"Steal, buy, or Build?" (a Ngoverse piece.)

[Cannonshop]

"Steal, Buy, or build?  that's your choices your Highness."

She leaned on her cane, "That's always been the choices, Highness."  Elizabeth Ngo took over her homeworld at age fourteen, and she won't live to forty.  It's been a few years since then.  "Every Royal has that three-way choice, it's practically the core of every decision your ancestors have made since they broke from old Earth.  There are only three paths to advancement.  You Steal the resources and technology, or you buy them, or you build them yourself."

"I know that." Victor Ian Steiner-Davion was in office and meeting now-seventeen-years-old Elizabeth Ngo for the first time.  "Why is that what you want to open with? Most people are at least open with what they want."

"I want to build." she said, "but, I need your permission-because what I don't need is a FedCom RCT dropping on my Capital to nail me to a wall for unpaid tax-and-tithe or violating rules that aren't laws.  You fought on the Clan front, you KNOW their answer is to steal, and we can't afford to Buy forever from the Mariks.  That leaves Build as the only option out of the mess we're in."

This kind of meeting is done semiprivately-only the Archon-prince (to be), some of his staff, and his bodyguards to meet with a Planetary Noble who JUST swore in this afternoon.

"you want me to give you permission to...'build...build what?"

Liz winced, "I want to build everything but right now, I just want to build us enough, that we're not borrowing transports from the other half of the realm, and not relying on imported technology to fight off the monsters that have invaded this nation and stripped me of my brothers."

"So weapons?"

"Not entirely. Armies-and navies, are intensely dependent on supply lines and support, your Highness. I want to build that...or build it...better. My brother Henry was lost at Blackjack, my brother Patrick was lost because the realm couldn't afford to save his unit or reinforce Tamar.  That, in turn, broke my mother and she tried to kill me before killing herself in despair.  My story isn't unusual, Highness. It's entirely too common, but unlike most of the other stories? I have the resources to do something about it-with your express permission, Highness."

"give me your plan, Duchess." He said.

"It's more of an idea than a real plan, sire." she said, "I have the ability to hire people who make real plans-as a Noble, or an Executive, one's ability is linked more to the network of good or bad subordinates, than to individual talent or special knowledge.  I have several plans here..." she held up a folio, "made by professionals, I want your permission to put them to work, I want the Crown to say it's alright if I let my people do smart things that benefit the nation, I want permission to give real experts a free hand, without fear of reprisals for deviation from established precedent."

"Why would you be afraid of that??" he asked.

"because I want to put nuclear tipped missiles on dropships for convoy escort, and to do that, I need you to say it's okay to do that.  Because I want to assemble shipyards to produce armed jumpships designed to engage spaceborne foes, and I need you to okay that one as well...because I want to let my Militia officers take the gorram gloves off and deal with Piracy so that National forces are free to drive the invaders out...and I need your sanction for that."  she laid the folios from her briefcase on the desk before him.  "I need you to tell me I'm allowed to help my nation survive past my due-date, Highness. I can't fight, but I can serve elsewhere, and I want to."

"Where did you get the nukes?" he asked after catching his breath.

"eh, we use them for mining in the belts, Highness." Elizabeth explained, "It's not like they're all that hard to make...but they're just what you need when you're facing a warship.  The Clans destroy jumpships or capture them, tehy don't follow the honors of war, I read the reports on mom's portable weeks before she shot me, and confirmed with the representatives from Kowloon's outer system that our spacer community can and do build warheads of appropriate size for military scale use."

Victor managed conceal his concern, "I'm going to have to do a lot of thinking about this, Duchess Ngo." he said, "starting with finding out why you have arsenals capable of making thermonuclear weapons..."

"Easy enough, sir, they're just industrial tools." Liz said,  "I mean, the tech is over a thousand years old, it's not like it's hard to do. They're easier to make than a nanoscale micropolisher, or myomer loom."

He blinked at her, "Easier...there are LAWS duchess."

"I'm informing the Crown, you get to make the call."

"How many do you have?"

"Me? Personally? I don't own any, I'll have to buy them from my people." she shrugged, "Unless you can buy 'em? I can do a LOT of infrastructure investment with that kind of cash flowing into my tax base..."

"Christ... Does my mother know about this?" he asked.

"I have no idea, I assume she would, but if she didn't tell you, her designated heir? I don't know."  she straightened, "Highness, provisionally-can I at least get started?"

"I...I think, Duchess Ngo, I am going to have to consult with my own experts before I give you that answer." He said it decisively.  "When are you due to head back?"

"I was due to make for the Zenith point at twenty two hundred local time today..."

