The Rise of the Speaker

by Pete Driscoll

  The calm before the storm.

  Of course, everyone knew what the grand assembly hall looked like; Its wooden clad walls, green carpeted floors dissected by beech coloured desks and each desk sporting a small placard detailing which nation that desk belonged to. On the back wall, behind the elevated seats of the Secretary General, was the famous UN symbol; the globe as it would look if the planet was viewed from above the North Pole, with the various landmasses of the world spreading out around it. I tried to picture what it would look like if Atlantia was ever included on this revered symbol of world unity.

  “Impressive, isn’t it.” A female voice came from behind me with a strong English accent.

  I turned to find the source of the voice. The two Spartans acting as my guard were a few feet behind me, flanking the door that led between the balcony and the hallway outside. Standing just inside that door – apparently having opened it without my hearing – was a tall and elegant woman of eye wateringly striking beauty.

  She smiled as she walked to join me overlooking the hall, her movements were deliberate and yet – somehow – astoundingly graceful, as if she had been given lessons on how to command attention with just a walk. It was mesmerising to watch.

  “It is,” I answered as the woman drew nearer, somehow managing to shake my head clear, regaining my focus and pulling my eyes back to the auditorium. “you know what to expect, but the expectations don’t seem to do the reality justice.”

  Her smile widened in approval as she came to rest on the railing no more than a foot away from me. “I couldn’t agree more.” Her eyes had followed mine out into the auditorium, “So, how do you think it’s going to go?”

  I shrugged, “I don’t really know if I’m being honest.” I answered – surprisingly – truthfully, “I suppose I’ll find out how it goes once it’s going.”

  “Ah, confidence,” she laughed, a musical and intoxicating sound, a sound I hadn’t enjoyed since Maria. I allowed myself to turn my head, finally getting a real look at the mystery woman who had joined me.

  Beauty is a strange concept, not only because it is so hard to define and not because everyone has a differing opinion as to what qualifies as beautiful, but because there are so many different types of beauty. Maria had been a fiery and energetic, almost sexual beauty. Her passions worn on her face and in her eyes as obviously as the clothes on her back. Her mind, her wit, her humour and her brilliance were as much – if not more of – a factor to her beauty than the features of her face, or the contours of her body.

  The woman next to me was a totally different type. She had that elegant, classical, almost regal beauty to her. Her facial features were strong yet soft, her crystal blue eyes didn’t have Maria’s deep molten, passionate quality, these were keen and brilliant, taking in every detail and yet still had that sparkle that I had loved so much about my long-departed companion. Her hair faded from a deep brown at her scalp to an almost caramel colour as it extended along its length, small blond streaks punctuating the ensemble as they curled around the loose ringlets that hung over her long and graceful neck.

  In contrast to the formal – almost business like – suits of the other delegates, her apparel looked more like she had just returned from a state dinner; a long, form-fitting blue dress, the hem of which stopped halfway between her knees and ankles, and a deep yet appropriate neckline with a thin gold chain set off her pale alabaster skin. Barely a hint of makeup, this was the kind of beauty that reminded me of the ladies of the silver screen. I had no idea who this woman was, but whereas the hall was, indeed, impressive, she was spectacular.

  “I wouldn’t go as far as calling it confidence,” I smiled back, finally realising that I hadn’t answered her, “Maybe quietly optimistic… maybe.”

  “I think you’re going to do fine,” she smiled, her eyes turning to meet mine, “We’ve been watching you for some time now, you’ve made a few enemies, but on the whole, we’ve been impressed.”

  “We?”

  She smiled brightly, “now, that would spoil the surprise.”

  “Sorry, I’m…”

  “The Speaker of Atlantia,” she turned to me, cutting off my sentence and accepting my outstretched hand. I cringed a little as she shook it, “ah, the famous humility,” her smile widened, “… Marcus… I’m Charlotte.”

  “It’s very nice to meet you Charlotte.” I smiled, not just at her obviously extensive knowledge of me, but also knowing that just her first name was all I was going to get out of her.

  “and you.” She withdrew her hand and turned back towards the hall; the corners of her lips still pulled up in amusement. “Good luck down there, Marcus, and try not to worry; you already have more friends than you realise. I’ll speak to you soon.” With another perfect smile, she turned and made towards the door.

  “will you?” I asked, suddenly realising what she had just said.

  “Still a surprise,” she called back without even turning her head back towards me.

  I could only smile and watch her leave. There was something oddly soothing about her presence; I wouldn’t have said I was anxious before she arrived, but I couldn’t have said I was calm and collected either. I found myself hoping that she was right, not just about being fine and having friends, but that we would talk again soon.

  I didn’t even know who she was.

  It had been almost 5 years since Maria had died and although the pain was still there, it wasn’t quite as raw as it had been. ‘Charlotte’ was the first woman I had been attracted to since her passing, I had always expected the first time to come with some pang of guilt, maybe even betrayal, but as I watched the double doors swing closed and Charlotte step out of view, I was surprised to find that I felt neither. Maybe time really was the great healer.

