personal6

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September 28, 2999

Federated Suns

Crucis March

Cholis

Morten Estate

Stephan had just gotten done with his morning workouts…the first of which had been a 4 mile run, the second a calisthenics obstacle course, and the third had been in his Centurion, and not in the simulator. He'd taken the real thing out for a few laps of the Estate grounds, walking across dirt trails as well as paved roads, and engaging in a little live fire practice at a range on the north end of Prime Valley.

That all left him feeling blissfully tired as he sank into his office's chair ready to get to the administrative work of being head of a Periphery state. He opened up his holographic message folder, with it displaying all the recent messages he'd received to his First Lord's mailbox in the Comstar network. Those messages people had to pay to send, so he always viewed them himself while there was another folder for local communications that his staff sifted through to see if there was anything he should deal with. Occasionally there was, but most of it was people giving their feedback on what they thought he was doing, offering suggestions, their services, or asking questions that they had no right to expect him to answer personally…and that was just from the Cholis population.

Normally people didn't pay Comstar to send such drivel, but occasionally they did. Still, he was surprised when the glowing message bin appeared over the stacks of paper documents on his desk indicating that he had 1,093 new messages since he had last checked yesterday.

That was a new record, but things had been like this ever since House Jerrast had made public their series of business deals inside the Morten Protectorate. It's not like they could have hidden it if they wanted to, for they had to move large chunks of their people and equipment to begin construction of their new facilities, and that meant jumpship reroutes as well, but still, while Stephan knew it would attract more attention to his office, he hadn't expected this.

He'd been getting an average of 30 or so messages a day from various people throughout the Federated Suns before this deal had gone public, now he was averaging over 700, and most of them were legit contacts.

The First Lord began to scroll through, looking at the message headers and immediately sending some that appeared to be disgruntled individuals to his comm staff for them to read and determine if there was anything important in them. The rest he began working through himself, finding yet again more business contacts being made. He shuffled some of those directly to Paul to handle, but pulled up one that was from a small House situated in the Lyran Commonwealth down near Terra and not that far from the Federated Suns.

He'd never heard of it before, but they were seeking to form an alliance with the Morten Protectorate via a marriage proposal from the head of House Liopold's oldest daughter…and along with the message came a portfolio of pictures. The first few were quite regal and stunning, followed by several nude pictures that were just as tastefully done revealing her true assets.

"The odds of her having the brains to match that body are next to none," he said regretfully, for she was easily a 10, then he deleted the message and moved on, not bothering to waste time and money responding in the negative.

He also had a number of mercenary units offering their services…it looked like three today, despite the fact that his House notoriously did not hire mercenaries. He kept expecting the word to get around eventually, but apparently that was going to take longer than expected.

Stephan went to delete those, but the name of one caught his eye. The Northwind Highlanders. They were about as elite as there was amongst the mercenary ranks, and the header didn't say the typical 'Services Available' or 'Open for Contract,' rather it said 'Seeking Information.'

He pulled it up and read through the medium-length message, for Comstar charged by the data byte, and the more wordy you were the more it cost you. Hence these sorts of things were usually short solicitations.

But to his surprise, they were not offering their services…actually they were, but they stated they knew he didn't hire mercenaries but if he ever needed some extra firepower on his warlord hunts they would most likely have some small units available. No, the main purpose of this message was to inquire about the possibility of sending some of their people to the Morten Academy to train in their methods of mech combat.

Stephan raised an eyebrow. So far the Morten Academy was only to train his own people, they weren't taking in outsiders in as a paid service, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to start that or not, though some of his mechwarriors had already been lured away by mercenary units with big signing bonuses to get them, so it wasn't as if House Morten tactics were going to be kept a state secret. He just wasn't sure if he wanted to be training mercenaries or anyone else, though it did offer up a lot of interesting possibilities.

As he took a few moments to think that through, a priority message popped up amongst the others. It was from Carroll Davion, and it was untitled, but with an attachment.

He opened it, finding it simply read 'I'm so sorry.'

Stephan frowned and opened the attachment, which was a video file from New Avalon. First Prince Ian Davion in an official ceremony.

He watched through it, not seeing anything of relevance at first, then the First Prince brought up someone before him who bowed. He took out a sword and 'knighted' them as the new Duke of Armington…which was one of Cholis's neighboring planets. Duke Bennison was a friend of his, and Armington was one of the worlds he'd sold mechs to on the cheap to help them with bandits.

Stephan watched on and it got worse. Three other worlds in his immediate area were also getting new Dukes installed…all of which were his friends. The last of which was Duke Thorsen.

