When we were not Contacted, some people wondered if it was because advanced cultures could create something akin to radio, television, computers, or interactive online worlds. Such attractions could have resulted in people simply not caring about the outside world, because they were too busy online. We have our own issues with this, with some people choosing to live in virtual worlds altogether, so it is not as crazy a theory as it sounds.
Back when The War started, Belgium had no navy at all. They had a bunch of merchants, but no warships. So they called for volunteers from their merchant ships to crew their new navy. After some bad battles, they sent the rest of their navy to join Aneerin’s Fleet. Leopold I, though we all called him Leo, was their command ship. He retired after The War and became a tour ship. He never was one that really loved the fighting, so I’m glad he got some joy in the end.
Rome is one of the oldest continually occupied cities in the Western Alliance, home to the Roman Catholic Church and to a long tradition of performing arts. When Italy colonized their first new world, they named it Nuova Roma, New Rome, and sought to emphasize all of the strengths that made them the center of the world in times past. The largest opera house in all the worlds is there now. I’m one of the cyber wizards that keeps everything running.
For over two centuries, we asked why nobody made Contact with us. Perhaps we should have been thankful that it did not happen. Contact between cultures is very dangerous after all, especially when one is far more advanced than the other. In our own history, countless cultures were exterminated when a new one arrived, whether through conquest or through plagues. Contact when we did not control our own orbitals could have wiped us out as a culture.
I had a real interesting cruise with Bahamans when they sent their first warship to The Fleet. She was actually a refitted cruise liner, and since she couldn’t support heavy weapons they turned her into a carrier. The Atlantis was a good girl, and I must say those staterooms designed for cruise passengers were amazing to sleep in. And she cooked good food too. Some of the best I tasted during The War. I loved that ship real bad.