Melissa was right about how the next couple of days went, lots of food, lots of begging, shaming, and any type of coercion one could think of. Only a few offers of business deals or exchanges, which I found odd. One or two outright threats as well, but I expected those. One particularly menacing Arab man pulled his ceremonial sword on me, and I pulled my plasma saber from my purse. He didn’t seem eager to see how much better a swordsman he was than me after I cut his sword in half. Only Qatar and U.A.E. stayed after that story got out.
Today just ended up as a general class about the system, kind of like what I went over with the Admirals, except translations gave less time for questions. The G-20 leaders are supposed to be arriving this evening for the last two days, but I have not been included in their itineraries as far as I know, so we’ll see what happens.
Katie and Melissa’s meeting in Hong Kong started off as awkwardly as expected. They tried to get my girls to admit to wrong-doing in not insisting I be there, and Katie insisted that if they were businesspeople and not politicians that these tactics were not necessary. She ended up listening to their demands, and by and large they just wanted to buy credits and to ask when they could order larger items. Since my current estimate is nine months to a year, that’s what she told them. Two people wanted CE bad enough to buy 20 CE for 100 million US and Katie straight gave them our bank routing number and called it a deal. I don’t love that we parted with CE, but, now I don’t have to worry about Earth money anymore.
The remaining rich people lost their minds at Katie’s response about the exchange rate when the new ansible was online. “I shouldn’t think we’ll need an exchange rate then. Two hundred million should be fine to get through the year and fiat currency won’t have much use for us when countries start taking credits for payment.”
I laughed when she told me that, and Melissa started discussing plans for the 200 million. She started buying property around the world. Out of the way places in important areas: An Island near Vladivostok, some land in northern Philippines, a house in Greece, and a plot in Australia. She said she’s still looking in Southern Africa but doesn’t know if she’ll have enough money for that and living for the next year. Makes me wonder how much the Island went for.
“Penny, you’re too distracted this morning. You have several big meetings today.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m imagining all the ways the US President is going to make me angry with her so I don’t act out in my surprise.” I fuss over my regular suit again, “Should I go in my Admiral’s suit?”
“I don’t think showing up in uniform is the way to go Pen pen. I saw a heliotrope suit with a robin’s egg blouse you might look good in. They are your colors, just a different kind of uniform.”
“Oh Andromeda, thank you Mel. Can you be in charge of dressing me in the future?” Katie and Mel had a good laugh at me, but I was kind of serious about it. She picked it out and sent it to Tessa for me to order since I can add some aether and cut the line.
I put the suit on, liking the jacket but switching the slacks out for some cream slacks and then matching my flats to the heliotrope jacket. There, now I look less like a fruit.
“Aww. You looked just like that galaxy fruit with the pants. Now you just look eccentric.” Melissa whines.
I knew I looked like a fruit. “Eccentric sounds fine. I can leave powerful and pretty to you two.”
“Then why’s Melissa going?” Katie puts on her best devil may care grin and it shoots a little thrill through me.
“Katie! Rude!” Mel protests, but ends up picking a white blouse and a navy skirt, looking every bit my personal assistant.
Katie goes for glasses this time, moving her to the ginger bodyguard to the steely advisor look. Sad part is, it’ll be just as difficult as always for anyone to take us seriously. Okay, everyone takes Katie seriously eventually.
“Who’s ready for two whole days of meetings?!”
“Ugh, I’d rather be pumping bilge. But since this make keep us from being lasered again, lets do this.” Melissa jokes.
“Speaking of lasers; Tessa, how did the hull-mounted lasers test out?”
/The fuselage melt test behaved erratically as the lack of heat dissipation on the outside led to some odd melting patterns, but full power tests were satisfactory./
“Good. ‘Cause if some other jackass points a weapon at my home or my people, I’m going to shoot it down.”
The G-20 folk really didn’t pay us any attention the first day. There were talks of weapons proliferation, the latest turmoil in Pakistan, and the border buildups between Russia and former Soviet Union members. It started to sound like a UN security council meeting.
Next items were focused on humanitarian aid in Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Southeast Asia. South America is also in need, but the ongoing turmoil amongst the Cartels and Government bodies prevents a lot of the goods getting to the people in real need. What I hate the most is the likelihood that problems like these will follow Humanity to space. I don’t have a legal code robust enough to handle Humanity. What am I thinking?
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“We wish to meet separately with the representatives of Astoria.” The other gathered leaders grumble, but reluctantly acknowledge. The leader of the EU leads us to a break-out committee room prepared with refreshments. Excellent.
“So, Empress Astoria,” The Prime Minister of Canada begins, “we have a couple of concerns with the way the System is currently laid out.”
I hold my face steady, not wanting to laugh at their assumption after he was so courteous. “Do continue Prime Minister.” I say after he paused for an overlong time.
“The first being the order delivery quotas, as I’m sure you’re aware.”
