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[From Paula Wilson’s tapes, notes and biographies. RBB]
‘The whole thing is going pear-shaped,’ said the secretary general, holding her head in her hands.
A blond giant, Lara’s deputy, Lars Eriksen, finished reading the dossier on North Korea. ‘I cannot believe Kim Lung-min turned the offer down. He’d have been able to live in luxury for five years instead of the usual three.’
‘He must know that he can’t hold out. President Yang was furious,’ said Lara.
‘So, what’s next?’ asked Lars.
‘The ambassador was quite clear. It is up to us to solve the North Korean and Israeli problems ourselves.’
‘How is Israel coming along, ma’am?’
‘Quite well, actually, Lars. President Ramseur has visited them twice. He’s rather stretched the parameters of the offers we’re allowed to make, but I think the ambassador might accept them.’
‘What’s he done?’
‘He has agreed that Israel’s borders can be controlled by them.’
‘But that’s way beyond what’s permitted.’
‘That might be the case, but the way President Ramseur put it to me, once we’re all in the Federation, the borders will naturally become more relaxed. He thinks that President Avraham will soon leave office after integration and the new administration will want to remove the controls because they will not be necessary. Also, President Ramseur has suggested that the ambassador will put similar restrictions on Israelis wanting to leave Israel.’
‘How does that help?’
‘Obvious, really, Lars. If you are an Israeli and want to live somewhere else and your government is stopping you doing that because of their own rules on immigration, you’ll soon become very dissatisfied and the government will change their rules.’
’Sorry, ma’am. If they do that, will they not be flooded by millions of Palestinians wanting to return to their native lands?’
‘Not necessarily, but, you’re right, it is an issue.’
‘We both think that President Avraham will not have thought through the repercussions of restricting his own people.’
‘When is your next meeting with the ambassador, ma’am?’
‘Probably next week. The Security Council meets in two days and we’ll look at all of our options then. Disappointing result in the States.’
‘Yes. Do you think the results were genuine, ma’am?’
’Surprisingly, there is no reason to disbelieve them and the Free America pollsters on the day showed very similar feedback to the actual result, if Brad Gregg is to be believed.’
‘You don’t think that could become contagious?’ asked Lars
‘What? That other countries will get cold feet, too? Not from reports coming back from the off-world visits. How did your group do?’
‘Absolutely fantastic, ma’am. The first world we visited was entirely put down to food production. It had never had any intelligent indigenous people. They lived on a nearby world. There were three Earth-type planets in the system.’
‘Three?’
‘Yes. We held in orbit over the food planet and it gave us all a chance to see that the entire world, with the exception of mountainous areas and rainforest, had been cultivated. We dropped out of orbit and settled close to the most enormous warehouses.’
‘How many of you in the group?’
‘One hundred and sixty. Gradually we all disembarked onto an enormous floating platform which then set off across the countryside. Some fields were more than fifty miles across. Giant cultivators could be seen in some areas, or watering machines, pickers, weeders, transporters. In another field there was ploughing and seeding underway. All automated. Not a person in sight.’
‘Did you see inside the warehouses?’
‘Oh, yes. Amazing. Some buildings were for sorting and packing. Others were separating off seeds for storage and the food was being conveyed into ships, ten times the size of our liner. We didn’t actually see one leave, but there were several being filled at just one warehousing terminal of which, we were told, there were over a thousand.’
‘Incredible.’
‘Interestingly, given our own problem with plastics, all produce was shipped in cardboard cartons and trays with a transparent vegetable protein sheath. A special gas preserved the contents. No single-use plastic at all,’ said Lars. ‘And the next world was amazing, but in a different way. It was an actual holiday world.’
‘What no indigenous people again?’
‘Oh, no, there was a population, but much of the surface had been put down to amusement parks. Ships were coming and going all the time we were there.’
‘What sort of entertainment?’
‘Anything and everything. Treetop walks, helter-skelters, all the fairground rides you could ever imagine plus motor racing, automaton riding...’
