July 19, 2174, 3:30 PM LST
"Give ears! Give ears! This meeting of the States of Lincoln Joint Senates Committee on War is hereby called to order...." Meyer chanted his way through the routine afternoon opening. "The Honorable Member from Champaign is next to speak, and has requested time for a presentation. So ordered. Senator Thorne?"
"Mr. Chairman, in accord with the customs of this body dating from its first session, I am first pleased to present my newborn daughter. Honorable colleagues, please meet Gwendolyn." Elspeth Thorne held up her daughter's carrier. "Gwennie, these people are your servants. Your mommy is, too." The little girl cooed.
"Vivat! Vivat! Vivat!" To Meyer's ears, the traditional ceremonial cheer from the Senators seemed louder than usual. The little girl continued to beam. The Senators formed the traditional line, each pausing at Thorne's chair to kiss the baby's brow. The women hugged Elspeth. The men kissed the air over her fingers.
Senator Fuller paused at the child. "Gwendolyn, your mother Senator Thorne is your servant. Your Mommy Elspeth Mina is not." He kissed child and mother and went gravely on his way.
The meeting returned to order. Thorne resumed her remarks.
"Mr. Chairman, Honored Colleagues, thank you for your kindnesses to my daughter. I wish to speak to three particular issues, namely mobilization, research, and taxes. With respect to mobilization, I shall emphasize that we always have the option of withdrawing our ships behind the planetary defense screens to provide additional support fire. The utility of this is larger if a truly large FEU fleet appears, as is more likely at a later date. My daughter has yet to celebrate her third birth-month. By the end of her first birth-year, I hope to be able to tell her that we are now shielded by the strongest available force of ships. Based on the analysis I previously transmitted to the committee, I therefore urge that Plan Teal--which over the later parts of the next two years gives us a larger fleet in being--be promptly adopted.
"With respect to research, I share my Party's distaste for governmental intervention into scientific research. The immortal Pondey Pontefract had no Federal subsidy, no program officer telling him on which topics he was to calculate, or which research themes he was to abandon. His triumphant calculations, the communications thermalizer and the Pontefract tubes that shield our Republic and let us expand into interstellar space, began with a slab of paper and a set of carefully sharpened Number One pencils. The supporting experimental work was privately funded by wealthy Americans. If Pontefract had depended on a governmental dole and governmental control of his research, we would all be back on Earth, our country surrounded, waiting for the axe to fall or general war to ruin civilization. Thanks to Pontefract's privately funded studies, we remain safe, well, and shielded from European derangitude. I want my dear and beloved daughter to grow up in a free America, and it is through scientific research based on individualized privately funded research that we will remain free. I therefore stand with my Party in opposing Tab 412 of Plan Ultraviolet.
"Finally, and I expect that here some members of my own beloved Party will differ, I turn to the various tax proposals. It is certainly possible, and not just as a vague hypothetical, that we will need to turn quickly from the Sunflower or Teal plans to the Umber or Gray Plans. I am not concerned if the Self-Defense Fleets can manage the change. We have spent most of a century developing fleets that are prepared for change. Change is the physical basis for warfare. The Fleets, so far as can be told from the information available to this committee on the basis of the investigations it has chosen to conduct, stand ready." She cleared her throat and sipped at the water on her desk. Meyer saw that the pause was deliberate. There had been questions raised about mobilization preparedness, and the bulk of the Committee had voted against further investigations. Thorne and her Party had lobbied in favor of investigating, a position she was rubbing in.
Thorne resumed her remarks. "I am, of course, not unaware that ships in ordinary are under the jurisdiction of the Committee on Capital Facilities, not the Committee on War. I am concerned with the speed with which we could change from Sunflower or Teal to those other, very expensive plans. If our response is inadequate, our lives, our constituents' lives, the life of my beloved infant daughter to whom we were just presented, would all be under threat from the European menace. The challenge is not military, but financial. I therefore urge, without committing ourselves to any new taxes or any thought of asking the voters to levy them, that this Committee direct that the three primary plans for Special Warfare Taxes be fully reviewed and updated by our loyal and hardworking staff, so that this Committee will have them at hand to transmit to the voters should, Creator forbid, the larger-scale navy expansions be found necessary. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I reserve the remainder of my time."
