Because I was a rear admiral in the year that the Lepidopter joined the consortium whose fleet I served, and because I was commanding the five flotillas that had been sent out for the ceremony, I received a special honor.
In the first place, I got the assignment because none of the men on the command track wanted it. The glory was in discovering new civilizations and having them join, not in the deep pomp and circumstance of the joining. It took weeks of time -- weeks of time that could be spent breaking new ground on the frontier.
Even my fellow admirals who had come up by the science track were often impatient … most of us are not big “people people,” and so meeting all the people that went into these joining ceremonies was again seen as a waste of time.
I stood apart as a female admiral who was known for loving beauty – my colleagues laughed at me when I wrote a book about the stars like gemstones, studding the velvet of deep space, and were trying to keep laughing as my retirement was paid for and the numbers of women entering the fleet swelled because of that book.
The Lepidopter high command, as it happened, had read the book, and were delighted when I got the assignment to come out and see their fleet parade. They knew I could appreciate how their defense force was as beautiful as it was powerful.
My counterparts in the Lepidopter fleet invited me to a reception just for the ladies of high rank, and since I was the only woman at admiral rank from my fleet, of course I got to go.
The above is one of the female Lepidopter admirals, in her dress uniform. I said to her that as beautiful as her attire was, I might have mistaken her for a queen, and she laughed.
“You're actually right, Admiral. I am the hereditary queen of one of the planet's many provinces, and everyone you see here is royal. We wanted to let you know that we recognize you for who you are, too, even though your civilization has a different form of titles and government! As we understand your civilization, it is very much like ours – you would have to be a queen of a female to be your age, and have come so far, and have done no evil against your own body or any other except in defense!”
“Ah, you have heard from some of the men of my fleet who wanted to help me pass to higher ranks faster, just through their bed, and are all disappointed,” I said. “I didn't realize you all did that level of research!”
“Oh, there was much conversation about your type of being, Admiral, and its vices,” my counterpart said. “See, here, any act of promiscuity is deadly. We are designed to only be able to handle one mate at a time, and that is determined before we ever are introduced to anyone beyond our family's chosen circle. I am carrying all the fertilized eggs that I can right now. I would literally bust if I took in any more of the male contribution. On the male side, it takes the males half their lives to get their contribution together, so if they try for three matings in a lifetime, they die from exhaustion on the second because their bodies cannot recover from that premature effort.”
“So, the fact that you are at the rank that you are, but are living like a Lepidopter, shows that you and members of your race do have some level of discipline, because it would be so much easier for you to pass through others' beds to get up – but you have not. The grumbling and disappointment is known!”
“A queen of a female,” I said, “does not put her body out to get to where she knows she already belongs and has a right to be, and it does not matter who does not like the fact.”
“Exactly, Admiral. We see you!”
The ladies of the Lepidopter fleet had a long shawl made for me as a mark of their admiration, in the pattern of their own adornments:
When off duty, over the years that remained between then and my marriage, I often wore that shawl to remind myself of their support and love, and to remain a queen until my king found me – which he did!
“It amazes me still that you married a young commercial captain, given the people you've had access to,” Marcus Aurelius Kirk Sr. is still saying to me from time to time.
“Look, Mark, I knew you were a king when I met you, and since I could only marry up even as a full fleet admiral by that time, well, there it is! I saw you then and I see you now!”
“I know,” he said, “and I love you for that, Queen Admiral V.T.”
This pure fractal made in Apophysis 2.09 is the cousin of the Lepidopter fleet shown yesterday -- different fractal, but in the same group, with similar pattern and work path -- I took the pure fractal and rendered it on white, then put black around it to reveal the queenly glory of the Lepidopter admiral!