Parnell nodded.
“Then how do we manage the transition, and what do we do about Hawking, Sounder, and their cronies, Ms. Peters?”
“Do you know anything about the Catalonian Secession, Sire? That was actually a pretty good plan Sector Governor Gallegos had. So we’ll play the old switcheroo. I’ll coach you for your conversation with Mr. Goulet as well. As for the Five Musketeers, the solution there should be obvious to you.”
Parnell nodded.
“Indeed it is, Ms. Peters.”
“Good. Mr. Goulet doesn’t have the stomach for it.”
“Then he can’t be Emperor,” Gulliver said. “Quod erat demonstrandum.”
“Indeed, Mr. Gulliver,” Peters said. “At this point even Mr. Goulet knows it. And he’s honest enough to admit it to himself.”
“So you’re clear about the conversation you need to have with Mr. Goulet, Marie?”
“Yes, Amanda. It makes perfect sense to me,” Bouchard said.
“Good. Now let’s work on your avatar. You have your senator avatar, right?”
“Yes.”
“Switch to that, please.”
Bouchard was currently in informal civilian clothes. She switched avatars to her senator avatar, in a business suit like those she wore to sessions of the legislature.
“Excellent. Now make a copy of that avatar we can work on, and give me edit permissions.”
Bouchard’s avatar shimmered for a split-second as she switched to the copy.
“All right, Amanda. I’m all set.”
“Stand up, Marie. It works better if you’re standing up.”
Bouchard stood up and Amanda went to work on her avatar. There were various editing tools for VR avatars, and, of course, Peters had the best software available. She usually did this sort of editing on herself in the mirror, and it was easier to do it on someone else. First she selected the dress she wore to Bobby’s first coronation – the thin one you could almost see through in any kind of strong light – and substituted it for Bouchard’s business suit. The editing software kept Bouchard’s figure, used Peters’s dress, and adjusted the dress to Bouchard’s sizing, all in one step.
“Well, that’s a big difference, right there,” Peters said.
Peters selected her hair from her and Bobby’s wedding, which she thought was done slightly better than that for either coronation, and applied it to Bouchard’s head. The editing software inquired as to which color was desired, Peters’s brown or Bouchard’s black, and Peters selected Bouchard’s hair color. Bouchard now stood in the white satin gown and her hair up, entwined with multi-colored roses.
“OK. Good,” Peters said.
She looked Bouchard up and down. Bouchard was still wearing the sensible business flats of her senator persona.
“Marie, do you have an avatar with bare feet?” Peters asked.
“No, but I have one with open sandals.”
“Can you save this avatar, then open that one for me so I can grab that part?”
“Sure.”
Bouchard’s avatar switched to one of her in picnic garb. Like any public figure, Bouchard had multiple avatars suitable for any occasion. Peter grabbed the feet with the editing software.
“All right, Marie, now switch back.”
Bouchard switched back to the gowned avatar-in-progress, and Peters applied the copied feet, then used the editing program to remove the sandals and fill in the gaps.
“All right, that’s good. Now one last touch.”
Peters went back into her library of avatars and selected the jeweled plastron necklace of the Empress. She turned back to Bouchard and applied the necklace to the new avatar.
“Excellent. That’s it, I think.”
Peters looked Bouchard up and down. No, not quite.
Peters opened the makeup kit that came with the editing software, selected Bouchard’s coloring, and scrolled through a sea of faces. There. No, that was no good. Here. This one. Yes, that’s it. Peters selected the makeup effect and applied it to Bouchard.
And, all of a sudden, Bouchard was the Empress of all humanity, the Empress of the Galactic Empire. It was perfect, and she was breathtaking.
“Are you done? Can I see?”
They were in channel 20, the plain white room with two leather club chairs Bobby had used for meetings with heads of state. Peters thought this room was the most divorced from any reality, and would give Bouchard advantage for her conversation with Goulet. Putting her in a more plebeian or everyday setting would dull the full effect.
Peters flipped through room options and selected a floor-length mirror, and applied it to the wall. She waved Bouchard over to consider herself in the mirror.
Bouchard moved in front of the mirror and caught her breath.
“Oh my God. Is that me?”
“It is who you will be, Marie. The Empress of the Galactic Empire.”
Bouchard was every inch the Empress. The makeup, the necklace, the gown did nothing to detract from her beauty. Instead they amped it up until she was an almost mythical ideal, an unattainable perfection, the very embodiment of beauty and power.
“I feel like I have to be careful in this avatar, Amanda,” Bouchard said. “As if, if I waved my hand wrong, planets would shatter and the stars themselves would be displaced.”
“That’s not far from the truth of it, Marie. His Majesty already knows this. Measure your words carefully, as they will have impact far beyond what you can yet imagine.”
Amanda waved to the chairs.
“Have a seat now, and let’s practice.”
Bouchard sat in the leather club chair, and, as she sat, Peters fiddled with the chair.
“Oh, goodness. It’s moving underneath me.”
“Yes, Marie. I want to get exactly the right posture. There. That’s it. Now, put your arms down on the arms of the chair, with your fingers bent over the front of the arms.”
Peters adjusted the arms of the chair to get Bouchard’s hands just right.
