“Great, glad that is sorted” Zeo declared as she glanced back down at the command table before looking back at me.
“The warehouse is ninety-five percent complete. I didn't expect hashing over contracts to take five hours, even with us telling you the short version of it all.”
“But all three of our clans can now do some mining in this solar system. And believe me Kenna, you need the income because once you start getting into what this station can do and how much it's going to cost on licences and upgrades and running costs it will all add up. And it really is not something a planetary Baron-Tak can afford, which is why orbital stations are owned by at least a solar Tak… but then they normally rule over populations that are not on a single planet… I would suggest turning this into a trade hub, but you're kinda on the fringes. Hmm, I'm not really sure how you are going to make this solar system profitable.”
“She will think of something, Travis, stop bullying the girl.”
“Oh, shove off Brendan”
They both glared at each other for a few seconds, while Zeo and I rolled our eyes and turned away from them.
*******
“A bloody Planetary Baron-Tak, upon Boonta’s hairy armpit, what are we going to do brother?
“Alright, alright, calm yourself Fredrick. Zeo is with her now, she can coach the little mortal and prop the damn thing up. In the meantime find out what land those bastard Twiddles own that is near enough to this Kenna, that way we can take that land and when the time is right, give it to this mortal, that way when we give her clan enough land to drag them into a galactic standing we can then absorb them and bring ourselves up to a Celestial Marquess-Tak.”
“Zeo, won't like that…”
“It doesn't matter if she likes it or not, her little mortal playmate will be in our clan and the daughter of a branch leader. She can play with the little mortal whenever she wants.”
“As you wish, brother, I will look into the land that the Twiddle clan owns in the Milky Way and send some ships to acquire it.”
*******
“Mr President, I have a report on something I think you will want to see. It’s about our friends across the pond.”
“Mr Washington, as you can see, I'm already swamped. If it's not something I have to sign, then just read it to me.”
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“Yes, Mr President. NASA has tracked a rocket leaving the atmosphere and travelling out to what appears to be an orbital station. Our records indicate that it was not there two weeks ago when our satellites last scanned that area of space.”
“So? England has sent someone to investigate?”
“Uh, no Mr President, it looks like a corporation in Scotland has done it and is now sending people up to live on the station. But that's not the worst bit”
“Well hurry up, and spill the juicy news”
“Yes Sir, some of our spy satellites have spotted what appears to be a large gathering of spaceships on the edge of the solar system, and they are moving to surround it. Three small ships broke off from this and headed straight for the station after the rocket reached it.”
“Are you telling me alien contact has been made by a foreign power!”
“Yes Sir.”
“Get the lawyers in here we need to get our own people up there now, I won't have our country being excluded from any deals they make, I want an ambassador prepped and ready to go up with in the hour, find me a rocket and have some marines stuffed into it with the ambassador and send them!”
“Yes Sir!”
Mr Washington hurried out of the Oval Office to make the preparations as quickly as he could, a big smile on his face. Some bloody clan in England had gotten ahead of his clan and reached space, but he would use the power of his government to force a seat at the table for his own clan. And who on this planet had the power to deny him that, his class was Void Knight, and he was a marine sergeant leading an elite Squadron, who could stop that.
*******
“Your Majesty, your Majesty! I have a report on something I think you will want to see. It's from our neighbours across the pond.”
“Mr Taylor, what are the Americans up to this time?”
“Your majesty, the Americans are prepping a rocket as we speak. I think they intend to send it to the space station that recently appeared in orbit, I strongly recommend we ask that Scottish clan that just sent a rocket up for help! We can't allow the Americans to speak for us in this situation, whatever it is.”
“Make it happen, Mr Taylor! Send an ambassador and a bunch of marines right now!”
*******
Kenna was sitting in her brand-new skiff, screaming her head off in excitement as she zoomed across space towards a dwarf planet she didn't even know the name of, but her sensors had picked it up and marked it as the farthest celestial body from the sun. It was moving so fast, she was literally watching a planet fly past her every ten or so minutes as she headed out. It took her about two and a half hours to finally reach the last celestial object, and her skiff came down faster than she expected. She thought she had nearly hit the ground until she realised she had, and the antigravity landing plates had bounced her off it. Once she landed and the skiff was just hovering a foot off the ground, she climbed out of the skiff and fell onto her hands and knees before puking. She watched it rush out of her helmet like there was normal gravity, only to fly away from her like there was no gravity.
“This technology is amazing” she whispered.
She slowly got to her feet and turned a few times as she looked at the ground. Until she decided this spot was as good as any.
“I Kenna Mackenzie, Scion of Mackenzie Clan, hereby claim this celestial object as my personal property.”
She looked around a few times expecting something to happen but after a minute when nothing had happened she frowned and dropped her arms as she looked around.
“The hell?” she asked before a window popped up.
Congratulations, Kenna Mackenzie, you are now the owner of the celestial object AG37 also known as Farfarout.
Congratulations, you are now the Planetary Queen of Farfarout.
The screen then vanished, and I was left standing there feeling giddy. “Ha, take that!”
She walked back over to her skiff and climbed into it and powered it on, once it was ready she set the navigation system to take her to the closest celestial body. She was heading back to earth, but she was claiming everything on the way.
*******
Mr Washington was sitting in his office looking at a live feed on his laptop. A platoon of American Grade A marines were strapped into a rocket and every single one of them was a long time member of the Planetary Baron Washington clan and the ambassador that had been chosen was just initiated into his clan. He watched the live feed as the rocket prepared to launch. He couldn't help but let out a cheer of delight as it ignited and rose off the launch pad and into the air.
“Yes! Go capture that orbital station!”