Life2.0 - a Broken Shackles Narrative

[CBR JGWRR]

"Theology"
27th Daas, 9
Naomi Of Unity​

Mating season is over now, and our child grows inside me; Buri smells the pheromone differences. Buri and I are in day fifteen of listening together, one Parashah a day, laid curled up. Not quite the way it is supposed to be done, but I'm not complaining.

"...I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Have no other gods before Me."

He pauses it. "I think I have to talk about this."

I nuzzle him. "What's on your mind?"

He doesn't nuzzle me back. That's unusual... He's nervous. Extrapolate. It's an odd point to pause unless... Oh. He sees my face change, and nods.

I weigh up how to respond. I... "Just checking, do you mean I'm your goddess?"

One of his claws points to the speaker laid on my stomach. "Yes. And I know you would be worried by that. This has been said twice, word for word."

"Which is why you want us to talk about it."

"I wanted to talk about it when this phrase was said before, but I..."

I smile. "Didn't fancy telling your goddess that you have to demote her?"

He nods. "I didn't know where to begin."

I nuzzle him. "Buri, I might be a little crazy-" He looks at me. I laugh. "-But, I am not a goddess. Just your wife."

"It's always seemed to me that a man should worship his wife."

I smile. "I'd agree wife-worship is better than most possibilities, but it's still putting me somewhere I don't belong." I take his hand. "I'm not a goddess."

He nods. "No." He stretches his arms. "No, you are our Noah, or Joseph, or Moses. You're the person that your God puts in place at the right time to save the people." The notion of being compared to Moses disturbs me, but I can see his logic. "You don't like the comparison?"

"Being compared to Moses is an extremely high compliment. It's one I don't feel worthy of." I pause. "But I know what you are thinking here."

He thinks it over. Wondering why it made me uncomfortable. "I'm saying that I see the pattern. MSI is our Egypt."

"True."

"And God put you in place to lead us to freedom, then gave me to you."

I smile. "For which I'm eternally grateful. To both you and Him." Leg twitches. I roll off him, and stand. "Getting cramp."

He joins me, and we walk to the window. He holds my hips as we watch the sunrise, leans over me to rest his chin on my forehead. "Wife Naomi."

I look up at the sabres dangling over my eyes. "Husband Buri."

I look out the window, and wonder.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

The Upcoming Leader Revamp
(And How It Affects Life2.0)​

Latest Dev-Diary (or applicable Dev-Diary if re-reading later)

First impressions are...

Well, most impressively, the revamp is... not as terrible as I was expecting. And after fixing the most distasteful bits, what's left fits Life2.0.


Let's start with the frustrating aspects:

---

Most of All: I remain vehemently opposed to capping Leaders, and I honestly won't even play Stellaris once this patch goes live until the Leader Cap removing mods get updated, or I figure out how to set the cap myself. As covered in previous rants on the subject, I could have hundreds of Leaders in a single civilisation of Stellaris, and Life2.0 would raise that even further.

Firstly, I remain opposed to the combining (read as "scrapping Generals") of Admirals and Generals into a Commander role. (which is of course the wrong name; *cough* Imperator *cough*) The two are completely different skill sets. For Life2.0, this isn't such a problem as they pretty much would end up with combined space and ground Leadership because they don't really have alternative options, but a functionally designed military for a Stellaris civilisation will understand the immense problems putting a ground-focused leader in charge of a space formation and vice versa. Heinlein covers this very effectively in Starship Troopers. The background logistics are similar, but the fighting could barely be more dissimilar.

Secondly, I remain opposed to the removal of Governors. Frankly, the fact that three of the subtypes of the renamed Leaders are acknowledged to be essentially types of Governor Leader says it all.

But, I still want to say more; the Commissioner (anyone else read it as Commissar at first?) forcing the imposing of martial law is... Improper. Multiple usage cases exist for why you would put a "Commander" in charge of a planet; there's other reasons for a world to be under military control than the imposition of martial law, such as fortress worlds, military logistics hubs, recruitment/training hubs and in-field testing worlds.

