6/15/1
"Well… that was…" Admiral Schiff says, blinking as he ambles away from the Master's training display.
"Yes, yes indeed it was," General Ritter, replies, nodding.
General Kinear adds, "When we decided he needed to know about this, I can't say I was expecting him to be subtle—"
"No…" Schiff replies. Subtle they certainly hadn't expected.
"But…" Public maiming followed by a decapitation were a level of not subtle Ritter hadn't expected.
"Indeed," Kinear says.
They walk a few paces. Apparently, those rumors about Darth Tantrum may have not been as exaggerated as Kinear hoped. They all knew he had a destructive bent, and they knew he'd personally dispatched a quarter of the general counsel along with Hux back when he took over, but… that public display... and that... with the lightsaber... and... Kinear shudders thinking about it. He didn't throw up, but a few of the men further back, did.
"I'd say that particular issue is mostly handled then?" Schiff says.
"Mostly. Did you watch how Hux grads responded to that?" Kinear replies.
The other two nod. "If we don't… do something… with them, they'll eventually revolt," Ritter says.
"I didn't think they had enough brains left, but… cognitive dissonance… That's the term right?" Schiff adds.
"That's the term. Follow any and all orders is warring with orders that are odds with how they were trained to do things. If they allow weakness, they're betraying the Order. If they eradicate it, they're betraying the Master," Kinear says.
"There has to be something we can do with that, right?" Ritter asks.
"Something. There's always something. If we'll have enough of a training corps left to keep going after is going to be the question," Schiff says.
"No. We've got to find a way to keep them, just… nudge them into a more… complimentary direction. And make sure none of them rise up as a new Supreme Leader," Kinear says.
"They'd defect in droves if anyone could credibly claim that mantle," Ritter adds, naming the biggest threat any of them have anticipated.
"He knows that we're… culling the herd. Maybe we don't need to wait for his next trip off the ship to weed out more undesirables," Kinear says.
"It's better if he's not here when it happens. If we get caught or… worse, mess it up too badly, he can retake it from the outside, claim he didn't know." Ritter smirks, then turns to look in the direction of the afternoon's "demonstration." "After all, who would believe that he's capable of subtly weeding out the men who don't belong here?"
"No one, not after today," Schiff replies. He glances at his compatriots. "You're making sure the right people catch wind of what happened?"
"Of course," Kinear replies. "I don't know about the vipers in our bosom, but I'm making sure the threats outside stay calm."
"Good." Ritter says and Schiff nods.
"Have you gotten a look at the 'new curriculum?'" Kinear asks.
They both shake their heads. "Gods alone know what something out of the mind of a Jedi-trained, Vader-worshipping, child of the New-Republic is going to look like, probably a lot about service and good citizenship," Ritter says.
"Possibly with a heavy emphasis on the use of power or force to protect that which we're building?" Schiff adds. "That's right out of the Empire's playbook. Citizenship as a badge of honor only granted to the truly worthy. Blend in the idea of duty to the Order and a mission to extend its benevolence to all who wish to join…"
That's got all three of them nodding, and thinking that's the sort of thing the can start wafting toward the Hux grads to help shape them in a more amenable direction. Set it up as only the worthy wish to join and can stick it out…
Ritter adds, "As long as he feels good about the content of what he's offering them, and we control the mechanism for tallying the votes when the time comes, it's all good."
Kinear and Schiff both, almost invisibly, stiffen when Ritter says that.
"Don't ever let yourself even think of anything around that when you're near him," Kinear adds.
"Of course not." Ritter replies, and Schiff and Kinear glance at each other.
"Did I tell you I watched Vader Force choke a man once?" Kinear says.
"No," Ritter answers, getting the message.
"It wasn't a pretty sight, but… I have a feeling that what we just saw may have been a tad more… intimidating… than that."
"Why did he do it?" Schiff asks, making sure to fully hammer home the idea for Ritter.
"Some idiot questioned the power of the Force in front of him."
The two generals and one admiral all share a look.
"Ah…" Ritter says.
"And no one questioned the power of the Force after that," Schiff says.
"Not in my hearing, no," Kinear replies. "Granted, the Hutts got rambunctious within a few hours of that moment, and I never saw Vader again." Schiff knows that's the excuse Kinear used to get as far away from the Death Star and what he could tell was about to go as pear shaped as possible. (Kinear only has a few rules, but when people start cackling about having ultimate power or ultimate weapons or anything along those lines, he skedaddles, because the universe seems to delight in proving them wrong.)
