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E.S. Coruscant.
* * *
- Your Majesty," Joy greeted me, "what can I do for you?
- Joy, I have some questions about your work. It's about the companies you've bought.
- Yes, yes," Ostrander looked away, then immediately returned to the communications droid, "what are you interested in?
- A list. The companies you bought and the ones in which we now hold shares. Ostrander sighed in relief and started to read out, but I interrupted him, "Joy, just send me the list, and also tell me which companies we own in full. What can I count on?
- Yes, of course, your majesty," the ministry of finance smiled, "I'll start with the good. Because of the political crisis in one sector, we managed to buy out the company Kazeliss rather cheaply.
- Caseliss... - I remembered the transporters. It was the company's only project, but their transports were considered the most beautiful in the galaxy - it was such a stylish ship, with a sleek shape. Not Corellian design quality, of course, but very nice too.
- I know their ships.
- Yeah, well, we had to organise an emergency removal of the corporation's assets, send heavy transports to get everything out. But now we have everything we need to mass-produce light civilian ships.
- Good. Where are the assets now?
- The transports are in the space station. And where to set up production... while the transports are standing by, I hired a few dozen specialists from Corellia and had them check out all the assets, complete them to create an automated assembly line, modernise them. It didn't cost that much, but we have a coiled automated assembly line.
- That's how... - I thought about it, but I preferred to ask Joey straight away: - are you planning to roll out production?
- That's right," he smiled, "I've discovered that the Empire has almost all the resources to run the line. I'll have to buy some electronics and systems from Corellia and Incom, but that's a minor detail.
- You're right, - I was glad to hear that news, - we'll start production on Mal Koros.
- I have already brought back from oblivion the company "Koros Space Systems". But this business will be handled by professionals. At the moment we have controlling stakes in Biotec. There are plans to buy some shares of KMC, but that will freeze many other projects, as the desired volume will cost us fifteen to twenty trillion credits.
- Desirable," I nodded, "how much is it in per cent?
- About forty per cent.
- Good, don't buy up KMK yet, later, when I get serious about their work, we'll act. One more thing, I've got a couple of designs for medium cargo ships, we'll get them underway.
That concludes the meeting with the Ministry of Finance. There was no need to return to Cinnagar, so I settled on Coruscant. I did a quick check on Lin's work and, taking advantage of the relatively free time, got down to financial matters. It didn't take too long to ferry ships from the station to Koros and back - only two days of constant flights. But our population increased by almost a million people - the workers of the enterprises being created, in every conceivable direction. Plus about two hundred thousand people, immigrants who had been culled from the more than a million citizens who had applied to become citizens of the Empire. I knew this from Certer's lengthy reports - she'd asked me for an entire analysis centre, over a thousand people and ten thousand analysis droids, including JN-66, with xenopsychology programs, and GY-I, over a thousand in number, to review and verify the applications. These droids possessed six computing modules like the one in Erdwa. But that wasn't the main thing - they could analyse information brilliantly, ferret out lies better than any flesh-and-blood security service, and check every item on questionnaires. According to my estimates, each of them was an order of magnitude more powerful than the best supercomputers on Earth, and here, in the galaxy, they were considered extremely powerful machines. They went on sale just six months ago.
As for the analytical droids... I respected them. The way one respects a beautifully designed machine.
The first time I heard of them, I let it pass. Well, droid and droid, but as the machinery of the Empire grew, I looked at these machines very, very closely. I realised one thing - analytical droids are what distinguishes modern galactic life from Earth life. They're the order of the day in the galaxy, but they're the central backbone of all galactic civilisation. They are the supra-brain, the super-intelligence, diversified at every corner, able to solve all problems. Without them, life in the galaxy would be different, the way it is on Earth - primitive. Analytical droids do not simply replace a large staff of humans, no, they cannot be replaced by any number of living organisms. They are the basis of all economic relations in the galaxy, be it supplying the army with boot laces or the galactic macroeconomy. Taking the example of a transport company, droids analyse the state of the spaceship fleet, wear and tear, order millions of new parts, escort every cargo of hundreds of thousands passing every hour, analyse the consumption of thousands of consumables, supply orders for new materials, make reservations based on the analysis of emergencies, take orders from customers, sort them, analyse them, conduct hundreds of thousands of operations simultaneously. A staff of five droid-analysts on such work is more efficient than a hundred thousand people in a giant megacorporation. They have no internal documents except archive files, information exchange is instantaneous, errors, if they happen, are very rare, and droids do not go out for a smoke or coffee. And the main thing is that an analyst costs about ten thousand credits, that is cheap. Modern inhabitants of the galaxy don't realise how important these droids are - thanks to them the galaxy is a highly developed alliance of sector-states, not a scattered giant hodgepodge of population living in their own sectors. Without droid analysts, the planet would not be able to exist effectively within the galaxy - importing resources, exporting resources, trade, transport, all of this would be so slowed down that a galactic republic would be out of the question. But the droids made "white-collar workers", i.e. office plankton a small professional group. In its own way elite, because there are droids for routine work, and live workers are assigned only those tasks that require a reasonable person. Well, and human workers are often used to work with humans. The only thing holding back the development of analytical droids and management droids is the risk of artificial intelligence. The galaxy had already washed its blood once in a machine uprising, no one wanted a second experience like that, so the analytical droids were limited in autonomy, had a rigidly programmed personality and could not physically analyse themselves and global issues. "GY-I was the main workhorse of the Empire, on par with SP-4. Control over all the processes in the Empire, the many mining colonies and their needs, their work, all of this lay with the droid analysts and administrators. Thanks to them I was able to avoid administrative paralysis - the inability to simultaneously control, direct, analyse and maintain the life and activities of all branches. A situation fairly typical of the inexperienced ruler - when ambitions and plans collide with the minutiae of life, which can ruin even the biggest plans. I also had a few analysts on my yacht, but I didn't touch them - they worked to help the rest of the crew - analysing their needs, the needs of the ship, giving the crew already prepared reports on what would need to be done and provided. They planned tasks for each crew member, taking into account the complexity of the work, the crew member's qualifications, and the available supplies needed for the job. In terms of their importance to the galaxy, analysts could only be rivalled by... farming droids.
