Thatcher Summons the Rokkenjiman Ambassador

[Tytor]

Prime Minister's Office, Tsargrad
May 4, 2024
8:59 AM

"Ambassador Hayata to see you, ma'am," the prime minister's secretary said, poking his head through the office door.

Thatcher looked up from the email she was composing and held up a forefinger to indicate that the secretary should wait before ushering the ambassador in.  The woman could stew for a bit.  Thatcher went back to her email.

In all, Thatcher had the ambassador wait a solid ten minutes before she closed her email, changed tabs to Instagram, and hit the intercom button.  "Show her in, please," she said.

The ambassador entered the office.  "Ambassador," Thatcher said by way of greeting, a grim look affixed upon her face, "Please sit."  She gestured to the chair positioned before her desk, the tone of her request suggesting command more than anything else.

Once the unfortunate diplomat was safely seated, Thatcher laid into her.  "So," she said, turning the computer monitor so as to have it visible to both women, her voice quivering slightly with barely suppressed anger, "So.  What the heck is going on here?  This time yesterday, Tytor and Rokkenjima were collectively enjoying a budding romance, a clear symbol of the ever-strengthening ties between our two nations.  And then I come into the office this morning to find this waiting for me.  Care to explain why this decision was made so abruptly, and without so much as a warning to my staff?  Do you have any idea how absurdly difficult things like this make my job?  Do you understand just how much of a PR disaster this is?  We have established channels for communicating these sorts of developments, for crying out loud!  It would have taken your government all of five minutes to use them.  So why, in the name of everything holy, was I not informed before this went live?"

[Beatrice]

Ambassador Mikina Hayata

"Respected Minister," Mikina said in a formal and calm fashion, "the First Empire continues to value the relationship between Rokkenjima and Tytor to the highest of regards, however, there is an internal matter which we have hoped to address without foreign complications. Due to the unpredictable nature of our adversary, however, incidents such as these could not have been accounted for and I convey the deepest apologies of the Imperial Palace for this incident. I cannot state much, as despite my requests for the relevant clearances they've been denied, but I believe I have the ability to paint a broad enough picture to remain within the constraints of my restrictions whilst being fully honest with you."

"I am certain you will recall the Shuttle Ensei disaster earlier this year. While it has not been publicly stated a source from within Imperial High Command issued a command to the shuttle, one reserved for unmanned operations when the safe re-entry of the Shuttle could not be ensured. We believe this source to be behind the present issue before us; the incident I mentioned is believed to be something done to break the spirit of the Empress, just as this situation is likely meant to cause the Empress distress with the added benefit of alienating a key ally and security partner of Rokkenjima. In a completely hypothetical situation, the Empress would likely find herself incapable of responding despite her wishes to; it would simply be beyond her means to do so due to present circumstances. It would likewise be necessary that the adversary believes they accomplished their goal, which is why a genuine response would be necessary on your part and why I might be precluded from intervening prior to your summons. On that matter I would naturally convey the regrets of both the Imperial Palace and myself, in what would be a  hypothetical scenario, of course."

She drew closer to Thatcher's desk, almost whispering, "the present challenge before the Empress is in many ways a matter of life or death, the future of Rokkenjiman democracy depends upon her success over this foe. I promise you once the immediate threat has passed your government will be briefed in full, but for now we cannot jeopardize our adversary learning that we're a step or two ahead of them so please, I know you are angry and you've every right to be, but please try to have a measure of patience if understanding is not possible; again, I understand. I don't know if Thomas knows yet, however, if you've a way to discreetly send a message to him, you'd be doing me a favour as relayed to me by a mutual friend I hold with the Empress. When she was informed that her account had been compromised and that was posted she nearly vomited, and became a shell of herself." Moving back from the desk she continued, "it is a most unfortunate affair we have before us, however, I have cleared the entirety of my schedule until we find a way forward that is mutually agreeable to both of our Governments," she concluded as she handed Thatcher a letter, "I have it on good authority that you may read it if you wish to."

Dear Thomas,

I don't have long so this will be brief and I don't know if my gambit will even work in getting to this to you so please bear with me here. I don't know what kind of connection you have at the moment so if you see a certain Instagram post I'm not even able to go on the internet right now, let alone pick up a phone, quite simply it wasn't me. From what I gathered from the chatter between security here my account was hacked and used ahead of a meeting I was set to have, not only to hurt you and I but to alienate the Throne from one of our closest allies, so while I can't do anything publicly I couldn't stomach you sitting there thinking there was any truth to that for a moment longer so I broke the rules a bit, trusting you to keep this to yourself, I might get a stern talking to but I promise I'll survive that. The next chance you get do listen to Roy Orbison's Sentimental and when you get back I'll be here waiting for you I promise and, hopefully, by that time I'll have defeated the enemy before me so we can share some care free moments together. Until then stay safe, and know just how sorry I am about all of this.

Yours always.

PS: Akira misses you, he won't leave your coat alone that you left behind and is currently snuggling up with it. If I get the clearance he'll be with me on the United States when we track your ship down for a visit. Be prepared for a loving tackle from him and the kisses to follow.

