For the first time since I had gotten control of the Dominion we were having a reunion with all the World Leaders, it was something the old Dominion used to do, the Prime Minister was mostly a mediator between the different leaders in the early days, making sure they were all in agreement. Some activities, programs and actions were decreed by the Prime Minister, but most countries still had the freedom to adapt or modify them as long as they managed the get the same results. Reunions like the one I was planning were something usual, and now that we had achieved a new level of stability, I believed it was time to start having them again.
The meeting room I was going to be using was not the original one, I had been told that Emily had modified the original one so it would only transmit her orders, but not allow others to talk back to her. The best tecnopaths in my team, and other tech experts, like Kimball, had worked on getting a new room ready for the meeting. When the first leaders started to appear, I had to appreciate their work, the holograms were so good that it was almost as if they were in the room with me.
One by one they started to blink to life, until the room had more than a hundred representations ready. In just a few seconds the place that had been empty was full. For a moment I worried about the complications of having so many people together for a conversation, but it was a little late to worry about that kind of thing.
“Good morning,” I knew that my voice was reaching them all through the system, each one of them was hearing me in their native language, the same way I was going to hear them in the language I was more familiar with. “I’m grateful that you all accepted to be part of this meeting. As I understand it, meetings like this were an usual happening before Emily’s time, and since I’m doing my best to take things as close as I can to the old status quo, I think this kind of collaboration is a good step to take. I have worked very hard to do what’s best for everyone, but I know that I haven’t always been successful, but I think with your help and your feedback, we can do a better job. Even if most of you know each other, and I have your basic information, I think it would be a good idea to use this first meeting to introduce all of you to each other. It would be also a good exercise to talk about the biggest challenges your countries face. If you all agree, we can use this exercise to try and identify the main problems that affect the most countries so we can start working on that. Like I said, I have tried my best to face the problems you all are facing, but I know you may have some problems that maybe I don’t see or consider as such.”
“Are you really going to treat this meeting as a kindergarten’s first class?” Kgosi said, his manners derogatory. “I don’t know how things work in the place you come from…”
“In the place I come from, you would be already dead for daring to speak to me like that,” I interrupted him. I knew that Kgosi still had issues with me, but I never imagined he would confront me like that in front of everyone. “You are lucky we are not in the Empire, in fact, you are lucky I’m not in Mzansi, because attitude like that also demands retribution in your culture, and you know exactly how a confrontation between us would end.”
“Is this how you choose to lead these meetings? With intimidation and threats?” Kgosi said, but I knew many people would be sharing his way of thinking, but with the virtual meeting I had no way of knowing what they were thinking or feeling, I can only go on based on their expressions, and that wasn’t enough at the moment.
“You know how nice and cordial I can be, you are the one who insists on antagonizing me. Do we need to take this up to Zola? Do you need your aunt to teach you some diplomacy? I know she has a lot of experience with that, she helped me a lot. Now, are you going to keep wasting everyone’s time? Or can we go on with our meeting? Does someone else has something to say about the exercise I proposed? I can take any critic, good or bad, as long as it’s done in a respectful way.”
“In fact,” Natasha said, she was one of my first Aquarium’s refugees, one that had gone out to assume a leadership position in her country, and was doing a good job despite her youth, “I think it was a good idea. Some of us do know each other very well, and have already built good relationships, but I know most of the others from information I read in a dossier, and a few photos. Also, if we are going to be working together, it makes sense to track the biggest problems across the Dominion. If you all agree, I can start with the dynamic you proposed.”
“Thanks, Natasha. If no one has any objections, I have no problem with you being the first,” as no one said anything, I took that as a confirmation that no one had any objections. At first, they weren’t that willing to talk, but as most people talked, the others seemed to become more comfortable with the exercise.
It was a little weird, but at the end it was a productive exercise. I actually knew all of them already, maybe not personally, but I had information, more than some of them would be comfortable with, on all of them. Still, it was not the same to read about them than to talk to them. In the same way that knowing the countries didn’t mean that I knew what they needed. Many of the leaders were mentioning problems that I didn’t consider important or even relevant, but that were for them. Also, I noticed, by watching them interact with each other, that countries in the same region had a lot in common, creating regions with similar needs, something that was important to take into consideration.
During the interactions among the different leaders it was possible to identify the postures of each country, after a while it became clear who among them was in their position because they loved their people and wanted what was best for them, and who was there only because the prestige the position gave them. Some of them who took their work seriously already had answers ready, those who didn’t give me incomplete or vague answers.
Another thing that was easy to see who was willing to work with me for the greater good, and who was willing to work against me, luckly the second category was smaller than the first.
The reunion took most of the morning, but I felt like it had been worth it, and I was convinced it was something that would be good for the Dominion.
“How did it go?” Kimball asked when I met with him for lunch.
“Better than I expected,” I said sincerely, “I really think these kind of meetings will be good for future projects. In a way it wasn’t that much different from the Clan Leaders Reunions that we had every year, and even if people here are more discreet about it, the antagonism and the need to show who’s better is also very similar.”
“How did they receive you? You didn’t have trouble?”
