“That sounds more like the Tambu I know,” Ramona said eagerly. “What’s the plan? I’m all ears.”
“Well… not all ears,” Tambu smiled, leaning forward to caress her lightly.
“Stop that!” She slapped his hand. “You’ll get me all distracted, and I want to hear this master plan of yours.”
“See what I mean about my job getting in the way of my personal life?” Tambu signed in mock dejection.
“Are you going to tell me the plan or not?”
“Well, I got the idea from an item on the agenda for the next captains’ meeting,” Tambu began.
“Swell! I haven’t seen a copy of the agenda yet.”
“I know. I haven’t distributed them yet.”
“Tell me the plan!”
Tambu yawned. “As I was saying before I was interrupted, there is an item on the agenda calling for the formation of a Captains Council. The general idea is to select a dozen or so captains, each of whom will meet with small groups of ships throughout the year. Then, at the yearly meeting, they will represent the ships in the policy arguments with me. It’s an attempt to avoid mob scenes like last year’s meeting when there were too many captains, all trying to talk at once on every subject.”
“Will the other captains be allowed to attend, too?” Ramona asked.
“I don’t know. Hopefully, there would be enough trust in the Council that it wouldn’t be necessary for the other captains to sit in. It wouldn’t surprise me, though, if they insisted on attending for the first few years until that trust was built.”
“What has this got to do with your plan?” Ramona pressed.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Tambu blinked. “That Council could take over as the governing body of the fleet after I’m gone.”