The Star Cross: The Dark Invaders (16 page)

“I second the
resolution,” spoke up Fleet Admiral Tomalson, his eyes focusing sharply on
Marlen Stroud.

“As do I,”
added General Braid in a powerful and uncompromising voice. “We owe Newton our freedom, and their independence will be a just reward.”

“No!”
stammered Stroud, shaking his head defiantly. “Fleet Admiral Vickers and
Governor Spalding must continue to answer to this Cabinet. They have committed
grievous crimes against this planet which must be adjudicated.”

-

Stroud was
still extremely angry over how he had been treated on Newton—arrested by
Marines in front of others and forced to work in a fishing village. He couldn’t
let the two people responsible for that slip through his hands unpunished. He
was so close to having enough votes to remove both of them from power. Just a
few more weeks and Vickers would be back on Earth, going through a
court-martial. Stroud would see to it that the book was thrown at Vickers, and Stroud
would gleefully have Vickers sent to prison for the rest of his natural life.

“We vote,”
said Raul Gutierrez, the Secretary of Homeland Security. “The motion has been
seconded, and the second upheld by General Braid.”

Stroud knew he
had been outmaneuvered. Looking around the table, there was no doubt the
resolution would pass. “This is a mistake,” he grumbled as he sat back down. “Newton is ours and must remain under our control. The people will not stand for this!”

-

President
Mayfield stood and looked gravely at the Cabinet members. “All in favor of
granting Newton independence raise your hands.”

Six hands went
up immediately, and Mayfield felt his heart stutter. He needed eight votes for
the resolution to pass. Then hesitantly one more hand was raised and then
another.

“No!” yelled
Stroud, shaking his head in anger. “This vote was rigged in advance. I won’t
let you get away with it. When the people hear what you’ve done today, heads
will roll.”

“Be that as it
may,” President Mayfield replied as he passed the resolution around the table
to be signed, “this matter is settled, and, as of today, the Newton colony is
now an independent world. I will go on all media stations later this evening to
make the announcement.” What a relief that no Executive Order from him would be
needed to grant Newton its independence. It would make challenging Newton’s independence much more difficult or nearly impossible.

“This will be
the end of you,” threatened Stroud, his face flushed with his growing rage. “If
you sign this resolution, you’ll be impeached and removed from office within
the month, and I’ll lead the effort to do it!”

“Perhaps,”
Mayfield replied as the document made its way back to him. With a flourish, he
signed his name and handed it to his secretary to notarize. She had been
standing by and listening to the entire exchange. “File that and distribute the
necessary copies.”

As the
secretary left the room, President Mayfield had one more piece of business to
attend to. “Yesterday I received a message from Governor Spalding. It seems
that three modified cargo ships from the European Union, the Chinese
Conglomerate, and the Russian Collective attempted to go to Kubitz and meet
with its government.”

“They have
every right to do so,” grated out Stroud, still fuming from the stunt Mayfield
had pulled to give Newton its independence. “Vickers and Spalding don’t own the
rights to Kubitz. Anyone can go there. It’s about time some Earth ships were
sent to represent us. It’s only a shame those ships couldn’t have come from the
North American Union.”

Fleet Admiral
Tomalson slowly shook his head, gazing at Stroud. “Kubitz is in the heart of
the Gothan Empire, and, to reach it, you must go through Profiteer space. Hell,
even Kubitz is dangerous. Fleet Admiral Vickers says it’s a den of thieves and
pirates, and should be stayed away from if one wants to live a long life.”

“All lies,”
Stroud said dismissively. “The Profiteer attack on our planet was from one
Profiteer world. I’m sure the rest are peaceful, and it won’t be a problem to
set up diplomatic relations with many of them. Those horror stories from
Vickers are just to limit access to any advanced technology we might procure by
going around Newton. I’m glad to see someone finally took the initiative to
travel to Kubitz, where I’m sure they’ll be enthusiastically received, and we
will soon have confirmation of the lies Vickers has told.”

