Tyrant

by Richard F. Weyand

“No, Mr. Saaret. It should be known as the Law of Ilithyia II. It was Dee’s project. It was in fact almost complete, and had already been announced while she was alive.”

  “Very well, Sire. We will explicitly call it the Law of Ilithyia II when we release it. When would you like to release it?”

  “Let me think about it, Mr. Saaret.”

  That afternoon Dunham had a meeting with the sculptor Suzanne had recommended for the statue of Dee to go on the Palace Mall, Salvatore Accorso. He also asked Amanda Peters to be there.

  It was actually their second meeting. At the first meeting, Dunham had outlined the basic concept, and Accorso was to return with renderings to refine the design. This was the first return meeting.

  “Be seated, Mr. Accorso, Ms. Peters.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  Accorso was a large man, with burly arms, the sort of man who works in stone and metal. He was in his sixties, and his full beard and hair were shot through with gray.

  “Mr. Accorso, Ms. Peters is here today because the statue itself was her idea. I wanted to make sure we availed ourselves of her judgment in the matter.”

  “Indeed, Sire.”

  Accorso looked at Peters in the other chair and nodded to her.

  “Please, Mr. Accorso, tell us where you are in your thinking at this point.”

  “Yes, Sire. First, you had mentioned an heroic statue. That implies something about its size, at least with respect to its surroundings. The Palace Mall is so big, and the buildings of such a size, a statue of normal proportions would be a mere ornament, not a centerpiece. You see?”

  “Yes, Mr. Accorso. Go on.”

  “I have done a rendering within a three-dimensional VR of the Palace Mall, Sire, in which I made a mockup of the statue adjustable in size. Mr. Perrin set up a channel for me. If you would switch to channel 915, please.”

  Dunham went into VR and was met there by Peters and Accorso. There was a fifteen-foot column with a ten-foot statue on it in the middle of the Palace Mall. They were viewing it from the top of the steps to the entrance to the Throne Room and the palace beyond.

  “You see, Sire, this size is clearly too small for the environment. The buildings are so large, and the Mall so expansive, even a ten-foot statue on a fifteen-foot pedestal, which appears quite large up close, is simply lost.”

  “Yes. I see that, Mr. Accorso.”

  “At the same time, Your Majesty, it is possible for it to be too large.”

  Accorso scaled up the statue until it was sixty feet tall, on a ninety-foot pedestal. It was still only half the height of the palace, but it was over-sized for the space.

  “Clearly, Mr. Accorso, that is too large.”

  “So let me try an experiment, Sire. Let me shrink it slowly until you think it looks correctly sized. Just call out stop when you think it is correct.”

  The statue and its pedestal gradually shrank.

  “Stop. Right there, I think, Mr. Accorso.”

  “Very good, Sire. Now let us try it from the other direction. Same exercise, in reverse.”

  The statue was abruptly back to being ten feet tall on a fifteen-foot pedestal. It gradually increased in size.

  “Stop. Again, that looks good to me, Mr. Accorso.”

  “And yet your judgment from one direction and the other is somewhat different, Sire. That is the point of the exercise. It is a matter of human perception. Let’s see now. Forty-eight feet and thirty-two feet. The average would be forty feet. Let’s call it one hundred feet total, for the status and the pedestal.”

  The statue and pedestal swelled to a hundred feet total, one-third the height of the palace, about eighty percent of the height of the nave of the Throne Room.

  “Ooo,” Peters said.

  “Yes, Ms. Peters. That is it, yes?” Accorso asked.

  “Yes.” Peters said.

  “I like that size, Mr. Accorso.”

  “Very good, Sire. Now, there are a number of other things I have experimented with. The type of pedestal, for one thing. It can be a construction, like a building or some square structure, or it can be a column.”

  Accorso flipped the VR rendering through two samples of each.

  “A column, I think, Mr. Accorso.”

  “Fluted or straight, Sire?”

  Again more samples.

  “Straight.”

  “And type of capital, Sire.”

  Accorso flipped through several samples.

  “I have always preferred the Doric, Mr. Accorso.”

