Hero's Return, page 7
So it’s not just me. I wonder. She turned, looked up at the royal box, and locked eyes with Edward, who was staring down at her, grinning.
They’re jamming the damn comms. The frikken emperor is having the Senate building’s comms jammed.
Cindy thought about Sedaya’s instructions.
“You cannot declare there is no quorum.”
“How the hell do I keep from doing that? The vote is already in progress,” Cindy mumbled to herself. “If Sedaya had any idea, he didn’t share it before getting cut off.”
Who can I ask? Cynthia thought and scanned the chamber. Fruitlessly, she scanned the twenty-odd senators scattered about the room. All were low-level members of various parties. Even more junior than I am. They’re no help.
She glanced up at the remaining time. Eighteen minutes.
Making another desperate sweep of the room, Cindy’s gaze passed over the Senate staff arrayed on a platform just below the Senate president’s.
The parliamentarian. She understands the rules. Hell, she’s the keeper of the rules. If anyone would know of a way to stop the vote, it would be her.
“Margaret,” MacNamara called out.
When the woman looked around and up, Cindy caught her eye and motioned her over. The woman came and stood on the lower platform just to the left of the Senate president’s desk. Cynthia had to lean over to look down at the woman.
“I need to stop the vote,” she hissed. Then Cindy jerked her chin back toward the royal seat above her. “I need a legitimate way to stop the vote.”
“If it were any other vote, there would be multiple ways to do it, Senator MacNamara. But those ways depend on having a quorum. Normally, the president of the Senate can halt a quorum call. It is, after all, one of the stalling tactics the chair uses. Call for a quorum, and while the vote is taking place, the majority party can wheel and deal to get legislation agreed to by enough senators to pass.”
“Why can’t I just call an end to it, then?”
“Because the Crown has called the Senate into session.” It was the parliamentarian’s turn to use her chin to point at the emperor. “He called the Senate into session. At best, you could stop the current vote, in which case he’ll call for another one. It is within his right under the Senate charter.”
An idea suddenly came to Cindy. “What if there were a disaster, a fire in the building? We wouldn’t sit here. The vote would halt, and we’d evacuate.”
“We could use that, except the building isn’t on fire, and even if it suddenly was, the vote would restart as soon as we reconvened. And the emperor would insist we reconvene.”
She checked the time.
Five minutes.
“The comm outage, I’ll use that,” Cynthia stated. “It’s grasping at straws, but it will buy us time. Be ready to support the decision when I announce it.”
Cynthia sat up straight in her chair and reached for the gavel. As her hand touched the handle, her comm unit beeped. Because the chamber was nearly empty, she could hear the beeps of other people’s phones as well. The Crown had somehow known what she would do and, at the last minute, snatched away the only option she had. She didn’t need to turn. Cindy was certain the emperor had a smug look on his face.
“Madame President, the quorum call is complete. Only fifty-six senators voted present. There are insufficient senators present to conduct business,” the Senate clerk announced.
“Thank you,” Cynthia said as she rose from the chair. She pounded the gavel once. “There are insufficient senators present for the Senate to conduct official business. The Senate will continue in recess till tomorrow.”
MacNamara brought the gavel up to end the session, but before she could, a new, young-sounding voice stopped her.
Edward, now standing, addressed the Senate. “President of the Senate and assembled senators, I called this august body into session to seek its advice on what to do about the current dilemma our Empire faces. Much of the Home Fleet has rebelled against its lawfully appointed commanders and fled the Britannia System. There is a possibility that senators are involved in this action. The Defense Ministry, the Ministry of Justice, and Imperial Intelligence are working diligently to provide more information.
“It saddens me that so few senators answered our Imperial Summons. The Lion Throne wanted to work with the Senate to end this madness. Imperial heralds delivered our summons to more than sufficient senators to meet the requirements of a quorum. Unfortunately, most of them chose to stay away—chose not to support the Crown and the Empire.”
“I cannot believe that the actions of the missing senators reflect the wishes of our citizens in the systems they represent. Thus, under directives of the Senate Charter, I am dissolving the Senate.”
Even though there were only a handful of senators present, a loud gasp erupted from the assembly.
“You don’t have the right!” a voice called out from somewhere in the chamber.
“I assure you, I do,” Edward responded. “I’m dissolving this chamber and ordering every star system to select senators according to their own laws to form a new Senate.”
Before more senators could complain, the parliamentarian stepped to the front of the admin platform. “Under the Senate Charter, his majesty can dissolve the Senate if he calls it into session and it fails to meet. No ruler has ever imposed that rule before, but it is within the charter.”
The parliamentarian didn’t add that she’d had to look up the obscure section, since she was as unfamiliar with it as the rest of the Senate.
Having accomplished his mission, Edward nodded at his security detail, which promptly led him out of the chamber.
* * *
“Well done, Edward,” Henry Kane greeted his grandson at the door to his mother’s suite of rooms. Known on formal occasions as His Grace, Grand Duke Henry, the emperor’s grandfather beamed with pride.
“Get over here and give your mother a hug,” Hiroko called from an armchair. “Your grandfather’s right. You did very well. But you almost screwed everything up with that jamming.”
