by Lindsay Peet
CHAPTER NINE
The next morning staff gave me many pairs of socks and shoes with heavy cushioning; I guess I was a couple centimeters taller! Soon afterwards we had a guest. Zeno was now going to accompany us on our travels; it seemed his corruption investigations were now second priority, making his presence with us both ominous and not at all ceremonial. I still winced when I looked at him. “Are you our tour guide, Inspector An-Tuin?”
“That, and security. My investigations have taught me much about the quirks and concerns of the various groups on Caliuga.”
“And which of these concerned, quirky groups are we to see today?” I asked, for the moment relieved.
“We’re presenting the Inspector General to the General Assembly of the Planetary Union.”
“The banquet wasn’t enough?”
“The situation has … changed, since the banquet. I’m sure you understand. Our itinerary has changed, also.
“The Ambassador and Council have decided to reinforce the authority of the Inspector General of the Emperor, and the power of the Planetary Union, by having His Excellency address the General Assembly now, and meet with some of the more notable delegates of the Council.”
It hit me then that we hadn’t really met with anybody who claimed to run Solip City, much less the P. U. I didn’t think Ambassador An-Tine counted, although at least on paper he seemed to be the most senior official we’d met. Still, I wondered – not much point to an ambassador if there are no embassies, right? What had he been doing before we showed up? Next time we met I’d have to ask him about that.
“This Council – what do you know about it?”
“It’s largely what one would expect. The best and brightest of Solip City, and the rest of the Union, are elected to serve on a five-person executive council. That’s where, I believe, all the real decision-making goes on.”
“Where do the ‘best and brightest’ come from?”
“That’s our first stop, tomorrow. Solip City University, or SCU, as we call it,” he beamed. “We’ll soon be graduating the first class that was taught exclusively by graduates of SCU! No longer must we depend on obsolete models and stale, inappropriate off-world philosophies! The curriculum and standards are all our own now, and owe no allegiance to old, discredited concepts!”
“I take it you’re a graduate, An-Tuin?”
“Summa Cum Laude, five years ago,” he humbly boasted.
Well, I wasn’t going to be intimidated. I’ve dealt with the educated before, in fact spent many fine hours with some few, talking and drinking. Somehow, though, power and academics don’t mix well, because when all the talking and drinking must turn to decisive action, well, it just doesn’t. Another round of talking and drinking starts – if you’re lucky. Simply start asking questions, casting doubts, posing paradoxes, and, finally, spinning threads of causality and then weaving tapestries of unintended consequences, and soon you’ve got them tied up in intellectual knots a yogi would envy. A perverse part of the Kippel orphan relishes discombobulating the degreed boobs, but understands that, tweaked too hard, the degreed boobs can get forceful about stilling dissenters.
Still – that left tonight. “The Inspector General’s speech for tonight – it’s already written?”
An-Tuin smiled, glad that I was getting with the program. “And all thirty-one delegates to the General Assembly will be there, Adjutant Daskal.” Hmm … had there been some consolidation of colonies, or was Caliuga City not really the only holdout from joining the P. U.? I wasn’t sure how many colonies Sirah said there were, but I was pretty sure it was more than thirty –two. The more I learned the more I wondered. So after An-Tine left I thought some and Wanliet and I talked some, and then we dressed up again in our fancy duds and comfy socks and shoes and were led/escorted off.
The speech ? Wanliet nailed it. At heart, he’s a playful joker, and when given the chance to put across a game, he’s all for it. So, he spoke earnestly about bridging divides, reconciling differences, uniting in common purpose, and the hopeful changes that would happen with stronger ties with the Empire.
However, he warned, all parties must agree that it was best to proceed slowly, and allow Caliuga and the Planetary Union to follow a separate path, with only the lightest touch from the Empire. Things would go on much as before, with the P. U. having the day-to-day running of things and bringing order to the uncontrolled individuality that had crippled Caliugan efforts at unification up until now, including regulation and collection of fees, fines (‘foes, fun’ added my mind here), and taxes. Then hearty applause and toasts.
Yes, Solip City and the Council were sitting pretty.
And my mind, perverse thing that it is, had spent the introductions and speeches figuring out how where the angles were and how to play them to my advantage. We’d soon be leaving the capital and roaming the countryside, although with a chaperon or two. But there was no reason I couldn’t advance our own cause somehow, move things along, because the course we were on led nowhere good.
