The Galactic Senate

[Rhyssua]

Sceptarys had absolutely no idea why this new (he thought they were new, but with Illutids it was hard to tell) Senator was shouting about post-scarcity, as if that had anything to do with what they were talking about. He also didn't know where Senator Vaitil was at the moment. But right now that didn't matter.

"You've clearly not been paying attention to the debate, so let me refresh your memory," Sceptarys said. "Your Senator Vaitil called for a centralized galactic dictatorship, wanted to turn the Republic into a communist state, espoused fascism, and had the balls to insult me and my entire culture. Now you, whatever your name is, have gone a step further. I've tried to keep an open mind about this debate, but quite frankly you seem more interested in securing the presidency and insulting everyone around you than actually discussing policy."

Sceptarys yawned into the microphone, letting everyone in the Senate know how much this debate bored him.

"As for your post-scarcity utopia," he began. "I'd love it, if it were even remotely possible. I want you to take a step back and understand what you're saying. Your.. colleague Vaitil discussed the Cybernetic Wars. While that was hundreds of years ago, you're tempting fate by turning over our entire economy to automation, a process that is as impossible as it is tyrannical. You asked why we can't have post-scarcity. I'll tell you why: Because scarcity is everywhere. Look around you for a moment! There's a children's hospital, an orphanage, and a soup kitchen all within fifty miles of this very building! What about the resources required to build your automated empire? And who would ensure that everyone got the resources they needed? A gigantic, centralized, tyrannical dictatorship, that would control the means of production and crush its citizens with an iron fist. You're no better than Vaitil; at least the man earned his position. And one more thing."

Sceptarys did something unexpected then. He detached his pod and floated up to where Senator Morz was floating. He stared the man straight in the eye, and without breaking eye contact, jumped out of his own pod and into Morz's.

"Vaitil insulted me," Sceptarys said, his voice a low growl. "That was expected. Vaitil insulted my culture. That was idiotic. And you, you little dictator, have insulted my family. Are your parents proud of the monster they've raised? Every single point you just brought up could've been used in a calm and reasonable debate. Instead, you slander me, my family, and my culture with baseless accusations, in attempt to justify your pathetic little ego. Your only policy is hatred. Hatred for me, hatred for my culture, hatred for my family, hatred for this entire Senate, and hatred for all Republic citizens who would dare poke holes in that precious little ego of yours. I hope your parents are proud of you. Because I doubt your constituents, your home nation, or anyone else in the Galaxy is."

Without taking his eyes off Morz, Sceptarys leapt back into his pod and floated a good distance away. When he'd been standing in front of Morz, the urge to cut the man's throat was definitely there, although Sceptarys's normally cool head prevailed before it would come to that.

"In other news," Sceptarys said, exhaling. "Unlike him," he pointed at Morz without looking. "I've actually accomplished something. A mere half hour ago, there were three massive warships hovering in the Cosmopolis system, as tensions rose between Axial and Choria. Now, all three warships have left the system, and I'm meeting with both Senator Rhomann and Senator Armistay to diffuse those tensions."

[The World Capitalist Confederation]

Mmote-Shoki waved his tentacles in disapproval. He adjusted his communication chip for he could not believe what he was hearing."Senator while your ideas and propositions are admirable they are but a dream, the truth is that while the galaxy is massive is it is only host to a finite amount of resources, free trade and capitalism ensure that these resources are allocated in the most efficient and least violent manner possible."

"For example, kyroban gas is the only fuel available for warp drives, and it is extremely rare, in ages hundreds of thousands of years in the past empires would wage wars, and enslave entire civilizations for this precious fuel. The Katari themselves where enslaved many times so that their conquerors could gain access to our precious gas."

It is because of the free trade network that is the Republic that an age of unparalleled peace has graced this galaxy".

"It is your ideas that will lead to the ruin of our Republic, and return us to an age of infamy and barbarism."

"It is indeed finite, but it is in effect infinite. There are several orders of magnitude more systems which can be used for strip mining as opposed to those that host living creatures. We can build large dyson spheres out of the material we get from the asteroids and planets in the star system, which can be turned into mass through a contained system of gravity, as we can turn energy into a mass, in the form of an electron and positron. This will allow us to build atoms out of energy. The dyson sphere will allow us to create large amounts of mass from 0.001% of the galaxy. So in terms of raw resources we won't run out.

For kyroban gas, I have a solution, which I thank my scientific advisor Vern Leicnik for. I assume you've heard of string theory - most of us have - we can apparently generate wormholes through exotic matter, which creates antigravity. Now, this antigravity will cause objects to repel and create a hole in spacetime which constantly attempts - but fails - to turn itself into a black hole. So we have two holes in spacetime, which can be separated and but anywhere. Kyroban gas will only be used in interstellar travel. Better yet, we could use another, older theory, which is slower than kyroban gas and requires more energy, but is cheaper: the protodrive. The protodrive only requires some energy - about 4 tonnes of fuel in a nuclear fusion reactor, maybe even less if our scientists get working on it - thereby replacing the kyroban gas drive. There is also synthetic kyroban gas, but that's less reliable and more experimental.