Among others, Imperial analytical droids were sent to Naboo, in numbers of about two hundred machines. They differed from the stock models by less advanced optics and more powerful computing modules, as well as communication equipment - each droid had a comlink through which it could be contacted, a large channel for access to the holonet, as well as advanced for the time tools for analysis and control - it could talk simultaneously with a hundred people-subordinates via comlink, network equipment, allowing it to connect to thousands of camera droids, collecting information from them for analysis. These machines had already served us well, and the personality programmed into them was perfect enough for a droid.
Such droids sorted and analysed citizenship applications, picking out the most elaborate lies. In her time, Faye had been able to infiltrate the Guard due to her perfect mastery of the force and the classified information on Mandalorian officer Sabine Josis. Quite cunning, if you think about it. The strictness of the Empire's requirements also determined the difficulty in obtaining citizenship. In turn, the droids did not simply screen out those who had not been prosecuted - this is not an indicator of honesty, rather the opposite, everyone commits minor offences, the honest pay a fine, and the dishonest "negotiate", so that there would be no stains on the reputation. The droids analysed each resident, their race, beliefs, biography, relationships with others, their inclinations and abilities, and only then made a judgement. People with relationship building problems, the "quiet home crazies", could not get into the Koros Empire. Though it doesn't mean that all citizens are active and "the soul of the company", not at all, there were enough quiet people among them, but not like crazy people or petty criminals.
A separate group were the forsusers. A forsuser child of parents who applied for citizenship was actually a ticket to the Empire, as forsusers were attracted very, very actively. The midichlorian test was taken by everyone who came in, and they even designed a separate medical analytical droid to take blood tests for midichlorians. The result is quite interesting to me - in the galaxy the proportion of forsusers strong enough for temple training was ten per cent of the total. In turn, forsusers out of the total population was about one in twenty-five to thirty thousand people. In other words, the chance for a person to become a Force Jedi is one in three hundred thousand.
Of the thirty million applications, almost one hundred and twenty Forsuiters under the age of twenty, that is, fit for pilot training, and of those, six child Forsuiters with the number of Jedi level midichorians.
It had to be decided what to do with them, how to proceed with the Forsuiters. The children would have to be given to the Order, as they have no practical value, and secondly - to bother with their observance of moral and moral principles and to risk that I would have dark ones at my side... no, I don't want such joy.
I walked pensively around my office. It was usually occupied by Lin, so it was cluttered with his things and documents.
- Erdva, connect me with Tessala Gauda.
- Aye," the droid didn't budge. The head of the education department answered only after a minute.
- Your Majesty," she seemed surprised that I was paying attention to her at all. She shouldn't have been.
- Good day to you too, Tessala. I've just brought in three hundred thousand children of the appropriate age. Are you all set for them to go to school?
- Of course," Tessala said with genuine indignation, "there are fifteen million classrooms. Lessons have been going on for a long time, the programme has been drawn up....
- Good. So, I'll be brief. I want a separate school for some students. I'll send you a list. They'll have special lessons in addition to their regular classes, and I'll find teachers. And tell the Vectis to give them their own accommodation close to the school.
- Yes, sir.
- One last thing. Their stipend must be equal to the average salary of the empire. All of them, without exception.
- Your Majesty, may I ask you a question?
- Go ahead.
- What are these children? How are they different--
- They are forsusers. Almost all of them are too weak Forsusers to become Jedi, but the level of reaction and foresight can be developed enough to make them pilots of my guard or just good pilots.
Gauda nodded and I cut the connection.
But, before we can start working with Forsuiters, we need to find teachers. Where in the galaxy can you find teachers who are skilled in the Force? Going to the Jedi is not an option, so we'll have to find trained Jedi in the galaxy. And loyal ones at that. My choices are Ben Kenobi, Ahsoka Tano, Faye. That's it. Taking Ben out of Satine's love nest isn't an option, so it's either Ahsoka or Faye.
I'll talk to Ahsoka later, especially since she's too young herself, but Faye... Faye's here with me. Putting down the datapad with the list of students I went to my beloved pointy-eared girl.
- Can I see you?
Faye was sitting in the living room, meditating.
- Yeah? She opened her eyes.
I moved closer, sitting down on the floor next to her.
- 'I have some young gifted ones among those I brought to the empire.
- Really? - Fay raised one eyebrow in surprise, ''What do you plan to do with them?
- ''Teach them for a while and then send them to the order.
- I see. You need a teacher,'' Faye sighed, ''and that teacher is me, right?
- Yeah.
- Come to think of it..." she closed her eyes, "what else am I supposed to do in the Empire? You won't let me join the Guard?
- No. You've already lost an arm. Piloting isn't your thing. But you can show your maternal instincts, can't you?
- You ask... - the girl smiled, - by the way, when are we going to deal with my problem?
- You mean the Old Man? I think we're done here, we can leave. I've given the instructions, they'll figure it out from there.
We stood up without a word. I could see how Faye was anxious to see the old man and find out her most interesting secret. I could only assume that she'd been trying to understand her nature for a long time, and had spent centuries searching for it before she'd given up on it. And now I come along and say these things... of course, her hands are shaking in anticipation.
Faye packed quickly, so did I, and then we were off. I had to leave the big yacht alone and take a small, cosy boat, just enough for the two of us. Good thing r2 remembered Mortis' coordinates....