Of Pride and Power - 41. Chapter 35: “Think as you like but behave like others”

I woke up late the next morning, curled up in bed with my young sons, Will and Jamie. Francis and Takechiyo did not join us, despite my invitation, vowing to rest only when the Russian phantom legion and rebels inside London were completely wiped out. This goal meant a long night of intelligence reports gathered by men like Thomas Tallis over the years, which had to be reconciled for hidden connections and subterfuge amongst noble houses. If any were suspected of disloyalty or collusion, they would have to be held captive under house arrest until Titania arrived from Bristol Castle to verify their statements. Mark also scanned their names and took photographs, using his core to link the information to other facilities in my domain, including Cadbury Hill in Somerset and Avalon in Greenland. We were far away from my timeline's advanced law enforcement network and criminal computer databases, but pattern recognition and distributed resources could still be useful in counterintelligence. A purge would have to occur, there was no way around some show of force to maintain the rule of law, but it was best to limit such things to true rebels. Even when I executed members of Parliament, they had voted to join with the rebel cause against England’s existing government, including my former allies. In more civilized times with functional non-bias magistrates, the members and rebels would have been prosecuted by the law for their actions, but with a rebellion already occurring in northern England and foreign-influenced unrest in London, I had to take justice into my own hands. That’s the weight of the figurative crown, which my family and friends must bear.

During the long night, Robert and I found a little time between briefings to talk about everything and nothing, like debating who could beat Yogiri from Instant Death ability. I knew he was trying to get me to unload my emotional baggage like I did as Eric when my dad beat the shit out of me after he found my makeup removal kit. Being intersex in my first life, I identified as a boy usually, but sometimes I did want to feel and look a different way, including showing off my feminine side. Though people made the mistake, I wasn’t technically transgender, gender fluid fit me best. Some people assumed I was a pervert or sicko based on what they heard from alt-news without realizing that I was born with ovaries as well as a dick and balls, because intersex people were rare and people preferred deluding themselves in the binary. I hadn’t thought about the pain or hurt of my previous life in years, but the loss of my eldest son, a miracle child that I never thought I could ever have, caused all of those old wounds to reopen.

I wasn’t ready to open my heart up to Robert through an orb, but I did open an invitation, “We should grab a slice of pizza when you come by and do stuff.”

Robert knew the signal, “I’ll grab some rum and tissues.”

That was our code to request a deep talk, which usually involved two cheap slices of cheese pizza, alcohol, and a lot of tissue paper. While things had changed, we were able to replicate pizza baking techniques and processed flour was very abundant throughout England. A whole frozen cheese pizza was always available at the kitchen of Whitehall Palace, just in case Robert or I ordered. The royal chefs complained that pizza was an unfitting food for England’s Aelfric, including Samuel Youlden, our fair folk chef. Sam improved our basic pizza with cured meats and fresh vegetables, along with additional sides of baked potato wedges with melted cheese and sour cream. He was the one who refused to refill my cup of tea and told me to go to bed after I finished my briefing with Gard about the rebel army outside London.

Before I left for bed, Gard dispatched the mecha knights to attack the noble encampments around London. Those rebel troops were conscripts from noble domains with limited training and barely any real strength, compared to the elite forces sent in the night before to rescue Prince Dmitry and Thomas Radclyffe. Gard estimated it would take no real time to remove the remaining rebels, then he’d direct two mecha knights to the north to rendezvous with the triplets. As knight commander, I had allowed Gard to carry out the “no quarter” order for all enemy forces. This meant none of the opposing rebel forces would be shown mercy and be executed on the spot.

When I awoke in the afternoon, I was greeted by cheering and raucous celebration. Captain Francis Drake and my partner, Archduke Robert Dudley had captured the entire Russian fleet, Gard’s Mecha knights had eradicated the entire rebel army outside London, and Duchess Frances Howard had led the royal Marine in Somerset northward through the midlands to lands of Percy family, forcing the Northern rebellion’s army to be annihilated outside York.

Unlike what occurred in my history, the northern rebellion’s leaders were not able to escape by sea to France, since Admiral Clinton had sent his squadrons to cut off their escape. Despite the insurrection in London, our original battle plan for the Royal Marines was unaltered, despite a small detachment of recruits coming to restore order in London from Somerset. Frances’ forces were angered by what happened in London and used it to rally their forces to annihilate the Northern Rebellion, in honor of Harry. I would not have used Harry as a “bloody shirt” scarecrow to rally our troops, but I do understand the need for symbolism and just cause in battle. Thomas Percy was beheaded and his entire family was massacred without terms as a result. It was the first time in my reign an entire noble house was wiped out without any descendants. As a result, the lands of Northumberland were relinquished to Jamie, which Ambrose Dudley, my brother-in-law twice over with his relationship to Edward, held as custodian until Jamie came of age.

