(Couldn't make this entirely gender-neutral. I suspect the terms do not exist in English. Although I know half a dozen ways to say one of them in various fictional universes, one of them might be the correct English form of address. As for a gender-neutral term for the person in charge of a Duchy (apart from the major-domo or seneschal or whatever who's actually running it all... idk)
[Person #1]: (VERY full of themselves, has been nothing but irritating, has no training, and has barged into a situation where they could get everyone killed and demanded to be in charge, only to be offended when Person #2 refuses) I am (longwinded recitation of titles). (More titles). (MORE titles), who are you?
[Person #2] (has been working the whole time, is stressed) Who am I? I am [His/Her/Their) Grace, (Sir/Lady/?) [Name], (Duke/Duchess/?) of the People Who Don't Give A Rat's Arse, and Knight of the Order of Go-Fuck-Yourself. And of course, although it may be of no importance and I beg your pardon, the person with the relevant training toward keeping us all alive. -- RecklessPrudence
Space. There's quite a lot of it. As you might expect, the gulfs between points of interest are vast and there's no real need for official shipping lanes beyond the confidence to be found if, say, one's ship happens to suffer a catastrophic breakdown in the middle of nowhere. Such as what has happened to the Higher Class whilst it was so desperately off-course that there was no such thing as a course to take, any more.
Oh, and it also happens to be falling towards a Brown Dwarf, a star so small that it might double as a gas giant. The coldest class of star yet discovered. Of course, none of this matters should one's vessel actually fall inside, where the temperatures are still hot enough to burn one alive whilst also crushing one to death.
A fate that awaits the Higher Class, all its crew, and Ambassador Verille. Who happens to be the one to have ordered the "intense course correction" that got the ship into trouble in the first place. All because ze was in a hurry. And now the Ambassador was impatient about the repairs. Not because of the impending doom on the Higher Class, but because ze was now late in meeting hir friends on Hitizzy.
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