This message is a placeholder for Nikolaj and his new thread, GMed by Tadeusz.

Welcome back, Nikolaj!  -- Oak  :D

Previous game thread here: link to a message in this game

In reply to Nikolaj (msg # 2):

Emperor of the Three Races, the Blitken, the Kringsta, and the Avian, you have a hundred space cadets, the children of the elite of the Empire, on the Cadet's ship, and on Sun Cannon #24 or Louie.

You're heading at FTL speeds through interstellar space, and a Kringsta navigator has just told you of the need to maneuver to avoid 'dark reefs' in deep space.

Are you taking the Cadets back to their academy, or to the Ruling Council's headquarters on Zoboa?

My first thought is to go to the ruling headquarters on Zoboa. I would send the Cadets back from there together with a message to the academy staff that they had done a great job training these cadets as they saved my life, twice. I do suggest a mention in the courses though, that dinosaurs are no suitable pets. (especially the carnivorous ones).

I encourage the Kringsta navigator to avoid the dark reefs and set a safe course to Zoboa.

A Kringsta gunner comes to you, his great face, crumpled and wrinkled more than normal.  He flexes his hands, and looks down on them.

"I am Gunner Morkin. I am troubled by a choice I made in my first year at the Space Academy."

I look up at the gunner's face. I've been on the ship for a bit now and I'm starting to understand these alien expressions a bit I feel. He seems bothered, and his words confirm his actions. I motion for a place for him to sit and sit somewhere close. Ideally in a part of the room where we can have a bit of privacy. (Or did he come to my quarters?) These creatures seem to value honour a great deal, so they tend to take things like choices made pretty serious.

Once we have some privacy I ask him what the choice was that troubles him so, should he want to explain it. If not I'm momentarily content to dance around it, calling it The Choice, while we discus what made him make The Choice and what troubles him about The Choice, trying to get him to feel at ease enough to tell what his choice was.

You find a nook in  the break room.  It has a very sturdy foot stand that is extendable, a high bar that can swing about, a very rigid almost enclosing and slim chair, and a chair suited for a Human.  He climbs up on the foot stand which makes him even higher, but it seems to relax him.

"I am the second son of a Treeplanter family.  My lineage goes all the way back to the Founding when the Alo-likgard brought us to our world.  For unlike the others, we were not made by the Creator, but by his servants, or some of them.

Once we were made, He told them not to do so again, so we fear we were mistakes, but He told them to make us a world.  And so we came upon the World of Home two years after the Beginning.  And the great among us each planted a mighty tree, trees which live to this day.  And those trees had children and children's children, and thus our great Forrest came to be.

One of my cousins is just barely behind me in familial rank, and in scholarship.  Now I know, but cannot prove he cheated.  I also know that he has not the proper care of the Trees.  And so I wonder if dishonesty to save the Trees and to keep an unworthy sort from power is right."

I lean forwards in my chair as I listen to him, looking concentrated on what he says. At times it looks as i I want to say something but I hesitate and ask him to keep going.

At the end I return my hands to my lap. They had been holding my chin as I leaned forward in the chair. I smile and point to him while motivationally saying that "God does not make mistakes. He wanted you and your kin. He has a purpose in what He makes ... and in what He allows."

Then I turn more serious in my expression, no longer smiling. "You seem to be making a serious accusation here. It may be true, I'm not contesting that. But how can you know if you cannot prove it? Let us answer that question before we answer the question of dishonesty possibly having merit."

He might have just misinterpreted something or have come to a hasty conclusion. Let's first see if this is the case or not.

"I believe in the existence of many things I can't prove.  I see my cousin, as smart as I, I see him play all night for a week before the tests, and he scores as well as I, even on severalof the tests he scores the exact same grade as another....whichis not easy."

He shakes his head.

"He speaks arrogantly, says its because he's smarter than me, but I cannot believe that. I've known him all my life.  If anything he'snot quite as smart as me."

"Hmm. I don't know him as you do.", I tell him, "So cannot judge here. I would urge to patience and prudence here, because this is a thing that is hard to know."

I shift my weight in the chair and try to look the Kringsta in the eyes. "I do not know these things, but there is One who does, and we can seek his counsel right now."

If he agrees I will lead him into prayer. It is just a spoken prayer, eyes closed and with the laying on of a hand on the person for whom is prayed. That person has to be a willing participant. The prayer consist of at least one part of praise/exultation (in the ability of God to know all thing and just in his greatness), one part petitioning for guidance and/or revelation and one part of thanksgiving for hearing us, followed by silence and focussing on the workings of the Holy Spirit to reveal, either by word or image or whatever other way, the answer to our question.

I have successfully done this before several times, but never on a space alien (that I know of ;) ).

