by D. J. Holmes
“Us? You mean…” Fairfax responded.
James nodded.
Fairfax looked around the large reception room. “The majority I’d guess. What are you thinking?...” Before he answered, James looked around to see who was nearby once again. Clearly his action gave away his answer. “You don’t mean?... You do!” Fairfax responded. “You’re the one who has been pushing for delay after delay.”
“Things have changed,” James replied as he returned his gaze to Fairfax. “This is the only way I can see us getting the forces together in time. It is now or never. Gather everyone upstairs. Including Senator Nicholls. We’ll slip away one at a time. But we need to talk now, tonight.”
“Nicholls?” Fairfax asked. He shrugged before James answered. “All right, I hope you know what you’re doing.” He looked to Christine and nodded at her. “We’ll pass the word. Make sure you are the last to leave, otherwise people might get suspicious.”
James bit back a sigh. The last thing he wanted to do now was carry on more meaningless conversations with well-wishers. Yet he knew he needed to. “Go and see to your forces,” he said as he touched Gupta’s elbow. Do it quietly but start getting them ready. Scott, if you would, can you join us upstairs?”
“Of course Admiral,” Scott replied.
James smiled at her. At least she wasn’t calling him your Highness. It was a small thing, but it meant a lot to him. He was still her Admiral. And that is what I am, he said to himself as he imagined what was to come in the next few days. One way or another, he was going to answer the Alliance’s request for help. He had to. He had sworn an oath to protect Humanity at all costs.
Chapter 30
Even to this day the names of all the co-conspirators are not known to us. They have been lost to history.
-Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD.
“Thank you for coming,” James said as he slipped into one of Badminton House’s upstairs drawing rooms half an hour later. He briefly surveyed the room to see who was there. Along with Christine, Scott and Fairfax, President Koroylov, Andréa, Senator Nicholls and Admiral Russell, who had been recently appointed to head up what remained of the fleet’s intelligence division, were all present. “You all know each other well. With the exception of Senator Nicholls, you are all intimately familiar with what we’re about to discuss. I’ve had a couple of conversations with the Senator over the last month. So she is not completely in the dark. Thank you for coming Senator,” James said as he nodded to her. “I know you have not made any commitment to what we talked about one way or another, but we cannot wait any longer. After you hear what Commander Scott is about to share, we must make a decision. If you would Commander?” James finished as he nodded to Scott.
“As you all know,” Scott began, “we sent the first FTL transmission to Varanni Prime late yesterday evening. Less than an hour ago, we received a reply…” As Scott explained exactly what had happened, James watched the faces of those in the group, particularly Senator Nicholls. There was a sense in which Fairfax’s constitution simply sought to extend the constitution of United Colonial states to every Human colony. There were one or two key differences, but, overall, there was a lot of similarity. Yet agreeing to it would greatly reduce the political power of what remained of the American parties, not to mention the individual power each American colony had. They would be one colony in more than a hundred, rather than just twenty. But we have no other choice, James thought, she has to see that.
“So…” James said when Scott finished her explanation. “The situation is dire. Yet there is a glimmer of hope. What Becket has asked us to do may be impossible. But we have to try. The war could turn on our success or failure. And…” James added as he caught Nicholls’ eye, “time is of the essence. I do not believe the Emergency Council will agree to dispatching all of our forces. And even if they could be convinced, it may take weeks to bring them around. If we are to respond to this imminent threat, Humanity must do so as one. One people, under one constitution, working towards one goal. Admiral Gupta needs one week, perhaps two to get her forces ready. Before then I believe we need to form our Empire. This fleet must be sent out to war by our Emperor. We must dispatch all the warships we have. There can be no dissention within the navy. Not now. If the council is split, some nations may refuse to send their ships. That is a risk we cannot allow.”
James had to stop himself from rolling his eyes when he looked to Fairfax, despite the gravity of the situation, the former Prime Minister was giddy with excitement. Andréa and Scott were both nodding while Koroylov looked deep in thought. “I believe you are right,” Christine said, James wasn’t surprised she was the first to speak. “If we do not try to aid the Alliance forces now, we may never get the opportunity to do so again. We cannot take the risk that the Emergency Council will obstruct us from doing what needs to be done. It was formed to serve our people, it’s time has now come to an end.”
“The suddenness of this will be more of a shock to my people than I would have liked,” Koroylov said. “We imagined we would still have months to lay the groundwork.” He paused for a moment and then nodded. “But this is what must be done.”
“So,” James said as he looked to Nicholls. “Britain, China and Russia are willing to form this Empire and adopt the constitution you have seen. Where does the United Colonial States stand?”
Nicholls shook her head. “This is too much for one person to decide. I cannot speak on behalf of my people. We are a republic. You are asking us to accept what amounts to a constitutional monarchy. Our country was born out of rebellion against such a system.”
