Beyond - Legends Annals of the Noble House of Trieste: Volume 11 (AU, OC)

Quite. I don't think there will be an impeachment, Silas Madsen seems too clever for that. I expect public apology 'assure i did nothing wrong, but acknowledge I allowed a perception of unethical behaviour to creep over me. For the good of the planet and those who this should be about, safeguarding those brave Marines who valiantly fight for us, I decided to step aside.' Something like that, but more eloquent, and probably cleverer

 

@AzureAngel2 @DarthUncle @jcgoble3 @Vehn Buckle your seat belts everyone...

Salis D’aar, Bakura

Holly Merizan sat down in one of the Plaza’s drawing rooms. Tonight was finally an evening of rest. No scouring of the Holonet for old stories; no fishing for information; no discreet vigils at restaurants, bars, or clubs to ascertain which way the wind was blowing. Tonight she would relax.

And well had she earned a night to herself after everything she’d done since becoming Chief of Staff at the Ministry of State. Though she delegated many of her administrative duties that kept the Ministry running to competent subordinates, there was still plenty to keep track of. One of her many jobs was to know what Declan needed to know—and Bakura’s foreign affairs encompassed quite a wide spectrum.

Later tonight Holly would have someone over. She didn’t know who yet, or what their sex would be. She’d have to see what she felt like when the time came. For the moment, however, she would just enjoy some time alone with a couple of drinks.

As she lounged on a sofa, she noticed a dejarik board on a side table. The pieces were set up in starting positions. A small smile crossed Holly’s face.

***

​

Kilmainham Brook, Prytis, Bakura

“I have come as summoned,” Ayn said. The corners of her mouth were turned up, betraying the mirth behind the formality of her words. Earlier that evening, Declan had informed her via comm that he required her at Kilmainham. It was the one place they could be sure of absolute privacy and they had often retreated here in the last year to discuss what was coming.

She was not surprised to find her husband in the Taoiseach’s study. Tonight it there were no shadows in the room despite the fire dancing beneath the mantle, a far cry from the night they mourned the passing of Enoch. He already had a glass of whiskey waiting for her.

After kissing her on the lips, Declan extended the tumbler to his spouse. “We have done it.”

***

Now that she knew the history, Holly supposed it all began when Silas Madsen blocked Declan and Ayn’s committee appointments in their first year in the Senate. He’d rightly assessed their potential as early as then. She moved one of the dejarik pieces forward in a classing opening blocking move to protect valuable pieces.

Declan and Ayn assessed the field and worked with what they had, learning the rules, building bridges, finding potential where others were bound by tradition. Holly moved one of the opposite pieces forward.

Ayn had traded on her grandmother’s last favors to make it onto the Appropriations Committee where she could begin doing small favors for fellow Senators, lending her votes to measures that were important to them and wouldn’t hurt her. Slowly, as a few pieces on each side came out, Ayn built a network.

Their plans had been interrupted by Falene becoming Taoiseach. It had nearly derailed them. Holly removed a piece from the board, one of medium value. It did not end the game, but it made it harder.

***

Marian Square, Salis D’aar, Bakura

“My fellow Bakurans,” Prime Minister Silas Madsen began his planet-wide address. “I address you today to talk about the Tund operation, in which the lives of 15 Marines were tragically lost. May their sacrifice never be forgotten, no matter what the conversation about Tund may focus on.

“As you are aware, recently questions regarding my motives for approving the Tund operation have been raised. I have answered these questions at every turn: in public addresses, on the floor of the Senate, and from this very office.

“These answers, however, have been deemed insufficient by the Senate.”

***

Without the resources of the Noble House to back them, Ayn and Declan had to get creative. They made their move by seizing control of the Rules Committee and Appropriations Committee under the banner of the Young Blasters movement, setting up each of them as players in Fianna Fail. Holly took a minor piece off the board for the other color.

Declan became a national figure, growing in stature to be one of Fianna Fail’s leading names. Not a household name, but one that beings who followed politics began to know as more than just his mother’s son. As Chair of Appropriations, Ayn now had more ability to grant favors for pet projects to her fellow members of the party, her influence growing with each bill. The pieces rearranged themselves and the board became more convoluted, complicated.

The next thing to do was to depose the Majority Whip through scandal, one entirely of Declan and Ayn’s concocting. They’d given their cousin Elfie just enough information to launch her investigating in the right direction. Holly removed another piece from the board. It paved the way for Ayn’s ascension into the party leadership thanks to her stature on Appropriations. A lot of Senators knew how to express their gratitude when the time came to elect a new whip.

