"Do they still hold him prisoner?" John asked, projecting concern.
"No, they convicted him, and then avoided testing our resolve by foisting off responsibility for sentencing on the relatives of the claimed victims. It reminded me of the barbaric tribal justice I saw permeate their thinking when I served in the Trans-Arabic Protectorate. They elevated the family and friends above the state interest. Yes, they were harmed, but you can't expect those too emotionally close to render an unbiased opinion. When the law is broken it harms us all, so the state has a superior call on justice."
For an instant April thought she saw a flash of doubt cross the anchor's eyes, but then he nodded and agreed with the official line.
"We also suspect one of our Coast Guard cutters lost at sea was actually attacked by agents of Home," Stuckey continued. "Some unsavory elements who work with the spacers smuggling were in the area. So many of our essential surveillance satellites were destroyed during the war we didn't have one overhead to see what happened or maintain a data link for security. Our embargo of critical items is vital to keep pressure on these scoundrels. We intend to tighten up our own efforts to deny them Earth goods, and encourage our allies to do so too."
"What a bunch of crap," April objected. "He ignores that we moved because their armed sats were taking pot shots at us and they thought we were too stupid to calculate the source. He makes it sound like we are dependent on imports from North America. They need stuff made on Home worse than we need anything from North America. We can get Earth goods from other countries and those nations will tell the Norte Americanos to go pound sand if the USNA tries to force them to join the embargo," April predicted. "But I'm really sorry they got the connection to the Tobiuo."
"They don't actually want to push this, or he'd have admitted they can place them together with much more certainty. They have the ability to track the Tobiuo's generator when running. They started to vector a sub toward them after, so they knew. They want to use us for a cause, but not actually resume hostilities."
"It's a dangerous game they're playing," April concluded. "The Assembly could decide to start bombarding them again. You and your mom could refuse to participate and they still have enough weapons to cause some serious damage. That would leave you two unpopular with a lot of people too."
"Yes, and I have no idea if the people at the top of their Committee have all the pieces to know that. If they do it is absolutely reckless. But they have to know at least some of it is a lie. Even if Mum and I initially refused to attack them we could get sucked in later if the Assembly provokes them. The Assembly might get suckered into ill conceived action by their words, but if it escalates we'd still have no choice but to come in on Home's side should things go badly wrong," Jeff promised.
Committeeman Stuckey continued speaking all through Jeff and April's discussion. They caught the gist of it from the captioning, but the narrative moved away from anything that concerned them directly. He assured the public that the harvest had been successfully gathered, electric service was expected to be better not worse than last winter, and by migrating without any way for the government to know who was going where, people were sabotaging the ability of the authorities to know where to direct help.
This of course ignored that the authorities had admitted electric service would be 'prioritized' to critical areas. You didn't have to be a genius to figure out if you were in an area that wouldn't be prioritized. Any aid located along interstate highways running south or along the lower Mississippi would be in the path of almost all of the refugees.
April was amazed how reasonable he could make it all sound, and with a perfectly straight face. Even without any satellite imaging it was obvious from ground observations or a simple aircraft over-flight where people were headed, anywhere warm, by any path they could find.
Jeff stood, took their bowls to the kitchen and rinsed them. "I don't want to watch this Assembly online. I'm going to go to the cafeteria tomorrow. If I get to propose my housing project it has better impact for me to be seen there, interacting with others, than by com where I'm just a face floating in a smaller window. Do you want to come sit with me? Do you want me to come walk you over?"
"Were you uncomfortable here last night?" April asked.
"Not at all. I just thought...I should get back home."
"Oh, are you concerned Walter is getting lonely?" she teased him.
"I'm sure Walter is delighted not to have to share cramped quarters, but neither do I wish to presume, or wear my welcome here thin," Jeff said, uncomfortable.
"If you weren't welcome anytime I wouldn't have set the door to your hand."
"You might have other guests," Jeff objected.
"Is that what's bothering you? Not likely, but if I do it will probably be Heather," April said. "But I wouldn't have anybody here that I'd be embarrassed to have you meet, or vise versa." She said pointedly.
"I'm being stupid again, aren't I?" Jeff asked.
"Yes, but it's sort of sweet and old fashioned," April admitted. "You're a little possessive, but don't want to be put in a situation where you might have to admit it, to me or yourself."
"Yes, I will admit it. I feel proprietary about you. I'd automatically question if anyone else was good enough for you. But that puts me in conflict. I can't question your choices and still say I respect your judgment as equal to mine. It nags at me, because I'm afraid..." he looked embarrassed.
"Spit it out," April encouraged.
"Afraid that it means I'm greedy," Jeff admitted. "Worse, I wonder if it's lingering Earth Think."
"I think jealousy is just human, and can be a force for good if it is controlled and directed properly. You want what is good for me, and I want what is good for you. It doesn't have to be selfish. You haven't displayed insane jealousy. Ask Jon sometime about the few stalkers he's had to deal with as head of security. It's an irrational obsession that takes over their entire lives. We do have an interest in each other that has grown, more so now than before the war, when we pledged our fortunes and conspired to revolution in your Dad's apartment. That's a pretty big base, isn't it?"
