?The next morning, chaos reigned in the halls of the Reavers Parliant building. None of the sneaky bribes, influence peddling or subtle threats had gotten through to the Council, thanks to the intervention of the new assistants, and the bureaucrats were in a panic.
Selling their access to the ministers was how they kept their pockets full, but every matter that they tried to bump up without a full oversight hearing, or a sufficiently urgent issue was rejected and referred back to them with a politely worded guidance letter that would allow them to easily solve the issue on their own.
That was not how things were supposed to work here. They didn't have the authority to make the decisions that the other parties wanted, and if the ssages weren't even going to get through to the Council, then nothing would get done outside the rules at all.
Or worse, they would have to go to the ministers in person and make the case. Not only would that increase their own workload, it would look bad on them to openly try to promote themselves as a point of access to their superiors, who were already overloaded with work.
The Council had always overlooked it because it was a good source of revenue, but the assistants were more focused on quality of life issues, and they didn't care at all about the money that was involved in the bribes. After all, they weren't part of the official calculations, so they didn't factor into any of the decisions.
Only a few of the pencil pushers who worked under Mary directly had figured out the system in advance and had actually put the "incentive" money in their morning docunts.
The responses had been much faster than usual, but not as forgiving. They did manage to get a few extra vessels into the repair lines, and for that, they were grateful, but the spots weren't as high as they recalled the last few days being.
Perhaps they had sold too many spots already, and the earlier custors were getting wise to the fact that they were being bumped back down the line by those who were buying ahead of them afterwards.
So, they just accepted the fact that they got what they could get, and gave the news to their clients.
The ones who bypassed the bureaucrats and sent their requests directly to the ministers were actually in a better position that morning, as the assistants recognized their position and authority and treated them with the respect that was due a Reaver Captain or Commander.
The result was much the sa, a polite response telling them what spot their request had managed to get them in line, with a hint that it would save them a good bit of ti.
Naturally, Mary caught on to the fact that the usual bribes and influence peddling had been stonewalled before noon that day, and called her assistant into the office to discuss the matter.
"Care to explain what this new priority system is all about?" She demanded, knowing that the AI would understand.
"The workers of the parliant have no official standing to be requesting or granting favours. They are low-level workers employed by the Reaver Council. However, the additional fees that have been offered by the Captains directly are within the known guidelines, and they have been placed accordingly, with the appropriate funds moving them ahead of the rest of the requests that are currently in our backlog, and the day's approvals being sorted in order of the quality and influence of their Company." Nikki replied.
"So, you intend to cut the parliant workers out completely?" Mary asked.
"No. But we have agreed that they need to learn their place, and that acting above their station will not be tolerated. It influences our efficiency as your assistants for no good reason. If a proper bribe was to be offered to the Council, we would treat it with the due respect that it deserves."
Mary hid her laughter and nodded. "Understandable, but they do take care of a lot of our paperwork and other functions, as well as civilian interactions. Don't treat them too badly, just make it clear that their attempts to take a cut out of the bribes to the council by serving as middlen is no longer going to be a feasible business model."
"Understood Council Leader. Should we put out an internal mo on the topic, or should we leave it for them to realize on their own as they face repercussions for their efforts?" Nikki asked.
"Send out a mo, informing everyone of the situation and welcoming all the assistants to the fold. Gently remind them that the AI won't break Reaver Code or Regulations without orders from Council, and that should be enough to get them to back off on the influx of nonsense applications."
Mary was very impressed with this situation. Her only regret was that they hadn't thought of doing this earlier. Even if it was an android, who would be less capable, if they had that strict rule keeper in the middle, it would have saved them so much trouble when things got crazy and everyone wanted a little extra piece of the pie.
"It will be good to have things back to normal. I know that things have been hard, but too many people have been relying on the Council while they were supposed to be independent Companies. If the assistants have so spare processing ti today, see if you can agree on a more effective way to distribute the funding for rebuilt ships. That will deal with a lot of the requests that we are getting, and it's the one that will make the most people happy at once." Mary instructed.
"Understood, Council Leader, Mary. We will get to it right after we finish our background checks on the Alliance vessels that just entered the system. Their paperwork is not completely in order, and with the Giants on board, that alone is sowhat suspicious." Nikki replied.
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