Editing Story:ROAD TRIP! (Warhammer High)/Part Two (section)

===Public Speaking===


She craned her head, staring out the tinted windows.  The view was amazing.  The buildings were all acid-swept stone and metal – not a piece of wood in sight.  Statues of the Salamanders, meticulously protected from acid, decorated the corners.  The acid clouds were boiling away under the desert sun.  The star burned a bright, painfully intense red…not unlike her eyes.

She looked below.  The streets below were soaking from scrubbers, spraying the acid rain away, but already there were people below, hawking wares, fixing buildings, and going about their business.  Signs of new construction were abundant, too, but no building rose above the spires of Hesiod Castle, which was really nothing more or less than a Governor’s Palace with an in-built Salamander shrine.

Venus fingered the box with her crown, and she lifted it out, staring at it.  She had inherited her father’s disdain for exercising authority in front of blood relations.  But her father had also never felt more comfortable than he did leading his brothers into war, and had loved the responsibilities of leadership.  Had she inherited those too?

She didn’t know.  Certainly, her cousins and friends were confident in her.

She put the crown back in its box, sealing it again.  It clinked against the little pendant as she did.

The car settled on the scoured roof of a building adjacent to the square.  Ranks of Salamander serf snipers and what looked an awful lot like an artillery spotter were assembled nearby, camouflaged with varying levels of obtrusiveness.  The square, to her astonishment, was nearly vacant.  But then, the skies had been bleeding acid minutes before.

Venus stepped out of the car, one arm wrapped around the box, the other resting on the sword scabbarded at her left hip.  One good thing about rapiers, she reflected, was that it didn’t matter which way you drew them.

A row of Salamander Serfs and Hesiod PDF knelt as she emerged and shook her hair loose.  “Hail, Her Royal Highness, Princess Venus,” the Sergeant at the end of the rank said reverently.

Venus bowed slightly and lifted her hand, palm up.  “Please rise, soldier.  I’m about to address my people for the first time since I learned to speak.  Get on your feet.”

“Yes, your Highness,” he said, scrambling up and gesturing the others to do the same.  “No security threats have been reported.  Even the Underground is quiet.”

“Underground?” Venus asked.

“A small smuggling organization that gets around the customs offices in the Sanctuaries by utilizing mining tunnels, your Highness, hence the name,” the PDF Sergeant reported.

“A smuggling organization on a Space Marine homeworld,” Venus said.

“To our endless shame, your Highness,” the Sergeant admitted.  “But we can’t collapse the tunnels without risking active mine shafts, so…”

Venus nodded.  “A matter for another time.  From where shall I give the speech?”

“Right here, your Highness,” the Sergeant said.  “Should the swell return we need to be able to get you out of here quickly.  And you can address the Square directly from the balcony one floor down.”

“Lead the way,” she said.  The Sergeant saluted and gestured to his men, and they fell in rank beside her as she walked to the access stairs.  Fortunately, it seemed the building saw use as a landing pad with some frequency, and the stairs were wide enough to admit them all.  The group escorted Venus to a small room at the back of the building, where they left her to prepare.

Venus set the box down on a table and opened it.  She removed the crown, setting it down on the table, and sat backwards in a chair, facing it.  She crossed her arms over the top of the chair and stared at the Aquila on its face, measuring her thoughts.  “So how are we gonna play this, Dad?” she asked quietly.  She reached out and gently rubbed a thumbprint from the gold face of the crown with her leather-clad finger.

“I guess we see how it goes…and we’ll see how badly I want to stay after school,” she whispered.  “What will Mom think?  What will Grandpa think?”  She set her head down on her crossed arms.  “What will Jake and Uncle Ir’Sem and Farah think?”

The crown didn’t answer.  She gripped it and set it on, feeling its weight on her head.  As she did, she moved to close the box, when the little pendant caught her eye.  She stared at it, wondering.  Finally, she lifted it out and put it on, carefully disentangling it from her hair and the crown.  “Can’t hurt,” she said.

The crowd outside had swollen considerably when she finally stepped out to the balcony.  The privacy screen was still in place, so they couldn’t see her yet, but she could see them, and she swept the crowd with her eyes.  The balcony was only two stories above the square, and the techpriests were busy setting up a microphone.  A few serfs swept the place, searching for snipers or lesser troublemakers.  A trio of local law enforcement were station every ten feet along the sides of the square, which was really only a large, flat piece of exposed bedrock near the physical center of the city.
Venus cleared her throat, pushing away last-minute nerves.  She was ready.  She had to be ready.

“Your Highness, we are prepared,” a techpriest by the microphones said.

“Thank you,” she said, stilling the nerves in her hands.  She flexed her fingers irritably.  “Lower the privacy shield.”

The techpriest did so, and the shimmering light around the balcony disappeared.

The crowd below caught sight of their Princess and erupted in cheers.  Venus walked up to the edge of the balcony, beside the microphone but not behind them, and waved.  Several servo-skulls floated by, recording the whole affair.  A perfectly timed breeze blew past her, rustling her hair and snapping her cape.

After acknowledging their applause for several seconds, Venus stepped up behind the microphone, inaudibly clearing her throat.

