Tyrant

by Richard F. Weyand

  “What about this Advisers thing? Do they even need that? Aren’t forty-two hundred people a self-advising group? Can’t they just post questions to the whole group of them to get advice?” Estevez asked.

  “So you have forty-two hundred people, and they all just run their section of the government as their own little shop?” Finley asked.

  “While consulting with the others in their group, and being able to ask advice of the rest of them on a message board. That sounds good,” Orlov said.

  “Where’s the oversight, though?” Estevez asked.

  “How about one big group – several hundred – that just keeps an eye out for trouble, and then some troubleshooting teams that investigate further if something is out of whack?” Gibson asked.

  “OK, that could work. And maybe some consulting-type groups that some department head can ask to come out and help him with problems. Something he doesn’t know how to fix,” Orlov said.

  “I like it,” Finley said.

  “Me, too,” Gibson said.

  “OK. I’ll write it up,” Estevez said.

  Jae-Seong Park saw the Karan Singh thread, and he liked Maria Estevez’s modifications. He went back to his map and set the computer to selecting groups of eight to twelve in related departments as the local groups for cross-support.

  There were four hundred and seventy-five such groups when he was finished.

  “Good morning, Mr. Markov,” Saaret said. “I was wondering how you were doing on that list of the surviving department heads.”

  “We’ve just finished that up, Mr. Saaret. Let me push it to you.”

  Saaret opened the file in VR and saw a map of the upper reaches of the government.

  “So the red boxes are all the people who are missing and presumed dead?”

  “That’s correct, Mr. Saaret. And you said the Emperor was uninterested in those who were in higher positions and simply missed out on the building collapse by being out of the building. Those few are marked in yellow. The blue is the people you want, the forty-two hundred department heads populating the first surviving layer of the bureaucracy.”

  Saaret reached over to the side in the VR and selected another setting for this display. A listing came up.

  “Ah. All the contact info, and a group address on the palace VR system. Excellent.”

  Saaret selected the third display setting. The map reappeared, but this time without the yellow and red boxes.

  “What do I have here, Mr. Markov? The blue boxes are all clustered in groups of, what, eight to eleven or twelve?”

  “That’s correct, Mr. Saaret. What we’ve started calling working groups. They’re clustered by being adjacent to each other in a functional way. Those working groups are important to one of the most innovative ways being tossed around to organize the government.”

  Saaret dropped out of VR.

  “Really. That sounds interesting, Mr. Markov. What’s the gist?”

  “What if we didn’t put any administrative bureaucracy in place at all, Mr. Saaret? Just let the forty-two hundred department heads run their departments?”

  “No reporting structure at all, Mr. Markov? How could that possibly work?”

  “Well, it couldn’t work any worse than it did with all those bureaucrats above them, Mr. Saaret.”

  “You have a point there, Mr. Markov.”

  “But we actually provide quite a bit of support and direction, Mr. Saaret, just not in the traditional way. Select the fourth display option.”

  Saaret went back into the VR display, but left the audio open to Markov. There were now several organizational bubbles above the level of the blue boxes, and the Emperor was depicted in a gold box above the bubbles.

  “So here we have several organizations that fill the gap, Mr. Saaret, without being a reporting structure per se: Oversight, Troubleshooting, Consulting, and Investigation. The Oversight group is five hundred to a thousand people who keep an eye on what is going on, maintain statistics as to activities, and surface problems. The Troubleshooting group is perhaps a hundred to two hundred people who step in to help out with problems spotted by the Oversight group. The Consulting group is perhaps two or three hundred people who are a resource to everyone, available to help out a department head when he calls on them for help. And finally, the Investigations Group is called in by Oversight when they see possible evidence of a crime being committed.”

  “And the groupings, Mr. Markov? What you called the working groups?”

  “That’s basically a group meeting when the boss isn’t there, Mr. Saaret. Adjacent department heads in the organization, operating in similar areas, get together once a week to talk out problems, coordinate with one another, and share experiences to help each other out.”

  “What’s this box off to the side, Mr. Markov? ‘Discussion’ is the label.”

  “That is a discussion board all the department heads share, Mr. Saaret. People can ask their peers for advice on how to handle certain kinds of problems, and they can offer advice on other questions that have been asked. They can also rank different answers for how good they are. And the database of past questions and answers is searchable by keyword.”

  Saaret dropped out of VR.

  “So what are the advantages of this method, Mr. Markov?”

  “As we’ve looked at it, we’ve been surprised how many advantages have turned up. One is there is no ‘up’ from those positions. There’s no brown-nosing or political scrambling or stabbing someone else to get ahead. Those forty-two hundred positions is as high as you go.

  “Second, there is no concentration of power to form a threat to the Throne. Further, the Throne will never get in the position it was with the Council, where it is impossible to remove someone without it being seen as an attack on the Council. A department head who is not working out can be removed without political consequences.

  “Third, it encourages a sense of ownership and pride. You take care of your department, it’s not just a stepping stone to higher. You can’t just do something that makes you look good today but which blows up in the medium term, knowing you won’t be in that position when the chickens come home to roost. You’re as high as you’re ever going to get, and you will still be there when those chickens show up.

