-Earth, Friday, 07/01/2000-

By now almost every human knew what joining the federation entailed. The army they could join, if by any chance the vote would go in the wrong direction, had to be filled with earth's forces either way. They had to tribute to the Intergalactic Federation, I.F. in short, every twenty years, which also corresponded to the development grace period they would receive. Earth could send out mercenaries to help quell conflicts all over the universe, in addition to contributing to the army. All only to receive Galaxy Points, also called Ascension Points or APs. These points could be traded for various benefits in the alliance, including the reduction of the manpower sent to the Intergalactic Federation's army.

After having provided enough of these resources to the Federation and gaining enough support, your whole race, which also included all galaxies they occupy, will ascend to the next rank within the alliance. That rank provided extra boons but nobody knew what they were though, since Humanity wasn't a member of the Federation yet.

However, this was only the good part of the deal. The bad part implied that if by any chance they failed to confer their required minimum contribution, for their respective rank, they would be kicked out of the I.F and their galaxy would be conquested over by any race that resided in the vicinity.

Not many humans could truly comprehend the threat this entailed and thought they had nothing to worry about, little did they know that earth had to make many connection in the already established network of the universe to survive the onslaught of the intergalactic stock market. And that in only twenty years while making sure their partners were also trustworthy enough to not fuck them over the first chance they got.

And only a small part of the whole of humanity could decipher this from all the useless information the federation tried to feed them. Nonetheless most humans voted to join the Intergalactic Federation and only a small percentage disagreed. Whatever the reasons were those people had, eluded the rest of the planet.

The turnout of voters was pretty high with 90% of humanity deciding to participate in the poll. Astonishingly the whole procedure could be finished within the time limit, with only a few leftover government officials voting on Friday.

The UN held another joint speech announcing the results of earth's first planet wide referendum, as well as the establishment of the United Earth Alliance and the founding of new governmental institutions all around the world. To be able to more cooperatively work together earth's leaders decided to abolish most countries and include them under unified names, much like the current United States of America.

"We will now list all the new capital counties and borders of of them. They will only be geographic and have no other use than to specify the different institutions around the globe. Also it should help with earths statistics about populace, climate, education or tourism." president Clinton started, "The USA, Canada as well as Mexico will become the United States of North America, USNA. The new capital will be located in New York, to be specific the former UN's headquarters. Brazil, Argentina and the rest of South America will hereafter be unified and called the United States of South America. Rio de Janeiro will be the USSA's capital. The whole of Africa will be called USA, or United States of Africa, from now on, with the UEA's headquarters located in Cairo"

With this Bill stepped back and let his counterpart Yeltsin take the stage, "Those were the easily comprehensible changes. The more elaborate ones can be found in Europe and China. The European Union will be keeping it's name but a part of Russia, Turkey and the rest of the middle-east till Pakistan, except for Saudi Arabia, will be included. Russia will be divided and the new border will start right where India was before and run north, along the old border regions of Kazakhstan. China, Japan, India and the northern parts of Indonesia will merge together with the rest of Russia under the name of the United Asian Union, or UAU. Australia, New Zealand and the rest of Indonesia will unite and call themselves Southern Island Union, SIU in short."

He took a brief pause and continued, "The expanded EU's capital will be located in Austria, Vienna, while the UAU's new center is in Singapore. The Southern Island Union will keep Australia's city Sydney as base. I know a lot of you are unhappy about losing your nationality but fret not, each abolished country will become a district in the newly formed mega countries. There are also two additions, encompassing Antarctica, which name will remain the same and a merged Arctic and Greenland from now on called Northern Arctic Green."

Following this tiresome and boring explanation Boris finally could relax. His part of the speech was the least contested for since there was just too much information, unfortunately he drew the short end of the stick. After showing a replica of earth's map with all new territories and borders, Jiang Zemin stepped up to the podium, explaining that those borders won't keep anyone in or out and talked about how every human would be free to choose where they lived, worked or visited.

"This concludes our announcement and we would like to inform you that earth was already officially registered in the records of Intergalactic Federation. The I.F. has a different calendar and language though and all of you will have to switch to them if you want to make a career in the universe. There will be several methods to integrate yourself into this new system in any case but more to that tomorrow. Which brings us to our final news, the mandatory broadcast tomorrow evening. The Intergalactic Federation's representative Balluo'nok will celebrate earth's joining together with us and also inform us of the most important developments and plans for the next two decades. He also told us that there will be a surprise welcome gift to each of you and his crew will be responsible for setting up broadcasting devices even in the most remote regions of the planet, along with some absolutely necessary equipment every member of the federation is required to possess and maintain as per the I.F.'s rules. I wholeheartedly congratulate each of earth's inhabitants for joining the federation and wish all of you the best of luck in your future endeavours." Romano Prodi the now first president of the new EU finished his speech with a bow and went back to his seat. Like always every other head of state had to address their citizens and confirm that all the changes to earth's demographic were indeed true.

Almost all earthlings had a sour look on their faces since they would have to adapt to the transformations of their countries into counties, especially the citizens of Vienna, Rio de Janeiro, Cairo and Sydney had to rapidly expand if they wanted to be able to keep up with the coming influx of new inhabitants. Since they were designated to become the new capitals, the cities had to be modernized but their former leaders already explained that this will happen naturally in the upcoming year, with the help of the I.F.

-Austria, Vienna, Strono household-

Kazimierz was feeling ecstatic, he didn't have to join an army, he wasn't sure he would survive and could live his final years in the warmth of his family's home. All his folks were celebrating too, they secured at least their immediate future and who knew, maybe they had the talents required to completely integrate themselves into the federation and live their lives without worries. Now little Alexander could grow up in a world full of space travel and had the chance to pioneer in a field no human ever stepped foot on.

"Kazik you were right, now we don't have to worry about a single thing until we die and can keep Alex company until he grows up to be the strong, independent young man I know he will be." Irena kissed her husband and hugged him amid tears, too moved about the notion that her grandson could live a life without becoming a slave to a foreign alien race. She didn't let it show before but she was the most anxious to know what other humans would vote for. Had the referendum not gone in their favour she would have joined the army as soon as possible, probably even before Kazimierz, to secure her sweet grandchild's future.

Of course Kazimierz wouldn't had let her but luckily no one but her was privy to that information or her daughter, son-in-law and husband would have berated her for being too hasty and not taking her own life seriously enough.

And so, after a week of nerve wrecking voting, humanity became part of the Intergalactic Federation and began their development and peace period, however, nobody knew yet that this time should be cherished by each and every human around the globe, because nothing can last forever.