-Have you made a decision?
Aelita asked, as soon as Andrew entered the bedroom, a few hours after the meeting.
Everyone knew what was on his mind, and the last time they discussed this, it remained unresolved.
This time, however, the issue needed to be addressed properly, and the final decision had to be made.
-I did.
He answered as he sat on the bed.
-Are you going to tell me, or do I have to guess?
She asked when the silence lasted for a full minute.
-Isn't it obvious?
The human asked.
-It took me a while to think things through, but once I did, I realized that the empire is already established.
It has been for a while now, we just never proclaimed it.
-So, should I start calling you the emperor, or his majesty?
The Cherin teased him.
-Only if you want to be called her majesty or the empress.
He smiled and pulled her into his embrace.
She yelped at his sudden action, then laughed.
-I think that my other sisters might get jealous if I get the title of an empress.
She said while hugging him back.
-Why would they be jealous?
They are getting the same titles as well.
Andrew said, surprising her.
-Wait, as far as I know, there usually are only two women capable of wielding this title, the empress and the empress mother.
If I remember correctly, the rest had the title of either an imperial consort or imperial concubine.
Aelita furrowed her brows, trying to remember the historical materials she had read about Earth's empires of the past.
-That was in the past, and if you look closer, it was discriminatory.
It was also the starting point of the palace drama, which usually ended badly for everyone involved.
I want to avoid that, and the last thing I need is for all of you to start fighting for the empress position.
The only way to prevent all of this that I could come up with was to give all of you the titles and position of the Empress.
He explained.
-But what about inheriting the throne, later down the line?
She asked, thinking a bit too long-term and making Andrew laugh.
-First, we need to survive long enough to worry about that, and more importantly, we don't have any children yet, and according to Ilia, it might be a while before there are any.
Moreover, I already have an idea about dealing with that headache down the line.
He said with a mysterious smile, indicating that he would not be spilling the beans on this one any time soon.
The next morning, Andrew called everyone to the conference room and instructed Sarill to connect all the station masters and fleet master to the room as well.
-Thank you all for joining this meeting.
I know that you are all busy, so I'll try to wrap this up as soon as possible.
Andrew greeted everyone, then proceeded to inform them about the merchant guild market and its significance to their future development, finishing with the requirements for gaining access to said market.
-Faced with these new opportunities and challenges, I hereby proclaim the establishment of the Lantean Empire.
Andrew finished his speech.
For a moment, there was an eerie silence, making him think that he had messed something up.
But the next moment, he heard one person say:
- Long live the emperor.
It was Drevon of all people, but the next second, everyone repeated this sentence like it was rehearsed.
-Long live the emperor!
Everyone said it loud enough for the whole station to hear.
It was as if everyone already knew this was going to happen and were simply waiting for his decision.
It took the next two hours before Andrew finished outlining the structure of the empire he had envisioned.
Starting with the governing structure, through the military structure, all the way to the plans for the near future.
The governing structure was quite simple.
He was at the top as the monarch with absolute power, followed by the Imperial Council, consisting mostly of the leaders of all the major fields, which would mostly deal with civilian matters.
This made most of his ladies the council members, but no one protested, knowing that this was not exactly nepotism, and additionally, there would be ten council members chosen from among the station masters, which would be changed every two years.
Andrew also added a clause, preventing the chosen council members from remaining in power for more than one turn each time.
Meaning that there was no chance of a reelection without a two-year pause.
-This is not aimed at diminishing the elected representative power, but to let everyone have a chance to sit on the council.
He explained, omitting that he saw what a continuous reelection of the same people did to the countries on earth, and he didn't want to see anything like that happening in his empire.
Andrew also added the clause allowing the AI to become council members if they so desired.
Then he moved to the military structure.
The Military as a whole would be directed by the Admiralty council, similarly to its civilian counterpart; it would have permanent members as well as chosen ones, using the same rules concerning the time spent on the council.
The first Admiral to be nominated was Runir, receiving the title of Admiral, which was only one rank lower than the highest rank Andrew wanted to use in the fleet.
The highest being the Fleet Admiral, which he reserved for now, wanting to have a way to reward her if she earned it.
The two other Admirals with the title of Vice Admiral were Giarna and Arien.
He left the other three Admiral spots to be filled by the elected officers.
As for the plans for the future, the number one topic was development, which was the most urgent matter.
Since the invasion ended prematurely for them, they had to focus on research as much as possible and on expanding their fleets and territories.
-This is just the beginning, and there are thousands of bigger and smaller issues to be addressed, but that's the work of the council.
Additionally, if anyone has an idea that could benefit the empire, do not hesitate to write it down and send it to the database, which will be established especially for this purpose.
Every such idea will be taken under consideration and researched if it has merit.
Thank you all for your time, now let's go back to work.
Andrew said, ending the meeting.
-That was without a doubt the least elegant proclamation I have ever witnessed, but also the most productive.
Terelen said, approaching Andrew as everyone else was leaving the room.
