She thought. “What can I do?” she asked. Micheal had no idea.
“I need to see Logan,” she announced.
“I will go with you,” Leo announced, getting up and putting down the tray of food. He took the controller from Micheal and switched it back to the hallway feed, studying the image thoughtfully.
“Which reminds me… Nadia has been trying to put her name back into the system… She has been very strange, trying to match up with Leo, too,” Micheal said.
Ellis turned. “Last time I saw her, she hadn’t taken a bath in a long time and was running down the hallway,”
They had set up the little camera in the apartment Logan and Ellis shared. Ellis had donned on a plain white tunic. Zothean culture didn’t have a color that they associated with grief, but for Ellis, she felt like she needed to wear her emotions. What those people were going through was devastating. She couldn’t pretend to know how they felt, but she felt helpless being unable to do anything for them.Rumors about her circulated but she paid them no time. She looked around the room one last time before looking back at the camera.“We’re ready,” Laurel commented. Ellis breathed in deeply and nodded. &ld
Ellis forced a smile. It wasn’t about them. It was the circumstance that forced them to move. “You’re right,” she said anyway, “Let’s go.”She stepped out of the door and turned back to watch as Laurel closed it behind her. Nin was waiting outside for them and led them down the halls and up the stairs. Instead of the train platform, they entered an open courtyard. It was still dark and the stars littered the sky, gleaming like a thousand diamonds.“I’ve never seen the night sky,” Ellis admitted. “Their universe is highly matured, so it is densely packed. That’s
“No!” Logan called, taking her arms to pull her back. She held up a hand to stop him. The crowd fell silent when they saw her. Some knelt. “Everyone, I implore you to step back from the wagon. I don’t want to see you get hurt.” Somehow, they heard her words and obeyed. They moved back slowly, not stomping over one another. Peacefully.“Whore!” a man shouted. “She’s feeding us lies and ruining our empire!” He shoved through the crowd, his eyes filled with hatred. There were cries of protest from the shock and the man was pushed down to kneel. Ellis didn’t pause to think. These people looked up to her and with the divisive violence in the em
Ellis was freezing her ass off.She stared at the little electronic panel that Logan had said controlled the temperature in the room. Each of the buttons had some symbols on them that Ellis couldn’t comprehend for the life of her. She had read manuals and laws of this galaxy, but she still couldn’t figure out what these symbols were. She was sure Logan had told her what each meant, but for the life of her… she couldn’t remember. On Earth, symbols were so simple that even illiterate and idiots like her could navigate and use devices. The pads didn’t even have universal colors like blue and red for temperature rise and lower. Just two buttons: one yellow and one grey side-by-side.No sooner had the wagon stopped then Logan swooped her into her arms a
Ellis suddenly realized something. They were colorblind. The grey and yellow buttons… that was why. “You can’t tell them apart?” she asked politely, trying not to offend.“No, Empress. Please accept my apology.” Ellis smiled. “There is no need for that. This is green,” she said, touching a green ribbon tied to a lamp. “The one you are holding is blue. Can you tell the difference now?”The Koln looked uncomfortable. “I am sorry, Empress.” He squinted. “Side by side, one is brighter than the other,” the Koln offered hopefully.
To Ellis’s delight, Micheal and Isabella had joined them for dinner in the abnormally large dining room in the palace. Isabella was excited to have ‘her children’ living nearby so that she could visit whenever she wanted and Ellis couldn’t help but feel the same. Also, she couldn’t turn down the cookies that Isabella had brought as a housewarming gift.She nearly shrieked in excitement. What a bad example of a mother she was. She munched on them quickly without regard for the shocked eyes. Sue her, she liked cookies.She wanted in her head: “Must leave one for Logan. Logan should eat my favorite treat. Half a cookie, then.”The compromise went on and on.Logan didn’t trust anyone else to prepare the food for the babies, so he cooked the food himself. When he came back bearing a tray of food for all of them, he set it down at the center of the table. Ellis had little dinner, instead, she shoved the cookies do
“Emancipate the Kolns,” Ellis said in short.Micheal pulled a piece of paper and pen out and scribbled it down. After that, he read it out loud. “All Kolns in the Empire are henceforth and forevermore, free. Any Kolns that take up arms in defense of the Empire shall be granted full rights of a citizen.”There was long silence. Leo was the first to speak up. “We can’t make them full citizens! That would mean they have the right to get mates, right? In the database too?”“No, only fertile men of age are entered into the database. We have never included those that are infertile or too old to reproduce.” But then, he was silent again. Something grated on his mind.Leo fell silent. “But it just… doesn’t seem right.”“What about voting rights?” Isabella interjected.“Strong believer in universal voting rights,” Ellis said softly. “But it al
First, as to the protection of Kolns, we can't offer any on the Capital, not until we retake control of the planet. Secondly, the Kolns should be automatically included under things like the minimum wage laws, right? A lot of the abuses that oppressed communities suffered were things that were already illegal, but no one enforced the law for them. We have to make it clear that we will enforce the law."Isabella shook her head. “People are going to be angry that their Kolns ran off to help fight the rebellion. You have to think of a way to reimburse the owners so as to encourage them to let their ‘property’ leave.”Ellis noticed another bright moment about Isabella. She was a good orator. She understood people and she would have been a better advocate than many other people in the government.“You fear Koln owners to join the rebels, don’t you?” Ellis thought out loud. “It is possible. They might say that the monarc