Chapter One Hundred and Four: Time Skips
June 10th, 3025
"Dad," David whined. "Sapphire won't leave me alone."
"That's because she's trying to be like her big brother." I said with a smile as I sat out on my front porch drinking some sweet tea. "Now go play with her some, one day you'll understand."
"This is nice." Natasha said after our kids had run off somewhere. "I do believe that our time avoiding politics is up though." She pointed out the Princess class dropship touching down at the spaceport in the distance. "That is Archon Steiner's personal dropship I believe."
"Yep, that's Katrina's dropship all right." I shrugged as I continued drinking my glass of tea. "She must have come in with the civilian traffic and not made her presence known."
"I shall have to agree with you on that." Natasha said with a smile. "I wonder how big Melissa has grown."
"She's probably going to be taller than you'd expect." I said with a chuckle. "She's got some height genetics like you wouldn't believe."
"Well," I stood up and tossed back the rest of my tea. "Shall we say hello to some old friends?"
"We shall." Natasha agreed.
Later that day…
"Uncle Mark!" Melissa, now a fifteen year old, ran up to give me a hug. "Tante Tasha?" She asked turning to Nat, seemingly surprised to see her again before running up to give her a hug as well.
"Uncle Mark," Elsa, a much more reserved individual than her older sister, walked up and gave me a small hug.
"Why hello there Elsa." I grinned down at the thirteen year old. "You're a lot bigger than I remember you being. You're what, seven now?" I asked with a grin while winking at Katrina.
"I'm thirteen Uncle Mark!" The normally reserved little Katrina clone got a little upset with me. "You should know that already."
"Well I'm starting to get old," I said with a grin, "And my memory might be starting to go, so you might have to remind me sometimes."
"You're not that old." Elsa grumbled.
"No, I'm not, and my family doesn't have a history of losing their minds to alzheimers or any other disease like that." I grinned at her, "I just love messing with you."
"Melissa!" David finally made his presence known as he attempted to pick up the much bigger teen in a bear hug. "You got taller." He pouted for a minute before seeing Adam Steiner still hiding in the background. "Adam, let's go play." Adam hesitated for a second, looking at Katrina and Arthur to make sure it was okay with them before running off with David to somewhere in the Ducal estate.
"I take it this is Sapphire?" Katrina knelt to greet the four year old. "I can see why you named her that," Katrina said after introducing herself as Aunt Katrina, and her husband as Uncle Arthur. "Her eyes are probably the brightest blue I've ever seen."
"One of the few times where a baby's eyes were already the color they were going to be for the rest of their life." I agreed. "Shall we go inside now?" I asked.
"Yeah, I forgot what summers here are like." Katrina said with a smile. "When you spend so much time on an icy planet like Tharkad, you almost forget that there are other climates."
"Well, we've got fantastic air conditioning here." I said with a smile as I turned to face the estate and began to walk inside.
"Back rides!" Melissa yelled out her attack as she jumped on my back.
"Melissa," I coughed a bit after the unexpected attack. "I'm afraid you're a bit too big for that now."
"Nonsense," She waved regally, "Now onward my steed."
June 12th, 3025
"Melissa wants to enroll in the Marksman Academy." Katrina told me. "That and one other important thing is why we are here."
"Oh?" I asked. "I knew about her intending to try and join the Marksman Academy from the letters we've exchanged, but what other thing was important enough to come here yourself?"
"I finally was able to convince Defiance to trade for what you wanted." Katrina said with a wide grin. "They'll accept the specs and some engineers to help them build a Swordsman factory in exchange for the lone Rampage line that they haven't retooled to the Zeus Specificatios yet."
"Really now?" I asked. "Is it conditional? Because I haven't gotten more than two of the Swordsman factories up and running in separate locations yet."
"Just have the engineers sent over by the end of next year, and they'll consider this a done deal." Katrina said. "In fact, the reason I brought the extra Dropships with me were for more than escort duty."
"You went ahead and brought the line over." I figured it out.
"I did." She smiled, "And we wanted to spend this time on vacation for a couple of months before Melissa starts the academy."
"That should be fine." I said, "Do you want me to set aside the guest mansion?" I asked, "Or would y'all rather stay here in the estate?"
"Estate, it's not the first time we've been on holiday here before anyway." Katrina said, "I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of other people show up in the next couple of weeks though."
"There goes my five years free of politics." I said with a groan. "To change the subject, how did the Oppie's work?"
"We've been able to get some worlds almost entirely cleaned up from some of the destruction of the first and second Succession Wars." Katrina reported with a smile. "And it's allowed me to cement my alliance with the Fedsuns and Concordat even more because of the economic growth it has allowed us to start."
