When the rocket broke through the clouds, it was caught by all the surveillance satellites that were keeping an eye on Eden.If it weren’t for the rocket being too big to be considered a missile—its size rivaled the Saturn V rocket that sent astronauts to the moon—the observers would have thought that Eden was attacking them. After all, they hadn’t made any announcements before launching the rocket after having been denied permission by the ITU.Although many countries used their diplomatic channels to complain about the launch, Eden maintained that the rocket never violated any nation’s airspace before entering space, so there was no need for them to inform anyone. They also took the opportunity to inform those nations that there would be more than a few launches in the following days, so they shouldn’t complain that they hadn’t been informed in advance again.As for the question of what was inside the rocket, Eden answered with a blistering retort. They maintained that it was nobody

Though the number of countries Alexander could visit had reduced, thanks to the travel bans, he didn’t waste time complaining in Eden. Instead, he chose to visit what countries he still could—especially those suffering under sanctions—to strengthen their diplomatic ties and economies. After all, it was hardly ever the people in power who suffered, but rather the innocent citizens below them.During each visit, he would somehow manage to come up with deals that were beneficial to both countries—Eden, as the manufacturer and exporter of goods, and the countries he visited, who would receive the cheap products they had sometimes never had. For instance, Cuba had still been using cars produced in the 1940s and 50s from before the United States imposed sanctions on them in 1958 until they struck a deal to import manufactured goods from Eden in trade for certain luxuries, like hand-rolled Cuban cigars. Plus, part of that particular deal washed back on the US in an unexpected way; with an of

The names of the companies that Aron owned gave everyone that heard them goosebumps. Although some of the people in the room hadn’t heard of a few of them, they had indeed heard of the others, and all of them were very rich and very, very private.Most of them knew of GAIA, Hephaestus, ARES, Icarus, and Asclepius; each of them were tentatively valuated at hundreds of billions of dollars, which was why they were shocked to their core.That was when they came to the realization that the man in front of them or on their tv or phone screens’ net worth was nearing the trillion dollar mark. That would put him firmly in place as the world’s richest man, with the difference between him and the second place more than 800 billion dollars. Billion! With a B!But what absolutely mystified them was that Aron had only become a millionaire less than three years before, meaning that in the short span of three years he had gone from “moderately comfortable” to “money is just a scorecard for the game o

"Mom, Dad, I have a few more people to introduce you to," Aron said.A tall, upright woman dressed in an ARES uniform appeared. "This is Athena, the woman who manages ARES and trains them.Athena bowed and said, {Nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Michael.}A burly, handsome man wearing thick denim pants, boots, and a leather apron appeared. "This is Hephaestus, who helps me with manufacturing all the things made in the automated factories," Aron said.Hephaestus nodded at the Michaels.A petite, slender figure that seemed cloaked in shadows was the next to appear. "This is Nyx, she's the one that helps us investigate things and defends us from most of the underhanded things other people try."Nyx beamed a smile and said, {Mr. and Mrs. Michael, I'm so happy to meet you finally!}"And these are Plutus, Asclepius, Hermes, Icarus, Helios, Coeus, and Hygienia. They all help with the companies named after them—well, all except Hygienia. She helps Asclepius and Helios, but her main duty is wast

“Do you expect the UN to come to a good resolution?” the next reporter asked.“Our hopes are high, since it’s the only way for us to be prepared by the time they arrive”.“When are they going to arrive?” the reporter followed up.“We aren’t sure. Our observation period hasn’t been long enough to determine that, so it depends on whether they’re accelerating, coasting, or decelerating. Flying a spaceship isn’t like driving a car—you accelerate part of the way, then coast part of the way, then decelerate part of the way. If you plan it right, acceleration and deceleration should take the same amount of time, but we don’t have time to get into the more complex physics behind it. Basically, our estimates right now put them arriving around ten years from now at the soonest, and no later than twenty-eight years from now. So we need to get our affairs in order and prepare so we can face them as a united front within the next ten years.” Alexander pointed to the next reporter.“Do you think we