After sorting out the identities of the Tekkadan members, Reid returned to his daily routine of reviewing some research materials, conducting whatever tests he could, and spending the rest of his time with his wife.
Time flew by, and soon it was April of CE 72. The gears of the world began to turn once more.
The election for the Chairman of the PLANT Supreme Council was held annually from the end of March to the beginning of April.
However, due to Patrick Zala's previous autocratic rule, starting from this term, the Chairman of the Supreme Council could not concurrently hold the position of Chairman of the National Defense Committee. Furthermore, the rule of a one-year term was changed, allowing the chairman to be re-elected in the following year's election.
(The SEED Destiny setting materials still state that the council members from PLANT's 12 cities can take turns as chairman each year. However, the same materials explicitly state that Durandal, after Eileen Canaver stepped down in '72, served as chairman continuously until his death in '74. This can only be described as a retcon, or perhaps a policy change that the SEED Destiny setting materials failed to mention.)
Since Reid did not interfere with the PLANT election at all, the one who naturally came to power was Gilbert Durandal.
Just as in the original story, after taking office, Durandal granted amnesty to the officers and soldiers from the last war who were still imprisoned or awaiting trial, and he made it clear that their crimes would not be kept on record.
This move earned him a huge wave of goodwill from ZAFT members. The few military committee members who actually held military power also owed a favor to this chairman, who had risen to power in the name of the Clyne Faction but was in fact more inclined towards the neutral faction. Under Durandal's leadership, the Supreme Council began to unite, no longer attacking each other daily like a chaotic marketplace.
At the same time, in response to the three nations of the Earth Alliance demanding that PLANT fulfill the Earth Sphere Peace Accord by providing a military satellite near its homeland to serve as a permanent base for a monitoring group and as a consulate in PLANT, Durandal pulled a slick move.
He directly announced that PLANT would add a new, extra city, but this city would be constructed in the L4 Colony Cluster, separate from PLANT's homeland.
Due to the unique nature of PLANT as a nation (its territory being composed of colony satellites), any officially recognized city was considered part of the PLANT homeland.
The L4 Colony Cluster was not specified in the accord, so PLANT had the right to claim territory there and establish a new city.
Of course, for this so-called establishment of a new city, PLANT simply retrofitted abandoned but still functional colony satellites in the L4 Colony Cluster.
In this way, they quickly completed the repair and modification of ten colony satellites to form the extra city. This area was designated as ZAFT's weapons factory and a place for the monitoring group to be permanently stationed for inspection.
However, the most crucial design bureau that managed all of ZAFT's various weapons was not in the extra city. Moreover, the former arsenal city in the homeland, Maius, was only nominally changed to a regular industrial city. The military factories within it simply changed their signs and continued to operate.
Having perfectly exploited a loophole in the accord, the three Earth Alliance nations could only protest verbally. In the end, they had no choice but to grit their teeth and send personnel to station themselves at the military colony satellite in L4.
As for the New Misurugi Kingdom, after Patrick Zala's death, the two nations were in a honeymoon period. After all, their separate peace treaty guaranteed that all of PLANT's products would be available for sale to the New Misurugi Kingdom.
The New Misurugi Kingdom was now purchasing large quantities of high-precision industrial equipment from PLANT every month to ship back home and improve its own industrial production capabilities.
Of course, after this machinery arrived, Hoshino Ruri and Nein would take a look around its systems to ensure there were no backdoors that could remotely shut down the machines. For the two of them, simply recompiling the existing programs on the machinery was as easy as eating or drinking.
Therefore, the New Misurugi Kingdom expressed no opinion on PLANT's exploitation of the loophole. One side needed high-precision machinery to rapidly enhance its national strength, while the other needed a massive injection of capital to restore its own. It was the sweetest of times for both.
All of the above were slick maneuvers that Durandal completed within two months of taking office, and the results were remarkable. The post-war chaos in PLANT had basically disappeared, and the nation was rapidly recovering its former productivity and vitality.
Subsequently, with a bit of free time on his hands, Durandal began preparing for state visits to various friendly nations, and the New Misurugi Kingdom was the first on the list.
Meanwhile, on Reid's side, after two months, Tem Ray's team at the Star Palace Colony Satellite had completed the safety verification and subsequent development tests for combining GN Particles with the AC Universe Miniature Nuclear Fusion Reactor.
The Xia sisters had also completed their inspection of all the colony satellites, and their combat forces were once again fully assembled.
