by Jason Bourn
Nadia requested additional information on several of the accidents, but in each case received an “Information Not Available” response. On a whim, she asked her persa to query every one of the accidents and was not surprised to find they all yielded that same response.
Nadia thought about her options. This was one area that humans still outshone AI – being creative and determining new and different courses of action. Instead of feeling somewhat superior, which she usually did – and it had always made her feel better in the past – she felt like she was grasping at straws. She couldn’t think of anything else to do. The AI had tried all the alternate sources for each of the materials, and had not found any available. She realized that there was only one feasible option. She needed to talk with Garth.
The more she thought about it, the surer she was that he was behind all of this. Though she really didn’t want to talk with him, she knew that this was the only way out of this predicament.
Sighing, she requested a meeting with Garth.
Much more quickly than she would have liked, as if he were waiting for her request, Garth responded to her. “Nadia, so good to see you again. I believe the last time we talked was the final day of my trial. You do remember, don’t you?” He paused and then said, “I request that we go into Confidential mode, so neither of us can record what is being said and use it against the other. Do you agree?”
Confidential mode was recognized as a critical element in a society where everything is recorded. Without this capability, negotiations would be near impossible. Both sides needed the assurance that the other could not obtain information that could be used against them. Therefore, Confidential mode strictly enforced this. Essentially, both sides were forced to turn off all recording tools, including persas, and both sides verified that there were no electronics capable of recording audio or video within range. Continuous sweeps were carried out hundreds of times a second to ensure no recording equipment started up during a conversation. This was very effective, and there were no known problems with this capability.
Nadia swallowed her pride, smiled and said, “Yes, it is good to talk to you. I authorize Confidential mode” Instantly her persa shut down and all other electronics in the room and in nearby rooms shut down.
It was somewhat eerie when all the high frequency background noises, that are normally there but are automatically tuned out by her brain, suddenly go away, leaving something like emptiness in her head.
Trying to ignore this, she tried to decide best on how to start the discussion concerning the critical shortages, but she couldn’t think of any good way to do it. So, she just continued on, “Garth, I know that you are very busy, but I was hoping to talk to you about some industrial accidents that have occurred on several worlds that have caused shortages of key materials here on Torval 2.”
Garth raised his eyebrows and said sweetly, “Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that. Of course, I will help if I can. Can I go out of Confidential mode for a moment while I look at the situation?”
Without waiting for an answer, he turned on his persa. Looking at it for several seconds, he started shaking his head.
“I’m going back to Confidential mode, if you agree.”
With her affirmative, he started, “My, those are quite a few accidents that have occurred. I will have to look more into them. There are over thirty worlds involved, so it may take some time to determine what is going on. How about I get back to you in one or two months?”
Nadia clenched her jaw and said, “Garth, you don’t understand. Those materials have been supplied to Torval 2 for well over fifty years from these sources. Torval 2 relies upon them. We cannot wait a month or even two weeks. These shortages must be addressed immediately.”
Garth looked at her and slowly said, “Hmm. It sounds like you really need me to help you out. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. If you do me a small favor, I will speed up my investigation. In fact, I can promise you that the materials will become available immediately after you complete my favor.”
Suspiciously Nadia said, “Just what favor did you have in mind?”
Garth smiled and said, “I will have Kadar free up the materials. To recompense this, I would like you to give him a one-time payment from the United Federation of Planets treasury of 15,000 credits. This is a relatively small sum, but it will make it worth his while to speed up the investigation. However, I require that this payment be kept absolutely secret – just between you and him. Do you think that you can arrange this? I can guarantee that if you don’t agree to this, it will take far more than the two months to straighten out this mess – and more shortages cannot be ruled out.”
Garth’s smile caused Nadia to feel physically ill, but she knew that it was by far in the best interests of Torval 2, and in fact the entire sector, to pay the relatively small sum of 15,000 credits. The material shortages would cause far more than ten times that much damage every day that manufacturing was delayed.
With an unpleasant taste in her mouth, Nadia silently agreed to his proposal by nodding her head. She would have to move some accounts around, but this was well within her capabilities, and no one would ever know.
With a sour taste in her mouth, she asked, if there was anything else. When he responded negatively, she canceled Confidential mode and signed off. She felt off kilter, almost like she was in a dream. After making the accounting changes to make the payment happen, she looked at the critical shortages. Two of the shortages had already been resolved. Shortly thereafter, all seven of the shortages had been resolved.
While Nadia felt almost unclean dealing with Garth, it appeared that he had kept his word and had resolved the shortages as he had promised – and very quickly at that.
Relieved, she mentally shook her head and closed that episode of her life and looked forward to all the new challenges as Secretary-General of the United Federation of Planets would bring.
