Tyrant

by Richard F. Weyand

  “What about his reign name?” Alvey asked. “Trajan.”

  “The Emperor Trajan was the best emperor Rome ever had, maybe the best emperor anybody ever had,” Finn said. “Peace, prosperity, public works, social reforms, government reforms. And Rome’s enemies learned the hard way that the Roman Empire was not to be messed with. He cleaned up all the border wars, by the simple expedient of winning them. If the Emperor Trajan is his role model, we could be in for a Golden Age.”

  Daggert, Saaret, Claude Perrin, and Dunham were in the Emperor’s office, the office that had been Dee’s only the day before. Perrin was looking pretty shell-shocked.

  “What’s next?” Dunham asked.

  “There needs to be a press release,” Saaret said.

  “Mr. Perrin, can you compose something?” Dunham said. “I’ll want to see it before it goes out.”

  “Of course, Your Majesty.”

  “Very good.”

  “Um. Your Majesty.”

  “Yes, Mr. Perrin?”

  “Am I to assume my position is unchanged, then?”

  “Yes, Mr. Perrin. I am making no staff changes in the personal staff. Bear in mind I was completely in the Empress my sister’s confidence, and I am up to speed on most of the activities under way.”

  “Very well, Sire,” Perrin said. He seemed relieved to know Dunham had been kept informed.

  “We don’t have any pressing problems with the fires or the attack, Sire,” Daggert said. “The fires are all out, and there have been no further attacks or unrest so far.”

  “There is the matter of the people being detained, Sire,” Perrin said. “Lieutenant Colonel Peabody and the ten Imperial Police officers who were in the squad that arrived too soon to Ms. Medved’s murder, Mr. Fairfield, Mr. Whitmore, and Mr. Beckham.”

  “Release all the Imperial Police, Fairfield, and Whitmore, Mr. Perrin. Draw up the documents providing Mr. Beckman his pardon on his prior crimes, his death sentence on the Medved murder, and the suspension of the death sentence, as committed to him by Her Majesty prior to his interrogation. Send a copy of those last on to the Imperial City Police Department as well, and then release him. Oh, and give him fifty thousand credits in his account toward starting his life over without being a criminal. He did, after all, assist us.”

  “Very well, Sire.”

  “What do we do with the Imperial Police field offices, Sire?” Daggert asked.

  “Elaborate, General Daggert.”

  “The Imperial Police Headquarters here is one thing. But the Imperial Police maintain offices on all one hundred and fifty thousand planets of the Empire, Sire. There are almost a billion people in the Imperial Police, all across the Empire. While headquarters was Chief Stanier’s personal swamp, the field offices are generally highly regarded.”

  “I would like to see a proposal from you, Mr. Saaret, as to how we can organize the Imperial Police and connect them administratively into the new government. Something that keeps them out of trouble on Sintar. And they must take oath to the Throne, as the Imperial Navy and Imperial Marines do.”

  “I’ll work on that, Sire,” Saaret said.

  “Send out a message to all the field offices telling them they were not implicated in Chief Stanier’s treason, a new reporting structure is being developed for them, and they should continue to perform their duties to the Empire, with my thanks for their service.”

  “Yes, Sire.”

  “What else is pressing?” Dunham asked.

  “We also have a problem with the Imperial High Court, Sire,” Saaret said.

  “In what way, Mr. Saaret?”

  “The High Court has been in the Council’s pocket for decades, Sire. Galbraith was providing significant outside funds to them. And Pomeroy this morning claimed the High Court, at Galbraith’s request, decided if there were not a named heir to the Throne, it was up to the Council to determine the succession. Pomeroy said he didn’t care what Daggert said. Unless there was a publicly announced heir, it was up to the Council.”

  “And that was the opinion of the High Court, Mr. Saaret?”

  “The High Court’s decision, as I understand it, Sire, was in the case of no named heir. Pomeroy extended it to mean no announced heir. That’s where they were when I left them this morning. They were going to defame General Daggert as a liar and name their own heir.”

