BeyHop Chpt 16

==Beyond Hope- Chapter 16- Winter Movements==
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===Story Timet===
Kowloon Compound
Tharkad, Federated Commonwealth (Lyran State)
December, 3054
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Helena and the rest of the group had to return to the compound without Elizabeth, who was staying as Arthur's guest.
"So report." Helena Cameron ordered.
Pol said, "Gavin Dow, Ryan Steiner, Sharon Bryan, the Margrave of the Melissia theater, Cecil Bradford's man on Tharkad, and one of Tanadi LaRue's senior people. She also stopped to butter up her great-aunt Nondi."
“Hmmm… Okay. Proposals for counter moves then?” Helena asked.
"We need more information." Moshe spoke up. "But while I was carrying drinks, I overhear things…she's pumping divisions like a dealer, while playing loyalist. Feeling out possible allies."
“Agreed. Arrange meetings. Use the infrastructure project as the purpose. Maybe we can get a few more investors while also using the meeting as a pretext to get more information.”
"She has media friends too." Moshe added, "top hosts from DBS, CBC, Comstars Infonet Daily. They're like a club that surrounds her."
“Hmmm…” Helena concentrated for a moment.
“You know how to counter this. You just don’t want to.” Jacob prodded.
"You're right, I don't. I don't WANT to believe what this is suggesting." Helena agreed. "She's planning a coup."
"Elizabeth's in that palace." Daphne had dressed down and stayed with Jakob over night.
“She’d be dumb to do it so soon after the swearing in ceremony. There’s too much security around her right now.”
"She's laying the groundwork, setting up the pretexts, and the suspects." Jane's remote had come down overnight to be with her sister while the ship sat five light seconds from the planet.
"Yes…and she's got the initiative for the moment."
"Orders Ma'am?" Moshe asked.
"Find out what we don't know, and start working on making it something we do know, I didn't come two hundred seventy years into the future to see another coup and civil war." Helena looked at them. “Worst case scenario, we have one trump card we can use. Even if not everyone will believe it.”
“Samantha says two." Jane said, "the A-station here hasn't updated their OS to eliminate the Royal back-doors. We can own their communications and see who she's calling, and where she's sending money."
“Make sure you two don’t get caught but do it. We’ll see how the meetings play out.”
Daphne looked at Helena “Say what now?”
“Remember how you said it was like I was actually there for the Amaris Crises?” Helena said. “Story time.”
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===Spending Time with a Friend===
Royal Palace, The Triad
Tharkad, Federated Commonwealth (Lyran State)
December 25th, 3054
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"...New Avalon Red leaf? Potent…wow." Liz Ngo put the joint in the ash tray. "Strong stuff, Art."
"I know! Wow…mom's going to be pissed." Arthur Steiner-Davion commented.
"We're still teenagers, we're supposed to misbehave…so this is the New Avalon cut of Planet of the Dead?"
"Yeah, won three awards at the New Syrtis festival, 'best musical adaptation', 'Best Horror' and 'best Action comedy'."
"It's hilarious!"
"I know….they get so much wrong!!" he giggled, "You can't do that with a Battlemech!!"
"Yeah and the 'Tin man' is clearly fake…I know someone with similar surgery, she can't make half those faces…"
“Evvie?” Arthur asked.
“Yeah…someday, gonna buy her her face back, so she can have her life back…only better. Just gotta improve the tech…and trick her into sayin' yes. Sorry about your sister, dude, she's probably ticked…"
“And Helena? You’re going to have to tell me the truth about her someday.”
"Oh, Helena's easy. Open a history book." Liz giggled.
“Okay. I’ll bite. Which one?” he asked
Elizabeth untangled herself from the throw blankets and stumbled to the bookshelf. "Not this one…not that one….Aha!! Alessandro's Meditations on the Star League Civil WAR! First edition even!!" she pulled it out of the shelf, and stumbled back, only to be caught mid-fall by Arthur, who stole a kiss.
"It's funny, you'll love it…" she kissed him back on the forehead. 
“Uh huh. Okay let me guess the chapter on the Royal Family?”
She opened the book to a section of carefully copied flatrendering holos… "YUP!!" then laid a finger on two images, one of a royal princess, and the other, of a woman in fatigues. "See? Same gal. Your great-great-uncle Alessandro was on the right track, nobody wanted to believe it…so he decided to fight another invasion of the Mariks."
