Dropship Concordia, On Landing Approach
Logan's Landing, Primary Continent
Logan Prime, Lothian District
Marian Hegemony
5 March 3030
Lucia's face was pinned against the window of the descending dropship. "Uncle look! I can see the city!"
"Oh that's beautiful! How does it look child?" Corvus called back.
"Like a thousand tiny ants crawling all over a hill!"
Their minder, Magistrate Antonia Sato, sat frowning across from Corvus. She crossed her arms and somehow managed to deepen her scowl. He angled his datapad up slightly and pressed the camera for a memento of her misery.
"Oh she's just a child! Let her have her fun. Fine, come on now Lucia, sit straight and check your buckles."
"She's going to need to be a lot more than a child."
"Oh come now, a little g-g-g-girl is exactly what the Lothians need. After a decade of civil strife, surely they'll jump at the chance for a hopeful youth over the serious, hard men who've been mucking blasting the whole damn place to bits?"
"And a wild child who can barely sit still is going to be the symbol that unites that? No, I think not."
Corvus laughed, "Your Imperator seems to feel she is! Do you have any children Ms. Sato? I guarantee if you d-d-did that you wouldn't think our little Lucia is wild at all. Besides, I'd rather an honest child than a scheming adult."
Sato dug deep inside herself and managed to display a new depth of misery to Corvus. Truthfully, he didn't believe in the mission either, but he had passed the weeks by goading the Magistrate every chance he got. He thought he might even be enjoying it more than Lucia was enjoying her first time in space.
"Let's go over this one final time. Lord O'Reilly-Logan, tell me exactly what you're to do when we land."
"Stand behind Lucia, look important. Stare sagely at luminaries and nod and say nothing."
"And you, young Lady O'Reilly-Logan, do you remember your lines?"
"Yes Ms. Sato."
Corvus typed into his pad and angled it so Lucia could see: and you reminder that you're going to ignore them, right?
She tried to hide her smile as she grabbed her uncle's hand.
The spaceport of Logan Prime had never been impressive. At its height it served a population of less than five million but it was once, at least, functional. Now only a pair of landing pads remained in working order with a skeleton crew of staff to welcome them. The ground crew rushed to wrap them in cloaks and guide them to the terminal.
High winds whipped around the group. A local guided Corvus to a long rope wrapped looped through a line of poles. Black particles blew through the air and darkened the skies.
"What the hell is this?" Sato called out.
"The topsoil." Corvus said in shock.
"How? Why?"
"Your dossier said the terraforming infrastructure was damaged, did it not?"
"Yes! But it didn't say it was this bad!"
"Would this be the first time your sources were wrong?"
Sato remained silent. Corvus wasn't sure if she hadn't heard him over the wind, or just didn't want to.
Lucia caught up to Corvus and held onto him tightly. "You said this place was beautiful!"
"It was when your father and I vacationed here. The winds were always a problem, but I had no idea things had gotten this bad! This is why learning is important, ch-child, when you forget how to maintain the machines that regulate the wind and rain, this is what happens."
They were led directly into the terminal where the local notables were prepared to receive them with wine and food and a podium. Corvus recognized it as a power move to bring them in from the dirt and wind directly to a reception, but the locals, even with hours to prepare, couldn't clean every sign of the pervasive planetary dust bowl from their persons.
Sato was already at work deflecting attention from the O'Reilly-Logans.
Corvus knelt down next to his niece and wiped some of the dirt off of her face. He turned away from the Lothian cameras to hide the tics that had been welling up over the trip from the dropship."I know this is all strange and unexpected, Lucia, but we'll be all-all right. These people need us, now more than-than-than ever, and they need leaders. C-c-an you be that Lucia?"
She grabbed his hand and squeezed it. "I'll be strong for you uncle."
He put his other hand on top of hers and closed his eyes. He managed to force away the urges and stood.
They walked hand in hand, passed Sato, and approached the podium.
"M-m-may I have your attention, please. My niece and I would like to address you."
"You say that I am not one of you. Oh don't give me that look, I've read every article every one of you reporters has written on me and I won't tell you you're wrong. My father was born and raised here, and my brother and I spent many of our winters here on Logan Prime, or as guests in Lothario. But we were always guests. We were never Lothian. But we understand the Lothian people."
"The Lothians we knew are strong, proud, independent, self-sufficient. They value more than anything being left alone. Why would such people accept a Marian garrison? I ask you to look around you. The Lothian people are strong when they are united, but as seven warring planets, you're dooming yourselves and your children."
