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but it had succeeded beyond belief. It could take years, even decades, to get permission to open a business, if there wasn’t a large enough bribe.
    But no one used that as the excuse, did they? It was all about protecting the workers from exploitation, or protecting the environment of countless worlds, or even about protecting the owners from themselves. A hundred thousand excuses, each one so calm and reasonable and nonsensical. And each one a mocking nail in the Federation’s coffin, because they were useless. Marius knew, all too well, that a bribe in the right place could ensure that anything – absolutely anything – was overlooked.
    He tapped his forehead, absently. The headache was back.
    “See to cutting the regulations down to the bare minimum,” he ordered. He turned to look at Tully. “I trust you have ordered the freeze on recruitment?”
    “It’s proving hard, very hard,” Tully said. “We have a contractual obligation to complete the hiring process for bureaucrats who were applying at the time of the coup.”
    “There are to be no new bureaucrats hired beyond this point,” Marius said. He felt a sudden surge of hatred and had to remind himself, sharply, that he couldn’t shoot everyone who annoyed him. “We will also be looking for ways to retrain them to do something useful .”
    “Keeping the Federation in order is useful,” Tully protested. “I really think that we shouldn’t move too quickly...”
    “But we have to move now,” Marius said. “Or would you sooner watch as Earth collapses into chaos?”
    He moved on before Tully could say a word. “See to it, please,” he ordered. “Now.”
    “Yes, sir,” Hammond said. “I’ll have the revised code on your desk within the week.”
    Marius watched as Hammond and Tully left, then looked up at Kratman. “What the hell was I thinking?”
    “Better to reign in hell than to be dead and buried,” Kratman misquoted. “And besides, you have managed to make some improvements already.”
    “Not enough,” Marius said. “Tell me something. Did you ever consider, when you were on the Matterhorn , that it wasn’t worth it?”
    “Never,” Kratman said. “But that was before the real corruption started to set in.”
    Marius nodded. The Blue Star War had weakened the Imperialist Faction in Federation politics to the point where it became completely ineffectual. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the remaining two factions, for their separate reasons, hadn’t worked together to weaken the Federation Navy and bureaucracy. And then Admiral Justinian had tried to overthrow them in one blow. There were days when Marius wondered if the Federation would have done any better if Justinian had succeeded. Someone more interested in power for its own sake might have been better at keeping his subordinates in line.
    “I also remember being drenched with work when I reported for duty,” Kratman added, dryly. “Don’t you?”
    “I suppose,” Marius said.
    He smiled at the memory. Midshipman Drake had bitched about the amount of work he had to do, until he’d been promoted. Lieutenant Drake had been sure he was the hardest-worked officer on the ship, until he’d become the XO. Commander Drake had cursed his youthful self even as he worked himself to the bone...and then he’d been promoted again. There had been no respite as a Captain, Commodore or Vice Admiral. The splendid cabin and the right to have a staff of his own had come with more paperwork than any one man could do in a lifetime, as well as the risks of commanding a fleet in battle.
    “There are too many vested interests for any such change to go unimpeded,” Kratman said, after a moment. “We may want to look at selling off shipyards and production nodes to their former managers. Give them a stake in the new order, something to keep them loyal – and productive.”
    Marius sighed. The Grand Senate, to its credit, had started mass production of everything from missiles to