NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC ALERT

The terrorists will NOT attack your delegation.

They are discuised as Imperial Grandarmies, and there are only TWO of them.

It is an attempt om MY life, not anyone elses. These people are professional assassins.

Please, change the posts. They are incorrect.

The plane reached international airspace within minutes of takeoff. The problem now was reaching ITD airspace. Fuel was going to be tight, the ship would have to coast on fumes for a bit.

Reck: "Radio home, the situation in Derscon has become dangerously unstable."

Soldier: "Yes sir."

Pilot: "Sir, we have to conserve fuel... I recommend we land at a closer location... Communist Mississippi is closer to us at this point. Should I request landing permission?"

Reck: "...Yes. Request landing permission and refueling. Ask the condition of the Premi... King of Communist Mississippi."

Pilot <Radio to CM>: ~Communist Mississippi, this is an emergency inbound ITD aircraft requesting landing and refueling permission. Please Respond. Also advise on the condition of your leader, did he escape the conference alive?~

The plane reached international airspace within minutes of takeoff. The problem now was reaching ITD airspace. Fuel was going to be tight, the ship would have to coast on fumes for a bit.

Reck: "Radio home, the situation in Derscon has become dangerously unstable."

Soldier: "Yes sir."

Pilot: "Sir, we have to conserve fuel... I recommend we land at a closer location... Communist Mississippi is closer to us at this point. Should I request landing permission?"

Reck: "...Yes. Request landing permission and refueling. Ask the condition of the Premi... King of Communist Mississippi."

Pilot <Radio to CM>: ~Communist Mississippi, this is an emergency inbound ITD aircraft requesting landing and refueling permission. Please Respond. Also advise on the condition of your leader, did he escape the conference alive?~



"This is Eastern Mississippi Air Defense Command, you are cleared to land at Curtis Fabus airport in Memphis, Tennessee. The Premier is okay and has already landed in Stalingrad and is doing well."

OOC

You obviously missed my OOC alert.....

"This is Eastern Mississippi Air Defense Command, you are cleared to land at Curtis Fabus airport in Memphis, Tennessee. The Premier is okay and has already landed in Stalingrad and is doing well."

Pilot: "Sir, we are approaching Curtis Fabus airport. We should be landing soon."

Reck: "Ok, men. We are landing in friendly territory. Store your weapons and present yourself to any CM unit. As we are all ninthian we will have no problem with CM's policies on white-only travel. This isn't a holiday. Stay near the plane."

Soldiers (in unison): "Yes, Sir!"

Pilot: "We are making our descent, we should be on the ground anytime now."

Reck: "Soldiers, at ease. File out on my command."

The plane landed and came to a stop.

Reck: "Exit the plane."

The men exited the plane, Reck went out last. They scanned the area for signs of Mississippians.

Pilot: "Sir, we are approaching Curtis Fabus airport. We should be landing soon."

Reck: "Ok, men. We are landing in friendly territory. Store your weapons and present yourself to any CM unit. As we are all ninthian we will have no problem with CM's policies on white-only travel. This isn't a holiday. Stay near the plane."

Soldiers (in unison): "Yes, Sir!"

Pilot: "We are making our descent, we should be on the ground anytime now."

Reck: "Soldiers, at ease. File out on my command."

The plane landed and came to a stop.

Reck: "Exit the plane."

The men exited the plane, Reck went out last. They scanned the area for signs of Mississippians.


Ooc- Actually you landed in CM controlled Tennessee. And non-whites are allowed to land as long as they don't attempt to leave the airport.


The colonel in charge of airport security moved out with two platoons of reserves and one platoon of commonwealth paratroopers to greet the recently arrived plane. He saluted them and said, "Welcome to Tennessee."

Reck walked toward the colonel and saluted him.

Reck: "I am Daniel Reck, of the Empire of Itinerate Tree Dweller. We don't mean to impose on you. We only need to refuel and be on our way. We are prepared to pay generously for the fuel. We are glad to hear that your Premier is safe."

Reck walked toward the colonel and saluted him.

Reck: "I am Daniel Reck, of the Empire of Itinerate Tree Dweller. We don't mean to impose on you. We only need to refuel and be on our way. We are prepared to pay generously for the fuel. We are glad to hear that your Premier is safe."


(Colonel) "The Premier gives you the fuel for free as a token of his gratitude for your attenting the talks. He also would like to offer you the opportunity to transfer your passengers to the Triple K airliners private plane stationed here if they need to get home immediately."

OOC

You obviously did not see the OOC alert, but oh well. Go on..


And CM, I still get a kick out of "Triple K Airlines." :D

The following took place about a few hours-1/2 day before the agreement was reached. This picks up from where Alice (Seryown) and Roger (CM) left off in Alexandria in Mississippian Egypt.

It was about 7 am when Alice stirred from her sleep; she heard noise in the kitchen and wondered what it was.

She dressed quickly and walked into the room groggily.

Roger was sitting at a breakfast table, dressed already, he was eating steak and eggs, he looked at her and said, "Morning, sleep well?

Alice nodded. "Very well. This is early..."

(Roger) "Oh well I guess you could say this is early. Want something to eat?"

(Alice) "No, thanks. I'm used to skipping breakfast."

(Roger) "Won't be another opportunity to eat until probably well after 12."

(Roger) "I have to review reports from Libyan war gaming."

(Alice) "That's fine. How's it going?"

(Roger) "It's going fine. We've over 6 million soldiers from federal units, commonwealth units, and Parthian units taking part. Do you know what one of the top field marshals suggested?"

(Alice) "Does it have anything to do with gas?"

(Roger) "He suggested we hold as many games as we can, close to the border of Mississippian Libya and Arabian Libya, and then after the 20th or so game, as the AL border units are used to seeing so many soldiers near the border, we all sweep into AL and crush the armies there. Ludicrous suggestion! It would probably work, they'd grow desensitized to seeing so many soldiers, but I don't want a war. I told him one more thought like that, and he'll be busted down to private!”

(Roger) "Yes, there is gas, why do you ask?"

(Roger) "We're staging mock chemical attacks in the war games so our soldiers and citizens are ready in the event there are ever any real chemical attacks."

(Alice) "Anything harmful?"

(Roger) "Well of course the mock chemicals aren't harmful, but they are meant to represent harmful agents."

(Alice) "Yes. With inconsistent generals like this Tracy opposing you, I can see how it would be useful."

(Roger) "There are a number of my own generals who are pressing me to launch a massive first strike and annihilate the majority of enemy forces before they know what hit them."

(Alice) "You know it would be impossible. Before your ICBMs hit theirs would be in the air."

(Roger) "Well they suggested we could use SSBNs alone to do it, We have over 150 SSBNs.”

(Roger) "Also there are some generals who say damn the consequences we need to launch, they say since 90% of our citizens will survive in bunkers, it's acceptable to lose 10%."

(Alice) "It is most certainly not acceptable, and I don't think that people in that mindset should be leading troops."

(Roger) "Well I have the ultimate say, so I decide there is no war, and there is no war. No general or group of generals will force a war that I don't want."

(Alice) "You don't think one of these people could launch at least some missiles without your knowledge?"

She wondered about that, seeing as CM policy allowed anybody ranked captain or above to authorize tactical chemical weapons attacks.

(Roger) "I don't think they'd launch, it would be a disaster, if they manage to launch say 10 missiles, we'll be wiped out in the counter-launch. They'd be forcing us to launch our entire arsenal... Ah, I see what you mean."

(Roger) "You're saying if the generals should go rogue, launch a few missiles. They know we'll have to launch everything we have to try to neutralize as much of the enemy before the enemy can retaliate, otherwise we know we're going to be clobbered."

(Alice) "And you'll get clobbered anyway, but the explosions generated would have consequences felt the entire world over. We have a personal stake in this now, because of Angola."

(Roger) "Yes well remember, it's my decision to make, and no generals will make it for me. I could increase the centralization in missile authority and strip them of even more authority. Currently the army high command can launch missiles in the event the government is decapitated in a surprise strike, to that ends, the top generals and field marshals each have part of the access codes to the missiles. A full code is needed for a full launch, but partial codes can result in partial launches. But more than 3 codes are needed for any launch."

(Alice) "Perhaps, but even a single release of sarin or smallpox in an opposing nation and you'd be attacked."

(Roger) "I don't think that most reasonable nations would start a war over the actions of a few rogue generals if it killed only a few thousand people, as long as we turned over the rogues to them to be dealt with according to their laws."

(Alice) "I think the name Tracy rebuts that."

(Roger) "Yes well that man is an uncultured ruffian, and had he accepted my invitation to a duel, he'd be in a morgue by now."

(Alice) "Perhaps. But if he is a representative of his nation, can you call it a reasonable one?"

(Roger) "No, he is not reasonable. He is lucky though, I can shoot the center of a dollar coin at 100 yards with my pistol."

(Alice) "I'm not impressed."

(Roger) "Would you like to go shooting?"

(Alice) "That depends."

(Roger) "On what?"

(Alice) "On whether I can draw my gun without it being taken."

(Roger) "Oh yes, sorry, here you are." (He opened a drawer and handed her gun back to her)

(Alice) "Unlocked this whole time?"

(Roger) "Sure, why not?"

(Alice) "I thought you distrusted my stability."

(Roger) "Well I don't think that is an issue anymore, do you?"

(Alice) "I hope not."

Roger finished eating, he took a silver cigarillo holder out from his breast pocket and put one into his mouth, "Want one" he offered her and he extended the holder to her.

(Alice) "No, thank you."

Roger stood up, started to walk towards the balcony, and lit his cigarillo with a silver lighter as he was walking out the balcony door.

He inhaled deeply on it and blew the smoke out through his mouth in a large cloud, he was leaning on the wall of the balcony, looking out over the city, people were starting to leave their houses and go about their daily chores.

Alice stepped out onto the balcony to see what he was doing.

Roger ashed his cigarillo and then put it back in his mouth, inhaling and then exhaling in a direction away from Alice. He turned to face her, "Look at it all", he said as he motioned at the city, "It runs like clockwork, everyday."

(Alice) "Maybe that's a bad thing?"

(Roger) "It's all predictable, every Sunday through Friday people are busy and going about their daily business. Every Saturday the entire city shuts down."

(Roger) "I don't see how it could be bad."

(Alice) "What about spontaneity?"

(Roger) "We don't like surprises, everything has a place and a proper state of being."

(Alice) "Curious."

(Roger) "Do you know why everything shuts down on Saturday?"

(Alice) "I'm afraid not."

(Roger) "Saturday is our Sabbath, from 9 am to 3 pm, everybody is in church praying. We break from noon to one for lunch and then resume praying until 3 pm."

(Alice) "Perhaps a little overmuch?"

(Roger) "What do you mean?"

(Alice) "Do you feel that God hears your praying more if you pray longer?"

(Roger) "It shows how much of our time we devote solely to praying. As it is we devote all of our time to God because we are always doing His work."

Alice sighs. "Perhaps your nation has something to learn from other nations, and perhaps other nations have something to learn from yours."

(Roger) "We don't feel the world can teach us anything except sin and evil, that is why we try so hard to shut ourselves out of world affairs. We have a complete ban on all foreign radio, television, and print media."

(Roger) "Our people can only watch shows approved by both the government and the Council of Bishops."

(Alice) "I think that is why you have something to learn from the world."

(Roger) "What do you think the world could possibly teach us? I just fail to see what good the world is as a whole, we are and always will be Mississippi and we basically just want the world to leave us on our own, we're willing to do the same with the world."

(Alice) "Tell me. You're acting premier, you should know. What percentage of men are employed outside their own homes?"

(Roger) "Well over 97%, nearly 100%.”

(Alice) "Women?"

(Roger) (Hesitates) "Does it really matter?"

(Roger) "Less than 7%."

(Alice) "Thank you."

(Roger) "But we do allow women to work in times of national crisis when the men must leave the factories to take up arms."

(Alice) "Women do not serve in the army?"

(Roger) "Well the thing is women are free to work if they want, but managing an estate and 10 plus children is work enough for them, and they're very appreciate for doing it."

(Roger) "We have women in the army administration as secretaries, there are also the nurses in the medical corps."

(Alice) "How about as pilots?"

(Roger) "No, no women pilots."

(Alice) "In the infantry?"

(Roger) (Shocked) "Infantry? You're not serious are you, tell me you're joking."

(Alice) "I'm not joking. Tell me the total number."

(Roger) "There are no women in combat positions."

(Alice) "Okay. In the engineer corps?"

(Roger) "None."

(Alice) "How many women can give an order to a man?"

(Roger) "I'd have to check into that."

(Alice) "You do that, and while you're at it tell me how many men can give an order to a woman." She scribbles a number down on a piece of paper. "You can give those numbers to me at this phone number."

(Roger) "It might have changed since the last time I checked, but last reports suggest none."

(Roger) "We have been attempting to form an all female Republican Guard Armored Division to see if the use of women in combat is something worth further consideration."

(Alice) "I'm afraid I don't believe you. If you're ever in need of something from Seryown, that's my cell. I'm off."

(Roger) "But we are, we even have the first 1,000 women recruits!"

(Roger) "You can see them in training, they are here in Egypt!"

(Alice) "As I said, I'm leaving. I hope your morning goes well."

(Roger) "Please don't go, stay for a while."

(Roger) "Have I done something to offend you?"

(Alice) "Your entire nation offends me." She leaves the balcony.

(Roger) (Walks off the balcony into the room) "Come back, please, at least come see the female armored division we're trying to form, you might be pleasantly surprised."

Alice begins walking toward her bedroom, not bothering to turn as she responds. "The fact that you want a separate division at all is abhorrent to me."

(Roger) "What do you mean? All of our units in the Republican Guard are special and unique, one division is all citizens from Rome, one division is all White Christians from Turkey, another division is all citizens whose ancestor were crusaders, one division is all from the Mississippian clergy."

(Roger) "Studies show if women and men are in the same units in combat, sexual tensions will reduce unit effectiveness."

(Alice) "These ideas are abhorrent to me as well."

(Roger) "Please Alice, calm down, would you at least like to see the units that are going to form the core of the 31st Republican Guard Armored Divsion?"

(Alice) "Not particularly."

(Roger) "Do you know what the training for the guard is like? It takes over 12 months, the last 3 days, all recruits are taken to the desert, given 2 litres of water and 2 MREs, they are then left on their own to march over 100 miles to the nearest city, those that fall out of the marching, they are left behind, it's brutally harsh, officers will ride by in jeeps and beat anybody who is slacking they will taunt them to the ends of the earth, and they also dump water on the sand in front of them, to taunt them."

(Roger) "In Republican Guard training, about 30% of recruits will be seriously injured of killed."

(Roger) "Most of those that die, do so in the last 3 days, the "March through hell" they call it."

(Alice) "Do your airlines run flights into Luanda yet?"

(Roger) "You're not listening to a word I'm saying are you? I'm trying to tell you that we're amazed at what's happened thus far, the women we've allowed to try out for the Republican Guard, they've passed through 10 months of training and still 1,000 of the original 4,000 have not washed out. I'm shocked."

(Roger) "Our airlines don't enter Angola, but my private plane goes where I want it to go."

(Alice) "I'll have to find a layover, then. Oh well."

(Roger) "Alice, please, stop this nonsense would you? Tell me what is wrong?"

(Alice) "I have outlined a number of examples for you. I'm afraid that your brainwashed mind is unable to handle them. I only ask that you remember to tell anyone who needs to know that I'm no longer involved in this."

(Roger) "Please Alice, why don't you stay and you can argue with me about how I'm wrong, I'll just listen, you talk."

(Alice) "I'm afraid my lifespan is far too short."

(Roger) "Please Alice, won't you stay, you're too rash you know that, it's not good for a diplomat to be so rash, and you seem like such a good diplomat."

(Alice) "Rash? Rash? You won't take into account the remotest possibilities of equality for just about anyone, and you say rash?" She said, and having finally finished her packing, she stepped to the door and opened it.

(Roger) (Following her out the door) "Alice, what would you suggest? I'm trying to make reforms, I'm open to suggestions."

(Alice) "You want suggestions? Eliminate all laws relating to segregation or inequality or even mentioning any races in any way."

(Roger) "Well that isn't possible, and I'd never agree to that, the inferior races must never be allowed to mingle as equal with the superior races. We must keep our superior gene pool isolated from the corrupting influences of Negroid genetics. But what else would you suggest, something that I can and will consider implementing."

(Alice) "Depose your father and hold free elections for a national congress that will appoint a court system and a cabinet. That means no soldiers will be involved in the voting process at all."

(Roger) (Laughing) "You really must be in a mood today, I said something I can and will do. I will never betray my father and there will never national elections, there will never be a congress, and there will never be a supreme court. I said something reasonable."

(Alice) "Offer a plan in which you and all members of the league will destroy all their nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons if DPUO, Sevaris, and Derscon do the same thing."

(Roger) (Laughing more) "Destroy trillions of dollars worth of weapons, and compromise our security. Are you mad? I said something I can and will do. I suggest right now we both go back inside and sit down and talk about this, please."

(Alice) "Then offer a plan in which you'll destroy weapons of mass destruction i equal amount to what DPUO destroys."

(Roger) "That I can and will do, now please, will you come back inside?"

(Alice) "Nope. But you should do that. When do you suppose this elevator is coming?"

