Grand Admiral Mengsk,

Our wayward branch of humanity that has settled in the Helix Nebula has been quite prolific. They have a strong presence in the form of a large number of space stations. All of them housing at minimum hundreds of people, with most housing thousands. They’ve told us that there are over two-hundred spread across the nebula and that many individuals live purely on ships. It’s like traveling back in time to when humanity was colonizing the Asteroid Belt and the moons of Jupiter. Due to the scarcity of artificial gravity generators, many individuals have the standard low gravity adaptations of thinner bones and tall bird-like bodies.

We are attempting to negotiate contact with the overarching allied government they ascribe to, ‘The Marcos Accords’ as they call it. It sounds like less of a government and more of a treaty. From what we have gathered, it functions similarly to the old United Nations of Earth. However, all attempts to initiate contact have been stonewalled.

I believe that there is much more going on in this corner of the galaxy than we initially thought. In keeping with that opinion, I recommend expending additional resources to establish more formal diplomatic ties. The fact that they have lost the ability to create subspace drives and instead rely on hunting these ‘Void Whales,’ as they call them, is reason enough. Further study is required, but my crew has confirmed that this species is closely related to the one the Slugs use. I highly recommend the dispatch of an Ambassador from The Council of Worlds so that we may at least establish a trade treaty.

-Captain Edward Garnier of The Sendai

Hephaestus

Rahul still wasn’t sure how he’d won the governorship. Two days had passed since he had been declared the winner of the election in a sweeping victory. He didn’t have the time to investigate the legitimacy of the election on his own, so he’d ordered an official, but quiet investigation. In the meantime, he held the office and had work to do. Domestic affairs were largely in hand. The programs that Commander Walsh had implemented had been and continued to function splendidly.

With the ability to finally manufacture everything they needed from the bountiful resources of the planet, the engineers and maintenance crews could finally do their jobs. The train system had been brought back to full functionality, and the old mining drills, long-abandoned, had begun their work once again. Domes that had been abandoned for safety reasons had been repaired and were being reclaimed. Even food production was up as old hydroponics bays that had been set aside to use as spare parts were being brought back online.

Rather than fix something that wasn’t broken, Rahul had done exactly what he’d said he’d do. Just let the wheels keep turning on current domestic policies and try to expand trade and bring in personnel. And now that an official government was in place, trade with entities other than The Avalon could take place. Envoys from other worlds had begun to arrive in the days preceding the election, and Rahul had already been in dozens of meetings attempting to hammer out trade deals.

Some individual traders had arrived as well and had attempted to engage in private transactions. However, they had been stymied by the fact that there simply were no large private entities to trade with. Some had found themselves able to fulfill the needs of various domes and businesses contained therein, while others were left floundering as they tried to get an appointment with Rahul. He’d just finished a meeting attempting to deal with that very issue. As of right now, almost all industry in the colony was nationalized. Which was fine for now, but competitive long-term growth would require innovators, and you didn’t find those in the gears of government bureaucracy.

It would take time, but eventually they would be able to drastically expand their industrial capacity. The current solution was to expand the scope of the business loan program that already existed. While potentially risky for both parties it would increase existing opportunities, and the steady flow of income from the interest being paid on those loans would help fund government activities in the long term.

Rahul’s next meeting was one that he was both looking forward to and dreading. Xinjia was humanity’s third extrasolar colony and the oldest one allied with The Avalon. They also had the largest economy of the worlds allied with The Avalon. That was combined with a location far enough away from the fighting of the war that they had only been attacked once providing them unhampered growth. And even that singular attack had ended in failure due to a combination of static system defenses and the fact that Xinjia required merchant ships operating under its auspices to carry enough armaments to defend themselves. Needless to say, they were able to easily handle the incursion on their own.

It was not just the guns on their merchant vessels that Rahul cared about though. It was the sheer weight of economic power that Xinjia brought to the table and how easily it could be used to strangle his attempts to increase Hephaestus’s long-term value. He did not know the Governor of Xinjia personally, but she had a reputation for being utterly ruthless when required. He hoped that he would not unleash that reputation today.

His implant received the signal from his secretary that Xinjia’s Governor had arrived, and he gave the ok to let her in. As the doors opened, he rose to greet her. The woman that entered was everything that he’d heard. She was older but clearly took care of herself. Her nearly non-existent wrinkles belied her age of nearly sixty years, but the careful manner in which she entered the room that would be easily mistaken for grace told another story.

Caution born from decades of political experience had allowed her to survive the attempts on her life and reputation over the years as she’d held onto the governorship with an iron grip over the last two decades. There were those who opposed her, of course. The opposition parties on Xinjia were quite strong actually, but the people loved her, and so she remained. Negotiations with her would be no trifling matter.

The two leaders reached each other and shook hands. “Governess Kemp, I am pleasantly surprised that you made the trip personally rather than sending an envoy. I am honored to be meeting someone as renowned as yourself.” Rahul greeted her as politely as he knew how. He desperately hoped he was making a good impression.

