"Don't mind if I do." Scotty poured himself a drink and then sat on the loveseat next to the recliner. "I have something for you." He handed her a gift wrapped in birthday paper.
"You remembered my birthday?" Elle smiled at her longtime friend and cohort.
"Hell, millions of people remember your birthday, ma'am," he said.
"Scotty, stop with the 'ma'am' shit. We're alone in here," she said as she unwrapped the gift. Elle tore at the red and white paper and ribbon like a kid.
"Old habits . . . new habits, I just can't help it sometimes." He took a long draw from the scotch he'd just poured himself. "Damn, I needed that."
"How about that?" Elle held up the gift so that the light from the hyperspace tube would reflect on it better, giving her a better view of it.
"Two of the most idealistic and naive fools to ever shit between two shoes, wouldn't you say?" Scotty grinned, sighed, and took another drink.
Elle examined the picture closer. It was in a nice Mars cherry-tree wood frame and covered with an anti-glare pane of glass. The picture was of the newly elected Democrat President Sienna Madira shaking the hands of freshly congressionally approved Supreme Court Chief Justice Scotty P. Mueller. The chief justice had just sworn-in the new president and they were shaking hands. There was handwriting on the picture that amused Elle to no end. She laughed at it.
The best minds are not in government, if they were business would hire them away. Thanks, Sienna Madira, President of the United States of America.
"You know I stole that from Reagan?" she said and laughed again.
"Of course I did. I'm the Republican, remember." The former chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America laughed. "Jesus, were we naive. I must say though, I like your hair a lot better now."
Elle looked at the picture and at her reflection in the big window. Her hair was longer and the gray streaks had long been removed and she had been rejuved a couple of times since then. She actually looked younger, but she felt so old.
"I need to tell you that we got intel reports just before going into hyperspace that are kind of grim."
"How grim?" Elle's heart sank a little deeper.
"Some of the soldiers holding the city domes started shooting the hostages. Tens of thousands dead at least." Scotty said.
"Goddamnit, I didn't authorize that!"
"Well, you did leave behind the more, uh, zealous freedom fighters and they decided to pay back America in their own way. It's not the first time this has happened. Remember the tortures and murders of the Desert Campaign?"
"I didn't authorize that either! Those Marines were fortunate I showed up back then when I did or there wouldn't have been any survivors from the prison camps." Elle sighed and leaned back in her chair, exhausted.
"But you still toyed with them in order to manipulate them. Their minds were twisted to aid in our plans. It had to be done back then just as we had to make a big statement today."
"Think of all the lives that had to be lost. What a sacrifice. I'm going to Hell, Scotty."
"Madam President, you did what had to be done to achieve the freedom that our forefathers fought so hard to protect. We simulated this thousands of times. Without the mass carnage humanity just wouldn't have paid attention and the new Free People wouldn't understand just how hard it is to acquire and hold on to true freedom. A bigger war is coming, but for today we did what we had to. It was necessary and I think God would understand." Scotty swirled the ice in his tumbler.
"Maybe. I have some thoughts on how to prevent a full-scale system-on-system war. Perhaps there are new allies that will arise from today's events. But that can wait. Perhaps God will understand our hard choices, if he exists. He sure did his share of murder in the Bible. I know I've sold myself on that one. It helps me sleep at night," Elle, said and took a long drink from her glass.
"Elle, I haven't known you to sleep since we first thought of this so many years ago." Scotty almost smiled at his longtime friend and leader.
"We've been planning this a long time, haven't we, Scotty?" Elle yawned.
"Yes we have, Madam President. And it took all those years of planning and plotting and scheming and faking our deaths and hiding and running, but America, a true America, is going to go on. Thanks to you. Thanks to your brilliant plan, your sacrifice, and your resolve. It has been a long time coming, but we finally had our day. Our last day in our home star system. We are leaving the old world to attain a new one."
"A long wait for a long day. But it is more than that, Scotty. One day we will return and right the Sol System and return America to its original greatness there as well. One day on Mars the true voice of freedom will be heard again. One day on Mars liberty and the pursuit of happiness will prevail again!"
"Yes ,ma'am. One day."
"Here's to it." Elle held up her glass and tapped it to her friend's. "Here's to a new America, to the Free People, to the lives lost and the suffering souls, and to those that fought today, this long day, for that one day on Mars!"
THE END
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One Day on Mars
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
FB2 document info
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Document version: 1
Document creation date: 8.4.2012
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Document authors :
Travis S. Taylor
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