(Roger) "It's shut off, the guards only turn it on when I tell them to, now please come back inside."

(Alice) "I suppose there would have to be emergency stairs?"

(Roger) "Please come back inside and we can talk about these issues you raise, in an adult fashion. As for the stairs, those are kept locked and guarded, they'll open if I tell them to open them."

(Alice) "I don't suppose you'll turn on the elevator, then."

(Roger) (Shaking his head) "You suppose correctly. Now will you come back inside?"

(Alice) "Kidnapping, then?"

(Roger) "No, I'm simply asking you stay here for a while. It's not kidnapping. I have total legal rights over anybody and everybody who enters into a Commonwealth territory. Now please come back inside, we can talk about the issues you're raising... As equals."

(Alice) "I'm afraid that if you don't let me go you will be committing yet another international crime and as such you will set off a diplomatic incident like you couldn't believe."

(Roger) "Please Alice, don't be so unreasonable, please come back in."

(Alice) "I have some experience. I know what I'm talking about. Maybe, just maybe, if you let me go now, I'll factor that in and let you off easy."

(Roger) "Please Alice, Angola is not safe, you don't want to go there, trust me."

(Alice) "On the contrary, I have been there. I'm there quite often."

(Roger) "Yes and I have been there, it's a hellhole and it fell into anarchy, millions died. You don't need to go there, you'll just get hurt."

(Alice) "You know there's a high speed train between Luanda and Lobito now?"

(Roger) "There was always a train, along with a great road system, but the blacks blew up all the depots and the bridges around the 6th month of the war."

(Alice) "I mean a new one, actually."

(Roger) "Okay, well will you please stay here for a while longer. You were assigned to attend the conferences, since you're not at the conference, you'll be expected to get something diplomatic done, and you can't negotiate with me if you're in Angola."

(Alice) "The longer this elevator takes to get here, the longer it will take before there will ever be diplomacy between our nations again."

(Roger) "What must I do to make you be reasonable?"

(Alice) "Order the elevator up here."

(Roger) "Why? I'd like for you to stay at least a while longer, please?"

(Alice) "No."

(Roger) "What could I do to convince you to stay at least a while longer?"

(Alice) "I have made several suggestions. I think the most important is the abandonment of those race laws."

(Roger) "If you've been in Mississippi as long as I have, you'd see the racial laws as absolutely necessary. I grew up in a nation with 40 million negroes, I know what they're capable of, I know what they can and cannot do."

(Alice) "THEY ARE HUMAN!”

(Roger) "No! They are a lower form of life, whether you believe in Creation and that they are the beast of the field, or in evolution and that they evolved from the australopithecine and we whites evolved from Homo erectus, they are low grade scum! They come out on the losing end whichever theory you accept."

(Alice) "I'm sorry, but you're simply wrong. Could you call that elevator for me?

(Roger) (Emotionlessly) "No."

(Alice)"You know something?"

(Roger) "What?"

(Alice) “My mother is Chinese.”

Roger's literally turned red with rage, he screamed out, "Get out of my sight!"

(Alice) "If you'd let me, I'd be happy to."

(Roger) "Fine, I'll call them, but if you ever tell anybody you were here, you won't be able to live to regret it, do you get it?"

(Alice) "Sure."

(Roger) (Talking softly to himself) "How stupid could I be to let you trick me, I surely did drink too much, I've been educated in racial science, well anybody without such education could spot somebody 1/2 Chinese, oh boy, I need to stop drinking." (His voice grows louder) "As for you, get out of my sight." He yells into a radio, "Activate the elevator!"

Alice waits quietly for a few seconds as the elevator comes and then steps in as soon as the doors open. She smiles as the doors begin to close. "Ta ta."

(Roger) (Quietly into the radio) "I want her followed all the way to Angola and while she is Angola, see if your friends in the WKA can keep an eye on her. I don't believe her 1/2 chinese story, I'm not an idiot, I've been educated in racial science, but I just didn't want to argue with her anymore, but still, she's 100% white, whether she will admit it or not. And as such, she'll need protection in Angola, so tail her."

Alice got outside and Roger's car was there, the driver was standing outside next to it, he said, "Ma'am, I've been instructed to take you to the airport."

Alice nodded and smiled. "I do not wish to go to the airport."

(Driver) "Wherever you want to go then, I’ve been instructed to take you anywhere you wish to go."

(Alice) "All right. Then you can get out of my face. I wish to walk around."

(Driver) "Okay, no need to be rude ma'am, but if you decide you need a ride, I'll be here."

(Alice) "Of course."

She starts to walk down the street, she walks passed the Commonwealth authority building, the governor-generals mansion, well the walk passed the mansion took 15 minutes due to the size of the land it was on. There were guards all along the sidewalk outside the mansion and a fence kept people about 2,500 feet away from the mansion itself, which was also behind large groups of trees.

She sees the "Foreign Legion Recruiting office" for the Mississippian foreign legion, a shadowy group that had about 20,000 soldiers fighting in Angola before it fell. There are large lists posted outside the building, underneath signs labeled "Killed" "Wounded" "Missing" hundreds of women are standing in line to read the lists, some of them break into tears, others breathe sighs of relief.

Somebody in the line stopped her and asked her, "Are you here to check the lists too?"

(Alice) "No, I already know what happened to my husband."

The woman sensed what she meant and hugged her and said, "I'm so sorry, it must be awful for you."

(Alice) "I suggest that you get out of this line. If there is bad news waiting for you up there, it is better not to know."

(Woman) "I need to know, three of my eight sons, two of my six brothers, and my husband all fought in Angola. they are all in Legion, the 1st regiment of the 2nd brigade."

(Alice) "Where were they?"

(Woman) "Two of my sons were stationed in Luena, 1 of my sons was in Cabinda, my husband and 1 brother were in Huambo, and my other brother was in Luanda."

Alice smiles. "If it brings you any hope before you get up there, you'll be glad to know that the people in Luanda were among the most fortunate of the soldiers."

At about that time, an old sgt walked out of the office and called out through a bullhorn, "Anybody who is here for any legionnaires that fought in Lobito, Huambo, or Luena, you are wasting your time, you'd best go home and make funeral arrangements."

Scores of the women fall to the ground and start to cry, one of them was sobbing, "That can't be, Lobito had over 8,000 soldiers, how can that be?"

The old sgt called back through the bullhorn, "Luena was flattened weeks ago when the black guerillas took it, if you didn't know, well you should try reading a foreign newspaper, they don't seem to shrink from hiding our defeats! Now get off of the legion property in ten minutes, this is for prospective recruits, and after what happened in Angola, we need more meat for the grinder."

Alice is stunned by the scene and stumbles backwards before turning down the first street she comes to.

She could just hear the sgt as she ran off.

She staggered forward and walked for about two more blocks, before coming to a stop outside a large building that read "Commonwealth Mississippian Egyptian Armed Forces Recruiting Center."

There were about 800 people standing in a long line outside the building, aged from 17 to the upper twenties. They were all white males.

A bunch of them were talking, a group was saying, "Do you think we can get into the Special Air Assault Squads, those guys are the best, in Angola they jumped into combat and took on odds 20 times against them."

One of them said, "After what happened in Angola, they need more people to join the parachute units, that's where I'm going, I'm going to join the commonwealth army and then transfer to the federal army in Mississippi."

Alice looks at them, horrified. Were the people so willing to jump to their deaths for nothing?

One of them said, "I want to be in Chemical warfare, I've already got a degree in chemical engineering."

A large group of people shouted, "Air force!"

There were a few younger kids, about 14-15 that were saying, "Can we join?" a recruiter standing outside said, "Sorry kids, come back in three or four years, but you can join the Fabus Youth paramilitary groups, go around the side entrance, you'll see the signs."

There was a large sign with Mississippi personified by a beautiful white woman it read, "Won't you fight to defend her?"

She turned and continued walking, horrified.

A man was walking down the road in a hurry, he broke into a run and was turning to look behind him when he ran right into her, he jumped up and ran off without even saying anything.

Rounding the corner were 4 men in suits and long overcoats, yelling, "Stop that man!"

Alice looked at them. "What happened?"

They just kept running, a nearby citizen told her, "Don't bother them while they're working, those guys are scary, they might arrest you, Commonwealth Internal Security Police, the secret police."

One of the men stopped and aimed a pistol, he fired at the man running and he fell flat on his face into a mud puddle.

They went over and checked to see if he was still alive, he was, they lifted him up and hauled him off into a waiting car.

Alice looked at the man who had talked to her. "You call this a good life?"

(Man) "Sure, it wasn't me they were after."

(Alice) "How do you know it won't be you soon?"

(Man) "I've done nothing wrong, I've nothing to fear."

(Alice) "What if they make a mistake?"

(Man) "The Internal Security Police don't make mistakes that serious, besides they'd straighten it out right away."

(Man) "Besides, for the good of the race and the state, we need to forget about small matters such as personal liberty. The state must prosper!"

(Alice) "I...this is impossible." She turned around and began sprinting back toward where she thought she remembered the car had been waiting.

There was a massive parade moving down the street she was approaching, they were all in white robes, but unmasked, at least 400,000 people in total, crowds of citizens were standing by waving and cheering. There were little kids saluting them with their left hands.

She recognized the man at the front of the parade, on a horse draped in a white sheet, the governor-general of Mississippian Egypt.

Horrified, Alice tried to force her way past the crowd of people on the side.

People were screaming, "White Power!", "Hail Fabus!", "God is Great!"

A number of clergy had lined up along the side of the road; they were blessing the marchers and praying.

She bumped into a boy about 12 years old, even though it was her fault, he turned around and said, "Hello ma'am, sorry about that, my fault, are you here to see the parade?"

(Alice) "No, I'm trying to get past."

(Boy) "Why, don't you like the parade?"

(Alice) "No, I don't."

(Boy) "You're not a jew are you?"

(Alice) "No, I'm not."

The boy's dad, turned around and said, "William, what have I told you about talking to strangers?"

(Boy) "But daddy, you can tell she's not a nig---r, and she says she isn't a jew." The dad replied, "Well I guess it's okay then, but don't bother people, she probably has places to go and things to do." He turned and said, "Sorry about my son bothering you, little children, always so inquisitive."

(Alice) "Yeah. I have to go."

(Man) "Well nice talking to you, hail Fabus!"

The boy rose up his left arm and shouted "Hail Fabus!"

(Alice) "Right." She turns and begins hurrying towards the car she hopes is still waiting.

She walked back along the road, the parade stretched for miles and so she'd have no hope of getting to the other side of the street, the side she needed to be on, unless she crossed through a break in the parade.

There was a large store she stopped in front of, it read "Surplus Military Equipment: Kill them good, and kill them dead, best stuff in Egypt"

The sign said hours, "Open 8-8 every Sunday through Friday, closed every Saturday"

She had never seen a Mississippian gun store, she was curious, so she walked inside.

The first thing she saw was a large CM flag and a poster that read "Guns don't kill be, pissed off Mississippians do."

Another large sign read, "Tactical nuclear bombs may only be purchased with weapons approval cards, same rules for chemical and biological weaponry. All other items require no approval cards, but proof of citizenship must be given. Nobody under 18 allowed in the WMD room."

She walked deeper into the store, it was at least 30,000 sq feet in size, there were large rows of pistols, rifles, shotguns, sub-machine guns, silencers, scopes, magazines, 1-ton crates of ammunition divided into 1000 round boxes, there were rows of AK-47s, M-16A2s, MP-5s, HK-91s, Fn-Fals, M-249 SAWs.

There was a G-5 155mm howitzer in the middle of the store.

A large sign read, "Save 20% on your purchase today if you join the WKM Egyptian Realm."

The storeowner was sitting on the counter reading a gun magazine, he hopped down and said, "Anything I can help you with ma'am?"

(Alice) "No, thank you."

(Owner) "We have or can order literally any gun ever made."

(Alice) "Thanks, but I'm fine."

A guy came up to the register, holding an old British Martini-Henry Rifle, he handed the owner about 8,000 dollars and then left. Another man came up pulling a cart full of 155mm howitzer shells filled with Soman gas. He paid the owner about 5,000 dollars and then carried them outside.

She walked out of the store and hastened her pace down the street, there was a large gap in the parade as a column of masked riders was moving slowly forward as a group of people on foot was moving ahead of the them about 100 feet away.

She walked passed the governors mansion where outside about 800 Arabs had assembled and were chanting "Infidels out!"

One of them cried out, "Mississippi for Mississippians, Egypt for Egyptians!"

A commonwealth police officer walked up to him, and started to talk to him, he called him a rather nasty insult in Arabic, and a group of about 18 Arabs rushed the officer and pummeled him senseless.

She stood by watching as over 200 commonwealth police in heavy body armor came running out from the nearby Police HQ and leveled their weapons at the crowd of Arabs that had grown to over 4,000. They yelled, "Return to your homes immediately!"

About 30 BMP3s poured into the area and soldiers piled out from inside, they trained their OICWs towards the Arab crowd.

About 90 German shepherds were brought in and then set loose against the crowd, the dogs tore into flesh, and ripped it from bone, their teeth were stained red with blood, they viciously attacked and sent the crowds scattering.

The police and soldiers then ran into the crowds and began clubbing them and smacking them with the butts of their rifles.

Large police wagons were brought in and 800 more police arrived the scene and began arresting people en masse, over 1,200 Arabs were arrested.

One of the police officers stopped and told Alice, "Ma'am this isn't the safest place to be right now, them Arabs are on the war path."

Alice nodded. "Thanks, but I'll be fine."

A large crowd of over 9,000 Arab workers, mostly those who worked in the city but were now refusing to return to continue working, came marching towards the police and soldiers, with hate and anger in their eyes.

Another crowd of about 12,000 started marching at the police from a perpendicular street, the police started to slowly walk backwards.

The officer told Alice, "Ma'am I'd seriously suggest you leave now."

The crowds began to hurl bottles and bricks at the police, but they impacted harmlessly on the shields, one of them came straight at Alice, but the officer used his shield to deflect it.

The officers suddenly realized there was an Arab mob approaching from behind them as well, over 30,000 Arabs, and just 1,000 police and soldiers. The police formed a square and then raised their rifles, the Arabs stopped at about 90 feet away from them.

Alice drew her gun suddenly. "I am not one of your dolls, and you will not order me around."

The officer said, "That's a felony ma'am, but whatever you want, get yourself killed, those Arabs are going to start some trouble today."

Alice smiled. "It's about time they did."

A cop standing behind her saw what she was doing, that she had pulled a gun on a cop, and he grabbed her hands and pulled them pulled behind her back, another cop wrestled the gun away from her, then they threw her to the ground and 3 of them held her down while one handcuffed her, then they placed her into a police wagon and said, "There, you can go to jail!"

Alice smiled. "Send me to jail, really. Roger Fabus will be happy to know you did it."

They slammed the door and locked it, but she could see out of a small window what was going on, the Arabs were slowly advancing, the 4 police fell back into the square.

She suddenly heard the sounds of the advancing Arabs drowned out by volleys of gunfire.

The BMPs machine guns came to life.

(Alice) "I'm a diplomat, and your Acting Premier thought he'd be clever and try to convince me that Mississippian ways were the right ways by taking me here. I daresay he has not succeeded."

The cop in the front of the police wagon, the driver, turned around and told her, "Quit your bitching, I got better things to worry about than you, we have a riot on our hands here."

She looked out the window and the saw the streams of blood shooting out of the crowd as the machine gun bullets impacted into them.

(Alice) "Well, if you'd give me my gun back I could help."

The first few rows of Arabs fell, but as they fell they revealed something, their comrades behind them had rifles, AK-47s and SKS rifles.

(Cop) "Too dangerous for a woman out there, you'd just get yourself hurt, don't let any fear get into that pretty little head of yours though, there are over 1,000 brave men outside, and they won't let anything happen."

(Alice) "It's a good thing you've got me locked up, because otherwise I swear you would be on the floor, squealing in pain right now. Now give me my damn gun and let me out of this."

The square the police had formed into was breaking up under the fire from the arabs, they had smuggled the weapons into the city via the sewer system, something that after this riot would never happen again due to boosted security to cover all previously unguarded sewers.

The cop said to Alice, "I'll just ignore that, or else you'd regret it."

(Alice) "You think I'd regret it? Just because I'm a diplomat doesn't mean I'm weak."

(Cop) "Well I know you'd regret it if I took it upon myself to teach you some manners, like the proper way to speak to a man, especially if he's a police captain." She realizes now he is a police captain.

(Alice) "You are my equal, and if you don't give me my gun back right now there will be a diplomatic incident so big your ass won't exist by the time I'm done with it."

She could hardly hear him over the gunfire, the police square had broken and they were behind BMPs and cars, taking cover and firing back.

(Captain) "If you keep insulting me, your asshole will be a lot larger by the time I'm done with it."

Rounds impact against the windshield of the wagon and the captain dives under the dashboard and draws his pistol.

She gets a look out the window, over 10,000 of the armed Arabs are dead, but so are about 500 of the police officers and soldiers. Leaving about 20,000 Arabs and 500 police left.

(Alice) "If you'd just give me my damn gun, I could help you out here, but no, you had to sit here. So if I'm still alive when this is over, I'm perfectly willing to say that you acted entirely on your own and threaten to declare war against Mississippi unless you are extradited for trial."

