My Friend the Emperor

by William Lee Gordon

  We had a very enjoyable evening. I was still getting used to the food but I was also starting to realize I might be able to survive very well without the carbohydrate pastes and gruel that I’d grown up with.

  It turns out that Jimmy worked for a construction crew that was building new homes in another part of the city. Sally was a clerk at something called an insurance company.

  “And you can afford to live like this?” I hoped I didn’t sound too skeptical.

  “I’m not sure what you mean by like this, but yeah, this is our life and we’re comfortable with it.”

  “Please understand,” I said. “I’m not trying to belittle you. You have a lifestyle far better than what I did when I was growing up. I was always proud of our vid center, and we were excited when we got it, but it wasn’t even holographic,” I admitted.

  “You’re impressed by that old unit?” Sally asked. She looked around somewhat sheepishly and said, “We have newer ones in our bedroom and the kid’s rooms.”

  ΔΔΔ

  That evening back in my hotel room I pulled out the net access device.

  If my access to information was being restricted I couldn’t discern how. It seemed I could look up anything. As a matter of fact the biggest problem I had was deciding which questions to ask.

  From what I could see Barina had been telling us the truth. The wealthy on Gallo and other worlds of the Meri Acá did live a much richer lifestyle than what we’ve been seeing. To say that it was all a little hard for me to believe would be an understatement but deep down I knew it was real.

  I couldn’t figure out how they pulled it off. How did this society become so rich that even the poor had a better lifestyle than what we did? It looks like their technology is slightly ahead of ours but I still don’t think that explains the economic disparity.

  I discovered that the Meri Acá had no royal family or supreme leader or single ruling class. As a matter of fact, the Meri Acá wasn’t like any type of government I’d ever heard of… It was a set of principles; it was an idea.

  When new planets join the association of the Meri Acá they agreed to follow a written set of restrictions that was different than anything I’d ever heard of.

  The Empire had a Constitution; we’d studied it extensively at The Academy. It outlined the rights and ownership of the Royal Family and limited the ability of planets and individuals to supersede that authority. It clearly spelled out the obligations that everyone had to the Empire and the special privileges granted to Citizens.

  As we’d always been taught it was just and fair. The Empire granted us safety and protection. Violent acts by governments or individuals were prohibited. Citizens were given greater responsibility and therefore awarded greater rewards, but that was only fair.

  The Meri Acá was based on a totally different mindset.

  Here, there was a Constitution but it didn’t spell out the rights of government. It didn’t spell out restrictions on individuals. It was just the opposite.

  The Constitution of the Meri Acá spelled out the rights of individuals and restricted governments, both planetary and interplanetary, from interfering with those rights.

  It sounded insane.

  But did it? I’d always been so gung ho on the Empire. I’d always put it first in my thoughts and dreams. We’d always been taught that anything less would lead to chaos. That absence of a strong government would lead to slavery, that the strong would always dominate the weak. That the government was needed to keep the playing field level.

  I’d always bought into that. I don’t and never have liked bullies. The thought of people ruling by force turned my stomach. It was as bad as… As when Lewinsky had put me in the hospital following graduation and had his family blackball me from civil service.

  Or like when Monica had been exiled to IS 417.

  Or like when the grand Duchess Tauri destroyed an entire city.

  All of a sudden I was confused.

  But if the government didn’t have control of our economy how would goods get produced? How would food get brought into the cities? How would everything be coordinated? How would people survive?

  I remembered the shopping malls and the clean stores…

  People here seemed to be cooperating with each other because they… wanted to.

  ΔΔΔ

  “It’s because they want to earn more money,” explained Monica.

  It was the next morning and she had invited me over to her suite for breakfast. Apparently room service meant that they would prepare your food and bring it to you.

  “How much money will they be permitted to earn?” I asked.

  “You’re still not getting it, Jac. There’s no one to give or deny permission. They are totally free to choose how much they work, what kind of work they do, and to pursue as much income as their skills and labor can provide them.”

  “But if someone makes more that means somebody else must earn less, right?” I insisted.

  “You know more about economics than I do but that doesn’t sound right to me. Back on my home world the harder I worked the better the life I had. The more time I spent hunting and the better I got at it the better we ate; the more time we spent gathering and chopping wood the warmer we slept. No one else had to go hungry or be cold, it was just a matter of how hard we wanted to work.”

  I knew there was something wrong with that analogy but I couldn’t put my finger on it. In addition, I couldn’t figure out how Johnny buying a store kept anyone else from making money.

