Governor's Mansion

Level five isn't nearly as complicated as level four, mostly because there's no major change in my buffs. I take care of it on the drive. Fabricate Tech from the Technomancer to get access to most of the Starfinder goodies, Empowered Weapon from the same for when I want to lay down the hurt with a weapon from Starfinder, and Overmind Psionics from the Legendary Medium Overmind spirit to gain access to the Psionic powers, and that covers the normal Freelancer side. On the monsterkin side, Cabal Master from the Living Idol costs double (because it gives me two feats: Circle Casting and Create Proxy), which will let me boost my Spheres caster level by another five for purposes of buffs… which means faster flying,more damage reduction, and other bonuses. I also grab Telepathy from the Chrestomath Caulborn (with a tiny template to reduce the CR into range). Yes, I get 100 foot telepathy from a spell. Sure. The Caulborn gets it for a mile. It combines well with Mindsight. If it's alive, I can see it at five miles. If it thinks at all, I know how smart it is, what type of creature it is (the game type, not the species - Animal, Humanoid, Outsider, etc), and the approximate location from one mile. At about half a mile, the Divination Sphere abilities will catch up, and then I get some real information. There's also a feat this level; I go with Counterspell from Spheres of power, as it's basically the Spheres version of Dispel Magic. Might not be useful… but I can trade all of this stuff out pretty quickly, so no big deal. Of course I have my psionic powers to select… and the rest is just numbers: More HP, advancement on my meatsuit and companion vessel, more skill points, et cetera. I'll need an hour of meditation to prepare the actual powers, and then some time to renew the buffs where it matters, but that can wait.

Which means I'm done by the time we reach our destination: The governor's mansion, right next door to the state capital building. The wrought-iron gate opens as we approach, we drive right past a half-dozen state troopers in full riot gear carrying **** rifles, park in front of the steps, and nobody acknowledges me (because they can't see me) as we walk up the stairs. We walk through security, the metal detector complains loudly as the commander goes through with his sidearm, and doesn't blink when I walk through in my powered construct that nobody here can see.

The commander takes me to a tea room, where the governor is waiting… with a tea set. An old, gray haired man, he got the position because he looks like a genial grandfather, I think. He frowns when we enter, “Ah… you said you had a…” he trails off as I add him to the list of people who can see me for now. “I see. Very well then. Commander Zarwinsky, you are excused.”

The commander nods curtly and leaves, closing the door behind him, leaving me alone in the room with the governor, who reaches over to shake my hand, “Welcome to Earth. I'm Governor Harris, but you can call me Henry.”

I shake his hand, noting that he is actually meeting my gaze. Nice. “Call me Dan.”

“Welcome to Earth, Dan. Tea?” He gestures to the set.

I don't exactly need to worry about poison… “Sure,” I smile, and he pours two cups. I pick one, add some honey, and sit down. The man joins me, skipping the honey.

“So… what brings you to Earth?” He takes a sip.

“Tracking a criminal,” I take a sip as I lie… good stuff, “He's dead now, but before I killed him he made that Singularity,” it's actually part of the Name of the option of the talent he used… “which killed a city. Normally we'd wait until you passed the big filters before making contact, but I don't imagine you'd appreciate being left in the dark on events.”

“Knowing the cause is certainly going to save a lot of international finger pointing and accusations,” the governor agrees, “but how do we fix this?”

Well… I could skip back in time repeatedly with the third party Chronolocation spell and prevent it from ever happening, but time travel gives me a headache, “There’s no fixing mass ****.”

“Oh, of course not,” the governor smiles at me, “but surely your people can give us recompense for the damage.”

Pfft. “From a practical perspective, there's almost nobody to compensate. Almost everyone directly affected is dead, there's only going to be a handful of people who were traveling when it hit and are now homeless. Besides,” I chuckle, “is your government in the habit of compensating the victims of muggings?”

“I suppose not,” he takes a sip, “but I had to try. So what is it exactly you need from me?”

“Official recognition, plus a chunk of land to set up an embassy and a small spaceport,” I smile.

I can practically see the gears turning in his head. He's thinking about having the world's only spaceport in his state. “I will need to speak with the president about that aspect, but don't anticipate an issue: I think we can accommodate that. Although it is traditional here for the guest country to purchase the land they use for the embassy.” And he still wants more. Greedy bastard. But I suppose it is his job to do the best he can for his state.

“I don't have the local currency, and there's export restrictions on our technology,” I consider, “but I have some minerals I'm permitted to trade, and I don't need particularly valuable land, just some space to build offices and land a ship or two… and the ocean will work in a punch.”

The man nods, “I can put you in touch with a reputable mineral dealer… why the export restrictions?”

“I'm not the one making the call,” I'm a liar, “so my personal stance on the matter isn't particularly relevant, but… well, given the fifteen mile diameter crater, do you really need to ask?”

“Given the fifteen mile crater, I really want to have the ability to prevent a ‘next time’.”

Heh, “Again, not actually my call,” again, a lie, “but lacking a stable, unified, global government, the standing orders are a very big ‘no’ on that.”

“Of course,” he sips his tea.

We keep up the verbal sparring for a while, get into negotiations, and eventually he sells me the crater for ten tons of atomic element number seventy nine. No, it's not really his to sell, but he plans to use Eminent Domain to claim the obvious total loss area, I can't make real gold directly, but I can make a minion that can, and feed him spell points, so it's basically free for me. He gets me a phone for contacts pending an actual embassy, we agree to a delivery time and place for the minerals, and we part ways….