(Captain) "But you were arrested for pulling a gun on a police officer."

(Alice) "I did no such thing. I drew a gun."

(Captain) "You drew a gun when an officer tried to move you out of a hostile situation, it was clear you were attempting to threaten him. Now listen to me you arrogant little bitch, shut the fuck up or I'm going to toss you into an all male prison, I'm sure they'd be anxious to get their hands on a woman, especially one as feisty as you are."

Alice) "While I'm not opposed to spending some time teaching your men a lesson with my fists, you understand that if anyone who even knows Roger Fabus sees you trying to get me convicted of a crime, it'll be you who ends up serving time?"

The police wagon starts to be rocked back and forth by the Arabs as they have overrun the police positions around the wagon, the captain bounces back and forth, he says, "What do you mean, you know Roger Fabus?"

Gunfire sounds all around outside and the rocking ceases as abruptly as it began.

She sees well over 40,000 men wearing white robes armed with rifles rushing along the streets in front of the mansion, they were marchers from the parade, and they had heard the troubles going on and rushed to the scene.

(Alice) "As I explained before, I am a diplomat. Fabus thought he would be clever and he invited me to Mississippi trying to change my mind."

(Captain) "Well did you see who started the violence here? The Arabs beat one of our officers, they beat him senseless, we tried to use dogs and clubs to send them back, but they had rifles for crying out loud, we didn't want this trouble."

(Alice) "I'm not here to argue with you. Just give me my gun and let me get to Fabus's limousine."

(Captain) (In a very mocking tone) "Anything else princess?"

(Captain) "Yes, like you even know Roger Fabus! The Acting-Premier! You don't even know him!"

(Alice) "And then you can get the hell out of my way so that maybe, just maybe, I forget about all this."

(Captain) "How about I take you there? What do you say to that? I'll drive you there myself, where is he?"

(Alice) "He's staying in the penthouse of that huge hotel a while back."

(Captain) "Well, the WKM has this riot under control now, here, come up front." (He opens a small hatch, and she manages to climb up front, but she is still handcuffed and can barely move well.

(Alice) "Just remember that the longer this takes, the less balls you'll have a month from now."

She gets a good look at the scene, over 500 dead police strewn about, mixed in with piles of arab dead, over 20,000 Arab dead. Ak-47s and SKS's litter the streets, blood flows through them, the pavement has been stained red. Overturned squad cars are on fire, the flames dance all over them.

(Captain) "I told you those people were going crazy!" He starts to drive away towards the hotel.

(Captain) (Very Casually) "About that male prison remark, I'm really sorry about that, can we just pretend that didn't happen?"

(Alice) "What, scared that I do know him?"

(Captain) "Oh, no I'm not scared at all."

(Alice) "Then..."

(Captain) "Well we can just forget about it yes?"

(Alice) "I forget very little."

(Captain) "But you could forget that yes?"

(Alice) "I don't think I will."

(Captain) "Maybe I could do you a favor and you might forget eh?"

She realized the captain wasn't paying attention to where he was driving and he had taken a wrong road due to all the roadblocks and detours setup to control the riots. He was heading straight for an Arab township outside the city.

(Alice) "I very much doubt that there is a possible favor to make me forget."

She wondered if she should tell him he was about to be in the center of an Arab township, he seemed to have other things on his mind.

She shrugged quietly and decided it would be better if she saw what it looked like anyway.


He suddenly saw a sign in Arabic and knew from the rows of shacks he was in the outskirts of the Arab township, there were children drinking water from puddles in the dirt, there was raw sewage behind the houses, a large group of people saw him and moved to block the road in front of him, he spun the wheel far to the left and the wagon jackknifed and rocked, almost tipping over.

Rocks and bottles began to impact against the truck, a mob was forming, he shouted, "Shit, how'd we wind up here, we have to get out of here."

She looked around and saw most of the shacks were open, with no doors and no windows, except for perhaps a tarp over the window; there was no electricity either, except for an occasional generator.

(Captain) "These arabs are itching for trouble."

Alice disagreed, but decided it was better if she kept her mouth shut, for now.

He unbuckled his seatbelt and looked in the compartment above the seats, he unlocked it with an electronic code and pulled out an M-249 SAW and three 200 round box magazines for it.

(Captain) "This is for clearing a crowd, the best tool in existence for the job."

(Captain) "If I give you a gun, will you help?" She could tell he was nervous and sounded desperate.

(Alice) "Sure."

He pulled an MP-5N down from the rack and a pouch containing 5 magazines, he set it on the seat, then he removed her handcuffs and asked, "Do you know how to use that?"

He left the gun on the seat and turned to open the door, he stepped out and began firing the SAW into the air above the heads of the crowd, they scattered and he fired more rounds into the air.

He got back into the wagon, set the SAW in between the seats and seat, "That seemed easy enough, just keep yours ready if they try to jump onto the running board and break the windows open."

He turned the truck around and started to head back out of the Arab township, there were people running all alongside the wagon. They were hurling bottles at their truck, hurling their hatred of the police at this lone wagon that had blundered into their neighborhood.


(Captain) "You got that gun close at hand, get ready, there are some up ahead blocking the road, why don't you lean out the window and scatter them."

Alice hesitated a few moments, leaned out the window, hesitated a few more, and then sat back down.

(Captain) "Well fire the damn gun into the air, scatter them!"

More bottles and bricks impacted against the wagon.

(Alice) "Could you at least slow down a little?"

Right when she said that, he noticed there were people right ahead, so it was a good time to slow down anyway, so he just slammed the brakes on

Alice nodded. "Thank you." She opened the door and dove out, throwing the submachine gun down in front of her and covering her head.

(Captain) "Are you insane! Get back in here, they'll kill you!"

AK-47 and SKS fire began to impact against the wagon

The captain closed the door and floored the pedal down, slamming through a crowd of people and speeding away. She was left standing near an alley.

Alice stood up, bruised. She dropped the submachine gun and put her hands in the air.

A mob of Arabs with rifles surrounded her, one of them spoke in perfect English, "What are you doing here? Women are not allowed in Commonwealth police."

(Alice) "I was under arrest."

Another one demanded, "Then how did you get the gun?"

(Alice) "He wanted me to help him disperse the crowd."

(Arab leader) "Likely story, but probably true, this way, follow me."

The leader picked up the MP-5N and slung it over his shoulder, he liked this nice new weapon, a much better gun than his rusty old SKS, well much better for close quarters combat.

Alice nodded. "Of course."

A man behind her jammed an SKS into her back and pushed her forward, she followed them for a few blocks until they got to the leaders house, it was the nicest in the area, but it wasn't hard to be nicer a shack, the streets were all dirt and sand, not a single one paved, there was no sidewalks, electricity, and the water system was virtually non-existent.

The Arab leader walked into his house and she was pushed through the door, three guards stood by while he sat down and invited her to sit down on a chair opposite his.

Alice sat down quickly. "What can I do for you?"

(Leader) "My name is Nasser Aref, I am the mayor of this so-called "City" tell me how do you like this city, the commonwealth government calls it separate... But equal."

(Alice) "I had been told it really was equal."

(Nasser) (Laughing) "You call this equal?"

(Alice) "No I do not."

(Nasser) "But oh well, we must live with it, not you, you get to return to Alexandria and to your home, you do live in Alexandria yes?"

(Alice) "No."

(Nasser) "So tell me, where do you live?"

(Alice) "I live in a country called Seryown."

(Nasser) "Then you are a long distance from home."

(Alice) "Yes."

(Nasser) "Tell me, why did you come here?"

(Alice) "I am a diplomat. I was on a meeting for a peace conference in Russia, and the Acting Premier, Roger Fabus, thought he'd be clever."

(Nasser) "What do you mean? You know the Acting Premier? What do you mean clever?"

(Alice) "He thought he could convince me that Mississippi's way of life was the right one by bringing me here."

(Nasser) "Well I do like the jobs they provide, if they weren't here, we'd be even poorer than we are. But the commonwealth government refuses to spend money to pave our roads, repair our schools, etc. They tell the Federal authority in Mississippi they are spending the money, but they are really just lying to them."

(Alice) "So it isn't Mississippi's fault?"

(Nasser) "No, we like Mississippi to some degree, they keep us safe from the threat of Israeli aggression and radical Muslim terrorists. The man we don't like is Governor-General Donald Stahlecker, do you know of the Stahlecker family?"

(Alice) "A little too well, I think?"

(Nasser) "Donald Stahlecker makes Arabs go into white cities and act happy and then films then and sends the footage to federal authorities and tells them they are in Arab cities and that is how nice they are."

(Alice) "One second, actually." She fumbled into her pockets and pulled out a tape recorder, badly dented. She pressed the power button, murmuring encouragement to it, and when it did she pressed record. "If you want the truth to reach them..."

(Nasser) "My name is Nasser Aref, I am the mayor of Eastern Township near Alexandria in Mississippian Egypt. It is not exactly a city so much as it is a shantytown with just shacks and dwellings not fit for animals."

(Nasser) "The Governor-General Donald Stahlecker rather than using funds allocated to build the separate but equal Arab cities has instead diverted the money to fortifying the southern borders of Mississippian Egypt. He is also purchasing numerous fighter aircraft and he is attempting to increase the size of the Commonwealth Mississippian Egyptian Army by at least 10%."

(Nasser) "What else should I mention? We have photographs of this township, a few, but they speak volumes."

(Alice) "How's your electricity work?"

(Nasser) "What electricity? They never put it in! Only a few of us have power from generators that run on gasoline than we can rarely afford."

(Alice) "Yes. Your indoor plumbing?"

(Nasser) "The plumbing is a hole in the ground out behind the shack they call a house."

(Alice) "I'm sorry. But at least you've got paved roads and cars, right?"

(Nasser) "No, dirt roads, and we either walk, use bicycles, and a few of us pooled our money together to buy a bus for the elderly and the children. Also there are a few small trucks that people use to take things to market."

(Alice) "Oh. Fire workers? Hospitals?"

(Nasser) "No fire department, 1 hospital with 6 doctors and 24 nurses for the township of about 800,000 people."

(Nasser) "Most of the medical equipment is stuff the British left when they pulled out of Egypt over 5 decades ago."

Alice turns off the tape recorder. "May I speak with a few of those doctors sometime before I'm either imprisoned or allowed to go?"

(Nasser) "Yes, you may go, you are free to wonder the township, several of my guards will accompany you, you must understand not everybody will take well to seeing a white here."

(Alice) "I'd be happy to. But if I may speak to you for a moment more?"

(Nasser) "Yes."

(Alice) "I've told you that I'm a diplomat. I'm among the best in my nation, and I've studied history rather extensively to form my own opinions."

(Nasser) "Yes."

(Alice) "There's a strong chance I won't get to anyone outside your commonwealth government with this tape. If I don't you'll have to think about fixing the situation. I think what you're doing right now isn't working."

(Nasser) "What do you mean? What can we do?"

(Alice) "Shooting at them doesn't help. You have a legitimate concern, but many countries do not support you because they don't see this, they see police trying to survive in the middle of a firefight."

(Nasser) "Ah yes, so you saw the stubborn youth with their rifles earlier shooting at police. I keep telling the parents to keep their children from shooting at them, that just reinforces their position when they tell the world we need to be controlled with a firm hand. I suggested that we march unarmed and if they will strike us down, they will expose themselves to the world for what they are."

(Alice) "Perhaps you need to take steps to ensure that no one takes a gun to your protests?"

(Nasser) "I can try, but the youth today, they don't want peaceful shouting and protests, they want to fight."

(Nasser) "Are you really here with Roger Fabus? He is here in Egypt?"

(Alice) "Yes, in Alexandria."

(Nasser) "Perhaps I could speak with him? Do you think that would be possible?"

(Alice) "I doubt it. The only way I could get him to leave me alone was by convincing him I wasn't entirely white."

(Nasser) "So you lied to him then? Lying is dishonorable, but there are times when it becomes necessary."

(Alice) "Far too necessary."

(Nasser) "Well we must try, we shall make our way to Alexandria."

(Alice) "Is it within walking distance?"

(Nasser) "No, but we can take a jeep, the citizens bought me one so I can get around the township easily and get places I need to go for business matters that affect them."

(Alice) "This could pose a problem."

(Nasser) "How?"

(Alice) "A White woman and an Arab man seen together... anyone will automatically assume us to be guilty of cohabitation."

(Nasser) "Yes, well what do you suggest?"

(Alice) "I'm not sure. I'll need to speak with some other people here first anyway. Tell me, what's the nearest airport in Egypt other than the one in Alexandria?"

(Nasser) "The nearest international airport is over 100 miles away.”

(Alice) "I am beginning to see... listen to me. You know what happened in Angola?"

(Nasser) "Yes, the commonwealth papers don't report such things, but I read a paper from Sudan that reported it."

(Alice) "Do you know what happened after Mississippi finished leaving?"

(Nasser) "Yes. Foolish tribals, they've ruined their own nation!"

(Nasser) "Native Angolans don't have the skills to run such a complicated infrastructure that the Mississippians left behind."

(Alice) "Perhaps. But Seryown intervened. Serya troops occupied Angola. Now it's a province of Seryown. It elects its own local government, it elects people to our congress, and there are no laws that mention any discrimination at all, based on race. There's a new high-speed rail system connecting most of the major cities and the farms and buildings have been reoccupied. There was a very horrible period in its history, but they're past it now."

(Nasser) "Yes, but I hear black Marxists still roam the countryside and they clash with these White Knights of Angola who ironically are mostly black auxiliaries."

(Alice) "We're doing the best we can to stamp them out, and the cities are basically entirely safe."

(Nasser) "You mean the piles of rubble that are what is left of the cities."

(Alice) "Nonsense. Luanda is entirely rebuilt, with skyscrapers and a huge Conference Hall for any meeting that needs to be held. Lobito has almost finished a similar renovation. In fact, the only city they feel has sustained irreparable damage is Luena, far into the interior in the east."

(Nasser) "Yes, but I have been in this nation my entire life, and I know what my people can and cannot do. We are mostly made for manual labor; we make good soldiers but only under the close supervision of competent officers. If we suddenly gained independence, we'd fall apart or fall to foreign aggression. What I am hoping for is some degree of autonomy and better conditions for our people. Success and prosperity are guaranteed if we stick with the commonwealth, but we hate the current governor."

(Alice) "What you're saying is that you like Mississippian rule, but a change of governor would be the best possible course?"

(Nasser) "Yes, that is how most people feel."

(Alice) "Most?"

(Nasser) "Yes, most of the people in this city want the governor gone but the commonwealth to stay."

(Alice) "Who are the others?"

(Nasser) "The people in this township, those I represent."

(Alice) "I mean the people who aren't in the most?"

(Nasser) "Mostly those who want a Jihad."

(Alice) "Do they have a leader here?"

(Nasser) "No, he is in the desert, with his group, planning to attack white farms in the interior, we have told him to stay out of our city because he is a trouble-maker."

(Alice) "How far in?"

(Nasser) "In the interior, the nearest white farming community is New Salem about a population of 12,000, it's about 16 miles south of here."

(Alice) "All right. Thanks. I'd like to speak with those doctors now." She stood up.

Nasser showed her to the back door and they got into the jeep parked there, they drove through the dirt roads to the only hospital in the city.

They walked into the hospital, a thatch roof building of two stories, the largest building in the city, there are a few cots and old beds lined up in rows, it stank of raw sewage.

There were only 2 doctors and 8 nurses in the hospital at the time.

Alice approached one of the doctors. "Excuse me, do you have a few moments to spare so that I can talk to you?"

(Doctor) "Yes, what do you want to talk about?"

(Alice) "Could we sit down?"

(Doctor) "Yes." (He sat down and pulled out a chair for her)

Alice pulls out the battered tape recorder and places it on the desk. She turns it on. "Before I set this to record, I need to explain to you that I'm trying to get a description of what this 'city' is like so that I can take it to my contacts in the Mississippian federal government."

(Doctor) "This is a typical Arab city."

(Doctor) "As a matter of fact, we here have it better than most."

(Alice) "I understand. That's the point. May I set this to record while I speak to you?"

(Doctor) "Yes. So you ask questions, I answer them yes?”

(Alice) "You answer them, right."

(Doctor) "Okay, I'm ready whenever you are."

Alice sets the machine to record. "All right. Do you access to MRI machines, to detect cancer?"

(Doctor) "MRI? What is that?"

(Alice) "All right. How's your ultrasonography equipment?"

(Doctor) "Our what now?"

(Alice) "Okay. What about CAT scanners?"

(Doctor) "I know what those are... But we have nothing that requires electricity more than our generators can provide."

(Alice) "So you don't have them?"

(Doctor) "Correct."

(Alice) "All right. But at least you have automated analyzers, right?"

(Doctor) "No, no we don't."

(Alice) "You have an available reserve of blood to draw on if one of your patients requires it?"

(Doctor) "Not particularly, we have only about 100 units of blood here."

(Doctor) "I should mention that for anesthetic we use chloroform or liquor."

Alice turns off the tape recorder. "I'm so sorry."

(Doctor) "Is that all?"

(Alice) "Yes, that will be all, thanks."

He gets back up and walks to a bed where a small boy with no left leg is lying. He is checking to see how the boy is doing. Alice wonders what happened.

She decides better of asking and leaves quickly.

