All Men Are Brothers (Maintenance, Possible Mature Themes)

[Roania]

Would she have done it again if she had known?

That was an interesting question to ask right now. By all accounts she should have known. But let's step back a few months.

***

Maolong was the third son of a merchant's family from Hanxin Prefecture. Being the third son, nothing much had been expected of him. His parents had been distantly delighted when he had hit upon the idea of joining the Fleet. His father had even found funding to purchase his way into the Admiralty Officer Academy. Everything had been going smoothly.

Then had come the accident. And regardless of what the Auditors had said, it had been an accident. They had taken every precaution...

***

"Ow!" She had nicked herself in a sensitive spot with one of her nails. She needed to be more careful. Where had she been...

***

Right, the accident. What had the auditors said? 'Excessive lack of caution leading to unfortunate consequences'. Excessive lack of caution fiddlesticks. They hadn't known that water was the triggering mechanism. No one had told them. At least, he hadn't remembered anyone telling them at the time, and none of their teachers had come forward to say they had provided that information during the investigation. It had seemed entirely natural for their cadet commander, Jun Jeifu, to direct them to spray the fire with water...

Poor Jun Jeifu. He had lost his position, his commission, and his right arm. Gone home in disgrace after the Audit. Lucky not to have been executed, according to the Military Procurator.

Maolong had been lucky. For a given value of lucky. He had only cracked three of his ribs and suffered burst eardrums. Not that he remembered any of it. Just the sound of the explosion and then blackness. He had come to in the Hospital, confused and deaf. It had taken weeks for them to restore his hearing, and his own commission had been revoked by the Auditors as part of the clean-up process. Not that he had argued overmuch. At least they had left him his honor as a Fourth-Class Veteran. But it had been a cruel end to his hopes.

And then they had come. From the Seers' Guild. "We have a recruiting shortage," they had told him. "Are you still willing to do your part for the Empire?" It had seemed preposterous at the time. He had rejected the idea utterly. His parents thought otherwise, though. Seers received the benefits of a First-Class Veteran, and their families were granted the rights of of the minor nobility. His mother had requested the pamphlet be left at his bedside table, where he had read it three times.

Maolong didn't know why he had finally agreed. Perhaps it had been family pressure. Or perhaps it had been his desire to serve the Sovereign (Ten Thousand Years to the Lord of Ten Thousand Years!) in the Fleet, even in a different capacity. But things had happened quite quickly once he had agreed. He had been (carefully) transported from the hospital to the Crystal Grotto, where he had been taken in hand personally by the Mistress of the Guild. They had gone over the whole thing with him five times. Asked him five times if he was comfortable with the sacrifice he was making for the Sovereign (Ten Thousand Years to the Lord of Ten Thousand Years!). And truth be told, he hadn't been.

***

She ran the soap over her breast. She was still fascinated by them, especially by the rouged tips that led her way. And by the blue crystal that sat above and between them, resting on her collarbone, etched in silver. She touched it, and... mmmm... the energy that passed through her, the life energy of the ship and all aboard it... was like a massage.

***

His last night as a man had been incredible. Each of the Seers' Matrons had been to his room, to show him what he was giving up and what he was gaining. It would have been a night to remember, had the morning not been what it was.

They had led him, naked, to the grotto, and presented him with a crystal. He had been the only man there, but that hadn't lasted. He was asked one last time if he was willing to devote himself and all he was, and he had agreed. And then it had happened. They had told him where he could put his crystal, but he had always known. In the movies, the seers always wore their crystal at their collarbone, and that was where he had put his.

She didn't remember the next few minutes as more than a range of sensations. Her body changing, softening, shrinking, developing. Again, blackness and awakening in a strange bed. With a new name, 'Maofeng, and a new body to match. Sensitive. Highly sensitive. It was a day before she could leave her bed and join her new sisters at classes.

There were fewer classes than she had expected. At least, fewer classes for becoming a seer. She had had other classes. Classes the other girls had gone through, but she hadn't. She was a good student, though. And she quickly learned all that was expected of her. By her second month, she had unlearned her male education and was fully confident of herself as a woman. Her mother had been so proud of the new daughter, and she had been so proud of herself.

Becoming a woman had been easy. Becoming a seer had been easier. There was little to be taught to her, who had already been through the academy. The rest of her job would come when she bonded with the ship's crystal, and the ship would teach her what it needed from her.

She had graduated, finally. And that was where she had met him.

***

He had been an officer from the Eridani Imperium, a naval exchange officer. Taking command of the 'zho quán de dí rén de yong héng hé píng', a cruiser. Handsome (she had not expected herself to feel that way, but she had. The sight of him had sent fire burning through her body), strong, confident. Halfdan had walked along the assembled ranks of the girls, ready to choose for his first command, and stopped in front of her. There had been a conversation.Between him and the mistress. No doubt discussing her past.

"Min svass," He called her. "Are you ready?" His voice had been like butter. She had not expected her body's reaction; as if it knew him already, as if it wanted him already. She had fought it down and agreed that she was prepared to serve the Empire as his Seer. The decision was made. She would be his. In more than one way. That had been obvious to both of them.

