Unity had to hand it to Peter. He did what he’d said he would. And he did it quickly.
A week ago, the team had dropped Peter off at some exclusive golf resort. Peter was confident he didn’t need anything, just the paid-for reservation that Angelique had made at the club.
Unity and the rest of the team left him there while they went off to announce their arrival.
A last-minute scramble to pull things together meant they weren’t able to make an official media appearance until twenty-four hours later.
Unity thought it was a bit of a shambles. The country really wasn’t in a good place as oligarchs on the planet jockeyed for position.
Unity studied all Angelique’s previous appearances on her planets. Out of all of them, this was the first time things were so casual. It was more of a press conference with the world’s media.
Unity noticed one little fact, and this fact was telling for just how big Peter’s charm was. Not a single influential person on the planet showed up.
The major leaders of the political parties, the leaders on both sides of the factions, weren’t at Angelique’s announcements. Several of the planet’s rich A-listers called to welcome Angelique back into the fold, but no one of real substance made time to meet her yet.
They were all on the golf course—the same one that Peter was at.
The CEOs of all the major news corporations, the owners of the moons, the who’s who of the planet all pulled rank on their subordinates, cashing in whatever goodwill and clout they had to get themselves onto the very limited list of guests allowed at the resort.
Unity didn’t learn this from Peter of course. She kept hearing whispers of reasonably well-off people being told they could no longer have their holidays at McMillan Club.
This was later confirmed by Angelique. Her contact details while on the planet were private. So anyone who had the ability to precure her number was at the very top end of importance on the planet. She started asking everyone who called to welcome her home where they were currently staying.
All of them said the same thing: “A preplanned vacation at the McMillan Club.” There’s no way everyone of importance on the planet coincidentally went to that place. They were all there for Peter.
As if confirming everyone’s suspicions, Callum’s assistant pulled the two of them aside, while Unity and Angelique had just finished an interview with one of the country’s biggest political commentators.
“Can I speak to you both?” Deb Noster asked. He was a small man, with no hair on his head, and a green tie.
Unity and Angelique nodded as the three of them walked around the corner into a small dressing room.
“How can we help?” Unity asked as she closed the door behind them.
“What do you want?” Deb asked. “What is it going to take for you to call Peter out of his crusade to hurt Mr. Overwood?”
Unity feigned ignorance, while Angelique looked confused.
“Don’t act like you don’t know. Callum is on his way there now. Once people see the truth and understand that your friend Peter isn’t really in it for the people of Everest, you’re going to lose this challenge.”
“I think you have us confused here,” Angelique said. “We haven’t spoken to Peter in a few days.”
“Don’t play dumb with me,” Deb said, looking toward Unity. “I can see it in your eyes. You know what I’m talking about.”
Usually, Unity would stay quiet, leaving Angelique to do most of the talking. But she also needed to branch out a little from her shadow.
She’d traveled to this planet and needed to find her own way in the world. Hezekiah had left to explore on his own soon after they’d landed.
Unity wasn’t that interested in exploring on her own. But she did want to find a purpose. Something to get behind. At first, she hadn’t been that interested in supporting Peter’s mission, especially if it meant standing on the side of political ideologies she didn’t agree with.
Peter was a pragmatist; he wasn’t ideologically bound to one idea. He followed whichever path he believed was the right one. Unity thought that maybe she should do something similar. The people of Everest were in trouble. The ordinary people, not the elite of the planet.
She wondered if she felt this way because of her own preexisting beliefs not matching reality. How did the people of Everest get into this mess? When she envisioned humans on other planets she imaged this utopian ideal, where no one ever had to work, robots did it all, and everyone was equal.
She didn’t know whether this planet had gone this way because of a few bad actors or whether it was just a fact of human nature. But she did know she had a choice. She had the option to be a passive observer in this situation until she found something she wanted to do. Or she could take an active role in the events as they unfolded.
She chose to take action, in the best way she knew how.
She would support Peter in his run for prime minister. She had a lot of experience with great leaders like Peter. They were great at seeing the big picture and only focusing on the big picture. They always focused on the things that moved the needle the most. She knew Peter left a lot of loose ends. A lot of things needed to be tidied up afterward.
Loose ends like this guy here. Who, left alone, might end up being a big problem later down the line.
