Bob scanned the monitors then shook his head and sighed deeply. "It's pretty quiet down there right now. But the fools haven't even picked a chairperson for their constitutional convention yet. I think the council and I need to go to the dinning room where we can all relax and go over everything that's been discussed this morning. I'd also like to hear any ideas any of you may have for other options. Asimah's people can keep an eye on things until we get back. Stacy, I'd like you to come along too."
Stacy nodded. "Of course Your Majesty."
"That's another thing, I don't mind the ones that bonded with me calling me 'master.' They all seem to enjoy doing it so much that I've learned to live with it. But I would like everyone to drop the royalty bullshit. I can't seem to get used to it and it's driving me batty. Please, just refer to me as Guardian instead of calling me Your majesty."
Once they were all seated at the dinning room table, Aphrodite looked at Bob and smiled. "I'm curious Bob. If you had known how much your life was gonna change that day when you found Cassandra's ring, would you have still put it on your finger?"
"That's a strange question. But yeah. Even knowing everything I do today, I would've put that ring on in a heartbeat. I don't think I ever really had any choice in the matter. But that's beside the point. I may detest the fact that five beautiful, innocent women have had their spirits bound to mine and that three out of the five never really had any choice in the matter, especially Cassandra. But that doesn't change the fact that I love every one of them. Although the idea of having bound servants still makes me somewhat uncomfortable, I think I've adapted to the whole situation pretty well. You mind telling me why you asked such a strange question?"
"If we..." Aphrodite waved her hand around the table. "are gonna be of any real use to you, we need to know where your head's at. What you're thinking and why. None of us questioned what you've done with Earth so far. Though some of us, myself included, might have done things a little differently. I wouldn't have been so heavy handed. But then I see things from a different perspective than you do.
"You're ex-military so you do things from a warrior's point of view. I'm a lover not a fighter, so I do things from that perspective. Both ways get the job done. But my way doesn't leave as big a mess behind as yours does. Each council member is the same way. We all see things from different perspectives. We'd all advocate different courses of action for a specific situation. If we all know what you're thinking and feeling, what your mission goals are, what you'd like for an endgame, it would go a long way towards getting the best advice possible from all of us."
"OUCH! Coming from you, that really smarts Sweetcheeks. I didn't realize I was being such an asshole. But you're right, I should've told all of you those things a long time ago. You already know the two major mission goals. Those haven't changed at all. Peace and prosperity for Earth. What has changed though is my definition of those terms.
"Like most people, I used to define peace as an absence of war. But I've come to believe that true peace means an absence of violence of any kind. I'm hoping by using the invisible jumpsuits and the automatic defensive shields that people will eventually realize war and violence are not things to be glorified, but instead, are things to be avoided. Humans tend to define prosperity by the size of their bank account. I disagree, I think true prosperity can only come from equality. Equal opportunity, equal, rights, and equal justice. That's why I insisted on a single world government and a single world currency. Is it too much too soon? I really don't know. But this seems as good a time as any to start down that road. I'm not sure how all this is gonna turn out in the end, but what I'd like to see when all's said and done is a world with a united population all working together towards common goals. The only way I see that happening though is if we make a serious dent in Earth's population. You all know my thoughts on that already. I'm open to any advice or suggestions anyone may have."
He handed Stacy a pad of paper and a pen. "Take good notes. I'm gonna want you to hold a press conference and make some announcements once we've decided what we're doing."
Stacy surprised Bob by being the first one to speak. "Master, I know I'm not a member of your council. But I have a few ideas that may help."
"You are now! Go for it hot stuff."
"I can understand your reluctance to give Earth back it's space technology. Humans have a tendency to repeat past mistakes over and over. Why not give them an incentive not to do that? Terraform Earth's moon and Mars as well Let the people of Earth know you've done it. Tell the people that when they produce a single worldwide civilized society, you'll give them the ability to colonize them. That's the 'carrot' you can dangle in front of their noses to get them to do what you want.
"But you have a far more serious problem that I'm not sure you've realized yet. In almost every country on Earth, the military industrial complexes were the biggest drivers of their economies. If you don't do something fairly quick, Earth will have millions of people literally starving to death in the streets. I think one of the reasons things are going so slow on Earth right now is because every government is trying desperately to keep their people fed. They'll be able to do it for a while. But for how long is anybody's guess. I think it's only a matter of time before their economies start collapsing. I have an idea. It's a little unorthodox. I'm not sure whether it will work or not. But given everything I've seen since I've been here, I think it stands a pretty fair chance.
"Notify every government on Earth that you'd be willing to allow anyone who's without food or shelter to come to Neuveia. You're gonna have to rig the portals so that whenever anyone steps out of them on to Neuveia that they're free of all physical and mental ailments. I'd also suggest they be immune to any and all diseases and that they have enough knowledge to survive with whatever you're planning on giving them. The reason I suggest rigging the portals is because it wouldn't surprise me any if the governments sent you every mentally ill person they can find along with every criminal in their prisons.
The beauty of this is that it actually accomplishes three things at the same time. The burden on Earth's governments is reduced. Earth gets it's first reduction in population. You get to show the people of Earth that you have compassion for their suffering."
"Those are some pretty good ideas hot stuff. The logistics would take a bit of doing though." Bob turned to Kadir. "Baby girl, is it possible to rig the portals using wish magic?"
Kadir replied, "absolutely master. Although I'd probably think of adding trade skills to the list. That way if you use their country of origin as a reference point and set them down in groups in those locations, they shouldn't have too much trouble setting up self-sustaining communities. You wouldn't have to grid out entire continents or countries. Just set them down in groups of about two thousand or so, spread out a couple of hundred miles apart. Those that come from landlocked or desert countries would have to be set down near rivers and lakes or relocated to coastal areas. But I don't see that as too much of a problem given the numbers of people you'd be dealing with. I think overall you'd be dealing with less than two hundred million people. Neuveia's a pristine planet so absorbing that number of people should be fairly easy."
Athena spoke up. "If we know approximately what areas you're gonna be setting people down in, we could grid out those areas. I don't think it would be too difficult to tie the portals in to a computer program and assign each person or family to a specific GPS location as they came through the portals. We could even preposition some of the equipment and supplies you want to give them as long as you had a list of who each government was sending in advance. That would really simplify the logistics."
"Those are some pretty good ideas. But I have a few concerns that need to be addressed. I'm not comfortable with the idea of Earth's governments choosing who comes here. I think I'd rather let the people decide that for themselves. I don't want anyone being forced to come here against their will. I suggest we set up a Neuveian government computer network. The home page will contain information about Neuveia, basic information about our laws, our environmental restrictions, and any other pertinent information including a notice that people will have to work for what they want if they expect to survive here. If people want to know more about a topic such as our laws, there will be links directing them to those specific sites.
At the end of the page there will be a notice stating that the next page begins an application to immigrate to Neuveia. To continue they must agree to abide by our laws and environmental restrictions. Along with any other rules and regulations we may put in place later on.The application will request the usual information. Number of people being applied for. Their names, ages, dates of birth, sex, that kind of thing. As well as their current living arrangements. We will be giving priority to those that are homeless or on the verge of being homeless. It will also contain a drop down menu beside each name listing all the different skills needed to build communities. Each person old enough to work will have to pick at least three different skills in order of preference. Trade skills will be assigned based on their selections and our current needs. If they choose not to preselect skills then a skill will be randomly assigned based on our needs.
