Chapter 2

March 14, 2150

It took almost two years until the System Alliance formed and stabilized itself so that it could start its duties.

Not that there was much that the Alliance did just yet. After all, it was still in its infancy. And like so many things when they just started they were not taken seriously by the existing governments, neither on earth, nor luna, nor mars.

An example of how the situation looked like to me would be like an adult smiling down at a child when it tries to be taken seriously.

It wasn't like anybody thought that the Alliance was useless, no, everybody understood the concept behind the formation. Humanity was not alone in the galaxy, the Prothean ruins proved that and there had to be an institution that could speak for humanity on a galactic level.

It was just that the Alliance wasn't tested, yet.

Almost all of the existing human governments had their fair share of history behind them. A history that was marked by reformation, revolution, war, social changes, technological innovations, and ideas that changed the way we saw the world. Against such an opponent was the idea behind the System Alliance, not enough.

Well, not enough for now. After first contact, the SA would be seen in another light. It would show that the Alliance could perform its duties to defend humanity against an alien entity. Furthermore, it would prove that it was ready to 'play' with the big guys on a galactic scale.

But for me, that was still some time into the future and no immediate concern.

Right now, I was more concerned with how I would get a foot in the door to the SA before anyone else saw what the Alliance could become and tried the same.

Luckily, I was the first one to do so. At least of the bigger companies out there. Perhaps some small company had tried before but I had heard nothing.

I planned to secure a partnership between the SA and my company, while I could declare my company as the official partner of the System Alliance and get some positive PR this way, the Alliance would get free advertisement this way. And they needed advertisement. It would lead to more people joining which in turn would lead to getting things done faster and so on. All in all, it would lead to a stronger Alliance.

Moreover, they would get cheaper prices on raw and processed materials, starships, in short, everything that was part of my company.

Most governments would give me a title and land for that kinda deal.

But I didn't do it just out of the kindness of my heart. Partly yes, not more.

I studied the new charter of the Alliance and what fell under their purview. For example, the discovery of new planets and the colonization effort, the defense of star systems claimed by the SA and humanity, the research of Prothean ruins, and, my favorite, the distribution of mining rights in newly discovered systems.

I knew, that two of my rival mining enterprises started mining in the system beyond the Charon Relay and, oh boy, they would have to pay some heavy fines.

There were two major points I would try to accomplish in the coming negotiations. One, a reduction of taxes, always nice, and preferential treatment by the distribution of mining rights.

I sighed as I leaned back in my chair. It would still take some time until we were in Vancouver where the headquarters of the System Alliance was located. There were already ideas about a space station beyond the Charon Relay that would become the new headquarter but Arcturus-Station was still a far-off dream for the most, a dream that would come true, as I knew thanks to my foreknowledge.

Thankfully, I could relax and check the newest updates on my company while traveling without being shaken around needlessly. Most would say it was because of the technological progress in flight and the slowly distributed ME-cores, I thought, that it was because of the efforts, skill, and talent of my personal driver, or pilot today.

Janet was wonderful. She could drive or pilot almost anything and give her a day or two and she would bring you at least from Point A to Point B safely. And she could make a mean coffee.

Above all, once you had her loyalty, you had her loyalty. There were only three people who had it. Her daughter, her husband, and me. In that order. Nothing surprising about it but I was thankful to be even included in that list. There's nothing better than a loyal driver. Not everybody has to know about all my travel plans.

"Just twenty more minutes till we're there, Mr. Denebren. I got clearance to land on a private landing pad. It seems like they want to make a good impression on you, Sir." came Janet's voice over the speaker in the passenger cabin. "So it seems. Thank you, Janet" I chuckled.

Twenty more minutes until maybe the most important deal I would ever make.

While it probably wouldn't be the only opportunity to involve myself with the Alliance, it would be the one with the highest chance of success and a long-living partnership.

Well, there was nothing I could do right now to influence the outcome of the talks but I was prepared for them.

Everything I did the last two years was to prepare for this negotiation. My share in the mining business grew from 41% to 46%, it didn't seem like much but it was substantial. 5% of every mining business in the solar system is a big number. It could have been higher if I had taken more interest in taking over other companies, but I hadn't. The priority for my mining business laid in refining the methods we used and developing new support systems. The VI-controlled drones were just the first step.

Making mining faster, cheaper, and especially safer was a must. No new government wanted to be known to cooperate with someone who didn't care about the lives of his workers. Bad PR was a big No-No in its young years. A nice side effect was that other companies heard about those safer methods and bought materials more often from my firms than my rivals, everybody wanted to say that their products were made without risk to anyone.

Another issue why I concentrated on this part of my mining business was Element-Zero. We may have found some in the Prothean ruins but those caches wouldn't last forever and there was none in our solar system.