Is it not your ideals which have enslaves trillions under the rule of tyrannic corporations? With mine, we can bring a new age of post-scarcity. People wouldn't have to work anymore. Besides, even if there was a magic (hypothetical) material of which there was a requirement for and no substitutes, AI will be able to redirect it more efficiently than a capitalist economy. Capitalism is an old ideology, borne of grounded civilisations: one with little or no spacefaring abilities. We need post-capitalism and post-scarcity more than ever."

[Rhyssua]

Sceptarys began to speak, deliberately ignoring Morz. He meant it when he said that Morz was no better than Vaitil. In fact, Morz so far seemed to be even more toxic than his predecessor.

"If anyone objects, I'd like to proceed to voting. I think everyone's made their point. If someone would like to continue slandering me, however, go on ahead. You have my full attention."

There was a bit of uneasy laughter at his last statement.

[The World Capitalist Confederation]

Sceptarys had absolutely no idea why this new (he thought they were new, but with Illutids it was hard to tell) Senator was shouting about post-scarcity, as if that had anything to do with what they were talking about. He also didn't know where Senator Vaitil was at the moment. But right now that didn't matter.

"You've clearly not been paying attention to the debate, so let me refresh your memory," Sceptarys said. "Your Senator Vaitil called for a centralized galactic dictatorship, wanted to turn the Republic into a communist state, espoused fascism, and had the balls to insult me and my entire culture. Now you, whatever your name is, have gone a step further. I've tried to keep an open mind about this debate, but quite frankly you seem more interested in securing the presidency and insulting everyone around you than actually discussing policy."

Sceptarys yawned into the microphone, letting everyone in the Senate know how much this debate bored him.

"As for your post-scarcity utopia," he began. "I'd love it, if it were even remotely possible. I want you to take a step back and understand what you're saying. Your.. colleague Vaitil discussed the Cybernetic Wars. While that was hundreds of years ago, you're tempting fate by turning over our entire economy to automation, a process that is as impossible as it is tyrannical. You asked why we can't have post-scarcity. I'll tell you why: Because scarcity is everywhere. Look around you for a moment! There's a children's hospital, an orphanage, and a soup kitchen all within fifty miles of this very building! What about the resources required to build your automated empire? And who would ensure that everyone got the resources they needed? A gigantic, centralized, tyrannical dictatorship, that would control the means of production and crush its citizens with an iron fist. You're no better than Vaitil; at least the man earned his position. And one more thing."

Sceptarys did something unexpected then. He detached his pod and floated up to where Senator Morz was floating. He stared the man straight in the eye, and without breaking eye contact, jumped out of his own pod and into Morz's.

"Vaitil insulted me," Sceptarys said, his voice a low growl. "That was expected. Vaitil insulted my culture. That was idiotic. And you, you little dictator, have insulted my family. Are your parents proud of the monster they've raised? Every single point you just brought up could've been used in a calm and reasonable debate. Instead, you slander me, my family, and my culture with baseless accusations, in attempt to justify your pathetic little ego. Your only policy is hatred. Hatred for me, hatred for my culture, hatred for my family, hatred for this entire Senate, and hatred for all Republic citizens who would dare poke holes in that precious little ego of yours. I hope your parents are proud of you. Because I doubt your constituents, your home nation, or anyone else in the Galaxy is."

Without taking his eyes off Morz, Sceptarys leapt back into his pod and floated a good distance away. When he'd been standing in front of Morz, the urge to cut the man's throat was definitely there, although Sceptarys's normally cool head prevailed before it would come to that.

"In other news," Sceptarys said, exhaling. "Unlike him," he pointed at Morz without looking. "I've actually accomplished something. A mere half hour ago, there were three massive warships hovering in the Cosmopolis system, as tensions rose between Axial and Choria. Now, all three warships have left the system, and I'm meeting with both Senator Rhomann and Senator Armistay to diffuse those tensions."

"You think I was born into this? Vaitil was - but I wasn't - I was born effectively as a slave. I have no parents, as I was separated from them at birth, bearing only the name of my master. And yet, here I've come. I bear nothing but spite for people of your type. You want a civilised debate - I shall give you one. Now, back to policy.

You ask why there is a children's hospital, an orphanage and a soup kitchen around here. That is a good question, and I shall split it into its component parts. First off, the children's hospital. People get naturally ill, this isn't even a question. As for the orphanage, you ask one question which I believe I can divide up into two:
A question about crime rates and a question about overreproduction." Sceptarys could just feel Mörz's PR experience spilling in, as he politics Sceptarys' point to all hell.

"To crime rates. There is a question that must be asked: why do people commit crime? First, you have the usual - but smaller - group of the mentally disturbed. People are mentally disturbed because they feel alienated or because they are stressed. This is mostly due to work or the actions of other people's stress. Most stress is either caused by work or relationships. Eliminating the current system of capitalism would end most work-related stress, and a 'socialist culture' would probably end some of the relationship stress with it. Alienation is a cause of social isolation and of capitalism, as Jan Rietmitz proved in his groundbreaking speech on alienation. People are alienated because of capitalist culture, effectively. Socialist culture would fix this. So in effect, most of the crimes from the mentally disturbed would be gone.

