(This is my entry for round #1 of the smackdown - Alternate History. 2,910 words according to MSWord. My subject is Genghis Khan, and my competition is the lovely jewel1307. Let the madness reign supreme!)
The transport shuttle settled against docking arm #6 of Temujin Station, the oldest of the massive orbital defense platforms. Borte, the newly appointed station manager hurried to the airlock while she shook out her Hijab and put it back on. She spent the next twelve minutes standing by the closed hatch, fuming, while the Emissary took his sweet time exiting the shuttle.
Finally, the airlock door opened. Smiling, but not too much, Borte bowed to the Emissary. He bowed just as deeply and greeted her, "As-Salam-u-Alaikum."
She smiled at the irony of his manners, "Wa-Alaikum-Assalam. Your trip was pleasant?"
While their positions required the greeting, at least he was proper enough not to offer his hand to her. Just as well, she thought. All she could see when she looked at his hands was her father's blood.
"The comfort of the Chinggis' personal shuttle is agreeable, though my tastes are more modest."
Borte Shibanova smiled politely at the name-drop, as she was expected to. She refrained from any comment or look on her face in regards to his protestation over the ostentatious comforts of his transport. Seemingly bathed in expensive cologne, his rotund form and his Saville Row robes would challenge the idea of the Emissary being modest in anything. She wondered how modest the fat old bastard would be if she kicked him in the nuts.
Turning slightly, Borte indicated he should precede her down the corridor. They walked along the corridor alone. Her assistants were all busy with the final preparations for the treaty conference, and the self-important pig walking with her eschewed hangers-on of any kind. The Emissary stopped at the first intersecting corridor and pretended to examine his iPhone. This allowed her to indicate the correct direction to take without causing him to lose face.
"Has Khan Xioa Xi arrived?" he inquired.
"Yes, Emissary, the Khan of the Steppes arrived from Xinjiang this morning. I believe he is meeting with the Khan of the Africas at the moment."
"I must meet with him and the delegation from the khanate of the Americas before the conference."
"I'm sure this can be arranged. We still have two days before the delegation from Eridani Prime will arrive in-system."
The Emissary smiled down at the shorter woman, "Your father would be proud of you, Borte."
She stopped in her tracks. Hatred and rage boiled to the surface of her slender face. She touched the edge of her scarf and pulled it further over her face while looking away.
The Emissary stopped walking and looked back at her, "Come, come, now. You are not still upset, are you?"
She loved her father as she had loved no other. Even the love for her many siblings and her mother could not compare. That she had to stand there and listen to the pig that had murdered her father, by order of the Chinggis or not, was almost too much to bear. But she did bear it, with as much dignity as she could, regardless of this momentary lack of control. Chinggis Khan would soon arrive to meet with the Regentship of the Eridani Dominion, who was travelling from Eridani Prime at this very moment. The man who ordered her father's death was almost within her reach.
"No," she lied, "but the memory of his — punishment — is still raw, and I miss him greatly."
The Emissary smiled unconvincingly, "An understandable sentiment. However, the Khan of Khans knows what is best. It was his own order that placed you in your father's position. You know this has been the way since the time of the Mighty Temujin."