CHAPTER 32 – ELECTION
It had been a good year for Nadia, since she had been elected Secretary-General of the United Federation of Planets. Her initial election had been in a landslide and the rules were that there would be a follow-up election in one year – since it was the first year as the leader of the United Federation of Planets – and thereafter elections would be held every five years.
Nadia had only increased her popularity as Secretary-General, making many good decisions that improved the economy and the social well-being of both off-world and Torval 2 citizens. She knew that for this election she didn’t have to campaign or even work to get the vote. There were no serious contending candidates and the election was less than one month away.
She was somewhat surprised when she received a message from Garth, indicating that he wanted to talk to her immediately. She had had no contact with him in almost a year, not since the critical shortage fiasco that had threatened to be such a big deal, then had turned into a non-problem overnight. She was very happy with how everything had turned out, but now her previous dealings with Garth got her thinking again and she grew somewhat nervous.
She accepted the meeting and saw his image before her, smiling at her. She asked sardonically, “Garth, to what do I owe the honor of speaking with you?”
Garth’s smile broadened and he said, “I wanted to let you know that I intend to challenge you to the post of Secretary-General. I think that it is safe to say that you and I are the two most powerful people in the entire sector. I was going to see if the voters might choose me over you.”
Stifling a laugh Nadia said, “Even though I agree that you are quite powerful, I really don’t think that you are capable of being elected. You aren’t the most popular of people and, if I do say so myself, I am currently at the height of my popularity.”
Nadia couldn’t help but feel her chest swell with pride, knowing that she spoke the truth. She had worked very hard for the people of the entire sector and she knew that the people would reward her at the election with a victory. In fact, she had looked at the latest polls and she was
the chosen candidate of over ninety percent of those polled. That Garth might challenge her sounded almost ludicrous.
Feeling a bit egotistic she said, “Maybe it would be best not to run against me. You won the court case, but I don’t think you stand a chance in this contest.”
Smiling he said, “Well, we’ll just have to wait and see won’t we.” He paused, then said, “Well, anyway, I just wanted to be the first to let you know that I am running – I only thought that would be fair to you.”
Nadia still couldn’t make up her mind what she should say, so she remained silent.
Finally, after a rather long pause without any words at all – with both looking at the other trying to read the emotions on their counterpart's face – Garth finally concluded, “Well, I wish you good luck in the election. I believe that you are going to need it.”
With that Garth signed off, leaving Nadia feeling confused with just a shadow of apprehension starting to invade her thoughts. She kept wondering what Garth had up his sleeve. She needed to know, since Garth never did anything without exacting purpose.
The more she thought about it, the more her apprehension grew, until finally she was downright worried.
It was a small, almost, but not quite, comforting thought that maybe all he was trying to do was to get on her nerves. If that were his true intent, she thought sourly, then it was working all too well.
– – –
Nadia’s persa woke her early the next morning – well before sunrise. This did not happen often. She enjoyed her sleep and had her persa set to wake her in the middle of the night only for emergencies. When it did happen, she knew that it was both something her persa could not handle and it was either time critical or of such importance that telling her couldn’t wait.
Grumbling to herself, she was now in a bad mood, and as was typical, she took it out on her persa – she yelled at her persa, “What do you want now?”
Her persa, ever calm responded, “There is a news report about you that just came out accusing you of embezzlement. Unfortunately, it appears as if the story is accurate, if somewhat misleading.”
Nadia groaned, trying to wipe the sleep from her eyes and her mind, and said, “What do you mean it is accurate. I have never embezzled money in my life. You should know that!”
Her persa responded, “Let me read you the news report. It is quite brief.
‘Breaking News: Secretary-General of the United Federation of Planets, Nadia Davidson, is accused of embezzlement of 15,000 credits to pay off Kadar Rahib, a major leader within Garth Nolan’s massive Kingdom. The details of why the illegal payment was made are not currently available, but we will try to both substantiate this claim and determine what the payment was used for. Requests for comment have gone unanswered to Nadia Davidson. Queries to Kadar Rahib only confirm that the payment was made and proof was provided that indeed the payment was made, from a United Federation of Planets account, endorsed by Nadia Davidson.
More news will be provided when it becomes available.’ ”
Nadia shook her head, hoping this would clear up the cobwebs and possibly give her some insight as to how to respond to the accusations.
As her persa had said, the facts as presented were correct, but they appeared damning to her, even though the entire transaction had been performed in good faith. But how was she going to convince the populace of this? Could she?
She recalled that their conversation had been in Confidential mode, so there was no proof that she could provide about their conversation.
