NationStates Jolt Archive

::MPIN News Broadcast::

"After the successful launch of several communication satellites, the MPSA is proud to announce the commencement of preparations for Marimaia's first manned space mission. They have not yet set a date for the launch, but they have stated that they do have their prospective 'starnaut' lined up. The Marimaian People's Information Network will bring you updates as we receive them."

At Luozao Palace, Premier Suun nodded happily and turned to Tro Yao. "This should be a nice boost for the nation. For us as well; after all, the government will have led Marimaia into space, conquering yet another frontier."

Tro raised an eyebrow. "Provided it all works out, of course....."

::One month later::

Mei Nakayuma watched the display as the prospective starnauts took turns on the centrifuge; they were all in top condition, which made his job even more difficult. He would soon have to identify one of them as Marimaia's first person to go into space, but at the moment none of them really outclassed the others. Suddenly Hui Chong burst into the control room, waving frantically.

"Suun's coming here!"

The staff murmured to each other; a Premierial visit was the last thing they needed.

"When?!"

Hui turned to Mei, looking worried. "In a week. General Xiao says that he wants to see at least some progress in the selection before the Premier gets here."

Mei rolled his eyes. "Damn it! I have enough of a problem identifying the best of them without that kind of pressure!"

(OOC: What are the odds; the first update after starting this thread, I get the space program issue)

Mei sighed as he made his way to the infirmary; he had to tell one of the hopefuls that he was eliminated, due to a broken leg. The biggest opportunity the young man had, lost because of an accident. He walked in and approached the bed of Chang Musashi, who seemed to know what was about to happen.

"I'm out, aren't I?"
"I'm afraid so. I know it's little consolation, but you should be able to go up in future launches. Just not this one."
"Maybe it's a sign; I was about to break up with my girlfriend to concentrate more on training. Pre-emptive karma and all that."
Mei chuckled. "Well, whatever the reason, I'm sorry."

General Xiao scowled at the news of the injury. Mei stood impassively waiting for the blowup.
"Damn it! Well, if anything, it increases the possibility that we'll have a final choice by the time the Premier arrives, eh?"
Mei frowned. "Fancy telling Chang that? Anyway, the Premier shall just have to accept that we haven't finished the selection process yet. There is one who is starting to shine, but it might just be temporary. Akio Tongei has completed all of the tests thus far with flying colours. I'll keep an eye on him, to check for drug use."
Xiao nodded. "Have them checked more regularly from now on, just in case."

Thomas Capstan slid down in the leather chair brooding petulantly; the odd phenomenom at the border had disappeared as quickly as it had come leaving his dreams of selling cheap unlimited power to the masses broken. The singularity had also, annoyingly, taken out much of Genyosha leaving business very much the worse for wear. Relations with Marimaia had reached shocking new lows due in no small part to his earlier petulant attitude with the nations government. At a small desk across from the office Johnny Foreigner scratched notes idly into his notebook looking up occasionally at the moody Chief Executive.

"Marimaia says it's going into space"; the comment came out of the blue from the government officer and made Thomas Capstan look up increduously.

"Into space?"

"Yes."

A thoughtful silence descended across the room. There was some sort of political opportunity to rebuild ties here but no man could see it yet.

"We should send someone."

That was Capstan; dripping bipartisanship though anyone with a reasonably incisive mind could read the reason for this sudden need to congratulate the Marimaians on MicroCorp Internationals balance sheet. With Last Saloon still stabilising from the recent political upheaval the economy had not been friendly towards the company whose profits had already received a mauling at the quick decline of it's customers.

"Yes; we should"; came the reply with a sigh;" but we don't HAVE anyone at the moment. The government is barely a skeleton which is why you're still running things; the military is heavily engaged on rebelling the rebels and even if there WAS somebody we can't get political approval for it because the President has gone AWOL."

"You could go."

"No; no, I couldn't. Not even if I wanted to. Right now it would be an extremely bad move for the only high-level government representative to leave this country. Have you any idea how much of my day I spend soothing our neighbours nerves? Half of them believe we are going to relapse into anarchy at the drop of a Free Dollar."

"Send Fireworks Bradley then."


"Yeah; we could do that. If we wanted an international incident. I am not sending a man who smokes under the fuselages of planes and draws a concealed weapon in front of a foreign ambassador out into another country on his own. Besides; you're skirting the issue of lack of governmental approval - as we both now until your troops find and extract President Jeremiah our hands our tied to the current course of action."

Capstan's fingers drummed on the walnut desk for several minutes as he mulled over the options which were beginning to look severely limited. He might actually have to try to find Jeb Jeremiah and that would lose him his controlling stake in the country. As long as his company couldn't hand over to the government they didn't have to; and anything he didn't approve of could be buried in red tape until Jeb Jeremiah turned up. Suddenly, inspiration dawned.

"In that case; I'll send one of the salesmen."

"One of the salesmen; good luck getting my diplomatic approval for that."

"I don't have to. He's going as a private citizen. One of the big ballistic companies have to be involved in this project somehow - and Marimaia was the supplier of engines for some of our technology for years. I can wrangle an invite to at least the launch of this rocket of theirs. If diplomacy also happens I'm sure I'm allowed to authorise anything to do with this company and since we're more or less in control due to my technology ..."

And he purposefully left the sentence dangling. Marimaia would have a Last Saloon representative at the launch, even if it were an unofficial one, it would do wonders for his company to publically capitulate itself to the Marimaian government. Maybe he could even send a personal apology; that tit of a salesman had suggested it might be a good idea ...

Besides; it would take the focus of the world away from Last Saloon's internal affairs which would let him engage in a more proactive method of handling the possibility of Jeb Jeremiah's return. He smiled across the room at the Foreign Minister who looked troubled. Two huge sharks in a tiny pond and each waiting for the right moment to snap up the remainder of the power.