He waited for her now, on her bed. She peeked out the door. He was reading reports, but he was waiting for her. It had been a long journey to this moment for Maofeng, but the next steps she would walk side by side with him.

[Roania]

Xiao was a prince. In fact, Xiao was the Prince. He was heir to the Empire. One of the most important boys in the galaxy. But, at his age, all of it was rather the same to him. What was important to him was that his pet had vanished. "Mother! Have you seen Boba?" Boba was an eiken, one of the Kadrian pigs that had become so popular as pets in the Empire the past few years. Boba had been Prince Xiao's closest companion since he was very young indeed.

Arya flicked her tail. "No, Xiao, but I'm sure he's somewhere in the gardens. If you haven't found him soon, I'll help you look for him."

Xiao followed his mother's directions. He looked all over the gardens of the imperial apartment.

He looked by the turtle pond, where the palace's giant turtle looked at the young boy with something akin to curiousity.

He looked by the PaiMei nest, where the resident PaiMei chittered at him.

Xiao looked everywhere, but he didn't find Boba. But he did find an open door, probably left open by the palace gardeners. And it was through this door that the young crown prince passed.

***

The Imperial Palace is 11 square kilometers. Most of it is parkland, linked by grand covered avenues that connect the throneroom with the library and other important locations. A young eiken is 40 centimeters long and weighs roughly 6.5 kilograms. Finding one in the entire space of the palace would be serendipitous, to say the least. Except for one small thing. Eiken tend to be lazy, and like curling up in warm rays of sun on the grass almost as much as they like exploring new places. And there was only one way for both Xiao and the Eiken to go.

So it only took Prince Xiao's random wandering fifteen minutes down the covered hallway before he found an exit, and in the small garden there he found his absent pet. "Boba!" The little boy came running to his pet.

"SWI SWINUB SWI!" came the answer, as the eiken bounced up and into his arms. Boba didn't care that it splattered mud everywhere, and neither did Xiao. The two of them fell into the muddy grass and began rolling over.

"Let's go explore." Xiao said after they spent a few minutes together.

***

Xiao didn't understand why there was a big fuss. So what if he and Boba had discovered the kitchens? And so what if they had eaten all the sweet dumplings? And so what if no one else had known where they were, meaning that something called a 'general alert' had gone out to the guards?

That didn't mean his mother needed to yell at him. Or that he couldn't sleep with Boba that night. That wasn't very fair at all!

[Roania]

The Great Secretary for Guidance today announced a reform of the Imperial Education System, the first such reform in thirteen hundred and thirty five years. Full translated text follows.

Order of the Great Secretary for Guidance
Fifth Year of the Jianlong Era
1895 Temple Reckoning
萬年到一萬年之主

Be It Known That in the Name of The Sovereign (Ten Thousand Years to the Lord of Ten Thousand Years):

There is to be a change in the curriculum used to educate the children in the care of the Secretariat of Guidance.
These changes are as follows:

Full Formal Dancing is to be removed from the core curriculum and replaced with an expanded focus on the physical sciences for students entering the pre-adult classes. The set text will be Caius Steelhelm's 'Integrated Physical Science', under license from the Eridani Imperium, until such time as the Secretariat has finished its own texts.

Formal training in poise and awareness is to be cut in half and performed under the rubrics of Shao Cinqen's 'New Model For Yin and Yang'. The time thus freed will be used in enhanced mathematical education in order to free employers of the need to train graduates in specialized arithmetical theory. This change is in accordance with the Sovereign's (Ten Thousand Years to the Lord of Ten Thousand Years) desire to encourage children to better meet the challenges of the 20th century.

Students currently prepared to graduate this year under the preceding obligations will be allowed to pursue an expedited course that Secretariat staff believes will instill the primary resources over the course of the year. Additional tutoring and education will be available over the summer. The Sovereign (Ten Thousand Years to the Lord of Ten Thousand Years) expects that all students will pass this year, regardless of changes to the curriculum.

Resources and teacher's guides will be available to teachers and staff. Training will take place over the upcoming summer months. It is to be expected that at the beginning of the new semester all secretariat staff will be able to meet their obligations.

---

Response to the new changes has been mixed. Many businesses are welcoming the change as it will allow them to lower expenses on further education of new employees.

[Roania]

"Everyth'n de light teruches is us kingdom." Hargog was not, by the standards of his people (and what low standards they were, but that's besides the point), a bad person. He tried to be a good father to his six calves. He had never gored someone who had not deserved it, and he had only once eaten someone, and that only because he was really, really hungry.

"Cor, really?"

"A chief's time as ruler rises and falls like de crant bun. One dee, god-forbids, de crant bun wul set ed me time e'yer, and wul rise wi' one o' yous as de nicked chief." Hargog was a gog. Or, to be more precise, Hargog was the Gog. Chief of the Gog tribe of the Vr'ak, the fat walrus people that ruled the icy planet of Hwandoncao, in the Lleofnawdy sector of the Purple Dragon Enclosure. And today, he was introducing his children to their future responsibilities.

"And this wul all be mine?" His eldest son, Maigog, looked around in awe. "Dat is, if Am de chief?"

