A Battle Unseen

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National Assembly Cabinet Meeting Room
Early January 5707

Chancellor Reg Hanson closed the folder in front of him. "Ladies and gentlemen, I really do not know how else to say this, but the decision to leave Gaduridos is going to make almost no difference in the interest rates or monetary supply in Kalistan. I don't know what liberals you have been talking to, but any massive influx of capital you all were predicting last month is simply not materializing. There is not enough independent capital in Gaduridos to buy Kalistani investments at a 1 for 1 basis. Any inflationary spikes this group was predicting simply have not happened, because our investors are having to heavily discount their property just to get rid of it. Gaduridos is rapidly turning into a black hole."

The Finance Minister, Dr. Roger Berry spoke up. "I am not sure why our investors need to sell. That doesn't make sense. If Her Imperial Majesty wants to bring that money back to Kalistan, selling it all, 845 Billion Imperial Rubles worth of investments in machinery, buildings, infrastructure, transportation... selling all that in two years when it took 135 years to build just... it just doesn't make sense."

Reg took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. This meeting was just the recent one in a long series of meetings since Her Imperial Majesty had declared that Kalistan's commitment to Gaduridos was at an end. The Chancellor was tired of having to repeat himself. "Look. I am sure you are all tired of hearing this from me, over and over and over... We do as she tells us. She tells us what we are doing, and we figure out how to do it. There aren't any questions about that. Nobody in this room thinks otherwise."

The Minister of Defense spoke up. "Well, Lord Hanson, maybe that is not true. A few of the Deputies have been discussing a matter with me that I think I need to bring to your attention."

"What is it Commander?" said the exasperated Chancellor.

"What if the navy took its time getting out of Bentasur?" she asked.

"How do you mean, 'took its time'?" asked the Chancellor.

"The proclamation reads that when the stand down in Bentasur is completed, our time in Gaduridos will be done, yes? Well, what if that stand down never happens?"

"Commander, you have your orders, and they are to return the Third Fleet to Kalistan."

"I think those orders are not so clear. Nothing in the Proclamation says what date we are to return the Fleet to Kalistan."

The Chancellor stared at the Defense Minister for a moment. "Have you lost your mind?" he asked.

"Yes, we were wondering that ourselves," said Her Imperial Majesty who suddenly appeared at the door of the Cabinet room. Upon her appearance, all members of the cabinet stood and lowered their heads. She entered the room, moved to her empty seat near the Chancellor, and asked everyone to be seated. "Please, Madame Minister, enlighten us. What schemes were you ministers hatching while we were not present?"

All cabinet members sat down. "If it please Her Imperial Majesty," began the Defense Minister. "Some of her Nationalists are quite angry at the decision to abandon Bentasur, and have asked me to raise the matter to the cabinet."

The Empress stared at the Minister, who averted her eyes. "They have, have they? We were under the impression that our Nationalists had been put in their proper place. Are we to understand now that this is not true?"

The Defense Minister did not respond that that question, but continued her speech. "Majesty, Bentasur was occupied by Kalistan when Gaduridos joined the Empire. It was originally a forward base of Lourenne which was transferred at the time of accession to the Anantonese Empire. And if we leave it, we forsake half the ocean. Bentasur is under no obligation to return to Gaduridos, and Her Imperial Majesty has decreed that it is to be dismantled entirely. But why should we do that when it is far more strategically important that we maintain not only the base but our presence there? We have been responsible for that stretch of ocean for more than a century. To leave without replacing it with anything would open our southern flank to any number of threats. The Nationalists would certainly revolt. Surely Her Imperial Majesty must see the folly of at least this part of her decision to abandon Gaduridos."

The room was silent for a moment. At length, the Empress breathed in sharply. "We are... we are tired."

The Chancellor looked up. "Madame, do you require assistance?"

The Empress smiled and said "No, our children were up late last night with a cough, and we spent all night fussing over them. It's lack of sleep more than anything." She looked around the room. "You must all think me to be petulant and rash. Spoiled perhaps--If the Empress can't get her way, she cuts and runs. She burns everything to the ground. All this over something as small and stupid as the Gaduris flat out ignoring our requests for their participation with our team in the Olympics. But there is a larger issue here which I cannot adequately communicate to the public, but which I must tell you: The Anantonese Empire has been a paper Empire for a long time. My predecessors dreamed of a union of states in the Northern Anantonese. Instead what we got were two countries, neither of whom really wanted much to do with us. We were able to keep Gaduridos longer than Lodamun, but in the end, Lodamun would not even agree to having a Viceroy of our choosing let alone allow this nation to coordinate foreign policy. And Gaduridos, despite all of our efforts has long merely tolerated Kalistan, but never once saw themselves as part of a greater union.

"This is the sad fact of the Anantonese Empire," she continued. "To keep them, we had to offer them local autonomy. But if they had local autonomy, they had no political ties whatsoever to Kalistan. So in the end, it no longer even makes sense to try to keep Gaduridos, just like it stopped making sense to try to keep Lodamun. There is no benefit to Kalistan except some sort of bragging rights of having a transnational union, on paper. But there are a lot of costs: As our Finance Minister said, it cost Kalistan nearly a trillion Imperial Rubles to subsidize a dead nation like Gaduridos for more than a century, and much of that money we are never going to see again. We can't sell, really because sell to whom? Foreigners can't come in and buy the infrastructure, and the imperial system there disincentivized both local investment and even government for more than four decades, or a full quarter of the time we have held Gaduridos into an empire it quite frankly has long resented, for far longer than I have even been alive."