Ritter doesn't.
"It's occurring to me that it may be even more valuable to have no one questioning the power of our Master," Ritter says.
"For the sake of our long-term and continued careers, I'd say so," Kinear replies.
Two days later, when Kinear and Schiff get a moment alone, they share a look. No words need to be spoken, but Ritter goes on the list.
It's not that he's wrong about who controls the counting of the votes when the time comes. That's always been the mechanism for any successful democratic republic. Anyone can run. Anyone can vote. In the hands of an amateur, only the political pets win. That's garish and easily tracked, and, within a decade or so, results in a rebellion.
In the hands of the masters… And Kinear and Schiff are masters… The "people" pick their candidates. Those candidates will, often, behind the scenes, have been handpicked by the masters, and they will offer a range of political opinions that satisfy almost any desires, and, more importantly maintain the power of the masters. And those already hand-picked candidates will often go up against each other, with great shows of vitriol and fantastical outrage about how the other side is a pack of monsters, though their policies won't be all that different from each other. Both sides will have a set of priorities and opinions that will, broadly speaking, benefit the masters, and the masters will not care who wins.
Some, genuine, outside-the-bounds candidates will be allowed. And in close races the master's pick will win. And should the outsider ever get a lead of more than five or so points, he will win.
In the hands of masters, the will of the people isn't subverted, it's just… nudged. Even illiterate peasants know something is up when only the party of the Masters win elections by huge margins. But if the candidate most beneficial to the Masters wins by a point or two… Well, that's just how elections work. And if some candidates who are actively hostile to the Masters win, well, that's the will of the people, no? That just shows that the system works and that it's clean.
Everyone gets the representation they want. People get to feel virtuous for joining and defending their own team. They get villains to hate and heroes to adore. And the Masters, they stay the Masters, forever.
It worked for more than a thousand years in the hands of the Old Republic, until someone decided he wanted all the power, and didn't care if everyone knew he was the one pulling all the strings.
There's no formal laws set, not yet, for how the Senate of the Order will comport itself, but whatever number is necessary to get what they want done, they will have exactly one more member than necessary to do it. After all, there's no purpose to wasting their time and energy getting more than that, and the more active and visible the 'outsiders' are, the more legitimate the elections look.
And if they occasionally lose a point or law… They lose. That makes their hold on the mechanism that much more invisible. They won't lose on the big things, and that's what matters.
So, no the problem isn't that the future Senate of the Order won't be quite as democratic as advertised. It will be perfectly democratic, just with a well-curated list of available choices. It's that Ritter was willing to say it out loud. Even among them, there are some things that cannot ever be said. And when your Master reads minds, if you don't have the discipline to not say things, you certainly don't have it to not think them.
Three weeks later, Kinear gives an awfully good speech at Ritter's funeral. (Which even the Master attends, though he doesn't look comfortable doing it.) He speaks with great sincerity about how Ritter was one of a kind, how much he loved working with him, and how difficult he'll be to replace. And he's sincere because all of those things are true. (He's also sincere, and careful about how he's sincere, because the Master is in attendance. There's not even the hint of a single stray thought of anything other than pain at the loss of a good friend in Kinear's mind. Of course, that is also true. Kinear will miss Ritter, and often long for his counsel in the days and weeks to come.)
Schiff offers up a rousing toast at his wake (Which the Master does not attend. If he drinks alcohol, none of them have ever seen it, so parties centered on getting drunk do not appear to be his idea of a good time.), full of spirit and regret for a lost friend. By the time he's done, he's crying, as is most of the rest of the party. It's absolutely true that he regrets the loss of Ritter. They both do. The tears are real.
Ritter was a good man, a stable man, one who could be relied upon to get the job done. He just wasn't properly discreet. And in the game they're playing, discretion trumps everything else.
They send him off to the stars with full honors, drink toasts to his memory, send his widow flowers, and begin scouring the lists, looking for a suitable replacement.
Notes:
When you look at Kinear, think Don Corleone or Tywin Lannister. As long as he's on your side, you couldn't wish for a better ally. But you need to remember he's in the game for his family. And as long as staying with you benefits he and his, you've got one of the greatest political minds you could ask for at your side. And if staying with you ever doesn't benefit he and his... Well, he won't be cruel, and he won't make it hurt, but you won't be around to be a problem for long.