"Everyth'n." Hargog rumbled, approvingly. That was what he wanted to see. Greed. Greed was, second to weight, the most important virtue the Gogs taught their children; children needed to know to take what was theirs, or else they'd never make it in the winter.

"Everyth'n de light teruches... wa' about dat shadowy place?" His firstborn, his daughter, Liagog pointed down across the way. Her siblings looked the same way. There was a shadowy place, where the distant light of Hwandoncao's red sun barely touched.

"Yeah, wa' about it?"

"Is dat os tew?"

"Dat is beyond us borders. Yous must na bowl thuz." Hargog considered this sentence, then added to it, "Else I'll belt yous one." He idly reached out and in a paternal fashion clouted the nearest child around the ear hole. Since Vr'ak have absurdly thick heads, this was registered as little more than a friendly pat. "Ay 'ope yer listen'n."

"Yis, da." The calves all said in unison.

"'ey, a basil belly la'! Yer brother's e'yer!" Came the call from down below, in the igloo town where the gogs lived. Hargog's chief wife, who weighed nearly 400 stone, stood there, her flabby hands on her hips. "Didn't yous wanna meet 'im? Bright, stop play'n around and get down e'yer!"

"Or'rite, ay wul be rite down, love." Hargog looked around his children, chose one at random, and clipped him around the ears. "Wa' ay you's lot stand'n around fe? Yer uncle's e'yer. Let's bowl!"


Very few of the vr'ak made their way from their icy worlds. There had been their first licensed colony on the planet Chìmim’anail, and since then other tribes had migrated to other worlds, but most of the vra'k lived much as their grandfathers did. And then there was... "Inugog!"

"Big kidda!"

The two bulls ran at each other at top speed, and collided with a slap that resounded off the nearby cliffs and caused small avalanches. As was traditional, Hargog gave his little brother a face punching that didn't even leave a bruise, and Inugog slapped his big brother across the belly a few times, before they locked tusks and wrestled. When the ceremonial obligations were met, Hargog helped Inugog to his feet. "Yous 'uv gottun soft." The chief said approvingly.

"Nah, nah, not as much as yous." Inugog patted his brother's massive belly approvingly. "Whuz ay de god-forbids?" His niece and nephew waved from behind their observing mothers. Inugog gasped. "Gerron yous lot, you're all so 'eavy!"

"Ta, unkill!" They chorused. "Wa' did yous br'n us?"

"And dee ay so greedy! Kidda, yous did a sound as a pound job rais'n dem." Inugog felt in his travel bag for a few minutes, then produced his bounty. There were buckets, spinning tops, and a pile of Reixanxi sweet candies. The younglings immediately squealed in approval and jumped upon the presents, and promptly began fighting eachother for the best bucket ( a shiny red one).

"Nah, nah, me wives deserve all de credit. Dee raised de liddle ones rite." Hargog slapped his brother on the shoulder, then waited for the pounds of fat to stop rolling. "Come inside and tell us about yer big job as a scuffer, why dun yous?"


"Bright, as ay said in me ledder, ay made captain." Inugog said later, over a massive mound of fish and a roaring fire. "De pointies, dey say dat ay am a credit ter me uniform and tree times as effective as a brick wall, because ay tinnie grab dem dat needs grabb'n."

"Da' always said yous would be sound as a pound at anyth'n yous set yer mind ter." Hargog said, approvingly. "Ay 'ope you're show'n de fairies 'ow a proper fella deals wi' 'ewks."

"Thuz wuz some up ther shute around me knock'n a 'ole in wall, but dee said it doesn't matti because 'de prisoner confessed once 'e woke up'." The Gog tribe nodded approvingly. That was how you were meant to deal with lawbreakers. Find the nearest wall and throw them into it. It was good to see the fairies understood how it worked as well as proper people, even if they were disappointingly skinny. "De commissioner said dat so long as dee wake up eventually, ay should be allowed ter do things de way ay think."

"'ow is dat feller o' yos? gain'n weight, ay 'ope."

"Oh, yis, eez nearly as big as one o' us now. 'e wanted ter come, but 'e needed ter blimp afti Corporal Fozzington. 'e sends 'is best, 'e does."

[Roania]

The Jianlong Emperor sat on his throne and was bored. It had seemed a good idea at the beginning of his reign to allow people to come to his palace and hold an interview with him, but lately it had been wearing. People didn't come to him with problems, they just wanted to say that they had seen him. And lately, it had all been nobles and other influential people, again seeking the glory of his presence just so they could say they had been there. It wasn't what he had had in mind, and he was already planning to change things.

But that still left him with today. What to do about today? His august attention wavered, until it rested on the soft brown lump that quivered cheerfully next to him. His son's pet Eiken, Boba, poked two dark eyes up at him and wriggled. "Swi?" Ordinarily, the Emperor would have pushed Boba off the throne, since he wasn't meant to be there. Boba did not understand this, though. Apparently Eiken liked jumping onto chairs, which didn't make much sense, since they didn't have much in the way of legs. "Swi nub nub." The Eiken pushed his way onto the Emperor's lap and began to purr.

