After the meet and greet with the rest of the council was over and everyone had familiarized themselves with each other, the council room was left empty and dissolved into the qubits from which it had been created.
The two new ministers were in turmoil, each of them considering many different things.
The meeting itself had been extremely productive, which surprised Youssef; he was too used to meetings where the main focus was on snatching credit and being seen by upper management rather than resolving issues and enacting plans. Conversely, the emperor, despite his lofty position, was willing to involve himself in even the most minor details of the operation of the empire. Not that he was a micromanager, either, but he had actually listened to the advice and suggestions of his advisory council instead of stubbornly insisting that his was the only voice that mattered.
Jeremy, on the other hand, had no experience in society and had felt that the council meeting was more akin to a group of college friends planning an extended trip after they graduated. It was nothing like he had imagined; there was no politicking, there were no dark rooms, and though the meeting was held privately, no favors were traded or any of the other Hollywood political tropes that were so common in the movies he'd watched growing up.
According to both men's understanding of how former leaders worked, nothing that had just taken place was anything that even approached the word 'normal'. They didn't expect that issues would be raised, suggestions gathered, plans formed, and solutions enacted, all in the space of a single working day. Perhaps there was something to the empire after all, rather than it being a single powerful man's individual power fantasy that he had forced the entire human race to capitulate to.
Still, though both of the new ministers were dazed by the insane efficiency of the empire, they had work to do. Thus, the two men went back to their offices to take the first step in completing the tasks they had been assigned: going over the immense amount of data that Aron had "thrown" them in the packet during the meeting. It had everything in it-atomic printers and their capabilities, introductions to all of the higher-order AIs that stood atop the digital food chain, the extent that the empire could enhance the human genome, cybernetic and bionic enhancements, spec sheets on all of the military hardware available to the empire, and more. It would take them a week to dig through and digest all of that information alone!
Still, they had the time they needed, and then some. The advisory council meetings were scheduled for every two weeks of time in the "real" world, but as the heads of the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of the Exterior, they had access to the private simulation, which gave them a full five months until the next meeting. And that time would be extended as their quantum microcomputer implants came online, increasing the time dilation their frail human bodies could withstand from 30:1 to 50:1. Once their genetic enhancements were complete, that would even increase further, to a time dilation ratio of 80:1!
But that would be after the next meeting, as the full suite of genetic enhancements-which they had just read about-took a full two weeks of real time to enact. Although the concept of time was changing for the human race, reality and virtual reality were still different, and they had to consider things from the point of view of the former.
"May Allah have mercy on us..." Youssef said under his breath when he realized just how deep the imperial waters actually were. He was beyond grateful that Aron was incredibly benevolent and couldn't even begin to imagine the horrors that a power-hungry control freak could inflict upon the innocent, were they on the throne instead of the benevolent emperor they had. "I hope that day never comes," he prayed, hoping beyond hope that he would never live to see that day, should it come.
(Ed note: Youssef is an actively practicing Muslim. I'll do my best to respect Islam and the Muslims that practice it, but as it isn't my own religion, I may make mistakes when I insert phrases and sayings here and there to make the characters feel more "real", as I regularly do. If I do offend, I apologize in advance, and the mistakes in the novel are solely mine, not Agent_O47's.)
The two men continued reading for hours, both of them having completely lost track of time as they read the files in their hands. Not only had their asses gone numb, but so had their thoughts. At a certain point, surprises cease to be surprising and become just a matter of course, and after working through half of the files, that point had long since come and gone. Now, they only felt lucky that they had been given the power to develop the empire, practically at its very inception. The decisions they would make in the future would shape humanity's fate for the rest of its existence, or at least for many generations to come.
The responsibility settled on the two of them, and they both felt its weight.
"So... Jeremy, right?" Youssef began.
Jeremy nodded and waited for him to continue.
"Why do you suppose the emperor chose us? There are many reputable politicians he could've chosen for ministerial positions... but instead, he gave them to a youth with no experience beyond retail jobs and a middle-aged dead-ender who was treading water in middle management," Youssef asked. He didn't have enough fingers to count the politicians that were actually good at the job of governing.
"Easy. We have yet to be corrupted. Once you've been exposed to the corruption in politics, it's almost impossible to not fall into that spiral again. Even if you weren't corrupt to begin with, just the idea of the things you can take from the people to benefit yourself will constantly be whispering in the back of your mind like your own personal devil," the young man answered, setting aside the files he was reading at the moment. The conversation Youssef had begun was interesting to the much younger man, and besides, the information contained in the "imperial data dump", as he chose to call it, was quite frankly terrifying.
Youssef thought for a moment, then called up a screen and began searching for information on politicians, from the highest halls of power to the lowest Karen on her school board. "Hmm.... It seems that most of the world leaders are either on house arrest or in the deepest, darkest holes the empire could find, awaiting trials for crimes committed during their time in office. The same holds true for those at all levels of power," Youssef said after reading the result of his search. "So perhaps you've got a point."
"Of course. It's only natural.... After all, you know as well as I do the tools that the government has to detect people breaking the law." Jeremy was referring to the brain data archived in the classified sections of the Akashic Record. "The fight against corruption and abuse of power will never end, but at least the empire has the tools to effectively combat it," the young man said with a content smile on his face. He had already seen his salary and, when combined with the benefits of imperial citizenship alone, he would be living a life he couldn't even have begun to dream about when he was in the swamp in Louisiana. Both he and his mother could live their entire lives without any worries at all.
Changing topics, he asked, "By the way... when do you think His Majesty became an awakener?"
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