The whole of the massive Burnside Square with its adjacent Magnolia Monument Park was completely filled by an ocean of humanity. The approximately three million people had slowly started to trickle in the night before, those closest to the footsteps of the Constitution Palace having brought sleeping bags and picnic equipment, betting on the October night not being too cold to sleep outside. All of New Seattle was abuzz with excitement at the inauguration of President-Elect Terrance Rodrigo Kelley, at least the parts of the population who had voted for him and the Liberal Progressives, and even a few who hadn’t but didn’t totally disagree with his political platform. The main parts of New Seattle were located on a collection of five large islands in the middle of the huge Alighieri River Estuary, leading further into Penury Bay and the Rekindling Ocean. New Seattle wasn’t as large neither in terms of size of populace or metropolitan area as Cordelia or Newdawn on Marduk, but it was still the beating political heart of both the Republic of Elysium, and the Independent Systems Alliance as a whole. Gabriel Island, placed centrally in the estuary, which was also the largest of them all, housed the central apparatus for the ISA, from the High Courts of Justice, the Charter Chamber, the House of Planets, to the Combined Joint Armed Forces Command HQ, and the Elysium Bourse which was the huge multi-system concordat’s central economic transfer-and-communications hub. In addition was the large Constitution Palace where the ISA’s President and administration lived and worked, but also the private residences, businesses, and workspaces of millions of Elysian citizens. In terms of political, military, economic, and social power and leadership concentration per square metre, no other location in the known galaxy came close.

Now, on 31 October, two weeks after the presidential elections, it was finally time for Kelley to address the citizens of the Alliance, and billions both at home and abroad waited with bated breaths. For anyone who had paid even cursory attention during the months’ long election campaign, they’d have a vague idea what he would say, but it was still a momentous occasion. The man in question appeared on the raised platform in front of the gold-white walls of the Constitution Palace, which was architecturally very similar to the old Palace de Tuileries of Paris, albeit more modest in size and less gilded, although the exterior walls and columns were made from Elysian travertine-d’or. A throng of politicians high up in the Liberal Progressive party, military officers dressed in a rainbow of ceremonial uniforms, representatives from an immense number of public organisations, and who knew else sat in a tiered stand behind the main platform.

President Terrance Rodrigo Kelley wore a simple black suit, a white shirt with an emerald green tie. He was very often described as being a “hawk”, firmly placed in the camp of Elysian politicians that demanded a tougher line on foreign relations, in particular with the Royal Union and the Kingdom of Aurora. It was a coincidence that his visage might also conjure the mental image of a bird of prey; his nose was long and sharp, and his jaw and chin thin and slightly pinched, his salt-and-pepper hair worn combed back. He was not an unattractive man, but he gave off a slight impression of permanently judging whoever he was looking at. His clear grey eyes did not help dissuade this notion.

“My fellow citizens.” His voice was surprisingly baritone, despite his rather lithe appearance, and it spread out across the entire Burnside Square, Magnolia Monument Park, the nearby Lars DeGruyt Avenue, and the webnet to reach the worlds and voids beyond Elysium’s atmosphere. There was no podium for him to lean on, nor any evident microphone, so instead he talked with minimal movements of his hands to emphasise his points.

“I stand before you in humility and appreciation for electing me to be the fifty-third President of the Independent Systems Alliance. It is an immense honour, a humbling experience, but also an extremely daunting responsibility that I swear upon our Constitution that I will do my utmost to live up to.”

The huge crowds, packed shoulder to shoulder, cheered and applauded, the sound droning out every other noise in the huge city for as long as it continued. Kelley gave a thin smile.

“I must thank former President Kametz for the industrious maintenance of his duties these past four years, as well as the rest of his administration. While their policies have at numerous times collided with my, my fellow party members’, and many of yours’, the Elysian and Alliance people, personal views, they have managed to steer our great federation towards increased prosperity, and has largely kept the predations of those that wish us harm, away.”

The applause this time was much more muted, more polite than heartfelt and the hundreds of camera drones could easily focus on the many tens of thousands who didn’t clap, or who jeered at the mention of Ferdinand Kametz. It was almost impossible to not hear the accusation in Kelley’s last sentence.

“Yet that spectre haunts us at all times, not necessarily seen or felt, but unfailingly present regardless. Our great collection of nations have through sheer force of will carved themselves out from the molasses of the mismanagement of former regimes, first the tyranny of the United Earth Alignment, and then the floundering Verge Federation. Our planets were rudderless, adrift in the wind, until Jeffery and Sophia Burnside came to our rescue and through their diligence, and the numerous generations that have come since, we have created the greatest human society to ever grace the stars.”

The crowds roared their approval again, and Kelley had to hold his hands up to calm them down sufficiently for him to continue.

“But we are assailed by those that would see us bent and broken, our economy shattered, our way of life extinguished, and replaced by their own autocratic ways. Fellow citizens, I shall not insult your intelligence by beating around the bush further. I speak of the Kingdom of Aurora and their accomplices in disturbing galactic peace and order in the Royal Union. Acting with supreme arrogance and reckless abandon for diplomatic propriety, they send their ships of war into neutral space, and their massive battleships though regions declared demilitarized through interstellar treaties. They keep systems and people under their dominion far away from what can in good faith be claimed as their sphere of political influence and interest. The Aurorans further threaten galactic stability through aggressive militarization. As a result, the Independent Systems Alliance has done great work in strengthening our own defences, especially in space. Thanksgivings must be directed towards previous administrations, and particularly to our men and women in uniform. But in face of the distressing commissioning of larger and more powerful ships by the Aurorans, I am convinced that the only way to safeguard our own people and interests in space, is to step up our own efforts. There will be no wavering or any doubt communicated to the rest of the galaxy, that the Alliance will shirk its responsibilities to remain free, secure, and ultimately at peace from external threats.”

The crowds were silent now, enraptured by the cold passion on display, putting words to ideas and notions that had been nurtured over years and decades in the cockles of the hearts of many in the Alliance.

“We strive for freedom and peace, not only for ourselves, but for all people of the galaxy wherever they might be. Liberty is one of the deepest and most noble ideals of the human spirit. Liberty and Prosperity are two sides of the same coin, inseparable sisters that are in constant warfare with the dark twins of Poverty and Oppression, and their mother, War.”

He drew in a deep breath.

“It is a heavy mantle to wear, but someone has to carry the burden, lest the whole of civilisation is relegated to the dustbin of history. The Independent Systems Alliance must rise up to the challenge, and proclaim itself the champion of humanity. Every blow we inflict against poverty and oppression will be a blow against war. Every victory for human freedom will be a victory for galactic peace.

So we go forward today, a collection of systems and planets ascendant in its youth and powerful in its purpose. With the bonds of friendship with our allies strengthened, with our economy leading to a new golden age, we look forward as one people to be a beacon for those still suffering the crushing shackles of the Old World.”

The crowds didn’t cheer this time. The rapturous roars of more than three million people seemed to make the skies tremble, and did in fact blow out the microphone pickups of dozens of media drones too close to the crowds. Similar sounds were echoed in homes, dorm rooms, bars, office lunchrooms, spaceport halls, warship wardrooms and leisure spaces, and everywhere in between all over Elysium and her orbit. In the coming hours and days, as the broadcast reached the other worlds of the Alliance, the same could be heard there as well. President Terrence Rodrigo Kelley allowed himself another rare smile as he saluted the ISA flag, a winged white constellation on a blue field, with a flight of VA-76 Super Marlin vector-jets roaring overhead trailing blue and white smoke.