“What?” Assemblyman Charles Thomas blinked with surprise and then his brows lowered as the depths of the opposition’s plans became clear. It looked like they’d been trying to stealthily pass a Spineward bill they actually intended to vote for—a bill that reeked of Imperial involvement.
The head of the Border Unity Movement broke out into a cold sweat. If it hadn’t been for a brief flash of principle combining with two ounces of native stubbornness to overthrow his politics-inspired lethargy, he might have actually voted for the Absolute Choice bill before realizing who was the author. The vote count could have passed with practically the full support of the Grand Assembly.
Those sneaky blighters.
“Is there a motion to censor the minority faction leader?” prompted the Speaker.
“I propose just such a motion,” said the One Way Faction Leader.
“I second it!” Irene Gravity howled.
“Point of order,” called Granthor Danth, stifling a cough. “I appeal to the Ethics Panel for a ruling as I still have the FLOOR!”
Not two seconds later, green lights flashed in a ring all around the ceiling of the Grand Assembly hall.
“We have a ruling. Granthor Danth never ceded the floor. Assemblyherm Irene Gravity therefore infringed upon the rights of the right honorable former Speaker Granthor Danth, and any floor motions are rolled back as premature. Furthermore, the Ethics Panel is proceeding to formally censure the Speaker of this Grand Assembly for not only failing to uphold the rules of our fine institution but also for a second but linked ruling where this Panel finds that Speaker did in fact abuse his authority in a most fascist authoritarian manner when he permanently suppressed the Assemblyman Charles Thomas com-channel through the continuous use of the 3 second emergency mute control,” said the cowled image of the Ethics Panel committee chairman.
An uproar immediately spread throughout the floor of the Grand Assembly. One frothing-mouthed Assembly member had to be physically restrained when he tried to rush the ethic’s committee’s secure booth.
“One Wayists by very definition can’t be fascist suppressors! We stand for the people!!!!” she screamed, throwing her slate at the security glass hard enough to break it, even as a pair of masters-at-arms physically hauled her away kicking and screaming as she writhed in their grip trying to escape.
“Thank you, Chairman,” Charles Thomas said and then turned back to the Speaker.
He had to stall for time now that his ability to broadcast was working again, at least long enough to finish skimming the most important parts of the bill his electronic assistant program had just dug up.
“Mr. Speaker,” he declaimed loudly, “the Assemblywoman asks if I have no shame. No shame??? She and all of her supporters are the only shameless ones here! My proposal, the same one I’ve been championing for literally years now, wouldn’t cost this Assembly one single red centi-cred,” he declared, activating his suite’s roaming function to stay linked to the Assembly intercom speakers. “All I’m asking for is a bill that would give the Confederation Fleet the right to mine a portion of the various asteroid belts that have been set aside for the Confederation against future need, a need which I would argue is actually here today. I would also give military volunteers the right to go out to reactivate all those old shipyards, star bases, and starships that have been sitting in mothballs for decades now! We don’t ask that you pay us. We don’t even ask that you fund us, although both would be appreciated gestures. All we ask is that you give us six months to recruit at-will former space force veterans; not only won’t it cost this Assembly anything, but we also won’t be ceding Confederation territory to the Empire and handing over the Spineward Sectors simply because it’s the easier option!”
“I request the right to make a rebuttal!” demanded the leader of Absolute Choice.
“Granted. You have three minutes Assemblyherm,” nodded the Speaker.
“Mr. Speaker? I would like to—” Granthor Danth’s tremulous voice protested before Irene Gravity talked over him.
“Just like I’d expect from a puppet of the vast Pro-Labor conspiracy! Unpaid volunteers?” Irene Gravity screamed ignoring the aged non-voting assemblyman and former Speaker of the Grand Assembly from the Spine. “You would actually have us violate the wage laws of this great star nation and force individuals to work for free? That’s not only inhuman—it’s illegal!”
Charles Thomas bristled. “I’m not forcing anyone to do anything; you are putting words in my mouth! Volunteers are by definition not forced to do anything, they volunteer of their own free will,” he grunted angrily. “If you would just give us a chance we would—”
The Assemblywoman cut back in without waiting for the Speaker to grant her access or permission. “The Fairness Doctrine has eliminated that fascist loophole once and for all, Admiral,” Irene Gravity cried. “The choice to work or not to work should belong to each and every citizen and shall not be infringed! But if they do choose to work then the law requires that they deserve, that they absolutely must receive, an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s labor! What you propose would be a violation of everything our ancestors fought for! That is why the Fairness Doctrine, the bill with I sponsored and this Grand Assembly made Confederation law, set up the Confederation’s Volunteer Pay Fund. So that anyone who works shall, must, and will be paid!”
“So pay them if you want, just let our people—” Charles Thomas started hotly.
“This Grand Assembly will never fund an expansion of the Military Industrial Complex,” Irene Gravity shot back hotly. “And as long as I’m the Majority Coalition Whip, I swear that the majority coalition will never vote to pay fascists.
“And handing over seven provinces to the Empire because we can’t volunteer due to your refusal to pay us wages—that we don’t want in the first place—is what you actually want!?” he demanded.
