Deep Space Epoch

Deep within subspace, on a landmass covered in a forest of goliath-scale trees rocky outcrops. The CTHQ was an enormous construction consisting of seven towers, piercing through the canopy of the forest which was so high it formed a dome-like sky. These towers had multiple bridges stretching between them at various heights, forming platforms to move from one to another.

Flying between the towers of CTHQ had been deemed a fineable offence, and the bridges were there to form a systemized line of traffic.

Located around CTHQ was the residential district, houses of various sizes designed for different sized families or communal living. They littered the floor of the forest or were built up on the sides of trees, while roads of tightly packed crushed granite formed four-dimensional roads to organize traffic flow.

Further out were various factories to mass produce necessary goods or other processing requirements, along with tilled farmland growing various food and textile fibres. The littered the floor of the forest or were built up on the sides of trees, while roads of tightly packed crushed granite formed four-dimensional roads to organize traffic flow.

The Celestials had been inundated with two new batches of 100,000 Vulpes who underwent the evolution, bringing the total population up to approximately 305,000. The technology they held had also increased in quantity and quality.

The old iron spears had been replaced with an energy spear, a unique gun designed in the shape of an iron spear, but it had a unique energy circuit which would draw energy from a small chamber of energy water and turn it into a beam which would even pierce through a thick plate of iron like butter. It also had two long triangular blades on the muzzle which were both memorabilia to the original spears that were used, and a weapon in case of close combat or if the weapon was out of energy.

The Celestial Network had been completed with a basic access device installed in every home for viewing information stored or being broadcast over the network.

*****

Nearly 10,000 Celestials had gathered in a massive multi-layered auditorium at the base of CTHQ used for official announcements and large company management meetings.

Ivan stood behind a podium in the center of the stage, the Four-Eyed Devil Lion, with an iron collar around its neck and a scar over one of its eyes, laid down beside Ivan docilely. One the other side, Iris smiled gently while being dressed in a formal black and while attire of overlapping cloths according the original Vulpes style. She stood as both his personal secretary, and as Ivan's future wife.

Around the stage of the auditorium, several four-dimensional cameras emitting a blue ring of light around their lens captured Ivan's image and transmitted it across the network to the home of every Celestial. Screens had also been installed in the subspace outside CTHQ for anyone else.

"Celestials, I, Ivan Storm, announce the completion of Celestial Trade Headquarters along with all base company legislation. You have all worked extremely hard to build this magnificent place in but a few short years."

"Our headquarters and foundation may have been successfully completed, but we still have a long way to go. Today I have several announcements to make, first is the successful opening of the company's subdivision departments."

"All employees now have the right to propose opening a subdivision of the company, regardless of what it is for, both for profit and not for profit. There is a full document on the Celestial Network stipulating rights and methods of proposing subdivisions, along with management requirements and employing other free or contracted employees."

"The second is the completion of personal identification cards and the founding of Celestial Bank. Tomorrow, ever Celestial is required to report to CTHQ for the issuing of their own ID and attached bank account. Past accomplishments will be compensated to you in Celestial Gold Credit, our unique currency, depending on how long you have been a Celestial."

A large screen behind Ivan lit up and displayed several coins and notes with three dimensional designs on them, each type worth a different denomination of the basic unit. They all had an appearance like gold and appeared incredibly valuable, but their value was only significant in the Celestial community.

"From here on out, all contracted employees will be assigned a base salary depending on their position in the company, while free employees will be eligible to receive a staple income supplement depending upon their current position. Most of these laws were already decided years ago with the cooperation of Senior Executive Margold, but for those who are still unsure, the laws on taxes and benefits have also been uploaded onto the network for everyone to view."

The screen behind Ivan at this point changed and turned into a three-dimensional rendition of a menacing spaceship with various energy cannons attached to it, especially the two large ones attached on the sides at the front of the ship. It was plain as day to see it as a massive weapon of war.

"This here is the SSS Osiris Λ, also known as just the Osiris, it is the first four-dimensional subspace ship to be developed for the Celestials and will be what we will use to contact the three-dimensional surface universe. Five of such ships have been completed and will first go on a journey to deploy network stations which will not only spread our network out to be accessible throughout the Andromeda Galaxy, but also allow us to connect to the Galactic Web."

*****

Ivan returned to his office atop the CTHQ building. Outside the windows, the view of the canopy of forest seemed to extend endlessly below, while above was the pure whiteness of subspace, small blue stars, the center of ordinary stars where the mass and pressure is so great they sink into the fourth-dimension, twinkled across the sky in correspondence to their three-dimensional counterpart.

The supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy however was a massive blue star in subspace which could be seen from anywhere in the local cluster, the same as the rest of the supermassive black holes.

"Dear," Iris said softly as she left her secretarial desk outside and entered the office.

"What is it, Iris?" Ivan asked.

"There are a large number of subdivision propositions coming through. Many Celestials are also expressing concern on the value of CGC units to goods, nobody knows what to price things at."

Iris sat on the corner of Ivan's desk and lent over toward him seductively, staring longingly into his eyes as she spoke. Ivan naturally had difficulty resisting such an alluring figure testing his virtue, but he refused to be pulled into her pace and be led by the nose.

"Understood, print out all the subdivision requests and deliver them to my desk, I will personally review them," Ivan said solemly said as he closed his eyes. "The currency value will naturally sort itself out depending on availability of currency in circulation, but I will start publishing housing prices for rent and purchasing to give a basic guideline toward value."

"When you have the time afterwards, begin putting together a portfolio of Celestials experienced in management or related positions. Everything is new, so there will be some chaos for a while, be prepared to work hard."

"Understood," Iris affirmed as her smile grew even larger, she slid off the table and sat in Ivan's lap, taking advantage of the opportunity to wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him deeply, her tongue venturing into his mouth and tangling together.

Iris knew she had won the advantage and it was time to quit while she was ahead. She hastily fled from his lap and went back to her secretarial desk, staring at him with a blush through the blueish glass partition separating his office from the main passageway on the top floor.

"Tch, office romances are supposed to happen after working hours," Ivan clicked his tongue and chuckled to himself in good humor, making sure he was quiet enough that Iris couldn't hear.

Ivan then called in Valeria and asked about what Mazur was doing.

"Whiskers have left with one of the departed Osiris ships to install network satellites across subspace," Valeria said without expression.

"I wish he would inform me of this beforehand," Ivan sighed to himself helplessly. "Did he say why?"

"I believe he told the security guards at the time that to connect them to the existing Andromeda network satellites to connect to their network, his knowledge of them were required."

Ivan nodded in understanding and told Valeria to leave, although she only moved out of sight in a nearby room where she used a small computer to monitor the guards and the situation around the Celestials homeland. She had grown up a lot in the past two years in maturity, and was now proficient at using the Celestial Network. Due to Ivan's guidance since when she was young though, she remained ever loyal to him and would follow any order he gave.

"Over a hundred thousand network satellites," Ivan said as he opened up a three dimensional display of the Andromeda Galaxy with all the Andromeda network satellites indicated by red lights, something Ivan and Mazur went on a trip for several months ago and hacked into one of the satellites to obtain.