[Roania]

Working in the smithies of Dai-Yan was normally fairly easy. The smiths worked on the crystals which grew from the grotto, turning them into all the equipment that the Empire needed. However, this was not an ordinary day. This was a training day, where junior smiths would take on their first challenges. "STUDENTS! RAISE YOUR HAMMERS! HIYAH!" The aproned blacksmith raised his own hammer and brought it down upon a piece of metal, that rang around the room. The students had trained for years to be allowed this far. They took up positions at anvils around the room and waited.

There was a sound at the back of the room, and several black lumpy creatures emerged from a hole. They were shaped like pieces of coal, with one orange eye and a wheel at their base. The lead smith hit his piece of metal several more times. "YOU ARE HONORED. THE FATHER HAS SEEN FIT TO SEND HIS CHILDREN TO WATCH YOU WHILE YOU WORK!" The wheeled pieces of coal fanned out around the room, keeping an eye on the junior smiths.

An attendant walked around the room, handing out shimmering rainbow crystals to each student smith. At a nod from the overseer, the students began to carefully work on the crystal, shaping them into the simplest of crystal creations, batteries. The head smith joined the tandons on their patrol around the room, shouting as he went. "LOOK INTO THE CRYSTAL. SEE ITS DESIRE TO MATCH THE SHAPE!"

One of the students was less confident than the others, and banged his hammer into the crystal. The crystal immediately began to vibrate and let out a soft, keening note. Immediately the tandons rushed over and began to run into the student's ankles and shins with their hard, coal-black bodies. When the student fell over, they began to roll over him in tight circles. When other students attempted to interfere, the little black creatures knocked them over too. Soon, half the class was under the wheels of tandons. One of the tandons, though, picked up speed and used a student as a ramp, ending up on the table. It began to nudge and press the injured crystal, which changed the crystal's tone slightly.

Eventually the teacher made his way through the mob of tandons and fallen students and picked up the injured crystal, which he placed on the floor. The tandons stopped running over the students and moved to look after the crystal, rolling around it and pressing against it. Eventually they picked it up and wheeled it off back into the hole at the back of the room. "AND THAT IS WHY YOU SHOULD BE CAREFUL WITH THE CRYSTAL! THE FATHER CRYSTAL IS ALWAYS WATCHING WHILE WE WORK."

[Roania]

It was the fashion, at the moment, to go out with one's breasts exposed. Not entirely exposed, of course. That wouldn't be fashionable, it would be uncouth. But to go sleeveless, to have simple bands across the chest leaving underbreast and cleavage visible, along with the entirety of the side of the breast? That was high fashion, this summer. It was, in a way, military chic. Seers dressed in much the same way, copious amounts of skin bared so they could feel every radiation of the crystal and respond as if it were their own body. Perhaps the trend started from a picture of a seer in the newspaper, and spread from there. But that was life in the big city. Today it was breasts. Next week it could be hips, or hair, or feet.

"Stop staring!" Came the peremptory order from a father to his young son. He'd come in from Loyan, a small village in the hinterland of the continent because of an error with the allocation forms, and the boy had been brought along as a special treat. Something the father was now regretting. He hustled his son along the road, keeping his own eyes firmly locked on the road ahead.

Lin Wuying tried, for a few minutes, to keep to his father's orders. Only thirteen years old, the limited education he'd received in adult matters at the prefectural school had not prepared him for this. Not only was the city so big and full of people that it dwarfed his comprehension, but the people who lived in it seemed so different that they may as well have been barbarians. What seemed strangest to him was the attitude of the other boys and men, who seemed to accept the half-nudity of the female population as if it was normal, whereas for Lin Wuying it was probably the greatest sight of his young life. So distracted was he that he nearly stumbled on his own feet, something most Roanians grow out of in early childhood. He hadn't known girls could dress like this. Breathing seemed harder for a moment, and he was grateful for his robes.

"Honestly, the Watch should do something about this. It's immoral." His father was saying in some other universe. "Come on, boy, this is the place." They stopped before a gate decorated with the golden characters 库务秘书处. "Should have taken a car."

[Roania]

"Muqin! Little brother is drooling again!" Xiong Wang called from the back of the cart to her mother, who was busy with choosing vegetables for that night's dinner. Xiong Yuan was, indeed, quite happily outputting a quantity of drool that would put the Great Red Dam to shame. Aware that he was being spoken about, or at least aware that he had been called, the infant shook his rattle and drooled harder.

"Leave him alone, eldest daughter," was their mother's tolerant reply. "Everything will be washed before we eat it, anyway." She barely looked back over her shoulder from her argument with the stall's dealer. "I'll pay 60 wen for this broccoli." She indicated the stalks with the broad leaves she'd placed in the basket. The vendor shook his head and held up two fingers for two belts, or 120 wen. "90, then." The vendor shrugged and nodded. "Great." The mother went through her purse and found a rope with three thirty-wen coins tied on, then paid the vendor and moved on. "What do you think Fuqin will like tonight?"

"Duck!" Xiong Wang sang happily.

"Duck? We had duck a month ago. How about we pick up some catfish?" With the broccoli and the rice they'd purchased, some fish would do for the household without costing too much. Much less than duck, which could go for 300 wen for a portion. For the entire family, that would be well over a cash, which was an awful expenditure when there was no special occasion for celebration.

