by Sam Sea
“Stupid assholes.”
It was a nightmarish bloodbath, and tens of thousands of his comrades were still being blown to pieces.
“This comes down.” Derran whispered, more than talked, although the gunfire could already be heard behind them. “Even if it means us… Let’s just bury them all, right here, right now. Let’s just bury them in their own hole.” With those words he finished his instructions, part of an infamous speech, without knowing that they were being recorded, without knowing that those words were to be later played over and over again, billions of times over, throughout the empire in centuries to come.
He fired all his plasma rockets toward the center of the dome where he was guessing that the energy supply pod must have been located. He threw in all the grenades toward it as well, but the huge engulfing inferno which suddenly exploded ate them before he could see them detonate. Men screamed, the ground shook, fires swallowed thousands. There was no place to hide.
Little did Derran know at the time that the explosion ended destroying the main nerve of the central command system of the Vazz, incapacitating all their flying droids as well as their humanoids meat grinders, and practically winning a decisive battle for the Empire in the two-year long war. The peace treaty was signed not even a week after that day.
C
hapter 2 - The Council
On the Moon Planet of Silvira…
Millenniums come and gone, and a very few of the human-made structures endure the test of time. One of those was a church of the god Warash, still firmly remaining with its massive stone columns providing support, just as they did for tens of thousands of years. Everything around it have succumbed to the power of passing time and has long been forgotten, with rolling hills and trees covering what once was a famous pilgrimage destination. During the last ten centuries, it became only one very small part of the property belonging to the House of Solan, whose estate covered hundreds of square miles. Their staff, lead by an archeologist and an ancient artifact restorer from a local university, regularly maintained it , assuring that it would remain standing for another thousands of years. The family used it only on special occasions.
Eight men covered in long black robes occupied stone posts in its once worshiping chamber. As if they had just finished some ancient ritual, they all set quietly in a circle with a dying fire in the middle providing the only light in otherwise empty, ancient shrine. Their long shadows danced nervously against the surrounding walls.
A few of them had their hoods covering their heads with their hands extended toward the fire. Others, cared not of the cold but seemed lost in their own thoughts.
“Two billion citizens killed, two planets destroyed, over a trillion of credits cost associated with the war…” One of them finally interrupted the eerie silence with his stare deeply buried among the fire-licked logs.
“The poverty percentage of the whole population increased from twenty percent to present thirty, an all time high. People have never been this poor,” the other voice added.
“Trade was interrupted, inflation ate savings, everyone suffered and will continue to do so for who knows how long.”
“We are aware of these… very worrisome numbers. For the war that was won, obviously, it came at a great cost.”
“What is really worrisome is that all current economical models and long-term projections clearly point that the government cannot continue to spend at the levels it currently does. It is just not doable. ”
“Yes, it will inevitably lead to another disaster, and another. And the demise of the current government is certain… Just a matter of time.”
“And the empire as a whole will crumble, with countless others perishing to war and famine.”
“Yes. I see it as well. The only way it is all going to end is in a new wave of really messy new wars. The hate will spread. It will never end…”
“Models show probability of such a scenario increasing if nothing is done… We may have twenty years at most before the inevitable stat to unravel.”
“Twenty years only? What can we do in such a short time?”
“Twenty years at most.”
“The emperor should not have been so lenient on the rebels…”
“To be perfectly fair, one can argue both sides-“
“But that peace treaty, the deals they got! Some would say that they were not punished at all. Some would say they were rewarded as if they won the war. It’s just asking for another system to rebel!”
“That’s not true. They are forbidden and prevented from using any robotics now.”
One of them stood up, seeing the argument developing, and with hands showing them to settle down, took the main word. “There is nothing we can do about that…That was emperor’s decision, and that is done.”
Another of them stood up in frustration. “But what do we do? We can’t reduce our expenditures now with the level of unemployment, the starvation? That would create even more social unrest and misery. We can’t cut budget now?!”
“I thought a lot about this...” the soothing voice of a man holding a cup of still steaming tea made the man take a seat again. “…during the war and after. I tried putting in a lot of different factors… And the only solution I find is by introducing new types of measures, the ones that we have never resorted to before. It is not only that we need to do major reform. We need to restore people’s faith in the future of the empire.
“I am not only talking about the economical revival that should ultimately lead to the increasing of the purchasing power of our citizens. That may not be enough.”
“You are right. We need to give people hope and show them they can count on us being fair, being in their service…”
“But the government cannot serve as an institution of offering employment. The bureaucracy is already the multiples of what should be.”