“For centuries your presidents have gathered more and more power into the executive branch,” Christine countered. “This constitution gives no more authority to the Emperor than your constitution does to your president. In fact, in certain areas, the Emperor will have less authority. It will be the Senate, Representatives and Servants who wield the legislative power. For the sake of unity, could your people not entertain such a change? It will be no small change for my own nation.”
“And for mine,” Koroylov added.
“I don’t know,” Nicholls said as she shook her head again. “I understand why you want to do it now, I see what needs to be done with our fleet. But this constitution? I don’t know.”
“No one is asking you to know for sure,” Fairfax said in a far gentler tone than James was used to hearing. “You’re right, this is not a decision for one person. Your people deserve the right to decide for themselves. But that is what we wish to offer them. Has James spoken about how he insists this constitution be adopted?”
“Yes, we discussed it briefly,” Nicholls replied.
“All we are asking you to commit to is holding a vote on Earth. This is Tuesday, we can schedule the vote in each of our nations for Saturday. What we’re asking tonight is will you stand with us? Each of us are prepared to go before our people and support this constitution and our need to adopt it. Can you at least support the need for your people to consider it democratically? Surely that is the best approach. It should not be up to you to decide whether the United Colonial States does or does not adopt this. Only your people can decide.”
“I see the argument you are trying to make,” Nicholls replied. “I understand it. But I am still unsure. I will need time to consider it. I cannot just make this decision in the space of ten minutes.”
“If time is what you need, then we will give you it,” James said quickly. If there was one thing he had learnt over the last several months, it was that pushing people into a corner rarely got the results you wanted. “At least as much as we can. I have my weekly Chairman’s briefing scheduled for tomorrow. With Christine and Koroylov’s agreement, I intend to address our people and explain just what has happened in Alliance space and what our response must be. You may have until then to decide.”
“Thank you,” Nicholls said as she stood. “I will give this decision the thought that it deserves. I’m sure you wish to discuss t
hings further and it would not be appropriate for me to remain. Rest assured, I will keep your confidence.”
“Thank you Senator,” James said as he stood and held out a hand to Nicholls. “I sincerely hope we will have your support tomorrow.”
“We will see,” Nicholls responded.
“Well,” Christine said after the door closed behind Nicholls, “I think that went as well as we could have expected.”
“Should we have let her leave?” Koroylov responded in a very different tone. “If news of this gets out before we are ready, we could all find ourselves in a spot of bother, as you Brits would say.”
“She will not betray us,” James said with as much confidence as he could muster. “I’ve met with her twice before to talk things through. She is more sympathetic than she appeared tonight. At the very least, I think she respects our separate spheres of responsibility. If the three of us wish to suggest this to our people, she will not stand in the way.”
“Okay then,” Fairfax said as he clapped his hands. “We have a lot to plan and so very little time to do it in. Let’s get to work.”
Twice over the next hour and a half James had to slip out of the meeting to show his face at the reception. He moved through the groups of people, stopping here and there to say hello and then returned to the planning session. “We have just come to the issue of who will be nominated as Emperor,” Fairfax said when James returned for the second time. “If you are going to propose this new constitution tomorrow at your briefing, we will have to be agreed on whose name will be going forward.”
Here goes, James thought. “I thought we had already discussed this? Have any of you changed your minds?” Fairfax, Christine and Koroylov all shook their heads. “Then I will address this tomorrow as well. You can leave the specific wording in my hands. I want to speak from the heart.”
Christine’s eyebrows rose in surprise and Fairfax’s grin filled his cheeks. Even Koroylov sat forward in his chair. “So you’ve accepted the suggestion we have made to you?” he asked. “You did not seem very keen on the idea.”
“Commodore Becket’s news has relieved us of the opportunity to debate this in depth,” James replied. “I have thought over the arguments you shared with me before. I have made my decision.”
“Then that takes care of that,” Fairfax said as he slapped his thigh. “I thought it was going to be the most difficult item. Very well, let’s move on. We need to have a plan in place for how we are going to actually hold the votes. We’ll have to get our citizens on Mars and the orbital habitats to vote as well. The Emperor must be the Emperor of the entire system or we’ll start to run into legal and jurisdiction problems from the get-go.”
James nodded and let the conversation continue to flow. Here and there he joined in, but he also watched Christine closely. If anyone was going to catch on to how careful he had been with his words, she was the one. Yet she showed no sign of questioning him. She was too engrossed in everything else. “All right,” James said forty minutes later. “It’s getting late and we have a big day tomorrow. I think we have covered everything. We can meet again before the Emergency Council meeting and then I will address Earth’s populace.”