“There. OK. I’m going to save this to the channel so anytime you sit in any chair on this channel, it sets up in this position.”
Peters fiddled the channel settings.
“Now, let’s practice that ending, and get the transition just right.”
Goulet And Bouchard
“Be seated, Ms. Peters. You requested this meeting. Proceed.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. I’ve found someone who can address the historical issues for you. How you will be looked at by history if we proceed along the lines we’ve discussed.”
“Really, Ms. Peters.”
“Yes, Sire. She has her doctorate in history, and is already accomplished despite her youth. I think it would be beneficial to speak with her about this issue.”
“What is her name, Ms. Peters?”
“I would rather not say, Sire. It would give away a great deal more than I am prepared to at the moment. Suffice it to say she received her PhD in history from an Imperial University and let’s leave it at that.”
Goulet sighed. Still, he did have an interest in how history might view him. He was beginning to think that went with the territory of being Emperor.
“Very well, Ms. Peters. If you would, set that up for me.”
“Of course, Sire.”
Goulet logged into channel 20 at the appointed time. It was a bare, off-white room, with two leather club chairs facing each other at the center of the room. Standing in front of one of them was a very attractive young woman, whom Goulet estimated to be approximately thirty years old. She was dressed in an expensive business suit more well-suited to a politician than a university professor.
“Hello, Your Majesty. Thank you for coming. My name – as much as I’m willing to give at the moment – is Marie.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Marie. Be seated.”
Goulet sat, after which Bouchard sat.
“Proceed,” Goulet said.
“Yes, Sire. Amanda Peters has made me aware of the circumstances
that apply here, and has asked me to do some research on historical precedents. I have two interesting historical precedents to present to you that may illuminate things a bit.”
Goulet nodded and waved a hand.
“First I would like to ask you, Sire, Have you ever heard of either Alaric or Odoacer?”
“No, Marie, I haven’t. Not at all.”
“And have you heard of Attila the Hun, Sire?”
“Yes, of course, Marie. Everyone has heard of Attila the Hun.”
Bouchard nodded.
“Just so, Sire. So let me describe things in the late Western Roman Empire in the fifth century just a bit. Rome fell and was sacked multiple times during this period. The first of those was in 410 AD, when Rome was sacked by the Goths under the Gothic King Alaric I. That was the very first time Rome was sacked, yet you have never heard of this fellow Alaric, who was the king of the tribe that sacked Rome for the very first time.
“The fall of the Western Roman Empire is usually dated to 476 AD. In that year, a Gothic Roman general named Odoacer led a revolt of foreign-born Roman soldiers in Italy that deposed the Western Roman Emperor and made Odoacer King of Italy. Yet you have never heard of this fellow Odoacer, who finally brought down the Roman Empire.
“I dare say you are not alone in not knowing about either of these two people. Yet you – and just about everyone else – know of Attila the Hun. So what could Attila the Hun have possibly done to gain such notoriety, when the fellow who first sacked Rome and the fellow who later brought down the Empire are not remembered?
“Attila was also a king, King Attila I of the Hunnic Empire. He and his soldiers in 452 AD attacked northern Italy. They were about to sweep down the Italian peninsula and sack Rome. Now this was more than forty years after Rome was sacked the first time, under Alaric, and still twenty-four years before the fall of the Western Roman Empire under Odoacer.
“The Roman Emperor sent three envoys to Attila, the last of which was the Bishop of Rome, Leo I. Pope Leo made Attila a simple proposition. Don’t be just another tribal king who raided Italy and sacked Rome; be remembered to history as the tribal king who didn’t.
“Attila had other considerations, too. There had been famine in Italy in the year 451, and 452 was not much better, so getting rations for Attila’s men would be hard. There is also some indication that disease and starvation were problems affecting Attila’s armies. Yet the first two envoys did not secure peace, where Pope Leo did.
“And so Attila retired from Italy and, with his armies, returned to the center of the Hunnic Kingdom, the Great Hungarian Plain of Eastern Europe. And now, five thousand years later, you know his name – everyone knows his name – and Alaric and Odoacer are long forgotten.
“Most telling, among the one-point-four-quadrillion human beings in the Galactic Empire, there are billions of people named Attila, but I did not find a single instance of anyone named Alaric or Odoacer.
“We remember Attila because he did the unexpected thing, the magnanimous thing. He proved himself a larger figure than his circumstances. And history remembers him for it.”
“Interesting. You said you had another precedent, Marie?”
“Yes, Sire. In many ways, an even more compelling one. Have you ever heard of Lord Halifax?”
“No, Marie. I don’t recall that name.”
“Have you ever heard of Winston Churchill, Sire?”
“Of course, Marie. He’s the fellow who rallied the English-speaking countries, together with Russia, to defeat the rise of national socialism in the second half of the Great War in the twentieth century.”
“That is correct, Sire, but Winston Churchill almost did not become the Prime Minister of Britain at the critical time.”
“He didn’t?”
“No, Sire. The British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had misjudged his ability to maintain peace as the German Chancellor Hitler prepared for war. When war did break out, Chamberlain was forced to resign as prime minister. His party still held the majority in the British Parliament, and was therefore the party from which the prime minister would come, but he himself stepped down.