  The auditorium was noticeably busier as I turned my attention back to the main assembly hall. People had started to file in and the viewing gallery on the ground level was already starting to fill up. The odd delegation – although I couldn’t tell who from up on the balcony – had taken their seats behind some of the multitudes of desks and the dull murmur of voices had drowned out the silence that I had come here to find. I turned back towards the door and made my way back to my office, my two Spartan guards following a few steps behind me.

  “The first presentation will be a speech,” Alice was saying ten minutes later as she adjusted my tie like an overbearing mother. “You will basically give a small speech about Atlantia and why you want to join the UN. Once that is done, you will retire back here and meet the first round of diplomats. We don’t know who will be coming, but those meetings will last all day tomorrow and most of the next morning. Then we go back to the assembly hall for final questions, then the vote.”

  I nodded; I had my speech memorised but fiddled uncomfortably with the paper copy in my pocket. I could no longer call myself a stranger to high stress situations – not after Itek, Montana, the cabin, congress… the war – but there was something different about this. The people who came to Atlantia had done so in search of a dream, of an ideal; each and every one of them had given up more than I would know to do it and the success of that decision rested entirely on how I performed over the next few days. Despite this, I took a surprising amount of comfort from Charlotte’s words.

  You have more friends than you realise.

  It didn’t occur to me until the next day that I could have asked Alice who she was; the Spartans guarding me would have Identified her in seconds and Alice would have cleared her to approach me, she would certainly have known who Charlotte was. But – for whatever reason – that was a level of logic that was far beyond my abilities at that moment, instead I just stood there, allowing Alice to adjust my tie as I watched the clock count down the seconds until Atlantia and – more specifically – her leader was put under a diplomatic microscope.

  15 minutes later, I was standing at the podium and suddenly, all thoughts of Charlotte – or anything else, for that matter – were gone.

  �
��I am not a politician.” I started, speaking in as clear and firm a voice as I could muster. “I never wanted to go into politics, primarily because that line of work is filled with politicians; I am an engineer, I wanted to create. More specifically, I wanted to create things to make the world a better place, things that would improve lives.”

  I paused for a second and looked out over the congregation. I had the undivided attention of some of the most powerful people in the world and each of them was watching me intently as I stood behind the podium, some of them wearing headphones as what I was saying was translated into their ears. Some faces I recognised; David Turnbull Jr was in the front row to my left, Ivanov and Xu were to the right. I could see the British Prime minister, the German Chancellor, French President and I could make out two of the five African leaders that I had met during the war further back into the hall but the rest of them – although vaguely familiar – were strangers to me. I couldn’t help but wonder which of them were friends.

  “But circumstances have forced me to create something that I would have thought inconceivable only a few years ago. Atlantia is a nation of refugees, misfits and outcasts; people who despised the way that their former countries acted and wanted something different, the creation of Atlantia was almost an accident, but when people realised that it represented a new start for them, they came in their millions.

  “The United Nations is one of the greatest endeavours in all of human history, an organisation dedicated to peace, political cooperation and the betterment of mankind. Many of the laws and legislations of Atlantia are based on the ideals and charters laid down by this estimable body and yet many of the people who came to Atlantia did so because your own members treat these charters as more of a guideline than as an absolute principle. Human Rights violations committed by some of your most powerful members, Women’s rights ignored, crimes against children almost an everyday occurrence, humanitarian crises judged by economic or strategic value rather than by genuine human suffering and yet Atlantia is called the criminal.

  “There are nations in this room who approve of the way we do things in Atlantia, they like our commitment to free universal healthcare, strict gun control, freedoms of speech, movement, assembly and the right to peaceful protest, they appreciate our absolute guarantee that all people are equal, regardless of gender, age, race, sexuality or creed, they like the fact that the only deployment of our military in our short history was to aid in a genuine humanitarian crisis and that every care was taken to ensure that not a single civilian was killed in what some call ‘collateral damage’… and there are some nations who do not.

  “When it became clear that Atlantia was more than a simple Island refuge, our government and our people had to ask themselves if we would follow the lead of the countries we came from, or if we would forge a new path… take the best of the old world and improve on the things that made them leave… decide the moral and ethical principles that would define us as a people… do we use our military to protect the defenceless or do we use it to take what we want? Do we share our more innocuous technologies or do we horde power for ourselves? Do we open our borders to the sick, the tired and hungry – looking outward into the world – or do we close ourselves off to the outside and the nations that our people came to escape? Regardless of the outcome of this application, I am – and you should be – immensely proud of the honour, compassion and human dignity shown by people when they are given the opportunity to decide – with real power – how their country should act.

  “Atlantia is already a nation and with all possible respect to this venerable institution, it will continue to be a nation no matter how you decide to vote. We will continue to honour the principles and ideals that our country was founded upon and if we have to do that without the legitimising power of the UN then so be it. But that is not what we want; we want to be part of the international community; we want to contribute the betterment of humanity and we want the recognition that allows us to do that. But those desires have their limits.

