Solstice

An Imaginary story

I

Londenium

Gleaming crystal rose all around Kade, a palace of false ice. Great flying buttresses of gleaming white supporting a vast arched roof like a church. The ceiling was made so it absorbed sound, reducing what would otherwise have been an echo chamber to the pleasant hum of a normal party. Starlight gleamed through the panes above, even as snow beat against the rooms wall. The crystal palace had been placed at this specific height so parties could be starlit while still enjoying the sight of snowflakes rushing into distant windows.

It was a remarkable achievement, made all the more remarkable by the fact the whole structure had been built into a high mountain. Snow was not quite as unknown on Londenium as on Kade's native Tempest, but it was still rare enough as to be a spectacle. The whole place was served by a special subway, allowing guests to make it back to the capital in less than half an hour.

When she'd first come here she'd been a little overwhelmed by places like this. Indeed that was part of their function. Still it was an alien place to Tempesti sensibilities, to build somewhere like this just for the sake of building it. . . For all that she tried to remind herself how much of Londenium's wealth came from its vast dust reserves or the external investment it had received as a UN colony, or that the average Tempesti was better off than the average Londoner it was still, if she was honest, a little disheartening.

Not that she'd ever let her hosts know that they'd got to her of course. Instead she wore Tempesti party dress like armour and pulled every advantage she could find to influence Tempest's richer, larger ally.

As ever the Tempesti ambassador was surrounded by a crowd of friends. Right now they included the wife of the Home Secretary (herself a prominent industrialist, and secretly resentful of her husband's greater fame), A vice president of Londenium Metalworks (A secret patriot of the Tempesti system with whom Kade was arranging several military contracts), the junior minister of Defence (who was very much in love with Kade) and the mistress of one of Londenium's most fashionable political salons. (ditto).

It was a mixture of gossip and shop talk. Trade matters and personal. "Married again? Really? I don't know where she finds the time!" "Of course Tempest doesn't have a position on that until the vote comes up. Personally though I think that kind of extraterritoriality is just shameful." "Too New Mercia? I hear it's spectacular in the spring. . . if you should happen to meet General Tanes of the Tempesti mission give her my love would you?"

Kade could almost have maintained the conversation in her sleep, but she would remember all the facts. The neural wetware would forget nothing, and the crew on the other end of her neural lace supplied her with anything she needed to know. Part of her mind was on other things. The upcoming trade negotiations tomorrow. How exactly to try to sell the latest round of intellectual property treaties to the deeply hostile Tempesti public. . .

Kade's eye was caught by a movement across the room. Jane Ellison cut quite the dashing figure in a black suit with black diamond cord banding across it. Londenium's foreign secretary always did know how to dress. The Londener raised an eyebrow and made the smallest motion with her head. She waited for polite gap in the conversation them smiled. "Excuse me a moment. Duty calls." she walked over.

"Madam Ambassador." Ellison kissed her hand Londenium fashion.

"Foreign Secretary." Kade smiled. "You seem to be loitering near me."

"Ah... business follows even at parties." the Londoner motioned to one side. She offered an arm "Might we at least discuss business in one of the upper galleries though? I don't want to spoil your evening too much."

Kade smiled and took the offered arm. "How's your daughter? It was her graduation a few days ago?"

"She got a first on upgrade." Ellison smiled. "She's already talking about postgraduate."

"She'd be a good academic." Kade nodded to the muscular man in house livery waiting at the top of the stairs, Ellison said a few words to him as they passed and he closed the door, the two women reluctantly separating. In front of Kade snow beat at the window, flowing and rippling. Kade rested a hand on the glass but it wasn't even cold. "So, business."

Jane nodded and walked over to sit next to Kade "Yes. . . it's about Solstice."

Kade nodded. She'd guessed already. "Well, all the preparations are in place. . . but it's going to cost you. The intellectual property treaty for one. If that captures the news cycle back home you can forget it."

Jane winced, then smiled. "This would be much easier if you people had a proper government."

"That's why we don't have a proper government Jane." Kade sat down beside the Londoner. "Besides, this is kind of a bad thing you're asking." She ruffled the other woman's hair. "The truth is going to have to come out sooner or later. So you might want to think how you want to spin it."

Jane nodded. "Alright. . . I'll talk to the Treasury and the PM about the IPT. Can you put things in motion today?"

Kade nodded. "It'll go out in tonight's message package." she paused for a moment "Jane, I think I might be in love with you, but please never ask me to do something like this again."

Jane looked over at her, a little shocked, then smiled. "Alright. This will be the last time."

The snow blew thick against the window.