Reid was already considering whether to proceed to the next step of the assessment mission when Durandal and Orb both created work for him.
Durandal's state visit naturally required Reid's personal presence.
As for Orb, the matter they brought up was that the Dawn Company had completed the new Gundam developed for Kira. They had even arranged for an unveiling ceremony, similar to the AEU's "AEU Custom" from the AD Universe, and invited Reid to attend.
Reid actually understood Orb's thinking. After all, this was a demonstration of a mobile suit that showed the Dawn Company's military-industrial strength was fully capable of keeping up with the next era, so naturally, they had to do it with great fanfare.
Inviting Reid was, of course, because he was publicly acknowledged as the person who best understood the militarization of Minovsky Particles. As long as Reid endorsed them, Orb's newly developed export-model MS and MS armaments would have no trouble finding buyers.
Seeing this, Reid discussed it with Une and decided to postpone Durandal's visit to the day before Orb's new MS unveiling ceremony.
That way, he would only need to host Durandal for one day before sending him off to Orb the next.
After communicating with PLANT, Durandal expressed no objection to the trip to Orb. However, he did state his hope that the New Misurugi Kingdom could arrange a meeting with Lacus, who had already begun leading an international rescue team to save refugees around the globe. If possible, he also wanted to meet Athrun, who had been out of the public eye for a long time.
Regarding this request, Reid asked Lacus and Athrun and received an affirmative answer. They also wanted to meet this new chairman who had so quickly revitalized PLANT.
With no issues from Durandal's side, Orb naturally had even fewer. Reid had managed to invite a major figure to the Dawn Company's new MS unveiling ceremony that they could never have invited on their own. The Orb government naturally approved with both hands raised.
At the same time, Reid requested that Orb also publicly release the rebranded Minovsky Nuclear Fusion Engine (0079 version) at this exhibition, preparing to harvest the "leeks" of the entire world.
Once the schedule was set, PLANT's efficiency was high, and they quickly finalized the details of the visit with the New Misurugi Kingdom.
The day before Orb's new MS presentation, Reid finally saw with his own eyes the old fox who had left his mark on Gundam history, Durandal.
Alright, calling him an old fox was a bit much. The current Durandal was just 30 years old, only four years older than Reid. They were practically peers.
Moreover, after meeting Durandal, Reid found that his attitude towards him was more one of curiosity. For the time being, he didn't show any complex signs of hidden schemes. It was likely that this visit was genuinely just to meet Reid and ascertain what kind of person one of his future rivals truly was.
Since Durandal showed no ill will, Reid naturally wouldn't make things difficult for him. Even knowing that he would later use the Zala Faction lurking in space to drop a colony satellite on Earth, Reid couldn't act without a shred of evidence.
So, the two of them chatted and laughed, putting on a show for outsiders. They toured the external exhibition area of the science academy and went to the Royal Palace to pay their respects to Queen Angelise, having lunch along the way.
The closed-door meeting in the afternoon was the key moment for both sides to discuss national policy.
In fact, this discussion gave Reid the feeling that Durandal might have come here to scrounge for benefits.
Reid had never expected that the Chairman of PLANT would one day come before him to complain that PLANT could also be short on energy. In essence, his meaning was singular: "Could your esteemed nation also provide PLANT with a few Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactors?"
Regarding this request, Reid's attitude was clear, and he answered directly, "Chairman Durandal, the Earth Sphere Peace Accord only prohibits the use of nuclear power in the military domain. There are no prohibitions in the civilian sector. The civilian nuclear power plants of all nations on Earth have already resumed power supply using Anti-Neutron Jammer technology. What's more, your country no longer needs to keep the Neutron Jammers active all the time. If you're truly short on energy, our country can help you build a few more space-based nuclear power plants."
After speaking, Reid immediately moved past this topic and asked, "There's a question I've always wanted to ask, Chairman Durandal. Our country and the three nations of the Earth Alliance have been requesting for a long time that your esteemed nation provide the global coordinate map of where the Neutron Jammers were initially deployed.
The impact of the Neutron Jammers on Earth has not yet ended. The lack of wireless networks has greatly hampered the speed of Earth's industrial recovery, affecting the lives of tens of billions of people. I believe your country should provide the coordinate map as soon as possible so that Earth can clear out all the Neutron Jammers and restore people's livelihoods."
Reid brought this up intentionally. Just as the New Misurugi Kingdom would never provide its exclusive nuclear fusion technology to the world, PLANT would absolutely not hand over the global coordinate map of the Neutron Jammer deployment.
