EMPIRE: Renewal

by Richard F. Weyand

  “Very well, Jonah.”

  “Much better. So back to Section Six. I assume it came apart during the reigns of my predecessors, the Four Miserable Bureaucrats?”

  Ardmore chuckled.

  “Yes, Jonah.”

  “Well, I think we should start it up again. What are we going to call it. The Department of– what exactly?”

  “Just leave it there, Jonah,” Burke said. “The Department.”

  “Excellent, Gail. There, you see. You’re already a substantive contributor.”

  The three talked on into the afternoon, planning how to build the structure of a new Empire on the bones of the old.

  That evening, Burke sat on the balcony looking out over Palace Mall. All the debris of the other statuary was gone now, and the Palace Mall had been leveled and sodded. The statue of Ilithyia II once again stood proud and alone on the Mall, lit up for the night, the book of Imperial Law in her left hand, the sword of Imperial Power in her right.

  Could she really do this? Be the Empress of the Galactic Empire? It seemed such a stretch, such a huge role, with such huge consequences.

  Burke looked at the statue again. Ilithyia II had done it. Had ruled the Empire. From humble beginnings, the story went, she had ascended to the Throne when she was younger than Burke would likely be when the Emperor passed away.

  And she had been the greatest Empress of them all.

  Burke nodded. There was a path. She would not be blazing trail.

  She could do this.

  The Historian And The Marine

  Drake had given Ardmore and Burke permission to use his living room for their planning sessions together during the business day. Of course, Burke, as a captain of the Imperial Guard, had no problem accessing the Imperial Residence or taking Ardmore there. And the Emperor’s living room had the option of suspending audio surveillance.

  The big open question for both Burke and Ardmore was how well they would work together. There were no guarantees they could.

  They made an odd-looking couple. She was dark, brown-complexioned, with dark brown pupils and tightly curled hair so black it had blue highlights. He was pasty white, with glacier-blue eyes and dirty blond hair. She was tall, almost six-two, and he was almost a head shorter, at five-seven. Where she was athletic and lithe, he was stumpy and overweight.

  What they had in common, though, were a deep, abiding dedication to the Empire, a respect for each other’s abilities in their chosen field, and a rare intellectual honesty.

  “The thing about history,” Ardmore said, “is you have to approach it with an open mind. Collect the data, analyze the data, and then, maybe, you can draw some conclusions. Maybe not. What you cannot do is make your conclusions first, and only then look at the data.”

  “But who does that, Jimmy?”

  “Everyone. It’s true, Gail. They do. The biggest problem with history is confirmation bias. You see the things that agree with your worldview, and those stick out to you. You say, ‘See. That proves my point.’ Someone else looks at it from their point of view, and they see all the things that agree with their point of view, and they say, ‘See. That proves my point.’ They’re both wrong.”

  “Both wrong?”

  “Of course. History doesn’t actually prove anything, but it can be abused to prove absolutely anything at all. Depending on what preconceptions you bring to it, there is enough data in thousands of years of history to be able to ‘prove’ anything. And then people are disappointed when they turn out to be wrong.”

  “Then what use is it to study history, Jimmy? To know history? Why is it useful?”

  “Gail, what history can give you is warnings. It can show you how things can go wrong. If you said, ‘Well, I think this is the way to go, the thing to do,’ you can look back in history and find situations like yours. And maybe some of them worked out and some of them didn’t. But, for the ones that didn’t, you’ll have some warning about things to watch for. Signs that the wheels are going to come off.”

  “I see. Actually, there’s something much like that in the military. What most commanders see is what they expect to see. What experience or wishful thinking has led them to see. They don’t notice the thing missing, or the extra weird piece, the thing that shows them this isn’t the situation they thought it was. They get snookered by their own expectations or desires.”

