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SPACE HQ
Jan 1st, 2025
Be careful what you ask for . . . *
Earth's new governor-elect Lena Dungey could not help but consider her place in history, fragile though it was, looking around at her new office. * She had barely won with 29. 6% of the vote over three 'more qualified' men, including rival Terrence Forson who was the choice of over 28% and whose help she would need now. * Humanity would now look to her as the first director of SPACE and leader of a new more peaceful and prosperous future in what was already being called the 'Trans-Newtonian Age'.
500 million souls. * So many problems faced them. * Nearly half(44+ million) of the manufacturing sector had no work. * The miners were busy, but for all the excitement about the newly discovered TN minerals, it would not take long to exhaust their supply. * The report she held just now indicated tritanium was the most plenteous, but also was so difficult to get to that not much would be recovered. * The fact that it wouldn't run out for almost 600 years was of little consequence as a result. * Corbomite and vendarite were equally inaccessible. *
Other minerals were easier to find, and would run out quickly. * In less than a generation, all of the neutronium, boronide, and corundium were projected to be exhausted -- eight minerals would be gone within her lifetime more than likely. * While there was nothing she could do about it directly now, she looked around the room at Forson, Jayson Riese, and Slick Willie, and made it clear to all of them that humanity's number one priority was finding supplies beyond Earth. * This world would not be humanity's sole home long into the future. * If hadn't found and prepared to begin exploiting veins elsewhere in the solar system within a decade, SPACE will have grievously and perhaps fatally failed humankind.
Discussion of the direction of research was very short. * It was obvious that not enough was known about the TN materials, potential uses, chemical properties, what new industries or manufacturing techniques might be gleaned from them. * Other than the fact that they existed and had exotic properties, little else was certain. * Dr. *Deacon Palmer was clearly the foremost expert in matters of physical materials, and he was given carte blanche with the five research complexes and corresponding millions of support staff at SPACE's disposal to find practical applications, and find them quickly. * Even preliminary findings were expected to take nearly four years, the initial target date being the summer of 2028.
It was also clear that the military, though what use it might be in the new age was unclear, needed more leadership. * The Navy needed several more staff officers to be prepared for a proper command structure to be in place when needed, and the Army had three of it's fifteen battalions, limited as they were, operating without proper commanders as it was, to say nothing of any future growth. *
Director-Governor Dungey's final order of her first day on the job then, was for the industrial sector to work on expanding the academy and ramping up recruitment of the best and brightest to serve in human armed forces. * It was the Roman Cicero who said wisely centuries ago, "If you want peace, prepare for war. " *Peace was indeed mankind's desire after so much destruction, but it could not be assumed that wish was even possible. * Was space empty, or were there even greater threats in it's unimaginably vast expanse? *The former conclusion was assumed by many, but as with all assumptions, it was dangerous and unprovable. *
Thus the human race moved cautiously into a new era. * Lena would not sleep well for some time. *
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