SotU2 Chpt 48

=Chapter 48=
==State of the Union - Book 2==
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Resaurius Keep, Tharkad
Donegal Province, Federated Commonwealth
12th March, 3067
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Despite Yvonne’s steady presence and regular HPG communication, there had been a flood of meetings for Peter to attend after returning to Tharkad. Objectively few of them had actually needed his presence, but subjectively the fact that he was there and listening seemed to make a difference. It had been exhausting though and he’d been glad to take a full day off, capping it with a family dinner.
“What’s on your mind?” asked Victor while Omi was putting Kit to bed.
They were one of the lounges, dressed comfortably rather than for court. Of course, for Victor that meant he was wearing a jumpsuit over ‘Mechwarrior togs but that was apparently what he was comfortable in. Given Peter was wrapped in a warm robe against the winter’s cold, he had no basis to criticize. “I was thinking about Mom and Dad.”
His brother nodded. “They’d be proud of you, Peter.”
“I hope so, but it was more… I wish I could compare notes with them. See if their experiences were the same as mine.”
“It might be in some ways, but don’t get bogged down trying to be them. You’re your own man, and you’re doing a fine job of leading the Federated Commonwealth.”
“So far.” He looked over at Yvonne, who was cradling little Arthur on her lap. Victor and Omi’s second child was still sleeping at least half the time, which in Peter’s opinion was his more attractive state. He had a healthy set of lungs on him and his face went practically crimson when he was unhappy, which seemed to be most of the time. “Practicing for one of your own?”
She looked up from the baby in her lap. “Maybe. I don’t see you doing anything to provide the next generation of House Steiner-Davion.”
“I barely have the time.” Peter raised his hand to forestall the inevitable. “Yes, I know approximately a third of the unattached women in the Federated Commonwealth would love to throw themselves at me, but forming any sort of meaningful relationship would take time.”
“Maybe you should ask Victor to assign Tiaret to your security detail.” she suggested
He threw back his head and laughed. Tiaret Nevversan was a former Smoke Jaguar warrior, an elemental who had surrendered to Victor personally on Huntress back in 3060 on his assurance that children under her protection wouldn’t be executed, as was Clan custom during annihilation…
Suddenly sobered, Peter looked down at his sleeping nephew, reminded of yet another reason that he wanted the Clans bordering him to be gone. He was going to have to have a serious talk to his cousin Phelan Kell as well - if the man’s adopted Clan were going to continue living within the Federated Commonwealth, there needed to be better ground rules. He didn’t suspect the exiled Wolves of endorsing such practices, but who knew what sort of leadership they might have in the next generation.
“We don’t have that sort of relationship.” he told his sister, returning to the subject of the conversation. Although the Archon-Prince was the tallest of his siblings, Tiaret towered more than thirty centimeters over him. They’d gone a few rounds on the practice mats when Peter was exercising and she’d pinned him every single time.
“At least you have a relationship.” he said
“I don’t think she’d go for it.” Victor told them. “Tiaret’s fond of children, but not so much politics. What about you, Tancred? Does fatherhood call to you.”
The lean heir to Robinson eyed Peter’s brother for a moment and then nodded quietly. “Very much.”
“Speaking of politics, what do you have coming up next week.” Victor asked. “I wanted to talk about the situation with the Hell's Horses, but your secretary said you were full up unless something urgent came up, and since they don’t seem to be going anywhere…”
“You could have called.” Peter said
“You’re swamped and it’s not as if anything’s on fire.”
Peter sighed. “The High Council has finally signed off on a form for the Senate that they’re happy to transfer their powers to and disband. Which means now I need to see if I can convince the Estates-General to agree as well, or if we’re going to go for another round of proposed changes.”
The Senate was the agreed name for the new legislative body that would replace the High Council and Estates-General, providing advice to the Archon-Prince and hopefully some restraint if there was another ruler like Kathrina. Unfortunately the name was one of the few things that they had agreed on after more than two years of wrangling.
“Did the High Council give up on hereditary seats for worlds with hereditary rulers or are we going to have to fight that again?” Yvonne pinched the bridge of her nose. “Because they have to know by now that the Estates-Generals will fight tooth and nail to keep everyone above a Baron out.”
Omi opened the door and entered, closing it quietly to avoid waking her younger son. “What’s this?”
“The senate again.”
Victor’s wife in all but name nodded. “You need that sorted before November.” she warned Peter sagely. “If you can’t unload some of your work to them then being First Lord as well will be take more hours than there are in a day.”
“It’s by no means written that I’ll be elected.” he said weakly. A case could be made for elevating the Magestrix or the Protector, since their realms hadn’t held the office yet, but the self-destruction of the Free Worlds League had left the reunited Federated Commonwealth as the only founding realm who hadn’t seen one of their leaders in the hot seat.
Yvonne shook her head. “There would be a nasty backlash if you don’t take it. Not disastrous, but the public are very well aware that the rest of the Star League Council deliberately kept Victor and Kathrina from becoming First Star Lord. If they seem to be doing the same now, then the question of what the Star League is doing for us will be raised again.”
“I never wanted it.” the oldest of the Steiner-Davions pointed out.
“And that would be you disdaining the legacy of both sides of our family.” she responded tartly.
Peter sighed. “Anyway, to answer your question, Yvonne; the new proposal is for a unicameral body with every planetary government choosing a representative, whether that’s a hereditary ruler or a nominee. Also a system of elected members, so everyone is in theory represented twice.”
