Empire

´To fight the empire is to be infected by its derangement...whoever defeats part of the Empire becomes the empire, it proliferates like a virus...thereby it becomes its enemies.`

´Welcome to Eve Industries´ the soothing feminine voice on the intercom spoke as the elevators opened before her.

Aere took a big breath, tucking a loose strand of strawberry pink hair behind her ear before stepping into what would now be her new office in the Empire. The room before her contained a wide open floor plan letting in plenty of natural light, a drastic difference from her old cramped office space on the Golden Coast. The room was decorated in various shades of lavendar, cream, and rose with the traditional Founding Mothers displaying the New Republic´s leaders mounted on the lefthand wall. From the kitchen to her right, she could smell a brew of fresh chamomile tea--leaves no doubt grown in one of the many window boxes that hung from the furthermost wall overlooking the impressive modern cityscape.

It was perfect. 

This is it, Aere thought surpressing a squeal. This was the realization of her dream—of all their dreams and hard work over the years. And she was a part of it. She was a part of the new nation-building---a critically important piece of herstory that would last throughout the generations.  

´You must be Aereola´ the woman at the front desk said warmly, rising from her seat and extending a hand out in greeting.

`My name is Hilary, after President Clinton. I`m the front desk coordinator here at Eve.´ 

        

The girl was in her mid-twenties, tall and lean with beautifully green doe eyes and long blonde hair. She had the type of body evolutionary bioloigsts had immortalized for years before the revolution. Aere had no doubt that she would have been a model in the Old Republic. 

`Please, call me Aere.´

`But you have such a lovely name!´she exlaimed, brushing Aere`s bare arm and sending an all too familiar warmth courisng through her body, causing her to blush. If Hilary noticed her feelings, she gave them no notice.

`I guess you come from a long line of activism then, yeah?´ she continued, not wavering from Aere`s gaze.

Aere smiled, surveying the girls bright yellow bohomeian parachute pants and white loose peasant top, reminding herself once again that in the New Republic she had no need to be insecure of her own appearance. Still, it was a hard habit to break from the dark days, when beauty and competition for men´s attention was all that mattered to a young woman´s self worth. But those days were over now. Aere sighed and visibly allowed her shoulders to relax.

´Yeah, I was conceieved on the night of the ´Free the Nipple´ march on Washington. My mother was very proud of the result, on all accounts, hence the namesake.`

´Well we`re so glad you could be a part of our team. If you will follow me, Joan is waiting for you in her Office` Hilary continued gesturing to the far right hand wall.

Aere followed closely behind as Hilary made her way to a rich mahogany door adjacent from the Wall of Founding Mothers. It seemed dark and isolated, a threatening eyesore in an otherwise bright and collectively open workspace.

 ´Yes! Come in` a fluttery voice called from within.

Hilary pushed the door open, revealing a very large desk with two women in long black Maxi dresses and matching gray pixie cuts huddled over a spray of papers. It was hard to tell which was Joan, as the two were almost identically dressed—though the woman on the right sported a full colored sleeve of tattoos. The tattooed woman looked up and smiled, her crows feet giving away her seniority.

´You must be Aereola! Hello, I´m Joan. Please, come in.  I´ve been expecting you. Placenta here was just showing me her work on a new high school instruction manual entitled `How to write the Female Heroine.` She used to be the Dean of Letters at Welsley before the revolution, you know.´

Placenta smiled up encouragingly and gave a little sheepish wave.

´The New Republic is really trying to push creative writing this year!´ she chuckled, gathering the papers in front of her and pushing up her thick coke botttle glasses.

´Well these look great Placenta, thank you` Joan continued with a sigh of finality. ´Lets talk again after lunch.´  

As the door closed behind Placenta, Aere stepped forward to shake her new boss` hand.

´Welcome welcome! Forgive me, today is a very busy day so brevity is the name of the game but I look forward to talking with you at greater length later in the week. Please, take a seat.´

Aere smiled and sank gratefully into a plush cream armchair opposite Joan`s desk, the long walk from her new apartment to the Office having taken its tole on her poor feet.

         ´So as you know, Eve Industries has been contracted through the Department of the Arts to prepare the main texts used for school ciriculums nationwide. In a very real way, we are in charge of writing the next generation of narratives in which we hope to see a drastically different representation from the inequality of the Old Republic. 

´Your main focus will be working on adapting editorial content to make it more approachable for younger audiences. As I understand it, you`ve had extensive experience with Ms as Chief Editor?´

´Yes that`s right` Aere nodded. She had been with Ms. since before the revolution, back when there was such a thing as a ´feminist´ category of magazines.

´Well you`ve been an exceptional asset to the cause over the years, Aere. Just as your mother was before you and your future daughters no doubt will be should you make that choice.´

´Thank you,´Aere blushed, unaccustomed to such praise from her superiors.

Joan smiled and rose suddenly from her desk, making her way to the open window overlooking the far off bridge in the distance.  Though the steady hum of downtown traffic whizzed by just underneat her feet, Joan`s face seemed calm and relaxed. She took a deep breath and let the silence permeate the office around her.

´I must admit I have been following you for quite some time now and I´m quite impressed ` Joan continued, silencing Aere`s wandering thoughts and bringing her back into the present moment.

´You have a gift, Aereola, that few posess. You seem to have the innate ability to discern truth from fiction and find the voice that may not always be the most popular, but the voice that needs to be heard nontheless. Important skills that are greatly needed in the work we do here at Eve.´

 ´We´ve fought too long to earn our seat at the table to have it come to nothing, bickering over the finer points of feminism. We are all women, after all. Black, white, rich, poor—we all want the same things. And we need our story to reflect that unity.

´We consider oureselves a family here at Eve, a sisterhood if you will excuse the cliche. And in our literary endeavors we must continue to be a voice of one. There is no need for ´isms´ now—too many stories could confuse the children you understand…´

´I´m sorry´ Aere interrupted timidly, afraid of upsetting her boss on the first day of a lifetime´s worth of acheivements that had lead her to Eve.

´I´m not sure I quite understand what you`re asking of me.´

Joan turned away from the magnificent view, facing Aere and giving what was clearly to the both of them a well rehearsed smile. Though she had hardly wavered from the same rhetoric Aere herself had preached for years, something in Joan`s smile made Aere feel uncomfortable—or at the very least doubtful of her sincerity.

´I hope you will not misunderstand what our main mission is here at Eve,´she continued  `and so I will be more blunt.´

´As your time at Ms no doubt taught you, editing content sometimes requires making tough calls. It means including stories which may not be the most universally popular, but more importantly it means ommitting stories which detract from the larger more important message.

´Though our cause has been in the name of justice, no victory has ever been won without a few casualties. As such, I hope you will remember the silencing of our sisters over the generations and use their opression when editing content in support of the New Republic during this herstoric time.´

A gentle knock interrupted Joan`s soliloquy, causing her to look down at her watch and sigh. Despite the humid summer temperature, Aere sat frozen in her chair—unsure of how to respond. Before she could make up her mind, Joan extended her hand out in farewell.

´That would be my conference call!´Joan smiled again, her blue eyes mirroring the clear skies behind her ´I do appologize Aere, but we will have to continue this later.´

         ´Thanks for coming in today, and welcome to the Empire! I look forward to writing our new future together here at Eve Industries.`