Usurper by Richard F Weyand

Author:Richard F Weyand [Weyand, Richard F]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781732128057
Publisher: Weyand Associates, Inc.
Published: 2019-02-18T22:00:00+00:00

“Well, Saaret, now we know,” Galbraith said.

“Yes. It’s an interesting move,” Saaret said.

“How did I know you were going to say that?”

“Because it’s true, Galbraith?” Saaret shrugged. “It is an interesting move. She’s exercising oversight over the High Court. But she put together a panel of eleven eminent appellate jurists to do it. It’s not like she’s just overruling them willy-nilly.”

“Pomeroy won’t be happy.”

“No, I suspect he will be out there running up and down the corridor shrieking, if he isn’t already.”

“You find this humorous?”

“No, I find Pomeroy’s ignorance appalling. It’s only his expression of it I find humorous.”

“I’m afraid I don’t share your sense of humor, Saaret.”

“What are you complaining about, Galbraith? Your prosecutor won his case.”

“Yes, but he wasn’t supposed to win it.”

“Look, those guys bald-face lied under oath, in a civil case where they weren’t at any risk of prison or financial penalty. They should have been tried for official corruption and executed, but you didn’t prosecute those charges and I understand why. For that matter, Her Majesty could have found them guilty and executed them on her own – either of them, actually, since Ilithyia I was still on the throne – and neither Empress did. But now they are going to go to prison. It’s only fair, in a way.”

“And the others involved?” Galbraith asked.

“They came clean once caught and testified truthfully, for the most part. These guys doubled down, and they’re going to pay for it.”

“So do you think this is a one-off?”

“No, not at all. Her Majesty has an appellate panel over there now, and I can’t imagine she did that for a single case. Chief Justice Gaffney and his fellows better be careful. She could just replace them all with her own panel.”

“High Court justices can only be removed for cause.”

Saaret sighed.

“You’ve been hanging around with Pomeroy too much, Galbraith. I shouldn’t have to keep explaining this. She’s the Empress. The only cause she needs is her own authority. This is an Empire, dammit. The Empress is the sole sovereign. All other authority is delegated by the Throne.”

“Not the Council’s.”

“Yes, the Imperial Council’s authority was delegated by the Throne, in an Imperial Decree three hundred years ago, and which, by the way, this Empress can rescind any time she wants. That’s why I keep telling everyone, we play ball by the Empress’s rules, or we could find ourselves out of a job. Or worse. How is that so hard to understand?”

“I don’t think she would do that, Saaret.”

“I agree. She wouldn’t. Not without damn good reason. But if we become more trouble than we’re worth, that may be reason enough.”

“You know there’s another case coming up before the High Court, right? One her panel of justices may take an interest in.”

Saaret groaned.

“I’d forgotten that. The Ike Solisbury case.”

“Yes. And the Chief of the Imperial Police is an individual defendant.”

“They were way the hell out of bounds targeting him like that, Galbraith.”

“Yes, I know, but it’s not going to make Chief Stanier any happier if it goes against him.

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