"I want duck!" Xiong Wang shouted, drawing eyes from all over the marketplace.

"Eldest daughter, you are embarrassing me in public." The mother hissed. "Do not be so loud, or the people will think I am incapable of raising my children." She would have given her daughter a smack, but the length of the cart interposed between them. Still, Xiong Wang went quiet. "Now, while I get the catfish, why do you not go to the music stall and spend the money your grandmother shouldn't have given you? I will be at the fish stall."

"Yes, Muqin!" The girl gave her mother a hurried bow and rushed off down the market's halls to find the music stand. It wasn't particularly difficult to find, since it was loud enough to be heard over the market's own classically piped music. The crowd wasn't so bad as to prevent Xiong Wang from making progress, though she hesitated when she saw she would be the youngest customer at the table.

Ahead of her were two other girls. Though they'd object to the term. They, doubtless, would have preferred the term 'young women'. They wore their young miss robes tight about their hips and chest to show off the development that separated them from mere 'girls', though in reality there was little enough of that. Still, Xiang Wang felt awkward in her tunic and leggings. "We want the latest from Ten Thousand Musical Musings Sending The Heart Soaring Upon The Strains Of Five Guitars. On crystal." Xiang Wang actually recognized them. They were two years ahead of her at the prefectural school.

The vendor at this stall didn't seem impressed with the adolescents in front of him, however Xiang Wang felt. "750 wen." He held out his hand for the amount.

"600 wen." The leading young woman said, holding her purse back.

"Alright, 780 wen."

"What?!" The girl said, taken aback. "630 wen."

"Are you going to waste my time? There are other customers waiting." Xiang Wang very much wanted to hide at this point

"She's just some kid from school." The other young woman said. They both leaned forward, trying out moves from a video they must have seen. "How about 660 wen?"

"You aren't old enough to get my attention." The vendor spat on the ground. "Play grown-up somewhere else." The response was two shrieks of mutual frustration. "I'll go down to 720 wen, and that's my floor. Now, hurry up. Are you buying or are you playing games?" There was nothing they could do but pay his price. XIang Wang stepped forward next, nervous. The cash coin that weighed in her purse suddenly felt very heavy. "What do you want?"

"She probably wants some little girl music." One of the young women said. "Like Teshu de Yang." They both laughed.

Xiang Wang's cheeks went red. That was what she had been intending to purchase, but now she felt like she had to be mature. "I'll get the latest from Ten Thousand Musical Musings Sending The Heart Soaring Upon The Strains Of Five Guitars, too." She produced the cash coin from her purse, running her fingers over the gold and silver and holding it out. That shut them up. "For 720 wen."

"For you, little miss, I'll do 690." The vendor said, running up the purchase on his register. He held out his hand for the coin. Suddenly, though, Xiang Wang felt very diffident about giving up her treasure. She withdrew her hand and looked around nervously. One cash was a lot of money. More money than she had ever seen in her life. It had been exciting when her grandmother had given it to her as a special mid-spring gift. "Well?" Eventually she handed the coin over. "On crystal or disc?"

Her parents didn't have an expensive crystal player, so that was an easy decision. "Disc!"

"Then that's cheaper still." The vendor said, as if he was explaining things to a slow person. "Only 600 wen." She didn't say anything as he gave her her change of 600 wen, which was still more money than she had ever had before. "You shouldn't be so quick to accept prices given to you. Didn't your mother teach you to haggle?" He indicated the young women still hanging around. "Their mothers didn't teach them anything, obviously." This was too much for the older girls. They stuck up their noses and walked away. "Do you really want this album?"

"Ummm..." Xiang Wang didn't know how to answer him, and shifted from leg to leg uncertainly.

"How about this, little miss. If you don't like it, come back this week and trade it in with me." He handed over the flat case. "Off with you, now."

Xiang Wang nodded and ran off, hoping to find the fishmonger. It wasn't that hard, since it was by far the smelliest stall at the market. Rows and rows of fish lay there in ice, along with shellfish. Her mother was busy turning pieces of fish over and letting her fingers be sucked on by her little brother. "I'm back!"

"That's nice, darling. Did you get what you wanted?"

"Um... yes." And she still had 600 wen left! That was the incredible part. "Did you find any catfish?"

"I think so. Will you do 300 wen for these?"

"450." The vendor said, disdainfully.

"330?" Her mother asked, hopefully.

"420."

"360?" The vendor's eyes flickered momentarily, but he shook his head. "390?"

"Alright. 390 wen."

Her mother sighed and went into her purse, but Xiang Wang was faster with her strings of wen coins. "I'll pay!"

"Eldest daughter, that isn't necessary." Her mother put her hand down. "That's very nice of you, though."

"But I want to pay!" She offered the strings of coin to the vendor, who happily took them and gave her her 210 wen in change.

"Such a charming child." The vendor said. "You must be proud."

"At times." Her mother said. "Come along, eldest daughter. We'll tell Fuqin that you helped pay for dinner."

