Chapter Two

One Meeting After Another

Nellie did her best to ignore the three blinking comm lines trying to connect to her while she sipped her cup of HyperDrive.

She imagined that not many Queens hid in coffee shops when they wanted to snatch a few moments alone, but it had worked so far, and Nellie had no intention of surrendering the few brief moments of peace she had managed to snatch each day.

A slight worm of guilt tried to wriggle through about dumping that mess of a planet on Cheape, but she squashed it mercilessly. The new Emissary was a capable young woman, and with a bit of luck, the inevitable disastrous failure of her mission would be a growth experience for her.

Okay, that was bullshit. Nellie was just too busy to deal with it, and pretending she was doing Cheape a favor was cowardly. She had dumped a mess on the young woman because no one else had been available. It was shitty, but such was life these days.

It was ironic, given their recent victory over the Imperial Line, but the peace was turning out to be a lot more complicated than the war. More than once, sitting in one meeting after another, Nellie had actually missed the brutal simplicity of fighting to survive.

War was hell, but politics was so much worse. It was a kind of mundane torture, and Nellie was getting more and more convinced that she should just blow something up to make herself feel better.

“Hey!” Berenice slid into the seat across from Nellie, a bright smile on her face. “Fancy seeing you here.”

Shit! Busted!

“Just getting a cup of HyperDrive,” Nellie said flatly. “Some quiet time, you know?” Okay, so the hint wasn’t exactly subtle but it had been a long few days.

“Sure, sure,” Berenice said, whipping out a datapad. “So if you will just sign here, I’ll be on my way and leave you in peace.”

Nellie’s consciousness split, and she read the pad via a camera in the shop that was pointed over the Merchant’s shoulder.

“For the last time, you can not just connect our station to the open market,” Nellie almost snarled. “We do not have an established set of trade laws yet.”

“And that’s great for business!” Berenice grinned. “We don’t have rules, but everyone else does! Imagine the profits!”

“Imagine the damage to our reputation,” Nellie countered.

“On that front, I’d like to introduce you to the concept of shell companies,” Berenice was almost drooling. “With a little work, no one will even know where the goods come from.”

“Crush, your merchant is bugging me again,” Nellie saw the busy signal on his line, but she was the Queen after all. A tired and grumpy queen at the moment who was not above abusing her access to get the annoying woman out of her face.

“We need to get some of this worked out!” Berenice said as she hurriedly grabbed her things. “The moment our borders open, we are going to have traders flooding the system. We can’t just tell them to go away because we don’t use money!”

“Wait!” Nellie practically hissed. “Book a time for us to talk about this properly.”

“Yes!” Berenice punched the air. “You won’t regret this.”

Nellie already regretted it, but she smiled anyway.

The thing was that Berenice was right. They did need some kind of economy if they intended to trade and interact with the wider galaxy around them.

Which they would have to do, considering the wider galaxy was hell-bent on interacting with the Imperium.

The destruction of the Imperial Line Blockade had shown their strength. Now, they needed to show a friendly face. If they didn’t, they would be made the bad guy and bogeyman. Being the terror of the stars sounded great, but it would only lead to endless wars to try and secure their borders, and frankly, Nellie was sick of worrying about her friends being killed.

So, she had chosen peace.

And she immediately regretted it.

Peace was a lot more complicated, as the dozens of things she had put off due to lack of time landed on her all at once. Suddenly, they needed things like laws, an economy, and a dozen other things that were all necessary immediately.

The Imperium effectively did the entire society thing backward. In a normal society, laws and trade are established first, along with traditional ways of doing things. As that small village’s influence spreads, it grows into a society proper and begins typically to acquire the lands around it by fair means or foul.

The Imperium had instead acquired a large amount of land—namely two star systems—and was then faced with the prospect of building its own laws, etc.

It was proving a difficult process.

Nellie drained the last of her coffee and reluctantly signaled she was on her way to meet with Salem while she answered a couple of the more determined requests on the comm line.

The work never ended.

Salem insisted on meeting in the conference room, even though it was only the two of them this time. It was proper, and Salem was big on doing things in the appropriate manner.

Nellie had tried to argue that the coffee shop would do but had lost the argument almost immediately.

Apparently, it was unseemly to establish a governmental system from a coffee shop.

Her thoughts jumped their tracks when she entered the room to see a harried-looking Salem sitting between a smugly beaming Berenice and an angry Crush-Cha.

“What now?”

Salem just smiled a little thin-lipped smile and shook her head.

“We have a problem,” Crush-Cha growled.

“Correction, we have a new problem,” Salem said as Nellie pulled out a chair and sat down. “In addition to all of our others.”

“Wonderful,” Nellie huffed. “Who did we piss off this time?”

