CHAPTER 22
Sadat turned off her visiplate and turned on her intercom, “You may send in Admiral Augesburcke,” she said brusquely. The President composed herself. The information from her superiors was extraordinarily helpful, but suddenly a new question arose in her mind. Alexander was in control, she was certain of that, but why then had he allowed her to progress on such a blatant anti-Alexander campaign in the Senate and in her public addresses? Was she elected with an understanding that a certain approval was required of her? She was not privileged with the insight into the office of the Presidency that the Human Sadat might have had, and therefore much of what she did had a certain risk to it. If there were any “understandings” concerning her office she was ignorant of them. On the other hand, she thought, using the Terran phrase, it might be one more elaborate level in Alexander’s architecture of a fictitious, but very believable, government apart from himself. She frowned. She should have kept Augesburcke waiting until she decided a course of action. Alexander’s bluffs and double bluffs were confusing her. The underlying chaos of the situation made her hesitate. Should she take an aggressive stance and deride the seemingly blatant influence Alexander had on the military? That would be consistent with her previous behavior. Or should she overlook it, as a knowing partner in the overall scheme? She decided on consistency. When Augesburcke walked into her office she met him with a scathing remark, “Well, Admiral, what is it you are up to now?”
Augesburcke smiled and sat down without being asked. The tenor of her remark was lost on him and he didn’t answer her immediately, but rather studied the President very minutely. The overt expression on his swarthy face was one of indifference, but he was in fact quite pleased. Not a half hour ago he quit the Senate floor. While there he had a few minutes alone with a half a dozen very influential Senators. During that time he informed them of the increasing gravity of the Galactic situation, which the President purposefully ignored and they were themselves completely ignorant. He also showed them some curious X-ray photographs of certain high level officials in the Senate as well as the office of the Presidency. Too much had occurred to these Senators in too short a time for them to be easily shocked, but in this case they were shocked to the point where they demanded the unthinkable—for politicians at least—immediate action.
Very quickly Admiral Augesburcke calmed them, and cautiously informed them that a solution was already in the works. Their help was required, certainly. That help initiated some heavy soul searching amongst each of the Senators. The solution was a sacrifice, a grave sacrifice, to the system they built, as well as to themselves; but of the alternatives, a military coup was far less palatable, and the present situation was absolutely intolerable. Admiral Augesburcke left assured of each Senator’s heavy hearted but steadfast support. As he settled himself in his chair, he thought he could almost hear the first of a series of speeches being made on the floor that day. The thought made him smile, and it carried over into his remark to the President, “Why whatever do you mean, Madame President?”
“Don’t play games with me Augesburcke,” she replied harshly. “I sent you to personally inform Alexander of the limitations he is subject to, and what do you do? You give him command of your squadron and allow him to embroil us in the Chem civil war! Can you give me one good reason why I should not call for your replacement right now?”
“Yes, you would need Senate approval for that, and you don’t have it,” Augesburcke told her bluntly, with just a hint of venom to his words. “Madame President, let us understand each other, you are not one to purposefully embarrass yourself in a public fight you cannot win, I know that from your record. I am not one to purposefully embarrass you. I am a professional. I do not have any more control over the interpretation of the media than you do Madame President. The truth of the matter was that Alexander was on board the Iowa at the time the Chem hailed us. We had no choice but to fight, unless we wished to be branded cowards by the Chem and therefore the galaxy. That is an image we cannot afford at this time; even you can appreciate that.”
He shrugged and spread his large hands out wide, growling, “What would you have done in my place, creep back with my tail between my legs, leave a weapon unused—be sensible!” Augesburcke took a deep breath, calming himself. “As we were determined to give them a scrape I simply reinstated our previous agreement with Alexander, which by the way has never been rescinded by the Senate. The Chem thought he was in charge, and that concerned them, so I didn’t disappoint them. I used what I had to pursue a military advantage in the situation. No military commander worth his salt would ignore an advantage, Madame President!”
President Sadat was somewhat disarmed by Augesburcke’s explanation, but she retorted, “Admiral, you should not have been involved in a military situation to begin with. I understand, though with great reluctance, your decision to use Alexander in this manner, but I cannot begin to understand why you thought it necessary to fight the Chem rebels!”
“That was the easy decision, Madame President,” Augesburcke told her. “The rebels were infringing on the Terran frontier, which gave us the right to use force. Their order to withdraw, and that’s what it was, if accepted would have made us very weak willed in their eyes. Remember, we are dealing with a Chem interpretation of our actions, not a Human interpretation. We can forgive prudence with more ease than they can. Signs of weakness and cowardice provoke the Chem; it does not bring them to reason.”
“How can you be so certain Admiral?” She snapped. “Your experience with the Chem is not considerable.”
“Forgive me but it is more considerable than your own, Madame President,” he replied harshly. “I am also a student of history as you are. Take our own history for example. When has appeasement worked in the quest for peace with aggressive dictators, nations or even your own culture of Islam—never! Well it wasn’t going to work with the Chem or, looking down the road, it won’t work with the Galactics. You are trying to broker a peace with the Galactics. If I’d given in that would have made your job much more difficult if not impossible.”
“You let me worry about my job, Admiral Augesburcke,” she said testily.
