Chapter 17: Conspiracy

'Really?' The representative of Dynasty Investment was the first one to open up. She still looked polite with a light smile on her face, but the tone of her voice expressed nothing but mockery and doubt, 'are you saying you are believing in the Falling Star Conspiracy?'

'Not believing, simply formulating a plan of response should it be true.' Dr Dorry May responded patiently, now posing a completely different view compared to when she met up with those that were in her very own meeting not too long ago.

'That's ridiculous.' The representative of Star Bank followed. Star Bank and Dynasty Investment essentially breath through the same nose due to their close knit ties and shared interests, so it makes sense that the two involved most in the financial area of the galactic society will hold such an opinion in scientific matters.

'Thank you for your input.' Dr Dorry May said, 'except science will be the ones determining whether the sun is truly going out of the orbit here.'

'Don't forget who put you in office.' One of the two representative warned, 'don't leave that part out of your "science".'

'Huh.' The young leader of Infinity scoffed at the two money slaves, 'don't lower the perceptions of your intellectual floors, you two.'

They both raised their eyebrows and frowned annoyingly towards the young human male, but there is nothing they can do. Infinity quite literally hold more power than the two of them combined, and then some.

'I have gotten some units to investigate in this matter.' Dr Dorry May said without a single hint of deception as she shamelessly took the idea and credit of General Kuviar's actions, 'and the results will be presented in next week's meeting.'

'What I will recommend is for you to also perform some sort of internal investigation, examining the model and the data.' Dr Dorry May suggested, 'I have been a scientist before I was a politician, so don't question the scientific methods.'

'Rarely is the scientific method the critical point. Rather, it is always the human.' The young leader of Infinity said yet again, and now it is Dr Dorry May's turn to frown at him. Still, there is nothing that she could have said or done that can move Infinity.

'Regardless of how ridiculous you think the model is, the output of the model at least warrants discussion, and formulation of contingency plans will be in order here.' Dr Dorry May expertly diverts her anger and attention away from the war of words and back to the topic at hand. She wanted to set this up just so she will appear much more in control and prepared the next time she met with the ministers and generals. A shit contingency plan always sounds better than a non-existent contingency plan.

'The resulting shifted orbit of Olympus B will lead to Olympus 1 being thrown towards Olympus A, Olympus 2 being ejected and Olympus Prime being thrown towards Olympus A too. All of the coupling O'neil cylinders (rotating space habitats), orbital rings and stations coupled with each of the planet's gravitational field will also be affected in similar disastrous ways.

'Each of the events that I have described will be staggered in a month long timeline, with the earliest of the events happening as early as in three weeks.' Dr Dorry May said with a serious tone.

'So you are saying if this ridiculous model is true, everything will go to shit in three weeks?' The representative of Land and Seas exclaimed as he sat up high in his bath, 'unbelievable.'

'That's why you will only have one week at the maximum for your internal examination of the model.' Dr Dorry May doubled down on her previous orders, 'The first things that will be affected are the solar research stations that are the closest to the suns. So you don't have much time before they evacuate regardless.'

'And what is the contingency plan then? Are we going to evacuate planets?' The Aquarian Angels leader, the bioship company finally opened up and said, 'that could be good business for us.'

'It won't be of much use if you can't outrun the decaying orbits without the acceleration gates.' Star Gate Alliance budged in, and they both nodded at each other in agreement. It will be good business for the both of them.

'If we are to evacuate all of the planets fully, we need to start now.' Dr Dorry May said, looking at the beings in this room, 'and I do not think any of you will support and fund for such a plan.'

'How much funding are you talking about here?' Finally, the woman of Star Bank spoke again.

'Conservatively, we allow each of the mobile habitats to move away on their own volition, and ignore the Olympus 2 which should be able to self sustain if power is continuously beamed from Olympus A to it with the Olympus A orbital mirrors. Star Gate Alliance will get enough funding to set those up in the next few weeks.' Dr Dorry May explained to the agreement of Star Gate Alliance's president.

'Sounds good.'

'And with that taken into account, the first pass of the estimated cost will be three hundred trillion, to cover all of the movement of the beings away from Olympus 1, with orbital rings emptied and habitats towed away.'

'Are you shitting me?' Star Bank's representative almost fell off her squeaking chair, 'and you want that up front?'

'I suppose you can wait a week.' Dr Dorry May turned her head and said tauntingly, 'I thought you are full of riches?'

'This won't help, Dorry.' The young leader of Infinity said again, 'We can support half of that to purchase whatever that will be needed for this evacuation, and they will of course be branded Infinity.'

The other representatives audibly gasped in response to what he said.

'We need leaders in this situation.' He said firmly, 'now is not the time to be stingy.'

'We will also provide support for thirty tril.' Star Gate Alliance's boss said, 'seeing we will be dealing with the major constructions.'

