“You have been selected.”

Kyla let her shoulders slump forward as she looked down at Baroun. The Mini watching as the new Empress collapsed into a pilot’s seat.

“Empress!” cried out Pracyra, the Colossi military officer taking a knee before her.

“Get up!” Commanded Kyla. “You are all fools.” She said dejectedly.

“Perhaps so, but we feel you are the best qualified for the job.” A voice sounded from within the tiny city before her. “We need strong leadership and you are a strong leader.”

They were on-board the transport ship which had brought them to this planet. The Colossi and the Halflings and Mini’s had already voted. Now so had the Specks. Kyla would become the first Empress of this New Empire.

“With some restrictions…” The voice within the city sounded again, magnified by the ships com system. The voice being that of Cidada leader of the great council. Looking at her on the view screen, one could forget that the beautiful blonde woman was so small she could easily stand on the inner edge of a fingernail.

“A council of four consisting of a Mini, a Speck, a Halfling, and a Colossi can halt any of your actions by a unanimous vote.”

“Very well.” Kyla quirked an eyebrow at this, certainly it was more restrictions than in the Old Empire where the word of the Empress was law. Still you did not need to be particularly savvy to realize that it would be difficult to achieve an actual vote to halt her actions. The Colossi would always back her. Kyla knew full well, that if she wanted to, she could seize power outright and little could be done to stop her. The men and women of the Imperial Military would side with her and a dictatorship would be formed.

That was not what she wanted.

It had took some convincing, but the Colossi had swallowed their pride and agreed that all should truly be equals here, that they must do this to survive.

“The various agents of the state, will be under the control of the council, police, firemen, judges, and such.”

“As you wish.”

“The Imperial Military will be under your command.” Baroun said soft. “But their oath of allegiance shall be to the Empire, not the Empress. We wish to write a Constitution for the Empire, safeguarding liberties which were absent on Earth.”

“Understood, then if it is the will of our peoples, I accept the title of Empress.” Kyla’s tone was not one of elation, rather weary acceptance.

Sienna hugged her tight, that simple act made all more bearable.

“Since all the members of the council are here now, no better time than now to talk about Priorities.” Kyla urged.

“Agreed.” Baruon spoke for the assembled council members.

“Food.” Kyla stood from the chair and offered Baroun her palm. “We have plenty of.” She continued once the little fella was in her palm. By lottery, land has been divided among the Halflings, Colossi, and Minis.

“And, I must add…Empress.” Pracyra smiled smugly, as Kyla couldn’t tell her not to call her that title now. “The farm land on this planet is so lush and so abundant, that none were upset with the plot they received.”

“A miracle.” Sienna added glibly.

“We have unloaded the various animals of various sizes. In typical Imperial fashion, each grouping of animals was listed by owner, a wonderful list to have as it stopped any arguments over who owned what.” Parcyra continued.

Kyla liked this woman, Parcyra. She was every bit the trained Imperial Officer, intelligent, clear thinking, able to adapt to any situation. A good choice to head up the military.

“Clothing,” Kyla continued, “We will soon have made on planet as the Halflings and Mini traders are already setting up workshops in the city. Others are setting up stores of every kind, a few months and we will have nearly every luxury necessary.”

“Shelter,” has been built for all of us. “Here mostly for Colossi--“

“But the Minis and Halflings wish to stay on this planet, not be moved to either of the Moons.” Baroun cut in.”

“True.” Said Kyla as she carefully sat down next to Sienna in front of the Speck city.

“Now it just a matter of where your people wish to live” Kyla looked into the little city, seeing millions gathered in the streets before her.

Sienna couldn’t help herself, she waved at them earning a bit of annoyed side eye from her wife.

“We wish to be placed on one of the Moons.” The voice from within stated. “We are simply too small to fully live among you, instead we wish to live on a planet we shall scale to us.”

“Done.” Said Kyla.

“Don’t be sad Lady Sienna, you may still visit us.”

“I’d love to.” Sienna said wistfully. “When all is settled.”

“So, we have our needs set, food, shelter, clothing.”

“We need a banking system.” Baruon spoke up from her hand. “People do need money.”

“I have much experience in that Baruon, Kyla shifted a bit. I will see to it. It will be difficult at first, but we will make it if we all work together.”

“I must say Empress that we are woefully unprepared against any foe. Our equipment must be ancient by this time.” Parcyra clasped her hands behind her back while looking at Kyla expectantly.

