E: Bitter Heart

Elektra took the key card and refrained from voicing her criticisms, which were many. She cursed Corso for daring to die so inconveniently. 'Take care' of her, she scoffed internally. Leave her to struggle with both bureaucrats and her peers alone, more like.

If she was honest about it, she was actually in a much better position on her return to Eks Central than she had been when she left it. And despite the incredible irritation and hassles, Corso's loose handling of his legal documents meant that it was not impossible to convince the administrators that she should have everything that he'd assigned to his first wife in his outdated will.

She had even, quite generously she thought, added all of Rafaela's mother's things to the list of 'personal possessions' that Corso had left to his daughter. She hadn't even tried to have that stretched to include her own daughters, despite the fact that he had taken the extra step to legally adopt them when he married her.

The agent gave her an expectant look, obviously waiting for something else.

Doris whined, "Can we at least have a place with real beds now?"

Elektra sighed. Despite their strict upbringing, her daughters acted rather spoiled at times. She gave Doris a sharp look, and the girl straightened her shoulders and dropped her eyes.

Louise tried to curry favor with them both, by rephrasing the demand, "We're both just hoping for enough space to spread out and relax before we have to go spend all that time trapped aboard the ships that we'll be racing?"

Elektra said sharply, "Indeed." She turned her gaze back to the waiting agent and asked frostily, "Is there something else that you need of me, or more information about the lease that you wish to impart?"

The agent smiled a bit stiffly and replied, "Nothing, Lady Elektra."

Elektra marched away, confident that her daughters would follow obediently. If the residence did not live up to its 3D anim, someone was going to have a very bad day. It was bad enough that they'd had to stay in a dockside restbay like commoners, when they finally disembarked from that tiny closet that called itself a courier ship.

Standard procedure, the station officer had insisted, as though they were immigrants instead of returning residents. At least the lifts and slidewalks that they traveled through were not crowded, and they didn't have to carry their own luggage to the residence. Her daughters perked up when they crossed below the shopping district, whispering and pointing out changes to each other.

When they arrived at the proper door, in the proper section, Elektra waved the key card at the sensor and the door slid open welcomingly. The tension in her shoulders eased for a moment, as she saw that it appeared to be exactly as its 3D anim had presented it. She was able to point to the two smaller bedrooms and say, "You can each have your own room, I leave it up to the two of you who gets which, but you'd better not bother me with any more whining."

She couldn't help the small smile that curled the corner of her mouth as they both gave her a hug, and then dashed off to inspect the two rooms as though they were still half their present ages. They might be a little spoiled, but they were also still innocent and generally dutiful.

--

Elektra almost missed Corso's annoying, uppity, and dreadfully old fashioned looking daughter the next morning. The modern service center could produce things that the dreadful little station galley had never heard of, but Cinderella, her lips curved at the slightly cruel nickname her daughters had given Rafaela, had done pretty well at arranging their breakfasts prettily.

A frown pinched her brows at the decorative disposable dishes that this unit was programmed with. They were acceptable, but she would need to furnish this place properly before she could invite any guests.

She glanced at the still firmly closed doors of her daughter's rooms. Apparently she would also need to instruct the residence to wake them at a decent hour. A real smile curved her lips as she issued her instructions to the silent walls, and they responded politely, like a civilized living space should.

--

Elektra lounged on the comfortable couch and issued strings of instructions to the array of display screens that filled the entire wall in front of her. The single tiny display screen, that only the dining room and their private sleeping compartments had held aboard SkyWater station, had driven her nuts.

Despite the welcome conveniences, and the nearly imperceptible loading times, her expression grew more and more pinched as she sorted through her messages. The leases on the two ships that she'd selected had been successfully secured, but they hadn't been delivered. Even Elektra wasn't as naive as to imagine her daughters would have any chance at all if they boarded their ships for the first time at the starting point.

An officer who had been giving a guest lecture had once asked, "Do you know why a beat up old ship with a century old drive can seem more reliable than a brand new top of the line model?"

A much younger Elektra Perrot had answered confidently, "Because sometimes factories produce items with shoddy workmanship, and don't properly test the new ships before they are delivered."

A much younger Corso Donatella had answered, "Because the pilot knows every centimeter of his old ship."

Elektra had been both infuriated, and kind of impressed, when the old man had grinned at Corso and said, "You must be a pilot, that's very true."

Her own answer had been much more logical than the random jumble of answers the others had given, and the officer had asked about the ship itself, so Corso's answer should have been invalid. It infuriated her that her answer, which had been correct, had been ignored. And it impressed her that Corso, who was the same age, could reply simply, "Yeah," and be instantly welcomed into some private camaraderie with the old man.

She had taken more interest in Corso Donatella after that, and learned that he really was a very good pilot. It seemed like a strange interest for the heir of a large corporation, but the infuriating thing was that he was just as good at all of his courses. He even tried to act humble by claiming that examples of most of what they studied were already present in his hereditary memory libraries, without seeming to understand that he was actually bragging.

They had developed an odd sort of friendship, tainted by one-sided rivalry. Elektra had excelled at nearly everything in an attempt to surpass the irritating Donatella in something, anything. He even had more friends than she did, right up until his family's corporation was dissolved.

Of course, he hadn't been ostracized or anything, because many people genuinely liked him, but… even Elektra had pitied him. She had been too bitter to show it though. She hadn't even been able to rejoice when she'd scored higher than him in a subject at last, because she was almost certain that he had reduced his efforts to a minimum.

Somehow she'd never been able to tell him about her lasting grudge against him either. He'd congratulated her on her win with his usual bright sincerity, and then he'd left. And when her husband had left her for his mistress, and her family had refused to take his daughters in, despite the fact that she had married according to her grandfather's wishes… Corso Donatella had showed up at her door, with a sympathetic expression, and an open hand.

She had almost refused his offer because he'd said a bit chidingly, "You were far better at business than he ever was, shouldn't you have taken over years ago?"

She hadn't, because he'd believed it.

Elektra closed her eyes to the memories, and wondered if this gamble would succeed. Maybe she should have put aside her irritation with Corso's daughter during the past two PiYears and backed her instead of Louise. Louise was still very young.

She had confidence in her ability to keep the SkyWater company that Corso had created going, even though she knew that all of the employees must currently be wondering anxiously if the move to the new sector had been cancelled. She was just going to leave them wondering until after the Princess Race, because it could change everything.

If one of her daughters could become the next Queen, she would have the power to completely ruin her ex husband, and she could force her family to bow to the daughters they had refused to claim.

Elektra smiled and opened her eyes.