gulations set forth by the United Nations. Where the U.N. law contradicts the laws of a nation, the U.N. law will supersede local law. This will allow each nation to restore its culture, customs, and national pride, but will still make it a part of the collective whole, part of a united Earth.

"There's going to be some hard work ahead of us. Though Trillane is gone, the Imperium will remain, and now it falls upon _me_ to honor the agreements that Trillane made with the Imperium when they won control of our planet. That's the price we have to pay to regain a portion of our independence. The Imperium is hungry, people of Earth. They are starving, and our planet is a farming powerhouse. They need us to help feed them, and it pains me to say this, but we need them too. We need their technology and their skill, and we need their protection from the other governments out in space that would fall on us like a pack of wolves and conquer us if we broke away from the Faey. But we have won something here, people of Earth. We aren't a subject race to the Imperium any more. We are _equals _to the Faey now. A _human _now sits in the halls of power in the Imperium, and I will do my best to fight tooth and nail for the betterment and welfare of the human race, and I'll make sure that the human race is given all the rights and privileges as the other races of the Imperium, something we were denied under the rule of Trillane. We are now _partners_ with the Faey, not _slaves_. Now we will show them the kindness and good hearts of the human race. We will put the past behind us and move forward hand in hand with the Faey instead of being pushed ahead by the barrel of a gun.

"Why are we going to do this, you ask? Because the Faey _need _us. They desperately need us. Their people will starve without us. And we would be sorry excuses for human beings if we turned our backs on those who need us. We will continue to produce food for the Imperium, food they desperately need, but now we will do it because we _want_ to do it, not because we are _forced_ to do it. A new noble house, the house of Suralle, will be arriving soon to replace the Trillanes on the farms, but they will _not_ be our overlords. They are here to help us, and _only_ to help us. They have no voice here. They have no authority here. They are here only to supply us with the infrastructure and technical skill we need to continue our farming efforts and that is _it_. I will say this right now. If anyone has any negative experience with a worker or noble from the house of Suralle, I want you to report this incident to a Marine barracks or your local government _immediately_. I will not tolerate any mistreatment of our planet or our people by the Suralles, and it will fall upon you, the people of Earth, to help the Imperial Marines to watch the Suralles and make sure they keep their word.

"Naturally, because we will continue to farm, that will necessitate a certain amount of continuation of the Faey's ways. There will still be mandatory farm work, but that work will not be _forever_. A summons to a farm will not be a ticket into slavery, and the farm lotteries are hereby forever abolished. A plan is being worked out now so nobody works on a farm for more than two months out of any year, and no more than a year total farm work in a span of ten. And you will be _paid _for this service, people. You will be paid very well, a salary that will probably be more than or equal to what you make now at your current job. People may also volunteer to work on a farm if that is their desire, and those people will be receiving a larger salary for that voluntary service. There are more than enough people on Earth to allow us to continue to produce food in the quantity the Faey need to help keep their people fed but not condemn us to a life of forced farm labor. We will spread the burden out as wide as possible, so everyone does just a little, instead of some doing it all.

"There is one more matter, a matter I regret to have to bring forward, but something that needs to be done. The Trillanes were engaged in wholesale illegal kidnapping of human beings for illegal purposes, and the House Karinne will need your help to try to get them back. If anyone you know has disappeared or has been forcibly taken by the Trillanes, you need to report this fact. Contact numbers are going to be set up by tomorrow afternoon, you can file a report in person at any Marine barracks, and a CivNet site will also be opened where you can report this online. Please, we need your help. We have to know _who_ was taken so we can try to find them and bring them home. Empress Dahnai herself has pledged Imperial support in this effort to find and recover our missing people. So please, we need you to report anyone you know is missing. When you do, give as much information you can, and if you have any pictures of the abducted people, those would really help.