Likewise, the "Industrialist" is... Far too limited in scope. The name has the wrong implications when considered; this should be the "Governor" Leader type.

And Analyst is also wrong for a managerial/operational Scientist Leader - that should be a Director or similar position. The spread of scientific fields available even on today's development means no one person can fully understand all the fields of science, and Instead, they need a grounding in all the fields and leave expert knowledge to experts in that field.

And, I remain opposed to how Envoys remain non-Leaders with just portraits and names.

---

The good:

As said, I am fundamentally opposed to the concept of uniting Admirals and Generals into a single role for Stellaris civilisations in general. But, they have managed to come up with a pretty decent bodging the two together for the purposes of Life2.0; Ykrett is focused on the Admiral tasks, while Naomi, Thando, Alexandra, Valerius, the Holocron and HK-47b are flexible, and Buri and Rivkah are best at terrifying Olinbar and snapping them like sticks.

I like the thematics of the Officials, and as proposed earlier in the thread, I could think of dozens of positions for Official type Leaders. Adding more Council positions is absolutely something I'd welcome.

Scientist Leader tweaks are going in the right direction, but I do think there needs a little more refinement. Names especially.

Dividing Explorers and Academics is problematic in that your Explorers do eventually finish exploring, and the natural gameplay transition is to send Explorers into Digsites, and then into assisting research once those are caught up. Adding something that allows Explorers to keep exploring once they finish the exploring phase would ease the redundancy problem; two examples that come to mind are sending them to otherwise barren planets and seeing if they discover anything on a detailed long term expedition to a planet that got missed in the survey (Life2.0 has seen the beginning of this with the Kidore II/Kri-Kyaese-Ci expedition) and sending them into the dark between the Hyperlanes and seeing what they find.

Academics is... The wrong word. Field Researcher would be more appropriate. They also need something to do once you run out of digsites and anomalies... I'd give them the Assisting Research task.

Analyst is already covered.

Statistician is... another sub-optimal name as this position is far bigger than that. It too comes under a Director kind of role, and I'd be inclined to split Analyst between Acdemic/Field Researcher and Statistician/Director, giving the field aspects to Academics and the management aspects to Statisticians.

---

Overall, some of these potential changes are highly interesting. Some are changes I'd immediately undo. Some I consider inappropriate to management of a Stellaris-level civilisation.

Overall, this is much less of a problem for Life2.0 than it was earlier in the year when they whacked a Leader Cap so ridiculously low that I couldn't even have Naomi's inner circle of Leaders without going over the Cap. But a few headcannoned name changes and this could actually work well for Life2.0.

Now, to start writing up the post I actually meant to write up tonight before I found out about the Dev-Diary; Habitats.


Edit, 07/10/2023 - subsequently done a little more Life2.0 specific thinking, please see the in-character post "Memorandum: Titular And Ranking Changes" below.

 

[HistoryDude]

I wonder if anyone else in the colony legitimately worships Naomi...

Also, that was sweet - Naomi and Buri remain a great couple!

 

[Macavity116]

Oh, snap! There's another leader rework on the way? It's beyond too late for me to integrate this into my next Stellaris Story, (first 13 chapters are complete) but your post above suggests you might try to include the new content into Life 2.0.

I remember that this isn't the first time you integrated patch content into this story, so I really want to give you mad props for being so impressively adaptable.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

I wonder if anyone else in the colony legitimately worships Naomi...

Also, that was sweet - Naomi and Buri remain a great couple!

Naomi hopes not.

They are. They've become my favourite couple to write.

Oh, snap! There's another leader rework on the way? It's beyond too late for me to integrate this into my next Stellaris Story, (first 13 chapters are complete) but your post above suggests you might try to include the new content into Life 2.0.

I remember that this isn't the first time you integrated patch content into this story, so I really want to give you mad props for being so impressively adaptable.

By the time Life2.0 is finished we'll probably be on Stellaris 5.x, so plenty more patches to work with.