[Roania]

Bannerman Jun Hijo wiped his forehead of the sweat that was rapidly accumulating. It made no measurable difference. "I hate this posting. Here we are, at the arse-end of the Empire, trying to bring civilization to the natives, and what do we get for it? Two cash a week and no women to spend it on. Chow." He played his tile and stared up at the metal ceiling of the hut. "What I would give to see a woman." The 4th Army of the 7th Banner had been stationed on Alahelo for three months now, and would continue to be stationed there for another nine months. Alahelo was a jungle world where even the frequent rains were no relief from the night heat. It was one of the least popular postings in the Empire.

"The locals have women. Or I assume those are women. Uh... pass." Bannerman Chuk Hyuk discarded his tile and selected a new one from the wall. "Dammit." Alahelo's natives were tall, emaciated, bony creatures that spent far too long hanging upside down in trees for the taste of civilized peoples. The only discernible difference between males and females was that the females were smaller and slightly curvier. A far cry from the lush feminine proportion that decent Roanian men expected.

The third player stared down at his tiles. "His Majesty smiles on me." He said in a distant, metallic voice. He waved his hand across his mask and its expression turned to smiling. Yaza Phyo Zeya Thuta played all his tiles. "Mahjong." The Myaari turned his blank, white, smiling face upon all his companions. "I will take your bets now, for there is no doubt that I am the winner." The three other players dug into their purses for change under his watchful gaze. All of them paid up. "Splendid. Shall we play another hand?"

"In a moment, Yaza." Jun Hijo looked around the hut. "Has anyone seen Corporal Nmmr?" The Nmmr had left the recreation hut fifteen minutes ago to run a message to the company chaplain. He should have been back by now. There was silence around the room as everyone disclaimed knowledge of the missing Corporal. "Great. That cat could get lost walking across an open field. I suppose one of us should go looking for him."

[Roania]

"Officer down!" Patrolman Du Shui shouted into his radio. "Officer down!" He took shelter behind the solidly built police palanquin. A few rounds chipped paint off the wall, but the criminals had no more luck than that. They'd already hit his partner, a lucky shot that had hit Ye Lan and laid him out in the dirt, bleeding from a gut wound. Du Shui peered over the top and wished for better armor. "Repeat! Officer down!" It had been a simple raid, at least until Le Yan had checked behind the stasis chamber and discovered the foil-wrapped rows of dark chocolate. They had been lucky to get as far as they had when the smugglers had turned on them.

"Hold out for two minutes. An Armed Response Unit is inbound!" Came the crackly reply over the radio. People screamed and ran for cover as the smugglers fired on the palanquin again, not caring that market day was ongoing. Du Shui could hear the sirens in the distance, gradually going closer. He just had to hold out? He could do that.

Du Shui switched his radio to megaphone and shouted into it. "All civilians clear the area!" Not that he needed to bother. The civilians were already running to cover, those that weren't hiding behind market stalls. He directed his next comment to the smugglers. "This is your last chance to surrender peacefully." A round ricocheted off the palanquin and Du Shui cursed. At least he was blocking their route of escape. They couldn't get out without getting past him, and he'd know their faces if they ran. And they realized it.

There was the sound of feet rapidly approaching. The smugglers were redeploying. "Get that watchman!" An ugly, scarred smuggler with a shotgun rounded the palanquin. Unfamiliar with the weapon, he didn't have it in the ready position to fire. This gave Du Shui a chance to attack. The watchman swept the smuggler off his feet with his leg, then stamped down on the criminal's hands to make him let go of the firearm. Not that it would do much good. The other smugglers were armed with hunting rifles and pistols. Even with the shotgun, they had the range on him and he didn't have the armor to close to a good range. "Where's that back-up?"

"Here, officer!" Another palanquin hovered over the battlefield, and armored figures rappelled down from it. Bursts of gunfire followed with them, cutting down criminals who weren't fast enough to take cover. ARU Officers took the warehouse by storm, killing or capturing the smugglers indifferently. Dressed in armor, they had little to fear from the enemy. The fight was over in moments.

Du Shui made his way to his fallen partner, who was being tended to by an ARU medic. "Le Yan?" But there was nothing to be said.

[Roania]

The Seer was the typical product of the Guild. Tall, curvy, beautiful, with bright blue eyes and bright blue hair, she was one of those Seers that chose to wear her crystal at her navel, decorated with a dangling silver chain that rang when she moved. She and her escorts were returning to the Gilded Light of the Revered Stars from the surface of the planet 殖民地8923471, where she had inspected the site where the Planetary Crystal would be implanted. "What do you think of the planet?" She asked as she wrapped her blindfold back around her head.

The Lieutenant of Marines had been staring at her, but when she spoke he stiffened slightly and rose to his full height. "It seems like it would be a good home for our people, ma'am." He said, moving his eyes away from her breasts. This became more difficult as she opened her robe and dropped it back to the ground, returning to her ship-clothes, a blue bra and pantie set that she wore in order to feel the contact between the ship crystal and her body. He reached across the space between them and put his hand on top of hers. "When we get back to the ship, how about we go to the canteen together?"

The Seer laughed and looked him up and down with her other senses. She smiled her bright white smile. "Well... perhaps." She twined her fingers with his and smiled again. "That might be fun." She stuck her tongue out.

