Each party signs the agreement, but Congress will need to approve the spending to make it official. Larom is also eager to bring other nations on board to share in the cost of the program. Financially, there would be a strong incentive to free-ride, but she is hopeful that leaders will want to be involved in the program as a point of national pride.
It is now 7:00 PM in Washington D.C. Robert is sitting in an office in the U.S. Capitol building; an ornate room with portraits of esteemed congressional leaders of the past adorning its walls. Robert is wearing the same red tie with thin black stripes, and his suit jacket with an American flag lapel pin is hanging on the back of his chair. He is reviewing a final draft of an address to Congress and the nation he will be making shortly. The last seven hours since signing the initial memorandum of understanding have been very productive. President Larom gave brief remarks of the agreement from the White House Briefing Room where she enthusiastically endorsed the deal. The text of the agreement has been made available; Congress has seemed warm to it, though he will need to close the deal tonight.
Internationally, there has been a rush to join the pact. Within thirty minutes of Larom’s announcement, Russian President Mikhail Malvodov announced he would sign on, likely seeing this an opportunity to further burnish Russia’s standing on the world stage. China and much of Europe followed suit. As of now, it appears that PEACE will be owned 50 percent by Arbor Ridge, 25 percent by the United States, 2 percent by Russia, and 1 percent each by China, Japan, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Australia, Brazil, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Chile, South Africa, Israel, Saudi Arabia, India, and Mexico. The remaining 5 percent would be owned by a consortium of other nations with smaller individual stakes.
Chris sits next to Robert, eating a sandwich. He has been an invaluable asset today, hammering out the agreement and taking the necessary legal steps. Procedure is where he shines, and he’s also an effective “bad cop” on financial matters in these negotiations. As someone not versed in military matters, he has also offered useful feedback on an earlier draft of Robert’s speech to ensure it will hit the right notes with viewers across the social spectrum.
Robert puts the speech down and turns to him. “Chris, I hope you know how appreciative I am to have you as a friend. I know with you running operations at Arbor Ridge, things will be smooth. And that matters just as much as what I’m doing at PEACE. We need the power to run, phones to work, goods to be delivered, for civil society to function. I rest easy, knowing our company and the world is in good hands.”
Chris smiles. “Thank you, Robert. I know but I appreciate you saying it. Just win this thing quickly, so that you’ll be back in your corner office before cobwebs start growing.”
A man walks in to tell Robert that it is time. Chris and Robert walk out of the office. Chris is led by another gentleman to the balcony from which he can watch the speech. Robert, meanwhile, is accompanied down a marble hallway to the Hall of the House of Representatives where a joint session of Congress has been called. These gatherings only occur for the annual State of the Union address by the President and occasional remarks by foreign dignitaries.
The room is cavernous with seating emanating in a semi-circular pattern, and seats are filled to the brim with 435 members of the House and one hundred members of the Senate. At the front of the room, there is a brown lectern from which Robert will speak, with a background of a hanging American flag adorning a white marble façade. Behind him sit the Speaker of the House and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate. Above the chamber, there is a balcony where invited guests, like Chris Bailey, are seated.
At 7:02, the House sergeant at arms loudly declares “the honorable Robert Wilson.” There is a polite standing ovation from Congress. Normally, there is a raucous cheer, but the mood tonight is more subdued, given both the nature of the moment and some unease about Robert Wilson’s plans. During the day, President Larom’s telephone diplomacy with other heads of state has been a resounding success, signing on most of the world. Now Robert needs to replicate that success for a domestic audience as Congress will need to authorize the first $75 billion to launch PEACE. He calmly walks down the aisle, nodding his head and smiling at lawmakers, many of whom he’s met over the years, given Arbor Ridge’s work as a defense contractor.
Upon reaching the lectern, Robert hands two copies of the speech, which have been sitting atop it, to the Speaker and President Pro Tempore, as is the custom. After a few moments, the applause dies down, the audience takes its seat, and Robert is set to begin a speech that is likely being watched by over ninety million Americans and over 1.5 billion worldwide.
“Mister Speaker, Mister President, and esteemed members of Congress, thank you for inviting me to address you and the American people tonight. It is genuinely a profound honor. I am here to offer my thoughts on Protecting Earth against Alien Conquest and Exploitation, or as I prefer to call it, PEACE.
“I have worked throughout the day with President Victoria Larom on this government and private sector partnership. I am grateful for her trust and her work to win the support of nations big and small across the world for this endeavor. The text of the agreement has been available for hours, and she has eloquently explained its terms. PEACE will be co-owned by world governments with the United States controlling twenty-five percent and Arbor Ridge owning half. I will serve as its Commander for an initial term of six months, and our focus will be solely on protecting this planet from the threat posed by Anton Frozos and the military of the League of Planets.
“I feel that there are three questions I need to answer tonight to earn your support: why should you trust me, why should we fight, and what is my plan for victory. I plan on answering these questions tonight, and I hope these answers will in fact win your support.