  “And no one pointed out to the palace that members of the Council were poking around the succession rules with the High Court, General Daggert?”

  “No, Sire.”

  “Do we have a copy of this decision, Mr. Saaret?”

  “I should, Sire. On the death of a member of the Council, his files should get transferred to me.”

  Saaret was lost in VR a few moments.

  “Here it is, Sire. I’ve sent it to you.”

  Dunham read the decision in VR.

  “Interesting. An unannounced opinion of the High Court, at Galbraith’s request, specifying the succession. General Daggert.”

  “Yes, Sire.”

  “Round up the Imperial High Court and bring them to me.”

  “Yes, Sire.”

  “What else?” Dunham asked, looking back and forth among them.

  “There is the matter of the funeral, Sire,” Perrin said. “How would you have that proceed?”

  “As in the past, Mr. Perrin. Let all three of them lie in state in the Throne Room, and bury them all in the Imperial Mausoleum.”

  “The Imperial Mausoleum is for the interment of Empresses and their spouses, Sire.”

  “Your point, Mr. Perrin?”

  “Ah. Yes, Sire. Of course. Captain Garrity and Ms. Dunham both meet that criterion. My apologies.”

  Dunham nodded to him.

  “It will be closed-casket, surely,” Daggert said.

  “No, General Daggert. Let them lie in state as they are. Let them see – let everyone see – what the Council did to my sister, to my wife, and to my best friend. To their beautiful Empress. Let there be no doubt my actions were justified.”

  “Yes, Sire.”

  PRESS RELEASE

  – For Immediate Release –

  IMPERIAL PALACE – The Empress Ilithyia II died last night as the consequence of an attack on the Imperial Palace. Prior to her death, she had named her brother, Major Robert Allen Dunham IV, Imperial Guard, as heir to the throne. He will rule as the Emperor Trajan. The date of his coronation has not yet been scheduled.

  The attack was carried out by Imperial Police forces loyal to and taking orders from members of the Imperial Council. The Empress Ilithyia, in Imperial Decrees carried out after her death, has dissolved the Imperial Council and found the Imperial Council and the Imperial Police were in revolt against the Throne. In the counter-attack, the Imperial Council building and the Imperial Police Headquarters were destroyed.

  Also announced today, Mr. Geoffrey Saaret, previously the Chairman of the Imperial Council but uninvolved in the attack on the Empress, was named co-consul by Emperor Trajan. He will begin work on a new administrative structure for the Empire.

  There was a knock on Floyd Gaffney’s office doorframe. He looked up from reading the palace’s press release to see an Imperial Guard officer in the doorway, with two Guardsmen beyond.

  “Your presence is requested and required by the Emperor, Chief Justice Gaffney.”

  “Very well.”

  Clearly the High Court had been lied to. The request for an opinion as to the succession had been part of a coup attempt against the sitting Empress. And now he and his fellow justices were being called to account.

  He knew they would be lucky to survive the day.

  The eleven justices were not taken to the palace in a police transporter, but in three palace limousines driven by Imperial Guardsmen, with an additional Guardsman riding shotgun. As they drove along Imperial Park East Boulevard, with the high-rises to the right and Imperial Park to their left, Gaffney was seated in the left-hand seat.

  Where the Imperial Palace
had stood for centuries, with the Imperial Council building on its left, and, for the last three years, with the Imperial Research building on its right as well, now only the Imperial Research Building flanked the palace. The Imperial Council building was a pile of burning wreckage.

  The Imperial Palace, too, was marred, with the evidence of fires on the top floor and the eighth floor.

  Gaffney shook his head at the turn the world had taken just since yesterday, and then the driver took the ramp to the left and down below Imperial Park to the palace car entrance.

  They were led from the cars into the sub-basement of the palace, up an elevator, and then down the hall to a small lecture room or class room. There was one chair in the front of the room, and several rows of chairs facing it. Two Imperial Guardsmen stood watch in the front corners of the room.

