''Throne!'' said Philipus 4th rank scribe of the Departamento Mercatura who oversee intergalactic trade.
''What is it?'' asked Danila 1st rank elder of Departamento Alimentum that handles food supplies.
''It's already been an hour. You would think someone would have shown up by now,'' said Philipus pointing at the row of 12 empty seats surrounding a white table in a small conference room.
''It still gives you time to check if the holo-projector is functioning, if our data slates are up to date or if our scrolls are written in the appropriate Gothic.''
''I already did it three times. The slates are up to date and the holo-projector is as good as it could be,'' said Philipus patting the small rusted floating cubes. ''As for the scrolls, I personally wrote it with the best techno quill available. You have confirmed each time that my imperial Gothic is impeccable. ''
''It's true that your Gothic is quite good. You could be a prop novelist. ''
''Why would I waste my time on such an eccentric pursuit? I have data slates to review.''
''You are not going to go very far with that attitude dear Philipus.''
''I don't want to go far.''
''Who knows? I heard rumours you may be up for a promotion soon.''
''Do not speak such words! I have spent the last 15 years avoiding this curse. I will present the boring problems and you swoop in with the solution as we always do.''
''Sorry, I won't be able to be the hero today. I am not as well versed in the tithe system as you,'' answered Danila.
''You can't be serious. What am I going to do?''
''Your job.''
Philipus had nothing to answer and simply pretended to review his slates in silence. He kept this act up for five minutes before a guardsman entered the room to know their guests needs. They both asked for water and some light snacks. The guard agreed to those requests, but gave a suspicious look at the holo-projector when leaving.
The same guard came back 10 minutes later without water or snacks, but with an officer who inspected the holo-projector methodically, then looked through the slates and scrolls that Philipus had perfectly set up. Once his inspection was completed, he left the room satisfied and indicated the water and snacks would be coming soon. It was delivered 5 minutes later by another guard who also took the time to inspect the holo-projector before leaving.
''What do you think they want from the projector? '' asked Danila
''I don't know! It's just a very common XC-9 projectors,'' answered Philipus.
Danila shrugged and they kept waiting.
Their next visitor was a large man of the church carrying an incense dispenser to ward off evil.
''What are you doing here? '' asked Danila, surprised to find a common priest in a top-secret meeting room.
''Order of their Excellency, all rooms he visits need to be freed from any evil presence, ''answered the priest.
''That's a new policy? ''
''It was put in place today.''
''I see.''
The priest proceeded to recite holy prayers to the glory of the emperor in a broken high Gothic. Philipus and Danila dutifully repeated the prayers they didn't understand more out of habit than faith. Once the room was filled with the smell of incense the priest left.
''Who's next?'' asked Philipus. ''I feel like every branch of the imperium is going to visit us before we finally see the Governor. ''
''I know you're new to this Philipus, but you have to accept we are not very important,'' said Danila.
''We are here to talk about the supply situation! The faith of the planet is at play!''
''You think we are the only one here today to see their Excellency about something crucial? Hundred of people come to their Excellency everyday with similar stories. I had to ask for every favours owed to me to wait in this small dusty room. We are nothing, be humble and we will get out of this alive.''
''Why would I not get out of a basic trade presentation alive?''
Danila pretended to review her scrolls in silence without answering.
The next visitor was an older man wearing a military uniform.
''Danila! Long time no see! How are you doing? How's Keith?'' said the old man.
''Stobb! It's good to see you!'' answered Danila with a smile she reserved to close friends. ''I'm doing very well. Keith and I are planning to go to the Jox theater to see that new Uttelow Holo-Film.''
''Uttelow!'' frowned Stobb. ''I cannot understand how you like this amateur. In his last holo-film the Tyranid costumes were so cheap you could see the face of the actors and they overplayed every death scenes.''
''That's what's fun about them,'' said Danila. ''How about you? Did their Excellency finally make you colonel?''
''Oh, I'm done with the Guard. I am just a security advisor for their Excellency.''
''You don't look like an advisor,'' said Danila pointing at Stobb Amez uniform.
''I still have to dress the part,'' answered Stobb.