Now, you have the more numerous - and the easier to address - people who commit crime due to poverty. They steal to feed their family and to help out other people. Eliminating the economic conditions of capitalism would remove the need for people to steal, sell drugs or be hitmen. Simple as that." Mörz completed his first point with the kind of political acumen you don't usually expect from most people, even hardened veterans.

"To overreproduction. Now, again, this can be split into two problems. First off, the problem of economically not being able to support children. Socialist societies have been known to provide generous child benefits and childcare that the burden of supporting a child would be lessened, and so parents would be able to have more children without problem.

The second one is just generally overreproducing. Again, two problems. Problem A is that there is little access to contraceptives, and so people are less able to have safe sex. This is an interesting one. The main reason that contraceptives are hard to access in many places is either because of moral conservatism or because companies can't justify providing it to that area due to the lack of a profit margin. Another problem is that people can't afford contraceptives, but this links to the original Problem A.

Problem B regarding overreproduction. People in poverty generally reproduce more than those outside of poverty. Whether this is for child labour or just the natural development of civilisation, we do not know. Pulling people out of poverty is generally known to reduce the birth rate and the death rate (which also reduces the amount of orphans), therefore reducing the population of orphanages. Now, in wealthy societies, people are especially known to adopt children as opposed to poorer societies, so further down the population goes." Everybody in the Senate was either bored or perplexed by now, as Mörz had just deconstructed a sentence into a speech.

"Now, the soup kitchen. This is basically the go-to place for poverty. Again, redistribution of wealth would eliminate hunger, and abolish places such as this. We could get rid of all of these through simply ending this bloodthirsty, capitalist economic system. Yet, we don't. Why is that? We can have post-scarcity, after all, it's just that some people would lose some from it...."

[The World Capitalist Confederation]

Sceptarys began to speak, deliberately ignoring Morz. He meant it when he said that Morz was no better than Vaitil. In fact, Morz so far seemed to be even more toxic than his predecessor.

"If anyone objects, I'd like to proceed to voting. I think everyone's made their point. If someone would like to continue slandering me, however, go on ahead. You have my full attention."

There was a bit of uneasy laughter at his last statement.

"You said civilised debate, I gave you civilised debate, now fight it."

[Novas Arcanum]

For the slimy mollusk, it was clear who was the victor today, Mmote-Shoki cast his vote for Sceptarys.

[Rhyssua]

Sceptarys barked a laugh.

"Finally," he said. "I've been waiting for you to actually start speaking and stop hurling insults at me. Now, while you've defined, analyzed, and commented on every word of what I just said, all I've heard from you is what I've been hearing. Socialism. Complete and total socialism, with all the horrors that come with it. Here's what I plan to do."

Sceptarys couldn't help but smile. Finally, some open and honest debate. In all honesty, a post-scarcity society intrigued Sceptarys. However, he wasn't willing to experiment on the entire Republic. Failure would be disastrous, and likely.

"I plan to give tax breaks and incentive for companies, large and small alike, to do business with poorer and less developed regions of the Republic. Hell, I'll even throw in a government aid program, for all the good we know it'd do. I'd make the Republic a regular sponsor of nonprofit, humanitarian organizations that help these people, in order to get them back on their feet. Regular donations to these organizations will help them continue to operate, and operate on a larger scope. I'll even help poor and disadvantaged people obtain jobs building public works, such as roads and buildings, through small, locally-oriented businesses paid by government contracts. All these things will help alleviate the problems you described. Now, onto what you plan to do."

"You said that mental illness occurs because of stress, which in turn causes crime. Not true in the least. People who commit crimes due to mental illness usually do so because of severe disorders, often genetic in nature and very rarely caused by stress. A stressed person is not mentally ill, let alone one ill enough to commit a crime. These people need to be in a hospital, not subjected to socialist healthcare. Since the subject of healthcare is a difficult one, I plan to leave it up to individual member nations to decide, since their policies will be geared towards serving the needs of their own people. My statements earlier would help eliminate poverty-motivated crime."

"As for over-reproduction, I believe you've solved that problem by merely mentioning it. People will always find a way to prosper, and I'm sure they'll be able to create low-cost contraceptives. No amount of 'redistributing the wealth' of contraceptives will help these people; businesses catering to their needs will. I must admit, Senator, I may have misjudged you. You, at least, can act civilized, unlike the late Vaitil."

[The World Capitalist Confederation]

Sceptarys barked a laugh.

"Finally," he said. "I've been waiting for you to actually start speaking and stop hurling insults at me. Now, while you've defined, analyzed, and commented on every word of what I just said, all I've heard from you is what I've been hearing. Socialism. Complete and total socialism, with all the horrors that come with it. Here's what I plan to do."

Sceptarys couldn't help but smile. Finally, some open and honest debate. In all honesty, a post-scarcity society intrigued Sceptarys. However, he wasn't willing to experiment on the entire Republic. Failure would be disastrous, and likely.

