History Night on Union Station Read online

  History Night on Union Station

  Book Twenty of EarthCent Ambassador

  Copyright 2022 by E. M. Foner

  One

  “In conclusion, it is the view of Union Station embassy that EarthCent needs an on-the-job training system for diplomatic staff, in part to prepare replacements for the current generation of ambassadors as we retire, but also to provide visiting positions for graduates from the Human Empire’s School of Government so they don’t become disillusioned with their career choice during the multi-generational start-up phase.”

  “You asked me to remind you to include a request for an official historian,” Libby said when Ambassador McAllister finished speaking. “Do you want to add a sentence before I send off your weekly report?”

  Kelly shook her head as if the station librarian were a person in the room as opposed to a Stryx artificial intelligence whose presence was distributed through Union Station and likely far beyond. “I can’t believe I forgot again. I even have it written down in my notebook. But adding another sentence now would defeat the whole point of reaching a conclusion.”

  “If you say so. Will you start over again?”

  “No,” Kelly decided after a moment’s hesitation. “I’ll bring it up separately when I talk to President Beyer. The good thing about history is that it’s not going anywhere. When Joe initially suggested to me that we appoint an official historian like some militaries on Earth used to do during wars, I was skeptical. But then I remembered that people who forget their mistakes are doomed to repeat them.”

  “History written by an insider during the course of events has some advantages over forensic analysis,” Libby concurred. “Have you considered putting yourself forward?”

  “With my memory?”

  “Your issues with remembering minor details are limited to the short term and you’ve already laid a reasonable foundation for the work.”

  Kelly gazed up at the ceiling for a moment, embarrassed to admit that she couldn’t remember ever having done such a thing. Then it clicked. “You’re talking about my EarthCent for Humans manuscript that Walter rejected for publication because I didn’t follow the series guidelines? That must have been a decade ago and it wasn’t a serious history. I was trying to write for a wide audience.”

  “And you don’t believe history can be accessible to a wide audience?” The Stryx librarian allowed for a significant pause before continuing. “I recently saw an analysis showing that over thirty percent of the current entertainment content on the tunnel network is based on historical events.”

  “Are you counting sports and news as entertainment?” Kelly asked. “Thirty percent seems awfully high.”

  “The analysis is Flower’s, not mine, and it included all of the broadcast, streaming, and recorded content she could access.”

  “Samuel told me that Flower is headhunting new employees at all of the cons she hosts, so maybe she’s preparing to expand her entertainment business beyond anime production. But surely you aren’t suggesting that we cater to the broad market with a history of EarthCent. I was thinking more along the lines of serious textbooks.”

  “You mean, boring.”

  “I don’t think that’s what I mean,” Kelly said, becoming suspicious that the Stryx librarian was employing the Socratic method for a reason. “Maybe EarthCent should be doing more to make people aware of our achievements but we still need texts to help train junior diplomats. They’re bound to include far more procedural detail than casual readers would be willing to read.”

  “Aabina is back from the meeting next door and asked me if you’re available,” Libby announced, effectively putting an end to the conversation.

  “Of course I’m available, she doesn’t have to ask.” The EarthCent ambassador moved her purse from the surface of the display desk back into the deep drawer so it wouldn’t look like she had been about to leave. Then she got up and went to the door where she waved open the security lock that she always engaged while making her weekly reports.

  “Good afternoon, Ambassador,” Aabina said as she entered. “I hope you weren’t on your way home.”

  Kelly delayed replying until she turned back to her desk, hoping the lie wouldn’t be as easy to detect when the Vergallian princess was unable to see her face. “Not for another half-hour. How did the meeting go?”

  “Whoever came up with the name for the Conference of Sovereign Human Communities wasn’t exaggerating,” Aabina said. “The CoSHC members take their sovereignty seriously, at least when it comes to listening to advice. It’s ironic how they willingly embrace the laws and culture of whichever advanced species is administrating the open world where the community is located but they limit their cooperation with each other to strictly business.”

  “You know our people worry about anything that could lead to paying taxes,” the EarthCent ambassador said. “And now that the open world communities are all officially members of the Human Empire, they can claim there’s no need for CoSHC to develop beyond a business organization. We run hot and cold as a species on the whole concept of leaders. When times are bad, humans look for somebody to take responsibility. When times are good, we want government out of our hair.”

  “It just seems like a wasted opportunity,” Aabina said. “The only thing the delegates could agree on was hosting a job fair for the members, and even there, they expect Associate Ambassador Cohan to do everything.”

  “I hope Daniel told them where they can stick that idea.”

  “He agreed, and I offered to help, pending your approval. It wouldn’t be fair to make Donna do all of the administrative work.”

  “What happened to Jill?” Kelly asked. “I thought she was working out fine. I was even thinking of suggesting her for an embassy manager slot when she was ready to move up.”

  “She gave her notice and asked Daniel if she could leave next week when the representative from Timble heads back.”