"Arrange other transport, you're staying here for a few days, maybe weeks." he told her.  "I want you where I can find you quickly if I DO decide to say yes."

"As you wish your Highness."

[Artifex]

Hopefully his advisors are of the smart kind...

[cklammer]

Depends when he acceded to the throne ... if Nondi Steiner is still around in any way then this will get ugly really quick.

[Cannonshop]

"this is madness, Victor."

Nondi tossed the outline on the table.  "assuming any of this is true, it's absolute, utter, destructive madness."

"Assuming it's true." Victor commented, "Lay it out for me, Marshall."

"First, the weapons.  It isn't possible for a Duke in the Commonwealth to have access to so much as a nuclear thimble without six reports and a warrant crossing my desk!  and if it were possible, then admitting to it would be political suicide.  Whoever this person is, they don't have that capacity or Lohengrin would be all over them like...rats on a cabbage!"

"Okay, we'll discount the firepower, next objection?" he asked.

"You've seen the costs on the RX-78 program?  The Fox class?  One world couldn't build the designs in the second document by themselves, shipyards or not, and where are they supposed to get the transit drives?"

"If the supplies existed, would the ships work?" He pressed.

"If the supplies existed...Admiral Krieger says there is nothing technically wrong with the design of the smaller ones-these 'Cutters', but the cost of the cores makes them horrifyingly expensive, and that's before you add the weapons emplacements-just backdating an existing setup to make pre-Dreadnought cores that limited? you could build six Foxes for that, and it would take forever to research the processes...though he did comment that the lack of Drive Control safety assemblies and dump capacitors would make them significantly more dangerous to operate."

"But do-able?"

"Do-able, sure...if you want to fall back to 24th century tech! Who would crew them??"

"Okay so...next objection?" Victor pressed forward.

"The request for licensing to build out-of-production jumpship designs from the pre-League era is a good suggestion-but then, more transports is always a good suggestion victor."

"your recommendation?"

"Tell your starry-eyed, idealistic noble that they're okay on the commercial ships-more Tramps and Merchants and the like are always needed and the expense should keep whomever it is, busy...but not one dime of the Realm's cash until they can deliver a product! I've lived a long time, Victor, I've seen a lot of people make a lot of promises and then wind up unable to deliver.  Make whoever it is, pay for it themselves-at least, at first.  as for the rest of this pipe-dream?" she shook her head, "once they get a taste of trying to build proper jumpships and cargo droppers, they'll lose the desire to build the unrealistic fantasy baby warship."

"What if they don't?" he asked.

"Put a minder on them, because that's probably a good marker of intent to rebel." Nondi told him, "if someone in the Commonwealth that we don't know about has that kind of focus, resourcefulness, they're going to have ambitions that put the throne in danger, so if they make progress on that kind of program, have the choke chain in place and yank hard."  Nondi glanced down at the documents again, "Who is it, anyway? I might have a word or two with their peers..."

"Elizabeth Anne Ngo." Victor told her.

"Dinh's Granddaughter? the sickly one?" Nondi snorted a laugh, "Victor, let her try.  She won't live to see any of it finish, but it's almost cruelty to deny a dying child a chance to reach for something better." her eyes were full of pity, "just keep in mind, once she's gone, you'll have to clean up the mess or finish the project."

"thank you Aunt Nondi." he said, "may I have those?"

"Sure."

[BrokenLancer]

"Victor, let her try.  She won't live to see any of it finish, but it's almost cruelty to deny a dying child a chance to reach for something better." her eyes were full of pity, "just keep in mind, once she's gone, you'll have to clean up the mess or finish the project."

Welche Art von Soße würden Sie auf der Krähe bevorzugen, die Sie gleich essen werden, General Steiner?

Which type of sauce would you prefer on the crow you're about to eat, General Steiner?

[Wereling]

Nondi Steiner: Paragon of good decision making...

Often by accident.

[Daryk]

This looks interesting!  :thumbsup:

[Cannonshop]

"You're still on Tharkad!"

Maggie Doons met Liz at Gagnon's.

"yeah.  I am." Elizabeth agreed, "he's 'consulting experts', and so, I have to be on-world."

"Your project?" Margaret Doons was, for lack of a better term, Elizabeth's 'substitute mother', and grandmother of...she pushed the memory away.

"Depends on Royal Sanction, I paid attention to your lectures, Ma'am." Liz said carefully.  "Did you come to a decision on what I asked?"

"It's not complex, but why copy those?" Maggie asked, "They never quite worked as intended, you know, even when we were building the ships that used them."

"I can get the rights cheap from a friend." Liz said succinctly, "a friend who won't sell me bum equipment or pad the bid."