"That's good to hear." I said, "How's Storm doing?"
"He found a partner to help him with the security side of things, and renamed the company Norse-Storm." She replied, consulting her slate. "They've actually finished rebuilding the Nightstar plant on Loxley and a couple of other 'mechs."
"I knew funding him was the right idea." I said with a grin. "I've got forty-nine percent ownership there."
"Well, I think that was all of the work that I had planned for the day." I said. "Let's go have some fun."
June 15th, 3025
"Zarantha and Thomas Calderon," I greeted the mother and son duo with a head nod. "A pleasure to see you again."
"I suppose it is." Thomas said begrudgingly before his wife smacked the back of his head.
"I apologize for my husband's lack of manners." Katherine Calderon said with a smile. "I'll introduce you to the children later, they're a bit of a handful right now."
"I know the feeling." I responded with a chuckle. "Duke Mark Hull, at your service." I introduced myself to Katherine.
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you." She said as she met my handshake with a firm one of her own. "I've heard a great many things about you."
"I'm guessing both good and bad in equal measure depending on the conversation." I responded with a smile to let her know that I didn't take offense.
"Yes, it depends on the conversation indeed." She laughed, "Now where are your children? I heard you had two of them."
"I do have two of them," I agreed. "But they're currently running around like crazy folks with Archon Steiner's children."
"They'll get along great then." She responded. "Now, let me introduce you to…"
June 20th, 3025
"Ian, Dana, Hanse," I greeted the next set of leaders to show up on my planet. "I want to know what exactly is going on here."
"You'll find out, Mark." Ian and Hanse chuckled, while Dana just looked at me with sympathy. "You'll find out."
June 21st, 3025
"Thomas Marik," I greeted the man with a handshake. "It's great to finally meet you in person after all of the messages."
"Indeed it is." He said with a smile. "Thank you for your assistance in building the hospitals and learning centers."
"You are most welcome," I said immediately. "But we've got a ways to go yet before we're done."
"Indeed Duke Hull, Indeed." Marik responded. "Have you considered allowing us to build an HPG on the world?"
"Before Comstar became truly neutral I would have never considered it." I said after a moment of thought."But given the way your organization is now, I would fund the construction myself."
"I'll discuss it with the first circuit and the oversight committee upon my return to Terra." He said with a smile. "It would be nice to communicate with you beyond the couriers that we rely on now, your advice has been very helpful in boosting the neutrality of Comstar as an interstellar entity."
"Well, it's been a pleasure to help someone in Comstar that was trying to actually make a difference." I replied. "I take it you can't tell me what's going on either?"
"No Duke, I cannot." Marik replied, "You'll find out soon enough."
June 22nd, 3025
"Please tell me you're just here to retire." I looked at Kerlin Ward.
"Of course," He responded, "I bought a couple hundred other retirees with me, but aside from that I was going to ask for a nice area to set up shop in."
"Set up shop?" I asked cautiously.
"Why yes, I have discovered a newfound love for teas, and was thinking about opening up a tea shop." Ward replied. "And based on several studies that I conducted, Kentares IV has the perfect climate to grow many of the tea leaves that I would like to use."
"Thank God you're acting normal at least." I said after a minute. "Let's find you a good tea shop location, I'll pay for the construction myself in fact."
June 30th, 3025
"Now, y'all can tell me what the hell is going on, or do I have to go take over what's left of the Capellan Confederation and Free Worlds League in order to get away from here?" I said and asked all at once, frustrated at not having any answers.
"We've been having trouble negotiating a proper alliance between our three nations." Zarantha Calderon spoke up honestly. "Thomas Marik here has been a big help as a neutral party, but he has only outside information, and is not able to fully help us negotiate this properly."
"I'm not setting up another Star League." I said from the very start. "I'll help negotiate this, but I need to know if this is going to be a union of nations, or merely a proper alliance?"
"A proper Alliance." Thomas Calderon growled out. "Despite my innate distrust of the Davions, I must admit that over the last few centuries we have not truly been enemies as we once were, and Ambassador Calderon managed to convince Ian to hold Plebiscites on all of the worlds that were once a part of the Taurian Concordat. Only half of the worlds voted to rejoin the Concordat, but it proved that this current generation and the next will keep their word."
"And we would rather have another ally, then another enemy to fight currently." Ian agreed. "Both of our nations are currently consolidating our conquests from the Capellan Confederation after all."
"The Commonwealth will always benefit from peace." Katrina said with a smile, "We are just trying to arrive at a proper agreement for the other two nations currently."
"Alright," I said after a moment, "I need all three of you to send me a list of what you want." I passed out slates to those who didn't already have them. "We'll reconvene tomorrow and get all of this hammered out."