Rise of the Star Ch. 07

But the ships that stayed would not be destroyed by the supernova. Even without James waving that shield, they would watch as this system went tits-up and yet they were in this cone of safety to watch such an event. They saw that Most Definitely Final Bad Thing go away. And they finally drew in a breath as reality returned and they would be staring at the remnants of a sun. A black hole. Not that new since they were able to engineer them with the fusion suppressor, but James just did that out of hand rather than by crushing a star over 25 years with gravitational emitters. Breathe out, and that burst is gone. If God held on for a bit more he might have been successful. But he pussied out at just one scratch.

And so the world was safe.

*

Year 2440 After Arrival.

John walked to the podium with a good speech in mind. The ships got home, things got quiet and it felt like they needed to do something. This called for a celebration, which would also be an orgy. But it called for a speech, and after that show, James should be here instead of him.

While there were many people in this park to see his speech live, most others would see it through holo-projectors and links, the recording devices before him ready to take his message away. Quite the moment. Better not blow it.

"APEX is gone. We've waited a bit to see if that stunt repeats itself, the reason why you haven't seen a party just yet, but now we can be sure that it's gone. We are safe. All of us would be tempted to say that James is responsible, but the truth is that he has done what he always does. He came only when the challenge was too great, and we carried on by ourselves until that moment. This was possible because of all of you, even those who might not have the smallest connection to the great engines we pushed into space, all of us are responsible. Even the criminals, the layabouts, the ones one might see as a net drain, but the truth is that we all challenge each other to reach stronger places together. But we challenge each other in a measured way, in an optimal way... one that does not destroy, but it creates."

An empire of peace, an empire where their scientific advances made the lives they lived two thousand years ago seem less. And empire with one angry guard dog.

"I do mean all of us, from the first that set out into space, the name Tasha Collins known even today, to those that colonized Dawnlight, those that found the Gull, and those among our adorable, short friends that dared to leave their world to live, those that fought in the Raff war and our own home-grown Raff, those that rebuilt Solaria and terraformed all these planets, those that settled upon our border worlds and turned them into the titans we know, those that dreamed of building bigger than stars and those that brought those dreams into reality, those that fought against the Galactic community, those that welcomed the Synth and Zox into our people even as we did not expect them, as we did not expect our new Tan people, and finally, those that fought in this war, against this terrible machine... and the trillions that were behind them at every step. The farmer, the factory worker, the electrician and scientist, the comfort worker, and the caretaker. We all did this."

Nice way to feel everyone welcome, even if they were still in the minority. And a nice way to remind them of the journey that this empire went through, even if only one could remember it by himself. Soon even those to take part in these events would be gone and it would be history.

"We are now alone. We have each other here, but the galaxy is empty out there. Or... mostly, to satisfy some critics. We might still find some remnants of these other people, holed up in the deepest holes and perhaps, if we act in time we might even bring these species back to life, back to a point where they could hope at the numbers they once had. But make no mistake... there are no more alien empires out there, not even pre-FTL civilizations. It wiped them all out."

But the empire had gone alone for a while, so this was better. They could now go out there and let their science ships pick at the ruins of these other civilizations, they could live on their own and do with just their space. Because the empire was taught to not rely on these other actors and now was a time when that lesson had value.

"Yet, the empire has survived... it survived without any further than our borders seeing conflict, it has survived without giving up any part of it. We have expended many resources in this... and lost many people. I do not consider them resources and we will spend every last resurrector on bringing as many of them as we can back. We will go out there and return them home and to life, as they deserve this place more than we do. They were the ones to keep it as such in a time like this, but let us not forget those who built it."

All of them. James might have a plan, but it would have taken forever for him to do all this by hand... and if he did it himself, his people would be pathetic.

"The Office of the Overseer has a mission. To keep Utopia going Forever. But I am just a man, and all of you are the ones to do so. We guide, but I will shoot any of my colleagues who thinks they are solely responsible for this. Some... yes... they have done things by themselves to move things forward, but far more was possible due to the people who follow us. The people who defy us when we are wrong and stand with us when we are not. So let us keep utopia going forever. Not just for James. He didn't make it for himself. For us. For those to come, for those to follow after and after and after. Our victory today is meaningless if even four million years from now we are doing worse only due to our deeds."

Though, by that time, they will be quite different from what they are now.

"Also, I leave that to the next guy. I'm resigning. Too much happened in my time and I feel like I aged a couple of centuries. I think Ben might be the best guy for it. Guess NA will need a new planetary governor. But that's it. Time to get our celebration started."

The celebration to follow would go into the weeks. It felt needed. There would be some jobs here and there to keep the lights on, but those who needed would alternate the job and the rest just went into a long party and orgy. So many everywhere celebrating in big and small ways, the empire stopping for a week to enjoy life. Subconsciously, they knew how they had just avoided destruction at the hands of something far greater, something they might not survive a rematch with, but in time there would come some other beings to tip the odds.

A Long Quiet would come, what some might consider a new golden era for the empire. An era of exploration and trying to break scientific boundaries even further, an era where they might try and breach new horizons and possibly go to other galaxies because they were just in one and there were billions of galaxies as well. That was prompted when some mysterious ships appeared from beyond the galaxy ready to demolish theirs by essentially taking away all the mass and stealing systems wholesale. Not the big guy, just the shard trying its bullshit again and this time the empire had grown from that challenge and could give more.

James just did what he did. Waiting, watching, occasionally living somewhere in the empire, a life without his big worries, a life to let him see if all was right. Looking back, he could see that time he left his people as perhaps something to pass, as the empire had its hard times as well. Never hard times created when a generation might just steal all the wealth, but they had hard times. He started to hope and think of methods to at least see that world again. Someone would give him his answer soon enough. But that was hundreds of years from now. The empire had a long time to stabilize and show that even in times of peace, it was not forgetting its lessons.

Utopia would last forever.