Unification - Chapter 6 - Spoilers

[boballab]

Dahnai will have to place stargates in all Faey controlled territories, if there aren't any there already, for the Imperial forces to protect systems from attack. Some houses may be able to afford to put more stargates in place but I understand that they are expensive. The problem may not be as bad as I first thought but it still means imposing a large expense on most of the noble houses to continue business as usual. That's assuming that they are trading under table (bets anyone?).

Many of the aspects of the Imperium that intrigue me lie in the macroeconomic and large scale socioeconomic interactions between star systems, houses, and the Imperium as a whole. I may be Duke Miraborn sitting in my palace, but if I need something, I'm going to source it from the lowest bidder and/or the company that can get me the best product... and chances are, that company will be in another house. If I piss off that house, or the Siann, or whatever, I may now have to pay a whole lot more to get that thing, or be unable to get it at all.

Yes there a number of missing pieces to the puzzle how the Faey society works.

On a different note that second quote illustrates Jason profound cluesness of the Imperium. Now why would a Highborn House on the verge of overthrowing the Empress in Subjugation sell such a very expensive piece of Tech. Could it be that they need money for a Rebellion....Nah that couldn't be it.

Jason does seem uncomfortably uninformed, not least about what Dahnai is up to within the Imperium. He knows he has a number of enemies in the Siann, shouldn't he be querying the Kimdori more on the states of various plots? Is this why Dahnai is forcing him to go to court, as he is so clueless, or is it more about flaunting her alliance with Karinne? Miaari is his intelligence officer, are they just getting too distracted by the external threat of the Consortium as they did with the Alliance and Skaa, or perhaps they really don't pose much of a threat to Karinne currently.

On the Stargate/economic front
Everyone of those 70+ planets in the Imperium would have at least 1 Stargate. The reason for that is simple: Without a Stargate it would take anywhere from days to weeks in Real time to ship anything to and from anywhere in the Imperium. Remember only the Kimdori,Karinnes and the Consortium are Real time Hyperspace compatible. So even though the Gates are expensive it would not be in your Houses economic interests to not have a stargate. If your competitor on another planet has one and you don't, he has a leg up on you when it comes time to deliver. Also in case your attacked from outside of the Imperium it makes it way easier to get the Imperial Fleet there with a Stargate. If you are going against the Imperium and you own that gate you just turn it off.

On Jason,the Kimdori, Dahanai and court
Yes the Kimdori are his spies but they are not Faey so what they might not deem important to pass to Jason, might be the reverse. The Kimdori are not infallible, they still don't know who in House Trillane ordered the hit on Kumi and right now they are preoccupied with the Consortium.

Now to Dahnai's motives about Jason being at court. It would be for both reasons. Court is where all the power players are, and even underhanded deals take place. Remember the confrontation between Yila Trefani and Jason. Dahani doesn't want Jason to make the mistakes of his ancestors, which included pulling away from the Imperium. So she is helping him by not letting him bury his head in the Karis soil. Also it does help her against the other Highborn houses each time Jason is there. It is as Teddy Roosevlt said "Speak softly and carry a big stick" and the Karinnes and their tech is one big stick. So each time Jason stands by the Empress those plotters against the throne get to see that big stick looming in their faces and Dahani doesn't need to slap them down in court. Thus by one act Dahnai helps both herself, Jason and the stability of the Imperium. Remember Zaa respects Dahnai's cleverness and Zaa and Dahnai have discussed the problems of the Faey over many years together, so don't put it past Zaa to use Dahnai to force Jason into court to help protect the Karinnes from making the mistakes of the past. The Kimdori are the Galaxy best manipulators, they have been manipulating the Faey for many millenium to protect all the other races from them, so it's not a stretch to see them manipulate the Faey to prevent what happened to House Karinne in the 3rd Civil War from happening again.

[lapland]

It might also be important to remember that with traditional Fay technology you have to have a stargate in order to communicate with the rest of the Imperium. They can't use subspace communications. Thats a tech that belongs to Kerines. So yes, every star system in the Imperium has a star gate except Keris, until now....

[Phantom]

THE THING IS WHILE THE KIMDORI DONT WANT THE FAEY to expand, they would have to the force out and keep out the skaa, alliance and consortium as while they too are expanding, the faey are tempered by the influence of the karrines, so systems would be joining the imperium or enter into an alliance similar to like the common weath with the empress at its head. all the the little single systems are not really capable of expanding and with indictors and gates they would be dependant on the imperium, they cant reallly expand and the empress would charge too much for a second gate, their only exit woud be earth, all trade everywhere would go through here, they would be tied eventually bound to the imperium, if only to be able to expand

Not quite true ...

The Kimdori Don't want the Faey Expanding through armed conflict. ( IE: attacking the skaa, or the alliance to expand like they normaly done)

The Kimdori have few problems with the Faey Peacefuly expanding.

The Biggest reason for the Other races each having a gate is Primarily access to the Academy on Earth.
Once they put up the interdictor around earth it's going to Severly cut off earth and the academy unless you have a
Stargate Pair to access Earth space.

But this has advantages Big advantages in Trade. as being able to access the gates at earth they will be able to transit to
gates going to the other races quicker then by using hyperspace travel.

The gates at earth will create a Trade shortcut thats unbeatable and should result in turning Earth into a giant market place of sorts.

Think of it as a sort of a panama canal in space.
For a small (nominal toll/tarif) traders can cut weeks even months off their shiping times.
this also add's to the Karinnes wealth as they can set up and lease Orbital warehouses and docks for the various races
if they don't want to allow other race's ships into their terroritorys then all buy/selling/trading and Good tranfers can
be all handled in earth space.

