A Battle Unseen

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Cliff House Offices, Office of his Imperial Majesty, Fredrick III Ananto, 3:45 PM

Allison Stuart turned on the monitor and hit the button to connect to the VOIP call.  In one box on her screen was Lady Michelle Ananto-Sandoval calling from Egelion.

"Hello Your Highness.  Please hold for His Imperial Majesty."

"Thank you, Ms. Stuart," said Lady Michelle.  The two women sat in silence.  Lady Michelle never really got along with Ms. Stuart too well. Stuart was very business minded, very oriented, while Michelle was more of a free thinker, a lover of nature, and a much warmer individual.  Michelle always thought that Stuart was perfect, however to represent her brother in public:  Fredrick had a way about him where he couldn't help but laugh in inappropriate moments, and was even known to joke at serious events, because something always struck him as funny about any situation.  But affairs of state required a calm, level headed voice at all times, and though the two personalities did not match one another, Michelle was glad that Fredrick had selected Stuart for the job of his interpretter and spokeswoman, precisely because of her demeanor.

Still:  would it hurt if she was a little more joyful?

Within two minutes, Stuart was signing "You're late again, Your Majesty," quietly into her screen.  The interpreter paused, and then nodded silently, and returned her gaze to the screen.  Within a minute, another box popped up on the screen, and it was the face of her brother, who appears to have just come back from some outdoor activity.  He sat at the computer, and signed a welcome to his sister, who smiled as she always has, and responded "Thank you for meeting with me."  

Fredrick rarely used his voice any longer to speak.  He had retained his ability to be understood well into his adult years, but had gone without hearing for so long, that he no longer could even hear the sound of his own voice, and it certainly affected his ability to form words.  He had agreed to speak only through signs about five years ago, and Stuart has been his voice consistently since then.  Michelle did no know sign language well enough anymore to fully communicate everything to him, but in the home, both Monica and the girls spoke fluently in sign language with their father and even used it when communicating with one another as auxiliaries to their own voices.

Fredrick signed that he would like Michelle to make her report.  Through Stuart's sign language, Lady Michelle said "There are some very promising proposals made by the South Dovani representative, one that creates a relief fund for crisis situations and one that pledges the world to work together to address extremism in the world."  Fredrick responded, through Ms. Stuart, that these sound interesting, and he trusts Lady Michelle to sign for the Empire if she feels they will be something that Kalistan could agree to, but he would still like to read the proposals for himself to perhaps provide a bit more guidance and insight on the proposals.

"There is one thing," said Lady Michelle.  "Several of the delegations here, as you know, have grouped Kalistan in as an extreme form of government.  We've received private assurances from some that this was not intended, but nobody has come out publicly and stated it before the conference.  So there is a possibility that some members may sign on thinking they are going to use those proposals to check the Empire too, like this is their purpose."

Fredrick nodded as he watched Stuart interpret what Michelle said to him.  When she finished interpreting Michelle's comment, he signed to Stuart, who said "Kalistan has rarely cared about the opinions of other nations.  Some we care more for.  But His Imperial Majesty is inclined to say that you should sign on to these proposals anyway, regardless of what some think, if you feel they are good proposals, and let them think what they want.  It is His Imperial Majesty's desire that Kalistan should do what it can to rejoin the international community:  this might involve leaving some things open to interpretation, and then dealing with the misinterpretation of others when the occasion arises."

Michelle nodded.  "There is one more thing, Fredrick," said Michelle.  "The one proposal contains a commitment to support democratic institutions in other nations."

Fredrick said clearly enough, "So?"

Michelle furrowed her brow, in confusion.  "So..." she answered through Stuart, "so Kalistan will be on record as supporting democratization."

Fredrick shook his head and then signed a fairly long response.  Stuart interpreted, "Kalistan has no room for democracy within Kalistan, this is true.  We will never have a democratically elected government as long as our House continues to rule in this Empire.  But:  two of the three constituent nations in our Empire are democratic nations.  We feel our way is correct for us, and their way is correct for them.  We also happen to know that when democracy collapses, it tends to bring fascism in its wake, because sedentary and apathetic people who have given up hope in the system are more likely to fall under the sway of dictators and tyrants.  Shouldn't we want to promote democracy in other nations, then, as a means to prevent that?  Nobody says democracy has to be liberal in form, but if, say I don't know, Ikradon, or whatever, wants to be democratic, we should try to help them be, specifically as a counter to fascism.  I am fine with that."

"Fredrick, it's just that..."

"Haha, I do believe you are more of an Ananto than I am.  I am not afraid of the people having their say in some foreign country.  Kalistan won't be affected by that, and we can support that program to give people what they want.  Its a good thing."

"But what happens if the people in Kalistan see Kalistan supporting democracies internationally, but not at home?"  

The Emperor smiled and signed "The people in Kalistan are engulfed in images from the world of democracy, and the vast majority of those pictures are of democracies failing, either by electing psychopaths who have so much money that they have clearly bought the election, or by electing ineffectual morons who are not capable of defending themselves against totalitarians, let alone feeding their own people.  Every time they show a clip from some democracy, its of things falling apart, and it confirms that Kalistan is correct in avoiding that.  And our people see that too.  It's not a contradiction to promote democracy for thee, not so much for me.   Democracy is its own worst enemy, and regularly fails, just because its democracy, and is destined to fail--its what happens when you give a bunch of people who don't know good policy from a hole in the wall the right to vote on anything.  But while it remains healthy, totalitarians have less control over things, so it is in our interest then to do what we can to support efforts to strengthen democracies, to prevent them, as much as possible from collapsing and turning into fascism.  "

Michelle nodded and stated she understand the instructions.

"Thank you for updating me today, Michelle.  I do hope you are getting out.  Altea is a very pretty town, once you get to know it."

"I would rather be home in Kalistan," said Michelle.  "There is a lot of dislike for Kalistan in the international community, and because I am here, we get to be the punching bag for the conference."

"That's fine," said Fredrick with a smile, "You're a tough old broad, just like our mother.  I had Ms. Stuart send you a care package last week.  Something to take the edge off while you finish up."

"That will be welcomed," said Michelle with a smile.  "They have literally nothing up here except alcohol.  It will help me tune out the hateration in this conference."

"How's Anya doing?"  

"She's doing fine," said Lady Michelle.  "She wants to keep jumping up and calling some of these folks out.  Her heart is in the right place, but she needs to relax a bit."

"Ok," said Fredrick.  "Send me drafts of those proposals, and if they ever get around to discussing the refugee thing, tell them that Kalistan offers to take some of them, a number to be determined."

Michelle nodded her assent, and the Emperor flashed the peace sign into the camera, and logged off the call.  He signed to Stuart, "Stick around when you're done there.  I want to go over this proposal for the Terran League and need you to make some calls for me.  She nodded, and then turned back to the camera, "His Imperial Majesty requires my assistance on something to do with some sort of Terran League.  So I'll be logging off now."

"Ms. Stuart, before you go...  Do you think my brother is becoming a liberal?  He seems awfully interested in doing what he can to work with other countries, even overlooking things like democracy..."

"Your Highness, I think he is governing like an Emperor who cares about his nation."

Michelle thought about these words, and then smiled.  "I am proud of him," she said thoughtfully.

"The whole nation is," answered Stuart, and then bid the Princess good bye and ended the call.