-I don't see any reason to make it grand and elegant, especially with all that is going on right now.
The human responded.
-Whatever the case, the proclamation took place, and I already drafted the Application for the guild, so if you would sign it, we could move forward with the resident merchant matter, as well as the diplomatic relations between the Lantean Star Empire and the Moon Elf Star Empire.
The elf presented his tablet to Andrew.
He read through the whole documentation, not leaving any word unread, especially the small print.
Once he was sure that both documents were exactly what they were supposed to be without any hidden clauses, he took the small cylinder attached to the side of the tablet, pricked his finger, and dropped some blood into the container before signing his name on the device.
-Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to send these. In the meantime, you might want to start building the merchant modules.
Terelen said while pressing a few times on his tablet.
-I just sent you the blueprints for it.
-I'll deal with it as soon as possible.
Andrew promised.
The elf simply nodded and turned to leave, but suddenly stopped and turned to his human friend.
-By the way, congratulations on becoming the emperor.
He smiled and left the room.
The whole territory was in a bit of an uproar; everyone knew that it was only a matter of time before they established a star nation, but they had no idea it would be this soon, so now everyone was discussing the topic and they were also trying to figure out who would join the two councils as the elected members.
Whoever was chosen would wield not only great power and influence, but would also hold a lot of responsibility on their shoulders, and they would also represent them all for the next two years, so the choice had to be made carefully.
-Andrew, or should I say Your imperial highness…
Nairin teased him, then chuckled as he entered the command center.
-What is it, my empress?
Andrew asked, not bothered at all by her antics.
She never considered that he could turn the tables on her so quickly, and blushed when he called her his empress.
She quickly regretted teasing him when the rest of the ladies started laughing at her reaction.
-Stop that!
She said, with a bit of anger in her voice, while stomping her foot.
-You started it.
He smiled amusedly at her, making her blush even more.
-Alright, I admit, I deserved that.
She capitulated, not able to find a suitable retort.
-I wanted to ask, where do you want the capital to be built?
She changed the topic.
-We have the time, it's not like we can build it right away.
He answered.
-Well, not the version you designed, but the one from that TV show, you have shown me, can be built, and the blueprints for the bigger one can be altered to allow them to dock with each other.
-You want to build a city ship?
Andrew asked, not believing what he was hearing.
-You do realize that this would allow the invading forces to use all of their fleets in this universe?
He asked, terrified at the thought.
It was bad enough as it was, and there was no reason to make things even worse.
All he needed to do was to take a look at the leaderboards, to see how many factions and territories were falling to the invaders already, and he had no intention to give the enemy any more advantage than they already had.
-Actually, it's not classified as a ship but as a station, so it won't change anything for the invasion, and even if it were, the most optimistic time to build it, with our current technology and without disrupting the production in the empire, is two years, so it would be better to start now, than try to do it later.
She said.
-Let me guess, you already ran the simulations on this?
Andrew asked, with a suspicion dripping from his voice.
-You said not to build anything without telling you, but you never told me not to run the simulations, so I did.
She projected the design on the main screen.
-I had to change a lot of things from the original design, since most of the technology doesn't exist, and I wanted to incorporate Vulcan's shipyard into it.
-You don't need to do that.
The AI chimed in.
-I have already found a solution to the problem of repositioning myself, and it won't take too long for my installation to be equipped with some additional features, such as standard drives and FTL drives capable of moving the shipyard.
However, if I am to be relocated to another galaxy, then we need the intergalactic drive for that, as I am unable to fit through the wormhole.
Vulcan explained.
-Besides, the Atlantis you are talking about could not accommodate him anyway, without using the shipyard as the base to build on.
Andrew added, after looking at the design in front of him.
-That is the idea.
Nairin argued.
-That's not happening.
The bigger version will have a dock for the shipyard, but if you want to build this one, then you need to do so without using this installation as a base.
Besides, the Idea always was to build it in the Sol system, which I'm planning to use as our capital system in the future.
Andrew explained.
-Alright.
Nairin pressed a few times on her console, and the display changed to one looking much more like the original Atlantis.
-So what about this one?
She said, pointing at the main screen.
-This one looks much more like the original, but are you sure that my design can be altered to dock with this?
Andrew asked, still not convinced of the idea.
-It can, I already altered it, she pressed a few more controls, and displayed the altered blueprints containing a docking space for the city ship.
-But if you want to build this thing, then you need to find another system to do so, or your home system might be in trouble.
Nairin said.
-To be honest, I would prefer to build it here, since there are no planets or other gravity wells that can be affected by this thing.
She explained.
-She's right, your home system is not suitable for building things of this scale.
Aelita agreed after doing some math.
Andrew sighed after hearing that.
He wanted to build Atlantis in his home system, but it was not to be.
-Alright, since that is the case, then let's build it here.
He agreed with resignation.
-Great, now that that's settled, let's discuss the empire's diplomatic direction.
Tarina said with a smile.
Seeing this, Andrew started to reconsider whether becoming an Emperor was such a good idea.