Aberrant: Infinite Earth - Fiction - Profit Motive [Complete]

[Elspeth]

Elspeth was flush with success from her recent victory in the world media over the food embargo situation. Nothing could be pinned on Utopia, but it was obvious that there was shady activity going on preventing Sierra Leone from getting any shipments of food. Even though there was no proof many people would draw the right conclusion. After all who else had the kind of pull necessary to create that kind of unofficial embargo? Given the uncertain situation it would be reasonable for some shipments to have been delayed or withheld, 20 or 30 wouldn't be out of the range of believability. But when only a handful out of dozens actually made it through, that was just stretching credibility to the breaking point. It would never see a court of law, but what mattered to Elspeth had been accomplished, she'd given Utopia a black eye over it and after the media storm it had created companies and organizations would be far less likely in the future to try double dealing against her.

That was the good news. The bad news was that despite all her efforts in the UN, the foreign companies that were operating inside Sierra Leone's borders, mining diamonds were not being told to leave. If anything the UN was being antagonistic against Elspeth for trying to get them removed. It was obvious to her that people within the UN were getting pay offs from the companies. She had even presented video of the living and working conditions of her citizens that were being forced to work the mines. The committee was unmoved stating in their report, "The companies involved in this activity are breaking no laws. In fact they have a legal agreement with the former government. While the new regime in Sierra Leone might not recognize the legitimacy of those who were in power at the time the contracts were signed, they are legally binding. It is this committee's conclusion that should it be brought into an international court that their rights would be upheld. We strongly encourage Elspeth to work with these companies within the law and come to an agreement that would benefit her people. Any attack upon them would be deemed aggressive action and bring down sanction upon Sierra Leone that would cause all of her people to suffer. It should also be known that while we do find the conditions under which the employees of these companies are treated to be less than ideal, it is within their rights under the agreement and those employees signed contracts and are thus obligated to perform their duties or be found in breach of contract with the legal consequences that would result. It is unfortunate perhaps, but we are unable to recommend anything other than that Elspeth and the government of Sierra Leone attempt to renegotiate the contracts."

Which was a long winded way of saying 'piss off we're not on your side.' The problem was that the companies had no desire to renegotiate. They were using what amounted to slave labor to rape the country of it's most valuable natural resource and had only been obligated to provide Jarutu with the services of a number of elites in return, the equivalent of several million dollars a year. Estimates were that they were making around a half billion dollars a year on the diamond sales and their total operating costs (not counting pay offs to UN officials) were less than 20 million. It had to be one of the most profitable corporate ventures on the planet, and most of it was off the books and it had strong international backing. That was one hard nut to crack even for Elspeth. She had been in power for over two months now and had not been allowed to speak with corporate representatives from any of the companies. Utopia insisted on supervising any talks to prevent 'undo pressures' from being applied to the negotiations by way of nova powers. In other words they didn't want to see her succeed. Elspeth had tried appealing to world opinion by showing footage of the condition of the workers and the abuse they were forced to suffer. The world responded with quiet outrage, but when any thing was attempted lawyers were quick to step forward and defend the corporations saying that they were within their legal rights. Unfortunately, unlike the outcry against the sale of Blood Diamonds in the 90s these corporations were very smart about concealing the sale of their diamonds and so the vast majority ended up on the market appearing to come from Canada or Russia.

Elspeth was at a loss on how to resolve it.

[Elspeth]

It had been months now and the Diamond miners were still going strong and defying the negative press that Elspeth was causing them. Just recently she had released the video taken by her friends and fellow novas, who had sneaked into the mine areas and interviewed the people being forced to labor under what amounted to slavery. DeBoar's of course produced paperwork showing the signatures of the people interviewed and explained that they had signed work contracts. In the end, the world was simply too desensitized to pictures of African's being mistreated in one fashion or another to muster much outrage. After all, these people weren't starving at least which was more than could be said for half of the continent.

Things weren't much better on the legal front. The UN, or rather, individual members on the Judicial committee, had vested interests in the corporations continuing with the status quo. Utopia had also set it's legal and PR teams to defend the mines. Elspeth's video of the conditions in the mines had been met with an ad campaign featuring popular charismatic Nova's advertising for various retail jewelry chains. The result was that rather than falling as they had done during the era of Blood Diamonds back in the 90s, sales were actually up.

