by Aer-ki Jyr
Jessica shook her head. “Not at our current production levels. The homeland is dragging everything down.
“Arcadria is boosting production as fast as it can,” Ven said, being Jessica’s official liaison with that Lunar nation that had recently come onboard as one of 22 additional New Zealand colonies in her country’s new conglomerate, bringing the total up to 37. “Coupled with help from Nadia and Crodd, we may be able to meet the demands of all the colonies, leaving the terrestrial territory to our remaining production base.”
“Which is insufficient,” Jessica reminded him.
“At present, but we have a year to work with.”
“Sahara is the key,” Karen Drake said, tapping on a non-sensitive portion of the touchscreen tabletop above their bioharvest statistics. “Not only in passing this round, but giving us enough of a surplus of basic foodstuffs that we can diversify out into luxury items and not have to subject the population to categorical rationing.”
“Do you see a way to make it work?” Jessica asked.
“No, but I’m convinced there has to be one. We just haven’t found it yet.”
Jessica took a step back from the table and rubbed her eyes, weary from so much data shuffling. “Let’s look at this from another angle. We’re not Star Force, and we can’t do things their way, which is usually the best way, so is there a not so good idea that would work that we’re overlooking?”
“Abandon the homeland,” Broncholl quipped sarcastically.
“Actually,” Arron Ecsten, her fourth of four primary advisors, mewed, “that might be preferable than failing to pass this round.”
“Says a non-native,” Broncholl pointed out, for Ecsten was also from one of the newly joined colonies.
“No…no, he’s right,” Jessica admitted. “Star Force would keep everyone onboard and make it work, but we have the luxury of jettisoning our ‘baggage’ because we know what will become of it.”
“They’ll be better off with Star Force’s resources anyway,” Drake added, “rather than having to skim along with the rest of us.”
Jessica nodded.
Broncholl stared at her disbelievingly. “You can’t be serious?”
“Very serious,” she said, tapping on the table and moving aside the mounds of data sheets in exchange for a map of all their current possessions, laid out in iconic format to include all 37 colonies alongside the appropriately shaped New Zealand home islands. “Let’s look at this as an academic exercise, shall we? What can we cut and where. Explore all options.”
“What about a sell off?” Broncholl suggested, if only to avoid the idea of abandoning the homeland. “The government holds a great deal of property. If we offer it up to private enterprise it could give us the influx of currency that we need to build new infrastructure.”
“Or to support Sahara for a calendar year,” Ecsten added.
Jessica tapped a finger in the air, indicating that there was a valid point. “What do we have that Star Force doesn’t…as far as private industries are concerned?”
“Nothing that I’m aware of,” Ven said with a half-hearted laugh.
“Land,” Jessica insisted. “They have to pay continual leases to set up in Star Force territories, or taxes in other countries…which will now no longer be an option. What if we were willing to sell them land that they’d never have to pay another credit for after purchase?”
“It’d be a long term investment,” Broncholl said, thinking as he spoke, “that would be contingent on New Zealand retaining its independence, for Star Force most likely wouldn’t honor the sales if we fail and they take over.”
“No they wouldn’t,” Jessica admitted with a smile. “It’d be a gamble…and a very lucrative one at that if a corporation could pull it off. Some of them would try, I’d wager, if we gave them the opportunity and the appearance that we’re in a solid position for making it through the rounds.”
“Transitional capital,” Ven said approvingly.
“We’d have to build fast, but at the moment we can still buy Star Force contracts,” Jessica teased.
“Wait a moment,” Drake said, holding up a painted fingernail. “Doesn’t Sahara have a lot of unused land space?”
“In government possession?” Ven added.
Jessica pushed aside their virtual map and dug up the information on the other nation, which included a geographical layout of property rights within the country. Almost all of the bioharvest facilities scattered across the desert were privately owned, the tax money from which fueled the country’s treasury, in addition to the leases they paid for being set up on government owned lands.
“Most of it is government owned,” Jessica confirmed, seeing large tracks of land that were as of yet undeveloped in between the bioharvest oases spread out across the once useless territory. Star Force’s internal bioharvest technology had changed that, turning the desert into a breadbasket once water lines from the ocean were established to feed the facilities that then recycled most of their lost moisture.
“If you can strike a deal with Sahara,” Broncholl suggested slyly, “that gives New Zealand actual possession of the country, then we can sell off these unused lands and give us a wealth of credits in addition to sale of land here, and perhaps a bit out in the colonies as well?”
Ven stiffened slightly. “I’m not sure how popular that will be back home.”
Jessica waved the notion off. “The agreement we have doesn’t give New Zealand total possession, so the nations that joined us as colonies will be exempt from this plan, though the ones we already possessed will be an option,” she said, throwing a glance at Broncholl. “But the main draw is the Earth territories, given the environmental conditions. If we’re going to be funding Sahara’s lack of tax revenue, I might be able to broker terms to get what we need…or they might figure out what we’re doing and just do it themselves without us.”