  The samples were not labeled, and Accorso raised an eyebrow.

  “Very good, Sire. Simple. Elegant. Timeless. Now we move on to the statue. I have modeled a statue on the VR recording of Her Majesty at the time of her coronation. I have left off the Imperial cape, however. It tended to depersonalize her.”

  The statue, which had been a generic female figure morphed into a statue, in stone, of Dee as she was dressed at her inauguration. Dunham’s breath caught.

  “That is excellent, Mr. Accorso.”

  “Now, Your Majesty specified gold overall, but features are often lost in the gold.”

  The statue changed to all gold, and the resemblance to Dee was lost. The details had disappeared.

  “I see that, Mr. Accorso.”

  “If I could suggest a combination, Sire. Many statues in history have been trimmed out in gold, with the human features remaining in the more expressive stone.”

  The statue changed again, back to stone, but the crown and the jewels on Dee’s breast changed to gold.

  Dunham looked over to Peters. She caught his eye and nodded.

  “That’s a nice effect, Mr. Accorso. I like it.”

  “Thank you, Sire. And now for the hard part. There is always a question of what to do with the hands.”

  The statue as it stood had her hands at her sides.

  “I have some thoughts there, Mr. Accorso. In her right hand, a sword.”

  “Raised high, Sire?”

  “No, Mr. Accorso. She stayed her hand. Point down, toward the ground.”

  “Yes, Sire.”

  Accorso fiddled with the rendering, selecting pieces from some library he had. Finally, the rendering stabilized on Dee holding a sword, pointed out and to the ground.

  “In gold, Mr. Accorso.”

  The sword became gold.

  “And in her left hand, held up to her side, a book.”

  The rendering once again shifted, then stabilized with Dee holding a book in her arm.

  “Label the book THE LAW, Mr. Accorso. All capitals, in gold.”

  The changes made, Dunham studied the statue. He reached out to the channel controls in VR, and shifted their perspective to the view from the sitting room of the Imperial apartment. The interior of the palace was not rendered in the VR, but they stood on the balcony.

  “Ms. Peters?”

  “It’s beautiful, Your Majesty. Just what is needed.”

  “There, Mr. Accorso. That is the statue.”

  “Excellent, Your Majesty.”

  Dunham dropped out of VR, and Accorso and Peters followed suit.

  “That of course is a rough rendering, Sire. The finished work will be much superior.”

  “Excellent, Mr. Accorso. I look forward to seeing your detailed rendering at our next meeting, then?”

  “Yes, Sire. And I must express my gratitude for the opportunity. Commissions for monumental sculpture are rare indeed. This work will be the masterpiece of my career. And a true monument to Her Majesty.

  “Thank you, Mr. Accorso.”

  Dunham touched the icon on a plate set into his desk. Perrin appeared in the connecting doorway.

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  “Will you have Mr. Accorso escorted to the palace entrance, Mr. Perrin.”

  “Of course, Sire.”

  “Good day, Your Majesty.”

  “Good day, Mr. Accorso.”

  Accorso left with Perrin. Peters remained behind.

  “What do y
ou think, Amanda? Is it what you imagined?”

  “It’s beautiful, Bobby. She won’t be forgotten now.”

  “Mr. Saaret, we will enact the new book of laws, the Law of Ilithyia II, on the six-month anniversary of her death.”

  “About a month, then. That gives us enough time to set it all up. Very good, Sire. I will take care of it.”

  Two weeks later, Salvatore Accorso was back. Dunham had Peters attend, as before.

  “You have more detailed renderings, Mr. Accorso?”

  “Yes, Sire. In addition, I have a few additional concepts for you to consider.”

  “Let’s see the rendering first, Mr. Accorso.”

  “Of course, Sire. If you would join me in VR channel 915 as before, please.”

  Dunham, Peters, and Accorso all met back up on the top of the steps to the Throne Room.

  Accorso fiddled the controls and the new rendering appeared on its pedestal in the center of Palace Mall.

  “That is outstanding, Mr. Accorso.”

