ICHaFBI 27

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=I, Corvus; How a Fool became Imperator of the O'Reillys - Epilogue -=
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===The Never Ending Circle of Politics===
Imperial Palace
City of Nova Roma, Latium District - Gaul Continent
Alphard IV, Corvid Principate
30th July, 3036
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Armored ferroglass windows did little to dull the brightness of fusion engines at full launch power. From his seat in his private office, Corvus O'Reilly watched the Concordia rise into the sky, Alphard's sunlight glinting off its gray and red-painted hull as it ascended. Livia, Antonia, and a number of supporting analysts from the military and civil service were on their way to Arcadia and thee meetings that would determine the fate of his beleaguered Principate.
 
"If worse comes to worse, I suppose Livia will be the lucky one," Kelly mused. "She'll be the one who gets to live in exile if Zielinski wins."
 
Corvus watched the ship become a distant speck in the sky. Without turning he asked, "D-Do you think he will t-try a coup after all?"
 
"He's certainly moving some pieces into place. His friends in the Senate are pushing this appointment reform bill as a means to gain more direction over the civil service, and he's got friends embedded. We really could use a good cleaning…"
 
"No," Corvus said, knowing what Kelly was really about to suggest. "Having State o-officials dying from muggings too often would be j-just as dangerous to me as disloyal ones. The State must not look weak, especially n-not now."
 
"Until we get better news from the front, anyway," Kelly agreed. "As it is, the patricians are finding ways to delay abolition now. We've got reports that on some worlds they're pressing their slaves into signing labor contracts or being thrown into the street. And some of the plebe labor federations are protesting recent wage drops."
 
"They figure to win over the lo-lower class by associating the labor of fr-freed slaves with declines in wages, and it lets them pay less too. We'll see how long they can m-maintain that when labor goes elsewhere."
 
"It could work," Kelly said. "Honestly, Princeps, given his age, there's plenty of ways to rid us of Zielinski."
 
"Y-Yes. But then h-his daughter and sib-siblings will take his p-place, and other pa-patricians will be even l-less secure. No." Corvus shook his head. "If he rebels, he will be dealt with. But for now, s-surveillance and observance."
 
He could tell right away Kelly did not like that. "You're risking a lot by not acting more aggressively. This entire reform is built on what you, Livia, and Lucia want, and if you're removed, everything goes back to the way it was."
 
"Y-yes. And that m-might be how it goes. Our s-story remains un-unwritten. Perhaps I will be a Cl-Claudius or a Tr-Trajan, or I will be a Gallienus."
 
Kelly blinked. "A who?"
 
A wan smile crossed Corvus' face. "My p-point exactly." He sighed and shook his head. Gnasher looked up at him with concern as well. "We are l-living history, and it is n-never easy. In the end, nobody wins forever. D-Diocletian's Empire died as certainly as A-Augustus' or M-Marcus Aurelius'. We only win temporary v-victories. Always."
 
"If I may, Princeps… then what's the point of all this?" Kelly gestured around them. "If it's all going to end one day, why should we bother giving a damn?"
 
"Because those temporary victories still matter. That i-is how the greats are r-remembered. The Empire did not last, but the m-memory did. We are proof of that!" Corvus chuckled at that. "Without Scipio, w-without the G-Grachii, or Cicero, or C-Caeser, without Augustus and Claudius and T-Trajan, without Constantine, or the p-peoples they led, there w-would have been no Rome to inspire Johann Sebastian. There w-would be no Marian Hegemony. Our victories still m-matter by s-shaping the history to c-come. If I c-can accomplish that end, and leave Alphard b-better than it was w-when I was born, it w-will have been worth it."
 
Gnasher nodded quietly. Kelly seemed to consider the words before mirroring the Algenibi's gesture. "Makes as much sense as anything else, I suppose."
 
Corvus couldn't help himself. He laughed, and laughed quite loudly, at Kelly's observation. "Sometimes, that's the best you can hope for." The best any of us can hope for, he added in his mind, casting a thought skyward to the cousin, now adopted daughter, and his h
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===Reflection from the Future Historian===
 
"The earliest years of the Corvid Principate are often written as a sort of quiet, whimpering end to the Anni Gloriae by most commentators, the necessary but boring period of retrenchment and stabilization made necessary by the glorious conquests that preceded Corvus' rise to power. It is certainly true that the Principate did desperately need the time to entrench on its new worlds, but this perception is itself a conceit of an Alphardian mentality that assumes the conquests were themselves the source of the New Rome's greatness, not merely the means to achieve it. But I believe the history of these years were the true pinnacle of what can be called 'years of glory' for Alphard and the O'Reilly-founded State. Marius, Sertorius, and Sean had conquered an empire, but it was Corvus, Lucia, and Livia who ensured that empire lasted longer than a generation. If not for them, it is far more likely the New Rome would have been an unstable edifice of one year imperators imposed and overthrown by the Praetorian Guard or Senate, fated to eventually be torn down by local rebellions and slave revolts backed by invading armies of Terrans, Arcadians, or Orientans.The story of the Principate's founding years is, therefore, a tale of even greater import than the story of the New Rome's rise to power that these pages have so far covered, and why this work is far from over."— Excerpt from "A Critical History of the 'Anni Gloriae'", by Titian Fulton, Professor Emeritus of the College of Interstellar History, Oxford University. Published 3126
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This is the end of story - I, Corvus., a side story of Emergence - The Concert of the Sphere.
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ICHaFBI 27