Behind them walks in a tall man with brown hair and a matching mustache dressed in a naval officer's uniform. He looks around the room and smiles. "Good evening, everyone. My name is Rear Admiral Santanocheev and I'm to be your de-escalation host today. Before we allow grand Princess Ciencia into the compartment, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask all naval personnel and ducal guards to leave the compartment. My personnel will oversee the security of the admiral, and the Imperial Guards will see to the duchess. If anyone feels the need to argue with me, don't bother. I have my instructions and will not hesitate to carry them out. Move along. Move along."
There's a little bit of looking back and forth from the naval personnel to Admiral Noster but seeing their commanding officer paralyzed in fear convinces them to obey and they quickly depart. The ducal guard seems less convinced but they are heavily outnumbered and the Imperial guard begins herding them out. In less than a minute, all of the aides and guards have been removed, leaving the party and a selection of Imperial Guards and Imperial Marines. The Imperial Guards disguised as Imperial Marines depart as well.
That's when Princess Ciencia sweeps into the room with Frederick and Teresa at her side. "Thank you, Admiral. I have it from here."
The man bows slightly at the waist and heads back out of the room, closing the doors behind him.
Ciencia smiles at the seated parties. "My goodness, this is a surprise. I had no idea such a structure had ever been built, much less existed in the Glisten system. Oddly enough, all the reports I received indicated that Yamaguchi Starport was a mere twenty-five million tons. Here I find out that it actually is more than ten times that large. Thirty-five billion tons. That's not a typo. It's also not a coincidence that I find the two of you here taking possession of something that you had no right to in the first place. I'm curious if either of you would care to offer an explanation."
"I have every right as the senior Imperial noble in the system," the duchess said, glaring at Ciencia. "It is common practice for the property of traitors to be dispensed with as seen fit by me."
The princess pursed her lips. "Hmm. I may need to consult the list of peerages again. Frederick, could you clarify something for me? Do I is the grand Princess rank higher in the Imperial peerage then Duchess Muktheswara?"
"Indeed, you do, Highness. In fact, as you bear the warrant of His Imperial Majesty, you technically outrank your mother at this particular moment."
"I did think that that was the case but I just wanted to make sure. After all, I'm young and inexperienced so I might have made a mistake. Thank goodness I have my elders standing ready to make sure that I understand exactly what's going on and where I stand in the peerage."
"So, now we come to the meat of the matter," she said with a smile. "First of all, you can't give this particular property away because I have already seen to its disposition. The new owners are standing here with me."
"That's preposterous," the duchess said. "This magnificent construction should be used for the good of Glisten and not merely handed out to some ragamuffins. The matter is very simple to correct, Your Highness. Now that you see the true scope of Yamaguchi Starport, simply retract the transfer and give it to me so that I may administer it on behalf of the billions of people in the system and the trillions that live in this subsector and beyond. That is well within the letter of the law."
Ciencia pursed her lips. "While that might be legal, there's one problem. The Emperor--though me--has given his word. Are you suggesting that the honor of the Imperial Family is something that is as malleable as the law? I assure you, Duchess, that my father would not countenance rescinding his word. His bond is the strength that holds the Imperium together. There will be no retraction of the offer however, I am more than happy to use the law to negate your transfer of property that you did not control. Frederick, make certain to file the necessary paperwork immediately to resend any conflicting attempts to transfer this property from individuals that did not have the right to execute such a transfer."
"I'll see to it once, Your Highness."
"There! That was easily taken care of. Now, we can dig into the meat of why I am here. I would like to know how such a sham was perpetrated. It is obvious that you knew what you were getting into long before I arrived or else the reports that I have about the size of Yamaguchi Starport would not have been doctored. I checked and not only were the Navy reports fabrications but the general reports that I received for the ducal offices were also tampered with. You can't tell me that you were unaware of the size of this facility and yet you did not correct those errors. That tells me that this was premeditated, and I find that to be a problem. Your response?"
"The information I have about Yamaguchi Starport came from the Navy and I was just as shocked as you might imagine when I arrived here and discovered that the situation was misreported," the Duchess said. "You can rest assured that Admiral Noster and I were going to have words about that."
The princess looked over at the administrator. "I'm sorry, but I don't know your name. Whom am I addressing?"
The woman walked closer and knelt on one knee, bowing her head. "I am Kira Antonov, the Administrator of Yamaguchi Starport. I am at your service, Your Highness."
"Please rise. Now, would you tell me about the duchess's demeanor when she arrived? Did she seem shocked at any point during the tour of the starport?"
Antonov shook her head. "No, Your Highness. In fact, she seemed downright gleeful. There were several points where she congratulated admiral Noster on his work in acquiring the station and he was equally complementary to her about it not being possible without her assistance. I had no idea at the time that they were referring to a criminal enterprise."
"It was all her idea!" Noster said as he stood abruptly. "She loaned money to Baron Yamaguchi and then pulled legal strings to call it all do it once when he had no liquid funds. It was my job to--"
"Silence, fool!" the duchess snarled.
"And let you railroad me for treason while you claim innocence? I'll be damned if I do that. I made certain that certain files were available to pass to the baron so that he could in turn attempt to sell them to agents under the employ of the Duchess. There was never any danger that those files would get out into the wild. It was all to gain leverage to imprison him and sees his property. She was the mastermind from the beginning, and I can prove it."
"It's my word against yours, worm. You'll hang for this."
Noster looked torn, but then relaxed. "No, I don't think I will."
Anyone monitoring the admiral sees what is about to happen in his thoughts. He's going to attack the duchess knowing he'll die in the process. The problem is that only a moment elapses between thought and action and there is no time to intervene.
He lunged across the table to where William had put down his weapons, snagging the grav pistol. The Imperial Marines and Imperial Guards raised weapons and opened fire to protect the princess, but even as the man was riddled with bullets, he turned the weapon on Duchess Muktheswara, shooting her multiple times even as he died. In seconds it was over, and the scent of blood and death was in the air.
Ciencia pushed Fredrick and Terresa aside from where they'd placed their bodies between her and the danger. "Well, crap. I did not see that coming."
Antonov is on her mobile comm. "Medical personnel to the owner's quarters. Crash response."
Anyone looking knows that is useless. Noster is well and truly perforated, and the duchess took at least one shot to the head. There will be no medical miracle here.
How could I pass up the chance to use Chekov's, er, William's Gun? It was literally sitting right there!
Hers appears much less serious but yet still in need of player interaction... 
).