Chapter 82:

After the new government of the planet Romulus formed, the parts of the former Romulan Star Empire that had been treated as lesser than the Romulans embraced United Federation membership. The Remans unleashed had gains in research that significantly advanced the Federation state of the art in many areas. They also, with economic and magical help from the Federation, quickly transformed their own planet. Their dilithium mines became automated, and some of the workers there became educated and started different careers, while others stayed in free basic living centers. The few remaining dilithium workers were technicians running the automatic systems, not handling shovels, pick-axes and rolling carts.

The Federation awarded bonuses and awards for all who served in Starfleet during the brief conflict with the Romulans. Those graduating Starfleet Academy afterwards felt a little under their shadow, simply for joining Starfleet after the conflict ended.

The Standardized education throughout the United Federation emphasized the ideals of the Federation, and there weren't many contrary voices who felt comfortable speaking. There was a general consensus that the Federation Alliance brought peace, security, and prosperity.

Maybe 30% of births in 2028 throughout the Federation Alliance were magical. They were being called the start of the Magic Boom. Renée and Rojor's son Fabrice Radaik had even more genetic engineering, in order to combine human magical with Romulan genes. His birth to leaders of the Federation helped pave the way for more and different types of genetic engineering being accepted. Just the as the Remans were accidentally modified to be suited to their tidally locked planet, with one side always dark and cold and the other side too hot, now plans were made to deliberately engineer sentients for all sorts of environments previously considered too harsh for habitation.

There were certainly traditionally minded people who didn't want any artificial modifications. Allowances were made for them to start colonies or sections of worlds with only people they approve of. There were also places that did not want magic.

In the United Federation, the education system was following the method of Starfleet Junior Academy. The students socialized with their year-mates, magical, non-magical, different species. Then they went to classes according to their abilities. Cafeterias were giant, but with alcoves and various indoor and outdoor spaces. Classes on Federation history and values were required.

Tourism became popular. Often groups went on guided tours of different planets and other destinations. Many adventurers went off on their own, and also went exploring in empty worlds that had been cleared as safe to go to by Starfleet. Some tried to go beyond that, but Starfleet usually intercepted them.

Stopping filibustering, in its old meaning, derived from the Spanish filibustero, or lawless plunderer, was a priority for Starfleet. The Federation Alliance wanted to protect non-warp capable sentients, and also other environments. They also didn't want to be dragged into conflict with other warp capable species. The Federation would decide when and where to expand to.

The evacuation area in southern California became much larger after the hint from Gary 9. The evacuation was still a few years away. Initially there was going to be no help for those renting, since 6 years notice was given, 4 years in the expanded area. Then it was decided that those with long standing ties to the area would get assistance. The assistance was to provide free relocation to anywhere on Earth or in Federation space.

Owners were going to be paid for their property based on the fair market value just before the first rumors of the evacuations. Then the price would be adjusted based on the changes in real estate values in comparable metropolitan areas in the years leading to the time of the actual evacuation. When the earthquakes would end, some areas might be demolished, others will be restored. Given what happened in canon, some areas might end up under water, although the geoengineers were trying to prevent that from happening. For those areas restored, previous owners would be allowed to repurchase for the exact amount they were given earlier. Gardens would be put in stasis so they can be restored, when feasible.

Where would millions of people go? This would be around 15 million people displaced. One idea was to form a colony to be called Los Neuvos Angeles. There didn't seem to be a desire among the inhabitants to move together. A section of an existing colony with climate zones similar to the LA region and also inland southern California was set aside for LNA, but only about 100 thousand moved there. Many others planned to return to the LA region when it was restored, estimated to be 3 years after the evacuation. For many of them, new Basic Living centers throughout the larger region became their homes. Many followed their jobs, often throughout North America, and the Solar System.

A section of the film industry moved to Sirius Alpha 3. The ruins of an ancient civilization were used as backdrops for many films, and the many planets of the Sirius, 2 star system, provided varied locations. While purely artificially generated films had their popularity, actual acted films maintained a good market demand throughout the Federation. Some on Andoria were offended that what many Andorians considered a great Andorian saga that was written and filmed by humans based on Sirius Alpha 3.

There were some Federation-wide popular films showing the breakaway of the Romulans from the Vulcans. It was done as a many part series of films, some featuring Surak, some featuring the Romulans after they left Vulcan. They were popular both on Vulcan and Romulus, and both considered the films respectful of their history.

There was a film made about Renée. It was reasonably accurate, and I thought that the actor who played me did a decent job. Renée liked how they started the film with her childhood sailboat adventures, and then repeatedly flashed back to them during her later actions.

Sports leagues formed for sports throughout the Federation. The main export from Earth was Platformball. Some humans throughout the Federation played football, which is called soccer in the US. An Earth sport that became surprisingly popular throughout the Federation was Polo. Horses became a major export from Earth for both polo and horse racing. Some planets used native animals instead of horses.