‘What’s that?’
‘Robots like horses, lions, elephants and even sauropods which you could ride on or race. We all had a go on something. I particularly liked climbing sheer cliffs.’
‘Safely, I hope?’
‘Oh, yes. Force fields stopped you falling. Not instantly though. You had the sensation and thoughts about having failed, but you could get back on and try again. I’ll have to go back sometime as there was an overhang, just like the Preikestolen at Lysefjord.’
‘The what?’
‘The Preikestolen or Pulpit Rock. A famous Norwegian landmark, over five hundred metres above the beautiful Lysefjord. Very scary, but this one was there to climb.’
‘Wouldn’t fancy that, Lars. Vertigo would get me.’
‘I suppose everyone likes something different and Fotpiz, I think the planet was called, has everything you could ever dream of. The upshot was that everyone on board loved it.’
‘How did it come about?’
‘What? It becoming a holiday world?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, I don’t know the history, but I got the impression it has concentrated on providing fun for a long time. Fotpiz has been in the Federation for thousands of years. It is amazing how old the Federation is. Earth really is a baby by comparison.’
‘Yes, with all our primitive attitudes, hatreds and conflicts.’
‘The next world was in transition; they’d only been in the Federation for eighteen years. People were still doing a small amount of physical work, but they told us that there was an increasing population of robots who now did all the messy or difficult jobs, leaving them to just pick up some of the more pleasant, interesting or challenging tasks. They were gushing with the difference it had made to their lives since they’d signed up.’
‘That will work in our favour.’
‘One world you really must visit sometime is Kasettod. We split into small groups on arrival and travelled in secure pods to protect us from the animals and environment. It was a prehistoric world. Giant dinosaurs roamed the land. It was fascinating to watch Lost World events playing out before our very eyes. The guide was telling us that Kasettod is only one of more than a hundred worlds which are now specially protected, and visitors are no longer allowed to interact with the native creatures.’
‘Does no one live on these worlds?’
’Some, ma’am. There were some domed towns in the forests, and these were mainly home to university students and lecturers from throughout the galaxy and, guess what, we were told that more than thirty per cent of the students are mature. Older people using their free time to learn more about natural history and prehistoric environments. I don’t mean just pensioners. By mature I meant thirties upwards and they were loving it. Such a boon which would be unavailable to people on the current Earth where mundane work occupies the bulk of our lives until old age.’
‘Gosh, yes, Lars. Imagine what we could all do if we were not imprisoned in our places of work until retirement. A great benefit to being in the Federation. We must make mention of that in presentations.’
««o»»
[Taken from Paula Wilson’s minutes. RBB]
The Security Council meeting once again took place in one of the cabinet briefing rooms in Downing Street. Within a couple of minutes, all of the delegates had switched to Galactic Standard.
Lara said, ‘President Avraham has declined an invitation, but did send a communication that he had agreed the deal organised by President Ramseur if the UN were prepared to officially endorse it. Lu Cheng is standing in for President Yang. Can you understand us, okay?’
‘Yes, I have also learned Galactic Standard. President Yang organised it for all top government officials.’
‘Hmm. Good idea,’ said Prime Minister Church. ‘We must look into doing the same.’
Others present were the secretary general’s deputy, Lars Eriksen, Malcolm Gorman, President Ramseur, President Olov and Paula Wilson.
Lara called the meeting to order.
Lu Cheng said, ‘President Yang apologises for his absence, but he has been unavoidably detained. He has told me that he will provide some interesting information for you soon regarding an event taking place in China today.’
‘Ha,’ said President Olov, ‘you mean the invasion of North Korea. We’ve been following the action during the night.’
‘Malcolm, what is this?’ asked Prime Minister Church.
‘We’ve been monitoring a lot of fighter activity over the Yellow Sea,’ Malcolm said. ‘It started very early in the morning local time and has been almost continuous – Chinese planes flying to and from North Korea. There was also a considerable explosion in the northern mountains and we’re assuming a nuclear accident or a nuclear facility being destroyed. That’s all we know so far.’
