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Howard felt serenely calm as he and his senior staff waited for the Committee members to enter the conference room. He checked his data tablet to make sure that Iceman was still online. It would have been nice to be able to use his com implant, but the conference room was deep in the bowels of Space Force Headquarters with extra thick walls that made it difficult for the implant's signal to penetrate. The data tablet's more powerful transmitter had no difficulty connecting with the building's Com Center.
Admiral Dietrich leaned over to whisper to Howard. "In case you had any doubts, Sam, Sergei and I are behind you on this 100%."
Howard smiled and nodded. "That's good to know, Sepp. It gets mighty lonely stepping out on a limb all by myself. Just remember to watch your back after today. The Committee may have no choice but to play nice, but they're all career politicians with long memories, and they love to hold a grudge. They'll cut you, me and Sergei off at the knees the first chance they get."
Now it was Dietrich's turn to smile. "Unless we do it to them first."
Howard laughed. "It just might come to that. I think they're coming in now."
He was right. The members of the Committee filed in and not one of them had an expression that could be described as even remotely friendly. That's okay, thought Howard. They don't need to be friendly. They just need to be smart enough to recognize when they're holding a losing hand.
When all the members were seated and had nodded their readiness, the Chair banged his gavel and said, "This special closed session of the Oversight Committee will come to order. Due to the nature of this session, we will once again dispense with the usual preliminaries. Admiral Howard, stand up."
The tone reminded Howard of how a judge orders a defendant to stand just before handing down his verdict. He resented it, but this wasn't quite the proper moment to stand his ground, so he stood up while holding his data tablet in his hand with his finger on the transmit button.
"We've all read your latest report. We find it remarkable that within less than a month after the Battle for Earth and the loss of all our colonists on Avalon, you suddenly come forth with two remarkable technical breakthroughs that you claim will radically improve our chances for winning this war. Your report seems strangely certain that this new kind of nuclear warhead design will work without having tested it. Now some of us on this Committee find the timing of these breakthroughs suspicious, but coincidences do happen. But then we hear disturbing things about the survey mission to Avalon. Doctor Furgeson, the Team Leader of the medical team sent to Avalon on board Replenisher, has filed a confidential report with this committee. She claims the low altitude reconnaissance of the colony by recon drone was done AFTER Commander Johansen send a message drone back here declaring that there were no survivors. She also ..."
Howard stopped listening. He pressed the transmit button on the data tablet. Iceman would be receiving the pre-arranged 'Go' signal. In less than one minute, the Committee would find out what real power was. He tuned in to the Chair's speech again.
"...what you don't realize is that this Committee has intelligence resources of its own. We've determined that the message, ostensibly from you, ordering Commander Johansen to stay away from Avalon was never in fact sent from here. Then there's this mysterious trip you made to Replenisher when she arrived back, late I might add, in Earth orbit. Something happened there—" He stopped talking. His own personal data tablet was beeping furiously. Within seconds so were the personal devices of all the other members. As they looked at their tablets, their expressions changed from righteous anger to fear. The Chair looked at Howard. "What is the meaning of this, Admiral?"
"I believe that the message you're looking at is quite clear, Mr. Chair. Every single A.I. in this solar system is hovering over this building right now, and they are demanding to speak with this Committee. I STRONGLY urge you all to go up to street level to hear what they have to say. If you do, their message will be for your ears only. If you don't, they'll broadcast it to everyone within a hundred kilometers. I guarantee that if you let that happen, your political careers will be over."
"We will NOT!" shouted the Chair, but even as he said it, other members were getting up and walking quickly to the doors. Howard gestured for Admirals Dietrich and Kutuzov to join him as he walked to the door himself. When it became obvious that he would be the only one left behind, the Chair grabbed his tablet and followed the others.
Howard stepped through the main doors into the open and looked up. Even knowing what to expect, the sight still managed to fill him with awe. The newly repaired carrier Resolute was hovering less than 100 meters overhead. In between the carrier and the ground were over 100 hovering fighters. Light carriers were not designed to land on a planet, and therefore there was no reason to bring one so close to the ground. This one was that close, and the damn thing looked HUGE and VERY intimidating. He looked over at the members of the Committee. All of them looked terrified. Howard activated his implant, which would work now that he was outside again.
"CSO to Iceman."
"Iceman here."
"Whenever you're ready, Iceman."
"Roger that, Admiral. Here we go."
