Permanent Mana Storage has been upgraded from 0 to 2050.

Keynes blinked, unsure if was seeing it correctly. Was this a System message about the spaceship’s upgrade?

“Wait, is the ship part of the System?” he asked, confused.

“Aren’t we all?” the visage replied with a smirk. “But I jest. It is fairly normal to use the System’s framework for a host of different activities.”

“Is this how a Territory works?”

“Fairly similar but let’s not go there right now and focus on the topic at hand.”

Right. Following the conversation about Keynes’s readiness to take on more authority, he had asked for advice about the structure of his ‘organisation’.

“What’s the best chain of command?”

“Given the unique nature of your spaceship with no crew required to run it, your entire focus should be on a holistic functionality that works within and without the spaceship. Additionally, balancing your preferences against the seriousness of your citations, I advise you to use a 4 tiered chain of command.”

Keynes let the visage speak.

“There are three main traits you must consider when building your organisational structure. Alignment, usefulness and willingness. In that exact order of importance.”

“Why is that?” he asked, although he suspected the answer, still he wanted to hear the explanation from the visage.

“You want people who have the same goals and are motivated by the same things you are.”

“Shouldn’t I look for people who can complement my point of view?”

“You don’t want that. It is fine to have close people who have a broader understanding of the world but their motivations and goals must be strictly the same. Otherwise, you are empowering people who might become antagonistic to you in the future because you have drifted apart in your philosophies.”

Keynes understood where the visage was coming from but he had doubts about this. Still he let it talk.

“Usefulness is the second characteristic and shouldn’t be mixed with capability. You may have many capable people but their expertise would lie outside of what your organisation requires hence your priority is to assess their usefulness rather than their capability. Lastly, it is their willingness that should be taken into account as you should work with people who want to work with you. Some may have the same goals and useful skill set but they won’t be willing to work with you.”

“Let me stop you right there.” Keynes raised his hand. “Why wouldn’t people here didn’t want to work with me?”Didn’t they agree to come for that reason?

“It is impossible to satisfy everyone and so, overtime, people will drift away from you. There is nothing you can do about it but you must be prepared for this.”

That was true but such things lay far in the future. He hadn’t considered this.

“The tiering should start with the provisional members who must prove themselves in previously mentioned characteristics. In the second tier you want people who are at least useful but might not be align with your ideals. Those who don't should never rise above tier 2 in your organisation. Tier 3 should consist of people who have all three characteristics and tier 4 should only have people you trust with your life.”

“Where does that put me?”

“Outside of the structure naturally so when restructuralization comes you are not considered.”

“It sounds very tyrannical.”

“Tyranny is a choice. A king can be as much benevolent as tyrannical.”

“I’m not a king,” Keynes said with emphasis.

“You may not be a king in name but the circumstances are very much the same. The spaceship is yours and this wouldn’t change even if the entire crew voted you out.”

“Can I ‘abdicate’ at least?”

“No.”

The conversation came to a halt. Keynes had a lot of thinking ahead, his head felt like bursting.

“We will be back to this conversation. I have another one in an hour and I need a shower.”

The visage bade his farewell and Keynes left with a strange, thoughtful feeling.

On his way to his quarters, Alice spoke in his mind.

She lied.

What? Keynes asked, stirring out of his thoughts. What about did she lie… wait a second, she?

Yes, she, and she lied about being just a memory. She is more than that. She’s a splinter of Lem Solaris’s soul.

Keynes stopped abruptly, his forehead creasing.

How do you know this? Can you sense her soul? How?

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

I wasn’t idle all this time, you know.

What do you mean by that?

I have my own thing going but I am not ready to talk about it. Let’s say, I have grown, Alice replied with a smug voice.

But—

Please, she interrupted him. I don’t want to talk about it right now. If it works, it will be a major boon for us.

Keynes didn’t press her for more, understanding even without using their bond that she truly didn’t want to talk about it.

Changing the topic, Keynes asked why had the visage lied? Alice had her theories but she didn’t really want to speculate as to what kind of motives the visage had. Keynes on the other hand wanted to get to the bottom of this but confronting the visage would not yield him any results. He needed a plan to get the information out of… her.

Anyway, it was irrelevant right now. No matter why the visage had lied about her true nature, Keynes had another tough meeting ahead of him and the visage’s words had given him much to think about his organisational structure. Her ideas made him uneasy but he understood the essence of what she was trying to tell him. There was no one who could replace him.

He returned to his spacious quarters. He had to give it to Lem Solaris, she had done something magnificent with the design. The reception room had a floor-to-ceiling window with a stunning view of the space. At the moment, it was wholly taken by the vista of the red planet. Keynes didn’t stop to admire it though. He went to the bathroom and took a quick shower before the meeting.

Hot water wasn’t exactly hot as it was only Level 0. He had wanted to use water created by his [Create Water] which was equal to his Level but the current ship’s system would be too overwhelmed by Level 4 water and the AI had advised to wait until proper upgrades were done.

