The Martial Unity

Chapter 4118: Alliance Dominance Model

While the world still reeled from the impact of the crazy world-shattering events, literally, that unfolded in their solar system for a second time in four months, Rui had already moved on, allowing his brother and sister to handle the public fallout.

He was more interested in what the future held for him.

”Go on.” He leaned forward, his elbows resting on the table in his office while he steepled his fingers. ”Show me what you have prepared for the future of Gaian Civilization.”

The light of the morning sky illuminated his royal office and the Shepherd, who stood several meters away with a screenboard behind her, along with several assistants arranging materials and documents nearby.

The Shepherd uncharacteristically wore formal academic attire. Her auburn eyes shone with a glint of unusual determination. Perhaps it was because she understood that she had contributed even more to the future of human civilization than when she helped Rui with his Regime of Water and the Void Order Regime.

Regardless of what Rui would choose, she had left an unmistakable mark on human civilization.

”We have pored over the commission that you made of our committee for several months,” she began with a serious tone of voice. ”And we have kept the objective that these models attempt to achieve as the goal you shared, which was to conquer ten thousand stars in ten years.”

Rui waited patiently as she continued with her little introductory speech.

”It was not easy to quantify what the true conditions for such an ambition to come true are,” she continued. ”And it certainly is even harder to estimate whether our models will fulfill them or not. We have had to use stochastic dynamic agentic models, collect tremendous amounts of sociological and economic data, and borrow immense computing power to create potential solutions and our results.”

She nodded to her assistants, who promptly picked thick stacks of sheets bundled together into large, massive documents.

THUD THUD THUD .

They placed three such large piles of papers on his table before him. Rui raised an eyebrow with a hint of intrigue. ”And these are...?”

”These are three possible models for the solution that you sought for me,” she replied simply. ”The reality is that even though I said that privatization and the free market are the path forward towards the development of human civilization, it was an extremely broad and vague statement. Even with the solutions that I espoused, there is tremendous leeway. Rather than choosing one for you, I decided to create three models based primarily on one parameter.”

She turned to the screenboard behind her, pressing several buttons with a remote.

It featured two blocks with the words ’Gaian Alliance’ and ’Interstellar Civilization’ in them, with a two-way arrow pointing between them. Above the arrow was the keyword that she wanted to stress.

”Relationship.” She tapped on the screen. ”Three different models for the relationship between the Gaian Alliance and the interstellar civilization that will form in the future. These models not only differ on the fundamental relationship between the Gaian Alliance and interstellar civilization, but also on the risks, the probabilities of success of the stated goals, and the externalities they create. It will be up to Your Majesty to decide what to pick after weighing all of them together. The first of the models being what I call...”

She pointed to the model to Rui’s left. ”...The alliance-dominance model.”

Rui already didn’t like the sound of that, but he remained silent, allowing her to continue.

”The alliance-dominance model is a model that projects that while a certain degree of privatization and liberty in interstellar conquest is permitted, it must occur within the strict limitations and oversight of the Gaian Alliance,” she remarked. ”What this means is that parties will have the right to conquer planets, stars, and entire star systems, but their ownership of those star systems will be considered not sovereign but rather as merely extensions of Gaian Civilization, as represented by the Gaian Alliance. In other words...”

She shifted the screen to another slide, one that placed the Gaian Alliance at the highest level of a power and authority hierarchy. ”...the Gaian Alliance will still ultimately control this land, it will just be recognized to be under the tentative, not sovereign, ownership of private parties. In this model, parties will have the liberty to effectively own land while ceding that the Gaian Alliance has the right to seize them for the purposes of, say, civilizational security. Private pioneers, as we have decided to call them in this model, will be subject to regulations that will limit divergence from a specific model of expansion. The main difference between this model and a complete nationalization of space expansion is that private individuals can contribute and get some piece of the pie, but not have any real power in interstellar space. And naturally...”

She turned back towards him knowingly. ”The reality is that this has a lower probability of achieving your stated goal of colonizing ten thousand stars in ten years.”

”Then why present it to me at all?” Rui raised an eyebrow, frowning.

”Because it is the least risky path of them all,” she explained. ”It minimizes the externalities and diverging variables, at the cost of the probability of success.”

”Like what?” Rui raised an eyebrow.

”Like the rise of oligarchy, of radical ideologies that will use this opportunity to expand in a manner that they couldn’t in an already occupied world, and most importantly, separatism,” she explained. ”All of these are things that can threaten the very fabric of human civilization. And the best way to achieve these is to prevent them from ever having the room to grow to become a problem that is too big to solve.”

Rui fell into thought at those words as she continued explaining to him in detail what the alliance-dominance model entailed. She took effort into explaining the countless risks that were mitigated by simply not giving them an opportunity to arise, but how that would discourage investors from investing in space action, thereby minimizing the acceleration effect that would arise from the limited privatization.