Once there, Ayn gummed up the works through cunning practices that had taken her outside the halls of the Senate to ensure votes went the way she wanted. It all served to back the Prime Minister into a corner.

One of the pieces was now being closed in on by opposing pieces.

***

“As a result, it has become clear to me that I now lack the political backing of the Senate to effectively govern our world. While I would prefer to see this matter play out fully, to achieve the vindication that I know would come, I believe to do so would be more harmful to Bakura—not in the facts an investigation would discover, but because of the divisions it would create in our nation. If the cost was mine alone to bear, I would do so gladly for Bakura, but I believe further perseverance would only hurt the world we all love. Given the challenges we face, we can no longer afford to have our attention devoted to matters other than the business of Bakura.

“Therefore,” Madsen said, looking straight into the camera and into the eyes of a whole world, “I shall resign my position as Prime Minister, effective at noon tomorrow.”

***

The legislative morass had forced the Prime Minister to double down on not supporting federal wage increases. That had instigated a federal worker striker, one that spread into a general strike throughout the planet. Holly moved pieces around. Oh, it had been a glorious ruse. Declan got front and center supporting the unions. Every politically-aware being on Bakura knew who he was and what he stood for then.

Holly took one of her pieces off the board. The end of the strike came, but at a cost of weakening Fianna Fail. This was no flaw, but design. The unions had provided strike pay to their members, which meant there was not as much money as usual to support Fianna Fail in the next elections. Light coffers led to the Unionist victory in 284 across the board.

Not every loss was without its silver lining. With control of the Senate lost, it was clear new leadership was needed. As second-ranking member of the Senatorial leadership, it was all too easy for Ayn to step into place as a fresh voice. A new queen was on the board.

***

Declan and Ayn toasted. “Click boom.” They drank.

“Your mother, my grandmother could have never done this,” Ayn said. “They were great politicians, but their thinking was too linear. Things came too easily to them. Not so for us. When they write the histories, Bakura will never know what we did to get here. But they will always know what we will do for them, the world we will create.”

“I couldn’t have done it without you, my love,” Declan said. “No matter what legacy we leave, all of Bakura will know that. That is why I do what I do now.”

He pulled an old book of flimsy with a thick nerfhide cover out from a desk drawer and placed it carefully on the desktop.

***

Even though his mother had gone straight from the Senate to Marian Square, Declan knew he needed to prove to Bakura that he could lead the planet. That was why he ran for governor in Telaan Valley. The executive experience that he gained there was crucial to convincing the voters that he could be a viable Prime Minister. Holly brought one of her most powerful pieces to the fore.

It was only a matter of time before Madsen would be enticed into running in 288. Ayn and Declan knew that the stronger they grew, the more he would want to check them. They barely had to do anything to get him into the race. It was there that they planned to inflict the greatest humiliation on him, a public repudiation by the voters in favor of Declan. Now the opposing side brought its strongest piece into play.

The primary race was fierce and Declan achieved his goal of making sure Madsen couldn’t win outright. It would be an open convention and anything could happen there. Now the dejarik board was arrayed for full battle.

But Declan couldn’t pull it out. That was when the strategy changed. It was a retreat…but it was also a trap.

***

“Gentlebeings, the Deputy Prime Minister.”

The Senate rose to its feet and hailed the chamber’s leader with applause and even some shouts of encouragement. Ayn waved as she entered the chamber, holding hands with her husband. Following them were their twin children, Shenandoah and Niall Fionn. Today, Ayn did not rise to the speaker’s dais. Instead she stood at its foot, in the well of the Senate, before her 79 colleagues.

Declan produced the heavy, nerfhide-bound Noble House family Fulcrum, the sacred text of Bakura’s Religion of the Cosmic Balance.

It was time for the oath of office.

***

Against everyone’s expectations, Declan gave up the fight against Madsen for Prime Minister. In doing so he became the party’s hero, more devoted to unity than his own ambitions. Though Madsen won Fianna Fail’s nomination, Declan won Fianna Fail’s respect. A piece came off the board for Holly’s side, but in doing so, the beginnings of cracks showed in the other side’s defense.

When Madsen won, he was indebted to Declan. A cabinet post was his for the taking. Sure, it had required some manipulation to get the one he wanted, one where he was certain to be central to the critical decisions of the administration, but it took almost nothing for Declan and Ayn to get him slotted in at State—just ruining another career. Holly removed another piece from the opposite side.

