There was a moment where Alex thought about just pushing the stick forward and pitching the ship directly towards the ground. Just as a distraction, of course, give himself a few seconds to think about the reply. In a much more reasonable course of action, he nosed the ship up a few degrees and adjusted the shielding to optimize for gliding, then eased back on the thrusters to let it descend slowly. Needed to test a variety of functions to ensure things were operating properly, after all.

It had been a few years since he'd been in control of a ship meant to be used in the atmosphere, while actually being in an atmosphere. The way the stick fed information back to him was distantly familiar, a pleasant reminder of simpler times when he was just a kid with a dream about becoming a Scoutship pilot and no one ever asked him about the in-law that he was pretending not to have.

It sure would have been nice if that sort of question had been asked when there was some more natural way to delay the response. A beverage he could take a sip of. A frozen lake that was in need of inspection that he could walk out onto and not be seen again for several days. No such luck when he was the actual pilot.

"Well, yeah. Kinda hard to miss when I visited the Empress' ship." Okay. Okay, that's reasonable. It's not giving anything away. It was pretty common knowledge that the Sword was the Empress' ship. Right? Fuck, was it? She visited McFadden station, this had to be general knowledge at this point. Ed had said it was on the news. For all he knew, Williams was about to give him shit for driving Eleya around. "It came as quite a surprise."

Williams hummed and nodded. "She is very... I was about to say down to earth, but that feels inappropriate when talking about an alien. She has been very practical and easy to get along with, which is not what I expect from someone with a royal title."

"That's exactly why it caught me off guard. Lan Tshalen is not particularly enthused by, uh... Court life, I guess? Doesn't care for the intrigue and all of that." This was accurate and true. Carbon really didn't like it, though that was also largely because of Eleya. Now, having answered a few questions in a way that he felt didn't give anything away, he felt it was reasonable to ask one of his own.. "How did you find out about that? I was basically being taken to meet the Empress before I did."

Oh right, he was flying. Gotta keep an eye on the altitude at the very least, nobody was becoming a casualty today.

"Back after Zeshela, the Ingraham got sent to Na'o for a while. Transported two dozen odd Tsla'o because their own ships were already packed for obvious reasons. We had a good rapport going with the detachment that escorted us in, which acted as an ice breaker for a lot of other military personnel." She watched the altimeter as well, though with slightly less intensity. "Showing up having done something they saw as both dangerous and selfless carried a lot of weight for them. That was just about when the Lan was getting shipped out with some waverider drives and there was so much discussion about it that not only was it getting heated, they'd be arguing about it in front of anybody."

"Oh yeah, I heard that was met with some skepticism. Panned out, though." He nodded through the windshield.

Williams chuckled and shook her head. "The translators we had were pretty bad and I left mine off unless someone was talking to me directly. We were offloading an Osprey full of civilians - I was mostly just standing there looking dour while Commander Lhenan and Zenshen ran things - and there were a couple of dockworkers arguing and I thought I was going crazy because I was sure I kept hearing words I recognized."

"Let me guess - he was talking about Carbon, using her full name?" It felt weird to say her name out loud. Like he had been expecting to never say it again, though he knew this would come to an end eventually. He patted himself on the back for not saying that Lhenan was a Colonel now, too.

"He was. Using just her first name to be disrespectful, and the fact it was from a Human language as evidence she couldn't be trusted."

"Dangerous game to play." Real easy way to end up in front of a firing squad. "I understand where the guy is coming from, but an absolute monarchy under martial law might not be the safest place to say stuff like that."

"Agreed, though it seems that they are fairly permissive about things like that, when you're a dockworker at least. I saw a couple of sharp looks tossed his way. Zenshen was scandalized by it, but Lhenan's reaction was pragmatic." She laughed once, quietly, glancing over as the altimeter continued to fall. "Used it as an opportunity to help her learn about reading people - he was arguing out of fear. That Humans clearly were not hurting for FTL capable ships, so why did a set of drives need to be taken from what little remained of the Empire's shipbuilding capabilities?"

