"And exactly how many of the workers do you represent?" I asked the older man in front of me.
"All of 'em," he said.
"I'll need some actual numbers before I can look into doing anything about these grievances you've brought to me," I said.
"I'm in charge of the Vancouver Reclamation Zone," he finally said after a minute of staring at me. "My boys said they found one of the monsters running around down there and they won't work until you and your people get rid of it."
"Could you describe the Scourge they saw?" I asked, picking up my tablet and preparing to take notes. Quietly, I sent for Kiv-mel to come to my office; I already knew what the foreman was going to say.
"They said it was big," he told me. "Had blue skin and carried some box around with it."
"Did it look anything like that?" I asked pointing toward Kiv-mel in the just opened door.
The poor foreman stared at him for a long moment before turning to me anger flashing across his features.
"You're working with the damn things that wrecked our planet?" he yelled.
"No," I said before he could work himself into a real huff and make me remove him from my office. "That is a Tar-en-fil. They are a much kinder race than the Scourge and if you and your men had paid any attention to the news clips before all this, then you'd know that the Scourge are paler, hairless, and misshapen. This person is clearly blue and reaching his race's average height of seven feet. Is there something more important about why you're here or are you just trying to get more money out of me?"
The foreman gaped at me like a fish out of water at my last words. I was tired of these constant complaints and meetings the foremen of the Reclamation Zones tried to use to squeeze more and more money out of the Nephilim. You'd think after a month of being told no, or replaced depending on how badly they reacted in the meetings, they'd have learned but none of them had.
"If there's nothing else then I'm going to have to insist that you leave my starship on the next shuttle," I said to him. "Knight Fredricks will show you the way and escort you."
The foreman stood up and was just opening his mouth to begin screaming obscenities at me when I spoke again.
"And after you return to the ground, Wing Parham will be giving you your severance pay and sending you on your way," I told him. "My Wings are who you are to take any issues to, not me. They are the ones in charge of the Reclamation Zones that you no longer work in, not you. Have a good day."
I could see from his pale face and widened eyes that he was shocked that I'd just removed him from his position. As though he thought that by raising a fuss and going around the budding union that had sprung up, around the Wing that was in charge of the Zone he worked in, around the security that was monitoring the shuttles as they ferried people, resources, and equipment to the various areas, he would be able to squeeze me for more money after he snuck aboard the Phoenix and was caught almost immediately by the various security measures that were aboard the ship. The sad thing was, he wasn't the only one to do just that this week. Where they all got the confidence to do it I'll never know.
Maybe they were being bribed and paid off by governements and companies that thought they could steal the tech we had aboard the ship. That wasn't happening. All Nephilim technology that we had received from the Wardens of Life was strictly monitored by the techs and workers I'd managed to poach from their races. Until either Nephilim or the new race that Yurnel was looking into making were trained to monitor and use them, those people I'd brought over to my organization were in charge of them and their use; and they were dedicated to protecting any blueprints or actual devices that were left lying around.
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"Thank you Kiv-mel. Sorry about that again," I told the Tar-en-fil engineer.
"It is no trouble," he said, waving my apologies off. "It is said that before the Tar-en-fil homeworld was invaded by the Scourge and we were forced to come together, we were a divided people with political and geographical boundaries forming our own nations."
"A shame that it took the Scourge evicting your people before you could all stop fighting and arguing with one another," I said.
"And an even larger one that your people are now attempting to take from their saviors," he agreed.
"It's something I expected actually," I told him. "I'm just glad that we've made such good progress on Elysium despite all the difficulties we've had."
"It is an excellent thing to be able to say," he agreed.
"Gul-fen sent a message asking if the world's governments were willing to discuss trades of food and equipment for access to resources in the outer parts of the Solar System," I told him. "I had to tell him that they were still arguing with me about our responsibility with the Scourge and the kidnapping of just over a million people. Do you have any ideas for what to do to end that issue?"
"I am flattered you think I can help," Kiv-mel said, "however, I chose to interact with metals and wires so that I might avoid having to think of complex ideas to deal with issues such as those. I cannot help you with this."
"It was worth a shot," I said. "Thanks for coming down here so quickly."
"It is not a problem," he said. "Have a good day Commander."
"So they're all asking for more and more money?" Jen asked me as she fed her son with a bottle. "Why don't you just give it to them? It's not like the current currencies won't collapse soon."
"I've been giving them their choice up til now," I told her. "Money or other things. Food, clothes, extra shelters. Most of them have seen how things are going so they're taking the extra stuff. They think that they can demand all that from us and use it to screw other people out of other things that they think are more valuable like working electronics."
"And because you've decided to start passing out less extras to them, they're all throwing a fit?" she asked.
"They are," I confirmed. "Any ideas?"
"Well you can get together with Mom and start making some sort of private currency. You said that you're making a city and a country. You're going to need some sort of economic tender. Mom could help with that more than I can, I haven't slept well since Rick was born."
"It would have to be something that wasn't backed by anything that can be manufactured or found easily," I said. "I've been looking in the Wardens' database for something that's sort of rare and valuable enough to use."
"This is Earth," she told me, deadpan. "Use some gold or platinum, maybe something like copper or uranium, and you'll be set."
"You realize that as soon as I start stripping resources from the other planets and asteroids that those will be worthless and whatever currency I make with it will crash," I pointed out.
"Then just keep that stuff out of the market and use it for your own things," she said while little Rickshaw fussed. "You can trade any super excess to the aliens and get stuff you really need. And if you have stockpiles bigger than anyone thinks, you can just fall back on those when they try to strangle whatever currency you make."
"That sounds too easy," I said.
"That's what everyone else does," she said. "Of course, they sell the excess and trade it for favors and resources so you always know exactly how much everyone else has. A little like stock trading."
"I thought stock trading was more complicated?" I said.
"It is but for this conversation, it's similar. Now, I've got to go put Rick down for his nap, so I'm going to take a walk and hope he doesn't spit up on me before he goes to sleep."
"Good luck," I said as she stood and left.
I spent some time thinking over what she'd said. It made sense to me. If the people working for me were being paid in goods and they were using them to practically steal from other people, then it was time to make some sort of currency and start building the Nephilim's economy on Earth.
"Cai send word to Angie," I told him before making my way to my office. "Tell her I want her to make a proposal for the projected workers and equipment to mine out asteroids a star system over."