Minutegirls

by George Phillies

  SUPREME HEADQUARTER CHAMBER

  HEADQUARTER, PLA GENERAL STAFF

  PEKING, CHINA

  0800 HOURS CT 25 OCTOBER 2174

  "This special meeting of the Political Bureau Executive Committee is to be in order." Chairman Fu glared at his colleagues. He had preferred a smaller committee, one easier for him to keep firmly under his thumb, but after last week's debacle that had become inadvisable. "In accord with the discussion yesterday of the full Politburo, I am most entirely pleased to welcome our new members." Fu rolled through their names, carefully keeping his thoughts to himself.

  "Full Member Kong." Fu gestured at the older man at his left. Kong nodded. Kong was the Party's leading theorist, his mission in life to prove that all scientific and philosophical analysis whatsoever was correct only to the extent it agreed with the dictates of Mao Tse Tsung--Cheng--Fu thought. On any discussion dealing with the restoration of the Middle Kingdom to its full territory, he could be counted on to take the hardest possible line.

  "Full Member Ping." The younger man to Kong's left smiled. Ping was Minister of Information and Inspiration, he who kept all press outlets rigidly in accord with Kong's analysis of Mao Tse-Tsung--Cheng--Fu thought. Ping was smiling, jovial, and a bit too fond of remonstrating with straying editorialists by torturing their families to death in front of them and then shooting them. It was widely said, but only when people mistakenly thought that the People's Ministry of Security was not listening, that the press contained not a word of Kong or a thought of Ping. Fu knew that the former was untrue--Kong was a truly powerful writer--while the latter was certain, because Ping had no thoughts to publish. On recovering the territory of the People's Republic Ping would echo Kong in taking the hardest possible line.

  "Full Member Comrade Marshal Huang." Huang had commanded the northern frontier during the Liberation War of 2127. While the bulk of the PLA launched its catastrophically unsuccessful assault on American frontier defenses in Manchuria, removing all doubt that superheavy armored tanks with minimal infantry support were a weapon of the past, Huang had repelled opportunistic raids from Inner Mongolia. When the dust settled, the American frontier had not been displaced, thousands of square miles of Inner Mongolia had come again under the guiding leadership of the Party, and Huang's reputation as a brilliant military leader was chiselled in stone. On the bright side, Huang and Fu had been close friends since graduating from the Long March Military Academy together. Within reason, Huang would support Fu. On the less bright side, Wu was Huang's protégé. The best that could be done to control her had been to give her the thankless task of monitoring state security. Unfortunately, she had proved to be an energetic and vigorous Minister of Homeland Security, who had found so many skeletons in so many closets that her removal -- so long as she stayed strictly in her own orbit -- had rapidly become acutely inadvisable.

  "Full Member Ting." Ting was Fang's protege, in charge of light and special industry. To Fu's astonishment, Ting actually had made substantial headway in resolving Chinese agricultural challenges via mechanization. On military issues, Ting would defer to military leadership, as provided by Comrade Marshal Tsien and Chairman Fu.

  ”Candidate Member Comrade Marshal Xiu." Xiu was the best of the younger men of the Tsien faction within the People's Liberation Army. Diligent, attentive to detail, Xiu could be counted on to fill in the details of a sound plan without exhibiting Wu's maddening streak of independence. Xiu would suggest improvements. Wu would tell people to their face that their plans could not be made to work. Besides, Xiu had been brought to the meeting expecting to be shot, not to be elevated to the PolitBuro. His planning might have been faulty, but no one else had yet been able to detect the flaw.

  "Candidate Member Liao." Liao was nominally Minister of Foreign Affairs, though Tsien had retained much of her nominal portfolio. Liao was also in charge of foreign espionage operations, the bright mirror to the dark operations of Wu's Ministry of Homeland Security. Tsien was not quite sure how Liao's name had risen to the top. Like Marshal Tsang, Liao was extremely diligent and capable, the sort of person who got things done without needing to be asked or needing to take the credit.

