<continued from Part IV>
* * *
The United Planetary Defense Council--like the whole of the Department of
Defense secretariat--modeled itself after a similar body that once served
the United States of America. The Defense Council still an-swered to a
Secretariat, as did the old American Joint Chiefs of Staff. However, the
relationship between the military side and the civilian side demonstrated a
greater degree of dualism; the work of President Maria Redes, whose primary
model for remodeling the United Planetary Confederation�s government could
be found in a dusty copy of the American Constitution, an intact rendition
of the 2003 United States Code, and some common sense.
The DOD was the only cabinet department not to have standard
headquarters. As a matter of principle, the entire planet Earth was
considered the DOD�s office complex, with primary institutions in
Washing-ton D.C., Geneva, Murmansk, Liverpool, and San Fransisco. The
secretariat did not share the Bravo Eight complex with the Defense Council,
however. That facility--a military base in and of itself--was lo-cated deep
in the savannas of Southern Central Africa.
Off the record, the location of the Secretary of Defense�s primary
office was always in Arlington. The Pentagon had once symbolized American
military might in a world that was coming to terms with its sole superpower.
Whereas the world had produced a variety of military innovations and
geniuses from across the globe, the Pentagon--on behalf of the entire United
States Armed Forces--represented that world�s last testament to national
military achievement before Earth�s first major step towards the stars.
Today, what had once been the Pentagon was now a massive crater, threatening
to draw ever close to the sacred Ar-lington field that still housed the
undisturbed remains of America�s deceased guardians. With this legacy--one
undoubtedly repeated on hundreds of other worlds, although they did not
attract President Redes at-tention seventy years ago--the United States
lived on in a sense, passing her essence and blessing into a newer, greater
collection of democratic institutions and formal freedoms.
And to that democracy the United Planetary Confederation�s Secretary of
Defense swore an oath; an oath to protect her and assure that her legacy
would proceed into the distant future.
"Good morning, Gentlemen," Heinrich Goer, SecDef, stood to receive his
guests. The Marine Guard (Maria Redes had dismissed the Secret Service
concept for various reasons) stood posted until each and everyone of the
SecDef�s 10:30 appointments had filed in. Their hardened expressions
remained tightly woven into their faces, and only with a wave of the
SecDef�s hand did they dare leave. Well, all except for two. The Secretary
of Defense was in line for National Command Authority, and that meant that
he warranted a complete guard posting at all times. After all, what if an
angry deputy J-4 decided to take a promotional matter into his own hands?
Fortunately, the J-3 Operations Officer for the Defense Council, Major
General Aref Moudi, was just fine with his current tour. He headed the pack
of staffers assembled, although it was clear he wouldn�t be the primary
speaker; this wasn�t a military meeting. Today, the mixture included mostly
national intelli-gence officers. Most were from the State Department�s
intelligence desk, and a few signal intelligence officers from the
Communications Security and Intelligence Agency, the most expansive
intelligence bu-reau on the civilian side of Meredith Avenue, remained in
their camp. Three were from the Central Intel-ligence Network, and one of
them hailed from G2, the Confederation�s umbrella organization for both
formal and informal military intelligence. He represented the J-2
Intelligence Officer; by default Major General Ghers. The G2 brigadier
colonel had enjoyed a successful parlay with senior Defense Force offi-cers
at Bravo Eight last week, and had completed debriefing both the Secretary of
State and the National Security Advisor. Secretary Goer was undoubtedly
aware of this briefing�s content, but he suffered the lengthy
familiarization anyway. With a brief nod to the colonel, the meeting was
off to a start.
"Mr. Secretary," Westphal Green, Brigadier Colonel, nodded. "I�m quite
sure you�re acquainted with General Moudi. Our civilian staff today
includes Mr. Serx-shelex, the desk chief for Corron Affairs for CIN." The
G2 officer proceeded to introduce the collected guests; dismissing seniority
in favor of their abitrary arrangement.
The lavender-skinned Muscaen bowed deeply, his four compound eyes
reflecting a disturbing image of the SecDef as he courteously responded.
