30/12/4838 IC
09/05/2035 AD
Within the city of Arkenrad, capital of Kovask, on the island/continent of Kova, somewhere west on the map.
A woman, well dressed by the local standards and shabbily dressed by everyone else's standard, stands before the large doors of the grand palace at the center of the metropolis. Then, a guard opens the side door for her to enter.
The door closes as she steps inside. As expected, behind the great entrance is a large hallway leading further inside. Also somewhat expectedly, the surrounding rooms and hallways are filled with choke points, fortifications and spare ammunition.
She walks past the patrolling guards, past the decorative sets of full plate armors, past the functional plate armors and arrives at a grand chamber. The guards do a pat-down search and check her ID before letting her in.
The chamber is filled nearly to the brim with other, equally well-dressed, people. As less and less people enter the chamber from the other doors, a young man, seated on the most luxurious and highest chair in the room, usually referred to as a throne, glances down at everyone else.
Naturally, he is just bored. His duties demand him to be here just after his bodyguards and the janitors. Everyone else, on the other hand, has work to do, so they can be late. His work is not that time sensitive by comparison, at least, his current work is.
Being a king is, well, was an interesting job. At least before the Tenth Vareshi-Kovask War, back then the new firearms and gunpowder represented too much of a threat to the nobility and the crown, so its production was limited to few central cities. Then the Vareshian rolled up with far more guns and cannons than anyone had expected them to.
In the end, victory was achieved thanks to the Vareshian overextending themselves. However, it was the worst result Kovask had ever seen. Usually the invaders had been stopped a few kilometers from the shoreline, that time it was a dozen kilometers.
So it was decided that a change was necessary. Both the nobility's and the crown's authority were greatly limited. Replacing the power vacuum was the House of Representative, which was filled with elected officials. The Council of Nobles remained, but mostly served to deal with more long-term matters that elected officials might not care about. After all, there's little point in caring about long-term plans and projects when you can't be there to benefit from it.
Finally, the crown, it was reduced to managing the longest of projects and, more importantly, war. With the potential for war lasting for many years, even decades, there must be a proper ruler to dictate decisions without wasting time on bureaucracy. While it will result in wrong decisions, sometimes doing random things is better than doing nothing, or the right thing at the wrong time.
As you might have guessed by now, the man is no other than the King of Kovask. As there is no war currently, his role is only to manage the birth rate, cultural changes, research on fusion power and something about the climate change that scientists are worrying about.
His father, who resigned to be an advisor just a month ago, sits just to the left of him. His older brother, who gave up the right to the throne, sits just a few rows below him.
After giving up his claim to the throne a few years ago, the government only accepted on the condition that the former prince worked in the government as his education had been very costly. Not to mention his status as the former prince means that many of his actions can be interpreted as the intention of the state, even if the state isn't even aware of where he is.
So now the former prince is the Minister of Education. Fortunately, he likes the job.
Anyway, back to the story. The last person needed for this grand meeting of the whole government enters and quickly finds his seat, since it is not the first and will not be the last time he is late. It is rather acceptable, considering his method includes careful and personal surprise inspections and, more importantly, has produced great results compared to expectations.
As the speaker begins his usual opening, the King politely tells him to forgo the formalities. It is an archaic show of generosity and humbleness of past kings. Enough problems have appeared since then that this is still a thing despite its uselessness.
Instinctively skipping through the speaker's opening, the King, Tarnik Zhorvek, thinks about the very first and most critical issue which also probably will be part of his job. It is obviously the aliens.
The vast intelligence network of the Kovask Intelligence Agency, KIA, which was very much named that way due to the shortened version, allows them to be aware of the aliens quickly. Of course, due to the reporters being only trainees, the validity of the report was called into question.
A combination of similar reports and the trainees' mentor provided large quantities of supporting evidence increased the confidence of the intel. When the official announcement from the Serene High Council came out, the intel was then fully confirmed to be true.
So, an emergency grand meeting is called to figure out what to do with this new development.
As the discussion begins, the first issue with the aliens is how much they have learnt already. Whereas intel from spying and invasions from other nations has been carefully controlled to maintain secrecy and misinformation, little has been done to prevent the aliens' espionage, mainly because no one expects it.
Even the anti-sat missiles are only designed to deal with satellites in Tashan's gravity well. It cannot be used against things like the Serene's probe, though they don't need to since that probe doesn't have strong enough sensors and cameras to spy on Kovask.
