“Well?” the Queen shouted as she swept into the room, cape fanning out behind her as the Ladies of the Bedchamber fussed around her. “Where is my weapon?”

Arnold Schweiss quaked in his boots. The lady was so formiddable in person, far from the pure virgin Queen portrayed by the Court. It was time for the weapon to be unveiled from beneath its velvet blanket. Arnold clapped his hands four times and Will, the servant, scuttled over to the rouge-covered shape.

Will was wary of the spikes protruding from the object, picking his griping position carefully and remembering the slave boy Nkembe who impaled himself on such a spike. Will jumped as his Gloriana spoke again.

“Hurry up, you fools. I have to visit Lord Dudley in Colchester by this evening.”

Arnold jumped forward at her close to manly voice. “My Queen, I present to you what I have named the atomic bomb.”

“A bomb, you say? Like a mine?”

“More than a mine, Your Majesty. This is the Destroyer of Worlds.”

Elizabeth grinned wildly. “Adios to Spain!”