"Mr. Achmed Badrayn, International Affairs Counsel to the President and
our senior government offi-cer today." The unusually youthful Iraqi standing
next to Muscaen desk chief extended his hand. The SecDef accepted it,
noting that he had never met this particular NIO face-to-face before despite
Mr. Badrayn�s widely known reputation. After all, an IAC ranked only two
grades below the National Secu-rity Advisor--the most coveted post short of
the Defense post itself. In a way, IACs and the NSA were a hell of a lot
closer to the Power, as their offices were in the Presidential Palace--the
Secretary of Defense had to fly halfway across the world to have a
face-to-face with his boss.
"Ms. Leija Rajiyna, as you know," Green pointed to the acerb-looking
Indo-Asian woman who had aready taken the liberty of a seat. Ms. Rajiyna�s
expression struck Goer as unexpressive, yet it didn�t ex-ceed the point of
disturbing severity. The Deputy Director (Operations) was the senior member
from the CIN present today. A career intelligence officer, she had
initially worked through the Department of Treasury�s Commerce Intelligence
Analysis Board. A paper on commerce warfare had brought her to the
attention of her predecessor, who had brought her in as a Special Assistant
(Various Functions). As an SA(VF), she had nearly unlimited access to
various enumerated documents that complemented her re-search. With a
doctorate in both international relations and a service certificate in
diplomatic intelli-gence, her rise to DDO was inevitable when the Harcourt
Administration set camp in the Presidential Pal-ace last year. Still, she
had earned a reputation amongst official Geneva; summarized unofficially,
she was as cold as ice. However, the few who took the time to get to know
her--generally those most im-pressed by her deft competence and
uncompromising respect for both the law and her nation�s interests--knew the
depth of feeling she was capable of. A good chief operator looked after
their personnel and cared for them as if they were all part of some sort of
family. With a huge (and unpublished) number of field officers and other
department employess under her, it was monumental task to look after them
all. Fortunately, DDO Rajiyna was one of the good ones, and her executive
director was also one of the best.
"Ms. Dallas MacDonald, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Treasury Department
Commerce Intelligence Analysis Board." Despite SecDef Goer�s close
relationship to his counterpart in the Treasury Department, he new very
little about that end of the street beyond their dossiers. From a glance,
Dallas MacDonald seemed far too diminutive of a woman to warrant her rustic,
Terran appellative. Nevertheless, Ms. Mac-Donald had come up through
Treasury as not only one of the brightest computer modeling anaylsts in the
department, but with a reputation as a bit of a cowboy. That automatically
made her intelligence, and her knack for spotting numerical patterns had
attracted SecTreas�s attention during her early work with the Bureau of
Narcotics and Firearms. She nodded softly and took a seat next to the DDO;
her expression every bit as calm and collective as Rajinya�s. The Secretary
of Defense smiled back as his eyes followed Green�s hand towards the NIOs.
He introduced them collectively, "Mr. Alan Dobson and Ms. Wei Lin Pao
are accompanying Mr. Badrayn today; they�re the Corron Affairs Desk�s
primary operations analysts. Colonel Njube Kwame and Major Kofi Jackson
from the Communications Security and Intelligence Agency, and they�ll be
leading the briefing on communications associated material in the briefing.
Also, Lieutenant Commander Hulous Garsell�je and Dr. Chiro-ne
Hellor--they�re with DDO Rajiyna today."
The last two caught the Secretary of Defense�s attention. Both, from a
glance, looked exactly like the blue complexion enemy the Confederation had
known for seventy years; they were, after all, of Corronoid stock.
Garsell�je was a Hachi, a Corronoid lot seeded millions of years ago on a
world near the Giovanni Buffer Zone. His family had defected during the
last war, where they learned to love their new nation with a feverish
loyalty that only refugees and immigrants taken in could truly understand.
