Duty and Obligation

by Sean Benjamin

  Viktor reflected on his advisors and his military leaders. They all suffered from a condition Viktor had seen many times among those in his circle and in the higher social classes in general. This condition went beyond ambition. It was more than a desire to improve one’s lot in life or make things better for one’s family. It was a craving, and it was insatiable. Over the years when considering the malady as it applied to certain people, he originally thought of it as an addiction, but now he did not really believe that it was in the strictest sense. He now believed it was a character flaw. The problem could be described in one word: more. People who had this difficulty always wanted more of everything. More power. More money. More prestige. More recognition. More possessions. More lovers. More everything. Of course, once they achieved more, they were never truly content. After the initial satisfaction wore off, usually quite quickly, they would again want more. The cycle never ended.

  His advisors and military wanted more for the Empire and, once that was achieved, they would want the rewards that would be given in return for their own hard work and the Empire’s achievements. All would claim to be instrumental in the forthcoming successes. Of course, if the future held failure, they would be more than happy to point fingers at others. Viktor wasn’t put out by it. It was the way of things. Of course, it was also the way of things that the Emperor makes the ultimate decision, and he had done that. An unnecessary war could be the death of them all, and he would not let that happen in the Goldenes Tor. Despite recent events and OrCon promises, there would be no war in their future.

  Now his mind turned to the recent personal problem. He frowned. He had to admit to himself he had not seen this coming. In his wildest imagination, he did not think the principals involved could be that goddamn stupid. Again, much of this current difficulty could be attributed to the “more” character flaw. The Emperor knew his nephew had the condition, but he thought the man was smart enough to know the limits. Apparently, not. Now that flaw would ruin him. It was why Ernst was in this current predicament. And it was why the Emperor had to do something about it. He couldn’t let his nephew walk away unscathed. Beyond the way such a weak act would reflect on the Emperor, he knew that inaction on his part would only result in his nephew getting into some other similar circumstance in the near future. The simple fact was Ernst had been this way all his life and had been indulged. It had to end. The Emperor shook his head. He found the whole situation unseemly.

  The scandal had started out as whispers in cyberspace and had grown by the minute. Images had been added to the original text, and that turned a brushfire into an inferno. It leaped from the shadows to the major news outlets in the blink of an eye. Viktor had his people looking into how it started and where. There had been no progress on that front. He was not surprised. He knew it did not begin with the regular media. After all, those people knew there would be retaliation if they were the originators. No, it had started with reports and images with no source and no trail leading to a cyber-hideout and the culprits involved. The Emperor knew many stories got out that way. No authors or organizations behind it. Once the facts had been verified, several media outlets carried accounts about the story while carefully maintaining their distance from it. They caged it as reporting on the fact that there was some kind of story on the royal family out there while not mentioning the events themselves. In this particular case, their reporting consisted of stating there was a story floating around about the emperor’s wife and his nephew, but it couldn’t possibly be true. Of course, this just drove people to find the first-hand account. Then the media would report on the rush to learn about the untrue story. If called out, the media’s defense was they had just reported on the people’s interest in a totally unconfirmed tale that was probably false and, if anyone was to be held responsible, it should be the originators of the whole episode. Of course, there were no originators to be found. The story was just there as if by magic.

  When the Emperor had read the tale, he had immediately sent people to his wife and nephew for their versions. He had ensured his emissaries impressed on both parties that lying would have dire consequences. The two lovers were caught, and they knew it. Both confessed and begged forgiveness.

  Viktor’s first urge was to order both of them put to death. It was more for being stupid and indiscreet than for the actual affair. Those were two traits the Emperor could not abide by, especially within the royal family. Such traits were never confined to one event and, if left unpunished, these flaws would show up again at some future date. No, this had to be dealt with now.

  He could have them killed and nobody would say a word against it in his presence. He was the emperor, after all, and that power went with the job. However, he was a ruler who never succumbed to his first emotional reaction. He prided himself on being a man of reason and moderation. Besides, he could hardly have the mother of his children put to death. Viktor reviewed their life together. All in all, it hadn’t been bad. They didn’t love each other. Never had, but that was to be expected in royal matches. His wife hailed from the planet of Zugzwang on the edge of the Goldenes Tor. Her father had been President-for-Life of the planet, a position now held by her younger brother. Viktor’s father, Maximillian, had arranged the marriage to bring Zugzwang into the Goldenes Tor. Zugzwang was the economic force for the small system there, and the rest of the system followed to become an independent entity under Goldenes Tor auspices. Viktor had thought his marriage had been a steep price to pay in order to bring a minor system under the Empire’s influence. His father didn’t care what he had thought. Viktor learned an important lesson from his father that day. No price is too steep if you’re not the one paying it.

