Chapter 20

I slammed the hammer against the plate, leaving a resounding bang that hung in the silence. “The Fourth Congress of Planets is hearbye begun!” I announced, my voice echoing from the loud speakers across the auditorium.

I set the hammer down, my job in the opening ceremonies complete. The Speaker of the Combine, the elected leader of the representatives sent to Dyson to serve as planetary representatives of the Dominion stood and took his place beneath the raised dais of my throne seat.

“Gentlebeings,” he began, droning on with his welcome speech. I had established a tradition early on that if I got bored with long speeches, I’d store and conjure the person elsewhere. The more boring, the further they would go. The current record holder got sent back to his childhood hometown 1800 light years away.

As expected it was short, then the delegates digitally verified their attendance, and the session could begin. My galactic government was increasingly republican in nature, with members voting on and sharing in ever more of the details and minutia of a galaxy wide government. It had been good advice from a fellow Kempu, to make sure the government could continue beyond when I would inevitably become bored with it.

I listened as they debated a few minutes over increasing the transit fees between the hubs using the pearl connection and transport system. They eventually decided to have fees remain the same for another year. Eventually they got to the final item of the day’s agenda, the requests for world terraforming and star system modifications. To encourage cooperation, as sending a representative to join the government of the Dominion was completely voluntary, I took star system reforming requests only once a year, and only from participating members of that year’s Combine. I ritually accepted the requests for review, then gaveled out the days session.

I took a deep breath, glad to have the first day complete. Unless a Question was put before my throne, I was free until the final day, and closing ceremonies, roughly three weeks from today. I stepped thru the door behind the throne, and entered the elevator that brought me to my office.

“Good afternoon boss!” Margaret greeted.

I nodded to my secretary, and passed her, entering into my office where I dropped onto a couch, and lay back to relax. She followed me in, used to my methods, “Bokork asked that I warn you about a probable Question in the next few days.”

“Is it about how any sentient in the galaxy can call for relief from prosecution under local laws by appealing to the Dominion?”

“Yes.”

“He knows that primacy of Dominion law is the core concept here. I’m trying to establish a Federal government, and allow the individual worlds to operate as States.”

“Bokork and the other Bubblers are fully behind you, as are a number of other species and systems.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“A few systems are dominated by commercial entities that run the government there in fact, if not by law. They are worried that their power is threatened by the changes.”

“It’s been five years, they are still in power. I’m not going to dictate laws to individual worlds, nor am I going to decide what sort of government they have to have. I don’t understand why they are worried.”

“Civil unrest is becoming an issue on a few world’s for the first time ever, and it scares the consortiums.”

“It should scare them, because they aren’t in danger from me, but their own citizens.”

“Bokork has been negotiating with the consortiums, helping them see where they can legally and safely solve the unrest issues.”

“Excellent, schedule time with him tomorrow so I can go over the who where and what before the Question gets presented.”

Questions were a way for the Combine to get a ruling from me on a matter of law, procedure, or authority. We didn’t have a constitution, and we might never have one. We did have a framework. It included a set of policies and procedures, as well as a few new traditions. These, along with the occasional Memorandum of Intent, made clear to the galaxy at large what actions the Dominion would take. Memorandums, so far, had primarily centered around conflict between planets and systems, but also covered protecting presentient life, non stellar civilizations, and prosecution of rogue stellar organizations.

The legal experts loved it, because it was still new enough to put their stamp on it before it hardened under centuries of history. Others loved it as it was still new and vague enough that they could do things they had not been allowed to do under the massive weight of Trade Federation law.

Bokork rolled into my office exactly on time, “Greetings Dominus Poseidon,” he said.

“Hi Bokork, roll on up. What’s the Question likely to be?”

“It will reference whether or not local laws have primacy on planets over Dominion law, which is being referred to as interstellar law.”

“You know my position, Dominion law always has primacy.”

“Yes, and I think that this Question will be difficult. They are referencing a particular issue where a being made request to the Dominion but the Dominion had no laws covering the crime involved. The opposition is arguing that because there is no applicable Dominion law, there is no primacy.”

“Tricky. If the Dominion doesn’t regulate it, then they are free to make as many laws as they want. Not a direction I want to see happening. I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to establish a Judicial branch of the government.”

“Yes a few of the consortiums are hoping that you will do so as it will allow them to litigate their complaints into expanded freedoms.”

“It comes back to the same problem. At what point does a consortium become large enough to become a member of the Combine. The initial memo establishing the Combine invited a representative from each inhabited planetary body.”