That's why Elspeth had decided it was time for a different approach. She had figured out two ways to do this... She could take unilateral action and take over the mines on the grounds that they DeBoars and the others hadn't fulfilled their end of the bargain with Jarutu since his death. They were required by contract to supply 10 Elites to support the defense and police the nation and to pay a flat 10 million per year. In essence they were defaulting on their end of the contract. It was justification, to take action, but taking it would allow Utopia to cast her in a bad light. They would make comparisons between her and Jarutu, and claim that she was no better than he was. Taking anything she wanted using the thinnest of legal reasons. Worse, they would offer to Arbitrate and in the end she would succeed and free her people from their forced labor, but the companies would be back and they would have the legal right to continue mining her countries resources for practically no compensation.

But there was another way. If anyone had been looking at the young Queen at that moment they might have shivered at the purely evil smile of delight. The more she thought about it the more she became convinced her second idea would work. Despite her nova level intelligence it had take a complete shift in thinking about her long term strategy to think of it. What was her goal after all? To keep her people safe. There was a major war coming in which no one would be safe, especially a country ruled by a Terat. So she would move her people to the stars; take them beyond the conflict where they could grow and prosper without interference and prejudice by Utopia. So it didn't really matter if they diamond mines stayed in Sierra Leone and raped it's most valuable natural resource. What mattered was that they be completely confined to their mines and keep out of the business of the rest of the country. As long as the conflict existed Utopia had an excuse to keep poking their noses in to her business. And that's where the evil smile occurred. The way to keep Utopia out was to have DeBoars and the others tell Utopia to butt out, and the only way that would happen was if Elspeth had leverage over them. What did they care about? Profit! So what she needed to do was possess the ability to hit them where it hurt, and she had thought of a way to do it.

[Elspeth]

For the last two years Elspeth had been practicing her traveling powers. At first she had been able to travel anywhere on the surface of the Earth, which was good at the time; it kept her out of the hands of her enemies. Over time she stretched herself, warping and teleporting into orbit and even to the moon. That was nice. She enjoyed sitting on the rim of giant craters looking out on the barren gray surface. It was was peaceful at a time when she was constantly in fear for her life. Then later she had visited the moons of Jupiter and Saturn and would spend hours on end just hanging in the blackness of space contemplating the nature of the universe. She had still been young then, or younger in terms of maturity and knowledge at least, and she had not understood physics beyond what a college graduate would know. Any outsider would look at her and still consider her to be practically a child, but two years of governing an entire nation would mature anyone nova or baseline. In that time she'd come to understand a great deal more about physics and about her Warping ability. She had read many books by the worlds top physicists and cosmologists but the actual use of her powers taught her more than all the books. Study gave her knowledge but practice gave her a deep understanding of the 'feel' of the fabric of space-time.

Now two years later if she concentrated she could warp to the Andromeda Galaxy in a single jump. Those big jumps had made her appreciate just how thin space-time really was. That was when her next big discovery had happened. Trying to experiment with warping she had 'twisted' the fabric in a different way and had found herself in a different place. She could feel the difference, but looking around she couldn't see anything changed. From her reckoning she should have traveled nearly to Jupiter from the power she had expended, but there she was in her study... she wandered around the palace for hours trying to understand what had occurred. She couldn't find a single thing different or out of place, but there was just a foreign texture to her sense of space and time.

Lately she had noticed that her sense of timing had become uncanny; definitely beyond baseline precision. She guessed that it was a consequence of messing with space. According to Einstien Space and Time were not separate things, they were part of a single thing he called Space-time. So it only stood to reason that mastering space mean gaining some insights into time as well. It was that time sense that was registering something just a little off.

Late in the afternoon while sitting at her writing desk she looked up in surprise as Elspeth walked through the door into her private study. Both Elspeth's had mirrored looks of shock on their faces for just a split second before their social skill hid the expressions. Elspeth, who had traveled in some unknown way while experimenting knew that the other 'her' was not one of the clones. She had a telepathic link to them and could always feel their presence. This was definitely not a clone.

