Welcome to Gaia! ::

((I'm assuming that the rest of the name is a word whose definition is a broad category which includes macadamias and cashews. razz ))
((BTB, nomination for Best Luncheon Description goes to T-boss. I've never seen a salad so real in anyone's expository writing. biggrin ))


Again, the two exchanged glances, this one lasting seven or eight seconds. Finally, Hannah returned her attention to her salad. Nida had the floor.

"Your assessment is quite apt. We do indeed have very few manufacturing and assembling facilities, and most of those are for expendables. Simple ferroweave armor, ammunition, so on. We can't even build ICEs, let alone fusion reactors - or reflex engines."

The glint in her eyes was pure Nida. Perhaps it was a shared trait among the race. "Now, here's where your analysis breaks down: The others see that I'm buying off their raw materials with brand-new equipment, they're going to horn in on my deal. Now, you said something a minute ago that basically amounted, as I interpret, to favored trade status. I like favored trade status.

"But here's the interesting part. I have a counterproposal that I think you might like."

Hannah's eating slowed. She raised her eyes to watch her mother.

"I say that a contract is a commodity," Nida declared. She rested her elbows on the table, leaned forward, spread her hands. Giving benediction to the finger sandwiches. "Just like money or life insurance policies, it can be bought, sold, traded. If that's the case, then the contracts you propose signing - with any of the Ascendancy, me or the others - they're like currency in and of themselves. So what would happen if we pooled that currency together?"

The cowgirl's eyes rolled, and she dropped back into the salad. Nida swatted the back of her head in exasperation.

"Hear me out. As the Ascendancy stands, we're just a resistance group facing a nastier enemy and scraggling by on scraps. Now, that situation doesn't change with the idea you're proposing, those semi-exclusive contracts with individual Ascendants. But if, instead, we could get rid of our tiered system in the light of a contract between the ASDF and the entire Ascendancy..."

"In other words," Hannah interjected in a bored voice through a mothful of greens, "you're saying that we'd go from Adam Smith capitalism to a communist structure, where we act more like an oligarchy of the public than a group of corporations." She gestured with her bowl, some vague motion which conveyed inevitability, forethought, something like that. "Which is fine and dandy, except there are still procedural issues, administrative things... All the Nidas working together in an economic sense is feasible, but if you're trying to say you want to truly unify, then you're a moron. Could you possibly even put up with Nida's a**l organization system and situation codes and all that? Could she handle your command structure?"

Nida threw her head back. Hannah began eating again, but raised her eyebrows toward Tanasha. "She thinks she's brilliant, but it's not hard to stay one step ahead of her. That's why I edit her battle plans."

((There are times, T, when I wonder about you... confused ))


"So you're basically saying we let the dwarves run things?" Nida snorted.

Hannah quickly interjected: "If you're familiar with Terra - well, Terra Prime had a Caesar from Italy who, when he made public appearances, rode with a dwarf in his conveyance. The dwarf would whisper humilities to him, to remind him that he was just another man. So our joke is that I'm her dwarf."

Nida nodded. "The Nidas won't go for representative democracy anyway. Hell, look how well it worked for all the Americas that used it."

Hannah picked up the thread without a moment's hesitation. "Our low population allows us to use a purely economic model to maintain our status. Since we all started from a relative parity, resource-wise, the barter system arose naturally. We only bothered codifying it for fine-tuning purposes. That was organic and natural, and I think that's the only reason it worked. Imposing an artificial system on what amounts to a pack of anarchists is..." She wavered her hand and made an "I dunno" expression.

Nida rolled her eyes. "We're not totally anti-organization, obviously, or we couldn't maintain our militias."

Hannah heaved an exasperated sigh. "Anarchism is a form of government, not an opposition to all governing systems. Jesus." She returned her attention to Tanasha. "Okay, so the issue is basically jealousy, and I think we can veto regime change as a method of dealing with it. Look, I dunno about Mother here, but for myself, I say we don't need to have a pissing contest with the other Ascendants. I don't see why we don't just reconfigure our current system, with the ASDF as a player. We value our scrap - hell, we trade scrap with each other - based on the value of equipment we'll get in return from the ASDF for that scrap."

Nida barked a laugh of pure delight. "You're setting up the ASDF as Enron. They're basically creating a new market, then using actual material flow to control the value of the market." She slapped the table and grinned. "So long as we don't get any rolling blackouts, I think it's viable."

((They're both nuts, too. razz Or at least are considered such in the common parlance. ... And I was honestly complementing the salad; it was quite evocative. I've been craving a good Caesar ever since.))


Nida nodded. "So now we need to set up a conference call. Which will take some time, and I'll need to get back to the Rock to handle it."

"I'll stay here," Hannah said with suddenness. "I can help coordinate. Just leave me the APC and the TMs, and I'll be a liaison."

Nida shook her head. "No. You can be a liaison later; for now, I need my strong right hand to sort out the mess back home while I get the ball rolling." Her tone brooked no refusal.

"So it's settled, then?" she asked Tanasha.

Nida shook her head. "I'll handle the paying off part. If I put my reserve of new armor out as a down on this and send all my scrap to the ASDF, they'll listen."

And so, foodstuffs eaten and herpalitis a-germinatin', the boring exposition stepped aside, allowing Nida, Hannah, and their contingent to finally leave the base without huge paragraph blocks for everyone to read through. The villagers cheered.