Usurper

by Richard F. Weyand

  “It’s going to take some getting used to the Guardsmen being around all the time,” Dee said.

  “Not for me. Of course, when I was standing guard there was only one of them in the room.”

  “Only one of them?”

  “Of course. The other one was me.”

  “Oh, right. Still. I guess I’ll get used to it. I mean, they were always in the room when the Empress was there.”

  “They still are.”

  “That is also going to take some getting used to. Being the Empress, I mean.”

  “You’ll be good at it, Dee. You’re smart, and you’ve had a ten-year apprenticeship. Don’t doubt yourself. Second-guessing yourself is one way to fail at the job.”

  “I suppose.”

  “No suppose about it. Go with your guts. That’s what got you here.”

  Dee went into the dressing room/closet that adjoined the bathroom. At her entrance, a Guardsman walked out of the room. All her clothes had been transferred to this closet for the time being. Hmm. Dee triggered Housekeeping in the VR.

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  “Can you set a task for tomorrow for someone to contact Ms. Dora Sumner at That Cute Little Store in Imperial Park West, and ask if she could come out to the palace at her opportunity to review my wardrobe?”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “Tell them to arrange a suitable consulting fee. Don’t be stingy.”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  As she and Sean got undressed for bed, Dee asked Sean for one of his T-shirts.

  “So as not to scandalize the help, dear.”

  When they got into bed, the Guardsmen left the room.

  “Wonder of wonders. They left.”

  “They’ll be back once VR tells them we’re asleep.”

  Dee shucked off the T-shirt.

  “Well, then let’s not go to sleep right away.”

  The next morning, Dee was working in her office when Housekeeping informed her that Ms. Sumner had arrived. Perrin showed her and the head of the wardrobe department of Housekeeping into her office.

  “Ms. Sumner, Ms. Weston, be seated.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  “Ms. Sumner, we meet again.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  “Please don’t be nervous, Ms. Sumner. I’m the same person you helped outfit for an interview with the previous Empress ten years ago. Just relax. Deep breath.”

  Sumner did take a deep breath and release it.

  “Thank you, Ma’am.”

  “Ms. Sumner, thank you for coming out to the palace today. You have done a very good job outfitting me for the last ten years. And while I do have an excellent wardrobe staff under Ms. Weston, you know my tastes and sizes best. So I was hoping the two of you could work together to give my wardrobe a thorough going over.”

  “Of course, Ma’am.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  “Excellent. It just won’t do to have wardrobe elements that are past their prime or becoming shopworn. We should probably replace all my undergarments and blouses and shoes, and review my suits most carefully. Then fill out my wardrobe to perhaps twice the size it is now. I don’t want to repeat outfits as often as I did before. Does that all work?”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “Very good. Please see to it.”

  Later that first week, Lawrence Pomeroy – Lord Pomeroy, Councilor for Defense – met with George Stanier, the Chief of the Imperial Police, for dinner. They had each courted the other for their own benefit, and had ended up unlikely friends.

  “I don’t know, George. It just really irks me. The Empress is supposed to be some nice little old lady that minds her own business and puts a kindly face on the Empire while the people who know what they’re doing get on with running things. And now you have this kid. She’s twenty-seven years old. Most of the Council has been in government longer than she’s been alive. And it’s all Your Majesty this and Your Majesty that.”

  “I hear you there, Larry. That must annoy the hell out of some others on the Council, too, not just you. I mean, it’s one thing when the Empress, in sweet-little-old-lady mode, picks something nice to do for somebody, or some group. But it’s another if she decides to go messing in the gears of how the Empire works.”

  “That’s just the point, George. Exactly. And from what Saaret says, that’s probably what she’ll do.”

  “Saaret’s OK with this? I didn’t even know the Council had approved an heir.”

  “We didn’t, George. The Empress is supposed to send us the name of an heir and the Council passes on it. Twenty-five successions, and that’s always the way it’s worked. Not this time. The Empress named her successor on her deathbed, with just her aides present, and – ta-dah! – she’s the Empress.”

  “And Saaret let that go?”

  “I tried to push on him. I said now’s the time to push back, given there’s no approved heir, and have the Council name the Empress, rather than this usurper. He tore a strip off me and beat me with it.”

  “Really.”

  “Yeah. General Daggert is the head of the Imperial Guard, and Saaret says he’s the guy who decides on any contested succession. And Daggert said the Empress told him directly that this woman is her heir, and he’s good with it.”

  “Imperial Guard decides the heir, Larry? What are they gonna enforce it with? Sidearms? Good luck with that.”

  “The Imperial Guard has a reserve force. It’s called the Imperial Marines.”

  “Fuck me. OK, so Daggert can make it stick, if push comes to shove.”

  “Yeah, and Saaret said if I pushed on it, I would likely end up on the scaffold, so he didn’t suggest it.”

  “Crap.”

  “Yeah, pretty much.”

  Construction

  Dee spent the next several weeks poring over the prior Empress’s voluminous notes. Some of them were kept in the form of diary entries, keyed to specific topics. She could sort them by their topic keys and read everything on a given topic in sequence.

