Alpha Strike by J.N. Chaney

Author:J.N. Chaney [Chaney, J.N.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-06-18T22:00:00+00:00

18

Connor swaggered into the chamber used by Port Royale’s governing council with a calculated air of nonchalance. One had to present a certain image to stand up to this group, and he’d had a lot of practice at doing it, but he never missed an opportunity to look as if he were in control, even if that wasn’t quite the case.

The chamber itself had been a small briefing room used by middle-ranked officers in the distant past, but they’d torn out the furnishings and had an oval-shaped table built to fill the space. A gap in the table allowed people to do their presentations from the center of the open space in the middle, so the council members surrounded them. He’d found having people asking questions from all around was a bit unsettling and usually resulted in more honesty. Now it was his turn in the box.

Well, fair was fair.

The governing council was made up of five people. Each of them was a mover and shaker in their own right, though not powerful enough to rule the system on their own. Arguably, Connor wasn’t powerful enough to do so himself. If he didn’t have the council’s support, he wouldn’t be running the show.

That was one of the reasons he’d been careful during his initial selection of who he’d allowed to learn the location of this system. Doing so made people beholden to him, to a point. Only three of the current council members were part of the original set, but he’d supported them when they needed it, and they’d supported him in most things since.

Not in all things, of course, because there was an independent streak baked into people that struck out on their own. Connor could push things, but not too far. What he did had to make sense to the council, or they’d cut him off at the knees.

More than five people were at the table because each council member had two alternates who sat in on the meetings. If a council member couldn’t be there, their first alternate stepped into their shoes for any votes. As the council was not allowed to abstain or vote present on any issue, that assured there were five votes either yea or nay on any subject.

That had been intentional. He’d seen far too many instances where the Confederation Council—or its subordinate groupings—had been unable to accomplish anything. He wanted to make sure there were always votes when they needed to be taken.

Of course, they weren’t stupid. If something wasn’t ready to vote on, the council would vote to table the issue for up to thirty days and then vote on it again. There were still some things in progress from years ago that they kept looking at to see if it was time to pull the trigger on.

When he’d created Port Royale and the council, he’d wanted something between him and ironfisted rule. He wasn’t cut out for that and wanted to ensure no one came along to murder him and take over the entire colony.

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