Not just patch content; there's been a whole expansion released, and while the integration of Paragon's content has been a little bit subtle so far, it will get more overt.

A hint?

---

"Give me options for dealing with this 'Sharpbeak'."

 

[Macavity116]

By the time Life2.0 is finished we'll probably be on Stellaris 5.x, so plenty more patches to work with.

I think that's pretty darn impressive. I've seen plenty of Stellaris AARs in the past get stopped in their tracks when either the game or a mod receives a major update. Life 2.0 has displayed real staying power, and I for one, can see this story sticking around for the long haul, like Songs of the Saiiban.

Also, at 38 forum pages and counting, Life 2.0 is rapidly closing on The First Century, which is the largest Stellaris AAR that I'm personally aware of (46 pages!) That's a remarkable feat in my book.

A hint?

Kind of. By my own ruleset, Song of the Solitaire is ready to be posted on the Stellaris AAR forums, but I'm currently posting a new fanfiction story to a different website, and I'm a terrible multitasker. Song of the Solitaire won't release until that other story is over and done. (so probably late next week, Sunday the 15th at the latest)

 

[CBR JGWRR]

I think that's pretty darn impressive. I've seen plenty of Stellaris AARs in the past get stopped in their tracks when either the game or a mod receives a major update. Life 2.0 has displayed real staying power, and I for one, can see this story sticking around for the long haul, like Songs of the Saiiban.

Also, at 38 forum pages and counting, Life 2.0 is rapidly closing on The First Century, which is the largest Stellaris AAR that I'm personally aware of (46 pages!) That's a remarkable feat in my book.


Kind of. By my own ruleset, Song of the Solitaire is ready to be posted on the Stellaris AAR forums, but I'm currently posting a new fanfiction story to a different website, and I'm a terrible multitasker. Song of the Solitaire won't release until that other story is over and done. (so probably late next week, Sunday the 15th at the latest)

Yeah... A fair few of mine have been halted because of those issues. It's why Life2.0 is a narrative and not an AAR...

And we're only 10 of 40 ish years in.

I was actually using "the A hint?" line to refer to a certain antagonist character in the dialogue below the line break. But I'm glad to hear Song of the Solitaire is almost here.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Introduction To Interplanetary Habitats"
Director Sor-Gor, New Worlds, The Holocron, Consultant​

Abstract:

When we consider the potential roles of long-term habitation in space, it quickly becomes apparent that artificial habitats have several critical advantages over planetary environments.

It also becomes apparent that system-wide coordination of habitats is necessary to ensure their long-term survival.

We have put a great deal of effort into charting the precise number of smaller bodies in our star system. Kidore, being a large A-type star, has a sizeable gravitational pull, and possesses an immense amount of orbiting objects; more than twenty million asteroidal fragments of more than one cubic metre have been identified in the central asteroid band, and this number doubles as we include bodies caught in co-orbital bands going before and aft of the gas giants in our system.

Precise data are still being obtained, and with the Kri-Kyaese-Ci Research Mission's orbital surveying probes finalising their scans of the planet below them we will soon increase our analysis further.

While Asteroids are their own source material for construction of the habitat, an initial mining and manufacturing operation has to get the process started. In principle this could be reduced to a single Neumann, but to facilitate faster construction requires sending more of them. The Holocron has informed me that his colleagues in the Neumanns recommend a payload mass of around three hundred tons be delivered, mostly consisting of Neumanns and spare parts that are difficult or complex to replace.

Habitats offer very high cumulative housing capacity, and flexibility of design to suit many races. The Holocron's Archive contains numerous designs for Human-based Habitats, while his teams of Neumanns have been working on the underground city of New Bulawayo for several months now, achieving fantastic progress in that time. The Neumanns have also begun working on designing habitats for other races, and most notably constructing habitats for Kyaese on Kri-Kyaese-Ci. These initial efforts are going well, and in principle can be rapidly scaled up.

This rapidity of construction is one of the main advantages, the other highly important advantage being the ability to set up a habitable environment anywhere, in a loose sense. Planetary environments are quite expensive in time and resources to develop.

