Of course, in a universe filled with potentially hostile alien races, highly malevolent super villains, overly ambitious space pirates, and utterly inept Galaxy Policewomen, one might not be faulted for taking such a stance. Indeed, even those few rare places that one might normally consider havens for pacifism have invariably fallen victim to various tragedies and fleeting periods of chaos over the course of time.
Take the royal planet of Jurai, for instance.
The seat of power for the Juraian Royal Family and crown jewel of the Empire, on the surface, Jurai is an idyllic sphere of surpassing beauty and arboreal ecstasy. Of course, to take it at surface value is to blindly overlook the collective presences of the Grand Imperial Armada, the Juraian Royal Knights, and the planet's encircling orbital defense system. Yes, no one with half a mind (and some with even less) could possibly mistake Jurai for anything other than a paradise built on conquest, a grand society forged by war and fashioned by bloody trial.
Indeed, even today, if one were to take a walk through the royal capital's so-called historical district, one could witness this legacy quite clearly. There, buildings still stand, half-collapsed and razed by fire, remnants of the attack by the infamous space pirate Ryoko. There, one could walk down streets battered and broken, turned into so much rubble by the fury of her anger, shards of glass scattered down their ragged lengths, the only remaining indication of the numerous store windows that had been shattered in the subsequent looting. No, no one who would deign to look upon such sights, indeed, no one who had been there to witness things first-hand, could ever attempt to forget the dark side of Jurai's history.
Yet, even if such tragedy can never truly be forgotten, there are, nonetheless, some few places where such memories might be lessened, if only for a brief time. The royal gardens of Jurai are one such place. A vast cavern of suspended platforms and wispy bridges, the gardens serve as home and sanctuary to the vast network of royal Trees, semi-sentient life forms of majestic beauty and phenomenal power, living gifts from the great goddess Tsunami. Indeed, anyone who might be privileged enough to set foot in the gardens would quickly be cowed into awed silence by the utter and unmistakable presence of the Trees, and any who chose to linger beneath their branches would be overcome with the nigh-tangible feelings of lassitude that seems to emanate from the Trees themselves.
Yes, if heaven could be said to exist anywhere in the universe, it is there.
Thus, so it was, that on this day, as Artemis Jurai, third cousin to the Empress Misaki and Imperial Director of the Foreign Acquisitions Committee, read over the missive that had been placed in front of him, his eyebrows steadily rising as he scanned over the page, the words that escaped his lips upon its conclusion came as a complete surprise to those hallowed halls.
"&#^%!"
"They want us to what?!"
"You heard me!" Artemis bit out, rising from his seat and pacing angrily across the length of the platform, clenching his eyes closed and rubbing the half-moon mark on his forehead in frustration.
"Either stop pacing or open your eyes," his companion complained petulantly, pursing her lips and frowning at him, "If you keep doing that, you're going to wind up walking right off the edge."
Sighing in exasperation, Artemis did as commanded and directed a withering stare at his partner-in-crime.
Dark-haired and utterly lovely, Luna caught his stare and glared right back at him, crossing her legs self-consciously. "Not that that would be that great of a loss," she tossed out with a smirk.
Artemis scowled back at her for a moment before chuckling in spite of himself, his taunting scowl slipping into a well-practiced roguish grin. "You know I always land on my feet, Luna."
"Spare me," Luna muttered in reply, rolling her eyes. "But seriously, what are we going to do about this?"
"What's there to do?" Artemis answered, his grin fading as he plopped back down into his seat, "The Assembly already met concerning the matter and the Emperor gave his approval just over an hour ago. We do as ordered or lose our jobs."
"Great," Luna muttered, standing up and stretching languorously, "Why do they even care about this little backwater planet anyway?"
"You heard about the Crown Prince, right?" Artemis shrugged, glancing away guiltily as Luna turned around to face him, "Apparently it's his home planet."
"Really?" Luna asked curiously, the brief flash of anger that had spiked through her at catching Artemis ogling quickly fading away as his words hit home. "That explains them wanting to keep an eye on the thing. But wouldn't it be easier just to establish a military presence there? This whole thing seems awfully unnecessary."
"Wouldn't work," Artemis answered, shaking his head, "The Crown Prince would never approve an military incursion, and while the indigenous peoples of that planet are still technologically primitive, her Majesty's reconnaissance report indicates that they're advancing extremely quickly. They estimate they'll be capable of detecting our ships in orbit within two hundred years. That kind of puts a stationed orbital security fleet out of the question."
"That soon?" Luna murmured, one eyebrow raising in surprise, "What about the Galaxy Police?"
"Currently too far off from their standard routes and not enough coverage regardless," Artemis drawled. "Trust me, Luna, if there was a way out of this, I would have found it by now."
"Somehow I doubt that..." Luna murmured, "...still, since I can't come up with anything at the moment either, I suppose I'll have to accept it for now. But a royal? Even with the Royal Family's allegiances, surely they could satisfy their interests with a joint council. That's the standard policy for unoccupied populated planets, isn't it?"
