Eyre paced in front of Amee’s office window. Glancing back at her. Amee was the younger looking of the two women, perhaps twenty-five, or twenty-six. Her black hair and purple eyes stood in contrast to her pale skin. Out of the two you would be hard pressed to determine which was the vampire. Not that anyone had a tan these days unless they paid for it.

“I think this is a mistake. Aurelius corp will support you but, well, we can’t just go financing random wars because you want to unify the world.”

“You know we need access to all the habitation domes.”

“Yes, for these temporal shields. Though I have no idea what they are really for.”

“So that if we’re attacked by time travelling species the human race will survive.”

“Every time you start talking about time travel you give me a headache, which is hard to do since I’m undead. Why can’t we bring my aunt into this? She would understand everything you’re talking about.”

“She is an unknown variable.”

“She is my aunt.”

“She also has ties to religious groups I distrust and is more worried about accumulating doctorates then she is world peace. She messes up the math. So, until she doesn’t or I’m desperate she stays on the outside.”

“Okay, so you need control of the habitation domes to install temporal shields.”

“And just plain energy shields. Space based attacks are going to become a thing once the system begins to get populated…”

Eyre turned to face Amee.

“You’re paranoid.”

“No, humans are warmongering sociopaths as a societal whole. Were you not present when we were fighting wars against warlords and slavers a few centuries ago?”

“I was, but SATA is at peace, we control all of South America. Most of the habitable band at the equator. Your orbital death rays, high tech tanks and fighters saw to that.”

“Yet North American and most of Russia are uninhabited wastelands with nuclear weapons buried under the glaciers. It will just take one to cause irreparable damage to our shield of nanites.”

“You call it a shield, most call it a plague.”

“As long as humans are confined to habitation domes and we have temporal shields our race will survive, they will not lose their families.”

“If the people had a clue, it was us who put those up there and caused six billion people to die, we would quickly become the new Hitlers.”

“It’s better than us having never existed. Your mother was right, the good of the many outweighs the few.”

Amee looked down at the map on her desk that seconded as a display. Eyre joined her.

“What is your plan?”

“I’m saying we join up with The European Trade Union, Eastern Trading Block, Asian Trade Alliance and African Trade Association. We form a World Trade Board. This should help with intercoalition trade, more profit for everyone, and as part of the agreement they agree to abide by a World Trade Organization charter, implemented by the president, who is going to be me.”

Eyre laughed.

“They’ll never go for that.”

“I’m the reason they have fusion reactors. I also have the biggest guns.”

“So, you’ll threaten them?”

“If I have too. But I’m hoping Aurelius corp backing me is enough for them to see that the alternative is…well they have no electricity or running water.”

Eyre leaned on the glass desk her fingers spread out.

“And why, would I support you in that ultimatum?”

“Because you love me like a daughter?”

Amee glanced up at her flipping her bangs out of her eyes giving an innocent smile.

“Love and business don’t mix my dear.”

“I know where Mitena and Violet are.”

Eyre blinked at her.

“You what?”

“I know where they are. Right now, our non-aggression pacts mean that North America is a no-go zone. No exploration, no twenty-first tech retrieval. No frozen vampire recovery.”

“How do you know where she is?”

“One of my orbital platforms found Edmonton, identified your old home from orbit. Under the glacier. I can’t send anyone to retrieve her, and neither can you, unless say the World Trade Organization granted an unlimited monopoly on salvage rights to Aurelius corp to North America, with a request they form the North American Trade Association? With say, you in charge?”

Eyre blinked at Amee. Who shrugged in response.

“I mean or you can bully the others yourself…”

“You’re a devious woman.”

“You’re my role model.”

Eyre sighed and went back to the window that overlooked New Amazon. The dome was currently on day cycle, so it was bright to simulate sunlight.

“Amee, you… You need to be careful. Don’t stretch too far too fast.”

“Is that the CEO of Aurelius speaking, or my adoptive mother figure?”

“Mostly the second one. Look Amee, you have brought the world back from disaster. You have made sure people were fed, you have kept the lights on, but better people then you have tried the same things and flew to close the sun and got burned. What is your end game?”

“Full control of the solar system. Then a fleet of FTL capable warships so we can take the fight to our enemies?”

“What enemies? They sent one scout ship.”

“Which would have been enough for them to wipe us out if they’d seen a planet with seven billion people who were more adept at building weapons then tools. I know where their home world is now. The only way to safely get rid of the grey and get people out of the domes is to wipe the Silwrath out. And the next step towards that is to get the resources of the Earth, then the solar system behind us so we can put money and time into an FTL drive, weapons development and manpower. I need the WTO initiative to work. We need it to work. I’m willing to do anything to accomplish that goal.”

Eyre frowned.

“You’ll have my support, but I want exclusive salvage rights to North America and WTO support to build a new dome on the west coast. And the exact location of my sister and daughter.”

“Done and done.”