The main downside of habitats is the requirement for active maintenance that only the most marginal habitable worlds match. Centralising the bureaucracy that handles habitat maintenance helps make this cost effective. Having this core "Habitat Central Complex" be also central to the star system - or at least reasonably close - will also help with operational requirements for Hohmann transfers of cargo by offering regular launch windows for conventional rockets, allowing us to save on the usage of pulse units if we wish.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Memorandum: Titular And Ranking Changes"
Rivkah Of Unity​

TL;DR: To more precisely identify the exact role people do, I've decided to relabel people's jobs to make it easier for me to know who's doing what.

Long Version:
For a long time, we've been relying on Imperator - with Admiral and General sub-types - Governor, Scientist and Envoy classification system. And I think it is a little bit... Imprecise.

The new system formalises the distinction of Admiral and General, but the rest do have substantial tweaks. I've also decided that having Imperator is reserved for people who command both naval and army formations.

The new titles for Leaders are:

Military:​

Admiral - Focuses on Fleets and general naval combat
General - Focuses on Armies, Planetary Bombardment, Ground Combat, and attacking defensive structures
Commissioner - Focuses on governance missions where whole system levels of military involvement are required
Strategist - Focuses on the implementation of Arch-Imperatrix issued military planning

Administrative:​

Envoy - Our assorted sensory organs and manipulation organs inside other civilisations
Delegate - Our assorted sensory organs and manipulation organs inside the Galactic Community
Steward - Provincial, Planetary, System and Sector Governance
Ambassador - Responsible for implementing decisions on Diplomacy, Espionage, and First Contacts
Consultant - subject matter experts for advising others on their field of expertise

Scientific:​

Researcher - Focuses on Surveying, Exploration, Archaeology and Anomalies
Specialist - Focuses on their particular section of Science in the laboratory and testing environments and supplies subject matter expert information as needed
Director - Focuses on the administration of our Scientific endeavours

I reserve the right to tweak the list further if needed.

Thank you all.
Declaring Officer: Arch-Imperatrix Rivkah Of Unity

 

[Macavity116]

On the one hand, I can totally get why Rivkah would re-label and re-title all of these roles... but at the same time, this only increases my belief that Rivkah's hold on power is irrevocable and Naomi will be out-of-government permanently.

 

[HistoryDude]

I wonder if those administrative roles (especially envoys) will be used for spying...

Is Life 2.0 mainly considering moving to asteroids, or are other celestial bodies being considered?

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Succession, Part 1"
30th Daas, 9 (2188)
Buri Of Unity​

I awake to the light of sunrise through the window. I look for my wife. "Hmm."

I hear her sigh. Breakfast table.

I stand over her. She leans back in her chair to look up to me. "Rivkah's forgotten to append 'Acting' to her job."

I read the memo, bending to lean over her shoulder. "Yes, she has. It's not the first time. Mind, she sent it in the middle of the night working late."

"Our daughter wants to retire me."

In her eyes I see she's just being melodramatic, but I indulge her anyway. I lift her out of the chair, put my arms around her waist, nuzzle her neck. "You aren't anywhere near that age."

She smiles, wriggles so that we're face to face. "I'm just worried about her lack of life experience."

"She's done more than any other Xenayan child her age."

She nods. "We've been training her to lead all her life. But..."

"We're her parents. It's natural for us to worry."

It's a while before she replies. "She's almost a grown woman. I have to remind myself of that, inside she's still my not so little girl."

I lean down to nuzzle the top of her head. "She's been taller than you for a few years now."

She nuzzles my chest. "Xenayan physique makes that easy."

"Are you ready to step down from being Arch-Imperatrix?"

"Permanently, I don't know. But while I'm carrying our baby, I am."

I think about my daughter as I place my hand over my wife's womb. She nuzzles me. "Honestly Buri, I'm ready to settle down and just be a wife and mother."

Her face is anxious. "But you can't until MSI are dealt with."

