STAR TREK MIRROR UNIVERSE by DAVID MACK

Author:DAVID MACK
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2010-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

25

A Taste of Ashes

A week of frantic preparations had infused the imperial court with equal measures of anticipation and dread.

“It takes a thousand details to make a first impression,” Marlena told the servants and taskmasters in charge of the court’s formal trappings, “and every last one of them must be perfect.”

As the Empress Consort, she was not going to accept anything less than perfection from her legion of domestics, not on this auspicious day. She had waited too long and had dreamed of this moment too many times to see it marred by even the slightest error of protocol or omission of courtesy.

The last vestiges of the Sato dynasty had been scoured from the palace. Marlena had replaced the Satos’ towering, autoidolatrous portraits with banners of white Chinese silk bearing the bloodred icon of the Terran Empire.

Several freestanding light fixtures, most of which were merely decorative, had been supplanted by antique Vulcan torchères in honor of the Empire’s new sovereign. Flames danced hypnotically from the lamps’ upturned bowls, casting erratic shadows across the throne room’s damask-covered walls.

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