The Only Winning Move Is Overwhelming Firepower
Chapter 11
Coronation
I hover over San Francisco, thinking.
About three miles above the Golden Gate Bridge, actually. Needless to say the entire world is aware of where I am now.
Kate is competent. And, as I'm now fully convinced, evil and
sadistic.
She refused precious metals, diamonds, gems, hell, even antimatter.
I offered to give her an
entire gram of
antimatter… and she only considered it for a few moments.
No, instead of accepting rare material payment, you know what she wants?
My unique ability to manipulate the world on a grand scale.
Every dam, every road, every highway, hell,
every old building that wasn't historical
, she asked me to repair. Not just repair, but upgrade.
The upgrade only came after I revealed that most forms of matter were just as easy for me to make as any other forms. The only things that changed were the time required, and the energy needed.
I am also being hired to lay a full coast to coast Internet system of complete and total fiber cabling and whatever improvements I can make to Earth's network technology.
I was stunned at that, especially because I
knew America's energy generation wasn't up to the level needed to power such a thing even with the current tech, much less what plans I've already started designing for the upgrades.
So she struck
another deal. At that point I was just amused, and going along for the ride.
A billion dollars per fusion reactor.
And she'd ordered
ten thousand of them.
Holy shit, that woman.
I was too stunned to say no, even if I had that inclination. The woman is trying to make her nation a better place, and is the first politician of real, tangible power I've ever been exposed to that is trying, much less on the path to actual success.
I asked her how all this was going to help with the national debt problem.
Apparently due to how much I was saving the nation both in one shot and annually not only offset the loss of California, but also allowed them to start working off the debt over time.
You know, with a side effect of
not destroying the world economy.
Hey, overwhelming firepower is my thing, not macroeconomics.
So I said yes. To all of her requests.
In return, I got a country, made up of some of the most economically powerful and forward thinking states in the Union.
The deals passed the closed sessions of Congress, both Federal and State for the states in concern, so fast I hadn't even left the White House before one of my dick victim Secret Service agents came up to me and politely asked me to go back to the Oval Office.
Very politely.
And she totally didn't shiver in fear when I tossed a shit eating grin her way.
No, really though. She didn't. Balls of steel.
Kate, beaming, told me that it was passed. She let me watch as she signed the papers on her desk.
I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone.
I mean, sure, maybe political tensions had escalated in the few years this timeline was further than my original one.
Maybe the most progressive states wanted out, and
definitely the regressive ones would help get them out in order to shift the entire country's Overton Window even more right…
But, really?
Really, guys? Whatever happened to States being unable to secede?
...Though I guess this isn't really secession, now is it. Hm...
And just like that, I'm the future ruler of a new country, American in all but government… and on the hook for what must be the most ambitious logistics projects in history.
All that is waiting on is for me to fly down there and meet the governmental leaders of my new nation's… hell, what am I going to call them? I'm just going with States to avoid confusion.
And what am I going to call the
country?
Kate was entirely unapologetic when I realized how much responsibility I now have. Thus my new opinion of the crafty woman.
I don't think she was acting
at all on Doctor Who. Maybe in my source universe, but here? She's gods damned
Kate Lethbridge-Stewart.
In revenge, I neglected to correct her on just what
exactly self replicating nanotechnology with access to Ex Nihilo matter and energy generation is capable of.
She thinks these projects are going to take a long time.
I'm thinking a week.
And that's
without gray going the country.
Oh well. One good thing about this is that I hold extreme dominion over Bethesda due to exactly which state they're incorporated in, so my original goal has been met. Sort of.
I just have to buy them now.
But before all that…
I hold my hand up above my head, linking a few nanites together into something that approximates a high definition cell phone camera. Of course by high definition I mean 16k resolution, in a file size less than the best 4k compression this Earth has can accomplish, with more detail. Because adhering to what humanity knew of digital imagery is for chumps.
I snap a picture of me standing on air high above the Golden Gate Bridge, caption it, and toss it on… hmm, I'm thinking Twitter.
'Felt cute, might declare a new nation state l8r idk…'
Let the Internet chew on
that one for a while. I have governors and congresses to meet.
You have gotta be shitting me.
Sacramento is the capital of California. It's also the capital city closest to where I told everyone in my new country I'd show up (San Francisco), so it seems they all flew down here.
And I do mean
all of them.
The nearby airport is packed with what seems to be wing to wing private jets.
The gods damned roads from the airport are even blocked off!
There are dozens of stretch limos! There are rivers of people on the sides!!!
{Being nervous on the eve of taking a seat of power is understanda-}
SHUT UP I'M NOT NERVOUS YOU CAN'T PROVE IT!
{...Sure.}
SCREW YOU WRITER ME, THIS IS YOUR FAULT ANYWAYS!
I hear a cheering roar from the crowd below me and look down at what my sensors say is
literal hundreds of thousands of people.
Only about two and a half, but still.
...They're waving upwards.
Why are they doing that?
Oh, right. Me.
Shit.
They've
seen me.
I plaster a hesitant smile on my face and wave back down at them.
I'm at least a mile up, but that doesn't seem to matter. They must be zooming in with their phones or something.
The cheering only escalates.
Welp. Guess I'm going down.
I begin to allow myself to fall towards the ground and the crowds, my nerves rapid firing the whole time.
Look, I'm good with people. Lots of people, even. I don't really get stage fright.
But this is hundreds of thousands of people!
Coming to see me!
Oh gods oh gods oh gods oh gods why am I DOING this?!
They have a stage.
Of
course they have a stage.
This is looking way less like a political thing and more like a rock concert in the making.
And… something doesn't really add up for me.
Why? Why ...all this?
Why are they so eager for me to do this? I expected at least
some protests, but the only thing I can see to that respect is one dude with a picket sign blaming me for not taking over sooner.
What. The shit.
And they're all waiting for me to say something, too. The governors on stage, the audience, the bodyguards.
Right. I'm a Clarketech alien taking over a few states to make a brand new country. Totally normal.
I just need to be cool and mysterious.
Both my hands go in my pockets, I shrug my shoulders, and walk up on to the stage. "Sup?" I ask.
The various governors and the few Congress members on the stage all start talking, and I settle in for a gauntlet.