Unity smiled warmly at Deb. She knew it was taking every ounce of will in him to look at both of them without showing fear. The only reason an assistant like him would confront them like this was if he was worried about his future. Things had gotten so bad that he was worried he might not have a job tomorrow.
Unity needed to make Deb feel like they were equal. With Angelique in the room, he was never going to feel that way.
“Angelique,” Unity said. “Can you give us a moment?”
Angelique looked puzzled but nodded and left out the door.
“Are you Deb Dean?” Unity asked when it was just them in the room. “I’ve heard about you. You’re the one who got Callum into power?”
Deb blushed, and Unity knew she had said the right thing. Stroked his ego in just the right way.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Unity had done her reading about the politics of the planet. She remembered his name appearing a couple of times. Not in any favorable ways either. But she knew about small men like Deb. They had fantasies about being the man behind the curtain. They dreamed about being the reason their boss was in power.
Unity had to stoke that side of his ego—just a little. “Are you here to make your own judgment on whether we’re a threat?”
“Maybe,” he said, a little unsure. “But to also understand why you’re here.” Then he quickly added so he didn’t appear out of the loop, “I know what you told Prime Minister Overwood, but I wanted to hear it for myself.”
“I’m Peter’s assistant,” Unity lied, but she wanted Deb to feel like he was superior. “I don’t know if I can say this. But Peter did say he liked the work you did and asked me to offer you a job. Sorry to be so blunt, but back on Earth, Peter would always ask me to approach the best people. No matter where they came from.”
Unity assumed Deb was here because he was afraid for his job. She assumed that meant Peter was winning.
“You’re joking, right?” Deb said. “He wouldn’t hire me.”
Unity heard in his voice a mix of surprise and delight. He wasn’t expecting the question, but equally he was very happy to hear it.
“Whatever happens after the election—win or lose—Peter would hire you in a heartbeat. You’re that good.”
“There might not be an election.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, there’ll be an election night of course. We’ve still got to let the people vote.”
Unity wore a look of confusion. “Sorry, I’m confused.”
“You really don’t know? They don’t want to split the vote, and the election is too soon to run another primary. So everyone is getting together now to decide whom to support. The winner of this will most likely win the election.”
“Do you know whom everyone is going to vote for?”
Deb’s face straightened into a scowl.
“I’m going to find out eventually.”
“Do you mean it? Win or lose this election, I’ll have a job with Peter?”
“If I’m completely transparent, I can’t make any promises. But I know Peter would be desperate for someone with your skill set and experience.”
“I don’t know. Callum has a lot of dirt on most of the people voting. So I’d hate to guess. I’ve never known Callum to fail, but I’ve also never met someone as good as Peter before.”
And with that Deb walked out the room.
Unity walked out afterward to find Angelique standing outside of the door waiting.
“Did you find out what you needed?”
Unity nodded. “We probably need to see Peter at the resort.”
“I’ll get Ship to pick us up.”
Ship was denied clearance to fly down to the surface of the planet. So after a bit of back-and-forth, they finally got clearance to be picked up via an eleph-ANT.
Unity and Angelique made their way to an open park in the middle of the city. People watched as an eleph-ANT descended to the ground. A flesh-and-blood human would have broken their neck, they were whisked off the ground so quickly.
Luckily Unity and Angelique were in android bodies, so they didn’t experience any discomfort. Within a matter of seconds, both of them were already above the clouds and headed toward Ship.
Unity preferred inhabiting an android body when interacting with other humans. But she also preferred the instant-teleporting nature of using the hapticgram. As they passed the clouds in the sky, Unity decided she preferred the variety of what she was experiencing currently. She was enjoying the view.
It wasn’t too long before Unity and Angelique were back in orbit with Ship. There was a bit of complication involved with getting them to the golf resort, as the added security meant they couldn’t just drop in from the air unannounced. There were only particular vehicles certified to land on the property. So Ship dropped them off in the closest clear area on the edge of the no-fly zone, where a helicopter was waiting to take them the rest of the way.
Unity and Angelique arrived in the system just in time to see Callum getting ready to speak at a press conference. Callum stood off to the side behind a curtain chatting with a few of his advisers. He wore the grin of someone who had just won.
There was a large podium on the center of a platform, cameras and news outlets all waiting patiently for Callum to speak. Callum walked over to the stage.