''So their Excellency will grace us with their presence soon? ''
''Very soon, I'm just conducting a last-minute inspection on this little beauty,'' answered Stobb Amez pointing at the holo-projector.
''Thank you so much Stobb! I promise you it will be worth your time.''
''I know you Danila,'' said Stobb while turning on and off repeatedly the holo-projector. ''You wouldn't have asked for this if it wasn't important.''
''Sorry sir,'' said Philipus. ''Could you please not be so aggressive with my holo-projector? It's very hard to get spare parts for this model.''
''Do not worry scribe. I'm just following the procedure,'' answered Stobb who was now pushing the floating holo-projector up and down.
''What procedure?''
''Making sure no one hid a small Krak grenade in an innocent-looking holo-projector.''
''Oh,'' said Philipus regretting to have asked.
''Could you remind me what you were presenting? This is my 12th meeting today,'' asked Stobb Hamez, while he tapped delicately the exterior of the holo-projector with his fingers.
''A simple summary of our supply chain,'' answered Danila. ''Philipus will cover how we depend on trade to maintain our current economic system and I will explain how we use that trade system to produce food. Then, we will conclude by explaining how the Rift is affecting this system and what changes are needed.''
''I'm sure their Excellency will be very attentive to what you have to say. As for this this holo-projector, it seems to be Krak grenade free. I'll let their Excellency know everything is in order. Get ready for the swarm,'' said Stobb, while leaving the room.
Before Philipus could ask what Stobb meant, the door of the conference room burst open and an unending swarm of servants in golden tunics invaded the office. They moved at an inhuman speed, cleaning up dust, aligning Philipus scrolls , installing a painting of their Excellency or flooding the floor with exquisite Arachnid Ultimus rugs. The servant's work was interrupted by the voice of Varnik Veralt, master of ceremonies, who ordered them to vacate the room. They obeyed and were replaced by three servants wearing a red uniform carrying food and wine. Philipus and Danila had to argue with the Varnik Veralt to ensure they put all this food on the side table to limit the risk of spilling wine over the holo-projector. Once everything was set up, two white-clad servants replaced the red servants. One white-clad servant closed the door behind his master and stood by the door. The other servant stayed next to the side table that was covered in exotic food and liquor. Varnik Veralt inspected carefully the clothes of the two servant as well as the food before nodding in approbation and leaving the room without any further comment.
Philipus and Danila exhaled for a brief moment.
''It really was a swarm,'' said Danila.
Philipus nodded, while trying to reorganize his scrolls. After a few minutes of waiting in silence, Philipus and Danila decided to pass the time by talking about their very specific views on Von Utellow holography. They had the time to discuss in detail Utellow's magnum opus Blood turban and his unsuccessful sequel Dynamite in the Lictor's nest before the door to their office opened again.
''PLEASE WELCOME THEIR EXCELLENCY LORD HIBNAR! SAVIOUR OF SIERRA SEGUNDUS AND KILLER OF XENOS!'' yelled the white-clad servant by the door.
Danila and Philipus rose up and bowed their heads. Their Excellency emerges wearing a simple green tunic with the 14th insignia sewn onto his suit. A few nobles, Elder of the Administratum and officers of the Guard followed him. Philipus supposed they were important, since the white-clad servants were reciting their names as they entered the room and offered them food and liquor. Philipus heard of them on the holo-feed, but seeing them in flesh was a different experience. The High Elder Jeremias Kharpastian dressed in a red robe covered in an intricate assortment of rings and jewels that made his being glow red like the sun, the general Nathorn von Storm whose uniform was layered with three rows of glistening medals, the Red Baron Ishmael Ruby who was dressed in spotless white or the Headmaster of the Sanguine guard Vyrna Rossini wearing a golden armor covered in precious pink jewels and many more. Philipus was in awe in front of such wealth, prestige and power. This display of luxury gave even greater dignity to the frugality of their Excellency.