“My fascist opponent claims he needs six months?” Irene Gravity switched topics. “People are dying now.”
“As I’ve been telling you for years as I begged and pleaded and offered to resign from this Assembly and retake up my Fleet Commission, if we would only-”
“Even if they’re from the fringe worlds of the Spine,” Irene Gravity spoke over the top of him, “do we really want to let them die? Think of the lives lost while we rebuild the massive military industrial complex necessary to support a military build of of the size the Vast Pro-Labor Conspiracy insists we, the People of the Confederation, need…meanwhile people die in the time-frame available to us. Can we really afford to wait and even if we could why should we? The Empire is offering to pay for everything! This would leave us the funds for bailouts across the board without risking future cuts to critical pieces of key legislation.”
“Oh, that’s rich. Because you insist on paying us we can’t volunteer, that slush fund has already been drained to pay off your campaign workers and because you called me a fascist while you sang and danced instead of building up the bare minimum of an expeditionary force. There’s no longer time to build that force and thus we are forced to throw ourselves upon the mercy of the Empire,” Charles Thomas gave the Absolute Choice Assembly leader a withering look before turning and gesturing to the rest of the floor in an appeal to the individual Assemblypeople. “My opponent’s anti-labor stance and her contempt for the hardworking men and women of the Confederation shines through yet again. It is once again clear that my collegue’s absolute dedication to absolute choice only manifests when it’s her version of choice and she agrees with the choices made.”
“How dare you question my dedication to the very basis of our political platform!?” Irene Gravity howled. “This is exactly the sort of intolerant attitude I’ve come to expect from the Border Integrity Movement! Men, women and herms who will say and worse do anything to push their political agenda at the expense of anyone who gets in their way.”
“Oh that’s rich,” chortled the former admiral, “especially coming from you, who hasn't done an honest da
y’s work in her life. And yes, I know of and discount your volunteer and paid political advocacy work.”
“That’s what this is all about, isn’t it? You want us all to put up the work. Slaves to a new system designed to replace the old one where humans were slaves to inhuman machine monsters,” she cried.
“My fellow members of this great body, the AI’s are dead and good riddance to them. Unlike my opponent—and as a man who has actually had to deal with and kill all manner of sentient machines, human machine cultists, terrorists and pirates—I can safely say that despite the slanders heaped upon me by the wild-eyed Assemblywoman, I have less than no desire to see a return of that particular scourge!” he declared, glaring harshly first at Irene Gravity and then sweeping the room with a hard look.
“A likely story,” she snorted, before reluctantly adding, “and if I misspoke earlier in my passion for the safety of our people then I retract my statement.”
Charles Thomas sneered at the double-speaking politician opposite him and then turned to the rest of the body.
“Men and women of this Assembly please remember if you would exactly whose ‘choice’ it was to drag the situation in the Spine out to this date when, at any time in the past three years, we could have fixed everything with the passage of a single bill,” he demanded. “As a fleet professional with more than a half century experience as an officer, all I ask is for you to unmuzzle our military and allow us to save our people. Don’t give into the demands of the very people who manufactured this crisis and hand over our freedom and sovereignty to the Empire.”
“The only people who caused their own problems are the regressives in the Spine,” Grand Assemblyherm Gravity sniffed. “I hate to be the one to have to point this out, but most of those worlds have a 85-90%+ employment rate and people actually die if they refuse to work. Citizens are forced into a job and then they are forced to pay taxes on that work and, if they refuse, then after five years or so of state assistance they are kicked out to die on the streets. There is no living wage, and forget covering vital electives like body morphing or gender reconstruction surgeries! Even basic social services like routine health and wellness checks or life extension services are spotty at best. Yet despite the forced labor state they are mired in, they also have a terrible standard of living.”
“I don’t know if the Assemblywoman is making my case for me or if there is an actual point buried in there somewhere,” Charles Thomas said, giving her a hard look.
“My point is that even the temporary Imperial withdrawal of the Rim Fleet from the Spine to combat the Gorgon Threat proved too much for these backward regressives, and the moment Rim Fleet pulled out they have turned upon one another without the least hint of social consciousness for their fellow man,” she said sadly. “Social justice has completely broken down in that region and, sympathetic as we are to the plight of the Other, we can’t entirely blame them for acting exactly like the savage, pro-competition society they come from. But from our own side, having shown them the path to a better future, neither can we simply dismiss such unenlightened behavior out of hand. So while I wholeheartedly do not agree with everything the Empire does internally, and there is not a member in this assembly who is unaware that I don’t agree, at least they can say that they have peace and prosperity back home instead of fleet battles in the provinces and revolutions in the streets!” she said passionately. “If we let the Empire integrate the Spine into their system of provinces, at least people will not be dying in those very streets! Is this ideal? Not at all, but is it necessary? I put it to you, my fellow Assemblymembers, that it very much is. That is why I call for an immediate vote to turn over the problem of the Spine to the Empire, allow them to settle the situation however they see best under the command and oversight of Senator Cornwallis, whose personal experience in the Spine and record in these areas is beyond reproach. I may not agree with everything my esteemed colleague of the Border Integrity Movement party says, but he makes a lot of sense when he says that a seasoned hand is needed, now more than ever, to restore order in that benighted area.”
