Two days went by in a fly and the first planet wide referendum of earth, which would later be called, by many species across the universe, as the start of the Intergalactic Federation's demise, began. As promised the United Nations banded together and smothered over every current war happening. Terrorist Organizations like the Taliban, the Ku Klux Klan or the newly formed Al-Qaeda were eradicated from the face of the earth in near record breaking speed. Not a single one of them, government founded or not, could withstand the might of the combined forces of every superpower on earth. Many zealots still remained though and tried to attack the military with suicide vests, amok runs or just remained planning their next move after they witnessed many of their like-minded countrymen die.

So all in all the voting process was about to start smoothly. The counting process was monitored by supercomputers and many humans could be seen standing in long queues in front of a huge white pavilion, reminiscent of a quarantine tent, throughout the world. Since not all people could vote at the same time, all military and government personnel were required to wait until the fourth day to cast their votes. The voting also wasn't anonymous and each person could be seen making their decision, because the tents had two entrances and on top of each hung a sign with either "agree" or "disagree" written on it. This reduced the staff necessary to take care of the whole process and there were only two security guards posted by both sides of the access-ways to make sure only one person at a time could enter.

When the whole family Strono arrived at the voting booth, at 11am, in their district, thousands of people were already waiting. Vienna, and Austria in general had a rather small population with only a bit over 8 million, but like all around the planet a lot of people had gathered to cast their votes. They didn't know how long it would take, therefore they observed from a bit farther away and watched how long it would take them till it was their turn.

The location was originally a school complex and they had to enter through the main gate, inside there was a huge green area that was in the center of a road which led through the massive school grounds. The ginormous building was clearly built during the 19th century with a lot of modern extensions added throughout the years, as such anyone that looked at it marvelled at the builders' ingenuity and at the sophisticated design and layout of every brick, rock, tree and cornerstone of this magnificent structure.

After waiting for one hour the women of the group left since little Alex shat in his pants and had to get cleaned up, not to mention the smell and crying was disturbing all people around them and especially Irena who held him.

Following were 5 more hours of dullish waiting until it was finally Harald's and Kazimierz's turn and they both went to the "agree"-sign. Harald went in first and after not even 5 minutes his father-in-law could enter too. The insides of the tent were fairly unimpressive, all he had to do was let a clerk check his ID, write his name on a sheet of paper, sign it and drop it in a huge metal box standing at the far end of the pavilion. Subsequently he left through long winding hallways made out of reinforced plastic, that led him out of a side entrance of the compound.

They called Dorothea to pick them up and drove back home to report on their experience. It wasn't anything noteworthy and they decided that Harald would drive the family's women to the voting station early tomorrow morning, to evade the hour long wait, whilst Kazimierz would stay at home to keep an eye on Alexander.

-New York, Manhattan, UN headquarters-

While humans all around the globe were casting their votes the leaders of the respective countries held a congress that would last until the ballots were closed. At the moment the assembly room was packed with every head of state again, it reeked of sweat and sounded like the insides of a bullfight stadium, with shouts and spit flying through the air. Since not all of them were capable of speaking in English the sound of tens of different languages were raping the ears of everyone present and it sounded like a completely mismatched chorus of loony bin inmates singing Christmas carols.

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"EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP!!" Romano Prodi screamed at the top of his lungs, "We are the representatives of each of our countries why the bloody hell is everyone here acting like a child who got their favourite toy taken away? Can someone please explain that to me?"

The whole room descended into an uncomfortable silence after they got their eardrums blown out by the speakers and the interpreters translated for the non-English speaking leaders, what that loud outburst meant. Many looked angry but also embarrassed since they knew he was right. The whole planet was on the brink of an uncontrollable change and here they were shouting at each other over who should be elected as leader of the not yet established United Earth Alliance, or short UEA. Most knew that if they ever wanted to have a chance to occupy that position adequate rules had to be set. In reality this decision wasn't really important at that moment though, since they didn't even know yet if enough inhabitants of earth would vote with "agree" or would doom their planet to utter destruction.

"We all were present when the aliens teleported us aboard their ship. Just from the fact they can teleport us out of our homes, it is clear they are so far more advanced than us that we stand no chance if our fellow earthlings choose to not join and fight. Why did so many of you reach the verdict then that we should tell them that we would fight with all we got? And that also while bullshitting about telling the whole truth? Are you all insane? If they vote to join we all would still have some power but if they refuse we will have to join that army of monsters just to have a decent life!" The president of the European Union reprimanded all his peers unceremoniously.

"I can't even understand the logic behind letting them all vote, why not just decide ourselves and then during the one week grace period inform them about our choice smoothly without causing a mass panic? We united and almost got rid of various criminal organizations with our combined forces, instead we could have used them to keep the citizens in check and mellow over the initial merger into the Intergalactic Federation! Yet the majority of you voted for letting mundane humans decide our future? I hope you do know that the average human has an IQ only close to 100 and often below, that isn't too high to be perfectely honest!" Japan's prime minister, Keizo Obuchi, supported Romano, albeit for different reasons.

"Well, I ,and I think I can speak for most of my like-minded peers, believe in the sanctity of humanity's free will and that every citizen on earth has the right to choose if they want to join an organization like the Federation, that practically forces them to perish or enter their circle." the Chinese president, Jiang Zemin, declared righteously.

To that statement even his supporters could only scoff in their mind, 'Chinese and free will? How much shameless nonsense can this inflated egomaniac even spout?'

None of them voiced any complaint though and kept their expressions stoic, as every good politician learned early on to master this technique to perfection. The opposition meanwhile had their faces scrunch up with disgust, if any other state head said those words it would have been more believable. But they had to swallow their insults since it was already to late and only a minority was on their side. Whether the former side had really only good intentions and wanted humanity to have free will or there were other forces working in the shadows involved couldn't be determined at this moment anyway.

With a last pleading look to the people Romano believed had some sort of decent humane moral compass he could only slouch back onto his chair and sigh in defeat. Whatever would happen from now was out of his control and humanity's fate laid in the hands of people who only knew part of the truth and possibly believed earth had a chance to stand against the federation.

'I wash my hands of off this matter, it doesn't concern me anymore. If we join I will resign and let Neil handle the affairs that will follow, if we don't I will simply try my luck in that army of monsters and hope I survive the first week there.'

Prodi's outburst at least affected the members of this congress enough to talk about more important topics than their struggle for power.

And thus the congress and voting proceeded almost as planned.