A Battle Unseen

[Doc]

Cliff Offices, South Kaliburg, March 5642, 1:30pm

"Welcome Meg, please close the door," said Empress Mary

"Don't you think the Chancellor should be here for this?" asked Princess Margaret, who just arrived.

"Not this time, Meg. Just you and me." answered the Empress.

Margaret knew what this had come to mean. It was school time. Mary was about to pick her brain and wanted unofficial advice before she talked with the politicians. "Don't you think maybe you should take some night classes or something?" asked Margaret, who was now nearly finished with her Theory PhD. "I'm not always going to be around to be your tutor, you know."

Mary nodded, "Yes that's why I'm trying to get everything out of your mind while I can."

"Mary," Margaret said with a sigh, and then pulled up a chair. "Alright... What can I tell you today?"

"First, I need the actual story of your time in Baltusia..."

Margaret narrowed her eyes, "You got the briefing from IBSI, right?"

Mary nodded. "Yes, but I don't believe them. People in this country tell me what they think I want to hear. But I need the truth."

Margaret rolled her eyes. "What good is it to have a spy agency you don't trust?"

"Meg, I don't trust any of these people. They all treat me like I'm a kid, like I'm some dumb idiot. I didn't get to go to school like you, but I know things. I just want someone to give me good advice and these people are all running some political agenda. They're all acting like I'm someone they have to put up with."

"Do you trust any of them, Mary?"

"I trust you, Meg. So please. Tell me what I need to know."

"Baltusia was receptive to me," said Mary. "I talked with several groups in Athosia and it seems like there might be some support for a full monarchy in Baltusia, but not necessarily under our flag. I wouldn't push that. They will be meeting with Egelion soon, if they haven't already. I mentioned our... difficulties... with Egelion during the meeting. They listened politely. Problem is, of course, they don't trust you. They can look at a place like Gaduridos and see what the family and what the empire has done there, but they can't see that for themselves.

"But all they see is strings. I tried to avoid even mentioning Athosia, but that's what their Minister really wanted to talk about. I gave the Government assurances on the Duchy, but I don't know if it satisfied them or not. That said, I really wanted to stress to them that we are trying to find common ground with them wherever we can, to stress our commonalities, to play up our identities as Northern Seleyans rather than play up the things that have kept us separate. Time will tell. I'm optimistic, but only cautiously so, because apparently, Egelion gets whatever it wants whenever it wants and doesn't even have to try, and the only thing it is doing now is challenging us. I don't know how susceptible Baltusia will be to that."

"See," said Mary. "Literally none of that was in the IBSI briefing."

"Well, its just my personal take. The briefing probably had a bunch of other intel in it that even I didn't see. I just reported on my trip there."

"No, they are advising me that I step up the challenge to Egelion in the Anantonese Ocean."

"Look Mary, that is what you shouldn't do."

"But they have some good points," said Mary. "How can they have navies all over the place all of a sudden? They have a base now in Mordusia, did you see that? We can't just let them get away with that."

"Yeah, but I mean, think about it Mary," said Margaret. "We know how big their navy is: Hell, we can turn on a tv here and see how big it is. They correctly report the size of their 'armadas' in their news paper, and they aren't any bigger than one of our squadrons. They just bought a handful of ships from Beiteynu, including two aircraft carriers. So what? And they call this an armada? Egelion isn't a threat to us."

"Two aircraft carriers is a threat," said Mary.

"No, it is not a threat," said Margaret. "In terms of sheer firepower its not. With the changes to our deployment that you yourself approved, you put anything Egelion could ever engage against within range of our coasts, within range of our interceptors and SAMs. That means that in a war, it wouldn't just be Kalistani navy against the whole Egelian military. We have so many coastal batteries which can send cascades of missiles. We have our airforce here, on the mainland. We have surface to surface missiles here. In a war, the Ananto Strait becomes a gauntlet and a meat grinder. Because this family is obsessed with protection of our coasts. Within 450 nautical miles of any land we possess, we are the ones with superiority, not them.

"So let them have their little aircraft carriers, and let them claim they are the ones who need to patrol the seas because apparently 'we can't'. That's fine... Because we don't have to. All we have to do is defend our part of it, and we have four massive navies to do that with: they have to defend the rest of it, they're on the hook to defend the rest of it, and if they fail to do so, they look terrible. And they know that so they will run their economy into the ground to do it. Besides: Aircraft carriers are incredibly expensive to maintain. And we don't have that expense. At all."

Mary sat silent as she learned. Margaret almost forgot that she was teaching.

"What about this Luthori thing?"

"What about it?" asked Margaret.

"Egelion says they want to let Luthori base in Southern Egelion."

"So what? Egelion, despite their best efforts to get you to think so, is not our enemy. And neither is Luthori.
Not if you don't want them to be. They aren't in control of your perceptions. You are. And so it really doesn't matter what they do: Since you act based on your perceptions, they have no power over your actions either. They aren't in control of anything at all."

"Why does it feel like they are trying to be our enemy? Why are they trying to provoke us?"

"Because Big Sister, you are paranoid, and it is about time someone told you. You have more friends than you know. And besides, you remember from our constructivism talk: It's not relative power, but absolute power. You are only as weak as you think you are, and they are only as strong as your perception causes you to act like they are. Whatever Egelion writes in their paper, Kalistan has the most powerful navy on this planet. And its not even close. You have more than enough to keep our nation safe. Egelion and Luthori together don't even come close, because you and twenty generations of our ancestors are obsessed. Focus on where you can actually do something, and let the rest of the world handle itself.

"Baltusia is one place to start. Do what you can to reassure them, to let them know that you want to be their friends. Use how you treat Valruzia as an example: Offer to help and stand with them on their terms, rather than worrying about Athosia, or Egelion going in there. Baltusia will do what Baltusia wants to do. Your choices with Lodamun I think were correct. Now they come back as equals and as friends rather than as subjects who resent you. We can do something with that. It's about identity and choosing to do something different than you would otherwise do, right?"

Mary nodded. She thought about Margaret's words for a long time.

"Indeed," said Mary, finally. "Director Martel would never say anything like this to me. He wants me to increase monitoring and consider destabilization strategies in Egelion."

"That's a shame, Mary," said Margaret. "You really need someone in charge of that Bureau who will give you good advice."

"I'm glad you said that," said Mary as she stared at her sister. Margaret looked at her. Suddenly she caught her sister's wavelength.

"No no no, Mary. Don't even think about it."

"Margaret, I am sorry. It is already done. Martel is already out, I've already told Koenig."

"Mary, I defend my dissertation in June. I really need..."

"I'll wait, Meg, but I need you, and can't make you the Chancellor."

Margaret closed her eyes. This was typical of Mary--This wasn't a class; it was an interview. She loved her sister, but she should have seen this coming years ago... She shouldn't have said anything about wanting to continue serving.

"You should have been the Empress," said Mary, as if she heard her sister's thinking.