“It is actually the reverse,” Salem said, flicking her fingers in the air until a hologram appeared over the desk, showing the Imperium and the surrounding systems as a series of icons. “It appears we have some people who wish to make friends.”

“Friends?” Nellie asked.

“Very much so,” Salem sighed and gestured again. Nellie’s implant pinged as she received an info burst containing almost thirty requests for diplomatic relations.

“Wow,” Nellie blinked. “Do we even know where some of these places are?”

“Some, but not all,” Crush took over. “Several of these seem to be a series of independent planets all within a system a couple of jumps from here. The point is, they all want to establish diplomatic relations as soon as possible.”

“Which is a problem because?” Nellie asked. As far as she could see, it was all upside. A lot of work, sure, but they were no strangers to that.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“The standard diplomatic pouch, the first step toward establishing formal relations with another system, includes an information packet on local laws, customs, and economic and governmental systems,” Salem said, tapping one finger on her datapad irritatedly. “Which is a problem because…”

“We don’t have any yet,” Nellie rubbed her face, trying to remember the last time she slept. “Can we skip that step?”

“No,” Salem said simply. “And the Sagacity, our largest neighbor, is at the head of the line. They have complaints about several things. If we don’t deal with them now—”

“It’ll just end up getting worse,” Nellie finished for her.

“Quite,” Salem said.

“So we need to get everything sorted out almost immediately?” Nellie asked.

“Pretty much,” Crush said, his arms resting on the table as he leaned forward.

Nellie felt this was karmic payback for what she had just done to Cheape. It was basically the same thing, only she had no one to step in and fix whatever she got wrong—or almost no one.

“Bunny, get Lucy to join us via hologram, will you?” Nellie sighed. “Right, let’s get started.”

Berenice almost immediately hijacked the conversation, determined to ensure they established a monetary system. Nellie had been trying to avoid this because, to put it simply, she had never been a huge fan of the disparity it caused between the haves and the have-nots.

Up until this point, it was something she had managed to avoid within the Imperium, but it would make trade challenging in the extreme.

The barter system would just not work in a galaxy of starships and jump rings. Still, Nellie felt herself resisting it almost unconsciously.

She had Crush on her side, but Salem and Lucy were both quickly convinced that money, as a basic necessity for interacting with the outside world, was an inevitability. The discussion stalled, primarily thanks to Nellie refusing to change her mind, but thinking about Cheape gave Nellie an idea. She had just been ruminating about what she had dumped on the young officer when an idea occurred to her. The people on that planet would need a package of support to see them through until they could catch up with the rest of the Imperium and get them healthy and upgraded.

That was the spark she needed.

“Universal Basic Income,” Nellie said suddenly.

“What?” Salem asked.

“It’s an idea they kicked around occasionally where I came from. The idea was that every citizen was entitled to live without worrying about the basics of life. A roof over their head, food in their bellies, schooling, healthcare, that kind of thing.” Nellie stood up as she warmed to the subject. “It’s basically what we have been doing up until now, but a more formal version of it.”

“Right, but how does that help with the money question?” Salem asked. “We already agreed that it is not workable going forward without a currency.”

“No, we hadn’t,” Nellie said stubbornly, “However, the system I was talking about ran in tandem with a currency-based economy. In short, we can do both: the things we already make and do, plus the inclusion of the currency.”

“But who owns what?” Berenice frowned.

“The Imperium owns everything we currently have,” Nellie said simply, “And that provides the basics for everyone. If anyone wants to start their own business or trade, they can. I won’t stop anyone.”

“But everyone already works for the Imperium,” Salem pointed out. “How are they supposed to do both?”

“They don’t have to,” Lucy offered. “We can automate most things quickly enough to replace those who want more time for other things.”

“Plus, if we establish a governmental trade agency, we can generate revenue ourselves, eventually adding a credit amount to the basic income,” Nellie suggested.

“Free money?” Berenice’s eyes were almost glowing.

“Generated by taxes on trade,” Salem added with an almost nasty smile.

“Trade tariffs?” Berenice looked like she had been struck.

When a stunned and grumbling Berenice left the meeting a few hours later, the basics had been ironed out. Nellie didn’t love the plan, but it would do for now. Something about using a currency system still bugged her, but she was willing to put it aside for now. Ultimately, they were right. The need to adopt a currency was simply too large to ignore. The moment the discussions were implemented, the Imperium would start to grow its own economy. They’d have to keep an eye on things, but it was enough to begin with, at least.

“Next?” Nellie asked.

“Law and order,” Crush said gravely. “We are about to have ten thousand people join the Imperium, not to mention the Maiusarians or the visiting ambassadors and traders when we get that far. We need laws and a justice system.”

“Don’t we need to decide on a type of government first?” Nellie asked.

“Do you intend to let someone else run the Imperium?” Salem asked with a half smile.