Edward dutifully walked to his mother and gave her a hug and a peck on the cheek.
“I was pretty sure I had all the bases covered,” Edward responded to his mother’s comment, “but there’s always a chance the other guy will get something right. I had some of Grandpa’s agents monitoring all the comm traffic in and out of the building. They intercepted a call from Senator Dorn Sedaya to the acting president of the Senate. He warned her not to let the quorum call go through. I wasn’t sure whether he’d figured out what I was doing or not, but I decided not to take the chance.”
“So you ordered them to crash the comm systems,” Elizabeth Kane said. “That’s something your father would have done. He would have been proud of you.”
Edward saw the single tear run down one side of his grandmother’s face and had to stifle one of his own. He went over and hugged her.
“I miss him, Grandma.”
“So do I, Dear One,” she responded, sniffling once, then wiping away the tear. “But we have you.”
Edward gave his grandmother another squeeze, then stepped back to survey the room. “I was hoping the lord justice would be here,” he stated when he didn’t see the Empire’s top legal advisor.
“Richard stayed in his offices at the Ministry of Justice, since he was sure he’d have to field calls about what our young emperor just did,” Penny O’Higgin, the Empire’s chamberlain, said. “And of course, the lawsuits are already pouring in.”
“And emergency injunctions to stay the order, I don’t doubt,” Hiroko said.
“Richard knows what he’s doing and has already briefed the chief justice on what was going to happen,” Penny reported. “There will be no dragging this out in the courts. If some senator finds a sympathetic low-level judge to issue a restraining order, the chief justice will immediately squash it.”
“I wasn’t worried about that. Our legal standing is solid on this,” Edward stated. “No, I had another legal question I needed to ask him.”
“Which is?” Penny asked. There was a slight bit of anxiety laced into the question. Over the last month, her young emperor had asked several legal questions that were now shaking the foundations of the Empire.
“It was something I found in Dad’s notes on the Senate. Something about the election or appointment of a senator that the Senate has been doing wrong for a while.”
“Now I’m curious, Edward,” said Duke Henry. “Care to share?”
“There’s a section in the charter talking about how star systems select senators. We all know the charter leaves it up to the individual system. Some hold elections, while in others, the government or the system ruler appoints the person. But that’s not what I’m talking about. There’s an ambiguous section that, if read a certain way, requires the candidate to be present in the system to be selected.”
“Even if that’s true, what does it matter?” Elizabeth asked. “So what if they violated that section? Would it really make a difference? They’ll still put the same people back in if we force them to go home to seek reappointment or reelection.”
“Not if they can’t go back home,” Edward said. “Not if they can’t go back home because they face charges of treason.”
“We talked about this, Edward,” Hiroko stated. “We’re a long way from having proof of a conspiracy to overthrow the government.”
Duke Henry, who’d been standing near the sitting room’s fireplace, began to pace. “We might not have enough evidence to convict most of them,” he said, and continued to pace, gathering his thoughts, “but we have enough evidence to charge them. Or at least, I think we have enough to charge them. But Edward’s correct. Richard Dyess would be the man to ask.”
Elizabeth snapped her fingers, eyes turning in her direction. “Henry, didn’t Hazard use an obscure section in the Treason Act to find the conspirators of Edward’s coup?”
Henry stopped pacing. “Not that coup, dear one. It was the assassination attempt on Holly in the mall.”
“The one I was involved in?” Hiroko blurted out.
Henry nodded. “And Richard reviewed the interpretation and approved Hazard’s actions.”
“We don’t actually need to get them to trial,” Penny pointed out. “Charging them, then releasing them on bail as the investigation took place, would restrict them to Britannia.”
“At the very least, we’d get a new crop of senators,” Hiroko said. “Maybe even ones more willing to work with us.”
“One could hope,” Elizabeth stated hopefully.
“I’ll get Richard working on it,” Penny stated as she pulled out her comm tablet. “He’s likely just sitting at his desk, twiddling his thumbs, anyway.”
Hiroko looked at her son. “This could bring about the change your father was after, Edward.”
And very possibly convince the regency council you’re mature enough to be emperor, she thought.
* * * * *
Chapter 5: Revelations
Pegasus System
United Federation Space
Empire Date: Jan 1049
Julie and Scott walked Kyle to the shuttle bay. The leader of the Human Confederation, the new government formed to rule the human-settled worlds in the Sol Sector, wanted to return to his ship before the small task force heading for Earth entered hyperspace.
Scott and Kyle, along with Admiral Dorothy Evers, had caught Julie up on what had happened in and around Federation space while she’d been on her mission to Earth. It had been a lot. On top of learning that Hazard was still alive, it had overwhelmed Julie, and she’d called for an end to the briefings.
“Let me read the reports, then we’ll get back together,” she’d informed the others.
It had been a lie, and Julie was certain the others knew it.
But they’ve had weeks to come to terms with the situation, and I’ve only had a couple of days.