Wiping his face, Keynes considered his face in the mirror. It was a different face. Even though only two years had passed since his ascension to Level 1, his face lost softness and naivety. He wasn’t yet a man, even though the law said so, and yet he lost any trace of a teenager. But it wasn’t only his face that had changed. He was nothing of the Keynes who had met Vivena Foxglove who had turned out to be a scion of the Sael family. Strangely, he had never given much thought of what it meant to him that she was born to one of the most powerful and wealthy families in the world. He realised that he had never really cared about that, though he cared about her… once.

Despite himself, Keynes shivered. Their fight was imprinted in his mind with every detail.

He sighed, turning away from the mirror. It was past.

What are we going to do with the egg? He mused more to himself than to Alice and so she remained silent. Kora will take care of it, I hope.

***

Jedd hoped to be the first in the meeting room but, of course, Rell had beaten him to it. The other man was already sitting at the long table, furiously typing on the tablet.

Jedd sighed, outwardly showing no emotions. This was going to be a tough meeting. Too many unplanned things had happened. Unsurprisingly, Rell didn’t acknowledge him even after Jedd had welcomed him. Rell was still upset about Keynes’s decision to radically change the plan. Luckily, to Jedd’s rescue came Natalia who appeared a minute later.

Obviously, Rell’s attitude around her changed, losing the antagonistic edge. He didn’t become exactly nice but he stepped around her carefully, keeping his tantrums under control.

Fourth entered Kora, alone. Jedd expected Keynes to accompany her but he wasn’t yet here. One look at Rell told Jedd that the other man would use it against Keynes.

It’s going to be a shitshow, eh.

Keynes appeared a few minutes late. Rell’s head snapped toward him, his mouth opened but then, suddenly, the air changed. Rell’s mouth remained open but he uttered no sound.

Jedd immediately looked for clues in Natalia and Kora’s face but they were surprised as well.

“Sorry for the wait,” Keynes said, sounding normal despite the intense atmosphere. “I had some thinking to do.”

“It’s nothing,” Kora said softly, most likely to discharge the tension. “We haven’t been here for long anyway.”

Natalia and Jedd agreed, while Rell stubbornly stared at Keynes. At least, he closed his mouth.

“Before we start, look at this.”

Permanent Mana Storage: 0/2050.

Everyone froze, unable to understand what they were seeing.

“Do you have access to the System’s framework?” Rell asked.

“No.” Keynes shook his head. “At least not to the main framework. But as far as I understand it, the System offers a local framework.”

It was amusing how one sentence could turn around a man. Rell’s face melted into something else. Jedd could almost hear his thoughts, churning like an angry mountain stream.

Immediately, Rell started listing possibilities but Keynes stopped him.

“That’s not the reason why I showed you this.”

“Is that all mana storage from the blue iron ore we mined?” Natalia asked before Rell could express his dissatisfaction.

“Yes, unfortunately.” Keynes replied. “Now, before we go into details, I wanted to discuss something with you. Something that made me late.”

Jedd wasn’t ready for what ensued. Keynes went on about the organisational structure. Not in detail but that wasn’t what mattered here. The pillars of his organisation sounded dangerously close to a religious organisation. However, as Keynes started explaining the reasons behind this, Jedd began to see the merit in Keynes’s structure. With free access to rifts, people were going to Level up and as Keynes explained, they would drift away from him and his organisation. Anyone who did not share his core vision, might become a potential threat in the future.

That actually was wiser than Jedd had given it credit to. The organisation existed solely because of Keynes and without him they would cease to exist. At least in the early days, Jedd admitted to himself. Not surprisingly, Rell didn’t oppose Keynes’s idea.

“You could see that issue in Untainted Paradise,” Natalia said. “Everyone was talking about how Esopp Earl was a demi-god or something. You could feel the tension in the air between Earl and Zimmermann’s followers.”

“After Pucci vanished, things took a turn for the worse,” Rell admitted.

It wasn’t all because of Pucci. Jedd knew as much but wasn’t going to undermine Rell’s point of view, especially when Rell’s old boss was involved.

In truth, Untainted Paradise was one of the most twisted companies Jedd had ever worked. The level of secrecy in that company was astounding and even as Keynes’s right hand, Jedd had met Wagner Zimmermann only three times. Untainted Paradise, in Jedd’s personal opinion, was a collection of powerful individuals, which doomed the company from the start. It appeared that Keynes was going to build something far more robust.

“So, what is your proposed chain of command?” Rell asked. Jedd had the same questions on his mind.

“I haven’t decided yet,” Keynes replied, in some way not surprising Jedd. Keynes raised his hand, seeing their reactions. “Hear me out. I have a plan. I want to invite everyone for an interview to get to know them before I make my final selection.”

“But the ship’s AI can do that for you,” Natalia noticed.

“It can.” Keynes nodded. “But this is something I have to do in person and from scratch.”

Others agreed with him. In fact, Jedd was impressed with Keynes’s approach. But it didn’t answer the most important question.

“What are we going to do now?”

“We continue as normal but our group is only temporary until I can form a stable and formal core of the organisation. Then I will come up with a name…”