- Excerpt from The Conquest of Talyth by Oren Gaoijing
Prologue
"You have to understand, Mr. Velciter, that it's not as simple as sending out a fleet to scour out the smugglers."
"I lost all my profits on this run to those damn smugglers! You expect me to keep paying taxes and going through customs, while they get away scot-free! It's those damn Talythians! They're ruining me!"
Gauis sighed. He was, at least in name, Count of the Halterra Fringe Systems. In practice, this meant surprisingly little, but on paper, he was responsible for delivering tax revenues and levies to the Imperiatrix whenever she required them, as well as maintaining order and protecting the border. In truth, he was responsible for precisely none of those things. The colonies had only been founded twelve years ago, and the Imperatrix hadn't demanded a single mark in taxes yet, perhaps to encourage colonial growth. The colonies had a few scattered millions apiece, no shipyards, and couldn't deliver a levy to save their lives. Maintaining order was easy enough, Gauis had two frigates and almost three hundred men under arms, enough to threaten any colonial rebellion into standing down.
After all, the colonial militia largely took care of their own in terms of law enforcement. He was usually only called in to mediate disputes that got far out of hand. As for protecting the border, well... if any local powers decided to take the system, his only real job would be to go crying to Allurus to get it taken back.
So his job was fairly easy, and while it didn't yield a great deal of money or prestige, it was a damn sight better than going back to Allurus and having his family make him marry that harridan, Lady Centora. His gills quivered for a moment as he thought about being forced into that.
No, this was far better. So he turned his attention to the matter at hand.
"Mr. Velciter, I'm not sure if you realise this, but over ninety percent of my colonists are Talythians. Not the large landholders, of course, or the company heads, but most of the labour, the guardsmen, the soldiers... they're Talythians. Who am I supposed to arrest?"
"All of them! Any of them! I don't care!"
Gauis looked at the man with sudden contempt. He didn't love the Talythians all that much, after all, they lived for twenty years. By the time you'd made friends with one, he'd be dead. But they were useful. No, indispensible. For any colonial governor or lord, the Talythians were a godsend. They bred quickly, died easily, and obeyed the law. Nobody hated them, they were too short-lived for that. They worked the most dangerous jobs for the least pay, allowing the average atoran colonist to live in a level of comfort only dreamed of before on the fringe.
"I don't think you heard me. I have three hundred soldiers under arms, and two hundred and fifty of them are Talythians. Do you want me to order them to arrest themselves?"
"Well no, obviously not, but..."
"Mr. Velciter. I'm the Count here, but you need to remember that we are on the Fringe. If someone shoots at you, I can protect you. If someone steals your cargo, I can go try get it back. But almost everyone smuggles. Nobody owns freighters, they all own shuttles. I can't search every single inbound and outbound shuttle, nor do I choose to do so."
"Then let Hammer Industries provide securit-"
"Do you think I'm an idiot, Mr. Velciter? You want me to let corporate security forces run my worlds? How long before I'm not a count, and just a consultant? No, I keep an eye on Hammer Industries. You buy up platinum and allantium and sell it for an absurd profit on Arkanus. You're not going to stop coming here just because a few enterprising souls have taken up doing the same in their shuttlecraft. The terms remain the same. Buy from here if you want. If you don't, I'm sure I can arrange for Y'ttdri & Sons to buy some of these minerals."
The man hung his head briefly.
"That will be all, Mr. Velciter."
Gaius pressed a button on his desk.
"Sonja, could you please escort Mr. Velciter out?"
A stately human secretary with grey hair wrapped up into a bun strode into the office, and led the human merchant out.
Gaius sighed with relief. Thank Junt that's over with.
A few scarce minutes later, another man walked in. This one was shorter, barely reaching Gaius's ribs, but looked at him with amusement.
"Very good, Count Gauis Farhad. I think we can work together after all."
"Julia-"
"Is safe, and will be returned to you as soon as we're sure of your... loyalty."
The man grinned, showing mouth half-full of teeth, the other half replaced with silvery cerametals.
"Besides. We Talythians have a merchant to ruin, haven't you heard?"