章節 16: Chapter 16: International Politics and Other Crimes Against Humanity

I stared at President Michelson from across the far larger table of the Free Earth Republic diplomatic round table. I was flanked by The Doctor and The Administrator, both in human-form Host bodies that matched their virtualspace avatars enough to pass as actually human. Opposite me were the ambassadors of leaders of the various Free Nations of Earth. They were -- well. The old formality and pomp-and-circumstance of the pre-Kromagg world had been ground out of them; they all wore some kind of protective gear underneath their 'ambassadorial frippery'.

Not that I could fault them that particular decision, given the sheer protective effect of the underarmor I wore under my imperial robes. Even if it was a bit silly given the protective quality of their gear even against the weapons that they themselves had the ability to create.

I smiled politely at the gathered ambassadors. "So. You, the peoples of this Free Earth, have called for a greater meeting with my self. But you have yet to truly inform the staff of the consulate as to why you seemed to believe yourselves fit to summon me in such a manner. So -- to what do I owe the honor of your attentions?"

The various ambassadors and representatives looked amongst one another before finally all settling on Michelson, who squared his shoulders and began. "Well, Mister Andes-"

The General interrupted him. "Emperor. The proper address is 'Emperor.' Remember yourself, President."

Michelson quirked an eyebrow at The General, clearly bemused by the man's uniform. "Ahh. Yes. As I was saying. The simple fact is that the peoples of the Free Earth Republic have benefited greatly in the last three months since our first meeting; your gift of various technologies and the advisory personnel to ensure it was adopted readily has been very well received. However, we have some remaining concerns that have yet to be addressed and have been hoping to achieve that in today's meeting. We would have done this far sooner, mind you, but your consulate kept insisting that neither you nor an appropriate representative were available for such; not until you arrived yourself again."

I made a show of considering his words, resting my hand on my chin in contemplation for a few seconds. "Ahh. Everything I've given you lot, and you're still afraid of the other shoe falling -- is that the tall and skinny of it?"

The various ambassadors all shrunk back as if slapped. Michelson, however, had previous exposure to my antics and was far less affected. "Oh good. Still a plainspoken man under all those divine trappings, eh, 'God-Emperor'? Well, I can work with that." He barreled past the veritably lethal collection of evil eyes being bestowed upon him by my affiliates. "The simple fact is, we need some sort of formal diplomatic relations with your government. The consulate is one thing; but that was very clearly purposed towards acting as technical advisors and observers, and as we discovered had no means of remediating any … concerns … we might develop about our relations."

I stone-faced him, simply looking back in silence.

After a few seconds, he continued on if somewhat nonplussed. "Alright. Emperor, the simple fact is that more and more, the people of Earth are realizing just how big the gap is between our nations' capabilities, and they do not care for it one bit. I cannot say I blame them. You said you came here to ensure that the Free Earth Republic could operate as a transdimensional nation, and you've certainly given us a leg up against the technologies of the Kromagg Empire, but that still leaves us in the lurch with regards to your Imperial Jovian League."

I raised an eyebrow at the name. Eh. Couldn't really fault it; it made enough sense. "You got a taste of the good stuff and now you want more toys. Well. I'm willing to an extent to begin certain exchanges, but there are limits to what I will do. But as to formal relations between our governments -- I'm sure a great deal of what has your people up in arms is the lack of comprehension of what my empire is 'really' after. Well, I'll make it simple for you. Give us Jupiter."

The ambassadors of Earth looked at me with wooden faces of confusion. "I'll continue. Jupiter. Anything permanently encompassed by it's gravity well. In every universe your Republic extends to. You guarantee here and now that in perpetuity, it is the property and sovereign territory of the League."

Michelson's eyes widened. "'Jovian' League. I see. You gave up Earth altogether didn't you."

I nodded. "Earth, Mars, Venus, Mercury, the asteroid belt … I will formally agree that these are the territories of the Free Earth Republic, or any human controlled government that currently occupies them in the related universe. A formal non-aggression pact in any currently unclaimed universes, honoring territorial agreements."