He pointed outside. "Look around you! This world used to be the crown jewel of the League! Continue on this path, and you'll be begging to join the Pax Marianus, not as equal partners with your own worlds, but as refugees from a dead one. Under the Pax Marianus you'll receive more than a garrison. Scholars, terraformers, agricultural specialists, techs of all sorts will come with them to heal your land. "
"You may look at my niece and ask yourself 'how could a child possibly rule the League'? To that I say, of course she can't! But isn't that exactly what the Lothian people need today? You have spent a decade killing each other over which of the big, tough adults should rule here, and the answer for the last ten years is apparently, none of you. I come with a different solution: all of you should rule. The Imperator serves under the advisement of the Senate, and acts only when the Senate wills it so. Why should the Lothian District be any different?
"You can continue to grind yourselves into the dust alone, or come together and preserve what you have left, and grow again. Each of you, serving as senators in the Hegemony, will have more clients, earn more c-bills, and command larger forces than the winner of this pointless war will have even if they can unite all seven Lothian worlds."
Sato stared daggers at Corvus as he stepped down from the podium and raised Lucia up to speak.
"You idiot, do you know how much chaos you're throwing these talks into?"
"No, but I am excited to see. Oh, don't worry Ms. Sato, if they fail, you'll have me to blame, and if they succeed, you can just say the words were all yours. I don't mind, and you won't be the first to do so. Now let's give the little one a chance, please? It certainly would look unseemly if you were to pull her down from that podium now, wouldn't it?"
He snickered and hobbled off to the washroom. There, he braced himself against the wall and unleashed all the tics he'd suppressed through the stress of his speech. When'd he'd finally gotten control of himself, he left and was greeted with the sound of applause as little Lucia stood beaming at the podium. She came running to him and hugged him. Media gathered around the smiling pair, taking pictures that would spread around the League.
It took six hours of driving from the spaceport before the convoy managed to shake the dust storms, but only because the glacial plains gave way to the mountains of the Sierra Barrera. Corvus remembered the windstorms off of the mountains could be brutal, but in the old days the trip would have only taken two hours. Low visibility and debris on the road led to constant delays.
It gave him some peace to know the whole planet wasn't consumed in the dustbowl. "You see child? This is what this world is supposed to look like. These are real m-m-mountains! Those little lumpy hills of Alphard could never compare."
Lucia looked around in amazement at the pine forests, one of the most successful Terran species on the planet and a far cry from the Mediterranean imports of her homeland. The first settlers centuries ago had used them as a cornerstone of the ecology they were building. Yet even they were suffering. He declined to note to the others that one in four of them were dead, with no obvious culprit in sight.
Sato noticed regardless, "Native insects."
They both spent a long time staring at the montane forest.
It was Corvus who broke the silence, "It's a shame. They nearly died out on Earth from an invasive one. It took a lot of good people decades of work to save them. Now they'll die here, so far from home."
"It's so pretty! We can't let it happen, Uncle!" Lucia protested, "Magistrate Sato, please write down that my first act as Grand Mistress is to fix the trees."
Sato rolled her eyes as soon as Lucia looked back out the window. She wrote it anyways. This was the eighth "first act" Lucia had come up with over the drive from the spaceport.
After two more hours of driving they reached Valle Albergue. Corvus rolled down the windows of the limousine and breathed deeply. The scents of the valley brought him back to his youth. He thought of the old farmhouse, or playing with distant cousins from his father's side of the family. His branch of the Logan dynasty was proud, but poor, with barely more than a name. But Gaia O'Reilly's wealth was more than enough to lift their fortunes and through them, the whole of the valley. Even Corvus had been treated like a giant by his cousins, that he was sure that was thanks to the gratitude of their parents rather than any particular like of Corvus himself.
He remembered most the smell of the kitchens. There was always a fruit pie of some sort cooling and a roast of some sort in the oven. Most of all, he remembered the smell of lavender of Mrs. Serrano, the housekeeper who kept them all fed and happy.
Sight soon took over from smell. Even in his refuge, the signs of Logan Prime's imminent collapse were present. The fruit trees should be in full bloom, but few even had leaves. The ground was parched with patchy, brown grass. There were bits of green here and there, but they tended towards the exception. Yet the people were still the same, at least. They cheered the motorcade as it drove by. Some held signs welcoming the Logans' return, though few of the mentioned the hyphenated "O'Reilly".
The old house came into view, exactly as he had remembered it, save for the presence of a new storm shutters and a second well. Even old Mrs. Serrano was there, the same as ever. A little shorter, a little more hunched, a little thinner, a few more spots on her skin, but still the same woman she had always been.
