The Designs of Liberty (SEMI-CLOSED)

[Aligned Planets]

Please telegram me before you get involved :-)

It had been slightly more than two months since Dienes had been been appointed as the Ambassador-General for the United Federation of Aligned Planets, and the ensuing cavalcade of pomp and pagentry had only just subsided. First had come the official handing over ceremony... Dienes shuddered with the memory of the execution of his predecessor... followed by more than a hundred hastily dispatched state visits by the various delegates and leaders of their neighbours, each of whom had come to deliver gifts and pledges of support; all of which Dienes had accepted on behalf of the Federation with politely concealed indifference. His thoughts had been occupied with the tasks that President Jaresh-Inyo had set him to.

As Dienes had suspected, his wife had adapted easily and enthusiastically to her new role as Madame Ambassador. To her care he had entrusted the coordination of the cosmetic overhaul of the diplomatic corps. For the most part, that had entailed removing the outrageously oversized portraits in the Embassy and mimimizing their counterparts throughout the Federation's charge d'affairs. Other, more radical alterations he had discussed with her would have to wait until the Federation's political climate was ready.

For his own part, Dienes found life in the Ambassadorial Residence to be quiet, comfortable, and opulently boring. The oversized chambers and furniture offended his simpler, more austere sensibilities. The senseless waste had been a primary factor in his decision to seek dominion over the Federation, and now he lived in the midst of the most ostentatious expression of wastefulness imaginable. The irony of his circumstances was not lost on him.

A deep chiming signal indicated that Dienes's staff wished to announce a visitor. He turned and watched the double doors that led to the parlour. They opened several seconds later, and a herald entered.

"Ambassador," he said, then briefly bowed his head. "Consul Augustine of Pandora Minor is here at your invitation."

"Show him into the study," Dienes said. "I will join him there momentarily."

"As you command, Ambassador," the herald said and withdrew in reverse, closing the bedroom doors as he exited.

Dienes closed his eyes and sat in silence for a few minutes, clearing his thoughts and preparing himself for the meeting with his old friend. Each breath was a cleansing intake and release, and the tension that attended the governorship of the Federation's diplomatic policy gradually ebbed from his muscles. At last centred in his own thoughts, he allowed himself a solitary sentimental glance in his wife's direction before he left the bedroom.

[Aligned Planets]

Inside Dienes's study, the thermostat had been adjusted to a much warmer level than normal, and almost all traces of humidity had been extracted from its air - both changes being for Augustine's benefit. Seated across a small table from Dienes, Augustine's face was steeped in long vertical shadows from the dim, crimson-hued overhead illumination. He shook his head. "Your proposal is not sensible, Oliver," he said. "It is grounded in sentimental illusions."

"I assure you," Dienes replied, "it is not." He picked up the ceramic urn of hot tea that rested on the table between them and refilled both their cups as he continued. "You yourself have admitted that the President's proposals for conquering the outer colony worlds for their dilithium resources will inevitably consume more time, personnel, and resources than it can repay. Advocating a policy of waste is not sensible." He set down the tea urn and looked Augustine in the eye. "However, enticing the outer colonies to rejoin the United Federation of their own volition, particularly if it can be accomplished without resorting to threats of force, would represent a significant and immediate gain for the Federation, at a relatively moderate long-term cost."

Augustine sipped his tea slowly, then set down his cup. "Even if I acknowledge the logic of your analysis, Oliver, you must concede that negotiating such an agreement with former planets of ours that we could just as quickly invade would make the Federation appear weak. If our enemies come to believe that we would rather talk than act, they will not hesitate to strike. Introducing supplication into our foreign policy will only invite attack."

"Your analysis is flawed, Consul." The accusation almost provoked a glare of anger from the elder Pandoran. He reined in his temper, then said, "Explain." "I agree that opening talks with the outer colonies will cause the Tigrans and Ascadians to question our motives," Dienes said. "But their scanners will still show our border defenses to be intact, and our fleet vigilant. They will not attack." Pensive now, Augustine folded his hands in front of his chest. "The other delegates will not be receptive to this idea." "Then you must persuade them," Dienes said. "It will cost the Federation less than conquest, and reap it greater benefit."

When Augustine failed to remark on Dienes's statement, the Ambassador-General continued. "You have only heard the first step in my proposal," Dienes pointed out. "I think you will find its later stages intriguing, for their anticipated effect upon the status quo."

"I am well acquainted with how the United Federation adjusts the status quo," Augustine replied. Many times had Dienes listened patiently while Augustine recounted, with thinly veiled bitterness, the manner in which the Federation, immediately following their first contact with a Pandoran scout ship, had captured the scouts and tortured them into divulging the secrets of interstellar navigation. In short order, the United Federation had turned the Pandorans' knowledge to their own aims, laying the foundation for the nascent star empire. "You assume facts not in evidence, Augustine." He waited until he once again commanded Augustine's full attention, then continued. "Strengthening the Federation is not my objective. In fact, I aim to do quite the opposite." A twinge of emotion fluttered across Augustine's countenance. Fear, perhaps? He moved slowly, positioning the table between himself and his younger, more idealistic, friend. In a milder tone than he had used before, he said, "Speak plainly, Oliver."

"Fact: The Federation's policies of preemptive warfare and civil oppression are not sustainable, and will soon collapse." Cautiously, Augustine nodded. "Stipulated." Emboldened, Dienes pressed on. "Fact: Within approximately two hundred forty-three Earth years, uprisings will compromise the security of the United Federation from within, even as it wages a war against multiple external threats. The ensuing collapse will probably destroy millenia of accumulated knowledge, triggering an interstellar dark age without precedent in the history of local space." Augustine nodded gravely. "Pandora Minor's Council has reached the same conclusion. The Federation's collapse is inevitable." "Agreed," Dienes said. "The Federation cannot be saved. But the civilization that it supports can be - with a different, more benign form of government." The upward pitch of the Pandoran's tone would barely have been noted by anyone but a close friend, but to Dienes it registered as indignation. "You speak of treason, Dienes."

