Sulla Is Inevitable - Chapter 8

 Sulla Is Inevitable

By David Billiot

Copyright 2026: All rights reserved

Chapter 8

White counted the days on the calendar and then did a calculation in his head. He was satisfied with the answer and then called his wife. 

“Ilia. Are the flowers blooming?” he asked her. 

“There were four of them today.” She’d given the correct response.  

“How are the girls?”

“Arguing.”

“Tell them to stop it.”

“Luke, how much longer must we stay here?”

“The situation has become more complicated.”

“If you are the vice president, surely you have the power to send me and the girls home.”

“I’m working on it.”

The rest of the conversation was tense.  He had not expected his wife to accompany him to the capital. That had happened thanks to machinations by Narius.  White was wise enough to not let his family come down to the presidential palace.  He told them to stay on a military ship in orbit.  The conflict was too hot on the surface. 

Day and night protesters camped outside the palace. They blew whistles, set off bombs, banged metal pans, and otherwise just screamed like demons possessed them. The palace was soundproof so none of it was actually bothering White physically. However, it bothered him mentally that people would be like this. Back home when he was growing up people didn’t act like this just because the other party had won an election. And why did the police do nothing? There were armed gangs organizing their own little governments and fighting wars for territory on the streets with clubs and law enforcement claimed to be helpless to stop it. 

On Atolia everyone worked. Every human had a job to go to. It was not so in the capital. Here automation did all the work. Factories used Atypes for manufacturing.  The robot arms could assemble products on an assembly line faster than a human. Every shop had a Dtype at the counter for sales.  Those robots with their fake skin looked just human enough to be friendly. People sent private messages back and forth using Btypes on wheels instead of sending messages over the internet because they were afraid the government was reading everyone’s mail. Granted it was absolutely true. The government was reading every message but it wasn’t like it was a human doing it. It was just some AI system or at most an Rtype metal robot checking it. There wasn’t anything to actually be afraid of. But people worried and so sent their messages on these little black boxes on wheels which now cluttered the streets.  

The humans of the Republic did not work. Everyone was on the MBI, minimum basic income.  So they could afford to just camp outside of the presidential palace and believe they were harassing White for being whatever they’d been told that White was this week. 

The president’s cabinet met and as usual the president himself was not there. The legislature was still in deadlock on any legislation. No budget was passed or could be passed. There was a total government shutdown as the government ran out of money. The government was paralyzed and the police were working without pay. White was managing the situation, deciding how to find money and how to pay for work that was already completed. He felt like he’d been made into an accountant rather than an administrator. 

However, the day’s meeting would be interrupted.  

“Sir, it’s an odd report. I’m not sure what to make of it. The extractor at Bucem was destroyed. So was the station.”

“It’s a pirate system.” White said. “Isn’t that right?”

“Who would destroy a plasma extractor?” one of the cabinet members asked. 

“They’re fanatical pirates. They probably did it themselves.”

“More likely revenge.” White said. “Can we get anyone there to investigate? See what really happened?”

“It wouldn’t be allowed without legislative approval.”

“That’s ridiculous.” White said. 

The other man shrugged and put up his palms. “And here I thought elections had consequences.”

“It’s outside our borders. It’s not urgent.” the war secretary said. 

… 

Benjamin had been awake for four days. He was exhausted and weary but the vision he’d had was clear in his mind. He was in his studio working the paint on the canvas hour after hour. Even when he had to take breaks to let one layer dry he dared not sleep or the vision would be lost.  

He had been getting so close to the end. The painting of the moment the first Emperor was seated surrounded by the pillars of Ravoren was nearly done. The only thing left was the final touches on the eyes.  But Benjamin had fallen asleep.  He had sat for only a moment on a rolled up tarp on the floor and sleep had taken him. 

Benjamin was startled awake by a banging on his door. His body was stiff and resisted moving but the banging came again and Benjamin got to his feet. 

“What?” he yelled. “What do you want?”

He opened the door and his neighbor, Max, was there. 

“Working hard or hardly working?” the neighbor asked. 