But when the shuttle entered the ship, a rare occurrence happened. A meteor also entered the shuttlebay and exploded, sending a shockwave through the ship. And more meteors followed, impacting on the ship's hull and shields

***

"What was that?" Captain So Rui asked his bridge team as alarm klaxons rang and red lights flashed. The captain was nearly 200 years old, crusty and tough. He'd served three Emperors and wore the scars of his service proudly.

"We're not sure, sir." Came the report from his second-in-command. "Everything's going wild. The crystal's not talking to us." The commander turned his attention back to his command desk. "Get a team to the shuttlebay immediately! That's where everything came from!" It only took five minutes for the team to get there and report back. The commander swallowed and turned to the Captain. "Sir, the Seer's dead, and we're still being..." an impact took him out of his words and rocked the ship from side to side. "Shields are down!"

***

The command team of an imperial warship consists of six people. The Captain, the Commander, the Chief Engineer, the Helmsman, the Lieutenant of Marines and the Seer. With two of those people dead, the meeting at the command center was necessarily light on cheer. The ship was running on its back-up reactor, and the conference room was lit by red lamps.

"We're receiving reports of damage from across the ship. Luckily, critical systems are still online for now, but we don't know how long that will last." The Chief Engineer wasn't happy to be reporting this. The Gilded Light was one of the most modern ships in the Navy and his place onboard was the culmination of a long and distinguished career aboard many other ships. It was a disaster that such a disaster had taken place on his watch. "We're dead in space unless we can get the crystal back up and running."

The Commander wasn't happy, either. "We've lost 30% of the crew to the accident, and our marine detachment is down to just three men. The shuttle bay is unusable, and we've had to vacuum seal it off. There are breaches along the hull." The Commander was relatively young. This was his second posting in the navy and his first time on an exploratory mission. Returning home under these circumstances would damage his career. Assuming he could get home. "We have shield breaches across the port side and we've received hull damage and lost engine #5. An investigation is ongoing to determine how our sensor-net failed to catch the incoming meteors, but there's really no one to blame right now. Just an accident."

The Captain stroked his thin, wispy white beard. "What are our options? Can we access the web?"

"If Jin Zhi was still alive, I'd recommend we use the key and head back to base. But with no seer and an uncooperative crystal, we're stuck. I wouldn't try to scuttle with our ship damaged like this." The helmsman offered his report, then sat back on his chair. "Our long-range communications engines are down with the crystal."

"So, our first order of business is to attend to the crystal."

***

Ordinarily, only the Captain and invited guests were permitted to enter the Crystal Suite. But these were far from ordinary circumstances. The command crew followed the Captain back to the bridge and down the stairs, past the crystal key. So Rui entered his override key and the door opened for them.

Seers had broad personal latitude in how their quarters looked. The late Jin Zhi had set up boxes of flowers to decorate her room, and the heady scent of the blossoms filled the air. Her mat lay against the wall. A few scattered articles of clothing lay about the room. There was also a small stone basin that had served her as a terminal. The water ordinarily would have glowed with power, but now it was dead and dull. Of Jin Zhi's personal effects, nothing was evident. Presumably they were stored in the shelves around the room.

Opposite the door they entered was another door, and they crossed the floor carefully to reach it. Again the Captain entered his override code on the pad. There was a moment of hesitation, but the door opened for them. They entered the crystal grotto respectfully. The crystal stood on a wooden podium set in a small pond that continually circulated and refreshed itself through the fountains at each corner of the room. Its sheer size had an effect on them. They could feel the radiation of the crystal, but it wasn't as strong as it should have been. Its blue glow also seemed sickly and pale, and spots of it were dull and lusterless

"That's no good. It's fading," said the chief engineer, skimming his hands through the water. "I've never felt the crystal flow as weak as this. If we don't get this sorted, we'll lose the crystal field and start getting cases of Space Sickness."

"Honorable crystal, how may we help you?" The Captain stepped forward and bowed.

THERE IS A BREACH IN MY WATER LINE

"What?!" Said the chief engineer. "Tell me where, and I'll have the team fix it immediately."

LEFT VENTRICLE

The Chief Engineer hurried out of the room to get men into voidsuits in order to repair the ship. That left the Helmsman, the Commander, and the Captain. "Is there anything else we can do for you?"

I AM DYING. I FELT THE TASTE OF DEATH FROM MY SEER, AND IT SPREADS INSIDE ME

The Captain closed his eyes. This was the worst case scenario. And there wasn't much he could do. Except... "What if we gave you a new seer?"

I WOULD GIVE SOME OF MY LIFE TO THAT SEER

"Captain, we don't have any women onboard to become a Seer." The Commander said, shaking his head.

"There is another way." The Captain said, softly. "We just need a volunteer." The Captain turned back to the crystal. "Isn't that right? A man can become a Seer. You'd change him into a young woman so he could serve the role just as well."

"It might be our best way back home." The helmsman said. "With a Seer, we could use the crystal key to access the network and head back to Rudan."

"Well, we can ask for volunteers." The Commander said. "Someone will agree."