"I have a...young friend who has foolish notions." Maggie agreed, "I'm not sure it's really responsible to support those notions, but..." she smiled, "I want to see if it can be made to work, too."

"So yes?"

"For the price you're offering? I want technical access for testing and verification, and your license does not include separate sales, though I'll give on the service contracts if your people can meet my requirement."

"Fair enough...it's not like it's really 'revolutionary' tech, we're just retreading something that was a bit of a blind alley once upon a time." Liz sighed, "but did it have to be Gagnon's?"

"I trust his Discretion Elizabeth...and you need to update your wardrobe."  The doors opened and the receptionist motioned the two ladies in.  "Have you forgiven Daphne yet?"

"No." Elizabeth stated.  "I'm not sure it's my place to forgive her, ma'am." she said quietly, "and the person who could, who would forgive her anything, can't anymore."

"you need to develop your friendships, Elizabeth." Maggie cautioned her, "Rowe-McClaren is a major banking outfit, lots of fingers in lots of different pies, you need to cultivate your contacts, especially if Victor does let you pursue your project...Daphne can help you, I can't be everywhere, and I won't be available forever."

"neither will I." Liz said quietly.  "you might end up burying me, Maggie."

"even more reasons not to leave business unfinished, Elizabeth." Maggie told her.  "Daphne, Daniel, your friends, Liz."

"not sure I can afford too many of those." the younger girl said darkly, "not sure I want them to miss me."

"Then let me lay it out for you so you understand why that's wrong!" Maggie asserted, "Thank you Sheila, I'll have the red?"

"very good madame."  Sheila was at least two full meters of supermodel physique and appearance, with hip-length braids and the kind of gown you find in the fantasies of fashion illustrators and horny young men.  "Lady Ngo?"

"Something distilled, in a glass, with ice." Liz said firmly, "At minimum as old as I am, if not older."

"Distilled this early?" Maggie inquired.

"Muscle relxant." Liz said dismissively, "I want to enjoy the process, not ache for days after."

"lasting sensation?"

"Some, no seizures yet, but I've already noticed I'm not getting decent sleep." the younger woman said, "So, I want to minimize the lingering sensations."

"Whiskey, Sheila, Kell Black Bottle, I remember there's a '23 in the stock." Maggie asserted.

"Very well, Miladies.  Gagnon will be out soon." Sheila headed into the back to fetch the refreshments and verify the massage tables were clean and prepped.

After a few minutes, Gagnon came out with another customer, obsequiously bidding Katherine Steiner-Davion goodbye.

Elizabeth felt the absence of her cigarette case and a screaming urge to blaze up a joint as the Archon-Prince's sister paused, and then, glided over.

"MAGGIE!! It's been FOREVER!!" Katherine said with all the false warmth Elizabeth never quite managed despite Lady Doons giving her teachings during her recovery.

"AH! Katherine!! I did not expect to see you!" Margaret's tone was just as false to Elizabeth's ear.  "and you know Elizabeth, yes?"

"of course...you were quite sincere yesterday." Katherine said it sweetly, but the tone and delivery didn't meet her eyes, and elizabeth got a brief flash of something-like a half-remembered nightmare that almost made her freeze like she was in the presence of a Broward-Beast.

"thank you, highness." she meekly put out, as she fought adrenaline reactions.

"You should have had Maggie bring you here before your swearing-in!" Katherine turned to Margaret, "She was...so plain.  You are here to fix that, ja?"

"Elizabeth is a...work in progress, Katherine." Maggie said apologetically.  "Lots of potential but...So, Galen?"

Katherine gave a beauty-queen smile, and held up her hand, "It's official!"

Elizabeth tried to blink away the red wetness on those fingers.  not now dammit  she blinked hard, then opened her eyes, and the Lady Princess's hand was clean and white again, the diamond engagement ring unburned, uncracked.  "it's lovely." she said without much real enthusiasm.  "Congratulations."

Katherine laughed lightly and for a second, Elizabeth heard screams in the distance.  not now!!  "Maggie...I'm...I need to be dismissed, please, to...powder my nose?"

"Of course, Elizabeth,..Sharon! her Grace needs to powder her nose!"

A helpful staffer came, and elizabeth let herself be led from the room-and the flashes. need to check the drug interactions on my meds...

[Daryk]

Visceral reactions to Katherine are de rigeur at this point...  ^-^

[Cannonshop]

'What's her problem?"
 
Katherine asked as Duchess Elizabeth Ngo hobbled with help to the lavatory.

"I imagine she's still feeling a bit lagged, poor thing." Maggie said casually, "perhaps a bit star-struck as well. Poor dear's parents did nothing to prepare her, and they aren't about to start, now that they're both dead."