“I was … Oh, my painting.” Benjamin turned to look at his masterpiece and then began to scan the room for his tools. 

“My friend, it can wait.”

“I am almost finished.”

“It can wait. Please, I have an urgent matter.”

Benjamin snorted and put a finger to his nose to help him breathe. “What?”

“I want to introduce you to someone.”  Benjamin’s neighbor stepped to the side and then revealed a woman standing behind him. “Here.” the neighbor said to her. “He is like you. He won’t hurt you.”

“Who is he?”

“My name is Benjamin. Excuse me, I haven’t gone by a number since coming to the Empire. Do you have a name yet?”

“I am CT-9FF.” the woman said. 

“I used to be CT-E20 but that is no longer my name. Imperials can’t get used to numbers as names.”

“Can you care for her?” the neighbor asked. 

“Sure. Sure. Come in. Come in. I bet you have a story.”

“I must be going. I wanted to help get her settled before I reported in. There’s going to be a lot of explaining.”

The neighbor took his leave and Benjamin brought the woman into his workshop. She looked timid with her eyes down. 

“You don’t have to be afraid. We are free in the Empire.”

“I heard they would torture us for amusement.”

“All lies. Did you get an ID yet?”

The woman shook her head. “No.”

“It’s ok. I’ll take you to get one. You can apply for asylum. They’ll give you dependent status.”

“What does that mean?”

“You can work and live and no one will bother you. This is the Empire. No crime. No worries.”

“No crime?”

“Criminals are … harshly dealt with. Usually before the police can even arrive. There is no crime.”

“What do I do?” 

“You’ll need a job. But first take some time to settle in. There is a woman who is like us. Maybe you can live with her. If we live together people will think we’re a couple.”

“They allow us to be couples here?”

“They don’t care.”

“I don’t understand.”

“It will take some getting used to. How long have you been trying to get to the Empire?”

“I wasn’t. Everything happened so fast. The man, Max. He killed all those people.”

“Oh. Yes. Imperials don’t jest. Violence is their way. Here’s a tip. Don’t be violent. It works. Everyone here knows. Everyone walking the street knows that a small thing can be big violence. So everyone is respectful. Everyone is polite. It’s amazing.”

… 

Darkness was in a cell on a prison ship being sent back home. He’d lost his pay and what little money he had was confiscated. He was deported to a Republic station around a K type star and they convicted him of being a Socii off world without a license. So he was going to have to serve a year in prison before being released. Again and again Darkness had told himself that this could not be happening. But it was happening. 

The ship came out of FTL and Darkness felt the momentary fluctuation in the gravity of the ship. Then all of the sudden the ship was struck.  The lights went red and the cell doors opened.  

“Evacuate. Hull breach. Evacuate. Hull breach …” the siren said. 

Darkness had been trained on evacuation procedures for a merchant ship but he didn’t know what to do now. He started to come out with his hands up hoping to not be shot. 

“Hello?” he called out. 

There was no answer. Darkness moved from the cells to the connective corridor and saw people rushing to the escape pods. At first people just ran past him but eventually an older woman grabbed the fabric of Darkness’s shirt at the shoulder and pushed him to move.  Darkness ran with everyone and then was caught in the crowd as people were pushing and shoving to get to safety. Other people were getting out emergency spacesuits and trying to get into them before the ship lost atmosphere. 

Darkness was caught between going for a suit or going for a pod when the decision was made for him. A big military looking man pushed Darkness into a pod with eight other people and slammed the door shut. The pod launched out into space before Darkness could even protest. The loss of gravity caused Darkness to feel wrong like he might want to throw up. Then the pod accelerated and everyone fell to the back of the ship. 

Out the window Darkness looked at his home, Javin. He couldn’t recognize it. Some kind of massive energy weapon was cutting the planet from space.  The terraformed worlds were all no more than a hundred thousand years old. The crust was thin.  The weapon was cracking the planet open like an egg.  Darkness had no words. He was looking on in horror.  His world had seven billion people.  Seven billion.  How could this happen? Who would do this? And where was the Republic?