She could possibly just tell the truth about what happened and rely on her past impeccable record to show that this couldn’t have been done in malice. She was very glad that Garth had no other ammunition to use against her. As it was, it was his word against hers, and her word held much more credibility that his.
– – –
With controversy still swirling about the embezzlement charges against Nadia the day following the bombshell announcement, Nadia still hadn't figured out how to respond. Therefore, she simply hadn’t responded.
She had received a multitude of requests to be interviewed by reporters, but she had turned all of them down.
She was still thinking what she should do when her persa alerted her once again with an emergency interruption.
Quickly consulting her persa left Nadia shaken.
The display on her persa showed:
“Breaking News: Secretary-General of the United Federation of Planets, Nadia Davidson, currently under investigation on a charge of embezzlement, has been recorded as saying she has withheld information concerning the children and lied to their parents. An audio file has been received that has been verified that it is really Nadia Davidson speaking as follows:
Voice confirmed to be Nadia Davidson: ‘I’m not sure that telling the children’s parents the truth would really be the best course of action in this case.’
Voice confirmed to be Garth Nolan: ‘You mean you want to lie to the parents?’
Voice confirmed to be Nadia Davidson: ‘Yes, I think we should lie to their parents.’
More news will be provided when it becomes available.”
Nadia couldn’t believe it. If Garth had come up with a non-truth, she could easily deny it. But, her persa confirmed, she had actually uttered these lines. And worse, they weren’t even that much taken out of context.
Thoughts swirled around in her head as she wondered if she had made the right decision in shielding the parents from the horror of what the children had truly become. However, thinking about it, she knew that she had made the right decision. In fact, even with this damning evidence against her, she knew that she couldn’t tell the parents the truth. The same logic still applied. The truth, that their children had accepted the very body augmentation that their society had made the foundational bedrock in avoiding, would tear apart the entire basis of their society. No virtual reality and no body augmentation had to remain the center points of their society, or not only their society, but all of mankind would be lost.
How was she supposed to respond to an accusation that was true, but also that she couldn’t let anyone know the justification for?
Nadia studied the latest polling numbers from her persa and saw that her numbers had dropped from ninety percent before the embezzlement charges to sixty percent when no response from her was received. After this latest lying announcement, her numbers had dropped to under forty percent. Garth, without anything more than name recognition, had pulled even with her in the polls. And the bad part was that it was projected that if there was still no response from her, her numbers were expected to go lower and lower until the election was held in less than four weeks.
She knew she would be the best leader by far for everyone in the entire sector, but she would lose the election if she didn’t respond.
But she couldn’t respond without harming the very society that she wanted to help.
– – –
Nadia finally decided to use a three-pronged strategy. She mostly focused her rhetoric on her outstanding service, contrasted by Garth’s militant past. Next, she issued a statement denying any wrongdoing concerning the embezzlement charges. Finally, she chose to simply ignore the charges of her lying to the parents, hoping that it wouldn’t reduce her vote count too much.
She campaigned ceaselessly, hoping the messages she put out repeatedly would more than offset the message that she refused to put out. When she explained the circumstances into the embezzlement charges, about half the people believed her and half did not. So, while it didn’t help her, it didn’t hurt her very much – especially when it was shown that the shortages were real and they did go away – though that could have happened even without a payoff.
Her only real hope was that people believed her as she had continued to pound home to everyone who would listen all she had done for them and all the bad things that Garth had done to so many. This was in deep contrast to Garth’s strategy of extolling all the benefits that his Kingdom h
ad provided.
The day of the election saw Nadia both mentally and physically exhausted. Chuckling to herself, she almost thought it would be better if she did not win – though it would be better only for her, not for the sector at large.
As the election results started coming in, and the two leading candidates were neck-and-neck. With all the contradictions being put out by both parties, it had led to an extremely close vote.
Nadia waited by herself for the final numbers to come in. She didn't feel like having anyone else around, as she didn’t know how she could bear to see anyone if she lost. As the last numbers were displayed, a cold feeling so deep entered her heart and mind as numbers showed that Garth had won by less than a percentage point.
She sat there, by herself, and wondered if the electors knew what they had done. They had elected the most power-hungry person in the sector to the most powerful position in the sector. And Nadia was powerless to stop what she knew was going to be a catastrophe.
Nadia didn’t know how long she had sat there, filled completely with dread, when her persa indicated that Garth had initiated a call. Nadia was too stunned to decide whether to take the call, so she just sat, hearing her persa ask again, and again if she wanted to take the call.
Finally, after several minutes, she accepted the call.
Garth said, “Congratulations on a good campaign. You did very well, considering you bore the weight of two scandals. You made it way too easy for me – those scandals were both of your doing – I didn’t have to make up anything myself. I have great plans going forward. If you would like to be a part of it, just let me know.
