H I H By Phoenix Rafael prafael@myprivacy.ca Edited by Winter & Rilbur March, 2009 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ ca/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. Disclaimer: If it is illegal to read this where you are, then don't read it. This story is completely fictional. Any similarities to any persons or events, past or present Author's Note: This is a sequel to my previous story The Legendary Warrior. www.phoenix-writing.com Chapter One Alexander. My name is Alexander. I'm 17 years old, soon to be 18. My boyfriend's name is Peter, and he is my best friend. My other best friend is Susan. My sister's name is Sophia. I live with my grandmother, her name is Doris, and I live with my grandfather, his name is Eric. I have two fathers. I have three aunts, but I've only met two of them. “Alexander, please pay attention in class. This will be on the exam next week.” Crap, now Ms. Laframboise decides to pick on me. “The square root of 4 is 2.” I decided to reply smartly. Ms. Laframboise shook her head a little. “If this were grade 5 math, that would be correct, Alexander. But this is grade 12 Imperial History and Government. Do I need to call your father?” I smiled at that. My fathers visited me every month. I know they love me. I know I'm adopted, but they show me unconditional love. “Which one? I have two, you know. They're GAY.” A few people in the class gave a good hearty laugh. Now understand, my history teacher is homophobic, which I find ironic since she teaches Imperial History, and the entire Empire is run by two fags... I mean, gay guys. 1
The Empire. That's what we call it for short. Ms. Laframboise, however, made us learn the long, boring, formal title. The Empire of Rigel, or the Rigellian Empire. Both get a correct answer on the exam. If we only refer to it as 'The Empire', we loose marks. Anyway, this Empire that we're part of is around a million years old. It has a Pharaoh, and a Queen, which right now are two guys. I think it would be cool to meet the Queen someday, but I'm in no rush. “If the Empire is a million years old, how is it the level of technology we're currently at doesn't equate?” “That's a good question, Alexander, but a poor way of asking. The Rigellian Empire has had several things going on. The first is several 'dark ages' you may want to call them, the longest being around 26,361.7 years. Plus there were things like plagues and diseases that culled the population.” I thought about the response for a few moments, before asking another question. “So why did we join the Rigellian Empire?” I was going for brownie points on this one. “Couldn't we just tough it out?” “As the second Governor General of Earth Hector Ivanski once explained, we were being threatened by the 5 th
Dynasty of the Lesothian People.” The class laughed a little. “The name seems strange, but it's true. The Empire reached out, we're in the Empire's space. After we joined, the United Earth Republic was formed.” I thought over her answer a little bit. “Is it true that the Queen is from Earth? My Grandmother thought it might be the case.” Mrs. Laframboise gave me a long look. “You get a bonus point for that question. It's not widely known, but yes, the Queen came from Earth. It did help convince a few governments like our own and England that joining was reasonable.” A girl over on the other side of the room raised her hand. I don't know her name, and I'm not sure I cared anyway. “Yes Estelle?” “Does the Pharaoh or Queen have a name?” Mrs. Laframbise shrugged. “I would imagine so, but in public and in all communications, they are simply referred to as The Pharaoh, and The Queen with the proper honorifics. But if you ever manage to leave Earth and attend the royal court sometime, maybe you'll learn their names.” After answering all the questions, Mrs. Laframboise walked up to the blackboard. “On your exam, you will be required to know each of the political parties in the Earth government.” The bell rang. “See you all tomorrow.” 2
****** “How many parties can there be?” I whined, wondering how hard this task was going to be, and took a bite of my sandwich. “There are 50 political parties, Alexander. How many do you know already?” Susan replied. Peter was simply studying a page in his history textbook. “The first Governor General of Earth was from the Green Party, and the first Executive Minister was from the Republican Labour Party. At the same time, you had the Radical Whig Party in a coalition with the Republican Labour Party. In opposition during the first session you had the New & Free Democratic Party and the Constitution Party. Also represented were the Green Party, and the Earth First Party.” I took a breath after saying all that. “Right” Susan said. “In the second session, the Liberal Party formed the government with the Green Party, in opposition you had the Conservative Party and the Radical Whig Party, and the New & Free Democratic Party, Constitution Party, and the Earth First Party were all sent to the back benches.” I started to write down the names of all the parties: 1.Green Party (my favourite, personally) 2.Liberal Party 3.Conservative Party 4.New & Free Democratic Party (it's a left wing workers socialist type party) 5.Radical Whig Party 6.Republican Labour Party 7.Constitution Party 8.Earth First Party 9.New Alliance Party 10.Libertarian Party 11.Free Alliance Party 12.All Nations Party 13.People's Party 14.Monarchist & Reform Party 15.Rhinoceros Party 16.Homeland Party 17.Unionist Party 18.The Respect Alliance 19.Imperial Imperative Coalition 20.Christian & Islamic Values Coalition I looked over the list again, and gave a sigh. “Do you think she'll be okay if we list the coalitions and alliances instead of all the smaller parties that make them up?” Peter looked over at me. “I think you should just do your best. I'm sure if you can only remember the coalition, she'll give you the proper marks.” He looked down at his textbook. 3
“Here it has some questions we can answer to study for the exam. The first one is, which parties support being members of the Empire?” “Oh!” Susan quickly said. “The Imperial Imperative Coalition, the Green Party, Monarchist & Reform Party, Free Alliance Party, Rhinoceros Party, Unionist Party, and the New & Free Democratic Party. The rest that don't oppose it don't have a policy.” “The Christian & Islamic Values Coalition, the Earth First Party, The Respect Alliance, Libertarian Party, People's Party and the Homeland Party all oppose it.” I replied. Peter nodded to us, and then asked the next question. “Of which party did the second Executive Minister Sir Thomas Boelyn belong to?” Both Susan and I gave that a long, hard thought. Finally, I replied, “He was elected as the leader of the Monarchist & Reform Party, but switched to the All Nations Party, and was subsequently defeated in a vote of non-confidence. He was replaced by Executive Minister Elle Woods of the Radical Whig Party.” Peter nodded. “Who is the Chief Justice of Earth?” Susan got that answer before I did. “Benjamin Rooger, the only person to have held that office so far.” I looked over at Susan. She prided herself on knowledge. “Since there has only been one, that's not difficult to remember.” “Oh yeah?” Susan rebutted. “Then what party is he a member of?” “None, members of the judiciary are appointed by the Governor General for life, and to maintain their independence, they aren't allowed to belong to a political party.” I smirked. I sometimes loved our history class. More often than not, it was also a government class. We learned a lot. My Dad wants me to go into politics perhaps, but I was considering pre-med. “Who is the current Chancellor of the Empire?” Peter asked us, saying the question was in the book, he pointed to it. “Adrienne King, who was Earth's first Governor General.” I replied, thanks to the relevant hint. The bell rang for our afternoon classes, so I gathered my things up and waved to Peter & Susan, heading for my English class. 4