Fifty million people, aboard a single ship. I remembered that even the rgest city ba Earth in my time, Tokyo, only had around fourteen million inhabitants. How the fuck was I going to build something to house all these people in any human span of time?
I needed something effit, safe and something that was most importantly pact. I could build the basics of a sprawling city, pull up millions of houses that were the mirror-images of each other, but I doubted my new citizens would like that much. Humans teo be rather individualistid that was not something I wao stamp out of them.
Still, asking for a house-pn from every single one of them and then going around strug them would take ages, ages I couldn’t, wouldn’t give the task. Instead, I’d give them something ierim and allow them to then work on building homes for themselves.
What was pact, safe and suitable to house millions of people in humane ditions? Well, an arcology of course. I even had a few blueprints in my head for how the Imperium likes to struct them on their pleasure phat I could use as the base.
Yep, that could work. I mused, rubbing my idly as I pulled up the arcology blueprint and structed an Illusory 3d hologram of it in the air before me. Using the exact same blueprint would have been zy though, and ineffit. I wouldn’t be using the Ad Mech maes, geors and whatever else included in them anyway.
Electricity, I could make easily enough. Getting an anierator was a thought away, many alien species I’d devoured samples of has ways to gee static electricity and some even had the ability to el a current through their bodies as a form of defense or attack. A weird turtle ran it through its shell, while a panther-like creature could run hundreds of volts through its fangs to paralyse its prey.
I had to remake parts of the blueprint to fit my needs and then e to be able to house the quantity of people I’d to. A million people per arcology sounded reasonable, minus all the people who would be able to move in to the capital, if Bob was anywhere close to finishing up what he’d started when we left.
“They seem to be oddly calm,” Seletered, squinting at the many ss showing the thousands upon thousands of unity halls I linked up all the personal rooms of our passengers. “I was expeg fights and rioting, maybe at least some fri … but I guess being teleport up to a spaceship through a magical portal likely curbed their willio start trouble.”
“Maybe,” I said absently. “But the calming pheromones I have in the air probably helped even more.”
“The what?!” Seleurned oh a gre. “Are ying our citizens already?”
“A bit?” I said, blinking in surprise at her heated look. “What? I thought it’d be better thaing them run wild and f me to beat some of them down. It’s just some calming pheromones, I even to down. The inal would have had all of them staring into mid-air heads blissfully empty of thoughts.”
“They won’t be catatonic by the time we get back, will they?” Selene asked, now looking worriedly at the projected ss. “You tested those pheromones before, right?”
“I did,” I said. Sort of. “They are in no danger. I’m more than familiar enough with both human anatomy and those pheromoo know just how much is too much for them to handle.”
“I’ll trust that you do,” Selene said, sagging a little as she sighed. “Did you think about what you actually want to do about the eventual gover? Or about the other topics I asked you about?”
“I’m thinking of making a bunch of arcologies for them to live in,” I said, making a miniature illustration of how one of them was going to look based on my current blueprint. “I was thinking of letting them vote in a cil for each arcology with a representative of each arcology beio my version of the High Lords in the capital. Any reason I shouldn’t?”
“I don’t see why not,” Selene said, though she was frowning in thought. So I poked her in the rib, a little zap of electricity jumping off my fi the tad making her hiss and swat my hand away. “What was that for?”
“What are you thinking?” I asked with a pyfully raised eyebrow. “Frowning so hard all the time will give you wrinkles, you know.”
“You’ll let them rule themselves?” She asked with a dubious tone, a dainty eyebrow raised in apparent doubt.
“To a point.” I shrugged. “I see no reason as to why I should miaheir lives. Sure, they will have no military or a say in what I do and I’ll force them to live by my ground-rules, but they mahemselves. If they fuck that up somehow, we revisit the issue ter.”
“And those fake High Lords of yours?”
“They’ll be as they were inteo be in the Imperium,” I said. “Extra muscle to make my life easier and save me from doing paperwork, but ultimately beholden to my words.”
“I suppose we see where it goes,” Selene said musingly. “’t hurt to let them feel like they have some trol over their lives, especially if you store them all in soulless arcologies.”
*****
We received a hail the moment we came within range of the Tau warship stationed in the unnamed System housing Vallia.
“I’m going to put the asshole on proje,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “Put on your mea expressions.”
With Valenith on my left and Selene on my right, I ected us up with the Tau warship and the pompous Tau Captain’s blue head appeared before me.
“This is T’au space, leave im-“ he started but then paused, squinting at the camera. “Is that you, Captain Ea? What are you doing in that uified vessel? Where were you, for that matter? I received no notice of your departure beyond what my own sensors told me, I was half vinced you ran back to your Imperial masters.”
“Well, if your sensors were as good as mine, you would have noticed the ining pirate fleet approag the System and would have seen my ship destroy it,” I said in a tone as diplomatic as I could make it. Which, holy, wasn’t much. “I’ve said we’d take on the responsibility of proteg this system from intruders, which is exactly what we had dohese past few days.”
“Is that so?” He asked, with an expression I took to be doubtful at best. “Where are the wreckages? What took you six Rotaa spent outside the System? And where did your new ship e from?”
