AN: Credit to perfect_shade, Readhead, Sunny and TheBattleSage for helping with the revisions, and Vasilisa for the advice.

Also, for context of the Middle Eastern countries that will be mentioned in this story:

Turkmen Empire = Turkey

Magna Rumeli = Greece

Qajar Empire = Iran

Mesopotamia = Iraq

Aegytus = Egypt

1952, December 2nd, somewhere in Germania at a hotel's meeting room:

"Should we leave Germania?" Adenaue stared at the ceiling, slouched in his chair. "Everyone else who feared being targeted by Degurechaff had already fled Germania, or were trampled by the mob for trying to save President Paul during his final hours. We're the only ones left behind that her supporters view as having a hand in Paul's rule."

"If she wanted us behind bars, she would have already come for us. We wouldn't be here discussing if she would arrest us; we would already be behind bars or worse. We should be thankful that we are still alive!" Dertinge snorted in annoyance. "But, as long as we live, there is still hope. Paul left a massive power vacuum behind with his passing, and given enough time I think we can slowly rebuild the GDU. At least we weren't obliterated like the GWP, or 'vanished' along with the other parties that threw their lot with Paul and melted away when he disappeared."

Then, the door suddenly swung open. As agents swarmed inside, Deringe facepalmed, quietly cursing himself for even briefly considering himself fortunate and for tempting fate.

"Oh, the BND is here." Adenaue sighed, slumping in his chair in resignation. "If I had been told last year, or even last month, that this was going to be my fate…"

"Good evening, gentlemen," Elya said with a polite smile, flanked by the BND personnel. She frowned upon noticing the two men's reactions. "Why are the two of you gents looking so depressed?"

"You're… not going to arrest us?" Adenaue asked with a puzzled look.

"Why would I do that? Unless the two of you were plotting to put President Paul back in power or are planning to use a heavy howitzer in an attempt to assassinate President Degurechaff because a 40 millimeter shell didn't do the job, I see no need for the handcuffs." For a moment, Elya looked very confused before smiling again.

"Now," she continued, "President Degurechaff has been very busy with running the administration and hiring new people, trying to repair the damage Paul caused when he gutted the government. She is so very overworked that she has specifically requested that one of you come back to the office to assist her. Given she made that request whilst flipping over a solid wooden table, I assume she wanted both of you to get back to work as quickly as possible."

"I rather think she wants our political party, the Germanian Democratic Union, to be her new political wagon, what with the destruction of her previous party," Adenaue spat. "I will not let her run the place with an iron fist. I will not be party to a tyrant."

Elya rolled her eyes. "Politics aside, I would assume that both of you know the challenges that Germania is facing, even just from watching the TV or reading the newspaper."

"Yes, we are aware of the unprecedented chaos. But, chaos or not, we're not interested in helping her come back and consolidate her power." Adenaue continued while Dertinge looked on with concern, unsure if he should intervene and stop Adenaue's ranting. "You think we're going to just bend the knee to her? To put on fake smiles and wave happily no matt-"

A few minutes later, Elya left the building with a polite smile that seemed wider than usual on her face.

1952, December 14th, at Berun's airport:

As I watched the aircraft off in the distance approach the landing strip with Anna, acting Chancellor Adenaue and acting Foreign Minister Dertinge standing next to me, many thoughts swam through my head.

I had just finished up the last of the appointments, including bringing back Adenaue and Dertinge. Adenaue was hesitant of being Chancellor again, but after I carefully explained to him that I needed his help to clean up the mess that President Paul had left behind while Adenaue was still the sitting Chancellor, he relented. In retrospect, all of those appointments, especially the Chancellorship, had been made against the spirit of the constitution. But, with no Diet in place and with the political parties still trying to rebuild themselves for next year's elections, I had no choice but to utilize the emergency powers that President Paul had legalized and expanded upon.

Comparatively shaky ground to be standing upon, on the cusp of the first state visit of my second Presidency.

Elya had trouble finding solid information on Chairman Zhang Wentian. But, the information she did find indicated that the CSR was still in turmoil, despite the communists' best attempt at censoring any negative information, or any relevant information at all. There was a sudden uptick of 'bandit attacks', occasional reports from informants within the CSR that mentioned there was a heavy crackdown on 'rogue' mages after many settlements were sacked, and the constant heavily armed police raids indicate they were searching for evasive and dangerous suspects.

Combined with the cessation of any sign of Chinese mage activities outside of the CSR as well as indications that a great number of mages had returned home, strongly implied that there was a major unrest in the country. The communist activity in the area formerly known as Caucasia had also quieted down in the wake of the earthquake in the CSR, which had greatly helped us in our efforts to stabilize Crimea and Iberia-Colchis. In the rest of Caucasia, the non-communist warlords had made a resurgence in the new power vacuum and were causing major frustrations for the occupying "peacekeeper" Rus forces.

Then there were the troubling reports regarding the continuing grain shipments the Albish were surreptitiously sending to the CSR. Simultaneously, the Albish had dispatched agents to Caucasia to cause further troubles for the Rus, using information passed to them by the BND as a result of a previous deal between us and the Albish. If the Albish wanted to be under-the-table in their two-faced dealings with the communists, they had no right to complain about my acceptance of the Chairman's request to set foot on my home soil.

