Chapter 191: Chapter 190: Consequences

I should mention the academies. During my first year at MIT, they’ve been built, teachers have been hired, and they’ve been busily teaching many students that had never seen the inside of a classroom before. Acting upon what I considered to be excellent advice, we also set up free technical colleges around the world. Not everyone wants to spend 4 to 12 more years in college. Many of them would much rather go to a trade school for a year or two and earn darn good money using the knowledge they gain at them.

Many of the people hired at DTI and TGR simply need a technical degree and some on-the-job training. All employees are paid rather well. As I said before, well-paid employees are happier, more loyal, and also tend to be much more productive. I see it as a win-win. Regardless, a person only needs so much money before it becomes meaningless. My family has enough money that our great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren will never have to worry about money. Though, hopefully, they’ll be smart enough to contribute to society in a positive manner.

Dad calls us on September 11 to tell us that Mom had the baby. He’s a beautiful little brunette with blue eyes. They named him Daiki after my birth father. We flew back and saw them for the weekend. We wanted to stay longer but Mom and Dad wouldn’t allow it since we have classes.

There was a lot of excitement when people found out that I was in their classes. So, after my first two classes were disrupted, the dean had a conversation with me. We decided that I would talk to my professors, and when class began, they would call me to the front, and I would introduce myself to everyone. I also made time after classes to allow people to talk to me.

My favorite professor is Jacob Samuels. I first met him in my second year at MIT when I took my first nanotechnology course. He is one of the two professors here that teach Nanotechnology. My reputation precedes me, so when we met, we hit it off right away. I considered him more of a friend and mentor than just a professor.

He’s joined us for dinner at my house many times, and we would have long conversations about nanites, their uses, and where we could possibly go with them. He loved my idea of using them to Geoform other planets to make them habitable, e.g. Mars. The devil is in the details though, so it’s merely an idea at present. Hopefully, we’ll eventually be able to do that.

Other things of interest that happen during our time in college.

Mayumi and Kazuto get married on May 11, 2063. It’s a beautiful wedding, and I was really happy that she asked me to be her Maid of Honor. 9 months later, she gives birth to a little boy, Arata, on February 11, 2064. Maki has a baby girl, Kanami, born on October 23, 2063. Ryu is so happy to be a big brother, and she is so cute! The following month, Sofi gives birth to Steven Lee on November 9, 2063. Honoka has female and male fraternal twins, respectively named Siri and Eiji, on March 3, 2064. Thankfully, we have fast transport so we can be there for the births.

The world is at peace, crime is at an all-time low, and most people have far more than they need. After the examples that George and I made of a few corrupt officials, most of them realized that lining their pockets with public money or abusing their power is really not a bright idea. The consequences far outweigh any gains. Regardless, there are always the ones that think they are smarter or more clever than those who have sworn to watch over them.

That said, during my time at MIT, the mayor of Los Angeles, Liam Peterson, and the owners of several companies were arrested and charged with corruption, bribery, abuse of power, deprivation of rights, theft under color of law, and several other charges. The CEOs had been bribing Peterson to declare areas of the city public domain so that companies could build there.

It was bad enough that it happened, but when the full extent of his crimes came out during his interrogation, I was asked to attend his trial as co-judge with the AI. The public and I were merely told of the arrest and the charges, so I went in blind to the complete story. When Mr. Peterson saw me sitting on the bench, he paled almost to the point of losing all color. As the trial progressed and information came out, I was positively livid. Truthfully, had the option been available, I’d have sentenced him to death.

A little background is in order here. As you know, the Ministry of Justice and I basically rebuilt the judicial system. That said, if you are sentenced to 5 years, you are in prison for every day of those 5 years. For life in prison, the only way you’ll ever leave is in a coffin. Prosecutors are no longer elected, they are appointed by the Ministry of Justice, and all judges are AIs. Well, except in special circumstances like this trial.