It would also allow for to races at war to still conduct trading between each other (if they wanted too) smiply by using the Karnnes neutrality in earth space.

this will also allow for Diplomatic Talks/actions to take place there as well.

As to the Price that Dahnai might have to pay to place stargates all over the Imperium ......think on this thought

The Interdictors will also prevent Faey Nobles from attacking other Houses.
they would have to all use a stargate to get there and if Imperial Marines Control all access and usage of the gates in the imperium then

I'm not saying it still couldn't be done.......but it will go a LONG way toward totaly cementing Dahnai's control in the imperium.


One thought i've had thats been nagging me a bit is I wonder if Jason isn't being manipulated by the Consortium into placeing these interdictors all over for some as yet unknown reason?.
Thats something to think on

Also how many think that the device on the insects on the Consortium is some sort of controling device?
and they are really unwilling slaves.



Phantom

[boballab]

Not all gates are owned/operated by the Imperium. As shown in Insurrection House Dorrane owned at least one gate. From there we can surmise that there is other privately owned gates. However with that said one house in particular will probably be dead set against Jason's plan and that is House Trefani. Remember House Trefani is the Faey version of the Mafia so you can assume they probably get a big chunk of change out of smuggling. With the Interdictors it will really put a damper on interstellar smuggling since if the Imperium controls the Nexus gates to Earth with Marines, getting through them will be tough and you can't just jump in on the far side of a planet anymore. So expect Yila to really oppose this since I don't think even she wants to mess with Imperial Marines.

[Phantom]

Not all gates are owned/operated by the Imperium. As shown in Insurrection House Dorrane owned at least one gate. From there we can surmise that there is other privately owned gates. However with that said one house in particular will probably be dead set against Jason's plan and that is House Trefani. Remember House Trefani is the Faey version of the Mafia so you can assume they probably get a big chunk of change out of smuggling. With the Interdictors it will really put a damper on interstellar smuggling since if the Imperium controls the Nexus gates to Earth with Marines, getting through them will be tough and you can't just jump in on the far side of a planet anymore. So expect Yila to really oppose this since I don't think even she wants to mess with Imperial Marines.

Biggest thing is will there be a customs office/ inforcers at the gates ?

It's one thing to go through the gate in a Freighter
it's quite another to transit the gates in a Warship or invasion Force.

I can't see Smuggleing being a bt more of a challenge to them but I don't see this seriously ending
all smuggling in the imperium.


Phantom

[boballab]

Stop all smuggling no, put a crimp in organized smuggling yes. I'm taking this based on the scene were Jason came across that dropship with the slaves on it. Remember he was picking up the guards sending at the time and one mentioned that they needed to be careful because they were nearing Orbital One which had Imperial Marines on it and they could pick those sendings up. Also that dropship met up with a Urumi vessel that jumped out and didn't go through the Stargate. Why? The only logical reason I could see of not having those ships use the stargate was that Trillane was not in control there and there was Imperial officials that would have probed that ship. When Trillane pulled out that Stargate stayed behind so that seems to point out that was an Imperial owned and operated gate. The way Fel wrote the whole thing makes it looked like the contract Trillane signed meant that all shipping had to go through that gate but Urumi ships had been jumping in and out of Sol space with illegal cargoe. With an Interdictor those ships can't do that, they would have to go through the gate and in the range of Imperial Marines and/or Imperial customs agents.

“That cargo ship’s registered as an independent vessel,” that operator told both of them. “Licensed under the Umrani Collective, currently under contract from Trillane to move food, replacing a cargo vessel that had an accident and is undergoing repairs. It—um, shit, it says here it has an onboard jump gate. All it has to do is get outside the planetary gravity well, and it can jump out without using the stargate.”

“Right. Well, then, there’s also all these strange visits I’m seeing in the control logs by non-Faey freighters. I seem to recall a provision of your contract stating that all food had to be brought through Draconis. If you’re not putting food on those cargo ships, just what are you loading on them? Or, perhaps, I should ask, what are you taking off of them?”

“Riiiight,” she drawled. “Wanna know a secret, Maeri? I was willing to look the other way and let you play your little profit margin games over there with the illegal mining, native species poaching, and the water smuggling, but you crossed the line when you started selling off Terrans to the slave markets of Chezaa. The Imperium will not tolerate a house engaged in slavery.”

Since only Food was to shipped out of Terra and all food was to go to Draconis and there was that nice perfectly functional stargate going to Draconis anything else either got transhipped at Draconis or Jumped out at the Sol system. Now I would find it hard to believe that the Imperium wouldn't notice millions of terrrans being herded around on Draconis and shipped out. So they had Jump capable ships Jump out of Sol away from the prying eyes on Draconis. To me that is organized smuggling and an Interdictor stops that cold.

[ANTIcarrot]

Given there is some evidence that other houses can build stargates, and some evidence that M2 dominates everything, I'm putting my Dahnai/Jason Dominion objection into the pending slot for the moment.

Stop all smuggling no, put a crimp in organized smuggling yes. I'm taking this based on the scene were Jason came across that dropship with the slaves on it. <snip> To me that is organized smuggling and an Interdictor stops that cold.

One man's people smuggling is another man's free movement across borders. One thing that prevented rebellion on Earth was Faey control of transport off world. If you allow a couple of rich humans to buy hyperspace ships, and let them leave with a few hundred miners, scientists, and experts at unconventional warfare, you're asking for trouble, because they can go somewhere else (where Faey telepathy can't touch them and Faey sensors can't find them) and strike back in all sorts of horrible ways. Centralized Government Control (at the 'federal' or 'state' level) can be a tool of oppression, as well as a way to combat smuggling or terrorism.