Selena, Juliet, Isabella, Sakura, Luna, and Yujin were hanging out together at a atmosphere Lively Cafe, not far from the University of Cambridge, England, while having cups of delicious authentic English tea, and little sandwiches, sitting at a table together near the window. Juliet, began to recount to her friends, a intriguing, fascinating Novel, She, and Selena read last night, while hanging out together in the living room of her apartment. The title of this renowned, notable novel is Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, the premise of the book is a young energetic vivacious, intelligent, beautiful young woman named Elizabeth Bennett, will experience the complexities, challenges, compilations, and misunderstandings with her blossoming relationship with a handsome young man from a wealthy notable family, Mr. Darcy, their first meeting will take place at a elegant ball hosted by Darcy’s friend Mr. Bingley.

Luna, Yujin, Selena, Isabella, and Sakura were listening intently to the story their friend Juliet was describing in detail of their favorite literary novel by Jane Austen, then Luna recounted Elizabeth had a close relationship with her older sister Jane, who was known for her beauty, sensitivity, compassion, and kindness towards others, but they had a complicated defunctional relationship with their parents, especially their mother Mrs. Bennet, her personality was dramatic, overly emotional, and sensitive, had a mentality of a teenager, all of the five Bennett sisters, her favorite child was definitely the youngest daughter Lydia, a sixteen year old teenager, has the same amount of immaturity as her mother, in later chapters, Lydia will cause quite a lot of chaos, and confusion when she disappeared with Mr. Wickham, known as a manipulator, dishonest, descriptive, fortune Hunter, only after wealthy single vulnerable women to marry.

While the girls were in the middle of their discussion on Pride and Prejudice, Selena’s uncles Albert, William, and Louis Moriarty entered into the cafe, greeted Selena, and her friends with a hello, sat at a table across from the girl’s table, William asks his niece, what were they discussing before they arrived at the cafe. Selena responds to her uncles, they were discussing the premise of Jane Austen’s notable work Pride and Prejudice. Then Sakura responds Jane Austen also written other notable works like Emma, Sense and sensibility, etc, these remarkable literary classics, were written in the genre of romanticism, with a little bit of Drama, and Comedy in the mix for readers to be entertained, and to enjoy for centuries.

Colm surveyed the scene before him. Beneath a darkened and drizzling sky, mist swirled over the bodies. So many bodies. Their forces had won. They whooped and shouted, moving among the fallen. They removed their valuables, picking the carcass of a dead army clean. Colm felt sick to his stomach.

“I made a mistake,” he said.

“But we won,” Síofra said.

“Did we? Look at what I have caused.”

Síofra looked out across the fields. The brave warriors from her side we elated and celebrating on top of crumpled bundles that were once brave warriors from the other side. The stench of blood and guts hung in the fog. Gone were the bring sparks and clangs of metal striking metal. Victors systematically ended muffled cries and moans at the point of a sword. Silence descended. It was a horrible, horrible sight.

“I so believed in what we stood for, what I stood for, that I lost sight of the carnage that would result. It was stupid pride. My vain, stupid, stupid pride.”

He turned and looked down at her. “I will forever be called upon to right this wrong, to make up for the blood on my hands, to replace the lost.”

Slowly at first, he began walking. Now he strode with more determination and speed. He walked not toward the battlefield or to the celebration of commanding lines. He walked toward the water and the breeze that blew in his face.

“I won’t return to here.” he said. “Once I leave, I won’t set another foot upon this place I love so. I cannot fix this. The damage is already done. But I can atone for my mistake. I can pay for what I have destroyed. You can come with me if but I know your place is here. We will see each other again.”

With that, he kept walking. Síofra paused and then found she wasn’t following him. He walked toward the sun, toward the waters, toward a future that would take him from his beloved home.

Among all of the great lands I have had traveled none have scaled in heart and health of our great kingdom. Our citizens are proud brotherly and devout to the kingdom. Many have laid their lives defending, building and farming for our kingdom all of which of strengthened our walls and our hearts. Among the many deserving praise our kingdom folk are deserving of, I am here with the highest of honors. On this day, we shall proclaim universal amnesty for all.