There was a group of people standing behind the cameras off to the left. Unity recognized most of the faces from the briefing notes she’d consumed on the journey over. They were the most influential people on the planet, including the two businesspeople who owned most of the planet’s news organizations.
Unity wasn’t 100 percent sure what this meant. But from her experience with powerful people, if they were in the crowd, they knew what was about to be said. And their presence was a subtle nod of approval for Callum.
She scanned the crowd for Peter; he was nowhere to be seen.
“I think this is a victory speech,” Unity whispered in Angelique’s ear. “It looks like everyone is here still in support of him as president.”
“Looks like we’re about to find out for sure,” Angelique whispered back as the crowd began to clap and Callum walked over to the podium.
Callum raised his hands for quiet. “You might be wondering why I gathered you all here today. Why I wanted to hold an impromptu press conference.
“Well, the rumours you’ve been hearing are true.” Callum bowed his head in regret. “Our planet is even more screwed than we thought. I can confirm that a terrorist organization has sabotaged all our fabricators, both the kind that make fabricator pallets and the kind that turns those pallets into everything we need on this planet to survive.
“Make no mistake, this is an existential threat to our civilization. If we don’t find a replacement to a fabricator, we’ll be thrown back to the preindustrial age.
“That’s why today I’m announcing that I will be stepping in as CEO of Cyberdyne Systems, which is the only company on Everest close to building the infrastructure needed for us to survive.” Callum paused for a moment, letting everyone take in the message. “This means I won’t be running in the upcoming election. All the polls showed I was about to win the election in a landslide. But the prime minister role has too many competing priorities and tasks. Re-creating a technology similar to the fabricators is the single most important task we need to do. As prime minister I couldn’t dedicate myself to this, and it needs someone with my leadership experience to do this task.”
Unity tuned out the rest of the speech. The crowd surrounding the podium began thinning out too as people realized what had just happened. The group of influential people also turned away and left; they looked like they were only there to make sure he said what they wanted him to say.
Unity guessed this was Peter’s doing. He had come to this planet and in less than a week influenced the sitting prime minster to drop out of the race for the next election. There was so much about the world of the wealthy and influential that she had no idea about. Peter knew exactly what to do in order to win the election. He wasn’t taking chances either. He had come here and changed the rules of the whole race so that his only real competitor, Callum Overwood, was no longer in the race.
Unity looked up at Callum still speaking. She couldn’t help but feel sorry for the man; this speech was obviously designed to help him save face. The exclusive nature of the club meant none of his die-hard supporters were allowed in to cheer. So, there wasn’t a reaction of people looking sad.
A man in a black suit and tie with an earpiece on walked over toward both Unity and Angelique. Acknowledging them both with a nod, he bowed. “Ma’am, ma’am. Peter would like to see both of you. He’s waiting in one of the private dining rooms.” Seeing a nod of approval from both Angelique and Unity, he continued. “If you’ll follow me, I can take you there.”
Unity and Angelique followed the man, and before long they were in front of a door labeled BRITISH PRIVATE DINING ROOM. There were two guards posted out front of the door.
The man gestured for them to continue through as one of the guards posted outside the door opened it.
The room was nothing like Unity had expected—it was huge, a large dining chamber with ten or so tables scattered around. All the private dining rooms Unity had ever experienced were small and cramped; this was designed for a small party, a group of guests.
Peter stood over one of the tables, several pieces of paper scattered over the table and a pen in his hand. He looked up from his work and smiled when he saw them both. “Was his resignation speech good?”
“It sounded more like a congratulation to himself,” Unity said. “Was that your doing?”
Peter nodded. “I convinced him to resign. But reframing the situation as him focusing his energy on a company he started ten years ago, that was all him.”
Angelique picked up one of the pieces of paper. “Why do I get the feeling you’re more important on my planet now than I am?”
Peter laughed. “The people here worship you. Anyway, I’ve cleared the path to an uncontested election. We’ve got the backing of most of the people of influence. I’m going to reinstate the old constitution.” Peter looked at Angelique. “Once you’re happy with everything, you can share all the technology you have with the planet, and it’ll be like they never had a civil war.”
“Do you know much about how the fighting started?” Angelique asked.
“Most of the people I met while at this resort had an active role to play in the fighting. I think everyone saw an opportunity to gain more power. Everyone here needs something to rally around. Angelique, I think your arrival is what this planet needs to unite everyone.”