Rome Wasn't Built in a Day

In front of me stood several officers who had gone into civilian service under Draneir. Also at their side was a flying robot that was in charge of recording everything that would be said in my governmental actions.

My plan for the creation of a civilian government was to create ministries, headed by a minister, below him would be the deputy minister, and then there would be ranks of bureaucracy.

Senior administrator, in charge of specific tasks of a ministry.

Lower administrator, in charge of supporting the higher administrator in his tasks.

Bureaucrat, in charge of all tasks associated with the ministry, then each ministry was free to create more ranks.

I had also created six ministries, a ministry of defence, a ministry of economy, a ministry of social affairs, a ministry of foreign affairs, a ministry of finance and a ministry of interior.

Why separate finance and economy? Because the first one was about raising money by taxing everything that moves and the other one was about economic development.

It is always necessary to have a ministry of finance. Maybe I will give them their own army dedicated to collecting taxes, some form of armed auxiliary force probably, but that would be a question for the future.

I sighed then in despair at the lack of competent people in the civilian sphere, I was removing military officers from their ranks to fill my ministries with people who could at least operate a computer.

"Senior Administrator Yen, you will be in charge of freeing all the slaves, seeing that they get a roof over their heads, basic services and are properly registered in the Civil Registry".

Slavery was one of the great diseases of this galaxy, but what I cared about was the propagandistic value this would bring. Freeing slaves would give me great popularity among the civilian population and in the galaxy at large. But that was not the only thing, as in the end every freed slave would be able to work, hopefully in industries that would help my war machine and in the planetary economic development, and do so far more enthusiastically than when bound in chains.

"Senior Administrator Jonat you will be in charge of spotting all economic opportunities on this planet, along with identifying any existing industries."

She needed to get something out of this damned planet, industries to tap and resources to exploit, so his mission was very relevant.

"Senior Administrator Max, you will be in charge of sourcing food legally and not stealing from the locals, I repeat, there will be no abuse of the locals. If any acts of abuse of the civilian population are reported to me, you will be sent to court."

I needed food urgently. It was what was truly in short supply and one of the reasons why the various fleets were acting separately. Searching for food resources for self-sufficiency. But since I united the fleet for the invasion of the criminal empires food consumption was not sustainable.

Why? Small fleets could trade, move out to steal food and other necessities from New Republic ships, a massive navy couldn't stop for that unless there was an emergency, so we basically packed everything we could take with us and went to Tatooine with the plan to recover here.

"Senior Administrator Torel. You will be in charge of handling the criminals we have captured and will capture in the future, you will be given full freedom in your dealings with them but you have to prepare the prisoners for the construction work you will be given by the Ministry of Economy."

I needed manpower and what better use for the criminals than to use them as a labour force. Give them the worst tasks, so that the local population could take the most comfortable and satisfying jobs. Europe and the US showed the way to abuse immigrants for the jobs least wanted by the locals. I would only change the immigrants for criminals. Should I pay them a salary? I would have to think about it, for now, I'll leave it for the future.

"Yes, Golden Heiress!" said the 4 Senior Administrators before they left. I stood up and looked around. I was in an imperial field camp, a kilometre away from the largest city on Tatooine. The camp was big but I didn't like staying in it, I would have to create government buildings of my own soon.

I then noticed Draneir approaching me, for the first time seeing him in a civilian uniform, well it was still a military uniform, but now it was associated with the civilian government so technically he was a civilian.

He put a tablet in front of me, on which a hologram of Jabba's palace, being destroyed by turbolasers from a Star Destroyer, appeared.

"What remains of Jabba's physical legacy has been destroyed."

I nodded, it may be a cultural loss, but it was really useful for propaganda. In the future we would create a museum to capitalise on that territory, but for now, victory was mine.

"I want the holonet to see this every day, from now to five years in the future," I said as I started walking to my destination, the room of communication and public opinion. A nice name to basically have 10 soldiers constantly looking at the holonet's mega-data and give me the information I needed to act on.

"Understood!" he nodded as he was leaving, but I turned around quickly and looked at him.

"Wait, you're the Prime Minister now, shouldn't a subordinate of yours be giving me this information?"

Draneir looked at me almost surprised.

"With the few people we have here, there is no chance of such a thing as a competent person running errands, so I take advantage of my free time to inform you of these things."

Wait, how many hours do my officials work?

"How many hours per standard rotation do my bureaucrats work?"

