Most people simply returned to the jobs they’d had before the disruption occurred. Coworkers in various shops knew one another and the relationship patterns quickly re-established themselves. If someone tried to take unfair advantage of the situation, perhaps by claiming a higher job than he’d really had, his colleagues would usually band together and denounce him to the authorities. In those instances where a person’s position couldn’t be verified, the ultimate test was whether he could perform the job; if he could, he was kept on regardless of what he’d done before.
Perhaps the hardest hit of all were not the poor, but the wealthier classes. Since all property had been seized by the government during the crisis, if these people didn’t have marketable skills they found themselves without means of gainful employment. Some became office managers, while many others had to apply for job retraining at government expense, and lived off the dole as they did so. These people were probably the bitterest about the turn of fate they’d suffered, and stories were handed down for generations about the fortunes their families had lost in the revolution.
Without a free market economy to set standards, local officials were directed to set up wage and price councils. Each job was carefully evaluated and wages were established for the workers. More bitter fights broke out over this issue than over any other, but such restraints were a necessary evil until society could recover from the blow it had been dealt. Prices were similarly structured to allow wage-earners to afford the necessities of life. Once the wage and price guidelines were in effect, the free food distribution system was ended and people returned to buying what they needed with the money they’d earned from their own labors.
The Empress knew that these measures would not work on a long-term basis, and so a Transitionary Council was appointed to help society work toward the return of a free market state. Every business that had formerly been private, and every piece of property not required for legitimate government function, had a price established for it. As soon as someone – or a group of people pooling their resources – could pay that price, they could buy that business or property from the government. They were then free to do anything with it they liked, subject to the normal laws of commercial practice – but they now had to pay the employees’ wages, set their own prices, and pay taxes on their profits. The prospect of becoming a landowner or share holder in a company provided a tremendous incentive, and most people worked hard to achieve these goals. While many fortunes were lost in the revolution, even more were made. There was no limit to what a person could achieve if he worked hard enough for it. There were bound to be injustices, but in general people were satisfied with the way things turned out.
Economic recovery, too, took longer than many had hoped. It would be a dozen years from the outbreak of the revolution before the Empire had completely returned to a free market economy – but by that time the health of the Empire would once more be assured and people would once again have confidence in their way of life.
One thing that could never be restored, though, was the art lost in the initial catastrophe. The Imperial palaces had been repositories for some of the finest murals, frescoes, paintings, sculpture, and hand-crafted jewelry the Galaxy had ever seen. All that now lay in ruins, with only photographs to remind posterity of what once had been. Most of these treasures had been the personal property of the imperial family, and Edna Stanley grieved for their loss. If any act attested to the heartless, inhuman nature of the enemy, it was this senseless destruction of human beauty.
Ten days after the destruction of the PCC, Empress Stanley Eleven gave a very private dinner party for an elite group of people. Since all the royal palaces had been destroyed and were not yet rebuilt, the Empress commandeered the restaurant of one of Moscow’s finest hotels for her private entertainment. The guest list – small for a royal affair – included the Emperor-Consort, Grand Duke Zander von Wilmenhorst, his daughter Helena and her fiancé Captain Paul Fortier, Duke Etienne d’Alembert, Jules and Yvonne d’Alembert, and Pias and Yvette Bavol. As the Empress told them before the meal began, “We were all privy to some of the most decisive moments in the history of the old Empire. I think it’s only right that we be here together to oversee the birth of the new Empire.”
During the meal the conversation was light. Edna spent most of her time listening as her devoted subjects explained what they’d been doing in the past few weeks to help preserve order within the Galaxy. The Head and his daughter had been reorganizing the entire Head quarters of SOTE on Earth, and Paul Fortier was al most singlehandedly responsible for coordination between SOTE and the Navy. Etienne d’Alembert had been coordinating the reports coming in from the teams he’d sent to rebel-occupied planets, while the two teams of super-agents had been transcribing as many details as they could remember of their adventures for the Service during the hectic years of their careers. The d’Alemberts were a bit reluctant to speak of their family in front of Fortier; even though he’d proven his abilities and loyalties on numerous occasions, they were used to maintaining the strictest secrecy with regard to their family. Only the fact that he was engaged to Helena and obviously destined for a high-level position in Intelligence made them feel safe enough to trust him with such ultra-top-secret information.
“You know, I thought I’d feel relieved when we finally smashed the conspiracy,” Yvette said toward the end of the meal. “Instead, I just feel a sort of hollow place inside me. We worked and fought and sweated for years, and then bang!, it’s over. One quick action and the enemy’s all gone. I hardly even had time to draw a breath or cross my fingers.”
“I know what you mean,” Helena said. “It’s like the ringing in your ears when a loud noise stops abruptly.”
“We’re far from being out of danger,” the Head reminded them. “There’s still an enormous amount of work to do before any of us can sleep soundly.”
Edna Stanley leaned forward and smiled. “I’m glad you brought that subject up; it’s really why I invited you all here. I was very serious at the start of the meal about overseeing the birth of a new Empire, because that’s what we’re doing. The old one is gone; it can never be recaptured, and if we tried to form the new one in exactly the same mold we’d be doomed to failure.”
She turned to her husband. “Liu, how did you put it? I remember you expressed it so well.”
The Emperor-Consort smiled – a warm, comforting smile. “The Empire of Earth must be like the Earth itself. Hurricanes may blow across the Earth, fire may char it, floods may cover it, but in the end the Earth itself remains. New plants and animals appear where the old ones died, and they are never quite the same, but always the Earth goes on.
“And so it must be with the Empire. People may come and go, institutions may rise and fall, a revolution may sweep away everything before it like a typhoon – but the Empire must remain the bedrock of human existence. If Humanity is to survive in the Galaxy it needs one underlying truth on which to base itself – and that truth will be the Empire. The form of the Empire may change, but the Empire itself will go on. It would be thus even if the computer had won, and we must ensure that the concept of Empire does not die.”
“Hear, hear,” Duke Etienne murmured softly.
“What we have to do,” Edna picked up, “is to see that the new Empire shapes itself along just and fair lines. We reject the concept of machine-like perfection and regimentation, but that doesn’t mean we should swing in the other direction. My advisors are coming out with a series of programs designed to promote economic recovery, and I think they’ll work – but it will take years before the Empire is healthy again. The revolution has stopped its expansion; with the PCC Out of the picture they seem to be concentrating just on holding what they’ve taken, so there’s a good chance we can win it back in time.
“My chief concern, and the real reason I wanted to talk with you all tonight, is the governing of this new Empire. An empress can be only as effective as her means of carrying out her orders; I can pass all the edicts I want, but if they’re not enforced they become meaningless. Whatever Empire emerges from these ruins, it will have to administer all the planets as efficiently as did the old one.”