Their Excellency gave a quick nod acknowledging Danila and Philipus presence before moving to the end of the conference table and seating himself without the help of the white clad servants. The followers of their Excellency behaved differently depending on their status. The officers sat on the left side of their Excellency; the nobles sat on their right after establishing the order of precedence of each noble; the Elders of the Administratum sat further away from their Excellency on the left and right of the table; Stobb Amez arrived last and stood behind their Excellency.
Danila took this as her cue to start the presentation by thanking her distinguished guests individually as is the custom on Sierra Segundus, but Lord Hibnar asked her to start the presentation right away. She obliged and invited Philipus to take her place.
Philipus walked towards his station with dread. The piercing eyes of Lord Hibnar focused on him. He would have frozen in place if he hadn't practice his speech ten times before. Instead, he carefully recited the appropriate prayer to awake the machine spirit of the projector, which swallowed the room in a red mist with a simple question.
WHAT DRIVES IMPERIAL TRADE?
''This question was asked by the respectable Elder Berza Kytahr during the 230th centennial trade conference and it was a shockwave for our organisation because no one had a real answer,'' declared Philipus. ''Some suggested it must be the traders, other claimed it was the Governors or the Administratum. None of those answers was satisfactory because they described individual actors within a system instead of the system itself. All of this changed when Damman du Braal, High Eleder of the Luna trade depot, suggested a novel approach. Instead of trying to look at actors, we should look at the structures that influence their behaviours. They found that one structure conditioned the behaviours of all those who participated in galactic trade,'' Philipus activated once more his holo-projector, which projected those two words.
THE TITHE
This declaration seem to shock Philipus audience even though he was presenting a watered down version of Damman du Brall elegant theory. Only Lord Hibnar stayed impassive. Philipus wondered if he needed to give some time to his audience to digest this information, but the piercing eyes of Lord Hibnar convinced him to proceed.
''This theory profoundly changed how we viewed the Tithe not has a burden, but has an opportunity for trade. This can be explained by two inherently contradictory factors, every governor has to pay the tithe and the Administratum data for what is owed is always inaccurate. This create an incentive for all governor to seek outside partners to fulfill part of their tithe obligations. For example! '' said Philipus activating again the holo-projector to project the picture of two large planets. ''Here's planet A and B. As part of its tithe, planet A needs to provide 40 000 fully armed guards to the Imperium. Unfortunately, a violent Servilian pox ravaged the planet. Only 12 000 guards are ready to serve. Meanwhile, Planet B is supposed to provide 12 billion tons of Promethium. However, many of their wells have gone dry and they can barely produce eight billion tons. Thousands of workers are sitting idle. Luckily, Planet A just found a large amount of promethium and can produce four billion tons of promethium easily. Therefore, both planets enter into an agreement where one provides the troop and the other the promethium to service the each other tithe. These agreements are called Pactum Planetaris though most people refer to them as Tithe credit.
Their use is simple. When an imperial representative comes to collect the tithe, a governor representative will present their agreements stating the amount covered by each party. If the Administratum think the Tithe are genuine they will accept them in lieu of the Tithe. This limit the need for expensive galactic transportation. The problem is that all of this rests on a relation of trust between the Administratum and the governors. You can have signed all the tithe credits you want if you are deemed untrustworthy the value of your tithe credit will be rejected. To formalise this situation, the Administratum created in M32 a Tithe ledger that establish how reliable a governor's regime is based on their historical behaviours. Getting on that ledger is a challenge that can take century. Once on the ledger, it can take millenniums to go from a low rank to even a medium rank. This create a systemic imbalance between highly ranked and poorly ranked planets. Low ranking planet need trustworthy partners to make their tithe credit acceptable and well-ranked planet can impose strict conditions to enter in partnership with anyone inferior to them. This is how Sierra Segundus economy prospered in the last millennium. We've leverage our rank to obtain all the basic goods and raw resources needed from low ranked planet and then produced high value goods that can cover our tithe without a fail. However, we need a constant flux of resources to keep this system working, which is why the Rift is such a threat to this planet. Threat my colleague Danila from the Departamento Alimentum will describe in her presentation.''
''One minute Philipus. I have a few questions before we move on,'' said Lord Hibnar. ''Could our rank be leveraged to acquire advanced weapons of war?''
