Consequences

When the news of the arrest of Judith Stern reached the planet Null the Glorious Leader felt there was an opportunity to bomb the planet Freya.


The commander of the fleet sent to the 10 Ursae Majoris system, Vice Admiral Jackson, was strutting about the command deck of the flag ship in his blue dress uniform.  Vice Admiral Jackson wore medals for awards for bravery he never actually earned.  The plan was to refuel at a gas giant before bombardment, Vice Admiral Jackson didn’t expect any opposition.


The RFS Guardian was a Exodus class missile frigate that was assigned to defend the 10 Ursae Majoris system.  The Exodus class had no hyperdrive had six gees of acceleration and some armor.  Most of the vessels of the system defense squadron went out to the gas giants.


RFS Guardian was off of a gas giant.


“Another ship has dropped out of hyperspace.  It looks like it’s cruiser size.”  Said the executive officer.


Shit.  Thought Lieutenant Commander Shane.


“Can you track it?”  Replied Lieutenant Commander Shane.


“Yes, sir.”  Said the executive officer at the sensor station.


Vice Admiral Jackson was on the cruiser RNS Laurence Null.  The other ships in the task force that were expected to be there weren’t there.  There was only an expanding cloud of wreckage.


“Can any of you lock on to it?”  Said Lieutenant Commander Shane to the gunners.


“Aye, aye, sir.”  All three gunners replied.


“I have a lock on the target, sir.”  Said the missile gunner.


“Fire.”  Ordered Lieutenant Commander Shane.


“Aye, aye, sir.”  The missile gunner replied.


A spread of six type two missiles were emitted from the missile frigate.  Five of the missiles were wasted.  One of the missiles detonated near the enemy cruiser.  The wreckage of the cruiser RNS Laurence Null spread out from the detonation.


The Glorious Leader was angry at the failure of the expedition.


The Freyan navy task force returned to the home world.  The prisoners were thawed out.  Judith Stern was returned to her family.  The first prisoner placed on trial was Paul Clark.

 
In a courthouse in the city of Landfall a female judge spoke.


“Please Rise.”


Everyone rose, except the defendant Paul Clark.


Thomas Murray, the court appointed attorney, turned to the defendant and spoke.


“You need to stand up.”


“I’ll never stand up for that Godless filth!”  Clark stated.


“You’re going to be in deep trouble.”  Murray replied.


The judge spoke.


“Paul Clark, you’ve been charged with the kidnaping of a minor, this is a capital crime.  How do you plead?”


“I did nothing wrong!  I’ll never submit to Godless filth!”  Clark replied.


The judge said.


“I’ll take that as a not guilty plea.”


The judge spoke to a security guard.


“Tape the defendant.”


The security guard placed hull tape over the mouth of Clark.


The foreman of the jury spoke after a few moments in the jury room.


“We find the defendant guilty of the crimes of kidnaping a minor and denying our Constitution.”


The judge thanked the jury, and then turned to the defendant and spoke.


“Paul Clark, you’ve been found guilty of the crimes of kidnaping a minor and denying our Constitution, and you’re sentenced to death.”


“Congratulations,” said Murray, “you’‘ve just bought a piece of steel wire.”


Clark’s eyes bugged out.


Murray spoke again.


“The old American Constitution, The Federation Charter, and The Freyan Constitution specifically forbid cruelty.” said Murray, “executions are normally carried out with single round to the head.  But those who commit the crime of denying The Freyan Constitution are slowly hanged with a steel wire.”


Paul Clark slowly choked to death as he was hanged.  Thomas Gratton behaved himself and was convicted of kidnaping a minor.  Gratton was eventually sentenced to death.


After roughly a month a promotion ceremony was held in front of the Department of Planetary Security building.  Several naval officers were in their dress white uniforms.  Commodore Keller wore, apart from the SURFER badge, only two ribbons.  The ribbon for the relief expedition and the ribbon for the navy commodation medal with three gold stars on it.  The naval officers stood at attention as the presidential gravitic limousine landed in front of the building.  The Freyan president stepped out of the limousine.  She wore a dark blue business suit and walked up to the naval officers.


