EMPIRE: Renewal
Page 6
“And the various divisions, Sire? The video division? The print division?”
“All of it. Everything currently under the Imperial Press Office. Terminate all of it.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“And let General Hargreaves know I need to see him this morning. That’s all, Mr. Moody.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“General Hargreaves, Your Majesty,” Moody said, waving Hargreaves into the Emperor’s office.
“Good morning, General Hargreaves. Be seated.”
“Yes, Sire.”
The Emperor addressed the two Guardsmen in the corners of his office either side of the door to the outer office and the hallway.
“Leave us.”
The Guardsmen withdrew.
“Guard.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” the voice came from the speaker overhead.
“Suspend audio monitoring for one hour.”
“Yes, Sire.”
A soft ‘bong’ sounded from the ceiling, and a red light started flashing on the switch panel next to the door.
Hargreaves raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
“General Hargreaves, I am going to change my designation of Heir to the Throne. Did your predecessor pass on to you my previous designation of my son Jeremy as Heir?”
“Yes, Sire.”
“General Hargreaves, I’ve never told Jeremy he was my Heir, but I assume he expects it. I’ve come to the conclusion, though, that the Empire does not need another seventy-five-year-old Emperor. I think I can do better. I also think there will be a great deal of disappointment. I have four Emperor-wannabes in waiting at this point, and at least two of them are both old enough and energetic enough to consider doing something to overturn my desires. At the same time, they all live in the Imperial Residence. This creates an obvious security issue.”
“It certainly does, Sire.”
“So we need to get my family out of the Imperial Residence.”
Hargreaves relaxed a bit.
“You were afraid I wouldn’t want to take that step, General Hargreaves?”
“Yes, Sire.”
“Well, I do. About time some of them went out and did something productive for a change. Not that I’m in any position to criticize them, General Hargreaves. I’ve been a Palace rat all my life, too.”
Hargreaves smiled but said nothing. There was no question on the table.
“So, General Hargreaves, you must consider. Is it best, for security purposes, to have my family somewhere in the Palace complex, such as in apartments in the Imperial Research Building, where we can keep an eye on them or even restrict their movement? Or is it better to move them out into some condos somewhere in Imperial City, where they would be off the grounds entirely?”
“The best solution might be a mixture, Sire. For those who have government jobs in the bureaucracy, and who are going to be in the Palace complex anyway during the day, having them live here is not an extra risk, but, as you say, gives us more visibility into their other activities. For those who aren’t coming into the Palace complex to work, having them off-site is probably the better option.”
Drake nodded.
“I like that, General Hargreaves. I like it a lot. And it’s easily defensible. Palace complex apartments are for top-level employees and their families, not for hangers-on. All right, let’s plan on that then.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“Now, I want to tell them personally, General Hargreaves. How do you feel about that?”
“Concerned, Sire. This will be a big disappointment to many people, and I think I would rather you not be physically present.”
Hargreaves paused, then continued.
“We do have some conference rooms with VR projectors, Sire. Could you do it that way? I would be much happier with that.”
Drake nodded.
“Very well, General Hargreaves. It will be interesting to see what the reactions are. You might have people standing by to respond to anything that goes on.”
“Oh, we’ll treat it as if you were physically there, Sire. No reason to tip our hand at all.”
“Good. So there’s just one more item of business, General Hargreaves. I need to give you my updated assignment of my Heir. I’ll push you the document.”
Drake pushed the document to Hargreaves in VR. Hargreaves scanned it over and his eyes widened.
“Do you have any doubt that document is from me, General Hargreaves?”
“No, Sire. The crypto-signature is correct.”
“And you are prepared to defend the Throne and carry out the succession per this document?”
“Yes, Sire.”
“Any questions, General Hargreaves?”
“Yes, Sire. Does anyone else know about this?”
“No, General Hargreaves. Even Mr. Moody does not know. I prepared the document myself, and have told no one. No one at all. And you are not to tell anyone, either, until the time comes when it is necessary.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“That is all for today, General Hargreaves.”
The Imperial Press Office issued a press release that afternoon.
PRESS RELEASE
– For Immediate Release –
IMPERIAL PALACE – The Emperor Augustus VI has reorganized the Imperial Press Office. The Imperial Press Office will now be open during regular office hours, Monday through Friday. All previously scheduled Imperial Press Office events are canceled. Members of the press will no longer have any access to Imperial Park beyond normal public access.
The Historian, The Emperor, & Their Secrets
When Drake said he would give Ardmore access to all the records, at the very end of their first meeting, he hadn’t been kidding. Drake had given him access to the Emperor’s personal file system, which included access to the personal file systems of every previous Emperor, back through the last dozen Empresses of Sintar, back to when the passing of personal records from one ruler to the next was established. Ardmore now had over five centuries of the personal records of the rulers of the Empire in his archives.
Ardmore was researching this database to find out how the Four Good Emperors had chosen their Co-Consuls. Each had had several, so there were more than a dozen selections to look at. One interesting thing he discovered right away is that, when younger, the Emperors had chosen older, seasoned administrators, and when older, they had chosen younger, more active people.