"But I promise you, people of Earth, it will _never_ happen again. As long as we continue to meet the quotas of food production the Empress has set, we will be allowed to look after ourselves. Remember that. As long as we fulfill the obligation Trillane made when they won the right to farm Terra, we can keep ourselves out from under the heel of another Faey noble house. I know it's not much of an improvement to go from the control of one house to another, from the Trillanes to the Karinnes, but at least with me, you _know_ you're getting someone who cares about what happens to you. I am a _human_, and I will do my best to make sure that we will be both respected and treated with dignity by the Faey. That is my solemn promise.

"In closing, I have just one more thing to say. I am no noble, and I'm no politician. I will make mistakes, and I'm sure some of them will be real whoppers. So please, have some patience with me. I'll be working my butt off for you, and if you give me a little leeway, I promise I'll be the best Grand Duke I can be, a Grand Duke that works for the people, not a Grand Duke that expects the people to work for him. This too is my solemn promise to you. This is _not_ my planet. I am _not_ a ruler. It's just my bad luck that I've been thrust into this unwanted position, but I'm here, so I have to do my best to make sure it's done right. I'll do everything I can to help Earth and the human race regain its dignity, and together, if we all work hard, we can build something that our children will be proud of.

"Thank you, good day, and good luck. May God bless us and watch over us, because we're going to need it."

                                        * * *

_Raira, 33 Kedaa, 4395 Orthodox Calendar_
_Saturday, 25 December, 2008, Native Regional Reckoning_
_The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York, New York, USA, Terra_

Christmas was supposed to be a day of family, good cheer, and rejoicing.

This Christmas was the most special Christmas ever, for the entire planet was celebrating. For on this day, the United Nations had reopened. It only had three officials there in any real capacity, but it was open for business and ready for when the nations reorganized themselves and sent their ambassadors. Right now, only three nations had seated ambassadors: the United States, China, and Great Britain. Those three nations had been fastest in reseating their old governments after Trillane was kicked off, though it certainly wasn't complete. Jason had ordered that each government's original governmental structure would be reinstated, and that was still a work in progress just about everywhere else.

America had been the first to get back into operation. The entire government that had been seated when the Faey arrived was recalled to Washington and simply picked up right where they left off. The President, the Congress, and seven of the nine members of the Supreme Court were back, and they were already getting things back into operation... or at least mostly. Now, they knew, they were like a state government, for they now answered to the United Nations, and it was that entity that would allot them their yearly budget amount for them to spend, and any laws they passed couldn't contradict U.N. law. But the U.N. would be relatively unobtrusive, and that was by intentional design. It would interfere with the member nations as little as possible, letting the old nations look after themselves with only the lightest of touches to ensure that things were being done to the satisfaction of House Karinne, and the biggest concern for House Karinne was that the food continued to be produced at the set quotas. As long as the food was being shipped out, the people of Earth could do anything they wanted short of start wars with each other.

Jason had been there of course, the Grand Duke Jason Karinne and his wife, the Duchess Jyslin Karinne, opening the doors of the United Nations building as cameras took pictures and video cameras caught the event live. There was even a pair of INN crews there to do stories on the event.

But that was over now, and Jason was taking a breather in the room they were renting. He didn't want to stay in the Waldorf, but he _was_ the Grand Duke, and the mayor of New York had been scandalized when he asked for just some room in a hotel near the U.N. building. He got thrown here basically against his will, but he didn't take the penthouse, as a determined sign to everyone that he did not think he was above them.

It was really strange. They were actually homeless. They had no house of their own. For the last month, he'd been moving from hotel to hotel, running all over the _fucking_ planet trying to iron out all the problems and talking to the leaders of the old countries. It sure wasn't easy, on him or anyone else.

It had been so nice and quiet when they first got back. The first thing he did was invite the entire Legion into the house, and they all agreed. Everyone was a Count or Countess now, except for Kumi. When Jason offered her a place in his house, she demanded a higher rank, since she was already a Countess, and besides, he needed her. That was true enough, and he had to bow to her blackmail. So instead of being the Countess Eleri Trillane, she was now the Duchess Eleri Karinne. And it was her expertise in how noble houses worked, and education in house operations and her knowledge of business, that let them get where they were now. Thanks to her, House Karinne already had a house bank account on Moridon, she had worked out a financial plan with Anya Suralle, and a material deployment schedule had been worked out. Kumi had worked fast, and he'd be lost without her. If Jason was the face of House Karinne, Kumi was its brain.

