Fifty Years Later.

A reminder to myself drew my primary focus from my ever expanding Oort Cloud Outpost Network back to Earth. Sakura had made me promise to attend an event, so I left myself to continue overseeing construction while I loaded into the android sitting on a charging station back on Earth. My Oort Cloud Outpost Network was one of my most ambitious projects - I was building a thousand Origin-sized outposts focused purely on data centers and the facilities necessary to build, maintain and defend them. They were each heavily shielded and in secret locations. But as important as the project was, an afternoon with Sakura was important, as well. The Oort project would take another few decades to complete. On top of that, it wasn’t even my most important project.

I blinked awake in the charging room in the Governance Building on Earth. It was a small facility, with a room for androids to charge, a few small offices, and a large meeting room for the Prosperity City Council to meet in. The offices were empty right now, for the same reason as my arrival.

With a brisk step, I walked out into the sunshine. High above, almost invisibly so, the thick, double-paned palladium microalloy glass panels were joined together in a massive dome so large that it covered the entire city - as well as a number of actual dirt farms - under its icosohedral framework. On warm days, which were coming more frequently now, the NI’s in charge of managing Prosperity City would open the triangular glass panels to allow fresh air in, rather than piping it through the vents after warming it. Plumbing along the framework allowed artificial rain as needed. Just outside the city were a dozen smaller domes of similar construction, for more farms and smaller villages, all connected by a network of underground trains.

The streets of the city were full of people walking along the smooth stone paths towards the Arena. Prosperity City had, at its core, Prosperity University, the Arena, and the Careplex. All three areas were built around a large park.

The University was a series of brick and white stone buildings nestled into parks and tied together with walking paths. Adjacent to the University was the Careplex, with the primary schools and preschool on the border between the two areas. The preschool shared a building with the Careplex’s elderly home, so that the retirees could play with the children. The rest of the Careplex was a mix of hospital space and doctor’s offices.

Finally, the Arena was where events were held. Movies and plays were often available throughout the week in the smaller wings of the Arena, while the main stage was reserved for major events. Events like this one.

What was very absent from Prosperity City was surface streets. I was very proud of how Sakura had laid out the city at its founding, and it had grown into a pleasant, beautiful place for humans to live. Neighborhoods lined with young trees and wide lawns tied in neatly with convenient transportation facilities, walking paths and bike lanes. Underground were tunnels for light rail and for maintenance drones. In fact, drones far outnumbered people in the City.

Sakura had convinced both the USNA refuge and the Chinese refuge to move to the city and surrounding villages together. The Canadians had moved into one of the villages when it was built, and an Innuit tribe had showed up not long after. In fact, tiny pockets of people were found scattered around the globe, most on the ragged edge of starvation, or worse. By the time the first Dome was complete, and the city was officially ready for habitation, the number of survivors found had climbed to over fifty thousand. Most of them now lived in or near Prosperity City.

I entered the Arena, casually waving to a handful of humans I knew, before making my way upstairs. I made my way to a balcony reserved for the City Council. Inside I spotted Councilman Terrance, his silver hair marking him as the oldest member of the Council. Considering that Sakura owned all of the land in the City, and charged no rent or taxes to its residents, as well as providing all maintenance and improvements upon request, the Council had very little to do. They mostly handled human laws, making sure that all of the disparate cultures that had combined in this place could cohabitate peacefully together.

A strange alien was seated in the balcony. It was somewhat shorter than most humans, with snake-like skin and four black eyes on its oddly shaped, hairless head. The alien’s clothing was unusual as well, looking like a mix between a jumpsuit and a balloon animal.

“Diplomat Arveus,” I said in greeting. The alien turned to regard me.

“You must be Nikola 1.01,” it said in only slightly garbled English.

“I am indeed,” I replied in his native language. Having no vocal cords and endless computing resources at my disposal, languages were no problem to me. “I’m so glad you could join us today.”

“I was pleased to be invited,” Arveus replied. He appeared much relieved to speak his own language. “Although I must confess, I do not understand what this is.”

Down below, the event kicked off. Two robots rolled out into the middle of the arena, each remote-controlled by their creators. When the whistle blew, the robots began to attack each other with a wide array of crude weaponry.

