Metaphorically, he did so at that moment; thereafter his interest in
Adityan affairs was that of a spectator at a boring and stupid show,
watching only because there is nothing else to watch, and wishing that
it had been possible to have returned to Odin on the _Irma_. The Prime
Minister, however, was entitled to a full and impartial report, which he
would scarcely get from Count Erskyll, on this new jewel in the Imperial
Crown. To be able to furnish that, he would have to remain until the
Midyear Feasts, when the Convocation would act on the new constitution.
Whether the constitution was adopted or rejected was, in itself,
unimportant; in either case, Aditya would have a government recognizable
as such by the Empire, which was already recognizing some fairly
unlikely-looking governments. In either case, too, Aditya would make
nobody on any other planet any trouble. It wouldn't have, at least for a
long time, even if it had been left unannexed, but no planet inhabited
by Terro-humans could be trusted to remain permanently peaceful and
isolated. There is a spark of aggressive ambition in every Terro-human
people, no matter how debased, which may smoulder for centuries or even
millennia and then burst, fanned by some random wind, into flame. To
shift the metaphor slightly, the Empire could afford to leave no
unwatched pots around to boil over unexpectedly.
Occasionally, he did warn young Erskyll of the dangers of overwork and
emotional over-involvement. Each time, the Proconsul would pour out some
tale of bickering and rivalry among the chief-freedmen of the
Managements. Citizen Khouzhik and Citizen Eschkhaffar--they were all
calling each other Citizen, now--were contesting overlapping
jurisdictions. Khouzhik wanted to change the name of his Management--he
no longer bothered mentioning Sesar Martwynn--to Labor and Industry. To
this, Mykhyl Eschkhaffar objected vehemently; any Industry that was
going to be managed would be managed by his--Oraze Borztall was
similarly left unmentioned--management of Public Works. And they were
also feuding about the robotic and remote-controlled equipment that had
been sent down from the _Empress Eulalie_ to the Austragonia
nuclear-power works.
Khouzhik was also in controversy with Yakoop Zhannar, who was already
calling himself People's Provost-Marshal. Khouzhik had taken over all
the private armed-guards on the Masterly farms and in the factories, and
assimilated them into something he was calling the People's Labor
Police, ostensibly to enforce the new Code of Employment Practice.
Zhannar insisted that they should be under his Management; when Chmidd
and Hozhet supported Khouzhik, he began clamoring for the return of the
regular army to his control.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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