we were making, finding and destroying the Brinlo and Cren Siblis Armadas.
I mean, come on. . . how tough is it to find enemy armadas? They keep mysteriously showing up for battle, fighting and then disappearing to. . . somewhere we could never find.
I am not smart about this stuff and just don’t get it. Even with as big and enormous as the galaxy is, there needs to be some way to track or anticipate where the thousands of ships are going to go, to get fixed up, to get resupplied and then go to their next battle.
I realized she had just finished her request for more funding and looked expectantly at me.
My advisor staff had already prepared a simple response of reduced funding. So, I shared that with her. She started to argue and I put my armored hand up and shook my head.
Meeting over. Done.
I so hated this palace life.
I found it really interesting that I’d get one set of reports from senior advisors who reported that the Hoganthan people were still fully behind the war effort to end slavery, yet when I secretly traveled the streets with my own Red guard, carefully clothed as common merchants, we could see and hear the many complaints at the costly war effort and what it was doing to our people.
It was draining the life out of Hoganth and the sister-systems of the Empire.
Yes, they all hated the slavery, but wanted the war over. Period.
This weighed on me a lot.
Hoganth is a beautiful planet and should be for the residents there. But in the cities we’d snuck out to, there was a lot of complaining, protesting and public signs of anger - against the Houses and against the monarchy. . . against me. . . for not ending the war.
And, you never saw any of that in the palace. All of the feeds were very carefully filtered to only show the masses thrilled with the progress of the slave war.
That was the problem bothering me. We weren’t making progress.
The war had been going on for a thousand years and simply swinging back and forth, back and forth one major battle at a time, then another, then another and no final outcome.
I’m a simple warrior and that lack of progress bothered me. Where was the accountability? Who ran this war? How did these large-scale battles even get planned and set up? It just seemed like we were on this perpetual cycle that never stopped and just kept burning up precious resources and common soldiers.
I was very concerned about the amount of resources and wealth we were consuming, but. . . I was terrified at the Hoganthan’s and other Empire soldiers we were killing and maiming, destroying families and parents and children and brothers and sisters. For what end?
Now, don’t get me wrong. I am Hoganthan. That means I am full feline ferocity and a warrior that will jump into it in a heartbeat.
But. . .
That also means I am careful with my battle planning and do expect that I will win or the cause is just if I understand I will die.
And, I expected all of those soldiers went to battle by the same rules. They expected us to allocate them to battles they can genuinely win, not just barely survive or lose or barely win, time and time, and time again.
Something was going on with this. I’m not a military strategist, but it just felt like the battlescape planning was flawed, at every turn.
Trying to better understand the what and how of it, I’d reached out to the senior admiral and battle commander, Admiral Cailan. He’d been in the role for nearly thirty years. I figured he would be able to clearly advise me what was going on and the issues involved.
As the Empress of the Empire, Admiral Cailan technically reported to me, but I’d never met him, never seen him and never received a report from him on what he was planning, why and when.
I reviewed the historical reports my Pater and Mater had access to, along with my brother Qualen. The Admiral had sent them reports, but they were really sketchy and not very detailed at all. Ever.
I was just so confused by this, that I had my advisor, Teesa, reach out to the Admiral’s staff and request a meeting in the palace office to have him provide a formal war update, status, strategic approach and go-forward time-plan to win and close off the war.
I certainly wasn’t prepared for their response. Not at all.
My request through Teesa was rebuffed by a lower level military aide. They simply didn’t have the time to attend and bother with an Empress request to discuss actual battle strategy and plans.
The implication was that I just wouldn’t understand the complexities of battle planning.
Really?
He works for me and by extension the people of Hoganth and the Empire.
And. . . he doesn’t have the time to meet with me to advise me on his plan to win the war and save the Empire from the scourge of slavery?
Well, maybe I do learn slowly over time. In my past life, I would have thrown a tantrum about it.
But, now? It felt like something else was going on, so I got. . . curious. Not angry. Curious.
I turned from looking out the broad floor to ceiling windows at the craggy mountains to the east and looked over at Teesa who was quietly pointing out something in a report tab another advisor was showing her.
