Colin would have preferred to forget about the problem, at least until the war was over and the Empire had been defeated, but Hester had pointed out that that was impossible and he had to admit that she was right. They needed to have some rallying call, some reason to fight, if not now then certainly when they announced themselves to the Empire as a whole. And yet, it would have to be chosen carefully. Colin had no love for the current power system, but he understood the value of the Empire and humanity’s unity. Breaking up the Empire would shatter the unity that protected the human race.
And then there was the alien question…
“I suppose you could declare yourself Emperor Colin I and invite people to flock to your banner,” Daria said. Her face twitched into a smile. “That would be traditional for reformers.”
“No, thank you,” Colin said. The Empire had four monarchs in its history, three Emperors and one Empress. The First Emperor had founded the Empire, only to discover that his fellow aristocrats didn’t like the thought of him elevating himself above the rest of them. They’d torn him down and forced him to flee for his life. The Second and Third Emperors had tried to concentrate enough power in their hands to ensure their absolute control, but they’d both been broken down; the sole Empress, too, had vanished under mysterious circumstances. Even Stacy Roosevelt’s secure files were vague on the subject. No one outside the Thousand Families knew for sure what had happened. “I don’t want to be Emperor.”
“It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it,” Anderson said, wryly. “How many of those whiners do you want influencing the rebellion?”
“Many of those whiners, as you call them, represent a point of view,” Khursheda pointed out, tartly. As a native of Earth, Khursheda had good reason to push for complete reform, even at the cost of breaking up the Empire. “Do you intend to reject their help out of hand?”
“Do they actually have anything to contribute?” Anderson countered. “We have nine superdreadnaughts. How many starships do they have?”
“Some of them have small attack fleets,” Daria said, softly. “Others are all talk and no action.”
“So we deal with people who can bring assets to the table,” Colin said. “There’s no point in talking to groups that cannot or will not assist it.”
“Except that we will need to rally support from inside the Empire,” Daria said, thoughtfully. She glanced across at Mariko, who passed her a datapad. “We will have to reach out to new allies — the various underground movements on occupied planets — and at the same time we have to prevent the Empire from uniting against us. And that means trying to break up the unity of the Thousand Families.”
Colin scowled. There were certainly billions of people — within the Core Worlds, if not elsewhere — who would have a certain loyalty to the Empire, believing it to be the only hope of humanity. There were even entire worlds along the Rim that worshipped the Imperial Navy, if only because the pirates were worse and the Navy was the only thing standing between them and certain death. They could sneak around the Rim until the heat death of the universe, if necessary, but if they actually wanted to win they would eventually have to go after the Core Worlds and face the sheer might of the Empire.
“So what I suggest is this,” Daria said. “We put together a Popular Front — call it the Popular Front for Reforming the Empire, or maybe just the Popular Front for Reform. Both of them sound nicely vague. We don’t want to make too many promises that we can’t or won’t keep. As far as the underground organisations along the Rim are concerned, we welcome anyone who wants to join the Popular Front, but once they join they are committed. If they back out, we won’t heed their views any longer.”
She smiled. “And if there are minor Family members out there, or even Sector Commanders thinking about their own role in a reformed Empire, they are much more likely to get behind a movement to reform the Empire than one to destroy it,” she added. “There are quite a few younger members of the Thousand Families who would like their own shot at the golden ring, rather than be forced to bow and scrape to their superiors. There are always opportunists who would be quite happy to jump to us if there was something in it for them.”
“That would mean allowing the Thousand Families to have some role in a post-war Empire,” Anderson pointed out. “How long would it be before they clawed back their pre-war power?”
“It would not be a significant problem,” Salgak buzzed. The Geek seemed unmoving, inhumanly still; even his lips didn’t move. “The Thousand Families are dependent upon their control of the Empire’s laws to maintain their monopolies. Should such laws be removed — if the rule of corruption was replaced by the rule of law — they would be forced to adapt or be destroyed. They have no experience of actual competition against their equals. Their power would eventually be broken or forced into more… constructive channels.”
“You’re talking about a hell of a gamble,” Anderson pointed out. “What happens if you are wrong?”
“We have run thousands of thousands of calculations,” the Geek stated, flatly. “If the Thousand Families were to be destroyed, the result would be economic chaos. The entire system that maintains the Empire would collapse. Trillions of humans would starve; entire worlds would be instantly impoverished. The Imperial Navy would be scattered and fall into the hands of petty warlords. It would be a disaster beyond calculation. The Empire would be replaced, not by a universe of freedom and liberty, but by a new dark age.”
Daria nodded, soberly. “We can reduce the power of the Thousand Families gradually, or replace them slowly,” she said. “Destroying them all at once will result in chaos.”
“Assuming that people know that,” Khursheda said. “It is my observation that people generally cannot see past the end of their own noses. We cannot realistically expect factory workers in a poorly-run factory to continue working for the Thousand Families even after we have overthrown the Empire. I’m sure that keeping them in bondage would be good for the Empire as a whole, but they’re not going to see it that way.”
“True,” Daria said. “Do you have another suggestion?”
“We break up their combines,” Khursheda said. “The factory workers get the factories they work in; the Thousand Families can go to a penal world and remain stuck down on the surface for the rest of their worthless lives.”
“That would guarantee that the Families would unite against us,” Daria said, sharply. “I submit to you that having the Empire united is not in our interests.”
“We could always wait until we win,” Anderson pointed out. “Once we win, we can take whatever steps we like.”
Colin tapped the table and they fell silent. “We cannot make too many promises now,” he said, “but we do have to form a political group.” He looked up at Daria. “You and Hester can draw up the charter for the Popular Front while we’re at Garstang, one that will allow us to appeal to both rebel groups and forces still within the Empire. Our goal will be to reform the Empire, including granting first-rank status to all worlds, rather than to destroy it completely. That will ensure that every world has a say in Parliament.”