Anyway, the defense rests their case. The AI, Forseti, and I find him guilty on all counts, and he breaks down in tears when we sentence him to life in prison at the Unalaska Island prison facility. It’s really not a place you want to be sent.

Unalaska Island is now one huge prison. It can house up to 15,000 prisoners, and only the worst of the worst are sent there. The ones who will never, ever see the outside of a prison again. It’s one of the few prisons on Earth where you have 3 rights and that’s it. Food, housing, and medical care. And you are not allowed any visitors.

There’s a shielded, fortified area with automated defenses. It’s for intake and houses about a dozen full-time guards, nurses, and doctors while the prisoners are left to govern themselves in whatever manner they see fit. George and I reasoned that if you want to be a detriment to society, then you can live out your life with others just like you.

Unalaska Island is roughly 1,700 kilometers from mainland Alaska, and even at the height of summer, the water temperature barely reaches 10℃. Thus the few guards, who are only there to protect the other staff from the prisoners when they need medical care. Escaping is not something we are worried about. If you want to try to swim to the nearest island in only thin prison clothing, then more power to you. You’ll become hypothermic and drown long before you reach anywhere else. All prisoners there are surgically implanted with tracking chips, so even if by some miracle you don’t drown, the drones that patrol the area surrounding the island will kill them on sight.

[Saturday, May 13, 2067]

Over the last several years, Ryu and I have been busy here in Boston. Even for me, some of the classes I have to take require a lot of effort. Regardless, Ryu and I have commencement today. Ryu has earned his J.D. degree while I earned triple degrees. I have Master’s degrees in Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, and programming. Also, we are now 22-years-old.

After commencement, we go out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants. Chinatsu and I tell Ryu that once we get resettled back at home and I’ve caught up on things, we’re going to take a vacation, just the three of us on Okinawa, and we want him to give us the first of many children while we’re there. If you could have seen his eyes and smile, you would understand how happy that makes him. Not only do Chinatsu and I want babies, but Ryu does as well.

Closing down our house in Boston and getting everything ready for the move takes a few days. Then, we are driven over to the airport and fly back to my palace on Yakushima. I spend much of the next two weeks catching up on projects at TGR and DTI, taking care of my work as Queen that I’ve put off until I could deal with it in person, and going to visit Honoka and Sofi as well as my parents, little sisters, and brother.

Amazingly, I’m somehow able to finish everything I want or need to do with a couple of days left before we are scheduled to leave for Okinawa.

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Of the week we spend in Okinawa, we only leave our room to eat for the first couple of days. The remainder of our time there, we spend playing on the beach, sunning ourselves, and just enjoying the three of us being together as we relax.

Unfortunately, as always, duty calls, and we have to return to Yakushima. When we do, Jason tells me that he’s going to begin looking for a staff doctor. In turn, I told him that one wasn’t really needed. Nanites, remember? Jason cares about us, and not just because it’s his job. He’s more like a hyper-protective older brother to us than a guard. As such, we consider him to be family rather than an employee, and we’re lucky to have him.

Regardless of our nanites, he insists that we find a doctor for the palace staff. There is very little that goes on in our lives that Jason doesn’t know about. Accordingly, he knows that Chinatsu and I are pregnant. Heck, he was almost as excited as Ryu.

Akari just smiles and shakes her head when she sees me. She told me that quite often, I’ll stop in the middle of something, smile, and kind of daze out while touching my stomach. My reply is always the same. ‘I’ve been waiting for almost 10 years to be able to have children, so I’m happy.’ Actually, it’s more like I’m deliriously euphoric; I can’t wait to meet him or her.

I’m not so happy when the morning sickness hits me, which isn’t only limited to the mornings, and what’s even worse than that is that Chinatsu has it much worse than I do. She practically lives in the bathroom for a few weeks.

