is Jackie, Renee’s assistant. How can I help you?” Jackie’s voice quiv-
ered slightly.
“Ah… so Renee got an assistant, finally. I’ve been telling her to get one
for some time now. I hope you like late nights… Let Renee know that her
special assignment ‘Alpha Foxtrot’ hit a snag and won’t be ready in time. “
“Okay. Who might I say is calling?” Jackie asked as caller ID was unin-
formative. The phone clicked off. “Hello?”
The elevator door opened, and Renee darted out with her face in a data
pad, scrolling through something.
Jackie glanced at the phone uncomfortably. “Uh, someone called and
said Alpha Foxtrot hit a snag, then hung up.”
“Damn it!” Renee stopped walking and turned to face Jackie. “What
are you doing? The media department is that way.” Renee pointed
behind Jackie.
“Uhh…” Her mouth hung open, looking stunned as she turned and
looked in the direction Renee indicated, then back at Renee, who had just
8
relieved Jackie of the cell phone and walked away, leaving Jackie in the lobby area with the guard.
“Ma’am, if you’d like, I can escort you.” The guard smiled widely as he
looked Jackie over.
She’d grown accustomed to such attention and decided early on in her
life to take advantage of it whenever possible. “That would be nice, thank
you,” she said sweetly. She asked the guard many questions as they walked,
as she felt she was never going to attend a future orientation.
* * *
“You look wonderful, stop fussing,” Amanda managed to say, in spite of
the comb she had between her teeth. Next to her stood Alex in his newly
designed UEF uniform. It was a grey two-tone uniform, the left shoulder
sporting a formally-designed gold assent pad. The opposite shoulder held
his pinned rank insignia, which was the UEF emblem on its side, facing
away from Alex. He was a bit shocked at how fast things were progressing
now that hundreds of people were mobilizing the UEF vision every day.
Alex reached up again to touch his hair, and Amanda snatched his
hand in mid-air. She pulled him over to her, dropping the comb without
him noticing and placing it on the counter behind him. They kissed ever so
lightly for a few moments.
A knock at the hatch door broke them apart. Both were so familiar
with such interruptions that they casually accepted the knock as though
it were expected. Amanda opened the door, fully-dressed in her uniform,
light grey with a blue shoulder pad. She had yet to put her hair up, so she
pulled it off to one side and let it fall over her right shoulder.
Mason stood in the hallway, wearing his uniform as well. It mirrored
Alex’s, except for the rank insignia, which looked like a golden step ladder
on its side, with eight steps. “Uniforms are looking good!”
Amanda looked down at hers, then she leaned back dramatically to
look over her shoulder at her rear. “They don’t look bad, I’ll give them
that much.”
Alex walked to the hatchway and stood behind Amanda. “Looking
sharp, Commander!”
“I can say the same about you…sir.”
9
Alex gave a slight tilt of the head and a barely noticeable frown. “What did I tell you about that ‘sir’ business?”
“I have to set an example. I’m sure it’s in my lengthy job description
somewhere…sir!”
Alex smiled slightly. “What brings you by?”
Amanda excused herself from their conversation and retreated to the
bathroom. Alex and Mason found their customary spots on the couch and
nearby chair.
“There is an enormous amount of issues piling on. Faster than we can
handle them, I’m afraid.”
“Sounds like we need to delegate more.” Alex watched as Amanda
teased Alex for only an instant, behind Mason’s back. Alex’s heart jumped
for a moment, but he kept his calm.
“Big picture stuff. We have several national representatives request-
ing meetings, offering contracts, that sort of thing. The sheer amount of
offers would take a solid month if we handled only what we have on our
plate right now. More come in every day. In the meantime, a few Sena-
tors are arousing support to revoke cooperation with the UEF, calling us a
failed experiment. We have our first major incident involving the potential
removal of a UEF member, then there’s the—”
“Wait,” Alex cut Mason off. “Tell me more about that.”
“Well, it’s a sexual harassment situation, an ongoing thing. A construc-
tion worker was caught following someone to their residence. Security was
called and notified the worker that he was on alert for revocation. He’s been
restricted to his residence for the time being. The contracted HR firms have
ways to handle such things. So far, Curtis has done a great job dealing with
other things as they pop up. He’s putting together a review committee with
people who don’t know either person involved. I think he means to put
these things to a vote.”
“It’s not a bad idea. Let him run with that, but let’s see a written pro-
posal on how this will work before the first committee meeting.”
“Excellent! We have—”
“Hang on, why do I feel like you’re handling grunt work? You need to
find someone else to handle this stuff.”
10
“Contacting Heads of State is grunt work? How old are you again?”
