"Alright. On to the elephant in the room. How should we deal with the awakened?"
Youssef and Jeremy remained silent. Neither of them had any idea of the full situation at all, having only been ministers for a few hours now, so to throw out suggestions now would simply show their inexperience rather than their abilities. One thing they had realized, however, was that the emperor was an awakener himself. But how was that possible? He hadn't been absent at all, let alone for the weeks it would take to undergo an awakening!
Still, it didn't matter, so they pushed the thoughts about that until later when they at least knew what they should know as ministers.
Aron could see the thoughts on their faces, but didn't care. As the highest level members of the government and part of his inner circle of advisors, the two had a valid need to know about everything save the existence of the system. "From the data Akeso collected, it seems they're already capable of immense destruction if they're trained to use their abilities. And we've also noticed that, as the mana density increases around them, their power and output increases accordingly.
"At the moment, ARES can handle them, since the mana density is still low and the people that have finished their awakenings are only capable of manipulating elemental and derived mana, but that doesn't mean we can simply ignore them. We need to make sure we have a handle on all awakeners, imperial citizens or otherwise. Suggestions?" he asked.
[Letting them know they've been registered in the awakener database, to begin with. Just knowing they aren't anonymous should help curb a lot of the misbehavior, at least for citizens,] Nyx said.
"Public or private?" Aron asked.
[Private,] Gaia immediately said. [The awakeners themselves should be registered on a classified database to protect their privacy. Any leaks on our end should be harshly punished, and the victim generously compensated. After all, it should be up to the awakener themselves to announce that they've awakened.] She gave Youssef and Jeremy a knowing look, a hint to keep their speculations about Aron's awakening to themselves.
"An academy," Jeremy suggested, thinking of a popular movie franchise where superhumans were trained at an academy for the gifted. "If we make enrollment mandatory, we can observe how they interact with each other in a safe environment, giving us an idea of how they'll act in certain situations. It'll also foster a sense of belonging to a larger community and that should prevent most of the antisocial behavior."
[And we can subtly influence them through their curriculum,] Nyx added.
Aron nodded his approval. "Make it happen," he said.
[We can also require them to graduate from the academy in order to receive licenses to use their abilities,] Gaia said. As an administrator, she was very fond of licensing and registration.
"What would the punishment be for using their power without a license? And what about good Samaritans who help out despite not having a license yet?" John asked.
[We can punish them by mandatory ARES service if they intentionally misuse their power or use it without a license. Good Samaritans would need to be judged on a case-by-case basis,] Athena replied.
"It can't all be stick," Aron said. "So the carrot should be money. Poverty creates criminals out of otherwise honest people, so we can enroll them in a strategic reserve and pay them a wage for keeping themselves ready to deal with situations that call for their assistance. Like sending them to help deal with or even prevent natural disasters like earthquakes and such."
[Rank them and pay them accordingly. There are five categories of mana, that we know of, so an S-A-B-C-D rank structure can be applied, with adjustments based on the utility of their affinities. The higher ranks will be paid more, and the lower ranks will earn less, but it'll still be enough to keep them above the poverty line even if they don't have a 'real' job to work,] Nova added.
"What about reinforcing the idea of superheroes?" Youssef suggested. "Young people are easily influenced by others, so instead of calling them the blessed, why not call them heroes? Make 'being a hero' be their day jobs and have their AI butlers manage their media profile. It'll also give non-awakeners idols to follow and fan clubs to join, acting as a distraction from the stress of knowing aliens are on their way to potentially kill us all."
"That would cheapen the word 'hero', though," Jeremy interjected. "Maybe save it for when they graduate from the academy and get their licenses. But they can't be treated any differently than normal imperial citizens at all.... Hero or not, they're imperial citizens first and should be held accountable for their actions just like anyone else. The only difference is in the amount of damage they can cause by breaking the law, so all awakeners-or heroes, rather -should have the same punishment for lawbreaking: mandatory service in ARES. It'll also help with the recruitment efforts. If they're old enough to break the law, they're old enough to serve in the military."
The way the meeting had progressed so far had impressed both Jeremy and Youssef, raising the already high opinion they had of the emperor of the Terran Empire. It continued for a time as they closed various loopholes in the proposals in every aspect that had been discussed, most of which had been identified by Nova and Gaia after requesting clarification on certain points raised.
Eventually, the meeting drew to an end and Aron brought it to a close. "This was the first meeting of the inner council of the empire. I find myself impressed by both Minister Rogers and by Minister Al-Mutairi. Despite coming in completely blind, you both contributed quite a few good ideas, and I look forward to what you can do once you've digested the data packets I threw you earlier," he said as he looked at the two new appointees.
"Use the next two weeks until we meet again to familiarize yourselves with the empire's operations and the higher-order AIs that help manage it. The simulation is free for your use, and within the next few days here, your implants will be functional, so you can move to the areas of higher time dilation. I suggest you take advantage of that to handle your tasks as efficiently as possible.
"For now, though, you gentlemen have speeches to prepare for. You'll be delivering your inaugural remarks to the fifteen million new government employees, as well as all of the employees we already had before today's hiring spree. I look forward to it. Until then, I'll take my leave."
Aron and Nova disappeared from the room, leaving the three AIs and three humans to get to know each other.
