[The adoption of the Galactic calendar happens in 2106]
Sankara rubs his head. 'Why would people allow this? Empires are not the future.' Sankara had hoped the world would have moved past war, poverty and where are the spaceships.' Sankara's mind fills with all kinds of things. Every thought of his spiralling into another endless stream of some science fiction trope he read from a book.
The Emir, who has grown slightly agitated at being treated less than his position affords him, buries his thoughts deep. He, out of all people in the room, believe that he might be the one. Not because he is of royal blood, but that Overlord Baki wrote a letter to Halil Pasha, begging him to steward the young prince in his all matters. In the note stating, "Unlike all my other children before him, he is most like the third. Which is why I have sent him away. If he returns, protect him. For without him, the realm is truly lost"
The third ruler of the Realm Ultima, was Overlord Modjadji. Her reign was the longest of all lasting over a thousand years. She not only stabilised the royal family rule, she herself alone single-handedly forced peace with the Human federation. Since then, they have never dared to act out again. She also built the Glut system the empire survives on and created the Royal Seal of Sol and the mineral that gives the royal family its power.
Halil Pasha folds his arm and gives a huge exhale. "Overlord, if I may speak with you a moment."
Sankara agrees he has no reason not to, also he has seen that Chandragupta seems to take orders from the man. He stretches out his right hand to see that a ring that is exactly like his Sol Seal has appeared. It is alive with its silver and gold and green energies blinking in and out of view. Halil Pasha, seeing the hand of his Overlord, gesturing him closer. He moves to meet him. Chandragupta waves at Jon, who makes two chairs appear. Jon continues using mailable magnetic matter and neuro synced controls to make the entire room brighten up as a window appears showing the Earth behind it. The blue pearl of the cosmos is as radiant as ever. The earth is too far away for him to make out anything with just his eyes being over 200 kilometres away.
"Please Overlord, after you. After all, were my Lord leads, all shall follow." Halil Pasha cannot sit before his Overlord does. Sankara takes a seat he would have liked to go to the window to take in the view, but he is also anxious about the current situation and his role in it.
Halil Pasha begins. "Overlord, I am the Emir of Earth. We are in crisis. Forgive me for saying this, but they have led us astray. Since the passing of your eldest sister, Overlord Azula. It is only by her angels that the earth has not descended into civil war."
Jon was about to explain about his sister when Sankara said, "No need, right now I need to listen to him. Please fetch my grandmother after I am done with Halil Pasha. However, before you go, Jon. Explain the title of Emir to me."
Being with only his advisors, Sankara can speak a bit freely. Jon says, "Overlord, forgive us due to the nature of our current situation. Your ascension has had some faults, leaving you with an incomplete memory. Emir is the title given to the administrative head of each of your nine domains.
Jon stops as he goes to retrieve glasses from the cabinet that had appeared alongside a number of drapes, wall mounted insignia, a tapestry that Sankara is yet to see depicting the reign of Overlord Hannibal. The room comes alive by Jon's will, with a design he thought might impress his overlord. Especially the chandelier which used to hang in Overlord Baki's throne room. The chandelier is a homage to the royal family, taking the divine alignment to its highest form a true masterpiece of Traditional Solarian design.
Halil Pasha continues as Jon goes about his work. "My lord, in her grand wisdom, the austerity measures put in place by the Queen Mother have made the planet ungovernable. The people are starving like it's the twenty-third century. Her barbaric enforcement of which has driven the earth to near civil war. My lord the people are hungry, no matter how powerful one's enemies may seem if you lose the people, you might as well take the nearest spaceship and move to the Grand Bazar and leave us to die. For with you picking the crown of earth it will bring a blight not visited on the people since the destruction of Uranus." He takes a sip of the wine that Jon has poured, also being the first to drink, showing it is not poisoned. A gesture as at least three servants, four guards, a noble child and a priest has already taken a sip.
"I want to do the best possible. Emir, tell me how did it become like this. Why have you not been able to stabilise the situation?" Sankara felt it is too late he had already spoken and given how they have been speaking about him, he feels he can't apologies instead of a query he feels his question came out more like blame which at this point is something he is not interested in the fact the only thing he is interested in is the supposed spaceship he can take. He caught himself because when his inner voice asked him "what would Sankara do?" the answer was simply he would do all he can for his people.
The Emir of Earth, Halil Pasha's, eyes have deep shadows under them as he leans in "My lord, the failure is mine alone, in an attempt to keep the peace on the Gults of earth, I allowed those who would seek the destruction of the empire to interfere. The crisis of the family has left us without stable leadership for over twenty years now."
"Okay, fine...let me think a bit." Sankara receives a report directly transmitted into his head. It details the current food crisis and how the agents of the queen mother have possibly engineered it. In actuality, if Halil Pasha was Emir of Mars he would have done the same. The earth is still the jewel of Ultima, an endless resource of technology and human resources. Amongst the stars of man. No other holds a population of seven trillion so deliciously. The standard of living is also the highest in all Ultima, only The Sovereignty of Pluto coming close, but that is more a necessity than a luxury.
The current crisis is caused by them looting the system to prepare for what they see as the end of the realm eternal, even going so far as to find the sword of Ultima, which is the only known method to reset the gene code lock.
The information flood into his mind, the deluge enlightening the lord of the advancements man has made. Cities are now part of land growing into the crust of the earth and into the oceans. The earth is powered by the pressure of Mariana Trench, which is the natural solution to the problem of fusion power and made it completely safe as the artificial gravity was substituted with pressure, allowing for humanity to free themselves from fuels.
This technology also gave them the light drive system, which uses fusion light energy from the waste material produced by the fusion generators. Sankara filters the rest of the information, which includes advancement in medicine which has reduced diseases in humanity to less than one per cent. What interested him the most thou was how they dealt with dissension. By allowing them to leave, there are many such pockets of humanity throughout the stars, the most famous being the children of Kolob, whose holy land is in the stars. This is also how the empire's most hated enemy, the Human federation, came to be.
Proxima Centauri, being its centre of power since the purge of Sol. This also gave rise to criminal organisations that act as middlemen for these powers. Especially the Oort Cloud Mafia, a syndicate that has stolen a fully functional Singularity carrier-class ship. The Overlord allowed them to keep it because the Oort Cloud is in fact run by an extension of family of the royal family unike the terrorist group 'Lunatics' who simply want the realm to burn.
Sankara shakes his head, "Can we not salvage the manufactorium of earth and stabilise the situation?"
The Emir leans back as if relieved somehow, "Overlord, such a task will leave you vulnerable to your enemies, who have used the chaos to fermentate the people against you. They are not used to suffering and sway easily by the lies of those who care not for the realm. Even those filthy feds have made it to the planet once, and are trying to spread the word that earth should kill all of our alien brothers and sister and return it to the pure blue world it used to be.