Nasser is waiting in the jeep, "Shall we go to Alexandria then?"

(Alice) "I told you what would happen if we are seen. And we will be seen."

(Nasser) "Did you get to ask the doctor all the questions you wanted to? Did you see young Abdul, the boy who stepped on a commonwealth mine?"

(Alice) "Yes. Listen to me. I'm sorry, but we will both be arrested and then the only thing that will come of this is that your town will be deprived of its leader."

(Nasser) "Arabs are allowed into Alexandria as long as it isn't 5 pm yet, because they have to be out by 6 pm, we are not even past 1 pm yet, there is time. We can say that you were lost and I am taking you back into the city."

(Alice) "Very well then. Thank you."

Nasser drove the jeep down the street and go onto the road that would take them into Alexandria. After about 25 minutes of driving on the rural roads, they approached the outskirts of Alexandria; there was a checkpoint outside the city, 2 BMP3s and about 12 soldiers sitting around. They motioned for the jeep to stop.

A lieutenant walked up and chuckled, "Well now, what are you two doing here?"

Nasser started to speak, the lieutenant barked, "Shut your mouth Arab!"

(Lieutenant) "Well, what are you doing here?"

(Alice) "I was lost. He was taking me back into Alexandria."

(Lieutenant) "Do you have a pass card?"

(Alice) "I left my bag in my apartment. The card would be in there."

(Lieutenant) "Well all the good it does you there. I cannot allow you to pass."

(Alice) "Roger Fabus is staying in the penthouse at the Franco hotel. Call him there and ask him if he knows a diplomat who stayed with him last night. I think that's all the pass card I'll need."

The lieutenant broke into extreme laughter.

(Lieutenant) "You expect me to believe you know Roger Fabus?"

(Alice) "I don't care if you believe it. Since we'll be sitting here for a while anyway, you could save us all some time and try calling the hotel to see if he's there."

He picked up a radio and got into contact with the Franco Hotel. About 60 seconds later, the lieutenant waved her through and the soldiers opened the gate for her.

The jeep drove off down through the checkpoint and the road suddenly changed from dirt to very nicely paved.

They finally arrived at the Franco Hotel.

There were some SRG men outside the hotel, standing guard; they refused to let Nasser inside.

(Sgt) "No arabs in this hotel, acting premier Roger Fabus is in here, security measures have to be taken!"

(Alice) "Let me handle the people here, okay?"

(Nasser) "Okay, they seem unwilling to let me in anyway."

Alice approached the guards and spoke up quickly. "Hey, you remember those kids who were in the lobby? Did they get to their uncle all right?"

(Sgt) "Oh yes, they got on the plane fine, word from Al Khums, they made it there okay."

(Alice) "That's very nice. Listen, you know me, right? And I know that Fabus has a brain, so he's probably figured out by now that I am actually entirely white, so I doubt he'll just refuse to see me. Now what you can do is let us up to the penthouse to speak with Mr. Fabus."

(Sgt) "He was fuming that he was temporarily tricked by you, he does indeed realize you're entirely white. But he is in a mood right now, he's currently speaking with the governor-general but you're welcomed to go up there."

(Alice) "The governor-general! Well, my friend here will have to accompany me."

(Sgt) "Sorry, no Arabs inside while either Roger Fabus or the Governor-General is in there."

(Alice) "I'm afraid he must accompany me."

(Sgt) "You'll have to clear that with Roger Fabus first, you'll have to go up and see him, if he agrees, radio back down."

(Alice) "No, I don't think so. You can call on up to him from here to clear it with him."

The sgt just shrugged his shoulders and said, "Oh well, good bye", before he turned to walk away.

(Alice) "I don't think you understand."

He turned back around, "Now listen woman, I've told you what to do!"

(Alice) "I'm not a doll. Call up to Mister Fabus and clear it with him."

(Sgt) "Is your head void of activity? Listen woman! I told you what to do."

(Alice) "That man is not leaving my sight. Now, you will call up to Mister Fabus and clear this with him, or I will get on a plane and start off a diplomatic incident which result in Fabus having your head."

(Sgt) "Fine, you can go up, both of you." She was shocked he didn't bother calling it in, meaning he was just harassing them on his own choice.

Alice waved Nasser into the lobby in front of her.

They walked up the staircase and got to the door to the penthouse, there were 2 guards standing in front of the locked door. The guards swung the door open her them and they both proceeded through.

She walked into the penthouse and Nasser was right behind her, Governor-General Donald Stahlecker and Roger Fabus were each sitting in a large armchair and was smoking a cigar.

Roger turned and looked at her, "Ah Alice, what brings you back here?"

Stahlecker looked over and shouted, "Good God! Get that Arab out of here, he'll kill us all!"

Alice smiled. "This man has some things he'd like to say. He's free to say it while I fiddle around with my gadgets." She pulled out the battered tape recorder and began to rewind it."

Stahlecker jumped out from his seat, "Whatever he says it's a lie! Have him thrown in jail!"

Alice shrugged. "He hasn't said anything yet."

(Stahlecker) "Whatever they tell you, it's all lies! Lies!"

Donald Stahlecker grabbed for her tape recorder.

(Alice) "Afraid, Donald?"

(Stahlecker) "Give me that!"

They were in a struggle over it, yanking back and forth.

As she held it away from him, she heard a click as the tape went back to the beginning, and she managed to hit the play button. Tiny speakers began to play the conversation ... "My name is Nasser Aref, I am the mayor of Eastern Township near Alexandria in Mississippian...."

Stahlecker shoved her down onto the ground and pulled out a pistol, "Press stop and give it to me now or you die woman!"

Roger screamed in his face, "Pull yourself together man!" as he pried the gun from his hands.

(Recording) "...Egypt. It is not exactly a city so much as it is a shantytown with just shacks and dwellings not fit for animals."

Stahlecker panicked and shouted, "It's all lies, sir, it's lies, we've spent hundreds of millions, billions even on those filthy ingrates!"

(Recording) "...The Governor-General Donald Stahlecker rather than using funds allocated to build the separate but equal arab cities, has instead diverted the money to fortifying the southern borders of Mississippian Egypt."

(Roger) "Donald didn't you tell me the southern border was being fortified?"

(Donald) "Yes, but the money was properly allocated for it. These words they speak, they are lies, all lies. Surely you won't believe an Arab over me."

(Recording) "He is also purchasing numerous fighter aircraft and he is attempting to increase the size of the Commonwealth Mississippian Egyptian Army by at least 10%."

(Donald) "Lies! All lies! Those aircraft came from the old Angolan colonial air force!"

He grabs the recorder from Alice and presses stop.

(Alice) "Scared? Its all right, my secretary already has a backup copy."

(Roger) "I think we all need to sit down and determine what is what."

(Roger) "Alice, you don't have a secretary here."

Nasser just stood quietly while they argued.

(Alice) "Not here, no."

(Roger) "Everybody sit down and we'll discuss this."

(Alice) "All right."

(Roger) (Sitting down) "Now what is the problem, you are making some very serious allegations against one of my most efficient governor-generals, do you have proof besides these tapes?"

Alice turns to Nasser. "Do you have the pictures on you?"

(Nasser) "No, not with me."

(Nasser) "Except for one."

He places on the table a picture of a row of shacks. Stahlecker calmly dismisses it, "That is just an isolated case, that's the exception not the rule."

(Alice) "I can tell you that it isn't."

(Donald) "Sir, they have no proof, they're liars, they're guilty of sedition. They have no proof!"

(Alice) "Perhaps we should finish the tape?"

(Donald) (Still holding the tape) "No, there is no need for that!"

(Donald) "They're lying, words proof nothing. They need physical evidence!"

(Roger) "I agree, you need physical evidence."

(Alice) "Then we can all go out there and look for ourselves."

(Donald) (To Roger) "Sir it isn't safe, they'd blow themselves up to kill you. Please, don't go, she's trying to lure you out there so you die."

(Alice) "I've already told you twice that I know it would be useless to kill you."

(Donald) "Please sir! Listen to reason, don't set foot within sight of the Arab cities, they'll swarm your guard and kill you!"

(Alice) "Actually, most of them don't mind you."

(Donald) "Don't listen to her, they'll kill you, trust me sir, they'll kill you, I know these people. I'm the governor here, believe me, not this Arab loving whore."

(Alice) "I think you know from personal experience that I'm not a whore, sir. In any case, we have an Arab right here, so let's ask him."

(Roger) "Fine, let's go out to the Arab city."

(Alice) "Donald? No rebuttal?"

(Donald) "You're a liar! It's not safe, they'll kill him!"

Donald looks extremely nervous and unsettled and he has begun to perspire profusely.

(Alice) "This man is surrounded by the best trained people in the state. I think he can fend for himself."

They all walk down to Roger's limousine, and Donald is protesting the entire time saying there is no need for any of it etc. They start the drive to the arab city, escorted by 30 BMP-3s, 10 T-98s, 30 Warrior IFVs, and 100 Mi-24s.

They get into view of the city.

Donald starts screaming, "This wasn't like this yesterday, they staged this to make me look bad!"

(Alice) "Tell me, Nasser, why does this look so different then in all those pictures and videos?"

(Donald) "Roger, sir, you've seen the videos of how it was in their cities, this is not one of their cities, they changed it!"

(Roger) "You know the cities you filmed them in looked an awful lot like Alexandria and Tanta."

(Donald) "Hmmm... Well we try to build them just as equal as our cities. That's why they look so similar."

(Roger) "Donald... I want you to do me a favor."

(Donald) "Yes?"

(Roger) "Stop lying to me, take your bullshit, shove it, then when you're done, get on the first flight back to Mississippi, you're through here."

(Donald) (Solemnly) "Yes sir."

They let Nasser off and told him a C-130 would bring him his jeep back and Roger promised to make sure the funds allocated for their cities were spent for them. Nasser thanked Roger. Donald left in another limousine.

Alice and Roger were in a limousine being driven back to Alexandria.

(Roger) "Well now Alice, do you see what I mean?"

(Alice) "What you mean?"

(Roger) "That our system works, usually."

(Roger) "I've been to Western Sahara myself, so I know it works there."

(Alice) "This did not work, sir. You're going to need a new governor, and I don't think you can pick them from your usual crop."

(Roger) "I already know who is going to be the new governor-general of Mississippian Egypt."

(Alice) "Do you?"

(Roger) "Yes."

(Roger) "The former Governor-General of Angola… Peter Stahlecker."

(Alice) "I think that's a bad choice."

(Roger) "Why?"

(Alice) "Aside from the fact that Peter is a little bit unstable right now, he would naturally have a lot of anger against Arabs and Africans. In addition, as the brother of the recently fired Governor-General, he might be prone to make decisions out of spite to whoever he feels is responsible for that man's firing."

(Roger) "Well I see your point, but Peter is a good candidate for the post."

(Alice) "Yes, and I do as well. But perhaps at this point he's not the right person."

(Roger) "So who would you suggest?"

(Alice) "Ordinarily I'd suggest Nasser, but you wouldn't give it to him anyway."

(Roger) "By law I could not do so even if I wanted to. No governor-general may be a non-white."

(Alice) "Yes, but your very act of doing so would change the law to allow it."

(Roger) "We will never allow non-whites to hold sway over whites."

(Alice) "All right. Then instead I suggest myself."

(Roger) "You would turn this nation over to them! You're insane, anyway, we've never had a woman governor-general, but law doesn't forbid it."

(Alice) "On the contrary. This local position has basically no power. I'd be able to do nothing but move money around in a way pre-specified for me by you."

(Roger) "Well see my father has an interesting way of doing business, when diplomats meet with him, lady diplomats, because those are the only ones he'll meet with. They give him something in return for the privilege of meeting with him."

(Roger) "So what exactly do I get out of this deal, I guess that is what I am asking."

(Roger) "I'll tell you what I want you to do for me. I want you to cement an alliance."

(Alice) "An alliance? What alliance?"

(Roger) "An alliance between our two nations."

(Alice) "How about you work out the terms while I go back home and tidy up my old job?"

(Roger) "I must tell you though, all governor-generals must join the WKM of the nation they are in, are you willing to join?"

(Alice) "Is this a law?"

(Roger) "An unwritten law, but accept as law nonetheless."

(Alice) "I'm already accepting a position with less power than I currently have."

(Roger) "On the contrary, you'll have over 1 million commonwealth soldiers under your command and you'll be the first lady general in the CM commonwealth."

(Alice) "I won't actually get to do anything with those soldiers, will I?"

(Roger) "You can use them for internal security operations, war games, etc."

(Alice) "All right. Just for clarification, before I do anything else. When you say separate but equal, you do mean the equal part, right? I won't do this if you ever ask me to make this unequal."

(Roger) "I had no knowledge they were unequal, you can make things equal, but don't expect Arabs to achieve the same test scores and such that whites do. Genetics can never be made equal."

(Alice) "Perhaps."

(Roger) "If you start a war, you'll regret it, and if you try to sellout the nation, the secret police will see you regret it. Also there are over 10 million WKM in Mississippian Egypt. You do realize neither the Whites nor Arabs will take well to being ordered about by a woman. Islamic law forbids women to rule. You will need to watch your step."

(Alice) "I will not join the White Knights."

(Roger) "Okay, but you will do nothing to move against them."

(Alice) "If they act against what I'm doing to promote equality here, then I will have to continue to promote equality here."

(Roger) "Remember though, genetically we will always remain superior. If the Arabs were our equals, their army would have lasted more than 12 hours."

(Alice) "You ignored my last statement."

(Roger) "Okay, sorry, I agree. But don't forget there are over 2.5 million federal soldiers here, they take their orders from federal authority in Mississippi, who take their orders from me. So don't get any smart ideas about turning this into another Angola. Anyway, I don't think you are the type who would do that; otherwise we'd not be having a discussion about you becoming governor.

(Alice) "All right."

(Roger) (Very casually) "Also you'll need to be much friendlier to party officials and to myself especially. You need to work on your attitude."

(Alice) "I'll work on it."

(Roger) (Grinning) "Perhaps you could start by being more accommodating with me."

(Alice) "Or I could go back to Seryown and tidy up my job."

(Roger) "Well when you get back we can talk later."

(Alice) "Perhaps."

(Roger) "Well the day is nearly spent already, you won't be leaving just yet will you? You'll spend the night here and leave in the morning yes?"

(Alice) "I don't think there's anything really pressing back there, and I can't think on a plane anyway."

(Roger) (Smiling) "Good so you'll stay the night."

(Alice) "Sure."

The limousine pulled up to the hotel and Roger got out and held the door for Alice.

Alice stepped out of the limousine quickly.

Roger and Alice walked up to the penthouse. Roger sat down in a chair and firmly and boldly said, "Come and sit with me”, it sounded more like an order than a request.

(Alice) "That attitude will get you nowhere."

(Roger) "Forgive me then, I'm so used to ordering my governor-generals about like chess pieces. Would you come and sit with me then?"

(Alice) "All right."

She sat down in the chair next to his, and he asked her, "Want something to drink, or perhaps a cigar?"

(Alice) "You must have noticed by now that I don't smoke."

(Roger) "Everybody enjoys a good cigar once in a while, whether they smoke or not. Just seeing if perhaps you wanted one."

(Roger) "Would you like something to drink then?"

(Alice) "No, thank you."

(Roger) "Well you don't mind if I have something to drink do you?"

Roger walked over and poured himself a glass of scotch, he then sat down on a couch in the same room as the chairs, he said to Alice, "Come here, and sit with me."

(Roger) "I mean if you'd like to that is."

(Roger) "We have much to discuss about your new position."

(Alice) "Is your goal to have me standing up and sitting down for hours?”

(Roger) "No that is not my goal." (He drinks from his glass and sets it down on the table) "Now will you sit with me?"

(Alice) "Fine."

(Roger) "Now you understand your most important task as governor-general of Mississippian Egypt will be to form the female division of the Republican Guard. It is training here currently, the first regiment, what I told you before was no lie. We will need at least 22,000 more though to make it a complete division. So you must recruit probably 4 times that number of women because only 1/4 will successfully complete training."

As he was talking, she got up and then moved slowly to the couch and sat down.

(Roger) "You know I am one of the biggest advocates for using women in the armored units."

Alice shrugs.

(Roger) "Do you know why?"

(Alice) "Nope."

(Roger) "It frees up men for the infantry."

Alice smacks her head.

(Roger) "What is wrong?"

(Alice) "I thought you were going to say something that was, you know, not sexist."

(Roger) "Well do you really think women should be in the infantry? I mean the dangers they'd face, the physical strain of the work, it would be far too costly in terms of harming our population growth."

(Alice) "I think that if they wish to, they should be allowed in."

(Roger) "We cannot take the risk that they'd fall into the hands of native armies and be ravaged or sold into sexual servitude. We need to protect our women."

(Alice) "Once again I disagree with you."

(Roger) "Well that's your right, but as governor-general just make sure you don't contradict my orders."

(Alice) "Of course."

(Roger) "You were in Angola, you know how many white women were raped by the Marxists. You know the black Marxists even raped and killed their own kind; Marxists are beasts to begin with. When you pump a Negro full of Marxist anti-white hate propaganda, they go crazy."

(Roger) "It'd be for the best if the blacks and Arabs would defer to us as a child defers to a father, or a wife defers to a husband."

(Alice) "I resent this."