"I plan to give tax breaks and incentive for companies, large and small alike, to do business with poorer and less developed regions of the Republic. Hell, I'll even throw in a government aid program, for all the good we know it'd do. I'd make the Republic a regular sponsor of nonprofit, humanitarian organizations that help these people, in order to get them back on their feet. Regular donations to these organizations will help them continue to operate, and operate on a larger scope. I'll even help poor and disadvantaged people obtain jobs building public works, such as roads and buildings, through small, locally-oriented businesses paid by government contracts. All these things will help alleviate the problems you described. Now, onto what you plan to do."

"You said that mental illness occurs because of stress, which in turn causes crime. Not true in the least. People who commit crimes due to mental illness usually do so because of severe disorders, often genetic in nature and very rarely caused by stress. A stressed person is not mentally ill, let alone one ill enough to commit a crime. These people need to be in a hospital, not subjected to socialist healthcare. Since the subject of healthcare is a difficult one, I plan to leave it up to individual member nations to decide, since their policies will be geared towards serving the needs of their own people. My statements earlier would help eliminate poverty-motivated crime."

"As for over-reproduction, I believe you've solved that problem by merely mentioning it. People will always find a way to prosper, and I'm sure they'll be able to create low-cost contraceptives. No amount of 'redistributing the wealth' of contraceptives will help these people; businesses catering to their needs will. I must admit, Senator, I may have misjudged you. You, at least, can act civilized, unlike the late Vaitil."

"You address the problems at an economic level, Senator. Funding charities isn't going to help as much a full comprehensive aid package to the poorest regions - but I admire that (if misguided) idealistic spirit. The problem with funding charities rather than welfare programs it's less efficient. I know this may sound completely stupid: but government is an efficient institution if managed properly. I know the Trial and getting a license to drive a spaceship might not make it seem that way, but it is." The hall laughed at the spaceship licensing joke, as it was a joke that everyone could relate to.

"More seriously, I believe that we ought to begin great works across the entire nation. We shouldn't fund corrupt and inefficient companies to do our bidding. We should instead handle things directly. Trust me - I've lived in Hesperus for my entire life - you don't want to see all the dirt inside those corporations. We need to bypass corporations and instead bring wealth directly to the citizens. Offer them high-paying work as opposed to the low-paying drudgery they'd get otherwise. This is what my erstwhile colleague meant when he said state capitalism: the state competes against the corporations in an open market. I do not personally advocate it, but there it is. We need a Universal Basic Income in lieu of welfare, in order to increase consumer spending. We also need to stop giving tax cuts out to the rich. They have a fiscal multiplication rate of 0.3 (which means that we lose of 70% of our revenue when we put that money in), and so are inefficient. Instead, we should do things like fund education or fund healthcare. Provide direct government jobs. Nationalise education. Nationalise healthcare. Nationalise transportation. We need decentralised (in fact, as a compromise, I'd be willing to hand the nations a budget regarding, say, healthcare, and they can do whatever healthcare-related things with it they want) but nationalised services. This is only the beginning after all. Whilst I'd prefer an AI-backed economy, this is a good, compromising step forward as opposed to the current policy.

I can see now, that I'm boring all of you. So let me give you an emotional tale, as I see that hard facts won't get us anywhere. A constituent once told me that her child had a rare disease known as Mythers-Limms Disease. The only way to treat ML disease was through a pill known as Caramos. Caramos, based on my freedom of information requests, costs only 2 credits to make. Do you know how much the pills were sold for? 150 credits each. Shameful, isn't it? My constituent lost her child to those drug companies, and I think, to honour her child's memory, we ought to remove these patents from private control. We ought to take in every pharmaceutical, scientific and technological patent and let every single one loose. That way, we'll have free innovation. These corporations have stolen people's lives. They have taken millions upon millions of souls away. All for what? All for what...?" Mörz looked as though he was about to cry, although not really.

"All for naked profit. Is this the galaxy we want to live in? If it isn't the galaxy you want to live in, then vote for me rather than Sceptarys' laissez-faire policies."

[Russkiya Svyachena]

Senator Won decidedly voted for Sceptarys, mainly because it was in the best interests of Droids Inc. He continued pressing the bloc in support of Vaitil, “You claim that capitalism is a corrupt system that keeps poor people down, but I must again point you to our CEO, who managed to make herself the wealthiest person in the galaxy before she even turned forty. If anything, this should show you that the system of free markets and private enterprises is one to keep.

Your ideals are honestly quite childish, and very idealist to that. Unfortunately, the universe is not simple, nor is it forgiving to failure. The system of capitalism rewards hard work, while punishing laziness.”

