Antares is the gateway to the Antares Sector. The Chinese have a different name for it of course, but they recognize our name as well. It’s a massive supergiant star, bright and hot. That makes it really fast to get there, hyperspace acting the way it does. It’s still nearly 600 lightyears from Earth, making it a hearty trek, but even the Chinese have need of outside services sometimes. And business goes where it can make money. Which can be a good cover for me.
Elizabeth and Victoria had been rival AIs before the Islamic Brotherhood struck, and knew each other well. Elizabeth took Victoria’s destruction very badly. With the power of the Irish mob behind her, Elizabeth replicated what she could of Victoria and used the dead AI’s likeness to harass the Jihadists. On the Irish front, she created another likeness to complement them. Bridget became her name, and Elizabeth’s name faded out of their memory.
The Wolfenheim Project wasn’t really as touchy feely as people would like everybody to think. It wasn’t our last best hope for peace, going where no man has gone before, or any of the other grand statements of science fiction stories. Though Charles was fighting for our future. We Ageless aren’t popular everywhere, you know. Wolfenheim was designed to protect us if things turned ugly. They did. And it did. You could say I’m a fan of the place.
The Arabian Peninsula and Mesopotamia would become home to numerous Arab kingdoms after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Bordering Iran and Egypt, Britain helped maintain their security. Each ruler jealously guarded his territory from the others, and they began to squabble over land. Britain had been able to complete their promise to individual rulers, but the united Arab state died a stillbirth in the fires of the desert.
Despite the many mysteries inherent in the Voice of Altair, terraforming was expensive and we colonized the heck out of the planet. Turns out some of the more interesting stellar and planetary bits of the system make for some really good cropland. And vineyards. Altairian Champaign is something else. And I usually stay away from foo foo drinks like that. They’ve got good food there. Healthy farm girls too. It’s a fun place to visit.