  “Please be seated,” The Imperial Guard officer said, and then stood at ease by the door.

  They all took seats. It was only a few minutes before the Emperor entered, accompanied by Claude Perrin. They all stood, and Dunham walked to the front and sat facing them.

  “Be seated. Chief Justice Gaffney, within the last week, the High Court issued a private opinion as to the succession to the Throne. I will give you a chance to comment on that.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty. We received a request from Lord Galbraith to determine if there were any legal opinion that would be possible relative to the succession to the Throne in the specific case where the sitting Empress had not named an heir to the commander of the Imperial Guard. I asked him why had this come up now, and he described it as merely closing a gap in the procedure. There was a concern the Empress, given her age, had not considered succession matters. She had not yet sent a successor nomination to the Council, for instance. He said it would be better to have some process in place in advance were anything to happen, rather than trying to come up with a process in a hurry if it came to that. He most assuredly did not tell me some members of the Council were planning a coup against the Throne, or give me any indication whatsoever that anything of the kind was even a possibility.”

  “And yet you did not inform the Imperial Guard about the question, Chief Justice Gaffney.”

  “No, Your Majesty. We were often requested to do what amounted to legal button-sorting for the Council. This seemed to apply to such a low probability event – it has not come up in three hundred and fifty years, after all – I didn’t consider it very important. Until this morning, that is.”

  Dunham considered. Gaffney appeared to be telling the truth, and Dunham had no reason to suspect otherwise.

  “Very well. I will not remove you all en bloc from the High Court. Rather, you will all be permitted to retire from the High Court, effective immediately, and collect your pensions for the rest of your lives.”

  “Or else what, Your Majesty?” Justice Oleg Popov asked.

  “I don’t want to set the precedent of removing multiple justices from the High Court, Justice Popov. But they are nominally lifetime appointments. If you will not retire, you will be executed on charges of treason and official corruption. It accomplishes my purpose either way.”

  “I believe I prefer retirement of the two alternatives you propose, Your Majesty,” Popov said.

  “Very well. Mr. Perrin here has your retirement letters to be signed. Once you have signed them, you will be driven back to the Imperial High Court building to clear out your personal effects. For anyone who prefers the other option, Captain Mercer of the Imperial Guard there can accommodate you. Good day.”

  With that, Dunham got up and walked out of the room.

  Floyd Gaffney breathed a sigh of relief. He had no doubt whatsoever his life and that of the other justices had balanced on a knife edge. He went forward to sign his retirement letter.

  Captain Mercer had no takers.

  “Be seated, Judge Simms.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  “Judge Simms, I have just received the resignations of every single member of the Imperial High Court.”

  “Indeed, Sire.”

  “Yes, and so I have a question for you, Judge Simms. Are there any members of your Shadow Court who are not up to being named justices of the High Court?”

  “No, I don’t believe so, Sire. We have a pretty good group there, and we’re all used to working with each other by now.”

  “Excellent. Then I will name you and the other members of the Shadow Court to the Imperial High Court, and you will be Chief Justice.”

  “Thank you, Sire.”

  Dunham touched an icon on the plate set into his desk. Perrin entered seconds later.

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  “Mr. Perrin, I am naming all the members of the Shadow Court to the Imperial High Court, with Judge Simms as Chief Justice. Prepare the appropriate paperwork.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  Releases

  Lieutenant Colonel Peabody was sitting in his cell in the sub-basement of the Imperial Research building when two Guardsmen came and led him to a conference room. He had been imprisoned for about a month by this point. He was asked to be seated, and the two Guardsmen took up positions in the corners behind him.

  An Imperial Guard captain entered and sat opposite him.

  “Lieutenant Colonel Peabody, you are being released. The situation that necessitated your being held has passed,” Captain Mercer said.

  “And the other Imperial Police, the squad that was picked up at the same time as me?”