The BND had turned up another interesting piece of information when their polling agents had visited the Qajar Empire's eastern region, near North Bharat. There they found deserted railroad construction sites, which the locals claimed had been abandoned back in September, shortly after the earthquake had struck. That the Albish had apparently allowed the communists to build a railroad from North Bharat was quite strange. What had been their purpose? Yet another part of their secret deal?

And speaking of that secret deal, the BND and Foreign Ministry took notice of the Albish attempts to woo the Nordic Council by mentioning how they had negotiated with the Rus to leave Suomi and Livonia alone, and thus Legadonia Entente didn't have to keep a forward deployment of forces. Which was unusual as that conflicted with the Rus's previous internal propaganda about retaking Ulanongrad. The Albish messages to the Nordic Council were backed by the minimal presence of Rus forces along the borders of the Baltic states, compared to Belarusia and Kieva where the Rus concentrated more of their border forces. And Kazakh had become a reliable puppet for the Rus along the way.

I have no idea if that was also part of the Albish secret deal with the CSR, but I had a strong feeling that Perfidious Albion was back to her old ways of trying to play rival powers off of one another. Allying with the Nordic Council would be a natural step for them; they always used a cat's paw when possible, after all.

The only reason I could think of for the CSR's Chairman to come and visit me in person would be to determine if I was a threat to him now, at his weakest point. That said, whether or not the Reds believed it, I had no intention of menacing them at the moment. Even if I was completely convinced that his country's 'temporary' weakness was terminal, I was only too familiar with the old saying "You have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down." I had yet to see that accepted wisdom bear fruit.

By attacking the CSR right now, when they were clearly stretched and divided, it could force the communists to put aside their internal disputes and rally behind the Chairman, or even someone more extreme. Very counterintuitive. Instead, it would be easier and safer to just wait for the communists to implode on their own. Besides, I was already quite busy ensuring that OZEV was prepared for a possible Suez Canal shutdown; the Albish and Frankish continued to show no signs of de-escalating with Aegyptus, making it a near certainty that a confrontation would come sooner rather than later.

For their part, Aegyptus was only adding fuel to the fire. Izz al-Arab Nasser had sent a telegram requesting that he come and visit me in Germania as well, only a day after the Chairman's impending visit had become public knowledge. I would wait to worry about the implications of his visit later.

When the aircraft finished taxiing to the designated area and the gantry was pushed up to the aircraft's doors, I fired up a warming spell to buffer away the cold wind nipping at my back and walked forward the bottom of the gantry. The military band's conductor signaled the start of the music.

The aircraft door opened and I held my breath as the Chairman stepped out, followed by the rest of his staff. One of the staff members matched the BND's photos of Zhou Shu, the diplomat suspected to have been the Chinese negotiator for their secret dealings with the Albish.

"Good morning Chairman Zhang Wentian," I offered a handshake. "Welcome to Berun!"

He said something as he shook hands with me, and Zhou Shu immediately provided an Albish translation. "I've been looking forward to meeting each other face to face."

Hmm. Seems that they didn't have any trusted staff members who were proficient in Germanian. I recalled Elya mentioning in a brief that many of the CSR's top government officials had studied in the Francois Republic and Allied Kingdom, returning home as the war between the Empire and the Francois Republic got underway.

When we entered the motorcade and shut the door, Shu spoke again. "How was your retirement before you came back to take President Paul's place?"

"If President Paul was doing a better job, I would have been content to remain a private citizen. Free from any obligations."

"You had no interest in returning to power?"

"The whole reason why I got into politics in the first place was because I didn't want to starve on the streets during the early, chaotic years of Germania. I was living a comfortable life until Paul tried arresting me."

While Shu translated that to the Chairman, Anna sat calmly. I knew she had a recording orb to listen in on their conversations for later translation and analysis.

Shu then turned back to me after finishing talking with the Chairman. "He said that he had read about the two times that you were at the orphanage. One before and after the war."

"Yes, and?" I narrowed my eyes.

"Chairman Zhang Wentian would like to visit the orphanage that you grew up in, after we finish our visit to your capital city. He said your upbringing reminds him of his childhood and teenage life."

In Berun at the technology showcase convention's press conference:

I knew the Chinese staff were unaccustomed to handling a free press and allowing reporters a rare opportunity to assert free reign over them would probably leave a sour taste in the whole delegation's mouth. So instead of permitting a free for all, I was going to personally moderate the press conference.

"Millicent Caldwell, independent reporter. What is your opinion of the growing tension in Aegyptus?"

He blinked for a second, then whispered something to Zhou Shu, who then on cue said in Albish, "It is not in our interests to interfere with Albish affairs in the Middle East."

"On a different topic, does the Chinese Soviet Republic have an aerial lacrosse team?"

The Chinese staff members looked at each other in confusion and whispered to each other for a brief moment, before Shu responded with the apparent consensus.

"If you are asking about a professional international team, then no, we don't. We didn't see a need to have one."

"Would you be open to forming sports teams to compete in international events?"

"We will discuss that idea amongst ourselves when we return home."

António Maia was up next, speaking in Albinese with a very heavy accent and asking if the CSR and OZEV could find a way to keep peace between the two of them. I noticed Shu's look of confusion, and tapped on my microphone, "Mr. Maia, try speaking in Frankish."

