Our Side of the Galaxy

Neidhart Muller and Hank von Leigh: Selected Correspondence

January 22, 487 I.C.

Muller!

Of course I remember you. If I’m not mistaken, you wrote your final paper on the Spanish Civil War, which I quite enjoyed. Interesting choice of topic, though I believe I said that you could have used a narrower focus. I was too harsh in grading back then. Well, all water under the bridge.

I can’t believe people are talking about me on Phezzan. I would honestly prefer that to not be the case. Working in the Embassy must be an interesting position. I’m slightly jealous, though perhaps not if you’re busy around there, which I suspect you must be.

As far as the man you encountered at a party, yes, I do believe I know who you’re referring to. I… hope... that you do not have too many reasons to come into contact with him, but if you should see him again, you may let him know that his message was received very happily, and that, quote, “I’m doing what you said to.”

Speaking as your former teacher, Muller, I would advise you to stay out of it. For your own sake. I’m sure you understand very well the reasons why. I appreciate whatever instinct moved you to be a messenger, but— you know what? I have no room to talk.

I wish I had had you in my strats course, but you had already graduated by the time I started teaching it. I would have referred you to one of my core principles, which is to carefully choose what engagements you fight. The same principle can be broadly applied.

I’m still talking about it, aren’t I?

As for my promotion, some would say it’s undeserved, and some would say it’s long overdue. You’re right that I miss teaching at the IOA. I liked it. Braunschweig isn’t so bad, if you know how to deal with him, and I think his daughter is delightful. Takes after her mother rather than her father, which I think is something of a blessing.

I hope you are also doing well. Another piece of teacherly advice: Phezzan is a unique place; I’m sure you don’t need to be told to learn as much as you can while you’re there.

V/r,

Captain Hank von Leigh

February 12, 487 I.C.

Dear Captain von Leigh,

I must admit that I’m a little surprised to hear back from you, especially so quickly. I’m very glad it’s not too much of an inconvenience for you to speak with a former student.

I did have a minute to chat with my fellow student’s friend in a park the other day. He seemed well, but I doubt we’ll have much opportunity to talk again. Phezzan’s a big place, and if you run into the same person over and over, you begin to get the feeling that they’re chasing after you, which can get uncomfortable.

I appreciate all your advice, honestly. I feel like I am learning so much here. It’s unavoidable on this planet to pick up a bit of interest in business. At least in the capital, that seems to be all Phezzanis want to talk about. I’ve been reading this blog on the subject [attachment] — you may find it of interest. I’ve actually met the author— Marian Evans— but that’s just a pen name, of course. I suppose I must respect their anonymity!

Maybe it’s ironic, I feel like I’m learning less about the Alliance and Phezzan than I am about my own country, despite being so far from home. You would think that Phezzanis wouldn’t care so much about all the gossip about the royal family, but they do. Perhaps since they don’t have the fear of being charged with lese majeste, they’re more willing to say salacious things. I’m never sure how much of the rumors I should take as true or not, especially when they’re so far removed from the source.

In any event, I am keeping myself very busy. You’re right that the Embassy is never a quiet position.

Though I hear he’s been sent to the front, if you should happen to see him amongst the cohort of former IOA professors, please give Commodore Staden my regards.

Respectfully,

Lt. Cmdr. Neidhart Muller

February 22, 487 I.C.

Dear Muller,

I hope this letter makes it into your hands without too much difficulty, and that I’m not overstepping too many boundaries by opening up a second line of communication. From your last letter, you seemed to have an interest in speaking more, and more directly. I hope I’m not wrong about that. Although I would prefer it be face to face, we’ll have to make do.

I decided that it was worth the effort and expense to be able to speak with you freely. If you’re wondering how I was able to arrange for a courier service— your address is a matter of record, and as you know, I used to live on Phezzan and am familiar with the way things operate. I still have a small and untraceable amount of money that I have access to there, and this is as good of a time as any to spend it.

Since this is a rare opportunity for the two of us to be direct, I will be direct. I’m sure that by sending you this message through unofficial channels, you have lost whatever trust in me you had that I am operating above-board. And I’m sure you believe that I cannot trust you, either.

I’m not sure what impulse it was that compelled you to pass along a message from an Alliance soldier. You were never one of my worst students, so you must know what doing something like that looks like!

But, if we cannot trust each other, what can we do?

