“We’ve gotten a lot of things done, Jonah,” Ardmore said. “The six Offices. Canning the bureaucracy. Reducing the total civilian headcount. Reducing the number of departments. Education. Scholarships. Censorship. Mr. Pitney’s little project. That’s a lot.”
“But there’s a lot still to go. The nanites issue. Tax caps. Free trade. The military. Reining in the sector governors. Those are some big issues. I’m afraid you two will have to do some of those without me.”
“Yes, but you’ve fixed the biggest one, Jonah,” Burke said. “The one that broke the Empire. You’ve taken care of the succession, and that means we will carry on the vision, even after you’re gone.”
“I know you will, dear. That’s my one big consolation.”
Drake sighed.
“Oh, well. Enough feeling sorry for myself. I got one other report yesterday. Mr. Gretzky reports the Imperial Gardens are complete, and all the plantings have had time to stabilize, so he’s turned them over to us for our use.”
“That’s great, Jonah. Can we go see?”
Drake checked the time in VR.
“Yes. We have fifteen minutes until our inspection tour, so we’d better get up there.”
They left the dining room, went to the escalator, and took it up to the Imperial Gardens. Mr. Gretzky was waiting outside the elevator cupola with an electric cart.
“Good morning, Your Majesty.”
“Good morning, Mr. Gretzky. You ready to show us around?”
“Absolutely. Get on, everybody.”
The Guardsman at the top of the escalator gave Drake a hand into the front passenger seat, while Ardmore and Burke climbed in the back. Burke held Ardmore’s hand.
“I’m so excited,” Burke said.
“Sally forth, Mr. Gretzky,” Drake said, pointing out the windshield.
Gretzky drove them around the lanes of the gardens, pointing out the sights. The fire pit. The picnic table and the meadow. The bocce ball courts and the tennis courts and the swimming hole. The swimming pool and the cabana.
It looked just like the recording. Oh, it wasn’t perfectly the same, but it was very close, like it might have looked before or after the actual recording was made. It was a magnificent accomplishment.
Eventually, they ended up back at the escalator cupola.
“Well, Mr. Gretzky, you’ve managed to surprise me. I never thought I would live to see the gardens restored, grown out to the way they were. But this is perfect. You’ve done a tremendous job.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty. They’re your gardens now. Like you wanted.”
“They’re beautiful, Mr. Gretzky,” Burke said.
“Thank you, ma’am.”
“So what is your schedule now, Mr. Gretzky?” Ardmore asked. “Will we be in your way if we use them?”
“No, no, sir. We work on them during the week, and only when no one is up here. We know when someone is in the gardens. Then we stay away. They’re private, and we only come in to work when no one is here. That’s why we had to wait until now to turn them over. We’ve been working on them pretty constantly until now.”
“I see. Well, thank you, Mr. Gretzky. They’re beautiful.”
“Thank you, sir.”
They all got off the cart and went down the escalator into the Imperial Residence as Gretzky drove off in the cart.
After lunch, Ardmore and Burke went up into the gardens. At the top of the escalator, Burke made a signal to the Guardsmen to remain there. She was dressed in a simple summer dress and barefoot. Ardmore wore a sleeveless T-shirt, khaki shorts and sandals.
They walked around the gardens, just drinking it all in. It really was very like the recording, remarkably so for an artistic work rendered in plants. The flowers in the meadow smelled wonderful as they walked by, and there were already hummingbirds working their way through the flowers.
“I didn’t think they’d go this high,” Ardmore said.
“It’s the scent that draws them, Jimmy. They know there’s flowers up here.”
“I see.”
They walked around the path and finally came to the swimming pool.
“Care for a swim, Gail?”
“No, but you can go ahead, Jimmy. I’m going to lay out in the sun. It’s been way too long inside for me.”
“I wonder....”
Ardmore walked around to the cabana. Swimming suits were set out on a shelf inside, under signs on the wall for ‘His Majesty’, ‘Capt. Burke’, and ‘Dr. Ardmore’. Burke picked up one of the suits. It was in her size.
”Never underestimate Housekeeping,” she said. “But I don’t need a suit to lay out in the sun.”
Burke shucked out of the summer dress and walked naked out of the cabana, across the pool deck to a large lounger, and lay out in the sun. Ardmore shrugged, then stripped down and walked out naked after her. He jumped into the water and came up spluttering.
Ardmore found swimming to be more work than he remembered. More muscle and less fat meant his buoyancy wasn’t what it had been. At one point, he simply stopped working at it and sank to the bottom of the deep end. He walked across the bottom of the pool to the shallow end and up the stair.
Burke’s brown body, laid out naked on the white lounger, was a vision. She was a great, mahogany goddess. He walked over to her.
Burke watched him approach. He was really well muscled now, after six months of electrotherapy and the past year of the two of them working out in the gym. She lifted light weights for a lot of reps, going for speed and endurance, where he was a powerlifter, doing just a few reps at a time of the heaviest weights he could lift, going for bulk and raw strength. She was a gazelle, and he was a mountain.
“You know, you won’t get any darker laying out in the sun, Gail.”
Burke chuckled.