Meyer looked about the room. "It is certainly true that my friends under the tree of liberty stand ready to point out the great evils that arise from taxation. It is also true, as my same friends emphasize, that there are conditions under which higher taxes do become necessary, and open warfare without limit is one of them." Meyer's allies in the Movimiento, the more junior, looked ready to choke. His deskcomp told a different story. "On the procedural request from Senator Thorne, interpreted as a special motion, there are seconds from Senators Molitor, Duclos-Braithewaite, Caravelle, Fuller, Sugiyama, Steinmetz..." The board lit up. "Noting three-quarters support, I ask if there are any critical issues on the request for a staff update. Hearing none, I ask for a vote. That is a three quarter majority. Changes? Passes. So ordered to the Staff."
Meyer folded his hands. "It seems that by the luck of the draw I am obliged to speak last. I trust that I may be forgiven if I hope that the last to speak need not be last in all other respects. I choose to begin by reminding the Committee of our situation. While our Republic does number 600 million citizens, dozens of inhabited worlds, and a national product widely believed to be near 40 quadrillion dollars, many of those worlds and much of that product is occupied with terraforming. In the last two years, I was privileged to represent our Senate on the four newlinked breathable worlds of Zeta Reticuli and Alpha Mensae, officiating at the first planting of the first plant and the casting on the waters of the first growth. Thirty years ago, as a much younger man I attended the same ceremony on the 6 truly breathable worlds of Xi Bootis. Our presence there is not forgotten, but a planet whose first plants were seeded three decades ago is preoccupied with questions of agronomy and atmospheric tuning. These are all fine worlds, but their ability to send us aid is exceedingly limited. Lincoln and Markoff were first settled in 2085. We have a substantial fleet. The next-most-recent settlements, on Ross 128, Tau Ceti and Procyon 2, did not take place until 2114, 2128, and 2129. Furthermore, the population of the scenic planet Chastity largely rejects modern technology, so Ross 128 can send us little other than prayers, a support I do not disparage.
"I turn now to the mobilization issue over which we are disputing. I speak primarily to the public audience, because truthfully most of us could give most of each others' speeches, and it is a good bet that privately many of us are convinced that we could give our opponents' speeches better than they can. I, of course, have never met a speech that I cannot mangle. The core issue is simple. Beyond ships on station, Lincoln has maintained squadrons of ships in airdocks being prepared and updated for cyclic deployment. Because we just did a redeployment, the next set of ships were at the start of their preparatory cycles. Indeed, The Sixteen was not hauled into dock until the day after the event that precipitated our crisis. Thus, those ships have taken quite some time to ready, despite the hard work and long hours of many airdock crews. Nonetheless the ships in cycle for preparation are now nearly ready.
"We now come to the decision point. During the last two months, the emergency mobilization cycle has been concerned with breaking out and making ready the reserve docks and other facilities needed to take ships out of ordinary. We now reach the decision point. Ships now in ordinary can be warmed up, given a rapid updat
e in place, and moved directly to the warp point, where additional repair and refit can be used to bring ships to maximum readiness. Alternatively, the same ships can be moved and towed to orbital airdocks at Lincoln and, to a lesser extent, Markoff. The advantage of towing ships to airdock is that extensive non-vacuum crews can be deployed against each ship, to ensure that ships are truly brought up to a modern standard. The first disadvantage is that most of our reserve fleet was stored by plan in the Versailles high orbitals, remote from solar wind and radiation, but outside the Primary ether screen. As a result, until we bring the primary tug fleet out of ordinary, each ship being brought to airdock must be towed to the ether screen, carefully passed through, and towed to Lincoln by our limited number of tugs. The process of towing ships to the Clarksburg warp point is far simpler and quicker. On the other hand, once at the warp point, any complex external maintenance must be done in vacuo by our limited stock of vacuum techs. The same techs, deployed in and near the airdocks, would only need to do the vacuum-critical outside work, so they could in time service far more ships. As a result, if we light off ships' engines from cold storage, move the ships to Clarksburg, and then maintain them, we get more ships at the warp point early. However, the inevitable repairs and refits to those ships will tie up disproportionate resources, resources that are then not available to assist with airdock work. I am not unaware that we can simultaneously move ships to the warp point and to all airdocks. The tug constraint is secondary. The vacuum-trained repair personnel shortage provides the serious limit on mobilization. I allow that from a morale standpoint it is not acceptable to tow ships to Clarksburg, do no maintenance to get them to working order, and have our cake as well as eating it by meantime putting all maintenance resources into a second set of ships towed to the airdocks. This hybrid plan, besides being difficult to direct, is unworkable. It requires more tow vehicles than we have available in the short term."
