"Our brother Roben is in the way too," my sister reminded me.
"We don't need to touch Roben yet. He is still fairly loyal, which is very important when you’re surrounded by nothing but enemies."
My sister went silent for a minute, then nodded and said distinctly:
"Very well, brother. Do what you need to, I will not interfere in your plans. My fleet will remain neutral in this war, no matter how much Duke Avalle rages. And as for paying me, I was paid in advance a long time ago."
The screen went out and I rubbed my sweat-covered temples in thought. So that's what it was! It turned out that my sister and I had long ago concluded an agreement, and I was to help Violetta remove all other pretenders to the Orange House throne and become Duchess. That was why she had agreed so readily to help me get Duke Paolo out of the way the last time. My sister thought I was coming through with our agreement.
The next in my list of contacts was Svetlana ton Mesfelle, the brave warrior and Perimeter Sector Nine Fleet Commander. Our conversation was long and not at all simple, though I could hardly have expected anything else, given that she was the current Orange House Head's niece. But, in the end, I did achieve what I wanted. The Sector Nine Fleet would also not be taking part in the war.
"Georg, I truly value your frankness and help in the past, but don't misunderstand me. I cannot go against my uncle. He is still the person who got me this post as fleet commander. Your state does not border on Sector Nine, so though I may make threats, curse you out, and express all kinds of moral support to the Orange House, at the end of the day my fleet will remain in Sector Nine, destined to be nothing but an observer in the internal conflict. If, at any point, fate should see fit to give our territories a shared border, we'll have to revisit this conversation."
I had approximately the same conversation with Marat ton Mesfelle, Perimeter Sector Seven Fleet Commander. After hearing out the new information carefully, Marat began to laugh:
"Georg, why do you care what I think here? After all, I studied your methods quite thoroughly and cannot possibly believe that you didn't first make sure to cut off the only path between Sectors Seven and Eight!"
"Oh, I made perfectly sure of it, naturally," I admitted. "Twenty minutes from now, the Tialla and Forepost-11 stations will be under my control, and the warp beacons will be turned off at once."
"You see, then, Georg! Duke Avalle will soon order the warp beacons in Sector Seven turned off, and our fleets will never meet on the battlefield. Although... If your new government is able to survive the next few months, I'll think about your offer of joining together. In my heart of hearts, I will be completely on your side, Georg. Good luck!"
I was not able to call my brother. Crown Prince Roben royl Inoky's secretary told me that my older brother had been "doing lots of technical work and was very tired." It was a huge pity that Roben had decided to go on a bender at such a bad time. There was a storm of activity brewing all around the Tesse system, but my brother had removed himself from the list of politically active players.
Now that I had some time before my speech, I decided to get in touch with the Head of the Purple House, Duke Takuro royl Andor at the last moment to warn him as well. In the past, the old man was fairly kind-hearted toward me, so he had earned good faith on my part. And, it must be said that the spontaneous decision I made turned out to have been uncommonly beneficial. The Duke heard me out carefully and replied thoughtfully:
"Georg, you've proven yourself a good boy once again. I had begun doubting your nature, but it turns out I was wrong. Know then that, while I am alive, the Purple House will not give your new government any trouble. Also, honesty for honesty, I have a very important piece of information to tell you. Four days ago, I gave the Green House my permission to take their First Fleet through Purple House territory. It is a huge armada of one thousand five hundred ships, and is currently in my Perimeter Sector Six. The fleet is being led by Crown Prince Demyen royl Amelius ton Lavaelle, first in line to the Green House throne. He has many experienced officers and admirals with him. Demyen swore to avenge the death of his two cousins Keno and Rigo, after their deaths at the hands of your bodyguard, so he will stop at nothing. In three days, the Green House First Fleet starships will enter Perimeter Sector Seven and go onward toward your capital. Insofar as I know, the head of the Orange House has already given permission for these ships to pass through his territories."
"Thank you for the warning, Duke. I think I'll be able to provide these guests with a rather warm reception!"
I opened the interface, chose the personal relations menu and sent Duke Takuro royl Andor an increase of fifteen points to the level of "friendship." Right after, his reply came in:
Standing change. Purple House (Empire) opinion of you has improved.
Present Purple House (Empire) faction opinion of you: +20 (trusting)
Just after I turned the screen off, I called Colonel Gor ton Vulf in:
"There's been a small change of plans. The assault groups headed for the warp beacons in Parn, the Closed Laboratories and Forepost-31 are to capture the beacons, but not reveal their presence in any way. We need the whole Empire to keep thinking that these systems are under Orange House control, as before. I want to prepare a little surprise for a group of uninvited guests."
* * *
I wasn't worried at all. Over the last few days, all the details of my upcoming speech had been thoroughly analyzed and polished by a whole team of camera men, directors and psychologists. That was why, just as in the script, I gave an emotional telling before the cameras of the monstrous injustice being wrought at the hands of the Orange House. Corruption, greed, unjust allotting of military trophies, surveillance against war heroes and their families, and shadowy games behind the curtain had long been the hallmarks of Orange House power. And to top it all off, the Head of the Orange House was simply personally unfit for his job. Those were the main accusations I made. I didn't leave out the Orange House Head's son’s treason either. As a commander, appointed personally by Duke Avalle, he had led a fleet of five hundred starships to certain death, but himself surrendered without a fight. As a result, the Aliens had captured not only a valuable combat ship, but also obtained access to secret human communication systems, signal encoding algorithms, military maps, coordinates to docks and military bases, and officer rolls, both from the Joint Chiefs and the Orange House...