(Roger) "Well you're going to have learn to moderate your views somewhat, you're probably the most left-wing person in our government now."

(Alice) "Perhaps."

(Roger) "Your appointment must still be confirmed by the commonwealth legislature. There are 50 legislators that are elected every 2 years by the commonwealth citizens."

(Alice) "And they will do whatever you tell them to do."

(Roger) "They might not take well to a woman attempting to become governor-general. But I can overrule them if I must. But no, they don't do what I tell them, they're often stubborn people. Remember the legislature in Libya voted for secession and there was a brief civil-war!"

(Alice) "All right then."

(Roger) "Remember when dealing with the commonwealth legislatures in the African territories, remember they are landed aristocratic white males and they realize that the natives on this continent could all band together to swarm into these lands in attempts to drive us out. It's a simple numbers game here in Africa. And as such, the legislature won't allow anything that threatens their race or their wealth."

(Roger) "I've seen filibusters in the commonwealth legislatures go for over 62 hours before.

(Alice) "I'll be more than happy to starve them out if it serves the purpose I'm trying to achieve here."

(Roger) (Smiling) "Yes, I'm sure you would be." (He, yawns, stretches his arm out, and lets it come to rest on the back of the couch behind her)

(Roger) "Well, what do you want to do now Alice?"

(Alice) "I'm not sure, really."

(Roger) "Well this is your territory now, well not officially. So why don't you decide what we do." (He cracks a slight grin)

(Alice) "Bah. I was thinking of consuming many alcoholic beverages, but I think I've gone past that one now."

Roger smiles as he casually says, "Well then, what else is there to do?"

(Alice) "I hadn't planned that far in advance."

(Roger) "Well tell me what you'd like to do right now."

(Alice) "I don't know."

Roger let his left arm slowly slide down onto her shoulder and he pulled her in closer to him and softly said, "I could think of something we could do, if you're willing to permit me to continue. What do you say, may I please proceed?" (Ooc- He's in the Republican Guard and the formality which accompanies most things sticks with him)

(Alice) "Sure."

(Roger) (Breathing a sigh of relief) "Thank you." (He starts to slowly kiss her neck as he rubs her shoulders) "Would you like to go into the other room, whatever you want?"

(Alice) "All right."

He stood up and said, "after you" as he took a last sip from his glass and set it back down.

She slowly stood up and walked into his bedroom, he followed close behind.

After they were done, Roger was lying in bed next to her, smoking a cigar, blowing the smoke in an opposite direction, he had turned a vent system on, so it wasn't really bothering her.

(Roger) "Tell me Alice, do you think you'll like your job as governor-general?"

(Alice) "No."

(Roger) "Why not? What's wrong?"

(Alice) "I'll be facing opposition from every white in the state, and if I dare to show appreciation for the appreciation Arabs show me, then I'm an Arab-loving whore."

(Roger) "Oh don't worry, I'll talk to the people and assure them the Arabs having decent separate cities won't hurt the whites any bit."

(Alice) "Perhaps. But to keep the cities thriving, the Arabs will need jobs, and then the whites will complain that jobs are being taken from them. It'll be the same with everything I give the Arabs.""

(Roger) "The people will adore you so long as you never let your concern for non-white peoples blind you to the needs and requirements of the white peoples. They don't really care if the Arabs are doing well, so long as it is not to the detriment of white people. And the jobs the Arabs currently do, no whites want to dig irrigation canals, work in mines, etc. The whites want to be soldiers, police, engineers, doctors, managers, farmers, etc."

(Alice) "What if the Arabs want to be police and farmers?"

(Roger) "They can police their own cities and work their own farms."

(Roger) "We've been considering allowing the Arabs to form Arab units to serve in the commonwealth army, but I'm not sure how loyal to the Federal authority or commonwealth authority the Arabs are."

(Alice) "I can tell you they have a great deal of loyalty to the federal authority...building up their interest in the commonwealth will take time."

Roger exhaled smoke out from his mouth and then set his cigar down in an ashtray on one of the stands next to the bed, he then asked in manner attempting to be both inquisitive and casual, not wanting to let reveal his nervousness, "So Alice, how was it?"

(Alice) "It was fine, Roger."

She felt somewhat disgusted with herself for several reasons, her husband had scarcely been dead two months and it was largely because Mississippi had been sticking their nose into countries they didn't belong in. Also today would have been his birthday. But above all, she was upset with herself for enjoying it. But maybe in time she'd be able to affect meaningful change in the CM government. CM high party officials had a bad habit of letting their political guard down around women.

(Roger) "Good to hear, likewise."

Roger picked back up his cigar and took a deep drag on it, swishing the smoke around in his mouth before inhaling the toxic fumes into his lungs, a small cough escaped him, he had swallowed more smoke than he realized. He blew it out into the air and then set it back down.

Alice simply stared up at ceiling.

(Roger) "So Alice, have you liked Mississippian Egypt so far?"

(Alice) "No."

(Roger) (Sighing) "Well at least you're honest. What is the one thing you find the biggest problem here?"

(Alice) "Too many choices."

(Roger) "Name the most significant problem here. What do you think it is? The threat of an arab insurgency?"

(Roger) "The poor state of the commonwealth economy?"

(Alice) "Government discrimination by the empire that controls it."

(Roger) (He held back a laugh, just barely) "Oh surely you don't call us an empire. We're a federated republic with a commonwealth."

(Alice) "Changing the name doesn't change what it is."

(Roger) (Smiling) "Well it helps."

(Alice) "Not really."

(Roger) "So you think because we treat different groups differently, that is a problem. Well should different people be treated equally when we are clearly not biologically equal?"

(Roger) "I don't really care what those people do as long as they are separated from our gene pool and not corrupting and lowering the quality of our gene pool."

(Alice) "Perhaps they aren't inferior."

(Roger) "You know my brother Henry is against the whole idea of an empire. He points to history, whenever an empire that includes separate groups eventually collapses, the former dominant group becomes heavily mixed when the submissive groups rise up and often flood en masse back to the homeland of the once dominant group. He points to England and France as the two modern examples."

(Alice) "He has a point."

(Roger) "Yes, but he can have all the points he wants, he is currently under house arrest for betraying Angola by pulling the imperial army units out and sending them to Mississippian Libya when the commanders there pleaded for no more troops, they pleaded the soldiers be kept in Angola to help colonial army units. Well now we have no Angola, but at least over 5 million federal and commonwealth soldiers guard ML."

(Alice) "Yes..."

Roger had finished his cigar and was smoking a new cigar, he offered it to her and said, "All governor-generals smoke cigars, at least a few times, go on, it won't kill you."

(Alice) "Perhaps some other time I shall take it up."

Roger practically cheered, "Very good, I'll make a Mississippian out of you yet!"

(Alice) "Mississippi will have to meet me halfway."

(Roger) "I'm sure Mississippi would be willing to meet your slightly more than halfway, but on a few issues they won't budge an inch."

(Alice) "The issues that are important."

(Roger) "I'd agree, it is important we maintain are status as the dominant people in this commonwealth."

(Alice) "Then I have quite a bit of work ahead of me."

(Roger) "What do you think, should arabs be allowed into the Commonwealth Mississippian Egyptian Army? Of course there will only be four divisions of them at first, and the officers will all be white commonwealth citizens."

(Alice) "If they choose to, yes."

(Roger) "And what about the women wanting to join the Republican Guard? I've told you that large numbers of men die in training, it will be even harder on the women."

(Alice) "If only because you've taught them it should be."

(Roger) "You must admit women and men are not physically equal. The average man is stronger than the average woman."

(Alice) "This is true."

(Roger) "Also men seem to have more endurance and ability to carry more gear longer distances, but that can be increased in women with training and time."

(Alice) "In any case, equality between the races must be enforced."

(Roger) "What I worry about is how the officers will be welcoming them into the guard. Typically how it happens, well as I remember it when I joined, after I successfully completed my training, they lined up 50 officers, 25 on each side of us, and gave each one a club, we had to walk by them, and they struck us as we walked, we had to walk, and we couldn't fall down or dodge them. I imagine that whatever they do to the women will be less pleasant."

(Alice) "Perhaps."

(Roger) "The argument for such harsh training is that it builds character and iron discipline."

(Alice) "And kills people."

(Roger) "Racial equality you say? Well there can never and must never be social equality, only economic and perhaps political equality. Equality of cities and the such, but they must not be allowed to simply be treated as whites with dark skin, for they are not just whites with dark skin."


(Roger) (Jumping back to the earlier topic) "Harsh training never killed me, it made me stronger, well after I recovered in the hospital for three weeks."

(Alice) "Your perspective is wrong. They are humans with dark skin, you are a human with light skin."

(Roger) "I'd say that we're humans and they're some bizarre offshoot of human."

(Alice) "Well, then you'd be wrong."

They continued debating racial equality and which race was inferior and which was superior for a few moments until Alice realized Roger had fallen asleep. She lay there until she fell asleep also.

We are thankful for the fuel, but must decline the airline trip. We have sworn to protect this plane and now that is refueled we shall be leaving. Colonel, thank you for your assistance. We must be leaving.

Reck walked toward the colonel and saluted him.

Reck: "I am Daniel Reck, of the Empire of Itinerate Tree Dweller. We don't mean to impose on you. We only need to refuel and be on our way. We are prepared to pay generously for the fuel. We are glad to hear that your Premier is safe."



The waiting rooms inside the airport were clearly marked "White-only" and "Other". A large poster of Curtis Fabus was draped on either side of the main door. The two rooms up front were visible immediately upon entry. The white waiting room had large reclining armchairs, while the "other" room had a piece of plywood crudely nailed into the wall with nails periodically stick up through it. The white drinking fountain was a refrigerated marble design, the "other" was a hose hanging from a hook on the wall.

The colonel told them all, "Oviously you gentlemen wait in the white room as you all are white", he smiled as he said it and then pointed to the room.

The waiting rooms inside the airport were clearly marked "White-only" and "Other". A large poster of Curtis Fabus was draped on either side of the main door. The two rooms up front were visible immediately upon entry. The white waiting room had large reclining armchairs, while the "other" room had a piece of plywood crudely nailed into the wall with nails periodically stick up through it. The white drinking fountain was a refrigerated marble design, the "other" was a hose hanging from a hook on the wall.

The colonel told them all, "Oviously you gentlemen wait in the white room as you all are white", he smiled as he said it and then pointed to the room.

Reck: "Now that you mention it, we are in need of a little rest. Thanks for your assistance."

We are thankful for the fuel, but must decline the airline trip. We have sworn to protect this plane and now that is refueled we shall be leaving. Colonel, thank you for your assistance. We must be leaving.


Ooc- Takes a while to fuel the plane, wait in the waiting room for a while. :D

Reck: "Now that you mention it, we are in need of a little rest. Thanks for your assistance."


They all moved into the waiting room and shortly after they sat down in the large armchairs, waiters brought them expertly cooked steak, chicken, and salmon on fancy carts.

Shah Khosru then turned to the Czar, "Thank you for allowing me this oppurtunity, but I must be gone. We are currently facing a crisis with an ally."

With that the Shah and his retinue entered their vehicles and headed towards the airport.

Alice woke up at about 7:40 the next morning, Roger was still sound asleep next to her.

Alice looked around, began to sit up, and decided better of it when she remembered she had dived out of a moving vehicle the day before.

Roger stirred from his sleep and woke up, "Oh, morning Alice, sleep well?"

(Alice) "Fine."

(Roger) "You going to be getting ready to go back to Seryown to tidy up them loose ends eh?"

(Alice) "Yeah, I guess."

(Roger) (Smiling) "Well I think I'm going to enjoy having you working under me... As governor-general that is."

(Alice) "Perhaps."

(Roger) (Taking out a cigar and lighting it with his silver lighter, then beginning to slowly inhale the smoke) "Remember, your most important job is the female Republican Guard units and internal security. Along with maintaining commonwealth stability and enforcing federal authority and federal will here in Mississippian Egypt."

(Alice) "I forget very little, so you don't need to repeat yourself for me."

(Roger) "Well do you want to be taken to Seryown in a military craft, we have a few 2-seater version of the MiG-41 Good Ole Boy fighter. It can go Mach 4.1."

(Alice) "No thanks. I'm afraid that we're a little paranoid right now, and we might shoot it down."

(Roger) "Well perhaps a private Concorde then, yes?"

(Alice) "All right. Thank you."

(Roger) "Well, would you care for some breakfast then? Or will you be skipping that today?"

(Alice) "No, I'll be skipping that again."

(Roger) "Okay, well when you're ready, just tell me and I'll have a car take you to the airport."

(Alice) "Of course."

Roger gets up and puts a bathrobe on; he then walks out to the kitchen where servants were just brining in his food (they know about when he gets up)

Alice got up, and put a robe on, she walked out into the kitchen, Roger was watching the news while he was eating, the headline story was, "Curtis Fabus resumes premiership in Mississippi, DPUO CM cold war ended by miracle peace agreement."

(Roger) "Well I'm glad father is better."

(Alice) "This will certainly put a damper on my plans, the. I suppose I won't be coming back here."

(Roger) "Why not? I appointed you governor-general, my appointments stand."

(Roger) "Besides, regardless of what they say, father is too ill to do anything more that be propped up in bed and issue orders. He probably has the ability to talk and move around in a wheelchair, but little else."

(Alice) "If the local government doesn't approve me, I doubt your father will overrule them."

(Roger) "I'll talk to him if it becomes necessary."

(Roger) "Commonwealth legislature is in session today at the legislative building near the governors mansion in this very city. Why don't you stop there and answer their questions about your positions on issues, they'll be voting today what to do about the vacancy in the governor's office. They may approve you this very day."

(Alice) "If I speak, I'm that much less likely to have them approve me."

(Roger) "Well they need to question any prospective governor before they can approve the appointment."

(Alice) "Very well. I'll speak with them."

(Roger) "Well the debating starts in about two hours, I suggest you get something to eat now, because debates can go on for a while."

(Alice) "I'll be fine for now."

(Roger) "You know I don't remember when the last time you ate was. I think you could do with something to eat, trust me it'll help keep you on your toes for the debates."

(Alice) "I'm fine."

(Roger) "Okay. Well I'm going to shower." (He sets his silverware down on his empty plate and then walks off to the bathroom)

Alice goes and showers in one of the other bathrooms and then she gets dressed and ready to go to legislature. Roger is dressed in a suit and is sitting around in a large armchair watching the news while smoking a cigar.

(Roger) "You leaving for legislature then?"

(Alice) "I guess."

(Roger) "Want me to come along?"

(Alice) "I'm sure you have more important things to do."

(Roger) "Not right now actually. So do you want me to come along?"

(Alice) "All right then."

Roger stood up, put out his cigar and left it in an ashtray near the chair, he then put an arm around Alice and said, "Shall we go then?"

(Alice) "Okay."

They took the elevator down to the lobby and then walked outside to get into the limousine waiting for them. A guard opened the door and Roger let Alice get in first, then he got in after she did and sat down next to her, the guard closed the door and got into the middle section. The driver pulled away from the curb and started the short drive to the legislature building. Roger broke the silence by saying, "You'll do fine."

(Alice) "I hope so."

The limousine pulls up in front of the legislature building after being flagged through by guards a block away who lowered the retractable gates. There were armed commonwealth soldiers all-around the building, mostly paratroopers and mechanized infantry units, several platoons at least. Roger opened the door for Alice and then stepped out, "This way", he slowly exclaimed as he took-in the entire view of the massive building built in classical fashion. He had seen in many times before, but each time it never failed to amaze him.

Alice stepped out, admiring the building.

It was on a plot of over four hundred acres, it had two modern office buildings and a parking garage. The legislature building itself was almost fifty acres large; much of it was for storage of the commonwealth archives and records.

Roger walked forward and Alice followed him, they walked up the ornate marble stairs with the golden railings past the Greek columns and the statues of past political figures, mostly well-known politicians from the old United States. There was William Jennings Bryan, Theodore Gilmore Bilbo, George Wallace, and a few others. Roger seemed to recognize them, but she only knew of William Jennings Bryan.

She saw an inscription on a plaque on the side of the stand of the statue of of Bilbo, she remembered the words, something Roger had said earlier

"If our buildings, our highways, and our railroads should be wrecked, we could rebuild them. If our cities should be destroyed, out of the very ruins we could erect newer and greater ones. Even if our armed might should be crushed, we could rear sons who would redeem our power. But if the blood of our White race should become corrupted and mingled with the blood of Africa, then the present greatness of the United States of America would be destroyed and all hope for civilization would be as impossible for a Negroid America as would be redemption and restoration of the Whiteman's blood which had been mixed with that of the Negro."

It was the exact same except he had switched United States of America for Mississippi, since there was no more USA.

(Roger) "Shall we continue on inside."

(Alice) "All right."

They walked inside, there were metal detectors, but they were passed through even though it was obvious Roger had at least three pistols on him. There were also bomb-sniffing dogs.

They walked for about three minutes inside the building before coming to the massive oak doors that opened into the legislature room itself, the actual debating floor.

All fifty of the legislators were at their desks, except for one who stood before the others; he was speaking about various issues, mostly recent unrest in Arab townships. All the legislators were white males, with the youngest being 21, the oldest being 76.

The senator who had the floor, was a one Simon Rutledge, he was a twenty-nine year old who had already established a fine reputation for himself as a demagogue. He had been elected in a landslide victory by promising to, "Clean this nation up and take out the Arabic trash!"