  Their marriage had been reasonable enough over the years. Each had had a series of dalliances. Each knew the other did the same. Viktor could hardly hold his wife to a standard he had no intention of meeting himself, so the affairs were never discussed. He knew the details of some of his wife’s relationships. The men involved in her recent excursions always had three things in common. They were younger than Carlotta. They were men of accomplishments. They were also men of discretion—men in high places who had no desire to sacrifice their positions, or, perhaps, sacrifice much more, by incurring the Emperor’s wrath. Consequently, they kept their mouths shut, and the affairs were usually of short duration. Everyone maintained deniability and secrecy. It had been an arrangement between the two of them that had gone on for years and served both of them well—until now.

  Viktor knew he had to hold his wife and nephew to account. He considered his wife first. Carlotta had always done her part as a member of the royal family. She attended to her social obligations, did charity work, had been a good mother, and had run the palace with great success. Viktor realized he didn’t think of her very much because he didn’t have to. She had done her public job well, so well it largely went unnoticed. Viktor realized that limited his options. If Carlotta was pulled out of public view, someone else would have to do all her duties. He frowned. He knew none of the other members of the family, including him, would be anxious to throw themselves into that briar patch. Public relations were a big part of the family’s duties, but nobody was excited about them. It was one thing to rule the people. It was quite another to actually interact with them.

  He considered many courses of action, but nothing particularly appealed to him. Finally, he concluded her punishment would be that she would go on doing what she had been doing, only more so. She would represent the royal family at every event that the family had to attend but none of them really want to go. From now on, any dedication, any celebration on some out-of- the-way-planet, any funeral, or any ceremony anywhere, Carlotta would be the royal presence. She would get all the bad deals for, well, forever or until she died. Whichever came first.

  Now for his nephew, Viktor blamed his nephew a little more than he blamed his wife. His wife had the excuses of being a woman with a neglectful husband and not getting any younger so was working the field of availab
le men hard in the limited time available to her. However, Ernst had a fine wife and was still in his youth. He had plenty of prospects among the women throughout the region and, with his wife on assignment to the Badlands, Ernst had the freedom to explore all those options. Simply put, he had ample opportunities to indulge himself without the Empress being involved. He had no reason to be outside his regular hunting grounds, and he surely knew that. But, the character flaw of “more” can have debilitating results.

  The Emperor’s sister, Ernst’s mother, had seen the potential for disaster and had immediately paid Viktor a visit in an attempt to stave off the worst possible outcomes. The visit had ended with Viktor’s promising not to kill her son. Of course, he had already decided against that course of action, so he had given up nothing. But if it made his sister feel like she had accomplished something, all well and good. She had gone away happy. He reflected on the family. His sister had been the baby of the family and had been spoiled mightily. She, in turn, had brought up her son the same way. Viktor and his wife had spoiled their youngest, Joseph. And so it goes. He shrugged. They weren’t the first people to overindulge their children, and they wouldn’t be the last. Nothing could be done about it now.

  Viktor considered the Ernst problem from several angles but couldn’t come up with an appropriate answer. Then a recent event came to mind. In fact, it was a report from Ernst’s wife, Admiral Cynthia Hochstadt, that had originally brought this event to Viktor’s attention. Viktor smiled at the coincidence. Anyway, the report covered the recent misadventures of some damn wayward visiting squadron in the Badlands region. Viktor frowned now as he couldn’t readily recall where this squadron was from. Then it came to him. Rialta. Some damn planet in some damn place far from the Goldenes Tor. He remembered wondering why that squadron from Rialta would be anywhere near his kingdom. The whole sad affair had eventually dissolved into nothing, but now it gave him an idea. He would send his nephew as a regional ambassador to Rialta and whatever planets were nearby. Ernst would address these recent events with the government of Rialta and then stay there for a while to ensure “proper Goldenes Tor representation” with Rialta and that region. The natives there would love the fact that they were so important that a member of the royal family was the new Goldenes Tor ambassador to their part of the universe.

  Of course, Ernst would want to know how long “a while” was going to last in regard to his posting, and Viktor would happily have him informed that it would be for the rest of Viktor’s life—maybe beyond that if his eldest son and successor wanted to maintain the status quo after Viktor died. Ernst might as well settle in because he was going to be there a long, long time. If family and friends wanted to make the long trek to see him, that would be fine. Viktor would also inform Ernst that his wife, the Admiral, would not be going with him, so he could play around all he wanted with the Rialta natives. Viktor would not condemn the wife to the same fate as her idiot husband. After all, Cynthia Hochstadt didn’t have an affair with the Empress. Besides, Viktor had always liked Cynthia and thought Ernst had treated her rather badly over the years. If a married man wants to have affairs that is his own decision, but he shouldn’t be so blatant about it as to embarrass his wife. Again, indiscretion was such a lowbrow trait. As Viktor pondered the situation, he concluded he would grant a divorce to Cynthia so she could move on with her life. She wouldn’t even have to ask for it. Yes, it was all working out. He glanced out the window, and the rain seemed to be letting up. He smiled as he turned away from the window and called for his official scribe.

  Chapter 45

  Admiral Dietrich sat in front of Admiral Hochstadt’s desk as she relaxed behind it with her feet up on the desktop.