There had been some readings that the system beyond the Charon Relay had some places where natural ezzo could be mined but how could it be mined? Was it pure already? Or did it has to be refined? And if it has to, how has it to be done?

After all, we couldn't just send a probe and be done with it.

No, to accomplish that goal we needed two things. On the one side, we needed the rights to the mining areas where E-Zero deposits were located and on the other side, we needed access to the samples from the Prothean ruins to compare those mined to. And both were in the Alliance's hands. The rights to learn how to mine it and the samples to have a benchmark on how it had to be after refining to use it for ME-engines. To reach that benchmark and maybe even surpass it was something for R&D as well as the mining process which would mostly consist of educated trial and error.

On another note, the starship section of my ever-growing enterprise was doing fine. In the wake of the then newly discovered alien ruins, I bought two smaller starship companies along with their shipyards and combined them with mine. They had almost been bankrupt so they weren't that expansive but I still made a dent in my finances because I bought them with for the most part with my private money. The junction of the companies catapulted 'Ad Astra' to the 4th biggest starship company in the system and reached place number 3 in the last two years, plus I got my investment back and then some. A good deal with the Alliance would probably bring it to place number 1 in the long run, but I could wait.

Right now the Alliance had only five ships to their name, all built by 'Terran Ships' and equipped with a ME-drive reverse-engineered by scientists who now worked for the Alliance.

I had seen the numbers they paid for those five ships and I was truly surprised that the Alliance still had any money. 'Terran Ships' was known as the best starship-builder and that title was reflected in the cost of their ships. To continue to grow their fledgling fleet, the Alliance had to either plan very far into the future and built it slowly, change the supplier or raise some serious taxes to pay for them.

My favorite option was to change the supplier because I was one and was about to give them a nice deal.

By the way, I made some entries in the weapons business. I found a company that produced reliable and sturdy weapons. It wasn't one of the bigger names, more like an insider tip but I still bought some of their stock options. Nothing much but at least something. If all went well, I would have the means to perform a hostile takeover in one or two years.

Well, it would only be a hostile takeover until I talked to the management, a few discussions later and they would be more than happy to work with me. I could be that charming and convincing if I wanted to.

An announcement from Janet that we would be landing in a minute, got me away from my thoughts. After a short stretching of my muscles, I checked over my appearance. Nothing could derail a business negotiation, or negotiation in general, like a sloppy appearance.

Just as Janet was landing I righted the tie of my old style three-piece suit.

Yes, you heard right, old style. What would have been a high-class suit in my previous life was considered old-style now. The modern suits leaned more in the direction of what Shepard could be wearing in Mass Effect. It looked.... nice but I preferred what I was wearing now. It did cost me some but I was happy.

A shudder went through the shuttle when it set down and the door opened sideways to give way to the outside view. And what a view it was. I had seen pictures of the new building where the, temporary, headquarters of the System Alliance were situated but to see it in person was another thing. An imposing building of silver steel and glass, accented with blue and white. On the highest tower, the new symbol of the Alliance was proudly proclaimed. If one looked hard enough, squinted his eyes a little, and turned his head just a bit to the right, one could see what the SA would become in the coming years. That no one else other than me had the interest to invest in them was just stupid. But maybe it was because I knew what they would become that I could see it.

Hey, foreknowledge for the win!

A man in dress uniform awaited me on the landing pad. He was around 1.8m tall, just a tad bit shorter than me I guessed. Without standing next to him I couldn't tell. Short brown hair and dark eyes bordering on black. His uniform was beyond reproach. Before I talked to him, I couldn't say if it was because of me and the chance I represented, part of his personality, or something he held onto from military service. Each of these possibilities would require a different approach during the negotiations. That said, I didn't even know if he was the one I would deal with or if he just was the welcome committee. No matter, let's get this show started.

After signaling Janet that she could relax for some time, I made my way to the waiting man. As I came close, he held his hand out but I could see from his posture that saluting would have been more natural to him. So, a military man. "Welcome to the Alliance headquarters Mr. Denebren. I am Admiral James Wright, Commander of the Alliance Navy. Even if it is not much," he said as I shook his hand. Seems like I guessed right, a military man but one with a sense of humor. I could already see us working well together. "Thank you, I'm happy to be here, Admiral. Shall we proceed? It could help to start increasing the size of your fleet." "Hooo..." was the Admirals answer as he signaled me to follow him. I just smiled at his unasked question, telling him to wait some more.

The trip into the building was silent, no more words were exchanged between us. It wasn't uncomfortable and helped to organize my thoughts once more before the talks.

