"How're you taking your loss?" Trish Walker, a dear friend of my personal assistant in New York, asked me. She was a young blond woman, about four years my junior, and she was in a professional pantsuit with a floral print blouse.

"Personally, I'm obviously disappointed. But from a policy perspective, I'm still excited about the new Democratic House and Senate super-majorities, and I hope they deliver the ambitious policy that we need on human and technological development."

The Democrats had savaged the GOP. Between the collapse of traditional Republican industries in coal and gas, the mishandling of the invasion, and the AIM Conspiracy, the Democrats had an infinite supply of targets. Positive internationalism and support for SWORD were at all time highs and Democrats tripped over themselves to be the first to promise bigger and better support for other nations. Hydra picked up two seats in the Senate: One in Massachusetts, replacing Christian Ward whose brother had managed to discretely drop that he hadn't spoken to him in years, and one in Louisiana, Andromeda's uncle who had flipped to the Democrats to run. That brought Hydra's seats in the Senate to three. We also had about a dozen in each caucus in the House.

"Human development?"

Trish and I had worked out in advance that I was not going to be focusing on the world-security aspects of my plans. I was here to talk about the trickle-down benefits to the general public and to argue for broader utilization, not to pound the table for military power. Women in their late twenties and early thirties were not fond of pounding the table for military funding. "Right now we're seeing the tragic restriction of the Super-Soldier Serum to military use. There are so many people afflicted with diseases like muscular dystrophy that the Serum might address."

"Do you think we might see a broader permission for anyone who wants it?" Trish said.

Yeah, that. Trish wanted Jessica's powers, which was fair enough. "I think in the medium term, there's no reason to resist that. I have civilian friends who've taken the serum, and they're enjoying the benefits of physical and emotional endurance that it brings. If people want it, I think, why not? But right now I'm focusing on medical applications." I neglected to include that we were still working on the Extremis serum. It's connection with AIM meant that it was a delicate political topic, but once we stabilized the serum, we'd be going public with that too. Tony had shown us how to turn it off in a non-explosive subject, but that wasn't enough. We needed, at a minimum, a serum that we could turn off in an explosive subject before we were left with a crater and a federal investigation.

"Well, when you get the chance to open it up to healthy people, I would love to be one of the next round of guinea pigs," Trish said in a casual tone that her body language totally belied. She was tense. If I had offered her the Serum for her right hand, she would give it to me.

"I'll put you on the list," I said with a smile. I would. But I didn't expect it to be actionable for at least a year. Still, Trish had been a good friend to Jones and a good person and if she got the serum, so what? Happy for her to be a subject. Ideally, I'd be able to smuggle some to Matt Murdock, but he wasn't a candidate for the serum's medical purposes.

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"You first became famous in the energy business. Today, American energy is so cheap it's almost unbelievable. How do you feel about that?"

Tony had, in fact, pledged to match my energy rate of half a cent per kilowatt hour. That was bad in that it made my life harder, but it was good because a series of orbital satellites as the sole power source wouldn't have been ideal in the event of an alien invasion. Between the two of us, the U.S. energy supply was now almost half clean and damn close to free. "Trish, I'm so excited about that. We're providing clean energy, we're giving our children a brighter future, cleaner air, and a better chance to live. But Trish, we're only at step one to a world where everyone's life counts," I said, grinning at the pretty blond confidently. "We in America have the joy of an abundant energy environment now, but we should be looking to shore up our fellow human beings well-being on this front. That's why Trent Industries and Nemo have open sourced our power receivers and why we're committed to delivering energy to energy poor nations around the world, as Wakanda has admirably demonstrated."

In a surprise move, Wakanda also offered similar energy rates and educational aid to its immediate neighbors - Probably as a counter-balance to any international influence attempts and perhaps as their contribution to an anti-alien invasion. They'd declined my offer of the super soldier serum, politely noting that they had no interest in becoming a military power, 'twelve will be more than enough' they had said. Stupid, but what can you do?

"Do you think that Wakanda's sudden generosity indicates the rumors about enhanced technological capabilities are true?"

"Wakanda is a great and gracious nation, I've received nothing but fair treatment from them even after the attacks on their embassy during my enthrallment." I said immediately. "But I don't know that we can take this new generosity as evidence that they're far ahead of us technologically or scientifically. Wakanda has always delivered a surprisingly high educational attainment for its level of development and it would only take one Wakandan Tony Stark to provide abundant energy there."

Trish smirked at the lack of a straight answer, but this was a fluff interview and she clearly had no interest in pressing it further. "Alright, how about space flight? When are we going to get to take a tourist escape to the stars?"

"Unfortunately, commercial space flight is still off the table, even for the richest people. Industrial usage within the solar system has been licensed, but with the security dangers of a terrorist hijacking and the political danger of discovery, both extrasolar and commercial trips are off the table for the foreseeable future."

"Well, that's disappointing."

"Trish, you have no idea. If you had seen what I'd seen, looking down on our world, I think you would see how precious and special we all are. How rare and unique and holy this world we call our home is. I think if I could take everyone up there just to look at it, enough of us would see all that we would have in common, and that the world would at last know peace." That's a nice sentiment, of course, and I do actually think it would help - But the idea that it alone would work was nauseating sentimentality at its worst. Still, fluff piece, fluff show, fluff content.

"That's a beautiful idea," Trish said, grinning at me. "Congratulations on using one of the few civilian trips to propose to your wife!"

"My proudest moment!" I said with a laugh. "It was a good proposal. We left everyone in suspense for a moment there."

"Oh, tell me you didn't spring that on her."

"No, no, we'd talked about it before."

"Good. Mr. Trent, what's next for you?"

"With energy supply in America reaching capacity here in the United States, Trent Industries is going to start shopping for national customers interested in securing low rates for their entire energy needs." It would also give me valuable international experience. "And I'm continuing to consult with SWORD. But without political office, I think my energies will mostly be focused on solving the problem of human mortality."

Trish stared at me in stunned silence for a moment. "I'm sorry, human mortality?"

Tina had cracked the sense-replicating programs, so at this point, I had reason to hope that we could achieve a successful transfer. "With our advanced imaging hardware and computational developments, I hope to design a means of consciousness extraction and preservation."

The next day I got a call from a man named Holden Radcliffe.