  Hochstadt smiled at her friend. “Hell of a job, Rick. I didn’t think you’d get it done that fast.”

  Dietrich smiled in return. “We got lucky. Once people figured out we were serious, they came out of the woodwork to help. Lots of built-up grievances there. People wanted to tell their stories. Many of the accused tried to run so were confessing their guilt. Around four hundred people were charged with something, and that was the count when I left. It’s probably higher now. The trials started before we left, so they should wrap up there soon. Several defendants pleaded guilty. A trial would have put their crimes out in public for days with a detailed description of their crimes. They didn’t want the media putting their behavior out there for family and friends to see. That whole setup collapsed like a house of cards. All these people knew they were doing wrong. I guess they thought it would last forever.”

  “Putting them all in the Longwall prison was a nice touch. Makes for ease of guarding by our soldiers and ensures nobody gets special treatment.”

  Dietrich nodded. “Easiest way to do it. All the bureaucrats you sent were helpful too. Some of them are going to be there a long time running that planet.” He paused and then said, “Kaplan is going to be tried last. I told the judge who will get his case that he had been very helpful and that this behavior started long before he arrived on Bolindale. Not sure how much it will help. He is guilty of the cover-up but nothing else. I wouldn’t be all that mad if he got a light sentence.”

  Hochstadt nodded. “Me neither. I’m over his lying. I am disappointed his damn mining company will walk away clean. We can’t charge them with anything since this was all under the auspices of the planetary government, but they had to have knowledge of it.”

  “True. We have to take satisfaction in knowing they will have to put in time and money in correcting this on their other planets.”

  Hochstadt smiled at a thought. “They have four other planets in the Badlands. I think I sent a detachment to each to conduct a safety inspection of all the prisons.”

  “Good idea. They will go crazy. It will be fun to watch.” Dietrich paused now and changed subjects. “I’m sorry about your husband.”

  She was silent for several seconds and then looked at her friend. “I’m not. I have to admit I was getting tired of the women. I am surprised about Carlotta. Never thought Ernst was that damn stupid. I would have bet money that the Emperor would have killed him.”

  Dietrich nodded. “I bet most the Empire would have bet that way. Do you think the Emperor got the Rialta idea from your reports?”

  Hochstadt nodded. “I do. The Emperor listens to everyone and reads everything and remembers most of it. You tell him something, and he will bring it up to you years later exactly as you told it to him. People who think he never gets into the details or won’t take an interest in something because it is too minor are making a big mistake.”

  “You sound like you like him.”

  “I do. He always dealt with me kindly and fairly. At social affairs, he always danced with me and ensured his nephew treated me well in public. I have no complaints with him at all.” She gave a half smile now. “Not that it would matter if I did.”

  Dietrich gave a smile in response. “What now?” he asked quietly.

  Hochstadt regarded him for five seconds. “Divorce. I’ll file shortly after Ernst departs for Rialta. I think it very unlikely the Emperor will change his mind, but I will wait until he is truly gone before doing anything. The Emperor grants all divorces in the family, so he can act on my request in five minutes if he wants. Since he didn’t send me with Ernst, I assume he will grant the divorce.”

  Dietrich kept his voice level. “What happens after that?”

  Hochstadt smiled at him. “I’m not sure. Maybe we can figure it out together.”

  Dietrich returned the smile in full measure. “Maybe we can. In fact, I’m damn certain we can.”

  She was pulling open her bottom desk drawer to get out the Adler whiskey bottle when there was a knock at the door. It opened and Captain Bergman, the OpsO stuck his head in. “Sorry to disturb you, Admiral. Just got a priority message from the Crystal Communications Array in the Zenith System.”

  Hochstadt frowned. No way this was good news. “Tell me.”

  “The array was attacked
by Raferty Hawkins and his people.”

  Dietrich was so surprised he spoke out of turn. “Hawkins destroyed the array. Dumb son of a bitch.”

  Bergman shook his head. “No, he didn’t harm the array itself at all. He reduced the mine defenses, overcame the defensive fires, and took out three floaters. Then he stopped to have a conversation with the man in charge and then departed.”

  Hochstadt shook her head. “That array man must have amazing powers of persuasion.”

  Bergman stepped into the office. “No, ma’am.” He extended his arm with papers in his hand. “The conversation was recorded, of course, and it is here verbatim.”

  Hochstadt took the papers, read the conversation, and passed them to Dietrich. He read through them and shook his head. “Well, Hawkins is open about what he wanted.”

  Hochstadt agreed, “Yes, and he got it. He wanted to embarrass Green Squadron, and he did.” She flicked her hand at the papers. “That array guy wants Muller’s ass. He won’t be the last either. When all the people who use the array hear about this, there will be a mob demanding Muller’s head.” She thought for a moment. “When are you moving out?”

  “Day after tomorrow.”

  Hochstadt nodded. “You’re going to Muller’s AOR, aren’t you?”

  Dietrich confirmed it. “Yes, Admiral. He’s due to come here. He wants to argue his convoy idea in person, from what I hear.”