Shu, quickly picking up on the question in Frankish, responded, "There's an American saying, that 'Fear always springs from ignorance'. Fear is a common parent of wars. The Frankish and Albish feared the Empire, and responded by dismantling central Europe. Fear is what pushed us to threaten the Akinese in the aftermath of the aircraft shootdown incident. Once that fear was reduced, we saw no point in escalating tensions."

"What is your goal for this first meeting between the heads of the major European and Asian powers?"

"Avoiding another global war." Shu paused for a moment. "While the Chinese Soviet Republic is willing to take heavy losses to avoid annihilation, we seek to resolve conflict before that ever happens."

Advocating for peace while simultaneously warning that any attempt to defeat the CSR militarily would assert a heavy price. I should have expected them to puff their chest like that.

"Was there an earthquake in the CSR?!" One of the reporters shouted.

"Yes, but the aftermath was handled." Shu sighed. "There was no significant breakdown in government operations in the affected region, and we were able to quickly provide aid to our people."

"What was with the anti-aircraft activities just north of Hongkong, several days after the earthquake?" Another reporter asked.

"It was a military exercise event. In hindsight, we should have picked a farther distance from Hongkong to avoid being seen as provocative. Thankfully the Albish were understanding."

"But why didn't the personnel help in the disaster?"

"I said in my previous answer that we handled the disaster just fine. Next question." Shu glared angrily at the impetuous reporter, and I made a discreet gesture to one of the BND agents to move over behind the man's shoulder. Thankfully, he took the message and quieted down.

As the press conference continued, I considered the details Shu had let slip in his answers. I would have to stop by and ask Elya to have her agents or our allies do some more digging on what exactly happened in the CSR after the earthquake. The indirect reports about "bandit mages" running around in the CSR bothered me. I could only hope that the rogue mages were unaugmented. Mary Sue's main danger was her blatant disregard for her military chain of command, and having renegade mages with greatly boosted power is a threat to everyone, not just the communists.

The Q/A session continued for another 20 minutes or so. It was interesting hearing which topics the communists were willing to discuss openly and which ones they answered only circuitously. Those members of the delegation that had previously studied in Europe were very comfortable discussing what they had been doing in Europe back when the Empire was still around, as well as the communist ideas they had discovered here and implemented in the Chinese Soviet Republic. There was some awkwardness among the representatives of the foreign press, especially the Frankish and Albish reporters, as it became apparent that the communists in the Francois Republic and Allied Kingdom had major influence on Chinese communism.

"Can you tell us anything about the human augmentations on mages?!" one of the reporters shouted.

I could see the deep disdain in the Chinese staff members' facial expressions. Asking them to talk about their mage experiments out in public would be like me being asked to talk about our latest orb developments. Of all the things the communists were behind in, mage biology research was their consistent ace up their sleeve. Even the Chairman knew what the reporter asked about before one of the staff members translated the reporter's question.

Before the communists contemplated between murdering the reporter or storming out to immediately head back to their plane, I decided to step in.

"Well, that's all the time we have for this press conference." I put on a forced smile as I got out of my seat and motioned the communists and my staff members to head over to the exhibits. "Thank you for attending. For those that want to stick around, we'll be touring the exhibits, but we won't be answering any further questions from the press for that duration."

I whispered to Adenaue and Dertinge to lead the Chinese staff over to Oetker's and Allen's chess computer exhibit while I would catch up with them later. I just needed to take care of a business.

As soon as the Chinese staff was out of sight, I tapped on the microphone to get the reporters' attention.

"The next time we have a press conference, I expect more finesse out of you if you want to convince our guests to reveal new information or confirm existing ones. I suggest all of you reflect on what forms of questioning yielded good results and which ones didn't."

I sighed openly and walked away to go meet up with the rest of the group in the convention center.

Despite the presence of many exhibits, including those from other countries such as the rest of OZEV, the Akitsushima Dominion and South Bharat, It wasn't hard to find the computer exhibit. It was the largest one with the mainframe towers that took up a large portion of the floor spacing and had numerous electrical cables running to it. There was a large sign at the exhibit that spelled out the computer's name, "Turoetker".

I quietly walked up and stayed at the back of the group to watch Oetker give his briefing on the computer to everyone, while someone was moving a piece on the chessboard.

"How do these 'transistors' work?" Shu asked, looking at the display of one of the circuit boards used in the mainframe.

"They serve the same purpose as vacuum tubes." Oetker replied. "But they don't burn out and are smaller."

"What would the computer look like if it was built with vacuum tubes?"

"It would have required far more floor space, and even more for redundant vacuum tubes to act as backups for any burned out tubes."

"Do you expect the mainframe to be smaller in the next decade? Would the computational power also increase?"

"Yes to both questions," I answered. Everyone turned around to see me.

It seemed the Chinese staff understood the 'yes' and they all quickly engaged in conversations with each other.

"How did your country get started on making the transistors?" Shu asked.

"Oh, we imported them from the Unified States," I admitted with a shrug. "But it was Oetker, Allen and their staff that built the systems out of those components to make use of them."

"I've seen the newspapers from the Unified States. You were there during your temporary retirement."

"Right place, right time I guess." I shrugged my shoulders, which was met with skeptical looks from some of the Chinese staff members. I guess dispelling the myth of me not wanting retirement is going to be hard to dispel.

"What were the other countries' reactions?"

