Just minutes after the captain left an attendant entered the room when she saw the two red blades and took a step back and muttered a chantra to calm herself. The room was filled with blood lust and she felt like if she took a wrong breath, she would die without even knowing how.
At that moment Anya turned around and smiled at the attendant with a mischievous smile, "Sorry did I scare you.", she spoke in an innocent voice, as she put her blades back into their sheath and strapped them onto her belt.
"N-n-n-no y-your excellence," she stammered out with batted breath, a slight tremor still passing through her body as she avoided Anya's eyes to afraid to meet them, ", t-the captain told me to show you to your room."
"I see," tilting her head to one side and letting her hair flow over her shoulder Anya put on an enthusiastic smile, had the attendant not felt the blood lust earlier she would have thought the scene cute, "Why don't you give me a tour of the ship first, I'd really like to get to know you better.", Anya spoke coquettishly not bothering to hide her interest in the pretty attendant.
The attendant nodded repeatedly as her body shivered not daring to say anything that might upset Anya, "As you wish, your excellency."
In her mind the attendant began plotting out the route, making sure that they would pass through the most populated areas of the ship.
As they walked around the ship Anya barely paid much attention to what the attendant said, every so often she would touch the attendants' shoulders or poke her on the side, she watched as the attendant squirmed, every time one of those shivers ran through the attendant's body Anya felt a surge of pleasure.
It only took a short hour for the tour to finish and they arrived at a room adjacent to the captains, "Oh the captain didn't offer his own room," Anya spoke teasingly sending cold chills down the attendant's back.
"The captain asked me to show this room and his, your excellency, you're free to choose whichever you like more."
After a quick tour of the two rooms Anya smiled thinking of that cheeky captain, while he was ordinary to the eye, she still remembered that while he was respectful to her, he wasn't pressured by her presence.
She chose the first room, that captain really is cheeky she thought, both rooms were identical with a lovely hot bath in the center of the room, a view into the spiraling galaxy, and a large bed fit for a king, the only difference was the captains few belongings and the stains on his bedsheet.
Anya jumped onto the bed like an excited child and looked at the attendant, "What's your name child?"
The attendant found it ironic that she was being called a child by someone that looked to be barely in her teens but she did not refute it, "Klara your excellency."
Anya frowned when she answered, "No-no-no that won't do you should call Anya."
"That won't be appropriate your excellency.", she quickly stammered.
"It's appropriate if I say it is now call me by my name little Klara."
"Y-yes m-miss Anya." she stammered out.
Anya frowned at the formality but decided not to refute her, "Very well then, I hope that you will accompany me for all my meals in the days to come." she said with a teasing smile.
Klara nodded and quickly withdrew from the room.
In the days to come Anya spent a lot of time with Klara, she had a lot of fun asking her questions that made her squirm and when she was bored, she would take a walk around the ship, unlike the captain the entire crew was afraid of her it was one of her guilty pleasures to sneak up on the officers as they were slacking off, playing games of cards or dice.
Their ability to feign that they were working and hiding the cards and dice always left her in awe, but it didn't stop her from shooting them knowing smiles.
As each day passed the crew slowly grew tenser, each day closer to planet Xelia meant that it was that much easier to run into pirate ships, and the fact that one of the empresses' aids was alongside them while it could be reassuring it also meant that something none of them would be able to handle could find them.
Five days later Captain Klint, stood at the helm watching the monitors when one of the navigators spoke urgently, "Sir a warp disruptor has been detected, it's too late to change course."
The captain looked at the information calmly as he pondered his course of action, his ship only had an X-gen271 warp drive it was one of the best that money could buy on the open market and it was a source of pride for him, but under a warp disruptor it could blow up, 'how I wish that I could get the most basic military warp drive,' he lamented.
"Cut the warp and push the shields to maximum output," he ordered rapidly in seconds the entire crew were moving, being a transport vessel had its pros and cons the cons being that the ship had limited firepower the pro being that its shield was extremely durable, ", and someone get her excellency."
Klara perked up his words, "I'll go," she said quickly and made her way down the ship, Klara's transformation over the past few days was shocking, at first, she seemed terrified but after two days she seemed to glow as she walked confidently around the ship. It was apparent to all that she had become a loyal pet to her excellency.
As they left warp, they were surrounded by 15 fighter pilots and one mother ship, Klint sighed with relief when he saw the number, it wouldn't be easy but he was certain that he could break through them in a few days.
