Annales Imperii - I. Ostiia

by Ted Mayes

  “A friend talked to the people in that town,” Gallagher said, “and he said that IES was viewed as the golden goose – they had quietly done so much for the town and the county that there weren’t that many people who wanted to talk about it.”

  “I believe you found, though, that IES never took a position on any issue in the county and never discriminated in hiring. From that basis, other cities and counties indicated an interest in having an IES facility located close to them. A farmer with a feed lot asked for help in disposing of animal waste, and another division of IES was set up to deal with that.”

  “And that division was able to ‘recycle’ compost and fertilizer at low prices. And there was controversy about that division, and the same pattern of charitable contributions. Over the years there have been suggestions that those contributions were bribery.”

  “Except that those contributions were non-partisan. There were a couple of places where IES was asked to leave, and they did so.”

  Gallagher gave him a wry look. “According to my information, those locations regretted the decision almost immediately, and then found it extremely difficult to get IES to relocate in their area.”

  “Well, there were quite a few cities and counties that wanted a facility and were not quite so eager to accuse the empire of bribery and various other crimes without a shred of evidence.”

  “Soon after that, the Imperial Security Service began, and you seem to have appeared on the scene.”

  Michael shrugged. “Some of the difficulties we encountered at the first IES facility led us to think that we could help with some security problems. It only made sense to do what we could.”

  “Again, it was a non-profit that charged a small amount and made charitable contributions. It also, I understand, was of great value to police departments, and absolutely refused to take any credit for catching criminals.”

  “That was simple. Imperial Security was able to help by providing information to the police, but it was always the police who caught the criminals. There was nothing to claim credit for.”

  Gallagher looked down at some notes. “That was about the time when the difference between ‘civilians’ and ‘imperials’ was first noted. ‘Civilians’ did all sorts of non-technical jobs, were in general treated well, but knew next to nothing about what was going on. ‘Imperials’ handled all the technical matters and said virtually nothing.” He looked up to see if Michael was going to say anything. “Then the third division of IES came into existence, cleaning up Love Canal, New York before any lawsuits could be filed. The Hooker Chemical Company and the city gladly paid to have the site cleaned up. They were so pleased by the result that a large number of companies were just as happy to have toxic sites cleaned up with no legal expenses.”

  “For the next few years, there was steady growth for the Imperial businesses.” Gallagher looked up, directly at Michael. “Then we come to November, 1981, New York City.” Michael’s smile hadn’t disappeared, but it did seem to be frozen in place. “IES was setting up a facility for New York City, and apparently a crime family objected to that, and became upset when their objections were ignored. According to what I’ve been able to discover, they decided to ‘go to war’ with the empire. An Imperial was kidnapped and killed.”

  “My wife and unborn child,” Michael said. The smile was still in place, but the voice was ice cold.

  Gallagher nodded. “The next thing that happened was that the heads of the Five Families were called to a meeting by someone. By the next morning, all the members of the warring family, and all their relatives, were found slaughtered. The other four family heads were frightened almost to death and were emphatic that they knew absolutely nothing about anything.” Michael remained quiet and almost motionless.

  “Nothing developed out of the investigation. There was basically no forensic evidence, except for a spot where four men had apparently stood and watched what happened. The families were too scared and too busy trying to divide up the territory of the lost family to do anything. The city was too busy confiscating the illegal profits that the fifth family had ‘left behind.’” Gallagher paused for a moment. “Anything you wanted to say?”

  “No,” Michael replied in a toneless voice. “My memory of that time isn’t very clear – I was mourning my wife and son.”

  “During the next ten years, IES and Imperial Security went world-wide, with the same characteristics – non-profit, generous, and remarkably quiet, happy to let the various politicians take credit for whatever. However, there were reported incidents of various individuals across the world suddenly dying when they tried to take action against individual Imperials. In a little noticed event in the late ‘80’s, a new island appeared in the south Pacific and was immediately claimed by the empire. During the Gulf War, the empire joined the coalition against Iraq. About 3,000 Imperials (a much larger number than anyone expected) were placed alongside the Marines near the coast and immediately began nightly raids that terrorized the Iraqi army units.”

  “In a move that was later condemned as completely stupid, the Iraqis moved a Republican Guard unit into Kuwait to oppose the Imperial troops, and it too was terrorized by the nightly raids. When the invasion began, the Iraqis couldn't retreat or surrender fast enough, even though they were ordered to stand fast. It took only two days to liberate Kuwait, the last Iraqis surrendering to the US Marines when the Imperials started moving against them. I’m told that the US Marines were very impressed. And, even though few pictures were taken of any Imperial force, everyone seems to agree that you commanded the Imperial soldiers.” Michael still said nothing.

  “Right after that, and after a contribution to the cost of the war, rumored to be gold, and after somehow scaring the daylights out of certain important politicians, the Empire was granted extraterritorial rights over one square mile in Missouri. It was apparently considered unimportant since it was ‘fly-over’ territory. So, Ostia appeared on that square mile and here we are today. Have I missed anything so far?”

