Chapter 798 – Imperial Expansion

Currently, the Klavdiv refineries are operating at 16% capacity. We plan to up that number to 20% by the end of the week, then 25% by the end of next week. The other dwarven Holds are not as quick in their uptake, although Klavdiv alone account for roughly one fifth of all Imperial steel production. The dwarves themselves report that production will stall at roughly a third of the dwarven hold’s ancient output, although they explain it is through a lack of manpower and bodies to man the controls rather than anything else. This could be alleviated through sending men down there.

Nevertheless, whereas sheer mass is a problem, it is one we could potentially solve through rapid, temporary, industrial expansion. The real issue is weight. The islands themselves have never been tested in terms of actual weight capacity, although they have never needed to serve as ferries for lattices dozens of miles long. Even after the redesign, and the shrinking of the lattice structures, we are looking at incalculable amounts, easily more than a billion tons of steel, per lattice.

The issue is two-fold, deploying the connections on the planet will require them to be stronger, to deal with atmospheric winds. Deploying them in space will further allow us to shrink that weight, although we are talking about construction in the vacuum of space. In regards to that, the thickness of the bridges could be shrunk once again.

I have to disagree with General Menith here. Whereas the islands themselves will be permanent, the sheer scale of what we are talking makes things such as train cars connecting them a borderline impossibility. Whereas small carts could be used, a zipline system, with small, automated controls to pull their carriers to and thro location, would be far more feasible in the time span we are talking about.

Likewise, bridges could be set up to have mechanical locks on them, rather than requiring welding. The structures themselves will only need to last a matter of hours, so I would advise us not to be thinking about long-term stability in their construction. Thin barriers, with rails onto which our astronauts can clip themselves to, will be far more weight effective.

- Excerpt from the “M.M.M. Discussions”, this part is credited to Minister Rolf Sennhauser, an urban planner.

Helenna stared down at the papers on the desk. The Empire was making moves once again, expansion was imminent, she could tell that. It couldn’t have come at a worse time as well, with the palace construction, the Star of Epa being launched, the Second Arc being sighted and with the Imperial Bureau of Information needing to monitor the state of the Empire so that it did not spiral into panic too quickly. And now, an offer had come from the Karainan government.

And Arascus was coming, but that was expected, he had sent the details to the Donut and scheduled a meeting. At least the statue in the middle of the structure that looked down into Helenna’s office maintained her imposing aura. The Goddess of Love herself felt as if she wanted to rip her own hair out. Just how much was the man going to shove onto her plate?

And she would do it! Of course she would! Because there was no one better at this than her and because the world was six months away from ending! There had never been a time where it was more important to get her head down and get to work. Helenna’s room sat as it always did, meticulously cleaned, papers on her desk arranged already with all the relevant information. A glass of wine from an oversized bottle at the side of her chair. Light streaming in from behind.

She should have designed herself a living room in the Donut if she knew it would become her home. At the very least, there was a bathroom with a shower here, but then it lacked a bath, so what was even the point of it? Arascus opened the door and came in as he always did. In that grand black suit, laced with silver and gold and red, the short cape on his back. Black boots that made a click each time he stepped forward. “I’ve been waiting.” Helenna said and readjusted her dress. She always dressed up when he was coming, today though, it was black. Just like her hair.

“You don’t look happy.”

“I’m fucking furious.” Helenna said. “What? Are you going to ask me why?”

“I assume it’s because of work.” Helenna rolled her eyes, made a wordless groan and then drank half the wine in her cup.

“Go on then, whatever.”

“Two things.” Arascus said took the seat in front of his desk. “First less serious, so we sort that out now.” He pulled a piece of paper out from his suitcase. Helenna just stared at him, slowly took her wine glass and sipped the scarlet liquid. What exactly was he going to say now? It was less serious, then…

“The Imperial Palace?”

“That exactly.” Arascus said with a smile, he flipped the paper around. “I told you I’d send my own dogs to sniff around.” Helenna stared at the paper, did not read it, then back at him. Here she had thought she managed to corral most of the figures from Imperial Auditry to a den. She leaned back comfortably in her seat and drank her wine again.