"I will do it." The captain said, quietly. "I cannot ask one of my men to do something I would refuse to do. And if I would be willing to do it, then I may as well do it."

"But Captain..." the Commander said. "You'd be giving up your life."

"I'd be saving the life of my crew. There is no greater honor."

IF YOU ARE WILLING, THEN I WILL CONCENTRATE MY LIFE IN A CRYSTAL FOR YOU TO USE

The remaining portions of the crystal's glow began to concentrate at the end of one of the crystal's limbs. After a moment it broke off. The Captain picked up the crystal and held it at arm's length. The rest of the crystal paled and shrank in on itself, but the gem he held retained its blue energy.

Hold me to your breast and the power will transform you

The Captain nodded. "Alright. Commander Chen, you have the ship. With the crystal gone, we'll start experiencing Space Sickness as the radiation drops down, so..."

"I know. I'll start passing out the magnetic rings. But Captain, are you sure you want to do this?"

"I'm an old man, Chen. Let me serve the Emperor one last time."

***

So Rui looked at himself in the mirror one last time. He had worn this face and body for 200 years, and it was hard to believe that in just a few minutes it would be changed beyond recognition.

Are you afraid, Daughter-To-Be?

He felt the words more than heard them. They echoed from the crystal he held in his hand. Daughter-To-Be, eh?

You will be my finest creation. We will be my finest creation

"What do I do?"

As I said, hold me to your breast and combine your will with mine

So Rui placed the crystal on his collarbone and gasped as its energy flowed through him. He felt the crystal reaching inside him... changing him... his body began to flow and transform... he felt energy pulsing...

and she gasped and fell forward, landing on the mirror, her breasts bouncing with each breath. She reached up to grab them, and was amazed at how they overflowed her small, delicate hands. They were sensitive, more than she had expected. Eventually she drew back and stood up, still holding her breasts.

She was beautiful. Her hair was such a light blue as to almost be silver, and it hung down her body to her wide hips. She thought momentarily about a man taking those hips, and wondered where that thought came from.

Her pale skin almost glowed with youth and fertility, and her eyes were bright silver-blue like her hair. "Gods above..." She whispered in a sweet, feminine voice as she ran her hands down her body. "I'm perfect..."

I knew you would be

Rui finally moved her hands away from herself. "I need to dress." She searched through the drawers of the former seers until she found a bra. It took her a few moments to get it on, and even then it wasn't perfect. "I guess I'm larger than she was..." The panties took her less time to dress in. She shivered, once dressed, and stared at herself in the mirror again. Somehow, being in the uniform was even more feminizing than being naked.

Don't forget the blindfold

"Why do I need the blindfold?" Rui asked, opening the door and stepping outside the Seer's quarters for the first time as a woman. Immediately, she felt...

She felt a wave of feeling and emotion run over her, touching every part of her body that was bare. She felt the ship itself, its damage and the repairs the engineers were working. And she saw the stars, and the vast networks that connected them, and the figures that governed them.

It was too much for her. She covered her eyes with her hands and walked back into the Seer's quarters. "Where's the blindfold?"

She kept her blindfolds in the drawer next to her bed

Rui found the blindfold and wrapped it around her eyes. She immediately noticed that she could still 'see' around herself. Nothing was hidden from her gaze because of the blindfold. "Interesting."

You have many powers now. This is but the least of them

"I'll have to explore them later. I have a ship to save."

***

"Captain! You're..."

"I'm a Seer, now." Rui smiled sadly. "Call me Runai."

Technically, you're a Dancer

"Runai, then. Are you ready to access the key?" The Commander asked, sitting in the command chair awkwardly.

Runai nodded and faced the crystal key. She reached out with her senses under the crystal's guidance. She watched as the key floated up to the lock and began to engage.

"We're accessing the network... we're good! Even without the crystal shield, we should be able to get back to Rudan."

The world changed colors, and Runai sighed in relief as the key entered the lock. The world began to reshape itself, and...

They entered Crystal-Space. There were cheers from the bridge.

***

"Tell my family that Captain So Rui died in the accident." Runai said to the counselor on Rudan Prime. "My old self did die, after all." Runai wore a silver dress that clung tight to her curves.

"The Emperor has ordered that we establish a new life for you," The counselor said, providing Runai with a new levee card. "And he asked that you stop by the palace. Said there was someone he wanted to introduce you to."

[Roania]

"Swi!" Boba ran back and forth, eagerly waiting for Faren to throw the small round ball. "Swi swi nub!" The Emperor of the galaxy threw the ball, since his son was at school and couldn't play with his eiken. Boba ran forward so quickly he tripped over his own feet and rolled forwarded after the ball, before he reached it and picked it up in his tiny pink mouth.

"Good boy, Boba!" Faren called. "Bring it back here!"

The Eiken wriggled his way back to Faren and dropped the ball in front of him. "Swi!"

"Good boy!" Faren knelt down and gave Boba a series of good scritches on top of the head. The eiken's nose wriggled back and forth as he purred.

"Lord, we need your..." The Secretary said from the door, carrying paperwork.

"It can wait until I'm done playing with Boba." Faren threw the ball again.