“Well, new worlds being welcomed back into the fold is typically a rare enough event that it warrants a personal visit, in my opinion. Even when the planet in question isn’t the most pleasant to live on. Your people must be quite tenacious to have survived here so long without external support. And call me Kaili, standing on ceremony with a fellow Governor is tiring.” Kaili Kemp, Governess of Xinjia, took a seat at one of two opposing couches set to the side of the spacious Governors office. A coffee table laden with snacks and canned drink options sat between the couches.

Rahul took the seat opposite the Governess. “Excellent, then feel free to call me Rahul. As you can see, I like to keep some refreshments on hand, but I can call to have someone fetch you something else if you need it.” He knew that the offerings he could make would be pitiful in comparison to what she might be used to, but to offer nothing would probably be even worse. He really wasn’t sure as he felt completely and totally out of his depth.

“Thank you, your hospitality is appreciated.” She seemed more amused by the offer than anything. “As much as I would like to extend my stay here, I would also like to open trade quickly. I’ll be forward with you since there’s no use in hiding it. I want rights to establish a mining operation in your asteroid field. In exchange I’m willing to offer a very tidy sum of cash. We can also negotiate ongoing fees if necessary, whether that’s in the form or direct payment or tariffs is up to you.”

Rahul had expected this, though perhaps in not so abrupt and blunt a fashion. While Xinjia had a reasonable amount of mineral wealth and had plenty of system resources yet to spare, it was lacking in some of the rarer heavy metals, something that was rather prolific in the system Hephaestus resided in. It had been the primary reason for establishing the colony in the first place so long ago.

So Rahul made the only reasonable response, “Absolutely not. I’m willing to, in the short term, secure you large percentages of our exports for certain minerals while we ramp up our industry. After we have a more secure output I’d be willing to negotiate specific quantities, but I will not explicitly grant mining rights to an external actor. That’s not a limitation for you specifically, that is the current policy of Hephaestus.”

The Governess didn’t seem to have an emotional reaction to his refusal, but he had a posture and body language interpreter running at full tilt on his implant that informed him she was incredibly displeased. This surprised Rahul not at all. He imagined that she was rarely refused, but he had to do what was right for his constituents.

“Rahul, do not mistake my desire for a more casual conversation to mean that I think we are at all equals. I will be establishing a mining operation in this system’s asteroid field. Now what do you want in exchange? I’m quite open to negotiate on that front.” The Governess kept her tone friendly and her facial expressions neutral, but they could not mask the hostility in her tone.

Rahul knew he’d have to tread carefully with his next words if he wanted to succeed. “I appreciate your position Kaili, but I can hardly give away mining rights to you when my own citizenry hasn’t had the opportunity to exploit the system themselves. Now if you wanted to invest in an up and coming mining company then I would be happy to facilitate that as we are currently in the process of turning over ownership of various mines to private individuals and cooperatives.”

The older woman sighed as if she was dealing with a particularly difficult child. “Your attempts at a compromise are admirable, but they won’t do. I will get what I want one way or another. We both know that The Avalon Fleet doesn’t have to manpower manage everything in human space and that the fleet presence here is temporary. You will be on your own soon and having my ships in your system regularly will be a marked increase to your system’s security. If this deal doesn’t go through I imagine you would be much more susceptible to potential invasion and piracy than you might wish.” She smiled pleasantly while she delivered the thinly veiled threat of violence.

Rahul sighed deeply, not bothering to contain his disappointment. He had expected such heavy-handed tactics, but he hadn’t expected such open threats. In the end, he had little to bargain with, but he could at least stall for time while other fruits ripened. “In that case, if you would be willing to send your initial offer to my office. I’ll review it and see if we can come to an amicable agreement.”

The Governess smiled brightly with a tinge of smugness, like a particularly nasty child that had gotten her way when she shouldn’t have. “Of course, Rahul, I’ll have someone send the details immediately. I’m glad you could see reason,” she said as she rose. Rahul rose in kind, and they shook hands.

They had nothing else to speak of and neither had any desire to exchange meaningless pleasantries, so Rahul escorted the older woman from his office before returning to his desk. His next appointment was a call, and while it wasn’t scheduled just yet, he knew the other man would be ready and waiting to hear from him. He took a few minutes to decompress from the previous meeting and sort his thoughts before placing the call. He was rewarded with the face of the newly promoted Captain Keith Walsh.

“Governor Bava, how might I be of assistance,” the Captain said brightly with a smug look on his face.

“Yes, yes, you were right Keith. Now were you able to get me the terms I asked for?” Rahul was impatient, to say the least. His negotiations with The Avalon government were slow given the distances involved, but had been fruitful thus far with Keith’s assistance.

Keith’s smile remained plastered on his face, “If anything the terms are better than expected. Still not great, but better than being under that old coot’s boot.”

Rahul was unsure if the rhyme was intentional or not, but he chuckled regardless. “Good, I assume you have details for me?”

Keith nodded and sent over a file and began launching into a verbal explanation as well. Rahul followed along while he also opened the file that Governess Kemp had sent over. He sent a copy of it to Keith as well. They were on an encrypted military channel, so he wasn’t overly concerned. Now that his governorship had been confirmed, he’d been able to get certain allowances from The Avalon regarding his implant. Several limitations had been lifted, including limited access to military channels.