The newly minted Prime Minister lifted his shoulders, "16 hours, otherwise we can't get anything done."

"Draneir, recruit civilians for menial tasks, 2000 credits per month as the minimum wage for our work, I don't care if you go over budget. This is unacceptable, no administration can function on the basis of slavery, maximum working hours shall be 8 per day, with two days off every seven days. This is an explicit order."

Draneir nodded and walked away, leaving me alone to consider the situation. 

In Japanese culture it was normal to force employees to work much more than necessary, to exploit them until they died, but some European-American studies in my early life showed that working more hours was less efficient than working less hours, although these studies were focused on arguments in favour of the 6-hour work day. It gave me a new perspective on why it was important to keep employees not only happy, but with enough time to rest.

Continuing my walk to my destination, watching the door to the communication and public opinion room on my approach, I sighed and opened it, walking in and seeing 10 soldiers typing on a data pad while analysing different macro data from the holonet.

"General report on the popular reaction to the fall of Tatooine."

A nice way of asking what people were saying about this event.

"Much of the holonet is discussing the issue, however according to our estimates only 21% of the opinions are positive, 74% neutral and 5% strictly negative."

I looked at the computers we were using to analyse the data.

"I need to know what the computer considers to be neutral opinions".

The soldier who answered me came over and operated it until something appeared on the screen, then moved to the side again.

"Here it is, Golden Heiress."

I walked over and started reading, quickly realising what was going on. In statistics, the questions were everything, and media manipulation was often done by surveys with very specific questions that gave the necessary answer for the manipulators. For example in the United States of America you could do a statistic on whether or not you like the police, but if you wanted to manipulate opinion you would ask: 'Do you want there to be a police force or are you against any type of police protecting the streets?'

The result would be obvious, every functional being would say they were in favour of the police, allowing the news to then claim that 80-90% of people were in favour of the current police, when that would actually be a lie. Thus allowing the government to not take action on its police problems, because most of the population was reportedly in favour of it.

And the problem in this statistic was a very simple one, positive comments including doubts or with fear that it was the Empire that had done this, it took as a neutral comment, when in fact those were positive comments. A truly neutral comment was far more sceptical than "The Empire today did something good for the galaxy, but it should have been the New Republic or the Rebel Army".

"Change the doubtful or sceptical comments to positive comments and redo the statistics for 

the opinion polling."

The soldiers started to work, the one next to me being in charge of the computer. Minutes passed until they finally finished their work.

"Showing statistics," he said, as they appeared quickly.

"58% positive, 37% neutral and 5% negative," he reported. I nodded and yet I was disappointed, expecting more popularity. 

"For thousands of years these criminal scum have been destroying civilisations, ruining billions of lives and yet the positive reaction was so small," I grumbled, accepting the slight defeat this time. I started to leave when one of the soldiers said something else of interest.

"It may be because the people most affected are the ones who have the least access to the holonet, in the end 76% of our data comes from the Core and Mid Rim." I turned and looked at the soldier.

"I will double your pay, your point of view is true and it has helped me in my problem."

It is true, the Outer Rim has been so harassed, that in the end it is to be expected that they are less developed and have less access to the holonet. The information I got from here seems useless to me...

Wait a minute.

"Analysis of how much of the positive public opinion comes from the New Republic."

The soldiers got to work and after several minutes they gave me the information.

"30% Golden Heiress."

30%, a high number but less than expected, but it means that the unaligned planets with access to the holonet hold my entity and my actions in high regard.

"Collect the planets not under New Republic control that show the highest positive opinion and pass it on to the foreign ministry."

"Understood!" the soldiers responded. I nodded and with that left the room, at last what I had created had served some purpose.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I looked at the gathered members of the newly created Ministry of Defence. Though we were calling it a ministry, it was basically a military board of the most competent Captains I had promoted to Admiral and a couple of Generals. 

It was simple, I needed a group to take control of the army and fleet apart from me, I had to establish the foundations of this government and I couldn't continue leading the war by myself. And considering that now was the time to press the attack, this group that was basically my Major Staff was going to dedicate itself to the war in the strategic field, supervised by me.

"Golden Heiress, our recommendations on the next actions to be taken."

I nodded and sat in the chair in front of where my Generals and Admirals were operating.

I picked up the tablet and began to read.

-Due to the destruction of most of the mercenary, criminal and pirate fleets we have decided to put 80% of the fleet on standby on Tatooine, with 10% of this serving as a local defensive force.

