IUSD13

==Chapter 13 - I used to Dream==
Ia Drang cabin
Kowloon
Kowloon System
Lyran Commonwealth
December, 3086
"...so, how far are you from a prototype?"  Mom was talking business with Penny.
"Excuse me?" a confused Penny replies
"A prototype.  it may be significant soon but, you've finished the Snark facility and you've made modifications to my daughter's hypotheses, how long before you're ready to run experiments?"
"Six months to a year at minimum, Your Grace." Penny tells her.
"Call me 'Liz'."  mom tells her.
"Six months to a year at minimum, Liz." Penny corrects without batting an eye.  "Some of the equations suggest there may be interactions with KF field theory as well."
"You do know that 'black box' communications also have some interactions with KF field generation, ja?"
"Ayeh mum." Penny nods, "There appears to be commonality between the three theories, and it ties back to Alcubierre's work in the twentieth century which builds off of tangents from Einstein and others."
"Since Archon Adam Steiner has tied my hands on sending an expedition out, I've decided to start plowing funding into fundamental science research." Mom tells her, "If this works, I may rook you out of the Guard to keep you on fundamental scientific research for the foreseeable future, Penelope.  I know you were initially raised as a Warrior Caste, in the Clans.  Would you accept such a posting?"
"Yes." Penny says it without hesitating.
Mom smiles.  It's a little strange seeing her smile again.
"Good."
That little revelation clicks with the rumors.  Mom's not just reverse-engineering things that people forgot how to make anymore.  She's pursuing fundamental science.
There are people who really, really, really, don't want that kind of science to advance.  Vested interests in business, every major  government, and several extragovernmental entities in the Inner Sphere for starters.
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The Triad
Tharkad System
Lyran Commonwealth
December, 3086
[perspective shift-overview]
For Fiscal Year 3086-87, Coast Guard LCN (Reserve) budgeting from the Commonwealth Government was reduced 11.25 Trillion Kroner from FY3085-86. The LCN procurement and support budgets over all were reduced by 91 Trillion Kroner over the same time period, and roughly 20% of active LCAF compact-core assets were shifted to the mothball, with a personnel/manpower reduction in force of that same 20%.
Roughly one in ten remaining hulls in service, including 2 full battlegroups, were lend-leased to the Federated Suns. A third battlegroup was being sold to the Republic of the Sphere as a military assistance package leading into the opening of multinational talks on Terra to establish a uniform Naval Treaty that would limit fleet sizes. This would specifically combat-capable fleets, and establish new ground rules and conventions regarding what is, and is not, permissible in space warfare. This would be including establishing size and composition limits to combatant fleet units.
Notably, for this task, Archon Adam Steiner did not call on former secretary of the navy Elizabeth Ngo. He would instead relied on his General of the Armies and his corps of diplomats to handle negotiations.
==Note from the Author==
;Reasoning behind the above actions undertaken by by Archon Adam Steiner : The problem here, is one of Feudal governments-even brilliant rulers make mistakes or bad compromises.   Sometimes it is to head off potential civil war or usurpation, sometimes to head off phantoms of the same, or to reward loyal supporters, or to prevent loyal supporters from becoming treacherous lieutenants. This is a very real concern in Adam's administration.  What Liz did for him, it's the kind of thing that could form the basis for a coup or overturn his chosen successor, it's a competing power base.  even though he knows Liz wouldn't, he can't be sure her follow-on is as loyal, and if she were to gain yet MORE influence (directly or indirectly) it may make him look weak or malleable to the OTHER nobles in the realm, whom are not exactly pleased-as-punch with how things are going, how the Jihad was fought (more of a problem for nobles whose worlds were relatively untouched by the WoB), and what it means...and of course, the enemies made due to the reforms that let her build that powerful navy for him. The people who lost rich sources of graft are legion, cutting out middle men tends to make them hate you, same for cutting off crony corporate 'capitalism' in favor more merit based approaches and more aggressive oversight of contracting. His decision to leave it to a relatively popular officer from a good family, with an adequate record, whom hasn't made an enemy of half the ruling class in the Commonwealth. Also to the diplomats whose job ostensibly is to negotiate, was more about domestic political issues and concerns, than interest in negotiating a new treaty.
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