''Yes your Excellency,'' answered Philipus.
''Did the Xenos use this system to equip their forces against me?''
''That's… likely your Excellency.''
''Did you help them acquire those weapons?''
Philipus couldn't respond.
''I knew the empire was arming the Xenos. I always assumed it was traitors within the Administratum shipping them illegally or some greedy rogue trader. Now I realise they paid for them using a legal loophole in the Tithe system!'' Declared Lord Hibnar enraged.
''I…''
''And it was fucking quill pusher like you who enabled them!''
''N-no your Excellency, it wasn't me!''
''Then who was it? Tell me or I'll have you stripped naked and left to melt slowly on the acid hills of Termulla!''
Philipus was too scared to talk.
''Xenophon,'' said Danila.
''Who?'' barked Lord Hibnar.
''Xenophon Viltiem, head of trade, he arranged for the transfer of weapons to the heretics.''
''Where is he?''
''He was executed after the governor's palace fell.''
''Anyone under that Xenophon can vouch for that?''
''No your Excellency they were all shot or fled.''
''Oh! Another headless Departmento,'' said Lord Hibnar who seem very familiar with the situation, his attitude shifting drastically. ''Alexio why are we still finding headless Departamento? You told me we had found the last one months ago.''
''I though so too you Excellency. We usually find them when things stop working and we never heard anything going wrong with Departamento Mercatura for the last year,'' Answered Master Alexio a bit confused by the situation. ''Scribe why did you never report this?''
''I did a year ago and I was told to take care of things while a new replacement was found. No replacement ever came, so I took care of everything,'' answered Philipus
''Well that answers the question,'' said Lord Hibnard satisfied. ''Alexio you know the drill. Please set up a review board to determine if we merge this Departamento with another one or fill up the missing positions. Also, see if we can give this overachieving scribe a promotion.''
''As you wish Excellency,'' answered Alexio.
''Now Elder Danila, I believe it's your turn to talk about the food supply situation?'' said Lord Hibnar.
''Yes Excellency,'' answered Danila. ''As Philipus explained, our planet relies on a large trade network to thrive. Our food industry operate on the same concept. To understand this let us look at what we can produce. Thanks to fifty Factorum we can produce the one trillion calories needed daily to feed our population. These use recycled human waste and the millions of dead citizens we collect everyday. We then combine those wastes with vtamhin substitutes to produce food paste, the base of all Sierra Segundus diet. In addition, we also have a few smaller factories producing Amasec or tastier food for those who can afford them. As such, we have the mean to feed our subjects and provide them with a vast array of luxury good. The issue with this system is that all part of the process that were not significantly profitable were delegated to external partners including the production of vtamhin substitute. This substitute is vital for our production of food paste without it our citizens will not receive the nutrients needed to stay healthy and productive. This mean our state of the art industry will stop producing food paste in three months. This will lead to a vicious cycle of system failure. Our workers will get sick because of their lack of vtaminh in the inadequate paste we will sell them, which will lower productivity. Then, disease will spread across the lower hab block, which will lower productivity. We will then face massive food riots, which will again lower productivity. This cycle of continuous drop in productivity will reach its critical point in eleven months. This means generalised starvation, unrest and Hivecity wides plagues. Our cogitator's models have estimated that at that point the key infrastructures needed the keep our Hivecities functioning will collapse. Sierra Segundus will die.''
The reaction to this declaration was lukewarm. The nobles were drinking their boredom away, the officers of the Guard were rereading notes from previous meeting, the member of the Administratum seemed to register this information like another data point on their slates and Lord Hibnar was impassive.
''We've devised a plan to resolve this situation,'' said Danila hoping to regain a bit of attention from her audience. ''We call it the three R's: rationing, reallocating, and reaching out. First, we ration food paste and all elements needed to make it to delay famine as long as possible. Second, we reallocate our limited resources to industries vital to our survival: water recycling, food production, transportation, energy, air filtering and all the spare parts needed to keep those services up. Finally, we need to reach out to outside partners that can provide us with the raw resources we cannot find on Sierra Segundus: mineral ore and vegetable seeds,''
''What external partners?'' asked Master Alexio. ''I though we were cut off from the empire?''