'We can do twenty each.' The leaders of the two budding software companies finally said their first words since the meeting began. They don't exactly have the deepest capital out of all of the giants in this room, but they are certainly eager to show themselves.

'My allowance is....ten.' The Star Bank Representative said with a difficult look on her face, 'any more, and I will be in trouble.'

Of course the bank will be the stingiest of the bunch.

'I can do fifteen, but don't you forget this!' Dynasty Investments said, pointing a finger at Dr Dorry May.

All of a sudden, two hundred seventy three out of the three hundred trillion units is covered, at least through vocal promises. Dr Dorry May is certainly happy with what she got so far.

'We will do ten.' The Galactic United Miner's representative said, 'we work for the people.'

Sure you do. The look of the rest of the room replied.

'We will do ten too.' Aquarian Angles said, 'with special discounts for all those who wishes to purchase bioships for those that wanted to get out as soon as they can.'

'Twenty.' The head of the Land and Seas finally spoke, 'to account institutional inequality and corruption that you guys are famous for.'

'That concludes it.' Dr Dorry May stood up triumphantly, 'My people will formulate further detailed plans for the staged evacuations before forwarding it to each of you. We will reconvene next week to discuss any further details and results of your internal investigations.

'I am sure you know what will happen if this turns out to be a con.' The fat woman of Star Bank warned yet again.

'Don't treat me like a kid.' Dr Dorry May said, looking directly at the stingy greasy woman.

After the meeting's finished, all of the holograms flickered out as the connections were disabled. And then, all that's left is the young president of Infinity and Dr Dorry May sitting in the room next to each other.

'...Thank you for that.' Dr Dorry May said, looking longingly at the handsome young president.

'Anything for the greater future of the galaxy.' He said with a polite smile, 'If the initial estimate isn't enough, just let me know.'

Then, he also flickered off the connection. Dr Dorry May let out a sigh of relief before reaching into the cabinet and swallowed another pill for anxiety. There is a light headache welling from within her, but there is no time to rest. She has work to do.

Later that day, she will have a meeting with the governor of Olympus 1 before addressing the galactic media with a speech that is already written by her trusty AI assistant.

Things will only get harder for her from now on. And making a move at this time in the election cycle is incredibly risky...

Shit! She was so caught up in the actual matters that she didn't even think about the electoral race! Deep down, she knows that serving the people that she has sworn to serve should be her number one priority, particularly in the times of crisis.

But what if the entire falling star conspiracy is a mere construct created by her opponents that are used to bring her down? What if all of this is a ruse? A display of trickery and a mockery of her position of power? No...there isn't time to waste her thoughts on this. She needed to get her mind together and figure this out.

The holograms flickered to light once again, the governor of Olympus 1 came online.

While the inner battles were fought in Dr Dorry May's head, there are other battles going on in the galaxy.

'We really appreciate you coming here, but unfortunately, we cannot allow you to enter.' The guards at the Rocky Solar Research station repeated yet again the pre-written script that they were given regarding any external visitors.

'We are academic researchers!' Jun said once again with the extra ounce of patience he didn't know he had, 'if you can't allow us to enter, then can you at least offer up the contact details of the chief researcher at the station? In most cases, this goes against traditional research corperation conduct, but in the case of a sun falling out of the sky, it warrants such extenuating procedures!'

Toso looked at Jun and was truly impressed by his use of extravagant words, but it appeared that no matter how good of a case Jun makes, the guards will simply not let them in. That's when the decryption is complete on Toso's end, and he gave Jun a tap in the back to indicate the hacking is complete, and they now have access into the internal network of the solar research station.

'I hope you are going to be happy with the consequences of whatever you are hiding.' Jun had to get the last word before he cut off the transmission. Then, he slid over towards Toso and the two began to check on the footage that they have now gained access to.

The internal monitoring system had records of everything that goes on in the station, and Toso immediately performed a quick search for anything that will give some ideas to what the others in the station thought of the Falling Star hypothesis, or even going back to the earliest time that it was proposed.

Jun took a copy of the access and started looking at the latter while Toso scanned through the former.

It wasn't long before the both of them found something big. The other researchers didn't have much respect nor care for Caliditas, though they have already debated the validity of the model and said 'it was one of her more realistic works', despite the ridiculous premise.

Rather it's just a nicely tuned model which exactly predicts the behaviour of Olympus B for days now. However, nobody is still paying any mind to the actual conclusion of the model.

A falling star? How ridiculous.

'Wait until you see this.' Jun said, bringing over his own screen, and it showed Caliditas, Brakagi and Jozzor in the same room.

'Shit....'

'So it is most likely true, assuming that the three of them are not insane all together at the same time.' Cellica explained, showing the footage that two of her unit members found to the group of powerful people in the galaxy in this conference call. Dr Dorry May, general Kuviar, officer Kuviar, the governor of Olympus 1 and 2 and representatives from the big ten all gathered around and heard what she has said.