“Not if they’re wise,” Ven disagreed. “It’s a onetime influx of credits, not a steady flow. Without their bioharvest industry to tax they’re a poor nation, so they can’t go that route.”
“A fair point,” Broncholl acknowledged.
“Alright,” Jessica said, raising a hand. “I’ll contact the Saharans and see if we can hammer out a deal. You guys keep working on theoretical cuts, both as a backup and maybe something we can do to stack our odds.”
“Now?” Drake asked as Jessica turned to walk away.
“We can’t waste a day, or an hour,” she said, looking back over her shoulder. “Keep working and let’s try to maintain the advantages we’ve got while we’ve got them.”
A year later Jessica found herself alone in the back of a mantis heading for Atlantis, reminiscent of her previous 2 visits. The year had gone by so fast, yet so much had happened that she felt like she was in a time warp. New Zealand had been invited back for round 3, which was a huge relief. With their finances teetering and the foodstuff production flowing adequately, the New Zealand conglomerate was holding to the requirements Star Force had set down for round 2, but she knew that Davis was looking at other factors as well, and she’d had a bad feeling that he was going to nix her over them…but that had never come to pass.
She’d only received word a few hours ago, upon which a mantis showed up to whisk her away along with the other ‘victors’ to where they’d hear the terms for round 3, or so she assumed. Davis wasn’t telling them anything, and that among other things was what was lending this whole endeavor into a game-like environment, which had Jessica constantly thinking ahead, even while scraping to meet the current requirements.
Sahara had successfully been integrated into the conglomerate, but only piecemeal. Several high population centers had been cut out, leaving her with the most resourceful areas of the country as an independent colony in league with New Zealand. That independence had been hard to come by, given that Amman had to effectively secede from his own nation to achieve it. His government now had control over the ‘discarded’ regions, but without a mean
s to fund itself now that the taxes from the bioharvest facilities were gone.
Upon his request Star Force had already started to move in and annex the old government, which was none too happy with being discarded. The Saharan people, meanwhile, were doing a lot of traveling as they decided which side of the line they wanted to be on. Those loyal to the independent Sahara moved into the New Zealand colonial zone while those wishing to either oppose the split or live under Star Force rule left for the carved out regions that were already seeing a major facelift as Davis’s construction crews came in and started reworking the major infrastructure along with an influx of supplies that the populace was not accustomed to.
Many felt the immediate benefits of the Star Force takeover, so there wasn’t much widespread ill will about the split, with plenty of ardent supporters within the borders willing to work to maintain their independence, even if as a New Zealand property. With Amman’s help they’d already set up a colonial government in line with the rest of Jessica’s mandatory structure, with her appointing him Governor now that his role as emissary was now over.
With the foodstuff production from the new colony filling in the cracks, as well as providing them with exports, Jessica had been able to devote her attention and resources to other problems, some of which she was only anticipating Davis to pounce on in later rounds, hoping to get a leg up on the deadlines before they came down.
With a load of credits that was steadily increasing as excess land was being sold off to, in her opinion, either brave or stupid entrepreneurs that saw the value in paying a large upfront cost only to never again have to worry about paying a lease, which would considerably cut down their expenditures compared to the corporations operating out of Star Force territories, Jessica was able to create a number of startup programs, the first of which was a communal security force.
Part police part military, it was a tether that was intended to bind the various colonies together, staffed not of locals, but of a core group of individuals recruited and trained together. She hoped this and other programs would provide a backbone for the conglomerate that would make it a true nation rather than just an alliance. Adding to the security force, she also set the basics for educational and training facilities that all the colonies could use, ridding them of the necessity of maintaining their smaller facilities and allowing them to reduce their individual operating costs.
In theory, anyway, for these were just starter programs that needed time to build, but she knew she had to plant the seed early, which was why she’d consolidated many of the various colonies’ resources into communal projects, including shipyard facilities, the bulk of which were having to be built new. They’d contracted Star Force for that job, hoping to give themselves the capability of building their own ships so they wouldn’t have to rely on outside purchases.
Fortunately there were already some New Zealand yards of smaller scale, along with those of companies within their borders that gave them some immediate capability to begin building the security force vessels that the program would need once it got off its feet, and the same for their infantile cargo distribution and transit network.
There were so many programs starting up that it was difficult to keep them all straight in her head, and right now she was worried about what the next round would entail. Would they have time to build, or would they have to scramble to catch up? Already there were a line of nations asking to join up, most of which she had to put on hold or refuse, though by cutting up several of them piecemeal they’d added another four colonies to their territory, bringing the total number up to 42 not counting the homeland.
For the length of the trip out to Atlantis she was trying to guess at what Davis was going to assign them to do this round, going through numerous mental calculations and predictions for the umpteenth time. She knew she needed to grab a few hours of sleep now that she had the chance, but her mind was far too wound up to allow for that, leaving her in an anxious state all the way out to Atlantis.