Because of their physical qualities, however, they often were subjugated to
various instances of discrimination. Local authorities refused to enforce
anti-discrimination statues handed down from regional governments and even
Geneva--the Hulous family were three times turned into homeless refugees,
scrapping to obtain whatever residence they could find and struggling to
find a world where they could finally realize the dream of democracy. His
father died before that of his race�s answer to lymphotic cancer, but his
mother and uncle pushed all eighteen of the family�s youth through the
educational system. Three became De-fense Force officers, one a local
politician on a rural continent on 183 Henrietta II, five achieved doctoral
level degrees in physics, medicine and law, and the rest took to farming
their large New Alexandria plot. All of them except, of course, for
Garsell�je. He majored in military history, defended his masters in
Business Administration, and pursued a doctoral degree in international
relations and intelligence. He also enrolled in the Navy Reserve Officer�s
Training Corps, which immediately assigned him to high-profile intelligence
assignments. His name was on the short-list of promising prospects the
CIN�s DDO sought to bring in from military intelligence. It didn�t take
long for Rajiyna to find a partner that would match her latest project head
to toe.
Dr. Chiro-ne Hellor had his doctorate in economic philosophy from the
Graduate School of Economics on New Munich, and for all intensive purposes
he should have gone into the Treasury Department rather than the foreign
intelligence community. Nevertheless, his undocumented expertise with the
Corron Em-pire�s inner workings, developed after a tour there, sponsored by
Karbarra-Sekitan Industries and the Cor-ron Empire�s Imperial Communications
Corporation, made him an invaluable resource amongst the CIN�s Empire
analysts. Eventually, he picked up on that task, and he quickly moved up in
the Directorate of Intelligence. Slated for a transfer into administration,
he willingly accepted an offer from the DDO to work for her--putting off his
fast-track for a possible appointment as a directorate chief off for almost
a decade. More importantly, Chiro-ne Hellor was on of less than twelve
native Rubians in federal employ. Indicating on numerous occasions and
through a number of postdoctoral papers his distinct interest in seeing
Rubia become the Confederation�s 340th member star-nation, Dr. Chiro-ne was
one of the most adamant supporters of a peace accord with the Empire based
on mutual economic interests.
Goer, the conservative player on Harcourt�s generally liberal
counterpart, was prepared to dismiss Dr. Chiro-ne�s testimony on that point.
However, the Defense Secretary understood the duties of his office too well
to consider ignoring advice on a simple ideological difference. Dr.
Chiro-ne was most definitely not on the left of the foreign policy debate,
but his opposition based upon economic principle had a certain sense of
truth about it; there were benefits to enjoying a cooperative relationship
with the Empire. The fact that the intelligence analyst, who had never
involved himself in politics beyond his current federal service, proposed
his theories with no ulterior motives warranted a degree of respect.
However, Heinrich Goer was no economist, and his reservations regarding Dr.
Chiro-ne�s predictions for the "inevitability" of peace coincided with his
inability to fully grasp the concepts involved. Although an excellent
delegator, Goer admited to himself he had a tendency to demand too much
control through his insistence on know-ing everything. That propensity had
cost him earlier in the term, and he had learned from his mistakes. Still,
he thought he should at least check to see what the folks across the street
at the Treasury Department about Dr. Chiro-ne�s ideas.
But that was neither here nor there. The Secretary of Defense had
already received his preliminary briefing earlier this morning, and Chiro-ne
was here for a far different reason other than championing his ideas.
"Well, Colonel Green? I think we can commence the briefing."
"Thank you, Mr. Secretary," the intelligence officer answered
graciously. The entire entourage had taken their seats amongst the
informally arranged setting the SecDef had provided. On a center table,
Lieutenant Commander Garsell�je set down a small laptop computer and its
peripheral holographic pro-jector. From his desk, the Secretary dimmed the
lights as Colonel Green nodded in approval towards Garsell�je. The Hachi
naval officer pressed play.
The recording covered the pertinent aspects of the last Bravo Eight
conference; General Moudi had already secured the conference minutes and
published them on ten datapads. The Secretary briefly ran through his, and
then turned his attention to the visual recording. The whole affair lasted
fourteen min-utes, and the lights returned to normal--cueing the commentary
portion of the brief.