  "The purpose of this meeting is to settle on appropriate responses to the unfortunate reverses of the past months," Fu said. "Staff has circulated information and the proposed responses. Perhaps so that we have some fresh perspectives on this complex question I should permit the newest members of the Committee to offer their thoughts first." This way, Fu considered, I may take the leadership role that the Politburo criticized me for not taking, while being sure that if there are faults I may blame the more junior members that have now been foisted upon me. "Candidate Member Liao?"

  "Every journey begins with a single step," Liao intoned. "So also must the Reunification begin with a single step. Some steps are easier than others. As outlined in my report, in many of the bandit states, popular forces loyal to the Party remain in place. With appropriate preparation these places will fall into our hands like over-ripe fruit. Regretfully, despite resolute and prolonged consideration of the perfect wisdom of Mao-Cheng-Fu thought, my Ministry continues to fail to penetrate the secrets of the American imperialists, making it difficult to advise how to advance against them most effectively by direct means."

  "It is unfortunate that the most excellent plans of Comrade Supreme Marshal Tsien have not turned out as well as might have been hoped," Marshal Xiu said. "Fortunately, the Americans appear to have noted only our operations using aboveground support. We still have other approaches. These will take longer to mature, but we need to let the American calm down before using them."

  "If we mobilize," said Ting, "advances in agriculture and manufacturing science progressing under my Ministry ensure that our forces will be fed and can be equipped adequately. But I am not a soldier and yield to others as to the wisdom of such a mobilization or the suitability of the equipment that I will supply."

  "The Vietnamese Popular Forces," Huang announced, "attained victory by step escalation, creating an unfavorable dynamic for the Americans and their puppets. Recently, the Americans have demonstrated that they learned from their defeats, and have escalated their operations against us. We should return the favor. While the requisite effort will take some time to put into effect, I have prepared a preliminary mobilization schedule for a nominal popular volunteer force of modest size, say, fifty divisions."

  Fu blanched. The objective was to go through the motions of harassing the Americans, until the American and European imperialists ground each other to powder. Huang would have the Americans grind Chinese forces to powder, so that when the time arrived to capture the rewards of a sound foreign policy, China would be too weak to claim the prize.

  "The Liberation of the sacred territory of the Homeland from under the bootheels of the American jackals is the primary duty of every Patriot," Ping declaimed. "The late glorious Chairman Mao demonstrated this in his successful War of the Resistance to drive from China the Japanese and American imperialists. As explained by Member Kong, it is only through careful adherence to the rigorous demands of Stalin-Mao-Cheng-Fu thought that our pursuit of victory can be successful. We shall redouble our efforts to take into account the brilliantly rich and invaluable advice of our four greatest comrades, Stalin, Mao, Cheng, and Fu, to proceed scientifically to our final victory."

  Fu resisted grinding his teeth. It was all well and good to say that the Party should adhere to the thinking of its glorious supreme leaders, but there was a moment at which concrete tactics were needed. Oddly, he was certain that Comrade Mao would have agreed vigorously with him. On Guerrilla Warfare might be obsolete in some respects, but it did calculate the number of rifles, pistols, swords, and other weapons for the infantry squad and platoon. He realized that while he had been thinking Comrade Member Kong had supported Comrade Member Ping, explaining in detail why the precepts of Chairman Cheng demanded the immediate expulsion of the Americans from all China.

  "Chairman Fu," Marsha
l Wu intoned, "I am reminded of the wise precept of Chairman Cheng 'When the way seems impossible, consider different paths.' Through no fault of yours, our efforts to overcome the American invaders have not immediately come to pass. It would not prejudice our other efforts to do a careful analysis of the options raised by Member Huang and Candidate Member Liao. My Ministry stands ready to stamp out foreign agents and domestic traitors who might stand in the way of whatever path this body selects."

  "Comrade Chairman Fu," Tsien said, "the other members of this body have submitted their plans and proposals in advance. I believe it is time to propose a synthesis for your consideration." Fang, Liu, Ting, and Tsang nodded their agreements. To Fu's surprise, Wu was also indicating approval. "My synthesis that makes our infiltrators the anvil, the Americans the soft iron, and mobilized forces such as the ones discussed by Marshal Huang the hammer--a hammer that may yet smite our foes without being directly employed against them. It also will let us exploit the opportunities so correctly raised by candidate member Liao, all to move us in the directions advocated by members Kong and Ping. I have here a draft..."