“Yes, we know…we all accept that. We all have been schooled in the mechanics of Economics. We all know what that means.”
“So then it is not surprising that the new legitimate business start-ups are recording all time lows, black markets are flourishing, tax receipts are down and decreasing, lawmakers are screaming for tax rates to go up, scaring people even further.”
“It’s all due to ignorance and corruption. The corruption we have in the system is just outrageous.”
"You are right; a lot of it is due to the problem with corruption. It limits and prevents new investments and competition, prevents new blood to rush through the economy creating new jobs.”
“The only thing corruption creates is distrust.”
“And anger…there is only so much that people can take.”
“Yes, people are not stupid… They can add things up.”
“By many measures the level of corruption today is the highest we ever had in the history of our empire.”
“So, if we do not do anything about it, I think that we all know the only way it can take us. All models show that it will cause another war, just like it did this one."
"Well, to be exact, the reason for this war was that those rebel planets didn't want to break away from their use of humanoids in their society, everyday life, even when the emperor clearly outlawed it all-”
"Yes, but that was outlawed over fifty years ago! If not for the corruption, and paying off the local police and the emperor's representative, they would never have a chance to build such powerful robots, and continue perfecting it until they had an army that almost cost us all our lives and everything we built in the past."
"You are right about that...The corruption is one of the things we really need to worry about."
"If we weed it out, our tax revenues will increase... Investments will increase. We know that to be true.”
“Yes, economy will bloom again, and people will be happy.”
"Yeah, but how do you stem corruption? People are just too eager to disobey emperor's laws."
"You have to look at it from their point of view. There are number of reason
s why somebody decides to break the law. Maybe they think they will not be caught. Maybe they do not consider it fair and tolerable, I mean, we have so much regulation that I bet if someone was to examine any one of us, any one of us..." The man pointed finger at each one of them, "They would be able to find something wrong with what we do, some law we ourselves violate."
Some of them nodded their heads, some didn't, but none of the eight men dared and cared to comment it.
"It is just too much, too difficult, too complicated."
"Yes, I think all of us are aware of that...I can even second that with a psycho-mathematical models pointing how, most of the time, simple solutions are almost always better than the complex ones."
"Yes, many of us who are in business are aware how difficult it is to do anything... But we do not say anything. Why? Because stiff regulations keep the cost of entering into our business high enough so that no new players and new competition emerges. It is simple and known for as long as there is universe. Yet, we still support such system.”
"We have to scrap all that regulations, give people more freedom. All the tax laws, countless business regulations... Really, the only thing they serve for is for some small government official to blackmail business owner into bribing him...We have to change that...That is the first thing."
"That would create a tide that could lift all of us. In the long term, it would help us all.”
"Give them ten laws instead of ten million..."
"And then, make sure they follow it, stick to it. And if they don't, then punish them hard."
"And who is going to do that, make them stick to it, make them be punished? Our present police? You could buy an officer for 10 credits now, and an emperor's judge...? That will cost you a 100... So I hear." The man added as he saw all eyes turn to him, staring and questioning.
"No, obviously not. We need something new, something special, something that will be difficult to infiltrate by law-breakers, criminals, something effective."
"You think we need another secret police? All secret police we ever had, throughout the history, proved to be too difficult to control, too corruptive in itself... Do I need to remind anyone of the Emperor Khan history?"
"No, I am not talking about any type of 'secret police'. I am talking about selected few, those that would report directly to us and would not be under the command of some bureaucrat or the corrupted police.
“Everything they do would not be done in secret. We want to show a complete transparence. We could make all their actions be publicized, to make them feared, to make people understand that there is a law and that they can trust it, and it’s the same law for those that are on every step of the economic and social ladder.”
“It makes sense – make an example of those that are caught. Show that nobody is above the law. Restore faith.”
“They could operate with a different set of rules, and a strict set of codes.”
"It seems you are talking about creating sort of law-enforcing executioners that would also serve as special agents...”
"So, what, no more secret contra-intelligence then?”
"Well, the one we have right now really served very little, if any. It didn't prevent any serious terrorist attack, didn't prevent the war. Yeah, I think we can seriously consider consolidating it to a more very reasonable level.”
"That would save us billions of credits each year."
"Yes, we can use the end of the war as a way to cut it in half, and then slowly, every few years, reduce it even further."
"Hum, I like that idea...I would support that."
“So will I!: Suddenly the scent of optimism weaved itself inside their voices.
“If we do this, it really may change things for better.”
"But, how do we create this 'special' police? Who would we put in it?"
"Certainly nobody from a present police force..."
"Or any other type of security units."