I will be as honest as I can, and you can choose to believe me or disbelieve me. This correspondence, on my end, is sanctioned by Duke Braunschweig. He believes that the opportunity to learn the Alliance and Phezzan’s plans is too valuable to waste. He wants me to make Reinhard von Musel a(n unwitting) spy, or, failing that, make you a source of information.

It’s obvious why he would want this done secretly: it’s an avenue to gain an advantage over Marquis Littenheim when the time comes for them to fight things out. If this were all carried out through official channels, there would be no advantage for him. And, even if he wanted to, Duke Braunschweig would not be able to order you to carry out investigations officially. He has no authority over the embassy on Phezzan. So, all he can do is ask me, and all I can do is trust you.

Of course, I wouldn’t be surprised if you said to yourself, “I always knew that Leigh was the craziest teacher at the IOA, and I want nothing to do with him.” (Or, even, “I don’t want to pick a side in the fight over the throne; it’s not my place as an official of the crown.”) I couldn’t blame you! But— and forgive me if I am wrong— you did always seem to me to be the type of person who has an interest in, as a friend of mine once put it, peeking behind the curtain. Perhaps that’s why you were willing to reach out to me in the first place, un-sanctioned by your own superiors as it is, I’m sure.

By the way— I assume that Ms. Marian Evans is none other than Reinhard von Musel? You wouldn’t be sending me that blog otherwise. It was a fascinating read, either way.

I won’t demand that you work for me, but I would like you to write me back anyway. If you have your own questions, it’s only fair for me to try to answer them. There’s instructions on how to contact the courier in the other file.

-Hank

March 5, 487 I.C.

Captain Leigh,

I appreciate your candor, or what feels like candor, anyway. It’s difficult to tell these things over text.

Yes, the blog is written by RvM.

I do have one question, and I need you to answer honestly.

Who killed Prince Ludwig?

Respectfully,

Neidhart Muller

March 10, 487 I.C.

Muller,

I would like to ask why you think I know the answer to that question. If you were here in person, asking me to my face, I would run around in circles talking about how we construct knowledge, and walk through all the knowledge that I might have been able to construct.

But you want a simple and straightforward answer, because for some reason you think that you will learn if I am trustworthy. The only reason you would think that would prove my truthfulness is if you already know what you believe to be the truth.

I keep walking myself into a conclusion and then walking out of it. Why are you asking me ? Is it my engagement to Baroness Westpfale, and Baroness Westpfale’s associations?

You are asking me to make quite a leap of faith, Muller. But I will make it.

I hope that when your embassy caught and tortured Ingrid von Roscher at the border, and got whatever confession she gave, it did not take too long.

That should answer the question to your satisfaction.

-Hank von Leigh

P.S. Ignore the letter that you will receive tomorrow, and if you’re going to respond, don’t mention this one. I have gone to a great deal of effort to ensure that my letters to you are only being read by the people who are intended to see them, but the same cannot always be said for your letters to me.

March 11, 487 I.C.

Muller,

If you’re asking who killed Prince Ludwig in order to determine who to support for the throne, I don’t think I have a satisfying answer for you. Some people would want to support a man who would kill the prince so that their daughter might take the throne. There is a type of person who might feel like it shows initiative.

I don’t know who killed Prince Ludwig. Who benefits most from him being dead? The two other claimants to the throne? It would be reasonable. A third party who would like to see the Empire weakened by the greatest civil war ever to befall humanity? Gods know there are plenty of those around.

Let the dead bury the dead, Muller.

-Hank von Leigh

March 15, 487 I.C.

Captain Leigh,

I ask because RvM told me that the Earth Church had organized his killing. This information was somewhat in exchange for allowing his (Prince Ludwig’s) wife to flee to the rebel territories unharmed. Not that I would have been able to do much to stop her, going short of causing a disaster: the rebel fleet’s Rosenritter regiment in plainclothes snatched her away just a little while ago. It was quite annoying.

(What’s funny is that RvM’s sister is in the Rosenritter— they look identical. I bet he had some hand in getting her unit such an interesting assignment. I certainly wouldn’t have picked to send a bunch of dubiously loyal expats on a field trip to Phezzan if I were in the rebel fleet command. But maybe there’s some propaganda value in it.)