[United Auroran Empire]

Armistay was disappointed her first act as senator would be to watch this debate. She was half hoping for some hard-line political drama. In all truthfulness the election was long decided before the debate. However, Leah was not paying attention to the debate. Per her deal with the Salvoryn she had long cast her vote. Or at the very least in the physical sense told her assistant Aapa to do it. What Armistay was most focused on, after the paperwork was long done and sent in via the senate drones, was a message sent from the king. There would be a conference concerning the future of the country's existence in the Republic soon (no doubt a cover up to discuss their real issue of interior security and disallowing a Roxlany incident in the future). The message was long and waning , demanding her immediate attendance in the conversation at the king's court. And this does come at a very inopportune time. What-with the upcoming peace talks with the Chorian Senator-

Leah Armistay leaned over the side of her pod to look at the new Chorian Senator. She forgot his name. Not a good sign for the future.
She leans back and came to the sad realization that the peace talks would have to come later than she hoped. She instructed Aapa to type up a letter informing Sceptarys of this unfortunate happening. It was something she could not risk not attending, what-with it concerning her job and its continued existence. And she knew that he of all people would understand it. It was the Chorian Senator she was worried about.

But then she realized that the meeting never had a set time. Just that they agreed to meet together at some point. Sceptarys can have his meeting with the Chorian about his own thing, but he can mediate it later.
She relaxed a bit, the bliss of non-committance taking over her. This would be just fine. If any votes came up while she was out she would just mail in her vote, it would be in line with Sceptarys anyways. Had to keep that trust somehow. And to the void if the Chorian made noise about cowardice of not meeting. Its not like he isn't afraid of his head-of-state. He should be atleast, inadvertently calling her a tyrant and corrupt over his public speech to the galaxy. He has no quarrel with her, and her people hadn't done anything personally wrong to the Chorians. So she thinks shes in the clear.

She casts her vote for Sceptarys at the first given chance.

[Rhyssua]

"Here's the problem with a centralized welfare program," Sceptarys said, starting to relax. He didn't know what had caused it, but Morz had pulled a complete 180. Perhaps he realized that it wasn't winning him any support.

"Where does the money come from?" he asked. "While reducing tax cuts to the rich could help against some problems, it wouldn't be nearly enough. Remember, these taxes would be coming in on top of already-established ones. We're already in debt due to GLEA, a debt that I plan to cover using a combination of extra-Republic tariffs and excise taxes. These aid packages, while they may do some good, will cost tremendous sums of money to get any sort of return on our investment. The logical way to get the money would be taxes, but the more we tax people for welfare, the more end up as recipients of welfare, no matter how we scale it. Nationalizing education and transportation would be a similar drain on our already-stretched budget. Education should be the responsibility of member nations; what knowledge of Axial's shipbuilding history do I have? Or Choria's? They should be funded, and directed, at a local level. Same with transportation. With GLEA cleaning up our space-lanes, transportation has never been easier or cheaper. There's simply no need to invest in it. Unless you mean transportation within member nations, in which case we fall down my beautiful rabbit hole of national sovereignty."

Weary laughter greeted his last sentence. Sceptarys shrugged, aware that he'd repeated himself on that issue numerous times.

"While a government could be efficient if managed properly," he continued. "I think we can all agree that nobody's seen it yet. A dictatorship would sure be efficient; all decision making would be quick and painless. However, I know that none of us wants that. Inefficiency and democracy go hand in hand, after all. And, since you ended with that wonderful story, I shall as well."

Sceptarys made sure he looked about as ready to cry as Morz, in order to highlight how fake both their expressions were.

"Let's call this man Yan. Yan operated a small corner store with his wife. Since he was kind, efficient, and motivated, he got a lot of customers. Eventually, Yan had saved enough to buy another building, for another store built along the same lines. But then, the government stepped in and took away his money. Not illegally of course. Through taxes, fees, and other charges that the government promised were for his own good. A a result, he couldn't afford to buy that second store. He kept doing business as normal, but every time he'd earn enough money to continue, the government would step in and cut him back down again. So you know what he did? He gave up trying. He accepted that he'd only ever have one small store. But the government wasn't done with him yet, oh no. They introduced more taxes, more fees. This continued until his store, along with all companies on the planet, were run into the ground. If you want to know the planet, it's Arcaelius, a planet the Hegemony colonized in the wake of the Cybernetic Wars. That planet is now a paradise, as opposed to its previous iron-fisted government."

"Here's the difference between Morz and me. Morz believes that corporations tend towards evil, while I believe that big governments tend towards evil. There's a catch, however. Governments, big or otherwise can put a check on the power of corporations, reigning them in if they ever get out of hand. As a result, their impact is limited if the government cares about its people. Corporations, however, can't do a thing to stop big governments. Big, intrusive governments can destroy not only corporations, but small businesses and people's livelihoods in an instant. They can do so arbitrarily, without rhyme or reason."

"Seems like your government, Mr. Morz, needed better price controls if it wanted to avoid that problem, instead of trying to seize the result of decades of painstaking work. What about the scientists? If their work is seized without any sort of compensation, these brilliant minds will simply stop trying. I don't ever want to stop that. If people stop trying, then Republic society as a whole grinds to a halt. The choice isn't mine; it's ultimately the Senate's."

[Sarderistan]

Rhomann silently cast his vote in the command pad he was holding, pushing the button to vote for Sceptarys Nuusan of the Sarvolyan Hegemony. When the debate was coming to a little halt, he glanced at Scpetarys, as if to signal he had made his vote for him.