Never imagined it would come to this point

Only God knows why he chose me to anoint

I cherished every aspect of my duty to you my people

Any excuse I make now would be utterly feeble

And treacherous to the memories we shared

One thing I can say for certain is that I cared

Thank you for your faith and trust in my reign

It breaks my soul to cause you this pain

A man only abdicates for one of two grounds

Love or scandal, not unfamiliar sounds

But I promise you I’m following my heart

Which you will always be in, even now as we part

It’s warm. We long for the touch of chill, the promise of a frost we will never see. This is how we know it’s time and this how it has always been and yet… It’s warm enough to stay. Here in our sanctuary, our oaken homes, we are safe. We know the way here and we know from the inborn memories of all the ones who went before that safe is not a place it is time and it cannot be held. We are nearly every place fluttering around the blue ball. From hot summer to hotter summer, we fly along the coast from Newfoundland to the orange winged forests of Michoacán. We are the journey. It’s too warm. The blue ball burns. Everything changes except us. We are a through line, a clock. Already the days are growing short. Already the swallows Have gone to Caprastrano. Riding the currents we must go south. We are afraid but yet…

“ Good morning to you all. Today I stand before you not just as your queen but as a fellow commoner. Someone that you can trust no matter the title. I want you to hear it from me first, the one you chose to be your faithful queen. This decision was not easy, but it’s one that I feel will serve the colony better. Today I have made the untimely decision to abdicate and renounce the throne. I know this comes as a shock as we are close to hibernation season. But hear me when I say that I will leave you in good hands no matter what. My last duty will be to make sure you have a successful hibernation season. With that being said, it has been an honor to serve you as Queen, but I feel my time here is done. To my fellow commanding ant queens, I bid you good luck in your future monarchy and in leading this ant colony to a successful hibernation season.Thank you.

It has been my pleasure and an honor.

     Forevermore, 

                      Just one of Your Queens “

“You murdered Thyra?! Who are you?! What the actual he-“

“She left me with no choice, Seb.” The queen replied.

“What do you MEAN?! DO NOT CALL ME SEB. From now on, you will call me Sebastian.”

“Don’t bark orders at me! I am your mother! I am the queen!”

“Well I won’t be the prince anymore! I won’t be your son anymore! I hate you! You hear me?! I hate you!”

Sebastian left the palace with the thought of his mother killing his beloved Thyra.

“I miss you, my Thyra. Don’t worry, you will be remembered.” Sebastian mumbled.

And I never saw him again. I closed my book and laid it back out for others to create articles of. My book was a bestseller.

“You knew Prince Sebastian?” A reporter asked me. “How did you know him? Did you know him well?” The reporter asked non-stop questions.

“Yes,” I answered, “Because I was the queen.”

Recorded March 17, 1979. Received and broadcasted across the Empire. Archived in Montbailey Imperial Library, New Dawnford prefecture, Ganymede colony.

It is a film of the Emperor himself, a narrow man in his forties, whose image has appeared beside the most legendary figures to live since he was conceived by the late Empress and her consort. He was not powerful like his Councilmen, or brilliant like the scientists, or even as gorgeous as the film stars (though he certainly tried). But the Emperor was kind enough, wise enough, and that was enough to win him the hearts of his empire.

This broadcast, then, is rightfully infamous.

—-

[Some interference. The camera is not steady.]

“My friends and subjects. I ask you to not be unduly alarmed by the nature of this message. Act rationally and not in terror, for the sake of your Empire and its people.”

[Inaudible shouting; explosion in background. The Emperor looks around anxiously.]

“Since our first steps toward prosperity in the 18th century, my dynasty has been immeasurably proud of the people we stand for. From our home planet onward through all the colonies, ours is a monument of progress for all eternity.”

“But a silent and insurmountable threat has revealed itself to us this morning. We have been overtaken by a force that sees itself superior, and through direct communication it has ordered that we return to the planet we came from, never to venture out again. It has demanded all monarchs’ elimination. It has imposed that we return to a state of knowledge we have not seen since the late 1700s. It insists that it is righteous, and I have failed to defend against it.”

[More yelling— closer. Whoever is holding the camera picks it up and runs. The ground can be seen briefly as Emperor and cameraman scale what is presumably a bridge.]

“All citizens— residing outside the planet Earth— must return and live under their reign— or flee into the far reaches of space. There is a nomadic— race of extraterrestrials— that will provide you sanctuary. They are— known as the Ilixar.”

[Gunshots. The Emperor shoves on his helmet, removes a rifle from his back, and fires down at the enemy, round after round of golden plasma. His voice is tinny and mechanical from within its metallic valves.]

“I hereby abdicate from my position to free you, but first I order you to flee. Citizens of Mars, Far Orbit Station, the Moon, Ganymede, Europa, Venus, and Io, do not attempt to fight, for it will be your demise. Offer all means of escape to your neighbors as well as yourselves, and bring provisions to as last as long as possible. Do not attempt to return home, ever. I confirm this message on the day of March 17, 1979.”

[End recording.]

—-

Our Emperor died shortly after the end of this recording. His body was destroyed by his killers.

Since Ganymede, we have had no home. Since the Emperor, we have had no hope. We know nothing of what has become those who fled, for we were cowards and returned to Earth.

As you can imagine, distribution of this file is strictly prohibited. History has since been rewritten. We have been cleverly pitted against each other so we may never rise again.