Fortunately she didn’t have to wait when she arrived, and was taken straight to the conference room, being the last inside. When the doors shut behind her she sat down amongst 5 other nations’ emissaries…meaning that half of those in round two had been eliminated.
Those that remained included the big three of Russia, Brazil, and Australia…along with Canada and Germany. Canada, with a large bioharvest export capacity in its frozen northern landmass, had merged with Scandinavia and a scattering of other colonies and nations that were already set up for Star Force annexation. Germany had done the same with off Earth colonies, but had not taken on any homeland nations, leaving the others that had failed to make round 3 now out of the ‘game’ entirely.
“Six remaining,” Davis said, appearing from the other entrance as he had the previous two times. “You’ve done moderately well to get this far, though some of you have had to get very creative to accomplish it.”
The Director sat down and activated the hologram above the table, this time with an image of the Earth with all the various nations outlined.
“The mergers that some of you have been making are hereby no longer tenable for the nations that did not receive an invite to this test,” he said, hitting a button and wiping their borders off the map, leaving most of the planet in a unified blue representing Star Force territory. “The others are still in play if you wish to take them onboard during this round. Annexation programs there are still in their infancy and won’t reach end game levels for some time, thus preserving the option. Oh, and the offworld colonies are likewise out of play.”
With the touch of his handheld remote the planet rose up, clearing space beneath it where a laundry list of items appeared.
“Now that you have enough foodstuff production that your nations won’t starve to death, the next step is the quality and diversity of said foodstuffs, with these items all being required to be produced by your respective nations in amounts unique to your populations, the numbers of which we will provide you. These are not the only products you may make, just the minimum list.”
Davis shoved the list aside and popped up another, floating in glowing letters between the emissaries and slowly rotating in place so all of them could glance at it face on at some point.
“In this round you will also be required to produce raw materials, with the minimums on the list before you. Corovon, you will note, is not on this list. It is a rare material that you will be allowed to purchase from Star Force in perpetuity, or from the Russians, who at present have a small mining facility in the Prancer System. Some of you already have recycling facilities to reclaim the C-type elements, and I would encourage you to continue down that line of thought, for you will be required to create and maintain a stockpile of 45 kilograms at all times for the remainder of the rounds.”
“How you acquire it is up to you, but I don’t want you relying on Star Force’s ability to provide it to you instantaneously. If our supply lines are interrupted, you could experience shortages, and therefore you must have a reserve in play to accommodate ongoing construction projects.”
“Other requirements for this round include the following: establishing a societal database compatible with and linked to Star Force’s computer network regarding the identification of all individuals within your nations. Up till now there have been some lurkers that have never crossed through a Star Force facility and thus have never been cataloged. That is no longer an option.”
“Star Force’s code of business rules will also have to be fully applied. Most corporations will be operating and selling across our borders, thus the rules will be universal. No exceptions for local market exclusives.”
“Production of all dropships must now occur within your own borders. You can purchase them from corporations within your borders, but they must be fully produced there. Likewise you will now be banned from purchasing dropships from Star Force.”
“You will be required to establish and maintain a military force equivalent to the rating level 11 t
hat some of you are already familiar with. Three of you already possess this rating, the others do not. Given that Star Force doesn’t sell weapons, you must either produce or purchase them on your own merits. Confiscated ships in Star Force possession are now off limits as well, though you may purchase them secondhand through other individuals if the opportunity arises.”
“Lastly, each of you must build and have operational a spaceport/starport link from Earth to Earth orbit. This must be an entirely new build, not a refitted existing facility, and accomplished either by your own construction crews or by corporations existing within your borders. No outside corporation or Star Force contracts are permissible.”
Davis added each of those requirements to the holographic group floating before the emissaries, with Jessica swallowing hard at the sight of them…and the implications they held for the coming year.
“That’s right,” Davis said, guessing as to their thoughts. “It’s getting harder. If you can’t keep up, you don’t deserve to run with the big dogs.”
7
April 19, 2455
Solar System
Mars
Luis Remma stood waiting on the holoprojector, running what he was about to say through his head again so he didn’t have to rerecord this message a fourth time. Given that Mars and Earth were too far away for realtime communications, even at their closest orbital approach to one another, Luis’s communications with Director Davis always had to be achieved via message. He would have preferred to have spoken with the man in person, and had considered traveling to Earth to do just that, but one advantage of the communications lag was that he had several attempts to word his request just right, for a lot hinged on this conversation and he didn’t want to screw up a potential opportunity by coming off with the wrong tone.
With his mental point list ready, he thumbed the record button on a pedestal to his side and the hologram began recording.
“Director Davis. On behalf of Brazil I want to extend my thanks for the opportunity you’ve given us to achieve full sovereignty within Star Force’s restructuring of Humanity. After conferring with my advisors and our government, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is not in Brazil’s best interests to try and achieve full sovereignty. Our nation is best suited when intertwined with the Star Force markets, and while many believe that succumbing to Star Force control is a loss of freedom, I disagree.”