The Freyan president then replaced shoulder boards of Commodore Keller with the shoulder boards of a rear admiral.  The shoulder boards of a rear admiral had the wide gold stripe of a flag officer and a basic gold stripe with the four pointed Freyan star in gold.


“I’m sorry I have to send you out again.”  Said President Veronica Sterling as she replaced the shoulder boards.


“What do you want me to do, Ma’am?”  Said Rear Admiral Keller.


“I’m sorry, I want you to bomb the planet Null back into the stone age.”  Answered President Sterling.


“They’re already there, Ma’am.”  Replied Rear Admiral Keller.


“Philosophically they’re there, I need you to bomb them physically there.  They’re about to discover, the hard way, that content of character does matter.”  Said President Sterling.


“Aye, aye, Ma’am.”  Replied Rear Admiral Keller.


Rear Admiral Keller saluted President Sterling.


The sun generally known as Procyon was beginning it’s daily ascent over the capital city of the planet Null.  The Glorious Leader of the People stepped out on the balcony of the uppermost floor of the Presidential Palace.


The capital city of his world lay before him.  Today would be a glorious day.  Today he would do and say glorious things.  The African-Americans who colonized this planet would begin to take back what they were taught and believed was rightfully theirs.


The ride in his gravitic limousine to the football stadium of the planetary capital was uneventful.


The sun had almost reached the high point of noon overhead as the Glorious Leader of the People walked up the steps of the platform.  Like everyone in the large football stadium where he was to speak, he wore the ruling party’s new black dress uniform for the first time.  Like most of the people on his planet his skin was almost as dark as the uniform.  The new dress uniform was itself a copy of the uniform worn by members of the Null Boys, which supported the martyred President Null in the old United States on Earth, before they were wiped out by the Caucasians and the Jews during the Second American Civil War.


Today, everything would change.  And for him it would be for the better.


The Glorious Leader of the People stepped up to the podium, he raised his right fist into the air above him, and he shouted into the microphone.


“POWER!”


Everyone in the stadium raised their right fists into the air and shouted their reply.


“POWER!”


The Glorious Leader of the People, with his fist still in the air, shouted again.


“POWER TO THE PEOPLE!”


Everyone in the stadium again raised their right fists into the air and replied.


“POWER TO THE PEOPLE!”


The Glorious Leader of the People and his uniformed audience repeated the vocal ritual two more times.  The Glorious Leader of the People tried to not too obvious as he looked at the screens of the teleprompter system on the stage.


The Glorious Leader of the People began to speak again.


“Today marks a new beginning for The People,” he said, “today is the day The People rightfully return to their proper place in the universe!”


The Glorious Leader of the People again raised his fist into the air and shouted.


“POWER TO THE PEOPLE!”


The uniformed audience again raised their fists into the air and replied.


“POWER TO THE PEOPLE!”


The ritual was again repeated two more times.


The Glorious Leader of the People briefly peeked at a teleprompter screen and then spoke levelly.  The Glorious Leader of the People raised his right fist in the air and shouted to again begin the POWER ritual.  The Glorious Leader of the People continued to rant and rave of his hatred of all the other races of mankind.  Especially the Caucasians and the Jews.  Who where in the mind of the Glorious Leader of the People, and his people, were a corruption of the true form of Man.  And he promised that he would do everything necessary to wipe the inferior races, especially the Caucasians and the Jews, from the face of the Universe.  The ranting when on and on and on or another two hours.


Finally, The Glorious Leader of the People came to what he believed to be the best part of the speech.


“We shall avenge the death of President Null,” he shouted, “we shall completely wipe out the family founded by Evelyn Stone, the cracker who brought about the death of President Null and murdered our brothers in the Null Boys in the old United States.  And we shall wipe out the nation that he and his followers founded, the Freyan Empire!  We shall wipe all of them completely off the face of the Universe!”


The Glorious Leader of the People raised his fist in the air and shouted.


