The Bigger Picture 1

"The bigger picture huh?" Don poked his bulb with his fork with disgust. He wasn't fond of veggies much in the first place, straight up leaves even less so. "To me the bigger picture looks like a fucking mess."

Diana munched her leaf into a paste and swallowed, slightly bitter, but it went well with the provided drink. "What does the bigger picture look like to you? If you don't mind, I might be able to help clear it up."

Don took the dive with his cocoon of leaves, finding it to be slightly less worse than anticipated. "For one, we are fucked beyond all recognition with the whole Earth situation. No industrial or research base, human resources, economic power, or military backing means we won't have much to work with that is completely our own for some time."

"You seem pretty clear on that point to me..."

"Not really. Not even ARC really has an estimate of when basic production facilities will be online. Should it have a constant, uninterrupted, flow of processed raw materials with which to build orbital infrastructure with, it might be able to get a corvette scale slipway operational and at maximum efficiency in eleven months. It didn't even bother to give an estimate on that without an effectively unlimited supply due to the amount of factors."

"How long do you think it might take?"

"Decades probably. If we end up having to process asteroids using nanites and synthesize shit like oil and rubber on our own, we may as well give up on using modern equipment to do the job."

Yikes. She was trying to make the future clear for him, but instead she was the one getting a lesson on how bad it might be. "What if we didn't have to make all the parts on our own? Could we order gears or whatever ARC needs to speed up the process?"

Don just about dropped his fork when she said that. "With the level of technological development they have? Forget the level of precision we would need, I don't even think they know the proper processes to make something that would last long enough to be replaced."

Don grabbed the sword at his hip and pulled it up for her to see.

"ARC says this thing is basically just impure iron. If they can't even make crude steel I doubt they can properly work with shit like, I don't know, Tungsten and Praseodymium."

"Praseo...?"

"Praseodymium. Element 69 on the table I think? Maybe its 59. We use it for high intensity thrusters and electronics."

"Ooookay, so we'll have our time in the academy to figure that out. What of your perspective beyond our domestic capabilities?"

"Where to start? Uh, I think that this, what was it again, foodal -"

"Feudal."

"- Feudal system is really stupid and I can't understand why anybody would be willing to go along with it." He was beginning to wish they had more to drink. He had been downing his with big gulps to wash the unpleasant taste away.

"Could you elaborate on what you are confused about?" She had been taught about this sort of thing more than him, all the way back on Earth, so she should probably be able to clear anything up.

"Biggest thing is why the second tier, Dukes? Why are they willing to serve under the king even with their relatively similar power."

If he was a duke, he would probably revolt against a higher authority, especially the ones which seemed so heinously incompetent as had been described by the Scholar. He didn't paint them in a bad light of course, but by their standards the relative wealth of the populace in comparison could only mean corruption.

"I think it might be more of a protective arrangement Don, not a relationship of overlordship like I think you are imagining. They probably COULD revolt if they wanted to, but their current arrangements are likely just too good for them. They get to hold a vast amount of power AND they get to call upon others to protect their realms in times of war. Plus, I imagine it must be nice to have a scapegoat should something go terribly wrong with your management."

"A scapegoat? Who?"

"The King. If, say, a tax policy of yours ends up bringing the population to revolt, it wouldn't be too hard to point your finger at the king and pull a 'he told me to' in order to redirect their anger." She wasn't a stranger to politicking, despite never having participated.

"Can't the same be done to them? Like can't the King say that its all a subordinate's fault?"

"Maybe, but they can revolt, remember? Plus, its not like the common folk can do anything about it either. From the looks of it, interstellar travel isn't exactly cheap, so it isn't feasible for a militia of angry peasants to make their way to the capital to depose the king. To me it seems like its a win-win situation."

"How in the hell is that a win-win? The King isn't getting anything out of that!"

Diana had one word to refute that. "Taxes."

"What?"

"The King gets taxes in return, probably levies as well. In return for being someone to point at and say 'he did it' he gets free money and a free army, Not to mention international influence and fame. I imagine there's a massive superiority complex that goes along with the territory."

Diana reached over the table and brought Donovan's bulb to her own plate.

"I this relationship goes all the way down to the lowest level as well. I get free money and free soldiers, in exchange you get an excuse to oppress your people without recourse."

"And the people are okay with that?" Donovan was a little incredulous at this.

"They probably wouldn't be if they knew there was a better way. Did you know that the Scholar is one of only a few people aboard this ship who can read and write a language? Supposedly, it is called Sanctum-Script, and it is one of the few written languages that exists in the universe."

"That was a hell of a tangent." Don just stared at her, dumbfounded. Where the hell did that come from. "How does that fit in at all?"