"Both RIKER and DELILAH," Green freely mentioned the briefing packets
permanent codenames--everyone in the room was cleared for both the names and
their substance, "have been across the desks of the Undersecretary for
Military Intelligence and the Director of Central Intelligence. To
summarize for all those present, the preliminary briefing drafted by
Undersecretary al-Rashid and Fleet Admiral Brant discussed the immediate
operational aspects of the mission. General Moudi will present a far more
thor-ough dissertation on that aspect, along with logistical aspects.
Ultimately, the purpose of this briefing is to ascertain the political
dimension of this proposal."
Green was a student of the ancient Chinese philosophies regarding
warfare, concepts and ideas often dismissed for the unjustifiable Western
appeal of Clauswitz, that Prussian thinker who spawned the weak, yet most
frequently touted, summary definition of war--as the "continuation of policy
by other means." However, Colonel Green and his camp at Bravo Eight and
G2�s ambiguous headquarters knew that his-tory and experience would bear out
the inextricable symmetry that existed between the combat and politi-cal
aspects of war and its social side--making war and politics equivocally the
same thing from a cultural viewpoint. Although the Confederation currently
existed in a state of "peace"--a tried one, but peace nonetheless--people
like Green understood that warfare was a continuing state of sentient
affairs through a variety of outlets. Looking briefly at Chiro-ne and
Dallas MacDonald, he could easily point out that they were experts in their
own �variety� of warfare--where monies and commodities constituted the
weapons and soldiers; markets, banks, and international monetary
relationships made up the battlefield; the strat-egy manifested itself in
the form of tax and commerce policy; and where the effects of the battle
spiked or cut taxes, raised or decreased interest rates, levied State�s
recommendations for economic sanctions, and caused trade imbalances. The
results were real enough to those whose livelihoods depended on the
mar-kets, and their government�s capability of protecting their interests.
What was "regular warfare" anyway? Green and many of his ilk often asked
themselves; the answer always readily dawned on him: a dream.
With the plans already prepared and the intelligence gathered up early,
the only thing left to do was to ascertain the likelihood that all this
studying and planning would eventually direct policy; that�s why the
overwhelming majority of this briefing�s constiuents were civilian--the only
exceptions being Green him-self, General Moudi, and--techically--the CIN�s
Garsell�je. These people had their fingers on the Confed-eration�s
political pulse, and the Secretary of Defense--along with the Secretary of
State and the Confed-eration National Security Advisor--would ultimately
bear the responsibility of advising the President. Only through that
lengthy process could policy develop; just as he had learned to be patient
on the physi-cal battlefield, Green dealt with the frustratingly long waits
that often puncuated briefings like this and the Final Decision.
"That still doesn�t cut it," Achmed Badrayn spoke up for the first
time. Nearly an hour had passed, and the specifics and associated
commentary were finally out of the way. They had finally arrived at the
grittiest and most important part of the meeting; which, ironically, would
constitute the shortest segment: conclusions. "The last time we dabbled
with something like this, it turned around and bit us in the ass. I don�t
think I have to remind you what happened last December. That happened on
our side of the Black, too."
The December raid on Jarao was light in comparison to, say, the
Ishtar-anai attack earlier in �69. Green noted that Badrayn stayed away
from that example, and applauded his maneuver. Of all the people in the
room, he was the most opposed to the direct action proposed by the Defense
Council. He also had some very compelling reasons for his stance. He
continued: "From an operational viewpoint, its a whole lot cleaner now--the
intelligence is definitely a whole lot better now. Still, we�re talking
about a major change in policy--after last December, I don�t think its in
the best interests of the Administration to pursue such a bold course of
action. I�d rather move without confirmation to interdict rather than try
this."
"But look, Achmed," the DDO of the Central Intelligence Network spoke
up. "We can tip our hand way too easily that way--we know one thing for
sure: they�ve been calling our shots a bit too well in the past year. I say
that the fall-out is acceptable enough to pursue; the question is whether or
not the Presi-dent�s ready to risk this much to stop them."