[The National Dominion of Hungary]

Lialora Farixys - Senatorial Hall, Cosmopolis

---

She detached her platform and let i hover out into the grand hall where representatives from thousands and thousands of star-nations were gathered to choose their Speaker, one of the most powerful positions any sentient being could hold. Lia was tired, incredibly tired of Vaitil ramblings and the demagoguery of his second who seemed to have very little to say other than to spit in the face of common sense, reason, feasibility, politeness and, well, anything and everything that the Republic represented. Maniacal demagogues with delusions of grandeur, utterly possessed by the idea that they knew what everyone else wanted and need, that they were here to deliver the world from want, need and suffering. So misguided, so foolish. As a wise man once said, it is much easier to rule a city that to have your own house in order. Senator Farixys thought as she stepped up to the podium on her platform.

"Esteemed Senators, ladies and gentlemen from a million worlds." She said with a sweeping, elegant gesture. "It seems that there are some among us who would listen to the ideologically possessed, a sad, and equally frightening prospect. Vaitil, and whatever the other one's name was are nothing but demagogues, throughout the long history of every species we have dealt with people such as these, fanatically convinced of their own righteousness and in the greater good of their cause, it is everyone else who has a problem, everyone else is a fool, everyone else is misinformed, lied to, an enemy, a counterrevolutionary. Someone who must be destroyed, dealt with. After all, it's for the greater good, isn't it? Utopia is always just one corpse away." She said in clam, composed yet firm and unrelenting tone.

"They want us to centralize power in the Senate, a Senate and Galactic Republic ruled by them and their machines. This may be a controversial opinion for them, but I would assume that fore the most of us it is common sense, machines exist to serve us, not rule us. To help us produce, not to give handouts to the starving masses after the Galactic economy implodes in itself after an attempt to fully replace it by a new system. Imagine having combat droids marching down the streets of your worlds and cities built by the taxes you pay to finance your own occupation by a totalitarian state driven by the goal of achieving a utopia, always, always just one more corpse away." She continued.

"You hear how they speak, they have no respect for the very foundation that this republic was made upon. Mutual respect where all nations are treated as equals, with the right to self-rule and right to pursue their interests, united to promote trade and mutually defend themselves from external threats. You remember the Cyberwars do you not my fellow colleagues? The last thing that I and the Thaelic Union State, which historically suffered a terrible toll during the Cyberwars will do is to pay for an army of machines to occupy us. The last thing we will do is to turn over our hard-won sovereignty to a tyrant who wants to rule the galaxy with an iron fist and bring us nothing but oppression and misery in the name of some nebulous ideological fever-dream."

"I will not stand idle and allow this Republic to be usurped by power-hungry fanatics possessed by their own sense of righteousness. When people such as them take control over societies, all it ever leads to is suffering an countless dead, all in the name of the greater good. Our sovereignty will be erased, as will the diverse cultures and identities of the Galaxy. I want each and every one of you to think long and hard about how many billions, nay, trillions of corpses Senator Vaitil's supposed utopia is worth. How many nations brought to ruin, how many cultures erased." She finally turned toward Senator Sceptarys.

"I for one do not believe that the utter devastation of Galactic Society for an ideological fever-dream is worth it. Every revolution has ended with a system just as bad, and often even worse than the one it was trying to replace. I, and the Thaelic Union State give our support to Senator Sceptarys in his bid for Speaker." She said and pushed the button, casting her vote for Sceptarys.

[Aureumterra]

Rkavya believed the position of Speaker was not very influential at all, being just the person who moderates debates, but he silently voted for Sceptarys.

[Ormata]

Senator Kina Au Kana
Ukete First Union Representative

“Senator Vaitil,” began Kana, speaking with a measured pace that belied what could only be described as constrained rage, “you speak of the Cybernetic Wars, of a child and father and uncle. You speak of these and use their corpses as bullets, their grief as shields, their loss as your gain. More specifically...you use our corpses, our grief, and our loss. We have fought time and time again. That war was no different. The same hands fought it, grimy and dirty and labored hands of billions striving to achieve freedom, justice, peace. We fought to preserve Ukete, as a species, as a nation, as a culture. You today seek the destruction of that culture, of that nation.”

“If no nation thought before for independence from the Galactic Republic, then today that has changed. We do not bow and we will not yield our sovereignty to another, not even this Republic.”

“As such, the Ukete First Union moves to elect Senator Sceptarys in the position.”

[United Auroran Empire]

Ma urgent message reached Armistay, telling her to leave at once. She left instructions for Aapa, then left for her ship. Axial was undergoing review by the king

[The World Capitalist Confederation]

Senator Kina Au Kana
Ukete First Union Representative

“Senator Vaitil,” began Kana, speaking with a measured pace that belied what could only be described as constrained rage, “you speak of the Cybernetic Wars, of a child and father and uncle. You speak of these and use their corpses as bullets, their grief as shields, their loss as your gain. More specifically...you use our corpses, our grief, and our loss. We have fought time and time again. That war was no different. The same hands fought it, grimy and dirty and labored hands of billions striving to achieve freedom, justice, peace. We fought to preserve Ukete, as a species, as a nation, as a culture. You today seek the destruction of that culture, of that nation.”