“Liz? You’re serious… Holy shit…That was always chalked up to legend or propaganda that she escaped Amaris… But it is! No plastic surgeon is that good…”
"Shhh! We don't tell the grown-ups Art!" she snickered, "they're too…'smart' to believe in it, but check this out…"
She got up again, and stumbled to a projection screen, fumbled with the controls and brought up the 'stylus' function.
"KF theory lts it happen..." the equations flowed out, stacking, as she half-stoned tried to lecture him on the mathematics for long enough that her buzz from the weed was waning when she concluded, "when you eliminate the impossible, what's left however improbable, is the truth. We eliminated the impossible with her…so she's the real deal."
“Mom knows. That’s what Helena meant by her greatest asset.”
"Yer mom knows we think she's real." Liz countered, "I have no idea if she knows or not…crap, you believe."
He nodded, "Yeah, because I understand what you just wrote out.. And I think mom does too. She’s just holding on to that secret."
"Nagelring…naval." Liz mused, "That's why you’re here instead of on New Avalon, your'e here for the Naval Officer's course."
Arthur nodded, "Yeah, I am-where better to learn the real thing, than close to where it's really happening??"
“Well we’ll find out soon enough if your mom really believes or not.” Elizabeth said.
There wasn't a knock, because Her Majesty doesn't need to. Not in her own home.
"Elizabeth…you have an appointment." Melissa said somewhat gently, "What were you smoking-ew…really?"
"It's not the hard stuff, Ma'am." Liz said, "I even gots a prescription-"
"Yes, Arthur, get cleaned up and get some sleep. Elizabeth, get cleaned up and down stairs in fifteen minutes."
"Yes Majesty." Elizabeth was wholly serious, and a little scared.
Downstairs, Her Majesty was dressed for the business of being the Archon, and Liz was in a much less elaborate business suit than last night's tuxedo-dress.
"You two, you used protection?"
"We didn't get that far." Liz confessed, "Kind of got…distracted, and then you showed up…"
"Well, make sure he uses protection."
"I know Majesty." Elizabeth said, "what I've got, pregnancy is an early death sentence anyway."
"We're going to work on that. Victor seems to be reluctant to give me grandchildren, Peter's probably going to take forever as well, Yvonne's too young, and Katherine's too busy."
"Ma'am?"
"I said, we'll work on your problem. I anticipate great things from you." Melissa told her, "DO NOT disappoint me."
“Oh god… Helena was right…” Elizabeth realized.
"If Maggie Doons didn't explain Dynastic politics, I'll eat my own shoes, Elizabeth. You had to know this was coming when I prevented you from being arrested over the Stonecipher business."
“I guess I just never expected to actually wind up with Arthur.” Elizabeth tried to deflect.
"Peter was my first option, but he's…unsuited to your temperament and I didn't want to preside over a messy royal divorce." Melissa explained, "Mother would likely have grabbed your father if Hanse hadn't said yes. The intent to bring your line into the family goes back a long time. If Henry had lived, I would likely be matching him to Yvonne as a means to bind the realm together more closely."
“He deserves someone better than me though.”
"That, is something for me to decide. For you, it is a challenge to rise up to be worth the chase."
"You know about Helena's… problem then." Liz said.
"I'm aware of her traumas, yes." Melissa stated, "I'm not a monster, I would not do that to someone who's endured what she has…but you…I can justify-by saving your life, or at least, by trying."
“She’s still convinced you’ll try.”
"That, is because she is intelligent and understands the bonds of a Feudal system…and maybe, eventually, she will decide to consent to something, but my intelligence people don't think she'll decide so any time soon."
"So consent is still on the table?"
"After a fashion, would you give it up just to assert your independence, Elizabeth?"
Liz frowned, "It's never really crossed my mind-any of it, I was third wheel, then I was dying, now I'm a duchess and dying…and you're offering me this…"
"It's too big, isn't it? That's how it feels, ja?"
"Ja."
"That's how it ought to feel, too big, too complex, but you'll do what is right and necessary anyway, ja?"
"Ja." Lizzie nodded "I have to, I said I would…"
"Yes, and your word is your bond…Kommen Mit, the car is waiting."
And Helena is our backup plan for both of us if this does fail. Elizabeth nodded.
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