Michelson's eyes narrowed further. "Still. You have access to our homeworld and we can't claim the same with regards to yours; and now you want a long-term guarantee that any universe we access, you'll have formal territory there -- but we don't get the same in turn? That's somewhat lopsided, don't you think, Mis… Emperor?"

I leaned back in my chair. "Well of course it is. After all, am I not providing your people with significant advantages in technological progress with no compensation in kind? Consider it repayment for my largess."

Michelson couldn't argue that… much. "Still. Even with what you're giving us, we will still be at disadvantage compared to your people. Especially if we have to fight for every inch of our territory against the maggots."

I raised my eyebrows and shook my head up and down, acceding his point. "Well, yes. But of course, that really just depends on the amount of assistance I provide your people, now doesn't it? For example … additional terraforming and long-term hostile environment habitation technologies which should permit your people to construct viable habitats and construction infrastructure on Luna and Mars. And the initial infrastructural assistance to expedite the construction of same here in your home universe. That sound like enough to make the guarantee worth your while?"

He frowned briefly before smiling widely -- I had him by the shorthairs and he knew it, but he had seen the logistical advisories my people had provided him before; he knew damned well that what I had just offered him could be the difference between the survival and failure of the Free Earth Republic. Let alone giving them a stepping stone towards actually liberating other worlds. It also had at least the superficial appearance of giving the people of his Earth the beginnings of a defense strategy against any potential attacks my nation might make against his in the future -- the best defense against attack from space being to also be able to attack from space, after all. "Tentative to in-depth examination of specifics, your majesty, that indeed sounds like enough."

I simply returned his smile.

When I'd first transited back to the Free Earth Republic universe and set about opening up another series of Gates on Ganymede while searching for another deadworld to use as an intermediary between the Sliders 'verse and the Mass Effect 'verse, I hadn't expected the process to be all that onerous. And to be fair, the process itself wasn't.

What made the whole thing rather unpleasant, however, was the updates I was receiving from the reports of the Hosts that had established a local datanet via tachyonic broadcast. For example, one of the inroads that they had been making towards better relations with humanity on this Earth was in the form of the offering of automail surgery.

It was mind-numbingly horrifying how many of the humans of this world had survived simply because neither the 'maggs nor the Resistance were overly concerned with the potential tactical importance of entire colonies of blinded survivors. There were entire towns full of people who had suffered various surgical 'experiments' by the 'maggs -- and almost every single one of those survivors had lost their eyes to the process. Fucking bastards actually considered human eyes a delicacy. And while glass eyes were a thing, and while prosthetic limbs could help those who lost a hand or a leg or arm recover some mobility and utility, nothing that the FER had could restore sight to one who had lost it.

But, of course, the Jovian League could. The waiting list was thousands long, and that was just the fraction that decided that the risk of letting aliens perform unknown and incomprehensible surgery upon you -- after having experienced exactly that once already -- was worth the reward. Granted, only about half of them that got the opportunity actually took it when they realized what degree of pain was involved in the process, with the rest opting for far less "natural" appearing options that the surgical Hosts there could offer. If I'd had access to the cybertech of the GitS 'verse the Hosts might've been able to offer that instead, but I couldn't trust the sanctity of my mind there given my experiences. Which was … unfortunate, given everything that I could still obtain if I could just make my way back without getting into network connectivity range of that Earth.

It was going through these reports that I discovered another interesting point that should have been more obvious in retrospect: the humans of this Earth were making rather more extensive use of the protein resequencer technology that I'd given them than I'd anticipated. Turned out, all that ruined and blasted land that they had fought over … a very serious chunk of it had been farmland. Between the aquaponics tech I'd offered them and the resequencers my Hosts had been manufacturing at higher rate than any other technology, there were entire communities that were no longer likely to experience starvation rations over the next few years.

Fewer than there would have been if the peoples of this planet had actually trusted my own. But still. Inroads were inroads. Hearts and minds won over by giving eyes and (full) stomachs. There were worse ways to persuade a people that you weren't their enemy, I supposed.