“What have your little puppies found then?” Helenna mused to no one in particular. “I’m sure it cannot be that important, can it?” She was going to have that room next to his, no matter how dirty she had to play for it. And she had closed most of the holes that had been left behind as well. Everything was legal now, there were even a team of lawyers on standby, and they were lawyers with money troubles that would not be spilling their guts because Helenna was overpaying them.

Arascus tapped the sheet of paper and Helenna theatrically leaned down, squeezing her chest against the table, to read it. Her smile dropped: What the fuck. “This is ridiculous.” Helenna said. “Overpaying for materials? Excuse me?”

“It’s within Imperial law that government projects have to go by competitive market price.”

“The market price is whatever anyone is willing to pay for it!” Helenna said. “That’s how you find a market price!”

“Any private entity.” Arascus said. “Whereas you’re using public funds.” He chuckled. “You’re paying double for concrete here.”

“As if you don’t pay to get priority placement.” Helenna said. What a stupid rule. That was bureaucracy so inane she couldn’t even stomach it. Excuse me? Was she really going to lose their bet because of some fucking regulation? Not even a proper law but a regulation?

“Good thing Imperial Auditry doesn’t audit me then.” Arascus didn’t even try to hide it. “That’s not even the worst of it.” He tapped the third paragraph and Helenna stared down at the sheet of paper: Upon inspection of the sight, we can confirm gross negligence by the leadership of the construction site entailing to an overwork of bureaucracy. Helenna stared at those three words: overwork of bureaucracy. What? Standard building practices are not being followed to the extent that the wasteful government clause can be invoked.

“What the fuck is this?” Helenna asked. “Excuse me? I have done everything correct here. They’re all on official contracts and I’m even paying fucking insurance. Where exactly is the waste?”

Arascus chuckled and leaned back. “How do builders normally operate?”

“What? Are you telling me I should be paying them by the day and allowing them to sneak drinks onto the site? That’s breaching regulations in itself.” Arascus smiled as he met her gaze and she shook her head. “Whatever, that’s not waste.”

“Game was rigged from the start Helenna.” Arascus said. “You can’t win.”

“I see that now.” It was damned if you did and damned if you didn’t. At the very least, he wasn’t pulling his punches against her, and she could be satisfied in the fact that it took complete bullshit like this to win.

“But you’re doing a good job. I’ve not found the Saksma connection yet.” Arascus said. “Granted, I’ve been busy.”

“That makes two of us.” Helenna said. “So what? It’s off.”

“No, game’s still on, it’s good practice for both of us.”

“Then give me ten lives.” Helenna said. She could beat him them. Ten lives was more than enough. These loopholes could be negotiated away, she could… she would find written permission from the Bureaus to continue with the building. If Arascus was going to play dirty, then so would she.

“Ten lives, two are gone already.”

“I’ll take that.” Helenna said, her hair changing from black to orange. She caught sight of a few loose strands she always kept in her vision to see what exactly she was giving away and tutted to think that the Goddess of Love was so easy to read. “Next issue, I assume you’re here on Karaina.”

“Indeed. Imperial Expansion.” Arascus said. “Karaina wants to join.” Helenna stared at him, the fact Karaina wanted to join was not a surprise, the country was crumbling apart under Ilwin’s and Sara Daganhoff’s constant rabblerousing, their economy had stalled. And every was made worse by the coming of the Second Arc and the fact that the Empire was succeeding right over the border. “It’s a bad deal.” Arascus said.

“Of course it’s a bad deal.” Helenna said. “They’re fucking what.” She went to the papers that had been prepared. “In a recession that tops all charts and they’ve started rolling blackouts.” She bit her tongue and continued. “This Karainan army was a failure through and through and now they have armed men with loyalty to warlords. And they want to join?” Helenna stared at him. “You do realise the situation that is going on?”