Suffice to say that once the morning sickness passed, the remaining months of our pregnancies were fairly easy for us. Well, other than feeling like beached whales and having trouble getting up, along with the other normal problems that come with being pregnant. All three of us are excited to meet them, but we discussed it and decided that we don’t want to know what the babies’ genders are before they’re born.

Ellen Stevens, the doctor Jason wanted for the palace and is now part of the staff, told both of us to take it easy and back off from work for the last couple of months.

As an aside, you wouldn’t believe how big of a deal the people make of me being pregnant. For weeks after Yui released a statement, it was the main story on the news and the internet. Several places around the world also opened betting pools regarding what the gender of my baby will be. Anne laughed when she reported that several trillion dollars has been bet on it, although the majority of the money, and public hopes, is on the side of me having a son. The three of us don’t care whether we have boys, girls, or one of each.

Chinatsu’s and my birthday come up in September and October, and we turn 23. Since I’m as big as a house at this point, I decline to hold my normal party. The news disappoints the public - it still amazes me that so many like watching the stream of my birthday party - so Yui has a conversation with me about an idea she has. Basically, she wants to stream the quiet little party we plan to hold here at the palace. The news and web are full of speculation that I’m not doing well and that’s why the party is canceled. Yui says that streaming it would go a long way toward reassuring the people that I’m fine. So, we stream our rather casual party. It’s merely the three of us and our family members.

The next day, Yui reports a very positive response to the stream. They especially like that they got to see a part of my private life. She also said that the stream was watched, or the recording of it was accessed over 590 million times. The number of people that did so is astounding to me.

That’s not saying that I didn’t realize how popular I am. Trust me, that fact is abundantly clear to me. There, of course, are many reasons for my popularity. For some, they find the life of their Queen interesting. For others, it’s the quiet little talks that Yui and I stream about any subject that interests me that week. With the largest group, it’s because I’ve improved their lives with my policies, and freed them from tyrants, allowing them to live their lives as they see fit within the bounds of the law, and I make sure that their rights are fiercely protected. George, and the Ministry of Oversight, are almost gleeful in their efforts of chasing down officials who are corrupt or violate a citizen’s rights.

Finally, in March of 2068, Chinatsu and I go into labor. You’d think from all the excitement when the news of me going into labor spreads that the citizens are the ones having a baby. My beautiful daughter, Akane, greets the world at 11:28 P.M. UTC on the 11th with a very loud, angry cry. She takes after her mother with her red hair and the brightest green eyes you’ve ever seen.

At 4:01 A.M. UTC on the 12th, Chinatsu’s son, Ichiro, is born with a mop of black hair and bright blue eyes. You can already tell he’s going to be a handful.

Neither Akane nor Ichiro are happy when the nurse takes some blood from them. They made that fact perfectly clear to anyone with ears. Doctor Stevens returns a couple of hours later and reports that they both have active nanites in their blood. All I could think is, ‘Well, yeah, who do you think their mothers are? Of course, they have nanites!’

Speaking of nanites. Of course, that means that diseases, virii, bacteria, and the like will never make them sick, so they’ll have very long, healthy lives.

We, of course, heal within a couple of days of their birth. The next day, Akane and I are dragged off to be primped and dressed for her formal presentation to a crowd of several hundred reporters and streamers.

Yui takes the podium and stands there until they settle down, then makes one simple statement, “Ladies and Gentlemen of the press, it’s my honor to present Her Majesty, the Queen, and the First Princess of the Commonwealth, Akane.”

The noise of their reaction scares Akane, and she begins crying, which has me glaring at them until they quickly settle down again. When I’ve calmed her down, I step up to the mic and state, “I’m not going to make a statement, but I will take a few questions. Our little princess doesn’t seem to realize that her mother needs sleep, so I’m rather tired.”

There aren’t that many questions, and most of them are about how I’m feeling. The time and date of her birth were released to the news when it happened, so there isn’t much more to know about it. Other than that she doesn’t like to let her mother sleep.

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