  Michael’s smile was much warmer now. “You have, of course, missed a lot of details, but I’m not going to fill those in for you.”

  “For now, there are colonies on the Moon and Mars, ‘arks’ near Earth, changes taking place on Venus, and satellites seemingly popping up everywhere in the solar system. So what’s in the future?”

  “As I’ve said before, the empire is going to concentrate on moving people to the Moon and Mars. Anything else is too far in the future for any definite statements.”

  “Is the empire making plans for the future? Do such plans include terraforming Mars and Venus?”

  “The empire is always considering future possibilities. Generally, the word ‘plan’ is used only when a decision has been made to do something. As for terraforming other planets, such a thing is definitely possible, but the emperor is of the opinion that such a decision cannot be made until the inhabitants of those planets have expressed an opinion.”

  “You mean that future Martian and Venusian colonists will have a say in that decision?”

  “It will be their ‘home’ planet. Why shouldn't they have a say?”

  “What about interstellar exploration?”

  “From what I understand, that is also a possibility, but much farther away in the future. There is still far too much to be discovered and studied about our solar system, and so, imperial efforts will remain focused close at hand for the foreseeable future.”

  “Are there plans for future arks?”

  “There are some preliminary plans. Ark 1 was an experiment, and I’m told that quite a bit was learned in the construction of it. Tentatively, the empire plans to work with zoos, national parks, and other experts in the construction of a number of habitats that would be suitable for the preservation and increase of some endangered species. Examples would be the African savanna, the Brazilian rain forests, and similar locations.”

  “What is the imperial position on politics here on Earth, politics of any and/or every
country.”

  “The position of the emperor is that those politics are none of our business. Whenever it is possible, the empire will keep a hands-off attitude towards Terra and her politics.”

  “Whenever possible?”

  “The emperor feels it is his duty to protect Latins and citizens. If steps need to be taken to do so, it will be done. Otherwise, Terra deserves the same respect that the empire plans for the inhabitants of the Moon and Mars.”

  “What lies ahead in the future for the IES and Imperial security?”

  “We plan on them continuing to do what they have done for the past 19 years.”

  “Do you know who the emperor is?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can you tell us anything more about him?”

  “I could say quite a bit, but I will not. All that is intended to be known about the emperor was published last year.”

  “Do other people know who the emperor is?”

  “Probably, and it’s my guess that others could make remarkably accurate guesses. However, it was agreed long ago that a hidden emperor was the best insurance for a polite society and a safe transfer of power. If you’re curious, I’d advise you to take or audit Politics 101 at the University. It is, as I understand it, one of the focal points of that course.”

  “Do you find it easy to be a judge?”

  “No, and I don’t know of anyone who finds it ‘easy.’ It’s one of those things, though, that has to be done if your society is going safe and ‘just.’ If you have more detailed questions about imperial law, I would refer you to the law faculty at the University.”

  “What’s in store for you in the near future, besides an upcoming marriage?”

  “Besides that? At the end of the year, I’ll have my twenty years in, I’ll turn this mess over to someone else and I’ll get to retire as a private citizen.”

  “Will we hear of you again after the end of the year?”

  “I most sincerely hope that you will never hear of me again.”

  Gallagher looked at his notes once more. “Just a few more questions, Consul. A few months ago, Al-Qaeda proclaimed jihad against the empire. Does the empire view this as a declaration of war? What has the empire been doing about this?”

  “The empire views it as a declaration of war, and, as far as we can tell, Al-Qaeda views it in the same way. As for what we’ve been doing – we’ve been defending ourselves.”

  “Can you tell me what is going to happen next?”

  “Last week a message was delivered to the leaders of Al-Qaeda. In it the emperor asserted that, contrary to their proclamation, the empire was not trying to subvert Islam, in fact the information that they were most concerned about came from Islamic sources and was not accurate to begin with. The emperor asked them to reconsider their declaration and to revoke it.”

  “Are you sure they have received the letter?”

  Michael’s grin was no longer cheerful, but more like the ‘grin’ of a hungry wolf. “Oh, yes, they got the letter, which was placed on each man’s Koran, but it isn’t clear yet that they got the message. If they do not reply by the end of the week, we will begin retaliating against those who try to attack us.”

  “What happens if they still continue in their attacks?”

  “Then we will just have to assume that they were unable to learn from the mistakes of others.”

  Gallagher swallowed nervously. He was intimidated and the Consul wasn’t even talking about him. How could Amanda…? He swallowed again and said, “That’s all the questions for now. If I think of other questions …?”

  Michael’s smile was cheerful once again. “Just get in touch with my clerk, or have Amanda give me a message.” Gallagher got up, made his goodbyes and left the residence. Michael returned to his paperwork.

