Annales Imperii - I. Ostiia

by Ted Mayes

“Quite a difference between the two. What happens if the husband beats the wife?”

  “Officially, nothing. Unofficially, Marines beat the crap out of a man who beats a woman, and lady Marines have a 'discussion' with a woman who beats a man. The law college is keeping stats on the two marriages – number of disturbances or problems for each kind, that kind of stuff. If you want more information, talk to your prof.” He smiled at some secret joke.

  She asked quietly, “Do you mind if I ask what kind of marriage you had?”

  The light disappeared from his eyes and his response was a level monotone, without any emotion in his voice. “Matrimonium.”

  Okay, she thought, a real stupid question – no wonder First thinks he isn't over his dead wife. “This morning you said something about no privacy – explain, please.”

  “Built into each clerk and each imperial security system is what is called a ‘behavior recognition module’ – and please don't ask me to explain it because I can't. After a certain amount of training – and don't ask me about that, either – the units are able to identify various human activities, including things like theft and violence. The units are generally programmed to ignore some actions. For example, if a guy is sitting on the stool in the bathroom, his clerk 'sees' it but doesn't record it or take any notice of it, unless there's a medical emergency. If the guy is sitting on the stool and has a heart attack, the clerk calls the medics. Otherwise, whatever you do is always under observation by your clerk and potentially by your superiors.”

  “What about dating?” Amanda asked. “For example, take Beth and her Jon, how would they go about dating?”

  Both Michael and the First grinned. “You noticed something, too, huh?” Michael said. “How would they go about dating? Carefully, because, off the record, we try to scare the devil out of the young ones.”

  “Only the young ones?” First said, his grin getting bigger. “The way I remember it ...”

  “Okay, okay,” Michael said hurriedly. “Let's just say the emperor tries to scare the devil out of people. Dating tends to be a little more formal, at least to begin with, and a little slower. In the case of Jon and Beth, the first thing they're going to think of is what they've been told, that their officers, or even the emperor, might be watching them at any time. Their clerks will be watching to see if either of them is trying to pressure the other, which would raise red flags and attract the attention of their superior officers. Eventually, if there's something there, it will lead to one of the types of marriage, which the clerks would recognize, and which would lead to the clerks ignoring certain behaviors.”

  “How does the protection at the money pit work?”

  “Nope,” Michael shook his head, “no how questions.”

  “Okay, then a why? Assuming that someone around here has some razzle-dazzle tricks to make all these things happen – why not just share it with everyone?”

  “Have you ever heard of Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken? No? Take a look at it and then ask yourself whether it would be fair for the emperor to drag everyone down one road just because of his 'tricks'?” She looked at him uncomprehendingly. “Okay, let me use two analogies. First, you're a writer and you write a tremendous book that a movie studio wants to turn into a movie, so that you can 'share it with everyone.' In that case, what happens?”

  “There are almost always some changes to your book – sometimes big enough changes that you can't recognize the story. Got it.”

  “No matter what happens, it isn't your book anymore, is it? Someone else took it over. Consider the arms race that developed from the WWII nuclear program. And consider what life would be like if someone like Hitler had these 'razzle-dazzle tricks.' Second analogy – you come up with a foolproof plan that will make you and a few friends rich. Do you write a book that shares the secret with everyone else?”

  She thought about that for a minute. “If only a few can get rich, then probably no. You'd never get rich, even though it was your idea. But what about if not doing something hurts someone?”

  “Who has the empire hurt?”

  “Poor people?”

  Michael scoffed. “What poor people? The poor of China are China's problem, the poor of the US the responsibility of the US government, and so on. The emperor is responsible for Latins and citizens, not the whole world.”

  “But what about charity?”

  “What do you know about the charitable things the emperor has done?”

  She faltered. “I guess I don't know anything about his charity.”

  “You know only one thing – the emperor took a ragged, miserable bastard off the streets of New York and gave him a life.” Michael got up and went back to work, while Amanda couldn't think of a thing to say.

  * * * * *

  On the way out to Ostia, Beth made two calls. One was to Amanda – she told her what Molly had said about 'herself' and sent a recording of that to Samuel. She said she thought there might be a story, but, for goodness sake, talk to the boss about whether it was okay to write it. Then she called Jon to see how his first day had gone, only to find out that he sounded a little rattled. When she told him what she was doing and why, he said he wouldn't invite himself to anything, at least this time, but he really wanted to know what was going on, so if she could call him later and let him know? He did admit that he was a little freaked and sent her recordings of his two classes. She promised she would call later because she hadn't yet decided whether she'd stay the night at the apartment or not.

  By the time she got to Ostia, Molly gave her instructions on how to reach the underground garage. She followed directions, parked, put on her dress coat, and entered the undergate, which she'd never done before. She asked Molly where Mom and Dad were and was told they were sitting on the Via Emporia outside of Pietro's. She was just about to go straight topside when a thought came to mind. “Molly, how did you know where my parents were?”

  “Because you are still underage, your parents' clerk and I always exchange information on where the three of you are.”

  “Do you do that with any other clerk?” she asked hesitantly.