"I speak of the inevitability of change, Augustine." He picked up Augustine's half-full cup of tea from the table and held it before himself. "The Federation will fall. And when it does..." He let the cup fall to the floor. It broke into dozens of small jagged fragments, spilling tea in an irregular puddle across the carpet. "All within it will be lost. Unless..." He picked up his own cup from the table, opened the lid on the ceramic pot in the middle of the table, and poured his leftover tea back inside. Then he casually hurled the cup against the wall, where it shattered into countless tiny earthern shards. Several seconds passed while Augustine considered Dienes's point. The metaphor had been obvious enough that Dienes had not felt the need to elaborate after throwing the empty cup. He was certain that Augustine understood that he meant to transition the imperial civilization to a new form of government before making a sacrifice of the Federation itself, casting it aside after it had been gutted and reduced to a hollow shell of its former self.

[Aligned Planets]

"My friend," Augustine began, sounding as though he were selecting each word with great care. "I ask this with genuine concern: Do you suffer from a mental infirmity?" The question was not unexpected. Dienes shook his head once. "I am in full command of my faculties." He took one step towards the Consul. "It will take time for my plan to come to fruition. I must cultivate allies and fortify a power base. But it can be done - and if we wish to prevent the sum of all the achievement of our species from being erased in the greatest civil war the Federation has ever seen, it must be done."

Augustine emerged from behind the table. He stepped slowly between the shards of the broken cups. "For the sake of discussion, let us assume that you can seize power over the Federation, and maintain your hold long enough to push it towards its own demise. What do you propose should replace it?"

"A constitutionally ordered, representative republic," Dienes said. As he'd expected, Augustine recoiled from the notion. "Highly impractical," Augustine replied. "The Federation is too large to be governed in such a manner. It would fall into civil war." Nodding, Dienes said, "As the Federation, yes. But as a coalition of sovereign worlds, united for their mutual benefit, much of its administration could be localized. Each planet and colony would be responsible for its own governance and would contribute to the interstellar defence of the republic."

"Madness," Augustine reported. "You would never be able to maintain control."

"Irrelevant," Dienes said. "When it is in each world's best interest to remain united with the others, it will no longer be necessary to compel their loyalty. Self-interest will dictate that the good of the many also benefits the few - or the one." The elder Pandoran stopped in front of the food slot and pushed a sequence of buttons to procure more tea. High-pitched warbles of sound emanated from behind the device's closed panel. "The populace is not ready for self-rule, Oliver. After decades of dictatorship, in one guise or another, the responsibilities of civic duty will be alien to them. They will reject it." The food-slot panel lifted, revealing a new ceramic pot and two empty cups on a tray. Augustine picked up the tray and moved it to the table. "And our enemies will capitalize on the chaos that follows from your reforms."

"I am not suggesting we dismantle the Fleet," Dienes said. He moved to the table and stood opposite the Consul. "If reform is to have a chance to succeed, foreign interference must be prevented." He gestured for Augustine to be seated. As he sat, so did Dienes. He reached forward, lifted the teapot, and filled Augustine's cup with a slow, careful pour. "I do not propose to effect my changes all at once," Dienes said. "Progress must come by degrees." Dienes set down the teapot. "By the time our rivals are aware of the scope of my intentions, they will be ill-prepared to act." Leaning forward, Augustine said, "But when they do act, Oliver, their reprisal will be catastrophic." He picked up the teapot and, with the slow measured motions of an old man in no hurry to reach the end of his life, poured tea into Dienes's cup. "It is logical to conclude that the Federation cannot endure, but to contend that the solution to that problem is to prematurely destroy the Federation is...counterintuitive, at best."

"Indeed," Dienes replied as he watched Augustine set down the teapot. Dienes picked up his cup and savoured the gentle aroma of the herbal elixir. "But to do nothing is more illogical still."

"True," Augustine replied, then he breathed deep the perfume of his own tea. They sipped their drinks together for several minutes, each contemplating what the other had said. It was Augustine who finally broke the silence. "I find much of what you propose troubling, Oliver. However, given the inevitable decline and fall of the Federation, yours seems the most logical course."

"Most generous," Dienes said.

"I offer you this caveat, however," Augustine added. "Even the most thoroughly logical agenda can be confounded by the actions of an irrational political actor - and humans are nothing if not irrational. They can be passionate, vindictive, sometimes even loyal, but more than any other species I have ever met, they are willing to kill and die for ideology. Most any species will fight for territory, resources, or survival. But Terrans, especially the Terrans as they've become under this United Federation, will readily slaughter billions and lay waste to entire worlds for the sake of an idea. Choosing the nobler of two paths will not come naturally to them... They will have to be fooled into acting in their own best interest."

There was wisdom in Augustine's words, Dienes knew. "Your point is well taken," he said. "Perhaps it is my own human ancestry that has spurred me on this admittedly ideological course of action. That, most of all, is why I humbly seek to enlist you as my chief political counsel."

"I would be honoured."

With a tilt of his head, Dienes gave the only honest acknowledgement. "It seems the most logical thing to do."

Augustine nodded. "I understand." He took two short steps toward the door. "Rest tonight, Oliver. We will speak again before the conference." He paused. "The future awaits us; we have much to do..."