Entry Thirty Nine: Superior Betrayals

Lieutenant JG Lianne paced across her bedroom floor of her hotel room on Amarr, searching for her shoes. She wore an elegant flowing black formal gown with a matching velvet choker snug around her throat that secured a sparkling blue gem in the center. As she turned, the light from the lavish chandliers would reflect against the gem, casting a prism of color across the wall.

Finding her shoes, she knelt down and slid them on, checked the time, then realized she was early.

Pacing over to the floor length mirror, she checked her reflection one last time before settling down on the edge of the bed to pull on her gloves.

"Activate."

The camera drone came into focus."

Raphael suprised me with tickets to the Old Imperial Opera tonight. I don't know what the special occasion is, maybe he saw the report and wanted to distract me from a possible bad mood."

She smoothed her dress as she sat there, anxiously looking to the clock.

"Late last night after patrols, I was half tuned into the PIE Public neo-comm channel as I made my way back to Tuomuta. We had a visitor, an ex- PIE Admiral by the name of Lallara Zhuul. Granted, I did not recognize the name, it has been some time since she has been a part of the Praetoria and I'm not in the habit of checking everyone's previous history, but even if I had known I would have still said what I did."

A sour expression fell across her face. "Miss Zhuul had the audacity to sit there and call the Empress an 'abomination on the Golden Throne', 'the agent of the Deceiver' and went on to claim that the Empire has forsaken God. I waited for a moment, hoping that Lieutenant Hiigaren would put a halt to the heretic remarks and he did not. Instead, he engaged her in conversation."

"At this point I was compelled to say something because we have a strict policy upon joining the channel that states 'comments that are disloyal to the Holy Amarrian Empire, or to our Divinely Appointed Empress will not be tolerated."

"I asked her politely to keep her opinions to herself, to which Lieutenant Hiigaren told me to 'be quiet'. I pointed out the policy of the channel while he went on to inform me that she was an Admiral of PIE once. To which I countered with 'that should not excuse her comments'. He then said he wanted to hear what she had to say."

"I said 'you would like to encourage heresy?' and he went on to sing her praises, saying that he had trusted his life with the ex Admiral."

"I felt that if he wanted to converse with her, he should have done so privately instead of allowing her to mock our Empress and Empire in our public channel."

"Instead of enforcing the rule, Commander Merdaneth felt the need to reprimand me in public, saying I was 'pointing fingers and shouting heresy' and that I was mimicking her 'crude behavior'."

"I pointed out to him that I had not once elevated my voice nor was I crude, that I merely called what she said heresy and thought the rule of the channel should be enforced, a rule implimented by our CEO."

"Lieutenant Hiigaren tried to make light of the situation by calling me 'youthful', as if apologizing to this heretic and seditionist."

She stood and started to pace again, her face flushing with annoyance. "And if that wasn't enough, getting reprimanded by two superiors in public, Captain Laerise then opened up a private comm call with me."

She mentally replayed the conversation.

"Lianne."
"Yes Captain?"
"What the hell do you think you are doing?"
"Pardon?"
"Shut up! I asked you a question and I want an answer."
"Could yo be more specific, Captain? What do I think I am doing in regards to what?"
"Well, for starters what about running around shouting heretic."
"Did you hear what she said, Captain?"
"Yes. Your lack of decorum is shocking. We are Amarr, we are the mountain of God- We are not some pack of Gallente mobsters wielding frying pans."
"So it is customary to sit back and let outsiders degrade the Empress in our public? I merely asked that she keep her opinion to herself. Nothing more."
"I am not interested in your opinion at this point. I do not want to see you utter that word in such a situation ever again while you are wearing our colors. Bring it up to your superior so we can take action."
"As you wish."
"If you are so keen keen on starting a civil war, please leave and go join your suitor Garst. That is not to say that I do not agree with you on certain things, but public places are no forum to call someone a heretic, understood?"
"Please do not imply that there is anything going on between Garst and I. I do not presume to involve myself in your personal life. And yes, understood."
"Good. Do you want anything to the record at this time?"
"Certainly. Calling someone a heretic when they are a heretic should be no crime. And as I said in PIE public, I felt the need to step in and ask that the conversation be halted. No one else seemed interested. We have a policy, it should be respected."
"You are not a member of the council, you have no right to call someone a heretic until they, or your superiors, do Lieutenant. I do NOT want this to spiral out of control, again."
"Very well Captain. Now write a report of what happened, attach the logs and leave it at that."
"As you wish."
"Good, that is all."

Gloved fingers slid through her long red hair. "So not one, but three senior officers felt the need to reprimand me for asking that our Empress's name not be defiled in our public channel. And it's probably a safe bet that the rest of the Admirality will agree with them and that somehow I will be reprimanded even further for it."

She shook her head "I think it appalling." She sighed a sound of frustration, "It's no secret that Captain Laerise dislikes me. And with her remarks 'please leave and go join your suitor Garst', I can't help but wonder if that is how the rest of the Senior Officers feel?"

A knock on the door caught her attention and she started towards it, deactivating the recording drone along the way.