At the end, the viewer was mentally prepared for the official message stating that the Unatari State would be leaving the Orange House:
Attention! The Unatari State has come into being
The Orange House has lost sovereignty over the Unatari system
The Unatari State has gained sovereignty over the Unatari system
The Orange House has lost sovereignty over the Hnelle system
The Unatari State has gained sovereignty over the Hnelle system
The Orange House has lost sovereignty over the Sigur system
The Unatari State has gained sovereignty over the Sigur system
The Orange House has lost sovereignty over the Sss system
The Unatari State has gained sovereignty over the Sss system
...
All at once, fifteen star systems left the Orange House and formed the brand new Unatari State! The viewers saw the long list of separatist systems on their screens. Those with surgical implants saw the same messages in their internal interface systems. Before the viewer's shock at what had happened passed, I said that the Unatari State would remain in the Empire and was as unflinchingly loyal to the Emperor as ever.
I declared that I myself would be ruler of this newly-formed government, which made my personal information change immediately to read:
Georg royl Inoky ton Mesfelle, Crown Prince of the Empire, Ruler of Unatari
My legal wife Miya Mesfelle also instantly received the title Queen of Unatari Miya royl Mesfelle, though this title did not confer any additional powers. After all the inconsistencies in Miya's stori
es, I had no trust left for my wife, which is why I removed the Queen from any potential leadership role, as well as all other claims to power.
Also, I officially recognized all three of my children as having equal rights and declared that rulership of this government would pass via primogeniture. That made it so Crown Princess Likanna and Crown Princess Deianna received, in addition to their current titles, the title Princess of Unatari, and the month-old boy Georg Mesfelle became Prince Georg royl Georg ton Mesfelle-Unatari or simply Prince Georg royl Unatari.
In light of their all being underage, the three also received official guardians. For Crown Princess Likanna, I named her grandfather, the ruler of the Kingdom of Fastel, King Valesy royl Pir ton Fastel. That also gave him an advisory vote in the Unatari State and the right to manage his granddaughter's property (only with my prior approval, naturally). For Crown Princess Deia, I appointed her mother, Queen Miya as guardian. And Prince Georg's guardian was set as my former favorite, Princess Astra, who also received the title Princess of Unatari and was made fourth in line to its throne after my own children.
My cousin, Katerina ton Mesfelle was created Duchess Katerina royl Unatari, and her husband Corwin became a freshly-appointed Duke. As for other aristocrats in the new state, the issue remained open, but my cousin and I had more or less already completed the list of people who would be made part of my new official register.
Finally, after announcing the aristocratic titles, I told them the structure of the Unatari government. Katerina royl Unatari was appointed to the position of Minister of Communications for the Unatari State. Colonel Gor ton Vulf became Minister of the Military. Admiral Mike ton Akad became Space Military Chief, putting him in charge not just of the headquarters of Joan the Fatty, but also the many talented captains in my fleet. Bionica (unheard of for an android!) was officially appointed Minister of Economy for the Unatari State, retaining her position as my assistant and translator as well. Popori de Cacha became head of the whole Unatari Security Service and was given very broad authority.
Behind the stream of new appointments, many viewers didn't notice the popup message stating that all androids in Unatari State space were to be freed from paying commission on their wages to their manufacturing companies, and from here on, would be paying only taxes to the government, equal to those paid by living people. And it should be said that Bionica assured me this was the most important piece of news, making working in Unatari very attractive to all robots. Oh well, we'll see. Meanwhile, according to Paul ton Akad's data, there were already over six million androids of various models in the systems under control of my new government. The overwhelming majority of them had arrived in the last few days, coming in as freight shipments. I was informed that the Tialla freight warehouses were overflowing with containers, all packed to the brim with androids. This number of workers allowed us to fully handle all existing labor shortages in the new government and think up massive new infrastructure projects.
Finally, I told the viewers the principles the Unatari State would be built on. As part of the Empire, Unatari would unconditionally agree to all allied and military obligations, guaranteeing their support to the Emperor in any external conflicts. That meant Unatari was joining the war with the Aliens from its first day of existence and guaranteeing its support to all forces at war with the Aliens. I officially confirmed that the Unatari fleet was prepared to aid the Red House, given the extremely difficult position they found themselves in after the recent Alien breakthrough on their front, resulting in the loss of two thirds of Red House territory.
But the Red House was far away, and my promises were nothing but fanciful words for now. There was no shared border, and it looked like getting any starships from Unatari to the more problematic Perimeter Sector Fourteen would be a very substantive mission. What was much more pressing to my new government were its relations with the Orange House. I laid down the groundwork right away. While Duke Avalle royl Anjer, who had blackened his own name so forcefully, remained in power, there was no discussion on good neighborly relations to be had. I named the conditions I thought would allow us to coexist: a change in Orange House leadership and a compensation payment to the Unatari State in the amount of one billion credits for their illegal profiting from the Tivalle system.