"Great honor to the God who is strong, and knows all secrets.  He is cunning and battlewise, no enemy can sneak up on Him.

His axe is sharp, his eye is clear, his arm is steady.  He will strike true and just, and right.
And no one, not the well favored, or the rich, or the corrupt can stand against Him from the farthest edge of the Galaxy to the clotted center.  He holds his axe over it all.

Show me, Wise Commander, Chiefest of Spies, show me what I ought to do, what I ought to know.

Thank you, Great One, thank you for this gift of your knowledge."

After a bit he looks up.  "I must confess my deed, and I now realize I have. To my Emperor."  He gets up, bows, and walks away.

You on the other hand saw a Kringsta using an electronic device to spy upon others and copy their work during a test.  And you saw this Kringsta as gifted in words and in manner, and at the center of a vast web of influence, or near the center of it anyways.  To confront him will be unpleasant at best.

Was the Kringsta in this vision a specific Kringsta that I would be able to recognize or was it just a Kringsta, as in that I know it's a Kringsta, but don't know which one?

Was the Kringsta I saw in the vision one of the crew, or one of the academy that is not on this ship?

The reaction of gunner Morkin to the prayer, one of confession, puzzles me a bit. He probably has had a revelation of his own, and he confesses his ill intent towards his nephew. But it might have been otherwise. He might have already taken steps and set something half in motion before he came. I get the impression that he, and perhaps the others of his race, are a people of little words, but speak more through actions. I am glad he chose guidance here.

But now I am with a dilemma, I know of someone who cheated, but have no proof. And now I wonder if I should act without proof, even perhaps breaking a law, to do the right thing. Surely even the bible has precedents for that. The prostitute who lied to keep the Israeli spies safe, Jehud killing a wicked king, David taking the showbread from the tabernacle ... But when was it right to break to law, and why should I do this? And what should I do, were I to act?

A dictatorial decision would make me seem arbitrary and would set a precedent for all kinds of people to come to me, accusing their rivals. A lie is hard to be proven, I doubt even the current technology can detect lies of a trained lier. I should look into that.
I wonder what function he studies for, and what position he's hoping to fill with it. Let's first research lie detection on the computer's database. I wonder if this is a matter that would warrant a personal action from 'the emperor', which I'm still getting used to being called.

Its specific, but not on the ship, but in the academy.

Heh. I just re-read it, and I realize he did not tell you what decision he had made that troubled him.  But he thinks he has, and so his conscience is clear because he's confessed to the Emperor who will take whatever actions are fitting.

The current tech might allow you to detect a liar, but without evidence of a misdeed, its use is forbidden by the authorities for fear that such will be used dictatorially.

The ship does not have files on all the students in the Academy.  And when you check out the local computer systems you're bemused to see a large, air conditioned room with a huge metal box ten yards long with according to its attendants the 'phenomenal capacity of two hundred megabytes'.  And then someone walks by with a large stack of rectangular yellow cards, and feeds them into a machine which reads them very rapidly.

Tadeusz:

The current tech might allow you to detect a liar, but without evidence of a misdeed, its use is forbidden by the authorities for fear that such will be used dictatorially.

I thought I was the authorities? Being intergalactic emperor and all. This is just like star wars. Being called emperor or princes or whatever and actually not be a monarchy. Weird.

Tadeusz:

The ship does not have files on all the students in the Academy.  And when you check out the local computer systems you're bemused to see a large, air conditioned room with a huge metal box ten yards long with according to its attendants the 'phenomenal capacity of two hundred megabytes'.  And then someone walks by with a large stack of rectangular yellow cards, and feeds them into a machine which reads them very rapidly.

Hah, cool surprise! I suppose this ship is really fueled by prayer or something then. Or they just never developed an electronic computer but got this far just mechanically. Interesting!

---------------

In character: I close my eyes and reach out to Louie, our ship. Is it available?

You are the Authority, but before you were here, the Ruling Council was, and this was their law.  Sorry.

No, its an Imperium, and you're the Emperor.  However, you will have certain limits on your power (if you ordered genocide, your military would mutiny.)

"Hello, Sire." Louie says. "I power the Sun Cannon ship.  Other lesser ships are a mixture of miracle and machine.  The interstellar drive is purely miracle. And I am always available to you, my Emperor, provided we are in range."

"Much of your power is based on your personal control of the Sun Cannon ship fleet. There are thirty of them, or there were.  I am, of course, no. 24. We have greater speed and durability, more maneuverability, and much, much greater firepower."

Genocide is not on my agenda, as I hope, it will never have to be. Even roleplaying, having a character have this much power is rather daunting. Any mistake made in an order or a decree can potentially cause massive destruction (and I'm not only, nor even mostly, speaking of physical destruction. But hierarchical, society-wise, politically etc. etc.).