  “But that can’t work on a massive scale,” I persisted.

  “Are you sure? It seems to be working here,” she responded.

  When Barina joined us a couple of hours later I asked her about it.

  “I think you’re confusing a closed economy with an open economy,” she responded.

  When I signaled I didn’t understand she continued, “Real economies are open, meaning that new wealth is constantly being created. You don’t have to take somebody else’s wealth to get richer, you just have to help create more wealth.”

  “But the Empire is a closed economy,” I protested.

  “No, it just seems that way. Think about it. Your planet, Lightspar, constantly pays tribute in the form of taxes and profits to the Empire. Very little of that comes back. Yet you still have money on Lightspar; you never run out. You never get ahead either because the Empire keeps draining off the gain; but all real economies are constantly creating new wealth.”

  “But who controls how much wealth is created?” I asked.

  “Human nature. When everyone’s working for their own best interest they always have incentive to produce more and better.”

  “Then what if someone is unwilling or unable to produce anything?” I asked. “What happens to those people?”

  “Those are two very different situations,” Barina said. “For those unable to work, for those unable to produce anything it’s important that a society have an ethic of charity. But for those that are unwilling to work it’s just as important that society have no sympathy.

  “Knowing which is which is always the trick and is the reason big government can’t possibly implement charity or determine who is deserving of help – those decisions need to be made on a local level where everyone knows the people involved.

  “We actually experimented with this; it took us hundreds of years to get it right. If we don’t separate out the unwilling from the unable, if we simply provide charity to both, we incentivize a destructive trend in society. We subsidize those that would purposely take more than what they earned. We legitimize the theft of wealth from others. Every time we’ve tried that our society regresses.

  “We finally figured out that a rising tide lifts all boats. In other words, if we allow the economy to grow naturally that progress raises the standard of living for everybody – including the poor.

  “Historically, our greatest periods of progress, of economic growth, and of improved standards of living, come from eras of grea
test personal responsibility.”

  “But how do you prevent people from taking advantage of each other?” I asked.

  “We have laws that enforce ethical standards. But there is a tremendous danger in allowing the government to protect us with regulations. If you give government power it will want more. To have a free society, to have a truly prosperous society, people must be protected from government. That’s why most of us believe in the Meri Acá.

  Could all this be true? I thought about how hard my mom had always worked to provide for me. And yes, now I was sending one of my Citizens stipends to her so she was being rewarded for her hard work, but what about the millions on Lightspar that weren’t?

  What would life for everyone on my planet be like if the Empire wasn’t siphoning off our wealth? I had a lot to think about.

  Chapter thirty-seven

  LEUTENANT MONICA STILES

  Running Away

  Monica had no problem at all with the thought of running from the Empire.

  Any sense of patriotic loyalty that she had once felt had long been burned out. She’d been prepared to have the Captain drop her off on some distant planet to make her own anonymous way. If the whole ship wanted to do the same thing… well, there were certain people that she wouldn’t mind having around.

  It’d been a long skip into the Hades Forest. She wasn’t sure but she suspected that even Prince Acamar’s flagship didn’t have the ability to skip so far so fast. It was yet another little mystery that made up the Halcyon.

  One mystery she was bound and determined to solve, and she knew just who to get the answers from. Whether that person was willing to help her or not might be a different story.

  She found her alone in the Captain’s cabin.

  “Hello Consuelo, may I come in?”

  “The Captain’s not hear Monica…”

  “I know. It’s you that I’d like to talk to.”

  Consuelo waved her in to a chair and took another close by.

  “How can I help you?” she asked.

  Monica laughed. “There are a thousand questions that I’d love to ask but most of them wouldn’t be proper.”

  Now it was Consuelo’s turn to laugh. “Well then, let me thank you in advance for your discretion.”

  Monica dove in, “But there are some things I feel I need to know.”

  Consuelo’s look invited her to continue.

  “The day the IDF came for you in this cabin… Were they coming for you personally?”

  “I truly don’t know,” she responded. “That’s a question I’d also like to know the answer to.”

  After a moment Monica continued, “How did the trooper miss you? He must have have walked right by you!”

  This time Consuelo paused for a long moment.

  “I suppose now it won’t make any difference since we’re heading for the Meri Acá worlds anyway,” she said. “In some areas the technology of the Meri Acá worlds is more advanced than the Empire. Camouflage is one of those areas.”