"This will bury him!" Badrayn exclaimed. "Serx, what did you get out
of this? How will the Empire respond?"
"It�s risky to guess, I�ll say," Serx, the octopedal Durexian
replied--a artificially intelligence translat-ing device rendering his
incomprehensible attempt at Standard English into a surprisingly human-like
voice. "Bravo Eight admits that there is no way we�ll keep this incursion
under wraps--they�ll either see it coming or going. There�s basically three
options for them. They can use it as an excuse to step up the
raids--assuming they are responsible--" No one disputed the appropiate
qualifier--it was prudent to remain diplomatic about such things. "--and
from a tactical point of view, they might just be able to justify it.
Still, that means stepping up the juice towards war; from what we read and
from what the guys over at the State Department have, the Imperial Council
seems to prefer entrenching themselves at the moment. For-eign policy is
very weak over there, which some might attribute the recent raids to. From
that standpoint, the Empire can then bolster its arguments of
non-involvement in any of the previous raids against our border holdings and
then cry bloody murder. In that case, the political fall out will be the
heaviest--even heavier than if they were to step up incursions or even go
into full-blown war. The President would easily weather a transition to
war, and the Democratic-Unificationist government just might pull support
from the hawks if it goes that way."
Serx-sherex was correct, a violent Imperial response would force the
Confederation into line--especially at this point. They were off-balance,
admittedly, but stepped up incursions would hurt the Confederation only
militarily. Historically, executives enjoyed a great deal of prosperity
during wartime; and a full-blown war against the Corron Empire would effect
everyone�s interests enough to keep them in line. However, Green read
Serx�s alien expression adequately enough to realize the Durexian had little
faith in the likelihood of Option 2 occuring--and only the extremely
demented hoped for war to further political gain. Almost immediately Green
rebuked himself for such an asinine observation--recalling most of human
history was frought with wars fought over absurdities.
"The third, of course, is they�ll sit on it; with quiet, diplomatic
complaints. This is worse, actually, because it keeps us wary enough about
them while drawing lines of suspicion on the homefront. They�ll leak the
information, of course; but the damage for them is of minimal concern
compared to the potential for political profit. The main point, however, is
that they�ll cautiously and judiciously approach the situa-tion--no
publically documented outbursts from the Imperial Senate Floor, no carefully
scripted diatribes of anti-Confederation rhetoric. No �we will bury you
speeches.� Merely quiet and cautious diplomatic con-sultation."
Neither the Secretary of Defense nor most of the NIOs and Cabinet staff
officers present were students of Earth history. A former leader of a
totalitarian regime two-hundred years and ten years ago had used the words
�we will bury you� in ironic contradiction to policy�s dictated by his
nation�s flavor of commu-nism. Needless to say, that Terran government had
collapsed, as they all do after a test of time; the Em-pire, however, did
not fit well into this categorization. The current modus of Corron society
predated most current Confederation civilizations by two-hundred thousand
years, and advanced Corron civiliza-tion as a whole had existed nearly a
million years before Homo sapiens sapiens walked the Earth. Clearly, they
had to be doing something right. The Confederation�s top political analysts
on Corron affairs, mostly from worlds with experience with lengthy
monarchial and totalitarian governments, were at a loss in con-structing a
model of how Corron politics and society worked exactly.
Goer�s brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed. Clasping his hands
together, he offered the CIN desk chief a ominous glare. "I assume you
favor one over the other."
"Three seems more likely, which is why it worries me," Serx-sherex
replied, his translator transforming his inaudible, clicking-like speech
into idiomatic Standard English. It was almost humorous, Green thought, to
hear the octopus-like Muscaen�s speech rendered into a North American
dialect--albeit with a mechanical accent. Indeed, the AI involved in such
translating devices had expanded to the point where any species could
"speak" fluently in another, supposing a sufficient database of syntax was
available. Serx-sherex was more familiar with that aspect of the
translator; since they used similar machines to not only translate
recordings of Corron governmental proceedings, but also render the
translation in a manner that behavioral psychologists and political analysts
not familiar with the Hwi�thae language could use it to gain insight into
the way Corron politicians thought. That�s how Serx-sherex was able to find
this dis-turbing trend in the first place. "We�ve been analyzing for about
five months the differences between what we are getting from their General
Imperial Quorum and how their Senate�s behaved in concordance over the past
twenty years. Moderation has definitely come back in a big way. The
problem is that we have virtually no record of political activity before our
current intel assets; they go back no more than twenty or thirty years."