The other 20% will be used to conquer the entire Arkanis sector, of which resistance is expected from the Pii, Andoweel, Obana and Vor Deo systems. Arkanis and Sirpar are expected to join peacefully.

When the sector of Arkanis is secured we will proceed with the conquest of Ryloth, the last criminal pocket in our galactic south

Strategic importance of Arkanis and Sirpar:

They are the most relevant imperial planets in the further training and development of captains, admirals and army officers. Their economies are large compared to the galactic standard and so far they have dedicated themselves to claiming allegiance to the Empire. However, they have never made contact with us, so precautions will be taken when approaching these planets.

Strategic importance of the Pii system:

The Pii system connects the Mid Rim with the Outer Rim so the General Staff has considered its conquest, the annihilation of the pirates that live on their planets and moons and the creation of fortresses along with Hyperspace Jump Inhibitors to cut off any invasion by the New Republic, relevant to our future endeavours.

Strategic importance of the planet Obana:

According to reports, a large pirate fleet that used to work for Bib Fortuna is based here. Their elimination should be theoretically fast as they do not have a fleet anymore, only planetary bases.

Strategic importance of Andoweel:

A farming planet, we will try to make them peacefully join the Empire but if necessary, they will be invaded. They were known to be in charge of feeding the entire Arkani system under the supervision of Bib Fortuna and the rulers are believed to be loyal to Bib Fortuna. 

Strategic importance of Vor Deo:

Mining and fuel planet used by Jabba the Hutt and Bib Fortuna to fuel their criminal empire. It is known to be one of the most heavily fortified planets in the sector and will be invaded as a priority after invading Andoweel.

I finished reading the report and started looking at the sector map. It was very fortunate that there were Imperial era planets used for officer training here. I needed them, like a human would need water. The raw material planets would also be useful but I found it unfortunate that there were no industrial worlds. And the cleaning of pirates would be necessary...

"Geonosis," I said, noting that the planet was practically our neighbour.

"Send a Destroyer as a reconnaissance group to this planet immediately , do not pull it from the conquering force but from the reserve that will remain defending Tatooine. I need to find out if the Geonosian factories work. The strategic value of Geonosis may be so great that, should we succeed in getting the industries back online, it may allow us to move 10 years ahead without fear of being wrong in the economic development of the Empire."

My General Staff looked at each other and nodded, beginning to jot things down on their tablets.

"Well, I accept all measures and I will rely on your competence, however should any site meet more than the anticipated resistance you are to notify me immediately, as I will personally intervene to lead the troops to absolute victory."

In the end, although I wouldn't be in the business of dealing with small battles, if a battle became difficult I would have to intervene, both to ensure victory and for the sake of propaganda.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ahsoka Tano looked at the Imperial base from the terrace of a multi-story building, several kilometres of Empire military complex, with constant patrols and a Destroyer flying over the complex.

"Heiress to the Empire, she will bring war to the galaxy once again, killing her now will save billions of lives."

Ahsoka Tano had been watching the Empire for a few days and had thought dozens of times about what to do, on the one hand the actions the Empire was doing in this area were not necessarily bad, freeing the slaves was a noble action. But the people who would die in a war if this Golden Heiress regained the Empire in the Outer Rim weighed more heavily. For in the end they would declare war on the New Republic, dragging the galaxy into war again.

Sometimes you had to decide between two options and decide which was the least bad.

Seeing a convoy, Ahsoka smiled. It was her key to enter the fortress. It was night, so the view was limited and the guards were finishing their shifts so they would be easier to avoid.

The convoy passed under Ahsoka, who waited until the last truck, jumping and using the force to have a soft fall and not give herself away with the sound. In a few seconds she opened the back door and climbed in, closing it again.

Strange that there is no military guard in this convoy. Ahsoka thought to herself. Taking out a small flashlight to see the contents of the convoy, dozens of closed boxes. Curiously she opened one, seeing that it was dozens of fruits with a letter.

"Donation from the Ex-Slaves Association" she read. Ahsoka frowned and grimaced. The Empire was doing a good thing. She couldn't deny it but it was still the Empire that oppressed hundreds of planets, the Empire that destroyed entire intelligent species and destroyed Aldeeran. One good deed did not justify letting this cancer grow long enough to kill the galaxy.

The convoy stopped, Ahsoka covered the box again after putting the letter in its place and hid behind several stacked boxes.

The door opened and light illuminated the space where the boxes were stored.