I knew Frances and my elite commanders wanted to come to London, but I needed them to focus on the fight to the north. The Habsburg Empire would have taken advantage of any weakness to move northward to unseat John Knox and the Scottish Regency Council, which was still trying to figure out a legal way to depose its Queen Mary and her heir James Stuart. Mary Stuart was nominally still Queen of Scotland under the Treaty of Calais and despite our abilities, certain things were impossible. Historical consistency, not conformity, seemed to make her unassailable and a constant danger to my reign in England as her counterpart was to Queen Elizabeth. Frances’ troops' actions to quell the northern rebellion were more important.

Besides, Gard and the mecha knights were showing off their battlefield prowess for the first time against mechanized military forces. The remaining eight thousand troops were no match for six androids with durable body armor and weapons that did not require ammunition and had incredible penetrative power. Based on the memories of Russian troops, mecha, and cyborg soldiers were one of Czar Ivan’s targeted future goals for production. In the last 21^st century, cyborg soldiers were used by various powers in catastrophic conflicts that saw the destruction of many foreign capitals. In our era, the mecha knights were the pinnacle of military units compared to their relatively well-armed opponents.

The weapons they faced such as the bolt-action rifles, machine guns, heavy artillery, and even tanks had served me well in the last war with limited quantities. These weapons were made available to the nobles throughout the 1560s, due to the widespread munition supplies from industrial production. The Catholic noble faction was allowed to purchase weapons from the guild to demonstrate equanimity, as well. In principle, even if it was a lie to maintain peace, the various factions of England were led to believe that there was a balance of power in arms. Of course, no one knew that we had far more advanced weapon designs and facilities at Avalon, nor that Robert or my abilities transcended human knowledge.

Under the pretense of equal access to weaponry, we were also arming the Scottish army as part of our military alliance and partnership, which was one reason why the Northern Rebellion was unable to move past the Scottish border towns to Edinburgh. The naval artillery from HMS Dreadnaught and our flotilla at Scapa Flow was the other reason.

In my timeline, my nation had created a law for the right to bear arms, which meant everyone should be allowed to carry weapons to defend themselves and others aligned with their ideological framework. This idea led to endless bloodshed and ultimately failed as a means of creating a balanced society through an armed balance between interests. However, the illusion of such a concept being present was useful in granting a century of internal peace between various religious, economic, social, and ethnic groups. The missing piece in that equation was the need for oversight from a higher authority that could enforce peace. The technology developed by Merlin was one such enforcement mechanism, the other was beings like Robert, me, and our direct descendants with these gifts. People need to believe that they are free to live and defend their choices, but liberty must be judged by an invisible divine thread to be cut as needed.

Of course, the greatest acquisition in this conflict was the Russian fleet that was captured. Several tugboats were sent from Plymouth to haul the fleet of over twenty-seven Russian ships back to port, which was a major task considering their invisibility had not been dispersed. Thus, a core-powered vessel with a sensitive sensor suite like the HMS Golden Hind attack submarine had to be stationary to coordinate the salvage. I heard Captain Drake had also arranged a few civilian ships to loot the Russian supply ships, which were filled with their famed clear liquor Vodka that fetched enormous profits in England. Despite serving me for over a decade, Francis Drake retained aspects of a bandit and profiteer. Luckily to curb the greed from such ventures, a standard cut of his piracy with a 20% wholesale tax against various mercantile guilds was levied. The money would be distributed directly to various personnel for relief after the events in London. I preferred sweet rum and whiskey to vodka, but Francis and Robert had developed a taste for the fiery liquor.

As for the Russian sailors onboard these ships, Robert’s ability had killed every human being within the invisible fleet through an intense atmospheric pressure dome. Though it would normally be hard to attack an invisible enemy spread out across a wide area, the order to gather the enemy fleet allowed a wide-area effect to be used. Robert’s ability to increase the air pressure within an area was around five square miles, which was incredibly destructive, equivalent to a neutron bomb on human life. However, he can only raise the atmospheric pressure at an exponential rate every minute by 1.5 PSI, or pounds per square inch, which wouldn’t show any effect until seven minutes after he activates his ability. My comprehensive knowledge tells me that at 15 PSI, the human body began experiencing injuries with exposure. By eight minutes, 25 PSI would begin tearing into human skin and muscle tissues, disabling all the sailors. By ten minutes, 57 PSI would break down human bones and most sailors would be dead while preserving the metallic warships and their valuable equipment. To keep the ships in place long enough for his ability to manifest without notice, Robert needed a secondary effect on the seas to make it harder for ships to leave his area of effect. The core onboard the attack the attack submarine generated an artificial ocean current, creating rough seas as if a weather system was passing by the area.

This momentary distraction for Robert’s ability required an extreme amount of thermal energy, Admiral Clinton and I had developed this tactic by using climate adaptation technology theorized by the Gates Foundation during the early 21^st century. The tactic was meant to impede enemy warships with a core on an attack submarine like the Golden Hind, creating opportunities to attack disorganized naval units. Like the Gates Foundation, we couldn’t control the weather, but their research taught us how much energy was needed to cultivate surface disturbances. Heat exchange machines required far more energy than 21st-century engineers could create before the advent of fusion reactors later in the century, the research gave us real numbers for how much thermal energy was needed to stimulate the ocean with the more advanced cores. HMS Golden Hind was submerged with their core active until Robert’s ability was fully exhausted.

