417 The Summit Begins

Through the window of the Edenian helicopter, Alexander saw a large crowd of people who had gathered to protest the unification. Their dissatisfaction was obvious, as was the reason for it; they didn't want to lose the privileges they thought they had.

They thought things like the already failing economy was a privilege, and thanks to being raised on a steady diet of American Exceptionalism propaganda, they somehow believed that theirs was the only country that had the privilege of freedom. Every other country on the planet could only experience a watered-down version of America's "freedom", and they would actively reject any evidence that ran contrary to their beliefs.

But there was another group of counter-protesters that believed in and supported the unification, as they saw it as the only way to deal with the incoming aliens and the potential threat they would bring with them.historical

"Any large change will always be met with an equal opposition. But there's always people who will support the change as well," Aron mused as he joined Alexander in looking out the window.

"There'll probably be even more opposition once the world learns of your plan," Alexander replied.

"For a while, sure, but once they see the new government actively fulfilling its promises, I don't think the opposition will last for long. Right now, they have a point. We did kind of steal power in a military coup and announced the results as a fait accompli. The ones they're really the most disappointed with are their leaders, who willingly handed over their countries without fighting to the last man for them," Aron said, then turned to Rina and asked, "When are you going to visit your parents?"

"Can you come with me for the visit?" She lovingly gazed into Aron's eyes.

"It's possible, but I can't stay for long. The next six months to a year are crucial, and will be the most exhausting period in the next decade. I need to ensure the new start's foundation is solid, so I can only squeeze out two days. But that works anyway, as I also need to have a conversation with your parents as well," he said.

"But they'll soon have access to VR, so we can meet them there if we want to spend more time with them," he added.

"For now, two days will be enough," she replied with a smile, then turned her head and looked at the Aegis detail waiting for them on the helipad atop the Time Warner Center, where the Mandarin Oriental hotel was located.

Once the helicopter landed, Alexander, Rina, and Aron disembarked from the helicopter. "Finally, the new beginning is approaching," Aron said with a smile of anticipation on his face.

...

The next day, United Nations Headquarters.

The day after Christmas, the world leaders left the Time Warner Center and headed to the UN HQ, where they would begin their summit. Rows of extra chairs had been placed in the general assembly meeting hall in preparation for everyone's arrival. They filed into the room in no particular order, but in a very particular silence; everyone present understood the gravity of the decisions that would be made in that very room over the coming days.

In the sea of world leaders, Aron stood out as a glaring exception. He held no authority, had no position in any government, and the only power he had in his hands was his private military corporation, ARES.

The attendees had agreed beforehand that the leader of the proceedings would be randomly selected. As it served no particular agenda to lead this summit, nobody had interfered with the random draw and the president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazurbayev, had been chosen to helm the summit.

President Nazurbayev took his seat and brought the summit to order, then began his opening remarks.

"Good morning, everyone. I am Nursultan Nazurbayev, and I'll be serving as the temporary chairperson during this summit, and will be in charge until our objective here is met. I'd like to remind you that, throughout the duration of this summit, my orders will be absolute. Anyone that creates a disturbance or refuses to follow my directions will be penalized. I'm sure everyone here realizes how damaging the penalties will be for your countries.

"Now that that unpleasant bit of business is out of the way, I'll announce the summit format. For the first day, everyone here will be given an opportunity to propose an amendment to the constitution you all received a few weeks ago. These amendments will be proposed one at a time with no time for debate and recorded for later. Please ensure that everything you want to be proposed is submitted by the end of today, as no more proposals will be accepted after today's session ends," he said, demonstrating a rather impressive lung capacity for a man of his age.

"Tomorrow, we will begin debating the proposed amendments and either discarding them or refining them to fit the real-world conditions until the new world constitution is finalized and unanimously approved by everyone here.

"Now that the summit format has been explained, I yield the floor to the representative from Eden, President Alexander Romero. Please propose your amendment, then yield to the next in line." President Nazurbayev took his seat and respectfully gestured for Alexander to kick things off.

"Thank you, President Nazurbayev. The first amendment I'll be presenting today is freedom of speech," Alexander said, then sat down again.

Without anyone needing to say anything, the summit meeting progressed. The second representative to propose an amendment was President Trump of the United States. "The right to own weapons," he said. It was only to be expected of the president of a nation that literally had more guns than people.

(Ed note: This is weirdly true. The per-capita gun ownership numbers in the US, in 2018, was 120.5 guns per 100 people with an estimated 390 million guns in circulation and a population of 328 million and some change.)

The next president continued the chain of proposals, standing and saying, "Freedom of movement."

"The right to live without unjust prosecution," said the following president.

"Right to clean living spaces."

"Right to a healthy life."

"Creation of the caliphate," said the president of Iran.

"Freedom of religion."

"Right to free education."

"Right to vote."

"Absolute free speech."

"Creation of the country of god,” said the pope and the president of Vatican City.

One by one, president after president continued proposing amendments, showing what they themselves deemed important as the first round of proposals continued.

The surprising thing was that Aron had been "skipped" in the first round of proposals. While an average person might consider that normal, given Aron's lack of an official position, the people in the room understood that Aron was far, far more than the rest of the world believed. They had experienced his abilities firsthand, and wondered if he would be the last person speaking, or if he had already spoken through his puppet leader, Alexander.

They weren't left wondering for long as, at the very last moment of the first round of proposals, Aron stood and said, "I propose the investiture of an emperor to lead an imperial governmental body in governing the entire world under one leader?"