  Monica’s eyebrows raised in a questioning look but she didn’t say anything.

  Consuelo said, “Let me show you.”

  She stood and walked to the nearest wall. Placing her back to it she then… Disappeared.

  No, that wasn’t exactly correct. The wall looked funny, somewhat distorted.

  “You just moved your arm!” Monica suddenly exclaimed.

  Consuelo reappeared and said, “Yes, movement shatters the illusion. The lighting in here is also a little low and that helps. It also only works in the visible light spectrum; masking sound and heat would require additional tech.”

  “And the Meri Acá has that tech?” Monica prodded.

  Consuelo just smiled.

  “Well,” she said after a moment. “I’m glad you had it. Is that why you always wear that same black outfit? Is it your uniform?”

  Consuelo laughed again. “I wouldn’t call it that but yes, the tech is incorporated in the clothing. Besides, I think I look good in black.”

  ΔΔΔ

  Monica found herself looking forward to experiencing the worlds of the Meri Acá. The idea that their technology might be superior didn’t scare her; it thrilled her.

  The first world they were to visit was called Gallo. It was technically a moon but that hardly mattered. It was also, apparently, on the edge of Meri Acá territory. The truth be told Monica was just ready for something different.

  It was happy times all around when they landed the IDF troop transport and repatriated the former prisoners. The twins, Jenna and Kenna, both waved enthusiastically at her before running off and getting lost in the crowd.

  They had made a point of saying goodbye to her earlier that morning. It had been a little emotional and Monica realized she was going to miss them.

  They had also slipped a message into her hand.

  It said, Take care of Jac; you’re going to need him.

  What did that mean? Of course she would take care of him; it was her duty and he was a friend. But didn’t they mean he was going to need her? There was no understanding the mind of a 14-year-old.

  ΔΔΔ

  The next few days were a whirlwind of experiences.

  Barina had been a wealth of information. The Captain was being mysterious about his multi-day disappearance but Monica suspected she knew exactly what it was all about, and her name was Consuelo.

  If you stripped away all the reputation, the gossip, the wild stories, and the carefully built up façade that the Captain had built up it was obvious what the truth was. Monica knew two people crazy in love with each other when she saw them.

  The only thing she couldn’t figure out is what had kept the Captain away from her for so long?

  A person that was much harder to understand was Jac.

  In many ways she thought him to be brilliant. But he was also stubborn and hardheaded – traits her father had often accused her of.

  She was fully ready to accept the Meri Acá society whereas Jac seemed to be struggling with it. Maybe it’s because she had been raised in the backwoods of a frontier planet and he had been raised in the big city, but the idea of people taking care of themselves and being responsible for themselves was something she welcomed.

  The shopping mall had been wonderful. She too had been surprised to learn that these weren’t government shops and that it wasn’t a special holiday. The people around them were obviously happy and prosperous… but Jac seemed determined to find the dark underbelly.

  By the time the Captain finally returned Monica had decided she was excited about the future. They could all blend away into the Meri Acá society and let the Empire take care of itself.

  And she didn’t for a moment think that it might be her that was the naïve one.

  Chapter thirty-eight

  ENSIGN JACOBY NICOLAY

  Decision Time

  When the Captain returned Consuelo was still with him.

  I don’t know why that surprised me. I think I’d just assumed that he’d snuck off for a couple of days to say goodbye to her but at any rate they had returned together.

  They were both already back aboard the Halcyon when the Captain called Monica and myself and asked us to join them. We said our goodbyes to Barina, checked out of the hotel, and caught a shuttle up to the ship.

  The four of us were in the living area of the Captain’s cabin. Consuelo and the Captain sat next to each other on the sofa and Monica and I each had our own comfortable chairs.

  “We have some decisions to make,” the Captain said. “I know we started this conversation before but now you’ve both had a chance to see a little of what the Meri Acá can offer. It would be a new life and I imagine most of us would go our own ways, but there are a lot of people on this crew that deserve a fresh start and this might be the best way to give it to them.”

  I was starting to get a knot at the bottom of my stomach.

  As amazing as the Meri Acá society had been and as curious as I was as to know how they had ach
ieved everything, I hadn’t been able stop thinking about the people of the Empire.

  I’m not talking about the Emperor’s family, or the admirals, or any of the Citizens for that matter. I was thinking about people like my mother. The people of Lightspar and all the other thousand suns of the Empire. I realized now that their lives could be so much better - and we were the only ones that could make that happen.