“One thing affecting the situation was the speed of Germany’s victories in the opening stages of the war. By the time Chamberlain resigned on May 10 of 1940 AD, in only nine months Germany had conquered Poland, Denmark, and Luxembourg, and had invaded and was in the process of conquering Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, and France.
“It was widely thought in influential circles in Britain, including the king and the foreign minister, that Britain would have to come to some accommodation with the national socialists in Germany, essentially becoming a vassal-state of Germany. Chamberlain at the time of his resignation favored his foreign minister, Lord Halifax, to succeed him as prime minister.
“But Halifax did not want to preside over the surrender and decline of the British Empire. He thought that some appeasement and accommodation with Germany was inevitable, and he did not want to preside over it. He stepped aside, and Chamberlain recommended his second choice for prime minister, Winston Churchill, to the king.”
“But Winston Churchill made no accommodation with the German national socialists, Marie. He fought them and defeated them.”
“That’s correct, Sire. Lord Halifax could not see a way to defeat the national socialists, and stepped aside rather than preside over the decline of the British Empire, which opened the door to Winston Churchill to become one of the greatest political leaders in human history.”
“Ah, I see, Marie. Although I cannot see a way to rule the Empire with, say, the skill and success of Emperor Trajan, I could step out of the way and open the door to a more capable successor rather than preside over the decline of the Empire.”
“Exactly correct, Sire.”
“That’s all well and good, Marie, but there are no guarantees that’s how the history will be written. You and I both know there are histories written all up and down and left and right about anything that happens. We have no way to predict how history will judge my actions.”
“Ah, but we do, Sire. I have my PhD in history, and I will write the authoritative history of the succession crisis.”
“Without offense, Marie, there are a lot of people with doctorates in history. Many, perhaps most, will not agree with you.”
“Yes, Sire, but in addition to having the PhD in history, I have also become the wife and life partner of Daniel Whittier Parnell. So I have one more question for you.”
As Goulet watched, Bouchard’s avatar morphed from a very attractive young woman in a business suit to an almost absurdly beautiful woman in the white robe and flowered hair favored by the young Empress Amanda, barefoot and wearing the crown jewels of Sintar across her breast. She sat in the leather club chair as if it were a throne, her head held high, her arms along its arms, her fingers loosely hooked over the ends.
Beautiful to the point of heartache and terrible to behold, she radiated power. Some deep inner part of Goulet wanted to slink away from her critical gaze, to flee from her judgment of him.
Her voice dropped an octave, and she became imperious.
“Who dares gainsay the Empress of the Galactic Empire?”
Bouchard let the effect hang in the air for five seconds, then switched back to her understated business attire. Goulet felt a wave of relief as the apparition passed, the relief of someone who has escaped some terrible fate at the last moment.
“I think my history will be the authoritative one, Sire.”
“Be seated, Ms. Peters.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“Your historian Marie is quite something. Is she really the wife of Daniel Parnell?”
“They’re a bonded pair, Sire. I don’t know if they’ve done anything as formal as a ceremony.”
“No matter. Same thing. Surely some of that stagecraft was your doing, Ms. Peters.”
“No, Sire.”
He raised an eyebrow and she continued.
“All of it was. Sti
ll, it’s something she can call up now at need.”
“Is that her natural appearance, or did you enhance her avatar, Ms. Peters?”
“Nothing but makeup, Sire. Marie is a stunning beauty.”
“Indeed. She could have been a great actress, Ms. Peters.”
“She became a politician instead, Sire. Same difference.”
Goulet snorted.
“And she does have her doctorate in history?”
“Oh, yes, Sire. In history and government. She is remarkably well prepared for her role.”
“Well, that’s another advantage that Mr. Parnell has that I do not, Ms. Peters. Even when Madeline was alive, even when young, she couldn’t project a presence like that.”
Peters nodded.
“She’ll make a great Empress, Sire.”
“No doubt. So. What’s next on your list, Ms. Peters?”
She raised an eyebrow, and Goulet continued.
“Come now, Ms. Peters. Surely you’re working from a list.”
“Yes, Sire. I think next is that you speak with Mr. Parnell. About how things proceed from here.”
Goulet nodded.
“That makes sense to me, Ms. Peters. Can you set that up for us both?”
“Yes, Sire. If I might make one suggestion.”
“Of course, Ms. Peters.”
“It is probably best, both for the long term and the short term, that you address each other as Mr. Parnell and Mr. Goulet. Any other titles would, I think, get in the way, either now or later.”
Goulet took a minute to think about it, looking at her. Peters shrugged.
“I think you’re right, Ms. Peters. Very well. Let Mr. Parnell know that as well if you would.”
“Yes, Sire.”
Goulet And Parnell
Their avatars both wore simple business suits. No uniforms, no insignia, no decorations. They met in channel 20.
“Mr. Parnell, it’s good to meet you.”
“And you, Mr. Goulet. Shall we be seated?”
Goulet nodded and they both sat in the leather club chairs.
“So, Mr. Parnell. Here we are.”
EMPIRE: Succession Page 15