Is Louie's voice in my head or audible? Can I contact it in thought alone or do I have to speak? I am assuming this is silent, just as prayers can be silent. I ask Louie if it can make a connection with the college database. (only if he can, not to actually do it ... yet) I stop dead in my tracks, realizing how much this question entails. Will I be Big Brother and watch each and every potentially dangerous individual? I do NOT want that. Dangit, these decisions are hard to make. And this is just one case. I wait for the answer Louie will give me and thank him, asking to not make a connection yet. I'll break the connection then, but before that I'll give him leave to alert me of any threat to the ship's safety and that of it's crew if it detects something.

Then, regardless of it's answer, I will go to the captain of this ship, if there is one, or the previous one since they had the ship here before I ... arrived. Is that person available?

Louie's voice can be either.  You also realize that he can read your mind a bit.

You can contact him either way, although a voice will get his attention sooner.

"I would burn up the mainframe. So, no, I can't.

The captain of the Cadet ship is an Avian anamed 'ahroooi', and he's glad to sit down in a nook, order a tea, and talk with you.  He has no duties now.

I try to start with a bit of chit chat, which I'm not good at. I ask if the voyage seems to be going well and how things are going, only to afterwards just asking him the question I asked him over for. He's having tea, and I'm slurping coffee. (Just black, no sugar, no cream)

"What I actually want to ask you, captain, is a bit of advice. Before I got involved with this ship I never really had to take command over large groups of people. Now I'm suddenly an Emperor while the biggest group of people I used to lead were 10 teenagers at a camp. Do you have any tips and pointers, since I want to do this well. How do you lead your ship and it's crew?"

I then sit back and take a sip of my coffee, anxiously wondering if it was such a good idea to show insecurity to a person that has no real reason to trust or follow me. It could hurt my authority.

He stares at you in surprise, and then reflexively sips more of his tea up his beak.

"Its true what my professors said at the academy.  Even the great ones have fear.  They said Twantionne would spend the whole night before a battle throwing up, and then clean it up himself as he did not want any of his men to know bout it."

He grooms his neck a bit, lost in thought.

"I was, or am, maybe if I don't lose points for this misadventure, the highest rated student in my class at the academy. So therefore I was the captain.  I told everyone to go to where they were the best traiend, and then I wandered about checking.  I had some who were the best at two things, so I had to clarify.  I had a few, not many, who did not get along at all with their team.  I had one thaat I simlply did not trust in his job because he tended to groom when panicked way too much.  But then in an academy, we all know our scores.  We all know who's the best and second best at piloting for example."

He scratches his beak.

"Once they get over the shock, you'll have the same sort of advabtage I did.  The Three Peoples have been waiting for you to come back.  They expect to be told what to do."

So the key is in knowing the people you work with...

In smaller teams, that will indeed be the way to go, but I can't personally know everyone, can I. I think I'll have to take the advise Jethro gave Moses, and delegate. That way I only have to know the people that are directly under me. My care would then have to be to see they have more or less the same vision I have and are trustworthy and capable of doing their job.

Their job would have to be taking decisions in my absence. So they would need to be of good judgement. So as not to seem to prefer one of the tree people above the others I would also have to keep in mind to have to have an equal amount of all three of them in every function I assume. I dislike letting go of control in giving it over to others, but I would dislike keeping control even more. I'm so used in doing things solo, because I could usually do things better if I did them myself.

But this is not an art project, this is running an empire.

"Thank you for your advice." I answer after drinking another gulp of my coffee, emptying the mug. "I have things to think about now. It seems very logical and simple, but the scale is so vast." I smile suddenly. "But with God's help, I'm sure we will succeed. Have a nice day ... or um, cycle?" I say, finishing the conversation and standing up, getting ready for a walk through the hallways.

My main concern though, was that I had this person that I knew was bad, but that I didn't dare to approach personally. I did not want to give the impression that I'm the kind of emperor that operates on the basis of instilling fear. Not acting on anything that I know that I should not be able to know is part of this. If people can't make mistakes, then no mercy can be given.

Anyway, I would need to see what I would do with this piece of information when I get planet-side. I should probably see who my representative is on the college's planet. Also, I should probably get to write some sort of letter of recommendation for this crew to send to the academy. They did save my life, perhaps twice even. Once while I ran from the T-Rex, and the second time in dealing with the space pirates. I wandered over to my cabin and saw to how to do this here. I think I still had some paper and a pen. If computers where the same all aboard the ship as that machine that was considered powerful, then I guess an e-mail would be out of the question. Besides, if I wrote it on fine paper, stuck it in a magnificent envelope and perhaps sealed it in some fancy way it would have quite a bit more panache, hopefully impressing the board at the academy.