P: Acceptance

Did he want her to marry him? Earlier he'd have said no, but now he wasn't sure. He looked into her eyes for too long, and then looked away and rubbed his face.

"I don't know," he admitted finally. "But I think that you'll be safer if you don't accept it. It's gotten rather… complicated."

The girl registered as 'Cinderella' didn't ask what had gotten complicated, instead she frowned at the screen in front of her, and asked, "You're prepared for children?"

He blinked again, and explained, "That is the primary goal of the contract, yes?"

The secondary goal was of course the support of the Queen, but that was phrased more subtly than the clear outlines about the care of the children, one of whom would be the future King of Eks Corp. Her expression was thoughtful as she glanced between the screen and his face. He didn't know what else to say.

"My kids might have blank memory libraries at birth even if they inherit their father's M," she told him suddenly.

"Why?" he asked before all of the data fell into place in his own mind. Even as she responded to his question he knew that she'd had blank libraries. It kind of explained how she had competed with those who lacked the M gene, despite the way they'd all placed higher than those who had a functional LM pair.

"My mother's M wasn't fully compatible with my father's L," she explained.

Brendan's first impulse was to wave away her concern, but he couldn't because it meant that it was entirely possible that the two of them could never produce the next King of Eks Corp, which went against everything in his own memory libraries. His next impulse was to ignore that consequence, because being born as the next King wasn't something he'd wish on a child anyway, and those who lacked the data carried by the M gene had placed highest in his race. Even if that wasn't the usual way to choose your Queen, it was still the way that he had chosen.

Rafaela added uncomfortably, "But even if you're going to reject me, I'm going to accept the contract."

He raised an eyebrow at her at that, but stated, "You need the entire hundred thousand."

"Yes," she admitted a bit defiantly. "It'll make a huge impact on SkyWater's ability to remain successful."

He blinked at her in surprise, but then narrowed his eyes and asked, "And you also need to pay off the modifications to your ships?"

Rafaela grimaced. "I suppose so, since SkyWater paid to lease both of them," she agreed.

Brendan opened his mouth, but immediately shut it again. She was talking about the other two SkyWater entrant's ships, not her own, but as far as he knew the other two were ordinary. Top of the line, but ordinary. It was her ship that was outrunning them that he suspected of being secretly modified, but she seemed completely unaware. Either she was a very good actress, or she didn't understand what her ship was actually capable of, despite having won.

"Your ship proved faster than anyone else, including me, by a fair margin," he observed warily.

Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened. "Were you on the civilian ship that paced us all the way in?" she asked incredulously.

He blinked at her again and then ran his hand through his hair, as he informed her wryly, "No, that was my brother." She looked confused, and he couldn't blame her. His admission didn't feel half as amusing as he'd hoped when he added, "I flew as an entrant, and placed second."

He was startled when she leapt to her feet and pointed at him as she demanded, "The tiny ship!? She was you? I mean…"

"Yeah," he admitted uncomfortably.

Rafaela Donatella stared at Brendan Aldrich for a long silent moment, and then she started to laugh. He stared at her blankly as she laughed like she'd never heard anything so amusing in her life.

"I risked so much to beat someone who wasn't even…" she wheezed after a bit, and tears scattered across her cheeks as she shook her head.

Brendan was embarrassed. "I'm sorry, I wanted to win, and then surprise the person who thought she'd gotten second place…" he admitted. Now was the time that he should admit his rash promise to marry the winner who beat him immediately, but he couldn't quite bring himself to tell her that.

Rafaela Donatella finished registering herself as his future queen, and Brendan Aldrich found himself unwilling to reject her. Her stepmother approved the final registration almost instantly, which startled them both.

Rafaela gazed at the screen and then said flatly, "She's here."

"Probably?" Brendan agreed questioningly a moment later. She looked up at him with a startled expression, and then glanced between the screen and his face as though questioning his involvement, so he added, "You, and both of her daughters, have been within the top 50 places for a week, and this station has been designated for the winner's ceremony for much longer."

She nodded after a moment, although a long sigh escaped her. "I wasn't expecting that," she admitted. "Although you're right, if one of my step sisters had won, I probably would have."

--

Brendan was hiding his laughter as he watched Rafaela react with obvious shock when the team assigned to prepare her for the announcement arrived. She wasn't anything like the girl he'd been expecting to win. None of them were Eks Corp Security officers, because he didn't know which ones he could trust anymore.

He wished he'd arranged for jewelry, or at least a pretty outfit, for the girl who'd won. Her hair was put up in an elegant style that suited the two colors, and false colors were applied to her cheeks. She was more polite than he expected, as they worked their illusions and she thanked each one politely.

It would have been expensive to have something that could fit anyone who might have won, but he felt sympathetic as they were surrounded immediately after exiting the medical section. There were too many sly comments targeting her plain white outfit. Of course, she currently looked much better than she had in the quick anim shots of the people who had seen her before she'd been treated.

He'd been startled when the irate person that she'd fainted in front of had stopped him as he was leaving with her. He'd delivered the white smart-suit himself while the pod had run diagnostics, but he doubted that she'd actually chosen to enter the place because she'd been intending to get the outfit that she had been promised.

He, and their observers, blinked in surprise when her plain white outfit suddenly blossomed into a pallet of rainbows.

Rafaela lifted her fingers and her chin at the same time, as she said, "White is the most efficient setting for the smart fabric. Sorry, I didn't realize that it would be considered offensive."

Brendan whispered beneath the startled murmur that surrounded them, "You're now a princess of Eks Corp, so you're automatically offensive to at least half of the population."

Her eyes darted toward him and he smiled innocently, as he guided her toward the large compartment that had been reserved for the public announcement. He knew that hundreds of anim shots were going to show the solar system the mistrustful expression on her face as he guided her through the only opening in the small crowd. But he was afraid that her expression would have been much worse if she'd realized, like he just had, that the hall was being guarded by standard Eks Corp Security teams.

His brother nodded to him as they entered, a short sharp nod, that said he had everything under control, and Brendan breathed a little easier as he guided Rafaela Donatella toward the dias a few feet ahead of them.