“We have a mission for you and Navban Dovom Karimi.” Peggy told Casey the next afternoon. “He will arrive on board in a few minutes for a briefing.” Casey stood from her desk and stretched, and then quickly checked her ship suit to make sure it was spotless.

  “A few notes since you have not interacted directly with the other princesses before.” Peggy continued as she headed for her lift. “While you are under my direct command, you obtain my status. Be polite, but do nothing to indicate that your status is lower than Andante’s. Do not salute first or bow or anything like that.”

  “I can do that.”

  “We are all princesses because we have all demonstrated competence in our areas of expertise, and we all respect that competence, but we don’t all like each other. Andante is one of the princesses that I like.”

  “So noted.”

  “And finally, Karimi will likely be polite, since this mission helps both Andante and the Middle East.”

  Casey followed the indicators on the wall screens once she got down to the mid deck hangar area to where the Princess’s ship was landing. Karimi walked down the familiar ramp alongside a woman Casey had not seen before, likely a drone body for the other princess much like Peggy used.

  “Welcome aboard.” Casey greeted them. “Arpeggio’s drone and Allegro are waiting for us in CIC, if you would like to follow me?”

  They rode quietly down the lift to where CIC was, buried in the lower portion of the ship. Allegro was fine tuning a projection above the central tactical plotting table as they arrived.

  “Princess Andante, always a pleasure to interact with you.” announced Peggy.

  “A pleasure that is shared, Prima.” Andante tilted slightly, in a passing resemblance to a bow. Karimi followed her lead.

  Allegro finished her fine tuning of the map on the table and stepped back.

  “Please tell us what troubles you.” Peggy requested, with a sweeping wave at the holograph on the table.

  “The resource distribution efforts proceed mostly on schedule, but a few of my Administrators have brought some problem areas to my attention. Most of these can be handled diplomatically, but there is a militarized group in the South of Iran that is spurning my efforts to talk to them. They have spent considerable efforts to damage water storage units in the area, and while they have yet to damage my transport equipment, they have made several attempts.”

  Several locations on the map lit up in red as she spoke.

  “The queen has commanded me and mine to do no harm, but you are under no such restrictions. I would like you to be the ah, stick to my carrot?” She turned to Karimi. “That is how you say it, yes?”

  Karimi looked over at Casey. “The Americans use that expression, we have a different idiom in Iran.”

  “This is what we will do.” Declared Peggy. “We start with a final plea for reasonable behavior. Karimi and Trainor will take a shuttle to the local leader’s location, here.” A new map note popped up. “Karimi will be Good Cop, as the local on scene. Trainor will be Bad Cop. If you are turned away or attacked, I will air drop one hundred drones and start breaking things until they reconsider.”

  “We have not trained with equipment for a ground assault.” observed Karimi.

  “It will not be required.” Interjected Allegro. “As a Captain in the Planetary Navy, destruction is meted by your command, not by your hand.”

  “And the biggest flex on your opponent is to be so unbothered by his potential to do damage to you that you show him no specific preparations to counter it.” Said Casey with an evil grin. “With the princess’s gravity arrays and advanced computer modeling, any shot fired will fail to hit.”

  “Karimi has command of this operation.” Decreed Peggy as the hologram on the table blinked out. “Trainor has command of the show of force, if required. Andante will remain here with me; we have some catching up to do.”

  Karimi followed Casey to the lift, and they headed back towards the hangars.

  “I resent that we need to come to you with our hat in our hands, begging for aid.” He spat when the lift doors closed.

  “You didn’t.” Casey countered. “Andante is one of the ten most powerful people in the Hive fleet, and she doesn't need permission from anyone to order any response she likes to solve her problem. She came to Arpeggio for three reasons.” She held up the last three fingers on her hand.

  “She doesn’t want to be associated with a military response. She is trying to appear to humanity to be a benevolent provider when she could have just instructed one of the Hive fleet scout ships protecting you two to bombard the location from orbit.” Casey lowered the last finger of her hand, leaving two. Karimi looked surprised, then thoughtful.

  “Second, this is all still a training exercise for us. You get a taste of command, and an appreciation for the very real power at your finger tips; even in the absence of weapons.” She lowered her ring finger, giving Karimi the bird.

  “And finally Arpeggio and Andante are close friends, not competitors, and they are demonstrating that we are all on the same side.” She crossed her arms.

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  “So are you going to get with the program, or continue to embarrass her?”

  Karimi had balled his fists up halfway through her lecture, but the lift doors opened to reveal ten ranks of drones each equipped with a riot shield and a mace.

  “We are still not enemies, Karimi. Just breathe and think a bit, and really talk to your princess.”

  Karimi smoothed his hands and face, and ran a hand over his hair with a long exhale.

  “I really don’t like you.”

  “I've not given you a reason to like me. I match energies, which means you have made me into somewhat of a bitch for no good reason. If you want to start over, we could very well be friends” She held out a hand.