The main problem is the lack of knowledge on the aliens, their technologies are certainly superior, but by how much is the problem. Naturally, the Kovaskians don't live underground, mostly due to claustrophobia, lack of sunlight and the sheer cost of mining compared to building. As a result, a good enough system can spy on Kovask from space at a distance where there is no solution for the Kovask to use.
Kovask's traditional and potential enemies, the rest of the avarin, are nearly incapable of doing such a thing, mostly due to cost. Hence, nearly incapable. However, the alien cannot be judged by the same standard due to the difference in…a lot of things.
How much have the aliens known and for how long is a crucial aspect. At the present, what KIA has known about the alien is very limited, only about as much as the Vareshi has, which is very bad for a nation that gets ahead through espionage. Observations of the aliens from Tashan and its orbit can only do so much.
While entire bases, colonies and ships can be easily detected with its properties monitored directly, details like individual factories, weapon systems and radiators cannot be properly observed with current technology. Even the probe that spotted the alien base can only see the solar panel array due to the array's sheer size, the probe can't see the machines, or aliens, that clean the panels or the cooling system of the array.
Then there is the aliens' intention. What they want and how they think are crucial knowledge even for basic negotiation. Unfortunately, with them being an entirely different species from an entirely different biosphere, even a farm animal has a high probability of being closer genetically than the aliens.
The solutions to these problems are few, much of the current technologies are likely useless and time for developing new techs is unknown. Assuming the same thought process, the aliens won't let Kovask, or avarin, grow beyond their ability to manage…Unless, avarin is already beyond their ability to manage.
Anyhow, assuming the best case scenario, standing together with the rest of the species is the best course of actions to take. There is just an obvious problem that is the reason why all of these thoughts are shown as thoughts inside the King's head and not the representatives or the nobles speaking.
To cooperate with the rest of the species is to end isolationism, something that has become a deeply ingrained fact of life to the point that there is no recorded history of negotiations with outsiders. Of course, there are preparations in the form of diplomats speaking the common tongue and training with books and scenarios, stol…reappropriated through the KIA.
However, knowledge alone won't be enough to reassure Kovaskians about the safety of reconnecting with the rest of the world. Also, the rest of the world is also suspicious of Kovask and the world doesn't have anywhere near as much knowledge about Kovask as Kovask has about the world.
As a result, the discussion grows larger and more heated than ever. The only thing stopping it from falling into chaos is the King's sheer presence, or rather, because he hasn't spoken yet and his vote legally weighs about 10 times that of a representative.
Practically, accounting for all his contacts, his family and his importance, his words are actually about 40 times more important than everyone else's. Historically, the King has almost always been the tie breaker, so his words are even more important with that in mind.
As the King begins to speak, the chamber falls silent:
"It is rather obvious at this point already, but I do commend you all for taking my stand in such high regard, considering the scale and scope of the impact that this decision can potentially bring upon us."
The King clears his throat.
"Now, with the aliens' discovery and subsequent contact, it is certain that our great nation can't continue on this path of isolation. We must band together with the rest of our species to better out chances against the aliens, whatever their intentions are. Therefore, on this day, known to the rest of the world as the thirtieth day of the twelfth month of the forty eight thirty eighth year of the Imperial Calendar, I cast my vote, supporting the ending of Kovask's isolationism."
A small uproar goes through the chamber. The royalty was not exactly well-known for much other than surprisingly excellent foresights. Even then, it is still surprising to hear that the millennia-long isolation has to end now.
That being said, it is not like there has been no changes to accommodate it even before the meeting began. A lot of agents, especially the ones in training or newly graduated, have been pulled back to Kovask. Due to the issue of espionage being an illegal thing in, well, just about every nation, the pulling back of spies can be seen as a proof of the Kovask's new friendliness and cooperative intentions.
After all, even with all the training, resources, bases and equipment, there are quite a number of spies that have been spotted, but the host nation still keeps them around to feed false intel to the KIA. The false intel is mostly filtered out with enough sources and some common sense. Naturally, it doesn't always work, like how a war was almost waged against Vareshi because intel indicated that their testing of nuclear warheads could ignite the atmosphere and kill everyone.