  “Thank you, Sire.”

  “And your new concepts, Mr. Accorso?”

  “A couple of different things, Your Majesty. First, such a large statues as this cannot be sculpted in the normal fashion.”

  “What is the normal fashion, Mr. Accorso?”

  “Why, to render it completely in the computer, and then have routing machines carve it out of the stone for you.”

  “And that won’t work here, Mr. Accorso?”

  “No, Your Majesty. It is a matter of the weight. How would one transport and erect such a giant monument?”

  “And the solution, Mr. Accorso?”

  “I propose printing it on-site in epoxy-crete, Sire. Now, there is one huge advantage of such an approach. Epoxy-crete can be dyed. In particular, it can be dyed ‘on-the-fly,’ as it were, which means I can render the statue in color. We can also use blue glass insets for the jewels and for her eyes.”

  Accorso adjusted the controls, and the white-stone-and-gold statue turned into a color three-dimensional rendering of Dee at her coronation.

  It hit Dunham so hard he staggered. It was Dee. It was Dee as she had looked to him, when he was kneeling at the base of the dais of the throne during the Imperial fanfare.

  “Sire, are you all right?”

  “Yes, I’m fine, Mr. Accorso. It took me by surprise is all. That is a truly splendid rendering. But will it be appropriate, as a classically inspired monument?”

  “The Greeks and the Egyptians both painted their statues at the time, Sire. We are used to seeing them without, the paint being long gone. This color, through, is molded into the epoxy-crete. It will last.”

  Dunham looked over to Peters and raised an eyebrow.

  “It’s wonderful, Sire. Just perfect.”

  “Your other concepts, Mr. Accorso?”

  “Two more things to show you, Sire. The first relates to the fact the palace faces south, and you want the statue to face the palace. This means the statue’s face will be in shadow throughout the day. I thought to take a hint from the Throne Room. Were I to mount a large metal reflector on each of the two first buttresses of the nave, one on each side, high off the ground, they could be set to create a similar effect as the Throne Room.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Let me add sunshine lighting to the scene, Sire.”

  Accorso adjusted the controls, and the overcast rendering became a bright sunny day.

  “You see the face is in shadow, Sire. Now watch as I do a time lapse, assuming the reflectors are in place. I will do from eleven-thirty to twelve-thirty in three minutes.”

  The sun moved slowly, and, as it did, converging streams of light from the reflectors shifted to light the statue. The Star of Sintar on her forehead blazed, her eyes and the jewels around her neck also shone in the sunlight, and the gold of her crown and the plastron necklace around her neck glinted as they did that day four and a half years ago. Then the light of the reflectors moved on and shifted off the statue.

  “Show us again at noon, Mr. Accorso.”

  The sun returned to its high noon position and stayed there.

  “It’s beautiful,” Peters said.

  “I have one more thing to show you, Sire.”

  Accorso adjusted the controls and shifted their position to the inside of the Throne Room, on the dais by the Throne.

  “I added the interior of the Throne Room to the three-dimensional VR model, Sire. If you would be seated, please.”

  Dunham sat down on the throne. The top of the dais was bathed in light from the sunlight above.

  “You will note that it is noon, and the Throne is bathed in light from the skylight. The position of any new Emperor on his coronation. Now behold, Your Majesty.”

  The twenty-five-foot-tall doors of the Throne Room opened to reveal the color-rendered statue of Dee framed in the arched opening, lit by the reflectors at noon.

  “All your recommendations are approved, Mr. Accorso. If you can pull this off, it will be the monument my sister deserves.”

  “Thank you, Your Majesty.”

  Dunham dropped out of VR, and Accorso and Peters followed.

  “When can you start, Mr. Accorso?”

  “I need pilings sunk, Sire, to support such a structure. After that, the printing of the statue can start immediately.”

  “And how long to complete, Mr. Accorso?”

  “Four to five months, Sire, assuming the normal sort of difficulties.”

  “It can be done, then, for the first anniversary of her death?”

  Accorso knew that date by heart. It was inscribed on the pedestal.