"If you could get away with calling it a joint council in the face of that kind of technological imbalance," Artemis muttered, "but no, apparently there's some sort of precedence in this case."
"Oh?" Luna murmured, glancing over the edge of the platform and smiling as she noticed the odangoed blonde scampering around the base of a Tree several floors down. She had always been rather fond of Usagi.
"Yep," Artemis replied, rising and moving to join her, "Apparently that solar system used to be a Juraian satellite colony back in the day. One that was apparently under the direct control of the Royal Family. The Intelligence Department has suggested that the locals of that system are actually offshoots from that original colony."
"Really...?" Luna asked, her eyes widening, "I suppose that would explain how the crown prince managed to come from there, though."
"Not really," Artemis mumbled, "The ruling governor was only a distant relative of the Emperor. I think the Royal Family is hiding something there, but either way, it's kind of outside the bounds of speculation as far as our involvement is concerned."
"Yosho?" Luna asked in surprise, "You think the rumors are true?"
"Who knows?" Artemis shrugged, "Like I said, it's none of our business. Anyway, this... Serenity, I think her name was. Apparently she somehow got a hold of some sort of forgotten holy artifact or something and caused all sorts of trouble with it."
"The Ginzuishou," Luna nodded, "I remember my mother telling me about it. It was an energy crystal capable of purifying the body of any illnesses or negative impulses. Apparently, it was one of the artifacts left behind by the goddesses before they absconded."
"You seem to be remarkably well-informed," Artemis said dryly, shaking his head in admiration, "How is it that you know all of this when I wasn't able to dig up so much as a name on this thing?"
"It's something on the order of a family legacy," Luna answered dismissively, "One of my ancestors was a high-ranking official on Mau and wound up getting involved in that whole fiasco. Actually, ours wasn't the only one. There were quite a few well-placed families that got tangled up in that. Who knows, yours might have too, it's just that mine hung on to the information afterwards."
"How very un-Mauish of you," Artemis smirked, grinning at Luna's answering glare, "Care to let me in?"
"Fine," Luna sighed, glancing back down and wincing as the aforementioned blonde ran headfirst into the aforementioned Tree, "Serenity got a hold of the Ginzuishou and wound up going on a personal crusade of sorts, using the crystal to 'cleanse' the better part of the capital city. Apparently she did this for about six months before the drug, alcohol, and gambling consortiums banded together and had her brought her up on charges of attempted debasement of the Imperial economy."
"You're not serious!" Artemis interjected in disbelief. "I thought you said she was royalty!"
"Minor royalty," Luna answered wryly, "And the trade consortiums held a lot more clout back then than they do now. Anyway, she was found guilty and banished to that satellite colony with instructions to oversee its development. She set up some kind of hereditary monarchy as the active government there, but the whole thing wound up going under in some sort of internal revolt."
"Jurai didn't send aid?" Artemis questioned.
"It was during the 22nd Consolidation Period," Luna replied, shaking her head, "They couldn't afford to devote the necessary resources, so..."
"...so the whole thing folded under," Artemis finished with a wince, "Ouch."
"Mmm," Luna nodded, pursing her lips, "You'd think that that would be all the incentive the Assembly would need to recommend a joint council. Their decision just doesn't make any sense."
"Since when has the Assembly ever learned from its mistakes?" Artemis put in dryly, "In any event, that doesn't change the fact that they've decided to pack up one of the members of the royal family and send them out there to set up another kingdom."
"True," Luna conceded, her lips twisting into a slight frown.
"It also," Artemis continued, "doesn’t change the fact that they've elected both you and myself to serve as her Imperial Highness's Imperial Babysitters."
"Artemis!" Luna scolded, smiling in spite of herself, "You shouldn't talk about the Royal Family that way! What if they hear you and decide to send you back to Mau?"
Artemis blinked, stared at her, then shuddered.
"That's what I thought," Luna grinned satisfactorily, "They're not planning on having us just descend on the planet and take over, are they?"
Artemis shook his head, "No, apparently there's too much intergalactic interest in that sector. They've recommended a more... long-term approach," he said, dithering.
Luna tapped her foot impatiently.
"Intermarriage," Artemis finished hastily, backing away and raising his hands up in defense, "They want us to marry off a member of the royal family with a local representative and use that union as the foundation for forming a new governing body in that system. They're hoping that between the documentation of Jurai's existing claims on the system and the enlisting of a local representative into the ruling party that they'll be able to circumvent the existing governments and overturn any external claimants."
"That promises to be moderately painful," Luna muttered darkly, grumbling in irritation. "Who did they have in mind for this little exercise in idiocy anyway? Sasami?"
"Well, that's the thing..." Artemis hedged, glancing down and sighing as he saw Usagi trying unsuccessfully to untangle one of her ponytails from the roots of one slightly-dented Tree, "It's kind of like this..."
...
For the second time that day, the eternal tranquility of the royal gardens, renowned throughout song and story, was broken by the sound of vehement cursing.
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(Posted Fri, 06 Jan 2006 11:19)
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