Chapter 37

Year 4, Day 150, Endeavour, Terra Prime

Alexander was sitting at his desk, for once dealing with the future of Terra Prime, not one of the ever occurring crises; The shadow-war on Earth 29 was going well, the ESRO was reporting progress with their first hyperdrive, and the first orbital drydock was nearly fifty percent completion. So Alexander had turned his attention to things towards plans that had fallen by the wayside.

He was currently sketching a design for a parliamentary chamber. Oh he had zero intention of ever starting a democracy, but he realised he needed a more formal method of governance. As it stood he didn't have ministers, he had advisors, and while that worked for a population numbering just under five thousand adults, he doubted it would work once things kicked into high gear.

To that end Alexander had decided on setting up a more formalised system, with himself appointing minister with different portfolios, that could be removed only by himself. He'd already decided on borrowing the names from the British system and who should hold some of them.

Prime Minister, Chief Advisor to the Sovereign: Viriathus.

Alexander made a note next to his friends name, reminding himself to talk to Viriathus about picking a surname, he was one of the few holdouts still remaining.

Secretary of State for the Economy and Infrastructure: Matt Campbell

It was an obvious choice, Matt was the main reason Endeavour kept functioning, Alexander didn't know what he'd do without him.

Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs: Arkady Dyatlov

Another obvious choice, Dyatlov was the only thing compensating for Alexander's lack of skill in diplomatic areas.

Secretary of State for Defence: Mark Clayworth

That was a big maybe, Clayworth didn't want to be put in charge of Terra Primes armed forces, and Alexander doubted he would take the job, but he was the best pick.

Alexander tapped his pen against his notepad, he had a number of other positions he needed filling, but he was unsure of who would be best. He smiled, well he could delegate that, he had a Prime Minister now didn't he?

Humming a tune Alexander went back to sketching.

Year 4, Day 160, New Delhi, India, Earth 29 (Codename Stalingrad)

Alexander sipped at his tea as he listened to his host talk about the reports she'd received from her scientists about the various 'humanitarian' technology he'd 'gifted' to the people of Earth 29, with minimal stipulations, the major being that it was public domain; that hadn't gone down well with some of the countries, he could tell from the brief flashes on their faces when he put that to them, but none had dared say anything for fear of it being leaked.

No-one expected the secret war to remain secret forever, or even very long. It simply wasn't possible to keep such things hidden once the numbers involved started climbing. Someone would have an attack of conscious, or simply desire the fame that being a whistleblower, and the more you added, the higher the chance that it would happen.

"I tried the synthetic mutton last night" Indira Singh, the current Prime Minister of India, said as she took a sip of her tea.

"Oh?" Alexander said with a raised eyebrow, "How was it? We haven't had a chance to set up the technology on Terra Prime yet, no need really, our population isn't big enough to warrant it"

Indira smiled, "If I didn't know beforehand, I wouldn't have suspected it wasn't, as the Americans say, the real McCoy"

Alexander chuckled, "that's good to hear"

"In all seriousness, I must once again express my thanks, and the thanks of the Indian people, while we were far from starving, such technology will enable us to improve the lives of many people, both at home and abroad, most notably in Africa" Indira said.

Alexander nodded, his expression sober, "Honestly I wasn't sure about releasing the technology" seeing her expression, he raised a hand lightly, "You must remember I was raised an Australian, and in a rural area, I'm still worried about the impact of vat-grown meat and fasting growing high yield crops on the economies of many of the worlds 'bread baskets'"

Indira laughed, a musical sound, "I wouldn't be too concerned my dear friend; they may take a slight hit in the short term, but they will adapt. I must admit myself that even knowing that it's safe and delicious, I would much prefer the natural product. I imagine many other people the world over will feel the same way"

Alexander smiled, "Yes, one of my advisors pointed that out to me" shaking his head he changed the subject, "So, how goes your research on the medical front?"

Year 4, Day 172, High Orbit, KMI-301-961-M-14

Alexander hung in orbit over the Kromagg world, screaming profanities into the void, his communications suite turned off. Right in front of him was a Kromagg Manta craft, or at least the bigger meaner brother of said craft.

It was hard to judge scale in space, without any frame of reference, but it was big, at least three hundred meters from wingtip to wingtip, and obviously heavily armed, at least Alexander couldn't think of any other reason for the huge tubes hanging under it's main body. If those weren't mass drivers he'd eat his hat, and given it was made of a material that could bounce lightsabers, that was saying something.

What had started as one of his periodic recon trips to download the data from the spy satellites he'd placed in orbit of the Kromagg military world had quickly descended into a clusterfuck of epic proportions.

Thankfully it didn't appear as if the Kromaggs had detected him yet, but they had found his spy satellites. Over ninety percent of the network wasn't responding to him, and from the look of it the Kromagg warship, there just wasn't any other word for it, was about to blow away the one Alexander had materialized next too.

It was decidedly worrying, the Kromaggs had shown very little interest in space, beyond communication and spy satellites of their own. Alexander had theorised that because of their sliding technology they simply hadn't bothered, they could get all the resources and living space they wanted from other Earths. So seeing them flying around in what basically a big metal box of FUCK YOU wasn't a good sign.

Not that having your enemies thinking smart things was ever a good thing. But this was worse, at least when they were restricted to moving ground and air based attack craft they only had a massive tactical advantage, getting access to the ultimate high ground on the other hand? That was a strategic nightmare.

Red warning lights blinked to life on his HUD as a hatch opened on the Kromagg spacecraft and a large gun-turret extended. They were painting the satellite less than twenty meters away from Alexander.

Not sticking around to see what kind of firepower they were going to use, Alexander triggered his transit marco to take him to Murderverse. He needed to get this information back to Terra Prime and Earth 29 ASAP, but he couldn't ignore the protocol he himself had put in place for leaving a Kromagg world.

'I knew they were too quiet' Alexander thought as he transited away.