Mason chuckled.
“You know what I mean. You shouldn’t be spending time notifying me
of these things, that’s what assistants are for.”
“I don’t see yours around.” Mason looked left and right around
the room.
Alex rolled his eyes. “Hey, I hear Renee is trying out her new
person today.”
“Isn’t this her third?”
“Really? I had no idea. What happened to the other two?”
“I watched the first one break down in tears, and the other one requested
to be removed the same day she started. That’s just the last three days.”
“Amazing!”
“Who would have thought Renee would be so difficult to work with?”
“Not difficult, busy. She keeps them moving, with little time to rest.”
An odd noise in the bathroom distracted Mason, and he glanced over in
that direction.
“Maybe she needs more assistants?” Alex idly wondered how many
assistants he would need to have a day off. “It’s easy to assume we all need a few assistants, just to keep the good ones from burning out.”
“Maybe not even assistants. More like deputies, or directors.”
“Make it a topic of discussion at the next meeting.”
Mason looked over his data pad. “How’s the message going for tonight?”
“Renee is working on it. We’re documenting a play-by-play of trans-
pired events. Let the public be the judge.”
“That has worked well for us up to this point.” Mason stopped talking
for a moment. Amanda walked out of the bathroom, ready to face the day,
and sat next to Alex on the couch, giving enough distance to avoid touch-
ing him. Mason looked to Amanda. “Zeek wanted me to tell yo
u ‘thanks.’
Something about a super spy program?”
“Yeah, Kalibri shored up cyber defenses for the UEF for the next decade
or so. One giant thing we do not have to worry about.”
“I’ll reach out to him right after tonight’s program.” Alex stood up,
sensing the end of the conversation approaching.
11
* * *
It was just before sunset, but floodlights already illuminated the area. In
front of the main UEF building was a single podium on a raised platform.
Reporters from every news network that existed, and some internet news
sources as well, anxiously awaited the announcement. Behind Alex, his
team had erected a large screen, on which the videos Alex intended to show
would be displayed.
Alex adjusted the microphone on the podium and ignored the repeated
hum of questions shouted at him. He forced a fake cough into the micro-
phone and raised his hands. The reporters fell silent.
“As everyone is aware, we were attacked by the Zorn some time ago.
What many of you do not know is what the UEF did about it.”
Alex turned around and waited for the cued video to play on the screen.
The video started with the fake practice drill and Alex, in the video,
explained why the early drill was called. The negative scans and the decision
to move on with UEF activities followed the realization of the exploitable
limitation inherent in the sensors and ended with the return to Earth.
Extensive battle footage of the interior and exterior cameras were mas-
terfully edited and cut together. There was no question as to the heroics of
the UEF. The video transitioned to Timmy flying trainees to a couple of
locations in the western hemisphere to fight the Zorn, and included video
of the Zorn attacking him in the container.
Video then cut to a few hospitals, where UEF medical personnel were
assisting local medical professionals in areas with overwhelming casualties.
Then the video faded out.
“I’ll take a question,” Alex said flatly and humored himself that such a
statement was absolutely unnecessary; he knew the questions would come,
regardless.
“Captain, do you take any responsibility for the attack?”
“It took a long time to get the support the UEF needs to grow to the
size it has. I wish the support had come earlier; we might have had a few
ships in orbit, enough to stop the attack in space before the Zorn ever made
it planetside.”
12
Alex managed to hear that reporter say, “You didn’t answer my question,” before she was drowned out by her peers shouting new questions.
Alex pointed to another reporter, and the rest quieted down. “Did the
UEF sustain any casualties?”
“We had several. Lanora, for example, is still in medical, receiving
treatment. If you meant ‘did we sustain any fatalities’, the answer is ‘no’.
The UEF escaped fatalities during the attack. I might add a comment to
that in direct response to the senators who denounce the UEF: ask the
federal government how many people died on their rosters, then ask how
many Zorn their government eliminated.” Alex stopped for dramatic effect,
only to be overwhelmed by the noise of the insatiable questions.
“When is the next attack coming? Can you tell us?”
“Based on information on the other worlds attacked by the Zorn, we
can expect another attack in one to two years.” Alex knew that it was cer-
tainly closer to thirteen months, but he was offering hope, to delay possible
rioting until it was too late.
“Can the UEF be ready in time? To repel a full attack?”
“Well, at last count, three countries have finished construction yards
for our new ships. Recruitment is running smoothly, so with any luck, we
will have an entire fleet in space to repel the enemy, should they decide to
try again.”
