Chapter 291: First meeting

Words : 2253 Updated : Oct 11th, 2025

Harris had a large truck prepared and an entire highway cleared in order to transport Sobek to the royal palace in the capital of the Prettania Kingdom. Although the distance was not short, it took just half a day to arrive. By the time they reached the capital the streets had already been cleared, so this time Sobek was not attacked by reporters as soon as he got out of the vehicle, although with his higher senses he could sense that many reporters were hiding on the rooftops and in the surrounding houses and were taking photos of burst. Pauline led him into the large garden surrounding the royal palace, in the center of which a huge gazebo had been built enough to cover the 52 meter long body of Sobek. This would be the place where they would manage the talks with the various nations of the newly formed Eden Union. Sobek thought for a moment that he should also sleep there, but luckily Pauline assured him that they had cleared a department store just for him. Which was satisfying: Sobek had no problem sleeping outdoors, but he still preferred to have some privacy in case he needed to do certain private things. "Your speech was very impactful, lord Sobek" Pauline told him. "You have probably convinced at least another ten nations to join us" "I just said what I really thought" Sobek replied, settling on the ground so that his head was level with the Queen of Prettania. Pauline could not suppress a smile: even though she had already spoken to him and she knew what an immeasurable genius he was, every time she opened her mouth it was a new experience. Very soon the cars carrying the other leaders of the Eden Union also caught up with them. Jocelyne beamed out of her vehicle, greeting Sobek with a toothy smile. As soon as the other leaders got out, they wasted no time and ran to congratulate Sobek on his excellent speech. Like Pauline, the people who formed the Eden Union were highly intelligent and open-minded; when they went to welcome Sobek they understood that he was a creature that could be reasoned with, so despite the difference in species and size they were not intimidated. But when Sobek had delivered his speech, they realized that he was not only a creature you could reason with, but also a wise, intelligent, calculating and open-minded being. Therefore, the admiration they had gained for him in a few hours was normal. Now they all understood why Queen Mackenzie had praised him so much. "Gentlemen, please. Thank you for your compliments, but I think we have more important things to worry about" Sobek reminded them when he was tired of the flattery. Under the gazebo, several chairs had been placed in a circle, leaving only an empty space where the huge head of the spinosaurus lay. The leaders of the various nations sat on each of them until they occupied all of them. Some servants brought some wine and snacks for those who wished. When everyone was finally at ease, Jocelyne spoke up: "Gentlemen, this is a glorious day for all of us. Lord Sobek's presence here is decisive proof that this war is finally over. However, if indeed this day can be called memorable, then we have important business to attend to: as Lord Sobek has repeatedly said, if we really want to avert any future war, then we cannot just sign a treaty, but we must strive to create an ideal of coexistence between humans, dinosaurs and all other creatures" she said, and then looked at the spinosaurus: "Lord Sobek, I leave the word to you" "Thank you, President Jersey" Sobek replied, raising his head slightly. "As you know, there is currently peace between our two peoples. I can guarantee that none of my people will ever violate this peace, and since I know that each of your nations cannot go to war except in defense, this automatically places our peace as eternal. Which in itself is already an absolute victory". Many world leaders nodded in satisfaction at his words. "However, we all know how unpredictable humans can be. Even if nations cannot officially go to war, nothing guarantees that the people will stand still. I am willing to bet that there are many people within the Eden Union who still want the extermination of the dinosaurs, and if we are not careful they could go on to form terrorist groups; worse still, if we fail to change people's perspectives, such terrorist groups may have strong popular support. That is why to ensure stronger and more perpetual stability we cannot just sign a treaty, but we need to take careful measures to minimize the possibility of riots. Not to mention that we will also have to deal with the almost certain opposition from the NMWA, which will certainly not stand still and watch. Therefore we have to act on several points. The first, of course, is to re-establish the economic system of each of the countries that are part of the Eden Union" No one objected to this: economic revival was the main reason why many nations had joined the Eden Union. "How can we fix the economy?" someone rightly asked. "First, I will provide each nation with a method of producing enough food to feed their country. This food will have to be distributed selflessly, as foreseen by the dictates of your Constitutions. Secondly, all customs tariffs will be abolished... but you already know this part" Sobek replied. "The real turning point will take place in the secondary sector: thanks to the support obtained from large financial groups, you will reconvert all industries, from metallurgy to transport, with clean and renewable energies. Manpower will obviously be needed for all this, and by doing so it will be possible to give jobs to countless unemployed people" Even though the Constitutions provided for food and shelter to be provided free of charge, people still needed to have jobs: after all, any non-essential goods would have to be paid for with money. Giving the unemployed a job was therefore the best option to raise the morale of the population. "But once everything is converted the workers will lose their jobs again" someone rightly objected. Sobek shook his head: "No instead. The current economic crisis is due to the fact that, due to a lack of energy and sufficient raw materials, many factories have had to close, resulting in the sacking of all workers; because of this, a butterfly effect began, since without the factories that produced the chain stores too, they suffered a setback. However, once the factories are converted to use clean, renewable energy, they will be able to operate again. All