While walking towards an elevator that would take us higher into the building and to a prepared conference room, I took notice of the activity around us. From the outside, it would seem like chaos, people walking around, discussing on the floor, and carrying equipment but to the more observant it was organized chaos. Everyone walked with a clear goal, talked fast and to the point, no energy was wasted on doing nothing. Those were the people who joined the Alliance in its waking hours. The people who believed in the idea and goal of the SA with all their hearts and gave it as much as they could. I couldn't help but smile as I saw it, even if I could be as cold-hearted as a stock banker in the 21st century, seeing so many motivated people working towards a common goal, moved me.

If Admiral Wright noticed it, he did not indicate that he had and just waited stoically for the elevator to arrive.

The doors of the elevator opened and we walked in. Admiral Wright hit the button for the twelfth floor and waited for the doors to close.

"The others await us in Room 1209," he said as the elevator started to move. "The others?" I asked, trying to find out who else besides the Admiral would be taking part. In response, he just stayed silent and smiled.

I knew that that was his revenge for my staying silent before and I gave him this small victory.

Reasonably fast, the elevator arrived at the wanted floor without stops and Admiral Wright took the lead again. He led us to a metallic door where a black 1209 was painted beside the door frame and laid his right hand against a touchpad. A confirmation tone later and the door swooshed open sideways. Stepping to the side, he signaled me to walk in first.

The first thing I saw was an enormous window front with a spectacular view over Vancouver. From here one could see the whole city and even a bit beyond. The next thing I noticed were two people who were waiting on the other side of the room. A blond woman and a dark-skinned man to be specific. While I didn't recognize the woman, the man, on the other hand, was someone I instantly recognized. Hell, anybody who had even a passing interest in the Alliance would at least have heard his name. As a fellow Londoner, I had to know him. Micheal Port, head of the System Alliance. To say I was surprised would have been an understatement. I had expected to meet someone high in the food chain, but the top himself? That was unexpected.

On the other side, I could barely hold in the glee I felt. If I interpreted this situation right, then that meant that my requesting a meeting for a business deal had been more interesting than I had hoped.

Mr. Port was the first one to move, he came towards me with a sincere smile plastered on his face. "Mr. Deneber, nice to meet you," he said with his deep voice, a soft London accent coming through. "A pleasure," I responded warmly.

That was going to be interesting.

Micheal Port was as charismatic as he was ruthless. Most people only saw the warm and motivated person who got elected as the head of the Alliance. But that was just what they wanted you to see at the first glance, and the second and even the third. Until you truly researched him, you would never know what lurked behind that face. I don't want you to think he was a cruel, heartless, or hateful person, far from it but if the need was there, he could be ruthless in his goal to defend what was dear to him. There was a story about someone that tried to undermine one of his projects in central Africa, needless to say, it didn't go well for that someone. Slowly losing whatever power, influence, or money he had, becoming a social pariah and completely disappearing into obscurity. No one ever heard of him again, not that it was a loss but it showcased the power Micheal Port wielded. And the System Alliance was his newest project and the people I talked with told me that this project had motivated him like none before.

So I knew I had to tread carefully but if he saw that I genuinely wanted to support the Alliance and believed in its goal would be better than any monetary help I could give.

"May I introduce you to Dr. Barbara Helken?" Mr. Port gestured to the woman in the room. Her long blond hair flowed over her shoulders like water and her deep blue eyes bored into my own. Behind those blue pearls, I could see an intelligence lurking that said:' I know I'm smart, you know I'm smart, and I'm queen in my field, so don't even try'. Oh, don't worry, I would never challenge you, at least not in your field or without stacking the cards in my favor.

I took notice that Mr. Port continued to introduce her. "She is the head of the scientific research department of the Alliance. With her at the helm, we constructed our first mass effect drive cores." Another department head. Totally, three high-ranked Alliance people. Hopefully, no one else was going to join us, or else I may become nervous. Right now I could still suppress that notion.

"Good day," Dr. Helken greeted me, a thick Scandinavian accent lacing her voice. I couldn't identify if it was Finish or Swedish but I was sure it came from there. After she spoke I noticed how short she was in comparison to me. Not a bit taller than 1.6m. Nevermind, her position alone told that she was a formidable woman. "I read about the VI-drones you use for mining. Good idea, very adaptable for other uses." Her comment and greeting given, she took a step back and then turned to sit down on one of the chairs that were situated along the table that filled the room.

I turned back to Mr. Port and he gestured to one of the chairs opposite from where Dr. Helken sat. "I believe the good doctor has the right idea. Shall we start this meeting?" I nodded my consent to his suggestion and took my place.

A minute later and in front of me were the probably three most powerful people of the Alliance and I was about to make a deal that would make or break my future with the Alliance.