Corvus hopped from the car and hobbled towards her as fast as he could, Lucia in tow. He bent down to embrace the old woman. Lucia did the same without hesitation.
"It's good to see your, grandma." His voice wavered from the tears.
"I've missed you too, child."
He let go and saw Lucia looking up at him with her head cocked in confusion. "Everyone calls Mrs. Serrano grandma, Lucia."
"Well, everyone 'cept my boys."
Grandma's 'boys' were 70 and 68 years old. They were bachelors who kept the grounds in order and never needed to learn how to cook for themselves.
"Where are they?"
"Out 'round back. They have to go far for fodder for the cows. They'll be back for supper. Come inside, sit down, I know you need your chair even more than I do."
The farm house was exactly as he remembered it inside. The ancient wood burning stove, the same dents and scratches on the stairs, the same old rocking chair grandma saved for him. He guessed some of the dead flies on the windowsill had probably been there since his last visit too.
Grandma turned and looked at Lucia, "Come on child, let me have a look at you. Heh, you're the first person I've had in here in a long time I could look in the eye. Oh, and you've got your grandmother's eyes too. She was a kind soul, she was." She grabbed Lucia's hands and rubbed the palms, "And your grandfather's hands. Hands that will do great things one day." Lucia smiled and giggled.
Corvus chuckled, "And what great things did father do, Grandma?"
She swatted at him, "He raised you and Vibius didn't he? I thought these were good deeds, though if he raised you without respect for your own father, I mighta been wrong."
Corvus laughed.
"Go and play child, you'll find the neighbour's boys if you go right out from the front door, probably digging through the old barn. Come back in an hour and I'll have pie for you."
"Her minders are going to have a fit."
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?"
"I do."
"You always did. Vibius too, he and Sertorius got up to such mischief…." Their names hung in the air for a long while. She took a seat across from Corvus and they sat in silence.
"How bad is it here, Grandma?"
"It's bad, child."
"I've seen the soil blowing in the wind, I could barely breathe in the capital."
"It's not just the winds, Corvus. We've never had that problem here. Here it's the water, and the temperature. Do you remember how to tell the seasons here?"
"I thought I'd forgotten, but I take it you're about to tell me I haven't. This is supposed to be winter, is it not?"
"Sharp as always, child. Winter, no snow on the ground, and warm enough than an old woman like me felt comfortable sending a young girl outside without a jacket. No snow. Not much rain either, come that. We've had winters with no snow before of course, but the grass stays green the whole way through. Now, you can see it. Water's gone, it dies."
"How long until the whole ecosystem collapses?"
"I'm old, but I haven't seen everything yet. I don't know. This is beyond what me and the boys have ever seen."
"We need techs here, now. I'll get as many as I can spare."
"No, Corvus. Sure, that's a start, but that won't do on it's own."
"How do you mean?"
"As long as it's your people keeping us alive, we'll feel like hostages. You always loved your history books. Well, use it now, and use your sense. The Taurian Concordat had the freest people in the galaxy, and they fought to stay free. When the Star League crushed the Concordat under their boot, our ancestors were the ones who refused to stay. We fled, and we crossed half the sphere to get here. The Confederation, the League, the Magistracy, the old Alphard Corporation territories, they were all too restricting for us, so we kept on running 'til we could be our own bosses. You think we wouldn't fight? We love you, I love you, but the boys would be out there making bombs the minute they thought you were gonna put the boot to our necks. You wanna fix this world, we need to be the ones who do it. Tell me, what do Taurians value?"
"Freedom. Independence. Education. Literature. Hmm...I see what you mean, grandma. Thank you."
She smiled at him and rose with some difficulty, "You always were the smart one Corvus. Imagine what a made with your smarts and Vibius' heart could have done. You take care of that girl Corvus. If I know Sinead, she's already made sure she's got the heart. But you've got to be the one to give her the brains. Now, I've got to get working on that pie. You think you can handle peeling the apples?"
He rose, with about the same difficulty, and headed towards the kitchen. From anyone else, it would be an insult. From her though, it held the genuine concern of a fellow traveller.
Lucia came running, covered in the dirt, with the neighbour children and a furious Sato fast behind her. Grandma's 'boys' ambled in soon after both eager to update Corvus on the state of every farm in the valley, plus every other settlement within two hundred kilometers.
After everyone at the table was filled passed bursting with food and the local gossip, the boys retreated to the study with their pipes and the neighbour children were shooed out the door. Corvus and Lucia helped clear the dishes.
"Lucia, tell me about the new friends you made."