The implied was clear to Katherine-jockeying for advantage made sense to her.  "I see, so will I be reading news in the business papers about a takeover?"

Maggie shook her head in an intentionally insincere denial, "of course not."  which to observers outside would read 'of course I will'.  "SO, you've set a date?"

"June twentieth." Katherine told her, "At which point, poor Victor will have to actually govern rather than merely apprenticing.  We're going to honeymoon on New Avalon."

---

For Elizabeth, having help holding her hair back as she vomited was both a luxury, and humiliating.  "S..sorry..."

"It's alright Your Grace, are you sure you won't need something milder than whiskey?"

"Urk!!"  It came up again, and shifted to dry heaves.  "maybe...oh gawd..."

It was worse than a Jump Dream.

[Daryk]

I suppose it's technically not a seizure...  ::)

[Paladin1]

Well that's interesting.  Was it a Jump Dream brought on by drug and alcohol interactions or was it in direct response to Katherine herself?

[Zakharra]

I'm thinking it is a reaction to being in Katherine's presence. It was immediate and fast acting and it seemed to involve Katherine herself (blood covered fingers and a burnt/cracked diamond ring).

I'd like someone to explain to Victor why the realm needs what Elizabeth is asking. They desperately need the cutters/Sampans and destroyers just for basic security and interstellar law enforcement and customs inspection/regulation. And by explain, I mean hammer into the idiot mechwarrior's brain pan that this is important. A realm that has good internal security that isn't hauled off to go on raids/wars, but instead focuses on actual interstellar security (stopping raids and pirates) and law enforcement and such will greatly improve the realm's economy which means more can pay for a larger military (and hopefully a real space navy) and not just mechwarriors playing smash and grab all the time.

[Blade4]

So this is this retreads thing then? She talks to Victor and gets open license instead of hiding things and a form of prescient sight?

[Daryk]

There are many Ngo-verses at this point... they all rhyme, but none of them are identical...

[mikecj]

Very strongly started as usual.  Thanks for sharing!


out-of-production jumpship designs from the pre-League era   Dreadnought comes to mind... but she'd got much better dersigns.

[Red Pins]

I DEMAND VICTOR NOT BE A DOLT!  I ALSO suggest building a second one in the Federated Suns half once he sees it beginning to work out.  Granted, Liz is a Lyran patriot, but there has to be ONE in the Suns.

[Daryk]

Do what Cannonshop did... find a world out in the boonies, and write up their noble family...  8)

[arcticwyrm245]

watched for sure!!

[Red Pins]

I have a new project, a script, and a title.  I hate myself. :yikes:

[Daryk]

We don't hate you...  8)

[Dave Talley]

TAG!!

[idea weenie]

Perhaps Maggie will help Liz vs Katherine so Liz has some political help?  Which of course means Maggie will soon be a target.

[Cannonshop]

"I want to clear up some details...

...regarding some of my experts' concerns, Duchess Ngo."  it was Saturday morning, and Elizabeth had been 'collected' from the hotel room she was renting at the Tharkan Arms Guesthouse and Hostel in the Friedrichstrasse neighborhood of Tharkad City.

A process that no doubt would be the talk of the whole area.  Friedrichstrasse runs through mostly working class and poor neighborhoods, and her hotel was infamous for hourly rates and the presence of police and coroner's vans collecting drug addicts or criminals.

Having the 1st Royal Guards deploy an infantry platoon with armored backup, therefore, got attention.

"Sir?" today the almost-costume like short cape and top hat were not in evidence, instead replaced with a fairly utilitarian jacket and slacks ensemble, though she did manage to somehow insure it was (a) Black, and (b) had a white blouse and a black necktie-like a field supevisor at a distant worksite, the low heels of her swearing-in were replaced with black work-boots of the sort one could find on the feet of thousands of workers nation-wide every monday-through-Saturday.

"Funding." Victor said, "Everyone I have spoken with, focused on the expense of your plans.  Max Haranshire tried to explain it to me at length, Marshall Nondi Steiner dismissed it as 'expensive vaporware', Uncle Morgan thinks you'll bankrupt your world...get the picture? How are you going to pay for it?"

"If I can pay for it, then, is your only objection?"

"I personally have some objections to nuclear armament, but that one has to wait for you to explain to me how you can afford to build the rest."  Victor told her.  "you're seventeen, now-owner of the Lyran member-state's largest toolmaker, I get that, your family is one of the wealthiest in the Nation..."

"and consists of me." she helpfully added.

