Dark Fate, Chapter 203

Chapter 203 – Quick Plans

The decision to expand the Kingdom into an Empire meant that I needed to step up my game in terms of governance. Or, at least, I had to start planning for new structures to be put in place. After a certain point, people were going to want to have some say in the government, especially with us growing beyond the core band of renegades and plucky individualists here on Ceres. At least, that’s what the PR team described the people who’d come to live under my banner as.

Talking with my advisors, we quickly decided that there would be differences between Imperial Ceres and the Kingdom of Ceres. The Kingdom would run much as it had up until now, being an absolute monarchy with a meritocratic bureaucracy underneath. The wider Empire, however, would be a constitutional monarchy, with the King of Ceres as the head of state and head of the executive branch, and a parliament elected by the people doing much of the lawmaking. Basically, taking some elements of the American separation of powers and the British system, while also considering the ‘politics of scale’ used in the Systems Commonwealth.

Politics of scale was a concept loosely derived from the idea of economies of scale. Basically, different economic systems worked better or worse at different scales. For instance, a barter economy worked well for an isolated commune of a few dozen people, but once you started getting to towns of a few thousand, that started breaking down, fast. A capitalist system worked OK, so long as there was constant expansion, but without firm regulation it inevitably devolved into exploitation. Communism was basically capitalism but with the government in charge, and no one to regulate them. Socialism was slow, and unwieldy, at the best of times, but it was equally slow and unwieldy at pretty much every level, which made it predictable, and more stable.

Taking these ideas, and applying them to political structures, it was a simple fact that what worked at a local scale, country scale, planetary scale, system scale, and interstellar scale would all be different. The Systems Commonwealth actually had a good way of dealing with that, which I planned to steal for the Ceresan Empire. Basically, planetary governors were the ones who ran things on a local level, with each planet having their own form of government, tailored to local tasts. Usually, a planet’s moons would be included in the planetary governor’s responsibility, but there were exceptions for particularly large moons, or planets with many moons.

For anything relating to more than just a planet’s governance, that is where the Commonwealth Senate and such came in, organizing laws and managing the purse-strings for the Commonwealth as a whole. While they made laws, and ensured everything was paid for, it was the executive branch, with the Commonwealth President, that headed the bureaucracy, and all that. There was a complex network of checks and balances in place, to ensure that it was difficult for anyone to run roughshod over the system, but, in general, it worked. And since it worked, I planned to copy it shamelessly.

Yes, this system wasn’t perfect, since no system was, it did have some benefits, as far as I was concerned. Yes, I would be giving up some of my direct control over territories outside of Ceres, but the benefit of not having to micromanage all those territories was huge, especially once the Ganymede colony was established. And, with Panama set to join us on Earth, I expected that several nations in Central and South America would soon follow suit. Some of the different Carribean island nations, too.

Once we put a basic structure for the Empire moving forward in place, discussion turned to the logistics question. While shuttles flying from place to place and protected corridors on the roads could work for some things, we needed better ways to connect the different cities and towns, to ensure that people could move about. Better yet, we needed a way to connect Panama to Ceres.

It was Sun Zihao who came up with the solution. “Why not create more of the teleporters, like we have on Ceres? That would allow people to move around the country easily enough. Perhaps even include a central teleporter that can go from Panama City to Ceres?”

I paused to consider that. “I’m not opposed to the idea. Obviously, we would need System Contracts in place, before one could use the teleporters. That would help prevent abuse, or sabotage. There’s a limit to how much people can carry when using the teleporters, so it wouldn’t undercut shipping and logistics concerns. But I wouldn’t want to overstress the teleporters we already have in place on Ceres.”

Sun nodded. “Then perhaps two networks? One in Panama, connecting cities almost like a commuter rail system, and the other like airports, connecting different countries? That ‘airport’ network could then be expanded to include offices in allied countries, as well as parts of the Empire.”

“Hmm,” I considered. “The current network on Ceres is a closed system. Basically, the teleport pads are connected to the other ones in the network, and only the other ones in the network, and they would have to be altered individually to add in a new link. Well, to be specific, they are encoded with a list of specific coordinates that they can send people to, you just have to make sure that those coordinates are more or less clear, or you may end up with unfortunate accidents. Which is why the wardings in each ‘station’ are set to block incoming teleports, unless they are from the other stations.”

“I see,” Sun said. “In that case, we could, perhaps, copy that system as is for use in Panama. Or, better yet, you have a series of networks with hubs. It would be a long-term project, but start with a central hub in Panama City, connecting the capitals of the different provinces. Then, each province has its own network, connecting the cities and towns to the provincial capital, and those local places may have a network for getting around town, like we have on Ceres?”

“And then a connection from the hub in Panama City to one near Ceres, that will act as the focal point for the whole network, including such ideas as the Ganymede colony?”