Long live the Empire.

May someone return to avenge us someday.

Throughout my reign, the repeated warnings about the dangers of global warming has fallen on deaf ears. It is an issue my detractors insist is nothing more than governmental fabrication. However, the climate crisis we are now faced with has disrupted our cycle of life.

With agricultural necessities lessened, there’s barely enough to feed the selective diet of our young. The fossil fuels burned for manmade transportation has limited our ability to migrate. Our travel routes have been compromised. Like birds and retirees, our annual relocation to warmer temperatures in the south are a generational rite of passage.

The climactic results to this climatic disruption has been severe enough for some to take notice. Acknowledging an issue and doing something about it, though, are two very different things. I fear a meaningful change won’t take place until a greater degree of the populous is effected.

The hope for our future remains in the hands of the people who created this environmental debacle.

We are on the verge of extinction. The voluntary abdication of our place in the animal kingdom might serve as the necessary martyrdom to draw more attention to the issues that surround us.

An eradication of our species, like the dinosaurs once before, could bring greater focus to a subject that is often talked about but more frequently ignored. In time, perhaps, our absence will be missed. Perhaps someone in Hollywood will take up our cause and direct attention to our plight. A movie franchise could be produced about a themed destination filled with cloned butterflies entitled “Monarch Park”.

Fluttering aimless into the sunset of our existence, we soon will be reduced to nothing more than a societal footnote. The latest victim of convenience created by the plague of mankind. We are a minority in a world where the majority refuses to act.

If things don’t change soon, we won’t be the last. Civilization will continue down its fatalistic path of destructive finality. Future historians will document the world’s evolution by renaming the planet Human Park.

Her pen struck the desk with a little more force than she intended.

She glanced over the speech one last time, but her eyes merely went through the motions—she knew she needed to repeat the words aloud, but that wasn’t what was going through her head at the moment. She was already thinking about the after, for after a few days, when this change began to settle, she knew what the rest of her life would be.

Obsolete.

But then, she had never really mattered after all, had she? Her country, her world, was going to the ultimate power that she could never really compete with.

So she sat back in her chair, and let the director tell her one last time where to look, and how to read from the teleprompter. She’d done this a thousand times, and what had been annoyance once now felt like an important tradition.

The lights went on, and the director counted from five, four, his fingers went up and counted down from three, two…

“Citizens,” she began, then faltered. “My people,” she corrected, already add-libbing and setting the teleprompter off center. She could feel the nausea pulsing in her stomach, but she’d been doing this a long time, so she never let it show on her face.

“Ages ago, we began as nothing more than a few people who came together for the warmth of a fire and for safety. Can you imagine our ancestors, sleeping in the fields, looking up at the stars and wondering what more was there? I know I can—for I have wondered it too,myself, since I was a little girl.

“What dreams I had, what dreams we all must have shared at one time. Imagining the greatness of ourselves, when, in my years since, I realize was only possible when all of us come together.”

She steadied herself for a moment, pushing the tip of her thumbnail into the soft meat of her palm. It was a place that no one could see, despite her hands being placed delicately right on top of the table before her.

“Some of you have known me as the queen since the beginning of your life. Some of you may have been alongside me during this reign, yet others have known me perhaps as only their queen for a day.

“These years have not been without their calamities, their strife. But for each trial that was laid before us, when we came together, we saw it through. Because that’s the difference, you see: no matter what, you will always get through to the other side. Wouldn’t we all wish that journey to be full of community? Wouldn’t we rather find a hand to hold in the darkness, than to hear blame and anger screeching through the long night?

“I think back on those ancestors, and I know they chose community, and we can, too, continue to walk that path. But we must do it consciously. We must reach out for one another.”

She intentionally did not look to her left, toward the window outside. She would see her foe in all her glory if she did—but no, she would bow out with grace, with intent.

“It has been an honor to serve as your queen, but today, I abdicate to the forces of Nature. Long may she reign.”

It was the final line, but the next words came out of her before she could think, before the director could turn off the camera.

“And godspeed to you all—!”

Outside, the wind howled and the rain spat on the window with as much force as the heat of a wildfire. The hurricane grew stronger at her final words, and the whistling sound the storm made through the bending trees carried throughout the palace. Nature had seen her bow, and it was not enough.

The door slammed open and the window shattered at her left. Someone ran forward to shield her from the broken glass, but it pelted her anyway. She raised her arms over her head, shaking as vigorously as the winds tore the room apart. Whomever had tried to shield her was tossed out the window, and she desperately clung on to the desk before her. She had no strength, but survival was ingrained deep in her bones, as deep as the need to look up at the stars and hope.

Your reign is over, said Nature. Long live the Queen.