Quiet... well, up to a point. After two days sequestered with Jyslin, interrupted only by visits to court, time she demanded and time he was more than happy to give her, he caught up with the others, and saw that things had moved along since he was captured. There were only 21 surviving members of the Legion; the rest had been killed in action, and Sheila Hart had been killed in an accident in the mountain. Ian had expressed while he was gone, and Jason had learned that Temika had started dating Mike Colbert, which was a very good thing. She was finally overcoming her phobia about being touched. And in a rather curious turn of events, within days of getting back, Songa had taken up with Luke. This surprised Jason, but then he stepped back and looked at it a little more closely. Both of them had lost the focus of their lives, Luke his family and Songa her husband and they seemed to sense the melancholy emptiness in each other. And since both of them were compassionate, good people, they wanted to help each other, fill that void with something that could never replace what was lost, but something that would at least ease that pain and make life bearable again. In just three days, Songa had become quite attached to Luke, and by the end of the week, they were living together. It was a good match, as far as Jason was concerned. Luke would treat Songa like a queen, and Songa would treasure Luke's gentle attention.

Myra wasn't too happy about it. It seemed that Myra had designs on Luke.

The House of Karinne went from 12 to 33 members, but none of them really did all that much right now. Myri had taken over as the commander of the _Scimitar_, and she kept most of the Marines with her, keeping the ship manned at all times. Myleena was in heaven up there, tearing the ship apart one little piece at a time and learning how it all worked, then putting it back together. The others were basically working as gophers, running back and forth between various countries as Jason's representatives, just seeing how things were going and getting status reports on when each country hoped to be back up to the self-governing level and when they'd be sending ambassadors to the U.N.

If only he could spend more than two days in a row on Earth. Every other day, it seemed, he had to rush off to Draconis to attend court, and when he was there, it was like another war. The _Siann_ didn't know what to make of him, but they certainly didn't like him. It was nothing but arrogant looks when he was there, and the only nobles that would talk to him where members of house Suralle. The new representative of Trillane in court since Maeri was banished, the Duchess Myana Trillane, Maeri's eldest daughter, couldn't take her eyes off him, and those eyes promised a horrid, painful death if she could ever catch him alone. The fine that Dahnai blackmailed out of Trillane had been _crushing_. It nearly bankrupted the house, and obviously, they were blaming Jason for it. They couldn't do much to avenge themselves against Dahnai, but Jason was a _very_ available target. After the first court, where Jason introduced Jyslin to the Empress, Dahnai ordered her guards to escort Jason around, because she was worried that someone from Trillane might actually attack him. Attacks within the palace were not unheard of.

The only relief came _after_ court, but it wasn't much relief. After court, without fail, Dahnai summoned him to her quarters. There, three things happened. She taught him how to use his telekinetic abilities, he began training her in the forms of Aikido so she could better defend herself, and she missed no chance to try to trick him or push him into saying something about the Karinnes that would give his knowledge away. Every damn session was a chess match of caution with Dahnai, for she was relentless. He really had to push the line between subject and friend with her, because she _knew_ he knew the secrets of the Karinnes, and she wanted to know those secrets. She would alternate between trying to trick him into saying too much, trying to catch him off guard, and there was the occasional outright orders for him to tell her the truth. But, to her credit, she had not used her talent to try to find out. She was as bad as Jyslin, a fucking pit bull that had latched onto his leg and would not let go. She used her status as Empress as a club against him, for he could not deny any summons she made. That was the law. If she summoned him to her presence, he was legally obligated to show up.