She nods, and her hands joins mine. "Yes... I need to be back in command so that our son or daughter inside me can learn to be co-regent too."

"That might be an issue for Rivkah if she's grown used to being in charge. Sure, we agreed a temporary transfer, but if she wants a permanent position..."

"We have to talk to her."

 

[CBR JGWRR]

I wonder if those administrative roles (especially envoys) will be used for spying...

Is Life 2.0 mainly considering moving to asteroids, or are other celestial bodies being considered?

Subterfuge is one of the operations being considered for, but only if they feel like they can get it done without detection. It would be extremely bad to make other enemies...

Asteroids are just the easiest to do from where they are. There's lots of options in the long term.

 

[Macavity116]

"Rivkah's forgotten to append 'Acting' to her job."

"That might be an issue for Rivkah if she's grown used to being in charge. Sure, we agreed a temporary transfer, but if she wants a permanent position..."

Quickly grabbing my tinfoil hat from the conspiracy board and putting it on.

Aha! I was right! Rivkah isn't going to step down! Naomi's been shut out of power.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Succession, Part 2"
30th Daas, 9 (2188)
Rivkah Of Unity​

I'm bleary-eyed as Mum and Dad appear on the video link. Mum on Dad's lap, as they do. He'd probably squish her if they were the other way around.

Mum is worried as soon as she sees me. "Rivkah, are you ok?"

I think she already knows. "No. I'm so tired. Managing a civilisation is tough. I enjoy it, don't get me wrong, but..." I remember who I'm talking to. "You know what it's like."

She nods. "So you aren't planning a permanent takeover?"

"Just temporary. But Duxanek still has you down as relieved of duties Mum. Besides, you should be enjoying Dad. I mean, enjoying time with Dad."

She blushes. "You've spent too much time with Gillian. She's always making jokes like that."

"Yeah, she does. I've been having them help me the way they helped you. Sophia is Scarlet Six now."

Mum nods. "After what MSI put her through..."

"She thinks a conciliatory policy is a mistake. Gave us all a tirade on it yesterday."

"I know. She's easily the most anti-MSI Olinbar in the colony."

"She makes me wonder how many Reformers there are."

"We've probably got all the Olinbar who can say so publicly; MSI are having a lot of issues with internal stability."

"Yes. I've been thinking about the comms relay you had removed and locked up in that cave. I think we need to use it. I know you don't want to because MSI will be able to keep tabs on our conversations, but I reckon we can do some misinformation campaigns with it."

She smiles, then turns to her Buri. "If we're going to go down that road..." She turns to Dad. "Husband Buri, I have to share something with Arch-Imperatrix Rivkah that is strictly Arch-Imperatrix knowledge."

Buri looks at her. Then me. Then puts Mum on the floor and walks to a different part of their apartment. Mum and I are alone. "Go on?"

"Talk to Grepp-Schnepp Rikki. Uncle Thano's reptilian follower. Tell him I sent you."

"I thought he was called Chief?"

"That's his public name, yes."

"Oooh. Secrets."

"Top secret."

We laugh together. "Mum, about Gillian..."

She raises an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"While Dad is out the room, I'm wondering. Is Dad's bit that goes inside you as big as Gillian makes it out to be?"

Mum blushes. "Rivkah, we'll discuss this when you are an adult, ok?"

"Ok Mum."

She closes the call. Now, do I sleep, or talk to the reptile?

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Succession, Part 3"
30th Daas, 9 (2188)
Starborn Grepp-Schnepp Rikki​

I was a Flight Commander on Vengeance One when we Prikki burned the Repucid and Auridan homeworlds after the execution of High Executioner Prim G'Rrib-Gnash for her treason against the Prikkiki-Ti. Her revolution set us Prikki back by decades, and the hardships we faced defending against the Pashtari plague and XT-489 malware forced us to learn cooperation with other races long after the fall of the Awakened Empires.

And from our peak, we rested as conquerors of all those challenges.

We settled in our might, and began to expand into the rest of the galaxy around us, always above the others.