“Yes, I am aware, and I ordered a device that will alleviate those problems to be shipped to an Empire controlled planet and assembled. The issue being, my planets are on the outskirts of what the Andromeda Supercluster considers frontier space. They’ve only begun mapping the milky way in the last 10-20 million years, and we are ever so far away. Earth, is almost three thousand light years further into the frontier. That being said, the device should come online within the year, and delivery problems from here to Astoria should be eliminated.”
“You expect us to wait a year for Exchange access?” The representative from Japan asked.
“As we have no other options, yes. However, since you all have likely not even chosen a Track yet, I suspect that Humanity will need that year to acclimate to the System and prepare for the eventual destruction of the world economy. The conversion to credits won’t be immediate, but as people learn how to earn them, and others learn that subsistence food and water will be free, the Exchange will begin to dominate.
“Oh! Key point to the Exchange. You will need local node ansibles that reach up to 100km for deliveries and up to 300ly for communication only. You will need to setup distribution centers, or have someone modify your node ansibles have their delivery capacity enhanced with some different Manatech options.”
Canada and other countries that were briefed by their advisors earlier this week nod, the rest have side conversations for a few minutes, I take the opportunity to get some food. Having used aether to summon our attire, I am quite hungry. I come back to the table with snacks and people look at me funny.
“I have a metabolism problem and it’s been a long day of meetings. Please continue.”
“Sure. The next question is very much on the minds of the UN security council: how involved in world affairs do you plan to be?”
That is an excellent question, and I feel the right way to ask it instead of posturing and threatening. “I’d prefer to be hands-off, honestly. Ideally, my only contact with Earth would be commerce and immigration. Realistically, my advisors and I will be back and forth for a few years getting things settled with the occasional dispute resolution. I won’t entertain bail-outs for anyone. I do consider commerce exchanges. I won’t provide military tech, nor will I donate my technology for the sake of humanity. If you have a proposal that will benefit the Empire and Humanity, I’ll hear you out, but I started with the assumption that you don’t want to be ruled by an Empress, you want to maintain Global borders and economies and develop yourselves. If you wish to emigrate to a different Planet, I am currently accepting Vassal States on all of my habitable worlds. There are currently four, one relatively nearby.”
“So that means you do not intend to remain a US citizen?”
“Considering that the President and her cabinet are considered Enemies of the Empire, I think not. To that point, trying to kill me won’t get you my money or my credits.”
“Not like that means anything,” the Vice President of the Unites States, laughs.
“I was asked very nicely by people I respect to not execute people for a very stupid decision. I was convinced to come here to talk with all of you by one of those people. I will try to interface with the next US administration, but until then, if we could stay out of each other’s way, that’d be great.”
Katie and Mel answered some questions that were answerable by spending time with the interface, but I’m not the person to throw shade in that direction. Tessa and Katie both gave me shit for not investigating the Empire’s menus until recently. Katie then answered some long-term considerations and travel, saying that mostly the travel between systems will need to be ship based.
“If the ansible you are building can transport objects from half a galaxy away, why not people?”
I chime back in, as it is my area of expertise. “Ah, now we get into the nature of Aether, ladies and gentlemen. This planet is exceedingly poor in it, which means you all will be sensitive to the underlying energy of the Universe.
“Items and goods are largely not alive, and therefore are not in danger of being mutated by the sluice of energy they receive transiting non-dimensional space without shielding. I’ll save you the micro concerns of tagging and shipping, but it’s the shielding that takes the already solved problem of transportation, making it a workable-but-dynamic concern. I have napkin math plans to create a gateway network, but for now we’ll have to deal with traveling via warp-capable shipping.
“Before this divulges into asking about Aether, your swarm can provide you with information on mutations and Aether that it likely neglected because of the poor aether potential of Earth.”
“You seem to be well versed, are your compatriots capable of using aether as well?” France? I think, asks.
“Excellent question, but more for the topic it brings to mind. Humans need enough exposure to Aether for long enough to adapt in order to be able to manipulate it. This is also napkin plans, but I will be considering migrants to Astoria and Asphodel for Aether-based tracks, and those that do not want to migrate fully, I will entertain a cohort of approximately a dozen for training.”
“So you control the monopoly on these Aether tracks?”
“Only until there are enough Aether-based track folk out there and enough of Humanity is on a planet that can support their energy requirements. Maybe someday Earth can support it, but currently us Aether track folk need constant supplementation to keep our energy up.”
“So there are more of you?”
“Of me? No. Nobody would want that.”
>K] Incorrect. I have room for at least 2 more Pennys. [<
>M] I could use another.[< she winks in my mind.
I try my darndest not to smile, but it probably looks like an arrogant smirk. “But yes, one of my crew and a few of the returned Sailors are on tracks such as Elementalist, Jedi, and Shade Viper? Yeah, I think those are it. And before you judge ‘Jedi’ the System personalizes tracks to your experiences, so that’s on him.” I pause for effect and reach into my hip pouch, “Plus, plasma sabers are really cool.” I pull out my officer’s-style saber and charge the plasma and shield runes for a moment before snuffing it and placing it back in my bag.
That little stunt got me fifteen seconds of blissful quiet before the room erupted in wonder and outrage. I bring out some juice to recharge while everything calms down to a discussable roar.