  “Isn’t Timble the Grenouthian orbital where the human population all works in immersive productions? And now you’re telling me that their representative poached her out from under Daniel’s nose to thank him for providing shared workspace on Union Station?” Kelly shook her head in disgust. “I understand that good employees are hard to find, but that would be like me visiting the president’s office on Earth and hiring away Hildy Grueun.”

  “Judging by the new ring on Jill’s finger, I think there was a proposal involved, though you’re right that some employers will go to great lengths to find qualified help,” Aabina said.

  “Well, if she’s getting married, I suppose that’s acceptable. You’re welcome to help Daniel, and he should take advantage of the job fair to find himself a new office manager. Maybe he should hire a personal assistant as well to have a backup.”

  “The Alt’s contract queen on Union Station is officially asking if you are available for a brief meeting,” Libby informed them. “She can be here in five minutes.”

  “Affie?” Kelly replied reflexively. “Yes, I’ll wait.” She turned back to her special assistant. “I included your suggestion for EarthCent to create an on-the-job training program and prepare to foster graduates from the Human Empire’s School of Government. I was going to request that we appoint an official historian as well, but it slipped my mind.”

  “An official historian is an excellent idea. Every queen has at least one historian on the royal staff, often several. My mother employs three historians to cover diplomacy, economics, and culture.”

  “Are you sure she’s not just being nice by providing gainful employment for highly trained academics who couldn’t find teaching positions?”

  “Every queen’s court is expected to do that,” Aabina sai
d with a laugh. “Do you want help writing a formal proposal for EarthCent?”

  “After what you just told me, I’m thinking more along the lines of a help-wanted ad,” Kelly said. “With the All Species Cookbook money from the pop-up-ad edition coming in, it might make more sense for me to hire a historian on my own and provide EarthCent with a fait accompli. I’ve read plenty of history, if you include historical fiction, but I don’t know the first thing about hiring a historian to document the present and the recent past for posterity. Did you have any personal contact with the historians your mother employed?”

  Aabina nodded. “I know all three of them quite well. They insisted on interviewing me on a regular basis due to my place in the royal succession. I barely got out of the palace for a walk the last time I visited home.”

  “Now I feel guilty about only giving you two weeks of vacation. You should have told me it wasn’t enough.”

  “Two years wouldn’t be enough with those three. Historians will drain you dry if you let them—they want to know everything. And official historians are usually tasked with writing a secret history for the royal family along with the public history for publication.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that,” Kelly admitted. “Maybe I’ll run the whole thing by Clive first. I suppose it’s possible that EarthCent Intelligence already has an official historian on staff and it’s never come up.”

  Aabina hesitated for a moment. “You know I taught a course about Vergallian royal training as adjunct faculty at the Open University last year. They just asked me about teaching a seminar on royal government for one of their satellite campuses.”

  “That’s wonderful, Aabina. I feel guilty that I haven’t suggested you to Samuel as faculty but I was afraid that you’d leave me for Flower.” Kelly laughed at herself. “It’s funny how possessive I’ve become.”

  “The seminar is for the Human Empire’s new School of Government through the Open University extension campus on Flower if they can’t find another Vergallian,” Aabina said. “They’re only a few months away from opening now. My royal training in compartmentalization will keep me from accidentally sharing your confidential information, but I’m not sure about the visuals of an EarthCent embassy employee teaching there.”

  “Completely remote?” Kelly asked, crossing her fingers behind her back.

  “Flower has an unlimited Stryxnet connection and she’s adopted Human Standard Time so it’s the ideal setup. I can conduct a seminar from my office here in the embassy using the holo-conferencing system.”

  “I don’t see any problem. It could even turn into a plus when we extend invitations for visiting positions at EarthCent embassies for the graduates. Your evaluations of students would carry great weight.”

  “I’ll have to talk it over with my mother first,” Aabina said. “She has the final say on any jobs I accept since my first duty is to our world.”

  “Of course,” Kelly said. “I wonder what Affie wants? I still can’t get over how she’s changed since your mother tricked her into becoming the Union Station contract queen for the Alts. I know she went through a version of the same royal training that you did, but I’ll always remember her hanging out with my daughter and Flazint, the three of them behaving like teenagers.”

  “I brought her in as a guest lecturer last semester and it turns out that royal training on Fleet worlds has diverged significantly from the Empire tradition,” Aabina said. “Perhaps she has another back-channel request from the Alts on Earth Two that they didn’t want to bring up directly with the Human settlers.”

  “It’s an awkward situation for the Alts. They made their deal to share Earth Two with Samuel, but the Human Empire remains more of a legal convenience than a true governing entity. Samuel and Vivian don’t have any control over the settlers, and they only just started accepting applications for their school of government launch.”

  “Affie is entering the embassy,” Libby announced, and Aabina bounced up from her seat to wave open the door of Kelly’s office.

  “Ambassador McAllister, Aabina,” Affie greeted them formally as she entered. “I’m sorry for coming on a Friday afternoon when I know you must be heading home but I thought you needed to see this as soon as possible.” She extended a pair of sticks to Kelly.

