It took three months for the refugee process to see another hiccup. After the first week, the old US Navy and other deputized volunteers around the world to get into a rhythm with my Navy to ferry thousands of people to Astoria every day. We dealt with various groups wanting to get their own plot and they all got the Vassal contract or decided to wait until inter-planetary migration to other Astorian worlds was available. Three months is apparently the mark where the non-desperate can see the stability of the migration and want to be a part of it.
There have been many lessons learned in the process of course. Nobody likes the shuttle process—neither the operators nor the refugees. Structured ration delivery works better than letting people access the system themselves, and generally reduces predation amongst the paranoid that try to amass rations despite the reliable source of food. The biggest surprise of mundane lessons was that the new citizens being ferried aboard the Galilei were easier to process and tended to stay together as a community after the fact—likely due to the week-long transit back to Astoria.
We aren’t building Capitol ships that size, and Alaris is currently being used as a gateway, so we only have one method of stabilizing communities in transit and it is a two-week round-trip. Having an on-site processing crew that doesn’t need to be pushed through Penbroke Plaza is a huge plus though.
This week, we have two new issues: Non-refugee communities looking to relocate, and a report of rogues and warlords murdering swaths of gathered immigrants at the edges of the refugee camps. I ask Katie to help with the communities, but she is otherwise indisposed . . . still, and arranges for Francesca to go out to Edinburgh to discuss matters with the first group. I got told where to oversee the scabs in Indonesia.
A small team of ten with a wide array of automatic weapons arrives at the edge of the Jakarta camp and starts laying waste to people. I go in and laser pistol the whole group of fools after cratering the ass on the mounted fifty-cal, using my armor instead of teleporting around to avoid gunfire. Gun-Fu is surprisingly effective at avoiding the gunfire as well. After about three sets of these idiots, two interesting things happen: I learn that as long as I’m fighting with at least one pistol, Gun-fu works with other weapons; and I realize, that if I let one live, they are dumb enough to run back to their whole operation.
When I follow him back, I see established structures—many of them underground—in the jungles and farms outside of the city. The region has mountainous areas, practically begging for a cave network of brigands. The outdoor regions I just blanket with Nightmare Napalm and watch the jungle, houses, and people melt into aether and smoke. The cave network is another matter. Eliminating the mountain range with void would both be reckless and take forever.
No, I either need to smoke them out or eliminate their crew and cave in their base. Since most of my utility is not fire-based, I guess it’s time for a workout. I have about a thousand pulse rounds-worth of battery and my plasma saber. Time to abuse the shit out of Gun-Fu.
With the new ripple flight system (and my delightful practice sessions) I am more maneuverable than just my body alone, so I’m running down the tunnels with ripple-boosted speed. I don’t stop as I see security patrols and when the pulses don’t get them all, my saber splits them to pieces. The disenfranchised are a mixture of men and women and the occasional militarized child. My morality is not so puerile that I stop my sword for the gun-toting teens, nor is it so ruthless to eliminate toddlers that can’t even threat lethal violence. The few non-violent men and women get lumped with the small ones and I move on after telling them to leave the facility.
Mapping and clearing the tunnel and cavern network with sonar and plasma—this network anyway—takes three days. Three effing days of research delayed hunting greedy terrorists and their support networks. I am so angry as I finish the last un-checked passage that I start creating a mass of hand-sized annihilation pebbles wrapped in shields and litter them like bread-crumbs throught the majority of the network and all of the caverns.
I never knew a whole mountain range could explode and then implode, and then fireball. What the hell is even burning in that mess? Are the silicates and hydrocarbons dissociating and recombining as combustible chemicals? Are the hydrogen atoms combining to create pockets of explosive gas? C: All of the Above?
Hardly what you should be focused on, Queen Faerie Penelope.
Oh, and the last three months have also seen Tessa’s sarcasm engine running on full, trying to guilt me into being either more considerate or staying more on task. Right now, I do have a Botanist to assist, who has been yelling at me for a day and a half. I blip ten thousand feet above Francesca’s location and descend (it’s easier than finding a discrete place to teleport to).
“Well shit, the North Sea and the shores of Scotland are really pretty.” I take a few moments to appreciate Nature’s majesty, free falling in a slow rotation with a practiced arm arrangement.
I power into Edinburgh and ripple to Francesca’s location within minutes. Relative-anchor braking is my new favorite thing. Just que in my mind the braking acceleration and boom! Enchanting makes the fabric of space slow me down. While the fabric of space is elastic on a moon-sized object, on a building-sized object and construction it is unyielding. With the wrong spellforms, I would be paste and a collection of crystals. This suit and my previous experience with a shipboard ripple drive give me some ideas that reluctantly have to wait until I’m not interrupted every week.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
I hero land next to Dr. Summers and she scoffs as she waves the brick dust from around her.
“Dramatic as always Dr. Astoria.” She purses her lips at me, the intent unclear. “This is Misses Campbell of the former House of Lords, current Regent of Scotland.”