Somewhere a long way away amongst the ranges of mongooses sits a wooden shack. It is home to a family whose future will act as a lynchpin for Last Saloon; as a grey-haired distinguished lady tucks her grandchild into the bed the father sits on the porch rythmically polishing an antique shotgun as he eyes the horizon. Things would shortly become very interesting in the Jeremiah household.

Ryou Li hated to disturb the Premier during his weekly sauna, but this just couldn't wait. After getting undressed and grabbing a towel, he walked into the humid steamy room; Suun was laughing at something, probably a joke from Tro Yao who was sitting next to him with a slight smile.

He tells jokes?

Ryou was torn from his thoughts as Tro nodded to him, directing Suun's attention to the Foreign Minister.
"Ryou! Glad you could join us! How are you?"
"Fine, Premier, thank you for asking. I hate to talk shop, but it's Last Saloon."
"Oh yes? Please don't tell me that they've lost another government."
"No, Premier, they haven't. Tsing Wa was on the phone a few minutes ago; it appears that MicroCorp International wants to send someone to observe our space launch. Strictly in a business capacity, of course; they may be interested in purchasing technology."
"Hmm....subject their representative to the usual security checks, and let Xiao know that the launch has another spectator."

"As you wish, Premier. How was your visit to the centre anyway?"
"We have our first starnaut. Akio Tongei; a handsome twenty-nine year old bachelor, who had a slow start in the training but quickly excelled at everything. A loyal party member, and a decorated combat pilot. I've told them to take as much time as they need to prepare; we don't want anything to go wrong with this."

"Any other business?"

The Marimaian cabinet looked around and shook their heads, so Premier Suun sat back with a smile.

"As Dao already knows, this weekend we launch the Diao Cha mission to coincide with this year's National Liberation holiday. Launching at that time will undoubtedly unite the country, as on the anniversary of casting off the manacles of corrupt democracy we shall cast off the manacles holding us to this planet. Actually that sounds pretty good; Tro, write that down for the speech."

Dao tapped his pen on the table. "The MPIN has all of the specials mapped out; NL Day will start with the usual special edition morning shows, followed by various documentaries, except MKN, which will be showing an all-day marathon of "Defenders of the People". Anyway, at 2pm all channels break for the Premier's speech and the military parade through Heiphong; then, hopefully, Diao Cha One will launch at 4:30pm, broadcast across the entire country and anyone else who picks up our transmissions. Then the usual movies or soap specials in the evening, including, I'm happy to say, From Novirona With Affection. Why are spy movies so popular anyway?"

*National Liberation Day; 8am*

"Happy NL Day, everybody! I'm Honji..."
"...and I'm Miho..."
"...so welcome to a special edition of 'Breakfast Marimaia'!"

::Cheesy daytime music plays as the audience applauds::

"Well Honji, it's a beautiful day in Marimaia. If you've opened your gifts, we hope you got what you wanted, and if you haven't opened your gifts, what are you waiting for?! We've got a veritable feast of delights for you!"

"Miho, let's not forget about the man who made all this possible. Premier Suun, we'd like to wish you a happy NL Day; we can't wait to see you at the NL Day Parade this afternoon! Now, let's move onto our first guest..."

*National Liberation Day, 2pm*

Premier Suun stood waiting for the crowds to settle down; he and the rest of the cabinet had stepped out onto the balcony of the House of Proletarian Thought over two minutes previously, and the crowds still hadn't stopped cheering. As he reached for the microphone, the crowds fell silent.

"My people; today we celebrate our liberation. The corrupt democracy that led to so much suffering died on this very day twenty-five years ago. Since then, we have prospered; we are the envy of Genyosha, we proved that we are masters of our own destiny!"

The crowd erupted, chanting slogans until he silenced them by raising his hand.

"Today, we take a new step forward. In approximately two and a half hours, we shall launch our first ever manned space mission. Today, we celebrate the casting off of the democratic manacles by casting off the manacles of this planet!"

The speech continued for another twenty minutes, and then the parade began. Various brightly coloured floats drove through the main square, representing the Concerns and various youth groups, but the real enthusiam of the crowd was displayed when the first soldiers marched into view. With the national anthem playing loudly, column after column of infantry turned their heads and saluted to Suun, who saluted back. The exact same procedure was followed as the tank columns rumbled past, followed by artillery and then more infantry. As the ground troops made their way through the square, the air force staged flyovers of increasing numbers of aircraft, until the final flyover of 100 brand-new Makyura fighters. The parade finished at exactly 4:30pm, at which point the giant screens switched to coverage of the space launch, as did every television in the country. Mei Nakayuma began reporting.

"Fellow Marimaians, we have run safety check after safety check, the weather is perfect, and Akio Tongei is onboard. We are beginning our countdown now!"

The whole country watched and listened as Mei counted down.

"..3..2..1..launch!"

The rocket's engines flared to life, and began its ascent. All those watching cheered loudly as the Diao Cha mission blasted its way out of the atmosphere and into Marimaian history.

*Two weeks after National Liberation Day, 4pm*

Akio Tongei bashfully waved at the assembled crowds as his motorcade drove through Heiphong; his days in quarantine had been fairly quiet, but now he was in for anything but a quiet life. Breakfast Marimaia had already arranged an exclusive interview, but now he was on his way to Luozao Palace for an official ceremony.

Premier Suun watched the live coverage of the procession as he prepared himself for the ceremony; it had been a long time since anyone had earned the award of "Marimaian People's Hero", but Akio had certainly earned it. Tro Yao nodded his approval at the Premier's choice of clothing, and the two headed to the conference hall.