Oetker cleared his throat. "Germania isn't the only country investing in the field of computing machines. International Business Computers, a data processing technology juggernaut in the Unified States, recently agreed to have the royalty rate on British Telegraph Machine's product sales reduced from 25% to 15%, in return for increased shareholder control of BTM and BTM's continued access to IBC's patents and product designs. If the American businessmen are willing to take reduced profits and the Albish businessmen are willing to surrender more of their control, both of which would have been antithesis to how they operate, then that tells me they are both afraid. I expect an intensified competition for developing mainframes for business, university and government computation workloads."

I looked over at the chessboard as the Chinese staff continued to discuss amongst themselves. I wasn't too concerned about what they were saying; I had no need to play at eavesdropping when one of Elya's girls was inevitably recording everything they said. The translated transcripts would, I was sure, appear on my desk soon enough.

"How much time does it take for the computer to calculate the next move?" I looked at Allen, who was intently focused on analyzing the operation of the computer.

"About 20 minutes. And it's not a good chess player. In a previous test run, a chess master quickly identified how the computer's chess algorithm operated and was eventually able to develop a strategy to counter it. The computer doesn't have the processing power or memory to formulate strategies. It just minimizes its losses of pieces and maximizes the losses of the opponent's pieces without having a strategy, making it susceptible to being baited into situations that hurt the computer in the long run."

"So, maybe in about a decade?..." I trailed off on my question, looking back at Shu who was now blatantly eavesdropping on us.

"It'll pose a greater challenge to chess masters. Hopefully faster than 20 minutes per move, and with enough capability to formulate strategies."

"You have to have some use for these… machines. Other than chess, right?" Shu narrowed his eyes.

I smiled. This was way too easy to answer for someone who saw uses of smartphones in their previous life but I had to hold something back. "Rapid administrative data processing, such as automatically calculating people's expected income tax payments based on their income and various other factors. Centralized inventory management for an entire company. Physics and structural load modeling. Jet engine performance modeling. Eventually weather prediction. And we haven't even gotten into the uses for personal computers."

"Personal computers?" Shu looked with concern.

"That'll be in a few decades after integrated circuits become commercially viable." I waved my hand dismissively. "Every family with an affordable computer, just like how the American car companies and Volksauto are trying to push for two cars per family in the Unified States."

The group was about to move onto the next exhibit when one of the Chinese staff members asked the person who was playing chess against the computer if they could take over playing.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"One of my colleagues who played chess many years ago while studying in Europe wants to give it a try against your computer." Shu smiled faintly. "We did make a bet over if he would win or not."

The exhibits we moved onto next were a blur of advancements. Of course I had to feign interest in them when talking with others, even though I probably saw those in museums or in documentaries in my previous life.

A modern kitchen demo with appliances from the Unified States and Germania, and a prototype automatic electric rice cooker from Akitsushima Dominion? Eh. Although it seems the Chinese took great interest in the rice cooker.

Color TVs? Disappointing but a step forward from the black and white TVs I guess. When Adenaue asked the Chinese about TVs in their country, he just got a blank stare.

The nuclear power plant model with cutout displays that simulated steam generation and control rod movements fascinated the communists.

"If I withdraw all of the control rods, what would happen?" Shu asked.

"The simulated safety system won't let you." The exhibit staff member shrugged. "But I can flip this switch over here that will disable the reactor operator constraints."

Shu then attempted to withdraw all of the control rods, and the model reactor's rods all suddenly came slamming down.

"What was that?" Shu looked down to see all of the rods at the bottom of the reactor and the thermal output rapidly stopping.

"Emergency shutdown. The neutron detectors reported excessive reactor activity and the safety system won't even wait for the expected high temperature."

"How did Germania's nuclear power plants come up with those safety systems?"

"Studies on how operators react to various plant casualties in a simulator, while sleep deprived for 24 hours and intoxicated." The exhibit staff member beamed a smile. "Another set of studies analyzed if the power plants can automatically shut themselves down if there was no one inside the power plant to interact with the controls. A third set used a group of operators that had just completed training and were told to operate a reactor with no experienced staff members to guide them. Then we tested those on an actual power plant."

My ear perked up at that last part of the staff member's statement. I'm going to need to talk to someone to figure out why I wasn't aware about that sort of crazy testing.

The staff member looked over and saw me, freezing for a second, before stammering "We did have standby teams to immediately intervene if those live testings went wrong. While there were some overrides that they could have utilized to bypass the safety systems that stopped them from doing certain actions under certain conditions, there were sensors that would automatically report the override usage to the closest 24/7 manned nuclear emergency outpost. And at the end of the day, if anything truly went wrong, there's the unfortunately proven reactor containment shell construction to contain any disasters, which that part was specifically requested by President Degurechaff."

Shu turned to me. "You intend on having Germania cut back on its oil usage through nuclear power?"

"Americans are guzzling down their own supply with the consumer demand of having two cars for every family, and I don't trust the stability in the Middle East." I frowned. "The Suez Canal incident was the catalyst for us."

Shu then looked over at the exhibits of the next generation wind turbines and oil drilling, before turning his face towards me. "Energy independence. Such a powerful tool in foreign diplomacy. Also, you have an interesting perspective of the Middle East."

"I thought it was commonly known that the region is volatile?" I raised an eyebrow.

Shu looked around. "It would be best if we save this conversation at a more secure location."

As we walked to the next group of exhibits, I couldn't help but feel as if I were missing key pieces of the information puzzle. It made sense for the communists to try to portray themselves as 'reasonable partners' to work with and offer the proverbial olive branch by openly stating that they were scaling back their international influence operations. But was Shu really telling the truth?

