The Rise of the Speaker

by Pete Driscoll

  “South American nations are expected to follow the US lead, as are many of the Middle Eastern countries, some of the Balkan states will follow Russia and there is nothing at all about the session on the Chinese networks. Assuming that all of those news networks are right, that should put about 66 of the undecided counties on our side, maybe a few more if the negotiations go well meaning we would need to work hard on 11, but we won’t know for sure until we meet them.

  “11. That is still a tall order, especially if we assume that the US and Russia are actively campaigning against us.”

  “Which they almost certainly are; Turnbull in particular is very opposed to our recognition. We have to meet with all five of the permanent security council members – America, Russia, China, UK and France – as a matter of course, so unfortunately, a meeting with Turnbull is a guarantee, as are meetings with Russia and China. They may decide not to come, they are not under any obligation to meet us, but we cannot refuse to see them if they do want to meet. I doubt we will be willing to pay their price of entry so it is very likely that they, and their dependant states, will vote against us. All we can do is wait and see.”

  “I am an Engineer, Alice,” I huffed, “wait and see is one thing that engineers find extremely difficult.”

  Chapter 33

  Meet the neighbours

  “Marcus!” the bright smile of Ide Museveni lit up the room as the Ugandan President limped in. “It is good to see you, my friend.”

  “Ide, it’s is good to see you too, thank you for coming. How is the leg?” I replied as I stood to shake the African leader’s hand, he had other ideas and pulled me into a bear hug and slapping my back forcefully. Museveni had been hit by artillery shrapnel when the Presidential Palace in Kampala had been shelled by the rebels.

  “Pah! If Nassan thought a few pieces of metal would stop me then he obviously doesn’t know who he is dealing with! Us Musevenis are a strong bunch.”

  I laughed along with the African politician as we separated and we both took our seats. “I was hoping I would get chance to see you here, it has been too long since we have spoken.”

  Museveni nodded in agreement. “President Montreau is here but has been called away for urgent trade talks, a visit to the UN is never a straightforward affair. He sends his apologies but hopes to catch up with you soon.” The Ugandan leader leant back in his chair, pausing before looking me in the eye. “Marcus, it is no secret that I was more than a little… sceptical the first time we spoke. But what you have done for my country is a debt that can never be repaid, I know many of my colleagues feel the same way. The reconstruction effort is far beyond anything we could have asked for, even now – so soon after a war which normally would take decades for us to recover from – our people are thriving. The hospitals and infrastructure that your Artisans have built are giving my people a quality of life that we could never have hoped to provide for them ourselves. Neither me, nor my counterparts are under any illusions as to who to thank for that.”

  I made to speak but Museveni raised his hand and continued. “The international community’s reaction to our plight was not unexpected, yours however, was. You turned a lot of heads on the African continent by your willingness to render aid and gained a lot of admirers when you gave that aid freely and without conditions. We have spoken to the African Union, the overwhelming majority of the African Nations are supporting your application for statehood, only South Africa and Egypt have refused to commit; South Africa has very strong trade links with Europe and the US and will probably wait to see how their partners vote before casting theirs. Egypt, on the other hand, has become radicalised over the past few decades and its theocratic Islamic government are not fans of your secularism… But they hate America and Russia even more than non-Muslims, so there is a good chance that they may vote for you just because the US don’t want them to.” He laughed and slapped his knee, “International diplomacy is never boring, eh?”

  My eyes widened in the realisation that 53 countries were already on side before I had lifted a finger. “I… I don’t know what to say, Mr President, but thank you. And please thank your colleagues as well. Your friendship and support will not be forgotten.”

  We exchanged pleasantries for a few more minutes before Alice entered the room to inform us that the next delegation had arrived. The Ugandan President and I exchanged another warm hug, bid farewell to each other and he left the office.

  The next meeting was with Frank Bankwell, the Australian Prime Minister; he was not a world leader I was familiar with nor could I remember seeing him or his reaction on the assembly room floor. But the tall blonde man in a sharp blue suit strode in wearing the warmest of smiles as he shook my hand. He was joined by two of his aides who both took seats against the back wall of the office but said nothing.

  “Mr Speaker,” He said as we both sat down, “Thank you for agreeing to meet with me.” I didn’t have the courage to admit that I hadn’t explicitly agreed to meet anybody. I knew I was meeting the security council members but, other than that, I’d had no say in who I was meeting at all. But I wasn’t about to disrespect the leader of such a great country with those kinds of admissions.

  “It’s my pleasure, Mr Prime Minster. It’s always an honour to meet other world leaders.”

  “Please, call me Frank.”

  “And please call me Marcus.” I smiled at the remark that I had used more times than I could count.

  “Well Marcus, I know you are a busy man, so I’ll get right down to business. How inflexible are you about sharing your military technology?”