Alongside that, most, if not all, of these returned agents are still young, young enough to put back into university and college for another profession. Despite the costs and losses from having to put some of the less excellent personnel into another job, it will be needed to deal with all the other new jobs that will certainly pop up as the nation opens itself.
There are the issues of immigration, export and import, embassy, diplomatic status of foreign countries and currency. Just on the immediate timeframe, the necessity of international diplomacy means that there is also a need for a massive network of contact just to ensure the safety of the delegates to wherever they need to go. Even though services can be bought, contacts will be required for less than legal protection.
All in all, opening a whole nation is a pain, a pain that keeps on worsening the more advanced and culturally different the rest of the world becomes. With the vastness of Kovask's information network, no one has prepared for this abrupt change, all of the plans require multiple months of preparation, not days. Fortunately, with the world being shaken up by the discovery of the alien, everything may be much easier than in normal time.
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05/13/4838 IC
14/05/2035 AD
A small room, usually used for private conversations disguised as smoke breaks. In fact, it is very obvious that the conversation inside is very private as there is literally a room specifically to smoke right next to it. That and the wall is unusually thick with sound-proof doors for some reason.
Wait, what was I doing? Oh right, the location. Uhh, somewhere in Valmere, de facto capital of the Serene Alliance, officially just a large city where the majority of Serene's management takes place.
Inside the room, two men in business attire are sipping on their cups and talking to each other. To be more accurate, one man is talking and holding a room temperature cup of formerly hot coffee while the other is drinking iced imported chocolate and nodding along.
"How about a 100% raise? That definitely will change your mind about this 'early retirement' thing, right? For a bonus, I can even reduce the travelling you need to do, or increase it if that's what you prefer."
Seeing the other man still nodding along without a single sign of care, he switches tactics.
"Think about how much good you can still do for your nation. You are still, uhh, relatively young compared to your peers. You can do much for the Motherland."
The other man finally reacts by glancing over and over then returns to his drink. Sighing, he finally gives up.
"Nothing can change your mind huh, Julian. A man of your caliber, former special forces and current diplomat, is now retiring at the old age of 47 with full benefits. Completely acceptable, considering all that you have done. I will miss having a diplomat that I can just send to a crime boss and expect that the group will either be very cooperative or disappear. Actually, now that I think about it, how did this career change happen?"
Julian finally replies: "Oh, just a simple mission and a slight brush with death that I barely managed to bluff my way out of. After that, I was noticed for being good at negotiating and keeping myself alive. Of course, that was some 20 years ago. Now, I have family, money and the situation seems to be going south fast with all these new changes. So, Hivar, I am not getting myself into the crossfire."
Hivar shakes his head, drinks up his coffee, grimaces because he forgets that the coffee has already gone cold and speaks:
"To be honest, I expected that answer. Even then, I still need to try to convince you. Part of my job description, you know. Anyway, good luck, you won't need it."
As Hivar leaves, Julian speaks from behind him: "Good luck, you will actually need it."
Hivar stops, sighs and speaks: "Yeah, I will need it, friend."
When Hivar leaves the room entirely, Julian unwraps the paper around the cigarette given to him by Hivar. It is a simple summary of all the things that have happened in the last year alone. Quite fitting for the last day of the year.
In this year alone, the vassals of Vareshi's Imperial Family were gone, either absorbed into Vareshi proper or split off into independent states, which were technically not supported and recognized by the Serene Alliance. Only the situation with Queen Virelya was complicated with all the defensive agreements.
Then the aliens were discovered, shocking the world. Naturally, the reactions after that were just slightly less shocking. Despite the mobilization, Vareshi has done nothing since then, not even a skirmish, not to mention the wars that everyone had expected and prepared for.
Then Kovask opened themselves, ending millennia of isolation. Their status jumped to superpower on day one, when a spectacular reveal occurred that they somehow have contacts with nearly everyone. In just a few days, they managed to receive recognition and sign multiple treaties of nonaggression. In fact, their delegates have just left the city.
And now, latest info shows that the world governments have finally decided to hold a grand meeting of representatives from every nation. Of course, there are quite a few nations still in civil war and many more that lack significant recognition. For now, the temporary, which often becomes permanent, solution is that governments recognized by either Vareshi, Serene or Kovask are allowed to enter.
In the end, Julian is glad that he can finally enjoy the peaceful life which he has helped build up in this nation.