Jeff nodded. "We need to address this with Heather when we go visit."
"If you want, but I predict she will look at us like we're nuts and say, Well of course."
Chapter 23
Eduardo Muños leaned over and spoke with Jon Davis. The video stream was already live. It was displaying a text notice that an Assembly would convene shortly, with the image of them on the usual temporary platform as a silent backdrop. He cracked a joke with Jon, who smiled, but he deliberately laughed. He wanted to give every visual clue that this was not a desperate emergency meeting. He leaned back, relaxed, using body language to show he wasn't anxious, certainly not afraid.
Now was the time to do this, because the people most concerned would open the feed early and be eager for the show to get going. Jon wasn't helping much, because he always looked like he was ready to launch from his seat. The man always seemed on. When he leaned back and folded his arms it was worse. His eyes never joined it. At least that was just his normal level of alertness to everyone who knew him.
The live audience in the cafeteria looked calm. Nobody was circulating like they were trying to muster support or lobby voters. Muños could see Jeff Singh and the Lewis girl sitting together. He supposed the other young woman he identified with them would follow the Assembly from the moon. As long as she was logged in with her Home ID she could vote too. He wondered if they would ever have citizens so distant the speed of light lag would be an impedance to that. The artist girl Lindsey was looking at him hard. She was one of the few people who made him feel like a bug under a microscope. She didn't miss anything.
When the clock approached 1400 hours Eduardo rose unhurried and took his place at the lectern. The cafeteria was packed and the net software showed a good online attendance. He called the Assembly to order with all due formality, but then he leaned an arm on the lectern to address them, something he'd
never done before.
"Just in case there is anyone unaware of the reason for calling an early assembly, allow me to briefly summarize.
"Two days ago one of the members of the new military government ruling North America stated that that committee regarded the surrender and treaty with Home of the previous regime as void. They did not make a new declaration of war as some people falsely reported, or at least mis-understood. Since his other committee members have not repudiated this statement we must conclude it is a valid declaration of policy, coming from such a high official. We have not formally requested any confirmation. We must assume they regard themselves as still in a state of war with us.
"I'm going to allow our Head of Security, Jon Davis to discuss how this impacts us. Then I will ask for some comments and if anyone wishes to make any motions or instruct us what actions to take on behalf of Home we will discuss that and vote on it."
Jon stood and waited to speak until Muños was seated. He looked more irritated than angry.
"Sometimes you see someone do something so colossally stupid that it's very hard to discuss it in polite terms. It's an embarrassment to even witness, and you hope they will come to their senses before everyone notices. But if someone shoots themselves in the foot, the report will fade away, but no amount of quiet pretense that nothing happened will close the hole.
"North America had a perfectly good treaty that demanded very little of them and they trashed it for a cheap ploy to paint themselves as victims of the evil spacers. When facing domestic unrest, governments often look for an external enemy to grab their people's attention. It would have been nice if they picked someone else for that game, but there really weren't any good candidates.
"On the negative side this means we no longer have the free passage guarantee of the treaty. On the plus side nobody from Home trusted North America enough to use the provision anyway, and it appears the USNA quietly denied free passage to their own citizens. In retrospect we probably shouldn't have asked for something we didn't have the manpower to monitor and enforce. So they haven't deprived us of much there.
"There's really nothing we need to import that can't be had someplace else cheaper and easier than North America. So tightening their embargo or adding items is pretty much theater. On the other hand we make a number of items that can't be made yet down in gravity. They import through third parties, and they would be the ones hurt if we kept our customers from passing those goods on to them.
"They could build facilities on another hab and start up alternative production, but they have had trouble restoring a decent lift capacity. Honestly, the USNA are having trouble even making a full restoration from war damage on Earth. They still don't have permanent replacement bridges across the Mississippi anywhere but St. Louis.
"Without a restored lift capacity they pose little military threat. Almost none directly, now that we've relocated translunar. They could try to blockade other Earth nations from supplying us, but one assumes those nations would have something to say about that, as it would be an act of war. I can't imagine North America wishes to really provoke a war with other Earth powers. The USNA has quite enough trouble on their plate right now. They can hold this farce of an inactive war up as propaganda, but they don't have the means to prosecute it.
"In my opinion, we shouldn't dignify their declaration with a response that credits it as a serious concern. To try to caution them would imply they are a genuine threat. I'd love to be a smart-alec and say – Isn't that cute? – but international relations should have some decorum. That's why Mr. Muños here is better for the dignity of Home as Speaker than me. So I'll give you back to him." And he sat.
"Mr. Butki," Muños called when he had the floor again. It would be bad to ignore him because he was standing waving in a high visibility safety suit of a Day-Glo lime color. To refuse to acknowledge him would be a deliberate slight, and an offensive managing of the narrative, even to voters who didn't like or agree with him. Better to get it out of the way, because he was a bit of a hot-head.