Speaking of propaganda. We’re going to have to do some real work in the Embassy to keep that from becoming a full blown rumor back at home. I’ve lined up some stories to be published about her dying on Earth and this being a fake woman trying to claim the throne— I hope I don’t have to use them. By the way, if you hear anyone talking about it, let me know. Honestly, I had thought she was already dead, based on what I had heard or assumed. I was very shocked when she turned up on Phezzan. People who get exiled to wasteland planets don’t usually ever tend to see the light again.

If Duke Braunschweig had killed Prince Ludwig, it felt reasonable to assume that you would know. He seems to trust you, after all. Or, at least, you’re close enough to his inner circle that I feel like you would be able to tell. Because of that, I think that RvM is indeed telling the truth.

I don’t know much about Duke Braunschweig, but from watching how the Earth Church operates on Phezzan, the idea of them having a plan… I don’t like it.

Respectfully,

Neidhart Muller

March 17, 487 I.C.

Muller,

Hah, I’d like to think that I have that much of Duke Braunschweig’s confidences, but I doubt that’s the case. If I was Duke Braunschweig, I think I would be doing my best to take any knowledge of what happened to the prince to my grave.

Everything you just told me sounds extremely strange. I’m putting together a picture of our friend RvM, but it’s the most contradictory picture I’ve ever drawn. He’s helping the Earth Church take IvR to safety but telling you to sabotage their ultimate plan at the same time? I don’t understand what reasons he could have for doing that.

I’d love to figure out what the invisible unifying element is. There must be something— the synthesis between the thesis and antithesis. I suppose I could ask my favorite student, but they haven’t seen each other since they were children, so I doubt he’d know anything about it. You probably know much more about our enigmatic acquaintance than he does at this point.

So, I’ll ask you. How much contact do you have with him, anyway? And what’s his ultimate goal?

And, to gather information with a different tack, I assume you are watching the Earth Church? Just to confirm or deny the things he’s saying, at least?

-Hank

March 22, 487 I.C.

Leigh,

I have no idea what his problem is. I don’t see him very often, for obvious reasons. We’re not exactly friends! I mean, aside from watching the comings and goings from the rebel fleet’s offices on Phezzan. I see plenty of him then. And I read his blog. But that’s not much of a relationship.

I think his genuine goal is to destroy the Goldenbaum dynasty— he’s said as much to me. But he said that the reason he was working with the Earth Church to help Ludwig’s wife cross the border was because he felt sympathetic towards her, though he wouldn’t tell me why.

I was surveilling the Earth Church, but my informant vanished. I still am watching them, as closely as I can, but I’m not able to learn as much as I would like.

They’re a big organization, bigger than you might think. Their membership numbers aren’t huge as a percentage of the population of Phezzan, but I think they’re surprisingly large in the rebel territories. Outside of the Empire, they’re essentially the only religious organization in town, and there’s a certain kind of person who’s drawn to that.

They have more of a compelling sales pitch than the great gods, at least. It makes sense in a twisted kind of way, to want to go back to the place you came from. I mean, it still is junk, just junk that is good at getting into people’s heads.

I have to say, I don’t really like being a messenger who feels more like a pawn. I don’t know how much I can really help you.

Respectfully,

Neidhart Muller

April 1, 487 I.C.

Muller,

Of course, I completely understand. I don’t want to put you in a bad position, especially with your superiors over at the Embassy. I still do feel responsible for everyone who was my student, and I would hate to be the cause of trouble for you.

And, as for religion, I can hardly blame people for wanting one. We all have stories that we cling to, to make sense of the world. It’s never really mattered if they’re true in an objective sense— what matters is how we use what we believe to influence our actions.

I’ve never been a believer in religion, but I do believe in many things that are almost as abstract, and almost as likely to be proven wrong. Somewhere in me, I do find I have hope for humanity to discover its own better nature, despite the historical record being one of us scrabbling bloody in the mud over and over again, always falling to our worst impulses.

But that’s the thing about belief and hope: they persist regardless of the evidence. I suppose if they didn’t, none of us would be able to get a single thing done.

-Hank

April 10, 487 I.C.

Leigh,

I need to ask: who the hell is Siegfried Kircheis?

Respectfully,

Neidhart Muller

April 15, 487 I.C.

Muller,

Sub-lieutenant Kircheis is my favorite student. He works in my office. I would appreciate knowing why you’re asking, after all this time.

-Hank

April 19, 487 I.C.