The Cabinet members were rather shocked to hear this matter put so bluntly. "If Her Imperial Majesty would indulge me," said the Finance Minister, "I have been over the books, I am intimately familiar with the amount of money our nation has dumped into Gaduridos. If her Imperial Majesty understood this fact that she has just spoken, why did Kalistan continue to invest?"

The Empress smiled. "Well, we, as in my family, loved Gaduridos. Surely the Finance Minister will remember from our history that there was a time when Gaduridos offered Pavlina Hulanevek shelter in Vaspiano as Kalistan descended into civil strife. We had a very personal affection for Gaduridos, and of course, our crown and historical right entitles us to Gaduridos as well. But mostly it was the personal affection. We wanted to see Gaduridos thrive, to be a fully realized and developed partner for Kalistan in the Anantonese region. Sadly, the period where it shared that vision was far too short, and not at all recent. Kalistan has been trying to revive a corpse for decades. It is time to let it go. We are never going to be allowed to rule that nation directly, and Gaduridos has no inclination to rule itself directly, so, there it is. The Empire has been over for years, we just did not want to admit it."

The room sat silently as the ministers looked at one another.

"So all that money, all those hundreds of billions of Imperial Rubles, are just... gone?" asked the HHS Minister Dr. Susan Abernathy.

"Well, not gone," said the Finance Minister. "As we predict, we are projecting a recovery of about 60% of the investment to Kalistanis. The rest can be written off as depreciation: Much of that investment was made generations ago--The Gaduris have been absolutely ignoring our requests to improve and update it, and the last new major investments in Gaduridos were from the end of Mary's reign. Kalistani investors have been living on dividends for the last 80 or so years. But yes, according to Her Imperial Majesty's proclamation, Kalistan will own no property, real estate, assets, or infrastructure in Gaduridos as of early 5709. We are guessing we will have sold what we can by the second quarter of 5708 at any rate."

"So you see, Mr. Minister: Given the absolute bar of any new or improved investment in Gaduridos for forty years, or as a matter of fact any sort of activity whatsoever in Gaduridos, which seems insane that we couldn't even do that, we are now at the point of diminishing returns on our investments. We will get 60% today. Tomorrow, we will get 57%," said the Empress. "We should have divested ten years ago." She smiled dolorously. "It will end whatever chance Gaduridos had, and if they ever elect anyone to try to restart that economy, it will be an incredibly difficult task for them, but entropy being what it is, Gaduridos is now an anchor headed to the bottom of the ocean, and we can either cut the rope or go down with it. It's literally becoming yet another Baltusia. Pathetic, but too predictable. Luckily this was not Lodamun's fate at least."

The Defense Minister spoke up. "And what of Bentsur? Will her Imperial Majesty just abandon that base, when we literally have no reason to, and it would cost us far more to do so, in terms of strategic position?"

The Empress thought for a moment, and then she turned to the IBSI director. "Madame Trumball. What would it take to move our OTH radars from Marlingantos to Bentasur?"

The IBSI director thought, "It's not ideal, but it would be easy to do if we needed to."

"And Bentasur looks at the Aldegar Gulf, is this correct?

"If it please Her Imperial Majesty, That is its strategic advantage."

The Empress thought for a moment. "And if we were to lease the base? How much would that cost annually?"

The Foreign Minister spoke up, "Madame, if I may point out: there is nobody there to cash the checks. Her Excellency the Viceroy is literally the last Imperial Official in Gaduridos that is not associated with defense or intelligence activities. But at any rate, Bentasur is our base and there is nobody there to kick us out. There's no reason to even speak of leasing the base. We cannot lease it from ourselves."

The Empress stared at the Foreign Minister for a moment, then back at the suddenly more hopeful Defense Minister. Then at the table for a moment. "Madame Commander. If you are still in contact with your Nationalist Deputy friends, we shall require a favor of them. We will need them to revolt."

"M... Madame?" Asked the Defense Minister.

"It's for political cover, so that we may make a concession. They need to make it loud and public. Can you handle that Commander?"

The Defense Minister nodded and said "Aye Ma'am." And she breathed a silent sigh of relief.

"Are we all satisfied here?" asked the Empress. A chorus of "Yes Madam" "Yes Madam" came from around the table. "Mr. Berry continue to sell the Kalistani investments aggressively. Do not turn down reasonable offers. Our goal is to cut our losses there as soon as possible." And then to the IBSI Director, "Madame Trumball, we will ask you to call upon us at Cliff House later, you and Sir Hanson. As for now, we have to visit our physician on a family matter. We wish you all well, and will speak more with each of you soon." The Empress stood, and all in the room stood and bowed their heads, as Her Imperial Majesty existed and then moved swiftly down the hall way toward her car.

"What... was that?" asked Sir Harney, saying what was on most of the other ministers' minds about the way the Empress quickly excused herself.

The Chancellor Smiled, "Her Imperial Majesty is on her way to visit her obstetrician."