"Considering the size of the Palace," Davis pointed out, "it could take you longer than that just to find him." He thought for a moment. "Signal Defsat Five when you land. They'll have their orders, and if they don't receive a second signal from you within an hour, they'll blast the Palace and everything for ten kilometers around it. I don't want that to happen—it'd mean losing four Rangers, as well as a couple of hundred thousand people, and probably destroy the Complex—but even that is better than a rebellion that would cost millions or billions of lives throughout the Empire."
"I will do my best to avoid that, Your Majesty."
"I know you will," Davis said. "Still, for the first time, I'm grateful that politics forced Chang to have the Palace built in Antarctica. A strike like that almost anywhere else would kill a hell of a lot more people."
"Yes, sir."
"Don't hesitate to call me if you have to. But unless there's anything else, I'll sign off now and let you get back to work."
"I have nothing more, sir," Corina answered, and the screen went blue momentarily before it shut off.
She was unfamiliar with Terran geography, but everyone knew about the fabulous Imperial Palace. Isolated in the heart of a frozen continent, it was the center of the Palace Complex, a hundred-kilometer-diameter circle of parklike city. She didn't understand the physics of the modified defense screen that allowed it to exist in spite of Antarctica's climate, but the politics Davis had mentioned were clear enough.
The Solar Federation's capital had been in Ceres, but when Nannstein's discovery of hyperdrive had triggered the necessary change from Federation to Empire, that had been abandoned. The Empire needed a center on Terra itself as a symbol of unity, yet squabbling about its location among the planetary powers had made that unity a mockery until Emperor Chang stepped in.
It was his decision that, since the Empire was not concerned with local politics—it couldn't be and still govern the Empire as a whole properly—the Palace would not be located on any individual nation's territory. That made Antarctica the only possible place. Covered by multinational treaties and with no permanent inhabitants, it had no national identity.
And she would be going there, going to the Palace itself… as a Ranger. What would her parents think? Corina hoped they would be proud—