  She was particularly interested in the way the Empress’s thinking had evolved on the idea of a Shadow Council. She had initially thought of the Shadow Council as a research and information tool, a way to build up a team of people expert on each of the Councilors and their area of administration. This would be one of her tools for pushing the Council to further reforms.

  With the accession of people like Pomeroy and Galbraith to Council seats, however, it had looked to the prior Empress as if the Council itself were becoming more corrupt, more resistant to her efforts, and not less. In response to that, her thinking on the Shadow Council had changed. It had evolved in her mind to become more of a check on the Council, even a threat.

  The Imperial Council itself operated under an Imperial charter that was over three hundred years old. Hundreds of years of custom and usage had enshrined the Council’s powers and prerogatives. Nevertheless, the Council’s only authority or standing stemmed from an Imperial Decree.

  Which could be overturned with another Imperial Decree.

  What the Council’s response to that would be was another matter. It was not likely good. The Council held all the levers of administrative power, while the Throne held all the military power. The conflict that could result would not be pretty. The Empire itself might not survive.

  The Empire was founded on a simple principle, which itself was debatable: The best form of government – the most efficient, the most decisive, and the most likely to survive long-term – is a benevolent monarchy.

  A monarch – as opposed to a ‘first citizen’ or ‘secretary of the party’ or some other title for a common dictator – had true responsibility to go with the authority. It was their kingdom, their empire. They were personally associated with the State, and its well-being, or not, would be associated with them, personally, throughout history. There was no shirking it.

  The distinction between the level of care of a dictator and a monarch was the difference between th
e level of care of a renter and a homeowner.

  The benevolent part was always the hard part to ensure. The Sintaran Empire made a better showing than most, because the selection of the Empress was not hereditary, or by election, or by political action within any council. Each ruler selected their successor. As they, by definition, would be gone by the time that successor took the Throne, they were the only disinterested party.

  The Council had become a necessity as the Empire had grown. The Empress could not head the bureaucracy any longer. It was just too large, and things fell through the cracks. That earlier Empress had created the Council by Imperial Decree, to parse out administrative authority among the Councilors. Unlike the Empress, however, the Councilors did not ‘own’ their regimes, and, despite occasional weeding out of the worst offenders by successive Empresses, the Council and the bureaucracy it managed had grown corrupt.

  Empress Ilithyia I had increasingly pinned her hopes for a longer term solution on the Shadow Council. For it to have the desired effect, however, it would have to be a credible threat.

  “Be seated, Mr. Iverson.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty,” said Harold Iverson, the Empress’s business manager.

  “Mr. Iverson, what is the status of the plans for the Imperial Palace Annex?”

  “The plans are all complete, Ma’am. An office tower that is a mirror replica of the Imperial Council building, at the reciprocal location on the west side of the Imperial Palace. All except for the penthouse floor, that is.”

  “The illegal penthouse floor.”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “Can you walk me through the plans, Mr. Iverson?”

  “Yes, Ma’am. If you would join me in channel H127, I can show them to you.”

  Dee went into immersive VR, selected channel H127, and found herself standing in a nondescript blank room with a large display wall. Iverson was there.

  “Here are the floor-by-floor plans of the building, Ma’am, together with the same floor-by-floor of the Imperial Council building.”

  On the display wall were two floor plans, side by side. Even given the size of the display, the notations were small because of the size of the buildings.

  “This is the lobby level, Mr. Iverson?”

  “Yes, Ma’am. I propose that I go down, then up.”

  “Very well. Proceed, Mr. Iverson.”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  Iverson switched the display to a different floor.

  “Going down to the sub-basement, what we have here are the people mover stations and lower-level elevator lobby, as well as the connecting tunnels to the palace with the slidewalks. We also have the freight docks here. Those are all alike, although mirror image, for both buildings.”

  Dee looked back and forth between the two floor plans.

  “What’s this section here, Mr. Iverson? The Imperial Council building doesn’t have this section.”

  “That’s correct, Ma’am. The sub-basement of the Imperial Council building is primarily given over to static and active storage. Inventory of additional furniture, seldom-used items, inbound and outbound freight. The Annex building has all that, too, of course, but we also fit in this large cell block section at the request of the Imperial Guard.”

  “A cell block, Mr. Iverson? Isn’t there one in the palace?”

  “It’s something more than that, actually, Ma’am. The new building has a cell block, but it also has more comfortable detention rooms for Imperial Witnesses and protective custody, as well as interview rooms and some closed cells, so prisoners cannot communicate with each other. General Daggert thought the Imperial Guard could use the extra capacity. Also, there is some advantage in having two such facilities, so that different groups of detainees aren’t aware of each other. And there is currently no separate protective custody section in the palace. They are all straight cells.”

  “I see, Mr. Iverson. Carry on.”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  Iverson switched the display to a new set of plans.