  “Yes, I've done that with George since the very first day,” Molly replied, “at first because of the patron-client relationship but recently because it is clear that the two of you are concerned about each other.”

  Good grief, Beth thought, did everyone know about this but me? “Molly, can you tell me where Jon is right now?”

  “Yes, he's in his apartment. George informs me that he is studying.”

  “One last question for now. Yesterday, when Jon found us shopping, did he ask George where you were?”

  “Yes, he did, Beth. There was no accident in meeting yesterday.”

  She hugged herself for a second, promising herself some time to savor that news and hurried off to the nearest elevator. She found her parents quickly and gave them hugs. “Okay, tell me what happened this morning.”

  Her Dad had sat down again after the hug and appeared to be partially dazed, so her Mom answered. “After you left for school we tried to decide when to come out here. We thought about trying to give the impression that we weren't as desperate as we felt, but we remembered some of the things you'd said about how prized honesty is, at least here. So we just decided to come as soon as we were dressed. They took our car and parked it somewhere, but we were escorted in and taken to the ...” she stumbled a little over the unfamiliar words, “... urban praetor's … office. We met the praetor, that is the man with nine stripes on his upper arm, isn't it?” When Beth nodded, her Mom continued, “and there was a man there from the praetor's legal office, and they had an offer for us. Oh, dear,” she said to her husband, “I'm starting to hyperventilate again. You tell Beth about the offer.”

  Beth turned to her Dad while grabbing her Mom's hand and trying to calm her down. Her Dad said, “Praetor Brandt said he'd been given explicit instructions by the emperor early this morning. The emperor's offer was that he would become a junior partner in our coffee ho
use business. He would help supply what start-up money was needed, we would run the business. After expenses, we would get 90% of the profits and he'd take 10%. The only requirement is kindness and consideration for the employees.” Her Dad took a deep breath. “That wasn't the end of it either. We would get to inspect a couple of places for the coffee house, although the praetor suggested we give serious consideration to the first suggested location, because he thought it was best. But we get to make the decision, and when we're ready to expand,” her Dad took another big breath, “a spot was already reserved for us on Broadway at Capitol, and 'wherever' there might be an imperial presence.”

  Her Mom broke in, “We recognized, or thought we did, the name of the street from that trip you took, up there.”

  Dad continued. “You can only imagine the whiplash we were feeling – from being unemployed at breakfast to getting that kind of offer. We were told to take as much time as we wanted to consider the offer and to ask any questions we wanted. We were given the letter of agreement with the emperor to read, a gold coin to get food or anything else we wanted, and a pamphlet on 'introductory conversational Latin.' Then the Commerce Department gave us a guided tour of the first site the emperor suggested, and the praetor was right, I don't think we could find a better location. Then, somehow, they showed us 3-dimensional displays of what the inside could look like. Apparently a university business class drew up all sorts of plans last spring about how the business should be run – and all that planning was available to us. Finally, we were told that as soon as we made a decision, the Commerce Department would begin getting everything together.”

  “By this time,” her Mom continued, “you can imagine how bewildered we were. We happened to see Mrs. Harrison go into the building across the street, so, since they were so nice as to have us over for Sunday dinner, we went over to say 'hi.' She was so kind – she listened to us babble until we'd calmed down a little. Then she advised us to wander up and down the streets and talk to the merchants and see what they had to say before we made up our minds. Then she graciously invited us to stay at their house as long as we wanted, so we wouldn't have to drive back and forth.”

  “We talked to merchants the rest of the morning,” her Dad said. “There were all sorts of people who said that business wasn't doing as well as they liked, but everyone seemed hopeful that things were starting to get better now. Even more unusual, I thought, there were all sorts of opinions about the emperor. There were even a couple of people who thought there shouldn't be an emperor – but no one knew of a single instance when the imperial authorities weren't courteous, if not downright kind and helpful. You have to run a business 'outside', as they seem to say here, to realize how unusual, no, how downright strange, that is.”

  Her parents grew quiet, as if they had run out of words. Beth was quiet herself, partly in amazement at the offer her parents had received, and partly because of a little bit of fear, realizing that she had 'caused' this by asking for a 'minor' favor. Finally she shook herself and said, “Well, did you decide yet?”

  Her Dad replied, “We talked about it for a while, and for a bit thought it was simply too good to be true. Then we were reminded of something you'd said on the day you signed up for basic. Your words were that you 'hadn't planned on any of it. But … all in all, it seems to me that we're going to have more good come from this than any alternative I can think of.' We thought those were pretty wise words, so just before lunch, we went back to the praetor's office and signed the letter of agreement. Then we went over to the Commerce Department and told them which design and decoration theme we'd agreed on. We told them what kind of coffee to order for us, from a list the students had drawn up. They said we should get back to them if there was anything else we needed.”

  Her Mom added softly, “We had a light lunch because neither of us was that hungry, and when we were done, we walked by the place and … there was already a sign over the door, saying 'Jordan's'.”

  Beth gave each of her parents another hug. “But you're still feeling bewildered, right? I know the feeling! It seems like things are just taking their own sweet time, and then the emperor says he wants something done, and it's like a lightning bolt struck right by you. Don't worry, you'll get over it and soon you'll be so busy you won't think a thing about it. By the way, why are you just sitting here right now?”

