Terran Empire

“ The hormone that defines a Sandeman warrior and controls his need cycle.
EMPIRE, TERRAN: Founded by Cheong Chang in 2128, the Empire is an umbrella government with functions limited to defense of the Empire as a whole, peacekeeping (primarily between Sectors, though occasionally if necessary between lesser fiefs as well) , and inter-cultural relations that cannot be handled at a lower level. Its normal method of operation is that of minimum intervention, to encourage maximum diversity (within limits; neither anarchy nor Balkanization are seen as desirable) . ”

“ Race, I want just one thing. I want the Dry-towns and the rest of Wolf, to have a voice in their own government. Any planet which makes a substantial contribution to galactic science, by the laws of the Terran Empire, is automatically given the status of an independent commonwealth.
"If a man from the Dry-towns discovers something like a matter transmitter, Wolf gets dominion status. But Evarin and his gang want to keep it secret, keep it away from Terra, keep it locked up in places like Canarsa! Somebody has to get it away from them. ”

“ Not a rich place, no. And the party talk around her, gathered in fragments from the twenty or so who crowded the room, didn't contradict that impression. This seemed to be a subsistence-farming culture . . . here on Terra? Well, it was possible; talk of farm animals, equipment, and markets, and canning, yes. Nothing of politics, or the Empire, or the nobility, as was so common in the circles she was used to, but the warmth and friendship here had value of their own. These people might not have much money, but they couldn't be called poor.
Sue found herself pleased by that. ”

“ This was real; she was giving orders to the Captain of an Imperial Battle Cruiser, certain they would be obeyed. "When we arrive in the Terran system, take station in the asteroid belt. Then call Defense Satellite Five and have them inform us of any Irschschan ship landing near the Palace. When you receive that word, start for Terra and call me. As soon as you have Chang in orbit, Ranger Medart and I, along with any crew members who have mind shields and are willing to volunteer, will take a lander down and attempt to take Thark in the act of invading the Palace." ”

“ They aren't life as we usually understand the term; some scientists believe they aren't really life at all. From time to time, at unpredictable intervals, they erupt into a random universe and—if that universe doesn't have a technological and population level near the Empire's—devastate it and proceed to another. But no Empire-level civilization is attacked more than once, because a civilization at that stage can defeat them, and so far always has. ”

“ I'd planned on giving you a bit more preparation, but Colonel Cortin suggested my bodyguard be the biggest people we have, and those are Traiti. The Empire includes standard humans, human variants like the Sandemans and the Narvonese Dragon-Kindred, and non-humans, like the Traiti and Irschchans. One of my fellow Rangers is Irschchan, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if she became Empress some day. Plus there are occasional genetically-engineered variants who're so far from the human norm they'd be classified non-human if that weren't their root stock. ”

“ Chang nodded. "Quite clearly."
"I think I'm jealous—for the first time, I wish he'd mind-touched me."
"Never wish for that," Odeon said grimly. "It's a horrible sensation, though the mind-speech itself isn't bad."
"The mind-speech is called telepathy," Illyanov said. "It is part of what is called Talent, and some rare humans have enough to be trained in its reliable use."
Cortin stared at him, puzzled. "What are you talking about—how do you know that?"
Illyanov smiled. "Since our discussion something over a week ago, I have spent my free time studying the Terran Empire. ”

“ There was no denying that His Majesty had had excellent reasons for his actions, from establishing the Empire on; even the Solar Federation Congress had been able to understand that a democracy that was struggling to hold a single system together couldn't possibly cope with what promised to rapidly become thousands of systems. Aristocracy had worked, more or less, in one form or another, for thousands of years, so an Empire was a natural solution—but it was also a classic idea in space opera. ”

“ The Brotherhood's still-anonymous new leader was no fonder of the Empire than she was, but instead of bowing to the inevitable and making the best of it, he vowed to destroy all he could. Killing Imperials was to take priority even over killing Strike Force members, including Cortin the Bitch herself. ”

“ She could see landfolk out working their farms and ranches, but they were far enough away she couldn't hear them—and they weren't likely to approach a group of Enforcement troopers, especially one escorting a prisoner.
Cortin smiled grimly at that thought. Prewar, even Terran, police, from her reading, had gotten the same reaction: civilians tended to stay away, unless they needed something. And civs were even less interested in having anything to do with police carrying out the enforcement part of their duties. ”

“ Ident code prefix: KET Continents: Ruled by: General: A poor world, its local economy is based on smuggling. Ketteran local nobles own and operate smuggling ships, with their social standing determined by the amount of wealth they contribute to the planet's economy.
KINDRED OF THE DRAGON: Kins and Bloodmates, those susceptible to and changed by the nosferatu pseudo-virus. They are classed as human-variant, due to the extent of changes made by the virus. They are Narvon System's local nobility, and since 2280 all Imperial ruling nobles in the system are required to be Kindred. ”

“ They are generally chosen young, trained on the job for two or three years by another Ranger. They are the Sovereign's personal representatives and troubleshooters, doing what the Sovereign would if @ could be in ten places at once. They have the right to wield Imperial power at need, though if time permits, they will always consult with the Sovereign before doing so. It is they who choose the Successor, in theory any qualified Imperial citizen but so far in practice always another Ranger. ”

“ The Galaxy is not big enough for any competition of sovereignty. There must be one and only one completely sovereign power. The Terran Federation was once such a power. It failed, and vanished; you know what followed. Darkness and anarchy. We are clawing our way up out of that darkness. We will not fail. We will create a peaceful and unified Galaxy. ”