And I needed to ask Elya to determine how the Albish had supposedly made use of an amnesty offer to completely uproot the communists in their colonies in Southeast Asia, more thoroughly than the Frankish had accomplished in their Indochina colony, who had only barely managed a stalemate against their Vietnamese rebels. Something else was going on.

"What's special about these cars?" one of the Chinese staff members asked as I was still pondering about Shu's explanation of the Southeast Asian events.

"The first Volksauto automobile with affordable air conditioning, and the first one in Europe!" The Volksauto representative chirped. "In the American market, while we weren't the first with such a feature, the focus on implementing affordable features makes it a popular pre-ordered automobile in the southern, hot part of the Unified States. Much to our American competitors' annoyance."

"And this other car here?"

"A joint Tata-Volksauto automobile design that will be starting mass production in a few months. Introducing luxurious yet affordable automobiles in South Bharat that are also entirely domestically manufactured. Oh, and also the first cars with air conditioning features in that country. We take pride in annoying our Albish competitors that have to import their cars all the way from the Allied Kingdom. But that's their fault for not wanting to do a joint ventureship with a local company."

We moved onto looking at a model of a next generation jet airliner design and its accompanying new engine designs. According to the exhibit presenter, it would have the range to fly from Berun to South Bharat without stopping, as part of a fierce competition against the recently introduced de Havilland Comet jet in the Allied Kingdom. The Chinese didn't seem to show the same level of enthusiasm compared to some of the other exhibits for some reason.

When we got back to the chess computer exhibit after a late lunch and looking at additional exhibits, the Chinese staff member who previously asked to play against the computer was slumped in his chair. I looked over at the chessboard.

"It's a stalemate. Neither side could make any useful moves," Oetker mused. "The programming was not designed to account for that, so it crashed. Oh well, we can fix that later."

1952, December 15th, in the outskirts of Berun:

This time, it was just me, Visha, Shu and the Chairman together, walking around the orphanage. I was still uncertain about why exactly the communists wanted to visit this place.

"What was it like here?" Shu asked after talking with the Chairman. "Before you joined the Empire's military? I've read your autobiography, but I would like to hear it from you."

"Oh, the typical orphanage stuff," I shrugged as we neared the oprhanage's small graveyard. "The occasional shortage of food. The staff that tried their best to take care of the kids."

"I see. All the good reasons for joining the military."

"What was your early life like?" I turned to face the Chairman. Shu opened a notebook and took a glance at it before speaking, as if the Chairman had previously dictated his life story in that notebook for Shu to use as a reference.

"The final years of the Shun Dynasty was just chaos. I remember my grandmother talked about how things always seemed to get a little worse over time even when she was a child. At some point after her death, everything spiraled downward fast." The Chairman looked out in the distance as Shu spoke. "I left home as a young teenager to look for work because there was simply no food on the table, and found work at a mine. Long and hard hours, but at least I had something to eat."

"How long did that go on for?"

"The mine owner fled one day. We didn't know what to do, but I decided to rally some of the workers to keep running the mine and sell the ores to the mine owner's customers as usual. Many of the workers that initially left ended up coming back in order to be able to feed themselves or their family. I'm not sure if the customers ever noticed a change in management. Things got much better and I initially suspected the mine owner was just being greedy, but within a few weeks, everything changed."

Shu locked his eyes on the gravestones.

"Government soldiers arrived. Or that is what they claimed to be. It was difficult to tell between bandits and soldiers. Sometimes they were the same. They were demanding payments for unpaid taxes. It wasn't uncommon for the various warlords, gangs and the crumbling government to have overlapping taxation claims on the same area. I have no idea if it was actual taxes or if it was just them seeking additional money, as the Shun Dynasty from even the very lowest local level was thoroughly corrupt. We of course didn't have the money, and argued that the mine owner abandoned us so we continued working without the owner."

"What happened then?"

"They accused us of being communists and of overthrowing the owner. Then immediately opened fire and killed some of us. We retreated into the mine and armed ourselves with shovels and pickaxes. It was a brutal battle for more than a day, and they resorted to trying to smoke us out by starting fires at the mine entrance. Then a communist militia came in to drive them off and rescue us. That was how I ended up joining the communists, and worked my way up the ranks."

I sighed deeply. "We are two sides of the same coin. Both of us coming from desperate backgrounds, and working our way up the military ranks."

Shu spoke to the Chairman and they exchanged some words. Then he said, "We are molded by our upbringing and the social structures imposed on us. I can't expect you to abandon your beliefs when you spent your entire life with them. And I would assume you know I can't abandon mine either. But that shouldn't stop us from finding ways to peacefully coexist. I had been willing to make compromises as necessary, such as allowing the Russy Confederation to experiment what they call market socialism and North Bharat to incorporate religion within their communist system."

"I imagine allowing the Rus and North Bharatians to go off on their own styles of communism may have upset some of the more conservative elements?" I raised an eyebrow. "I had to consistently deal with factions in Germania that were opposed to me."

"Controversial? Yes. But other than words whispered behind my back and shouted at my face, there were no signs of anyone considering overthrowing us. Our Director of Central Investigation is confident that the Chinese Soviet Republic's political stability is in good standing."