"Hugo, he's the big one, he's loud, but lots of fun. He loves the animals and has a dog named Killer. Mateo, the other one, he showed me an old AgroMech in the barn that doesn't work. He likes sneaking in and trying to fix it."
"Mateo sounds like a very smart boy." Lucia nodded at Corvus. "In the old days, all the smartest children in the League used to do Lordinax, to the university there. But now they can't go."
"That spaceport was awful. Does that make it hard for students to get offworld?"
"You're just right, child. And not just that, other problems too. The war is hard, the DropShips are few, and it's not safe to go to Lordinax."
He picked a bit of dirt from her hair and ground it between his fingers, "With enough trained people, we could fix this world. But wouldn't it be great for boys like Mateo and Hugo if they could be the ones to save their world? Of course, Marian Techs would need to start it, but imagine what a smart young boy like Mateo could become if he got the proper schooling. You're lucky, you were born in a palace with a famous name, you have tutors and you'll go to a Collegium when you grow up. But where will Mateo go?"
Lucia put down her last dish and stood in thought for just a moment. She ran off towards the stairs that would lead to the bedrooms where Sato was hard at work.
Corvus smiled as he pulled the plug from the sink, satisfied that he'd planted a new 'first act' for the future Grand Mistress.
Logan Estate, Sierra Barrera
7 April 3030
Corvus, Sato, and Grandma Serrano sat around the table of the old farmhouse. A few of Sato's aides stood ready with dossiers and tablets while the boys smoked in the study. Lucia lay in a cot by the door. She'd tried valiantly to contribute, but she'd fallen asleep by the time the meeting stretched into its sixth hour.
It was now hour eleven, although the last two had been spent eating a fresh pie while waiting for the HPG relays to finish.
Another aide came running. "Lady Severn Diefenbaker of Paulinus is a yes. Lord Sushant Calderon-Logan of Lothario is a no."
"Th-th-that's everyone I th-think. How many does that make? I've forgotten." The later the night went, the worse the curse became. Usually he could hide the memory loss, but at this point in the evening, he didn't even try.
"Three. Diefenbaker, Bruce Choi of Lindassa, and of course our lovely host, Jeffery Logan-McIntyre." Sato said between bites.
Corvus had discovered a new respect for the woman. They'd been pulling all-nighters for the whole week, and she seemed as sharp tonight as she had been on the first night. "I really thought Charan Singh was going to come."
"That was never going to happen without Calderon-Logan. Lordinax is too isolated, without Lothario, they'd be cut off and destroyed if the other three can unite against him. Honestly, Lord, this is a better turnout than I expected."
Corvus nodded. "Fair enough. I do say that makes the pl-pl-pl-" He stopped a moment and took a drink of water, "That makes it easier to break up the high educational institutions. Give one the technical, one the arts, and one the professions. But which to which?"
"You let me handle that, Lord. Ministries. They'll all want something to set them above the other senators. We have . I like Diefenbaker for agriculture and Choi for health. What do we give Logan-McIntyre?"
Corvus rocked his chair and thought. He shot a glance at Grandma.
"Education," she said without hesitation, "Homeschooled his own boys in the classics, proud of it, says so every time he speaks, he does."
Corvus bowed to Grandma and then smiled at Sato, "Education."
She tapped it into her pad. "I think that should be all for tonight. We have three weeks. We'll need to do a lot before then. We need some rest. I think we've all earned it."
Logan's Landing
26 April 3030
"M-my lord Choi, pl-please, sit with me." Corvus exaggerated every symptom of the curse he could. "My niece, she needs a strong hand at her side. Someone who c-c-can help control the others. Your reputation precedes you, and I think you're the man."
Bruce Choi ignored the request and went right into a plate of pastries. He took the plate with him as he wandered the spaceport lounge, and took his time eating them too.
"Oh yeah? Why me?"
You were a c-common soldier, c-c-correct? Yes, well, you managed to jump from Lieutenant to Duke in the span of a decade. You come from the world with the smallest garrison, the smallest population, the weakest economy, and yet here you are."
"So what can you give me I can take myself?"
"Power, over the others. A ministry."
"Yeah, sure, I bet you've giving all of us that."
"I am, but you're is special: health"
"Oh fuck off!" He tossed a half eaten danish at Corvus' feet.
Corvus' mouth twitched, his head jerked around. He fought for control, and found it. "No, think about it. Health. I know you don't like Diefenbaker, and you know what's going on in her territory on Paulinus? Plague. A real, biblical level plague. And Leximon, and believe me, Leximon will come next, they're starving. You'll have the power over life and death there."
