04:00 IST, Fifth Day, Eighth Month, 3079 PV | Planet City Stelarum / Shuttle
“Darling, can you believe it's been one year already? At least, by intergalactic standards.”
“I honestly am still grappling with the idea that aliens exist. Perhaps give me a few more decades and I'll catch up to the whole we are contestants in an important piece of the universe’s history.”
“Darling, you're so cute when you think about such grand ideas. Honestly though, you're super cute all the time.”
“Says the cutest girl, rather person, in the entire universe.”
“Oh, stop, this isn't the time for such praise.”
“But, you don't deny it.”
“Of course not, I am the cutest in the universe, after all. That's an undisputed fact.”
“Pardon me, Milords, but we are about to land and the ceremony will quickly begin.”
What is this ceremony you might be asking? Well, we have decided that today, about one year since the start of this whole trial thing, would be the perfect time to wrap things up here.
It's not like we are abandoning the colony, but we can do most of the management from now on virtually. Plus, we are still contestants and whatnot. Also we've got that visit with the Quartet planned in a few days. So we've got to stabilize things in City Stelarum before we depart.
Naturally, this means we must decide upon who should take primary control of the planet when we are unavailable. It's important to have someone closer to the people that can really address things quickly and with deep knowledge of the situation.
As much as we would like to always know everything that is going on, our journey is about to heat up quite a bit, I expect. So it's just not feasible for us to keep track of everything that goes on on a daily basis and make good decisions based upon it.
“Kooooooo, space to darling Kooo. You can come back to us now, we are about to land, time for us to do things. Though I know you hate public speaking, so just leave most of it up to me, darling. It's my specialty after all.”
I snap back into reality, drawn out of my cloud of thinking. I seem to be doing that more and more lately. I guess the nature of the information is changing to involve more complicated topics. After all, it's not easy to explain complicated management and political ideas to future readers of this journal, while maintaining a grasp on reality.
“Thanks, darling. You go out there and shine enough for both of us. I'll just stand there and look cute I guess.”
“Yeah, you do that, show the universe just how cute you are!”
Ray grabs a hold of my hand as the shuttle comes to a landing. We are dressed up in our typical uniform. Though, I gotta say, it seems like Ray only gets even cuter with every day that passes. It defies all known laws of reality. She may not have inae, but her cuteness is magical enough. I daresay she has discovered a new extradimensional energy that manifests as cuteness.
We step out onto the stage of the stadium – the same massive one where we had our debut and subsequent graduation performance – and are greeted instantly by the cheers of the massive audience. The whole thing is packed full, after all, today is a big day. One that will decide the future of City Stelarum and all those that live within it.
We aren't the only ones on the stage this time though. Along with the pair of us are three others. They are;
Lindoa Lekao, a mid-thirties woman with light blue hair and yellow eyes. She specializes in environmental protections, she also serves as our current minister of environmental protection.
Hosi Soren, a man that is either twenty or eighty, I can't tell. He has jet-black hair and eyes the color of a sunset. He has something to do with transportation, but I can't remember where exactly he came from. But he managed to pass the preliminaries as the front-running candidate, so he must've done something.
Okin Stone, a massive man, not quite as big as Rigar, but he isn't far off. He has dark-gray colored hair and eyes that seem to be almost completely white. It's kinda creepy, but I guess everyone has a different fashion sense. It appears that he is actually a pretty famous pop star from back on Earth. Deciding to come out to the frontier to garner a new universe-wide audience.
Now, you've probably guessed what we have gathered here for. But, let me tell you straight. One of these three people will be ‘elected’ to serve as the governor of Planet City Stelarum.
How will they be elected? Well, I'll let Ray explain that bit.
We walk up to the center podium, the moment we stand in our spots, digital projections of various screens appear in our fields of view. Metrics like crowd happiness, rough tallying and such are displayed. All that one would need to host such an event as this.
Ray prepares and starts her speech, in her best TV-host impersonation.
“Welcome, ladies, gentlemen and all the other stuff. It's the day you've all been waiting for! The Inaugural City Stelarum Quiz show, brought to you by none other than I, the dazzling Ray. Oh, and I suppose darling Ko is here as well.” She starts it off strong, immediately getting a round of laughter from the gathered crowd. We won't need any laugh tracks, that's for sure.
“Now, I'm sure you are all ready and waiting for the show to begin. But, some people might be confused as to what's going on.
Allow myself to take up a bit of your time to explain, won't you, dear audience?
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
For Citizens of City Stelarum, you'll notice a new portion of your government interface has been added. This will allow you to not only view details about our contestants here, but also influence which one of them will win this little show.
The prize? Why, governorship over this entire planet, of course!”
The crowd goes crazy, and I'm sure everyone that's tuning in from around the planet is as well. It's also being streamed across the universe, to any that should wish to watch. Of course, only citizens can actually influence the show.
“Now, without further ado, let's give our participants a chance to introduce themselves.”
They introduce themselves, they don't say very much. But I do learn that Hosi actually owns the first transportation company that has been established on City Stelarum. I guess it makes sense why he is so well known in that case. After all, people love logistics companies. Especially when they can deliver all sorts of important consumer goods right to your window.
The numbers for Okin surge as soon as he starts to speak. Really showing off his skills as a career celebrity. Lindoa does fine, but unless she has a trick up her sleeve, it isn't looking too good for her.
