“Curse the Zimbabweans” thought Zac folding his three of a kind.

The year was 3045 and surprisingly the game of poker still remained a mystery to those that played it.

The latest Global recession and biggest since the early 21st century, had begun to have a profound impact on every nation on the planet, bar one.

2945 was the year it all began, centuries after the death of Mugabe and mere weeks after the introduction of the then world Record “trillion Dollar note”,the Zimbabweans just happened to stumble upon the one raw mineral that could save the planet from it’s apparently inevitable extinction.

A rare celery seed that when soaked in olive oil over time and in a sufficient volume produced a gas capable of canceling-out the effects of the green house gases that had been corroding the planet.

Overnight this discovery had rescinded their status as the world’s poorest nation and by the end of the decade had made every single member of there resident population a multi-zillionaire.

Splat!, Splat!, Splat!

“Not Again!”
“What am i doing wrong?” thought Zandros the Demi-god as he watched in real-time as yet another of his creature creations committed mass suicide off the continents lone cliff.

“Why do they do it?”
Invoking pause, Zandros considered the final barrier to his graduation from the Academy of Deities.

Zandros had to come up with a template for a new space-faring race, capable of colonizing a regular sized Galaxy within three millenniums, else like many who’d failed before him, spend the rest of eternity panel-beating asteroids or having to man the interstellar star-wash.

Not relishing the thought of polishing an infinite number of stars, Zandros was expectantly desperate to clear this final hurdle to full godhood.

Rewinding the scene in front of him, Zandros returned to the task at hand.
Trying to turn a race akin to that off fanatical Lemmings during the peak of migration season, into a well coordinated and entrepreneurial planet colonizing empire.

“Could it be done?”

Daniel John Jacobson, Lord-Emperor of the known universe and soon to be former Warlord of no less than 15 galaxies, studied the dragon hide interior of his empires most powerful starship the Saphire Phantom contemplating his races final hours, when Sergai a longtime friend and captain of his guard approached from behind.

“I miss the days when I was still a knight, Serg. Ignorant of all the lands beyond that of my liege lords estate and surrounding duchies. Serg, ’don’t you miss those times, life was much simpler then.”
‘Knowing you as well as I do sire” Sergai said with a grin “had you wed the carpenters daughter on that night so long ago, i don’t doubt, we’d be in a similarly trying position, to that which we find ourselves in this day.”

“Trying”, Daniel chuckled “The Trident Gods we’ve awakened can propel entire star constellations at us, “I think trying my old friend, may be understating it.” “We’ll see M’lord” replied Sergai watching as the Red Dwarf that had been tracking them raced towards them.