  18 – April-May 1994

  Michael smiled to himself as Amanda bounced out of the residence, heading for another meeting. The dress, he thought and then shrugged, or maybe it was the cake. He was glad that he had nothing to do with all of that, though he would undoubtedly hear about it at lunch and dinner. Also, tonight was supposed to be a jazz night at Jordan's, and Amanda was dragging him there this evening. She seemed to be developing a real interest in jazz music, probably because of some of those articles she’d written. It was going to be so nice to have the wedding ceremony over and then … no, he thought. He’d learned over the years that it wasn’t a good thing, to spend time thinking about what you didn’t have, or didn’t have yet. It only made you more restless and resentful, so he’d learned to bury himself in work.

  The first item of business was who was going to do his job when he was gone. He’d actually had a lot of fun making that decision. Subject to the emperor’s veto, he’d decided that ex-praetors would be called back to service for the position of proconsul – Harrison for his honeymoon and Brecht for, hopefully, a week later on in the year, when things had calmed down. Maybe Amanda would like to go to Hawaii or Paris for a vacation.

  He was still thinking of that when Ari and Jon came in. As they began organizing the papers, Michael looked at the summaries. Fleet planned on trial flights, based out of Capitol, for the first Terra-class transport next week, first official flight two weeks after that. Squadrons 2 (Earth), 3 (Mars) and 4 (Exploration) were full strength and Squadron 5 (Venus-Mercury) was close to full strength. The plan then was to bring Squadron 1 (Emperor’s) to full strength, then taper off fabrication of Enterprise-class ships and slowly build a couple of reserve squadrons.

  The University and Fleet reported on plans for more probes (Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and their moons, various asteroids and dwarf planets, and then probes for the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud). By the time those things were accomplished it was assumed that it would be best to take a while to digest the information before making more plans. Some initial plans were being developed for the Library, and so far it was assumed that the main obstacles would be the time necessary to gather and organize the information and the storage for that information (it was assumed that the Library would have to be located at Capitol). As for the University itself, the upper levels of the theoretical sciences would be moved to Capitol first, some others (the practical sciences, medicine) might also transfer. Fleet and Marine auxiliary would continue at their present level in the student body (free tuition) and, for now, at least an equal number of peregrines would be admitted (12 aureii a year tuition) – the exact number depended on what space the University had available to house students.

  It had been decided to accept an additional class for basic. In an interesting development, Marine HQ reported that they had been asked by several different countries about the possibility of providing a ‘small group’ to take part in ‘war games’. The plan Marine HQ was suggesting was to organize a ‘Red Cohort’ that would provide men for such things – the idea was that this would provide ‘experience’ in place of actual wars (which did not seem likely to happen again), development and refinement of imperial tactics, and intelligence about the tactics of Terran nations. Michael thought it a good idea, but made a note to get Tommy’s and James’ opinion on the suggestion.

  There was a brief note from the Imperial Chaplain that a request had been received for a space to be used as a Moslem mosque. Official policy had been explained – outside groups were not allowed to have religious facilities, while groups of Latins would be provided facilities at no cost. The foreign nation who had submitted the ‘request’ temporarily withdrew it until it was ‘clear’ that a group of Latins could be identified who wanted a mosque.

  Ark 2 was being started and plans for its final geography were nearing completion. Commerce reported that the number of businesses applying to start at Capitol was slowing slightly, but the number of requests for imperial technologies was continuing to grow. Foreign reported on the growth of the various Terran moon colonies – a small, but significant, number of ‘immigrants’ to the Moon were moving on to the other colonies, especially the ‘private’ colony at Kepler. Agricult
ure and Natural Science reported that food production was rising at Capitol, including the lunar production of meat (currently pork and chicken, although there was a small experiment with beef production).

  Michael looked up when Ari handed him a thick sheaf of papers. “It’s the current intelligence and operations plans for the drug cartel that’s been attempting to smuggle drugs into the empire, Sir.”

  “Summarize for me, youngster.”

  “Yes, Sir. The Blood Alliance, at least that’s one of their names, has been the cartel trying to smuggle drugs into Ostia. A number of their mules have been turned away and messages have been sent along with the mules, requesting the cartel stop their efforts. Intelligence reports that such messages that reached the cartel have been ignored. Small groups from a street gang employed by the cartel have infiltrated Ostia, but they are under constant surveillance, and so far have done very little – one individual tried to jump an off-duty praetorian and that individual’s quick end has apparently impressed the other gang members with the need for caution.”

  “Last week a message from the Urban Praetor was ‘special’ delivered to the capo of the cartel – I believe it was in his bathroom when he got up. It was again a request to stop trying to get drugs into Ostia. The only response, I’m sad to say, was a paranoid and bloody reprisal against members of his own household who were believed to be responsible for the letter. And, the capo ordered that more effort was to be put into the smuggling attempts. Marine operations has several possible options as to how to handle the situation.”

  Michael glanced at the options on the last sheet. “And what’s your suggestion?”

  Ari took a deep breath before replying, “Sir, they’ve been asked to stop their illegal activities toward us and they haven’t. It seems to me that force is the only thing they understand, so I would recommend handing them their heads.”