“Then you let me worry about mine, President Sadat,” he retorted. “I was in command, not you. You reminded me once that you claimed no expertise in military matters. This was strictly a military matter, and it required a military decision. The Chem Squadron Commander was not there for a parley. I did, however, not react quite so rashly as you seem to think. I also had the advice of Alexander, whose knowledge of the Chem is considerably greater than my own and of Nazar of the Triumvirate of Chem.”
“You had a Chem from the loyalists on the Iowa? That was impulsive, Admiral! Though you claim to have made a military decision you have nevertheless affected our diplomatic position. You’ve made it a point to choose sides in this affair which is out of your jurisdiction and exceedingly unwise!”
“Madame President the peace we made with the Chem Empire was made with the loyalist government, which we officially recognize. I acted well within my bounds to have an Ambassador from a recognized government on board my ship. There is no illegality in any of the actions I took, Madame President. If you are of a different opinion I hope you will investigate it fully by taking it up with the Senate, I will demand no less if you care to pursue the subject. The fact that these actions happened at all, Madame President, is something you must be held responsible for.”
The President was surprised at the Admiral’s charge. “This is my responsibility, in what way?”
“My reason for being provocatively placed on the Terran-Chem frontier is a direct result of your order to me to personally censure Alexander. As Alexander was with the loyalist fleet, an obvious necessity of his position seeing as the recognized Chem government is one in exile; it required us to meet with elements of that fleet. I was merely carrying out your directives, Madame President, as you ordered. The events which occurred afterwards were dealt with efficiently and logically. The results bear me out.”
“Perhaps, Admiral Augesburcke, perhaps they do, but that does not give me cause to like them,” she said bitterly. “It may be time for us to re-examine the Chem situation. The government of Bureel seems to be fully in power now. The recognizance of such may alleviate any further tensions between us.”
“Madame President you cannot be serious! Bureel began his rebellion as a repudiation of the Terran-Chem peace! His entire policy is based upon military expansion with the Terran Federation as its initial goal!”
“That is what he says; Admiral, but you know politics: what you say is not necessarily what you mean.”
“Not in this case, Madame President,” Augesburcke cautioned her. “For Bureel to deny his entire policy would be worse than political suicide to the Chem. They would demand the real thing.”
“Spare me the melodrama, Admiral, I think I am well enough versed in politics to read between the lines,” she told him. Then she stood, signifying the meeting was at an end. “Now, Admiral, I think we have both had enough of this unpleasant conversation. I have work to do, and I am afraid I must leave you to your work.”
She sat down and turned to her visiplate, ignoring the Admiral further.
Augesburcke left the President’s office. Admiral Chennebruk met him outside. “That was fun! She bought off on our spin of the Lompoc V incident, but now she’s actually thinking of recognizing Bureel’s government! I can’t imagine what effect that will have, but I’ll wager it can’t be good!”
“What should we do about it?”
“Let it ride,” sighed Augesburcke. “Let everything ride, even the person who now sits behind our President’s desk. We’ve done what we can, politically. We’ve made our point in the Senate, now let the politicians confuse things further—that’s what they’re best at. Hopefully, if it all pans out as Alexander sees it, it will be the politicians who actually do the right thing in the end. They’ll make the right decision and allow us to save Terra and the Federation at once, and not sacrifice one to save the other. Anyway we have military responsibilities aplenty. Let’s get to them.”
President Sadat was still seething with frustration when she tuned her visiplate into the Senate debates. She almost believed Augesburcke’s story, which simply added to her confusion. Was Alexander the chief manipulator of things or wasn’t he? Did even Augesburcke know? She buried her head in her hands, her artificially heightened temples throbbing. Then Senator Church began to speak. She was a very powerful voice in the Senate from Scotland, and she’d thus far been a strong proponent for an aggressive foreign/alien policy. The President’s anger turned to trepidation as she listened to the first of a series of harsh attacks against herself, and her "coddling" to alien powers. The attacks were insistent and increasingly personal. The President realized, belatedly, that she’d been fooled again. Augesburcke had been lying, saying what she wanted to believe, because here was Senator Church using her strident voice against her, but with the words of Alexander. To President Sadat it was finally apparent that Alexander was on Terra, in spirit if not in body. He’d succeeded in keeping her off balance and in the dark until she made her intentions clear. Now he struck with a verbal assault which used her own words against her. The Senate, and soon the people would be inflamed against a President that steadfastly ignored the Galactic realities for her own jealousies of power. It would now be almost impossible to accomplish what just a few moments before she thought almost probable. She must tell her superiors. There was nothing more she could do at this point. Alexander was finally taking control of the pulpit: the Senate. Certainly she’d incited a small, though vocal opposition, but now Alexander was hitting back. He ignored the subtlety of her arguments because he had a firm grasp on the reality of the situation. His attacks were pointed, and personal. Soon, instead of calling for the proverbial head of Alexander, they might call for her own.
Sadat felt completely deflated at how Alexander manipulated her. Everything she accomplished, including the Presidency, did nothing more than fit neatly into Alexander’s own personal design. A very real concern for her people hit her for the first time. Now she understood the fear that Alexander had to draw on, and the brilliance by which she thought he created it. Desperately she wanted to do something to stop it all and begin again, but for that it was too late. All that was left was to put up the best front possible for her people. In this she would succeed. She would carry on with her mission, but she still shuddered to think what would happen to her when Alexander showed, in person, to demand an accounting.