  “Fourth, the Throne actually has better oversight than it did before.”

  “How is that, Mr. Markov?”

  “The only oversight the Throne had before was through the Council, Mr. Saaret, and that was not forthcoming.”

  “Ah. I see, Mr. Markov. Please, carry on.”

  “Fifth, it gets rid of a lot of the corruption by not having the layers that were the primary corruptees in the system. And the department heads know they are under the microscope directly from the Throne now. They can’t take a bribe and pay their boss a percentage to cover themselves.

  “Finally, while you could never get to this sort of system as a migration from the previous one, because of all the entrenched power centers you would be crossing, you can try this system now with very little effort. All those power centers have been rather spectacularly dis-empowered. So it takes very little effort to put this system in place on what we have now, and if you decide it isn’t working, whatever other system you come up with in the medium term can be implemented without having to fight yet a different set of entrenched power centers.

  “All we really need to do right now to implement this system is put in place the discussion system and those four bubbles, Oversight, Troubleshooting, Consulting, and Investigations.”

  Markov sat back in his chair with a satisfied look.

  “Well, I have to say, Mr. Markov, that is a most interesting proposal. It’s certainly nothing I could have come up with. And while it seems unworkable at first glance, it sidesteps a lot of the problems of our recent sad experience, especially the corruption, the political machinations, and the lack of Imperial oversight. What did the new ideas review group make of it?”

  “They’re chewing on it now, Mr. Saar
et. I would expect them to be able to refine it even further, especially if they have the business people look into it and add their bit of salt to the soup.”

  “I’ll be looking forward to seeing their proposal, Mr. Markov. Thank you for the heads up. And thank you for the contact list.”

  “No problem, Mr. Saaret.”

  Various Reactions, To Various Things

  The news of the remarkable events in the capital spread throughout the Empire nearly in real-time. Within a week, everyone had seen VR recordings of the attack on the Imperial Palace, the Throne’s counter-thrust against the Imperial Council and the Imperial Police, and the funeral of the Empress Ilithyia II.

  Both Empresses Ilithyia I and II had been wildly popular. Everyone knew someone who had been cured of some dread disease at the Empress’s order, or some bright young man or woman who, without political connections, had nevertheless secured a scholarship to an Imperial University, or had children or grandchildren who had benefitted from the new school curriculum.

  With cheaper shipping charges due to the breakup of the shipping monopolies, more and newer and better products due to the limitation of patents to their statutory lifetimes, and greater availability of investment loans and higher returns on deposits due to the ending of preferences for the Imperial Bank, the economy of the whole Empire was humming. Everyone who wanted a job could have one, and even subsistence farmers were getting better prices for their excess produce.

  The ubiquity of the Empire’s Virtual Reality systems and the real-time communications provided by the Empire’s Quantum-Entanglement network meant the people of the Empire were very much aware the Throne was the source of all the reforms that were resulting in such increased prosperity. That Ilithyia I had died so young made them sad, but the assassination of Ilithyia II made them enraged. People watched the recordings of the implosion of the Imperial Council building and the reduction of the Imperial Police Headquarters again and again with grim satisfaction.

  Local Imperial Police units on the planets kept a very low profile during this period. Repeated assurances from the Imperial Palace that local Imperial Police forces were not involved in the treasonous plot and were loyal and competent professionals kept the number of incidents between angry citizens and Imperial Police field offices to a minimum.

  The accession to the Throne of the Empress Ilithyia’s brother as the first Emperor of Sintar raised some eyebrows, but the new Emperor’s speedy dispatching of the traitors earned him credibility. People were also hopeful that, because he was the assassinated Empress’s brother, he would stick to her reforms and continue to carry forward her policies.

  Those with a bent for history nodded at the naming of the Emperor Trajan, and considered his choice of reign name a good sign. Articles on the Roman Emperor Trajan in the new school curriculum library became the most popular selection for free-read time.

  And on Travers World, Doctor Joshua Harding wore a black armband for thirty days of mourning for his erstwhile patient.

  For some people, though, the chaos on Sintar represented a potential opportunity.

  “So you think now is the time to push?” Bernardo Palomo de la Gallego asked.

  “Yes. Let’s see how far we can move the polls,” his wife, Sector Governor Renata Palomo de la Gallego, said. “We have several things we can push on. An Emperor, not an Empress. He’s her brother, and the Throne is not hereditary. Has never, in fact, been passed within a family. We’ve seen no proof the Imperial Council or the Imperial Police were involved in the assassination. No evidence his counter-attack was anything more than a fit of pique. And it was, by any measure, rather sloppy.”

  “Sloppy?”

  “He killed somewhere around ten thousand people. Don’t forget all the secretaries and assistants, accountants and clerks, cooks and dishwashers, who got caught up and killed in his counter-attack. He dropped the whole building, with thousands of people in it, when he went after the forty members of the Imperial Council. And after he bombarded the Imperial Police Headquarters from space, the Marines went in and just killed everyone left over. It was thorough, I’ll give him that. But it was sloppy.”