  “That’s it, Gail. History is the same way. You have to be open to seeing what is actually there. No one is a complete hero, no one is a complete villain. Everybody is a human being, with all their human strengths and weaknesses, doing the best they can in the situation in which they find themselves. And some of it is just plain dumb luck. Sometimes people make the right decision given what they knew at the time, and it all falls into the pot anyway. Sometimes they do something phenomenally stupid, and it works out anyway. But some people consistently make the right decisions and it works out.”

  “Same thing with military commanders, Jimmy. Some just seem to have a gift. I had a teacher at the Academy once who pounded one thing into us. When making decisions, avoid the cliff. You could go this way or that way. If you go this way, you have a fifty-fifty chance of getting either a good result or a marginal result. The other way you have a ninety percent chance of getting a great result but a ten percent chance of getting blown to smithereens. That’s the cliff. Take the first path and avoid the cliff.”

  “And some people will tell you you’re wrong. You should take the second path because you have a ninety percent chance of a great result. And some stupider people – or less aware people, or less cautious people – will take that second path, and ninety percent of them will get a great result. But it was the wrong decision. Or at least it’s the wrong decision if there’s a lot riding on the outcome, because you have a ten-percent chance of losing everything.”

  Burke nodded.

  “Yes, exactly.”

  She looked at Ardmore in a measuring way.

  “You know, Jimmy, I was worried about whether we would be able to work together. The reclusive scholar and the athletic combat veteran. But we see eye-to-eye on a lot.”

  “I think so, too, Gail. I worried about it as well. We could hardly be less alike. But we both, in one way, are very similar. We’re both risk-averse, wary of preconceptions, skeptical of the easy answer. I think we’ll do fine.”

  He tipped his head, looking at her, frankly appraising.

  “You’re very beautiful, Gail. That’s an advantage for us. People love having a beautiful Empress. It is, in their minds, the way things ought to be. But all the popular Empresses have had long hair. You should grow it out. The longer it is for the coronation, the better.”

  “I know, but I can’t. It’s at regulation right now.”

  “Regulations written for men. Get a waiver from General Hargreaves. He knows what’s going on. He’ll give it.”

  Burke nodded.

  “OK. To return the favor, Jimmy, you need to muscle up.”

  “I need to lose weight is what I need to do.”

  “No, Jimmy, that’s the wrong goal. I knew people with your body type in the Marines. You need to muscle up. You’ll actually gain weight, but it will be in different places.”

  “Huh. I always thought losing weight was what I needed to do, but I couldn’t do it.”

  “Your body won’t let you, because it’s wrong. I can help you with that. And the Emperor’s medical facility in the Residence here is top-notch. We can get it done.”

  “OK, Gail. I’m up for that. While we’re at it, you and I also need to get nanite updates.”

  “Absolutely. Right now, we’re both on the seventy-five year plan.”

  “Yeah. We need to fix that for everyone eventually.”

  “Yeah, Jimmy, I know. It’s gonna be a while, though. We’re just getting started.”

  Ardmore nodded.

  “So what will our reign names be, Jimmy? William and Mary, like Jonah said?”

  “I don’t think so. Too plebei
an. Think of the great Emperors and Empresses. Trajan. Antoninus. Ilithyia. Augustus. We need something more rare, more mythical, more powerful than just, you know, Bill and Mary.”

  “What then, Jimmy? Do you have any ideas?”

  “For co-rulers? I have an example I kind of like from history, but you might not like it.”

  “Tell me. I want to hear it.”

  “Ptolemy and Arsinoe.”

  “Ooo. Jimmy, I like it. I like it a lot. Were they a couple?”

  “Yes and no. They were brother and sister. They married, but I suspect it was more symbolic than anything. They had both already had children by other people, and had none together. But they ruled, both with the title of Pharaoh, in ancient Egypt. She was the first female Pharaoh, and she was the model for multiple female Pharaohs that came after, including Cleopatra almost three hundred years later.”

  “And they were co-rulers?”

