The Tau Ceti Agenda

'Sir, somebody is coming.' Thomas nodded his head upriver placing a hand behind his back to his blaster.

'Take it easy, Thomas,' the president said calmly.

A man dressed in a rather average-looking suit and tie approached them cautiously. The lighting on the pier was a bit low for the two Secret Service agents to figure out who he was at first.

'Mr. President, I hate that this is the way we have to meet, but we most definitely didn't need any press.' The man looked around in a full circle as if looking for cameras. 'I almost didn't recognize you. That is a good cover, sir.'

'You think so? Hmmm. I dunno, Senator, everybody knows I'm a Skins fan,' President Moore replied with a sly grin. 'Now let's have it. What is this all about, Hardin?' He held out his hand and shook Senator Hardin Madira's hand familiarly.

'All you need to know is on this patch,' Hardin said, handing Alexander a small, flexible memory tab about the size of a dime. Moore took the patch and stuck it behind his left ear.

Abigail, download and store all information from this patch.

Yes, Mr. President.

And go through it all. Get me a summary quickly.

Already working it, sir.

'So what is this going to cost me, Hardin?' President Moore asked.

'My district in Wyoming needs some economic revitalization. With the Martians gone, somebody needs to do the terraforming systems manufacturing. I want it. I'm earmarking seventy billion for it, and I don't want it cut in a line-item veto.'

'You think you can get an earmark that size through both houses?'

'I can if you can convince a couple of your brethren from Mississippi to vote with me.'

'I can put in a few good words. Maybe twist some arms. Yeah,' Moore said.

I've got the summary for you, sir.

Let me see it.

Here it is. Moore started to scan through the summary that Abigail had developed from the data.

'You're giving me the election, Hardin.'

'Well, that's politics. You're giving me a reelection in return.' There were always several meanings to every political move. Moore would have to watch himself closely around the senator. Who knows what else he might want in the future. But for now, this was good enough. It would take one phone call to Amaka Chi to put a stop to the entire affair.

'Good enough, Hardin,' he said, nodding approvingly. 'Good enough.'

November 2, 2388 AD

Washington, D.C.

Monday, 9:35 PM, Earth Eastern Standard Time

'In surprise to everyone from Sol to the Oort Cloud today, the impeachment hearings of President Moore were brought to an abrupt halt. The attorney general today released evidence that indeed the blueprints for the QMT-4 teleportation technology were leaked to the press, but not by the White House. It turns out that the blueprints were altered and then leaked to the press by the FBI as part of a sting operation to uncover a double agent in the Department of Energy laboratories at Los Alamos. The sting operation was ongoing and classified in a compartment that the Tau Ceti Commission was not privy to. So, they reached the conclusion that real information had been leaked. Apparently none had been. The interesting question that was left lingering was if the leaked information was false, how did the Separatists develop the quantum membrane teleportation technology? The attorney general replied that just because the Separatists are fanatics does not mean that they don't have smart scientists working for them also.

'This news and the replay of footage from the president's speech this morning, where he introduced heroes from the terrorist attacks and from the now unclassified raid on the terrorist facility in the Oort Cloud, has flipped the polls completely. All of the polls now have President Moore taking both Orlando and Luna City, giving him more than enough votes for reelection. It seems now that all that is left to do is vote.'

'She wants to see you, Alexander.' Sehera sat down beside her husband on the couch in the media room. He was watching the news on every channel at once and was grinning, as he would say, like an opossum.

'What about?' Dee hadn't been in a very talkative mood the night before when he kissed her forehead and told her good night. The last couple of days had been a lot to handle. Maybe now she had reached the point where she was ready to talk about it. Alexander didn't know, but at least she wanted to talk about something.

'I'm not sure, but she wants you.' Sehera took the remote from her husband and started flipping the side screens off, leaving just the one larger screen in the middle projecting. Then she started scanning the guide for programming that she fancied. 'Well, go.'

'All right.' Moore sighed and rose slowly to his feet. He was a little sore from his long run the day before. He had been running but hadn't run that far that fast in a few weeks. He stretched his ankles and flexed his toes and then limped slightly to the doorway. By the time he reached the door, the soreness had loosened up enough for him to walk normally. 'Shit, I'm getting old.'

Down the hall and to the right was Dee's room. She had lived there for four years now, and Alexander had watched her grow from a child to the terror she was today. He tapped lightly at her door a few times.

'Princess, can I come in?'

'Come in, Dad,' she said. Dee was ready for bed and sitting up against the headboard, reading. Moore looked at the book with some interest. The cover of it had popular science drawings of modern military mecha and weapons.