“Two members from every world?” Victor inquired. “That sounds a little unwieldy.”
“A little?” It would be almost eighteen hundred people now and closer to two thousand if his plans to retake the Clan Occupation Zones went through. “It may be worth it to get this settled and not quite every world. Districts will be by population, so some worlds will share an elected member while heavily populated planets could have multiple districts.”
“Like Tharkad and New Avalon.”
“Oh yes.” The two worlds each had populations of around seven billion, partly the cause and partly the result of their own importance.
“I think they could go for it.” Yvonne observed thoughtfully. “Something for everyone, although we can’t possibly fit two thousand people into the current chambers. Just getting them together on a single world will be a logistical snarl.”
“Particularly given it’ll be on Tharkad half the time and New Avalon the other half. We’re looking at scheduling them to coincide with the Royal Court season at least, which is one thing everyone’s agreed to. Well, almost everyone.” Peter imagined for a moment the complexity of his scheduling if the majority of both the current elected bodies hadn’t accepted that. His staff had worked out a six year rotating schedule of presences on each capital and then started penciling in various predictable events. He knew that some of his public appearances were tentatively marked down even though they were over a decade ahead of the eighth Whitting Conference in November 3079 would coincide with the three hundredth anniversary of Stefan Amaris’ forces laying down their arms to Aleksandr Kerensky, and this would apparently be cause for a Sphere-wide series of memorials.
Peter was gloomily convinced that the same staff members would have a lifetime itinerary planned for any children he had before the poor brats were even born and would complain bitterly if said births weren’t on schedule.
“At least there’ll be a clear reward if they do agree to it.” Tancred observed. “Is the Capellan ambassador still protesting that they don’t know where the FCS Lucien Davion went?”
“It’s a little late for them to change their tune there.” Peter admitted. “It’s even remotely possible that Kathrina is working with Kali Liao and not Sun-Tzu.”
Yvonne shivered. “Now there’s a merry thought. Two women each equally convinced of their own divinity.” Arthur stirred in her lap and the youngest Steiner-Davion picked him up and started rocking the boy. “Shush now.”
“I’ll take him.” Omi stepped in and retrieved her child. “It’s best he sleep in the nursery anyway. He needs to get used to not having all the attention he wants and with Kathrina as a subject of conversation, you may wake him.”
“He recognizes the name?” asked Victor.
Omi kissed his cheek. “No, just the venom when you all mention her.”
Peter watched his sister-in-law leave and then looked for another topic of conversation. It had been a nice evening and he didn’t want Kathrina spoiling it. “The Hell's Horses?”
His brother shook his head. “Yes, we finally got news via Phelan of what shook out from their clashes with the Ghost Bears and Wolves over the last few years. Apparently the reason we haven’t heard from them is that they won trials of possession for worlds of the old Oberon Confederation and Elysian Fields… oh, and one of the Greater Valkyriate worlds. Basically, the Wolves have pulled back to the old Federated Commonwealth border and let the Horses take fourteen marginal worlds that have already been stripped of most of their population and resources.”
“Hmm.” He rubbed his jaw. “On the one hand, that doesn’t sound as if they’ll be bothering us much. It also suggests that Khan Ward is consolidating his forces and that just increases the chances that he’s planning what we were expecting.”
“I don’t like his chances.” Tancredi told them flatly. “He only has five galaxies as I understand it. That’d be a match for around ten of our frontline commands and with the reshuffling of regiments, we’ll have something like seventy commands there, including some of the very best.”
One military bureaucrat had even been planning to send the Fourteenth Federated-Commonwealth RCT to join them, but Peter had overridden that. Every other RCT in the formation was already participating and one unit should be held back as cadre to rebuild in the event of a disaster. Besides, Yvonne might resign as regent if he sent Tancred to the frontlines before her wedding. Or stab him. He wasn’t sure what was more intimidating. In any case, the Fourteenth would remain as the joint garrison of Tharkad along with the First Royal Guards. That should be entirely sufficient for ceremonial purposes or if the capital somehow came under attack.
“I’m sure he knows that. I have to assume that if he’s going to start a war then he has a plan. If it deters him then we can take the initiative ourselves.”
“Do you think Sun-Tzu will try anything while you have the bulk of our best units up here?”
Peter looked back at Victor. “I doubt it. He knows George Hasek is eager for any excuse and we have enough forces on his border to stall just about anything long enough to rush a reserve force back. We’re already holding half our warship fleet in the FedSuns State Command. Unless the Combine decides to jump in with him, eighteen warships should be enough to annihilate his navy and tear strips off his commerce.”
I sent him a warning about pulling out of the Star League, he added to himself. He didn’t want word getting back to George Hasek about this and Victor had no need to know. Catherine’s visions had told her that Sun-Tzu would have neglected to attend the Fourth Whitting Conference, taking the Confederation out and setting off the withdrawal of the Lyran Alliance and Federated Suns. Of course, the political situation was drastically different now, but even so. The note had simply reminded the Chancellor that his mother had never actually signed a treaty with the Federated Commonwealth, so without the agreements made when the Second Star League was formed, a case could be made that the Fourth Succession War wasn’t over.
Resuming a war more than thirty years after the last battle would raise a few eyebrows, but Peter wouldn’t hesitate if it came to that. The rest of the Star League Council might even approve as long as he put one of the other Liaos onto the Chancellor’s throne and didn’t annex the entire Confederation.
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