"Looks like the locals are happier to give us food, look at all the donation based food in here," a Stormtrooper said to his companion, he walked in and seemed to open one of the boxes.

"Look, there are even thank you letters. By the way I heard that some masters have been reluctant to release their slaves, what happened to them?" asked the same Trooper as he closed the box and stepped out of the truck.

"The orders were to free the slaves, no matter what their former masters thought, at best a fine, at worst…" The sound of someone trying to imitate the sound of a blaster could be heard. The Stormtrooper laughed, then closed the door.

The convoy then stopped, Ahsoka waited patiently but no one opened the door for quite some time, however the sound of a ship boarding something began to sound even with the relative isolation there was in the truck.

"They're bringing the trucks up to the Destroyer it seems," she muttered to herself, opening the door and keeping an eye out for anyone. The floor was of a metal-like material and in general they didn't seem to allow sand to spread on their base.

Ahsoka stepped out and closed the door, quickly hiding in the shadows, watching as the trucks were slowly taken away by the ships. Two two-man patrols circled what looked like the convoy parking lot.

Ahsoka, hidden by the shadows, tried to identify the Golden Heiress to know where she was, noticing her strange presence far away, at a point relatively close to her.

Sensing where her prey was, Ahsoka waited until both guard groups were far enough away to move in the darkness until she reached a door, opening it quickly and entering the base.

The corridors were three metres high and five metres wide and were illuminated by lights built into the ceiling. So the chances of staying hidden any longer were difficult. She quickly began to run, using her Togruta echolocation to avoid people and reach the room where the Golden Heiress was . She hadn't noticed her, however the ten Stormtroopers on guard in the apparent throne room did. So Ahsoka quickly began to choke them out using the Force.

"A Jedi?" asked the Golden Heiress. Ahsoka Tano pulled out one of her two lightsabers, ready to fight the Golden Heiress and end the future war right now.

"Not exactly," Ahsoka replied.

The Golden Heiress, barely moving and appearing to remain calm, looked at the Stormtroopers who were dying from a lack of air.

"Release my men and let's have a civilised conversation," the Golden Heiress demanded in a deep and relatively feminine voice.

Negotiating with the Empire was a bad option, they tended to be treacherous and not keep their word, plus freeing the men who would later shoot her? Why would she have to put herself at a disadvantage in future combat? 

The sound of the Stormtroopers' necks breaking rang out.

"Uncivilised barbarian!" spat the Golden Heiress, making two golden swords appear from each of her arms and attacking Ahsoka, who parried the attack with her laser sword, staying on the defensive according to the Form V style of lightsaber combat and forcing Golden Heiress to attack, exposing her weaknesses. 

It was when the Golden Heiress attempted to attack with her right arm, using it as a type of spear to strike Ahsoka's heart that Ahsoka counter-attacked. Deflecting the Golden Heiress' attack towards the ground, she quickly drew her second lightsaber and aimed it at her enemy's chest, igniting the lightsaber. However the blade was deflected as it hit the armour, startling Ahsoka.

"Beskar?" Ahsoka asked, perplexed. However, her moment of surprise was answered with a strong headbutt from her opponent, knocking her to the ground, the Golden Heiress falling with her and forcing her to the ground. 

"Fire to stun!" shouted the Golden Heiress to the troops that had stormed in as the combat escalated. They started firing at Ahsoka, who resisted several shots due to her training with Anakin which led her to have a certain tolerance towards stun blasts. However no amount of resistance training could have saved her from falling after several shots.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The hours passed and I looked at the unconscious prisoner, a Togruta identified as Ahsoka Tano. As time went by and I read her reports I could not help but understand that letting her live was going to be a major problem, not only would she come back but my tricks were useless against her.

"Terrorism, assassination of state agents, infiltration of a military base, any decent state would punish someone who did that with death."

Not putting her on trial went against the ideals I wanted to impose on my new Empire, but putting her on trial and waiting for her to wake up so that she could free herself and have another shot at killing me, was so bad that my ideals could be put to the other side.

I slowly summoned my magic sword.

"If only you would agree to negotiate, I'm not really that bad, but you started this fight, and I'll finish it here."

I started to lower my arm, intending to decapitate her when I heard a voice behind me

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

I turned and saw a young man, who looked like he had experienced several wars, with shoulder-length hair and a smirk on his face and also dark robes. The fact that he was transparent was the thing that surprised me the most.

"And who are you?" I asked, he laughed, almost with sadistic irony. 