Choi rubbed his chin, "Keep going…"
Her team had spent hours making Lucia into the perfect Lothian girl. Her breezy tunic traded for the ruffled dresses with what felt like a dozen layers of petticoats, and makeup so thick she felt like a totally different person! She smiled a little at the thought, she was, after all, supposed to be acting today.
She had spent the three nights before the conclave at the old administration building the Logan-McIntyres had turned into a palace after their takeover. She'd spent every waking moment with the two dullest boys she'd ever met, soaking in as much as possible.
She stood at her door and hummed to herself to calm the butterflies. They didn't all go away, but when she was feeling brave enough, she opened the door and went to Lord Jeffrey's study.
She knocked gently, "Lord Jeffrey?" she squeaked.
"Oh! Lady Lucia, I didn't realize it was time to say goodbye yet."
"Oh, I don't mean to bother you Lord Jeffrey, it's not time for me to go yet, but there was something I wanted to talk to you about, if you have a moment."
He beamed at her and pulled out a chair for her.
"Alex and Andrew, they are so well behaved, so well read, I feel like I learn something every time I talk to them! They told me they learned it all from you. Well, I, I was thinking, we should start a school, a university! Right here on Logan Prime, teaching the classics. Lothians are famous for their love of literature, and I think all the people here should have the chance to enjoy it like your boys do. People will come from all over the League to study here!"
Sato poured two glasses of the most expensive Pompey vintage the Diplomatic Corps had been able to get their hands on.
"Pompeius Magnus, 2981, from the Bourassa valley on Pompey."
Lady Severn Diefenbaker took it eagerly, "Given that what I'm usually served is piss, 3030, locally sourced, I think the delicate flavour might be lost on me, but I appreciate the thought." She lifted his glass to Sato, and then drank the whole glass down.
Sato had seen worse from better people.
"Lady Diefenbaker, I brought you here for a reason."
"I know how this works. What do you want, and what do I get?"
"You saw the dustbowl coming in."
"Oh, she's a little hard to miss."
"Someone needs to fix it, or this world, and half the League, are going to starve within three years."
"Now, why should that concern Paulinus? If Logan Prime and Lindassa starve, so be it."
"I've spent a lot of time with farmers these past months. First of all, Lindassa won't starve, they are entirely food self-sufficient. Second, Logan Prime will starve in two years, but Paulinus will starve in ten if something isn't done."
"But won't our dear Imperator help us? Surely he won't let his new citizens starve?"
"And make you entirely dependent on someone else's charity? You're not stupid. We can fix the environment and the weather, but we need someone to fix things. And as soon as the winds die down, you know those two idiots are immediately going to get into a dickwaving competition. In the meantime, as Minister of Agriculture, you'll be making allies in the lower classes, you'll be a hero on your own world and Lord Jeffrey will become dependent on you."
"Give me another glass, and let me mull this over a bit."
Corvus was so deep into his speech, he'd forgotten to keep up the tics, and so intensely focused that the real ones melted away too.
"A technical school, big, centralized, based out of your capital on Lindassa. Your economy will grow with the number of trades people, and, well, look out the window. Our techs will fix the wind and rain here, but we've already promised all of you that we'll train your people to replace them. They'd be trained on Lindassa. You'd have power over Logan Prime, and over the other works whose ecosystems and weather patterns aren't c-c-conductive to human life."
Choi's grin was the vilest thing Corvus had ever seen, but so long as it was directed at Severn and Jeffrey and not Lucia, he was content.
"But we have to think bigger than that too! You've taught me how much Lothians value education, so we can't stop here, we need to bring your ideas all the way around the League! When I am Grand Mistress, I want you as my minister of education."
Just like uncle Marius and cousin Sean, the lord of Logan Prime was too eager to hear his own praises to notice he was being manipulated. Lucia never tired of pulling one over on grown-ups.
"Professional schools? Not the technical ones I need to keep the earth from blowing away again?"
"Look, techs are apolitical. But doctors, lawyers? The upper classes. They are the ones who have an impact, who shape policy. And they'll all be schooled on your world, where you are hailed a hero for saving them from starvation, and where you can help pick the faculty. Think about it, I'm going to get another bottle."
The Lords of Logan Prime and Lindassa, and the Lady of Paulinus all tried their best to hide their smug expressions as they stood behind Lucia O'Reilly-Logan, Grand Mistress and Governor of the new Lothian District as she held the freshly signed treaty. Each thought they had come out of the deal stronger than the others.
They had all spent so much time trying to beat each other, none had looked closely at how the structure of Hegemony districts actually worked in practice. It would take quite a while before any of them realized that the twelve year old girl sitting in front of them now held all the cards.