“DEATH TO FREYA!”


The audience raised their fists in the air and repeated after their leader.  This ritual was repeated two more times.  The Glorious Leader of the People then raised his fist one last time in the air repeated the POWER ritual three more times.


The brass band played a marching tune as the Glorious Leader of the People walked off of the stage.


The ride from the football stadium to the presidential residence was, as expected, uneventful.


Everyone stood to attention as The Glorious Leader of the People walked through his outer office.

 
In his gilded inner office he found Mr. Douglas Green already seated on a chair in front of his desk.  Green, who was dressed in his all white version of the current high end Centaurian business fashion didn’t stand up.


The Glorious Leader of the People became angry.  He became very visibly angry at the sight of Green as he remained seated.


“Sit down Johnny.”  Said Green in a level voice.


“How the Hell did you get in here?”  Johnny shouted.


“Intimidation.”  Green said with a level voice.  “Simple intimidation.”


Johnny remained angry.


“And can’t you stand up like everyone else.”  The Glorious Leader continued to shout.


 Green continued to reply with a level voice.


“No.”  He said.  “Why should I?”


Green made a gesture with the index finger of his right hand to indicate that Johnny should sit down in his own chair behind his own desk.


“Sit down, Johnny.”  Said Green with emphasis in a level voice.


Johnny sat down.


“You have a lot of nerve talking to me like that.”  Said Johnny.


“I have a nerve?”  Replied Green.  “I’m not the one who’s marching around in a godlike fashion and shouting like he’s the living embodiment of the popular will on this planet, as well as calling for the extermination of the most heavily armed people in The Universe outside of The Federation.”


“Oh, and that speech of yours sounded better in the original German.”  Said Green.


“And by the way,” said Green as he continued, “some Caucasians are paying your bills now.”


Green made a gesture with his right index finger as part of the process of stating a point.


“Starting a race war is generally believed to be a bad thing.”  He said.  “But starting a race war with a nation that has a fully functional industrial base, which has nuclear weapons, and has just demonstrated the will to use them is just plain dumb.  And starting a war with a bunch of folks who fight by the Saigon Rules is really and truly dumb.”


“The Saigon Rules?”  Said Johnny.


“We we’re taught them in school on Kennedy.”  Said Green.  “The primary rule was, ‘in the absence of the rule of law, anything goes.’  Given your open abrogation of commonly held moral laws, the Freyans will basically deal with you and your gang as if you’re a bunch of animals.  You’d better win this one, or else.”  


“And one other thing, as to renaming your planet,” he continued to say, “the Reverend Martin Luther King, Junior, is still a respected martyr more than two centuries after he fell to an assassins bullet, where President Null, or as he is still known on Freya, The Big Zero, is still generally seen as the reincarnation of Hitler in black face.  And by the way, did you know that President Null’s maternal grandfather was a member of the SS-Totenkopfverbande, who escaped to Argentina after the Second World War?”


“The SS-What?”  Said Johnny.


Green replied in a manner that spoke down to Johnny.


“The section of the SS that carried out The Final Solution.”


“So President Null’s grandfather killed a bunch of Kikes.”  Said Johnny. “So what?”


“Some people, even now, early in the Twenty Third Century,” said Green, “are still upset about The Final Solution.”


“Too fucking bad!”  Said Johnny.


“But that wasn’t all.”  Said Green.  "President Null’s mother didn’t buy into her father’s value system, when she grew up she went to Chicago in the United States and got herself impregnated by an African-American, she did this at a time when such persons were still openly called Niggers.”


Johnny jumped out of his chair, pointed at Green, and shouted.


“DON’T USE THAT WORD!”


Green answered with a level voice and in a full Irish accent.


“I’ll use whatever word that I find necessary to make my point to anyone, including to you.”


Green pointed back at Johnny’s chair and spoke.


“Sit down Johnny,” he said, “you look like an idiot.”


Johnny sat back down.  Green continued to speak.