The two young women spoke at the same time, "I'm in an alternate reality!", contrasted with, "You are in my chair!" They both giggled and then became serious. The Elspeth who belonged in this reality spoke again, "How did you do it? I've been thinking about the possibility but haven't figured it out yet."

Elspeth who had traveled, smiled and replied, "It was an accident. I didn't realize until you walked in that I was in an alternate timeline." She grinned, "I'll show you how if you want." She opened her mind to her other self in an act of trust. It wasn't an easy thing to do, but easier for her as the 'invader' than it would have been for her other self. Having an alternate you show up unannounced would have to seem a little threatening, especially since that other version had to know a power that you did not.

Elspeth2 nodded seriously, understanding the vulnerable position her visitor was placing herself in. She too opened her mind and rather than taking control, she allowed it to be an equal blending of minds. Elspeth2 understood instantly how the trick was done and knew that she would be able to perform it easily enough. "Thank you. I can already see ways that might come in handy."

Elspeth herself had also begun to form some ideas on how it could be used to her advantage...

[Elspeth]

Since that day when she had discovered how to travel between possible realities she had experimented quite a few times. So far she'd been able to go to worlds exactly like her own as she had done the first time, but she had also stretched out and visited fairly distant versions of Earth that had no novas. In time she had discovered that if she concentrated very hard while 'moving' that she could specify the desired traits and she would end up on worlds similar to what she had in mind. That's where she was today.

Elspeth looked around and shivered. This particular Earth was deserted. A plague had spread through the population and devastated the world. The buildings still stood, but the people were gone. Well, they mostly stood. Fires had raged out of control all over the world and left the cities scarred and damaged. It was an eerie contrast, the place looked as ugly and dirty as a city could, this London that she stood in, but oddly enough the smell was clean, far cleaner than she'd ever known it to be. She wasted no time, but created three clones immediately. There was no need to give instruction, they were her, they knew all she knew, they knew their jobs as well as she did. One teleported to South Africa to the home of DeBoars, one went to Amsterdam, and one to New York, but each would be going to the major holders of diamonds.

Elspeth, the original, flew through London landing at the office of DCT the worlds single largest diamond wholesaler. Each clone of her had multiple targets to hit, but they should be able to complete their collections and meet up before the day was out. Her own first task was to empty the DCT's vault. One of the things she has specified about this world was it's lack of people and so far that had turned out to be true. She didn't bother with the niceties, but simply busted in the wall of the building with a punch. It left a satisfying hole in the brick facade. Inside was completely dark since the city had long since lost all power and choked with dust from the damage she had just done, but darkness was no impediment to the young nova, she could see in multiple spectrums beyond the visible.

She had to search through the building a bit to find the vault since she had never been there before but when she found it she was surprised to see it open. She expected that it would be locked, but apparently one of the board members had decided to spend his last gruesome minutes surrounded by the wealth that the DCT had amassed. The body was covered with dried blood and had despite the time since the plague had raged through killing everyone, it still smelled of decay and sickness. The entire place stank of it. For the first time in her life Elspeth felt sick. Not the sickness of the disease that wiped these people out, but the lose your breakfast all over the floor kind. She had a photographic memory and this was not an image she could forget if she wanted to, and she definitely wanted to. Elspeth had seen death before on occasion, but never anything like this. The victim had practically exploded blood from every pore and hemorrhaged it in great gouts from his eyes. It was as ugly a death as she could imagine. And it was lying right in the middle of the largest collection of diamonds she had ever seen. Several thousand diamonds lay covered with the dried blood and other bodily fluids. It was absolutely disgusting, but they were what she had come for. Well, she had intended to clean them thoroughly before returning to her Earth anyway.

Down the hall she found a small utility closest with a brooms, mops and dustbins. She grabbed a broom and a large dust pan and returned to the vault. She wasn't sure what to do about the body, she felt like this man whoever he was deserved some respect and peace, but she wasn't entirely sure what to do about it. She had never known anyone that she cared about to die except her parents and she hadn't exactly been allowed to bury their remains. Their bodies had been hung on pikes outside the royal palace after the coup. She sighed, and opened a warp to a Church cemetery in a village in the English countryside she had visited once when fleeing one of the Elite assassins Jarutu had sent after her. It was a beautiful place and like everywhere on this Earth, it was quiet. She lifted the body with Telekinesis preferring not to touch anything on this world if she could help it. With another flick of her mind she scooped a great mound of dirt out of the ground and placed the body at the bottom of the depression. The mound gently lowered covering the man and burying him. She tried to think of words to say, but it just seemed silly since she didn't know who he had been or anything about him. In the end she settled for bowing her head a moment in silent respect.

