The Lost Stars: Tarnished Knight

“I don’t let someone else resolve issues in order to make it easier for me,” Drakon snapped at Togo.

Iceni kept her expression unrevealing as she watched Drakon. “They can’t stay here, and neither you nor I is willing to murder families en masse. That leaves one option. We put them on a ship and send them somewhere else. Back to Prime, perhaps.”

Morgan finally spoke. “Waste a ship on that? We’d never see it again.”

“That is likely,” Togo said. “It is not a cost-free option.”

“They’re all going to want vengeance,” Morgan insisted. “When you kill a nest of snakes, you kill them all. Otherwise, the young and the others will come after you someday.”

“That option,” Drakon said, “is not under consideration.”

Iceni nodded. “I agree.”

“General—” Morgan began.

“That is all,” Drakon said.

As Morgan sat back, her expression gone impassive, Colonel Malin nodded toward Iceni. “I believe that the ship suggestion may be our best option, especially if we contrive to impress the snake families with our military strength before they depart. C-625 will carry news of the forces here when it left. If we wait until C-625 departs, we could fool the snake family members into believing that our mobile forces have received new reinforcements and are far stronger than they are. That is what Prime would believe.”

“Planted disinformation?” Iceni said. “Under cover of a humanitarian action? I like the way that you think, Colonel.”

Togo made a small gesture of agreement. “One merchant ship would be a small price to pay for misleading the Syndicate government as to our strength.”

Left unsaid was something they all knew. With so many star systems spinning out of Syndicate control, the government on Prime had to choose which ones were marked for reconquest. Midway, with its hypernet gate, its access to multiple star systems, and its connection to space controlled by the enigma race, would be a priority for such a counterattack. It wasn’t a matter of whether or not Prime would send an attack force to try to reassert its authority, but when that would happen.

“It sounds like we’re agreed, then. Work with CEO Iceni’s staff on that plan,” Drakon ordered Malin.

“President Iceni,” she corrected with a small smile.

“President?” Drakon’s mouth twisted in a half smile in return. “What exactly does that mean?”

“Whatever I want it to mean.”

His smile grew slightly. “Good. Get rid of the Syndicate baggage once and for all.”

Colonel Malin rested his arms on the table, gazing at Iceni and Drakon. “That raises a topic I think we must address before it is forced upon us. We have all seen the crowds. They are happy today. The measures we have taken have maintained order. But tomorrow, they will wake up with hangovers, squint at the rising sun, and wonder what under that sun has changed.”

Morgan was now displaying disdain with the same lack of sound or movement.

“What are you suggesting?” Iceni asked.

Malin swept one arm to encompass the outside. “We all know how bad things were under the Syndicate Worlds. Only the highest echelons really benefited. For the vast majority of citizens, there was no sense of ownership. The need for security drove compliance with the government more than anything else, but that compliance went only as far as it had to go. Do I need to cite the estimated numbers for losses due to corruption and waste? How inefficient and unproductive our manufacturing and fabrication facilities often are? If this star system is to prosper, we need to get the citizens believing that they have a stake in that prosperity.”

Iceni gave him a polite but cool smile. “I have no intention of surrendering power to the mob.” That earned her another impossibly subtle reaction from Colonel Morgan, this one of approval.

“We have to stay in control,” Malin agreed. “But there are many levels below us. The lowest levels, the ward officers, council members, even mayors could be offered as truly elected positions.”

Drakon appeared as uncertain about that as Iceni felt.

But Togo nodded. “I felt the power of the crowds. They will not accept business as usual. We need to throw them a bone. One with real meat on it. Or perhaps a synthetic substitute that they will accept as real meat.”

“Low-level positions?” Drakon asked.

“And where would you draw the line?” Morgan demanded. “Give them council members, and they’ll demand the right to choose their own mayors, then regional controllers, then generals and presidents! Do we want some citizens off the streets rummaging through the files of what we’ve done in the past?”

“We cannot control the crowds using only force—” Malin began.

“I can! Give me the authority and the troops, and I’ll have the streets cleared and every citizen saying ‘yes, sir, yes, sir, three bags full’ before sundown!”

After a pause in which Iceni tried not to stare at Morgan, General Drakon spoke. “That’s an option, but it has significant downsides. One of them is that if our troops are tied up garrisoning our own population, that means we can’t use them elsewhere.”