“Only over my corpse,” Nellie replied honestly. She had fought for this, lost friends for this, and frankly, she didn’t trust anyone else to look after her people. The Imperium was built on her decisions, so she was damned if someone else was going to start telling her what to do now. A little advice would be nice, but she had Salem, Crush, and the others for that.

“So it is a Monarchy,” Salem laughed. “End of discussion.”

“Don’t we need more than just me and Lucy?” Nellie asked. “Ministers, or something like that?”

“For now, we are using the military ranks since our commanders are all people you trust anyway. In the future, of course, yes.” Salem nodded. “Now we are no longer at war, we can look to promote skilled people like Cheape to positions of responsibility outside the military.”

Nellie nodded. The militaristic nature of the Imperium was not something she was concerned about at the moment. Every person in it was someone she trusted. When she was back on Earth, the very idea of a militaristic society would have horrified her, but things looked a lot different now.

In the future, things might change, but for now… she wanted armed people ready to respond to ANY threat to her people.

“So, again, we need laws,” Crush said, but his hand kept falling to the holster on his belt, even though he wasn’t currently armed.

“What’s wrong?” Nellie asked.

“Once we do this, it’s all judges and lawyers,” Crush said, shaking his head. “Not something I love the idea of.”

“Really?” Nellie was surprised. Crush had always been very straightforward about his respect for the rule of law.

“It’s not the system so much as the people in it. One bad judge can ruin a lot of lives,” Crush shrugged. “And honestly, who would we get to do it?”

All eyes locked on him.

“No chance,” Crush-Cha chuckled. “I like to be out there, doing the job, not trying to figure out what happened later.”

“Then do both?” Nellie sighed. She really needed to get to sleep, but this had gone on for hours too long already. She was late for three other meetings already.

“What?” Crush frowned.

“Make the Marshalls the entire legal system, but only choose people you know won’t fuck it up, okay?” Nellie sighed.

“Isn’t that open to abuse?” Crush asked.

“Yes,” Nellie shrugged. “But I trust you to deal with anyone who fucks around.”

Crush thought about it for a moment before nodding.

“Great. Is anything else urgent, or can I get to the next meeting?” Nellie asked.

“We still need laws,” Crush said quickly.

“Don’t be a dick, don’t fuck with other people, and if you attack my people, I’ll fucking obliterate you?” Nellie groaned internally. She really needed sleep.

“I think we might need a little more formal language than that,” Salem chuckled.

“Crush, you know right from wrong; just make that the law,” Nellie stood. “Are we done?”

Crush nodded, looking a little stunned.

Salem picked up her datapad and tucked it away. “What’s next?”

“Remy wants to talk about the jump rings?” Nellie checked her list. “Yup, that’s the next one.”

“I’ll have HyperDrive delivered,” Salem smiled kindly.

“Thanks,” Nellie called.

It was only when she was halfway down the corridor that she realized she had done it again. Nellie had just dumped the entire law and order business on Crush and walked away.

It was a bad habit she had to sort out… at some point… when she had the time.

/===<<<>>>===\

Crush and Salem exchanged a look after Nellie had left.

“She’s even more tired than she was during the blockade,” Salem sighed. “We have to get her a break at some point.”

“Nellie needs to let Lucy take a bit more of the load,” Crush said as he yawned.

“I’m not sure that is a great idea,” Salem said, sniffing like she had smelled something nasty. “At least, not yet.”

“She came back,” Crush said simply. “Nellie trusts her, right?”

“Right,” Salem said flatly. “That’s why she is still doing everything herself.”

“Is it just me, or are you not overjoyed at the return of our glorious co-leader.” Crush’s mouth lifted in a half-smile.

“On the contrary,” Salem said as she stood. “I’m delighted she has returned. I just wonder what we do the next time she runs off.”

“You synthetics are not the forgiving type, are you?” Crush asked although he didn’t seem to disagree with Salem.

“Are you?” Salem asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Absolutely,” Crush said, pulling himself to his feet. “Trust, but verify is my motto.”

“Well, once I can verify, I’ll trust.” Salem smiled. “You going to be okay with everything?”

“I’m sure Cara will let you know if I start cackling and shooting random citizens,” Crush told her. “I’ll be fine. I just don’t want to tell Vicky I’m working tonight. Again.”

“She’s headed for the new system,” Salem said, trying not to twitch as she issued the orders in a hurry. “We need a deep mineral scan of the place, and the Sparklight is perfect for it.”

“Oh, she’ll just love that,” Crush chuckled as they headed for the door.

“Good luck,” Salem said, hurrying off to the command deck. The meeting had gone on longer than even she expected, and the work crews were due to attach the second set of expansion pods in less than an hour. She wanted to check their alignment one more time before then.

Just in case.