One of the things that kept percolating in the back of my head as I reviewed all of this stuff in further depth after my little 'diplomatic summoning' was that the humanity of this Earth had very little going for it in terms of things I could actually use; at least not yet. I had to tread very carefully in my long-term plans here, if I was going to pull off anything remotely like what I hoped to -- as things currently stood the people here were remarkably adversarial, and that was to be expected. But eventually the 'maggs would strike back at these people, and working to help defend them would go a long way towards earning their trust. As would continuing to build them up both infrastructurally and technologically. After all -- I had centuries to work with. I could wait for them to come 'round.

I was sitting down going over plans for the new colony to be established in the Free Earth Republic's Jovian system. Apparently they wanted to call the Ganymede capital "Starhold", with the Europa to be "Freehold" and the Io to be "Lighthold".

I could see where Maria -- the governor of the colony -- was going with that, and I didn't really have much in the way of objections. These colonies were going to be more in the way of military outposts than proper bastions of civilization, after all; they were to be our foothold in the Sliders 'verse, and if Maria et al. wanted the feel of their home moving forward to reflect that, I could appreciate it.

I had, however, insisted that at least Starhold follow the model of ubiquitous defensive installations, even with the increased power and resource consumption that reflected on top of my also having signed off on extending the Matrioshka Initiative to this Jovian system. Maria and The Administrator both tried to object, but I wasn't having it. For the rest of the assets here in the Sliders 'verse, the less focused defensive stance would be fine. But for the nearest inhabited facility to the eldritch Gate that connected the Sliders and Mass Effect 'verses? No way in hell was I going to accept anything less than the most absolutely stringent defensive posture. Even if it would set back the colonization expansion timetable prodigiously.

I understood where they were coming from; low risk threshold, extensive defenses already present at the Gate itself, yadda yadda. And perhaps I was merely being paranoid about it all -- I really didn't care. I knew that what we had defensively wasn't actually enough to get the job done against serious threats, but if going overboard with what we did have access to would slow down said threats enough for my people to at least evacuate, well, that would have to do.

The only major difference I allowed for in the case of the Free Earth Republic and the Mass Effect 'verses defensive postures was the significantly greater investment in the local fleets. I wasn't sure how I felt about the notion of the projected one hundred and twenty eight corvettes that would eventually be built along the model of my Heartseed, but at least these ships would actually include capital-grade weapons… even if they were a "mere" two NX-01 equivalent phase cannons each with a dedicated terra-root reactor node powering them, and they were mounted in a forward-facing posture.

I wasn't actually all that fond of the 'warseed' design. While it did largely incorporate the same techbase as did my own Heartseed, the warseeds sacrificed on some of the defensive advantages -- equipping only Class 2 eldritch wards and Class 1 anti-perception glamours, and sacrificing some of the cargo space for a non-organic monohydrogen fusion reactor which admittedly did significantly increase the combat rated power production of the ships -- those parts I didn't have much objection to. It was the fact that the design mounted interdimensional drives that could only work in the presence of a Gate or with Dho-Na equipment integrated that had me leery. Yes, I saw the point in the rapid retrofitting of an arbitrary vehicle if the case arose; and yes I also saw that the vehicles could be slaved to my Heartseed in order to "join in" on the interdimensional transit by physically linking with my ship, but I could see that it was the best design that was accessible to the League at the moment so I let my objections rest for the moment. At the very least, in the absence of the interdimensional shift function, the drives could still function as conventional-space thrusters. And even then; so long as a Gate was nearby that gave them the ability to launch in arbitrary direction until the 'boost' effect from the Gate had elapsed. Combined with the effective translight ratio the drives could reach, that gave them an effective one-way range using the drives of up to two light hours. Most of the system. And there was always the biotic translight system -- which at least I was quite pleased with, as it was based on the subspace warp model and thus could achieve as much as sixty lightyears per day -- with the LY/d value increasing almost monthly as the Engineers and Thinktanks came up with better configurations of biotic nodule cores and warp field equations.

I couldn't help but wonder what that steampunk-wuxia world was like though. My mind kept drifting back to it. Exploring a setting I had absolutely no foreknowledge of in advance beyond what I or my Hosts could discover? No idea what the future held there, or what I might really find when not specifically looking for an exact resource or object or technology? Yeah. The more I thought about that the more it sounded interesting. I'd have to have a Thinktank focus on what was required to pass as a local.

That would be nice.