Rita: This is Rita Trevalyan, and today I’m interviewing Takuhi’s and Kaga’s son Takel Maimun-Cheng. How are you today, Takel? You are the son of the new Empress, right?
Takel: Right. And let me tell you, being the son of royalty is a real challenge. It’s like you’re in a fish bowl. Everyone can see what you’re doing, and everyone can comment on how you’re doing it. It’s the toughest gig I’veever had.
Rita: But you never tried to talk your mother out of assuming that role, did you?
Takel: Oh, Hral no! I’d know she was going to do the Empress gig one day since shortly after I was decanted. And you don’t even try to dissuade Takuhi Maimun out of something once she’s made up her mind. She’ll just dig her heels in even harder. Besides, she said it would be educational for us kids.
Rita: And has it been?
Takel: I’ll say! And how! Has it been! I’ve had so much to learn. When we got the word that the old Empress was dead, Kaguhi and I looked up all the Empresses there have been for the past 2200 Galactic Standard Years. There really haven’t been that many, because of life extension, you know. I think she was over 300 years old when she died. A rare old bird. I never met her,but I’ve seen holovids of her. But she kept the Compire on an even keel all of her reign, and Mom has been working very hard at continuing Annabelle’s legacy.
Rita: Excellent! And what do you do for a living? I know that neither you nor your sister are content:to laze around the palace all the time, drinking out of lotus petals.
Takel: Indeed we are not. I was a Stellarman, like my uncle, but after getting wounded and PTSD in the war, I switched career paths. After mediating and ending a feud between my aunt and my Significant Other, I went to school to become a mediator. And I think I’ve become quite good at it. I’ve ironed out some feuds that could have gone on for generations if they hadn’t called on the services of a mediator. I’m also a notary public, so I can witness the signing of papers officially ending the feud.
Rita:Excellent! My oh my, you have been a busy boy, haven’t you. You mentioned a Significant Other. Who is she?
Rita” She is a very beautiful young lady who I met on my parents’ land. They have a nature preserve, you know, on Sogdien III. They wanted to sock a little land away so that no matter how modern and industrialized the planet got to be, there would always be a piece of it kept wild. But they needn’t have worried. The settlers Sogdien has attracted are interested in keeping as much in its original wild state as possible. Some industrialists have tried to exploit it for minerals and fuels, but we’ve all worked to keep them out of the place. Why, just the other year some tried to go big game hunting, but no one would supply them with a guide, and the forest killed every last one of them. Since then, there’s been no more talk about bringing mining and industry to the place, since the men who were killed were the loudest voices in favor of exploiting the place. If you know what you’re doing, and take proper precautions, it can be your own little slice of Paradise, but if you don’t, it’ll kill you quicker than [snaps fingers].
Rita: What are your future plans?
Takel: To persuade the lovely Rabia to settle down with me, at least for awhile, until she feels the need to go gallivanting off on one of her missions. She’s a Kulturologist, same as my sister, same as my mother was.
Rita:Thank you for talking with us today, and good luck in all your endeavors.
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