Chapter 1 – Once Again, Brave Warrior, Forth Into the Breach (page 2 of 7)
That was a good time in history, the distant past as I’ve taken the time to observe it, which admittedly was not very much at all.
Under those three governments New Terra entered an era of prosperity and peace that it hadn't enjoyed since back when it was still called “Earth”. Concerns over the colonization of Venus and Mars soon arose after the Solar System Expansion and Exploration Act of 2180 was passed by the United Governments. Rather than worry about potential war over territory on Venus and Mars, some of which was very rich in carbonium and medi-gold deposits, and also the particulars of energy rights over the Mist Fields of Venus.
Venus was nearly ruined when the mist fields came to be recognized for their inordinate pound-area-value ratio thanks to technology developed at the Universitatious Collegiate College of Neo-Chicago in the late 22nd century, which could harness the power of the entire planet. Needless to say, the governments decided to form a merged oversight committee to dictate a rapid series of civic planning, border drawing, and inter-mining operations. No surprise, the chairman of the VenuMartian Oversight Committee was none other than the one and only Vizier Thurmond Chang.
Of course that committee, like the merger, was a bigger joke than the finalitudiness. Vizier Thurmond Chang had so many puppets in the Planetary Parliament that they quickly voted themselves to statii of near powerlessness, though all of them retired with unprecedented wealth to middle-distant galaxies.
After that, all it only took was a few moving speeches, a trade embargo restricting the shipments of proto-protein to New Europe, and a reworking of language in a mega budget bill to include a declaration giving the VenuMartian Oversight Committee additional oversight over New Terra. Very slyly done, Mr. Chang. New Terra never knew what hit them. Well played, my space helmut is off to you, dirty sir.
But my job today wasn't to reflect on the history of my planet's semi-nuevo governmenta. After all, it wasn't 2412 anymore, it was 2415, and all the rules had changed, one or two for the better.
Now the only rules were the Planetary Parliament's rules, and those guys n' dogs played only by their own set of rules or the conspicuous lack thereof. Those rules weren't so much set down by the PP themselves as they were imposed on them by the very same Vizier Thurmond Chang him-(still dirty)-self, who came out of the merger as the Supreme Minister (as if by early-earthen magic) and virtual dictator of all of New Terra, and all strictly through his ruthlessness and skill at drawing up contracts, borders and artificial timetables. He wasn't even plausibly one of those long forsaken outlaw attorneys, but he played adeptly with what little law was still written flawlessly, and if you think this sentence makes no sense, you should have seen the verbiage of his decrees that followed.
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