“My friends…it is good to be home,” she began.


Jake sat back in his seat, watching the news.  As soon as Venus walked out in front of the microphones, he beckoned the others over.  “Hey, hey, she’s starting!”

Alex, Freya, and Remilia found seats around the holo and sat.  “Wow.  She didn’t show off that headgear before,” Remilia said.

On-screen, Venus was looking out over the crowd.  “I’ve been gone a long time.  I lived on another world entirely.  And I’ve wanted to come back for a long time, too.”

She tilted her head back, staring out at the facades of the buildings across the square.  “No excuses.  School, life…they kept us apart, Nocturne.  But now…I’ve returned.”  She looked back down at the crowd, and smiled.  “Inclement weather notwithstanding, I feel welcomed.  I thank you for that.”  The crowd dutifully chuckled.

She gestured at the moon, massive in the sky.  “When I arrived, I was glad to see that the stories I’ve been told about how things work here were correct: the Salamanders and their kin are close.  Family.  That pleases me to no end.  Terran or Nocturnean, all Salamanders and Nocturneans are bonded by history and blood.  I am truly honored to be a bridge between them.”  She paused to let a ripple of applause cross the square.

“I wonder how much she rehearsed that,” Alex said.

“I didn’t hear her rehearse once,” Jake said.

Venus slowly ran her leather-clad fingers over the railing of the balcony.  “I may not have returned to take up the reins…yet.  But know that one day I will, and when I do, I will be infinitely proud to shoulder the responsibility of leadership.”

She held up one hand, gestured to the sky above them.  “Terran skies are blue, for those who can afford to see them.  Our red sun scorches our world, and illuminates the trials that lurk within it.  But Nocturne has supported ten thousand years of human life, despite monsters and the best efforts of the environment itself.  Few people possess Nocturnean strength, resilience…and those few who do rarely possess the unity and selfless dedication of the Nocturneans.  Even now, your friends and family lend that strength, that unity, to the purging of the Imperium of the aliens that come to threaten our shipping.  Your thoughts and pride support and uplift them.”  Venus lowered her hand and closed her eyes for a moment, showing her respect for the warriors of the Salamanders and their auxiliaries.  The crowd went quiet as some shared in her respects.

She raised her head and smiled, fingers splayed on either side of the microphone.  “I will visit all the Sanctuaries in my time here.  Here I shall begin, and Themis next…The Jewel, The Dragonspine, The Beacon, The Fire Spike, The Merchant Sprawl.  Though, again, I do not turn to leadership in my time here, I will also visit those who live beyond even those scant protections of walls and shields, and see the lifestyles of ALL my people.”

Remilia nodded slowly.  “She’s not doing a speech.  She’s improvising.”

“How can you tell?” Jake asked.

“Her voice.  She’s not pausing between sentences as long as she would be if she had rehearsed,” Freya said.

Venus turned to the side slightly, glancing over the rows of serfs and PDF on the rooftops.  “I know that my arrival was…somewhat disruptive to the city.  In that spirit, I will keep my remaining comments short.”

She gripped the railing on either side of the microphone and leaned forward slightly.  The wind rose again, sending her hair and cape flying.  She spoke over the noise.  “My friends, I can not overstate the depth to which I felt alive and comforted as I arrived.  Nocturne is more than just the place I was born and the place where my father built a Legion.  It is home, on a level as satisfying and certain as anything I can imagine.  I may leave once more, to complete my schooling, but I will not stay gone.  My future is here, as a Princess or a General, and I can and will not forget it.”  She inclined her head, hand over her heart.  “I will carry the memories I build here with me always…and I will carry your aspirations, your own desires and futures with me, as I do.”

She leaned forward again, her endless red eyes staring over the crowd, meeting several people’s gazes, an easy and confident smile on her lips.  “Thank you all for your kind welcome, and for having me here.  Farewell,” she said.  She turned off the microphone and bowed as low as she dared without letting the crown fall off.

The crowd erupted in cheers once more, and she bowed again, slowly stepping back.  Once she was out of sight of the crowd, she walked briskly back into the building, bulling the heavy gold crown off as soon as she was out of view of the servo skulls.

She blew a stray strand of hair out of her eyes, sighing in relief.  “Whoo…that was rough.”

“That was inspired,” a voice said behind her.  She glanced over her shoulder.  A serf stood there, his hand locked in salute.  “You did wonderfully, Princess Venus.”

“Thank you, serf,” she said, placing the crown in the box and sealing it.  She cricked her neck and groaned.  “I was sweating bullets.  I hate public speaking.”

“You didn’t show it,” the serf said.

Venus nodded.  “Well…time to head out.”  She hefted the box and walked back to where her escort was patiently waiting.  “Gentlemen.”

“Well said, your Highness.  Are you ready to return to the castle?” the Sergeant asked.

“I am.”  Venus followed the escort back up to the roof, and crisply returned the salute of the Sergeant leading the group.  “Thank you, Sergeant.  Back to the Castle, please, and let’s move immediately before we get caught in traffic from people leaving the square,” she added for the driver’s benefit.
She climbed in and they took off, heading back to the massive metal structure.  Venus settled back in the seat, trying to relax, and wondered what her friends would say.