“First, why should you trust me to lead this effort? Well, every action I have taken has made it harder for Frozos to conquer this planet. I think it’s safe to say I am not a double agent. I will also be blunt: I can offer technology and military readiness that no one else can. If you believe we will need to fight, there is no other person or entity that can provide the resources I can. This may not be an inspiring answer, but it is the truth. I hate Frozos with every fiber of my being because I’ve seen the evil of his oppressive rule firsthand and the false promise of progress and prosperity that he is now offering this planet.
“My home planet of Nayan was conquered by Frozos. He murdered my mother in cold blood when I was seven years old. Eventually, my father and I were enslaved in a mine, which provided critical minerals for his space fleet. There, I witnessed firsthand what enslavement does to a free man’s soul, the destructiveness of tyranny. It would be in this mine where my father died after years of backbreaking work. I entered Frozos’s spy program with the sole purpose of coming to a free planet and doing everything I could to ready and protect it.
“You have every right to know the motives of whom you are partnering with, and these are mine. I want to protect this planet and will dedicate myself entirely to this effort. I want to defeat Frozos and his cowardly ilk. I have a personal vendetta, yes, but it is not my right to spill another’s blood to settle the score. But because this is personal, know that I offer myself in a way no one else will. I swear to you an undying loyalty to our mission, and will spend every last ounce of energy and courage I have to deliver victory.
“We speak often of ‘dictators,’ but where does the term dictator come from? Well, dictators originated in Ancient Rome, which was a republic. When under threat, the Republic gave broad powers to one man to eradicate the threat and then hand back power to the people. This worked until one man, Julius Caesar, decided he wouldn’t hand back the power. As in Ancient Rome, the barbarians are at the gates. What we have crafted is a plan that gives me the power to police those gates effectively while curtailing that power so that you can rest assured I will be no Caesar.”
Robert pauses. A rea
l hush had fallen over the room when he disclosed that Frozos had murdered his mother. As he takes a sip of water, there is scattered applause that builds into a fulsome ovation. He looks up to the balcony to find Chris who gives him a subtle thumbs-up.
“Thank you,” Robert continues, settling the audience down. “If you’ll oblige me. I am next going to answer my third question. What is my plan for victory? Well, the first tenet is the force field. I believe this will shield us from an invasion, perhaps forever. However, I think it unwise for us to bet the entire planet on that fact. Just because a city builds strong walls does not mean it can forgo a military. At the least, I believe the force field will buy us time to develop the capabilities necessary to win a war against Frozos’s forces in space. Given our mandate, PEACE will not have nor train ground forces, merely an aerial assault team.
“I have built a fleet of ten thousand space fighter jets: we call them the SF-01 as they are our first model of space fighters. Video of these jets floating over Beijing and easily dismantling the military defense of China on their western border have gone viral, but the SF-01 can do much more. Namely, they can reach and operate in space, armed with laser cannons, and an assortment of other artillery, and go twice as fast as a space shuttle when exiting the atmosphere.
“I have a fully trained labor force that will begin expanding this fleet tomorrow. We will be training more workers and fully leveraging the supply chain of the entire global defense industry with the aim of reaching fifty thousand within three months. Now you may be wondering who will be flying these planes. How can we train pilots to operate in space? The answer is that we already have.
“As you know, Arbor Ridge is a leading manufacturer of video games. Our most popular game is Galactic Flyer: Invasion with over 250 million active users. This game has been our training ground, which is why we always made it so lifelike. The SF-01 is the Galactic Flyer fighter jet. As we made and designed the SF-01, we analyzed all the data from this game. Maneuvers that worked and those that didn’t were used to develop this, Earth’s most powerful jet, and ensured it would incorporate all the benefits of the human element—the pilot. You have been training for this very moment for years; you just never realized it.
“Indeed, you will meet our squadron commanders who are walking out into the balcony now.” Robert motions to the balcony, and everyone in the room turns around. Chris is standing up in the balcony, and opens the door. Ten young men and women walk in, wearing red jumpsuits.
Robert continues, “If you remember, last year, we ran a contest where those who led the best squadrons in Invasion would win an internship at Arbor Ridge. The ‘internship’ was really entrance into Project Ridley as squadron commanders. I am proud to introduce you to Mike Murphy, Anna Small, Jerome Smith, and Angela Perez of the United States, Adrian Murray of England, Dmitry Ivanov of Russia, Paulo Cruz of Brazil, Samantha Sharp of Australia, Kim Ji-Yoo of South Korea, and Karl Muller of Germany.”
The room takes to its feet with a sustained and hearty standing ovation for these young men and women of about twenty years of age. They are all smiles as they stand in the balcony before walking down several steps to take seats next to Chris.
“I told them,” Robert continues, “that while tonight’s ovation was going to be memorable, just wait for the reception they receive once they kick Frozos out of our solar system.” This line causes another mass ovation. Robert’s confidence is growing as he realizes that he isn’t so much winning the audience over. Rather, this is an audience looking for a reason to hope and to believe, and they are finding it in his message. He takes a sip of water while the cameras are on the ten commanders and then continues.