  Fu relaxed. Tsien could be counted upon to draw together the themes that Fu wanted stressed, give each participant to impression that his ideas were a significant part of the total effort, and lop off the excessively radical branches. It was one thing for a few hundred People's Volunteers to march across the American border. A large scale mobilization risked a repeat of the Fourth Liberation War, with no guarantee that America or other neighbors would be as merciful this time as they had been last time.

  SUPREME HEADQUARTERS, STARFLEET EUROPA

  PARIS, FRANCE, EUROPEAN UNION

  0915 HOURS ET 28 OCTOBER 2174

  "Good morning, my Admiral," spoke a brilliantly awake Fleet Captain Villiers. She executed a precisely correct brace and salute, while remaining behind her desk, firmly tied to her console. Under the royal blue of her StarFleet Europa dress cap, every hair was precisely in place. "Your coffee and pastries await in your office. I trust you slept well last night?"

  "Good morning, Genevieve," Fleet Admiral Rohan answered, trusting he did not look as tired as he was. Grand Admiral Strassemann had been a charming dinner companion, but afterwards her endurance had been teutonic. Nonetheless, the Greater German contingent of StarFleet Europa included a large fraction of StarFleet's heavy capital ships, vessels critical to all offensive operations, so sometimes other operations were needed to keep the Germans happy. "As well as could be hoped. There was a note in The World that the Americans and Chinese had another go-around. Are Chairman Fu and Marshal Tsien actually keeping their commitments, as remarkable as that may sound?"

  "Not precisely," Villiers answered. "It appears that the Americans attacked the Chinese, not the other way around, and that the Americans had the better of it. However, you have a personal message from Supreme Chairman Fu and Marshal Tsien saying that they will keep their commitments despite the counterattacks of the depraved harlots of the Morbius clique. Naturally, 'depraved harlots' is exactly what the message said."

  "I see," said Rohan. "The Chinese got in the way of the MinuteGirls? Again? Better them than us. Has the President been informed yet?" The President was notoriously short-tempered, and would not be pleased to learn that the Chinese component of the final resolution of the American crisis had come up short.

  "My Admiral, it would be most impolitic for a mere Fleet Captain to communicate with such an august personage as the President of All France, the Chancellor of All the Germans, or even the most distinguished Secretary General of the Union." Villiers winked. "Also, intelligence analysts confirmed that the Americans and Chinese fought a series of skirmishes, well inside the American Line of Occupation. They infer the Americans won. At least, the American propaganda broadcast stations have been sending that message, and transmitting a picture." Villiers handed Rohan a printout. "Following this, the Peking Chinese Politburo was reorganized."

  "Dear me!" Rohan said. "The superstructure on her weapon is most formidable --- almost as formidable as the superstructure on her. Fortunately in Europe women are more, let us say, rationally proportioned. I trust Beyerlein is waiting?"

  "He is in your antechamber, my Admiral," Villiers reported.

  "I will need to make a full report to the President, rather than wasting his time with partial and incomplete reports," Rohan announced. "But I will call the President before lunch. And then the Chancellor and the High Commissioner, in that order. First I see Beyerlein." With some luck, he thought, I learn what is happening in China, and what it means.

  OFFICE OF THE COMMANDANT

  SUPREME HEADQUARTERS, STARFLEET EUROPA

  PARIS, FRANCE, EUROPEAN UNION

  0925 HOURS ET 28 OCTOBER 2174

  "This is a novel coffee, Wilhelm," Rohan explained to his intelligence chief. "Kona. It's grown in Japan, on several of the islands in the provinces of Hawaii. Even someone as sweet-toothed as my Adjutant doesn't add sugar." The two men sat half-facing on a couch, discussing the important issues of the day while Beyerlein's microbots searched the room for bugging devices. None had been found recently, but you couldn't be too careful on this sort of a question.

  The pastries and fruit disappeared. The microbots reported their search to have been negative. "And now to work," Rohan announced, using the magic phrase that designated the earlier period as relaxation not counted against his lawful 32 hours a week of labor. "What is happening in China?"