This was because Durandal had ambitions. He had no desire for Earth to quickly recover its pre-war industrial strength. He wanted to create a speed differential, using PLANT's industrial advantage to rapidly restore its power so that it could confront Earth at any time.
The New Misurugi Kingdom was very likely one of the roadblocks to Durandal achieving his ambitions. If the treaty between their two nations hadn't been signed before he took office, and if PLANT didn't truly need the New Misurugi Kingdom's funds to recover, Durandal would have imposed trade restrictions long ago.
Therefore, faced with this question, Durandal could only pretend to be helpless and reply, "Our country is also quite troubled by this issue. The coordinate map was originally stored in the Jachin Due Fortress. After Jachin Due self-destructed during the last war, a large amount of data within was lost and has yet to be recovered. Therefore, we simply cannot provide the coordinate map."
This answer was clearly an excuse. How could ZAFT possibly store something so important in a fortress without keeping a backup?
One had to remember that Patrick Zala's initial goal was to defeat the Naturals and make Coordinators a superior "celestial race," not to abandon Earth entirely.
This coordinate map had to be kept on file because after winning the war, the Coordinators would need to return to Earth and restore its wireless network. Otherwise, the Neutron Jammer would boomerang back and hit the Coordinators themselves in the face.
However, since Durandal insisted that the coordinate map was destroyed and couldn't be provided, Reid could do nothing about it. It seemed he would have to wait until after the second war ended, when he could vie for the position of the most powerful force in the Earth Sphere, before asking PLANT for it again.
At this point, seeing that the conversation had reached a stalemate and neither side could satisfy the other's demands, Durandal pretended to change the subject, but asked in all seriousness, "Chairman Reid, are you aware of the colonization policy over on Mars?"
Reid knew the plot, so he didn't take Durandal's words as a lighthearted joke to ease the tension. However, on the surface, he pretended to know nothing and replied, "Mars? Is Chairman Durandal referring to their policy of assigning positions based on each person's genetic traits and abilities, in order to maximize everyone's potential?"
Seeing that Reid was so clear about Mars's policy, which proved he had paid attention to Martian society long ago, Durandal became somewhat excited and said, "Yes, Chairman Reid. Don't you think this form of society is highly efficient and can eliminate many disputes?"
Upon hearing this, Reid just smiled and shook his head, saying, "For a small population, operating this way is indeed highly efficient and can avoid unnecessary internal friction. But once the population grows, this form of society is just erasing the possibility of human effort.
For example, my own genes might only be suitable for being a grunt. Perhaps major is the limit of the position my genes could calculate for me. Chairman Durandal, do you think that if I had obediently been a grunt according to my genes, would the New Misurugi Kingdom exist today?"
With Reid's words, Durandal was left speechless. After all, if a genetic analysis now said that Reid Isaac was only suited to be a major in the army, Durandal would first wonder if there was something wrong with his genetic sequencing logic. To say such a thing would be the joke of the century.
However, Durandal could also see that Reid did not support a societal policy like that of Mars, so he could only smile and chime in, "Of course. If your sequencing results didn't show you as a top-tier scientific researcher, then there must be a problem with the logic of the genetic sequencing. It proves the system is not yet mature."
Hearing this, Reid also knew that Durandal, with his background as a researcher, would not so easily give up on the "truth" he firmly believed in. So, he also joked, "Actually, this genetic testing system from Mars isn't entirely useless if the logic is designed well.
For example, high school graduates who are unsure about their university major could get tested to see where their talents lie, and then choose a corresponding major based on their talents and actual grades. This could save young people from taking many wrong turns."
Reid's words made Durandal not know whether to laugh or cry. To think that his life's work would be used just to help university students choose a major seemed a bit of a waste. However, it did seem to be a viable idea. Should he run a pilot test to see the effects? As long as it wasn't mandatory, few countries in the world would likely object.
At this moment, Durandal truly felt that Reid's thinking was indeed more flexible than his own. No wonder he could achieve his current accomplishments in scientific research. A simple sentence had made his own plan more complete.
Disguise the Destiny Plan as a university major selection system. As long as the whole world uses it for two years and finds it good, there would be much less opposition when he rolled it out further, especially from the young people who had already experienced its convenience.
--Enjoying the story? Want more chapters? Check out my Patreon and support me for 40+ advance chapters.
Just search for "LegendaryTL" on Patreon!"
Thanks!