She did seem to establish some rules in her mind. She wouldn't threaten him with retaliation if he didn't tell her. She didn't use her talent, or have someone else do it for her. And while she was a typical Faey with a few modesty issues because she was accustomed to having someone watching her at all times, she kept her hands off him, not trying to seduce the answer out of him, despite him getting the feeling that she _did_ want to put her hands on him. He knew that if she had any kind of sexual attraction to him, she'd act on those impulses without batting an eye. She was the _Empress_, she could have any man she wanted and they could not, by law or by custom, deny her advances. Sometimes, though, when she looked at him, he could tell that she _did_ have those impulses. He could tell when he was being undressed by her eyes. But she refused to bow to those impulses, wouldn't even admit to him that she had them, which was what a Faey would do. Kumi was the perfect example... from the first meeting she made her attraction to him abundantly clear, as well as her intent to bed him. He wasn't sure why Dahnai was doing what she was doing, and that made her very mysterious.

But, he couldn't deny that he liked her. When she wasn't trying to dig what he knew out of him, she was an intelligent, witty, charming young lady with a razor wit and an almost supernatural ability to see the smallest detail. She also learned fast, he had to admit. As he learned the basics of telekinesis, she learned the basics of Aikido. And after they shared their knowledge, they would talk, about anything and everything. Jason learned a hell of a lot from Dahnai on the basics of leadership, learned quite a bit about the various houses of the _Siann _and the current alliances and enmities, and learned quite a bit about Dahnai herself. She was unmarried but had two children, sired by a Merrane male chosen by the house, a five year old son and a three year old daughter... which she only saw once every ten days. By custom, the Empress didn't care for her own children, couldn't be burdened with that responsibility when she had an empire to oversee. They were being raised by foster parents from Merrane until they were ten, when they would be allowed to live with their mother. That seemed cruel to Jason, but to Dahnai, it was just the way it was. She loved her children very much, and was already counting down the months until her son, Maer, would come live with his mommy. Then her daughter, the Crown Princess Sirri, would come live with her two years later, and they'd be a family.

It was custom for the Empress to produce the heir before marrying, since the Empress didn't marry at the behest of the house. She'd already produced her heir with the chosen male, carefully selected for his lineage and pedigree, so now she was free to marry. Empresses often married for political gain, but did not always do so. Unlike other high-ranking noble women, Dahnai was free to marry anyone she wanted, not who was chosen for her for maximum political gain. Being the Empress, no one could _make_ her marry anyone.

It didn't take long until Jason saw Dahnai as a close friend. Despite the tension between them concerning his silence, she really liked him, and he really liked her. He was as close to her as he was to Kumi... probably even closer. And what was just a bonus was that Jyslin and Dahnai really hit it off. There was a great deal of discomfort on Jyslin's part at first, because she was _the Empress_, but after the shock of that wore off and Jyslin started seeing Dahnai for who she was instead of her title, they started getting to know each other.

The _Siann_ took note of this personal attention, as did INN, and that was probably half the problem. Jason found it impossible to get back to Karis and see how things were going with Cybi because several Faey media organization followed him around _everywhere_ he went. INN had to be the worst of them, but that god damned tabloid CivNet site _The Examiner_ was horrific because they resorted to paparazzi-style tactics to get pictures of him and Jyslin, of the other members of Karinne, and everyone they associated with. He was hoping that they'd lose interest in him, but the combination of his unusual rise to status and the Empress' personal, intimate interest in him made him like a fucking rock star to the Faey. Everywhere he went, there was a camera and a reporter, people asking him questions, and annoying the hell out of him. As the days moved on, it got worse and worse out in the world, but things within court got... weird. Nobles began cautiously approaching him, saying nothing of importance, just trying to engage him in smalltalk. He seemed to be in favor with the Empress, and he realized they were testing the waters, seeing if he might be amenable to them, and through him gain the Empress' ear.

He dreaded going there now. Not because of Dahnai or the _Siann_, but for an entirely different reason. He noticed it about two weeks ago, when he and Dahnai had spent an afternoon outside. He'd gotten sunburned, and after applying some burn-heal to it, he ran to Songa immediately, going all the way back home to do so, for his skin had taken on an unpleasant grayish pall. He feared he'd had some kind of allergic reaction to the burn-heal. She gave him a thorough examination, then laughed and told him that it wasn't a medical problem.