“I’m not required to answer any of your questions by my agreement with yover, you were ordered to take an eye on me, but not given the leave to order me around,” I said, mouth curving down in a scowl. This t was not someone I had to py politics with. He was just a tool to the Ethereals and a tool that hated me from the moment he first id eyes on me and saw my skin wasn’t blue. “I’ll eain your questions just this once, so I trust you’ll report them as they were spoken to your superiors. The wreckages, what remains of them, are floating somewhere among the outer asteroid cloud surrounding the system. It took this long because we tracked down their base of operations and disma. The new ship is my oils. Now, I’d appreciate if you sent a transmission to the honourable Aun who I’ve previously spoken to, I’ve o him and will provide a more thh report to his ears only. I hope that satisfies you, Captain?”
He stared at me silently for a few moments. Some of that had to be the radio-g with us being half a system apart, but then I saw his features morph into anger and hate. They didn’t give and of entire warships to reckless idiots who let their anger trol them iau Empire though, and he forcefully calmed himself soon after.
“It does,” he finally said in a clipped tone. “We will see how the Aun likes your whimsical ‘pirate-hunting’ and flippancy, Captain.”
The link closed, and I rolled my eyes.
“Was that wise?” Selene asked, frowning.
“Wise?” I snorted. “Maybe not, but it felt good and did nothing to worsen my position. The good captain hated me already and showed me zero respect, so I just returhe favour. The only people I have to care about iau Empire are the Ethereals, only they matter, they have absolute authority. I will not be bowing and scraping for a racist little captain.”
“Rightly so,” Valenith said, more subdued after the lengthy meditation he’d undergone while I was out on my little adventures with and pany than I’d ever seen him before. “If you wish to one day rule over these people, you ’t have them looking down on you. Especially if you’re unwilling to use your abilities to their fullest extent to bend them to your will.”
“I don’t want mind-shackled sves,” I said. “Not on a rge scale anyway. I fear some Ethereals are destined for that end though, the ones who’d never accept new leadership.” I hummed thoughtfully, then caught the hint of worry on Selene’s face. “Not that any of that matters in the short term. I want Vallia Prime urbanised and the gover running before anything else. Then I want the star-system for myself and without a grumpy Tau looking over my shoulder twenty-four hours a day. After all that, we start thinking about how to expand our influence.”
“The groundwork will have to be started sooner, if you was in this tury,” Selene said, frowning as if I’d just dumped half a ton of paperwork on her desk. “You’ll o start scouting out nearby systems, learning the politics of the Tau aing a feel for who to pay off and who to … subvert more forcefully. All the things you mentioned will be slow-going and have plenty of downtime for you to focus on other things.”
“Fair enough,” I said, tapping my fingers on my . “Knowledge is power, as they say, some scouting and information gathering would be prudent anyway. Even if I didn’t want to eventually expand.”
The ship zily swam over to Vallia, then slowed into orbit around the first moon where I let my aura expand and examine my little ball of rock. The Tyranids keeping the Shadow up were still alive and most importantly, secured ihe Orks and my slowly growing dragon popution below the surface was doing well, though I caught some of the prior riding around on some of the tter like they were mounts.
“What the fuck,” I muttered, fog on aremely self-satisfied gigantic Ork strutting up and down around a war camp, riding one such earthbound dragon. “That’s Throgg, isn’t it? What is that idiot doing?”
He appeared taller than I remembered, which I quickly firmed by reviewing my memories. It seemed the ork was growing, though I hoped it was not due to some foolhardy prab on his part where he named himself Warboss or something. I’d hate to have to repce him and educate another ork to handle his kin.
My object of focus, and examination, was of course the capital Bob was supposed to be busy building. Maybe it were my pns of strug dozens of arcologies across the p in the span of a few days, or just another proof of me being out of touch with reality, but I found myself a bit disappointed by what I found.
A basic road work, the main sewer and water system, and even a few colossal buildings dotted around the tral fortress were up and ready. The basics were almost done, and acc to my quispe, they were doo a reasonably high standard, too.
Reasonable expectations, you silly girl. I thought to myself. You just gave him his powers five days ago, and he already aplished this much with them. That’s worthy of praise, not … this.
“What?” Selene asked, having had enough of me zoning out after a few seds.
“See for yourself,” I said, shaking my head as I threw up a proje of the pompous ork and his draic mount and then added a eagle-eye-view of the current state of the capital. “I’m going to notify Zedev to not freak out, then I’ll go about building those arcologies.”
That crazy tech priest might just start throwing pocket the weird new ship appearing in orbit if I don’t clue him in.
After a short bad forth, that was dohe Magos took my return with the stoic disi I’d have expected of him, not even b to use his anid to reply.
“That’s done,” I said, pushing myself off my and throne. “Alright, the two of you are free to do whatever. I’ll be busy with building stuff for the few days I’d wager, but e find me if anything important es up, or whehereal gets here.” Then I turo Selene and smiled at her coquettishly. “Or whenever you want to. I think I bear with some interruptions if they are as geous as you, my dear.”
“You’ll get little work done if you ogle me instead,” Selene said, rolling her eyes with a smile as she ed her arms around my waist. She then stood ooes and pced a lingering kiss on my lips, one I eagerly reciprocated until she leaned back with a giggle. “Be good and do some work, then we see about cheg just how distrag I be.”
“Well, what else could I do but my best with a motivation like that?” I grinned down at her, then pced a gentle kiss on her forehead. “Really, e see me whenever you want. I’ll get going now though, I shouldn’t keep my citizens locked up in this ship for lohan necessary. See you both ter!”
P3t1