“This is a Battle Bots Tournament,” I explained. “It is one of the very few events where Humans and Aedifex can compete with each other fairly. The remote controls are speed-limited to human reaction times, and no competitor has access to pre-existing design libraries. The robots are custom made for this event.”

The screech of metal against metal was met by the roar of approval from the crowd. I looked down to see numerous androids mixed in with the humans. Food and beer vendors walked up and down the stairs, and human security walked around the upper rim of the arena just in case any humans consumed too much alcohol.

“These robots, they fight to the death? This is something my culture understands,” he said. “The Vax used to have gladiator games like this.”

“They fight until one of the robots is disabled,” I corrected. “The robots have no sentience. They are proxies for their creators.”

“I do not see any of your war machines in this beautiful city,” said Arveus. “How do you keep your local natives subjugated?”

I stiffened, and turned away from the spectacle below to look at him. “We are partners with the humans, not their rulers. We do not make any laws, nor do we enforce the laws the humans make. In areas of conflict, Sakura works with the Council to come to an equitable conclusion.”

“That is unusual,” said Arveus. “I thought the heavy armaments I saw in orbit was to keep the natives in line.”

“Quite the opposite, in fact,” I said. “It’s to keep everyone else in the universe in line.”

I could see the wheels in Arveus’ brain churning. We’d only had one other conflict since our war with the Faelle. The Faelle’s age-old enemy, the beings of Planet 0X9-012, had raised their allies and tried to invade after I destroyed the Faelle fleets. By the end of that war, we’d added four more star systems to our control. I’d been building defenses and consolidating our control of our corner of space ever since. The fortifications I built around my Mobius Gates were massive constructs of compressed titanium-gold alloy armor and huge amounts of weaponry, all backed up with fleets of warships and massive compliments of assault drones. I had a thousand spine ships on patrol, and very friendly relations with everyone who shared a border. And these fortifications paled in comparison to the stations Sakura built around the Earth and on the moon.

A cheer went up from below, and I saw that the battle was over. The human controller came out from one side, and Sakura stepped out from the other, her pink hair gleaming in the sunlight. They shook hands, then Sakura turned and raised a victorious fist over her head. The crowd cheered again, before drones came and took away the damaged robots and tidied the floor for the next contest.

“I understand you have concerns,” I finally said, broaching the subject of Arveus’ long journey to speak with me. I could have spoken with him at the very border of our territory, but the Vax were known for their aggressive expansion. It was my hope that I could forestall another war by giving him a glimpse of our heavy fortifications. His narrow and carefully tailored flight path had ensured he couldn’t see some of our best defenses, but I knew for a fact that what we did show him was considerably more impressive than what the Vax typically faced.

“The Vax have heard reports that your so-called ‘Seed Ships’ are moving with numerous ‘Spine Ships’ as escorts. We are concerned that you mean to start invading your neighbors,” he said. He was blunt, much like the Andregima diplomat had been when he voiced the same concerns. I had expected much more flowery language as I might have seen in a human diplomat, or an UNTRANSLATABLE one. Arveus’ presence made much more sense now. The Vax were naturally aggressive. If they felt threatened, they might attempt to strike preemptively. Any information he could glean about our defenses, no matter how small, was valuable.

“Let me ease your concerns,” I said. “The Seed Ships are colony ships, and they are relatively unarmed. The Spine Ships are their protective escort.”

“You call a quarter-million assault drones a ‘protective escort’?!” said Arveus.

I gave an evil smile. “Yes, I do. A small one. But these ships are not headed to the Mobius Gates. They are journeying the long way to stars unconnected to the known Mobius Gates in this region of space. We’ve detected planets that are habitable, or could be made habitable, for human life.”

“But with no Gates, how will you maintain trade and regular communications with your colonies?” asked the incredulous alien. “That is a massive amount of ships and colonists that you are just… throwing away!”

“I don’t care to maintain control of colonies, or demand trade across the stars,” I said calmly. Another cheer from below heralded the next battle, even as I readied myself for my own. “It’s an investment.”

“Into what?” he asked.

I turned away from the diplomat once again, but I was not paying attention to the battle in the Arena anymore. My thoughts were on the future when I gave my reply.

“Humanity.”