A travel request, a new assignment…
Tony was visiting Francos for the first time since the wedding. “Ser Francos, I am considering going back to Utopia. My wife has messaged me that I am missed, and Simon says there are major changes being made.” Tony and Rita had moved to the Pesch household to stay with the rest the family after Alejandro took over as head. He had been helping his nephews settle his brother’s affairs.
Francos smiled and offered Tony a seat near him on the patio. “Can we just be Fran and Tony, instead of these titles? I consider you a friend, even if you were in a different class at school.” He was spending most of his days out in the open and it was speeding his recovery.
“If you wish Fran, but it will be difficult. You were one of those older, special students, and I was a younger son.” Tony chuckled remembering the tight cliques of their youth.
Francos had heard some of the news from Utopia but wondered what Tony knew. Francos passed on what he knew. “From what we have heard, Desmond is out as prince and a new man has been elected.” Francos’ reports were scanty, due to the chaos that moving from one location to another always caused. “Because of the election they are making major changes in how the country is run. I need to know more about all this. Gossipy stuff always helps.” Francos had been shocked when his father told him to never ignore gossip, because it gave you an idea of what people were thinking.
Tony had heard about the same but was able to add a bit. “I had heard about Desmond. His drinking problem was the final straw, according to Simon, but Simon did not want to burden the far speaker with full details of the election. Sean Johnson is the new prince.” Tony had news from both Simon and Leah, but only short messages. “One of the things they are talking about changing is having people specialize rather than change every five years. That might solve some of the issues about quality of work and goods each time there is movement.”
“My contacts in the country always comment about how awful it is.”
“Simon dreaded the moves.” Tony said. “Just about the time they would get familiar with whatever they were supposed to produce at that location, they had to move. The book they based the system on said they should move every ten years, but they changed it to five because people became attached to the places.”
“We need to know what kinds of changes they are making and if we can renegotiate our trade agreement. Port needs food from them and having it come through us will raise the cost.” Francos was sure there was a better way to handle this trade, but he needed more information than his sources could discover. He wanted a better representative.
“I have discussed this with Megal and Sarita,” Francos said. “Would you agree to be the representative to the prince for Refugio?” Megal had reminded his father of the request in the marriage contract. Sarita agreed, though she was amused at the irony. “We know GC is not coming back for us, and we must learn to work together better. We still are a small number of humans on this planet. If we don’t work together, we might not survive.”
Tony was shocked at the warning but let it pass. “Fran, I would be honored. I know the country and many of those in power. However, what do we do about Alam?”
“Send him home and let Alejandro deal with him.” Fran shook his head. “Better yet, have Rita deal with him. No, that is not fair to her.” Both men laughed, then discussed what kind of agreements needed to be made. Marta found them chatting and sent Tony away so Fran could rest.
“My apologies, Sera Marta, we were hard at work,” Tony said. He bowed to her and left as Francos settled into his cushion and closed his eyes, so Marta would not suggest a sleeping tincture. He had drunk enough of that nasty stuff to learn how to fall asleep, or at least pretend.
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