Fleet Admiral
Tomalson slowly rose to his feet and pointed to a piece of paper in his hands.
“The three cargo ships were intercepted by the Tellurites, a Profiteer world
that preys on cargo ships coming into the Gotham Empire. They are one of the
smaller Profiteer worlds and operate a number of raiding fleets, searching for
laden cargo vessels inbound to Kubitz.”

Stroud’s face
turned pale. “What are you saying?”

“The
Tellurites destroyed the cargo ship
Kirov
, and all members of its crew
were killed in the attack. The
Athenia
and the
Yangtze
were
seized, and the two crews sent to Kubitz to be sold in the slave markets.”

“Sold as slaves!
The
Kirov
destroyed!” cried out Secretary of Education Connie Saxon, her
eyes showing shock. “We must rescue them!”

“Yes!” called
out Stroud, seeing an opportunity. “We can send our fleet to Kubitz and demand
the release of the two crews.”

Fleet Admiral
Tomalson shook his head. “We don’t have the ships to spare. I have asked this Cabinet
a number of times to expand our fleet, and each time I have been turned down.
We barely have enough ships to protect Earth.”

“We don’t have
the money to waste on warships we’ll never need,” said Secretary of Treasury
Dwight Michaels. “The rebuilding of our cities and infrastructure will take
everything we currently have in our treasury and more.”

“Well, it
seems as if we need them now,” replied Tomalson, glaring at Michaels. “Don’t
forget the mysterious ships we detected a few months ago on the outer edges of
the system. What if we’re attacked again?”

“We’re getting
away from the subject of this conversation,” Connie Saxon said, not wanting to
get into an argument. “Is there any way Newton can help, since they already
have an embassy on Kubitz?”

President
Mayfield cleared his throat and spoke. “Fortunately the people in charge of the
Newton embassy learned of the seizure of the cargo ships and their crews.
They arranged to pay the necessary fees to free both crews. The men and women who
were on board the
Athenia
and the
Yangtze
are now safe at the Newton embassy compound on Kubitz. A passenger liner from Newton will go to Kubitz shortly
to pick them up and return them safely to Earth. I have already notified the
European Union, the Chinese Conglomerate, and the Russian Collective of what
happened. For now, they have agreed to leave Kubitz and the Gothan Empire to Newton and Fleet Admiral Vickers.”

-

Marlen Stroud
leaned back in his chair, shaking his head in disbelief. It seemed that Fleet
Admiral Vickers and Newton had come out ahead once more. It would be quite some
time before any Earth country risked sending another ship to the Gothan Empire.
He had helped to secretly finance the mission to Kubitz. He had never expected
it to end this way.

-

Later
President Mayfield, Fleet Admiral Tomalson, General Braid, and Secretary of
Homeland Security Raul Gutierrez were in the president’s office, discussing the
results of the Cabinet meeting.

“Did you see
the look on Stroud’s face when you informed the Cabinet of the failure of the
three cargo ships to reach Kubitz?” asked Raul. “I got the distinct impression
he already knew about them.”

“Do you think
it’s possible he had something to do with sending them?” asked General Braid.

“It’s
possible,” Mayfield replied with a nod. “We know he has deep connections with
the Chinese Conglomerate. That’s how he got to Newton to begin with.”

“Still say we
should have shot him when he first returned from Newton,” mumbled General
Braid. “What the man did was treason.”

Fleet Admiral
Tomalson stepped to gaze out the large window at all the construction going on.
It would be years before Washington was restored to its former glory. “We upset
Stroud considerably today. I suspect he’s already working on impeachment. He’ll
call in every political favor he can to reverse the resolution giving Newton its independence.”

“Won’t
matter,” responded Mayfield. “I’ll make a speech in a couple of hours notifying
the world of Newton’s independence. Within the next few days, both the European
Union and the Russian Collective will sign trade agreements with Newton, as well as recognizing their independence status. Once that’s done, Stroud nor
anyone else will be able to do anything to reverse it.”

“Except get
you thrown out of office,” Raul suggested. “The next president could make
things very difficult for Newton. He or she could also put a stop to all
immigration.”