Skiers, and those from other civilizations who had a similar concept to skiing, found planets with ski runs far longer than on Earth. Some of these planets weren't that suitable for habitation, but had major ski resorts built that accommodated all sorts of methods of traveling downhill on snow. Sometimes the different methods needed to be on separate runs. The ski lodges tended to emphasize luxury combined with outdoor adventures with many different resorts with different temperature and ice conditions and levels of gravity. Some even skied on ice that wasn't based on water, in full environmental suits.

Another popular tourist activity was what was called Harsh Camping. This involved traveling to worlds with conditions that make survival difficult, often with limited supplies and equipment. Most had fail safes so that they could be rescued if needed.

Various forms of dueling became popular with the more martial of the species of the Federation. Most of those, but not all, had safety technology and magic. Often there were large bets made on matches, and magical and technological means to ensure that both sides were trying to win. Many species wanted to beat Nausicaans in unarmed combat. It became a profitable profession for Nausicaans where one would pay a Nausicaan for the chance to fight, and would get a large multiple back if they won. Anyone with a track record of winning even against other species would get much lower odds.

The magical research department of Starfleet took the memories that Luna had of seeing the collar of Isis, both as a cat and as a witch. She tried to magically scan it, to learn more about it, but didn't gain any information. The group concluded that the collar was used instead of a wand, and research started to see if they could discover how it was done.

The study of magic already had several source civilizations now, besides Earth. Soon most worlds of the Federation would have their own native magic. While the existing knowledge was the starting point, many researchers were trying to learn the foundations and basics of magic and how to adapt them to their cultures and planets. Some found the idea of wands to be too limiting, and looked at how magical focus can be achieved as well with other means. This research was similar to how warp researchers were trying to find better alternatives to dilithium crystals.

There was also magical research in whether some places provided more magic than others. It was an intriguing idea, that magicals could perform enchantments or other magical work more efficiently if they could locate to places that helped their magic.

The Federation had a lot of trade with non-Federation areas. While many traders were used to dealing in gold pressed latinum as a currency, they could see the advantage of online accounts of Federation credits. Not only was it much more convenient, but also was not subject to theft the way a physical currency is. The account access tried to ensure that the identity of the person making a withdrawal was authorized and also not under certain known forms of mind control. The Federation had a policy of refunding false withdrawals and then going after the criminals with squads of Federation Credit Authority Enforcement which was composed of the most vindictive species in the Federation.

Non-Federation traders were however worried as to what would happen if they personally were expelled from Federation space, or what if their civilization had a conflict with the Federation. Would their Federation credit account be seized or become inaccessible? The Goblins on Earth came up with a solution. The Federation Credit Authority would be its own organization with goals of providing a stable value of credits and honest dealings with all. Somehow the Goblins of Earth managed to be among its leaders.

The Federation Credit Authority would contract with organizations pledged to find a way to redeem accounts of any non-Federation owner who cannot or wishes not to appear at a place where Federation credits can be accessed. Those would include fugitives from Federation law and members of civilizations in conflict with the Federation. The contracted organizations would take a reasonable fee to get trade goods or latinum to the owners of accounts or their designated beneficiaries. The Federation Alliance would have no authority to seize any accounts or to prevent the redemption of accounts to any owners. Non-Federation account holders are encouraged to have a large list of beneficiaries.

Planets still had their own monetary systems, but people were finding it increasingly convenient to use Federation credits. Earth still had dozens of monetary systems, but most vendors would also accept Federation credits at the current day's exchange rate. More were starting to post prices in credits and then accept the local currency at the day's exchange rate.

The next few years were relatively quiet. There were no wars or major events in the Federation. The Federation expanded slowly, and much of that was due to nearby warp capable civilizations asking to join. Planets with sentient life without warp technology were protected by drone fields when discovered, if they were anywhere close to Federation space. The drones would warn and also notify the Federation of any approaches. They would also send out routine signals, which if missed, would result in a fleet investigating. They would only function as mines in limited circumstances.

Romulus adapted to its new role of being a planet without an empire. There was an attempt to overthrow the House Radaik. The Devronians activated Renée and Rojor's bracelets and told them about the plot. Some of the Radaik family went to their shelter on Devron 2, while the plot was foiled before it was started. Security for Renée, Rojor, and Fabrice on Starbase Sol was increased from its already high level.

The new rules of the Federation Credit Authority were enacted. Its goal was for the Federation Credit to be the preferred medium of exchange throughout the Federation and nearby areas. Traders were used to gold pressed latinum as a currency, a natural material that could not be duplicated technologically, and with magic only briefly duplicated, and its deterioration could be quickly detected.

There was an incident that showed that there could be disadvantages to having the Federation Credit Authority be not only independent of law enforcement, but almost antagonistic to it.

