New Beginning
A Promptoberfest story
© 2024 by Walter Reimer

Thumbnail art by  tegerio

Prompt: charter


The wrangling had been long and bitter but overall, Zulfikar Mo thought as he sat in his small office aboard New Beginnings, it had been worth it. The bull felt ten kilos lighter as he scrolled through the text of the new constitution for the Terran Colonies.

The new constitution provided for a unicameral legislature composed of two delegates from each of the various planets and non-planetary habitats throughout Colonial Space. Parties were banned, but those who wrote the document were practical furs. Working from historical precedent, they knew that factions would arise and those would eventually evolve into political parties, but the same writers had chosen to make the new Chamber of Delegates work for it by including a difficult amendment process.

Election of the delegates was left to the various colonies, whether by election or appointment, and government ministers would be chosen by the delegates at the beginning of each five-year term.

All in all, it was a good starting point, with free trade and respect for each individual colony’s customs. That point had been won by Gorietta, the theocratic matriarchy insisting on its law requiring all males on its planet to wear the burka.

The bargaining and negotiations had been long and fierce at times. One reporter had called it ‘horse trading,’ which had made one equine delegate leave in a huff. The mare was finally coaxed into returning, as her vote was crucial.

Once the constitution had been completed, it had been transmitted to all the Colonies for ratification. That had taken longer, but eventually unanimity was reached.

Mo and the other ministers of the Provisional Government had gratefully passed over their authority to the new First Minister and her Cabinet. The oryx was a retiree from her planet’s militia and had been a majority favorite from the outset.

The bull looked up and closed his padd as a cadaverously thin canine opened the door. “Ready, Zulfikar?”

He grinned. “More than ready. Let’s get out of here before – “

“They change their minds?” The two laughed as they left the office.

Mo settled into his seat on the liner that would take him home, to his wife and their children, and sighed. His job was over, and a long term that he didn’t want was ended.

Still, he thought as he imagined his homecoming, every ending is a beginning.