When she felt a decent moment had passed she turned back through the portal and into the vault to finish up. With daylight shining into the room through her warp, the floor sparkled like the night sky despite the blood. It was an awe inspiring sight in a grim kind of way. She grabbed a large trashcan and again using her TK swept the diamonds in. The vault also contained cash and gold, but she ignored those. They would be too much to transport, as it was, these diamonds would be quite a load when her clones added their finds. Maybe even more than she could take back with her on one trip.

[Elspeth]

The Elspeth hitting the Sightholders in New York made a quick trip to the Smithsonian in DC on her way and picked up the Hope diamond. This world had had no novas so security had only been meant to stop baselines and without power it sat in it's glass case vulnerable. She added it to a large bank bag she had picked up before porting on to New York.

In each case the Clones found the diamonds unguarded, but they also found all too many grim scenes like the one in the vault in London. The streets were mostly empty, because of scavengers as uncomfortable as that thought was, but the buildings even the offices had people still lying in the places where they had fallen. In one place Elspeth found a family, children and adults alike huddled together. She had to turn away, she could bare to see it, not even to bury them decently.

Taking the diamonds almost felt like robbing the dead, but they hadn't belonged to individuals even in life and they did this world no good, but they would help free her people from slavery to the Diamond corporations back on her Earth.

By the end of the day it was four heart heavy Elspeth's that assembled in the parking lot across the road from Stonehenge. They had chosen that spot midway through the day to avoid any more populated places.

Elspeth was concerned about possibly spreading the contagion that had devastated this Earth to her own so they four poured out all the diamonds in one great pile and covered them with gallons of alcohol and then lit the pile on fire. It was a purifying flame that Elspeth walked into. She bathed in the heat knowing that any thing that stuck to her would be killed beyond a doubt. It should be enough, but just to be safe she would repeat the procedure back home.

When the flames had done their job she snuffed the fire and swept the diamonds back into the large metal can that she had also cleansed. In all past cases she had only needed to will herself home to return to her own Earth, but this time she would be carrying things with her. She wasn't sure how to manage such a large load, but decided that she might as well try. She was about to feed energy into the twisting of space to try opening a warp between worlds when she felt a 'pulling' from across the road in the middle of Stonehenge.

She was so surprised that she just let the power go. She looked at her clones who had been standing ready to feed her energy and add their own strength to the attempt should it be necessary. They had mirrored expressions of wonder on their faces. They had never heard of anything other than nova tech able to interact with quantum energies much less an artifact over 3000 years old.

Cautiously they wandered into the circle carrying the loot. The closer they came to the great megaliths the more they could feel a resonance. It was similiar to the way that 'her Earth' felt. When she was at home she could feel that she was on her own Earth. Times like now when she was on a alternate Earth, it just felt different and she could always just instinctively know where home was and will herself back there. Somehow Stonehenge felt like that. There was a familiarity, but at the same time an otherness. She'd never been here before, but she had heard about it. It was one of the most famous landmarks in the world precisely because it evoked a sense of wonder in those that saw it, a sense of it being more than it appeared. Even baselines sensed something about the place. Whatever it was it resonated with the same energies she used to shift between realities.

On a hunch she tried opening a warp not to another place but to another reality. She gave the warp the same twist she gave her normal cross reality trips and sure enough it opened onto a sunny day in Stonehenge, but through the warp she could see a dozen or so tourists standing outside the fence that protected the megaliths. They ooh'd and ahh'd as they saw her through the portal, but they couldn't see her clones who were still standing outside the circle with the diamonds. She grinned and sent a thought to her clones to pick up the barrels of precious stones and travel through invisibly. No sense in causing any more stir than necessary. Immediately as she crossed through the portal she teleported to space near enough to the sun to kill any bacteria or viruses that might be clinging to her and let the reality warp drop. No way would she want anyone from her Earth to catch the contagion from that other world. Despite the intense heat she shivered thinking about what it must have been like for the poor people of that world. When she felt safe she and her clones finally returned home to sort their haul. She vowed never again to set foot on that particular Earth or any like it. If she slept she would have night mares about that place for years.