"I'm deeply offended by this dishonesty. We had a legal, ratified agreement. I want to hurt them any way we can. What are our options to punish them for breaking their word?"
"That's a question Jon should address again, being head of the Home Militia also," Muños said. He looked back over his shoulder, one hand trailing on the lectern, but didn't yield it.
"You used to be able to take a case to the World Court," Jon said, looking thoughtful. "They were pretty toothless though. Since we effectively destroyed the United Nations when they instigated a punitive expedition against us, there is no international body left to hear a complaint. It's back to sovereign nations deciding conflicts by force of arms, as it's been through most of history. The only public dialog left being the commentary in the public media. We're at a disadvantage there. We're pretty much demonized. And much of what we put on the net is blocked to their public.
"We could attack them, but it is expensive and we don't really have any ability to destroy them. If we put our entire income as a nation towards the task I doubt it would serve to do anything but make them miserable. I don't know about you, but I have no appetite to endlessly bombard them over words. It would simply harm your average person and never get the leaders except by a really lucky hit. You might catch a few of them with a first strike, and then they will disperse and be in remote bunkers.
"What about those huge bombs like Singh dropped on China?" Butki demanded.
"Oh, I was talking about what the militia can do. If you want Singh to bombard North America for you, you'll have to present your case to him. Last time we discussed that in the Assembly he was more interested in assuring us he wasn't a monster, than looking for a reason to use those warheads. He's sitting right there if you want to ask," Jon said with a wave of his hand. He was delighted to hand him off to Jeff.
Butki looked where Jon had gestured. Jeff didn't regard him warmly. In fact he looked downright unfriendly. He decided he wouldn't like what Jeff would answer and indicated he had no more questions.
Thank You, Muños thought. That look was golden. Muños didn't expect any further motions to resume hostilities. He was just glad Butki hadn't immediately made a clear formal motion without discussion, and demanded it be put to a vote.
"Mrs. Yolande?" Muños said, inviting her to speak. She tended to be critical. The woman had sent him some very pointed private messages about how things might be managed better. But in fairness she was right about some of them, and she wasn't stupid by any means.
"It makes sense to me to sit back and say – OK, the ball is in your court – they made the declaration, now what do they want to do with it? What can they do with it? But what if they do come up with some scheme we haven't anticipated to attack us?" she worried.
Jeff made a small gesture to him, barely lifting his hand from his lap. The sort of gesture a man might make at an auction to not announce to the whole room who was bidding. Muños suspected he was being given the option to see it or not as he chose.
"Mr. Singh," Eduardo said, not without some small concern what he would say.
"They'd have to run their mouth a lot more before I would be provoked. They have no credibility with me, but if they announce they actually intend to act...I reserve the right to believe them. If they try anything or make a credible threat, I do have the means and the will to send them back to somewhere around 1400 or so, as far as having a technological civilization. I just have some standards about committing mass murder. But if things get violent then the entire nation does have a responsibility for accepting these people as their leaders. Perhaps it would be more expensive than they care to pay in treasure and blood to remove them. But if they become party to harming us, even by omission, the price can be much higher. Does that address what you wondered, Mrs. Yolande?"
"Yes, it satisfies me entirely. I'd like to make a motion," she directed to Muños.
Eduardo nodded an acknowledgement, but held his breath.
"I su
ggest we should not do anything rash over foolish words, but we should formally remind the militia under Mr. Davis that we want them to act aggressively to counter any acts against us from North America. He and Mr. Singh should not doubt our mind on the matter. That we should be resolved to give them the benefit of the doubt, should they act upon a provocation, given the implicit threat in this new announcement. Also, that we petition Mr. Singh to discuss with Mr. Davis under what conditions he will lend support, so that if the need arises, they are of a mind, and don't need to come to an understanding in the midst of an emergency. With these conditions set as a precautionary measure, I for one have confidence in our militia to respond appropriately. They've done so, in a measured manner in the past. But the body politic will have to decide if they agree with me," Yolande said, sitting.
"She speaks very well, doesn't she?" April said to Jeff quietly.
"I'd have to sit and write out a script, and refine it, to say it so smoothly," Jeff admitted.
"Keep her in mind if you need a speechwriter," April said softly.
Jeff was surprised. He had no idea that's where April's remark was headed.
"In the matter of displaying restraint with North America, but specifically ordering the militia to protect us, and to establish terms with Mr. Singh for assistance as Mrs. Yolande proposed, how do you people say?" Muños asked in the usual formal terms.
The vote wasn't as heavy as Eduardo had hoped. It was 1,213 yea to 832 nay before there was a pause sufficient to close the poll. The number of voters was near 3,000 now so a lot of people hadn't responded. That usually indicated they weren't happy with how the question was framed. Perhaps Mrs. Yolande was a little too eloquent and not forceful enough.
The numbers showed on everybody's screen and the big display behind Muños in the cafeteria, but he still announced them out loud for the record. There were several people standing and some notices that people wished to speak off com before he finished doing so.
They Said It Would Be Easy (April Book 7) Page 32
