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's business what they were doing, showing that the change in attitude was all throughout the government, not just the president's office.
Other than that, Eden continued their discussions with Esparia on the central bank situation. It was still in the negotiation stage as they fine-tuned their agreement, hashing out what powers the central bank would have compared to the monetary policies that their individual governments could implement in case of inflation and much more.
Hephaestus Industries had also gone into high gear, putting into practice the permission they had received from the government to work. They rapidly began producing everything that Eden had lost access to as a consequence of the trade and economic sanctions. They even sold them at a "loss" to Edenians and Esparians, to boot; nobody knew that the cost of production was basically zero, so they all assumed that the company was losing millions, if not billions, of dollars worth of profit. Thus, their reputation as a company only grew better and better.
Not only was Hephaestus producing their goods essentially for free in their automated factories, but they were also shipping them through Hermes, which meant the shipping charges were also being earned by one of Aron's companies.
Together with that, the arrival of Ukrainian grain and the zero-interest loans the Edenian government was offering for people to buy lands and develop them into farms was also seen as a windfall by the populace. Even though the lands on offer were barren and relatively low in fertility, that wasn't seen as much of a problem.
Especially after Asclepius Biotech introduced a new biofertilizer that promised to increase harvest yield by over 300%.
Alexander had never been so popular, not even immediately following the revolution that overthrew the previous dictatorship.
On a more... earthy front, the recycling—both of the world's garbage and Eden's sewage—continued apace. As it would negatively impact too many nations, the UN sanctions had protected and continued the treaty that Eden had signed to act as "the world's garbage bin". Aron could only shake his head with a wry smile when he had read that clause in the long, detailed list of sanctions imposed on Eden. Apparently countries didn't want to deal with their own trash, and he guessed they thought it would be a humiliation for the developing nation.
He had decided not to incorporate a company into his corporate structure to deal with it though, instead having Nova spawn another Child AI, Hygieia, to specifically handle recycling and recycling alone. It was too important a task to leave unattended in case of an emergency, like what had happened during his most recent upgrade, so Hygieia was welcomed to the AI family and considered a subordinate of Helios.
He had to admit, though, that his naming scheme was becoming more and more difficult to follow as time went on. Gods of the Greek pantheon were limited in their relevance to modern-day issues, so he would soon be forced to branch out in other areas besides the military, which he had already done.
The world was quickly discovering everything Eden was doing from the information being posted online, or images from the commercial satellites in orbit. They argued back and forth until they finally settled on a startling suspicion: the netizens at large believed that Eden actually WANTED the sanctions applied to them. They certainly weren't suffering under them, and it definitely appeared that they had long been prepared for them, so the hypothesis fit all of the evidence available to outsiders looking in.
But the world wasn't just watching; lawsuit after lawsuit was filed against Hephaestus by companies that were outraged by the blatant violation of their intellectual properties. Just because they couldn't sell their products in Eden didn't mean they would allow anyone else to!
That said, the companies could shout and wail and send Cease & Desist letters all they wanted to and all Felix did was shrug and chuckle about it in their periodic update meetings. Since Eden wasn't a member of the International Criminal Court and thus didn't subscribe to its jurisdiction, they could piss and moan all they wanted to, but all the whining in the world wouldn't change the fact that they couldn't enforce any intellectual property laws against an Edenian company.
When one irate magnate threatened to violate the Connect Group's intellectual properties, Felix left a response on par with that of General McAuliffe during the Battle of the Bulge in WWII. His answer was a simple post from his official, verified account on Pangea that read, "Go ahead and try."
(Ed note: General McAuliffe famously replied to a German demand for surrender during WWII with one word: "N U T S !". It was immediately before the Battle of the Bulge in Bastogne, Belgium. True story, and really interesting. Google it.)
The same thing couldn't be said for everyone, though, as Aron and Sarah both received subpoenas to appear before the US Congress, which had set up a committee to investigate them for various perceived offenses, including public safety and national security concerns, antitrust concerns, privacy concerns, and their economic impact on American citizens.
"Hahaha they really subpoenaed us," Aron laughed. He had been in a meeting with Sarah discussing the next steps for GAIA when they both received the email notification from their lawyers in the US, who were the ones to actually receive the summons.
"The lawyers said we could challenge this in front of a judge and argue that they're exceeding their authority and that the request is unduly burdensome. But they added that it would be very difficult for our motion to be upheld, since there's politics at play that will make every American judge biased against us. So, at the moment, they're recommending we negotiate the scope of our testimony, request certain protections, and clarify the terms with the committee. We'll eventually have to go, but we can at least stall them for a long time before that happens. Long enough, hopefully, that this whole UN debacle is done and over with," Sarah said.
"Do you think any of that will be allowed?" Aron sarcastically asked. He knew the answer already.
"Likely not, since the lobbyist groups have invested way too much money into—"
"Shhh, it was a rhetorical question," Aron interrupted with a grin. "There's no need for any delaying tactics or protection... tell the lawyers to do nothing, and we'll go 'testify' whenever is convenient for us, but certainly no later than two months from now."
He was already thinking about how to use the upcoming congressional hearing to his benefit.
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