“What a great selection of people we have.”
“You're right about that, darling. Round of applause for Ko managing to string together a sentence on stage, it's a big accomplishment for him.”
“Wait, dontcha act like I can't be on stage. It's not my fault that you are just so much better at it than I am. Plus, you're super duper cute, which makes you great at PR, right folks?”
“Aww, staph, we shouldn't do this in front of so many people. What would a certain someone say about such behaviour?
Let's move this show along then, shall we. I'm sure people don't wish to see us get distracted all day. Plus, we've got an important position to decide.
Now, this is a quiz show, so let's see what the first question is.”
On the displays appears a fancy animation to reveal the question. I don't know how to describe it other than it's very fancy.
Once it finishes the first question is revealed;
“What is the first thing that one should think about when going out on the town for some fun?”
“Alright, our contestants will each have two minutes to privately record a response to this question and then we will see what they come up with!”
A blackout barrier of sorts appears around the contestants and we (as the hosts) are the only ones that can see them as they begin to record their answers. It's a very important process. We wouldn't want to give anyone advantages by seeing how the crowd reacts to prior contestants’s answers.
Make no mistake, each of these three are geniuses in their own right. They might put on bubbly demeanors, but they are all perfectly capable of running the planet. Ray and I curated a short list of people we thought that could do it. Out of that list, the people favored these three the most, thus here we are.
Once the time is done, each of them is freed from their isolation and we play their answers for all to see.
Lindoa starts off with a very technical explanation of what fun and enjoyment is. Then she proceeds to conclude her points with an intense itinerary about the most optimal path to find fun. It's not very popular with the crowd.
Hosi starts off by saying jokingly that he would go out and hit a few bars and then head home, cause going outside is so last millennium. He then somehow wraps the end of his answer into a perfect advertisement for his logistics service, by saying that he would use his company’s services to get a grand tour of the city. How business-personlike. Also just his general voice and demeanor gives off that ‘lonely trillionaire bachelor that thinks of nothing but business’ vibe.
Okin, who does by far the best with the crowd, gives a brief explanation about why alcohol is the best thing to ever exist in the universe. Then he details plans for hitting up many of the most popular bars in the city, and some of the singing he would do while he visited. In order to ensure everyone present has a lot of fun.
The event proceeds on through several more rounds of questioning.
Lindoa always seems to prefer a technical approach. Which, given a normal political audience, probably would have been the best course of action. But, this is the city of stars, you won't get by without at least a bit of showyness.
Hoshi sticks to his half-joking half-advertising approach. Somehow he manages to do it in such a convincing way that tons of people love it. I guess its just a business skill, or just carefully practiced charisma and social manipulation? I wanted to ask Ray about it, but we got distracted later that night and I forgot about it.
Anyways, Okin absolutely dazzles the crowd. Even on some of the questions that are more suited towards the other contestants, he just dominates. I guess being a career celebrity really comes into an advantage when doing crowdwork.
If we ever do something like this again, we should perhaps come up with some other way that minimizes such absurd advantages. Or, we will have forgotten by that point.
Ray takes back the center of attention and prepares to announce the winner.
“Well, seven questions later, it seems like we are coming to the end of our show.
[the crowd boos] I know, I know, I wish I could keep entertaining you all along with these fine folks all day. But unfortunately, we only have so much budget to spend on these types of things.
Now, let us begin the final voting process. I call upon all of you, the citizens of this wonderful planet that we have built together. Cast your votes for one of these amazing three to be your future governor!”
The next thirty or so minutes are a tense few. Ray and I slowly watch as the voter registration numbers come in. Slowly, it ticks up. 20%, 30%, 50%, 80%, 95%... and after about thirty two minutes it hits the big 100%.
Thanks to this technology and the fervor in the city, there is no reason why people would take at least a few moments to vote. Unlike antiquated systems of the past where you had to physically vote, and many people were not convinced their votes mattered.
Here, we ensure that everyone believes their votes matter, and even if they dont think it does. The time investment and the general fun around the event encourages everyone to participate.
It's a genius strategy for maximum voter turnout. Ray and I have worked hard to develop the concept. Of course, others had to help with the actual implementation. We aren't digital wizards or anything. Just wizards of the heart and extradimensional reality, respectively.
“Well then darling. It seems the people have decided upon their governor. Do you wish to do the honors? Isn't it customary for kings and stuff to do the really important announcements.”
“Hmm, I think that we should break that tradition. I feel like everyone would rather the super cute Ray break the news.”
“Aww, but you're super cute as well. I feel like I wanna show you off, you know.”
“Well, perhaps you can show me off in your own way. Kek only knows that you can do me better service than I can.”
“Oh yeah, lots of great service. Well, I guess I should stop keeping our audience in suspense, huh.
Without further ado, and with the power vested in me, by me of course, I declare that the first Governor of Planet City Stelarum shall be,
Okin Stone.”
In a turn of events no one could see coming, the first governor of the Moonlight Alliance’s inaugural colony has been elected. I'm sure that whatever comes of this, or whatever events are to come, Ray and I can tackle it together. Though, I'd rather those events not be some intense training by Initae if I can help it. So, bring it on.
End of Chapter 75
Next: Chapter 76 | To The Stars
