“Great. Follow my lead, and watch closely for hand direction.”
“Yes, sir.”
I do believe I saw urine streak down his pant leg. Nice touch!
“You guys ready,” I barked. It was fun being bossy and feared.
“Yes, sir, we are.”
“Okay, positions, everybody.” I pointed Marilyn to stand near the door, behind the crew. I kicked out the security guards. No sense in taking added risk. They were stunned, but they knew better than to question this boss. I ran though everyone’s location in my head like a quarterback before the ball snapped. Ready as I ever would be. “Count me down.”
The director leaned in front of the camera and held up five fingers. “In five - four - - -.” Then he silently pointed to me and pulled out of view.
“My fellow Americans,” okay, maybe I didn't need to pull an LBJ, but I was having fun, “I come to you today to expose an ugly truth and to begin a healing process that I can only pray will purge the evil I have allowed to grow in our midst.” A couple people did gasp. “You see me today, in the form of General Jonathan Ryan. I've heard a lot of gossip as to why I chose to temporarily place myself in his image. Well, here's the God's truth of it.
“I chose to appear as General Ryan because he is the best example of a true American hero I know of. He is brave, honest, loyal, and I can't overlook the fact he's stunningly handsome. I chose his face to remind myself daily that I needed to strive to be more like him, and so, to be a better man, I confess to you here and now that I have failed you, the American people, myself, and the sainted legacy of General Ryan.
“Only today, was I able to fit the final piece of the puzzle of intrigue and deception that has led to my failure, and hence, my need to leave office immediately and permanently. Here are the dirty facts. And please, those of you in the company of children may wish to limit their exposure to my words, as they are powerfully disturbing.
“Over the last few years, as I worked closely with our friends at the UN to save as many souls as possible, a group of international subversives began undermining our combined best efforts. Their poisonous embrace was too subtle to notice, at first. Their scientific director, one Walter Morbius, was the tool used to slowly dissect the America we all knew and loved. He told me he was making an android copy of me. I begged him not to demean the presidency by doing so. But, clever international subversive agent that he was, he did it anyway. And he subtly but fundamentally altered my brain function.
“My fellow Americans, I have been forced to act in the manner I did because those international subversives were controlling me, as I gathered the proof against them, which I now have. I am both ashamed and proud of my actions. Never think, for one second, that I enjoyed killing resistors or taking sexual advantage of those less desirous of sharing their passions with me. No, I hated every moment, every act, which those international subversive agents forced us all to endure.
“But now, for the great news. I have worked closely with my personal friends, Dr. Toño De Jesus and Carlos De La Frontera, along with other UN scientists to set the matter right. First, it pains me to reveal, I can no longer lead my beloved country. The doctors tell me the damage the international subversives have done to my brain,” I pointed helpfully to my head, “are beyond repair, even for those miracle workers. They were able to use chewing gum and duct tape to piece together an override algorithm, which is allowing me to speak truthfully to you now. The patch will fail in five minutes, and it cannot be duplicated. Its installation has damaged the underlying computers too extensively to be repaired.
“No, though it saddens me more than you'll ever know to have to say goodbye just when the tide is turning,” I jerked my head a few times, to make it seem like my CPU's were failing right there on camera, “tu…turning and my moment of vinctti…vindication is at hand. But I must go.
“But, my fellow Americans, fear not for one solitary moment for your security and for your boundless future. I can only watch from Heaven, standing next to God, the angels, and the saints who will watch over you from now on. But you will have the government you deserve. Here is my interim plan.
“I, the def…defe…defective unit, must be destroyed immediately. As soon as my statement is complete, I will be escorted to the fusion engine core. An ancillary exhaust port will be opened, and I will be cast in.” I put my hands together in prayer. “At my final reckoning, friends, I may well break down. Forgive me for that. I may well lie and try to say I was set up, that I’m the only true Marshall. Forgive that human weakness in advance too, if you will. But please, no matter what I say, however insane a story the international subversives force back into my mouth, don't fail to cast me into the engine. It is what I want and deserve.