“This is outrageous. We’re talking about seven Sectors here!” shouted Charles Thomas. “We’ll only have twenty Sectors left! That’s a fourth of the Confederation you’re just planning to chop off and give away to the Empire!”
The screen flashed and a new image appeared. It was the co-majority coalition leader from the One Wayer Party.”
“I agree with my colleague and second the motion,” the One Way Party Leader said speaking over Assemblyman Charles Thomas, “there is only one way that we can make the Confederation great again, which is why I personally urge everyone in the Grand Assembly to stand in solidarity with the Majority Coalition, headed by One Way, to vote for this bill.”
“Is there a motion to cut off debate and proceed to a floor vote?” the Speaker requested politely.
“This Grand Body can’t do this!” Charles Thomas snapped as there was a second, a third, and finally enough members—either in support of the bill or tired of the back and forth wrangling—moved to proceed with the vote.
“The will of the Confederation people has been made manifest; we will now proceed with the vote,” the Speaker said with a vicious gleam in his eye as the vote tally started to come in and he looked down at the Leader of the Border Integrity Movement with glee.
“Please vote with us to bring peace back to the Spine in a responsible, socially conscious, Gaia-friendly way that minimizes the loss of life and does not endanger the forward progress of the rest of known space,” Irene Gravity declaimed. “By accepting Imperial help we will be able to spend more credits to help our cut off brethren rebuild their lives and for those of us with serious concerns like Border Integrity, if the Empire should bungle the peacekeeping mission we will add a rider to the bill that specifically authorizes our own fleet to reclaim the region in the name of the Grand Assembly, bringing the Spineward Sectors back into the Confederation with a restricted provisional status until their local and Sector governmental structures have been rebuilt and the necessary free and fair elections at Grand Assembly level can be arranged and verified by neutral arbiters from the heartland! It might take a few years to return our brothers and sisters to the fold, but it can be done in a safe and socially responsible manner,” she said forthrightly.
“Brothers and Sisters of the Grand Assembly: no child of the gods should have to suffer what the voters of the Spine have endured these past years,” declared the orange-haired leader of the One Way Party as he overrode the imaging system putting his face on every holo-screen in the assembly. “That’s why I am proposing this bill: to save those voters from the hell they have created for themselves—a hell which no one in this body wants to admit has been spilling over our borders and into the Overton Expanse and infecting our worlds, our populations with anger, fear and strife. Not all of these refugee immigrants are criminals, but far too often it is the criminal elements that have access to starships and hyperdrive technology. Border Integrity may be dangerously misguided but they are not completely wrong. There is a threat to our way of life and it is dire. That is why I am proposing, as part of this long-awaited bill, we heed the muffled cries of our long-ignored Fleet. Starting today, if this assembly chooses to vote for this bill, we will roll the customs and border patrol service along the Overton Expanse into the Fleet. We will reactivate every star base on this side of the Reach, turning them into customs and immigration checkpoints and yes, brothers and sisters, we will build a wall along the Overton Expanse!” cried the Coalition Leader, raising his arm with a single finger pointing skyward which he shook at the ceiling. “From this point on, Immigration Services directly supervised by this Assembly will work hand-in-hand with Fleet services,” the One Way Leader Continued. “Some may ask how we’re going to pay for this, but let me tell you I have a plan that will not just pay for this wall along the Reach but will revitalize our Confederation for years to come. Working with leaders in the Industrial Party, the Confe
deration will reopen vast numbers of asteroid belt extraction processors that were shut down under my predecessor’s tenure. This Assembly will fund an infrastructure bill the likes of which this great nation has never seen, and because of the deplorable state of the refugees fleeing across the Reach there can only be one way to deal with this situation: we will adopt the Health Care Dog’s proposed legislation on mandatory elective surgery coverages and yes, my brothers and sisters of the Grand Assembly, we will Make the Confederation Great Again!”
The One Way Leader threw his hands wide and slightly over half of the floor of the Grand Assembly went wild, cheering and crying with joy.
Charles Thomas didn’t believe it for an instant, but the fix was in: every wavering political party in the Grand Assembly whose support was vital for the passage of the legislation had just been thrown a pork barrel project. And despite his and the Border Integrity Movement’s best efforts to stem the tide, the Grand Assembly voted to end debate and proceed to a vote on the amended legislation.
The vote was cast, it was tallied, and the Grand Assembly passed a resolution to allow the Empire to return 'peace' to the Spine. The best the minority coalition could do was attach a rider activating a task force of warships in addition to the star bases. This on the off-chance that the Empire bungled the pacification and relief effort or the Confederation needed to assist them with more than volunteer forces from the various Sector and provincial worlds of the heartland.
A star base, after all, couldn’t move or make the jump to hyperspace. It was a fixed fortification and industrial node.
The cheers of the Coalition Party as it celebrated its victory over the opposition tasted like bitter ashes in his mouth. Especially since even many in his own party viewed it as a qualified win, in that it reactivated a part of the fleet and defected to vote with the majority party in favor of the passage of this bill.
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