“Agreed,” the President said, looking over at the secretary of defense and secretary of state. “Are we sure about the Dreen spread?”
“Yes, sir,” the secretary of defense said. “I had analysts go over both the raw data that the Hexosehr had and the astronomical data recovered from the… Karchava, was it Staff Sergeant Bergstresser?”
“Yes, Mr. Secretary,” Berg snapped. He was sitting rigidly at attention, coffee cup and saucer squared on his lap.
“The Karchava battleship,” the secretary continued. “The analysis section agrees that the Dreen are spreading in this direction, as well as others. They put the maximum period before they reach Earth as twenty years. However, if they become aware of our location beforehand, and there are more outposts between us and them, that could be accelerated. I’d like to, again, commend Miss Moon on her linguistic ability. Starting from the point that the Marines reached she has cracked most of the Karchava script. With that, the analysis became solid. The Dreen are on their way. Worse, they overran the species that produced the most powerful ship we have encountered to date. No species has so much as slowed them. And they’re headed for our region of space.”
The President bowed his head for a moment then looked back up.
“Then we have to prepare for war,” he said, looking over at the secretary of state again. “I’m now going to do something rather rare in this office. I’m going to ask you,” he continued, looking at the assembled group from the Blade, “what your suggestions are in this regard. Among other things, you’ve had a month longer to assimilate the information.”
Spectre looked at the President in surprise for a moment and then cleared his throat.
“You’re serious, Mr. President?”
“Don’t tell me you haven’t discussed it,” the President said. “I’ve thought about it, discussed it with my senior advisers. But I’d like your input.”
“Uh…” Spectre said.
“A coalition of the willing, Mr. President,” Berg said, still sitting rigidly upright and looking past the President. “Led by the United States and including, at a minimum, Great Britain, China, India and Japan. It is preferred that Germany, some of the other Old Europe countries, the Eastern European block and the Seven Tigers are included as well as certain countries in South America. It should specifically exclude France.”
“Exclude the French?” the secretary of state asked.
“Yes, sir,” First Sergeant Powell replied. “Though diplomatically difficult, that’s actually rather important.”
“Explain,” the President said, leaning back and putting his hand over his mouth.
“In the two hundred plus years of our country, we have been involved in wars with the French several times,” Weaver said reluctantly. “All of them as allies and all but one to our net detriment. Basically, Mr. President, every time the French get involved in anything, they tend to do more damage to their allies than to their enemies. Examples redound but Vietnam, the War on Terror and World Wars One and Two all come to mind.”
“In fact, Mr. President, there was significant discussion of what to do on the way back,” Spectre finally admitted. “And the last time we can recall the U.S. benefiting from having the French involved with us was in the Revolution.”
“Which, I’d like to add, was when they were under the Bourbons,” First Sergeant Powell pointed out. “So, basically, if they’re willing to bring back the aristos, we’ll think about it. Otherwise, our recommendation is that they be excluded.”
“Except for the Legion,” Miller interjected.
“Yeah, we’ll take the Legion,” Spectre agreed.
“And we’ll take some volunteers if there are any,” Berg said, lightening up. “As soldiers, they’re fine. It’s their politicians and generals that suck. Oh, boy, do they suck.” He suddenly whitened as he realized what he’d just said to the President of the United States.
But the President, far from offended, burst out into laughter and looked over at the secretary of state, who was nearly purple.
“Thank you, gentlemen,” the President said, grinning, “for making my point for me. And, I’ll add, with some additions I hadn’t considered.”
“What about the Louisiana Purchase?” the SecState asked, plaintively.
“That was bowing to reality, Mr. Secretary,” Miriam said. “As well as sucking our treasury dry.”
“Either we were going to take over that territory or the British were,” First Sergeant Powell answered. “By selling it to us, Napoleon got money to support his wars and kept the British from taking it.”
“And it was a causative factor of the War of 1812,” Miller said.
“I disagree, Todd, I think that war was guaranteed no matter what happened,” Powell argued. “England was already angry over us using neutrality to covertly supply Napoleon and we were, of course, wroth over the pressing of—”
“I’ve got the point,” the President said. “Mr. Secretary, that has to be understood in the negotiations. The U.S. will retire from any planetary mutual defense treaty if the French are part of the pact. We’ll go it alone before we’ll take any cheese-eaters. And we’re not starting from the point of departure of the UN. Coalition of the willing; we’re the top-dog. Why? Because we’re the only superpower on the planet and we’re going to take the brunt no matter how many allies we have. Dress that up in pretty diplomatic language when you have the meetings.”
“Yes, Mr. President,” the secretary of state said with a sigh.
“And don’t let your department try to weasel around it,” the President said. “I’m serious.”
“I won’t, Mr. President.”
“The Hexosehr, Captain,” the President said.
“They’re headed for Runner’s World, Mr. President,” the captain replied.
“And it will take them a minimum of two years to reach it with their warp technology,” the President said. “Two years we don’t have. How do we speed that up?”
“They’ll reach Michelin’s World in about six months, Mr. President,” Weaver replied. “There’s a gate there that opens up in Alabama. We can easily move it, though, to anywhere we want to establish a major base. Open a gate that leads to Runner’s World. Perhaps another to the Cheerick. We can drop both off quickly enough. Bring what we can fit through a gate from their ships, their people in deep sleep especially, and move them to Runner’s World. Most of them. Many will end up on Earth or Adar working on defense systems and bringing in their technology. They were able to build the Blade Two, while on the run and in deep space, in less than thirty days. Everything from soup to nuts. We’re going to need them leading the drive on developing the new space navy we’re going to require to defend Earth.”
“If I may, Mr. President,” Miriam interjected. “One of the problems is going to be the economic destabilization caused by their technology. Their technology is leaps ahead of the Adar which is, in turn, well ahead of our own. Their fabricators, alone, are going to impact manufacturing across the globe. The way they work with metals is going to stand the entire machine-shop industry on its head. Every precision manufacturer in the world could be put out of business overnight. Which means that their employees, who are some of the highest paid and most highly skilled workers in any industry, are going to be out of jobs. Preparing for that onslaught is going to be nearly as difficult as preparing for the war.”
“On the other hand, Mr. President,” First Sergeant Powell said, “when you have two problems…”
“Sometimes they cancel out,” the President said, nodding. “Such workers would be highly useful, with some retraining, in a space navy. The Draft is on the way, big time.”