The Shattered Empire (The Shadow Space Chronicles Book 2) by Kal Spriggs Page A

Lauren said.  “This is something I need to be involved with.”  She saw him open his mouth to respond and she stabbed one finger at him, “Shut up and listen, Mason.”  She took a deep breath and let it out while she focused her thoughts.  “The way I see it, I need to be with you for three reasons.”
    Lauren held up her hand with one finger raised, “One, you need someone to watch your back.  There's no way a snake like Collae doesn't have plans for you that don't involve your survival... there's too much benefit to reap from taking down Tommy King.”  She raised her middle finger, “Two: I need to be there to watch out for the Baron's interests.  Even if, and this is a big if, Admiral Collae doesn't have a goal of bringing him down, there's still the chance, a big one, that what he is after will harm the United Colonies.”  She looked down at her weapons and started assembling them, her fingers moved rapidly from practice and she let the easy task sooth the emotions that threatened to spill over.
    “What's number three?” Mason asked.
    Lauren sighed, “That's the one that I didn't want to have to say.”  She looked up and didn't wipe away the tears in her eyes.  “If you become Tommy King, if you look to become the scourge you were before or worse, then I need to be there to stop you, one way or the other.”
    ***
     
    Faraday System
    United Colonies
    July 15, 2403
     
    Kate Bueller stood as the shuttle for the latest envoy to the new United Colonies arrived.  Like the others, this was a complex ballet of order and precedence.  The United Colonies was an independent nation, unlike most of the Colonial Republic factions which had thus far sent their emissaries.  They officially were a unified nation, but in reality, most systems functioned on their own, directed by whatever tinpot dictator, oligarchy, or corrupt leadership dominated it.  Sometimes those systems controlled others, either as satraps or even occasionally as equal partners.
    This envoy was, as far as she knew, representative of one of the largest such factions within the Colonial Republic.  Since he represented such an important government, she was here to greet him.  It wouldn't do to have the Baron present, even if he'd had the time, because this wasn't a head of state.  A head of state greeting a functionary of a splinter faction of a nation would establish a poor precedent and would also make the United Colonies seem equal or even less legitimate than the people they met.  Such subtle political machinations were beyond the Baron, she knew, thus he wouldn't complain when she told him she'd handle all of the various emissaries, diplomats, and envoys which had begun to arrive almost as soon as the ink dried on their new constitution.
    Her legality in such a position was slightly unclear.  She was officially a representative for the fifteenth district of Faraday.  With the position came a certain level of authority and responsibility.  She was also the head of Parliament’s Foreign Relations Panel which, by the structure of the Constitution, made her the Foreign Minister.  Of course, the Parliament had yet to officially ratify her position.  Some of the less scrupulous members were holding up such appointments, mostly as a way of trying to scrape together their own power.
    As a result though, she had limited authority to discuss much of anything with most of the various distinguished men and women who had so far visited.  That didn't bother them.  They were here to appraise themselves of the new power out here on the edge of human space... and to meet the men and women who had defeated not just the Chxor, but also the Balor.
    The shuttle door opened and the band nearby began to play.  Kate was no stranger to theatrics and the band flawlessly began to play the anthem of the envoy's faction as he began to walk down the steps.  She noticed him pause, mid-step and look over at the band.  Yet nothing showed on his face as