And five centuries later a young woman, ruler of but one world, approaches me because I approached her mother.

She sprints towards me, bounding on all fours.

One thing I appreciate about the Xenaya is that they are at the beginning of history. They don't have ancient masters to compare themselves to like the rest of us; their mythos is a blank slate for Buri and Rivkah to impose their image on.

This characteristic is exactly what I seek. In a galaxy torn by old rivalries, the Xenaya are something new. So, as the young woman arrives, barely out of breath - I greet her.

"Rivkah Of Unity."

"Grepp-Schnepp Rikki. Mum sent me."

"Come."

I lead her into my quarters at the HaMaadimi residence. Then into the secret elevator down to my lair in New Bulawayo.

Rivkah's eyes go wide when she sees the render of the whole galaxy; no mere representation or abstraction, but every star charted as per data supplied by the Prikkiki-Ti's Sentry Array Network.

"Where are we?"

"The red dot on the little spur between the two spirals."

"Found it." Rivkah zooms the display in. "What's the New Commercial Region?"

"This stellar region."

"Who's the orange block?"

"My people."

"And the yellow?"

"They are the Arishkan."

"And the dark gray?"

"Nalynoids."

She keeps looking. "What are the lines between the stars?"

"Hyperlane connections."

She plays with the display. "How up to date is the data?"

"Subspace transceivers mean it is effectively instant."

Her eyes go wide. "That means... The MSI fleet. Where is it?"

I orient the view to it. She gulps. "That's a lot of ships."

I show her Vengeance One. "But nothing next to the Immortal Prikkiki-Ti."

At first she struggles to comprehend; that so much of her body language comes from her Human mother tells me so. "Is this a Death Star?"

I lick a drying eyeball. "Much bigger."

"Weaponised moon?"

"It was once. We've expanded it since then."

"Weaponised planet?"

"What do you know about the theoretical physics concept called the Penrose Process in Human literature?"

"That's the energy from spinning black holes one."

"At the core of the Planetcraft is one such black hole. A completely artificial one. I know that the Holocron wrote on such things."

"He wrote on civilian applications."

"Yes. The housing of quadrillions of people over tera-year durations. But such things can also be weaponised."

"How powerful?"

"The most powerful mobile artillery in the galaxy belong to the Prikkiki-Ti."

She laughs. "I'm glad Aunt Alex doesn't know about these things."

"The Immortal Prikkiki-Ti is willing to entrust Life2.0 with one of these Planetcraft."

"What's the catch?'"

"The price is that you will unify these stellar region as a buffer state between three hostile parties."

She turns to the map. "You want us to conquer."

I wrap my thin and bony hand around a claw. "I want you to unify. You can decide how. Bring the region under one power, then outmanoeuvre the politics. Unite the galaxy under your mother, or you, or your sibling or your child. The galaxy has enough tyrants. It needs a Philosopher-Queen." Prikki are cursed with smaller bodies than Xenaya, and I am forced to look up to her. "Be that Queen."

 

[HistoryDude]

Rivkah doesn't seem to want a permanent position yet - we'll see if that allows Naomi to return to power in time.

These planetcraft sound very useful... especially against MSI.

Is that a propaganda campaign against MSI being planned?

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Succession, Part 4"
30th Daas, 9 (2188)
Rivkah Of Unity​

I decide I need time to think it all over. Laid awake at night on the overlook Mum and Dad go to when Mum feels like this.

I look at Grepp's mini-map. He's tagged the MSI fleets for me. The good news is that their expeditionary navy is camped twenty seven hyperlane jumps away. The bad news is, they're on the border of the People's Democratic Republic of Terra And Colonies space.

I wish I knew what was going on there, there's a few possibilities.

I'm anxious about the future... Slightly less anxious, as now I know that MSI's fleet can't be here for a good few years. And when they do come, we can see them coming, and with what ships. It is a relief.

I need help.

I call Mum. Audio this time. She declines, then video calls me.

She smiles. "Hello Rivkah. How are you?"