‘There’ll be more information shortly,’ said Lu Cheng.
‘What’s happening, Lu? You must know,’ said Maureen Church.
‘I’ll tell you as soon as I’m able.’
‘Okay,’ said Lara. ‘Over to President Ramseur to give us some good news from Israel.’
‘Yes, I was hoping Daniel Avraham would be here to ratify what we’d agreed, but he is happy for us to confirm by written communique.’
‘What, exactly?’ asked President Olov.
‘They requested that they control their own borders. I have just had a reply from a communication to Ambassador Trestogeen that he is comfortable with what I’ve arranged. We need to keep it secret from the full General Assembly until the vote has been passed to join the Federation.’
‘Those of us here need to know,’ said President Olov.
‘Sorry, Marat,’ said Lara. ‘The arrangements are rather unique and delicate so we would rather not share the information at this time. It is very temporary and could only complicate arrangements in other countries if they were aware of the details. They will be released after the vote.’
‘Let me register a protest about this then, Lara,’ said Marat Olov.
‘So noted.’
Lu Cheng’s telephone rang.
A conversation then continued for several minutes in Chinese. Although Lara had some knowledge of Mandarin and Cantonese, the dialogue was at such a speed as to render any content meaningless to her.
‘That was President Yang,’ said Lu Cheng.
‘And...?’ asked the secretary general.
‘North Korea is now an annexed addition to China. Kim Lung-min has been captured and will be handed over to the International Court of Justice in the Hague.’
‘Guessed as much,’ said Malcolm.
‘Yes, we’d had some intel to that effect,’ said President Olov.
‘That answers the two challenges we were handed by the ambassador. Lars tells me all countries have reported that they are ready for a General Assembly vote. Shall I call the ambassador?’
There was general agreement.
««o»»
[There are no records of the details of this event, so I have had to work from hearsay and news bulletins which may or may not be accurate. RBB]
No one knows exactly how the invasion began, but it is assumed that an enormous build-up of troops and weaponry on the north-western border was where the advance entered North Korea. That no one was aware of the massing of troops is extraordinary.
Conventional missiles were over the border and striking their targets before anyone in Pyongyang had awoken to what was happening.
The strikes took place from four in the morning, destroying North Korea’s weapons plants and stocks of nuclear warheads. This included a small nuclear explosion in the central northern mountains near Pukchin. The bulk of the action was with conventional armaments, then a four hundred thousand strong Chinese army was over the Yalu River either side of Dandong. Dozens of floating bridges were installed and being used in less than an hour, carrying tanks and armoured vehicles. It was, perhaps, the largest army ever to take part in an invasion of a foreign country.
The ground troops made rapid progress towards Pyongyang. The support was by hundreds of gunship helicopters and fighter jets whose task it was to destroy any military bases and weapons stores which were likely to hinder their attack. The gunships also dealt with the North Korean military as it started to react to the invasion. They didn’t really have a chance.
The bulk of North Korea’s forces, located in the south of the country for the always anticipated advance of western armies over the South Korean border, were caught by surprise as the aerial attacks from bases across the Yellow Sea destroyed parked vehicles, helicopters, and planes on the runways. Hundreds of missile launchers, also caught unawares, were knocked out by air strikes.
What little resistance there was, was quickly overcome and it soon became clear that the Chinese army was under strict instructions to avoid casualties, civilian or military as far as that was possible in such an offensive.
In an hour, the Chinese were in Pyongyang. Kim Lung-min had evaded the incoming forces and there was an instant hue and cry which resulted in his capture by early evening.
Within fourteen hours, by six o’clock, the war was over. China had annexed North Korea.
««o»»
[From media recordings. RBB]
Matthew Brown’s skin had almost returned to its normal colour, but there was still the ghost of a green pallor remaining.