'regardless of the ridiculous sounding premise of Brakagi's powers, we need to take this threat seriously, and we need to act as soon as we can.'

'Thank you for your hard work, Cellica.' Dr Dorry May said sincerely, 'we will take your warning to heart and act accordingly.'

Cellica certainly wasn't expecting the lack of push back coming from the higher ups, but this is a welcome development for sure. Though she doubts how sincerely they will really take her warning to heart. She was excluded from the meeting after the presentation, and all that's left are the decision making parties. However, officer Sundera slipped Cellica access for what she is seeing just so she can still stay in the loop. Cellica will have to buy her a drink in the future as thanks.

'So?' Dr Dorry May looked around the room, 'I wished I could have learnt of the attack on the GBI sooner, but I suppose you had your reasons, general Kuviar?'

'We were still performing internal investigations on this matter, head senator.' General Kuviar said through gritted teeth, as Cellica plainly and simply exposed the weaknesses and unpreparedness of the GBI in front of all of the leaders in the meeting. However, it is also really his fault for not bothering to look over the materials of her presentation himself. Of course, he isn't going to admit to it.

'Doesn't sound like there is too much mystery left from the way Cellica is talking about it.' Dr Dorry May assured general Kuviar, 'You know we will all appreciate honesty more than appearances around here.'

Oh really? General Kuviar glared towards the slimy beings around, then why are you all so well dressed and composed?

'That should be evidence you needed for funding the evacuation? Dr Dorry May looked over to the representatives of the Big Ten and waited for the response that she was hoping for, however, the atmosphere in the room thickened as the representative of Star Bank opened her mouth.

'Well...from our very own investigation, the whole thing is a ruse!'

'What?!' Dr Dorry May and general Kuviar both shot up from their seats.

'We have histories of instability and insanity from all of the three rockies! We cannot take what they say and claim seriously and risk wasting resources!'

'What about the data clearly showing abnormal activity of Olympus B?' Dr Dorry May disputed.

'We have also performed our very own statistical analysis and it showed this activity is nothing out of the ordinary.' She said stubbornly, looking blankly at the camera as she read out the script in her mind.

'We all know those tests can be easily manipulated to show whatever you want to see.' Dr Dorry May said angrily, she can't believe that they are still stuck in that place, but it was her fault for streaming the timeline like this, giving the Big Ten a single week to hastily investigate the matter. Of course the underlings are going to present data that will make the higher ups happy.

'So how do we know that YOU didn't manipulate the data to coerce us to give you money?' The representative of Dynasty investments also chimed in.

'Because those funding will go directly to the evacuation efforts!'

'Well, why don't you ask the Space Force's opinion on this?' Dynasty Investment's representative looked at the general that leads the entire space force, who had a bit of a poor history with the head senator for the cut in funding. However, he should be glad that there should be full financial support in this entire urdeal with evacuation.

'Don't you think the timing of this conspiracy is rather perculiar, head senator?' The general said dryly, though his eyes surrounded by wrinkles looked directly into Dr Dorry May's soul, 'isn't this the perfect time to unite everyone with a singular event? You leading the entire system to safety and peace?'

'Well, perhaps there is another conspiracy behind the falling star conspiracy? A crisis created and driven by you that will allow you to be reelected for another five years?'

'That is stupid.' Dr Dorry May said outright, 'we all know the efforts will be incredibly difficult and flawed to begin with, so it would make more sense for whoever my competition is to start this up!'

'ASSUMING that the model's prediction is true, that is.' The general corrected Dr Dorry May, 'which I do not believe. You are merely finding an excuse for more funding to cover up your lackluster leadership over the past three years!'

'I will run for the head senator in the next cycle, head senator.' The general said as he looked on at the head senator with nothing but pity, 'and I will not fall for you tricks.'

Then, he exited the meeting.

'Don't be ridiculous, all of you.' For the first time in this meeting, the young president of Infinity has spoken.

'It is always you that is standing besides the head senator, isn't it?' General Kuviar pointed it out, leaning over and looking at the young man.

'I would be standing besides you if the GBI isn't being visited like a department store, general.' He replied sharply back, and general Kuviar had to swallow down whatever witty response he had.

'We may not have the support of the space force, but we will still do whatever it takes to save as many as possible.' The young president said, 'we don't have much time, so let's get started.'

After the meeting ended, Officer Sundera and Cellica were the only two left with the personal transmission between the two of them.

'So, what do you think?' Officer Sundera asked, looking over at Cellica who looked like she suddenly aged ten years in a day, 'a bit of a mess, isn't it?'

The games of politics they play now will cost trillions of lives, and all they cared about is the chance of their reelection.

Oh, and Zero is the president of Infinity. Worse yet, he is the most sensible of the bunch.