“As to the international subversive agents, there are surprisingly few. The three heads of the dragon you must slay, once I'm gone, are Chuck Thomas, Sam Peterson, and Bob Patrick. They acted as my closest friends but were the puppet masters controlling my string. I suggest they be destroyed too, but that will not be my decision to make.
“I now wish to introduce you to the man who will led this group of worldships. He will do so on an interim basis. In the next few weeks, he will oversee three critical sets. One, he will supervise a free and open election to place a temporary government in charge of ships. Two, he will see to it that our worldship turns around and immediately rejoins the main fleet of humans. Finally, during the time it takes to rejoin our brothers and sisters, he will root out the remaining subversive agents that may still hide amongst you.
I held a hand up to the door Stuart was concealed behind. “Will the real President Stuart Marshall please enter the room!”
Uncertainly at first, Stuart stepped into the room. Once he saw the cameras, he snapped to and looked presidential. Stuart walked to my side and shook my hand. I pointed to him and directed that applause be addressed to him alone. Didn't take him long to be dug in like a tick.
I stood, and Stuart sat in my place. I placed a hand on either of his shoulder. “Now, it is my time to go, to be no more. From this moment forward, I demand that you listen only to this man, the real android copy of President Stuart Marshall!” Subdued applause followed. “A last thought, as I surrender to the security detail President Marshall will assign to march me down to the fusion engines. It warms my mechanical heart to see, alive in this room, the blessed fruits of American fortitude.”
I made a ten-second show of hugging Stuart, shaking his hand, then waving cheerily to the cameras. During our embrace, I had whispered in his ear, “The second I fall down, scream for security.” Then I turned to step aside, to be off camera. I stumbled, darn it all, just as I got to the door leading to where JJ held a gun on evil Stuart. I, in fact, was so off balance, I fell headfirst into the next room.
There was a rise of startled voices, then Marshall was clearly heard to boom, “Get Security in here at once.”
I stood up, grabbed the evil Stuart, my twin brother for another mother, and counted to five. On five, I shoved him to the floor in the conference room. He must have figured something unhealthy for him was awaiting his arrival. He popped up quickly and scanned the room. The new President Marshall was pointing at the past one, directing security to seize him.
“No wait! This is a trick. Those men aren't me. I'm the only me here. Arrest those men or I'll have you all thrown out an airlock with your entire families. Pets too. I'm…”
His concluding remarks were obscured when his face was forced shut by the floor, a boot on his neck to secure him there, while handcuffs were roughly applied.
Within a few minutes, the conference room cleared, aside from Marshall and Marilyn. The camera crew followed the evil Stuart's progress to the fusion core. Marshall directed the remaining staff to see to the arrests of Chuck Thomas, Sam Peterson, and Bob Patrick, hopefully before they could flee or hunker down in an armed response.
I stepped into the empty room with JJ at my side. I had a smile as big as the Milky Way. “That we
nt pretty well, wouldn't you agree?” I asked Marshall.
Marilyn pointed at us. “Who's the alien, and why is the old Marshall here?”
Marshall stared deeply into her eyes for a good minute. “Matt? Matthew Duncan, is that you?”
“Yes, sir, I can…”
“Why the hell are you dressed as Marilyn Monroe?”
“Ah, I'm not just dressed as her, sir.” He lowered his head. “You, I mean the other you, thought it was funny.”
“Well, I don't. Get down to Engineering and have them fix you ASAP, you got that, son?”
Matt smiled crookedly at the 'son' part.
Fully alone, Marshall walked over to us. He held out his hand. “I have to thank you, Ryan, for what you did. I'll admit I was dribbling off the court, at the end back on Earth, but you've given me a chance to patch things up. That's more than I deserve.”
“Yes,” I said, “it is. Make it count.”
“What will you do now?”
