Ravens of Eternity

137 The Flow of Coin, Pt Midway up one of the Red Spiral Towers, the Admiral, Retholis, and a few of their officers sat in a small, cozy booth. The booth was nothing more than a circular room with a dark wall and ceiling. A long cushioned seat ran along the edge of the wall, and ringed a circular table that protruded from the floor.

On top of the table was a screen that perfectly displayed what was going on in the floor below, through the multiple EyeCasts that floated around.

“Reth, I’m surprised,” said the Admiral. “And impressed. How’d you score such great boxed seats at the circus?!”

Retholis laughed heartily at the Admiral’s joke, though the Drogar who accompanied him made sour faces instead.

“The Senate is not a circus!” one of them cried.

“Calm down,” said Retholis. “I’d normally agree that the Senate is not a laughing matter. But these aren’t normal times. And I’m definitely stealing that comparison.”

The Admiral looked at the screen and watched as various parliamentarians hustled on the Senate floor.

“I don’t get it,” she said. “You keep telling me that you’ve had a supermajority for this Border Infrastructure measure for a ridiculously long time. And you keep having to vote for it over and over again. When the hell are you all going to actually enact the damned thing?”

“Haven’t you been listening to anything I’ve been saying?” said Retholis. “There are people – my enemies – who actively threaten the empire, its prosperity. They do it by pushing against the will of the people, all for their own personal gain.”

.....

Retholis’ hands balled up into fists. They trembled slightly out of sheer anger. Or frustration. Or both. The Admiral could understand his position – she had certainly experienced something similar within the admiralty itself.

Hell, it was happening to her as they spoke – the high admirals were deeply conflicted about negotiation terms. Mostly because one of them would gain from her loss.

“Sounds familiar,” the Admiral replied. “I’ve seen some things that should’ve been done by the book, as per procedure or protocol. But some admirals decided to get in the way of that, for what I suspect are reasons outside of the Federation’s safety.”

“So you see why I keep asking for your help,” said Retholis. “These people and their greed are a cancer.”

But the Admiral tsk’d at him in response. Her voice was filled with incredulity and frustration.

“Our help?” she said. “Whether or not we’re massacred doesn’t really matter to your plan, does it? So how’s our help going to matter?”

Retholis frowned. She was right. It didn’t matter if every single human in the compound was killed. All that mattered was if Savoth’s thugs attacked in the first place. If they did that, it would allow him a path to go after Savoth himself.

“Can’t I just enjoy you being alive?” he asked.

“Then stop framing it like we’re helping you,” she answered, “and instead do more to protect us. If they were to attack us tomorrow, we’d all be as good as dead.”

“I can’t just give you weapons. They’d lock me up in there with you if I did anything along those lines. I might be a Swarmfather, but it doesn’t mean I’m above Imperial Law.”

“Then at least do something within it! Give us something we can use. Anything’s better than nothing. Armor, for example. We can wear that, right?”

Retholis scratched at his facial spines. There were provisions for self defense – just not the lethal kind. Armor was doable, but it still sat on a fine line between good and grey.

“Armor’s doable,” he said. “I can see what I can do.”

“Not good enough,” said the Admiral. “Give me a defense contract. We’re prisoners, right? Aren’t we little more than free, exploitable labor? If we were in the field, at the Border, wouldn’t you have forced us to perform repairs or build bridges something like that?”

He blinked at the Admiral, dumbfounded by her proposal. She made absolute sense. Wartime doctrine practically demanded that POW’s be used for manual labor. Of course, they weren’t exactly in a warzone... but the provision was still there.

Retholis laughed heartily for a second time.

“I’m definitely stealing this idea as well,” he said. “It’s gods-damned brilliant.”

“Great,” said the Admiral. “So we’re on, then? We sign some paperwork, make some armor, and wait for the inevitable?”

“Not quite. We obviously can’t do human armor – that clearly wouldn’t be for the benefit of the Drogar. But maybe something along those lines. As someone who develops cutting edge experimental technology, I’m sure you’ve got plenty of ideas.”

The Senate floor below them was abuzz with activity. All of the screens that surrounded them displayed the current tally of every vote each of the Senators had made on the current measure. It was simply a field of faces, each one overlaid with Green if they voted For the measure, Red if they voted Against it. Faces that were grey hadn’t yet voted.

Huge numbers in the center displayed the overall votes, with the current count having reached 78.54% out of the total. Basically, little more than a fifth of the Senators had yet to vote. And it was still climbing as more and more cast their votes.

Of that nearly 80%, 71% voted For the measure. There was basically an overwhelming demand to pass the measure by more than two-thirds of the Imperial Senate. Two-thirds of the empire’s systems, worlds, and territories demanded changes to the borders.

They were hungry for new trade lanes, civilian starports, tourist destinations. And most importantly, business opportunities.

The anticipation was high for the measure to finally pass. It was so dense that it could be felt in the space between each Senator.

One of them leaned in towards Paveloth, who was staring at the results on his desk’s terminal. He was practically wringing the bones out of his hands as he watched.

“Quit worrying, Paveloth,” said the Senator. “We’re almost there. We went through a great deal to get this Emergency Vote to go through. We’re gonna succeed this time. Konleth and Savoth can’t mess things up this time around.”

“I wish I had your confidence,” said Paveloth. “Those blasted heaps of dung have blocked us at every gods-damned turn. I just know they’re gonna get us here.”

