03-15-2020, 09:06 PM
As had negotiations with the European Union birthed the seventh Dominance, the eighth followed in similar fashion. Borders were effectively dissolved, with previous national capitals transformed into district resources. A new Dominance capital was to be established in São Paulo and it was a Brazilian businessman established as the first Patron. All those who previously held flimsy power were swept aside. A new regime was built overnight from the ashes of those thinking to retain their own. The pattern worked in the elder Dominances. Wipe the slate clean and start again. Those who rose in the new aristocracy would owe their livelihood and wealth to Ascendancy. Economies would turn almost overnight as the flood of Custody resources washed into what was barren wasteland. Everything from the cost of petrol and plastics, to the near elimination of taxes, and erosion of all the previous barriers to trade almost instantly improved the general economy. Within a few weeks, everyone began to feel the benefit. Nikolai planned a triumphant tour of the largest cities, bringing gifts and wealth wherever he went – just as he had every other time, and he was still loved for it. It wasn’t long before Panama and the independent nations of the Caribbean sensed the improvement in their neighbors. Nikolai assumed it was a matter of weeks before the remaining Central American nations joined their Southern brethren. It all happened before.
He spent the last night in Quito, the final city before his tour returned him home. He didn’t even meet with the former Secretary General, Tasis, whom was the one to submit the consented petition in the first place. Displaced from a dissolved union that was no longer needed, Tasis was sent to live out a nice, quiet life in Easter Island as some form of modern banishment. No need to sympathize with the man’s fate. He could do worse than retirement on a beach.
The trip from Quito should have born the Ascendancy on a northeasterly route returning him to Moscow in about twelve hours. Instead, he opted to fly east, stopping in Tokyo for a surprise visit to the fourth Dominance. The trip should have taken the same amount of time, except for a divergence from the straightest path. The official reason was that storms rerouted the plane on a wide trajectory southwesterly, carrying them along the islands of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, not that far from Australia (comparatively speaking).
It had been decades since he last drew upon the threads that bought him half of the world. Of course, back then, there were no other channelers to sense what may happen. If possible, another walking the lands beneath the plane may feel the short burst of warning, but they were too far from dense enough populations to definitively prove what was about to happen. Had the Ijiraq that attacked him in Moscow been present, he may have drawn on enough power to be felt a continent away. Alone, on his own, however, was terrifyingly effective as it was.
By the time he landed in Tokyo, the news would rock the world. It was the most devastating earthquake to rock the Pacific Ring of Fire in a century. In 2004, a 9.5 magnitude megathrust quake triggered a tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people, mostly inhabiting the island nations. It was a terrible tragedy, that unfortunately, was tragically surpassed by the 2046 event.
Nikolai watched the news with grim distaste. He derived no pleasure from this outcome, but simultaneously, he had offered for years to protect this vulnerable part of the world and was continuously rejected. Now, gripped in the throes of collapse, horror, and devastation, the remaining south Pacific would likely beg for his help within hours.
He spent the last night in Quito, the final city before his tour returned him home. He didn’t even meet with the former Secretary General, Tasis, whom was the one to submit the consented petition in the first place. Displaced from a dissolved union that was no longer needed, Tasis was sent to live out a nice, quiet life in Easter Island as some form of modern banishment. No need to sympathize with the man’s fate. He could do worse than retirement on a beach.
The trip from Quito should have born the Ascendancy on a northeasterly route returning him to Moscow in about twelve hours. Instead, he opted to fly east, stopping in Tokyo for a surprise visit to the fourth Dominance. The trip should have taken the same amount of time, except for a divergence from the straightest path. The official reason was that storms rerouted the plane on a wide trajectory southwesterly, carrying them along the islands of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, not that far from Australia (comparatively speaking).
It had been decades since he last drew upon the threads that bought him half of the world. Of course, back then, there were no other channelers to sense what may happen. If possible, another walking the lands beneath the plane may feel the short burst of warning, but they were too far from dense enough populations to definitively prove what was about to happen. Had the Ijiraq that attacked him in Moscow been present, he may have drawn on enough power to be felt a continent away. Alone, on his own, however, was terrifyingly effective as it was.
By the time he landed in Tokyo, the news would rock the world. It was the most devastating earthquake to rock the Pacific Ring of Fire in a century. In 2004, a 9.5 magnitude megathrust quake triggered a tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people, mostly inhabiting the island nations. It was a terrible tragedy, that unfortunately, was tragically surpassed by the 2046 event.
Nikolai watched the news with grim distaste. He derived no pleasure from this outcome, but simultaneously, he had offered for years to protect this vulnerable part of the world and was continuously rejected. Now, gripped in the throes of collapse, horror, and devastation, the remaining south Pacific would likely beg for his help within hours.