A Battle Unseen

[Doc]

Cliff Offices, Southwest Kaliburg
3:45 pm, January 2

The chime rang on the office door. The Princess Regent sat at her desk and reached over to press a button that unlatched the door. It was the Chancellor of the Empire, who entered the room, undoing her scarf and unbuttoning her heavy wool 3/4 length coat as she walked across the office. Taking them both off and hanging them on the coat rack, along with her knit cap, she crossed the room, stopped in front of the desk and bowed. The Princess Regent remained seated and returned the salute from her desk.

"Have a seat, Madame Chancellor."

"Is this what I think it is, Your Highness?" asked the Chancellor.

"Very likely, Lady Donahue."

The Chancellor knew it and she was deeply concerned with what the Princess Regent was about to say, but she also didn't know why she had to travel all the way across town to receive what she already knew would be an order of... perhaps... questionable legality. "My Lady, Please do not take this the wrong way, but couldn't you just have called me? Have you seen that weather out there? It is icy as hell on that bridge, and I was so worried about getting into an accident."

The Princess stood up and walked to the seat next to the Chancellor. "No, I can't say what I am about to say over the phone. This office is secure, but I never ever know what those IBSI spooks are listening to. This will be fine. If you are worried about the traffic I can have my driver take you back, but this will just take a few minutes."

The Chancellor sighed almost audibly. There was no point in pleading her case with the inevitable. "No worries, Majesty. I will be ok getting back."

"Very well," said the Princess Regent, not even attempting to feign concern. "I want you to tell Zarate down in Sulari to take the gloves off. He'll know what I mean."

Of course, when she heard "take the gloves off" the Chancellor knew she had guessed correctly. "Madame, if there's improprieties in the trials, you know that causes appeals and overturning decisions. The men you are looking for won't spend long in jail. You are aware of this, I hope."

The Princess Regent nodded, "If that Cop does what he is told, there won't be any trials."

"So..." started the Chancellor, "you are talking about..." The Princess Regent nodded solemnly. "My Lady, I must counsel you against this course of action. That is highly illegal."

"I'll take my chances with the law, Madame. I have a feeling I will win."

"Have you run this by Wilson? Have you talked to her?"

"Have you?"

The Chancellor could not lie to the Regent. "I... I have had some conversations... we've talked about different scenarios."

"Was this one of them?" asked the Regent.

"Regrettably, it was, Your Highness."

"Well," said the Princess Regent. "Then you've done your job. You spoke with stakeholders, and I assume you are giving me your best advice in this situation to help me make this decision. And I thank you for your diligence to our Empire." She paused and then said, coldly, "Do it anyway."

"Have you thought about what this will do to Zarate? Like the legal jeopardy you could place him in?" asked the Chancellor.

"We'll take care of him," said the Princess Regent. "Next week when you call the Assembly back into session, you will call for a resolution on qualified immunity for the Special Investigations Division. He'll be alright."

"I will... What?!" asked the Chancellor incredulously. "I will do no such thing."

"Madame Chancellor, you are charged with carrying out the Empress' fiat, are you not?"

"I hardly believe this is coming from the Empress!" responded the Chancellor.

"No, its coming from her Regent. I am her proxy, am I not?"

"Madame, what you are asking me is to..." the Chancellor could hardly believe she was about to say what she was going to say... "You are talking about empowering the Sulari Police to violate the law, and then you are ordering me to create a law that covers that."

"That's one way to look at it," said the Princess Regent.

"How ELSE is there to look at it, Princess?" demanded the Chancellor.

"Watch your tone, Madame Chancellor. The law applies to you too, I needn't remind you."

"I beg your pardon, Your Highness. But..." she gulped, indignant and also, maybe a little fearful--She did not want to cross the line with the Princess, but, how could she make this Princess see. "Highness, what you are asking me to do, some would call it tyrannical..."

The Princess Regent scooted forward, toward the Chancellor, leaned in and almost under her breath, said, "Do it anyway, Madame Chancellor."