“I know that, Jimmy. I just like the heat.”
“You look like a goddess.”
“I can tell I have your attention. Bring that over here and use it, would you, Hercules? Your goddess wants some lovin’.”
“I aim to please.”
Burke laughed aloud.
“Right now you’re aiming at the trees. Get over here, you.”
The Pushback
“A group of sector governors have put in a request to meet with me,” Drake said over dinner one evening.
“The Emperor used to meet with sector governors quite often, Jonah,” Ardmore said. “Wait. You said a group? Together?”
“Yes. That’s what they’re asking for.”
“OK, that never happened. The Emperor either met with them one at a time or spoke to them all at once. The Four Good Emperors considered subcommittees of sector governors to be a dangerous development, and didn’t really allow it.”
“That was my impression. So what do you suggest?”
“Agree to meet with them one at a time, Jonah,” Burke said. “They’re trying to outnumber you so they have the psychological upper hand.”
“Yes, I know. And they also want me to meet them at some venue they’ve chosen. Some VR simulation of their design.”
“No. That’s out of the question, Jonah,” Ardmore said. “It’s unprecedented. Meet them in channel 22, the simulation of your office, and meet them one at a time.”
Drake nodded.
“All right. You’ve confirmed my own sense of it. I’ll do that and we’ll see what happens. Maybe they’ll decide they don’t want to meet with me after all.”
“I’m surprised they’ve waited this long, actually,” Burke said.
“They had things pretty much as they liked it, Gail. They haven’t actually approached the Throne directly for anything in a long time. They have to request an audience, you see, and they think it’s beneath them.”
Burke snorted.
“And the Emperors not calling in the sector governors, Jonah?”
“The last four Emperors – plus myself, of course – were already old men when they took the Throne, Gail. And the sector governors are so tiring. I’l
l only meet with one of them per day, I think, and early in the morning so I’m at my best. Also so I don’t have to dread it all day.”
“I do predict they’ll meet with you, though, Jonah,” Ardmore said. “Some of them anyway.”
The Emperor permitted one meeting per day, one sector governor at a time. The first sector governor in the schedule was Odessa Sector Governor Piotr Shubin. The Emperor had demanded they give him some topic or agenda for their meetings. Shubin’s was simple. ‘Discussion of concerns regarding the succession.’ Of course, the succession was none of the sector governors’ concern at all, and that was probably what concerned them the most.
Shubin was waiting in the simulation of the Emperor’s office when Drake logged in. Shubin did not stand. Drake fixed that by using the channel controls to disappear the chairs, dumping Shubin’s avatar on his ass. As he lay on the floor spluttering, Drake addressed him in a caustic tone.
“I’ll give you some time to learn manners, Governor Shubin. You are now at the bottom of the meeting schedule.”
Drake cut the channel.
Gandon Sector Governor Smith was next, the next day. His topic was Imperial Scholarships. Presumably briefed by Shubin on what had been his brief meeting with the Emperor, he exhibited no lèse majesté. When Drake entered the simulation, Smith jumped to his feet.
“Your Majesty,” Smith said and bowed his head.
“Be seated, Governor Smith.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“Proceed, Governor Smith.”
“Yes, Sire. In the last two years or so, Your Majesty has eliminated a number of departments within the Imperial government. One of them had to do with administering Imperial scholarships. We wondered whether Your Majesty was considering reconstituting that organization in the future.”
“There is an organization that administers the Imperial Scholarship program, Governor Smith. They’re doing a fine job.”
“Yes, Sire, but all the scholarships are awarded on the basis of merit, unlike in the past. We wondered if you would be modifying that program to operate more as it did in the past.”
“No, Governor Smith. I like it as it is now.”
“But the children and grandchildren, the nieces and nephews of some of the Empire’s wealthiest and most powerful families are not getting scholarships, Sire.”
“Tell them to study harder, Governor Smith.”
“And if they have not the means, Sire? The intellectual means?”
“Then they should probably not go to university, Governor Smith. It’s a waste of resources. One doesn’t plant seed on barren ground. It’s a waste of seed. There are plenty of noble occupations that do not require a college education. Shopkeeper, for example. But I will not turn away the deserving in favor of the lazy or incompetent, no matter who their relatives are.”
“I see. Thank you, Sire.”
“Good day, Governor Smith.”
The third day was Pritani Sector Governor Joseph Gaskin. His topic was the Imperial education program. When Drake entered the simulation, he rose and bowed his head.
“Good morning, Your Majesty.”
“Be seated, Governor Gaskin.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“Proceed, Governor Gaskin.”
“Yes, Sire. Among Your Majesty’s many changes in the Imperial government in the last two years, Your Majesty eliminated the oversight over the educational curriculums. We wondered if you were going to replace that with some new oversight mechanism.”
“I haven’t eliminated the oversight mechanism, Governor Gaskin. The Imperial approval of new curricula and tracking of testing scores continues as before.”
“Yes, Sire, but there is no longer any means for others to have oversight of the curricula.”
“By which you mean the sector governors, Governor Gaskin.”
“Well, yes, Sire.”
“Are you an educational expert, Governor Gaskin? I hadn’t noticed that among your many other accomplishments.”