Together they went over the documents. The Avalon’s local congress had made a more generous offer than expected. He was glad that Keith was so willing to work with him and hadn’t tried to make a better offer for the people he technically worked for. Not that The Avalon would be getting a bad deal if he accepted their offer. They would be receiving a healthy forty percent of all minerals mined on Hephaestus at a very generous discount for the next five Terran standard years. Notably, this was only for minerals mined planetside and spoke nothing of the wealth in the rest of the system.

In exchange, they would be building a permanent orbital shipyard in orbit of the planet and supplying personnel to crew it. He would be responsible for maintenance, including salaries and benefits, of course, but if anything, that was to his benefit. It wouldn’t be hard to craft a retirement package that was much sweeter if you were a citizen of Hephaestus. After that, it was just a matter of making citizenship relatively painless to achieve, and he could begin to siphon permanent personnel.

There were also provisions for the import of educators and skilled tradesmen. The Avalon had an excess of individuals without citizenship and therefore, no freedom of movement. They were effectively trapped aboard the ship, and while many were fine with that, others sought to leave. The easiest way to do that without gaining citizenship was to be ‘exported’ as part of a government contract. You would get off The Avalon, have a guaranteed job, and if you were able to gain citizenship on the world that hosted you before your contract was up, you would be allowed to stay.

This had benefits for both sides as it allowed The Avalon to get rid of people who didn’t want to be aboard The Avalon, but either had yet to earn their citizenship or had no viable avenue to achieve that. It also benefited worlds that either needed a temporary boost in workers or who were trying to attract new citizens. In Rahul’s case, he was trying to attract new citizens and was more than happy to pay for the privilege.

The best part, however, was the defense guarantee. The Avalon viewed this as an investment and was aware that there was enough of a piracy problem that they would have to protect their new source of cheap minerals. So a detachment of a cruiser and four frigates would be permanently assigned to the system, and all shipments would be handled by The Avalon fleet itself. Xinjia wouldn’t dare to attack The Avalon Fleet directly. Rahul couldn’t control what happened outside his system, but he could now guarantee the safety of merchants in his own system at least.

Rahul signed off on the terms proposed by The Avalon without a second thought once he’d fully reviewed them. Unilateral power to sign off on trade agreements was currently the prerogative of The Governor, thankfully, but he would be sure to change that before he left office. It was far too much power for one man to have, but he would abuse it while he had it.

The negotiations for handing over mines to private interests would have to include stipulations that they help fulfill this contract, but he imagined it wouldn’t be too hard of a bargain to sell. They’d still be making a profit, just much less than they might like for a few years. Once this deal was up they would have direct business relationships with The Avalon and the ability to negotiate prices on their own terms.

That left the terms that Xinjia had proposed, which were as Kaili had stated previously. He had a good laugh with Keith when he told him about her threats to abuse the power of her merchant fleet.

Keith finished laughing, “Yeah, from what I’ve heard the Admiralty has been concerned about Xinjia for a while now but just don’t have the spare resources to deal with the problem. That’s probably part of the reason you’re getting such a favorable deal. With this agreement you should be able to easily build up your own fleet of ships. At least enough to keep your system safe by the end of the agreement. You’ll rack up a deficit doing it, but I’m sure you’ll rake in the dividends eventually.”

Rahul nodded, “That’s the plan. The only issue will be that by refusing this deal with Xinjia I put all other deals besides this one with The Avalon in jeapordy. Xinjia has the economic and military might to make trade with other partners exceptionally difficult.”

Keith smiled wickedly in response, “That may be true for now, but I would remind you that your system is by far the closest to The Helix nebula by a wide margin. I have it on good authority that the Council of Worlds will be sending an envoy soon and that they will be making a stop here before making the final trip to the nebula. If you ask nicely you might be able to piggyback your own diplomat onto that particular expedition.”

Rahul shook his head with a wide smile on his face. “Keith, I was having difficulty imagining how I might repay you in the future for all the help you’ve been. I am now quite certain that I will never be able to manage it.”

“I’m sure we’ll work something out eventually,” the Captain said brightly. “Now that I’ve taken care of everything I’ve needed to here, I have a ship to run and a system to help keep safe. Good luck with the Xinjia situation.” And without giving Rahul a chance to say goodbye, the connection was cut.

Rahul just shook his head at the abrupt end of the conversation. He wasn’t overly bothered by it. Xinjia, however did bother him, but as Keith had just stated might be one more easily solved than he had previously thought. Regardless he would have to react to the proposal given to him before he could work his way to that longer-term solution.

He thought about the problem for a while when he realized the perfect solution. A good leader delegates responsibility, and that’s exactly what he would do. He wrote a quick message asking for thoughts on the proposed trade deal, making sure to include his own fears regarding it, and sent it along to the mayor of each dome. At least one of them would leak it to the press, and that’s all he needed. Then he could hide behind the shield of the will of the populace when he inevitably had to tell Governess Kemp to go stuff it. Rahul leaned back and grinned widely. Maybe being Governor wasn’t so bad.