He seemed to have finished what he wanted to say and had a satisfied smile. It was a relief that such a sensible man has a firm grip over the levers of powers, and seems to make good use of them.

1952, December 16th, somewhere in the mountainous countryside of Germania, at a park:

"What's with the conference tent?" Shu pointed at it in confusion.

"Guaranteed to not be wiretapped so we can meet in private." I smiled. "After all, the press and other countries would be very interested in learning about what we discussed, and relying on privacy spells alone isn't safe enough. It's a shame that we aren't doing this meeting during the summer."

Chairman muttered something and Shu translated it to me. "The reporters are so nosy about affairs that are none of their concern."

"People are always craving for information. To know what's going on around them." I shrugged. "And the media fulfills their needs. After all, had President Paul been able to censor all of the bad news, such as the reactor meltdown, or the mess in Caucasia, he wouldn't have been facing as much pressure."

"It is my experience that when the people ask questions that are not in their own best interest, they should simply be told to keep their minds on their labor and leave matters of the state to the state. That is how we keep the people from undermining the fruits of their own labor."

I decided to not rebuttal that as they had clearly made up their mind about not wanting transparency and accountability. Although that made me wonder just how much their own citizens knew about the earthquake disaster and the "bandit mage" problems?

When we got seated at the table in the tent, I decided to bring up a topic that Shu had avoided two days ago.

"Back at the exhibit show, you mentioned wanting to save the Middle East topic for a more secure location. Can we discuss it now?"

"Of course. Thank you for reminding me." Shu smiled. "As long as the Frankish and Albish retain their grip on that region, I don't see how it could suddenly explode in their faces. We have no interest in intervening, so I can't think of any external actors that would be operating there to stir up trouble."

Shu then paused for a moment. "You must really distrust the Frankish and Albish."

"If they were having more success with their counter-insurgency operations elsewhere, I wouldn't have been so skeptical of their handling of Aegyptus."

"You haven't heard about the latest counter-insurgency developments in Southeast Asia?"

I blinked for a few seconds. What was he talking about?

"Specifically the so-called "Malayan Emergency." An amnesty for communists was declared in Albish Malaya a few weeks ago. Then it was rescinded only a few days ago."

"I may have heard about that, but I didn't think it would amount to anything." I leaned back in my chair.

"That's what probably everyone was thinking. I didn't believe it would work either. Yesterday was when Albish effectively decapitated the local communist organizations in Malaya with highly targeted arrests or attacks. Well, a couple high ranking communist members appeared to be left completely unscathed, and now there are suspicions of those members being potentially Albish informants. We assessed that the Albish could start scaling down their forces in Malaya and hand over much of the counter-insurgency operations to the local authorities while the communist rebel organizations tear each other apart."

"And what does your government plan on doing about that?"

"Mixed opinions. There were those who called for us to double down on supporting the communists in Malaya or even take direct actions against the Albish. Others, including the Chairman and Director of Central Investigation, were much more hesitant of the whole idea of trying to back communist rebels everywhere. As the capitalists would describe, the returns on investment were lacking. And I trust our Director of Central Investigation's judgment."

"Did your government's lack of interest also contribute to the Frankish forces being able to stabilize their situation in their Indochina colony?"

"I have no idea about that." Shu shrugged.

I seriously need additional information to figure out if Shu is feeding me half-truths with omitted information, truths mixed with lies, or reality has really gone off the rails. All I can hope is that Elya or someone else has some answers to confirm what Shu is saying.

"I suppose both the Albish and Frankish would be able to free up additional forces to intervene in Aegyptus. Although we both know that raw numbers on the field doesn't necessarily mean success, especially for counter-insurgency operations. And there's the question of being caught by surprise if the situation escalates in Southeast Asia while they're busy with the Middle East."

"Regardless of what is going to happen to Aegyptus or the rest of the Middle East, does Germania plan on intervening?"

"If they declare the Middle East as their personal backyard to play with, then I'm not going to interfere." I shrugged my shoulders. "But I would be quite annoyed if the Suez Canal is shut down, or oil production is severely disrupted, or a combination of both. I did receive reports of railroad constructions in the Qajar Empire that would link them to North Bharat, so I'm curious if you knew anything about that."

Shu looked at the Chairman for a moment, and when the Chairman motioned him as if he should get on with it, Shu looked back at me.

"That is a matter entirely between the Qajar Empire and North Bharat."

"Isn't the Qajar Empire internationally acknowledged as being controlled by the Albish? I doubt North Bharat would make major foreign policy decisions without at least informing you."

"The railway between the two countries is merely for trade. We didn't see an issue with its construction, and if the Qajar Empire agreed to it, I would assume the all-seeing Albish would know about it as well."

"And that railroad construction is dependent on the Middle East being stable." I hummed. "What is your plan if the Albish and the Frankish invade Aegyptus and end up plunging the entire region into chaos?"

Shu took several seconds to discuss with the rest of his colleagues, including the Chairman. I took a sip of coffee while waiting for them to come to a conclusion.

"We hadn't considered that possibility."

"Let's say it happens right now?"

"A military intervention would be highly risky, even if the Albish, Frankish and you allow us or North Bharat to deploy forces to the Qajar Empire. We know little about the Middle East region. There is no good option for us. And I don't think there would be any good options for Germania or the rest of OZEV if the region erupted into chaos. But speaking of Germania switching heavily to nuclear power, we want to discuss the weapons of mass destruction."