“You plan to go ahead with the Emergency Council meeting?” Fairfax asked. “Isn’t our entire plan to circumvent them?”
“They still deserve to know what’s about to happen,” James responded. “We are going to want their support sooner or later. At the very least I can let them know what I’m about to do.”
“You will have a revolt on your hands,” Koroylov complained. “Better to let them find out like everyone else. They will oppose us otherwise.”
“Don’t worry about that,” James said with a smile. “I have an idea.”
Koroylov shrugged, “Okay, if you say so.”
“Well, until tomorrow then ladies and gentlemen,” James said as he stood and moved over to Fairfax to shake his hand first. “Scott and Andréa, do you mind waiting behind for a moment?” he asked as his guests left. From the look on Christine’s face James suspected she wanted to stay behind and chat to him as well. “Tomorrow,” he assured her with a smile. “There is something else I need to take care of.”
“Tomorrow then,” Christine replied as she delicately shook his hand and then stepped back and gave him a small courtesy, “your Highness.”
Rather than complain, James let her go and waited until the door to the drawing room closed before he spoke again. “Do you have the latest polling data I asked for?”
“I do,” Andréa replied as she pulled a datapad out of her pocket and handed it to James. “It’s all on here. No one will be able to argue with your choice. So, you still plan to go ahead with it?”
James nodded, “Unless you have any new arguments to persuade me otherwise?”
“Emperor does have a nice ring to it,” Andréa responded. “It’s a step even above King, you’re not growing to like this authority business?” She quickly continued before James could growl at her. “All right then, I suppose Admiral is a better fit anyway.”
“It certainly is,” Scott agreed. “We’re going to need you out there. Now more than ever.”
*
Badminton House, 8 AM
“I appreciate you all agreeing to meet me here,” James said to the gathered members of the Emergency Council. “I’m sure you can imagine I had a late night and this news demanded our immediate attention this morning. Some of you are already aware, but I want Admiral Gupta to bring us all up to speed. Late yesterday we received an FTL reply from Varanni Prime. The news Commodore Becket transmitted to us is not good. Admiral,” James finished as he nodded to Gupta.
After Gupta had finished explaining things, James picked up the sealed envelope in front of him. “You all have one of these sitting in front of you, you may open it now. It contains how I as King of the British Star Kingdom, Empress Na of China, President Koroylov of the Russian Star Federation…” pausing ever so slightly, James levelled his gaze at Nicholls. She gave him a small slight nod that brought a smile to his lips, “and Senator Nicholls of the United Colonial States intend to respond to this new development.” With looks varying from concern to confusion, the council members lifted the envelopes and opened them “I will give the rest of you a few minutes to read over what is before you and then, if any of you wish to join your names to ours, you may do so.”
“What is the meaning of this?” Bernard asked a second later as he threw the printed document onto the conference table. “An Empire!” he shouted. His voice continued to rise. “You intend to declare yourself Emperor of our entire species! You’ve only been king for a day! This is preposterous!”
James held his tongue. He wanted to make it clear to the Emergency Council that he wasn’t acting alone. Christine quickly came to his aid, “If you would calm down Councilor and take the time to read the document, you’ll see that becoming Emperor is not a way to seize power. It is a way to serve our people. We have worked on this constitution for many months. It is designed to take the best of our collective governmental systems and provide something that will allow us to unite in a way our species never has before. James is not seizing power, he is giving his life in service to our peoples.”
“You can twist it whatever way you like,” Bernard spat as he snatched up the constitution again. “But I know what’s going on here.”
“Just read it and then complain if you still wish to do so,” Koroylov growled. “I think we’ve all had enough of your whining for now.”
Bernard’s eyes widened as he swung around to Koroylov. The Russian President had never spoken to him quite like that before. James had to fight back a smile when Bernard saw the threat in Koroylov’s eyes. Without another word, he looked back down at the constitution.
In silence the Committee members read through the proposed constitution. Then, one by one they set it down. “I’m not interested in an argument or a debate,” James said. “The situation has passed that. It is my intention to bring
this constitution to the people of Earth today. I’m simply informing you about this out of respect for your positions. If any of you wish to join Empress Na, President Koroylov, Senator Nicholls and myself when we go public, you may. Otherwise, you may wait to have your say in the public sphere when we are done. I do want to make this clear however, the Emperor’s first act in office will be to dispatch our fleet to New Berlin to drive out the Karacknids. Then we will head to Holstein. The news from Varanni Prime demands that we act in this fashion. I will not let anything stand in my way.”
“So if you don’t get what you want, you will take the fleet anyway?” Bernard asked, his disapproval evident in his tone.
“Like I said,” James replied without showing any emotion. “I will not let anything stand in my way.”
“Spoken like a true dictator,” Bernard replied.