“We’ll pop back to Azsuram to let Sapale know we’re okay. Then, Toño and I will make a quick trip to Exeter. Hopefully, we'll get there before the transmission of your homecoming party. We'll coordinate something with the UN. Who know after that? Then we'll go home. You guys'll pick up the pieces and see if there's enough glue in the fleet to patch'em back together.”
“With that vortex in the laundry room, your definition of ‘home’ becomes significantly broader.”
I tilted my head. “We'll see. That part depends on what's best for my family. Ain't nobody deciding anything about the family without consulting Mama!”
“Amen,” said Stuart. “I suppose you'll be back to check on me?”
“If you screw the pooch, you can count on it. If you behave, and especially if you fade from public life, hopefully I'll never have to see your ugly mug again.”
“Can't say I blame you.” He wagged a finger at me. “But I'll make you proud. You'll see.”
I waved feebly. “Later, Mr. President.”
JJ fell in behind me. “Later, Mr. P.” Ah, that's my boy!
FORTY-FOUR
Home in less than a second. Finally, a commute I could handle! The vortex didn't make any sounds, but Sapale was running over before I opened the wall. She hugged me like there was no tomorrow, then cast me to one side. She grabbed JJ, not in an embrace, but an inspection. She slowly turned him around like she was considering buying him. Reassured that her baby was fine, she smothered him in a bear hug. JJ’s reaction was classic teenager. He pinched up his face like he was swallowing a live toad. I knew he loved it, but Heaven forbid he should show it.
“Everybody okay?” I asked after she freed our son.
“Fine. No sign of the Blimpies either. Hopefully we've seen the last of them.” She then looked up at me quickly, realizing the irony. She had. I almost certainly had not seen the last of them. But it was all good.
I asked Sapale and JJ to remain behind while Toño and I went to Exeter to fill them in on the changes we'd made aboard Enterprise. They surprised to see us. I was loving the vortex!
With the death of Mary Kahl, the UN leadership had shuffled around a bit, but there'd been no significant changes. Bin Li was the new Secretary General. I'd known him well and had no problem working with him. Not that I would be working with him much. Once I set matters straight, I'd be back on Azsuram like I'd always planned. What the humans did in the intervening four hundred years was their deal, not mine. Toño spent a few hours catching up with Carlos, then we returned home. I tried to be non-committal, but Bin extracted a promise from me to return in a month. I wasn't going to make a habit of that, but one additional trip would be okay.
Back home, life sort of returned to normal over the next few weeks. I could sense something weighed on Sapale, but she repeatedly told me nothing was wrong and that she was fine. She said it had been so long since I'd seen her not pregnant, I probably mistook that for her being off. I didn't believe that, but I decided to give her time to put voice to her concerns when she was ready.
That time came when I announced I was going to take the vortex to retrieve Lily and the high-speed rocket. Clearly, that form of connection with Kaljax was no longer needed. I said that after I got back, she and I could plan a personal trip to Kaljax to accomplish what Lily was sent to do. At first, she just nodded. Then she growled very softly. I'd learned her species had several distinctive growls. There was the angry set of growls I'd heard all too often. There were happy growls, like a cat's purr. But there was also a collection of moody, sad, or distraught sounds. She was making one of the soulful sounds.
“What?” I asked gently.
She was apparently unaware of the sound she was making. “Huh?”
“That growl. I know you too well for you to say it's nothing. That's the sad-Sapale growl.”
“No. I mean, I was probably thinking of home, my parents.” I stroked the back of her hand and listened. “You never met them. They were the best. They hated the repression, the politicking, and the evil that governed their world. They taught me to work for peace, to fight the evil, and to hold back the darkness.”
“They sound like wonderful people. I'm sorry I never met them.”
“Dracos, the man whom Mangasour replaced, had them publicly tortured to death.” She stopped a moment. “It took my father two days to die. Mom lasted five. Well, that's how long it took for her to stop growling. I think her mind had been gone long before that.”