  “Extremely”

  “I thought as much. Ok, Australia – and most of the Pacific nations - have a problem, one that we have seen before and the rest of the world refuses to take seriously. We warned the world for years in the 30s about the threat posed by the aggressive expansion efforts of the Japanese, the world didn’t listen, and millions of men lost their lives when the inevitable war against Japan kicked off.

  “Now we have a new threat,” he continued, “Korea is making threats about expanding their borders, they are supported by China and Russia so they won’t attack them, they will come after the rest of us. Once upon a time we could rely on American support in any Pacific war, but those days are gone. We need an ally who will be able to help us when – not if – war breaks out.”

  “You sound pretty certain.”

  “I can say with no hesitation or exaggeration that war between Korea and the other Pacific nations is only a matter of time.”

  “What about the UK?” I asked after some thought, “wouldn’t they come to your aid?”

  “Of course, they would.” The Australian answered immediately, “With the exception of the US, we don’t doubt the resolve of any of our allies. But the UK is a long way away, it would take them weeks to get to us, how much damage do you think a million-man army could do in that amount of time?”

  “So, what are you asking me, Frank?” I asked cautiously

  “Our agreement for the American’s to maintain bases on Australian soil is coming to an end,” Frank explained, “so are their agreements with the Japanese and Philippines, the Malaysians a few years after that. They don’t want to renew their leases and we don’t trust them enough to want them there. In return for our support in the vote – and I mean the support of all Pacific Nations, other than Korea, obviously – we ask that you garrison some of your Spartans in Australia, Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia and a number of the other Pacific Nations, New Guinea, for example. A base or two in each country with a few thousand Spartans a piece might be enough to deter Pyongyang.”

  “You are asking Atlantia to potentially involve ourselves in another war.”

  “I know, Marcus, and I wish there was another way around this. But you dropped over 70,000 Spartans into Africa because some warlord started targeting civilians. I don’t think you are the kind of man – or the kind of country - who would act differently if Korean soldiers marched into Jakarta, or burned
Manilla to the ground or sat back and watched as Sydney was subjected to the same atrocities as Seoul”

  “No, of course not. As I said in my speech, we stand by our friends.”

  “and I want us to be friends, this arrangement simply means cutting down your response time and maybe – hopefully – making the Koreans think twice about attacking at all.”

  I sat back in my chair, the Australian Prime Minister – although looking hopeful – said nothing as I contemplated my options. He was right, if another war broke out and Korea acted in anything resembling their conduct in their last war, we would almost certainly deploy the military. But stationing troops in the effected countries sent a clear message that we opposed the Koreans and – by association – their Russian and Chinese sponsors. But – there was always a ‘but’ – would that even matter? Would Russian and Chinese backing stop us from intervening if Korea did attack?

  “How many bases are we talking about?” I asked, trying to imagine the avenue of a potential Korean attack.

  “Well, I am representing 24 counties, but only 8 of them would be able to accommodate bases on their territory.”

  “So about twenty bases.”

  “More or less, yes.”

  Another long silence filled the office as I considered the Australian request. “An arrangement of this type would take some time.” I finally answered as the decision was made and Alice was called into the room. “Could this be done?” I asked her after I had repeated Frank’s request.

  “Yes, is the short answer,” she nodded. “It would take a few weeks to get the garrison organised and deployed. Manning a permanent base is not the same as deploying them in combat; There would need to be significant security upgrades made to the bases to allow us to house sensitive technologies there, technologies that would be essential to the long-term deployment of our forces. We could probably arrange a force of about 3,000 Spartans per base, and two bases per country reasonable quickly, but anything more than that would be a little more complicated. Plus, there is the issue of a navy…”

  “I don’t understand,” Prime Minister Bankwell interrupted, “What about the navy?”

  “we don’t have one.” I answered plainly, “Or at least we don’t have much of one.”

  “And a navy would be an essential aspect of any long-term deployment in the Pacific.” Alice continued. “If war did break out, the navy would be the primary line of defence. Korea couldn’t attack any Pacific country without either going through China – which the Chinese would never allow – or attacking by sea. We would need to develop, build and deploy a naval force to the Pacific if we wanted to ensure the safety and sovereignty of all nations involved.”

  “Yes, I see the problem.” Frank nodded, “The Australian navy isn’t large, but I’m sure they could hold Korea at bay for a while, the same can be said for Japan. Maybe – for the time being at least – the Pacific nations can concentrate on naval defence while Atlantia garrisons the bases and helps defend us if our navies are overrun, at least until an Atlantian Navy can be established.”

  Alice thought for a few seconds before nodding, “That could work. With our current construction techniques, it wouldn’t take more than a few months to get the basics of a navy into place.”

  “Months?” Frank asked in astonishment, “to build an entire navy?”

  “not an entire navy, no. Maybe a few dozen ships, enough to act as a deterrent. A full navy would take at least a few more years than that.”

