A Sword in the Stars

“Senator Parc,” I said, I'm so glad you could find the time to talk with me,”  and with that I sat down in the seat across from the good Senator's desk, as always wearing my best social smile.



“It's not like anyone in Washington ever turns down a conversation with a cabinet secretary,” she replied from her plush office seat.  “Even if it is fifteen minutes before a vote.  Just to cut through any B.S. You're here to push though, I have to assume you're here to get me to change how I'm voting on the Declaration of War?”



She was being at least a little too direct for me, but I kept my smile in place.  “Well," I said, "Unless I'm mistaken, you are about to try to override of a veto by both Presidents,” I said, trying to make that sound as odd as possible while still not losing my tone of friendly acceptance, “Both the Lady President and The First Gentleman want to make sure you have all the facts about this declaration of war, and that you can see some of the more obvious problems it may spell for our nation and, really, our world.”



Parc raised her brows in open condescension then spoke as if reciting a list: “If you're asking me if I already know that even at a quarter the speed of light, our forces would take something like forty years just to get to the damned target, that our ship might not survive the journey, that's the crew might not be able to tell an alien fort or factory from their equivalent of a hospital or a school, and that an attack might still leave the aliens angry enough and able enough to blow the green hill of earth into a second asteroid belt, I do.  You and both your bosses have made that just too damn clear to the whole damn nation.  And I also know how having those armed shuttles of yours up in orbit supposedly let's us keep control of what they're doing, and how that just might be sending a clearer message to the Bems not to use our sun to steer their ships than we possibly could by attacking their asses, and finally I already know how we can't even hope to turn our attack ship around once we've launched the damned thing, so we can't rethink this decision, and how we just might have scared them away enough that we're only getting about one intruder a year.  Does that make you feel any better, Mr. Secretary?”



I tried to adjust my smile into one specifically meant to show puzzlement, which for a change of pace was actually what I felt.  “...Well, what can I say?"  I asked, "You do seem to know all the drawbacks to this bill.  Given that though, we are a little puzzled as to why you're willing to leave everyone in the country facing all these problems.”



Parc smirked on hearing me.  “Politics is always confusing, Mr. Secretary.  But I take it you want me to  explain myself?”



I decided to apply some extra traction, "Well, let's just say that back at the cabinet we're all a little puzzled as to why you'd try to override the veto of a President who can kill any pet bill of yours and whose husband just might get to do the same for a term or two after her.”



The Senator now stated at me in slightly amused surprise.  “You're being very direct, Mr. Secretary.  I thought they trained underlings like you to avoid that.”



“I am speaking for the entire cabinet!" I said, applying just a touch of moral vehemence to the pressures on Senator Parc, "And in case you thought you had some kind of nagging support from the Department of Defense or something, you might want to realize every last person in the oval office is saying that if you want to keep your pork barrel, you've got  to leave us enough of a planet for someone to raise pork.”



Parc paused for a moment to collect her thoughts.  Clearly my comment wasn't lost on her.  “Secretary, you already know that my aides have written up everything you're going to argue and handed it to me with a staple in the corner.  Just so you know, they didn't title any of it “What the Opposition Will Say.”  Very sensibly they just called it “Reasons against an Attack” or something like that, and I did read it to learn the reasons not to engage an enemy we've never physically seen, have never spoken to and have no way to treat for peace.  Another thing my aides told me about though were the people back in my home state who've have been reacting to the fact that we have found an alien species that can travel through the stars and that didn't mind blowing up our moon-base.  Some of those people have been going so far as moving their bedrooms and living rooms into their basements or underground caves just because seeing the sky makes them nervous—and they're just the worst cases.  Secretary, a good part of the people in my home state think of themselves as under attack, and I've got to do something about that.  If nothing else I'm doing what I think might give them some peace.”



I purposefully grinned at her as though seeing an obvious refutation of her thoughts.  “And what if the result of what you do is another attack from outside the Solar System, but on Earth, not on the moon?  How are they going to react to having an alien ship possibly stop in our system and shoot at us rather than pull through?”



“War is a gamble,” the Senator said wearily, “And I don't like taking that risk, but after a lot of hard thought, I decided that I have to.  Hell Mr. Secretary, maybe if you people hadn't hard-sold the idea that the aliens can blow our whole planet into a second asteroid belt, I wouldn't have to.  How did you expect people to react to the idea that the damn aliens can just cruise through the stars and we can't do anything till we're in shooting range?”



I adopted a look of worry.  “But do you really think we're ready to antagonize the aliens?”



“I think we can only learn by doing, Mr. Secretary.  We can only learn about war and politics from experience.  Right now I'm willing to take the chance we can learn.”



