"What the hell?" Lieutenant Noonez turned toward the marines and the viewscreen.
"Captain, the enemy ship just took a mass driver hit!" Colonel Chekov said, surprised.
"From the facility?" Captain Jefferson asked. The view in his mindview showed the ship beneath them suffering from secondary explosions down the length of it. It was going to blow. "Shit! Brace for impact!"
"Looks like the shot came from the moon's gun, Captain." The STO gripped his console as the supercarrier was jolted from the enemy ship exploding.
"How's that possible, STO?" The XO banged an elbow against the edge of his station. "Goddamnit all to hell."
"The vector I'm getting from the debris ionization trail of the pellet shows it passing right through the hull breach in the aft section of the Madira, sir."
"Damage reports?" Jefferson said as he scanned his own DTM inputs. The damage had been minimal exterior hull dings. They were far enough above the exploding enemy ship that the debris field was scattered, and since their relative velocity had been matched, the debris only had the velocity given to it from the explosion. The hull plating of a supercarrier could handle much worse.
"We're good, sir." EndRun consulted with his AIC and tapped at his console for moment and then added with some enthusiasm, "We're a damned sight better now that there ain't a goddamned ship beneath us blasting us with DEGs."
"Good. Air Boss, how're our pilots doing?"
"They've caught up and are now superior numbers, Captain. It's only a matter of time before they've mopped up."
"Ground Boss?"
"Same story, Captain. The Warlords suffered pretty heavy casualties, but Warboys had pushed them all the way to the southwest wall of the facility."
"Have the Angels been deployed?"
"Search and rescue are in theater, Captain. They're staging them here and to the Blair," the air boss replied.
"CO, Captain Walker is hailing us," the communications officer announced.
"Sharon? What can I do for you?"
"Well, Wally, that was going to be my question. Your ship looks like it has seen better days. What can we do to help?" Fullback asked.
"CO, we could take casualties and let them focus on the mop-up," the XO commented, rubbing at his elbow.
"Good idea, Larry. Sharon, route your SARs here. We'll be the hospital. You mop up this mess."
"Roger that, Wally."
"Once we've got this station completely under control, then we'll figure out what we need in the way of repairs. Good hunting."
"Aye, Captain." Sharon showed Wallace a white, toothy smile in the DTM videolink and then saluted the Flagship's CO.
"Air Boss, let's get those wounded in here."
Chapter 23
November 1, 2388 AD
Washington, D.C.
Sunday, 8:05 AM, Earth Eastern Standard Time
"Yes, Howard-son, but out of nearly two billion people, we only have eight senators and only twenty-two representatives. How is that fair representation, Howard-son?" Congressman Zhi muttered and shrugged his shoulders as he took his seat next to the esteemed gentlelady from Nebraska and fellow Independent Congresswoman Sharon Howard.
"Mark, Mark, that is a century's worth of water under the bridge, just like that faked-up Chinese accent of yours. And after all, your ancestors started the war, not mine. Ancient history." Sharon grinned and elbowed her colleague from the great state of Henan. "Shhh. I think it's starting."
"My accent is authentic, mind you. I trained with old movies for years to get it that way. War? Humph, it only lasted three days. Wasn't much of a war."
"Yes, but how many millions died in those three days, huh? Now shush. I want to hear this. That was then. This is now and important." Sharon leaned back in her chair and thought to her staffer a few instructions.
Johnny, translate this immediately and run it in American real time for me.
Sure thing, Congresswoman.
And as soon as it is over, I want immediate wide-sample polling data all the way out to Mars. I need to know how I should vote, after all.
Yes, ma'am.
"The chair recognizes the honorable gentlelady from the great state of Nigeria. Mrs. Amaka Chi, you have the podium." The speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States of America banged the gavel and sat down.
Amaka Chi was approaching eighty-nine years old and could remember before Nigeria had been joined to the United States, but the last thirty years or so of her life had led her to truly believe that the Great Capitalists could accomplish anything. In fact, in her lifetime, she had seen the eradication of famines and diseases and tribal war that had forced her beautiful homeland to be a third-world slum for ages. But that was no more. As soon as Amaka realized that the Americans would change her country and elevate its economic stature in the world, she had put down her freedom fighter's banner and rifle and picked up a copy of the Great Constitution. Her people from the state of Nigeria would long remember what she had done for them— what she would do for them. There had basically been an end to the underclass in humanity until the Martian Separatist movement. President Madira had put a big stop to it mostly, but decades later, they had resurfaced. More recently, the Separatists had caused major turmoil in the Sol System.
Amaka flipped her long, dark hair over her shoulders and leaned her long, slender, two-meter-tall ebony frame against the podium. She smiled first to the speaker and the vice president and then turned to the floor, facing both houses of the great governing body at once— along with the entire seven billion voters in the solar system.
Okoro, play me the speech in native tongue and translate on all channels in all tongues.
Yes, Your Highness.
"Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, colleagues of both great houses and from all seven hundred and thirty states and territories of our great nation, I thank you for having me speak with you tonight." Amaka smiled and nodded, then cleared her throat lightly and smiled again.
"I rise tonight to talk to you about what I think is certainly one of the gravest issues to face this nation in the twenty-three years that I have had the honor of serving in this body.
"In this great Congress, Mr. Speaker, I have taken much pride in working with members of the other parties on national security issues, and I have been one of the first and few to acknowledge that many of the struggles that we have won in this body were unfortunately against the White House. Issues that the current administration thinks will go unnoticed or that it feels unworthy of attention involving national security were brought to light by due diligence and were won only because we had the support of strong leadership on the Democratic side, the Independent side, and the Republican side as well. I give those comments today, Mr. Speaker, because I want to focus on what is happening with the debate surrounding the investigation we performed via the Tau Ceti Commission, of which I was a member, and the resultant information that has been put forward to the American people about a matter that needs to be thoroughly investigated.
"As you well know, Mr. Speaker, after the unfortunate events and breakdown of diplomacy with the Separatists at the Mars Summit and then the Martian Exodus that took place four years ago, we have been forced to maintain a tight grip on new technologies that could be used for destructive purposes. An example of this is our new quantum membrane transportation system that will allow us to transport supplies and people the vast distances between stars in mere minutes. The details of this technology have been kept out of the public information simply because we fear that if the Separatists already controlled such technology, they might use it for a preemptive strike against American targets. We saw the use of this techonology yesterday on national television for the first time by President Alexander Moore himself. Now the general public knows that this technology exists, and we also realize that the Separatists already have this technology; otherwise, they could not have teleported a battle cruiser into Earth space with the intent of crashing it into Luna City! This is just the beginning. The Separatists could have an army on our doorstep in no time, catching us off-guard and decimating our system's defenses and destroying our great way of life." Amaka pounded her fists against the podium and scanned left to right for all the news camera angles.