Part 9: Session 6 Part 2

Now that we're all back from the recess, it's time you guys saw the last recording fer the last, heh, "alien" we encountered a few weeks back. Man, this is gonna be great.

*RECORDING BEGINS*


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*Sounds of chewing popcorn*


So! Prokhor, you old dog! Going up in the world, eh? From Assistant Project Leader all the way to the Stellar Senate, my my. You look, er, a bit less than happy to see me.


You STOLE the first prototype. Along with most of the Hyperdrive Project staff.


You sold human secrets to aliens! That is the highest form of treason!


You stopped reporting in. We assumed you were dead, and the Altarians went along with our assumptions.


Now how could I possibly "steal" that many people? I will have you know that those staff members were willing-dare I say eager-to explore the stars! The only thing stopping us was military types such as Santiago there who were worried about presence of alien life forms in the galaxy. Well I say, all the more reason to go! We set out on quite the wild adventure, my noble crew and I, meeting all sorts of new life and new civilizations.

As for the hyperdrive, well, I can hardly deem that a "human" secret! Fusion power like what we discovered means clean, unlimited, free energy, the holy grail of our society since the Industrial Revolution! How could I, in good conscience, keep these sapient life forms from having this means towards peace and prosperity? And besides, I have only given you the improved design specs for the Ion Drive, as Senator Lal may recall.

As for the reports, you should have considered them a luxury as opposed to a right. We had, in the course of our travels, determined to break from all Earth nations and form our own independent government, free of Earthly problems like greedy corporations and primitive religions. When we found a planet worth living on, we cut off all communications and started a colony. It is somewhat near Altaria, so we decided to give them some improved engine designs in exchange for their silence regarding us. As I understand, they sent the design along to you, so I fail to see the issue.

In any event, as the president of the sovereign planet of LentzLandia, I am diplomatically immune from whatever punishment you may have lined up for me. You are bound and required to treat with me.


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President Gibons, if you still wish to do business with us, I believe it would be best if just you and I stepped into one of the conference rooms. If you would follow me…

*RECORDING ENDS*


Oh, that was great. Hey Morgan, you're up again.



Of course. Not long after the quarter ended, I noticed that we were once again running a significant profit. I moved to reinvest this gain by increasing spending by around 10%.



Now at the end of the second quarter, we have a remarkably high approval rating and a massive swelling of both citizens on the colonies and financial backers on Earth. If it were up to me, I would increase spending even more, but of course this is up to the senate at large to decide. There is also espionage spending to consider, for one.


Lal, yer up.




Well, after receiving Space Weapon theories from the Scottlingas, I bartered the technology with the Altarians and the Korath for some of their scientific advances.


That was suicidally stupid.


They trust us, and in turn I trust them. How can we build an interstellar coalition if we are too busy watching our own backs?




Harold Gibons' reappearance was, to say the least, a surprise, but he was perfectly willing to share his knowledge of the new Ion Drive for a pittance in exchange.




We were also able to get the Stinger missile plans from the Scottlingas, and some United Planets influence from the Altarians.


Our relationship with our neighbors is good all around. The Korath in particular seem quite pleased with us. Zakharov, if you would?


Of course. Soil Enhancement is a newly developed Altarian technique that allows us to regenerate previously non-arable land. This can be applied to nearly any planet, even Earth herself, and it improves the planet's class. Naturally this was done immediately, and Earth is now a Class 11 planet. Trade not only gives us the ability to set up trade routes between planets, it also improves our diplomatic ability and allows us to designate a planet as an Economic Capital. Getting the Korath plans for Interstellar Construction let us finish the project early. The primary benefit is that we can now build corvette-class spaceships. The Arena of Agony is another of those buildings we will never construct. I have seen the design requirements, and that building is even more sadistic than the most barbaric of Roman coliseums. Evidently, the Drengin species can literally feel the pain of others through some kind of rudimentary empathic ability, and since they can't understand fictional entertainment like what we produce, feeding off the pain of others is the Drengin's only means of diversion.

The Stinger is an early application of missile weapons, somewhat better than what we've been building up to now. Last is the Ion Drive, and I feel I must give Harry some respect for the design. The prototypes we built on the Nautilus had to be extensively customized to be that stable at that size, but Gibbons has found a way to mass produce them.



As for ourselves, we have developed Xeno Engineering, which improves our planetary production as well as leading to some asteroid mining techniques.



I have since changed our focus to Advanced Trading, and I predict we will be finished in about two weeks. Now, while I would usually give a few recommendations at this point, the senate leaders have all decided to put out a pamphlet with basic information, so I have put my recommendations in there with the rest.



I have little to say about the second quarter, except that I have helped to design our first corvette, designated the Defender. Its primary role will be to sit in the orbit of our colonies and keep them safe from alien attack. We must begin production on these ships immediately.



To the detriment of all other productions, I suppose? Your taking over of the Earth shipyard was not appreciated. I had to order the constructor completed early in order to get the starbase finished on time.


The safety of Earth is worth any cost.



I am sure you are right. Still, the base is finished, and Yang's Ingots have done wonders to increase our economy base.



Arright, time fer the exploration report. We've been rangin' pretty far off these days, but we're still findin' some decent unsettled planets out there. Like this extra-heavy Class 8 in the Sivil system.



We also found a damn load a' decent planets near the edge of our travel range. There's a Class 10 and a 7 around Agena, plus a 5 with rings on its neighbor, Solace.



We also found the Snathi homeworld, which turns out to be a Class 15 of all damn things. They even had this one gunk just out-system, something Zarkov tells me is some sorta room-temperature superconductor, perfect for research computers, or so he says.

Anybody else got something to add?



Earth is technically out of our jurisdiction, but I felt that everyone should know that Peru has started construction on what is being called "The Restaurant of Eternity." It will turn Earth into a galactic tourist destination, and our projected influence galaxy-wide will improve by 20%. That is, unless another society builds the Restaurant first. Such a place loses its draw if it turns into a franchise.





I just hope it doesn't see the end a' the universe. Well, get to it ya slobberin' slobs!

Standing laws:



All colonies must build one miner each once able to do so, and all asteroids found shall be exploited to the fullest extent possible, the order based on proximity to Earth.



Energy credits and technologies are authorized for any and all foreign technology trades; priority is given to military technologies so purchased. Humanity is prohibited from selling or trading away colonization technologies.



The starting order for all colonial buildings will be: build a factory, a market center, a factory, a market center, one research center, one starport, and one farm (once possible, only up to 13b) in that order, using special tiles when appropriate.



The fourth colony will be named "Kamadeva."