“Needless to say, President Null’s grandfather, Friedrich, if I recall his name properly, didn’t take his daughter’s actions too well.  He was very embarrassed, especially in front of his old comrades, to have an obviously mixed race grandson.  He wouldn’t even speak to his grandson until the mother committed suicide.  After that Friedrich started to train his grandson to be a political leader, in the proper Nazi mode, of course.  In his diary he constantly referred to his grandson as Der Kinderbombe.  It was his intent to use his grandson as a means to bring down the degenerate American republic from the inside.”


    Johnny had an obvious question.


“And how do you know this?”


“Friedrich’s diary was found in the wreckage of the White House during The Reformation.”  Green replied.  “The full text was immediately posted on the internet, and I had to write a paper on it in high school.”


Johnny sat silently.  Green had to add something else.


“Given what you’ve done and said today, you may as well take your luggage, your mistresses, and your off planet bank’s ATM card and leave.  And go really far away.  Right fucking now.”


Johnny had enough abuse, he stood up and immediately snapped off a response to Green.


“You know, I can have you taken out and shot!”


Green smiled and replied.


“Oh, I’m absolutely certain that you could.”  He said.  “Of course the committee will cut off all existing financial support to the mob that you call a planetary government.  The general feeling of the committee is that if it were to happen that you and your gang would be overthrown in about a standard year.  But from what I’ve seen during my current visit here, I would expect that you and your regime would last less than a standard month.”


Johnny sat back down in stunned silence.  Green continued to speak.


“You’ll of course, get chopped up and fed to the dogs.”  Then Green remembered something.


“Oh, I forgot,” he said, “that’s an African practice, this planet was forcibly colonized by African-Americans.”


“Yes.”  Said Johnny.


“Well then you’ll likely be doused with methanol and set on fire.”   Said Green.  “Of course, if you’re lucky, the rebels that overthrow you will kill you first.”


Green thought for a moment and then continued to speak.


“It’ll be a race to see who gets to kill you first, your own people or the Freyans.”


Johnny glared at Green and asked a question.


“What the Hell do you mean?”   


Green replied.


“You’re the one who’s going to get yourself and everyone else on your own planet killed simply by opening your big mouth.”


Johnny sat back in his chair and spoke in an obviously hostile voice.


“Go on?”  He said.


Green looked straight at Johnny and spoke to him as if he were a teacher answering an obviously dumb question asked by a lazy student.  


Again.


He raised his right hand and counted off the points on each finger that was extended.


“You just told everyone in the known universe that you’re going to exterminate the Freyans, this in general, is a very, very, dumb move.”


Green raised a second finger and spoke again.


“Freya wasn’t colonized from Earth, it was colonized by people who originally settled on Mars.  Even though the Freyans are now a secular society, they still hold official ceremonies to commemorate the Holocaust.”


“So what?” Johnny replied.


Green smiled again and answered.


“They have a lot of very well armed and trained people on Freya.”


Green raised a third finger and spoke again.


“Needless to say the Freyans and their still observant relatives on Masada are still more than a bit sensitive about the open threat of genocide.”  He said.  “And on both worlds they’re building their own independent space forces and their own fission reactors to produce Plutonium for nuclear weapons.  If the government of one world doesn’t nuke your collective asses, the other one will.”


Johnny grinned.


“That’s not going to happen.”  He said.  “No one will allow the use of nuclear weapons.”


“And why not?”  Said Green.  “The same interstellar government that’s no longer preventing you from practicing full Socialism and participating in mercenary operations on other worlds is the same interstellar government that can’t protect you from your enemies.  And it’s the same interstellar government that didn’t prevent the Freyans from using missiles with nuclear warheads earlier this year just in the Alpha Centauri system.”


Green raised a fourth finger and continued to speak.


“And obviously you haven’t read Moral Decisions In Warfare by Evelyn Stone.”


“Why should I read a book written by that cracker?”  Snapped off Johnny.