“No, Sire. But we have had some supervisory oversight over educational curricula in the past.”
“Yes, Governor Gaskin. That was an additional burden on the Empire’s sector governors, which I have now removed and will not replace. You may now devote all your time to governing a people from whom the truth of their history has not been hidden. A wiser and more discerning people. It should make the job of governing responsibly easier than it was before.”
“I see, Your Majesty.”
“Good day, Governor Gaskin.”
Fourth up was Norden Sector Governor Anders Karlsson. His topic was the censorship organization. He didn’t call it that in his submission, though. He called it the ‘truth and fairness of the press’ organization. He was waiting in the simulation of the Emperor’s office by standing in front of the guest chairs. He bowed his head when Drake appeared.
“Good morning, Your Majesty.”
“Be seated, Governor Karlsson.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“Proceed, Governor Karlsson.”
“Yes, Sire. Among the changes in the Imperial government Your Majesty implemented in the last two years was the elimination of the organization ensuring truth and fairness in the press. We wondered if Your Majesty would be replacing that with a similar organization going forward.”
“Truth and fairness in the press, Governor Karlsson? You mean the censorship department?”
“Censorship is merely the means, Your Majesty. Truth and fairness is the goal.”
“Ah. I see, Governor Karlsson. Yet who determines truth? Do you? Do I? How are we to know the truth of everything? I am a generation older than you, yet I do not consider myself to have the wisdom to make that decision. Do you consider yourself so wise?”
“But, Sire, the press since then has published the most scurrilous nonsense about you. They have not given Your Majesty the respect due the Throne.”
“Governor Shubin did not give me the respect due the Throne in our meeting on Monday, Governor Karlsson, and that was to my face. Are you saying I should have locked him up, or executed him, rather than merely dumping him on his ass and terminating the meeting?”
“No, Sire, but there should be a proper respect for Your Majesty.”
“And a proper respect for sector governors, too, isn’t that right, Governor Karlsson? God forbid someone should say one of you isn’t doing a good job, or are taxing too much, or are wasting the tax money you collect on all of life’s little luxuries for yourselves and your thousands of sycophants. No, I will not be restoring the mechanism by which you have so long escaped accountability to the people you govern.”
“Very well, Sire.”
“Good day, Governor Karlsson.”
The fifth day, Friday, was Baden Sector Governor Manfred von Hesse’s turn. His subject had been changed to what Shubin’s had been on Monday: a discussion of concerns regarding the succession. He stood when Drake entered the simulation and bowed his head to the Emperor.
“Good morning, Your Majesty.”
“Be seated, Governor von Hesse.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“Proceed, Governor von Hesse.”
“Yes, Sire. We have noted Your Majesty’s advanced age, and, while we hope Your Majesty lives for many long years yet, the odds are against it. We therefore were concerned that Your Majesty has taken proper care to plan the succession.”
“It is nothing you need be concerned about, Governor von Hesse. I have planned for the succession.”
“We wondered then if Your Majesty would care to share those plans with us, Sire.”
“No, Governor von Hesse. I won’t do that.”
“Shouldn’t the sector governors have some input into the succession, Sire?”
“You’ve used all the right words, Governor von Hesse, but you’ve improperly phrased it as a question. The sector governors shouldn’t have some input into the succession. In fact, the sector governors shouldn’t have any input into the succession.”
“But
we must govern the people of the Empire with Your Majesty’s successor, Sire.”
“Not with my successor, Governor von Hesse. The correct formulation is under my successor. The sector governors implement Imperial policy. They do not drive it.”
“Yes, Sire. Of course. But are we to have no input into that selection?”
“No, Governor von Hesse. The current Emperor is the only one who has any say in who the successor is, because he is the only one with no political stake in the outcome, as he will be dead before the successor takes the Throne. Only the current Emperor can make a dispassionate choice for who will provide the best government for the people going forward.”
“I see, Sire.”
“Good day, Governor von Hesse.”
The audiences with the sector governors was a topic at dinner on Friday night.
“At least the audiences were short,” Drake said. “No more than a few minutes. They amounted to me saying, ‘Yes, I did that,” and ‘No, I’m not going to change it.’”
“What about the succession question?” Burke asked. “That was Shubin’s topic, which you never got to in his audience. Did someone else bring it up?”
“Yes,” Drake said. “Governor von Hesse. Today. I told him I wouldn’t tell him my plans and the sector governors have no input into the selection.”
“They won’t be happy about that,” Ardmore said. “They’ve increasingly taken the attitude they’re partners with the Emperor, not subordinates of the Emperor.”
“Yes, I know,” Drake said. “And it’s gone on long enough the resolution of that is going to be difficult and messy, I’m afraid.”
Drake sighed.
“Well, I guess I have to leave something for you two to do, right?”
Ardmore was correct. The sector governors were not happy. The eight de facto leaders of the group met on Saturday.
“So what have we learned?” Gaskin asked.
“That he is not going to modify any of his policies, and that he is not going to tell us who his successor is or give us any input into that selection,” von Hesse said.
EMPIRE: Renewal Page 19