“If no nation thought before for independence from the Galactic Republic, then today that has changed. We do not bow and we will not yield our sovereignty to another, not even this Republic.”

“As such, the Ukete First Union moves to elect Senator Sceptarys in the position.”

OOC: I'm a different character, I don't know why you're yelling at me.

[Novas Arcanum]

End of 753rd Senate

When news came in that Vatilil had perished killed by a would be assassin, Cosmopolis and the Galactic Republic was shocked with news.Thus the victory was handed to Sceptarys by default, as he was the only viable candidate, and this "Morz" character had not taken his position for senator, has the time between Vatilil being killed and naming a new senator by Hesperus was not sufficient.It was history in the making has events this absurd where rare to occur in the Galactic Senate, but it seemed the candidate who campaigned on limited government and increased sovereignty for member states had won winning the heart and soul of the nation.Thus an ideological shift had occurred, that changed the course of the entire Republic, and Senator Sceptarys would gain an enormous boost in influence and prestige, as the new President of the Galactic Senate.

[The World Capitalist Confederation]

PRESENTED TO THIS GALACTIC SENATE HERE ASSEMBLED:

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE GALACTIC CONGRESS ACT:

SECTION I. This bill shall establish a lower house known as the Galactic Congress.
SECTION II. The average Republican citizen lacks direct representation in the Galactic Senate and so we must establish the Galactic Congress in order to represent the wants and needs of the average citizen, rather than those of nationstates.
SECTION III. 100 members shall be elected, using the D'Hondt method of proportional representation, to a Galactic Congress.
SECTION IV. The Galactic Congress elections shall begin now, and happen once every 4 years.
SECTION V. The Galactic Congress shall elect a President, similar to that of the Galactic Senate. It shall have similar powers to the Galactic Senate's President but regarding the Congress Instead.
SECTION VI. All bills must now be approved by both chambers, with each being able to tack amendments on.
SECTION VII. All laws in conflict with this legislation are hereby declared null and void.

[Rhyssua]

PRESENTED TO THIS GALACTIC SENATE HERE ASSEMBLED:

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE GALACTIC CONGRESS ACT:

SECTION I. This bill shall establish a lower house known as the Galactic Congress.
SECTION II. The average Republican citizen lacks direct representation in the Galactic Senate and so we must establish the Galactic Congress in order to represent the wants and needs of the average citizen, rather than those of nationstates.
SECTION III. 100 members shall be elected, using the D'Hondt method of proportional representation, to a Galactic Congress.
SECTION IV. The Galactic Congress elections shall begin now, and happen once every 4 years.
SECTION V. The Galactic Congress shall elect a President, similar to that of the Galactic Senate. It shall have similar powers to the Galactic Senate's President but regarding the Congress Instead.
SECTION VI. All bills must now be approved by both chambers, with each being able to tack amendments on.
SECTION VII. All laws in conflict with this legislation are hereby declared null and void.

Slow down, Sceptarys thought as he settled into the Speaker's podium I just got here!. He found that the podium was a lot more cramped than his Senator's pod, without much room to move around as he spoke. Although he was supposed to moderate the debate, he figured that he might as well start it.

"While I appreciate the sentiment," Sceptarys began. "There's a few major issues with this bill that need to be addressed before it's put to a vote. Firstly, the lack of unique abilities for this Galactic Congress merely means that you're essentially adding 100 new Senators, elected by a popular vote. This is just redundant. In order for the idea of a lower house to have merit, there must be specific areas of control for both the Senate and the Congress."

"Second, 100 members is far too small for proportional representation. The population of the Hegemony alone is 100 billion. In addition to that, the D'Hondt method refers to dividing seats by party. Will this remain the same, or will it be shifted to mean member nations? As for minutiae, I'd like to see a time frame for when the first Congress session will begin."

[The World Capitalist Confederation]

PRESENTED TO THIS GALACTIC SENATE HERE ASSEMBLED:

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE GALACTIC CONGRESS ACT:

SECTION I. This bill shall establish a lower house known as the Galactic Congress.
SECTION II. The average Republican citizen lacks direct representation in the Galactic Senate and so we must establish the Galactic Congress in order to represent the wants and needs of the average citizen, rather than those of nationstates.
SECTION III. 100 members shall be elected, using the D'Hondt method of proportional representation, to a Galactic Congress.
SECTION IV. The Galactic Congress elections shall begin now, and happen once every 4 years.
SECTION V. The Galactic Congress shall elect a President, similar to that of the Galactic Senate. It shall have similar powers to the Galactic Senate's President but regarding the Congress Instead.
SECTION VI. All bills must now be approved by both chambers, with each being able to tack amendments on.
SECTION VII. All laws in conflict with this legislation are hereby declared null and void.

Slow down, Sceptarys thought as he settled into the Speaker's podium I just got here!. He found that the podium was a lot more cramped than his Senator's pod, without much room to move around as he spoke. Although he was supposed to moderate the debate, he figured that he might as well start it.

