Jack of Harts

The Hyades Cluster was far away from Earth when the Chinese first settled it. The businessmen who colonized it were some of the smartest and forward thinking of an entire nation of four billion people. They aggressively recruited the best and brightest of their people to rule the cluster, and shipped out the hardiest of the lower castes to do the work that needed doing in job lots. Their enforced four child policy made the Hyades the single most populated region of space when The War began. And they poured unimaginable amounts of wealth into building up the cluster’s defenses. I used to wonder how we ever made them agree to give that up to secure War’s End. Now that I know I wish I did not.