“Look, once we’ve got an 80% total vote, the Emergency Vote concludes. Konleth’s got sway over maybe 14% of the Senators. No way can he get to 21%. No way. That’s a huge leap, even for him. Just a few more minutes, and the nightmare’s over.”

He reached over and massaged Paveloth’s shoulder to help ease his tension. To his chagrin, the Senator’s anxiety was at an all-time high, and his shoulder was filled with painful knots.

Paveloth quickly stood up in absolute panic when the vote stalled for the first time the entire cycle. It stopped at 79.3%, just shy of what they needed.

Murmurs immediately swept across the floor. Many began to shout and curse across the Senate floor.

“Which dung heap hasn’t voted yet?”

“We’re still in a count, fools! Get your ballots in already!”

“Who’s holding up the count?!”

Paveloth himself lost some of the color in his scales as he reviewed the Senators who hadn’t voted yet. Of course, Konleth, Savoth, and their crew withheld their votes. That certainly wasn’t a surprise.

But like his compatriot said, they were far from the 21% needed to block the Emergency Vote. The only way for them to halt the vote was to somehow find 7% to abstain.

When he scanned the other faces who abstained, his mouth dropped with disbelief. He quickly spun around and scanned the Senators surrounding him. And when he spotted one of the Abstaining Senators, he immediately pointed to him and called him out loudly.

“Senator Thalcrii!” he screamed. “What’s the meaning of this? Didn’t you already cast your vote in previous counts? Why’d you abstain this time?”

“I-I’ve been gracefully asked by my constituents to reconsider my vote,” Thalcrii replied.

Thalcrii couldn’t even look Paveloth in the eye as he tried to explain himself, and turned away to avoid his judgemental gaze.

“What, your districts suddenly want you to agree to the measure?” cried Paveloth. “If that’s the case, then vote your approval!”

“My district is... mixed on which path is the correct one,” said Thalcrii.

“It doesn’t matter how mixed they are at this point – we already have supermajority. Just cast your vote, whatever it is!”

“I owe it to my constituents to fully review the measure.”

Paveloth practically choked in anger at Thalcrii’s responses. What he was saying was completely preposterous! His district was strictly against the measure. He himself was against it. Everyone knew it. He had previously voted against it, and even spoke his displeasure at the expenditures.

His sudden reluctance definitely spoke to other things going on, other than needing further consideration.

“Review, huh?” sneered Paveloth. “As though we haven’t had the past fifteen months to review it. How long are we going to keep holding back our Empire? Most of us want this to pass! Enacting it is what we actually owe our constituents!”

“My hands are tied,” replied Thalcrii.

Paveloth fell to his chair in defeat as the rest of the Senators engaged in a furious debate. He stared at Konleth across the floor with daggers in his eyes.

“Gods-damned scum bought himself seven percent,” he muttered.

The hopeful Senator next to Paveloth was shocked into absolute silence. He was so sure of victory this time, but yet again was stolen from them. The few holding the many hostage.

Again.

Proceedings on the Senate floor quickly devolved into petty arguments, curses, and outright name-calling. Some had their hands on their beltknives as they screamed at each other amidst the furor.

~

A number of red-robed Drogar applauded heartily as they watched the chaos unfold on their large screen. They switched between multiple angles and reveled in the anger that spread across the floor.

Colviss was in the room adjacent to them. She was rather more interested in the weapons that lined the many racks all over the walls. Though they weren’t exactly military-grade weapons, they certainly still held a great amount of lethality.

She picked one up and inspected each of its nooks and crannies. After a while, she revealed its touch panel, and activated its maintenance mode with a few deft taps. The rifle quickly opened up its many access ports and revealed its inner workings to the militant albino.

As she inspected the weapon, an excited brown-scaled Drogar ran into the room.

“Colviss!” he said. “Did you hear? We overturned the vote again! We won even though we barely stood a chance! Isn’t that great?”

“Is it now, brother Felothi?” said Colviss. “Somehow I doubt it. Besides, does it even matter to our mission? Does it affect us in any way?”

“What? Of course it does! The Red Spiral ignores our voices! If it weren’t for Savoth, we wouldn’t get anything done at all. Nothing would happen for us!”

“So Savoth is getting you what you want? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Look, a lot of us have been hurting for a while, you know?” he said. “Our clans are down at the bottom of everything. Savoth’s been fighting hard for us, to give us a voice, so we can be heard! All due respect since you’re a Reborn and all, but you didn’t grow up here. You don’t know what it’s like.”

“Has Savoth actually gotten you anything you want, though?” asked Colviss.

Felothi was taken aback. When he thought about it, Savoth hadn’t given them much. Perhaps a few wage concessions here and there. But he quickly shook off his doubt.

“No... but he’s trying! Everyone else keeps blocking him, stopping him!”

Colviss simply harrumphed at his answer.

“You’re an oblivious fool,” she said. “If Savoth keeps getting blocked as you claim, then how did he walk away from this vote the victor?”

The excited Drogar quickly turned defensive. But he did his best to tamp down any aggressiveness. He was speaking to a Reborn after all.

“W-well I believe in Savoth,” he said. “If you don’t believe in him, in our mission, why in heavens are you even here for?”

Colviss stopped inspecting her rifle, adjusted it back to its operating mode, then set it back down on the rack where it came from. Then she looked over at the Drogar with an unnerving stare as she answered.

It made him feel like she was staring right through him.

.....

“The only thing Savoth and I agree on is the value of coin,” she said. “And if you were wise, you’d realize that’s the only thing about him you should trust.”