“In particular, I wish to commend Karl Muller and Dmitry Ivanov, who oversaw yesterday’s mission in China. We have just over twelve hundred pilots currently, mainly game developers, these ten commanders, and other high scorers whom they had flown missions with. Over the next forty-eight hours, we will be reaching out to our most promising players, prioritizing those with military experience, and those under forty, to sign up for PEACE. We expect having no problem putting a qualified pilot in every one of the fifty thousand SF-01s we will be building.
“That is how we will win, utilizing human pilots, an unmatched fleet of planes, and the force field to protect the planet.
“I hope I have explained why I am worthy partner and why I believe we can win. Last, I must answer the most important of all questions. ‘Why should we fight?’ I have tried to answer this in past remarks, and hopefully I can put aside any doubt that this is a noble effort.
“Last night, Frozos tried to shake your doubt in the virtue of self-government. He is correct that Earth’s history features much war and conflict. I assure you that is no different than the history of any other planet or than his League of Planets, itself. Indeed, the instigator of these conflicts has generally been a person or nation that seeks to rule over another. In studying Earth’s history, I have read of men risking their own lives to free another people. This nation has sent its army abroad as liberators not as conquerors. That is the act of a bold and noble species, and is a sentiment that Frozos cannot grasp.
“People like him view that decision—to sacrifice oneself to help another—as weak; in reality, it is strong.
“Why do we do it? I saw it firsthand when my mother took the time to lock me in a cellar as a seven-year-old boy as Frozos was invading, giving her life to save mine. She did it out of love. Love is our secret weapon; the true arsenal of a democracy. The love for your fellow man that is implicit in the belief that they should have the ability to rule over themselves is what makes us strong; it is what makes us dig a bit deeper when our back is against the wall, to chart our own destiny when fate seems tilted again us.
“The history of self-government may not always be pretty, and progress does not move in a straight line. There are fits and starts, no doubt. But, at least we get to chart our own course rather than have it decided by someone else. There is a reason why no matter how strong the oppressor, there is always a resistance effort to regain liberty. The thirst for freedom is unquenchable and universal because the human soul is starved when it is enslaved.
“So, I ask that you look to your children and your children’s children. Do you want to let them rule their own lives or serve a foreign master? I hope you choose to join with me because the preservation of freedom is a fight worth having whatever the odds. That is why I am prepared to fight this battle no matter the cost to preserve Earth as a free planet and hopefully earn the most flattering of all titles, one which I have pretended to hold these past few years: citizen of these United States of America.”
The polite but tepid applause that Robert received when he walked onto the House floor is replaced with a resounding, emphatic roar as he prepares to walk out. He turns around to shake hands with the Speaker and President Pro Tempore of the Senate who congratulate him on a job well done.
The walk down to the exit is slow, as members of Congress crowd the aisle to shake his hands and get his autograph as they often do after the President delivers a State of the Union. It takes nearly five minutes to get out of the House Chamber. He is led back through the marble hallway and into the office where Chris and the ten squadron commanders are waiting for him. Chris gives him a big hug, and the former “interns” offer a nice round of applause. After a few minutes of chitchat, it is time to get going.
It is now nearly midnight, and Robert is in his office at the top of Arbor Ridge’s Jersey City headquarters. In the background, the television shows that Congress has passed a bill by a vote of 411–24 in the House of Representatives and 97–3 in the Senate that makes PEACE official under the terms agreed to by President Larom and himself. It should be a happy moment, all things considered, but right now Robert looks somber as he stares at old photos of himself, Chris, and Mark during key moments in the company’s history, from its first product launch to its initial public off
ering.
There is a knock at his office door. Robert turns around to find Mark and Chris standing there with a pizza and some soda in hand.
“We wanted to check in,” Mark says.
Robert is thankful—his friends know that having to officially step aside at Arbor Ridge was a bitter pill for Robert to swallow, even if functionally he had been focusing 80 percent of his time on Project Ridley anyway for the past few months.
“I was just thinking,” Robert says, “I hope you guys don’t run this company too well while I’m gone.”
“Why’s that?” Mark asks.
“Well, if you do, maybe they won’t have me back,” Robert responds with a smile.
“The nice thing about owning most of the company is you get to do whatever you want anyway,” Chris retorts with a smile.
“Do you remember what you asked us back at Yale when you asked us to cofound a company with you?” Mark asks.
“I do,” Chris chimes in.
“Not exactly,” Robert says. This is a bit of a fib as Robert has a good idea what the answer is, but he knows Mark will relish saying it, and besides, it would do him some good to hear it.
“You didn’t tell us we’d become some of the world’s richest people, though that’s admittedly been a nice side effect, or promise power. You asked, and I quote, ‘Would you like to join me in building the most important company on the planet?’ You certainly didn’t oversell it!” Mark adds with smile.
Knowing it could be some months before Robert will be sitting in this office again depending on how Frozos responds to the formation of PEACE, the three co-founders sit down, and reminisce about some of the highlights of the past decade over some pizza.
Chapter 15
Robert Wilson and the Invasion from Within Page 13