The Spider Queen

(Earth Federation- Alpha Star System)

(Planet Gaia- Peterlor Estate)

Sophie opened the door and wandered out of her bedroom. The corridor was empty except for the miniature robot cleaners that were currently sweeping the floor.

The number of biological servants in the Peterlor Estate was quite low since the duke valued privacy.

But these low numbers had no effect on the day-to-day operations since automation and artificial intelligence units could do work and accomplish tasks more efficiently than humans ever could.

Sophie headed towards the dining room while taking a few casual glances at the paintings hung along the walls of the corridor.

Some depicted breathtaking environments on foreign planets, others were more abstract and displayed splashes of colours seemingly at random and there were a few paintings of the father daughter pair.

Those paintings seemed a bit out of place among the other works of fine art but to Sophie it made her heart feel warm.

She continued to move slowly through the endless labyrinth of side passages and corridors while taking the time to observe the familiar environment of her home.

Everything was just as she remembered.

This familiarity brought a feeling of nostalgia since it felt as though she had never left.

You never cherish something until you almost lose it. Sophie rubbed her eyes that were now tearing up.

She needed some kind of distraction to keep her mind from wandering off to a dark place.

Sophie froze as she remembered that she still hadn't checked her messages yet.

She quickly tilted her wrist communicator upwards to get a better look at the screen and tapped the inbox icon.

There were several missed calls from Cleo, Astrid and Qiana as well as quite a few text messages. Sophie quickly opened up the chat logs and begun to reply to each one individually.

Cleo wanted to know if Sophie was doing okay and talked about visiting immediately after finals to spend the holidays with her.

The princess had her first exam today on the history of mech controllers so she would be unable to talk tonight.

Qiana and Astrid were ecstatic to know that she had returned safely and wanted to have a video-call later today.

Astrid initially planned on ditching her final exams and travelling to planet Gaia, but that plan was instantly shot down once she discussed it with Qiana.

The pair planned on spending the first part of the holidays with Astrid's younger siblings and then would travel to planet Gaia in the last week.

Sophie nodded in understanding and checked the time on her communicator.

It was late in the afternoon and when accounting for the time zone differences the best time to organize the call would be three hours from now.

She sent a message to Qiana and Astrid about what time she would return their missed calls and then turned off her communicator.

A wide smiled flashed across Sophie's face and she could not help but walk with a bit of spring in her steps.

She was finally going to talk to Astrid and Qiana again!

Sophie was looking forward to catching up with her two best friends after months of being apart.

There was just so much that she needed to say!

Sophie wasn't sure how much she was going to tell them about her experiences in the Unovan Syndicate, but she had enough stories to last for several hours.

A happy whistle filled the hallway as Sophie cheerfully skipped towards the dining room and entered the wide-open space.

Lily and her father were nowhere in sight, so Sophie headed towards the kitchen to place an order for breakfast.

Let's see….

"I'll have ten scrambled eggs from a Trehan beast, roasted Fle'an meat and hmm… how about two bowls of a random soup… surprise me…" Sophie politely spoke to the head chef.

"And of course… those are just the appetizers… for the main course I would like…"

The poor head chef nodded and quickly turned to his apprentices who were furiously writing down everything that Sophie had just ordered.

The kitchen staff were well-used to the enormous volume of food consumed by the duke's daughter.

It was hard tiring work but the salary more than made up for the exhausting days. Sophie thanked the chefs in advance and then left the kitchen.

She walked towards the dining room and picked a random chair to sit down. The chefs in the kitchen were quite efficient so the food should be ready soon.

It was a good opportunity to take this time to browse the virtual net and see what the latest news in the Federation was.

Sophie activated her wrist communicator and started to browse the virtual net to see what she had missed.

There were quite a few articles about the death of the emperor but much of the conversation had shifted in recent weeks from the shocking nature of his death towards the potential identity of his successor.

Emperor Sisrelis was a man used to pleasure and debauchery. He had managed to sire hundreds of offsprings that each held a claim to the throne.

Man or woman? From a noble family or a commoner parent?

Would the high noble houses lend their support in the fight for succession or stay out of the matter entirely?

These were all important questions and considering that humans were the most populous species of the Earth Federation, the other races were watching the matter closely.

Sophie wasn't sure what her father's position on the situation was since she hadn't asked him since arriving on planet Gaia.

Actually, a small part of her was thankful that her girlfriend was too young and very unlikely to become the next empress.

Cleo had never expressed any interest or ambition in becoming the next leader of humanity and Sophie wasn't ready to become a queen.

Plus… she would not be happy to put it mildly if her girlfriend decided to follow in the footsteps of her father and have a harem of ten thousand beauties.

Just the mere thought of Cleo laying in the arms of another woman made a heavy frown appear on Sophie's face.

Crack!

Sophie quickly lifted her hand from the table after hearing the sudden noise. There was now a small crack where her right palm had been just moments before.

She awkwardly shifted her plate a few inches to the right in order to hide the crack and then tentatively placed her hand back down.

Okay… that probably wasn't good…

Sophie took a moment to relax and make sure that her emotions were in control before returning to her communicator screen.

She decided to search for lighter topics. Apparently, a new virtual reality game had been released by Nexterion Studios.

The name of the game was 'A Hero's Magnificent Quest!' and it was about possessing a character who would travel on an epic fantasy journey set in ancient times.

Sophie was actually quite interested and continued to read about this game. There were multiple love interests and different routes that one could go down.

Sophie wouldn't call herself obsessed with videogames, but she did enjoy occasionally putting on a virtual helmet and escaping to a world of fantasy.

She made a mental note to herself to buy a copy and then moved on to look at the latest entertainment news.

Hmm… there were a few companies that were moving away from AI musicians and trying to form bands with real people.

Sophie shook her head in disbelief, this trend would pop up every couple of years, but it was hard for real people to compete with perfect virtual idols.

Bleep! Bleep!

The kitchen door swung open, and several robots moved swiftly towards the dining room with plates of hot steaming food in their metalloid claws.

Sophie let out a sigh of contentment as the scent of roasted meat filled the room and made her mouth water.

She couldn't wait to dig in!

The first plate that was set down in front of her was the roasted Fle'an meat that resembled a large sausage.

Sophie picked up a fork and knife and neatly cut the meat into tiny chunks with noble and elegant movements.

Trehan meat was soft and buttery and simply melted away in her mouth. The burst of intense flavors brought a smile to Sophie's lips.

This was one of the small pleasures of life.