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"Tell me about your empire, how does your system work?" I asked, not wanting to go down that particular rabbit hole.
Sexwith Silla hadbeen incredible, but now I found myself surprised by her again. Talking to her was easy and came naturally. Our flow was as easy as if we had known one another for a long time. I found in her an intelligent mind, challenging mine more often than I could remember having done so with somebody else.
"We have five lord protectors, who are responsible for keeping our protectorates safe and adhering to the old ways—"
"The old ways?" she interrupted.
"Vra, the way it was when we only lived on Pandrax, our first planet, before we became a spacefaring race and expanded to the other planets around us," I explained.
Talking about Pandrax made me realize that my tablet was probably going crazy with messages and attempted holovid comms. I still had many reports to file and I needed to check on Doth, my steward, who was responsible for my protectorate during my absence. But for the first time in my life I found myself wanting to shun my duties to be with a merrily. Nocc, notamerrily, but her—Silla.
I pushed thoughts of responsibility and duty from my mind, told myself I deserved a day of rest like every other of my subjects, and explained the workings of our empire to Silla.
She was a good listener, asked the right questions to make me elaborate on things she didn't understand, but mostly she just absorbed what I told her.
Pandrax had been our first planet, and like most intelligent species, once the first steps were taken, our technology advanced fast. But it cost us. Especially when we expanded. The more planets the empire took over or populated, the more we lost ourselves.
Until one day, we realized that Pandrax wasn't Pandrax any longer. Our beautiful, lush planet had been turned into one large city with polluted waters and air. Children were being raised in apartments and never got to play in any water that wasn't a pool, never got to climb trees, and never showedmuch of an interest in becoming anybody or anything. Instead they preferred to stay at home, watch artificial holomovies, or played hologames instead of engaging in real games with other children or exercising swordplay.
It took our archenemy, the Moggadesh almost defeating us, and a depleted army, to realize that we were walking the wrong path.
The emperor at the time declared that the empire, by then having grown to over fifty planets strong, be divided into five protectorates. Each lord protector was responsible to bring his domain back to the old ways, a ratio of land to person was established, and it was ruled that no more than one person could live per hectare on each planet. Since most planets were already beyond that measure, the lord protectors quickly expanded their protectorates by moving their citizens to new colonies on previously uninhabited planets.
It wasn't easy moving back from the wonders and conveniences modern technology offered, tearing down sprawling buildings housing hundreds of families, but now, some thousand years later, us lord protectors were the keepers of traditions, which we defended against all planetary enemies.
The Superior Imperial Forces were also established. They fought our enemies in space and on hostile planetswith their high-tech gear, protecting the empire with their renown military, headed by my friend Xandros.
Pandraxians were given a choice when they came of age, embrace the new or the old Pandraxian Empire and whichever path they chose, led them to their destiny. It was rather beautiful watching the two come together, connected but existing separately. It was a harmonious symbiosis, where one world wouldn't be able to exist without the other.
The Old World fed and clothed the New World, while the New World gave us safety and security.
Honestly intrigued, Silla looked at me. "Your world sounds fascinating."
"I can't wait to show it to you," I promised.
She snuggled into me, the best feeling in the universe. Protectively and proprietarily, I put my arm around her, held her.
For a while we just lay there, relishing in each other's nearness, until her head popped up. "The others, they don't have this, do they?"
It took me a moment to realize she was talking about her and me and the other humans housed aboard my ship.
"They're well taken care of," I assured her, remembering I promised to take her to them after breakfast. "Do you still want to go see them?"
She nodded vigorously.
A jolt of pride rushed through me, her resolve was far removed from the merrily I had rescued. The merrily I had rescued had been scared to death, a mere shadow of herself, but awakening in my arms was a strong, courageous merrily. I had been given a glimpse of it when she interrupted Daryus and my conversation, thinking Daryus was actually about to demote me. I couldn't wait to get to know her even better to discover all the facets hidden inside her.
Her fragile side had brought out my protective instincts, her courageousness my pride. From the moment I laid eyes on her she had brought out the best in me. I felt as if I wasn't just discovering her, but myself as well. This brought my earlier thoughts back about her being my mekarry. History said that, back when we still searched for our mekarries, they would bring a couple's best qualities out, compliment each other in ways previously unknown.
As my heart warmed and my soul expanded toward her, I wished there was somebody I could ask what it felt like to find one's mekarry. Which only served to drive home my utter failure as a lord protector to not have realized what we had lost. And I swore that, next to pushing a meeting of the gods between the Cryons and us, I would rectify the lack of mekarry bonds inour society.
Silla still stared at me expectantly and I remembered the question that had started this avalanche of emotions inside me. "We can go now if you wish."
She looked trepidatious but determined, and I admired her spirit even more. Here she was, having gone through hell already, having found a safe haven, but instead of curling up and just savoring it, she thought of others who weren't as lucky as her. I wasn't sure she knew this, but she was a born leader.
True to his word,after a shower, getting dressed, and having some more breakfast, Garth accompanied me to the med sector first. Thankfully only a handful of humans were there, none of them seriously injured as Meloch informed us. He was running tests on them to establish baselines for any treatment that might become necessary.
"Hopefully soon we will discover the means to return you back to normal as well." He winked at me.