  “On the next basement level is a large mechanical section for all the building support functions. HVAC, hot water, and the like. We also have all the food storage and preparation, including refrigerated and frozen lockers, and a large bakery and kitchen to support the cafeterias. This is very similar to the Imperial Council building, but we took the opportunity to bring it a bit more up to date, as well as apply some lessons learned.”

  “OK. This looks good, Mr. Iverson.”

  Iverson switched the display to a new set of plans.

  “This is the lobby level again, Ma’am. In addition to the large lobby and central courtyard, we have the security facilities here, for quick response to any threat or disturbance at ground level. These have been reviewed and approved by General Daggert. There are also offices and storage here for the building maintenance and housekeeping staff, which my people have reviewed and signed off on.”

  Dee nodded, comparing the two sets of plans.

  “I can show you the lobby, Ma’am.”

  Iverson touched the lobby in the display, and the VR channel switched to an interior 3-D rendering of the lobby. Dee looked around, then walked over to the entrance to the interior courtyard. It was a large lounging and garden space, not unlike the courtyards in the Imperial University of Sintar Residence Hall in which she, Sean, Bobby, and Cindy had lived for several years. She looked up to the ceiling ten floors above. There were windows on all the interior offices of the building, looking out into the courtyard.

  “Very nice, Mr. Iverson.”

  “Thank you, Ma’am.

  Iverson switched the display to a new set of plans, and they were back in the blank room with the display.

  “This is where the differences get interesting, Ma’am. The Imperial Council building has offices for the Councilors and their immediate reports that are rather more grandiose than we require. We took the opportunity to compress those offices while keeping the same office capacity, opening up the entire south quadrant of the building to residential space. This allows some of the staff to live in the building, much as the Residence Wing in the palace.”

  “And those are on the south side of the building, Mr. Iverson?”

  “Yes, Ma’am. The south side has the prettiest view, down the Palace Mall. It is the same view that your Imperial apartment and the guest apartments in the palace have. At the same time, we have kept the same office capacity as the Imperial Council building, though with less square footage in the offices. The Councilors offices are pretty grandiose, Ma’am.”

  Iverson touched one of the apartments on the residence side of the Annex, and the VR channel switched to an interior 3-D rendering of the apartment. It was similar to the apartments in the palace Residence Wing. She walked over to the windows and through the glass of the rendering, out onto the balcony. It was the same view down the long, open Palace Mall that she had from the Empress’s apartment in the palace, though from a lower floor and off to the west side.

  “Very well. This all looks good to me, Mr. Iverson. You are to be congratulated.”

  “Thank you, Ma’am.”

  Dee switched out of the VR channel and was seated back in her office, Iverson seated in the chair before her. He lost the vacant look of VR immersion and was back in her office as well.

  “What is the estimated time to complete the Annex, Mr. Iverson?”

  “Ten months, Ma’am. Occupancy is perhaps a year, due to all the interior fitting out to be done. Perhaps a bit sooner.”

  “So the construction is waiting for what, Mr. Iverson?”

  “Just your go-ahead, Ma’am. Say the word and we’ll get started.”

  “Very well, Mr. Iverson. You may proceed.”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “Ms. Dunham. Mr. Perrin. Be seated.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  “I gave Mr. Iverson the go-ahead on building the Palace Annex two days ago, and they’re already out there shoveling away at the excavation for the building. We
can’t let any moss grow under our feet, either. What are going to do to staff up our Shadow Council and its research staff?”

  “One thing we could do, Ma’am, is to open up the number of internships we take from IUS,” Cindy said. “That gets us some young, fresh talent without a long-term commitment, but we get a good look-see at them for a potential hire in two years when they graduate.”

  “That’s a good idea, Ms. Dunham. Mr. Perrin, discuss that with Personnel, please.”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “But that’s two years down the road for permanent hires. We have a great big building going up next door. What are we going to do to get permanent hires on board sooner?”

  “I believe that Personnel had many of the positions we had anticipated defined prior to the death of the Empress, Ma’am. Her illness got in the way of her carrying that out. Perhaps we should start listing those positions as open for hire in the various department newsletters.”

  “I would prefer we continue to hire only by invitation, Mr. Perrin. The unscrupulous are drawn to power like moths to a flame. If we post positions, we’ll be swarmed with the sort of people we don’t want. We need some way to increase our visibility into the potential hires, so we can invite only the right sort of people.”

  “Do you want me to work with Personnel on that as well, Ma’am.”

  Dee considered. Perrin’s plate was pretty full as it was. The hiring effort really needed someone to ride herd on it and push it along. Someone with energy.

  “Ms. Dunham. Is there someone in your new ideas review group who can step up into your position?”

  “Yes, Ma’am. Lin Jiahao can take the group. Joe’s been running the group whenever I’m too busy with other things for a while now.”

  “Very well, Ms. Dunham. Mr. Perrin, let’s promote Mr. Lin to head the new ideas review group. We’ll promote Ms. Dunham as well, and gather under her the new ideas group, the new ideas review group, the business savvy group, and the hiring effort. Review that with Personnel and make a recommendation for grade level and salary.”