"Shit," Stephan said, finishing watching the ceremony to see how many others were being changed. Two more were, but they were on the other side of the Federated Suns. Ian was replacing 6 Dukes in total, as was his legal right as First Prince, but this was not normal. Dukes that had no families would be replaced when they died or retired, and those that were being punished for dereliction of duty were often removed, but everyone else inherited their positions and the First Prince just rubber stamped the lineage replacements. He'd usually have a ceremony on New Avalon during the transition…such as the one Stephan had thought he was going to when he left Neubenn for the last time…but that was primary for appearance sake, as well as for the First Prince to actually meet his Dukes in person and establish a relationship there.

Stephen knew more about the four worlds that were affected here than probably Ian did, and he knew those four Dukes had not done anything to warrant their replacements…nor had they died, which meant they were being dispossessed without cause, and it was apparent as to why.

Stephan had trade relations with all of them, plus another 17 planets in the Edgeward Alpha Combat Zone and other neighboring areas of the Crucis March, but he'd only sold mechs to three of them…plus the repaired Atlas he'd given Duke Thorsen for his 80th birthday a year and a half ago.

All four of those Dukes were the ones being removed because of their association with him…and there wasn't a damn thing he could do to stop it.

He pounded the top of his desk with his fist as he got up and rushed out, heading into Brinestorm with his security detachment racing to keep pace with him as he headed for Duke Thorsen's Duchy estate.

When he got to the door the guards there let him enter without incident, with his own standing outside and chatting with their counterparts, for Stephen had been here often, and Thorsen at his Estate just as much.

He was met at the door by Sandra Timmis, one of the Duke's aides, and the look on her face told him that they'd already been informed as well.

"He's in his study," Sandra said as he heard faint crying from further into the house. "Mena is taking it harder than he is. That Davion bitch just left."

"Did she give a reason?"

"No. Nothing at all. The First Prince just decreed it and didn't even have the decency to tell him before appointing someone else," she said, swiping away a sniffle of her own. "When the new Duke gets here in three months, he's to turn over command and then…nothing. He's just invisible after that to that 19 year-old clown! At least they gave you something. He's not getting any compensation. Not even a pension beyond his military one."

Stephan put a hand on her shoulder for a moment, knowing there was nothing he could say that would make it any better, then walked on in and went to the former General's study. He knocked lightly, then entered without waiting for an answer to find Harris standing in front of the fireplace staring into the flickering flames.

The Duke glanced over his shoulder irritably, but when he saw who it was his expression softened.

"I know you know exactly how this feels," he said, walking a few steps and sitting down in a small cushioned chair still facing the fireplace.

Stephan came over and sat down in its twin, with both of them looking into the flames rather than each other.

"You know why he's doing it."

"I don't blame you for a second, Stephen…and I don't care what the others might say. You've done nothing wrong out here and everything right. Now you're being punished for it."

"You far more than me."

"Ian doesn't care about me. I'm just a pawn being used to rein you in. This House Alliz, do you know them?"

"Not personally, but I believe they're associated with House Derren."

Thorsen's eyebrows lifted up slightly as a new piece of the puzzle fell into place. "So they'll be here to harass you, no doubt."

"I can handle that."

"But you shouldn't have to!" Harris bellowed, slamming his arm down on the padded armrest. "You've been helping to secure the outer worlds of the Federated Suns more than Ian or his father ever did. They should be pinning a medal on you, for god's sake!"

"I'm not worried about me right now. The four of you are being dispossessed."

Harris waved off the thought. "Don't concern yourself with me. While I expected to live out my remaining years here, the First Prince has the right to reassign us wherever he wishes whether I like it or not. I know my duty, but he's acting in direct contradiction to his father's orders interfering with you.

"That's his legal prerogative as well," Stephen noted.

"There's a damn lot more than legality at stake here, Stephen. The Federated Suns cannot be held together by some words on a piece of paper. If Ian doesn't hold to the deals his father made, he's going to start ripping apart our foundations. You can't lead men into battle because the law told them to, you have to gain their trust, and this sort of thing cuts that camaraderie off at the legs. You're supposed to be an unofficial extension of the Federated Suns out here, and now Ian is treating you like a foreigner with hostile intent."

"He's also cutting off four loyal Dukes just to do it. I know there's no just cause for removing any of you…and trash that bit about him having the legal right to remove you. It doesn't work that way."

"No?"