"I agree, there are no good options for OZEV if the Albish and Frankish mess up." I sighed. "I'm assuming you want to discuss about Germania's nuclear weapons?"

"We are curious about your nuclear policy now that President Paul is out. We suspected you had been quietly building a stockpile during your previous office term, as there was no way for President Paul to announce so many nuclear bombs available for usage only a short time after taking office."

"A huge waste of resources. I have better things to invest in. Things I can actually use without destroying the world." I took a sip of coffee again while Shu translated and the Chairman had a confused look on his face.

I set the coffee cup down. "Weapons of mass destruction are a terrible diplomatic, or military tool. I would like to believe that you only started your biological weapons program after President Paul made the nuclear weapons public, and openly threatened to burn your homeland with them."

"That is correct." Shu replied. "Then why did you build them in the first place?"

"I was afraid someone would develop a nuclear bomb first and then carelessly use it. My plan was for it to be a purely defensive weapon. Only to be used if Germania itself was in danger."

I wasn't going to mention that I had originally planned on using them against the Rus to try to end the war faster until Elya pulled a surprise on them. But they had no need to know about that aspect of the Germanian nuclear weapons program, and I wanted them to scale down their doomsday weapon program.

"What is your plan with the nuclear stockpile?"

"Most of them are in long-term storage." I shrugged my shoulders. "It's far cheaper to keep the nuclear material all boxed up in secure bunkers than to maintain launch-ready missiles and bombs. There's unfortunately no easy way to safely destroy them, and I don't trust any other countries with the material."

I stared at the Chairman. "How much does it cost you to develop and maintain those biological weapons?"

After a brief exchange of conversation between the Chairman and Shu, Shu then cleared his throat. "I think I understand your point. A de-escalation on expensive world-ending weapons. I hope we can have a formal treaty on this."

"I'll let our diplomats and lawyers work out the details. The next thing I would like to discuss is Caucasia's situation."

"Yes… Deeply unfortunate about what happened there." Shu trailed off.

"Do you foresee a future where they're not in a civil war?" I narrowed my eyes. "I have better things to do with my time than continually put out fires caused by President Paul's self-destructive efforts in that region."

"We can agree to leave Iberia-Colchis and Crimea alone if OZEV leaves the rest of Caucasia alone."

Of course, the Albish are the ones stirring up trouble in Caucasia and troubling the Rus. That was fine. As long as it was them doing it, my hands were clean.

"That is acceptable. What about the Russy Confederation?"

"They have expressed concerns about the level of chaos in Caucasia and the foreign activity there. I doubt they would be in a mood to keep escalating the situation." Shu flatly stated.

Foreign activity in Caucasia… I suppose the Albish had indeed caused headaches for the NKVD.

"Speaking of Iberia-Colchis, did you or the Rus have any information on the sniper attack against me?"

"Our Director of Central Investigation flew directly to Moskva to demand an explanation from the NKVD when we were informed of the incident. He reported that the NKVD opened an investigation on radical communists, extremists beyond central control. We do not want to set a precedent where world leaders can be freely cut down. The Shun Dynasty in its terminal years was notorious for its rapid replacement of various rulers due to assassinations or mysterious early deaths, such as when both the 3 year old child that had been appointed as Emperor and his 74 year old Empress were killed."

"You seem to take many lessons from the past." I rubbed my chin. "A bit different attitude compared to some of the communists I had to deal with."

Shu's face hardened. "The Chinese Soviet Republic is the rightful successor of over two millennia of our civilization. While many of the old ways were no longer viable in this rapidly changing world, there are still many past lessons that we do not want to relearn through the hard way. No government or economic system is perfect. Which is why it is important to keep both flexible and adaptable to new changes. The Shun Dynasty failed because they were stubborn and refused to adapt to the changing world even when it was absolutely certain that their way of governing and economic management was not working. It would be silly of us to make that same mistake."

1952, December 20th, in Berun:

Elya, Visha and I all double checked our privacy spells. I was tempted to go straight to bed after stuffing myself at the formal banquet with the Chinese delegation, but I had to drag myself to a debrief with my two of my right-hand associates to go over what we all learned about the guests before they flew back home tomorrow.

"The finalized report is still in the works, but as of right now, the initial translations of the picked up side conversations over the days indicated that they expected us to know what they were discussing, but there were still some useful details we got out of those." Elya flipped through her notebook. "We now have a much better understanding of their internal government organization and who is responsible for what. There were also hints of politics going on back home that the Chairman's staff had to worry about. A major clue they eagerly gave up in the first press conference was mentioning who studied in Europe before going back to the CSR, so now my girls are combing through universities, social groups and workplaces that those Chinese government officials were previously involved with. This could help us better understand the individuals in their government, and how it may influence their domestic and foreign policies."

"What were their reactions at the technology exhibits?" I grinned. "It seemed that they had not seen many of those displayed technologies."

Elya frowned a bit, "The interesting part was where one of them carelessly mentioned something along the lines of 'we have already seen this', at a jet engine exhibit, and a similar non-verbal sign of them already seeing the same thing at a radar exhibit and a few other exhibits. The question is, where did they previously see those technologies? The closest they could have gotten were the pieces of the Akinese photo reconnaissance jets that they shot down or the one that self-destructed to avoid capture. But that only gives them jet engine technology, if they had captured an intact plane. Rebuilding an engine that shattered into thousands of pieces would be an immense undertaking."