She finished and looked up at me and was suddenly concerned that I was looking at her.
I intentionally smiled to disarm any. . . concerns and added quietly and softly, “Teesa, please find where Lt. General Tor Benet is and if he is on Hoganth just now, ask him if I can meet with him. Do it gently, but it is a formal request.”
Her eyes went wide, then her head nodded. She knew I would react to the Admiral’s rebuff, she was just uncertain of HOW I would react.
And, this isn’t what she’d expected.
We went on to other business. An hour later, I saw an appointment appear in my neural node that I ‘suddenly’ had a meeting on my day calendar with Tor, this afternoon. I openly smiled and was genuinely delighted.
I struggled all morning to concentrate on the official duties of being an Empress. Ugh.
Just after a small, second meal, I sooo looked forward to seeing him.
The office doors opened and he strode in, wearing his full armor as he so often did these days. It just made it easier than only using the hover pad surgically attached to where his legs and stomach used to be.
His gray face fur still scarred on the right, his dark gray right eye patch perfectly placed over the empty socket, His left eye intense, focused and scanning the room as he walked in. He is forever the elite warrior, assessing and evaluating all of the time.
And, he is my friend and mentor. I gently shook my head. I so miss him.
I know it was an official meeting, but I didn’t care. I got up and walked around the ornate desk to greet him directly.
He stopped short and started a slight, warrior bow, but I stopped him, went up and gave him a very not official ‘hug’.
He smiled and smirked, “That bad?”
I laughed, nodded with a smile, “Worse. I actually miss sparring with you and Sureth, so it has to be bad.”
He laughed openly, his head back and nodded, his ear tails flowing back and forth, “Yes, Empress, if you miss sparring with Sureth, then it must be desperate.”
I went all serious for a moment, “I’m sorry about her death. I heard she died in battle.”
He went serious, his lips a thin line and nodded, “She was an elite warrior, lived the Creed and died by it.”
Tor paused for a moment and nodded grimly, “I miss her too.”
He pursed his lips together, then nodded at me, “Elith, it is good to see you, but your advisor indicated this was an official request. How may I help you?”
So, I shared what I knew. Well, I danced over the Admiral’s rebuff, because it wasn’t the problem, simply a symptom of a broader one.
The problem as I saw it. . . and wanted to discuss with Tor, was that the battlescape planning was flawed.
“Tor, this war just keeps going on and on and on and never seems to make progress to a conclusion. The battlescape strategy and planning feels. . . wrong. Tens of thousands of Empire soldiers get maimed, injured and killed every month and it just seems the rich keep getting richer and the poor just keep getting poorer, hurt, or dead.”
He frowned and his left eye stared intently at me, waiting for me to continue.
Tor Benet paused for a moment, turned toward the window and then turned back to me with a tiny nod of his head, “And then, your Empress, you may wish to consider investigating why their armada is never where our agents tell us it will be and always disappears the moment our ships arrive.”
I gasped for a moment as I realized what he was saying and it was so obvious when he said it I was embarrassed for not realizing it.
Okay, uh, yeah, we had a spy. . . or likely more than one. But who would want to inform the Brinlo and Cren about our battle plans? I paused to think about that and could see Tor smile thinly, but without humor.
He could see and read my expressions, “Elith, consider who would profit from keeping the war exactly the way it is. . . for decades and centuries to come. That will answer your hidden question.”
I turned my head for a moment as I processed that and realized there was really, actually, only one group who would profit from continued war. The elite Houses. The Houses that provide the war materials, the weapons, the ships, the foods, the. . . the everything that keeps the war going and would lose all of that if the war ended. I get it. Wait. . . not just elite houses, but kingdoms and wealthy families all across the galaxy who provided war materials.
This would be a broad conspiracy.
As I thought about this, it made a lot of sense. But how do I find out who and how? One House would not be able to do this on their own, so they had to have a group of leaders, a group that organized, controlled and commanded the broader war effort. . . along with the Brinlo and Cren.
I shivered in disgust and it sickened me at how unholy that was, how horrible they would sell out their kinsman for credits. Well, not just credits, Tredits, literally trillions of credits.