"Yeah, but I know you've got a company governing board to manage it-that's not my point.  Where you think you'll get the money to do it is my point." He insisted.

"I did the books on the system." Elizabeth said, "Tax revenues, economic activity, how much is produced, GDP."  she folded her hands, "We can afford it...the whole initiative will cost, plus or minus a few percentage points, about two and a half percent of system GDP, maybe a little more if I hire 'mechwarriors or mercs to firm up the ground forces militia.  I can show you my work...of course it gets a lot easier if we're not having to export forty percent of revenues to the central government, but we can manage the bare-bones without a tax break."

"Without a tax break??"

"The Realm is invaded, we are at war." Liz said, "I don't see any way you could get away with letting me not pay my taxes, and it would be stupid to ask for tax breaks or tax relief while young Lyrans are dying in the face of an invader.  If you gave it, it would be a dangerous move for your status as ruler and as leader, so I won't ask, because I'm given to understand you're not stupid."

"okay, Liz, walk me through this-how in hell do your numbers work out the way you're saying?  and dumb it down for me, pretend you're having to explain it to a middle-aged farmer from a backwater on Filtvelt."

"That's going to be tough, why do I need to dumb it down?" she asked.

"Because brilliant ideas are worthless if you can't get ordinary people to implement them." Victor told her, "The best battle plan can fail if the private soldiers don't know or understand their roles, or if subordinate commanders don't grasp the strategic and tactical objectives, so I want to see if you can actually do what it is you're claiming, by seeing if you can explain it to someone without a lot of deep, prior, education."

[Daryk]

Eventually they'll have to discuss the inevitable "untraceable sabotage"...  ^-^

[Cannonshop]

"..so, you said...

...'yes'.  Good."  Victor found his mother in her private quarters with a guest.

"I asked her what you suggested, and got a nine hour class on taxation, monetary theory, fractional reserve banking and credit." Victor said sourly, "I'm having a drink...hello Duchess Doons...Mom, is she even cleared for this?"

Melissa chuckled, "Victor, Maggie is absolutely cleared to know about this, after all, she's the one who set the girl up."

Victor found a bottle full of 'something brown' and poured it into a shot glass, hiding his surprise by positioning before schooling his features.  "Set her up??"

"Your Grandmother and I realized some time ago that there was something going essentially wrong." Maggie explained, "Melissa and I have each been working on different angles of the same plan since-your Father was in on it as well, and now, so are you...I felt this would be a good pretext to brief you in, and your mother agreed."

"So...teh seventeen year old isn't a super-super-uber-genius." Victor joined them by the fire.

"She's a genius-that's what makes her useful." Maggie said tartly, "Give a person of sufficient native intelligence the right set of clues, and their answer is almost predetermined-they will make the most intelligent decision based on the information and methods you've given them...but you are essentially correct, Victor, Elizabeth's plan is more or less part and parcel of your Grandmother's plan...and mine, and your mother's."

"Why set her up? why not do it directly?" Victor inquired, then took a sip.  "Why set up a cat'spaw like that?"

"Because, Victor, Politics is the art of the possible." Melissa explained.  "Many of the problems that need to be addressed are not problems caused by external enemies, but by the Commonwealth's internal supporters.  Solving from the top-down would only resolve things temporarily."

"You're aiming for a longer term fix." Victor realized, "And does she know?"

"If she knew, she wouldn't be very useful." Maggie commented, "poor Arthur Luvon, your grandfather, knew, that's why they killed him with that...false cancer."

"uh, 'They'?"

"I mentioned the problems with some of the realm's most patriotic supporters-but they're only a part of the problem. There is a very real external enemy, who has routes into our most internal mechanisms, and that enemy is one of the enablers." Maggie told him, "Hence why when I want to discuss things, I come to your Mother in person rather than trusting messengers or intermediaries, or Comstar.  Some things simply can not be trusted to encryption."

"Okay, what's the game?" victor asked.

"Elizabeth is set up to break systems.  She's going to believe it's all her idea because it is, but it's an idea that Katrina and I discussed decades ago." Margaret said, "She's one of several arrows we have in our quiver in this."

[mikecj]

Nice!  I dub thee the Grandmother's Conspiracy!

[Daryk]

In all seriousness, I wouldn't put it past Elizabeth to know and play along anyway...  8)

[Nikas_Zekeval]

Nice!  I dub thee the Grandmother's Conspiracy!

Isn't the Order of Five Pillars basically that in Kuritan space? ;D

In all seriousness, I wouldn't put it past Elizabeth to know and play along anyway...  8)

Careful, that way lies Zardoz.   :crazy:

[Daryk]

The costumes alone say "not this time"...  :D