When Empires fall

     "Gentlemen, as you all know, my father was the previous chairman, who set this series of events in motion, and it is about to bear fruit."

     This was spoken by a seventy year old man who had biologically aged 31 thanks to medical advances, he was addressing a dozen other businessmen around a typical corporate meeting room. On one side were a set of sliding doors, water storage a and screens with financial reports.

     On the other side was a huge window that provided a fantastic view of the Berlin metropolis.

"Eleven teen hours ago, the Genesis facilities responded back to a hub in our industry, with rather interesting reports on some rather interesting developments..."

    The board simultaneously raised their left eyebrows, being intrigued by their chairman's statement. One leaned forwards and asked "well, anything to telll us?"

     "Some couple dozen scientists and engineers have survived the cryo stasis, and the world is teeming with uncontaminated ecological systems, it's all gone to plan!"

There were pleased looks on the shareholder's faces, they all knew perfectly well what was going to happen next.

      "Helix corporation would like to report that there has been excellent success in Oasis labs to finish the Starjumper project, it'll reach across half the arm of the galaxy in a half an hour in complete stealth, it'll be quick and there won't be questions.

     This brought an even bigger smile to his face while he continued to lounge in the chairman seat, knowing what fortune lay ahead for all of them. "When can be released? He asked. The shareholder replied with "immediately."

     "Excellent, well, I think we know everything we need to already.." With that, he stood up and left the room.

     He had always loved his Berlin hub, because of the magnificent construction effort that had been put into it, like all the elevator platforms running solely on antigravity. It always reminded him how rich he was, but now he was more focused on his limo waiting outside, because a limo waiting outside for you tends to keep your mind off other topics.

     "Good evening Mr. Halden, where are we headed?" Said an averagely tall man in a white/grey suit. It sort of blended into the futuristic artitechture of the corporate district. He replied to the man positevly, "Las Vegas Hilary, Las Vegas."

     Driving by the fantastic Western Cities always grabbed Derven's interest, he'd always been fascinated by. Artitechture anyway. He'd paid a hefty amount of the company funds on his Berlin building, where it was in the large corporate district yet near the Berlin Airport. It was incredibly useful for his clients and himself,'money well spent' he usually said.

     The limo was fast, and antigravity modifications granted cars the ability to allow triple layer roads, with meant that traffic was a thing of the past. So it only took some ten minutes to reach the airport.

     The airports were a huge sector with numerous facilities and buildings that allowed some several thousand aircraft to be stored at any one time, the delves ration and ahhniliation of all significant colonies meant that interstellar travel was still dormant. Derven's had his own private jet, so he had little need to wait hours in the public terminals. So security was a few seconds, and so was flight scheduling.

     It was only too soon that the limo came to a halt near a small but luxurious building that was dwarfed by the huge public buildings. Upon their arrival, two men came up to him as he stepped out his transport. He was escorted in as Baxter drove off into the distance. The building was far more luxurious on the inside, with high tech styles and cool, modern themes blending in.

     Derven's began to slowly walk to the desk, and caught the attention if an attractive blonde woman, who greeted him shortly after he reached the desk. "Good Afternoon Mr Halden, you will be flying with three businessmen today." He smiled and before walking away, he said "thanks darling." This was probably because he was slightly drink every walking moment.

    Sixteen minutes later.

      The advanced Aircraft had been presented, behind Derven's were two Arabs and an American. He didn't mind talking flights with several others, mainly because Pilots were not paid enough to fly a plane that big for one man.  Derven stepped up to the cabin, and a fabulous sight met his eyes. The finest Leather, the smoothest wood and the highest quality goods and gadgets everywhere. He didn't mind sharing with several others when his accommodation leaves first class in the dust.

     All four made themselves comfy, and minded their own business as the craft lifted into the air. It was to be a half our Journey as the craft was going to Istanbul before it continued on to the US. Space travel technology would make this take milliseconds but the slowest warp goes 700/800x the speed of light so it's just too impractical.

     Derven opened the fancy compartment besides him- an found something he needed, Whisky, and a lot of it.

The elegant classic glass container was mostly emptied, but years of Alcoholism had made him extremely resistant to booze. But an Oktoberfest would still get him wasted, he was always peculiar, but he never cared when he had his alcohol.

The slight humming of craft dimmed as it reached it's final destination, Las Vegas.

The access door opened, and allowed him exit onto a step of stairs prodiuced by light beams, he'd always enjoyed the general futuristic themes brought on by the technology revolution, all Sci-Fi and such. The scenery around him was rather spectacular, the huge structures of the airport clashing with the vast metropolis in the distance.

Casinos and bars littered the central streets of the city, producing a wondrous effect of somewhere near to one giant nightclub, which probably made it the 'party' city for miles around. He was seated in the back of yet another limosine, heading towards the Sante' Maria Casino set up by a rather loony Mafia family. But it was the best you could get in this part of the city, so it was a fantastic meeting point, which made it huge. Perhaps they weren't so loony after all....

He could just see the Casino ahead, it was massive, and by that he meant Las Vegas supercasino massive. It had a glorious, decorated entrance, and it boasted some 189 floors, which allowed it to deal with thousands and thousands of gamblers and staff every day. It was shelter to half a dozen muscly men with SMGs. The collapse of the United States had reflected into a mostly lawless socity in many metropolian areas in California, which paid off for illegal operations and shady organisations.

As his limosine proceeded down the street, he could see a lot of abandned cars and a dead person in the alleyway, the loss of main law enforcements had turned out to have pretty bad effects too. It was the reason why there were two men in suits with pistols holstered, he didn't want to make any bad impressions on his clients.

The limo diverted away from the main entrance and stopped at a havily guarded gate, the driver conversed with the guard for several minutes before being let through, from there he stopped when the car was concealed from the public view. Derven stepped out of the limo, followed by his two bodyguards, he inhaled the Vegas air, it brough scents of booze and dust, classic for a mainly dystopian landscape.

He walked with moderate strides to a mostly hidden entrance, when he stopped at it's metal front, he knocked. A set of eyes appeared shortly, which gestured towards him. Derven smiled and proceeded simply by saying "Are you going to let me in, or am I going to have to make you?".

The journey towards to shadowed, poorly built back rooms was short and rather unpleaseant, but it was pushed away when derven entered a rich balcony view over floor 6 betting rooms. He was met by another man with a a set of bodyguards behind him.

"So, can i see my new toy?"