But more importantly, Ayn called favors in from those union leaders who owed her so much from years ago. They now deployed their cash and influence exactly where she and Declan wanted in a precise, choreographed, 80 county campaign to win control of the Senate. Madsen’s victory was irrelevant the moment Ayn brought home her legislative majority. She was now Deputy Prime Minister.

The way was open.

***

“No,” Ayn said. “I will not take that from you.”

“I give it freely,” Declan said. “It is tradition. It is your right.”

His wife paused as she looked at the Fulcrum he held before her with one hand.

“We shall do it together, as we always have,” Ayn promised, taking her husband’s left hand. “I swear that to you.”

Declan took his wife’s hand and placed it on the cover of the Fulcum. “Do you, Ayn Dormingale Trieste, swear before your Creator in the presence of Declan Trieste, eleventh Taoiseach of the Noble House of Trieste…”

***

“I do solemnly swear,” Ayn repeated after the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, her hand on the cover of the Noble House Fulcrum in front of the Senate, her right hand held aloft and straight.

***

With Declan inside the Cabinet, it was just a matter of finding a weakness in Madsen’s life, something that would bring scandal on the administration. That had been Holly’s job. She’d identified the Eastern Centrality, Madsen’s holding of Incom and Sienar stock, and the Republican Fleet contracts.

Then Declan led Corbrand to the Eastern Centrality. Predictably, she was itching to prove her mettle as Minister of Defense and argue to Madsen that he should take military action. They’d used Fiona to suggest to the Republican Fleet that the Defense Fleet could be used to circumvent the Galactic Senate. Declan had deployed Vesper (without her knowledge) to find out if Incom and Sienar would be a big enough scandal to hurt someone—that someone being Madsen. Everything had fallen into place.

Holly removed pieces from the board left and right. She paused as she took one mid-level piece off the board. It had never been the plan for Enoch to die. They hadn’t known he would be part of the strike team. That loss would haunt them for a long time to come—perhaps forever.

***

“…to guide the Noble House of Trieste faithfully, to uphold its interests above all else, to further bind the Noble House to Bakura and her interests, to assume all debts and obligations outstanding upon the Noble House…” Declan continued.

***

“…that I will faithfully execute the Office of Prime Minister of Bakura…” Ayn declared confidently.

***

“…to keep the Triestes as the first house, the Noble House of Bakura, and to commit any deed necessary to vanquish and destroy any and all enemies of the Noble House of Trieste?” Declan asked.

***

“…and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of Bakura…” Ayn repeated.

***

“I do so swear before my Creator,” Ayn affirmed to her husband.

Declan placed the Fulcrum on the desk and opened to its flyleaf where all previous Taoiseachs had signed their name. Beneath her husband’s script, Ayn added her signature.

Ayn Dormginale Trieste 289

***

“So help me Maker,” Prime Minister Ayn Dormingale Trieste, twelfth Taoiseach of the Noble House of Trieste, swore.

***

From out of the shadows, the queen took the king. Everyone had been so focused on Declan the king they had forgotten that the queen piece was more powerful than him. Holly toppled the king. This game was over. The Hapan drained her glass.

Now the real game began.

 

O. M. G.

Ayn is both Taoiseach AND Prime Minister?!?!?!?!?! I did not see either of those coming!

You are a master of storytelling and that includes the unexpected twist. You have pulled that off so brilliantly here that I am practically speechless.



I suppose that ends this thread and opens the door to Volume 12?

 

Cheeckmate. Ah, and there you have it. A well played gambit.

Good to know Ayn can be wrong about such things; of course a vast conspiracy is much more enticing than a mundane coincidence and stumbling politicians.

Surely at some time in the future when an enterprising historian takes it upon him or herself to write that history, speculation,and hints of the more interesting story will be unearthed and put in writing. In fact, aren't we reading just that?

I do slightly worry for Holly though, wouldn't it be prudent if she were to go back to the Hapan world's and involve herself with a completely different life?

 

Well done!

 

From out of the shadows, the queen took the king. Everyone had been so focused on Declan the king they had forgotten that the queen piece was more powerful than him. Holly toppled the king. This game was over. The Hapan drained her glass.

Now the real game began.

Why do I have to think about a certain Monty Python quote now? "Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition."

 

Indeed it does! You've all been tagged, but should anyone wander through here later, these adventures continue elsewhere.

Actually, as we learned when Holly was first introduced, going back to Hapes is not really an option for her...

 

Oh,right I forgot. No mind,she's almost family by now I suppose!

And thanks for the link to the next Volume