"Being a noble family is not just about having a position and resources that the commoners don't. It's about looking out for the best interests of not just yourself and your family, but for others. That's what being noble means. We place ourselves in harm's way to deal with problems and threats that others can't. That the average man and women has no chance of defeating, or even surviving. Being a noble family is about work and responsibility, with very little of it being privilege. I was taught very early that being a leader was 1% privilege and 99% responsibility, and if you didn't hold up the 99 you didn't get the one. Ian isn't holding up his responsibility, so he doesn't get the privilege of plucking out Dukes and replacing them for no reason. Everything a noble family does has a reason behind it, and the reason is the legitimacy. Laws without reasons have no legitimacy either. Ian is doing this because he can currently get away with it. If he was removing Dukes from some of the larger worlds, a civil war would have already broken out regardless of his so-called 'legal right' to do it. And I'm of half a mind to veto his decision anyway."

"I appreciate the thought, but you know you can't do that…at least not for very long. Ian would send one or more of his Divisions to retake these worlds and put an end to your Protectorate. No, there's nothing you can do to stop this, only delay it. And I won't have you jeopardizing what you've built only to delay it a year or so at the cost of your mechwarriors lives, and many others. No, get that thought out of your mind entirely. It isn't feasible."

"Just because it isn't feasible in the long term doesn't mean I don't have to consider it," Stephan said, leaning forward to put his elbows on his knees and getting his face a little closer to the fire. "I just hate sitting by and doing nothing in the face of an injustice like this. He's not just dispossessing you of the Duchy, but he's taking away your hopes of establishing a House of your own."

"That was a failed mission already, Stephan," Harris admitted. "Of my three sons, two are dead, and the third hasn't been here for more than the one time you met him. I've got four surviving grandchildren, three of which I was forbidden to see by their mother who blames the military for my son's death, and they grew up hating me, so my new great grandchildren I'll probably never lay eyes on a picture of, let alone meet. My last hope was my other granddaughter, and she is currently on New Avalon at the Albion Military Academy trying to become a mechwarrior. I was going to give her the Atlas as an inheritance if I could coax her out here into my militia for a year or two to spend some time with me, but now even that is no longer an option. The First Prince didn't kill my dream of a noble family, Stephan. It was dead on arrival."

"Many noble families have failed," Stephan said regretfully, "because they lost their position or resources. You can't help others without them, but the heart of a noble family is the responsibility and duty to help uplift and shield others, and you pass muster on that, Harris, while a lot of other so-called noble families don't."

"But like you said, it takes resources, which my family has never personally had," Thorsen said. "It was just this Duchy and the potential to grow it and establish my own House. I can't do that without family members that want to come out here and help me do it, and the closest one was Jarred. His wife would never allow it, but I also got word he's finally got the funding to open up some type of corporation on New Syrtis, and he can't leave that behind. You may be able to bat around 80 million Pounds like its lunch money, but raising that much from investors is a hard pull. Even if I wanted to, he's got better prospects on his own than him coming out here and trying to put down new roots."

"I didn't know he was that well off," Stephan said, having had previous conversations about his children and grandchildren from time to time.

"He wasn't, but he finally pulled this deal together and is committed to making it work. Something in the telecom sector. I don't begrudge him that, even if it wasn't what I had originally hoped for."

Stephen grew silent for a long moment, staring at a spot on the floor in front of the fire.

"What's wrong?" Harris asked, but Steven held up a finger for a moment and just continued to think…then a small smile started to tug at his lips.

"I know that look," Harris said. "Don't try anything that's going to get the First Prince any more involved."

Stephan sat straight up, then almost as an afterthought leaned back in the chair comfortably as he continued to look at the Duke. "You know, being a noble family isn't something that the First Prince can bestow upon you. It's more like a calling one has to rise to. Yes, one needs resources and position to have any effect, but when I came out here it was just me and Roger and a big bank account. I was still a noble even without my position, as was my family, even if you ignore the money. Tell me, Harris. Can Ian appoint a new General from someone who has never had any military training?"

"I suppose he could, though I don't know why he would want to."

"And in legal terms, that General would be legit…but as soon as he got on the battlefield, it would become obvious that the First Prince didn't have the power to make someone a General, because it's more than just position. It's skills, knowledge, experience, intuition, and a lot of other stuff you can't bestow on someone. When he appointed you Duke, you had no knowledge of how to carry out the position, but you've learned a great deal over your years here. I've seen it, and Cholis's population has doubled, and its economy quadrupled under you rule."

"Most of that is due to your presence, to be fair," Thorsen objected.