“In the chapter covering the concept of genocide Stone wrote that when a group or nation is faced with an enemy who openly intends to carry out a campaign of extermination,” said Green, “then the only morally valid only option is to attack and exterminate the enemy or passively wait to be exterminated.”


Green brought up a memory of another high school class and continued to speak.


“The Null Boys were subjected by an order of President Stone to a campaign of open extermination as a result of the evidence of their crimes that was uncovered when areas that were under their control were liberated during The Reformation.”


Johnny shouted back.


“Our people committed no crimes!”


Green remained in the lecture mode when he replied.


“Mass murder on the basis of racial identity was back in the days of The Reformation was considered to be a very bad thing.  A very, very, bad thing.”  He said.  “While African-American civilians in general weren’t held responsible for the crimes of the Null Boys, they still had their collective noses rubbed in their shit.  Only those who could be actually proven to be members of the Null Boys were subjected to the extermination order as carried out by the reformers.”

    
Green brought his hands down to his lap, interlaced his fingers, and spoke again.


“Given what you’ve said to your mob today, you’ll be lucky if you and your people are just bombed back into the Stone Age.”


Green decided to not mention the fact that as far as he was concerned, the rulers and population of Null, formerly known as King, had already philosophically and morally returned to the Stone Age.

 
Green looked straight at Johnny, smiled and spoke again.


“Seriously, you’ve just thoroughly fucked yourselves.”  He said.  “Not only are you practicing Socialism, but you are practicing old school Nazism, and you’re doing it in a black face.  The only things that you’re lacking on this planet are a supply of Jews and some of those special camps with the shower and oven facilities.  The gang of thugs that you call a government has already run up a body count that nearly rivals that of the Khmer Rouge more than two centuries ago back on Earth.  And you’ve just, for all practical purposes, issued an open and engraved invitation to all other powers in the known universe, especially the Freyans, to come in and intervene.  And by intervene I mean with nuclear weapons.”


Johnny tried to calm himself down before asking another question.


“Mister Green,” he said, “why are you here?”  


“To do business.”  Green replied.  “Of course the only things that are being produced in any quantity here on this planet are dead bodies and political enforcers.”


Green brought his hands down to his lap and interlaced the fingers.  He then spoke again.


“And while the Nazis were supposed to have found ways of economically utilizing human remains, as far as we can tell there is no market off of your planet for soap made from human fat.  On the other hand, our plans for Freya require that we import a large number of political enforcers, which appear to be the only thing that any of your people appear to show any competence at.”


And Green had something else to say.


“And while our plans do require that we take control of their nuclear arsenal and eliminate the political and intellectual leadership on Freya, what’s in effect the ruling class, we do need to take the little people intact in order to make proper use of the existing industrial base.  That’s not going to be a problem, is it?”  He said.


Johnny thought for a moment, and then he answered.


“No.”  He said.  “No.  That won’t be a problem, as long as we can exterminate the descendants of Evelyn Stone, and get justice for President Null, that won’t be a problem.”


Johnny also had a request.


“And we want some of those nukes for ourselves.”


Green thought for a moment, and then he answered.


“Of course.”  He said.


Green was lying, there was no way in Hell that these black ass savages would be allowed to take possession of nuclear weapons.


It shouldn’t be too difficult to find a replacement for The Glorious Leader.  Thought Green.  There wasn’t any shortage of power tripping thugs on this planet.


Johnny again thought for a moment, and then he asked a question.


“Mister Green, do you have a conscience?”


“You?"  Douglas Green replied.  “You’re asking me that question?”


The Leader nodded.


“No.”  Douglas Green replied.  “I don’t.”


“Why not?”  Johnny asked.


Douglas Green sat back in his chair and clasped his hand together.


“Because a conscience is a mental device used by weak people to pretend that they’re morally superior.”  He replied.  “It’s a device that the inferior use to fraudulently pretend that they’re superior.”


The Leader nodded.


Douglas Green stood up and said one last thing before he departed.


“Have your people ready to go, right now, and do try to have a nice day.”


Yes.  Green thought as he walked out of the office.  The Glorious Leader will have to be replaced.