After hearing the after-action reports, an escort was gathered for a triumphant return to Whitehall palace. However, after everything that had happened, I wasn’t planning on remaining in London for long. To calm people’s nerves and maintain the continuity of government, I would stay in London throughout most of 1569, but I had already decided that Bristol as my largest seaport, industrial city, and military stronghold would become the new seat of the royal family of England. My remaining sons, William and Jamie, were moved to Bristol within a week of our return to Whitehall, alongside most of the royal court. William Cecil, Nicholas Bacon, and other privy councilors began their moves as well. Londoners knew what was happening as Thomas Tallis noted to me, but they did not know what else to say or do to maintain the city’s status after Thomas Radclyffe’s coup with Russian assistance. London would still be a commercial port for European trade and be home to the Parliament of England for a decade. There would be two capitals until the current United Parliament building in Bristol was completed in 1578.

During all these events, I did not know that Francis and Puck had a private meeting. Within two weeks of their meeting, Scottish King consort Henry Stuart, and his son, Prince James Stuart, had died from poison. Official records indicate that the assassin was unknown, and the poison used in their murder was Central Asian in origin, pointing fingers to the Russian Empire. However, I knew Francis and Puck had been planning something for a very long time. I knew John Knox’s converts were fanatical adherents to Omega primacy and my bloodline’s divine right. While my sub and best friend never mentioned it to me or Robert, we both knew who poisoned the Stuarts. For some reason, I could never kill Mary Stuart or James Stuart, so it came as a shock that someone could kill James through simple poison. All I could assume was that this may be a result of some unknown butterfly effect from the events in London that also broke the continuity of history.

With the death of her husband and son, Mary was distraught and angry, but no one paid her any heed. The Guise family in France could not aid her, nor could her patron Catherine de Medici, who was confronting other issues after the death of her son Charles earlier that year. This death nearly five years ahead of history ended the formal alliance between the Habsburg Empire and Valois France. Catherine's next eldest son, Henry Valois, was well-known for being openly homosexual, which, without an Omega boy, would mean the end of the Valois family line. Henry Valois’ ministers despite his mother's refusal, had sent an envoy two months after the attack on London. His ministers were requesting William or Jamie’s hand in marriage to the eighteen-year-old King Henry III under favorable terms, including deposing Queen Regent Catherine in a secret letter. Such a union would be advantageous as Henry III of France not only inherited his brother’s realm but in a twist of fate, he also acquired Polish and Lithuanian crowns as well due to the death of the Polish King in battle against the Russians. In my history, Henry III also acquired all these lands through an indirect election by Polish-Lithuanian nobility though abandoned the Polish throne for the French throne. It would open several major advantages, including establishing military outposts near the heart of the Habsburg Empire centered in Vienna and the Russian Empire centered in Moscow. Plus, removing the connection, between Catholic Rome with France as their principal client state, was a long-term goal of English foreign policy from both timelines.

However, unlike Prince Henry Bourbon, who was part of my royal court and a potential claimant to the throne if Henry III were to die without an heir, there was no link between us. In the ten years that he had come to live with us from Navarre, Henry Bourbon was courageous, genial, and selfless in many ways as he idolized heroic figures like Francis’ alter-ego the Black Knight. When he became a teenager, he began visiting certain sensual establishments with fellow Prince Antonio and my ward, Eddie. According to Francis, unlike his companions with their lack of tact and grace, both male and female courtesans welcomed Henry Bourbon’s visits. The boy was not celibate, but his reserved nature and courtesy to others without regard to status were endearing. There were many rounds of discussions about a potential marriage between Harry and Henry until Harry revealed his asexuality.

In contrast, the rumors about Henry III did not leave a good impression. In principle, Henry III of France was a good potential ally, until you dig deeper. In my timeline, Henry III was the ineffectual last Valois king of France, who was likely homosexual in his sexual orientation. With our timeline’s many changes, his personality and personal history were radically different. While there are many examples of homosexual monarchs and leaders, Henry III represented an excess that had not been seen since the Roman Empire. In his tours around his lands, he would kidnap beautiful young peasant boys to be removed from their homes for “cultivation”. From ages as young as four or five, he would mold them into his tools, ranging from simple tasks such as footman and drivers to obscene pantomimes such as chairs and bed warmers. As an otaku, his reported behavior and actions reminded me of the gay pornographic science fiction series Ai no Kusabi with his skewed perceptions and values of human beings. Robert and I may enjoy fetishes and power dynamics in our sexual relations, but we respect our partners’ worth, not what they can do for us. As a ruler, I knew some of these tales were exaggerations, but as a father, it was hard to imagine aligning with such a man.