All the people in the room rose stood at attention as Ra enter.


    “At ease,” she commanded.


    The seven people situated around the rectangular table sat down again. A large man with a thick beard and mustache at the other end of the table nodded towards Tyrell.


    “Thank you for bringing the Commander. You may return to your other duties.”


    Tyrell bowed before retreating from the room. Ra took the only seat available, the one reserved for her at the head of the table.


    “Let’s get down to business then, shall we?” It was the big man across the table again.


    “Yes, let’s,” she agreed. “I am Ra. You may address me as Commander, Commander Ra, Ra, whatever you like. You are my advisors?”


    “Not quite although you can most certainly ask us for advice.” This time it was an expensively dressed man to her left. “We are in charge of the various parts of your empire,” he continued pompously. “I am Sir Mordred Banks, the person in charge of the money.”


    One by one the others introduced themselves. Sir Mordred Banks sat on Ra’s left so they continued in clockwise order around the table. Next was Stettman in charge of research, a tall man with large eyeglasses and thick curly brown hair. He didn’t bother stating his first name. After him came Arya Lye in charge of foreign policy.


    Across the table the man with the thick beard and mustache introduced himself as Ruben Thatch, in charge of the fleet.


    On Ra’s right sat Eileen Ho, Franz Schmidt, and Karen Meyer in charge of intelligence, exploration, and domestic affairs respectively.


    After introductions, Ra immediately set down to business. First she had to establish her domain’s aesthetic and culture. To Mordred and Karen she granted the title of Minister. To Stettman, Arya, Eileen, and Franz she gave the title of Director. To Thatch she gave the title of Master of the Fleet.


    Some players liked to have very structured social hierarchies, but Ra didn’t care about any of that so she just set it as simple as possible. Instead she focused on building a straightforward chain of command for the military.


    With what she considered to be the secondary details out of the way, Ra could finally concentrate on what she had actually wanted to finish before heading out for a late dinner.


    -|-Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    “I’m telling you, we should be reviewing the budget.” Mordred clapped the back of his hand into the palm of the other as the group followed Franz. “We have money. We should be using it. We need a way to make more.”


    He must be referring to the starting funds. “All in good time,” replied Ra. “We’ll take care of that next.”


    They finally arrived in the map room. A gigantic cavernous space dominated a large holographic projector that covered almost the entire floor in the middle of the room.


    “Show us the galaxy!” Franz shouted. A fantastically huge diagram of the galaxy burst into life filling the room with light again after the room plunged momentarily into blinding darkness.


    “Woah.” Ra had seen the scene depicted in videos she sometimes watched on her computer, but it simply failed to capture the awe inspired by the real thing. Well, real in a virtual sense. Mentally she started jotting down notes. The galaxy was surprisingly flat, a loose spiral with a gleaming band across its center and two dense spiral arms.


    “What sector are we in?”


    “Ummm...” Franz scratched at his chin thoughtfully. “Forget it. Mike!”


    “On it boss!” The galaxy rotated so that they were looking straight at the disk from above. An overlay of gray lines cut up the stars into grid like sections. These sections were the sectors. According to standard map scaling these would be further divided into regions and then individual systems.


    To Ra’s surprise, a section that seemed to be empty void was highlighted in purple. At first she thought it was a mistake until they zoomed in on the sector.


    The sector wasn’t empty, merely too dim to show up on the galactic scale. Faint points of light showed a smattering of lonely systems and clusters. The region in the very center of the sector was the brightest dominated by a large dust cloud. As they watched, a system near the center of the region became highlighted.


    “Is there anyone else in this region?”


    “No, we’re the only ones here.”


    Thank you rng. A small smile graced Ra’s face. She could play her favorite style and probably get away with it.


    -|-


    “We aren’t building research facilities?” Stettman peered at Ra’s budget with agitation. “But if we don’t start now, we’ll inevitably fall behind!” He wrung his hands. “Progress is king! Every learned person knows that.”


    “I agree.”


    Stettman froze for a moment before banging his fist on the table. “Then why aren’t we building any! Imagine all the things we could be improving!”


    “All in good time.” Ra turned to Karen. “I’m trusting you to make sure this gets done as soon as possible. Make sure you collaborate with Mordred and Franz.”


    Karen sighed. “Everything is so spelled out all I have to do is issue the orders.”


    Mordred gave a satisfied nod. “I think the Commander is quite wise to heed my advice.”


    It’s because of my plan, not because of your advice. Ra didn’t voice the thought aloud of course but instead cast a glance toward Franz who bowed.


    “It will be done.”