“We have the
two large Profiteer cargo ships that Fleet Admiral Vickers captured that will
be ready to make passenger runs in another few days. Each one of those ships
can carry ten thousand colonists. With the other ships we have available, we
can move nearly one hundred thousand colonists a week to Newton.”

Raul only
shook his head. “We’re stripping the country of some of its brightest and most
talented people. Some will say we’re destroying any hope of a restored future.”

“Our goal is
to send eight million more people to Newton,” said Mayfield, folding his arms
across his chest. “That will give them a population base of slightly over
twenty million people. That’s what we feel is needed to allow them to grow on
their own at a reasonable rate as well as to defend the planet.”

“What about
the other countries of the world? How many colonists from them will Newton accept?” asked General Braid.

“Some have
already been approved,” Fleet Admiral Tomalson answered as he turned away from
the window to look back at the others. “Several ships a week leave the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, and even South America. All the applicants are thoroughly
screened before being granted colonists’ status.”

“What about
those ships your fleet detected a few months back?” asked Raul. “What do we
make of them?”

Fleet Admiral
Tomalson turned toward the president, who nodded his head. “We may have a
bigger problem than Marlen Stroud. We received a message from Fleet Admiral
Vickers yesterday, and it’s quite disturbing. Evidently High Profiteer Creed is
organizing a major attack on Earth. He’s bringing in other Profiteer clans as
well as more of the Dacroni mercenaries.”

Raul and
General Braid stared at each other, both their faces turning pale. They knew
the struggling economy of Earth would collapse completely if the Profiteers
returned.

“How soon?”
asked Braid.

“Two more
months at the outside,” President Mayfield answered. “Fleet Admiral Vickers
wants to put more defensive satellites in orbit around Earth as well as station
a quick-response fleet close to the Solar System.”

Raul blinked his
eyes and then asked, “Will that be enough?”

“It depends on
how determined the Profiteers are,” Tomalson replied. “If they bring a truly
large fleet, there may be nothing we or Admiral Vickers can do.”

“What if they
nuke us again?” Raul asked.

Tomalson looked
gravely at Raul. “If the Profiteers succeed in taking over the planet that may
be a very real possibility.”

Everyone in
the room grew quiet.

The planet had
already lost over eighty million inhabitants to Profiteer nukes with more dying
daily from radiation exposure. The effects of the nuke attacks would be felt
for generations. Just the thought of another, and possibly worse nuclear attack
was appalling. If the Profiteers nuked Earth again, the planet might not ever
recover.

-

Marlen Stroud sat
in his office, his face full of anger. He had just talked to one of his allies
in the Chinese Conglomerate. They had confirmed the failure of the Kubitz
mission. They had received a message from Governor Spalding, informing them of
the Tellurite interception of the three modified cargo ships and the loss of
the
Kirov
. Spalding had informed them their cargo ship crew would be
returned in about four more weeks.

“What now?”
asked Dwight Michaels. “It looks as if we cannot count on Kubitz technology to
dig us out of this mess Mayfield’s put us in.”

Stroud glared
at Michaels, his strongest ally on the Cabinet. “We move immediately for
impeachment,” growled Stroud. “Mayfield will make his speech later today, and
we can do nothing to block that. However, once the speech is over, we’ll launch
a multimedia campaign on how giving Newton its independence is bad. We’ll run
ads on every media outlet, detailing all the money Newton has spent to protect
itself while leaving us nearly defenseless.”

“That’s not
true,” objected Michaels, his eyes narrowing. “We’ve blocked all the defense
appropriations that Tomalson and the president have requested.”

“We know that,
but the people don’t,” replied Stroud with a conniving grin. “When we’re
through, President Mayfield will be lucky if the people don’t lynch him.”

Michaels was
silent for a long moment and then spoke. “Who will be the next president?”

Stroud didn’t
answer. If all his plans came to fruition, then, in a few more months, he would
sit in the Oval Office, fully in charge of the North American Union and then
later the entire world. He had operatives in both the Russian Collective and
the Chinese Conglomerate. While the European Union and some of the other
independent countries might be a problem, he was confident they would all come
around eventually.