The familiar static flickered across my monitor before stabilising, revealing the other ten faces of the O5 Council. Our private encrypted conference line hummed with enough safeguards to survive a small war — mostly because I designed half of them myself.
Mars. Terraforming complete. Colony established. A new world ready to be shaped.
Which meant, of course, the Council was already fighting over it like children fighting over the last piece of cake.
"Mars should fall under the jurisdiction of O5-4." Sun Tzu begins, the lighting behind him dim and strategic, as always. "I am the greatest military mind in history. It is logical that I—"
"Logical?" Cleopatra cuts in sharply, raising an eyebrow. "You want to turn Mars into a battlefield the moment we finish fixing it? Absolutely not. Mars is a financial frontier. The mineral wealth alone—"
Julius (O5‑2), leans back in his chair, arms folded. "We just finished colonising the damn rock. Maybe we shouldn't hand it over to someone who wants to turn it into a treasury."
"Please." Cleopatra scoffs. "With my management Mars will triple our Foundation's assets."
"Or burn through them," mutters Isaac Newton from O5‑9, scribbling something on a pad. Probably calculating orbits, gravity shifts, or ways to drop a moon on someone.
Victor von Doom (O5‑6) finally speaks, his voice deep, mechanical, regal."Mars should be ruled by the greatest sorcerer and scientist present. Naturally, that is me."
The entire call goes silent.
Then all ten sets of eyes swivel toward my screen.
I pinch the bridge of my nose. "Victor, if you wanted Mars, just say you want Mars. You don't need to make it dramatic every time."
"My demands are never demands, Administrator," Doom replies. "Only inevitabilities."
Thomas Hobbes (O5‑11) smirks on his feed, likely already preparing a philosophical rant about the nature of sovereignty and fear.
Lincoln (O5‑10) clears his throat politely, trying to cut through the growing chaos."Well… since Mars is part of the Solar System, it seems fitting that The Ambassador—"
"No." Every single Council member responds in unison. Even Doom.
Darius (O5‑3), The Watcher, finally gets tired of the noise. His screen flickers, his voice layered with subtle technological distortion."You are all wasting time. Mars should be a neutral territory. Overseen collectively."
"Oh yes," I mutter dryly. "A joint custody situation. That always goes well."
The Brain (O5‑7) chimes in without looking up from her work."Statistically, shared control results in inefficiency, delays, and the eventual need for centralized leadership. I volunteer."
"Of course you do," Cleopatra sighs.
The Archivist (O5‑8) taps a pen. "I agree with O5‑7. A single leader is cleaner."
Then, of course, everyone starts talking at once — yelling, insisting, arguing in circles.
And I sit there, watching these immortal geniuses, these titans of history, these gods of intellect and sorcery… act like twelve-year-olds who just discovered a new toy.
I fold my arms, lean back, and sigh.
"I would like to remind everyone," I say loudly, drowning them out with the authority of two millennia and a thousand IQ points, "that I am O5‑1. The Administrator. And Mars was terraformed by my project, my engineers, my technology, and my funding."
Julius freezes. Cleopatra pauses mid‑argument. Doom goes silent.
Ten sets of eyes turn to me again.
"…So does that mean you want control of Mars?" Sun Tzu asks.
I shake my head. "No. I don't want Mars."
A few of them visibly relax.
"I'll oversee Mars. Temporarily," I continue. "Until a proper governance structure is established. A constitution. Resource allocation plans. Defense protocols. And once it's stable…"
I gesture vaguely toward the Council.
"…you can all fight over it again."
Lincoln nods approvingly. Cleopatra looks mildly irritated. Doom remains unreadable, but I can tell he's planning something. Sun Tzu smiles slightly — the strategic kind of smile.
"Good," I say. "Now that we're done with the power struggle—"
"We weren't done," Julius mutters.
"—we can proceed to actual work."
I open a holographic board filled with data from Thrawn, the new colony, atmospheric scans, geological reports, and the first completed infrastructure hub.
Mars is ours.
A second Earth.
A new frontier.
And the beginning of something far larger.
But as always with the O5 Council…
The hardest part is getting them to stop arguing long enough to appreciate it.