[kerensky]

Wow, I dropped all the way to teh third page! Must post more often.

Government system

The Pletron government is almost a pure dictatorship. At the head of the government is the Emperor, whose word is law. The rest of the government is divided among several houses or branches. The House of Lords is a house comprised completely of nobles. The members of this house act as regional or planetary governors and as judges. The Military branch of the government is by far the largest and, obviously, is in control of all military operations from full-scale wars to the commissioning of spacecraft. Another house is made up of members form the various trade unions of Pletron. While this house does not directly affect the rest of the government, gaining the support or funding of the trade unions is a critical thing for operations that the government cannot afford to do itself. There are also several other minor houses that deal with smaller functions of the government.

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2400.8

The PIS Ghost had finished scanning several more systems and was headed back for supplies. Meanwhile, its sister ship, the PIS Defender was scanning a system to the galactic west of Pletron…

“Captain, preparing for warp jump. EMFG’s engaged.”

The vid-screen on the command deck switched to an outside view as the Defender entered the warp point. The view before them was one that was now common to the crew. The blue swirling warp point met the EM field with a burst of static and electrical arcs. The vid-screen fuzzed a little as they neared the warp point then went out completely. Shortly after that the ship shook violently and all lights went out. As the emergency power came on, Captain Gou’Ling started barking out orders…

“Tactical, give me a status report. Comm, contact engineering and finds out what the hell happened down there and tell them….”

His sentence was cut short as the ship listed hard to one side and the artificial gravity kicked out. The lifeless Defender , caught on the edge of the swirling warp point, began spinning at high gees.

“Captain, I’ve got engineering on comm channel three, sir. I can bring them up on the main screen.”

A rather young face appeared on the screen as the engineering chief started to speak.

“Sir, we’ve registered some massive fluctuations across the EM field. It seems that this warp point has a different frequency range than the others that we have so far encountered. It caused a massive EM spark that knocked out all power. We should be able to re-calibrate the EMFG’s within fifteen minutes but with my crew fixing other damage…”

“I don’t care what’s wrong with the generators, just fix them now!”

The captain switched of the comm channel. He started to give more order to his crew when the tac officer interrupted him…

“Captain, sensors report that the ship is being pulled into the warp point. At our current rate, we have less than ten minutes until hull instability occurs.”

“Fine. Inform engineering to re-route all available power to the engines. Helm, turn us around and take us home.”

The Defender slowly pulled away from the warp point and headed back to Pletron to re-supply.

*****

Back in the Ktaria system (Pletron home system), the colony ship RC-LZA-02 had successfully “seeded” a new colony on Ktaria II. Governess Italia H’Ful looked out across the domed city from the rooftop of the government building. This building mimicked the imperial Palace back on Pletron in the fact that it was grown from the seedpod without a frame. It wasn’t as large as the palace, but was still the largest building in the colony. Just beyond the protective dome she could see the beginnings of a mining operation being set up. Most of the prefab shelters had now been replaced with larger structures of growth over a frame. Yet now the trade unions were threatening to pull all of there funding from the colonies due to the fact that they were not seeing enough profit yet. Because of this, the Emperor had called a conference today to discuss this matter. All of the houses would be present and the emperor himself would reside over the meeting. She and governor Telfor, a retired general, would be attending the conference via holo projections. The meeting had already been going all day, but the Emperor had not wanted them to “attend” until a certain time.

Imperial Palace
Main Conference Room

The Emperor looked around the vast circular room at the nearly one thousand people gathered. At the time, several people form the Trade Unions were arguing with several of the members of the military branch. He was vaguely listening, since they were arguing over the same thing they had been all day, the funding of the colonies. An aide slipped up and whispered something in the Emperor’s ear. He nodded and the aide left. The Emperor stood and addressed the assembly…

“Gentlemen, I thank you for attending this meeting on such short notice. Now that we have heard all of your views and opinions on the matter of funding the colonies, I do believe that it is time to hear from the governors of the colonies themselves.”

His statement caused a hushed whisper to go through those assembled because none of them had yet to see either of the governors at the meeting. The Emperor smiled to himself as he watched, then he nodded to a technician standing at a control panel to the right of his chair. In the middle of the room, in a size slightly larger than that of real life, appeared a holo projection of Governor Telfor and Governess H’Ful. Most of the delegates present had no idea that live holo vid was possible between planets. The Emperor once more resumed speaking…

“Greetings Governor Telfor and Governess H’Ful. The Trade Unions are still refusing to fund the colonies any more and after hearing the rest of the houses on this matter, I am ready to make a decision.”

The room became absolutely silent except for the occasional buzz of a light or someone coughing. The Emperor stood to his full height…

“As of this day forth, the functions of the Trade Unions in this government are dissolved. Form henceforth, all colony and off world functions will be upheld and supported by the Empire.”

The Emperor once more took his seat as a loud uproar went up form the section of seating were the Trade Union representatives sat. As they became more unruly, the Emperor pushed a button on the arm of his chair. Shortly after, hundreds of security personnel ran into the room. The buzz of stunners could be heard for the better part of a half hour before he riot was ended. After the Trade Union representatives had been escorted out, the Emperor retired to his personal living quarters, consisting of the top ten floors of the palace.