RavensDagger

  Chapter hree - Dressed to Impressed

  It came as no surprise that someone in the position of Empress or Emperor would run into people that could be sidered traditionally attractive.

  Hos, of course, but also normal funaries and officers of a high enough io afford well-tailored uniforms and etihas. Mars prided itself on having a healthy, happy popuce, and that often transted into a culture that prized physical health.

  Basically, the average Martian was fit and very proud of it, and that meant that they were often also very attractive.

  Ivil had been to plenty of high-profile gatherings a with models and politis whose entire careers depended on being attractive. Still, what she saw before her at the moment made any Mars Top Model showing pale in parison.

  Aurora was tapping her feet with obvious impatien the loading area the Sappho was ected to. She was in an opulent, high-fashion ensemble. A fusion of a military uniform and evening gown, with intricate golden embroidery and red, velvety fabric.

  The dress had gold-fringed shoulder pieces and a high nee with a white cravat. The neck seemed desigo keep Aurora's head high, not that she . Large, round gsses were pinched over her nose, which was wrinkled with obvious impatience.

  "I like what you did with your hair," Ivil said as she stepped out of the airlock.

  "Iime I had? I worked miracles," Aurora said, though her hand did surreptitiously reach up to fix her hair a little more. It was quite voluminous at the moment. Very curly. Ivil wao sink her hand into it and pull Aurora closer and...

  Ah, right, dinner.

  Ivil go the side and caught Twenty-Six's eyes. The woman blushed prettily. "Aurora did it," she said, and it was definitely a pliment.

  Ivil smiled and looked her up and down. Unlike Aurora's far more formal dress, Twenty-Six was in something a little less plex. A figure-hugging dress with a plunging nee--which showed off what there was to show off--and a corseted top. The dress had rge, someoofy shoulders and a long, trailing skirt.

  "Do you have any idea how hard it was to find something for someoh her proportions?" Aurora asked. "This was the best we could do."

  "Sorry?" Twenty-Six said. She ged. "I'm not the dress sort?"

  "You look beautiful," Ivil replied holy.

  "Ah!"

  Twenty-Six did, in fact, look very cute! Like some rioble daughter about to be paraded around for the gentry for the first time. Though...

  "Are you wearing boots?" Ivil asked.

  "She refused to put on heels," Aurora said.

  "She wanted me to wear these... things! They're inpatible parts. I'm not sure they'd even work!" Twenty-Six said. "And it's not like I o look any taller."

  Ivil smiled, then g Aurora who gred right back. "They weren't even that tall, for heels."

  "You could kill a man with them!" Twenty-Six said.

  "I could kill an Empress with mine right now," Aurora muttered darkly.

  The st of them ixie. Pixie who stood out o the other two by being rather pin. Her hair was done up in a simple part, with a tight little beret on, and her dress was... less a dress and more a uniform.

  "It's just an old thing," Pixie said. "But yeah, sometimes I have to present myself in more formal pany, for work, and it's hard to be taken seriously unless you dress the part."

  Ivil nodded. Pixie oftehe role of the spokesperson for her own merary persona, so that much made some sense.

  Her outfit was a dark navy uniform, with a split dress that stopped at mid-calf exposing dress pants beh. Otherwise, it -fronted, structured coat-dress with a few metallic ats and a thick belt ched at the waist. Her cuffs had a few silver stripes, and there were a few more across her arm where a rank insignia might be on a more Martian variant of the same.

  Ivil nodded. "Very cute."

  Pixie blihen her shy nervousurned into indignation. "I'm not cute," she said. "I'm a decorated, award-winning pilot."

  Ivil nodded. Yes, Pixie was very cute. She could tell that the others thought so as well, even if they weren't saying anything.

  "Pixie has boots, and no one's pointing that out," Twenty-Six muttered.

  "Dress uniform boots," Aurora said.

  They were all-bck, faux-leather boots, shiny and new, pretty much exactly what someone in a parade uniform would wear. In fact, they weren't so dissimir to the boots Ivil had on at the moment. "I think those are fi's a matter of trast, really. Boots are part of the normal uniform, so it's only normal. Whereas boots and a dress does seem somewhat odd," Ivil said. She then g Twenty-Six's side. The young woman had a satchel bag that Ivil knew was filled with tools. She decided not to point it out. "Don't worry. If anyone has problems with the way you're dressed, then they have a problem with me."

  "You seemed to have a problem," Twenty-Six said.

  "That doesn't t."

  Twenty-Six crossed her arms. It wasn't very effective.

  "Shall we get going?" Ivil asked. She reached up and adjusted her cape. She wore it partially over one shoulder, draping down until it nearly touched the ground. It was a rge, thick piece of cloth with slightly ripped edges and careful embroidery that had been worn out and burned.

  It cshed slightly with her pristine, pitch-biform, but Ivil liked the message it sent.

  Her cape had once been the banner hanging over the bridge of the Pride of querih, the Earth Alliance's greatest fgship of the Third Intersystem War. It had a design that incorporated imagery from every nation that art of the Alliance.

  Most galling was a red sphere representing the Earth Alliance's 'ownership' of Mars, a legal fi that they still g to even now.

  That was the only part of the banner which she had kept. The rest, along with the fgship, was melted sg.

  "Let's go. I'm certain that we'll be able to ride down to the old man's pce without difficulty."

  Sonic Spectre flitted along behind them as Ivil took the front and walked ahead of the others. They crossed through the station, and Ivil gred at arying to take any pictures, or who spent too long staring. Certainly, this many attractive women all together was a rare sight, but it was no reason to oogle.

  They reached the grand elevator at the tre of the station only to find the guard tripled. Well over a dozen core-wielders were standing at attention by the elevator, and while most seemed calm and posed, a few of them were sweating bullets.

  Ivil imagihat those sweatihose informed of who, exactly, she was. They seemed to mostly be the higher-ranked officers.

  Fortuhey were met by the same butler who had greeted her that m. "Right this way, dy Empress and guests," he said with a bow befesturing to the opening doors of the elevator.

  Ivil led the way in, then positioned herself at the back.

  Twenty-Six was the oaking it hardest, though she was soon distracted by the elevator itself. "Why does the elevator have a washroom?" she asked.

  "To wash yourself in?" Aurora proposed.

  "I mean, sure, but like... that means that there's a water e? Does it have a tank and filtration system? Do you know how plicated water and waste ma is?" Twenty-Six asked. "And to make it mobile like this? I bet there's a lot of variation in the gravity when the elevator moves up and down, and how are the taied and refilled? Does the elevator o be serviced daily for that?"

  "I'm certain that the invenience of having a washroom in the elevator is part of the reason why it's there in the first pce," Aurora said. "It's just a statement piece, of sorts." She gnced around the interior, which was mostly polished stone and worked gold. "It's ohing to make an interior seem ostentatious and impressive, it's entirely ahing to actually show off your wealth by having things that ought to be impossibly inve just be present."

  "I guess?" Twenty-Six said.

  "Yeah, I'm with you on this one," Pixie said. "No one appreciates waste-ma until you're in it up to your elbows."

  "Yeah," Twenty-Six agreed.

  Ivil resisted the urge to smile. If the Jovian Emperor ying on them now to learn anything, he wasn't ing out of it the winner.

  The elevator slowed to a geop and opened quietly into the same hall filled with waiting guards. There were more of them now, and of higher quality.

  "This way, dies," the butler said befuiding them along. "Does anyone wish to make a small stop in a refreshment room before joining the host in the dining hall?"

  Ivil shrugged. The soohis was doh, the better, but she didn't care as long as everyone here was fortable.

  ***