  “Well, shit.” Frank muttered, “it takes us 18 months to build a single destroyer.” He paused for a few moments before getting the negotiations back on track. “Ok, if we can agree this deal in principle today – obviously the details will need to be hashed out at a later date – then you can rely on the support of all 24 Pacific nations, but I’m pretty sure that all of them would want this agreement signed and the garrisons in place within 12 months. I know that’s a big ask, but I cannot emphasise enough the threat that is posed by Korea. Would it be possible?”

  I looked at Alice for the answer, mainly because I had absolutely no idea if this was possible or not. “That shouldn’t be a problem at all,” she smiled. “we can get the garrisons set up inside of six weeks and if war breaks out before then, we could deploy combat forces in a day or two.”

  The Australian Prime Minister let out a deep sigh of obvious relief, I could almost see the weight lift off his shoulders. “You have no idea how pleased and relieved my counterparts will be to hear that.” he said with another bright smile “As far as trading relationships go, all of us are more than willing to open talks and formalise some kind of trading partnership but as you can imagine, this was something of a priority for us. Thank you, Marcus and you, Alice.”

  “You are most welcome.” Alice replied with a slight bow before leaving the room,

  “Wow, she is something.” Frank said as the door closed behind her, “If I had fifty people like her in my government, we’d be a much better country.”

  “You have no idea.” I smiled. Frank Bankwell rose from his chair, thanked me again, shook my hand and left the office with his aides. Two meetings down and I was already up to 77 of the 128 nations that Atlantia needed to support our recognition.

  Over halfway there, not bad for a few hours work.

  “Alice?” I called into the empty room. The petite redhead faded into existence close to the door to the other room, now that we were alone, she had dropped the pretence of using the door. “I know you have been working closely with General Levy in upgrading our military, but what is the current state of our navy? And other forces for that matter? I feel a little embarrassed that I don’t already know that information.”

  “The naval aspect of our forces – being an island nation – was the second of General Levy’s recommendations, after the intelligence network, and both aspects are progressing nicely. The Navy is currently made up of three ship classifications, the Leviathan-class is a carrier model that can hold about 120 of each type of aircraft or an army Division – a few thousand Spartans with mech support – for amphibious operations, we currently have 3 of them. The next classification is the Hydra class battleship; a very powerful long-range anti-ship or anti-surface bombardment platform, there are 15 of them in service at the moment. Lastly there is the Triton class destroyer model, shorter range anti-submarine, anti-aircraft and anti-ship escort and patrol vessel, 38 of them have been completed so far and we expect those numbers to increase significantly over the next few months. We are also developing a number of small dart-like attack submarines, almost like aircraft that operate underwater, extremely fast and manoeuvrable, they will outclass all conventional submarines, but they are currently still in the development phase.”

  “Wow, that sounds… impressive.” I nodded without having any real concept of how impressive that sounded.

  “We are hoping to have a full demonstration ready for you in a few weeks, as well as a detailed run down of the new intelligence agency. As far as other forces go, we currently have around 732,000 Spartans, 120,000 of each type of fighter, 35,000 condors and pelicans and around 15,000 mechs. Providing garrisons for the Pacific nations is well within our capabilities.” Alice smiled proudly.

  “Jesus…” I laughed, “I remember a time at the cabin when I though 50 was a lot.”

  Alice smiled, “Hopefully, we will never need to use them.”

  There was only one more meeting left for that evening, the rest would be seen the following day, with a few more squeezed in on the morning of the third day before the final vote. If they went anything like as well as these two, we might actually get what we came here for.

  My thoughts were interrupted as a group of people entered the office. Two of them I recognised immediately; Catherine Rose was the British Prime Minister and the leader of the Liberal Democrat party who had come to power after the shambles that was Brexit, a short but pretty looking woman, she was one of the youngest leaders in the UK’s history and renowned the world over
as a fierce and brilliant politician. Jacques Remy was the President of France; the dark-haired man was one of the most popular leaders in recent French history having completely ignored the far left and far right of the political landscape and endeavoured to please the overwhelming majority of French citizens that resided in the centre of the political spectrum, he was also – with the exception the German chancellor – considered the only European leader that was the political equal of Catherine Rose.

  The rest of the group was made up of aides and secretaries, all carrying important looking briefcases and paperwork but in reality, their purpose was purely decorative. What surprised me was that they seemed to be entering and leaving the office at will, in an almost constant rotation of staff as the two politicians shook my outstretched hand – ladies first, of course – and sat down at my desk.

  “Very impressive speech, Monsieur Oratuer” The French President started, using the French translation of my title. “I hope this meeting is the start of a strong friendship between our countries.”

  “As do I, Mr President.” I smiled.

  “For someone who never wanted to go into politics, you have proven yourself to be a very astute politician, Mr Speaker.” Catherine Rose said with a wry smile, “maybe the old moniker is true, those who seek power are the ones who deserve it the least. You have made some impressive strides in such a short period of time.”

  “From a woman with such a consummate reputation, that is high praise indeed.” I replied, taken aback by the compliment from such an esteemed leader. “Now, shall we get down to business?”