  “Yes. She was given the title of Pharaoh in her own time. That was very unusual, Gail. Unprecedented, in fact. Both of their likenesses appeared on coins minted during their rule and after.”

  “Well, they’re certainly unusual names.”

  “Yes, and that’s a huge advantage. If someone says, ‘Mary says this or that,’ the other fellow might ask, ‘You mean the lady down the street who works at the coffee shop?’ ‘No, the Empress.’ ‘Oh, that Mary.’ That won’t happen with either Ptolemy or Arsinoe.”

  Burke laughed.

  “I should hope not, Jimmy. We’ll have to see what Jonah thinks.”

  “Well, it’s our decision, Gail, but I certainly want his counsel.”

  “Absolutely.”

  As it turned out, they didn’t have long to wait. They had been working all morning, and Drake came up to lunch with them.

  “I think those would be splendid reign names. They get us out of the Roman theme, which has played itself out, I think, in people’s minds. Switching to a Greek theme symbolizes a big change, which is what we are trying to do. I think it would get people hoping for positive changes.”

  “I also thought it would be good for Gail to grow out her hair. Long hair plays better, I think. And she says rather than lose weight, I should muscle up.”

  Drake turned to Burke, who nodded.

  “I’ve known the type in the Marines, Jonah. If Jimmy muscled up, with that physique, he’d be really strong. He’ll never be video-star handsome, but strong works, too.”

  “I think you have the looks end of things covered for us, Gail,” Ardmore said.

  Drake just nodded and smiled. Looked like his co-ruler setup was working out.

  “But I can’t grow my hair out within regulations, Jonah. I need a waiver or something.”

  “Well, I meet with my family tomorrow, and then this whole end of the upstairs is going to be cleaned out. At that point, I’m moving you both up here. I’ll get you personally assigned to me, Gail, and have General Hargreaves issue a waiver. But I still want you in the Imperial Guard so you can be in meetings and everyone will ignore you. I want you as one of the Guardsmen standing watch on the family meeting tomorrow, for example.”

  Burke nodded.

  “It’s on my schedule, Jonah.”

  “Good. Anything else?” Drake asked.

  “We both need to get a nanites upgrade, Jonah,” Ardmore said.

  “Oh, yes. I almost forgot. Well, once you’re both up here, that’s easy. They can take care of that in the clinic on the floor below us. Anything else?”

  Ardmore and Burke both looked at each other, then back at Drake. Both shook their heads.

  “All right, then. I’m headed back to the office. See you later.”

  That afternoon they worked on the Co-Consul search. Getting a new Co-Consul was a priority item. Once they had him, they would have a fourth member of the group, and that would increase their ability to get things done by a lot. It would speed up the process of change.

  “Jonah probably has five to ten years left, Gail, so we should be looking at someone who will be in their sixties then, to give us perspective.”

  “Right. Because if we were looking for a Co-Consul for Jonah alone, we would want someone in their forties, to give him the other perspective.”

  “Exactly. As the Four Good Emperors got older, they selected younger Co-Consuls, which gave them a different perspective and allowed them to serve longer terms.”

  “Which gave continuity. It’s too bad the current Co-Consul is unacceptable, Jimmy.”

  “Jonah let himself get snookered by a nomination from the bureaucracy. But we’ll get continuity anyway, because if he starts now, he’ll have five to ten years in office before Jonah passes.”

  “OK. I see that.”

  “Now I’ve prepared this chart of the talents of the Co-Consuls the Four Good Emperors selected. What do you notice, Gail?”

  “They were administrators, not visionaries. Nuts and bolts guys.”

  “Right. The vision came from the Emperor. What else?”

  “They served in multiple departments before being selected, Jimmy. They didn’t spend their entire career in one functional area.”

  “Right again. What else?”

  “Hmm. At least one of the positions they held had a broad perspective. They weren’t just head of some narrow functional unit.”

  “Good, Gail. What else?”