“Most of them were very good, Kgosi was the one that who caused trouble. I’m sure that given a chance things would have deteriorated very fast. I don’t get his need to go against me when we have been working together, and mostly in his benefit for so long.”
“Kgosi is too proud. What did you do to keep things under control?”
“I talked to him in a language he would understand, with a show of strength, and maybe a threat to tell on him to Zola,” Kimball started to laugh at that, and it was in that moment that Ethan walked in. He wasn’t always able to join us for lunch, it depended on his school activities, and even if it was hard to remember his schedule, I was pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to be able to join us that day.”
“How did it go?” Ethan asked.
“Shouldn’t you be at school?” Kimball asked, confirming what I already suspected about his schedule.
“I asked to leave early and skip training, I wanted to see how things had gone at mom’s meeting.”
“You worry too much about this kind of things,” I said, trying to suppress my smile. I had already noticed Ethan’s interest in politics, something that had been encouraged by most of his relatives in Mzansi, and in a smaller scale by his father and me. I had already seen his possible futures, and it was a good thing he was getting ready for it.
“I’m just curious.”
“Well, then let me tell you that everything went well, a few problems at the beginning, but nothing out of the ordinary, everything worked out after a while. I would have liked for the meeting to be in person, just to be able to read their emotions and see any errant thought they had.”
“It’s really hard to find any errant thoughts from people like them, they usually train to avoid that, and even if you went deeper to see them, most is capable of feel any mental exploration. If you want I can be with you next time and see if I can find any expression that suggest they are lying or hiding something,” Kimball offered.
“Didn’t you record the meeting? If it’s recorded you can go over it and look for people’s expressions.”
“It is recorded, as far as I know, but for the moment I don’t think it’s necessary to do that, nothing really important was discussed and the different alliances are just starting to form. I expect we won’t face any trouble, at least not for a while. For the moment, there’s still work to do, but mostly I have to start working on giving them back more power, but at the same time I have to make sure they don’t abuse it. I don’t want to give them freedom and have that as an excuse for them to lose control.”
“That’s a valid fear,” Kimball said, “but for the moment, everything is still fresh, everyone is full of hope, but also of revolutionary spirit, I don’t think people will start showing their true colors just yet, they will wait until people start to get comfortable again, to when the people is so happy and grateful for what they have that they don’t realize when the government starts taking more or giving less.”
“I just want to think that everything is just going to keep getting better. And how are things at school?”
“Everything is fine, a few students have been trying to cause trouble, but nothing to worry about,” Ethan said, trying not to make a big deal of it, and not offering near enough information, but he didn’t need to, the people I had posted at school kept me informed of everything that happened there. It looked like Ethan had named himself the protector of the place, and he had been keeping everyone under control. No one was able to face him, but I wasn’t worried because he never took advantage of that, as far as the reports said, all he did was make sure that everything was peaceful.
“It’s good to know,” Kimball said. He too knew what really happened there, but none of us let Ethan know that we knew. I wasn’t sure if he suspected something and was just playing along, or if he thought he was fooling us. I wasn’t curious enough about it to go into his mind, but it was something I kept my mind open to.
“Do you want to come with me to the office later today?” I asked Ethan. “If you want you can take a look at the recording of the meeting,” I said, curious about Ethan’s opinion, I knew he would be a great leader someday, he could take differents paths, but all of them ended with him in a position of power.
“I’m not sure if that’s legal,” Kimball said.
“Nothing we discussed was classified. If he can sit on the Elder’s Council’s boring meetings, I’m sure he can deal with watching a bunch of people go from talking about how wonderful their country is, to complaining about everything they still need.”
“I guess that there’s no problem then,” Kimball said, and we both turned to look at Ethan, and by watching his huge smile we could already tell what his answer was going to be.
“Of course I would like that, if there is no problem.”
“Usual rules apply, you need to finish your homework, and you can’t share anything you hear, unless we discuss it first.”
“Of course, I already know.”
Once we went back to my office, I didn’t need to explain anything to Ethan. Most of his powers were a copy of mine, knowledge that I had been able to share mostly because of or mutual Vlad blood that allowed us to share powers. Only his empathy, that was his natural power, and his technopaty didn’t come from my teachings. He had been learning technopathy by himself, and I suspected that Jeong’s family had helped with that, but most of it was because of his own curiosity and part because of Kimball’s teachings. Even if he didn’t spend as much time as before, Kimball liked to go to his workshop and invent or improve things, Ethan had been by his side as much as he could, and eventually his powers started to manifest and adapt to help him with his own inventions. I knew what Ethan was capable of, and the way he walked into my office and immediately was able to access the recordings, that should be protected under several layers of security, was a good example. But that wasn’t anything especial for him, and not long after he was already inmersed in the meeting.
My children were growing so fast, Ethan was no longer a little child, he was becoming a man, a great one like his father. Malkia and Greca had long ago left that part of their lives behind, and that was even more evident with Malkia becoming Antrax’s partner and adquiring many of Ivy’s functions, since she had been forced to step down after conspiring with the Slavers. Greca was also going to go far, and by her own merits. Everyone would be great, and somethings I had to wonder if my legacy was helping them, or just making their journey even more complicated.
Kaiserin Novel 