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The imperial view, a history professor at the Naval Acade view Individuals build eh time They build massive constructs of stone and steel so that their descendants will remember the people who created the world that they only live in There were buildings on Earth that were thousands of years old, soht they would last forever Hubris, the professor had called it When people build, they are trying to make an aspiration physical When they die, their intentions are buried with the

While Martian intentions had never been explicitly imperialist, they had a fair bit of this same hubris They’d built their tunnels and warrens as teotten down to the generations-spanning work ofthe surface habitable

But their first generation died with the work still unaccoeneration after that, and so on, child following parent, until the children only knew the tunnels and didn’t think they were so bad They lost sight of the larger dream because it had never been their dreaone, only the tunnels were left

As Singh looked out at the capital city of Laconia whizzing past the car’s , he saw the same masses of ned to house the government of an empire that didn’t exist yet More infrastructure than Laconia on its oould need for centuries Their columns and spires called back millennia of Terran and Martian culture, and remade them as a vision of a peculiarly human future

If the dreas that had never been used

It was an open secret a officers of Laconia’s h consul’s labs had hs in human modification One of their most ih consul hih had served under as a lieutenant had received an official reprih consul as “our own little god-king”

But Singh understood why that particular project for the high consul was so is, are aspirations made material When the creator dies, the intention is lost

And so the creator couldn’t be permitted to die

If the ruh consul’s scientists were in fact working to make him deathless, they had a chance to create the sort of empire history had only dreamed of Stability of leadership, continuity of purpose, and a single lasting vision Which was all well and good, but didn’t explain why he had been su with Duarte

“We’re almost there, sir,” his driver said

“I’h lied

The State Building of Laconia was the iest structure in the capital city It was both the seat of their governh consul and his daughter After passing through a rigorous security screening administered by soldiers in state-of-the-art Laconian power arh was finally ushered inside for the very first time

It was a little disappointing

He wasn’t sure what he’d expected A ceiling fifty feet high, maybe, held up by rows ofto a towering golden throne Ministers and servants lining up for a ith the high consul and plotting intrigues in whispers Instead, there was a foyer and waiting area lined with comfortable chairs, easy access to restroo the security rules inside the State Building It all seeovernmental

A short, sh the rooave an almost imperceptible bow