Most of the Co-Consuls were men, but not all. Four of them had been women, and had also served their Emperors well.
Ardmore started collating a collection of traits of each of the Co-Consuls, building a large table from which he would try to generalize the sort of person who could make the best Co-Consul for the Emperor Augustus and his likely successor. He believed that would likely be Gail Burke.
As Ardmore collected data, he came across cryptic references to a government organization, but without many details. It was as if the references were deliberately worded to obscure it. Given that he was in the Emperors’ personal files, that was an insane level of secrecy. A bunny trail like that is tremendously alluring to an historian, and Ardmore followed it. He set search terms, refined the terms, refined them again.
Terms like SS, S6, Ashton, Conner, Gulliver, Turley, Gerry, Nick, Ann, and Paul all ended up in his search filters.
He read all the hits, and finally put the picture together.
They were in the Emperor’s private living room. They had had lunch, and audio monitoring was disabled. It was just the three of them, Drake, Ardmore, and Burke, seated in the conversation circle of the three armchairs.
“Jimmy, I’m meeting with my family next week to tell them the Throne will no longer be inherited. We found a day when most of them are in town anyway, so that’s how I picked the best time.”
Ardmore nodded.
“Makes sense, Jonah. Did General Hargreaves have any input on where they should live?”
“Yes. He thought the ones who work in the Palace complex anywa
y should live here where we can keep an eye on them, while those who don’t work here should not live in the Palace complex. No reason for them to be here at all.”
“That works, and it’s consistent with the policy of reserving apartments for staff. You already threw out a bunch of people for just being relatives of someone.”
“Exactly. I also gave him an updated Imperial Decree naming a new Heir to the Throne.”
Ardmore and Burke were both surprised to find the other glancing at them.
“Well, if you’re going to tell the family they won’t inherit the Throne, best to take care of that little detail first.”
Drake nodded.
“So how are things going with you, Jimmy? Have you found me a Co-Consul yet?”
“No, Jonah. That’s taking quite a bit of time because it’s so important a decision. We don’t want to get that one wrong. But I tripped over something else while I was researching it.”
“Something interesting?”
“Oh, yes. The Four Good Emperors all had a private intelligence service that reported outside the official bureaucracy.”
“Really.”
“Yes. And only the Emperor, the Empress, and the Co-Consul knew about it. It was completely secret. I only found out about it because I had access to your personal files, and I kept tripping over these cryptic mentions of an organization. Even then it was like pulling teeth to get anything on it. It’s still a secret, for that matter. For all the research I’ve done on the Four Good Emperors, Jonah, this is the first I’ve ever heard about it.”
“That’s amazing, Jimmy. They kept a secret, in government, for over three hundred years? I wouldn’t have believed it possible.”
“Oh, yes. It was funded out of the Emperor’s Purse, so it didn’t go through the Budgets group. It only accepted assignments directly from the Emperor, so it wasn’t run through the Projects group. It was completely off the books, in every way.”
“What was it called, Jimmy?”
“Section Six.”
“Section Six?”
“Yes. The Imperial Police at that time had five sections, and this was called Section Six. But it wasn’t run out of Imperial Police headquarters, either. They knew nothing about it.”
“Imperial Police has something like ten sections now, I think, Jimmy.”
“Yes, it does, Jonah. To investigate things that will soon not be against the law. We should probably discard all that, as well. But back to Section Six. There were a number of things that happened that now make a lot more sense. When some situation that was going very badly suddenly broke in the Emperor’s favor. I was under the impression the Four Good Emperors were unbelievably lucky, among their other talents. But it wasn’t luck. It was Section Six.”
“Can you give some examples, Jimmy?”
“Yes. The Succession Crisis of 64 GE? That was a Section Six operation.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No. The widowed Empress Amanda conspired with Section Six to hide the legitimate Heir to avoid civil war, then convinced the Emperor Nerva to step aside in his favor.”
“Did Emperor Nerva know about Section Six, Jimmy?”
“No, Jonah. Empress Amanda kept it secret, and used it to unseat him in favor of the legitimate Heir. And then there was the Earth Sector Crisis of 54 GE.”
“I only know a little about that one, Jimmy. It was three hundred years ago, after all. Corrupt sector governor, wasn’t it? Ran a sector-wide corruption ring.”
“Yes, Jonah. And it was Section Six operatives who unearthed the ring and then rounded it up.”
“How did they round it up? You have a few operatives round up a corruption ring that includes a sector governor and multiple provincial governors? Doesn’t sound possible, Jimmy.”
“They coordinated with the Imperial Guard. One of the Section Six operatives was a former general from the Imperial Marines. Emperor Trajan reactivated her commission, made her Imperial Guard, and then activated the Imperial Guard’s reserves, which are the Imperial Marines. In fact, he made her Earth Sector Governor and Sector Commander of all Imperial forces in the sector.”
“I remember that woman. Tunney, or something like that, wasn’t it?”