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Alex wondered, as he leveled the Corvin off and trimmed the shields, if any retribution came that guys way later. It felt like he was being critical of the Empress' will, her orders... But who knows how the communication about that project was handled. Things were clearly a mess back then, and they had only improved somewhat since. "I cannot imagine Zenshen being scandalized by anything."

The Lieutenant actually laughed at that, a wide grin on her face. "Not now, obviously. She was huge on decorum back then. Very proper."

He banked the ship, heading towards some foothills just inside the geofence that had cold, fast winds coming over them. "Nah. I still can't imagine it."

"She was. Brought a pot of tea out into a combat zone the first time I met her, in addition to the actual requested supplies." Williams shook her head, the grin eased back into a smile. "So... You've actually met the Empress?"

Aha, there it was. That was the actual question Williams had. Probably. Why exactly she wanted to know what Eleya was like was currently beyond Alex. "Yeah, I was her guest, after all. Even cut short, the Kshlav'o expedition was valuable for them. Several potentially habitable planets and a bunch of material rich solar systems. And this thing."

She held up a hand. "Easy with that kind of talk, my security clearance isn't as high as yours."

He glanced over, an eyebrow raised as they hit the first bump of turbulence. "Seriously? You're in charge of this operation."

"They let me read a bunch of reports related to your expedition, but most of it was redacted to hell. They didn't even leave me to read it on my own, I had to have a minder." She rolled her eyes, a hand set on the control stick on her side of the cockpit as the buffeting increased.

"That's messed up."

"You're telling me." She grimaced, the shuttle getting jostled quite badly now. "Do you think the Lan will be honest with me if I ask her about the Empress?"

No. In no world would Carbon lay out anything but the most noncommittal answers possible. "Probably. She's not... Well. She keeps her secrets, obviously, but I don't think she would have a problem talking about her aunt in... general terms."

"Understandable. It's not just family I'm asking about, I expect everything will be guarded to an extent, it's just... We're already seeing some incredible advanced technology here. Even if all we bring back is scans of that power source and the motor in the key, it stands that it will advance technology for both of us." She paused here, glancing at the sensor readings, lips pursed and more tense looking than Alex had seen her before. "I'm a little concerned about handing that to somebody nicknamed 'the butcher,' you know? It's not my place to make those decisions, and it's already out of my hands, but... It gives me a bad feeling."

Oh. Oh yeah, that was her nickname. "That's completely valid. Did anybody tell you about where she picked that one up?" He wasn't going to act like killing that many people, no matter the reason, was great or something. Understandable? Maybe. If Carbon was killed in a similar situation...

Man, a hundred and fifty people would feel completely reasonable.

"I heard about the assassination, but not the details around it."

Alex pushed the throttle up and pointed the shuttle back up out of the worst of the wind, trying to have a serious conversation like this was hard when it felt like someone was shaking the ship. "Basically that. A bunch of people involved in the plot were caught and tried, and she took care of the executions herself. It was very personal for her and she was military before she was a royal."

Williams hit him with a sidelong glance, visibly relaxing as the turbulence eased. "Huh, is that so?"

"It's what I heard, at least." Nobody had a reason to lie to him about any of that, particularly after the execution he was present for. This was how it was at the top. "I think she's mellowed a bit since then? I mean, I'm sure I've seen a more sanitized view of her but she seemed very concerned with her family and getting her people through the disaster, not adding to it."

"The assassination was thirty years ago, wasn't it?" She asked that like she was considering that the intervening decades was enough to soften someone that was willing to personally execute a whole lot of people.

"Correct. Lan Tshalen was a child when it happened, so..." Yeah not getting into the details about what happened between those two at that time.

"Interesting." She drummed her fingers on the bulkhead next to the control stick, pondering all of this information. "Thank you for your input on this. I'll speak to the Lan about it tonight."

"Yeah, of course." If he had the chance he'd have to make sure Carbon knew this inquiry was coming. "Glad to help."

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