I lean forward in my seat and pce my arms on the table. “What armed forces, General?” I ask stressing the title. “As far as I saw, there’s you and about forty others that still pretend that you command something.” I pause as I lean back in my seat. “Colonel Garcia has more troops in a single company than in your entire fictional armed forces. Those relics you tout as main battle tanks in Cheyenne and Mount Weather couldn’t stand against a single light tank of ours. For that matter, the Marines could take them down without support.” I harden my tone as I continue, “General, I couldn’t care less if you wanna py pretend army commander, but don’t you ever try to order me or my troops around. Is that clear?”

  Miller bellows, “Consider yourself under arrest, pending Court-martial!”

  I ugh loudly because the man seems to be too stupid to understand a simple fact, he isn’t in charge of us. Jose stands up, walks around the table, and forces him into a seat. Then menacingly growls, “You will watch your tone with General Reeves. One more outburst like that from you and I’ll throw your ass out of this building. Is that understood?”

  Miller begins to say something and I interrupt him. “If I were you, Mr. Miller, I’d heed Colonel Garcia’s advice. Even without the power assistance of his shipsuit, he could throw you around like a rag doll.

  “Just so we’re clear, General. We aren’t from the same pnet. All of us renounced our US citizenship, probably long before you were even a twinkle in your Daddy’s eye. We’re citizens of the Terran Federation, so just how do you purport to be able to court-martial a foreign national?”

  He opens his mouth to say something but then closes it looking for support from his leadership. When they sit there and just look at him, he turns to look at Jose. “Alright, but this isn’t over.”

  Jose chuckles. “Sir, if you so much as a y a finger on either of us, I’ll smile as I knock you out. You’ll wake up to find yourself confined indefinitely. If you send your troops, they will not enjoy the stun headache that my Marines will happily give them. After all, we Marines do love our toys. So, I suggest you remember that because it isn’t a threat. It’s a promise. Believe me, you don’t want to start a fight with us. So, sit there and be a good little boy with your mouth closed and ears open for once.”

  Miller has an indignant expression when Jose pats his shoulder, and then returns to his seat. I look at the group of men and women across from me. “Well…” I begin, “Are we done with the theatrics?” They nod in reply. “Good. I’ve never enjoyed theater, so what did you want to discuss with me?”

  One of the men clears his throat, and then says, “General, I’m Alex Walker. I was elected as the President of the United States a year ago. I’m curious as to your pns for our people.”

  “My pns?” I shrug slightly. “I pn to help the survivors reestablish themselves. To do that, it means finding and rescuing people just like we did you. It means building cities and helping you begin farming and ranching so you can feed yourselves. If needed, I have people who can teach you how to do both. It means, setting up nano production facilities so that people can get the goods they need.

  “At the moment, the Terran Federation is providing everything for you. Food, housing, goods, medical attention, whatever you need. We’re just trying to keep you all alive because many are suffering from various levels of malnutrition, and in some cases, the end stages of starvation. A couple of hundred needed medical treatment we weren’t set up for on the ground and were transported to my fleet for treatment. I’ve been informed they’ll be fine.

  “Our main task and priority is finding everyone we can. I have over 30,000 troops searching for survivors. Sometimes we’re too te, but most often we make it in time to save them. In the cities we’ve built for you, there are approximately 26,000 people.”

  He nods at every point I make, and then asks, “And what then? After you’ve found all you can find.”

  “That depends. If you have the resources to survive on your own and the people of Earth ask us to leave, we will.”

  Another speaks up, asking, “Are you going to share your technological advances with us?”

  I shake my head. “No,” I say, “Or at least, not all of it. Look, we have some very powerful weapons, our fleet is something you’d only dream to have. You folks, or maybe you bme your predecessors, fucked up. Big time. The governments of Earth screwed the pooch.

  “They knew how dangerous HOTE was becoming and did nothing. They sat there and pyed politics instead of ripping every single one of them out, root and stem. Their refusal to act allowed the atrocity they committed to take pce. So I have to ask myself, Earth has already proven that you’ll happily sit on your hands and allow that to happen, so why would I give you an even better means to make it happen again?” I shake my head as I say, “I refuse to do that. I’ll give you the most innocuous parts of our technology, but nothing dangerous.”

  Walker gestures to all of them as he states, “We are not our predecessors.”

  I arch an eyebrow. “I’m not too sure about that. You just watched General Miller threaten officers of a foreign power and yet you did nothing to rein him in or reprimand him.” I stand up and lean onto the table as I stare balefully at them. “If I had done that in front of the Federation Council, I’d have been called to heel so fast my head would’ve spun, and then I’d have likely faced a court-martial. So, it seems you idiots haven’t learned a damn thing. You’re like children who stick your fingers into a hornet’s nest and then whine and cry because they stung you! Then you go right back to do the same damn thing, and somehow expect different results! Grow the hell up!”