"You gentlemen are right. We need flesh blood for this unit. If they are to have all that power, we have to make sure that they are of impeccable character and qualities."
"We will have to train them, test them, filter them..."
"But reward them enough so that they would never fall into the traps of the bribes..."
"Paid so well that everyone would want to be in it...Give them more than enough money to take care of their families and themselves."
"We have a lot more to think about this before we approach the emperor with such a bold idea."
"It is not just about ideas... We have also to think of how to implement them, if they can be implemented in the first place."
"That is true, this is very complicated matter. We will have to do a lot of number crunching."
"But, you know what, I think he may actually like it."
"Wallic, you have a lot of good ideas. Why don't you draft most of them down?”
“We can meet again in a month’s time. I will also put some figures in the model, and see what we come out with. All of you think about what you think would be a right thing to do. Between eight of us, we can certainly come up with something brilliant. Hopefully we can go with a detailed plan in front of the emperor before his birthday"
"That gives us only sixty days?"
"Yes, we better start right away...start gathering some numbers, more information."
"Do we talk to anybody else about this...? The mister of defense might have something to say about all of-"
"No! This has to stay confined to us. This is just between the emperor and us. Otherwise, it will probably never get in front of him to begin with.”
C
hapter 3 - In front of the Emperor
The Emperor’s Estate, the Capital…
Exactly sixty days later, all eight of them were greeted by the emperor himself in one of the more private but still very colossal reception rooms, nested deeply inside the Emperor’s Palace.
The emperor, with his long white beard and thick almost connected eyebrows that seemed to purposely hide half of his eyes as he frowns, seemed older than all of them combined. Yet, his handshake was firm, and his voice deep and strong, echoing against the tall walls covered in paintings of beasts he slew, in the age long gone when beasts roamed freely and could still be slain.
"Gentlemen, I consider all eight of you some of the brightest minds and the most righteous souls thorough out the entire realm...” The emperor started with his cardinal baritone tone. They slowly set around a massive, twenty-foot long, white-washed wooden table. It seemed heavy enough that not even united force of nine of them would not be enough to move it an inch.
“That is why I asked you to come here, and come up with the plan to revitalize the empire, to help people live better, for the war we fought should never be fought again. So tell me, have you had enough time, have you done anything concerning this matter?”
“Yes, sure we have… We have outlined about twenty different policies which should revitalize the economy… You can see them here…” The screen popped in the air in the middle of the long table, and graphs of all types emerged from it.
A lot can be written about all the things that were said during the meeting. For the next three hours, the council talked to the emperor, explaining exactly what each of those graphs and diagrams represented and how they will improve the empire.
"We expect that the economy would start growing again, easily surpassing previous records of two percent growth a year. These measures would also help reduce tax dodgers and improve job markets. Unemployment would become almost a matter of the past."
Then the council started to talk about their ideas concerning the creation of a new investigative unit, informing the emperor about all their ideas concerning this matter.
"We believe that the selection process should not include any person who is presently, or has been in the past, employed by the police or the Tax Authority. We have comprised the list of over ten thousand candidates and believe that from that group, we can form
the very first working group of about twenty investigators. They are to go through the toughest screening as well as training process we can come up with. That will guarantee that only the best and the most suitable will be selected."
"I also believe that we have to change everything.” The emperor suddenly interrupted them, not moving his eyes from his hands which he placed in front of him, at the table. “You spoke in very general terms, which I have to agree with, and not just because of the science behind it. That is exactly what I wanted you to do and why I entrusted you with this task to begin with. But, I do not know yet how exactly the government would look like once you do all the changes you are talking about. And that worries me…I cannot see it…”
“You have to give me more evidence of that, and more proof that when we change things, they will work for the better. I have to see that clearly, and at present, I really do not. I want clear plan, clear tasks, clear steps, everything… I need so much more details from you before making my call, understood? In the end whatever I decide to do, let me assure you that I will hold you responsible for this program. There won’t be no excuses accepted. So do it right.”
Then he exhaleded a long breath, and as if he doubted wheather he was too tough on his advisors started to talk in a calmer, sweeter voice. "But still… your idea about creating new type of police… I find it very interesting indeed. I like to think of cutting out the middle man… It might be the best way, the only way, since your statistics on corruption seem very discouraging.
“I like the idea of giving them authority to do all three duties at the same time, to investigate, to judge, and to execute that judgment. Except, that may be too much power…And we all know what that can do to a person... So, it is not only that you select the best candidate, but that you teach them how to use that power, and guard them of never getting spoiled by that power…So, each one of their actions has to be documented and evidenced.