"I spoke to Grepp. He gave me this." I show her the map. "It's linked to the Prikkiki-Ti's Sentry Arrays. We can see MSI coming now." I look in the background. "Where's Dad?"

"Bath."

"And you aren't in there with him?"

She laughs. "I've been waiting for your call. Can't do that while in the bath."

"True." There's a pause. "Mum, why do you not trust Grepp?"

"Because I don't know what the Prikkiki-Ti is, and I'm nervous about aligning us with the wrong faction just because they were first to offer. We're a single star system dealing with powers that have dozens, hundreds, thousands of stars. It would be so easy to get caught up in something we don't want to get involved in."

"I figured that." I sigh. "I miss the days when I was the ideas bouncing board."

She nods. "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."

I wonder what that's from. "And we don't even get a lump of gold to put on our heads."

She laughs first. "Eight months to go Rivkah, and then I will have recovered from my Caesarean section and we can go back to normal."

"It's strange, being a ruler, isn't it? You wear hundreds of chains no one told you about..."

"That's why we are Stewards, not Rulers."

"I just feel like all the stress is on me."

"Rivkah, you don't have to carry everything. You have to learn to delegate. I read through your memos - your management style has become one where you are trying to micro everyone."

"I'm trying to get the best out of everyone."

"I know. But you can't get bogged down in that; there's too many people to micro manage, and Arch-Imperatrix has to be a big picture perspective." She pauses. "Plus, you are stil growing up."

"I'm not as experienced as you."

"Exactly. Some of your memos read as bossiness instead of leadership, and people resent bossiness."

I suddenly see it. "Especially if they feel like I'm not qualified..."

"Don't get me wrong, you're doing so much better than most second generation rulers do. But as an observer with clearance to see everything, I do think that you forget everyone around you is an expert in their field, and that some have spent more time studying for their jobs than you've been alive."

I nod. "It's hard... I mean, what does qualify me for this?"

"Trust. And hope. You lead our people because I led them, and therefore they trust you because they trust me. What you represent Rivkah, is the spirit of our new world together - you are the first child of Unity to come to the forefront of public life. I had you involved in leadership from when you were little, developing the public trust in you and using the symbology of you to inspire the new world we are building. You lead not because you are smarter than them, but because you represent the ideals they aspire for, the world they want to make happen."

"Thank you Mum. You've been planning your transfer of power to me all my life." Oh. My eyes go wide as I realise... "Mum, did I ever have a choice about leading?"

"Yes and no. I mean, you could have said that you don't want it, and I would have respected that. But I did structure your life to raise you in such a way that you wouldn't say so."

"If I decided right now that I don't want to do this any more, what would happen?"

"It would revert to me. And that puts a whole load of problems in place."

"So I am stuck here leading until you are recovered?"

"I wouldn't want you to feel stuck."

"Well, I do. I accept that I've made mistakes here, but I don't know how to tell everyone else that."

"Would you like to know what I'd say if I was you?"

"Yes."

She thinks it through. "I'd opt for another memo so that it's on record, that acknowledges that you've been thinking through your leadership methodology and you want to try a revised method. If you want a further justification, cite talking to me too."

"How would you phrase it?"

She smiles. "It needs to come from your heart my daughter. We lead because we love."

I smile back. "Thanks Mum. I'm going to get some sleep."

"Sweet dreams Rivkah."

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Rivkah doesn't seem to want a permanent position yet - we'll see if that allows Naomi to return to power in time.

These planetcraft sound very useful... especially against MSI.

Is that a propaganda campaign against MSI being planned?

She does, but also doesn't. The responsibility is getting to her.

It would be.

Not propaganda as such, but documenting and evidencing the numerous abuses by MSI of those it supposedly uplifts.

 

[HistoryDude]

This People's Democratic Republic of Terra And Colonies... is it based on Earth? Does this mean that there are independent humans? If so, how did it emerge? From China?

Rivkah is starting to feel the weight of leadership, but at least she is learning lessons about it. That could serve her well in the long run.