  “Hello. I am Casey Trainor, it is nice to meet you.”

  He just looked at her hand.

  “I may be from a nation of uncultured swine, but this is what passes for manners where I’m from. I’m doing my best.” She prompted.

  “It is not appropriate for us to behave in a familiar manner with each other.” He warned. “But for what it is worth, I recognize your efforts. I will try to make less of an ass of myself.”

  She led him out onto the bay floor, where a drone standing next to the shuttle handed her a tablet. She quickly reviewed the pertinent maintenance information before passing the tablet to Karimi.

  “These here are the checklists we need to compete for the preflight. Read them off to me and we can get this ready to fly.”

  “You can fly this?”

  “With our brain mods it is a lot easier than it sounds.”

  Once they finished the checklists in the cockpit, Casey explained the HOTAS. “The left hand is rotational, to indicate what direction you want to orient the nose. The right hand is directional, to indicate which direction you want to travel, and feet are velocity. Toes down like a car accelerator to go faster and dig in your heels to slow down.” She swiped at some of the projected screens above her console. “The computer can project an optimal approach track, just keep it in the lines.”

  She demonstrated by pulling out of the hangar and angling down. Peggy had positioned the ship in the air above the target area, about a mile up.

  Casey hit some more controls on the screen. “Peggy, are we expecting to be shot at on the way down, or are we without doubt going to be shot at on the way down?”

  “I have mangled three firing mechanisms on small arms so far despite being well beyond any maximum range. Please proceed.”

  Casey flew them down to a landing about one hundred meters outside the loose collection of vehicles and tents that was their destination. Once she set down and unbuckled, she waved in the vague direction of the camp.

  “After you, Captain.”

  “We are both ah… Ensigns.”

  “In this new Navy, Captain is a title and not a rank. Today you are Captain and I am your subordinate. Go talk some sense into these people so I don’t have to give them a kiwi injection.”

  Karimi gave her an odd look but headed for the hatch.

  “We are here to speak to your commanding officer.” he declared once he got within comfortable shouting distance. One of the rougher looking men pulled a pistol out of an underarm holder and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. In response, Casey pointed to the man with a knife hand from behind and to the left of Karimi. He promptly vanished. She shouted at the group in Farsi.

  “You all had better listen more carefully when my Captain is talking, and if any of you care about that man you have about…” she looked up. “15 seconds to catch him.”

  An even rougher looking man came out of the tent and shouted back. “If my man dies, so do you.”

  Casey held up a closed fist, sure that Peggy would understand. From the distance above them, the terrified screaming started. Since the man didn’t splat, Casey knew she was right.

  “We have come to ensure that the people in the region can receive fresh water.” Karimi stated.

  “Are you working for the American whores?” The man demanded.

  “The Americans are not involved with the distribution of fresh water. While I believe your quarrel with them is valid, they have no hand in this. Can the people in the region receive fresh water without interference?”

  “What if I say no?”

  “That is not an answer I am prepared to accept.” Karimi responded after a moment of thought.

  “Then we are at an impasse?” The rougher looking man prompted. Karimi sighed.

  “No, we are not.” He idly flicked his fingers at Casey.

  Casey changed her fist back into a knife hand and chopped it down at the camp’s leader. This was instantly followed by the suspended man impacting him at mach fuck you. Nearly instantly after that there was a barrage of dirt being kicked up all around as the platoons of drones landed at speed throughout the camp.

  “Before anyone else dies, if the ranking person still in the camp wants to renegotiate we are amenable.” reminded Karimi. He was answered by a weapon malfunction.

  Casey raised both her arms as if lifting an object above her head. Accordingly, every vehicle in the camp launched itself skyward.

  “Ten seconds to change your mind.” Stated Karimi flatly. One of the men charged, and was promptly intercepted by the head of one of the drone's maces. A snapping sound indicated the mace was also a taser. One of the remaining men lost his nerve and dropped his weapon, which opened the flood gates. Weapons clattered to the ground all around.

  Casey moved as if to throw an invisible object over her head off to one side, and all the vehicles crushed themselves landing in that direction.

  “Now let us gather and talk man to man about what the future holds.” Karimi reasoned. “The centuries of grievance are coming to a close.”

  Later, as Casey flew them back up to her ship, she snorted as she saw the identifier on her navigation display. Peggy had chosen to name the ship “A Poignant Intervention" on the transponder.

  “What?” Asked Karimi.

  “The Hive fleet seems to get a kick out of the Culture novels.”

  “I’m not familiar.”

  “It’s not important.”

  “Trainor, I think…” Karimi looked like he ate something foul. “I think you did well. Only killing two of them was about the best outcome I think we could expect, and we both know you could have just condemned them all to be sent to Allah and the princess would have had it done in about three seconds. Your restraint was commendable.”

  “You did pretty well yourself. They would never have listened to me. If I was in command of this rather than you then I would have had to have killed them all.”

  “Americans.”

  “More likely the Irish in me, but whatever. It was good to work with you today.”