Stephan shook off the notion. "That has to do with the rate of growth. I'm talking about the skills to make it grow. To protect the people and give them a better quality of life, more opportunities, etc. You may not have had those skills when you were given the position, but you have them now. And Ian taking away the position does not remove the skills any more than you're no longer being in the military deprives you of being a General. Once a General, always a General, and the same can be said of a noble family, even if one loses their position and resources."

"The way a General loses them when he retires," Thorsen thought carefully. "What's your point?"

"My point is you are a noble House now, just one with its wings clipped. Andrew put you in the position where you could become one and you did so, now it is beyond Ian's power to take that status away so long as you don't surrender it."

The Duke bristled at the word 'surrender.' "I don't see how I have much choice in the matter."

"Noble families aren't governed by a set of rules. There are things in common, to be sure, but we customize our own Houses as we see fit. You can do the same."

"My 'House' is going to die along with me without heirs, even if I retained this Duchy."

"Not necessarily," Stephan said with a smirk. "Our House, along with a few others, have incorporated an adoption policy so we can bring in worthy people into the family and bloodline outside of marriage. You could do the same."

"Adopt children? At my age?"

"Not children. I'm thinking about people you can trust. People who are loyal to you more than your own offspring. I'm thinking about your soon to be unemployed staff."

Thorsen cringed. "I hadn't even thought about what was going to happen to them. What you told me about your loyal people on Neubenn…is that going to happen here as well?"

"Possibly, but not if you adopt your staff into House Thorsen."

"But I don't have a Duchy anymore. I couldn't pay to house them on my own, and what good will it do for us to be a House without the money or position to, as you put it, look after others?"

"You gave me an idea."

Harris's eyebrows frowned. "A good idea or a bad one?"

"I brought my family here with the benefit of generations of other Mortens figuring out solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems. We've essentially got a manual written that is very useful in a lot of situations…but it's not complete, and it was written for dealing with a Duchy on a single world…now we're an independent state with multiple worlds, so we're still having to learn a lot on the go and add to that manual. I just invented another piece. How would you like a job?"

"Doing what? You don't use Duchies, and I'm too old to be leading troops. Frankly, I'm too old to do much of anything at this point."

"Bullshit. I have a job for you, possibly one of the most important of your life…but you can't do it alone. It would require you building a House. I need House Thorsen to fill a position in the Morten Protectorate. An Earldom."

The old General considered for a moment, then decided to just listen. "Go on."

"All of our worlds are led by members of my family. But leadership comes in different ways, and with every new planet I add our numbers get stretched thinner."

"Hence your new twelve children."

"Yes, but even as we increase our numbers, there is still a lot of work to do, and we'll be rotating between worlds so we don't develop any of the factionalism that is ripping apart the Federated Suns. We all live in the same place, which will eventually be our capitol but for right now is our Estate here. That means our children grow up together, and after every assignment running a planet they transition back here to be part of the family again, and they do not return to the world they previously ruled. That is an advantage in some ways but a disadvantage in another. The Earldom will help negate that disadvantage by always being on the same world, but they will have no legal or military power. They will be able to give no orders whatsoever. Instead, they will lead through economic power."

"I think it's necessary to state my skills in that regard are limited."

"They're adequate, or I would not be giving you this offer."

"Only because of the great assistance Paul has given me over the years."

"You've learned well enough, now hush and let me finish. None of the worlds I've taken is very well off, and the economies need ramped up at the minimum, if not the plugging of some very big holes. The Earldom would do this, because it would essentially be a megacorporation assigned to one planet, owned by House Morten, but run by an Earl. If the economy was lacking something, say, trash collection services, the Earldom would start a company to offer that. If there was a monopoly that was charging huge prices for something that the people could hardly afford to pay, the Earldom would start a competing company and break the monopoly without the Viceroy having to pass a law to prevent it."

"Economic warfare," Harris said, approvingly.

"Economic stewardship," Stephen countered. "Like tending a garden. You pluck some things that are not in the right place, and plant others. The Lord of Economics Management would still run the economies and set all regulations. The Earldom would exist within the free market economies we're using…because I will not use a command economy like others have. It just doesn't work well enough, though the free market has its own problems. Part of the job of the Earldom would be to correct these problems in a non-governmental way. It would be extremely difficult and complicated, because you couldn't give anyone orders. You'd have to engage in, as you said, economic warfare in order to stabilize and grow the local economies similar to how you've been doing on Cholis."

"After you told me to ignore military affairs since you'd got that covered," Harris said suspiciously. "Have you been working on this for a while?"