---
Over at the mothership one of the men came up to the captain, "It's the right ship cap shall we open fire on it.", he asked with sparkling eyes.
Captain Bazok looked at this new recruit with concern, in his eyes he saw only one thing a desire for the entire world to burn.
Bazok walked away and slumped down in his chair as he contemplated, the job was a big payer 500000 credits was the basic reward and the reward for none contact with the transport vessel was triple that figure, he called it a job but it was more like a job forced onto him under duress, unfortunately, it wasn't possible to be a pirate on a busy route without big backers.
The payment was great but also scarry he felt like he had gotten involved in something too big, to act with no contact was a very profitable choice he just feared that it might be a terrible mistake and the scariest part was that he had no information on the transportation ship even the people that gave him the mission left him in the dark.
"Tsk," clicking his tongue in frustration Bazok picked up a communicator and sent a projection call.
---
Captain Klint was waiting for something to happen when Anya arrived with a red-faced Klara, Klint shook his head wondering how they found time to fool around in such a situation, as he was about to speak to her a projection appeared in the room.
They all stared at Bazok intently, he had an ordinary face with messy hair and the only notable thing about him was the missed piece of his chin.
Bazok didn't wait for them to speak, "Listen up I'm being paid good credits to wipe your ship, crew, and cargo from existence, and contacting you has already lowered my reward, so give me one good reason not to blow your ship into oblivion."
Klint heaved a sigh of relief, at least he isn't a trigger-happy fool he thought, "This ship is under the jurisdiction of her majesty Taliyah empress of the Clovis empire.", he responded proudly after all the empress was a native of his home world, so the pride he felt at saying those words was immense.
Bazok froze in place and looked around with wide eyes, those bastards sent me on a suicide mission he cursed inwardly.
Taking a very deep breath to calm himself he spoke again this time with no attitude, "If I may be so bold as to ask for proof?", he asked hesitantly.
"Allow me to introduce you to her excellency Anya, one of the empress's most trusted aides.", he gestured at Anya and smirked at the frightened Bazok.
Bazok lost count of how many times he cursed internally at first, he thought that it was a pretty good job with high returns, but now he realized that he was caught by temptations hook, the value of this mission was at least worth half a billion credits anything lower and no one would even have the thought of messing with the royals, but if he had been given the actual figure that this mission could get him, he would have fled the system without batting an eye.
He thought very carefully on his next words, the only thing he knew about Anya were rumors the only one of any value was that she was a seventh-grade saint and her combat class is placed at A+ in the universe while he as a sixth-grade psychic would barely pass as a D+ combatant.
He looked at Anya and could see her teasing smile as if this entire thing was just a game to her, "Your excellency if you could provide me proof of your identity, I would gladly cooperate with you by giving you all the intel on my employer, in truth I didn't even want to do this mission but I didn't have any choice, I hope you can understand."
Anya's expression didn't change much in fact the only change seemed to be her smile that seemed full of delight.
"Prepare to open the hatch and shut down the shield.", Anya commanded and turned around.
"Your excellency what are you tryi...", Bazok tried to ask with a hint of worry.
"Oh, I'm coming over to prove my identity.", Anya chuckled.
Bazok looked at the people in the room and was surprised to find them all as still as corpses no movement could be seen as they all just stared at Anya fixedly before he could protest or say anything the call ended.
In the room, everyone stood in dead silence as they heard Anya's chuckle people carried out her orders without question to afraid to disobey, as they watch her back all that they could see was red, red so dark that it resembled the bloody oceans of Katan, as she strode to the hatch their hearts palpitated and their lives felt insignificant.
After the hatch opened and Anya left the ship was still and silent, after a long time one of the vice-captains spoke in a shaky voice that lacked any strength, "What the hell was that?"
Klint looked at his offices their bodies were all stained red he could still see beads of bloody sweat flowing from many of them even he wasn't spared, "That was a seventh-grade saint's law of slaughter it didn't even touch us," he spoke in a shaky voice, just being in a close proximity left them soaked in their own blood, "I'm warning all of you now no matter what do not even try to argue with her about what she did to us!", his voice was unusually grave as he gave his warning.
Klint thought about the fate of that poor soul in the mother ship, he was only a projection so it was impossible for him to have felt that blood lust, but without a doubt his fate would be pitiful.