"To make life more interesting, the various Senates have almost without exception decreed that ship construction and storage are not under this Committee or its State counterparts. Instead, those ships in ordinary are under the control of various State Capital Construction committees, each of which has its own order in which ships will be taken out of ordinary. In principle these schedules are properly tied to either mobilization plan, but the mobilization plans have never been tested except as computer exercises. Plan Sunflower, with its final maintenance work done at the warp points, is known to be significantly less resilient if mobilization schedules do not eventuate precisely as planned. On the other hand, because this is a known challenge of Plan Sunflower, the staff exercises testing Sunflower have been executed with significantly more rigor. Donning briefly as is my privilege my alternative hat as Commander in Chief, it is my personal inclination to say that we cannot predict whether the Europeans are more likely to show up with truly massive force early or late, but my inclination is that they are slow, not fast. Doffing that hat, I shall say that while I personally prefer Plan Teal, there have been strong arguments given for both plans, and I am certain that in at least some of the plausible futures either plan will have proven to be the better of the two.
"Noting the hour, I shall inquire if there is a real need for further discussion. I see none. I therefore call for a vote. All in favor of Teal? Sunflower? Abstentions? Opposed? Change to your votes? That is a majority for Sunflower. In accord with the orders of the day, we stand adjourned until the day after tomorrow."
THE MEYER RESIDENCE
ABRAHAM, LINCOLN, ALPHA CENTAURI
July 19, 2174, 9:13 PM LST
A deeply tired Alphonse Humbert Meyer waved good evening to his escort and gestured, closing his mansion's gate. Even his feet were sore after a day of walking from hither to thither. Around him, hidden in the night, the mansion's automated defenses keyed to his presence and began cycling through threat analyses.
The vestibule was feebly lit by a single chandelier, lights dimmed to candle flames. The giant orange tabby-cat inlaid in the floor mosaic winked softly at him. Rippling lights flowed into the hall beyond from the welcome pool. Bethany would very soon be completing her laps for the evening. He summoned the house servots, stepped painfully to the poolside, and let the machines pluck away seal and cape and gown.
"Are you going to exercise?" Bethany asked. "It's late for you for that."
"I am not going to exercise. I am not going to try exercising. I am going to float in six feet of blood-warm water, let the circulators pulse water across my poor defenseless feet, and consider what I have to do tomorrow morning," Meyer answered. "Though for most of the morning the expected answer is 'sleep'."
"I watched you on the datanet. You did a fine job," she said. "Did you tell Elspeth to pull that stunt?"
"Me? Indulge in parliamentary trickery? Never." He did not quite grumble. "She came up with that one all by herself." He waded slowly into the pool's shallows. "But now we have time I need not share with all of them."
Chapter 15
"I regret to report that Chief Justice Gilbert has had a stroke and is in a coma..."
Matthew Amigone, Attorney General of the United States, Press Conference, April 15, 2038, the day after the Supreme Court voided the Patriot IX Act.
"Let's not be naive. If we told the public that Gilbert has been detained as a Liberty Tree traitor, the public might be subject to irrational hysterical outbursts."
Matthew Amigone, Attorney General of the United States, to the National Security Council, April 16, 2038, explaining Chief Justice Gilbert's secret arrest and detention.
