Starbound: A Space Odyssey - Chapter 182

As soon as John entered inside Penguin Pete’s shop, he saw a few Penguins walking around carrying scrap metals and broken parts of old spacesh.i.p.s.

John looked around but didn’t see Pete anywhere. So, he walked towards the counter where he saw a Penguin wearing clean clothes, different from the rest that were all dirtied with oil, rust and other things.

The Penguin had his head lowered and his eyes were focused on a book on the counter.

John stopped by the counter and glanced at the contents of the book.

The book was very old and written on a complete different language than the recognizable official language of the universe, Terrenish.

John lightly knocked on the wooden counter to get the Penguin’s attention.

Annoyed, the Penguin grumpily raised his head to stare at John. Despite being clearly unwilling to talk with him, the Penguin’s still broke in a professional smile as he exclaimed, “Oh, a customer.”

John just looked over and said curtly, “I want to talk with Pete.”

The Penguin’s eyes sharpened for a moment before it returned to normal, “He’s with another customer right now. If you could please wait, he should be back soon enough.”

“Alright…” John thought for a moment and decided to wait.

He looked around and found himself a seat.

Somewhat bored, John looked up and just happened to see a Holovision at the wall.

The sound was muted and so John turned to the Penguin and asked, “Hey, can you raise the volume?”

The Penguin rolled his eyes and said with a snort, “Sure.” He raised his PIPS and pressed a few commands.

Soon, John could finally hear the anchor of the News channel in the Holovision.

“Hello everyone, I’m Poppy Hollow and you are watching the most reliable news show, PewNews.” The anchor, Poppy Hollow, introduced herself with excitement that John never saw in other news channels.

Poppy continued, “For the first news we have president of the United Earth Government, Nicole Gonçalves. Although elected democratically, her actions have been heavely scrutinized and criticized. As soon as she took office, she mobilized the army against rebellions and insurgencies that rose all around Beta Sector. As someone with military background and with the recent extreme actions, some fear that Nicole’s government is on track to become a dictatorship. But, most people are more worried about her warmongering statements she did throughout her election campaign. This morning in Pandora, Nicole called for a press conference to justify her actions and she also spoke about the reasoning behind her violent and swift actions against the insurgencies and rebellions. Let’s listen to what she has to say.”

With those words, the images in the Holovision changed to show the image of Nicole standing in front of a crowd of journalist and reporters.

Despite being a president now, Nicole still give a vice of a cold-hearted war veteran that couldn’t be seen by any of the last 15 presidents that took over the UEG.

Her piercing and frosty eyes easily shut up the annoying journalist that were itching to make question and write hot takes on her, be it against or in favor.

Microphones pilled up in front of her.

Despite being surrounded by those people and barraged with camera flashes, Nicole kept her calm and spoke with her authoritative and strong voice, “I acted as violent and swift as I did to give a warning to the bad actors controlling everything from behind the scenes. From today onwards, humanity would no longer be a pushover. Every single action taken against us, will be answered with ruthless and swift counterattack. We have been too passive and weak, but I won’t allow this to continue. Although I know the people who want to destroy my reputation and my government, I won’t let them succeed in any of their nefarious plans to interfere with Human politics. I’m going to say this loud and clear. If you want to mess with me, you should be ready to handle the consequences! That’s all I had to say for today, thank you for the attention.”

“Wait!”

“Mrs. President!”

“Nicole!”

President Nicole ignored the journalists raising their hands and trying to get closer to her.

She was escorted out of the place by a few bodyguard that were clearly not your usual guards, but obviously soldiers and secret agents from UEG’s intelligence bureau.

The video was cut short and the holovion switched back to the anchor Poppy Hollow as she continued, “In response to Nicole’s speech and actions, the president of the Universal Hylotl Goverment, UHG, said in a press conference, and I quote, ‘As we believe that Nicole will bring an end to liberty and democracy in the UEG, and most probably will become a dictator; we have no other choice but embargo the UEG’s planet members and block their access to all products from all companies belonging to the UHG’. I’m not supposed to give my opinion, but… it’s kinda hipocrisy that the UHG would say such thing since their citizens live under a sudo-dictatorship as their corporate overlords, Letheia Corporation, dictate what they can think, consume and see. Even more so when you think about the rumors of their relationship with the Miniknog, a brutal dictatorship that spans an entire race. But, well… that’s just my thoughts. Anyway, back to your normal programming. I’m Poppy Hollow and you watched PewNews. See you tommorow or when some breaking news happen, bye~”

John frowned at entered in deep thought.

The whole universe was really entering in a chaotic period.

The Terrene Protectorate maintained a long period of peace, but now that they were gone, everybody began eyeing that vacant seat for the supremacy.

War was inevitable, conflicts were already common place in most part of the universe already.

Pirates and outlaws began running rampant in the Frontiers.

John shook his head and stopped the unnecessary thoughts from clouding his mind.

It was in this moment that Penguin Pete appeared from behind the door that led to the shipyard.

When he caught sight of John, Pete wasn’t surprised and just casually greeted with a huge smile on his face, “Yo, John! Yer still alive, huh?”

“Looks like it, Pete.” John smiled and stood up to greet Pete.

“I knew you were one of those hard to kill.” Pete laughed as he patted John’s shoulder, “When I saw Lenny earlier I expected yer to be here as well. Looks like your outing wasn’t a smooth sail, I can clearly see that yer have changed.”

Penguin Pete’s sharp eyes easily saw through the changes in John’s mannerisms and emotions.

As a experienced soldier from the once glorious USCM, Pete had seen his fair share of people changing through certain experiences.

“Yeah…I have seen and did some things.” John’s lips curved in a faint smile.

“Let’s forget about it.” Pete saw that John wasn’t willing to speak about it and decided to just change the subject, “So, what can I for you?”

“Wait a moment.” John spoke, “You said you met with Lenny?”

“Yes, he just left. He came here to buy a new spaceship, but since he didn’t have enough money on hand, he went to get some.”

[He’s planning to leave already?] John frowned as he thought, [He didn’t even say anything to us…]