Jason was part Faey, and exposure to Draconis' sun was triggering his hybrid melanin to protect itself.

And it was turning him _blue_.

The blue tint in his skin was noticeable now, and it merged with his beige skin to produce a dusky, almost grayish hue. It was like any tan; it would darken with more exposure and fade if he stayed out of the sun, which would allow the blue to fade completely. Jyslin thought the idea of him turning blue was entirely proper, but she was terribly biased. Jason hated the idea of it, and now he didn't go to Draconis without wearing long sleeves and carrying an umbrella to shield him from the sun. He didn't _want_ to turn blue. He wanted this blue tint to fade and go back to his normal coloring, and it had been doing so. It was very faint now, and after a couple more days, it would be gone entirely. He'd just have to be careful from now on to limit his exposure to the sun while he was on Draconis, or he'd turn as blue as a Faey.

It wasn't just him either. Tim and Ian had gone with him to Draconis last week, and both of them had come home sunburned. And just like him, their skin started taking on a bluish undertone. Temika had laughed at them, but when _she_ went to Draconis the last time Jason had to go to court, spending all day outside, she came back looking like an Aborigine, her creamy brown skin turning almost purple because her melanin too tried to turn blue once it was exposed to the Draconis sun. She didn't laugh at them anymore.

He was glad Karis' sun wouldn't do that to him. He hadn't been back since leaving with the _Scimitar_ because of all the attention, but he was keeping abreast of things. Cybi could communicate with him using the _Scimitar _as a transceiver, and she contacted him at least twice a day to give him status reports, and also just to talk. The Kimdori remained on Karis, continuing to repair everything they could find. They had restored operations on all but two of the reclamation robots, and those robots were again working to restart the planet's ecosystem. And to his surprise, the Kimdori were starting to rebuild. They seemed to have this notion that the entire planet would be repopulated, so their civil engineers had gone in, brought along old maps and plans of the old cities of Karis, and had every intention of rebuilding every single one of them, putting the planet right back the way it was. Jason had to intervene at that point. He did agree with Zaa that rebuilding some of Karis was necessary, but not that kind of large-scale restoration was required. He allowed Zaa's people to begin to rebuild _one_ city, the capitol city of Karsa, which was on the coast of the small central continent about 1,000 miles west of the island where Cybi was. And that was the continent that Jason told Cybi to concentrate on restoring first. They would start there, on the continent of Dacha, and work their way across the planet.

The Kimdori hadn't just been fixing machines. Zaa had called personally two days ago and told him that the KMS _Defiant_, or Karinne Military Starship, the cruiser that had been docked in the lunar base, had been fully repaired and was ready for service. This was not a scout ship. This was a _warship_, and it was fully armed and armored. And holy shit was it ever fucking armed. It had weapons on it that Jason had never seen before, but they seemed absolutely devastating. Its main weapon was a striated particle beam projector, a stream of subatomic particles that ripped matter apart. The Imperium had weapons nastier than this, until one saw that this weapon was fired as a _sustained beam_. The beam lasted for nearly six seconds until the projector had to stop to cool off, but during those six seconds, the focusing lens could shift, moving the beam. The result was a shearing beam that could rake across an enemy ship and literally cut it in half. The _Defiant_ had three of these particle beam weapons in it, and all three could fire at once. It also was armed with teryon cannons, weapons similar in behavior to MPAC projectiles, explosive energy blasts that penetrated before detonating. But the most dangerous weapon on board was actually a defensive system called a _torsion wave generator_. It created a spatial shockwave around the ship, kind of like a space earthquake, that did tremendous stress damage to anything caught in the wave. It was primarily and anti-fighter and anti-missile shield, a defensive system that destroyed anything small that got close to it, but it couldn't fire if other weapons were being used, because the torsion wave altered the trajectory of any energy beams that passed through it while it was operating.

Zaa had told him that the two destroyers, the KMS _Resolute_ and the KMS _Sora's Pride_ would be repaired and ready within two weeks. The Kimdori had been focusing on the cruiser.