“Senator Parc, I will inform the net that you said something that reckless.”



“Go ahead.  I won't claim I didn't.  I'll just tell people that I was doing what I am in fact doing, dealing with a problem that's here rather than one that isn't.  That's what any kind of leader does.”



The Senator was finally making me a little hot under the collar, and it was probably starting to show.  “So you're saying that you're willing to leave planet Earth in a position where and enemy might wipe us out just because it won't affect you for forty years?”



The Senator's tone became snide.  “No, Secretary, Again, I'm just saying that if you people in the White House hadn't pushed so hard to tell everyone that the aliens could wipe us out, I wouldn't have to vote for this attack right now.”



My look had to be one of consternation.  Yeah, my frustration was coming out.



“You're putting this on us?” I said.



“You can probably even take a good part of the blame personally, Secretary.  You pushed a lot harder than anybody else in the cabinet.  Because of you at least some of the stress cases back in my state are  digging holes in their basement floors.”



Her accusation rattled me further, and for a moment I couldn't think of anything to say.  Unfortunately, that didn't prevent me from speaking though.  You can't go into politics without having an automatic bullshit generator in your head, and possibly because the Senator had just challenged me, mine tried to do the same to her.



“I'm sorry, Senator, but I really think you're simply acting on your emotions.”



“And I'm the only one?  If you don't have some kind of feeling about this you weren't alive for the attack!  Right now my emotions tell me that the people of the Commonwealth of Samoa have suffered enough and I have to do something about that.  Do either of the Presidents have even that much feeling, or are they like some kind of administrator who'll just leave the people suffer because they know what's best for them?”



A buzzer sounded then, and I realized the Speaker at Arms was calling for a vote.  I didn't have much time left, and I had to make a stand.



“Senator, you're still deciding this irrationally!”



The Senator rose from her desk and started to head toward the hallway.  “Look, Secretary, there's no school you can take in how to run a country or, anymore, a planet.  Whether you like it or not, I'm doing what I think is best.  And for all we know, the attack could actually make the damned aliens cower and get them to stop interfering with us at all.  Hell, for all you know it could make us a galactic power.”



“And what if what you're doing gives the people in your state an even greater reason to fear every cloudy day as a cover for aliens?”



Parc began to speak elegaically, perhaps because she was on her way to such a significant vote.  “Mr. Secretary, the knowledge that somebody can just cruise up to our planet and drop bombs or shoot ray guns or do whatever they do then just run away at about half the speed of light has, in and of itself, become a kind of weapon, and unfortunately the residents of Samoa are smart enough to be its victims.  Because of that, I have to do this for them.”



“...And what if the only thing you're doing is risking life of Earth?”



“Then I'm just taking my best guess, and I'm hoping that the best comes out of it.  You can't expect me to do any different than that, Secretary.  Right now you're doing exactly the same.”



“So, you're willing to gamble life on Earth--”



“War is a gamble, Secretary.  Anymore, we're risking biological attack if we put pressure on Liechtenstein.  I'm taking the same risk as any other leader, and maybe I'll be giving the some of the people in my state some closure.”



She was already halfway to her door, and I knew that I was losing ground with here, so I decided to look for a different tack.  “Okay, so what happens when the other ones get the tax bill on the biggest defense project in the human history?  One that's so expensive no one government can actually pay for it?”



“...I had to weigh that in making my decision, Secretary, and I'm figuring they might just listen to their relatives who used to be too afraid of an attack from space to step outside.”



“...And what if they don't.”



“Then, like everybody else in Congress, I'll be the victim of my idiot pollsters who told me it was a good idea.”



The Senator had made it through the door of her office by then, and I knew I had, at best, only one more chance to make a difference.  I began to talk very quickly, spouting anything that came to mind in hopes of finding something actually worth saying.  Amazingly though, I did find something.



“...and Senator Parc, you do realize that the few ships we've seen come through the solar system since we put up the shuttles could just be the ones the Bems couldn't divert.  I mean, what if you're about to order an attack on an enemy that already surrendered?  What if the people who say the alien ship just threw a bolt or something are right and you're about to order a planetary massacre because of a stupid misunderstanding?”



Her eyes grew wide, and for a moment she actually stopped to think this over.  Clearly she had not heard this idea before.  After only a moment though, she shook that expression off and her features returned to a slightly stressed version of their normal appearance



“I don't have time to think about that now,” she said with a voice still slightly tinny from tension, “I mean, no leader can just ponder every single idea about anything.  We'd never get anything done and we'd be letting people who work fast enough to get things done control it all.  Right now I do have to go though....”

THE END