“Precisely, sire. That would also have the effect of reinforcing Ceres as the center of the growing empire, by ensuring that anyone coming through the network comes here, first.”

“My only concern is the placement of the hub. Ceres is already filling up, after all.”

“With respect, your Majesty,” cut in Levi Berger, my Minister of the Treasury, “while I agree that the central hub of this teleporter network should be Ceres, that does not mean that the hub need be inside Ceres. We already have some docking facilities on the exterior of the asteroid, so if we add on a building, perhaps at what is effectively the north pole for Ceres, then we could make a building that can be expanded as we need more teleport pads.”

“Yes,” I nodded. “That would work. And it will also make it possible to affect the wards to the point where anyone who tries to teleport in and hasn’t signed one of the System contracts will be automatically rejected from the hub. If we link it with my [Banishment] skill, then they would not only find their teleport rejected, but instead have it redirected.”

“Redirected where, your Majesty?” Sun asked.

I chuckled, and said, “The skill specifies the ‘borders of my domain’. Which, given our claimed territorial boundaries, would be roughly halfway between Mars and the asteroid belt.”

“Well, that would certainly be effective at preventing most individuals from trying to sneak in by that means more than once,” Sun acknowledged. “But, if such is the case, wouldn’t it be completely impossible to unseat a Demon King? Would war even be possible with them?”

“Finding a way to usurp a demon king’s throne, or rebel against them is difficult, naturally. The ‘governing’ professions are made that way on purpose. However, wars and revolts are tricky things for such professions. Basically, they make territory ‘contested’ rather than ‘controlled’. Things get complicated from there, but, for all intents and purposes, I could use [Banishment] on a spy, or a rebel leader once they’d been captured, but I couldn’t just use it on an entire army, or a group of conspirators I didn’t know.”

I took a breath, and continued, “Really, the use of [Banishment] on those trying to slip into the ‘station’ without a contract would only be possible because it is a distinct point with a distinct set of wards. It would be almost impossible to similarly ward all of Ceres, for instance, with such a protection. However, that is why we have sensors in place to detect teleports, and there are inhibitors preventing long-distance teleports without certain items, so teleporting a commando team on board in an area away from the teleport pads will take far more power to overpower the inhibitor, and they’ll be known the moment they manage it.”

“So, sneak attacks by teleporting a bunch of soldiers onto Ceres wouldn’t work, and there are steps taken to prevent anyone from accessing the teleport pads without signing System Contracts?”

“Exactly. I’ve been betrayed before, so, naturally, I’ve made sure that every convenience we enjoy here on Ceres cannot be used against me. But, back to the matter at hand, have the builders begin work on a facility outside of the station to be the central hub for this network, and one of the pads will link to the Ceres network. That will allow people to access the hub from anywhere the public access network reaches.”

“Very good, sire,” Sun nodded. “Then the next concern would be about finding a means to protect the country. Panama does not have any official military, after all, and with the importance of the canal…”

“We’ll send a detachment from the Ceres Royal Army to garrison the area. Give them a squadron of Warthogs, as well. They may be classed as a heavy bomber, but they’re designed for close support as well as fire missions.” I paused, and then added, “Also, they’ll have a full squadron of Outlaws in Transport configuration, and a couple Medevacs.”

“Will we be expanding production, or taking those from the current wait lists?”

“Wait lists, but we’ll also be expanding production. Starting with several manufacturing centers in Panama. I want factories making Outlaws, and the weapons and ammunition for them. That will also make it easier to justify our having a military presence near the canal, since we’re going to be building military goods there.”

“And signaling to the other countries in the area that Ceres is not just doing a land grab, but reinvesting in the area that we’re bringing into the empire,” Morillo nodded. “That will certainly allay some fears, especially if the factories are run by locals, with some of the product being used to defend locals from monsters and other threats. Having local people in charge, instead of an outsider, would really help with the public perception.”

“I’ll have the PR teams work on messaging, but if we put it in terms of jobs, and helping people help themselves, then that should work well enough. Especially as the teleporter networks start connecting areas. Actually, even before connecting Panama to Ceres, I want teams to start at the provincial level, connecting the towns in a province to the provincial capital, and then connecting the capitals to Panama City. That, combined with securing transport routes for commerce, will give people plenty to consider. And with Ceres being involved, that will probably spark the tourism industry back to life, since we’re new and shiny. Also, people living on Ceres may want to go vacation now and then.”

Sun shook his head. “Did you really just come up with all of that on the spot? Or have you been planning this all along?”

“Mostly coming up with things on the spot,” I admitted. “However, knowing how things fell apart in a previous timeline, even if we’ve already well and truly diverged from it, gives me some ideas on the things we need to do in order to keep things together this time. And any warlord worthy of the title learns at least a bit about logistics, because an army can’t fight if they are starving to death, or their weapons and armor are all broken beyond repair.”