“Babe, I'm sorry to hear all that, and I wish I could make it right. But what's that got to do with me retrieving Lily?”
She moaned, growled, and began to whimper. I went around to her side of the table and held her as she sat there, letting it out. Finally, she was able to say, “Don't you see it's all falling apart?”
“What, brood's-mate? What's falling apart?”
“This,” she swung her arms around, “all of this. The village, a new loving Kaljaxian society…” she couldn't go on.
“What? Say it, love. What else is falling apart?”
She thumped me on the chest. “You and me, you big idiot.”
Huh? I mean, what? Didn't see that one coming in a million years. “Huh? What are you talking about?”
“We were here, working against the odds to make something great, something wonderful. Now…now you have you magic box, and…and it's never going to be the same.”
“I really don't see why not. Nothing's changed. You're still going to make this a spectacular place, and I'll be with you, always. The vortex changes nothing.”
“Yes it does, and you know it! You'll never be here,” she pointed to the floor, “again. Your mind will be elsewhere, everywhere. And this place is no longer our private paradise, our last chance to make a good society. No. If we fail, we just pop into your box and go ten other places until we get it right or get bored and do something else.”
“Why is it my box all of the sudden? Isn't it ours?”
“Of course not. You're the only one alive who can control it. It's yours, all right.”
“If it will make you happy, I'll turn it back into a storage shed and never use it again.”
“I'd know you were thinking about it, about your next adventure.” She placed a loving palm aside my head. “This might be here,” she lowered her hand to my chest, “but this wouldn't be. You're a pilot. Pilots fly away. If you didn't, it would only be to try and make me happy, not because this was our place.”
“Yes, part of what you say is true, I'll admit that much. But once we're back from Kaljax, I don't have anywhere else I need to go. No one can raise us on the radio without a multiyear delay, so it's not like I'm on call to save the universe. I don't think anything will change in my heart or on Azsuram.”
“You agreed to meet Bin in a month.”
“Yeah, but that's just once.”
“He'll ask you to return, and you will. You're the responsible type. You can't help it.”
“Two trips, tops. That's it. Then we go with the plan, just like bef
ore.”
“What about when one of the children gets ill? You wouldn't travel to Kaljax for them to get expert care? Or when I'm dying, you wouldn't drag me back to see if they could help?”
“That's different. We’d only go if we had to.”
“But that's just it! Before the box, we were all we had. Now, we just like, living in the suburbs.”
“Sorry?”
“Your apology doesn't change anything.”
“I want to go on record as saying you’re overreacting. Let’s see what happens before we jump to conclusions. Okay?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Sure?”
“What?”
“I have no idea, but there must be one out there for you.”
“It's a good thing you don't sleep. You never need fear not waking due to unnatural causes.”
“Thank goodness for minor miracles.”
I understood her contentions, I just didn't know of a solution. Sure, having instant access to everywhere put an end to our feeling of total isolation. But I couldn't get rid of the vortex unless I was in it. If I left it on a faraway comet, how was I going to get home? Plus, it could provide an unbelievable link to knowledge and supplies. A mixed blessing was still a blessing, right?
I intercepted Lily and brought the ship and her home a few days after that conversation. When we were back, I asked Sapale when she'd like to go to Kaljax. She knew we had to, she had to, but I could see in her eyes she resented that fact. Nonetheless, we left Toño and JJ in charge but brought Fashallana with us. Whatever reservations her mom had about visiting Kaljax, my daughter didn't share them. Fash got all dreamy eyed when we asked her to come. She couldn't sleep until we left. The promise of boys, shopping, and boys, held sway over her imagination like any proper young woman.
Before we left, while Sapale was looking for an excuse to cancel the trip, she spoke to me one day. “You know I'm a wanted woman on Kaljax. It's not safe for me there.”
“You're a wanted woman in your native country of Sur. On the rest of the planet, you're simply unwelcome.”
The Forever Enemy (The Forever Series Book 2) Page 25