"You and your ACLU friends are illegal combatants against civil order. Patriot IX will remain in force, notwithstanding your deranged rantings."
Matthew Amigone, Attorney General of the United States, to Chief Justice Gilbert, Fort Polk Constitutional Protection Facility, April 18, 2038.
INTERN RESIDENCE
THE PALAZZO MORBIUS
RUTLAND, MASSACHUSETTS
July 19, 2174, 6:02 AM EST
A winded Sandra Miller stepped across the threshold into her guesthouse. Her assault rifle went into the arms locker, the servot humming quietly as it launched into the cleaning process. She could clean the weapon herself, and reassemble it in the dark if need be, but there was only so much time in the day. The weighted exercise pack went in the same direction. Her exercise leotard was sweat-soaked. A morning run, 4 miles crosscountry in 22 minutes, with excursions down a combat fire range, did wonders to wake you up.
"Miss Miller," announced the house servile, "There is an urgent message from Morbius. He asks that you call as soon as you arrive." She started. Morbius almost never called at this hour. His sleeping hours were irregular, but his staff worked on a late-morning schedule. She awoke early enough that she could send Arthur a message before he, living on West Coast time, went to sleep. She swept sweat from her brow, stepped to a datapad, and faced the mirror on the neighboring wall.
"Uplink Morbius," she ordered. The mirror frosted over, revealing after a few moments the smiling face of the Palazzo's owner.
"Ah, Sandra," he said. "I hope you had a satisfactory run? When you are dressed, be so kind as to join me for breakfast. There is an urgent and interesting situation."
"Sir?" she asked. "Situation?"
"It seems that our border with China--well, Peking--has heated up again. There were a half-dozen shooting incidents, with platoons of their boys being found on our side of the border. The news got out just after most of you went to sleep."
"As soon as possible, sir," she said.
"Call it 6:40." He smiled. "There's nothing wrong with cooling down properly."
WESTERN TERRACE
THE PALAZZO MORBIUS
RUTLAND, MASSACHUSETTS
July 19, 2174, 6:58 AM EST
"...so we have now stared at the same reports," Morbius explained, "and in many respects they are highly unsatisfactory and imprecise, as one would expect at this early time. However, I find it interesting that the Chines
e border should became active at so many places at the same time. In any event, I need someone who is prepared to go to Harbin and listen carefully to what is being said. Fortunately, no one will be surprised when I send a representative to the funerals each branch of the Popular Army will be holding. Yes, I had planned on sending you. The MinuteGirls and sister services will view you as a known quantity. The Men's Popular Volunteer Forces will doubtless be able to use the services of a shoulder upon which they may cry. I'll forward to you whatever information is accumulated here."
"What am I looking for?" Sandra asked. "'Anomalies' I understand, but something more precise might give me more of a focus. Are there new Chinese weapons? Different tactics? Are you worried the Popular Army flunked a test?"
“I find the present situation to be a bit odd,” Morbius observed. “I had thought that before the big event there might be smaller tremors--indications that the ground was about to move. The alternative would be a surprise attack in great force. It seems that I was in error. This was neither fish nor fowl. There are no indications of a concentration of their forces along the border. What were they trying to do? It was over so quickly there was not even time to alert people beyond our border counties that something was happening.”
"To judge from the newsnets, our folks on the ground are close to outnumbered by members of the press," Sandra said, "enough that it will be hard to get in a few words edgewise. Actually, whomever you send is going to get her share of press questions. Do you have a line for me?"
Morbius nodded. " 'I'm here to attend memorial services' failing which 'I'm here to listen, not to talk' and 'I'm still listening.' Emulating the smile on the Mona Lisa will not hurt. However, you can off-camera trade information with members of the press. Realistically speaking, each group under attack will do its after-action report, which will find its inexorable way here. Your task is to listen for items likely to be overlooked, people who have worked out which way the reports are going, and disagree, that sort of thing. Don't be upset if you end up learning nothing you couldn't have learned less painfully by staring at a compdisplay. Besides, you ought to see a real battlefield, at least once in your life."
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