Big Eyes, Small Mouth (BESM): Nexus Earth - Chapter 11.5.025 - Heavy Is The Head

[SalmonMax]

Ryoko lounged on the Throne while Lily paced, occasionally looking at the holographic display that hovered between them. On it was projected a map of Dalaraan's surface, with various points of interest marked. In the margins were readouts and displays of demographics and indexed reports streaming in at all times. Ratheros flitted through the air, flying around and through the hologram as she tried playfully to catch the immaterial 'objects' in her paws.

"If we do that," Ryoko said dryly, "We'll have another war. The major houses will all go ballistic. What your dad already did was bad enough from their point of view, but they can't argue with it."

"But they can against this?"

"They'll have consensus against this! They'll all rise up and stick together!"

Lily shook her head. "But we'll have the consensus of the minor houses, and there's a LOT more of them."

"And how many fleets do they control? How many of those fleets are even HERE!"

"Ryoko, this is a chance for the Empire it won't get again for...for a long time," Lily pleaded. "When father decreed that the Hiroga have a Major House, he changed what it means to be a Major House. Up until now, ONLY Purebloods could have their lineage declared a major house. Now we have a precedent that says the acting Emperor can decree any lineage to be Major. That means the Emperor can basically appoint whoever she wants to place on the Council of Peers. We NEED that, Ryoko. Almost all the Major Houses were in on the attempted coup. We can't have a Council of Peers with only four seats."

The Regent Empress shook her head moodily and swiveled the holographic around to show a new area, then zoomed out to show the stars of the Empire itself. "It would solve the problem of how to divy up the major houses' domains though," she mused.

Lily eagerly nodded. "And the popular opinion, combined with the input of the priesthood...Ryoko, I'm pretty sure they won't attack again. Maybe they'll try, but if their crews won't fire, and their people won't cooperate, where does that leave a coup?"

Ryoko frowned. "It's a big chance."

"It's what's right. Making the Empire run on the shoulders of the Major Houses doesn't work," Lily insisted. "We've seen what happens. They get corrupt. It's all about THEM, and not about the Empire as a whole. Not about the people, or Tsunami, or any of those things. And the longer it takes to change, the harder it is to make it change from within. That's why this is such a big opportunity! Just this once, we're starting over. Just this once we can start a new course with the nobles weak enough they can't stop us."

"Maybe...but I don't see why making a LOT of major houses will change that."

Lily shrugged. "It's not the end of it, just the beginning. For one though, it makes their territories smaller, and forces them to cooperate more. It also means, at the same time, there'll be more competition between them."

With a suspicious narrowing of her eyes, Ryoko asked, "What do you mean just the beginning?"

Lily had the grace to look a little embarrassed, but she bulled through. "After things settle down a little, I want to make it so the system governors and sector lords are elected positions, not hereditary."

"Aksan, you KNOW the problems..."

"I know, but I just mean the local governments. For now. And we've had a lot of time to work on voting theory and how to solve the problems in it."

Ryoko planted her fists on her hips. "This is about Earth, isn't it? It's about Kai. Is he putting you up to this?"

"No!" Lily replied hotly. "This is about Dalaraan! The Empire! Look at our planet, Ryoko! Look at our HOME! We can't let this happen again! We let power concentrate into too few hands! I know there's problems with macrodemocracies, and I know there's problems with representation and all that...but I'm sure we can do better than what we had before. We just have to be willing to try new things."

Little by little, Ryoko relented. "Just be careful. And get help. Not from Satoshi though...you'lll already be accused of being a pawn of Earth."

Lily nodded, then said, "What about Skye? Most of the people already think of her as being one of us...but she has memories of Earth. She could tell us how it worked...where it went wrong..."

"Talk to her then. She's helping in reconstruction. Trying to keep morale up."

With a smile and a salute, Lily vanished in a blur of light, leaving Ryoko alone to think about the ambitious, and dangerous, plans of the Empress-to-be.

[z-Skye the Fallen]

Despite everything, Skye liked it here.

She’d deny that to anyone who asked. Externally, she maintained a veneer of firm desire to be away from Daralaa and get to the job of finding Kazuo. She asked Kai constantly if they could leave and sighed at the lack of forward motion in getting out of here.

And yet… she felt at home here. The service to a goddess that actually had local worshippers and knew she was their priestess was amazing. The community that she had found and been adopted into was nothing short of miraculous. So many great people here; so many friends and family had been found here.

And there was the kinship. Skye had never felt like she belonged to anything, as far as a family. Even her relationship with Kazuo had been far less about family and far more about emotions that she still didn’t like to think about much. Her devotion to her goddess had been somewhat familial, but different. And here, she had family, even if it was family that had no idea she was related to them.

Such were the thoughts in her head as she helped tile a floor. It was grueling task; a team of two men placed the tiles in their proper pattern while she followed along carefully with a tray of mud and a trowel, forcing the thick substance into the cracks between the tiles. Children ran lightly back and forth, bringing her more mud. The beautiful priestess had mud everywhere – in her hair, across her face and even what felt like a lump of it in her bra. She wasn’t sure how that had gotten there, but there is was.

Lily popping into existence before her had Skye gasp and yelp, “Oh, god! Don’t stand on the tiles!”

“What?”

“Off the tiles!” Skye hollered, her eyes wide with concern rather than outrage. “I’ve been working on this for hours! If you screw it up, I’ll use you for mud!” It was rather odd to see a priestess chewing out the princess.

[SalmonMax]

Lily's eyes widened in comical surprise, and she lifted into the air several inches, floating serenely over the mud and tiles.