  Ardmore looked back and forth across the columns, scanning down the rows. All this was in a VR overlay to her vision, of course.

  “That’s curious. They were all in long-term stable marriages. There’s not a divorce among them. None of them were single. And none of them had children at home when they served as Co-Consul.”

  “Yes. Isn’t that interesting? They were all empty-nesters. I noted that, but haven’t drawn any conclusions from it. I just find it curious.”

  “I can think of a couple reasons why it would be helpful, Jimmy. No personal disruptions, with divorce or teenagers in the house or whatever.”

  “Yes, Gail, but these are the results looking back. When they were named Co-Consul, one couldn’t know in advance if they would be divorced later on. It just never happened. That’s the curious part.”

  “OK. So the personalities that made them attractive choices to the Emperor as Co-Consul also made them the sort of people who would be attractive to a long-term marriage partner. That kind of makes sense.”

  “Good one. I think that makes a lot of sense. That’s what the Emperors were looking for, after all. Long-term partners. Changing out the Co-Consul is a huge disruption to the system.”

  “All right, Jimmy. So if we filter on those, what do we get? Are there any matches?”

  “A few, I think. Not many, but a few.”

  Ardmore edited his filters a bit, then applied them to his database. Half a dozen entries remained. He expanded those entries, showing more underlying detail in the data.

  “OK, Gail. Here’s what we have if we apply those filters. We’ve probably cut some good candidates, but we’re left with these six.”

  “Well, we only need one, Jimmy. We’re not trying to fill an auditorium. We can relax filters if we don’t find a good candidate in this bunch.”

  “Fair enough. So this first guy is the assistant head of treasury. He has oversight over all the expenditures across the government. Before treasury, he was in military procurement.”

  “That’s a good mix, I think, Jimmy. He’s in the pool.”

  “OK. This next one is currently head of curriculum approval for the education department, but before that she was in the financial oversight department, which has a broader view.”

  “I don’t like those staff turnover numbers, Jimmy. Are those firings or staff reductions or what?”

  Ardmore fiddled with the database, and the entry expanded again.

  “Looks like they were employee-initiated transfers out of her department.”

  “OK, so she’s a crappy manager, or at least one that inspires people to leave her group. She’s out.”


  “All right. I’ll tag that.”

  They went through the rest of the candidates, keeping one and dropping three more for various reasons.

  “OK, Jimmy, so we have two candidates left, right?”

  “Right. So we interview them and pick one, I guess.”

  “I think we have Jonah interview both, and we watch, and then we pick one. All three of us. How about that?”

  “That sounds good, Gail. OK, now on to finding a head for the Department.”

  “That’s next?”

  “Yes. We may need them to keep a very quiet eye on some things as this all goes forward. We need to get him started recruiting operatives.”

  The Emperor And The Family

  Jeremy Drake was not looking forward to his father’s meeting with the family. Jeremy was sixty-seven years old, and had been a bureaucrat in the Imperial government since graduation from college forty-five years before. His father, the Emperor, likely had five or ten years left. If his father left the Throne to his eldest son, as had been the norm for a hundred years, Jeremy would likely be Emperor for another twenty to twenty-five years after that.

  How old was old enough to just retire?

  Franny – his wife Frances – probably looked forward to being Empress, but there wasn’t much to that. Emperor, though, was an all-consuming job. He hadn’t seen his father at any length more than a couple times a year since he took the Throne, even though he and Franny lived in the Imperial Residence. He didn’t even take his meals with them anymore. The old man was just that damn busy. Is that how Jeremy wanted to spend the rest of his life?

  He and Franny had a nice place a couple hundred miles from Imperial City. House on a lake big enough to get some pretty good-sized fish. Some nice walking paths through the woods around the house. Wildlife that wandered through the yard while they sat out on the deck. Really nice. They got out there weekends, but he looked forward to spending more time out there, not being in the Imperial Palace for the rest of his life.

  Would Franny ever understand if he said No to the Throne?