“From what I hear, recruitment isn’t running so smoothly, and I hear
the UEF is about to undertake its first eviction in a few days. Why haven’t
we heard anything about that?” An older male reporter asked from the
front row.
“The same reason why you didn’t immediately hear back from the UEF
after the attack. That is a recent development, and it does no one any good
to release half-information. In certain situations, its ethical to wait until
you have a clear message or report of the situation, especially since the
world hangs on our every word, so it’s important to get the facts right.”
“Can you tell us about the upcoming attack?”
“I have answered a few questions, and you have videos being uploaded
to the website as we speak. I thank you for your time and attention.”
Alex stepped away from the podium and was led to a black SUV by
one of his security personnel. As soon as he entered, it took off towards the
13
hanger. It was a custom-designed SUV, where the seats faced each other.
Renee, Zeek, and Jackie sat in the other three seats. “I didn’t expect to see
you, Zeek. Everything okay?”
“Yeah, fine. Russians tried to send me a copy of the UEF revisions they
want to try out on their version of a completed ship. It was all in Russian,
so I sent it back with a note. I doubt the ship will be anywhere near com-
plete by the time the attack occurs. On another note, that program that
you gave me is pumping out some interesting information. You should stop
by and see it.”
Alex nodded. He didn’t want his friend to feel like what he just men-
tioned wasn’t important, but he felt it wasn’t that important at the moment.
He smiled and put a hand on his shoulder, as he’d always done since he
knocked out Hunter in the cafeteria, way back in grade school.
“How do you think it went?” Alex turned to face Jackie.
“I think…” Renee had started.
“I know what you think, you designed the whole thing. I want to hear
it from mini you.” Alex pointed to Jackie.
“I don’t want to be mini her.” Jackie nodded her head towards Renee.
“Can I be Jackie?”
Alex smiled widely. “So?”
“It was fine.”
“That’s it, fine?” Alex peered at Jackie, who met his eyes but turned away
quickly. “Please speak freely.” He looked at everyone seated in the vehicle.
“Fine. You’re coming off very detached and unorganized. It’s making
you look weak.” She locked eyes with him, still and motionless. Her face
held the same amount of emotion as a river stone.
“Did you not see the video? How do I seem weak to you? I just defended
the planet!”
“That’s right, I said you look weak, not the UEF. First, you saturate the internet with videos you made, then you upload staged interviews. Then
you make some appearances in various parts of the world, most notably
the White House, where you’re meeting the people you claim to despise.
Then you throw a press conference in the parking lot of your recently con-
structed Complex. News outlets that barely qualify as the term ‘news’ are
14
now controlling the narrative of your recent Q and A. Where the hell is the consistency? As I said, it
makes you look unorganized and weak.”
“It’s the main reason I pitched the press room idea to you a while back,”
Renee reminded him.
The SUV came to a stop inside the hanger, next to the UEF Destiny.
Work crews were still cutting away the mangled hull sections. “I don’t want
a press room, it makes it feel too planned, cookie cutter and dishonest.
Nowadays, when people see a press room, they think edited government
content. There’s a word for that: propaganda.”
“Then stick to posting videos online. Allow the people to absorb the
narrative themselves. Don’t feed the media anymore.” Jackie’s attention was
still locked on Alex.
“I’ll look into it.”
Alex and Zeek stepped out of the SUV, leaving Renee and Jackie still
inside. “I’m meeting government representatives tomorrow, inside the UEF
distinguished visitors center. See you then.” Alex stepped away, and Zeek
shut the door.
Renee watched Jackie, who turned a modest shade of pink, but tried
to recover her composure. Renee stared hard at her new pupil until she
opened her data pad. While Jackie continued looking out the window.
* * *
“Why are you wasting so much time with this? Don’t you have better
things to do?” Ann, a newer member of the UEF security team, demanded
of Curtis.
Curtis looked up from the personnel file. “The safety of all UEF per-
sonnel is my purview, even if the threat comes from within.”
“Yeah, but he’s guilty. We got his texts on her phone asking her out.
She said no. Then she sees him following her to her car, she texts him to
leave her alone, then he follows her home, where she called us. Our people
picked him up around the corner from her room. It’s stalking! It’s an open
a shut case. We don’t even need to ask him questions. Just fire him already.”
Curtis looked at the young security officer she was already getting on
his nerves and slowly shook his head, taking a deep breath. “That’s the prob-
lem with your generation. You feel the need to make knee-jerk decisions,
15
without the responsibility of getting all the facts. You have no regard for how that decision will affect his life, and the lives around him, or his kids.
Do you really feel confident in firing this man right now?”
Ann peered through the security glass into the warmly-decorated, pur-
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