  “And you would have done differently?”

  “No. Not at all. I didn’t say that I would. It does, however, leave him open to criticism, which is all I care about.”

  “Do you want me to get in touch with our reporter friends, and get them working on it?”

  “Yes. For the reporters, let them just note the lack of evidence, point out the facts that the Empire has never had an Emperor, and never had the Throne pass within a family. For the editors, tell them to go at it hammer and tong. Paint this Emperor as a tyrant.”

  “All right. I’ll give them the green light, and we’ll see what happens.”

  “Make sure they understand, whatever they do, they’re not to criticize the prior Empress. She’s the next best thing to sainted at this point. They need to just pound on the Emperor. Delegitimize him.”

  “I’ll take care of it.”

  King Michael VI, hereditary ruler of the Kingdom of Estvia, was reading the news reports coming out of the Sintaran Empire with glee. He was over sixty years old, had been on the throne for twenty-some years, and was both cunning and smart.

  “Did you see this, Whitcombe? These reports out of Sintar?”

  “Yes, Sire. They’re having a bit of internal troubles, it appears.”

  “You have a gift for understatement. The Empress dead. The entire ruling council dead. The next two layers of the bureaucracy dead. An entirely new guy on the throne who has no clue what he’s doing. What a mess! Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of assholes.”

  “The new Emperor, as I understand it, is a military man, Sire.”

  “Major in infantry. Dime a dozen. And the last time he had a combat command, it was as a first lieutenant. He has just enough experience to think he knows what he’s doing, and not enough to actually know anything useful. He’s not going to listen to his experienced military people, and he’s going to get them into trouble.”

  “It sounds like something of an opportunity, Sire.”

  “Indeed it does, Whitcombe. Indeed it does. I think we should give their new, young Emperor an opportunity to screw up.”

  “A worthwhile goal, Sire.”

  “Absolutely. Here’s what I want to do. Let’s get the general staff in here and see what we can do to increase the pressure on Sintar along the border. I think we can use Wollaston as the leverage point. Get them thinking along those lines, and let’s have a meeting within a couple of days. I want to hit this guy before he has a chance to get his feet under him.”

  “Yes, Sire.”

  “We may be able to gobble up a chunk of the Empire while they’re still getting themselves sorted out. And once done, that will be really hard to undo.”

  “Very good, Sire.”

  “Did you just get a message from the Emperor?” Fred Dunlop asked.

  “Yes,” Todd Whitmore said. “And it was just what I told you. Do your job. We’re working on a new government arrangement. In the meantime, do the best job you can for your department and the Empire. Simple stuff.”

  “I suppose. I’ll be happy when there’s more direction. More oversight. I worry I’ll get myself out on a limb somehow, from not seeing the bigger picture.”

  “Well, he did tell us to rely on each other, and sent us a listing of the working groups. So we can compare notes with each other.”

  “That’ll help. So we’re going to have weekly meetings, I guess?”

  “At least until something else is put in place.”

  “OK. I guess it’s do your best and see what happens.”

  “There you go. You’ll be fine. Just think, ‘If I was the Emperor, what would I want my ships acquisition guy to do?’ I don’t think you can go wrong there.”

  “What do you think of this governance method out of the new ideas group?” Zachary Barstow asked. He was on a one-year loan from his employer, Central
Dynamics Corporation, to the Emperor’s business ideas group.

  “It’s certainly different,” Keith Urban, on loan from United Engineering Group, said. “About what you expect out of the new ideas people. A couple things I worry about, though, are budgets and projects. You know, the money has to be allocated across all these groups, and they can’t make those decisions themselves. And if you wanted to start a new project that lapped across groups, how do you tell them what you want them to work on and how do you oversee the project?”

  “So we really need a budgets function and a projects function. Can we just add that to the bubbles on the top? You know. Oversight, Troubleshooting, Consulting, Investigations, Budgets, and Projects.”

  “Sure, but now you need some way to manage those.”

  “Six organizations there. Six reports, plus the military and the palace staff, isn’t too many for Saaret and the Emperor.”

  “All right. Let’s add those functions then, and bounce it back to the review group.”

  Marsha Minton pulled up at the gate. 2632. That’s it. She had the VR token to the house, so she pushed the button in VR and the gate slid silently back. She drove through and up to the house.

  Minton specialized in listing the high-end real estate of the rich and powerful. There was a lot of action in that segment right now. This house, for example. Lord Pomeroy’s widow had decided to sell it. Minton had the impression the beach house had been his getaway, and she had never cared for it much.

  Minton had the prior listing with her, from when the Pomeroys had purchased the house fifteen years before. Six bedrooms, all with en suite baths. A servant’s quarters in a separate outbuilding. Gourmet kitchen. Large dining room. Large living room, with a loft that had a wet bar and a regulation-sized billiards table. The living room and loft had a two-story window wall looking out over the back lawn to the beach. Private dock. A very high-end property.