"While I appreciate the sentiment," Sceptarys began. "There's a few major issues with this bill that need to be addressed before it's put to a vote. Firstly, the lack of unique abilities for this Galactic Congress merely means that you're essentially adding 100 new Senators, elected by a popular vote. This is just redundant. In order for the idea of a lower house to have merit, there must be specific areas of control for both the Senate and the Congress."

"Second, 100 members is far too small for proportional representation. The population of the Hegemony alone is 100 billion. In addition to that, the D'Hondt method refers to dividing seats by party. Will this remain the same, or will it be shifted to mean member nations? As for minutiae, I'd like to see a time frame for when the first Congress session will begin."

"Thank you for your suggestions, Mr. Speaker. As such, I propose these amendments to the bill."

AMENDMENT I:

This shall add Section VII, to read as follows:
"Section VIII. The specific areas of control for the Congress are budgetary and domestic matters. The specific areas of control for the Senate are foreign, military and interstate disputes. All other areas shall be controlled in cooperation."

AMENDMENT II:

This shall amend Section III to read:
"SECTION III. 751 members shall be elected, using the D'Hondt method of proportional representation, to a Galactic Congress."

AMENDMENT III:

This shall amend Section IV to read:
"SECTION IV. The Galactic Congress elections shall begin now (with all business being conducted a month after the passing of this bill), and happen once every 4 years. The Congress shall adjourn a month prior to elections."

[Novas Arcanum]

"And what of the small states hmm?" Mmote-Shoki soon floated his pod to the center of the chamber."Small states such has Sha Katar would be dwarfed by bigger states like the Hegemony or the Uktete Union, until an amendment is added that addresses this glaring issue I cannot support this bill".

[Sarderistan]

"I would like to point the same as Senator Shoki here," Rhomann took his pod on the center of the Senate. "751 seats is too small for an overall reoresentative number. I suggest we expand the number of seats available to more than a thousand, or two, perhaps, and every bill passing through the Congress must have a majority vote before being declared a law." Rhomann gazed at Sceptarys at his Speaker pod. "The Congress shall be divided equally to each Galactic member states, so that every member can voice their own opinion regarding how this Galaxy works. Furthermore, 'Congress' is a bit of unusual name, as we already have a Senate. I suggest this new chamber be named a House of Representatives instead, as with its job."

[The World Capitalist Confederation]

"I would like to point the same as Senator Shoki here," Rhomann took his pod on the center of the Senate. "751 seats is too small for an overall reoresentative number. I suggest we expand the number of seats available to more than a thousand, or two, perhaps, and every bill passing through the Congress must have a majority vote before being declared a law." Rhomann gazed at Sceptarys at his Speaker pod. "The Congress shall be divided equally to each Galactic member states, so that every member can voice their own opinion regarding how this Galaxy works. Furthermore, 'Congress' is a bit of unusual name, as we already have a Senate. I suggest this new chamber be named a House of Representatives instead, as with its job."

"And what of the small states hmm?" Mmote-Shoki soon floated his pod to the center of the chamber."Small states such has Sha Katar would be dwarfed by bigger states like the Hegemony or the Uktete Union, until an amendment is added that addresses this glaring issue I cannot support this bill".

Mörz was quite frankly confused at these people, as they missed the point of the Bill. He opened his mouth and declared “The Senate, being the upper house, represents the states and their interests. The Congress will be representing the average citizen of the Republic, not the states themselves. I agree with Senator Rhonnan’s point that it is too small, and so shall be introducing Amendment IV which increases it to 2001.”

[Sarderistan]

"I would like to point the same as Senator Shoki here," Rhomann took his pod on the center of the Senate. "751 seats is too small for an overall reoresentative number. I suggest we expand the number of seats available to more than a thousand, or two, perhaps, and every bill passing through the Congress must have a majority vote before being declared a law." Rhomann gazed at Sceptarys at his Speaker pod. "The Congress shall be divided equally to each Galactic member states, so that every member can voice their own opinion regarding how this Galaxy works. Furthermore, 'Congress' is a bit of unusual name, as we already have a Senate. I suggest this new chamber be named a House of Representatives instead, as with its job."

"And what of the small states hmm?" Mmote-Shoki soon floated his pod to the center of the chamber."Small states such has Sha Katar would be dwarfed by bigger states like the Hegemony or the Uktete Union, until an amendment is added that addresses this glaring issue I cannot support this bill".

Mörz was quite frankly confused at these people, as they missed the point of the Bill. He opened his mouth and declared “The Senate, being the upper house, represents the states and their interests. The Congress will be representing the average citizen of the Republic, not the states themselves. I agree with Senator Rhonnan’s point that it is too small, and so shall be introducing Amendment IV which increases it to 2001.”

"Truthfully, I am quite confused on your point, Senator Morz. Do the states not represent their own citizens?" Rhomann could sense danger in allowing the burgeoning commons to take a say in how the Galactic laws are made. "Still, I have a solution ot that. For each state, a democratically elected representative instead of one state-appointed Senator"