"I'm assuming you knew that because of their reactions to technologies that they had not seen?..." Visha hinted at what Elya appeared to be ready for.

"Most notably their reactions to seeing the chess computer. And then hearing that we're not the only ones aggressively pushing the computer field. There was a real sense of worry among them of how they could try to even catch up to that. A very different set of reactions compared to seeing the jet engine and radar technologies."

A thought hit me. The only way they could see those technologies intact would be through one of the countries that currently possessed such technologies. And the only member of that select club who we knew was engaged in secret negotiations with the Chinese is the Allied Kingdom.

"Could it be related to their secret deal with the Albish?" I asked through gritted teeth, letting go of the pen I was holding to avoid crushing it in my hand. "The sudden and frankly astonishing turnaround in both the Albish and the Frankish counter-insurgency situations in Southeast Asia could be part of the bargain as well. Especially since the Chinese were so kind as to bring it to our attention."

"It's the only plausible explanation. The other alternative theory is that they somehow stole the technologies and reverse engineered them. But that doesn't explain the Albish's sudden counterinsurgency success." Elya sighed. "There's still much work to be done to confirm what Albish or Chinese activities are related to their deal or are separate things."

"Regardless of what sort of perfidious backroom deals that the Allied Kingdom and CSR managed to hash out, could we actually have relative peace with the CSR?" Visha smiled as she put her hand on mine. "I think that is the part that excites me the most."

I had to consciously conceal my bubbling enthusiasm. Perhaps I could finally retire from government work if I didn't have to worry about a potential successor stumbling into a world war or worse, an exchange of weapons of mass destruction that would ruin all of my vacation locations.

"I already put out the word to our oversea allies to closely monitor the CSR's domestic messaging," Elya responded while looking at another notebook, "If they can sell the concept of maintaining peace with us, then that would be a great success of the Chinese visitation. Maybe if they invite us to visit them, you might be able to strike up a friendship with the Chairman."

"What?" I blinked.

"As you and the Chairman noted, both of you faced similar early life challenges." Elya smiled in return. "And he lacked interest in thumping his chest over ideology, compared to the communist leaders that I had to deal with many years ago. Probably more of a nationalist than a communist to be honest. He's a very pragmatic person, which would have potentially made him quite a dangerous geopolitical enemy if we were at war instead."

"And probably how he might have gotten that secret deal with the Albish." I rolled my eyes. "Turns out you can accomplish many stinky deals when you brush aside pesky things such as morals, not that communism is good to begin with."

"I think the Albish would feel the same way about how you guided Germania from ruin and through two decisive wars, to create alliances such as OZEV." Visha giggled.

"It's not the same!" I pouted.

"You know, I wouldn't mind if you go on a single date with the Chairman as long as Albish agents witness the two of you holding hands." Visha continued teasing me. "I would love to see Elya's reports of the non-stop emergency meetings in Londinium. How many Albish politicians, intel directors and generals will be taken to the hospitals for fainting, strokes or heart attacks?"

"Well, I think the two of you can continue your conversation in bed." Elya laughed at my expense. "Is there anything else the two of you want to go over before tomorrow?"

"No, not that I can think of. I can't wait to see the outcome." I sighed.

1952, December 21st, early morning in Berun:

I was in deep embrace with Visha and dreaming of what our post-government life would be like, when our phone started ringing.

I rolled over to pick it up and was immediately blasted in my ear with the sound of Anna's panicking voice.

"We need everyone up! Right now! There's a coup underway in the Chinese Soviet Republic and we are getting reports from everywhere about it! Reports from South Bharat, Akitsushima Dominion, and Allied Kingdom, and direct telegrams from Russy Confederation! The Chairman's plane at the Berun airport is on fire!"

My face twitched and twisted at the news of it. All of my hopes of dialing down the cold war, maybe even securing long term peace, was up in the air again.

Anna continued her panicking blathering as Visha stirred awake at the commotion, while I stared at the window.

Why me? Can't one single solitary thing go right for me for once?!

AN:

When Khrushchev came to visit the US: watch?v=BU2R5hNIifE

A summit between President John F. Kennedy and General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev:

wiki/Vienna_summit

news/kennedy-krushchev-vienna-summit-meeting-1961

Where I came up with the computer's name of "Turoetker": wiki/Turochamp

In the late summer of 1948 Turing and Champernowne, then his colleague at King's College, Cambridge, devised a system of theoretical rules to determine the next strokes of a chess game. They designed a program that would enact an algorithm that would follow these rules, though the program was too complex to able to be run on the ACE or any other computer of the time.[1] The program was named Turochamp, a combination of their surnames.[13]

Automatic rice cooker history: . . /toshiba_history/firsts_

Color TV development: wiki/Color_television#Europe

IBM and ICL had a partnership where ICL would get access to all of IBM's patents and R&D to sell products in Europe, while ICL would pay a 25% royalty on the sales revenue. ICL later attempted to negotiate down the 25% rate, and when that failed, they broke away from IBM: watch?v=EkTHDgYTh64

Reference to the Albish car industry being outcompeted in the export market: watch?v=b9ztUlve9jc

Yugoslavia's market socialism that the Russy Confederation is adopting: watch?v=SJhwCtP-Tro

Reference to the Chinese child emperor and the old Empress:

wiki/Puyi

wiki/Empress_Dowager_Cixi