The Terran Gambit (Episode #1: The Pax Humana Saga) by Endi Webb

and the Admiral killed in a skirmish when a deal with the November family went sour.
    The Admiral nodded. “I saw the reports. But Captain,” he said, dropping his head to peer at Titus above his spectacles. “Never assume your enemy is dead when you can’t see the body. And whether he is dead or not doesn’t matter. We need to destroy his mythos. If the Resistance on Earth thinks someone is going to come in and save them, then we need to disabuse them of that notion by destroying their savior.”
    The Admiral began pacing towards the center of the room—towards the raised tactical command console where Titus and his XO directed the battle operations of the cruiser. “It is not just a tactical victory we seek over the Resistance, Captain, remember that. We are here to deal such a crushing blow, both physically and psychologically, that the rebellion will never rise again ,” he said, tapping the console to emphasize each of his last three words.
    Titus cleared his throat. “But sir, I was under the assumption that we did just that. Three years ago. We leveled the Resistance headquarters in Dallas. They haven’t recovered since then—if intelligence is to be believed, they are not even at a tenth of the manpower they were before.”
    “The victory three years ago was absolute, yes. But we paid for it. The uproar in the senate was so pronounced that a no-confidence vote was even threatened against the emperor. Did you hear that, Captain? A no confidence vote against the emperor. I see your expression—a silly notion, I agree, how can a senate impeach an emperor? But there you go. It rattled Emperor Maximillian. It showed him that his senate, and by extension the most loyal worlds of the empire, were not going to rubber stamp his every decision. For the emperor to have any power, there must be an assumption by the masses of complete unanimity in the highest level of government. Otherwise he governs by force alone. But why govern by force when you can let the lazier side of human nature govern for you?”
    He paused, seemingly waiting for an answer to what Titus had assumed was a rhetorical question. “With a unified senate,” the Admiral continued as he paced, “the people assume the best about both the senate and the emperor, for how, after all, can every single one of them be wrong? And if they see the government unified, then the naysayers, the warmongers, and those who wish a change in government will see their path as hopelessly uphill. Thus maintaining the stability of government. And with the senate realizing that the people will not rise up to change the status quo, that reinforces their incentive to appear to be with the program, because no one likes to be seen as the lone voice in the wilderness.”
    Trajan glanced around the room, as if to watch for dissent. Some fool who disagreed with him. Seeing the gazes of the bridge crew all locked on him and some officers occasionally nodding, he seemed satisfied and went on.
    “So Emperor Maximillian came to me. He took me aside one night, late, after he had addressed the senate and promised the Truth and Reconciliation process on Earth, and he invited me to his private estate, and that is where he gave me the assignment I’ve been working on for the past three years, Captain,” he said, spinning on his heel to stare with his solitary eye back at Titus.
    “So in all the orders you are about to receive over the coming weeks, and this goes for all of you,” he glanced around the room, looking into the eyes of the enraptured bridge crew, who had only even seen the Admiral briefly in hallways and inspections, “keep in mind that though the orders may not make immediate sense, know that I have been meticulously planning them for a great deal of time.”
    He walked up to the navigator and looked him up and down, resting a hand on the wide-eyed man’s elbow as he finished up his speech. “And I chose the Caligula for a reason. And that reason is that in order