you have to do is offer contracts to large financial groups, which they certainly won't miss as you are handing them a fully functioning and already maintained factory. The workers who work on the conversion will consequently become the same workers who work in the factory once it is back in operation. And automatically, with the factories operating again, the shops and businesses will be able to restart. The restoration of the secondary sector will also allow the restart of the tertiary sector" The people gathered there looked at each other. They were clearly politicians and not economists, but Sobek's reasoning was so simple that they could easily understand it. No one could deny that the plan was not at all silly: the restoration in the industry would have guaranteed the rebirth of the entire tertiary sector. We did not speak only of shops and businesses, but also of any other activity connected to it. For example, lawyers would again be inundated with civil cases, while judges would have to settle them. And many others could be examples. Putting the factories back in place could have restored not all, but still a large part of the country's economy. However... "To convert factories with clean energy, capital is needed. Will the current resources of the nations be enough?" someone pointed out. Obviously, you couldn't make money without spending money first: it was the law of the market. However, Sobek, Jocelyne and Pauline had already thought about it: and in fact the queen of Niger stood up and promptly answered the question: "I can answer that. For the past few days, I have put the best economists in my country to work to calculate our current resources and how we can use them. With current money, we can restore about half of our factories on our own; however, this leaves us with an empty half. However, the financial groups that support us, in particular John Hammond's company, have already stated that they would be willing to take on the reconstruction of the other half" "Not for free, I suppose" one of the seated leaders murdered rightly. "No, in fact. The plan would be to offer premature contracts to not only exploit the factory, but also restore it at their expense. In return, those who get the contracts and respect them will receive subsidies with taxes and production costs" Pauline explained, and then pulled out some papers. "Based on this line of action, my ministers have drawn up a plan to be able to restore the economy as quickly as possible. If it were implemented starting tomorrow, in just two years the entire secondary sector would be restored and more than 60% of current unemployment would disappear, while in another year we would see a superb regrowth of the tertiary sector causing these numbers to rise by 80% to 85%" Most of the assembled people stared. Restoring almost the entire economy and eliminating 80-85% of unemployment in just three years was a titanic, almost science-fiction undertaking, to say the least. World leaders quickly passed the papers Pauline had brought, reading and studying them carefully. Not even a minute later one of them stood up: "Gentlemen, forgive me, but I think I have to confront my ministers in order to be able to evaluate this plan correctly". Many followed closely behind him. Obviously Sobek had expected that implication: after all, it would have been foolish for the assembled politicians to implement a plan whose consequences they did not know. After all, even if some of them understood economics, there were much more experienced people behind them, and it was to it that the politicians were calling to solve the economic crisis. Therefore Jocelyne stood up and said in a loud voice: "Gentlemen, in light of how the matter is proceeding, I propose to suspend the meeting temporarily, so that each of us can discuss with our staff about this economic plan. We will meet again in three hours to decide what to do. Do you agree?" The politicians had no second thoughts: they immediately said 'yes' and walked away, turning on their phones to call their staff. Sobek had no intention of interfering: the political side did not interest him. Both Jocelyne and Pauline had assured him that the plan they had devised was flawless, so he wasn't afraid that eventually someone would find something to complain about. Jocelyne approached him: "Not bad for a first meeting" she said with a smile. "We founded the Eden Union to solve problems. That's exactly what we're doing" Sobek replied simply, then rested his head on the ground. "I'll take a nap. Wake me up in three hours" "Of course. Sweet dreams" Jocelyne teased him. Sobek just ignored her and closed his eyes. ******* Politicians often missed deadlines, but when they really wanted to, they knew how to be on time: within three hours, all the various leaders of the Eden Union had contacted their staff and had them go through Pauline's three-year plan, several times. In the end, everyone had come to the same conclusion: the plan was not only feasible, but also had a very good chance of success. In all likelihood, if they had had more time, the politicians would certainly have tried to make changes in the hope of receiving greater gain; however, with only three hours of time available, no one had time to think about any changes. So when the three hours ran out, Eden Union leaders simply found themselves voting on whether or not to implement the plan. Clearly the result was support with flying colors: the politicians held the key to resolving the economic crisis ahead of them and were unwilling to let it slip away. Therefore there were no negative votes: everything voted to implement the plan as it was. Sobek could only be satisfied: by solving the economic crisis he would not only have brought stability to nations and well-being to citizens, but since the plan had been largely realized with his contribution, this would have sensitized people's mentality towards dinosaurs. Although not all of them, many would have at least developed a feeling of gratitude. It was the first, small step in achieving coexistence. After the plan was approved he spoke again: "I have a proposal that will allow us to reduce unemployment even further" It goes without saying that in a moment he had attracted the attention of all those present. "It is an idea that will not only decrease unemployment, but will help improve relations between our two peoples. I intend to bring some members of my pack to the continent"

Chapter 291: First meeting

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