  “Let me be clear - here and now - to all members of this body. Our military technology is not for sale and will not be a condition for further diplomatic relationships; we will not provide the means for nations to inflict war on other nations. Ours is a defence force and we will defend any nation who asks for our help, but I will not allow it to become an offensive force! So, if your friendship or approval is contingent on access to that technology, you will be disappointed. I would rather have our application for nationhood denied than see one innocent person lose their lives to my creations… this is not negotiable.

  “But our friendship, in almost every other regard, is offered freely and we will accept any hand of friendship that is offered to us. We are an honourable people who will stand by our friends and our commitments and look forward to establishing better working relationships and closer ties to any and all members of the international community.

  “I hope that all of you come to talk to me, talk about Atlantia and the great things we are doing there, talk about the ways that our countries can benefit from Atlantia’s recognition as a legitimate nation, all delegations are welcome and none will be turned away. I look forward to the introductions and conversations that will lead to deep and lasting friendships between your nations and ours.

  “Thank you.”

  The response from the crowd was as varied as the nations that made it up; some – many of whom I didn’t recognise – rose to their feet in applause, more still remained seated but joined in the chorus of claps, the Chinese Premier among them. A few – notably including the US and Russian desks – gave no response at all, sitting in stony silence as I left the podium and the applause died down. It was difficult from my place at the front of the hall, to make out which nations were doing what, but as I made my way back up the aisle to the main entrance, I made an effort to look out for the placards that named the nation sat on that desk, noting how they were reacting.

  Most of the European leaders that I recognised – and many who I did not - were clapping along, although none of them had risen to their feet, many of the African nations were much more enthusiastic with their support, as were a few from the Scandinavian and Far East countries like Malaysia, Thailand and The Philippines. The middle Eastern Countries and some of the South American nations had joined the US and Russia in their silence but even I wasn’t surprised by this, many of them owed allegiances to one of the superpowers and would follow their master’s lead.

  Ten minutes later, I was back in my office. “So, how did I do?” I asked Alice as she lounged on one of the sofas and I sat down behind the desk.

  “well, your speech was good,” she answered after considering her reply “especially considering you were making it blind and didn’t know how the crowd would react to you. You got a lot more of a positive response than I was expecting, 51 delegations gave you a standing ovation, that is a lot more than we had thought, only 56 of them stayed quiet. The other 85 are harder to read, they may have been clapping along just because it was the end of your speech or they may have joined in as a sign of their support, albeit less enthusiastically, I doubt we have the support of China, for example. We knew the US and Russia would stay quiet, as would most of their dependants, so their lack of enthusiasm wasn’t much of a surprise either.

  “We need a two thirds majority to get our application passed. That means we need 128 of the 192 nations to support our recognition. Assuming all 56 who stayed quiet are out, that leaves 136 countries who need to be convinced, 51 of them already seem to be on our side so we need to win over 77 of the 85 nations who we are unsure about; that’s your target audience in these meetings, convincing as many of those 85 to join us as possible and ensuring the support of the 51 who seem most willing to give it. Hopefully most of them can be easily convinced to vote for us.

  “We have already won part of the battle, as late as 2015, the UN couldn’t grant recognition at all, you had to be recognised by a few existing states first and then go bef
ore the security council. If one of the permanent members of that council vetoed the application, that was it. But after the Second Korean War, that all changed, with the US, Russia and China all fighting over territorial influence, almost any new country would be vetoed by at least one of those three for no other reason than it was supported by one of the others. When Syria tied to split after their civil war, Russia vetoed the new country being admitted and the US vetoed the old country who also had to reapply, it became a farce.

  “So, the UN stepped in and decreed that only they would be responsible for internationally recognising new nations. Individual countries can still recognise a new state, but they aren’t part of the UN or a member of the international community until they have gone before the UN. It’s a fascinating and complex aspect of international diplomacy,” she added with a wistful, faraway look, “I have enjoyed familiarising myself with the process.”

  I smiled at my oldest friend, her hunger for knowledge and new experiences had never ceased to amaze me and now I was starting to understand why she had insisted on joining me for this trip. She – as usual – was right. Under the old system, there would have been no hope of joining the UN and we would have had to initiate diplomatic relations with every individual country on earth to be recognised by each, this way may be more stressful, but – if successful – I would be automatically recognised by not only the UN, but every single country who supported my application.

  “Anything in the press that would indicate how countries are expected to vote?” I asked

  Alice’s eyes glazed over for a few minutes as she scanned thousands of press releases and news reports from all across the globe before answering. “Most of the European press networks are suggesting that their respective countries are expected to support your application, although most of them are suggesting that there are conditions to their support. There is no mention what those conditions would be though. Australia and the rest of Oceania seem friendly to our cause, as do many of the African nations after our intervention in the sub-Saharan war.