"Honestly no, It just popped into my head when you mentioned your son's business venture."

"Just like that? A moment ago?"

"That's usually how inspiration works, Harris. The Earldom would come with its own estate, just like a Duchy, but control of the world would still be left to the Viceroy. Your children would have to come live with us after the age of 12 in order to be trained in our ways, because all the Earldoms would have to operate to our standards and not engage in any nefarious business practices. So your children would spend their teenage years with us learning and getting certified…those that wanted to anyway, it wouldn't be mandatory, but your House would have to maintain at least one certified individual in order to maintain the Earldom. You and your staff would be exempt from this, but going forward it would be the rule. As long as you stayed within the box we define, and maintain at least one person with Earldom credentials, your family would keep the position on a hereditary basis forever on one world, much how a Duchy should be run."

"Assuming my staff would even want to become part of my House," Thorsen said, his eyes glittering now rather than sullen.

"Easy enough to find out. And even though Sarah is going to hate me for this, I'll grant your Earldom 2 billion C-bills to get started, but after that you're on your own. You'll have to make profit and grow your holdings in order to expand them, but your first priority is not maximum profit, it's stabilizing the economy and developing it to help the populace. You'd be more of a benefactor than a businessman, but you wouldn't be receiving any taxes or other monetary funds from us. You get the 2 billion up front and then you have to swim on your own. It would be a lot bigger challenge than taking on a Duchy that is already established and funded by external means. A lot bigger responsibility than you currently have here on Cholis. And the profits the Earldom does make would be split, 80% remaining in the Earldom for expansions and other use, 10% going to House Morten, and the remaining 10% going to the Earl's House, so the more you grow the Earldom, the richer your own family gets…and even if I were to dispossess you of the Earldom one day, your personal finances would be independently yours and you'd always have the means to carry on the mission of a noble house even without the position."

"And you came up with all this just sitting here?"

"The job of a head of state is to either come up with good ideas or collect them from others. This one I came up with on my own after the nudge you gave me."

"This isn't just another Duchy you're offering, this is a campaign waging economic warfare, with the stakes being the livelihoods of the people on the planet in question."

"If you want to put it that way, yes. And since the Mortens will be rotating in and out, the Earldom becomes even more the glue that holds the planet together since you will be staying there permanently."

"Obviously it won't be Cholis. What world were you thinking about?"

"What one do you want? I plan on creating other Earldoms now that I've just invented it, but yours would be the first so you can have your pick."

"I take it this is about getting work done rather than a perk of our friendship?"

"More work than you can imagine, my friend."

"Good," he said, sitting up straighter in his chair. "Then I want the hardest assignment you've got. Put me where you need me the most."

"That would be the big one, then, and the one with the worst problems."

"The slaves?"

"Yes. Even with 2 billion, there's no way you could create jobs for even a tiny fraction of them. Dealing with them is the Viceroy's problem. You just chip away at any little hole in the planet you can and find a way to fill it, or upgrade something else. Be a force for installing and growing civilization. That's your orders. House Thorsen will come up with its own battle plan."

"House Thorsen…I do like the sound of that. Coden it is then, and you're right that this is bigger than this Duchy and any mission I ever led as a General, and that's saying something given my history. Coden…" he said thoughtfully, "…after I turn over possession of Cholis, and assuming I can actually adopt enough people to form a legitimate House."

"Then I suggest you get to work and start asking them…oh, and one more thing. A suggestion only. How you run your own House is your prerogative, but it would be wise for you to lay down some ground rules similar to how new recruits are dealt with in the military. Record some instructional videos explaining to them, in your own words, what your House will stand for and how it will operate. That way generations down the line will still be receiving their marching orders from you long after you're gone. You're not just the first in your new House, you're the founding member. Crafting your House is more than just recruiting people and reproducing. It's a whole other responsibility separate from the Earldom."

Harris nodded. "I understand."

"Still think there's nothing left to do with your remaining years?" Stephan asked sarcastically.

"I don't know how many I've got left, but I feel they're going to be the most important. You have more than my thanks, Stephan."

"This is how realms are supposed to operate, Harris. Building bonds of trust. This is an investment for the future as much as it is a way to flip my middle finger at Ian and counter his dispossession of you."

"Are you going to extend the same offer to the others?"

Stephan bit his lip. "I don't know. I haven't actually had time to think that through."

Thorsen stood up and extended his hand. "I accept your offer."

Stephen stood and took it. "Congratulations, Earl Thorsen. Welcome to the Periphery party."