Quickly his form transformed like a bolt of lightning into a dark, synthetically armoured, mechanical figure, with an eerie breath and a more than recognisable mask.

"Now do you know who I am?"

Fear filled my heart as I watched the figure, which was breathing automatically with a sound so distinctive that it was scary just to hear.

"Lord Vader" I said, hiding my fear behind my mask. Lord Vader as a concept was made to be scary, but I was scared of him because of the year-long torture he subjected me years ago, after which he proceeded to kill all the officers I got along with. It was the time I almost ended up leaving the Empire but even if I did, what could I do? They would most likely look for me and kill me if I left.

"Do not kill her, she has a greater purpose than dying today, I will take care of her attitude."

I thought about swallowing the answer I was planning to say, but he was dead and only a ghost, what could he do to me.

"And if not what?"

I began to float as I felt my neck tighten without anyone touching it. I summoned my sword and tried to stab the ghost but it didn't even flinch.

It was then that I fell to the ground, coughing. When I pulled myself together the figure disappeared.

"Damn it" I said, if killing her was going to kill me there was no point in killing her.

I remembered parts of the year of torture I suffered and felt a cold shudder running down my back.

Walking out of the prison I looked at the two Stormtroopers who waited outside and surely heard nothing.

"Block her movement as much as you can and let me know when she wakes up."

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I looked in the mirror at a figure I recognized as it was mine, the scars on my body were old but some of them still hurt.

"The same person who gave me these is now back from the dead, it's amazing how you have hurt me more than Being X."

I putted my body glove back on and sat in my chair, I wasn't in the mood to drink and Draneir was busy so I was alone.

Closing my eyes, I started remembering the room with four walls as black as night, the torture droids and Darth Vader, the hours of torture and the times a medical droid took my blood. I don't know why but it seemed to be of personal interest to Lord Vader and the Emperor.

The sound of my holocommunicator's call brought me out of my slumber, I straightened up and took it, accepting it but refusing to appear as a hologram to the other side, as I had no armour on.

"Golden Heiress, Ahsoka Tano has awakened."

I nodded, I had a conversation to attend.

I putted on my armour and left my quarters, meeting Draneir.

"Are you alright?" he asked, great concern swinging in his voice. I nodded and started walking, being followed by him.

"I'm fine, come with me, do I have to take care of the problem yet, or do you have work to do?"

Draneir declined, approaching my side and starting to walk. He was truly loyal, as second in command he always served me well and now as prime minister too.

"I wonder what caused you to be so loyal," I mused wryly as I continued walking.

"I guess saving me from being eaten alive by hairy bugs started this relationship."

I laughed, remembering that fateful day I had to survive being a prisoner. I saved him by pure chance that time because I thought four hands did a better job than two.

"It wasn't the best start, but one I'm grateful for." ended Draneir.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I looked at Ahsoka Tano who was bound by her four limbs and neck with an explosive collar. It was more than I asked for but I wasn't complaining. In the end one had to be cautious with the Jedi.

"You have killed ten good men," I said. I didn't know them but surely they had done nothing wrong in their lives, but the rebels didn't care about that a lot of the time.

"Peace takes less lives than war" she proclaimed, as an answer it was good but it was also useless to me.

"If by killing me you think there will be peace, you are wrong, for if I die, chaos will return to this sector of the galaxy and the death of millions would have been your fault. Likewise, your life may have been spared but you must pay for your crimes."

The Jedi looked at me and then seemed to think to herself.

"Only because Skyguy was convincing," she mumbled quietly to herself. I couldn't hear her and before I had the chance to ask what she meant, she looked at me.

"My services as a bodyguard."

This too is no good to me. She'll kill me as soon as she can and I can't trust her.

"Like I can trust your word."

Ahsoka looks down at the floor before meeting my visored eyes again, seemingly angry.

"How about this, a simple device, installed in your heart, if I die you die. You will serve as my bodyguard for 50 years, 5 years for every man you murdered today," I proposed. 

We had the technology and resources to allow something like this and it was an easy way to make her interests the same as mine. Well, if I die it'd be over for her as well.

"And how can I trust you not to just trigger it anyways?" she asked. I sighed and turned away.

"Change the door to an isolation door, only the strongest willed people will do as jailers. 20 soldiers, 24 hours a day, shift change every 2 hours, contact me when she says she's going to take the deal."

And with that I left the prison, the door closing behind me. I would like to have her executed,, but it would be my death sentence as well....

I could always leave her in carbonite somewhere if she took too long to accept the deal.