One of the clones sent the thought, Maybe a nice asteroid strike next time, or some other way we wouldn't have to see what we just saw... All of the Elspeth's heartily agreed.

[Elspeth]

Jeremy De Leon of DeBoars, Inc, and the man in charge of the Sierra Leone mining operations frowned. On his desk was an ornately penned invitation to attend Her Majesty Elspeth at the Palace at 9:00am sharp. The envelop had arrived by courier only moments ago, and it was now nearly 8:30am. It was not the sort of invitation you could turn down. "What does she want?" He mused to himself.

Well, she certainly wouldn't have sent an invitation to attend her in the palace with less than an hours notice if she wasn't serious. She knows I've got teleporters on retainer for shipping the diamonds out to avoid any tariffs or taxes. He was about to reject her invitation when he received a thought sent into his mind.

"You will attend me or I will destroy DeBoars diamond empire by the end of business today. The time for playing around is over. And before you even think about crying to Utopia, if I ever here any word of our meeting from an outside source I will follow through with my promise without hesitation. You will attend me and you will hear what I have to say, and you will do so alone. I have no desire to use my nova abilities to convince you of anything, that would cause reprisals by Utopia as you well know. I expect you here in 20 minutes."

Jeremy was shaken. He knew the girl was powerful, but seriously? There were safeguards against just such invasions... If she's willing to do that then something has changed drastically.

"Connie, get me a teleporter here in 5 minutes. I have a meeting to attend." While he waited he pulled out his cellphone and dialed a number he had memorized but never needed to call before. "Malcolm, it's me Jeremy. The girl has called me in to a meeting. I have to attend and find out what she wants, it sounds serious." He paused listening to the man on the other end of the line, "Yeah, like I said, it's that serious. So yeah, have the teep here when I get back to scan me and make sure I haven't been screwed with ok?"

By the time he hung up Connie was buzzing him, "Sir, the teleporter you requested is in the office, shall I send him in?" Hearing his reply over the speaker the man strode through the door.

Jeremy told the man where to take him and in less than the blink of an eye found himself on the street in front of the Royal Palace more than a hundred miles away. "Thank you, if I need you again I will contact DeVries."

He walked up to the gate guards and announced himself and was admitted immediately. "You are expected sir. The others are inside already. This way."

The others are inside already? Damn, I hate surprises... what is that little bitch up to? He cringed a little half expecting to be struck down. The girl was a telepath, she might be listening. By the time he was standing outside the throne room he was back to his old confident self. He didn't like what he saw however. Besides himself there were representatives of the other major diamond producers, not necessarily just those with interests in the mines here in Sierra Leone. What the hell was this about?

The doors opened and all of the representatives gasped at once. Strewn across the floor of the large throne room were thousands, tens of thousands of diamonds ranging from the smallest baguettes to large ideal cut diamonds weighing 20 or more carats. If he had to guess he thought it might well represent more diamonds than DeBoars had in all it's vaults combined and maybe more than all the the representatives could muster together. He suddenly had a sinking feeling he knew where this was going and he didn't like it at all.

Elspeth sat on her throne regal and devastating in her beauty. He had never seen her before except on the Opnet and it was something else again to be directly in her presence. No wonder the company refused direct negotiations... It was his last clear thought for a moment as the representatives were ushered in and left to stand before the throne.

The girl spoke... Girl? Could she possibly only be 15? Nearly 16. He corrected himself mentally.

