Chapter 16

The door shut behind the slug ambassador, and I turned to Tigress. “Do you think he bought it?”

“Yes, he believes that dead slug was his copy.”

“Excellent, if they doubt the efficacy of their Kempu shield, they will be much less likely to start trouble,” I said, and turned to the tv screen on one wall, “What do you think, Poolnar?”

“Ambassador Tin is likely to never return to this galaxy. I also expect him to resign and retire as soon as he reaches Trade Federation territory. I’ve never seen or even heard of a Gastromoll turning that color.”

“It was surprising,” I agreed, “and thank you for transmitting his own voice back at him from the puppet duplicate. Because you transmitted it in his native language, it was that much more believable.”

There was a knock at the door, and Tigress opened it. Bokork rolled in, his treads clicking against the floor. “Admiral, the Ambassador was in very much of a hurry, and has not returned me to my craft.”

“Is it in the cargo bay of the Ambassador’s ship?” I asked.

“That is correct.”

“Where would you like to be put aboard?” I asked him.

“The boarding lock is best.”

I stored the ship from out of the Ambassadorial hold, demonstrating my ability to bypass a ship’s Kempu shield, then conjured it next to the station, but in free orbit. I did the same for the Scout Commander, putting him in the boarding lock where he could exit his transport vehicle into the liquid filled ship.

My phone rang a few minutes later, “Thank you Admiral, I was wondering if I might head down to Bubblers Paradise?”

“It’s running at 2000 times the normal speed of time right now, letting the transplanted lifeforms spread out and get acclimated. Tradition says to let this run for a week, but I’d prefer to give it a month,” I joked, but he didn’t get it.

“That’s several hundred years worth of elapsed time!” he said startled.

“I want it perfect for when the first settlers arrive. You are welcome to stay and monitor the changes, but going down right now would be dangerous, crossing a time field can be unpredictable,” I told him.

Which was true, I’d never tried it, and had no predictions. It was the very essence of unpredicted. His reply came swift, “I will monitor Paradise remotely. My people will be eager to hear my report.”

“Excellent! I’ll be leaving this station in orbit for future personal trips to Bubblers Paradise. I will be leaving it unmanned for now, but just call me if you need to report anything.”

“Understood Admiral. Thank you.”

“You are very welcome,” I told him as I disconnected.

“Is the immigration and customs station ready to be deployed?” Tigress asked.

“Yes. I’ll drop it in the region the ambassadorial ship arrived. There is so much distance between galaxies that placing it anywhere around the exterior rim of the Milkyway is virtually the same location.”

“Then why there?” she asked.

“It’s the closest point between us and the next Federation controlled galaxy. Also, they already have the coordinates.”

Wolf stuck his head in, “When do we leave?”

“Just as soon as the Ambassador makes it safely out of the system,” I said, as my power cleaned up the charred puppet corpse.

Elsewhere I was holding a press conference. Our original 35 x 25 meter steel building had become our media relations building.

“The Hanford site in Washington was one of the beneficiaries of Guardians cleanup work last month,” I finished, I had been discussing the use of LIGO to detect gravity waves produced by the increasing mass of Mars.

“Was Arecibo repaired just for its use in monitoring the changes on Mars?” a reporter asked.

“You will have to ask Guardian, but there were several old scientific instruments that were refurbished by Guardian. There may even be some that have not been reported in the news.

“I know that the Swiss government has just reported discovering the new tunnels under the Alps, and their belief that it was the work of Guardian based on the materials used. I think we might be discovering gifts left by Guardian for decades.”

“Do you think we will find other tunnels?”

“I think we should be looking. There are other mountain ranges that separate people, who knows, there might be a tunnel through the Himalayas between China and India now.”

“Mr Barkley, does Zukunft Zuerst intend to change its headquarters to Shanghai?”

“No. Only ZZ Power will be moving its headquarters there. Thanks to the generous gift of the Chinese government, the building there will be the world headquarters of the now nonprofit ZZ Power.”

“Will that include the solar panel production facilities in Switzerland?”

“No, production facilities are being placed under a new division, ZZ Sky. They will continue producing electrical generation equipment, both solar and wind. ZZ Power will take over our existing generation assets, primarily the five wind turbines and the Tschingelspitz Solar Plant. When the Dubai Creek Wind Tower finishes in a few months the electricity generated will also be managed by ZZ Power.”

“Why are you turning so much of your company’s revenue stream over to a nonprofit?”

“The nonprofit was a requirement for the offworld generators placed by Guardian. With the dispute continuing between the Dominion and the Federation, the funds generated are required to be funneled back into research and development. Zukunft Zuerst doesn’t have that inhouse capability, so we will be funding research institutions around the globe, including the new ITER working group on off world technology.

“Also funds are being distributed to carbon free power production research projects around the world, as well as environmental and ecosystem repair projects. Just because Guardian grew half the Amazon rainforest back, doesn’t mean that we can cut it down again. Many of the techniques used by Guardian can be replicated by our own technology to restore ecosystem diversity and viability.”

“What do you think of Mr Musk’s plan to colonize the terraformed Mars?”

“I think he should check with the Poseidon Dominion before trying to land. This isn’t European settlers moving in and displacing the inhabitants of the Americas with their better weapons. This is the equivalent of barbarian soldiers with clubs in a rowboat invading modern Japan. It’s only going to be cute the first time.”

At that moment two Tigers appeared on the stage behind me. I turned, then backed away, and off the stage. The two nodded at others that had appeared by the doors. Once the building had been visibly secured by the cats, a new person assisted on stage.