"Sorry, I didn't realize you were...muddy," she said, looking around. Spying the Dalaraan citizens gazing at her with awe, she smiled and waved, then looked back at Skye. "I..." she hesitated, trying to decide how to phrase her request without sounding too peremptory. Skye could be prickly. "I'd really like to talk to you about something. Ask you some questions in fact. I need your help, you see. When do you expect you'll be done here?"

[z-Skye the Fallen]

"Now, if you need me," Skye said with a wide grin. "Trust me, I'll take any chance to get away from this job." One of her assistants groaned softly, but he was still smiling as he took the trowel from her.

"Are you sure?" Lily asked.

"Yes!" It was an emphatic and immediate reply. Skye pulled one of her fans from somewhere on her person and snapped it open, lifting her into the air. "Would a flight please you?"

"That would be nice," Lily agreed and the two women drifted into the air.

Between snaps of her fan to keep her more or less airborne, Skye began to rub at the dried mud clinging to her. "So, Lily, what can I do for you?"

[SalmonMax]

Lily couldn't help but giggle at the mud slowly streaking over Skye as the air pushed at it. She flew more like Superman, with no visible means of support or effort beyond the usual faint blue glow that wrapped around her and stretched out for a little ways in her wake.

"Sorry...you know, there's a lake not far from the palace if you want to wash up. What I want to talk about it important, but kind of informal. Basically...I want you tell me what you remember of how Earth governments work. I'm looking at making some fairly major changes to how the Empire is run, and I'd like some ideas of how other people do it."

[z-Skye the Fallen]

"Oh, Jesus," Skye said, frustrated. "Seriously? I was like sixteen at the time and I was more worried about surviving demons than I was working out the fine details of politics." Lily just looked at her and Skye nodded. "Fine," she said softly. "Here's what I remember. Officials are generally elected and serve limited amounts of time. Then another election is held and they're either rehired by the general public or not. You also have the government divided into several departments, each balancing the other somehow. Like Germany's Chancellor is elected by the Bundestag and the Bundesrat, who have the ability to fire him or her, too. And the Bundesverfassungsgericht can alter laws as appropriate. The judges are chosen by the Bundestag and the Bundesrat, six each. So the three are balanced together. Does that makes sense?"

[SalmonMax]

Lily grimaced. This wasn't going to be easy.

"All right...let me try to remember my briefings. A chancellor is kind of like a civil governor. They run the instruments of state, and set policies that are internal to the state. So the Bundestag and Bundesrat must be...parliamentary houses? And then judges, which are your system of crime and punishment."

She pushed thoughtfully at the inside of her cheek with her tongue. "It works differently with us. In the Empire, all authority flows from the Emperor, one way or another. Actually, it flows from Tsunami, but the Emperor is her closest living relative, her 'heir' if that makes sense. From the Emperor and the Throne, authority goes out to the regional Lords, who have local autonomy in their clusters and territories. The Lords are hereditary, because that's how their connection to the Emperor and Tsunami is traced. Their line is called their House, though it's more of an extended clan these days... And you have major and minor Houses, depending on how direct their line's connection to the Imperial Line, and Tsunami, is. A House's status is reflected in the size and value of the territory they control. Even a minor Lord will oversee more than one planet though, so they install governors on each world to run that planet's affairs in their name. Beyond that, each planet has its own way of doing things. Pretty much whatever the native population wants, as long as it doesn't break one of the Imperial Edicts, like 'no slavery.' Any planetary law or judicial ruling can be reviewed by the Lord though, who can uphold it or strike it down as he or she sees fit. Under some circumstances, the Emperor himself can be petitioned, and his word is final."

With a sigh, Lily began to pace. "I like the IDEA of a parliamentary structure, but finding a place to integrate it at the Imperial level will be really hard. Not to mention the fact that one of the reasons the Imperial government doesn't have a direct representation of the people is because there's so MANY people. Every planet's needs are unique. The Imperial structure is designed to keep most governmental decisions localized, where they're the most effective, while still allowing for a central agency to resolve disputes and command the military when needed. I'm worried that if we put a big body in charge of nothing but making laws across the Empire...then they'll MAKE laws, a lot of them, for no reason other than that's what they're meant to do. And Imperial Law works because there's not much to it. Imperial Law is simple, and direct. It fits on a few pages. Specific laws, detailed laws, are left to each region, and each planet."

She stopped pacing and cursed. "But then, how do you keep that, but still have some mechanism to give non-noble citizenry a governmental voice?"

[z-Skye the Fallen]

"So make the Empire a Federation instead," Skye said with a shrug. To her, this was all academic. She knew Lily was struggling with it, but she wasn't going to fret about it herself. "Each planet has its own system, laws and rule, and they are held together by a overarching authority who is there to handle the issues that touch directly on the federation as a whole, such as another entity making war on the group as a whole. Basically, self-rule to the point where your planet can't handle something on its own or it affects more than one of them. Make sense?"

The beautiful priestess glanced at Lily, watching her closely. "Let the people decide how to rule their planet and their representative to the Federation. Give them the voice and the power." She smirked a little. "It's not perfect, but no system of rule is, because its constructed and run by imperfect beings."

[SalmonMax]

"That's basically how it already IS," Lily said with a sigh. "The only difference is that instead of every single planet having a representative, they're grouped into clusters who are overseen by a Lord. Within that though, they're self-determining. The Imperial governors are just liasons between the planetary governments and the Lord of that cluster. Their only jurisdiction is where planetary law conflicts with Imperial law, which is almost impossible."

"Besides, the trouble we had wasn't because of a popular revolt. It was a coup brought about by a secret alliance of noble Houses. The people of the Empire seem fine with things. What we need is a better way to project authority that doesn't give so much power away, so far from home, that corruption can flourish freely."