  “Because we got a message, oh, by the way, we were told to name our 'clerk' – his name is now 'Jeffrey' – and have him sync with Molly,” there were two distinct clicks that indicated that had been done, “ … anyway, Jeffrey said that we were supposed to go back to the site at 4, excuse me, at 1600.”

  “And it's a little past, so show me your new place.” Her parents led the way, a little timidly at first, almost afraid to see if everything they hoped for would actually be there. They turned onto the Via Schola and her Dad led her to the grassy, park-like area between Fleet Headquarters and the Quirinal building. At the back of the green area was a good-sized two-story building. Beth could see stacks of outdoor furniture piled around the front door.

  Her Dad pointed back the way they'd come. “The Fleet and Marine HQs are right around the corner, as well as the main gate.” He pointed down the Via Schola. “All the students at the university are down that way, and,” he pointed across the street, “the imperial theater or auditorium, whatever the official name, is almost directly across the street. Any crowds that may come out of any future shows will almost be pointed right in our direction. It's hard to imagine a better location.”

  A girl not much older than Beth came dancing up to them, wildly excited because, from what Beth could understand through all the enthusiasm, the Jordans had picked her scheme for layout and decoration and she had gotten a cash prize as a result. Now, she informed them, she was hoping to be first in line for a job, so she could see her plan at work. Her Mom and Dad glanced at each other and said they'd think about it, and would she like to check out how the place looked? The girl, Jamie, as she called herself, danced down the pathway toward the front door, followed by her smiling parents. She was about to follow when she heard Mrs. Harrison's voice behind her and turned around.

  And immediately snapped to attention without even thinking about it. 'Eight stripes!' was the first coherent thought she had, until she became aware of Jon's Mom telling her to relax and apologizing for 'scaring' her with a dress coat. She usually didn't wear it, she said, but she was meeting someone from outside and had to 'dress up.' When Beth stammered out a question about who she was meeting, Mrs. Harrison informed her: (1) that she had to meet one of the finalists for the position of conductor-director of the soon-to-exist imperial orchestra and give him a tour of the new theater, (2) that she really wasn't qualified for it, but (3) the emperor had insisted and (4) the emperor was a remarkably stubborn man.

  Mrs. Harrison saw the person she was looking for and turned away to meet him, but only after giving Beth a quick hug and telling her to remind her parents that they were welcome to spend the night. Beth was still somewhat in shock about the whole meeting with Jon's Mom when she heard Jamie speak behind her.

  “Dean Harrison is pretty cool – all the fine arts people like her. How do you know her?”

  “I went through basic training with her son.”

  “Oh, yeah, I saw him today. He's quite a hunk!” Beth turned around and suddenly Jamie had her hands up and had taken a step backward, saying “Not that I'm interested, though.”

  Beth apologized, saying she'd had a hard day, while wondering what she had done or what she had looked like to cause such a reaction. She followed Jamie towards the coffeehouse, listening to all the plans the girl had suggested. The tables were for people to sit at, obviously, after they got their coffee inside. Jamie had suggested having fresh-baked pastries and fresh sandwiches available, but Mr. Jordan probably hadn't had time to arrange that yet.

  Going inside, Beth was informed that the layout of the room had been designed not only for the swift delivery of coffee for those
who were in a hurry, but also as a place where people could gather and talk or listen to some entertainment. Jamie pointed out the different kinds of coffee machines, where the entertainment would take place, where the storage room was, the hallway that led to the back entrance, the back entrance that led to the student park, finally the stairs that led up to two apartments above the coffee shop.

  Beth climbed the stairs to the apartments where she found her parents inspecting the rooms. “That Jamie,” she said, “is the perfect person to work in a coffee house – just her being in the room ought to raise the caffeine level in everybody's cups.”

  Her Mom scoffed, “And just who is this hard-bitten veteran? You were just as bubbly and flighty this morning as you were headed off to school.”

  “I guess you got me on that, Mom. But are you and Dad going to be happy?”

  “I think so, honey. It's a scary step and no one knows what the future will bring, but the emperor's been good to you and to Becky. We certainly can't be too far off to trust him a little, especially when he's offering so much.”

  “So what do you think of this place, so far?” This time her Mom rattled on for a bit – the coffee house looked great, and they hadn't even known about the two apartments. Her parents were actually thinking about selling their house, to invest in the business and moving into one of the apartments. After a bit, Beth and her parents went downstairs and Beth was volunteer unskilled labor in helping set up the coffee house. She worked with Jamie and was pleased to find out that, once over her initial excitement, Jamie was very knowledgeable about the business and pleasant to work with. It gave Beth a lot more to think about when Jamie started sharing about her own life – and not only about her boy friend, which gave Beth a sense of relief that she would definitely think about later, but about the problems of dating in the empire. It seemed that the human custom of dating caused a great deal of confusion for clerks. Some of the episodes Jamie described were humorous and trivial, but others were serious. Beth sighed to herself – more things to think about.