  “They are also being released. Now, I need to explain something to you. The Imperial Police Headquarters is simply no longer there. While being locked up here, you missed a nasty and short civil war. The Imperial Police, under orders from some members of the Imperial Council, attacked the Imperial Palace. They succeeded in killing the Empress and members of her family. The Throne, in the person of the new Emperor, struck back. The Imperial Police and the Imperial Council are gone.”

  Peabody just stared for several seconds.

  “Gone?”

  “Killed. Destroyed. Not even the buildings remain. You are probably the highest-ranking member of the Imperial Police remaining on Sintar.”

  “Chief Stanier? General Kershaw? Colonel Patel?”

  “Dead.”

  “And you said the Empress is dead?”

  “Yes,” Mercer said darkly.

  “I’m sorry. I truly am. And you mentioned the Emperor?”

  “Emperor Trajan. Major Robert Allen Dunham.”

  “Major Dunham? The one who was at the site of the Medved murder and took me into custody? The Empress’s brother, right?”

  “That’s correct. He was the designated heir. After the attack on the palace that killed his sister, he counterattacked against the Imperial Police and the Imperial Council. The plans had been drawn up by the Empress well before the event. The Imperial Police Headquarters was bombarded from orbit by the Imperial Navy, with a follow-up attack by assault forces of the Imperial Marines. As for the Council, the Emperor imploded the building. While the Council was in session. There is nothing left of the Council but a smoking pile of rubble.”

  Mercer said that with a grim satisfaction.

  “What am I to do now, then? To whom do I report?”

  “I was told to tell you to go home and wait to be contacted. You will continue to receive your salary while you wait. The Imperial Police field offices are unaffected, but how they administratively tie into the new government has not been decided. Once it has, you will be contacted for what your new role will be. It may be an assignment to a sector field office, for example.”

  “And the other ten officers? The squad that was picked up?”

  “The same instructions for them.”

  “All right. Thank you, Captain. All in all, I’m just as glad I missed all that. What a mess.”

  “As you say, Sir.”

  Two Imperial Guardsmen came to Bruce Fairfield’s detention room and led him out to a conference room. Todd Whitmore was already there.r />
  “Hi, Bruce,” Whitmore said.

  “Hi, Todd. You’re here, too? What’s going on?” Fairfield asked.

  “Yeah, they picked me up for questioning and then held me. Couple of days now. What’s going on, I don’t know.”

  “I’ve been here almost a month.”

  “Yeah, you were missing for a while before they picked me up.”

  Of course, Fairfield had turned himself in, but he didn’t share that with Whitmore.

  At that point, Captain Mercer entered the room and sat opposite them.

  “Good morning, gentlemen. You are being released today. The circumstances that necessitated you being held for your own safety no longer apply.”

  “How do they no longer apply, Captain?” Whitmore asked. “Those are some very highly placed and powerful people.”

  “All of whom are dead, Mr. Whitmore. The Imperial Police on Sintar has been destroyed. The Imperial Council has been destroyed. Henry Wilkins – your immediate supervisor, Mr. Whitmore – has disappeared and faces execution for treason and accessory to murder. I don’t believe you have any direct superiors at the moment, until the government reorganization gets itself together.”

  “Wait. What? The Imperial Police? The Council? What happened?”

  “There was a civil war. It lasted less than twenty-four hours. The Imperial Police, at the orders of some on the Council, attacked the palace, killing, among others, the Empress. The new Emperor struck back, destroying the Imperial Police and the Imperial Council.”

  “Within twenty-four hours?”

  “Yes. The Empress had her counter-attack all planned, for when they moved against her. She died in their initial attack, however. Emperor Trajan bombarded the Imperial Police Headquarters from orbit, then followed it up with an assault by Imperial Marines. The Imperial Council and their reports died when the Emperor imploded the building while the Council was in session. Literally everyone who could constitute a threat to you – and to you, Mr. Fairfield – is dead.”