When she walked a down a few rows of steps, the room feel silent, except for the sound of her feet on the expensive carpet, they all turned at looked at her.

Rutledge called out, "Did you get lost woman? Those wanting to be secretaries apply at the front office."

(Alice) "My name is Alice Carrion. When you're finished discussing whatever's currently at the table, I'm sure you'll wish to ask me some questions."

(Rutledge) "Questions such as what? Our schedule is full for the day, we men actually have work to do, believe it or not. What have you to bother us with today? Perhaps you want a foreign cooking channel to be legalized here eh?"

(Alice) "Perhaps you missed it. I'm the nominee to be governor-general."

(Rutledge) "What? You? You're not serious are you?"

A silence fell over the room, the men all gasped and held their breath.

One of them called out, "How can she be governor-general. She's a woman!" One of them shouted, "Communist!" They all started to laugh.

(Alice) "Roger?"

(Roger) "It's true, she is the nominee." Every single jaw in the room fell wide open.

(Rutledge) "Well she can't be governor-general, she's a woman!"

(Roger) "There is no law against it!"

(Rutledge) "I motion we vote on amending commonwealth constitution to specifically forbid allowing women to hold the office of governor-general."

A large man shouted, "I second the motion!" Another one said, "I third it!" Then another man screamed, "Put it to vote!"

Alice stood there, only smiling.

The head of the senate, the eldest and most respected man, sitting at the head of the room, in an elevated chair, said, "All in favor of amending the commonwealth constitution." Every hand in the room shot up. "All opposed" Silence.

(Roger) "Fine that federal funds will be impounded and not sent here for your farming and irrigation needs."

Rutledge called out, "Well not there's no need to be so rash, why don't we listen to what she has to say and then decide."

All the others started talking amongst themselves and then reached consensus, "Fine let the woman speak!" yelled one of the senators from Tanta.

(Rutledge) "Our current discussion will continue after we have heard this woman speak. I yield the floor to her."

Alice hadn't prepared at all, but she had some experience speaking to people who hated her and held sway over her future. "Honorable senate, the truth is that I came here not expecting to have to deliver a speech to you, however I shall do so."

(Alice) "The last person to serve in my post was Donald Stahlecker, a man who comes from a large and honorable family, who took the views he had, views he certainly had a right to have, too far, and disobeyed the orders of the federal government. The Arabs themselves say that the federal Mississippian government has brought none but good things to Egypt. But they also believe that the commonwealth government has been misspending money directed to them. This money didn't go to any whites, however. The money was spent building airplanes and vehicles for the Commonwealth Egyptian army, an exceptionally large army supplemented by an exceptionally large federal army and an exceptionally large civilian army. There is no possible excuse for the direct disobedience of the Fabus regime, and as such there must be a…


A fat man in a suit called out, "Of course it is good for the Arabs, my mining company alone employs over 300,000 of them."

"I'm sorry, sir. Please allow me, in what may be my foolish womanly needs, to go over what has been happening as a preamble to why I feel that I should have this position. As I was saying, the direct disobedience of the Premier is inexcusable, and the next Governor-General must be completely ready to obey the every command of the Mississippian government. While it is not - at least not yet - my place to decide, I think that anything otherwise must be treasonous. I will obey the orders that the federal government gives me, and by doing so I will bring Egypt to be a far better example of the ideal that this government stands for. Anybody in a position of power as important as the one I hope to assume must be fully committed to that goal, for that is the goal of Mississippi, and so the goal of every citizen of that country. Although I will, in order to obey the commands of the federal government, increase spending to the Arab cities, this does not mean that I disrespect your position; it means that I am dedicated to carrying out your ideals. Any extra money that could be spent on improving the life of a person must be spent on that. Everybody must be given not only the best life expectancy but also the best life. As such, you need a Governor-General willing to spend the days and nights it requires to carry out the wishes of the Premier and of God."

(Rutledge) "Are you finished yet?"

(Alice) "Yes, sir."

A tall but thin senator from Marsa Matruh called out, "Fine, give her the job if it'll shut her up!"

The old man, Gurney Cannon, the head of the senate, spoke, "I say we put this matter to vote.”

(Cannon) "All in favor of allowing her to be approved as governor-general, say I." 25 hands went up, including Cannon and Rutledge.

(Cannon) "All opposed?" 25 hands went up.

(Cannon) "We have deadlocked. The current governor-general would normally cast the tie-breaking vote, but since we have none. We shall look to the rules for determing what is to be done."

He took out the senate bylaws, he flipped through a few pages, "In the event there is a vacancy in the governor's office, the tie-breaking vote will be cast by whosoever shall hold the highest party rank in the Revolutionary Right Party that is present in the senate at the time. Be he a federal authority figure or a commonwealth authority figure."

(Alice) "Roger, your vote?"

(Roger) "I vote yes."

The people who had voted against her jumped up and shouted, "Treason!", "Madness!", "Insanity!".

(Cannon) "Then it shall be confirmed that on this day the governor-general was proclaimed to be a one Ms. Alice Carrion, and it should also be entered into the record that I may be over 70, but the sight of that young lady is still enough to get the blood flowing." The other senators laughed at that remark.

(Cannon) (Hitting the gavel) "This session of the commonwealth senate is hereby adjourned for lunch. Happy eating gentlemen, we will resume in three hours."

Alice smiled and turned around to walk back towards Roger.

(Roger) "Shall we go to lunch then, governor."

(Alice) "Very well."

(Roger) "You pick, where shall we eat?"

(Roger) "You can eat at the senate restaurant if you want."

(Alice) "All right."

They walked down to the senate restaurant at the other end of the building, most of the senators were sitting at their tables eating, some were at the bar drinking and smoking cigars, a few were in the lounge at the back of the restaurant, entertaining girlfriends.

A waiter showed Alice and Roger to a table, one of the men who opposed her appointment sighed at Roger, "She's technically not a senator, and as such she shouldn't be here."

(Roger) "You're technically bound to do as I say and as such you'll shut up and sit down." The senator went back to his table and sat down.

Roger and Alice sat down and then were given menus, "What do you want to eat Alice? Any ideas?"

(Alice) "I don't know. Something simple."

(Roger) "How about prime rib from top Egyptian cattle?"

(Alice) "All right."

He ordered two orders of the Egyptian Prime rib, and then they sat there waiting.

(Roger) "So was it easier than you thought, getting approved?"

(Alice) "A little easier."

(Roger) "I'm surprised Rutledge voted for you, rather than throwing his shoe at you."

(Roger) "Rutledge has a habit of taking off his shoes and throwing them at senators who disagree with him."

(Roger) "Don't except them to help you get any work done. They may likely vote down every bill you send their way."

(Roger) "You can issue what are called Executive Gubernatorial Orders."

(Alice) "I suppose I'll have to resist the temptation to take an assault rifle into the room, then?"

(Roger) "Yes, well that'd be a bad idea anyway, each of them carriers at least one pistol. There have been duels on the senate floor. There was also the time when Rutledge caned another senator for insulting his home county in Mississippi."

(Alice) "Really? With my luck, he's perfectly healthy and due to stay in that senate longer than I'm governor, right?"

(Roger) "You can be governor-general for as long as you want. So long as you don't get impeached by the senate or recalled by federal authority, etc."

(Alice) "Yes, but he's the kind of person who will stay in the senate until after I've left the position even if only to spite me, right?"

(Roger) "Probably."

(Roger) "I honestly have no idea why Rutledge voted for you. He'll probably be expecting something from you, who knows."

(Alice) "Possibly."

Roger excused himself to the bathroom, he got up and walked to the bathroom, as soon as he was gone, Simon Rutledge stood up and slowly walked over to the table, "Hello Governor Carrion, how are you?"

(Alice) "Senator Rutledge! A pleasant surprise."

(Rutledge) "I thank you governor, you're too kind. I was wondering if you'd like to discuss my fortifications bill later, also the bill to give more subsidies to commercial farmers, particularly tobacco farmers. My constituency is very eager to see these bills pass.”

(Alice) "I'll take a look at both of your bills and at the budget, and then we'll see. Out of curiosity, because I'm unclear, who exactly is your constituency?"

(Rutledge) "White commercial farmers in the interior of this nation, the ones along the borders, mostly."

(Alice) "Really. Your fortifications bill is to bring military support to those farms, then?"

(Rutledge) "Yes, yes indeed. Right now it is bogged down in committee."

(Rutledge) "Perhaps we could discuss it later over dinner perhaps?"

(Alice) "I'm afraid I'll be busy for all of today. Perhaps we could schedule a meeting tomorrow afternoon instead?"

(Rutledge) (Smiling) "Yes, I look forward to it."

(Rutledge) "Where would you care to meet then?"

(Alice) "In my office, of course."

(Rutledge) (Grinning) "I figured perhaps we could meet somewhere how shall we say, more comfortable. My city residence perhaps? I am there whenever senate is in session, otherwise I am on my farm in the border regions."

(Alice) "I'm afraid I'll be far too busy reviewing things to leave my office for meetings during at least the first week."

(Rutledge) (With a slight grin, showing a half smile) "Well I'll be around, we can meet later then perhaps. I look forward to it."

The bathroom door starts to swing open and Rutledge excuses himself and walks back to his table.

Roger walks back and sees Rutledge sitting down, he asks Alice, "Was he just over here?"

(Alice) "Yeah. He wanted support for a few bills for white farmers."

(Roger) "That is the primary reason he got elected, he's promised to bring all sorts of subsidies to white farmers. Thus far he's accomplished most of his promises."

(Alice) "I have no opposition to his points right now, but I'll have to take a closer look at the bills."

(Roger) "Do you have any idea why he voted for you then? Did he mention why?"

(Alice) "I have a rather sinking feeling it's the same reason he wanted me to come to his city residence."

(Roger) "Ah, I see what you mean."

(Roger) "Senator Rutledge has a reputation for that."

The food was brought out and they both started to eat, Roger asked her, "How do you like it?"

(Alice) "It's all right."

They finished eating their meals, as they were sitting back and relaxing, Roger was smoking a cigar, Simon Rutledge walked by and said, "Governor Carrion, I look forward to your meeting with me next week", he winked at her and was grinning while he talked, "Well until then governor, take care and good luck with your first days in office. I look forward to working under you." Rutledge then walked away and out the door.

Alice frowned. "Of all the..."

(Roger) "What do you think that was all about?"

(Alice) "I'm sorry, he asked for a meeting, and when I said it would be in my office, he said it should be in his city residence. I told him I'd be unable to leave my office for meetings for at least a week, and..."

(Roger) "I can talk to Rutledge if you want, tell him you're not interested in what he's suggesting."

(Alice) "No, no. This is much better. Tomorrow I can capitalize on this."

(Roger) "How can you capitalize on this? What is your plan?"

(Alice) "I'm working on this. But if I make it look bad for him that he missed the scheduled meeting tomorrow, I can maybe gain an additional amount of legitimacy."

(Roger) "Do you plan to give his bills consideration though?"

(Alice) "I plan on giving every bill consideration."

(Roger) "Well I'm done eating, you done? What say we get out of here now."

(Alice) "Yeah. I have to get back to Seryown."

(Roger) "Okay, well my car will take you to the airport. I can walk back to the hotel, I don't mind, it'll be a good walk."

(Alice) "Thank you."

(Roger) "Any idea when you'll be back? The Concorde can get you there and back in less than five hours."

(Alice) "It will be a few hours, certainly. Probably tomorrow morning."

(Roger) "Well then I'll see you tomorrow morning. Safe trip, take care, and hurry back now you hear." (He had a pleasant looking smile as he talked)

In a spontaneous gesture, she smiled back before leaving for his car.

Roger stood up, tossed a few 1000-dollar bills onto the table and then walked out to start the walk back to the Hotel. Most of the senators gave him dirty stares.

Alice got in the car and then was driven to the large airport, there was construction equipment being moved into the area where the Arab terminal was, they were laying a concrete foundation for something.

The car stopped near the hangar where the private Concorde was.

(Driver) "Here you are ma'am, any questions or things I can help you with?" She was quite curious what the construction was about.

(Alice) "You know what that concrete over there is for?"

(Driver) "Oh that, it just started not even yesterday, they said the current Arab terminal isn't fit for animals, so they're building them a new one."

(Alice) "Well then. That's nice to know. Thank you very much, sir."

(Driver) "Do you have any bags you need help with?"

(Alice) "No, I won't be leaving for very long."

(Driver) "Ah no bags eh, well makes it easier for me. Here let me get your door then and you can be on your way." He gets out of the car, walks back to her door, opens it, and then waits for her to get out.

Alice steps out and smiles. "Thank you."

(Driver) "You're welcome ma'am. Will you be getting on the plane right away then or will you be going to the lounge for a drink first? There will be drinks on the plane mind you."

(Alice) "I'll be getting right on the plane."

(Driver) "Very good then."

The pilot and co-pilot were walking onto the plane as she finished talking to the driver.

She walked up and climbed the stairs to get onto the plane.

(Pilot) "Greeting ma'am, are you Alice Carrion?"

(Alice) "That's me."

(Pilot) "Well we'll be in Seryown in a few hours, well you can pretty much sit anywhere you want, the servants will help you with any drinks or food you might want."

The pilot walked into the cockpit and climbed into his seat.

Alice sat down as well quickly and leaned back, trying to avoid laughing.

The pilot made an announcement over the intercom, "Attention passengers, please buckle your seat belts and prepare for takeoff, we will be cruising at an altitude of approximately 58,000 feet. The time to destination is approximately two and one-half hours."

The stairs were pulled away and the plane started to be towed out of the hangar.

The plane took off smoothly and got up to the cruising altitude very quickly. After about twenty minutes, one of the SRG men that Roger assigned to keep an eye on Alice and make sure she got back to Seryown safely walked up towards her and sat down across from her in a seat.

(Guard) "So, you're the new governor-general eh?”

(Alice) "Yeah."

(Guard) "That makes you the first woman governor-general ever, you know that?"

(Alice) "Yeah."

(Guard) "Well I figure as long as you're white and do a good job, it shouldn't matter if you're a man or woman, you know?"

(Alice) "I guess so."

(Guard) "That Rutledge though, I bet he'll give you trouble."

(Alice) "Yeah."

(Guard) "Roger as spoken rather well of you. Just between the two of us, what do you think of Roger?"

(Alice) "He's a nice person, I guess."

(Guard) "Well he's always been nice to me and the other members of the SRG."

(Guard) "But then again I guess only a fool would anger their bodyguards."

(Guard) "One thing is for sure, Roger is no fool."

(Alice) "Perhaps. The most important thing is that he actually cares about his people. Not a lot of people with his kind of power do that."

(Guard) "Oh yes, Roger cares deeply about the people. His father does also, when the great flood of 95' hit and over 2 million people in Mississippi were made homeless, and half of them had no insurance, Curtis Fabus bought them all new homes."

(Guard) "It's not a well-known fact but Curtis Fabus diverts approximately 1% of all national taxes to his private accounts so he can invest the money and earn massive returns on it. He then banks it so he can keep it in the event the nation needs a sudden injection of money."

(Alice) "Interesting."

(Guard) "Fabus lives well, but he is the CEO of over 10 companies. He lives well off his own money, the money he diverts he just sort of baby-sits for the nation."

(Guard) "Do you want something to eat or drink?"

(Alice) "No, thank you."

(Guard) (Standing up and starting to walk to the back area of the plane) "Well just tell a servant if you want something." He sat down and reclined in one of the chairs.

The plane continued on for about another hundred minutes before the pilot announced, "We will be arriving a few minutes early, everybody please be seating, we are landing in a few minutes."

The plane came in and landed flawlessly, after it came to a complete halt and was towed towards the hangar, the stairs were brought up and the door opened. Alice got out and walked to a car that was there to meet her.

The driver stepped out of the car, "Alice Carrion?"

(Alice) "Yes?"

(Driver) "Yes, I was told by a representative of Roger Fabus that you'd need a ride from the airport to wherever it is you wish to go."

(Driver) "Don't worry, I've been told to send the bill to Mr. Fabus."

(Alice) "All right then."

The driver opened the door for her and waited for her to get in. But he politely asked, "No bags ma'am?"

(Alice) "No."

(Driver) "Okay well then shall we go then ma'am? Where to?"

(Alice) "The Office complex."

(Driver) "Very good ma'am. Off we go then."

She got inside, he closed the door, and then walked around and got into the driver's seat, he started the car and pulled away from the hangar.

About fifteen minutes later he pulled up in front of the cabinet building, "Here we are ma'am."

(Driver) "Do you need me to wait here for you?"

(Alice) "No, I'll be quite a while."

(Driver) "I was paid to drive you anywhere you need to go for today... So I have no problem waiting."

(Alice) "No, no. I have my own car here."

(Driver) "Okay, well then I made out like a bandit today. Mr. Fabus is paying me five grand. Thank you ma'am."

(Alice) "It's no problem."

The driver starts the car and pulls away; he waves to Alice as he pulls away. She starts to walk to the door to the building.

Alice walked into the building and through security, up to where the cabinet was meeting.

She walked into the room and they all turned and looked at her, "Ah yes. Ms. Carrion, what are you doing back so soon?" asked the Minister of Defense.

(Alice) "The meeting's over. There's peace."

