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her ancient past.
    The Great Dark Queen did not like the feeling of being frightened. She had grown accustomed to living without it.
    “And I will do so again,” she said as the mist within the sphere began to swirl, growing deep red in color.

    The Tarchein capital, bearing the same name but commonly called The City, was established over a thousand years ago, moving from the ancient location of Uredo when the planet was united under Queen Darvona. The Tarchein were a barbarous warlike race before Queen Darvona brought peace, stability, and technology that would transform this single planet into the center of a great empire. Since that time, the Tarchein capital has grown in size, primarily to accommodate the enormous administrative demands of the emerging Empire, which under the leadership of the now Divine Empress Darvona governs over sixty percent of the explored galaxy. The City, which encompasses over 14,000 square miles and completely covers one of the larger inhabitable landmasses on the planet, is the permanent home to over six billion Tarchein and aliens alike, a number that swells during royal gatherings and feast days. Must-see attractions include the grounds of the Imperial Palace, the Galactic Center for the Arts, and the Star Force War Museum.
     
    - Tourist Guide to Tarchein -

CHAPTER SIX

New Beginning
    Tommy had, at first, found life on Tarchein to be a difficult adjustment. This, of course, was completely understandable, considering the recent loss of his parents, a life lived primarily in space, and the uncertainty that comes with any change, let alone a move to an alien planet. After all, Remus was still pretty much a stranger, their time spent together in the tiny escape pod notwithstanding.
    The transition, however, was made somewhat easier for Tommy by the mere fact that he had spent so much time aboard starships or on orbiting stations. And because of this, he had not grown accustomed to wide-open spaces, natural sunlight, or the taste of air that hadn’t been recycled. All of which would help early on as he struggled to acclimate himself, because the Tarchein capital, for all of its majesty, many of its buildings towering over a mile high, had none of these attributes in abundance.
    Oh, one could see the twin suns', when not in the perpetual shadows cast by the thousands of high-rise superstructures—although due to rising radiation levels, prolonged exposure was increasingly ill-advised. And the air was breathable enough, but the vast majority of the Tarchein population preferred the filtered gases supplied by massive subterranean processing plants. All buildings and thoroughfares had been sealed for centuries, making any open-air excursions a rare occurrence. As for open spaces, The City was home to six billion inhabitants, packed into a mere 14,000 square miles, making it, by any standard, the most densely populated metroplex in the Empire.
    But that being said, despite some obvious limitations and a spattering of arbitrary restrictions, Tommy adjusted quickly, and he and Remus settled into a nice life—very nice indeed. For as it turned out, not only was Tommy’s foster father a fine diplomat, but he was also one of the wealthiest Tarcheins in the Empire. His plateaus penthouse, perched high above the often chaotic movements of the capital city, afforded Tommy a bird’s-eye view of brilliantly colored skyscrapers, the soaring black spirals of the Imperial Palace, and the seemingly endless streams of hover trams, buses, and personal vehicles. Although the really elegant vehicles, or ground-level traffic, afforded exclusively to the Tarchein elite, seemed little more than specks from Tommy’s lofty vantage point.
    Although the term bird’s-eye view should not be taken literally, as Tommy had never actually seen a bird, or any other animal for that matter, while on Tarchein. A result, no doubt, of a deep-seated mistrust of anything that could not be precisely controlled. Nature, it seemed,