“ Because of the Great Fire, your planet has many civilizations that are now completely isolated from one another; many, however, are on a fairly high level. The radiation barriers that lace your planet will keep you isolated from them for some time. When the Lord of the Flames is finished with one empire, he may wish to try a different method on a basically similar civilization. For all your isolated empires had the same base. Marinor, Letpar, Calcivon, Aptor—these are all empires on your planet of which you have never heard. But your first concern is Toromon. ”

“ The Centauran Empire surrounded Terra, an iron ring that couldn’t be broken, rusty and corroded as it was. Radical new weapons had to be conceived, if Terra was to break out.
Through the windows of his office, Reinhart could see endless buildings and streets, Terrans hurrying back and forth. Bright specks that were commute ships, little eggs that carried businessmen and white-collar workers around. The huge transport tubes that shot masses of workmen to factories and labor camps from their housing units. All these people, waiting to break out. ”

“ This is often done by planting colonies, which are of two sorts: One to keep conquered countries in subjection, and to prevent the necessity of constant standing armies: a policy which the Romans practised, till their conquests grew too numerous, the conquered countries too distant, and their empire too unwieldy to be managed by their native force only ”

“ The great increase in the naval power of the countries of Europe, the enormous increase in the means of communication, place the colonies practically so much nearer Europe. The improvements of modern science, and especially of telegraphic science, aid the concentration of force upon a single point. All these things have brought the distant lands which belong to the Empire in various parts of the world within the sphere of possible aggression. Do not so misinterpret my words as to imagine that I conceive any aggression likely or probable on the part of those who wield power in Europe ”

“ I really thought, that there was some distinction to be made between that period when Greece and Asia were not yet under your jurisdiction and dominion, and the present, when you have made Mount Taurus the boundary of the Roman empire; when you grant liberty and independence to the states of that country; when you augment the territories of some; amerce others in a part of their lands ”

“ Civilization was reduced beyond barbarism. But eventually the few survivors on the Island of Toron established a settlement, a village, a city. Now they pushed to the mainland, and the shore became the central source of food for the island's population which now devoted itself to manufacturing. On the coast, farms and fishing villages flourished. On the island, science and industry became sudden factors in the life of Toromon, now an empire. ”

“ If it be argued, as it had been argued, that the scattering of our naval and military forces in time of war would prove a source of weakness, he would confidently reply that if, once our relations with the self-governing Colonies were placed upon a reasonable and permanent basis, the wealth and strength of the 7,000,000 of the English race who inhabited them would constitute the wealth and strength of the British Empire little if at all less effectively than if those 7,000,000 were resident within these islands. ”

“ It should be obvious to everybody that the behavior of these natives is nullifying everything the civil government is trying to do to ensure the survival of the Terran colonists, the production of Terran-type food without which we would all starve, the biocrystal plantations without which the Colony would perish, and even the natives themselves. ”

“ The big thing is the way they follow the same pattern. Savage, agrarian, urban, right on up the ladder according to the rules of civic science but squabbling and battling all the way right on up and out into space. Hell, Huvane, warfare and conflict I can both understand and cope with, but not the Terran flavor. They don’t come out bent on conquest or stellar colonialism. ”

“ Mill had these colonies of the South Pacific in view when he expressed these ideas. The pride of empire is all-powerful, but the growth and extent of nations, as shown in the history of the Babylonian, Assyrian, and Roman Empires, are governed by principles beyond their individual control. When men have builded too high the structure topples over. The more dominion is extended the more vulnerable it becomes. There is also, as Mr. Mill intimates, a vital distinction between continuous or contiguous empire and empire dispersed and separated by thousands of miles of ocean. ”

“ The islands of Corfu, Zante, and Cephalonia are of more interest to us than all Italy put together.... The Turkish empire is daily tottering; the possession of these islands will enable us to support it as long as possible, or to take our portion of it. ”

“ Sometimes a weaker tribe, flying before a stronger, has been in this manner precipitated upon the territory of a richer and less military population, so that an impulse originating in the distant plains of Central Tartary has been propagated until it reached the southern extremity of Europe, through successive intermediate tribes, a phenomenon especially exhibited during the fourth and fifth centuries of the Christian era, in the declining years of the Roman empire. ”

“ The southerners hold Scotha now, and Terra will recognize them as the legal government—with you the queen, Gunli. You'll be another vassal state of the Empire, yes, but with all your freedoms except the liberty to rob and kill other races. ”

“ But when the military order had levelled, in wild anarchy, the power of the prince, the laws of the senate, and even the discipline of the camp, the barbarians of the North and of the East, who had long hovered on the frontier, boldly attacked the provinces of a declining monarchy. Their vexatious inroads were changed into formidable irruptions, and, after a long vicissitude of mutual calamities, many tribes of the victorious invaders established themselves in the provinces of the Roman Empire. ”

“ This door to the seas and key to the universe will enable its possessors to become the legislators of both worlds, and the arbitrators of commerce. The settlers of Darien will acquire a nobler empire than Alexander or Cæsar, without fatigue, expense, or danger, as well as without incurring the guilt and bloodshed of conquerors. ”

“ Again and again, when rebellion threatens the Terran Peace, the natives of the rebellious world have turned against their own people and sided with the men of Terra; not from fear, but from a sense of dedication.
There has never been open war. The battle for these worlds is fought in the minds of a few men who stand between worlds; bound to one world by interest, loyalties and allegiance; bound to the other by love.
Such a world is Wolf. Such a man was Race Cargill of the Terran Secret Service. ”

“ Of them all, only a handful, including the commander, had any real knowledge of what lay ahead of them, and that knowledge only pertained to the periphery of the area the intrepid band of adventurers were entering. They knew that the aliens possessed a rudimentary civilization—they did not, at that time, realize they were entering the outposts of a powerful barbaric empire—an empire almost as well-organized and well-armed as that of First Century Rome, and, if anything, even more savage and ruthless. ”