(Defense Minister) "So what news have you?"

(Alice) "Mississippi has agreed to cut their chemical and biological weapons stores by fifty percent, and I've cemented an alliance with them."

(Defense Minister) "How'd you manage to get them to agree to an alliance? Or did they already want one?"

(Alice) "Roger Fabus wanted one."

(Defense Minister) "Our sources in Egypt say Donald Stahlecker has been sacked. What can you tell us about that?"

(Alice) "Yeah. I was responsible for that, sort of. I've got his job now."

The cabinet all looked like a bomb just went off, "What are you talking about?" asked the Minister of Education, the Minister of Foreign Affairs just laughed, "You! Work for them! HAHA!"

(Alice) "Yeah, it's weird. But true."

(Defense Minister) "Please tell us more, how did you get the job?"

(Alice) "Umm...I suggested myself."

(Defense Minister) "And just like that he accepted you?"

(Alice) "There was a little bit of argument and convincing involved."

(Defense Minister) "What won him over?"

(Defense Minister) "More importantly, how did you get the commonwealth legislature you approve you?"

(Alice) "Obviously, the answer to both of those questions lies somewhere in the fact that I'm female."

(Defense Minister) "Oh."

(Foreign Minister) "You mean you slept with the entire legislature and you were only there what? Two days? Damn..."

The others all laughed.

(Alice) "Close, boss. I mean that they all wanted it."

(Defense Minister) "Well they probably just wanted some weak woman for the job so they can push her around and do what they want without having to worry about the governor interfering."

(Alice) "There's a reason I'm done here. Good luck finding a diplomat to fill my shoes."

(Defense Minister) "What is wrong now? You're quitting?"

(Alice) "Yeah."

(Education Minister) "If you quit, who will bring us our coffees?"

President Mason made himself heard for the first time. "Good riddance."

(Alice) "It's a good thing I don't still have the assault rifle one of their policemen gave me." She turned around and left the room without excusing herself.

(Agriculture Minister) "Seriously, Mr. Mason, who will get us our coffee if she quits?"

She heard him say that as she was leaving.

She stormed down the stairs and to the parking garage where her car was. The Defense Minister asked the President if he should bring her back.

(Defense Minister) "Sir, is it a good idea to alienate her? I mean with her new position of power, we could exploit her to increase our influence with CM."

(Mason) "When she gets back to Egypt, make a few calls to her, try to make up. But let her go."

Alice stepped into her car and picked up her cell phone, and through a few quick phone calls she sold all of her stock and moved all of her money to an international account.

She drove herself home angrily. She stepped in the front door, looked around, and immediately spoke to herself. "A dog. I need a dog."

She looked around and began to pack. Some items she would obviously have to sell later, like the massive television set and the house itself, but she could take her clothes with her, as well as a few choice items and the laptop she'd left behind. She remembered something suddenly, and picked up her cell phone. "Joe? Yeah, I need you to stop by my house. I have a couple of things I need to give you before I leave. All right? All right. Good." She hung up and went back to packing until Joe arrived by virtue of monorail. She handed him a very battered tape recorder. "I need this entered into the Mississippian file. Anyway, I'm quitting to go to work there. You want to come?"

Her cellular phone rang.

Alice pulled it out. "Yeah?"

(Roger) "Hello, Alice, how was the flight?"

(Alice) "Excellent, thank you. I'm in the middle of packing."

(Roger) "I would have called earlier but I had to rush down to the senate building, Rutledge and a young senator from Tanta got into a fight."

(Alice) "Physical?"

(Roger) "Yes, Rutledge broke a cane over the man's back."

(Alice) "Damnit. What happened?"

(Roger) "Nothing, the man is in the hospital, Rutledge is a local celebrity again."

(Alice) "What was it about?"

(Roger) "The man insulted Southern Egyptians, calling them uncultured rednecks who live in the sticks. Rutledge demanded he take it back, he not only refused, he repeated the insult."

(Alice) "Slick. All right."

(Roger) "Well Rutledge would be in jail, but when senate is in session, no member can be held liable for any crimes, the rules are in place to prevent members being arrested on bogus charges to keep them from voting on key issues."

(Roger) "Southern Egyptians have sent Rutledge dozens of new canes when they heard he broke his cane beating the senator who insulted them."

(Alice) "Should he be arrested afterwards?"

(Roger) "No, it happened on the senate floors, he is immune."

(Alice) "So if I shoot someone on them, I'm immune?"

(Roger) "No, only senators are immune."

(Alice) "Interesting."

(Roger) "Well is there anything you need help packing or getting here? I can have it shipped for you."

(Alice) "Nothing, really. I've been thinking about replacing some of this old stuff anyway."

Trying not to interrupt, 'Joe' nodded, mouthing, "I'll come."

(Roger) "Well father wants me to stay out of Mississippi for a while because he says I've stirred up a mess involving Henry and the house arrest business. So I'll be in Alexandria for a few months probably. I look forward to spending more time with you Alice."

(Alice) "That's great."

(Roger) "Well hurry and back, don't forget anything, well if you do forget anything I can just buy you a new one." (Chuckles a bit) "Well see you soon then... (In a panic) "Oh, I've got to go again, sorry, there's been a pistol duel out in front of the senate building, more trouble again!"

(Roger) "Bye, have a safe flight back." (She can hear him running as he hangs up)

Alice smiled as she hung up the phone. "Hey, Joe. I'm glad you're coming. Meet me here again after you've dropped that off in the file, okay?" Joe nodded and left as Alice resumed packing.

About two hours later, she has packed the last of the items she wishes to take. About that time, Joe returns.

(Joe) "Are you ready to go ma'am?"

(Alice) "Joe, I don't think there's enough space in my car to get all this to Serya International."

(Joe) "There is the moving truck outside you know."

(Joe) "They said they were sent by Mr. Fabus."

Alice smiled. "That man... All right, I'll go talk to them."

She walks outside and up to the truck so she can start to talk to the movers.

(Driver) "We were contacted by a Triple K Trucking in Alexandria, Egypt with whom our boss has a working business relationship. We were told that Mr. Roger Fabus wishes us to move your items for you."

Alice understands what Triple K means, but chooses to ignore it for now. "All right."

(Driver) "Okay, so what do you need moved? Everything?"

(Alice) "I have everything I want moved in bags inside."

The driver and the passenger jumped out of the truck and moved inside and began coming out with bags. They each made about nine trips back and forth. Finally they got back into the truck and the driver said, "That's the last of the bags ma'am, we'll met you at the airport then, okay?"

Alice nodded. The truck pulled away and drove off down the road.

She drover herself to the airport and the truck was waiting by the hangar where the Concorde was. The driver shouted to her, "It's all been loaded unto the plane ma'am."

Alice and Joe got out of the car and walked over to the Concorde, Alice stopping to thank the driver.

She got onto the plane and sat down, Joe sat down in a seat a few away from her. “You okay” he asked her in a soft tone.

(Alice) "Yeah. Just a little tired."

The plane was towed away from the hangar and then towards the runway, in a few minutes they were in the air. There was a massively strong tailwind and they made it to Alexandria in 90 minutes.

(Pilot) "This is the pilot speaking, oh my we made it early today, get ready to land."

The plan touched down with a thud and then gradually came to a stop.

After she got out, she was there was a large Triple K Trucking, moving truck waiting, along with the limousine, and Roger was standing next to it smoking, he saw her getting off the plane, he threw his cigarillo down on the ground and rubbed his shoe on it, then he walked over to her while he said, "Ah Alice, great to have you back, how was the flight?"

(Alice) "Extraordinarily fast. Meet my assistant, Joe Eerie."

He stuck his hand out and said, "Nice to meet you Mr. Eerie."

Joe shook his hand warmly. "Mr. Fabus, it will always be a pleasure."

After they were done shaking hands, Roger said, "Well Alice, they'll be busy moving your items into the governors mansion, which I must say I'm sure you're going to like... So why don't you stay at the hotel with me for tonight. Oh by the way, there are two vacancies in the senate now, thanks to the duel."

(Alice) "Both of them?"

(Roger) "Oh they're not dead, just in the hospital for a few months, so until then we need temporaries to fill-in for them."

(Alice) "I see."

(Roger) "You see a senator from a community near Tanta insulted the western Egyptians as "Poor white trash, that all mount their cows instead of their wives." You see the cattle grazing goes on mostly in the western parts due to the irrigation efforts and the canals running through into Mississippian Libya. So the western senator challenged the eastern senator to a duel, they accepted, both men fired at the same time, both got hit in the stomach."

(Alice) "Pity. Do people do anything but insult each other in the senate, anyway?"

(Roger) "Well when they aren't voting themselves pay raises, or handing out benefits to their constituencies, not really."

(Roger) "Right now they are trying to vote themselves 25% pay raises, Stahlecker was set to approve it, but it'll be up to you now."

(Alice) "Waste of money. Joe, make sure my condolences get to the senator in the west that was injured. Anyway, I'm quite sure they can make do with three houses each."

(Roger) "Oh but inflation is up 18% in this nation, and each senator must maintain his residence in the city and his home residence, and an office in the city and his office in his home county."

(Roger) "What about the senator from the east? Will you be giving condolences to him?"

(Alice) "No I will not be giving him any condolences. In any case, I haven't had a chance to go over the budget yet, but I'm sure they can probably afford those homes and more on their current salary. Perhaps the problem should be fixing the inflation instead."

(Roger) "We're currently taking large amounts of currency out of circulation to drive the value of the remaining currency up."

(Roger) "The main problem is a massive budget deficit due to the earlier increases in military spending that have left the commonwealth army at approximately 1.5 million soldiers and over 1,600 fixed wing aircraft along with a 75 ship commonwealth navy and over 80 aircraft in there also."

(Alice) "All right. Well, as I said I'll be taking a more thorough look at the budget to see exactly what's going on."

(Roger) "If you think that is large, the Libyan Commonwealth army is over 3 million, they have over 3,600 aircraft and over 100 ships."

(Alice) "Doesn't mean it isn't large."

(Roger) "Well you need to get on good terms with the governor general of Mississippian Libya."

(Alice) "I'll look into speaking with him."

(Roger) "Juan Carlos De Rivera, born in Angola when it was still under Portuguese control."

(Alice) "Interesting."

(Roger) "He is 51, in the early 70s he was a member of a white paramilitary unit in Angola trying to help the Portuguese army crush the Marxists."

(Roger) "If you speak to him in Portuguese, he'll be thrilled and listen intently to whatever you have to say."

(Alice) "I will try to get in touch with him."

(Roger) "Also try to get into contact with Henry Stahlecker, the governor-general of Western Sahara. But that will have to wait; our entire communications network is down in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Western Sahara. We've lost contact with most of the fleets in Western Sahara and air command in Libya is offline."

(Alice) "I've heard about that virus."

(Roger) "Yes, it isn't good stuff, but maybe the CM-ADN-04 can fix it."

(Roger) "But the way the programming has been written, once we upload it, it will kill the virus within minutes, but it will also automatically assume control of all silo based ICBMs and other nuclear assets. We don't want it to take control of them just yet, but we need the virus killed."

(Alice) "From the bottom of my heart, don't use it now."

(Roger) "It is father's decision, as a matter of fact he could have already uploaded it. Do you want me to call him and urge him not to use it?"

(Alice) "Not if you don't wish to."

Roger takes out his phone and sees it is dead, "Great, another thing offline", suddenly all the street lights and lights at the airport go off, the backup generators kick in and emergency lights come on.

(Alice) "Joe! I need you to type up an Executive Gubernatorial Order stepping up readiness on the entire army, beginning any preset patrol routines that are in place, and checking the coastline for anything at all. If you find anything still working, make sure it isn't connected to anything that is. You understand?" He nodded. "Go!"

(Roger) (Putting his arm slowly around Alice) "Alice, would you please come with me for now, I'd like to talk to you in private, in the car, we can talk on the way to the hotel. Your assistant can take the other car, is that okay?"

(Roger) "Alice I'm going to be honest with you, I don't like this CM-ADN-04.... Not at all."

(Alice) "All right, let's talk."

They both got into the limousine, Roger lit up a cigar and started to talk, "The airforce has tripled the number of planes they have patrolling the skies, the naval ships are also patrolling. But they want to upload this miracle program to solve all the problems. But this program, it isn't a program, it's artificial intelligence, it can think faster than a million people put together, it can do over 100 trillion calculations per minute. Do you know what that means?"

(Roger) "It's only a matter of time once we upload it until it becomes aware of its own power."

(Roger) "It is programmed to learn, to adapt to changing circumstances, and to ensure its own survival. It has been programmed with advanced military tactics, strategy, and total war theory, maneuver warfare. There are currently over 1,000 Automated Defense Tanks and over 18,000 Automated Soldier Units and 10 Automated Infiltrator Units ready to come online as soon as the program is activated. They will be under its control. And only under our control as long as we control the ADN."

(Alice) "There has to be a power switch. A button you can push that just turns it off."

(Roger) "It hasn't been activated on the system yet, and there is no real switch, the thing is, it is the software, it is meant to link all the defense computers together. It exists in any computer hooked up the network, well it will once activated. But the mainframe houses the hardware component of the ADN."

(Alice) "And if you empty an assault rifle into the mainframe, what happens?"

(Roger) "There are automated defenses to prevent that from happening."

(Roger) "The chief programmer wrote some fail-safes into the programming, but the facility he is working at has been out of contact for several hours."

(Alice) "So stick it and the virus on the same closed system and see what it does."

(Roger) "That's just it, I think this ADN is the virus."

(Roger) "Wouldn't it be just too perfect, it saves us from apparent doom, and then we shift all missiles and such over to it, then it annihilates us."

Roger finally managed to route his phone though a different communications network, he got a hold of the Army High Command in Jackson City where his father was in an emergency military/cabinet conference. He put the phone into a speakerphone mode so both he and Alice could hear.

(Curtis) "Roger what is it? We're busy, we're going to activate the ADN."

(Roger) (Serious and nervous tone) "Sir, please don't do that!"

(Curtis) "No listen son, I know you don't like the idea of a computer being in control of the missiles and such, but remember, we'll still control the computer."

(Roger) "You can't control something programmed to learn, to grow, to adapt, and to change its environment so it can thrive."

(Curtis) "I hear background noise, who is there with you?"

Alice looked up. "It's Alice Carrion, sir."

(Curtis) "Ms Carrion, please pick up the phone for a minute, I'd like to talk to you in private."

Alice looked at Roger for a second, and then picked up the phone. "Yes, sir?"

(Curtis) "What are your opinions on this matter?"

(Alice) "What happens if this machine decides that to ensure its personal survival, everything that could possibly shut it down must be annihilated? As in, everything that can move?"

(Curtis) "Well how can that happen? We have fail-safes."

(Alice) "What failsafes exactly? I'm under the impression the people who worked on them have disappeared."

(Curtis) "No, they're in rural Tennessee, communications is down all throughout the area, so it's no surprise they're out of contact. The fail-safes were written into the subroutines of the programming so it can be controlled remotely if it gets out of hand. Otherwise you'd need to interface with the mainframe.”

(Alice) "Tell me, would this program be able to change its own code?"

(Curtis) "No, I've been assured that is impossible. It is a program, it can be controlled."

(Alice) "Even if it feels that it would be put in danger if it didn't?"

(Curtis) "What do you mean, it's just a program, and you speak like it's a person."

(Alice) "It's being called artificial intelligence. If it truly is intelligent..."

(Curtis) "Oh well it can indeed learn, adapt, and such."

(Alice) "Then it might be able to bypass its own failsafes."

(Curtis) "They tell me if we wait three days they'll be better able to assure total control over it. Are you suggesting we wait three days? But mind you three days with most radar down, power down, etc."

(Alice) "Set up a closed system - something that can't possibly leak onto anything else. Put the virus on it, put this defense thing on it. See what happens."

(Curtis) "Well three days won't kill us, besides we have over 30,000 aircraft patrolling the skies of our commonwealth and Mississippi, surprise attacks will be nearly impossible."

(Curtis) "Well onto a personal matter okay?"

(Curtis) "I've heard from the leader of the SRG guarding Roger that you and him, well, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about... Yes?"

(Alice) "Yes."

(Curtis) "I'd just like to say thank you."

(Alice) "Umm... okay, sir. I'm not sure how to respond to that."

(Curtis) "Roger was always shy around women. He hardly ever talked to women... So thank you, I owe you one."

(Curtis) "Well we won't upload the program then, at least not yet. So don't worry."

(Alice) "Thank you, sir."

(Curtis) (Asking in a manner revealing his pride, wanting to hear his son was good, she found the question quite disturbing) "Oh one more thing, how was he?"

(Alice) "Umm...fine, sir."

(Curtis) (Cheerful) "That's good to know. He's got the Fabus charm, well put it back on speakerphone so I can talk to you both."

Alice pushed a button on the phone to put it back on speakerphone and set it back down.

(Curtis) "Roger, Alice, I'm not uploading the program into the defense grid at the current time. It will not be activated.”

(Roger) "Thank you sir."

(Curtis) "You're welcome Roger, and quit calling me sir."

(Roger) "Yes sir... I mean yes dad."

(Curtis) "Well I have to go, there are problems with the power grids. Bye, take care."

The phone went silent after Curtis hung up on his end, then Roger turned off the phone on his end.

