“Are you sure about this sir? We know almost nothing about this Leader or his country-”
“Please, my dear Calpurnia; I have met the man already, and he is - from what I’ve seen - a kind and gentle person.”
“Alright, sir, if you’re sure.” Calpurnia shrugged and accompanied her boss onto the ship.
The Leader had been anticipating the arrival of Zeus and perhaps a few of his assistants to take note on his behalf. What he was not expecting was the woman who had accompanied him. Her pale complexion was unheard of among anyone in his native land. In fact, seeing women out and about, working alongside men as she so blatantly did, serving as the secretary to Xanadu’s ambassador, was itself truly unheard of.
Nevertheless, there she stood, paying alert attention, dutifully taking notes on what appeared to be a sophisticated tablet, and engaging with the ambassador, though speaking to him as his equal. All that served as enough of a spectacle; what truly astounded him, however, was the fact that she was not like the old maids he vaguely encountered in his infancy and early youth. She was, in fact, young.
“I asked you if you don’t also agree that a woman in the discussion would be distracting?”
“I, er… no; Zeus has been gracious to meet with us in our fatherland, so the minimum we must do is to accommodate him and his kind. That includes the woman, er… what was your name?”
“Calpurnia.” The name came from the rear of his throat, pushed out from past his lips, before escaping in a sigh, lingering only for a moment, before his subordinates followed his orders and continued on with the meeting.
However, as the meeting continued on, he found himself unable to stop thinking about the young woman, stealing more than a few glances of her features.
Eventually, he heard the squeaking and creaking of chairs shifting as the meeting had come to an end, leaving him alone inside. He got up, adjusted himself, and headed out, where he was met with the young woman.
“Mr. Leader, I wish to thank you for advocating on my behalf. I had been briefed about your nation’s patriarchal customs, so I had my reservations. Nevertheless, my boss’ words and your actions today, that willingness to integrate our own customs, made me feel more at ease and does show a bright future between us continuing on.”
She gave a polite smile that - in her nation’s customs - would have read as a common courtesy. However, for a man from the Fatherland, the Leader, no less, having never known a woman such as her, it was more than that; much, much, more.
Suddenly, he found himself inviting her more often than not to more and more gatherings, with not all of them being of a professional matter, so that - in his own words - she would be able to make proper, more exact reports to her boss.
Suddenly, he found himself attempting to court her by means of offering her meals - delicacies of his fatherland - and gifts - expensive by his nation’s standards.
Suddenly, he found himself imagining her whispering sweet nothings in his ear about them being “magic” and that nothing could stand in their way.
Suddenly, he found himself outright declaring his adoration and admiration of her to her, stating that he seemed to hear her name on every breeze and that no other face could take hers off his mind.
Suddenly, he heard Calpurnia’s rejection of his love, stating that what they were meant to have was strictly a professional relationship of sororal connection between their nations, and even if there had a more intimate connection between them, by her country’s standards, being a woman with such an older partner would have been unheard of, even frowned upon, especially as a political figure.
Suddenly, he began to see Calpurnia less and less, as she continued to return to her country. To her boss. To that broken ideology that kept her away from him. Away from his power. Away from his love. There had to be something done about it.
The months passed and the Leader began to grow distant during the meetings, even declaring that it would be best that “only higher authorities” would attend, casting out Calpurnia and other assistants from the meetings, which unfortunately forced himself to pay staunch attention - something he clearly seemed to be lacking in prior meetings.
He could not work under those horrid conditions of attending to his own notes and looking like a fool, but to admit assistants back in - to admit her back in - would be to admit defeat. Defeat was not in the vocabulary of his Fatherland. Still, there needed to be a way to impose his will upon her.
As he searched, he eventually found Dr. Marvello, the leading scientist in psychiatric reprocessing, and a youth of 24 years, as well. He had informed the Leader about what was the mental plague that festered in the minds of women like her.
“Sin,” Marvello said, “is a conscious, logopathic, psychosomatic transgression against the Politzanian state, located somewhere in the frontal lobe of women’s brains. There had been a few cases of sins-”
“Sins, plural?” the Leader asked.
“Oh, yes, Leader; there are multiple.”
Marvello then began to recount sin after sin committed by women throughout Politzanian history, leaving the Leader dumbfounded at the three that aligned with what Calpurnia undeniably transgressed against him, wondering how he could have let such a person, let alone a woman, insult him in such a manner, all while maintaining a guise of professionalism.
Marvello then began to make discussions about how his experimental ‘Love Machine’ would be able to cure her of her sins, repurpose all that mental energy into love, and turn the ‘can’ts’ of their relationship into ‘cans’.
Suddenly, he found himself agreeing to incrementing Dr. Marvello’s funding, leading to advancements in psychiatric reprocessing and the refinement of his ‘Love Machine’.
Suddenly, he found himself calling for Calpurnia to be tried against Politzania’s Ministry of Justice, which found her criminally insane having committed the crime of “sins”, and as such became the first test subject for Dr. Marvello, the newly appointed Director of the Ministry of Health.
Suddenly, the Leader was witnessing the glorious changes to that woman as Marvello poked and prodded, electrified and encephalographed.
Suddenly, Calpurnia - after receiving six shocks on her forehead - was no longer the same, and would cling onto the Leader, saying all the things that he had dreamt she’d say, and more. Much, much, more.
The following meetings allowed for secretaries again, though - given Calpurnia’s sudden infatuation with the Leader - Zeus began to question the Leader’s involvement with his secretary. This led to another member of the Xanaduvian government having a mental reprocessing of his own.
As Zeus and Calpurnia became his loyal subjects, the Leader grinned.
Suddenly, any and all political ties with Xanadu had to proceed with a mandatory “mental reprocessing” in order to “be on the same page”, as he so eloquently justified.
Suddenly, he wondered what use there was in dividing the work of space travel amongst two countries when one could conquer the other and have total control of them both for ultimate manpower.
Suddenly, he would find use for the Ministry of Health in his fatherland, dealing with those who dared question his actions, those secret harborers of doubt.
Suddenly, it was all his.
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