“I do.” Arascus said. “We’re focused entirely on the Million Man Miracle, and now they will probably want a standing garrison. Obviously we don’t have the manpower right now.” He leaned back, fingers tapping rhythmically along the edge of the wooden desk. “Ilwin and Daganhoff will be there.”

“Are you sending me off?” Suddenly, she was excited about this whole Karaina scenario. That would mean not dealing with the garbage of Imperial propaganda!

“No.” Arascus said. “I’m sending Iliyal, he doesn’t have anything to do here anyway.” And there it was. He dangled an easy job in front of her only to see her jump and squeal.

“Great.” Helenna scoffed. “Fantastic. Super. I’m ecstatic at the notion. So I’m his support?”

“Iliyal is going with a small military detachment.” Arascus said. “I thought it was simpler to handle it that way than give Ilwin your number.”

“How thoughtful of you.” Helenna said dryly. The fact he was correct was more annoying than else. It would be far easier to deal with Iliyal than with Ilwin, the older Tremali knew Helenna, and he had enough experience with Divinity to just cut the flattery and get straight to business.

“Also, give some advice to Iliyal on how to deal with Ilwin.” Helenna stared at the man as if he had just given her an even more impossible mission than what had just been said before. Deal with Ilwin? Excuse me? Was she some family councillor? Some relationship expert? What did she know about the situation between Iliyal and his grandson?

“What?” Helenna asked.

“The cream rises to the top naturally and Ilwin will eventually secure a leadership position somewhere. They’ll be dealing with each other sooner than later.” Arascus sighed and looked around. “Ilwin will want a reunion, Iliyal will treat it as business. I’d rather neither of them got burned.”

Helenna tapped her fingers across the desk, the favouritism was so absurd she wasn’t even shocked by it. The Empire operated on favouritism, her position had only been secured because both Malam and Arascus appreciated her company. But still, this would be the setting of a precedent that she did not like the look of. “Arascus.” Helenna said dryly. “You understand what you are asking of me?”

“I’m asking you to give Iliyal some advice.”

“And you won’t do it why?” That was the most obvious question. “Or Kassandora, and don’t say that it’s because you’re busy, we’re all busy nowadays.” Now she had Karaina on her hands, and she had to deal with this elf’s family troubles?

“Because he won’t take advice from me or Kassandora, nor will he burden us with something he considers such a minor problem.” Arascus said. The Goddess of Love stared at him for a few more moments, almost in horror at what she was listening to. That was the entire reasoning? Excuse me?

“He’s a general.”

“He’s also my right hand of the Empire.” Arascus said. “And so I’d rather keep him that way.”

Helenna seized the chance to agree before Arascus could say anything more, she was waiting for something like that to slip out of Pride’s big mouth. “I’ll do it under one stipulation.” Helenna said.

“What is that?” Arascus asked.

“That you will never make me the relationship advisor of the Empire, and that unless it’s Divinity, or your right hand, or someone equally important, you will find someone else.” Helenna held up her hands, fingers outstretching as she made her rules. “I will not be talking to Bureau ministers or your council members, or anything like that. Iliyal is an exception because he is older than a good portion of our Divines.”

Arascus agreed immediately. “I’ll take you up on that.” The Emperor-God stood up, that concluded the meeting. “If the man did not have so much responsibility, and if his grandson was not going to rise through the ranks, then I would not bother you, but it is my job to keep the health of the Empire in check and I’m doing it.”

“You can’t manage everyone like this.” Helenna said. “I don’t like the precedent in the first place.”

“No, we’re only managing those are important.” Arascus said and turned. “There’s not a lot of us at the top, and we have to look out for each other.” He raised his hand in a wave to Helenna as he began to walk away. “Good day to you, and thank you for the help.”

“Consider it a favour off me.”

“I owe you one.” Arascus said as he pulled the door open. “We’ll have a drink when it’s done.” The door was shut and Helenna felt her blood rush back into her cheeks. Fucking idiot. He really knew how to work her, didn’t he? Despicable.

Whatever.

Helenna sighed, entered her IBI database, and searched for Iliyal Tremali. Well, it was time to get started.