[Tytor]

So that was it.  An "internal matter" featuring an "adversary" who was targeting the empress.  Thatcher slowly reread the empress's letter to Ensign Waverly-Edwards.  Her anger did not dissipate, which did not surprise her, but rather it began to shift to target whoever this was who was endangering both Rokkenjiman democracy and the Tyto-Rokkenjiman Special Relationship, which did.  She folded the letter and slipped it into the inside pocket of her suit coat.

"As it happens," she said deliberately, "The Admiralty tells me they discreetly forwarded a copy of this Instagram post to Thomas's captain last night.  I'll see about sending this the same way."

She leaned back wearily in her chair, studying Ambassador Hayata's face for a long moment.  "Well," she said at last, "We still have a communication problem.  We're allies.  I have one of Mundus's most skilled intelligence agencies at my command, in the form of the RIS.  You know this, or at least you ought to.  Certainly the Imperial Palace knows it; we gave Beatrice direct covert assistance during the Patriotic War, after all.  So now, I have a different question for you."

Thatcher paused again, considering her next words carefully.  "Given this knowledge," she said, "Why is this the first I'm hearing about your, er, enemy?  Why haven't you been in here before to ask for my help?  And perhaps more importantly, what can we do, moving forward, to ensure this failure doesn't happen again?  Let's fix this together, shall we?"

[Beatrice]

"It would be appreciated," she would reply simply, listening as Thatcher continued.

"Speaking off the record, I don't like that you were excluded from the first party chain of communications on this issue, as a CSTO ally and a trusted security partner of the First Empire I would have seen close coordination with the Kingdom and its assets from day one," she said as she passed to Thatcher secured means through which to engage with <0. "Perhaps the most skilled operatives within Rokkenjiman borders, she has access and insight that will bring you up to parity knowledge-wise, and I'll be lodging in my notes to Pyrettania that any future exclusions would be ill-advised and most harmful to Rokkenjiman national security. Damn it," she paused, "we've sat here near the brink of an abrupt rift between our governments, I won't allow that to happen again under my watch. From this moment forward you'll know what we know as the Royal Government has the trust of the Imperial Government to act responsibly with said knowledge, as it should have been from day one so to say. As to your question, on the record, that's a matter of internal affairs which are better left for Rokkenjima to tackle. Off the record, I was not instructed to ask for your help, and was informed that the matter was being dealt with and no further involvement was necessary from those not already involved."

"That being said," she paused again, "I'm sorry that Thomas has had what must have been a few difficult hours, please see that his mind is put to rest as soon as possible. We might not be able to address the public sensitivities of the matter yet, however, it would be nice to see both of them able to sigh a breath of relief in the mean time. I understand that, as soon as she's capable of doing so, she intends to put the United States to the test, with the permission of your Government of course, for a reunion with Thomas; I hear the Empress wishes to test her rumoured top speed of 45 knots to make this all up to him. She's like her mother in that regard," she smiled for the first time, "always a penchant for grand gestures; I imagine his ship mates will have some jealousy issues to deal with after such a display."

[Beatrice]

The Next Morning

The plain, rather unremarkable red telephone that sat upon Thatcher's desk would soon ring with a light blinking in the lower right-handed side. While the phone itself was a relic of an era long bygone the infrastructure behind it was decidedly most modern: it represented a fibre-optic link with end-to-end encryption between Pyrettania and Tsargrad that traced the floor of the Strait of Shaw, with a satellite back-up if that optic link were ever severed; a relic of the cold war between Rokkenjima and Tytor which had received a massive upgrade in the years that followed the conclusion of that war. Not even Imperial High Command could listen into the words spoke on that line, so once the robotic voice announced as it always did, "This line is secured only for those parties privy, please begin following the beep"....BEEP" Asuna began to speak.

"Good morning, Respected Minister," she said with a tone of reverence, "I understand certain events have caused quite a stir between our nations and I'm sorry for that. Ultimately, as Empress, the responsibility falls upon me and therefore I take full responsibility for the events of the past few days. I couldn't reach out before because we were under a blackout at the Imperial Palace but, with all immediate threats removed, I have the pleasure of speaking with you now. I understand that my Ambassador has successfully relayed my message to Thomas as, if she weren't, she'd not have met with you. I do owe her a fine dinner and some much deserved R&R, after all of this. You must understand it was so hard for me to sit here thinking that, after my account was taken over, the damage that message was doing, not only to Thomas but to everything else entailed, I'm truly sorry for that. I also recognize that information was withheld from your Government to the threats we were facing over here and have already undertaken measures to ensure that never transpires again."

"In the coming days I would like to visit with you personally to first of all apologize, and then work towards undoing the damage of this affair. Prior to that I've the United States primed and ready to test her top speed as I pay a visit to HTMS Agility because I've got someone who deserves the greatest apology that's ever been offered in history. I'll be trusting that you help me set the right course and ensure their countermeasures don't train their sights upon the United States as I test her classified top speed in the range of 45 knots. Naturally while I'm going there for Thomas I wouldn't be opposed to Agility's crew getting some R&R aboard her, nor would I mind the RBC/TBS being present for a long overdue reunion. Again I'm sorry," she paused, "let me know if there's anything here objectionable and I'll work with you to make it right as I should have from day one in being upfront with you and your Government. Please also relay my apologies to the Ambassador; she was hamstrung and this wasn't her fault," Asuna concluded before awaiting Thatcher's response.