  "Matters are complex. Our liason has some information, mostly recent. We also have video coverage of the American border area. Several months ago, there were a series of skirmishes inside the American border, well away from what is believed to be their frontier security zone. In one area, there was very heavy shelling. We were largely not successful in identifying the artillery batteries providing the fire. It appears that a major Chinese force ambushed an American patrol, with considerable success from the number of air ambulances later deployed, but did not break contact swiftly enough. It is difficult at best to track persons wearing modern camouflage. We think the Chinese unit was badly hurt. In another area, there was a massive explosion associated with a historical site, a buried Chinese airbase predating the American Debacle. In a third area very late in the day there was a substantial engagement between several platoons of Chinese infantry and a squad of American heavy infantry in power armor, again with heavy artillery support. My analysts say the Americans must have had a good scout force -- or lots of minibots -- in front of their heavy infantry. We can't spot them. But there is obviously lots of scouting."

  "The Chinese are penetrating the American front so deeply?" Rohan asked.

  "That's still a puzzle. There's no indication of Chinese crossing the frontier. My analysts suggest tunnels, which must have been pre-existing, it being impossible to dig a tunnel without being noticed. The Americans used a Section of the Azores Temporary Truce Agreement to return a good 150 prisoners of war to the Chinese. We gather the Americans treated the Chinese properly. They gave each Chinese prisoner, prior to return, a copy of that remarkable photograph Fleet Captain Villiers showed you. To our knowledge American women do not routinely go into battle dressed -- perhaps I mean 'undressed' -- like that."

  "That explains 'we captured all your bases', doesn't it? How did the Americans do that?" Rohan asked.

  "We don't know. That's not a 'it's mysterious'; that's a 'there are any number of ways Chinese Security might have broken down'. Assuredly, any group of Central African terrorists who tried infiltrating across the Sahara into Algeria, no matter how careful they were, would be noticed and tracked. How were the Chinese missed? However, we infer the Chinese found one more explanation: American Spies," Beyerlein answered.

  "Marshal Wu seems remarkably adept at capturing them," Rohan said. "Much more adept than MI-9 and other services across Europe are at finding Americans spying on us."

  "If there are any Americans spying on us," Beyerlein said. "Because I am confident that Marshal Wu would have
no trouble finding such quantities of American, FEU, Imperial Roman, or Martian spies as was necessary to verify the success of her work. Whether the spies were there or not. Our American spies do a most excellent job of hiding their existence, if they exist. The section of the intelligence budget dealing with counterespionage is merged with the EuroPol and State Political Police budgets, but there appears to be adequate recognition that American spies could also be used to incite political disturbances, so American spies are treated as a threat to the Union. At least, they would be a threat to the Union if they ever did anything."

  "Will Fu honor his commitment against the American Menace?" asked Rohan.

  "He says he will. Large parts of his plan already appear to have fallen apart. He may only be able to do less than originally committed," Beyerlein said. "Marshal Wu is far less effective against our agents in her China than against the Americans. We thus know things that Fu undoubtedly meant to tell us but forgot. Fu has additional tranches of his people inside the United States, largely hidden in the more challenging mountainous areas. It appears he lost a few cross-border tunnels. At the same time, the Americans ran up their border observation, so crossing the border overground without being seen becomes impractical. I cannot explain Fu's announcement that he is withdrawing the PLA 3 km back from the border, to avoid confrontational acts of the American reactionary imperialists."

  "The President will not be pleased, though he can scarcely fault us. And if Fu does not keep his part of the bargain, we need not keep ours," Rohan said. "We must wait. On a different topic, how is reconstruction of our intelligence operation proceeding?"

  "Slower than I would like, faster than I had estimated," answered Beyerlein. "Thanks to Fleet Captain Villiers, we got our first positive demonstration of progress."

  "Indeed?" Rohan asked.

  "Until recently, we analyzed images only for military operations and structures. There was an economic analysis group. It counted housetops and factories, then quit. Most of its money had been diverted to supporting a slew of well-connected dunderheads," Beyerlein said.