“I am quite happy with my translator,” the Chinese president said.
“Suit yourself,” Marc said as he placed the receiver in the center of the table and started to hand out earwigs to any of the other representatives who asked for them. The Russian president was the first to request one, followed quickly by most of the other representatives. Only China, Brazil, and South Africa refused.
The Chinese president turned and whispered to his aide, “Bring a hard chair for Admiral Blake, we should express our displeasure at his late addition.” Everyone with an earwig turned to look at them. It was obvious that they had heard the comment, and that most of them were not happy about it.
“I apologize,” the Chinese president said. “Please bring Admiral Blake a comfortable chair. And I would like one of your earwigs as well.”
The Brazilian Ambassador and the South African president both followed suit.
“We represent the major economies of Earth, and like in the earlier war with the Paraxeans, we also represent the major resources of the planet, and should have been informed that you intend to send two of the space carriers out to these new planets you have discovered,” the Chinese president said.
“Your sources are correct. We are planning to send the Victory to Artemis and the newly renamed Galileo to the Paraxean colony on Mangkatar,” Marc replied. He noticed the Russian president winked at him. He had a smile on his face as he seemed to appreciate Marc’s tactics.
The Chinese president didn’t seem to appreciate them; he was obviously expecting more of a reply. “And you did not think you should inform us?!” he asked.
“No,” Marc replied, which further frustrated the Chinese president. But if the man was going to scold him, Marc was firmly decided to be as brief and uninformative with his answers as possible.
“And why not?!”
“The carriers belong to Delphi Nation.”
“But what about the defense of Earth?!”
“You just pointed out that you and the leaders who have joined you here were the true defenders of Earth,” Marc said.
“How do you expect us to defend Earth without space capabilities?!”
“I was wondering that myself,” Marc said. “Maybe you can explain it to me.”
The Chinese president let out a series of expletives that the Comm device dutifully translated for everyone, leading to quite a few laughs.
“Can we please quit playing games,” the Chinese president said.
“I would be happy to, as you say, quit playing games. I came here for a discussion and to provide information, not to be scolded like a schoolboy.”
“Again, I apologize. Please explain to us how the loss of two of the space carriers will not affect the planet’s security.”
“We only had two space carriers during the war,” Marc said. “We will still have two carriers when the Victory and Galileo redeploy. We are bringing the battleship that we captured to Galileo, where it will be broken apart, and its components used to build more starships to defend Earth.”
“I see.”
“What about the crews and spaceplanes?” the French president asked.
“We have been replacing the Foxes and Hyraxes we lost during the war. The Victory and Galileo will only carry two squadrons each, so the remaining space carriers will both have a full complement of the appropriate spaceplanes. As for pilots, we are continuing to recruit and train pilots to replace those that your countries recalled. But I’m sure that if the need arises, the pilots and ground crews will be made available.”
“But what if someone attacks us with more force than the Paraxeans did?” the German Chancellor asked.
Blake leaned forward, indicating he would answer this question. “Madam Chancellor, we won the war against the Paraxeans, not by superior numbers but by superior innovations and tactics. It is impossible to prepare for the unknown, but if we were to commit our resources to defend against what we encountered in the last war, we would very likely be creating obsolete arms and ships. We need to make sure we have resources available to respond when we understand the threat. We’re mining the key elements we need from the asteroid belt. Delphi Nation is building a strategic reserve of the resources necessary to build new weapons, but we don’t know what they should be. We’re better served to build adequate defense capabilities and make sure we have the capacity in place to quickly add to or change them.”
“And you are confident that you have done so?” the chancellor asked.
“As confident as we can be with the information we have.”
“And the command of these forces?” President Novak of the U.S. asked.
“I assume we would follow the same model as during the last war,” Blake said.
“And if we are not comfortable with that model?” President Novak asked.
“As already mentioned, you would need to do something about your lack of space capabilities,” Marc said, “or come up with a better option.”
“What would you consider a better option?” President Novak asked.
“I’m not sure. None of you is willing to give control over the space forces to anyone except your own countries, so that leaves us with a null set. The U.N. is ineffective because of the veto capability that each of the five permanent members of the Security Council has, plus the main assembly is composed of too many small nations with competing agendas.”
“That is why we have the veto!” the Chinese president seemed to be getting a bit testy.
“I understand that, but it still results in an ineffectual governing body.”
President Novak leaned forward, “We’d like to create a more formalized structure for the alliance.” She obviously thought Marc would respond better to her, given their past relationship.
“Such as?”
“Something more on the lines of NATO,” President Novak said.
“I’m not sure I’m all that fond of the NATO structure,” Marc said. “But what would it look like?”
“More officers and personnel from the allied nations serving.”
“There were some problems with that the last time,” Marc said, referring to the time that the previous president had tried to engineer a coup using