“True, we must be far behind and I can’t help but think the Empire on Earth will be keen to know how we are progressing.”

“You mean to subjugate us.” Baroun crossed his arms over his chest.

“We shall help.” Everyone on the bridge looked to the Speck city.

“Your Pardon, but—“ Parcyra began condescendingly.

“I know it must seem silly, we who are so small, helping those who are so incredibly large. You forget, that while you have been sleeping for a thousand plus years we have been advancing as a people. Trust me when I say, you will have every tool at your disposal Empress.

“That is most generous.” Kyla responded diplomatically exchanging a glance with Parcyra, the two of them being unconvinced.

The voice from within the city chuckled. “I know how it sounds, but we will make good on this promise. In return, we ask for your commitment to our protection. Even with all our advancements, the universe is a very big place and we very small in comparison.”

“You have our word.” Kyla responded firmly. “Shall I have Parcyra pilot this ship to-“

“Unnecessary, we can pilot this ship.”

Parcyra laughed, “You must be kidding, you’re too small to even press a button.”

Around them the ships systems sprung to life, startling everyone on the bridge.

“We have buttons our size.” All could hear the amusement from the speck sized leader. “Your systems are quite crude, but usable.”

“Well… then… ah. Kyla stood, “We shall leave you to it.”

“We do need your help Empress, we trust only you and Lady Sienna to do it.”

“Be happy to help.” Kyla looked to Sienna a bit warily.

“Oh good!” The voice within said as the ship’s engines came to life. The transport lifting off from the planet surface.

“Cidada, leader of the great council, where are we going?” Sienna asked with trepidation while moving to hold onto Kyla tight.

“To our world of course, we need your help in moving our city to a plot we have selected.”

“Cidada?”

“Yes, Empress?”

“Next time, maybe tell us what your plans are before blasting us into space.”

“Apologies Empress.” Cidada said contritely, but with a heavy dose of amusement in her tone.
**
“Still no word about her?”

“None Kyla.” Sienna replied. “Come to bed.”

“In a bit.”

“You have spent months here love, behind your desk reading and sending notes. You only get up to eat, to exercise, and to sleep and that is only four hours a night. You need to rest.”

“Believe me, I want to…” Kyla took Sienna’s hand guiding her wife into her lap. “Things are getting settled, each day is a little easier as people adjust to our new world. I know you are pleased to see Mini’s and Halflings working alongside us Colossi.”

“I am, I always felt we could if given the chance.” Sienna wrapped her hands round Kyla’s neck. “Little did I know it would be on a new world.”

“A clean slate.” As they said in ancient times. “This planet gave us a clean slate.”

“What is this?” Asked Sienna while looking to the view screen.

“Designs for a warp drive, courtesy of the specks.”

Sienna shook her head in amazement. “From grass huts one day to more advanced than we are the next.”

“Did you know that while we slept, the Specks fought destructive wars over who would rule? When peace came, they set upon learning our language, they then gained access to our computers, and learned every bit of our technology…. Gods! They even debated killing all of us, upon gaining knowledge about the horrors of our Empire.”

“I am thankful they didn’t!

Both were silent for a time. “They are eons ahead of us, were they bigger my love, they could easily conquer us.”

“Size still gives us the advantage?”

“Yes, for now.”

“But can we scale up their advanced technology? Make it our size?”

“Parcyra is working night and day to do so” Kyla smiled as Sienna moved to trail a line of kisses down her neck. “She, ah… and a team of scientists. Warp drive, improved ship designs, new weapons, better power systems… the list is endless.”

“Fascinating, but can we go to bed?”

A knock at the door caused them both to look up. A guard poked her head in. “A Dr. Kossmann to see you Empress.”

“Now?” Sienna asked grumpily.

“He says it is urgent.”

“Send him in.” Kyla ordered.

As the little Colossi man entered and knelt. Sienna huffed with ire at having to move off Kyla’s lap.

“It is late Doctor.”

“Apologies Empress, but this could not wait a moment longer.”

“Get up.”

He stood, and when he did Kyla could see just how haggard he looked. Grey hair was disheveled, unshaven, dark bags under the eyes.

“So what news then?” Kyla and Sienna braced for the worst.

“Empress we are growing bigger.”

“Of course we are, we Colossi have been growing larger for generations.”

“No, we are growing.”

“You mean to say that, all of us,” Sienna gestured pointing to herself as well as Kyla and the little doctor, “are getting larger?”

