Cadets: The Empress of Batoria

#3 EMPRESS ASHA

We took the survivors to sickbay. The conditions of the three Batorean guards were stabilised and would make full recoveries. Asha and her maids only had minor injuries and were quickly discharged.

Asha got settled into one of the guest cabins, which were much bigger than the regular cabins aboard. However, her maids were unsatisfied with the size of the guest cabins. Rulers of the Batorean Empire usually resided in rooms that were large enough to be throne rooms.

Asha's maids insisted on having either the gym or the mess hall converted into a temporary living quarters to better suit the empress, but Asha did not mind. As long as there was a bed to sleep in, she was happy.

Jennifer and I later paid Asha a visit in her cabin. Her handmaids welcomed us, and respecting Batorean culture, we left our shoes outside the door. We had to wait a bit longer because Asha was just getting dressed after taking a shower. As soon as she came out of the bathroom, her maids bowed before her as did we.

Asha's maids had prepared some traditional Batorean tea for us, and we all sat down on the floor on our knees. The maids gave us each a cup, but before we could drink up there were a few steps we needed to follow. The first step was to hold the cup with both hands, turn it around a few times and finally take a sip. Asha waited to hear what we thought about Batorean tea. To Me it was different than regular Earth tea, but nice. Asha was pleased to hear, and then dismissed her maids as we continued to drink.

She was curious to know if my father was Wilton Jones, and I said yes. I also introduced her to my sister.

Asha had heard many stories about my father. She had never met him in person, but she was honoured to meet us.

I explained to Asha she was going to remain on the Enterprise for some time. At least until we reached Trade-Port VI, where she would be picked up by her own authorities and return to her home world.

Asha appreciated the arrangements, but she personally wanted us to take her home, since we were practically a day or two away from the Batorean Neutral Zone. She told us we could resupply on Batoria and offered us a onetime opportunity to explore her home planet. She knew all about the Federation's mission to explore space and felt like she owed us some sort of thanks for saving her life.

I was tempted by Asha's offer. No Starfleet cadet had ever been able to see Batoria. However, as a cadet crew and due to treaty stipulations between the Galactic Federation and the Batorean Empire, we were not authorised to travel beyond Federation Space.

Asha understood, but cunningly gave us a choice to drop her off and go back on our training cruise or take up her onetime offer to see Batoria.

Eventually, I gave in and accepted her offer, but I was going to have to consult with my superiors first. No doubt they were going to be objective about this, which was proven right when I spoke with Dean Weatherstone.

Even though she did not like idea, she had to respect the Empress' wishes. So, all she could do was authorise Me permission to go to Batoria.

"I'll have Starfleet inform the Batorean government of your arrival. No doubt they will be reluctant to grant a Starfleet vessel safe passage through their space. Above all, however, get the Empress home safely and then get back on your way once you've resupplied."

I understood Weatherstone's orders, and before signing off she asked herself how was it that I got myself into these situations.

We were only on a training cruise, and yet we have been up against Pirates, Thembrians, monsters, dangerous anomalies, and much more.

I guess it was just luck, and in return Weatherstone said, "Let's hope that luck holds."

I then informed the rest of the crew of our new destination, saying we were going to resupply at Batoria once we dropped off the Empress. Certain that everyone understood, I gave Tom the order to plot a course for Batoria.

As we travelled through hyperspace, I held a meeting with my friends in the briefing room.

Ali and Nym showed us a full body scan of the cyborg Rodin before he blew up. It looked like he had been majorly enhanced with cybernetics. It seemed he was more machine than man.

Nym found this tech impressive, but Ali did not. She never liked or understood why people would want to have mechanical body parts. She also found it horrible to believe that someone would put a bomb in this person. I could only guess that it was a precaution encase the cyborg gave away too much or got caught. The detonator was connected to the cyborg's brain inhibiters, which went off the moment he gave away the name "Xu Hun".

Neither of us knew what that meant, but the biggest mystery was the energy reading. Whatever blew up that cyborg was dangerously powerful. It was going to take a while to run a few comparisons to determine what it was. For now, everything was a mystery.

Before dismissing the meeting, I advised everyone to report back to me if they came across anything else worth notifying.