"Gentlemen." She was looking directly at Jeremy and her tone was not friendly. He swallowed in spite of himself. "I asked you to be reasonable and meet with me to renegotiate your contract. You are abusing my people and raping my country's resources giving nothing back. That ends today. You all get together each year and decide how many diamonds to release onto the market in order to maintain their price at an artificially high value." The Queen gave a malicious smile and continued, "I asked nicely and you didn't listen. Look around you," She gestured at the hoard of diamonds scattered about the floor. "As you can see, I have enough diamonds that if I release them onto the market your company's stock will collapse over night and be worthless. So, I say to you now, you will renegotiate the contract that you made with Jarutu, and you will do so directly with me and you will tell Utopia to butt out." She used her telekinesis to lift handfuls of the stones and let them rain back down to the floor. "As you can see, money is no object to me and not my concern. Your choice is simple, take my offer and continue to profit while treating my people equitably and paying a fair price for what you take from my land, or reject the offer and watch the Diamond market collapse overnight. As much as you see here I can double over night, quadruple by the weekend. Diamonds that cost a thousand dollars today will be sold for ten dollars by next week." She fell silent and waited.

Jeremy looked around at the other representatives from rival, but cooperative companies. They were glaring daggers at him. A big Dutchman spoke in his thick accent, "You will meet her demands." It was not a question. The entire group of others nodded agreement. He looked back at Elspeth. Jeremy couldn't help himself and picked up a large diamond and looked at it through his loupe. It was high quality and real. He had held out hope that this was all some kind of elaborate trick, but he had randomly selected that stone out of the thousands in the room. He didn't doubt that the others were real too.

"What are your terms your Majesty?" He tried to make his voice strong and confident but he knew it must sound forced under the circumstances.

She smiled and there was just a bit more warmth in it than before. "First of all you will release any of my people who wish to depart from their forced service. Second, you will offer any of my people who wish to remain or who wish to apply for a job, real training and a fair market wage just as if they were miners in the United States or Germany or one of the other industrialized nations."

He wasn't surprised by the first, but he was a little shocked that the second wasn't a bit more harsh. Given that they had to get the workers from within Sierra Leone and couldn't bring them in from outside that was actually very fair. "Those two things I can agree upon without the need for higher approval. Is that all?" He hoped it would be but he knew there would be more and the young woman on the throne didn't disappoint.

"Yes, you have failed to live up to the bargain you made with Jarutu. You were to provide Us with 10 novas and pay a flat 10 million per year. You will continue to provide us with novas, but you will provide 20 and they will be novas of Our choice, not yours. In addition, you will pay a flat fee of 25 million. I believe these terms are quite generous considering that I could just as easily put you out of business instead."

Jeremy sighed, this would not go over well but she was right. "I do not have the authority to make a binding decision of that magnitude, but I am sure that my superiors will agree." Bitch! he thought to himself and didn't care that she might hear. "Anything else your majesty?"

The young queen's smile faded and she became very serious. "I will allow no interference in my realm from Project Utopia or their minions. You will cease any dealings with them immediately. If I hear of even one rumor that they plan to move against me as a result of anything you have told them, then I will release these diamonds on to the market just as I have said. My will on this is not to be tested!"

Jeremy nodded agreement as did the other representatives. Elspeth gestured and the doors opened. "You may go now." He had to give her credit, she could have smirked and gloated but even in victory she was charming. That rotten little bitch! He was sure to be reprimanded over this no matter that there was no way he could have prevented it....

[Elspeth]

When the room was empty again she grinned from ear to ear. That had been satisfying. They had been a thorn in her side ever since she had become queen and now she had resolved the problem and found a way to do it that should stop any repercussions from Utopia.

She sent one more thought into Jeremy De Leon's mind, No doubt your superiors will at least consider the option of asking Utopia to send in a strike squad to confiscate the diamonds. Please be so kind as to remind them that I have an IQ that is off the charts. I have taken steps to prevent any such 'solution'. We can have a good relationship, DeBoars and I, but it will be on an equitable level from now on. Remind them also that my terms could have been far more harsh. At most it will cost them around 60 million a year, 40 million more than you were paying, but that is a small price to pay given the alternative.

Now she was completely satisfied. She would lock the diamonds up in various banks around the world with orders that should anything unfortunate happen to her that they should be distributed to retailers world wide for free. Utopia could counter that of course, but it would be a lot of trouble for them and they would never know if she had backup plans. She did have them in fact, but they would be much harder to discover and it would take some time to put them into place. If they decided to start the war with Elspeth then they would very much regret it.