Danila looked at Philipus. He was supposed to cover this part, but he was still shaken.
''That is true, but we can still reach out to neighbouring planet Sierra Primerus and the moon Sierra Quinta. Primerus is a fertile Agri world, which could provide us with seeds we could use to grow our own food and Sierra Quinta is rich with metal ore we could use to keep our key industries going. We never traded with them before because their production rates are insignificant and they are both embroiled in long running civil wars,'' said Danila.
The mention of civil war attracted the attention of the officers of the Guard who wanted to know every detail of those civil wars. How do they fight? What are their capacity? What is the size and strength of their armies? Danila could not answers those questions and looked again at Philipus with pleading eyes. He gave her a resigned look and took over the presentation. Sierra Primerus is in the throes of a century-long feudal war for control of good land and Sierra Quinta is burning in the fire of class warfare. Philipus did provide some details about each planet ways of war, such as the use of giant war pigs as mount on Sierra Primerus or the fact Sierra Quinta was a labyrinth of underground tunnels. However, he cautioned against aggressive actions, which would delay any trade agreement. This answer seemed to frustrate the officers of the guards, but the member of the Administratum seemed receptive.
''I think we can revisit the nature of those diplomatic missions later, for now I have a few questions myself,'' said Lord Hibnar. ''What are we going to offer those barbarians for those mineral ore and seeds?''
''Those two planets need workers to till the land and dig their mine.'' answered Philipus.
''You'd have me sell the citizens I swore to protect for seeds!'' Lord Hibnar voice was filled with disgust.
Philipus had heard of Lord Hibnar bizarre positions about slaving and had rehearsed an answer just for this occasion.
''I would never suggest selling your citizens Excellency. However, we could give them our Xenos loving traitors. Thousands are still awaiting your judgement. A life of servitude could be a fitting punishment for their sins.''
''I'll consider it. Could you also explain to me how acquiring seeds will make food grow on Sierra Segundus? The land is dead and the rain is acidic.''
''That is true for the surface your Excellency,'' answered Danila. ''However, we've found out that Hivecity Tuar Under Hive is connected to fresh water and good farmable land. We can send delegations to strike agreement with the locals and start preparing the land for large-scale farming.''
''So I will need to ally with mutants to save my realm. The Emperor test our faith in strange ways.''
''Requesting permission to speak your Excellency!'' said Stobb Hamez.
''Granted,'' answered Lord Hibnar.
''I'd like to volunteer for the delegation to Hivecity Tuar!''
''Why?''
''I want to visit the grave of someone I lost there during operation Baneblade.''
Lord Hibnar's eyes softened for an instant. The name of operation Baneblade seemed to reopen old wounds.
''Very well, but this is a diplomatic mission. You will escort my representative to their objective, afterwards you can take a leave of absence.''
''As you wish you Excellency!''
''Your Excellency I would like to join Stobb in this mission!'' said Danila. ''I know everything about edible plants and I believe I will be far more useful down there than up here.''
''I'll consider it,'' answered Lord Hibnar. ''Now I ask all those who are not seated to leave this room. We will discuss your revelation in close committee.''
Everyone complied with their Excellency order. As the door closed, a few muffled yells were heard breaking the apparent submission they displayed in public. Philipus and Danila used this time to relax and process what just happened. Danila couldn't really explain to him why she decided to volunteer. She did not need to do this. Many juniors could have been sent down there in her stead. She just felt it had to be her and no one else. Philipus was confused by this sudden burst of courage and silently thanked the Emperor he wasn't possessed by such folly.
When their Excellency emerged from this room, he went straight towards Danila and Philipus. He could have told them so many things that their recommendations were watered down to accommodate industrial interest, how both diplomatic delegation will have a large military cadre that can veto any initiative that displease them, that food rationing will be imposed only on the lower hives, that he did not intend to honour any agreements with the mutants. Instead, he told me ''Congratulation Philipus for your promotion to head of diplomatic mission solar. You're leaving tomorrow for Sierra Primus. Come back with a good trade deal!''
I am glad this man is dead.