  They look shocked that anyone would dare speak to them this way. I smile as I sit back down, cross my legs, and simply look at them like the idiots they seem to be. My tone is calm and my voice soft as I state, “Gentleman and Lady, business as usual is a long gone artifact of a corrupt world. You see where that led, and yet, you want to do it again. Not only no, but hell no. It’s not happening again. We aren’t going to build you up just so you can tear Earth apart again. In fact, I intend to set up a world government that will protect the people, their rights, and do the right thing when the people aren’t watching. I’m going to be copying our Constitution, ws, and form of government and using it as a tempte for Earth.

  When one of them begins to say something, I hold up a finger to silence him and arch an eyebrow. I challengingly ask, “Do you still cim to be the government?” They nod and say they are. I let out a predatory smile and state, “Before I accept your assertion, I’ll have a copy of our Constitution and ws printed up and delivered to you so you folks can read it. If you still want to cim that you’re the government after reading it, we’ll move on from there. Until we get there, I see no point in discussing this further.”

  I stand up, and Colonel Garcia stands as well. “Lady and Gentlemen, I do hope you have a good day.”

  Turning on my heel, Garcia and I walk out the door. The clicks of my heels echo in the hallway as we make our way toward the exit and our APC. “Colonel, see that copies are sent to all of them,” I state acidly, and blow out my breath in irritation. “Make sure to highlight the portions about nano probe questioning. If they say they are still the leaders, there’ll be many questions they’ll be answering. I’m unwilling to allow people in government who are only after power.”

  He nods firmly. “Understood, Ma’am,” he replies. “Ma’am?” I gnce at him, and he continues, “You handled that much better than I would’ve.”

  I stop and turn to face him. I y my hand on his shoulder and smile for a moment. “Jose, that’s part of my job. My father has spent 107 years training me for this deployment.” I shrug. “I’m still not ready, but I’m doing my best.”

  He grins sardonically. “Ma’am, believe me, they are lucky that you speak for us.” He lowers his voice and looks around. “If it was me, all of those people… I don’t trust them. I don’t trust in their motives, and I damn sure don’t believe a single word they say. They learned everything they know from their parents, who were all,” he spits out the word as if it were an epitaph, “politicians. They are exactly who the people don’t need in charge. Just as you said, they’ll lead the Earth right back into corruption and eventual destruction.”

  I smile and pat his shoulder his shoulder fondly. “Colonel, you hit the nail on the head,” I reply as I think, ‘I’m so gd I’m not the only one who thinks so.’ “Believe me, I don’t pn to allow any people from Mount Weather or Cheyenne Mountain to hold a government position.” I smile brightly, and continue, “Come on. Let’s get out of here. Today was supposed to be a day off for me, and my wife is waiting at my pinnace.”

  He offers me his arm. “Then, by all means, Ma’am. Let’s not make her wait on you any longer than necessary,” he replies.

  We ugh as I take his arm, and we walk out of there. 20 minutes ter, we arrive at my pinnace, and he hands me out of the APC. I thank him and then head up the ramp. Inside, Athena welcomes me back, and I change into something more comfortable while she makes us lunch. Afterward, I spend the rest of my day with her.

  [TC: Day 181, 107]

  [EC: October 30, 2618]

  In the st 35 days, we’ve investigated many of the small energy sources we detected, and thankfully, found another 459 people. 43 of them had to be immediately transferred to the fleet for medical treatment. I would’ve thought in this day and age that scurvy would be a thing of the past, yet that is why they are being treated. According to the reports, many of them have lost most, if not all of their teeth and they are covered in rashes and skin lesions. The nanos can heal them and regrow their teeth, but it'll take time. The rest of them have been inocuted and transferred to a medical facility in Poster. Don’t bme me, they came up with the name.

  The engineering commander, LC Adam Williams, requested permission to send a few teams to Mars to repair and restart the air processors on the pnet, and to recycle Mars City. The city isn’t as badly decayed as those on Earth, but the dearth of pnt life there has a lot to do with that.

  As it stands, the pnet is only considered marginal for habitability. Repairing and restarting the air processors will help, but it’ll take some time, and they are talking about seeding nanos to make soil out of the regolith so they can seed the pnet with Earth life. Hopefully, by the time it’s habitable, there’ll be enough people to begin recolonizing Mars.

  Armstrong moon base isn’t nearly as bad since there’s no weather to help deteriorate it. The equipment is the problem there and needs to be completely repced. A couple of engineering teams are working on that, as well as the regolith processors, which are used to collect helium 3. The reports state that the engineering teams are supplemented by 58 engineers from Earth, and we have 107 volunteers to man the base.