We had long conversations about governing and the political system our new nation should use; it was one of the most difficult decisions we ever made.

People need to be ruled, and that is a fact.

I know, that idea does not agree with me too; it makes me feel bad in a way, which is understandable since I was a product of my environment. For all that, I cannot deny the validity of it.

From the time we were still living in the caves, and throwing rocks at each other, to this age where there are countries that have billions of people, we were always a tribal species.

As you well know, every tribe needs to have a leader. You can call him (or her), a king, emperor, president, the pope, a prime minister… There are so many more titles that describe what is essentially the same thing. An individual that calls the shots, the one who is first among many.

It is an evolutionary mechanism that made it possible for large groups of people to work together and at the same time ensuring our dominance on this planet. Arguably, the same exact phenomenon held us back from developing further.

As Mr. Spock said, “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” Moreover, it was always those few that were willing to push the boundaries of the known and allowed for the advancement of the species on the path of progress.

It is not perfect, or what everybody wants, but right now without those central figures to hold everything together, the world would be in a state of chaos.

As individuals, we are doing OK, but as members of the group, we crave for someone to look up to, somebody who knows the answers. If you think about it, having all those virtues in one person is an impossibility, but that did not stop us for uncounted millennia, and I do not think it will happen any time soon.

Over the last few months, we talked about it from time to time; it was something we did when there was no one around. Not that it was some big secret, but why make people excited about the things that were just hypothetical until we reached space, and it made us prepared in case we achieved what we planned.

The question was which system of governance to choose.

Democracy seemed natural; after all, most of us were born and raised in it. Yet, it has its flaws and for us, those flaws would have proved fatal in time.

Communism was discussed also, and it was originally a noble idea, but it failed in its execution every time it was tried. It involved people, who are fallible.

A monarchy also has its downfalls, especially when one gets self-delusional enough to believe in his God-given birthright, as it had happened to many monarchs through history.

In a nutshell, there wasn’t a system of governance in human history that wasn’t tried at some point in time, and there wasn’t a system that hadn’t failed due to incompetence, or greed of individuals. No matter how you look at it, the human factor was a weak link.

Most of those systems had one thing that broke them, one individual with a hunger for power that had a megalomaniac's idea of being above others and wanting everyone to acknowledge that.

However, what if we could have a transitional system? One that we could sustain for… let say one thousand years. Because, after that amount of time, what system of governance we chose would be a moot point. By then, humans should be widely spread across our part of the universe, and they could make up their own minds what their destiny should be. We certainly could not (and would not) rule by proxy, colonies never work out in the end.

Our solution? Well, Empires were one of the most stable, long-term systems ever invented. Just look at human history, and the life span of countries, versus empires. It is not even a match.

So, that was our temporary solution. Again, it relied on our populace having that intricate human desire to have a strong leader to follow.

Michael will have to be that man.

He explained to others a few plans we had for the future space society; for this budding nation (or an empire), we were building.

It all started when Dad said something about how Chinese people often make plans that needed a century to develop. It is such a simple concept. Just look at Hong Kong, they leased it for ninety-nine years to the British. When the time came, they reclaimed their improved property back. Planning the future on such a scale needs a completely different mindset. This immortality thing is a nice concept in theory, but it is hard to accept and adopt in everyday thinking.

One of the first things we agreed on was that this was the winner takes all scenario, if we wanted to build something that would last, all other nations must be denied space. I know, that is not fair, but it is logical. The conflicts and constant wars were a cancer that plagued the entire Earth, and the mere thought that the same sickness would spread into space was just wrong. So, we will be a vaccine, a judge that will decide who gets to leave the planet and who will stay.

I know that many of you who are reading this will disagree with that decision, and I respect that opinion even if I see it as too naive. I said before, we are a vicious species, and react with violence to many situations. It was the least evil thing we could come up with; other options were far more drastic.

Besides, we wanted to help Earth progress, for humanity to mature. For that, we needed time to make them more reasonable. (I will admit, the scheme of making humanity sane in its entirety has a low chance of success, but the part about us conquering the Solar System was high.)

Our plans took a long view… years, decades, and centuries in the future, and for them to be viable—we needed many new colonists from Earth. That’s the reason why the media campaign that will paint us in angelic colors was so important; we needed people to like us, so they would want to immigrate to space.

Was it a bit dishonest… maybe, but those are the breaks. Going to space is an opportunity, only those with a broader vision would even attempt. And if the powers that be wanted to stop us… well, it is our way or a Hammer landing on your head… sue us.

Michael did not want to be the head honcho. It is a thankless and stressful job, and no sane person would want to put himself in such a position. (I will emphasize sane, there are all too many people out there who think once they win the top position, everything else will be peachy… as if.)

He even suggested that I do it, and it did make logical sense. As an AI (or close to one), I have a broader view, and more time to deliberate about important decisions. Honestly, I did not want to; I have so much on my plate already, and people can be so annoying. Just the thought of being required to listen to them constantly complain… it sends a digital shiver down my virtual spine. Besides, ordinary humans were not ready to be ruled by someone like me, at least not yet… I had other things planned for the future.

It had to be him, or someone else from the inner circle. I ran all the prediction algorithms and it was clear that Michael would do the best job of them all, mainly because he was so incorrigibly stubborn. He was willing to compromise on many things, but when he decided on a goal, he was like a honey badger—would chase it until the end of the world.

When we said an Empire, it was in a very loose definition of that word. It is only based on that system where one had a central figure that had all the deciding power, but there were other factors. The AI’s (Ares and me... for now), the inner circle who will share a great portion of that power with him, and that little thing called immortality. In addition, the Cerebral Enhancing Implants our citizens were sporting, which provided another layer of personal protection from possible oppression. (Not that we planned to be oppressive, it is just that people are always a bit wary when the possibility for it exists.)

He told them about the name of the ship, The City-ship Ascension, which was a bit long but it certainly described our new home. The City-ship was really the best way to designate it; only the main residential level would easily get that name, and we had a few more levels that will be finished in the future. It was a place for people to live and work, for children to grow and mature. No matter in which direction our path will take us, the Ascension will be a part of this solar system, and it was a bona fide city… in space. (If that is not cool, then I don’t know what is.)

The name was one of the several we considered, but I think Michael decided on that one during our exciting farewell party on Earth when that missile gave us our fiery send-off. We did ascend from the smoke and fire and soared into the heavens to become captains of our own fate.

Will there be those amongst our population who would be against what we are trying to achieve? Yes, and that is perfectly normal. In spite of that, this new nation was somewhat private property. We (or rather I), were the ones to create it; we built the ship, and if someone did not like it, there is always Earth to go back to. It is no different from being an employee in one of the big private firms.

What we offered came with great benefits and a few stipulations.

We would not force anyone to live here if it went against his or her beliefs.

We will ensure personal freedoms on a level never before experienced.

We will provide essentials for sustaining life in space, jobs, and schooling.

We will provide health and longevity treatments for our citizens.

At the same time, we will never put ourselves in a position where some snake oil salesman could convince our populace that he knows the right way to lead them, only if they vote for him.

Forget voting and elections, never will we place our destinies in someone else’s hands. People can give their opinions, but the final decision lies with Michael.

If you have a problem with that, I am more than happy to transport you back to Earth. Goodbye and don't let the vacuum hatch hit you on the way out.