“I assume you picked Regent as under U.K. treaty there can never be another king or queen?”
“That and I’m an old woman steeped in history.” She nods her head, “Greetings Empress, we have been discussing whether vassalage or an included community would be best for us?”
“As Dr. Summers likely mentioned, it depends on how independent you want to be. The Empire has interest in new Vassalages or Astorian Cities along the coast of the Cotton Sea and further yet, the Goliath Ocean. As it is within the desires of the Empire to expand in this direction, some subsidies and or infrastructure creation can be supported, however, if you community does not have any funds whatsoever, then establishing a community in the planned developments is the best we can do at the moment. With areas of compromise in between, does any of that interest you?”
Campbell turns around and discusses with her advisors, they harsh-whisper for a bit and I chose not to listen in before she turns around again. “We have a desired migration of a half million, with a three hundred thousand CE and 100 million AE left.”
Color me surprised. That is a veritable fortune. Like, stole from the British style of fortune. Or, a dissolved U.K., next in line for the Scottish throne kind of fortune. “Well, Miss Campbell, I would entertain any of the options with the funds that you have, I will make myself available to discuss you options, but we should discuss your transport immediately after you decide on what method of settlement you wish to make.”
“According to my AI, you have a tropics area on the Goliath Ocean that is like Scotland with highlands and lochs, but is subtropical to temperate. I believe we wish to establish a new City within the empire, not subject to the whims of your current ruling city?”
I chuckle at the question. “I see the uneasiness and question of your statement. Aelea is the largest city of Astoria and is where the Capitol District is located. However, it is also the only city on Astoria with more than ten thousand people. I may need to alter that number later, but your number will constitute a city large enough to warrant consideration for the governorship of Astoria. Your new city will need to discuss with Aelea, with consideration of future cities of that size, on how the Planetary governance will operate.”
“So how does this City-state idea differ from a typical Vassalage?”
“There is a population minimum. The minimum was calculated on a self-sustaining model where you provide for your own citizens instead of leaning on the Empire. As you would be setting your own standards for rations and housing, the Empire would reduce taxes, tariffs and transportation costs to local, internal prices. Aelea is not currently managed appropriately and does not enjoy these benefits, however, as we can discuss later, a self-managed, self-funded metropolis would have a multitude of beneficial, negotiable considerations being the first of it’s kind in the Empire.”
“Do I need to lobby your advisors or other Governors for such privelidges?” It isn’t a scoff, nor is it a comment of distain, but more of a tentative toe in the water based on the English Commonwealth.
“No. I am the Empress and my authority inviolate. My Consuls are respected advisors, and manage government affairs, but all authority ends with me. I believe this new structure with communities that can handle it will greatly benefit my people. Thus, with the willing, it will be done.”
The woman before me is a life-long politician and her facial features are expertly schooled. She asks for an hour to deliberate with her cronies and I accept.
“What do you think Francesca? Think they’ll buy in.”
“Yes, actually. When I talked with the group, they were worried about another European Union fiasco, but seeing that the area they want to settle is beyond the Cotton Sea, just above where the sea meets the Ocean, I think they actually believe that they’ll be able to govern themselves without the extra financial and diplomatic worries of being a Vassal state.”
“Think she’ll claim a Duchy?” I put some easter egg rules in land holdings of the Empire for self-styled titlings of King, Queen, Duke, Earl, Baron, etc. Including their international translations.
“Considering that many U.K. Nobles were killed in the last year of warring and unrest, it would not surprise me if she were the current Duke of several holdings.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I waved her off. “I specifically made it so hereditary holdings and titles don’t transfer to Astoria. Some of these are only eligible to Government officials that aren’t Vassalages claiming different laws. Just like the leader of Aelea can’t claim the title of King or Queen. I am technically their Queen and Empress.”
“Please don’t try to explain it to me Penny, I don’t want to know. I’m just here because both you and Katie asked me to. Though I do find your greenery provisions interesting. I clearly would like to expand upon those. Wait, I’m the Consul of the Interior. I can absolutely do that!”
I chuckle at her exuberance. “Yes, yes you can.”
After an hour, we sign the incorporation of the Duchy of Astorian Scottish Highlands and the City of Ash. I brief her team that their firs ten thousand residents will be ferried upon the Galilei and taken to their location. They will have the two week transit plus loading time to decide what they want to build and what they want to fund, but I set a sunk cost of 10k CE that they must spend on infrastructure to obtain land rights to the Duchy. As I entered the argument with the land area of the whole of the former U.K., they were easily convinced to the sunk cost. They likely won’t be happy to share the straits to the Cotton Sea with Cottonton and free commerce access to the Goliath Ocean, but I’m not willing to entertain a hold on both sides of the strait, so much so that I claimed it as an Empire governance region and said that they could administer the region for a commerce percentage if it becomes necessary to regulate.