  “Is this a Horten holographic scroll?” the ambassador asked, pulling the sticks apart. “Oh, it’s legalese,” she said, her face falling.

  “From the tunnel network treaty,” Affie said. “It’s been updated again. One of the Alts I represent brought this to my attention.”

  “What section?” Aabina asked as Kelly began skimming the text.

  “The Thousand Cycle option. Are you familiar with the language?”

  Aabina nodded. “I recently heard a visiting Verlock historian who specializes in the tunnel network treaty discussing it at an Open University faculty breakfast. He said that the Thousand Cycle option didn’t exist in the treaty until the Conference of Sovereign Human Communities started growing explosively a few years back. The Stryx quietly updated the treaty so that CoSHC would have a path forward.”

  “With a mentor,” Kelly said, looking up from the scroll. “If I’m reading this correctly, the Thousand Cycle option has been modified to allow an early exit, providing a number of benchmarks are attained.”

  “It establishes a progress review once a decade on the Human calendar,” Affie confirmed.

  “And if the benchmarks are met, the Stryx will allow the merger with EarthCent and grant humanity full tunnel network membership?” Kelly asked, her voice rising in excitement.

  “Well over a century ahead of schedule. The Alt who brought this to my attention wanted to know if they should plan on the Human Empire successfully meeting the benchmarks. If that’s the case, they might be open to establishing full diplomatic relations with EarthCent earlier than planned, since many of the same people will be in place when the merger takes place.”

  “This changes everything! See what you can make of the text,” the ambassador said, passing the scroll to Aabina. “My old eyes have problems with holographic print.”

  “I asked the Alt if he wanted to meet you, but he said they would go through Human Empire channels when the time was right,” Affie continued. “Don’t forget that the Alts aren’t tunnel network members themselves.”

  “Because they chose an arrangement with the Empire of a Hundred Worlds instead, which is why you have a job as a contract queen,” Kelly said. “Does the once-a-decade review kick in starting with the language change, or is the first review ten years after the Conference of Sovereign Human Communities accepted the Thousand Cycle Plan?”

  “It’s pretty complicated,” Aabina said, looking up from the holographic scroll. “Did you read through the sub-clauses?”

  “I only got as far as the checklists and I was skimming.”

  “It looks to me like a gradual transition with increasing responsibilities. The requirement to open embassies comes after the first milestones are achieved, so the merger with EarthCent is near the beginning. The final set of milestones involves defense contributions, and that can be pushed off to the original deadline.”

  “That makes perfect sense,” Kelly said. “The cost of building and maintaining warships is the prime reason the CoSHC representatives who voted on adoption weren’t interested in applying for full tunnel network membership right away. Can I keep the scroll?” she asked Affie.

  The Vergallian princess shrugged. “You’re welcome to it, but the new version of the tunnel network treaty has been pushed out everywhere, so it’s also on your display desk, and you can get it through your tab. I only loaded it onto the scroll to save time. I have to get back to the embassy because I promised Ambassador Aleeytis to host a luncheon for her. Tell Dorothy I’m sorry I couldn’t get in to the office at all this week. I can see myself out.”

  “Libby,” Kelly said the moment the door closed behind the Alt’s contract queen. “Can you tell me when the tunnel network treaty was u
pdated?”

  “As a living treaty, it’s updated on an ongoing basis,” the Stryx librarian replied.

  “You know what I mean.”

  “The Thousand Cycle option was modified very recently.”

  “And it didn’t occur to you to tell us?”

  “All terms and conditions of the treaty are subject to change at any time,” Libby said. “We only inform the signers of changes that entail an obligation on their part.”

  “But we have to—” Kelly cut herself off in mid-sentence. “Okay, we aren’t required to take action, but it’s pretty clear we’ll want to, so why go to the bother of making the change when there was a chance we’d never notice?”

  “Samuel is planning to hire a Verlock tunnel network treaty expert for the School of Government’s first-semester seminar,” the Stryx station librarian said. “I’m confident it would have come to light by then.”

  “Which only makes sense because establishing a system of training diplomats and administrators is one of the earliest milestones,” Aabina said, looking up from the scroll. “Does this mean that EarthCent’s civil service test will no longer be sufficient?”

  “Current employees will be grandfathered, but EarthCent’s system of hiring has always depended on outside input, a process that will no longer be appropriate when the merged entity becomes a full tunnel network member.”

  “Are you talking about the Verlock cram courses for people who want to take the test but aren’t quite ready?” Kelly asked.

  “I think she’s referring to the Stryx input,” Aabina said. “It’s probably wise for the Human Empire to avoid being seen as totally dependent on the Stryx.”

  “Does that mean you’ve taken back some of our, uh, perks?” Kelly asked. “Has the treaty been updated to close the loophole that allows an unaffiliated species to get a tunnel connection by declaring an open world and attracting at least twenty million human immigrants?”

  “It’s been modified, but not eliminated,” Libby replied. “The new wording limits that particular technique to one instance per non-tunnel-network species.”