“Ann Turley. Yes, Jonah. She was a Section Six operative. In fact, she became the head of Section Six after that, along with her partner and husband, a fellow named Paul Gulliver. I don’t know much about him. Gulliver seems to have disappeared from history completely.”
“Where was Section Six located, Jimmy? Where did they have their offices?”
“They didn’t, Jonah. It was all run in VR. Nobody even knew who the head of the organization was. Operatives got assignments in VR messages, and reported back the same way.”
“That’s incredible.”
“One more incredible thing out of that whole Earth Sector Crisis, Jonah. There was one other Imperial Guard member on the planet Dalnimir, where the major action was. A captain who activated a battalion of Imperial Marines to go and rescue General Turley, who was operating under an alias and had been taken captive by the conspirators. That Imperial Guard captain’s name was Daniel Whittier Parnell.”
“Who became the Emperor Trajan II.”
“Yes. Emperor Trajan was so impressed by his actions during the crisis, he pulled Parnell back here to the Imperial Palace, where he stood watch over the Emperor during all his most confidential meetings. It was a ten-year apprenticeship to being Emperor.”
Burke’s head spun. Wait. What? But Ardmore was the Heir.
“Yes, Jimmy. That’s why he was so well-prepared, compared to Emperor Nerva, who had no idea how to rule the Empire. We’ve talked about that.”
“That pattern was followed again and again, by Trajan, Trajan II, and Antoninus.”
“And then Augustus the Great broke the cycle and left the Throne to his son, who was a lifelong bureaucrat.”
“Exactly, Jonah. That’s where the Empire broke. Right there, at that moment.”
“Well, we’re getting it back on track again, Jimmy.”
Both men glanced at Burke, who couldn’t contain herself any longer.
“But wait,” Burke said. “Your Majesty. He’s the Heir, right? Dr. Ardmore.”
“No,” Ardmore said. “You are, Captain Burke. The Four Good Emperors all had military experience when young.”
“But, but–“
Ardmore and Burke both turned to Drake, who was chuckling.
“The Four Good Emperors, or their Empresses, also all had degrees in history, Jimmy.”
Ardmore and Burke didn’t say anything, and Drake sighed.
“You see, you two, the problem I face. Military experience and a rigorous education in history. Those are the keys, from all the work you’ve done, Jimmy. But my military is depleted, its traditions destroyed. It reports now through the sector governors, and its loyalty to the Throne is dilute, at best. And the censorship imposed by my predecessors has gutted the teaching of history. There is no one in place now to learn from the mistakes of the past.
“But I have crafted a solution. On the one hand, here, in Captain Burke, I have the pure military tradition of the past. Someone whose family loyalty to the Throne extends in unbroken line back past the corruption, to the reign of Augustus the Great. I told General Hargreaves that Captain Burke could stand watch in my confidential meetings because she would rather throw herself from the roof of the Palace than betray that family legacy.
“That’s true, isn’t it, Captain Burke?”
“Yes, Sire. Absolutely.”
Drake nodded.
“And on the other hand, here, in Dr. Ardmore, I have the one person who truly does understand the history of the Empire. Who dedicated his life to figuring out what went wrong and documenting it, despite no small danger to himself for daring to tell the Emperor he had no clothes. Who knows what the Empire could be, because he knows what it has been in the past. Who would spare no personal expense or risk to re-craft the Empire in the shape of it
s past glory.
“That’s true as well, isn’t it, Jimmy?”
“Yes, Jonah. I had expected to tutor Captain Burke in the history she needed to rule effectively.”
Drake shook his head.
“That’s not enough. That depth of knowledge of history can’t be imparted in a few years. The Four Good Emperors made a lifetime study of history, continuing their reading and research throughout their reigns. I’ve gone back looking through their files, and that much is clear.
“So neither of you is sufficient. At the same time, either of you is head and shoulders above any other candidate. What I really need is both of you on the Throne, so that is exactly what I have decided to do.”
Ardmore and Burke looked at each other, puzzled, then back to Drake.
“I am making you co-rulers of the Empire – Emperor and Empress Regnant. I checked. There are precedents, the most well-known one being William and Mary. In England, I think it was.
“The public will assume you’re a married couple, but that’s not really required in private. What is necessary is that the Throne have both your experiences, that you work together and cooperatively to rule the Empire.”
“Sire, I don’t know what to say,” Burke said.
“I wasn’t actually going to tell either of you yet, but Jimmy here gave me the perfect segue. Speaking of which, Captain Burke, now that you are a part of our little cabal, when we are alone in the Imperial Residence, you are Gail, that big fellow there is Jimmy, and my name is Jonah.”
“Sire, I can’t,” Burke said.
“An Imperial Guard captain, and you can’t follow the Emperor’s orders? Tsk, tsk.”
Drake chuckled.
“Gail, you and Jimmy and I will remake the Empire. And General Hargreaves now knows who my Heirs are. There is no issue there. But we have to be able to conspire together without all the formality.”