‘You did well, Matthew. Sixty-seven point five per cent for independence was a tremendous result,’ said the president.
‘I only wish we’d given someone like Charles Mayne the chance to speak for the Federation, sir. We’d still have won, but would not now be criticised for a biased election.’
‘I don’t care about that, Matthew. There is a certain irony at pro-Feds accusing us of bias when the majority was so enormous. If you remove the “don’t knows”, fewer than twenty-five per cent were pro-Federation. Their complaints against such a landslide are rather foolish.’
‘Yes, sir. Huge win!’
‘Now. How are we going to deal with Beech and Mayne? If we could get them out of our hair, I’d feel a lot more comfortable.’
The intercom buzzed. The president picked up the handset, listened for a second and put it back onto its cradle. ‘The joint chiefs have arrived plus the FBI director. Now we’ll see what they’ve come up with.’
A few seconds later, the door opened and the four men walked into the Oval Office. They all said good morning and took their seats in the lounge area around the coffee table. Deirdre brought in coffee shortly afterwards.
‘So, how do we get Mayne and Beech?’ the president asked.
‘We are fairly sure they are operating from a base south of Jacksonville, Mr President. It is just a matter of time before we find them,’ said David Mendoza, the FBI director.
‘And what about Walter Braun and Buck Burko? What progress there?’
‘None yet, Mr President, not a whisper about either of them. They might be dead, sir.’
‘I don’t believe they’re dead,’ said Admiral Mann. ‘The kidnaps were so well organised. If they’d wanted them dead, a bullet would have accomplished that. They are being held somewhere, Mr Mendoza.’
‘What’s the plan when you locate Beech and Mayne?’ asked the president.
‘That’s down to us, sir,’ said General Delve. ‘We have a considerable force ready to move, and General Alexander has helicopters ready to react if they attempt to escape by air. It really is just a matter of pinning down their location.’
‘Won’t be long, General,’ said the FBI director. ‘We’re sure they are somewhere southeast of Jacksonville and we’re working through the area one property at a time.’
‘Well, the sooner the better,’ said the president.
An alarm sounded.
Outside, armed forces were strategically placed around the grounds of the White House and were keeping their eyes peeled for anything untoward, but although they were alerted to the jet powered drone soon enough, it was travelling too low and too fast for anyone to take it out. Somehow it had broken through the electronic no-fly zone which was designed to prevent ordinary drones entering White House airspace.
Sirens went off in the building and the president and others in the Oval Office ran into the Chief of Staff’s office which had armoured walls for extra protection. The initial alarm had told them there was no time to head to the basement.
As the drone crossed into White House property, it began a vertical climb to about two hundred feet and exploded. Twenty gallons of green dye was atomised and fell like drizzle on the target beneath.
After a delay for security protocols, Secret Service officers arrived at the protected office and told the president’s party that the coast was clear.
Outside, spectators on Pennsylvania Avenue were recording the scene and the images went viral. The White House was white no longer.
««o»»
[From Brad Gregg’s and Jim Collins’ notes and recordings. RBB]
‘Burner call for you, General,’ said a soldier as he rushed into the kitchen where General Beech, Charles Mayne, Jim and Brad were sitting at the breakfast bar.
‘Beech,’ the general said and listened intently for almost a minute. A long call indeed to receive on a burner phone. The general passed the handset to the soldier, ‘Remove the battery and dispose, soldier.’
‘Yes, sir,’ the soldier said and left the kitchen.
‘News?’ asked Charles.
‘Yes. They’re on to us. That was Winston Delve,’ said the general. ‘We need to get out. Captain!’ he roared the last word.
Captain Wooller rushed into the room, ‘Sir!’
‘Put in place evac one,’ said Dick Beech.
‘Yes, sir. When, sir?’
‘Now, captain. Tell me when we’re ready to go.’
‘We have to go now?’ asked Brad.
‘Yes. We’d better all jump to it. One bag each. Don’t leave any papers.’
They all hastily left the room.