Balaur Antrenor was a dragon handler who negotiated the purchase of a Norwegian Ridgeback Dragon in Romania and its sale in Norway for a dragon preserve. It was thought that magical means of instant transport would be bad for the egg, so he set out on a platform trip. Before leaving, a Norwegian inspector Navn Ukjent gave preapproval for the arrival of a dangerous creature in Norway.

When Balaur arrived in Norway, the dragon egg was an artificial duplicate. He had verified that he had an actual egg in Romania. After reporting the theft to the local authorities, the investigators started to trace where the theft could have taken place.

A Norwegian inspector said, "The name Navn Ukjent means name unknown in Norwegian. There also isn't anyone in the organization resembling him."

A planetary alert was issued. When they expanded the alert to the Solar System, it was determined that the suspect had already left Starbase Sol. The ship the suspect left on was eventually found, but it was determined that the suspect had transferred to another ship after a meeting in space. Eventually it was determined that the dragon egg was sold to a collector who later left on an Orion ship. Payment was made in Federation Credits and the suspect left Federation space with nothing incriminating.

The Federation Credit Authority had a policy of reporting suspicious transactions, but doing nothing to remove credits from accounts even if they are the result of crimes, except for crimes of theft from the Credit Authority itself.

Using the new policy the suspect sent a message to the Federation Credit Authority asking for his account value to be sent to him at an Orion trading post near Klingon space. The Federation Credit Authority, following its rules, sent him trade goods after subtracting their reasonable fee. By this time there was a warrant for the suspect to be brought into to be investigated by Federation Law Enforcement. However, the Federation Credit Authority specifically avoids cooperation with law enforcement while conducting business. They can report only one day after business has been conducted. There were all sorts of specific actions that were forbidden to them, including letting bounty hunters accompany them, attaching tracking devices to the trade goods they deliver, letting it be known in advance who they were delivering to. Even suddenly resigning from the Credit Authority and then suddenly becoming a bounty hunter just after delivery was forbidden.

Balaur was beyond upset at the situation. The egg that was stolen from him was outside Federation space. The value of the credits received by the thief was deliberately handed over to the thief by the Federation, while he had nothing. He said, "I knew something like this would happen when I heard about the Federation Credit policy. What is the Federation going to do to recover my credits?"

This incident got the attention of the Federation Alliance and there was a meeting about it. I had noted that the dragon egg probaby was that of Norberta, and even though Quirrell never got the chance to give her to Hagrid, somehow she still wound up in Romania. It wasn't something I kept track of during my first year at Hogwarts. I considered it, at the time, a minor plot point that would resolve itself with the removal of Quirrell.

The Goblins were saying that the absolute neutrality of the bank is important for the confidence in it as medium of exchange. A Vulcan said, "Most of the legal systems of the Federation Alliance agree that purchasing stolen goods does not confer legal ownership of those goods. Logically that should be extended to a chain of sales and therefore to credits. Credits obtained through theft or fraud never belonged to holder of the account, and therefore returning the credits to its rightful owner does not compromise the neutrality of the Credit Authority."

This was agreed to, that theft would be rectified by transferring indirectly stolen credits to their rightful owners. It was also agreed that fines, seizing of accounts, freezing of accounts, would never be authorized by the Credit Authority except to recover the value of theft.

Finally it was agreed that civil lawsuits and monetary claims against an estate could result in a transfer of credits by the Credit Authority. However it was also agreed that punitive damages and fines would never be authorized by the Credit Authority, and that the legal system would need to find a way to get the holder of an account to transfer credits of their own free will if they wanted such transfers.

It was also agreed that the Credit Authority would oversee any judgements that required them to transfer credits. If they were not convinced of the fairness of the legal proceeding, they could demand the evidence and retry the case themselves using an agreed upon Federation Alliance legal system.

The changes did not cause Federation Credits to lose popularity. There were far more complications resolved in the next years. While the Credit Authority didn't directly issue loans, they had to decide if the terms of a loan were illegal when deciding whether to honor a repayment demand. That was usually against a cosigner of a loan, since defaulting borrowers generally didn't have any substantial credits.

Balaur Antrenor was given a special grant by the Federation Alliance to repay his losses. Navn Ukjent, whatever his real name was, disappeared into the Orion trading network and was never caught. It was thought that he stayed in distant Orion trading areas, trading with the Klingons and Gorn. His profit from the dragon theft was enough for him to buy his own ship.

In 2031 food replicators suddenly became inexpensive enough for most households to buy one. Some didn't consider the quality as good as real food, but most considered it better than poorly prepared real food. Throughout the Federation people were trying the cuisines of other species. The standard replicators warned about incompatibilities of the foods requested with the biology of the requestor. They also would suggest dishes based on the mood of the person. If they asked for 'the usual" the replicator would know the time of day, any particular holiday it might be, and other analysis of the context of what that person usually has. If they ask for "something different", it would analyze the response to previous requests and fine tune just how different they might want.