“Yes.”

“That is not possible… Is it?” Sienna could hardly believe her ears.

“It was not possible on Earth, here for some reason it is.”

“Explain.”

“Empress, all we have are theories at this point. This planet is incredibly nutrient rich that may be the cause, or the different mix of gasses in the atmosphere. We are still researching the causes, but it will take much more time. We wanted to give you this news as I’m sure the population will begin noticing soon.”

“How much will we grow a year?”

“A foot maybe more, and that is by Earth years, this world takes longer to go round its sun.”

“Gods!" Sienna cried."We’ll have to build larger cities, wear larger clothes, we will consume more food!”

“Perhaps yes, to some of those things you list, we aren’t sure. Thankfully, our food supply is getting larger as well, so there is little worry about starvation.”

“What of the Halflings and Minis?”

“Empress they are growing also, but relative to our size.”

“We the biggest, but they growing as well.”

“Yes, Empress.”

“But the shrinking virus--?”

“Yes, we worried about that lady Sienna. “It is within us, within everything on this planet, but it is the same virus as on Earth. Perhaps the Empress and her scientists believed our immunity to it would lessen over a thousand years, it did not happen.”

“So we get bigger, all in all, not the worst news as those on Earth had a thousand year head start on us.”

“True, given time we may be able to defend ourselves better with more size,” the doctor paused. “While we are on the subject of time, we shall have much more of it as our aging process is slowing.”

“We are going to live longer?”

“Yes, Empress.”

“Why?”

“We…”
“Need to study it more.” Kyla finished.

A long silence ensued Koffmann allowing the Empress to digest the news.

“Any other bombshells?”

“The small man smiled at that, “Not as of yet Empress.”

“I shall need you to report your finding to the council this week, doctor.

“Empress, my pleasure to do so.”

“Good.” Kyla gestured.

With a bow the man moved to depart.

“We are getting bigger…” Sienna was amazed. “Wonder how that old hag of an Empress on Earth would have reacted to that news?”

“Don’t know, don’t care, her bones are dust by now.” Kyla smiled as Sienna plopped back down upon her lap. "But I have been thinking about why the Empress would take so much effort to send us all here.”

“Well, she did believe in an -- Earth cleared of inferior peoples.” Sienna mimicked the old woman’s haughty voice, causing Kyla to laugh.

“True, Kyla conceded. “I also think, she did not believe we could actually get along with the Haflings, Minis, and Specks. She was convinced we would not be able to live in peace. Or, that living with these other people would weaken us Colossi.”

“We shall never know I guess.”

“Oh we will know, my love. The Old Empire will not forget about us.”

"Hopefully, they have been overthrown." Sienna suggested.

"We can hope, but should prepare for the worst."

“You are convinced they will attack someday.”

“Absolutely,” Kyla shifted in her chair. “That is why I stay up night after night, we must be able to defend this… Constitutional Monarchy… we’ve created.”

“Enough for tonight Empress, you will rest.”

“Alright.” Kyla finally agreed. “Let’s go to—“

Another knock on the door caused Sienna to curse much to Kyla’s amusement.

“Yes?”

Parcyra, peeked round the door.

“Empress, I know it is very late—“

“Yes it is.” Said Sienna, not bothering to get off Kyla’s lap.

“May I come in, it is of importance.”

“Very well.”

Walking forward, Parcyra could not hide a grin as she neared the desk.
“I have here someone who tells me they are part of your house hold.”

Parcyra opened one gloved hand and in it was… Amarice.

Neither Kyla or Sienna could speak, such was their surprise.

“I’m told you are an Empress now.” The girl took a knee within Parcyra’s giant hand.
“Rise…” Kyla rasped.

“Empress,” Parcyra reported, “their ship just landed, and it is heavily damaged, a miracle it made it.”

“We are so glad it did! Amarice!” Sienna scooped the little Mini into her hand, hugging her tightly.

“I am glad to have made it as well, though I don’t know where here is.” The Mini’s voice was muffled being that she was pressed against Sienna’s chest.

“You are home Amarice.” Said Kyla while slowly, and carefully handing the Mini to Kyla.

“Your hand is trembling.” Observed Amarice in the next moment, she found herself pressed softly against the chest of the Viceroy— of the Empress.”

Amarice stretched her arms wide, returning as big a hug as she could. Looking up she saw tears spilling from the eyes of her Empress.