Emerald Repatriation Society: Stones (Part 23)
11 Feb 2024Vasil Vasilescu
(<--Part 22)I was in my office on the Emerald Dawn, discussing with the Port Engineer in the hangars what to do about the Long Road, when Jack Vaughn came into the office. I motioned for him to have a seat.
“We can patch it up, but it is beyond our capacity to fully repair,” explained the port engineer. “It’s going to need a few weeks, maybe months, at a Class I facility. The structure is fine, but the heat and magnetic fields in a corona are hell on the internals. Chasing down all of the gremlins left behind is going to take time.”
“Understood,” I said. “Do what you can to get it flight-worthy, but not at the expense of delaying repairs to 3-R contractors or AX war fighters. They still have priority.”
“It sounds pretty banged up,” said Vaughn once I ended the call with the Port Engineer.
“Not bad enough that she needs scrapping, but enough that it can’t be flown safely right now. She did her job, though. Managed only a few minor injuries to the passengers.” I saw that hurt Vaughn, just as I had intended. Shame is a heavy burden and I knew Vaughn was ashamed that he would have abandoned ship and left the refugees to their fate. To get the information I wanted from him, I’d break his back with shame if I had to. But subtly, stacking one guilt rock at a time until they were too much to carry. “Anyway, you wanted to talk about something.”
“I’ve been doing some thinking and maybe—and I mean only maybe—I was misinformed about certain ERS activities.”
I said nothing, only looked at him. Most people can’t stand silence and in filling it they sometimes reveal their thoughts.
“Regarding your sister, Elena, and ERS involvement in Hixkaramu, I mean. But I stress that my information came from a credible source.”
“I understand your hesitance to reveal the source. I admire your reluctance to abandon integrity.” Carefully chosen words which added another guilt stone to the pile by reminding him he was willing to abandon strangers to save his own life. “Can we agree, as gentlemen, that anything we say in this conversation will not be repeated elsewhere?”
Vaughn nodded.
“It was my brother, Stefan, who told you that Elena leaked ERS involvement in the Hixkaramu conflict, wasn’t it?”
Vaughn shook his head. “No. Stefan leaked the information. He told me and two other reporters that ERS was funding the Tribeb Empire Party in their war against the independents.”
Without knowing it, Vaughn had dropped a monolith of guilt onto me, a pyramid capstone compared to the bricks I’d been stacking on him. Because Elena was openly opposed to ERS helping the Tribebs, I had at first assumed it was her that leaked the information and that Stefan had told Vaughn it was the real reason Octavia enacted the Abdicare against Elena. It was only later that I began to suspect Elena had not leaked the information. My initial certainty that Elena was guilty, and my delay trying to cool Octavia’s anger, caused Elena to be disowned, her possessions confiscated, and put on the verge of debt slavery.
“And he let it happen,” I said aloud, but to myself.
“I’m sorry,” said Vaughn. “What do you mean?”
“The Abdicare. Everything. Stefan knew Elena was not to blame and he let it happen.”
“So,” prodded Vaughn, “ERS did help the Tribebs.”
“Yes, but indirectly. We provided food and medicine to the Tribebs as charitable goods. They ended up selling our donations to fund their war.” While all of the transactions between ERS and the Tribebs showed that to be true, I did not volunteer to Vaughn that I had structured the aid that way in order to ensure ERS was not directly involved. As Elena had said, how hypocritical was it for ERS, a charity helping war refugees, to be funding a war. “The intent was to help ensure an Imperial faction remained in control of the system where the Imperial Sanctum was stationed.”
“So it was done for Imperial loyalty, the Imperium super omnia.”
“The Vasilescu’s are an old, Imperial family, Vaughn. The Imperium super omnia --The Empire above all else-- is as much a part of us as our bones or blood.”
I called up a holo feed from flight control showing the dozens of ships around the Emerald Dawn. “Service is one of the foundations of the Empire. This is why we, and all of those ships, are here: To help in any way we can.” Two Imperial eagles sped away from the Emerald Dawn to engage hostiles entering the carrier’s control zone. “And maybe kick a few asses while we are at it.”
(Part 24-->)