The Chancellor gulped, intimidated by this strange hippy ordering such an unconscionable thing. Nicolette was a Brethrenist. The Chancellor couldn't believe that a Brethrenist would even order this kind of violence to be unleashed.

"My Lady," started the Chancellor. "I would rather resign than make that call. I cannot, in good consciousness follow your order in this matter. I have no desire to alienate myself, but I feel that I must tell you no. I will not pass that to Zarate. I feel the Empress would not support this, and I think it will be well for you to consult with her before making this decision."

The Princess Regent smiled and produced an envelope from the table next to her. She handed the unsealed envelope to the Chancellor. "Madame, your resignation will not be necessary and shall not be accepted. You will do your duty, as your Empress Commands you."

The Chancellor, shaking now, slowly slid the leaf of paper out, unfolded it. Everything was proper. The Handwriting was correct: the way the t's were crossed, the way the sentences was punctuated, the slant of the cursive, the signature, was all spot on. The seal was pressed in at the appropriate spot. She read the paper and then read it again, hoping for something to be off. Hoping, and then losing hope.

"People refuse to take this family seriously," said the Princess Regent. "I know that when my brother died, it was you, Madame Chancellor, who put me in this job, and asked me to do it until my Niece was old enough to take the spot. But you stood on the institution, rather than any personal feeling about me. You did that because it was your job: I know that very well. And yet, you were also kind and caring, and you helped me so much during my grief, and you tolerated a curious little girl, who had lost her father and her mother, hanging around you all day, looking up to you, learning from you, asking you questions and distracting you, for years. Because you are a good person and you knew your job well.

"You are a good person, but you have very little faith in my family as people. So, I am telling you now, Ericka. Your conscience can be clear: You are merely passing a message and passing a law as you are ordered by Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Carolina II Ananto-- you are yet again just doing your job. The morality of this decision is on me, but also on our Empress, and at the end of it all, I am also just doing as she told me to do. She will not accept your resignation. My advice is for you to find some faith that she knows best what she wants for her Empire, and that she will do whatever she needs to do to get it. Because after all, Madame, it is her Empire. Not mine, not yours, and certainly not those murderers who killed Mr. Maxwell and his wife in our streets. If that looks like tyranny from the outside, we'll know we did what needed to do when nobody ever believed we would, because we could, and nobody else could."

The Chancellor had never been criticized so personally, so correctly, or so gently. It was a knife to the heart for this Chancellor. But she forced herself to smile through the pain. "Did you practice that speech, Your Highness?"

The Princess smiled too, "A couple times, yes. I went for the dramatic effect... Was it alright?"

The Chancellor was therefore resolved: At least the Princess Regent was honest, and that was, at least an admirable quality that most world leaders refuse to posses. "Aye Madame, it was fine. Maybe next time, don't cut so deeply. If Her Imperial Majesty commands me, I will obey as a subject must. I will make the call. And we can work on the law on Monday."

"I knew you would, Ericka. I personally value you as a friend and a councilor, and we've been through some dark stuff together. But if it really is just work, if that's how you justify everything, then this is your job, and nobody will ever fault you for doing your job as your Empress requires you to do it. And we'll forget this unpleasantness between us."

"Madame," the Chancellor said, "As the Philosopher says, it is impossible to truly be friends with someone who is not your equal. The lesser in the relationship will always feel an obligation to the greater, and the greater will always condescend to the lesser. That's not friendship: Its something else entirely."

"Be that as it may, Madame, I look forward to results and I thank you, if not for your friendship, than for your service, which right now is what I require most of you."

"Understood, my Lady. Is there anything else I may do for Her Imperial Majesty?"

Nicolette smiled bittersweetly, realizing that something had been broken this afternoon which may never be repaired. "It looks like the clouds are breaking outside," she said. "You may return to Kaliburg now, with our thanks." The Chancellor rose, bowed dutifully, and slowly walked to the coat rack. She too felt something had been broken, and would likely mourn its loss in the near future. She kept a smile on her face as she turned away and felt tears slide down her cheek.