Serx-sherex, Green knew, wasn�t cleared for YOKKURI, but his assessment
was as correct as it was surprising. Without any hard knowledge of
intelligence operations conducted within the Empire, the desk chief had used
the common knowledge circulating about the Confederation regarding those
intelligence assets and actually estimated how far back they had been in
place. The colonel looked to Dr. Chiro-ne, who decided now was his time to
speak.
"I�m nervous about any idea that involves bringing us back into armed
conflict with the Empire," he began predictably, but Green knew that
Chiro-ne was too much of a professional to allow his personal conflicts
interrupt or taint his input, "but it seems to me that we do have intact
histories of their interstel-lar trade records. The behavioral component to
economic intelligence is noticably when considering poli-ticians, but we
might be able to draw assumptions around what we know of Corron psychology
and cul-tural convention at this point and see how those trends develop in
their economic policies and trade deal-ings. I believe I presented a
report three years ago describing this invaluable source of intelligence."
Goer and Rajiyna both nodded in agreement, but the CIN DDO spoke up
first. "That�s all well and good, Dr. Chillor-ne; we will definitely review
that analysis again and look towards implementing it. Still, I�d like to
bring us back to the discussion at hand. Serx, you always did have a habit
of drawing us onto a tangent."
"Sorry, ma�am," the Muscaen offered his species equivalent to a sheepish
smiled. Dr. Chillor-ne merely sank back into his seat, his face a
stone-wall completely devoid of emotion.
"All right, what about the economic perspective?" The question landed
on MacDonald, who had been biding her time up until this point.
"Well, our hands our tied over at Treasury," she began. "All indicators
point at a favorable rise in trade interests with all non-Terran
Confederation interests. The Empire�s actually picking up three, maybe four
trillion in extra tax revenue from border trade at the usual hyperlane choke
points. However, we can�t understand the corresponding trend of incursions
on those choke points by the Empire and the increased interest of the Core
with doing business with them. Frankly, we have no idea what they think is
they may consider the local economic center of gravity."
"What do you know?" General Moudi asked impatiently.
"Sir," MacDonald turned to the general. "The economic center of gravity
has been the main attraction of strategic attention in every interstellar
war for the past eight millenia. The fact is that the military can-not
convince their governing bodies the value of attacking any region that does
not press towards some sort of economic center of gravity."
"Key targets," Moudi nodded understandingly.
"If I might add something," Commander Garsell�je spoke up. The
Secretary of Defense turned to the Hachi. "We know the obvious economic
interests along the Arm include Rastaban, Rubia, and Tital. These are the
three primary choke-points."
"But they aren�t the primary transit lines for cross-border trade,"
MacDonald pointed out.
"No," Dr. Chiro-ne, "But they are the collection hubs for
Confederation-flag freighters headed along the Hegerman and Manchuria.
Those trade routes have been staked out for centuries before we acquired
them, and the Jaraoans and Titalians had absolutely no intention of
sacrificing their other trading part-ners, despite the Empire�s ambitions on
their home systems. They were ready to accept limited autonomy so long as
they could maintain favored trade status with the Empire."
"And how does this relate to what we�re talking about?" Moudi pressed.
"It�s called �Freedom of Interstellar Space,� General," Chiro-ne
explained. "It means that we can�t tell our member nations and
protectorates who and who not to trade with when they move through
interstellar space, because those are essentially international �waters.�
It was a good idea at the time, it would ensure the continuance of trade in
war, although the security risks that were pointed out were pretty
concerning. However, it�s still on the books, and it would take an act of
legislation, or a declaration of war, to suspend it. If it isn�t a star or
some notable celestial body or tangible phenomenon, we can�t do anything
about it."