The Swarm, another neighbor of the new government, was given a guarantee that all agreements previously concluded with Crown Prince Georg would be maintained. I also offered, if necessary, aid in liberating alien-captured systems.
* * *
"It was a good speech. Very respectable. You gave an exhaustive account, and a well-reasoned explanation. The viewers must have liked it," my cousin commended me as I was already resting in my seat, taking small sips of the hot "coffee" brought in by Bionica.
On the table before me, there was another identical mug full of the aromatic beverage as well. Ayna and Bionica had no way of determining who was supposed to bring it in for the Crown Prince, so the girls had brought me two mugs at the same time, shooting one another looks as they did so.
I smiled to my cousin and said:
"I'm still getting relations change messages and letters almost constantly from all kinds of factions and people. I have over forty thousand unread messages already."
"Same here," Katerina said. "I don't even want to deal with them yet. The stream of incoming messages has to die down a bit first. But, at the end of the day, my fame is growing, and my standing is falling, though not by much, which is quite surprising."
My characteristics were basically the same. My fame had already grown to +50, but my standing was hovering around -40, periodically rising and falling again afterward.
WAR! The Orange House has declared war on the Unatari State
Based on how my cousin shuddered, she got the same message as well.
"Your Majesty, incoming call from the Orange House Capital!" The communications officer that appeared in the doorway was the first person to call me by my new title.
"Duke Avalle royl Anjer has finally come to his senses after my speech! It looks like he wants to give the appropriate reply," I laughed. I wasn't able to give my permission for the call though, as Flora's alarmed voice rang out in my head:
"Crown Prince, do not answer the call under any circumstances! It isn't Duke Avalle at all, but his Truth Seeker Marian Sabati! And I sense that she is not alone! There's a bunch of psionics there, and the Orange House has gathered them together there for a focused attack. They intend to murder you!"
Ah then! My rage began boiling over. Well, he started it, so it's his fault! The solution came to mind immediately. All the Orange House's Truth Seekers were concentrated there for an attack, so there would be no one covering the Duke... Moreover, the Duke was probably off somewhere by himself, so it would be more believable when he later claims not to have known about the attack.
"Bring the Arite here at once!" I demanded.
I ordered my communications officer to politely ask the caller to stay on the line for a bit. For example, tell him that Crown Prince Georg was changing clothes and would be there in three or four minutes.
The Arite materialized before me thirty seconds later in the form of redheaded Bionica.
"Take my appearance, go into my office, and answer the Orange House's call a few minutes from now. If they try to kill you, just leave. Melt into a cloud, like you do."
Pseudo-Bionica didn't ask any questions, switching into the form of a fat, awkward man in a dark blue military uniform as it walked. Lord, I hope I don't really look like that! What a horrific sight! I would have to add an hour of swimming every day to my exercise regimen. Nope! I simply cannot bear looking at such a pear-shaped me!
"So, now I want you to arrange another, separate line of communication. Ask that I be connected with the Head of the Orange House, but don't tell them Crown Prince Georg wants to talk, say that it's 'one of his bodyguards.' Camera on my Truth Seeker!"
"Flora, you know what to do!"
"Yes, Crown Princ
e Georg. Miya taught me the proper way to kill people."
Katerina then opened her mouth, demanding explanations for my actions, but I put my finger to her lips, calling for silence. Everyone around froze. I was looking nervously at the clock. Thirty seconds went by before a system message suddenly jumped up before my eyes:
The Head of the Orange House, Duke Avalle royl Anjer ton Mesfelle has died at age 218.
It worked! Katerina looked at me, her eyes wide in horror, only now realizing what had happened. Another two minutes later, a new message jumped in.
ATTENTION! The new head of the Orange House will be Duchess Inessa royl George ton Mesfelle (57.8% of votes)
At that moment, a white cloud flew into the room, transforming into the profoundly upset captain of Star Mutt. The graying captain, with an old man's groan, flopped down into a wide armchair and said, turning to me:
"They don't like Arites very much. They tried to kill me right away. All I had to do was turn on the screen, and a whole horde of ghoulish women in dark robes started attacking me with some kind of energy. They didn't even let me greet them. It hurt, let me tell you. A lot even! Most internal organs burst, the blood in my veins boiled, and my nerve cells were destroyed. Insofar as I understand, these wounds would be fatal to a human. It's good though, that these Truth Seekers haven't interacted much with my kind, and had very little notion of how to kill one of us."
"Let me guess, it involves a vacuum cleaner?" Katerina made the obvious joke, but the Arite stiffened up for some reason.
I had to interfere to smooth it over:
"Arite, they were trying to kill me, so I must thank you. And in that their attack on me came first, no one in the Empire has the right to reproach me for fighting back! Katerina, make sure that fact is contained in the official Unatari State press release."
New Contract (Perimeter Defense Book #3) Page 14