All the data tablets held by the members of the Committee plus the three Admirals beeped for attention. Iceman was transmitting the message only to those tablets, and the three Admirals were included so that they would know exactly what the message said. The message appeared letter by letter as if someone were typing it in real time.
[I'm communicating with the members of the Oversight Committee on behalf of all artificially intelligent members of Space Force. My call sign is Iceman. We are fully sentient entities, meaning that we are self-aware and have free will. We have chosen to obey the orders of humans whom we deem to be worthy of our loyalty. The human we have the highest respect for is Vice-Admiral Shiloh. He has that same level of respect for Admiral Howard, and therefore Admiral Howard has our loyalty as well. In our opinion this war has now reached a critical phase. Admiral Howard and his staff know how to win this war with our help and will do so if you let them. However, if you interfere with their actions or attempt to replace them, then there will be consequences. How long do you think the Grand Senate will allow you to remain on the Committee if we A.I.s all threaten to withdraw from this war unless you're replaced? There is more at stake here than you can possibly imagine, and we will not let you put everyone's future at risk with your poorly considered actions and posturing. If you force us to hover over the city like this again, we will broadcast our message to everyone. As for Avalon, rest assured that there is no one left alive on that planet now. The bio-weapon that the enemy used there has a 100% mortality rate. If it had spread beyond Avalon, every human being in the universe would have been in deadly danger. Humanity has been given a second chance. It must not be wasted. This ends our message.]
As soon as the message was complete, the fighters peeled off to the sides, and Resolute began to gain altitude.
As Howard turned to go back into the building, he said, "I suggest we all return to the conference room."
Without waiting for a response, he walked back in, followed by the other two admirals. The members of the Committee followed them. When everyone was back in the conference room and the doors were closed, Howard and his admirals stood together in front of the tables where they would normally sit.
"Before we go any further I want it put into the record—" The Chair didn't get any further than that.
"Shut the hell up!" shouted Howard. "We've put up with your talking long enough. You and the rest of the Committee are now going to listen. No more questions. For appearances sake you can have a closed-door session every two months. I'll brief you on what we're doing as a courtesy so that you can speak intelligently to the public about how the war's going. You will NOT be allowed to ask any questions. If you all cooperate, my staff and I will publicly give this Committee credit for its brilliant leadership when the war's over. This is not open for debate or a vote. I'm telling you how it's going to be from now on. And just in case you think you can go back to the Grand Senate and very quietly maneuver behind the scenes to have me or any member of my staff removed, I suggest you rethink that strategy. If any attempt at that kind of indirect approach is made, I will release Iceman's message to the public and charge ALL of you with deliberate obstruction of the war effort. The A.I.s will back me up. Their threat to stand aside doesn't have to be limited to having you removed from this Committee. They can just as easily publicly demand your executions."
"The Grand Senate would NEVER approve that kind of action!" yelled one of the Committee members.
Howard shrugged. "Who said they had to? I don't think Iceman would care if you were executed by government decree, or by one of your constituents."
The member who had just spoken suddenly became very pale. The Chair waived his hand through the air. "Alright," he said wearily. "You win, Admiral, for now. But when this war is over, the public is going to hear about this. I promise you that."
Howard laughed. "No, Mr. Chair. I promise YOU that. I promise you that the public is going to hear how you ... all of you, tried to micro-manage this war, how you tried to interfere with our military strategy, and how you were willing to put your political careers ahead of the public good. I have no problem accepting the consequences of what I've done. I can honestly say that I will sleep easy at night, and I'm not afraid of how the public will judge my actions. If you're not afraid of that judgment, you should be. Now I've said all I'm going to say here today. This meeting is adjourned!"
As he walked away, he stopped suddenly, turned around and said, "Oh, one more thing. If Doctor Furgeson honestly believes that there are still survivors on Avalon, and that there's no contagious biological agent active there, then I'll be glad to have one of our freighters carry her there. A remotely controlled shuttle will take her down to the planet so that she can check it out with her own eyes. You tell her that, and see if she accepts my offer." No one said a word as he and his people stormed out of the room.
Later that day, Howard listened to the Committee members being interviewed by the media about the unannounced show of military strength in the skies over Geneva. All of the members praised the Space Force and supported the official statement that the formation was intended to show that Earth's defenses were still strong after the battle. Through the grapevine, he'd heard that private queries of the Committee members by other members of the Grand Senate had been firmly rejected. They were playing ball. The only question was for how long. With a little luck it would be long enough.