That was why Julie understood Kyle Kane wanting to travel separately back to Earth. He didn’t have the same emotional attachment to Hazard that she did, but Julie had dropped a separate bombshell on him. Kyle’s wife was Princess Allison, Emperor Hazard’s sister, and everyone knew of her mercurial personality.
Allison and Hazard’s relationship constantly shifted between the typical brother-sister caring most siblings had for one another, and “I can’t be in the same room with him.” Allison was the driving force behind the swings. Julie knew Hazard did not “love” his sister, but he’d always treated her with respect. The reverse wasn’t true.
And now she can control how quickly Hazard recovers, Julie thought. If she agrees to provide blood samples, we may be able to create the medical nanites we need to jump-start Hazard’s recovery. She may refuse to do that, but I won’t force her to, even though many will suggest and even pressure me to do so. If it was necessary to save Hazard, I might do it, but Hazard is stable. Getting the samples from Allison allows us to start treatment early. If we don’t get them, we’ll just have to wait till we get Hazard back to Britannia.
“I really appreciate the update, Kyle,” Julie said as the trio stopped at the ramp of the shuttle that would carry him back to the diplomatic ship he’d traveled to Pegasus on.
“And Earth appreciates what you’ve done, Julie,” Kyle said. “The Swarm manufacturing ships will help us turn the corner to restore the planet.”
The ships Kyle referred to were two of The People’s manufacturing ships, one large and one small, which were on their way to Earth. Supply dreadnoughts Aiden Doheny was leading back from Britannia were towing the ships. They would go into orbit around Mars and begin fabricating the equipment needed to restore Earth’s industries.
“You should thank Dark Wanderer,” Julie said. “When I went to meet with him, I was only hoping to get one of the manufacturing ships and ended up with three.”
Dark Wanderer was the chief of chiefs, the leader of The People. Still referred to as the Swarm by many in the Empire, they had once been enemies but were now staunch allies. The third ship Julie had gained was still with The People’s Fleet in a bit of diplomatic sleight of hand. Owned by the Federation, the ship would produce human-designed warships and build new and improved Swarm ships.
The People’s treaty with the Empire of Britannia prevented them from upgrading or even building new warships, but the new ships would technically belong to the Federation. The People and Julie’s United Federation of Planets had signed a mutual defense treaty, and those ships would be the UFP’s promised protection force.
“And thank you for understanding why I want to travel separately back to Earth,” Kyle added.
“Oh, trust me, I do,” Julie said. “I’m overwhelmed, as well.”
Kyle simply nodded, then shook Julie and Scott’s hands and walked up the ramp. The Federation’s two senior officials moved away from the shuttle to one of the designated safe areas and watched as the shuttle lifted off the deck and departed.
“I think I’m going to call it a day,” Julie said. “I know you’re already tired of hearing it, but I really appreciate you keeping things together while I was away, Scott.”
“There’s one last thing we need to discuss. Dorothy’s waiting for us in her stateroom.”
“Her stateroom?” Julie arched an eyebrow.
“Her stateroom,” Scott parroted. “What we need to discuss is pretty sensitive.”
“And you don’t want to send Anna away to tell me, which you’d need to do if the meeting was in my suite.”
Scott nodded.
“Well, let’s get it over with,” Julie said, resignation evident in her tone.
* * *
“Can I get you something to drink?” Dorothy asked, looking directly at Julie as she splashed two fingers of scotch into a tumbler.
The president of the Federation waved a hand dismissively.
“It’s the good stuff.”
Julie sat up straighter on the sofa she’d slumped into in Dorothy Evers’ flag officer’s quarters. “Then it must be important, if you’re breaking out the good hooch. That worries me.”
“It’s not worrisome, Julie,” Scott Conners said as he walked toward the bar, “just depressing. I’ll fix my own drink, Dot.”
Dorothy nodded and moved to sit in the chair opposite Julie. “There’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to blurt it out. Hazard wasn’t alone in the escape pod.”
Julie, who’d been about to say something, stopped. “Mike—Phil?”
Dot nodded.
“When we opened the escape pod, the rescue team found them sitting on the deck, leaning up against Hazard’s stasis chamber. Since the pod had lost pressure, and because of the cold, the conditions mummified them,” Scott answered.
“You…” Julie started.
“Verified? Yes, we took DNA samples. It was them,” Dorothy reported. “I ordered a non-invasive autopsy performed. Both had injuries nearly as bad as Hazard’s. We don’t know how they managed to get him to the pod and into a stasis chamber, but somehow, they did.”
“Why didn’t they crawl into a chamber themselves?” Julie asked. Mike Sondheim and Phil Meyerson weren’t just Hazard’s advisors; they were his friends. Both were founding members of what many referred jokingly to as Team Hazard.
“They recorded a message for Hazard,” Dorothy said, “but neither Scott nor I has the guts to listen to it. They didn’t leave any other record of their thoughts. We have video of them dragging Hazard into the pod and placing him in the chamber, then they launched the pod. When it jammed in the launch tube, we assume—” she motioned toward Scott “—they became worried about power.”
“They each had to realize it might be a while before someone found the pod,” Scott picked up the conversation, “and we speculate they were worried about having enough power to keep Hazard alive.”