Leigh,

Sorry for being abrupt. I think that RvM is trying to send some kind of message, maybe to you? I’m not sure. We haven’t spoken, but I watch where he goes, and he’s been visiting half of the major resource extraction conglomerates here on Phezzan. I’ve done a little bit of digging (having someone follow him in and look at the sign-in sheets in the reception areas— not very high tech but it works most of the time) and he’s been using that false name— Siegfried Kircheis— to speak with them. It’s very strange, and I can’t figure out what the hell he’s doing or why.

It’s pretty unusual for one of the rebel fleet’s staff to go out and do something like this. I know they have a stack of Phezzani IDs that they can shuffle through, but they usually have a bunch of other stock documentation attached— we're pretty familiar with the way these look, and this does not look anything like the usual pattern. He’s being weird.

See attached for the list of companies he’s visited. He hasn’t posted anything about it on his stupid little blog, so it has to be something he’s doing for other reasons than personal edification. He’s working overtime to do it, also, by the way. He goes to these things after he leaves the office.

Is this something I should be concerned about?

Respectfully,

Neidhart Muller

April 28, 487 I.C.

Muller,

You certainly already seem concerned, so I can’t tell you how to feel!

I’ve done some research of my own. You probably already noticed that all the places he’s been visiting are Alliance-Phezzani businesses only. There’s not a single solely Phezzani venture (or Imperial-Phezzani) business in sight. Also, the connecting link between all of these is, as you mentioned, resource extraction— but it looks like there are a few types of minerals that are common across all the groups. Gold and precious metals, of course, but tungsten, too.

There’s a limit to how much investigation I can do from here, but it seems like our friend is doing some off the clock digging into his own country’s resources.

My first, off-hand speculation is that he’s seeing if the Earth Church has a chokehold on the production of various critical resources. Tungsten is used in ship-building, and of course gold is important across electronics. If the Earth Church controlled these companies, and began squeezing, they might be able to subtly weaken the Alliance fleet. If the Earth Church were to do that, it might allow the power struggle in the Empire to play out for much longer than it would otherwise— if the Empire does not need to unite to fight an outside threat, our fleet could spend years eating itself alive, leaving the country in a much more favorable position for an Earth Church takeover. If the Earth Church does not believe that they can count on material support from the Alliance, that might be a strategy they’re looking into.

But, again, that’s just pure speculation on my part. And perhaps if the Earth Church does control those resources, they might already be doing the same to us.

As for why he’s sending a message, that may be the reason: he’s already warned you about the Earth Church’s designs on the throne once, so he may be doing so again.

You’re in a much better position to research this than I am. Let me know what you find.

-Hank

May 7, 486 I.C.

Leigh,

I’m not entirely sure it’s the Earth Church. Some of these companies do have ties to it, but not all of them. Granted, I could be missing something, but unless they’ve gotten much more savvy about disguising their membership recently, I don’t think so?

All of these companies are hiring, though, and their employment listings are only asking for Alliance citizens, not Phezzanis. It seems like he’s investigating their rapid growth. It could be that he’s concerned about the stranglehold that Phezzani capital has over the Alliance economy in general, so maybe this is a mission from someone back on Heinessen?

He’s stopped doing this now, so either he’s figured out what he was searching for, or somebody told him to stop being weird. Or both. Or he caught on that I was watching him.

This is going to haunt me until I figure it out.

Respectfully,

Neidhart Muller

May 15, 487 I.C.

Muller,

Why would it be that all of these companies are suddenly hiring Alliance citizens only? I don’t see any evidence of rapid expansion of tungsten mining on their side of the galaxy. That is the kind of thing that ends up in papers on Phezzan, and I do pay attention to those.

The industry is preparing for rapid growth of some kind, but not saying a word about it. I think I have a better idea. There’s some mine opening that they absolutely do not want us to know about. No clue why RvM is drawing our attention to it, but I think it’s clear that the Alliance wants this to be a secret.

Since Phezzani money is involved, I’d bet that this new mine isn’t somewhere in the Phezzan corridor: Phezzan wouldn’t stand for that. So there’s only one other place that it would matter for it to be. I’m going to see if Duke Braunschweig is amenable to spending some resources on what could end up being a wild goose chase.

This is the first time I’ve asked him to commit money to something that doesn’t directly benefit his daughter’s claim to the throne, so I might end up shot down. I’ll let you know how it goes.

If anything else pops up, do let me know. I could still be wildly off-base.

-Hank