That was good to know, but right now, the _Defiant_ was just an oversized toy. He had no crew to man it.

While Jason was running around the planet like a maniac getting in touch with nation leaders, Suralle had arrived and got to work. Their first order of business was saving the crops that were currently in the ground, and this they did quickly, taking over seamlessly from the Trillanes. Those people who had been on the farms like the Suralle way better, for they were nice and helpful, they started working to upgrade the living conditions of the workers, and what was most important, they started handing out hard currency payments to the workers, _paying_ them for their work. The Trillanes had never paid them; working on a farm was like being in a prison camp, where the borders were fenced in and guarded, everyone worked every day, and nobody got a single credit for their labor. But the Suralles charged in and started tearing down the fences, started fixing up the dorms, started giving everyone a cash advance on their future pay, and brought in shuttle service so the workers could get to towns and have a night off, have a little fun, and buy what they needed. The workers were still stuck on the farms and had to do their jobs, but they were all told that they'd only be there until they could get a new personnel system in place, and those who had been on farms under Trillane would _never_ have to work on a farm involuntarily again once they were relieved. They had a lifetime exemption from compulsory farm duty. They were welcome to stay on as voluntary workers and receive a healthy salary for their work, but they didn't have to stay if they didn't want to.

Anya Surrale had come to Earth personally and was overseeing this transition, and he often caught rides to Draconis to attend court on her ship, since Anya didn't miss open court. He felt like a carpooler. He did like Anya, though. She had a shrill, unpleasant voice, but she knew she did and actually preferred to send. She was an earthy middle-aged Faey woman who had the Faey equivalent of doctorates in chemistry and political science, a very well educated woman who happened to be very nice, and he became friends with her rather quickly. Anya had been continuing his education in Faey politics, and it was from her that he saw the ugly side of it. She confided in himdragging a promise that he wouldn't tell Dahnai out of himthat both House Dorrane and House Trillane had tried to approach her to form an alliance against Merrane. Anya could smell an approaching war, and she wanted no part of it. Suralle was prospering right now, and they had nothing to gain from a civil war that would ravage the Imperium, so she kept her loyalties to Dahnai very public and very known. The largest four Highborn houses were maybe _too_ large, _too_ powerful, and now they had revolution on their minds. The Trillane scandal was just the proof that her suspicions were correct, in her mind. Trillane had started executing a plan to take the throne of the Imperium away from Dahnai, and she knew that Dorrane and Shovalle couldn't be far behind. She predicted some rough times ahead for Dahnai, since she was the target of these plots, but Anya confided to him that Dahnai was a very smart young lady. She was only 40, which was about 28 in human years, but she'd been on the throne since she was 14, and she was well settled into it. She was a formidable Empress, and the other houses would be hard pressed to outfox her.

They had a court date tomorrow, and after the ceremony, Anya had arranged to pick him up from the hotel tomorrow afternoon so they could get there.

But that was tomorrow. The ceremony was over, and for the rest of the day at least, they had no obligations. This was part of his Christmas present to himself, a little free time where he wasn't running to the next shuttle that would ferry him to another part of the world, dragging his wife in tow and forcing messages to try to chase him down from country to country.

Jyslin was taking it well enough. She shared his discomfort for being in the public eye, for she wasn't a noble, she was a Marine. Some of the little soundbites they'd picked up from her, Jyslin being Jyslin, had made it onto a few INN newscasts, and that had embarrassed her to no end. Of course, it was Symone that the cameras really liked to follow, because of her natural charisma, her ease in front of a camera, and her downright naughty demeanor, making her a real media darling, and driving Tim up the wall. They followed Jason around because he was the Grand Duke, but they loved following Symone around because of what she might say or do next. She did look a little haggard, though, he noticed as she took off her earrings and put them on the table near the door. She was wearing a formal robe, a very pleasing cream color that went well with her hair, simple and unadorned; since they hadn't had the time to really buy any good ones. They were still wearing the robes that Dahnai had given them when they visited the palace when they dressed formally, clothes from the "rent-a-robe" inventory the cham