  “Oh, certainly, Sire.”

  “You may proceed, Mr. Accorso. All costs are on the Imperial purse, and I will double the sculptor’s commission if it is done on time.”

  “Most generous, Sire.”

  Dunham touched an icon on a plate set into his desk. Perrin appeared at the communicating door.

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  “Please escort Mr. Accorso to Mr. Iverson, Mr. Perrin. He needs some pilings sunk in the center of the Palace Mall. You may tell Mr. Iverson the work has been approved.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  “Good day, Your Majesty. Thank you.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Accorso.”

  Perrin and Accorso left.

  “There you are, Bobby,” Peters said. “No one will ever forget her now. Least of all the Emperors who accept the pledges of obedience in sight of her, her sword held aside, open to the blow, for the good of the Empire. It will be a glorious monument, and a permanent reminder.”

  The other monument to Dee’s effect on the Empire was the Law of Ilithyia II. The week before the six-month anniversary of the Council Revolt, Dunham signed the Imperial Decree enacting the new book of law as a complete replacement for all Imperial law, effective on the six-month anniversary.

  The new book of law was posted on the official Palace network site.

  Also posted, on the network site of the Bar Association of Sintar, was the six-volume ‘Understanding and Applying the New Imperial Statutes, Analysis and Discussion’ from the Bar Association of Sintar Press. This latter was offered as a subscription service, with update notices. It was, of course, free to members of the Bar Association of Sintar.

  Sales of the subscription service were brisk, as were new memberships to the BAS. There were over a trillion lawyers in the Empire, and two hundred billion of them had at least some aspect of Imperial law affecting their practice.

  Out on the Palace Mall, the pilings had been drilled and epoxy-creted into place. There was a fence around the construction site, enclosing a one-hundred-and-twenty-foot crane tower. And in the center, mounted on a boom extending from that tower, a computer-controlled machine was patiently and methodically printing the base of a pedestal.

  Proposal

  “Thank you for meeting with me, Mr. Saaret,” Darren Matson said.

  “No problem at all, Mr. Matson. Please,
go ahead.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Matson took a moment to collect his thoughts.

  “I am the department head of what we call the North-Earthward Desk of the foreign service, Mr. Saaret. We cover the galactic-north section of the border of the Empire toward Earth and the Democracy of Planets. We are separated from the Democracy by a number of smaller states, generally kingdoms, containing from a few thousand to almost ten thousand planets. We actually have no common border with the Democracy.”

  “I understand, Mr. Matson.”

  “Very well, sir. One of those kingdoms is the Kingdom of Pannia. It is composed of perhaps five thousand planets. It borders us, but does not border the Democracy, with the Autarchy of Annalia in between. The Autarchy is something of a client-state of the Democracy. They leave everybody alone, and everybody leaves them alone.

  “We have received a request from the King of Pannia for a VR meeting with the Emperor ‘to discuss matters of mutual interest.’ We have been provided no agenda beyond that rather unspecific description.”

  “What are Pannia’s relations like with its neighbors?” Saaret asked.

  “Mixed, sir. It’s a little bit of a turbulent area. Pannia’s relations with us are good at the moment, though there is some history there, but no problems for the last thirty-some years. The reigns of the last two kings, in fact. And Pannia has no problems with the Autarchy, which is under Earth’s control and does not cause trouble. Two of Pannia’s neighbor states, though – the kingdoms of Celestia and Berinia – have been trouble, and Pannia find itself hard-pressed to defend against incursions and raids by them both. Celestia is perhaps four thousand planets, and Berinia is more like thirty-five hundred. The situation there has been escalating.”

  “And they find themselves outnumbered.”

  “Yes, Sir. Against either, they would be fine.”

  “Annalia, Berinia, and Celestia,” Saaret said.

  “Yes, sir. Together we call them the ABCs.”

  “I see. And Berinia and Celestia border the Empire?”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “What are our relations with them?”

  “Frosty at best, sir. They’ve been trying to foster trouble along our border, but they have drawn back since the Emperor’s actions with regard to Wollaston and Estvia.”