That was something few people understood, Green noted. The idea of
�freedom of interstellar space� had, at one time, meant much more. It meant
that the enemy could park a battlegroup of warships outside of the Sol
System--or some point reasonably distant from Sol--and legally argue that he
had a right to be there. It was a situation that had been codified in the
days when interstellar space was �free� because no one could feasibly block
off the expanses between stars. Today, that was still true for the most
part, but not around hyperlanes. Hyperlanes had distinct choke points, for
as wide as they were, and they could only be entered through feasibly those
points. One could move about interstellar space on his own power, but
hyperlanes were efficient in keeping both war and trade within a graspable
scope of time. So, with the development of new sensor technology, both the
Empire and the Confederation sought to control as many entry points--usually
close to star systems--as possible. Soon, interstellar space became a
relatively crowded area, and Freedom of Interstellar Space became one of
many other outmoded legalities. It did allow us, Green noted, to say that
all space north of �this line� is �our space.�
It also meant�
"We cannot legally oppose the Corron from placing warships on the other
side of the Rift."
The DDO eyed Dr. Chiro-ne suspiciously and turn to SecDef. "The issue at
hand, Mr. Secretary, is that we have evidence pointing to a possible
incursion on Confederation territories out in the Mellar Sagitta-rius Arm
Colonies. We need to confirm this intelligence as quickly as possible, and
our sources have identified an out-of-the-way source for that confirmation.
The question is whether or not we�re willing to take the risks necessary to
exploit it; you have to decide whether or not to take this to the President."
"General Moudi," he looked at the Operations Officers for the Defense
Council.
"Sir, I�m in complete agreement with Colonel Green�s and DDO Rajiyna�s
assessments," the career Army officer replied. His commanding voice was
enough to signal that the debate was over, leaving the final call to his
immediate boss--the Secretary of Defense.
"Well," Goer looked around the room, considering briefly what this
gaggle of NIOs and other advisors had just told him. "Mr. Badrayn; I
understand you have the right to counsel the President against or for my
recommendation. How will you proceed?"
"I do not like it, sir," the Iraqi replied softly, "but Ms. Rajiyna is
right. The gravity of this issue at least merits the President�s attention.
I will inform the President of my reservations, but I will not contest
whatever recommendations you make. Still, the fact that no coherent
operation has been formulated as of yet will be addressed by my report. If
possible, I would like to speak to General Moudi and Colonel Green on that
point before I submit it."
"Very well," Goer replied. Artfully done, he commended the IAC
silently. Badrayn was a hard man to sway, and he didn�t cower despite
Goer�s seniority. That combination of integrity and self-assurance, even
though the SecDef felt the young advisor was charging headlong in the wrong
direction, came with a command of language and contemplativeness that
tempered what might have been a recipe of for youthful brashness. "I will
recommend to the President that we consider any operation in the direction
of con-firming this report and gathering further intelligence. Given the
date sensitivity of this information, I will recommend for the required
moratorium of one year. I hope our man in the Empire�s right about this,
Rajiyna. Green." He looked at the two senior intelligence operators
carefully. They nodded affirma-tively, although even they couldn�t be
completely sure.
Then again, no one ever was; not in this game at least.
"You have eleven months, according to your information. I suggest you
get to the drawing board."
* * *
* * *
+-----------------+-<The Badass Reverend of Funk Prez>---+
| Presley H. | Political Science / Computer Science |
| Cannady II | and Electrical Engineering Undergrad |
|<revprez@mit.edu>| at the Mass. Institute of Technology |
+-----------------+-<Anime Manga Development Group>------+
+ Author of Liars and Dreamers, a Robotech fanfic +
+-------<http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/1731/index.html>-+
| MIDN 4/c A-2-2 SQD, MIT-Harvard-Tufts NROTC Battalion |
|_|"The art of war is of vital importance to the state"|_|