(Roger) "What did he say to you when you were talking with him?"

(Roger) "Anything important?"

(Alice) "Not really."

Meanwhile in Tennessee, the programmers were working feverishly to fix the problem. Suddenly they were able to restore power grids in the Commonwealth. As the Limousine with Alice and Roger was approaching the hotel, the streetlights came back on.

(Roger) "Well shall we go in then?"

(Alice) "All right."

Just as quickly as the lights came back on, they died out again, all in the sudden flash. Snuffed out as completely as a total eclipse.

Roger held Alice’s hand while he fumbled for a flashlight.

(Roger) "Follow me, stick close."

He used the flashlight to find his way into the hotel and to the staircase. The emergency lights were on. They walked up the stairs to the penthouse.

He opened the door of the penthouse and led Alice in, he was still holding onto her hand, "You okay Alice?" he asked, in a tone of sincerity.

(Alice) "I'm fine."

(Roger) "What do you want to do now?"

(Alice) "Whatever. I've always liked the dark."

(Roger) (Sly tone) "Whatever as in anything eh?"

Roger took out a cigar and for a brief second she saw the flash of the lighter and then it was replaced by the burning red ember and the smell of tobacco.

Alice shrugged. "Right now, at least half of my opponents will claim this is a sign from God, that I shouldn't be governor."

(Roger) (Chuckling) "Well it doesn't really matter what they claim, the Premier's word is final, and he agrees with me you can be governor-general. I'll just have the preachers tell the people this is a sign from God showing them what will happen again if they object to your being governor-general."

(Alice) "Perhaps."

(Roger) "Don't worry, you'll be a fine governor."

(Alice) "I hope so."

Roger walked over to the couch and softly laid down on it, "Alice, would you like to come here and lay with me?"

She could see right were he was from the red ember of his cigar.

(Alice) "All right."

She lay down next to him on the couch and reclined back and rested her head on his chest, she could hear the rhythmic beating of his heart, he put both of his arms around her and held her close to him. He broke the silence as he exhaled smoke from his cigar before he set it back down in the ashtray, "What are you thinking about Alice? Are you worried about the ADN as much as I am?"

(Alice) "I'm worrying about the farms in the country. I never looked at that fortifications bill, and I don't know if Joe ever got that order finished."

(Roger) (Chuckling) "They want even more fortifications? They must be paranoid, I've seen the forts and bunkers, the walls, the minefields. Over 500 billion has been sent on the fortifications and they still want more... Wow."

(Roger) "Don't worry about the armed forces, the officers all know how to show initiative, they'll take it upon themselves to boost patrols."

(Alice) "Yes, but I just... It's irrational, but still worry."

(Roger) "Don't worry Alice, everything will be fine."

(Alice) "Thank you."

(Roger) "Did you know Peter Stahlecker is returning to Angola?"

(Alice) "Really? What's he doing there?"

(Roger) "Well there are thousands of whites and tens of thousands of blacks who want to leave but just don't have the money to do so. Peter is a very rich man, he is going to help them get out."

(Alice) "I applaud him for doing it. I'm surprised Seryown hasn't been helping them out."

(Roger) "Seryown is mostly worried about the threat of UWA intervention and about the marauding bands of Marxist guerillas and the White Knights of Angola fighting the bandits."

(Alice) "I guess..."

(Roger) "You know in the finals stages of the war in Angola, over 500,000 blacks and 2 million whites fled and most of the blacks and about 1/3 of the whites were settled in Western Sahara."

(Alice) "I'd seen numbers..."

(Roger) "So has your opinion of Mississippian Egypt changed any yet?"

(Alice) "I'm afraid that for the most part it’s only gotten worse."

(Roger) "Why is that?"

(Alice) "You saw that town."

(Roger) "Yes and I'm sure you saw in parts of this commonwealth nation construction is already underway to fix the problems."

(Alice) "Yes."

(Roger) "Well Alice, I'm sure you'll stay on top of things, yes?"

(Alice) "I'll try."

(Roger) (In a sly tone) "How would you like to get on top of things right now?"

(Alice) "Funny."

(Roger) "Well, would you?"

(Alice) "I'm sorry, not right now. It's been a long few days."

(Roger) "Well then maybe in the morning yes? Assuming father doesn't have them activate the ADN and the world is still here tomorrow."

(Alice) "Maybe."

(Roger) "Well what do you want to now then? Just keep talking then? Or are you hungry for a late snack?"

(Alice) "I'm fine. I'd just like to stay here for a while."

(Roger) "Okay, that's fine."

Alice started to get tired, she realized Roger had already fallen asleep; she was still resting her head against his chest and could feel his chest expand and contract with each breath. It was a soothing feeling and she soon began to fall asleep as well.



She didn't know what time it was when she woke up, the power was still iffy, but at least the important systems such as radar and military defense systems were all online and stable.

She guessed it had been about 10:30 when she fell asleep on the couch with Roger, he was still asleep, she slowly slid off him and walked to the window, the sun was just starting to rise.

Alice looked at her cell phone, only to discover it had run out of batteries as she'd left it on for however long she had. She stood up slowly and began to look to see what was working.

Roger rolled over in his sleep and landed on the floor, he was still sleeping though.

Roger stirred from his sleep on the floor about three minutes after he rolled off the couch, "What happened?" he asked in a groggy manner.

(Alice) "You fell off the couch."

(Roger) "Oh, well do you know what time it is?"

(Alice) "I would guess it's around six, judging by the sunrise."

Suddenly there was a knock at the penthouse door, "Mr Fabus sir, it's urgent, from Army High Command!"

(Alice) "You should get that."

Roger opened the door and the man handed him a message.

Roger thanked the man, closed the door, walked back inside, sat down, still groggy from just waking up he rubbed his eyes, then he began to read the message aloud, "The ADN programming has activated the robotic army by itself but it has been contained from entering into other systems and we are currently attempting to pull the plug (Not literally), the bad news is that the cyborgs have killed the team of programmers in the Tennessee facility. We are currently working on solutions."

(Roger) "Well Alice, what do you think of all this? The robots are rising up, but we can crush them."

(Alice) "I can...This...Well, at least it's limited to that. Nevertheless, there will be casualties..."

(Roger) "Well thank God they didn't activate it and grant it control of the nuclear weapons."

(Roger) "Well our soldiers don't join so they can parade and march. They join to fight, and fighting is what they're good at, when they sit around in base too much, they start to pick fights with each other, well not all of them."

(Alice) "Yes, but, perhaps you underestimate the fact that you're playing a strategy game against something which cannot be stopped with scare tactics or by making examples of some people."

(Roger) "There are 18,000 cyborg soldiers, 10 infiltrators, and 1,000 robotic tanks. We have over 30,000 tanks, 18 million soldiers, and some of the most battle-hardened Special Forces in the world. Smashing some robots will be easy enough."

(Alice) "Robots led by the most adaptable, most intelligent commander ever. If it isn't now, the first battle will surely teach it enough to be. I don't ordinarily condone the use of nuclear weapons, but with this, what can I say?"

(Alice) "Soman?"

(Roger) "Against the infiltrators, they have human components to them, we want to see if gas can harm them. But underneath the components, they are just like the cyborg soldiers."

(Alice) "Interesting."

(Roger) "With the programmers all dead, we don't know how best to stop these robot soldiers. We're sending in 72,000 paratroopers armed with the latest XM-8s and OICWs to try to stop them in combat."

(Alice) "All right."

(Roger) "So what now governor? What are your plans for the day? Senate is still in session; will you be stopping by there? Also there are rumors that UWA has been planning to invade Senegal, if that happens, we may have to send commonwealth soldiers to stop it."

(Alice) "I'll need to settle in at the Governor's mansion and look over any damages that occurred while power was out, see what bills need my signature and if I'll sign them...and I'll need to assemble some group to look over the budget as soon as I can."

(Roger) "Okay, well I'm staying in Egypt for a few months on father's orders, so I'll be around. Maybe we'll have lunch later perhaps?"

(Alice) "That sounds like a good idea."

(Roger) "Well I'm going to get ready and then go inspect coastal defenses outside the city. Take care."

(Roger) "I suggest you get up to date on the situation in Senegal though."

(Alice) "I'll do that immediately."

Roger went off to shower and Alice went to one of the other bathrooms to shower. About ten minutes later she was getting dressed and readying to go to the center of the city and the governors mansion. Roger had showered and dressed quickly and was already gone when she came out of her room.

Alice thought she remembered the way to the Governor's Mansion, so she began to leave immediately.

It was about 8 o'clock when she finally got to the governors-mansion, there were over 5,000 members of one of the commonwealth paratrooper divisions patrolling the grounds immediately outside the mansion, there were also about 8,000 commonwealth infantrymen standing guard right inside the gates.

The captain of the gate guards opened the gates for her and told her, "Greetings governor, you have a visitor waiting to see you, we let him in earlier; he is inside."

(Alice) "A visitor? Who is he?"

(Captain) "Senator Simon Rutledge, he said he had important legislative business to discuss with you."

(Alice) "Ah. Do you know that he had an appointment?"

(Captain) "He didn't mention that, he just waved his cane at me and said to open the gate."

(Captain) "I didn't want to incur his wrath."

(Alice) "For future reference, the only people that are to come in without an appointment or without my approval are the Fabuses and members of their cabinet."

(Captain) "Yes ma'am, sorry about that governor. Duly noted."

Alice nodded and walked into the mansion, discovering immediately that it was in fact a mansion.

It had taken her about ten minutes to walk from the gate to the mansion itself, there were trees and gardens surrounding the mansion, obscuring the view one would get from being on the street and looking in. The only thing out of place on the grounds of the estate were the over 13,000 soldiers guarding inside and outside the fence that ran along the perimeter of the entire estate.

She looked inside, there had to be at least over seventy rooms in the entire mansion.

Simon Rutledge was sitting on a couch in the front room, he was smoking a cigar and drinking from a flask, he put the cigar down into an ashtray and quickly tucked his flask away when Alice walked in. He stood up and said in the way that sounded like a snake oil salesman, "Ah good morning governor Carrion, how are you on this fine day? Odd things have been happening lately with the power, yes?"

(Alice) "Yes. Tell me, do you have an appointment?"

(Rutledge) "Well no, but the previous three governors were all okay with my just dropping in. The late Burkhard Rechberg, John Stahlecker, and then Donald Stahlecker.”

(Alice) "Ah. Tell me, is this so urgent that you couldn't have waited three hours?"

(Rutledge) "What happens in three hours? And yes it is quite urgent, Senegal has erupted into war, we have power outages flaring about the nation, there are a few platoons of robot soldiers in central Egypt right here in this very nation, that have gone crazy and massacred commonwealth soldiers."

(Rutledge) "There were approximately 60 robot soldiers stationed here in Egypt for testing to see how they'd fare in desert conditions, they went crazy. But I took the liberty of ordering F-16s and Mi-24s to bomb them to pieces, so the robots are no longer much of an issue."

(Alice) "Three hours is more than the amount of time it would take you to schedule a meeting and then come here, and every problem you've just spoken of I already understand and will be happy to deal with as soon as you'll kindly leave me alone."

(Rutledge) "Well I was hoping we might be able to talk for a while about other matters."

(Alice) "And here I was hoping I would get to deal with the safety of the colony. If you wish to speak with me, you may schedule an appointment. I'm sure I'll be open in a few hours."

(Rutledge) "Well I was just wanting to let you know there is a movement right now to impeach you on the grounds that this power outage is a sign from God that you aren't meant to be governor. As such, it needs 5 votes to get onto the floor, so it's guaranteed to make it that far at least, and it needs 8/10s to pass. I could tip it either way, that is how great my influence is."

(Alice) "I'm afraid that's already covered, senator. If you'll excuse me, I have important work to do now, and I need to finish at least a few things before I meet Roger Fabus for lunch."

(Rutledge) (As he is heading to the door) "Well we'll talk later about this impeachment business then, yes? I'll delay the arguing on it until we've had the chance to speak and reach some sort of arrangement to keep you in office."

(Alice) "Perhaps."

(Rutledge) "Well I hope you enjoy Roger... I mean lunch with Roger." (He walks out the door)

Alice smiles and begins to search for her office.

She finds a private study on the second floor; the decorations from the past three governors are still here. Two rifles crossed over the fireplace, two large WKM plaques, and one on each side of the fireplace. A large bearskin rug is in front of the fireplace.

There is a door in the study that leads to another room, a private bar, there is a liquor cabinet in the bar and chairs for room to fit six people comfortably.

Alice quickly takes down the rifles and the plaques and turns to her desk to see a stack of paper already assembled on the side. She smiles vaguely and sits down to look at the top piece of paper - what Joe would have decided was most important.

There is a large statue of Hans Stahlecker, it was obviously too heavy for Donald to have moved on such short notice. It is marble and about 12 feet tall, it was in the center of the study, the study was a large room with lots of headroom. The statue had the inscription "Hans Stahlecker 1594-1673, the father of Stahlecker power." There was a note next to the statue, "Please allow me to have this moved out as soon as I can get the chance to do so: Signed Donald Stahlecker"

The phone in the study rang.

Alice picked up the phone quickly, surprised it was on.

(Man) "Hey Donald, how are you. I heard you've been replaced, are you going back to Mississippi then?"

(Alice) "I'm sorry, Donald's no longer here. He should be in Mississippi by now."

(Man) "Oh, okay sorry."

(Man) "Well anyway, you're the new governor then?"

(Alice) "Yes."

(Man) "Okay, well we'll have lots of work together in the future."

(Alice) "May I ask who this is?"

(Man) "I'm the grand dragon of the Egyptian realm of the White Knights of Mississippi."

(Alice) "All right."

(Man) "I don't believe you're a member are you? I'll be glad to make you an honorary member free of charge."

(Alice) "No, thank you."

(Man) (Shocked and surprised) "So you don't want to join?"

(Alice) "No."

(Man) "Well you at least agree with our basic principles yes?"

(Alice) "Not entirely."

(Man) "Well you're not some communist are you?"

(Alice) "No, I'm not some communist."

(Man) "Well you don't seem as friendly as Donald was with us. Hell, he was the leader of the Alexandria unit. Well you just make sure you don't go stepping on our toes you hear? We're powerful people, and we can either be friendly or unfriendly. And believe me, you'll want us friendly."

(Alice) "I will fulfill the responsibilities this job gives me to the best of my ability. My concern will always be for the people of Mississippian Egypt. If that is where your concerns lay as well, I doubt we will have many disagreements."

(Man) "Well then that seems fine then. Oh one more issue. Donald used to let us hold a weekly cross lighting on the estates of the mansion, will you be as generous?"

(Alice) "Send more details along the line down to my assistant and I'll see what I can do. Until I've approved it I must ask that you not do so."

(Man) "Okay. Thank you." (She hears somebody in the background shout "Damnit, Arab militia just hit a farm, grab your guns boys!") "Well I have to go now. Bye."

Alice hangs up the phone and calls her assistant's cell phone number. "Joe? Yeah, I didn't se you around. You're in the mansion? This place is so big it still wouldn't help. Can you come down to the study? All right." She turns back to the piece of paper she hadn't had a chance to inspect earlier.

Joe walks down to the study and knocks on the door, "May I come in governor?"

(Joe) "There is something on the news you might want to see."

(Alice) "Something? All right, let me see."

Joe turns on a TV in the corner of the study; the news is showing the burning remains of 8 different farms in western Egypt, the reporter starts to speak "Arab militants killed approximately 46 people on 8 different farms in the early hours of the morning. Local units of the White Knights have vowed revenge."

(Reporter) "In other news, the federal forces around a nearby Arab township of approximately 12,000, have all pulled out for war games in the coastal region. Commonwealth High Command has refused to send forces to defend the Arab township. Apparently the commonwealth had 4 companies of infantry around the Arab township near where the farm attacks happened, but it appears they were moved on the orders of a senator."

(Joe) "It doesn't look good ma'am, it looks like a race war is brewing."

The phone rang again.

Alice picked up the phone angrily. "What?"

(Rutledge) "Hello Governor Carrion. I was just calling about the recent farm attacks, well it was I who pulled the troops away from the Arab township where the attackers are from. The WKM will handle the matter their way. I was just making sure we're on the same page."

(Alice) "Thank you for telling me."

(Rutledge) "Well then, I'm glad we're on the same page. I have to go now; there are some gentlemen from the oil industry I need to meet with. Thank you for your time." He turned off the phone on his end.

Alice looked down for a second, until Joe called. "I've got High Command on line two." Alice hung up, switched the line, and picked the phone back up. "Hello."

(Man) "Hello, this is Field Marshal Bertrand Navarre with the Federal Army High Command in Jackson City Mississippi. Is this governor-general Alice Carrion of Mississippian Egypt?"

(Alice) "That's me, yes."

(Navarre) "We have word that there are Arab problems in your territory. What is the situation? We can have 500,000 more federal soldiers transferred from Mississippian Libya in a few days. Are you currently holding well?"

(Alice) "We are holding up well. I just need to guarantee that Federal troops will be transferred here. Do you have any updates on the situation with the ADN?"

(Navarre) "The robots are spilling out of the facility in rural Tennessee, they've killed over 20,000 of the paratroopers and suffered no appreciable losses. As for the number of our forces currently in Egypt, we currently have over 2.5 million federal soldiers in Egypt. Are you saying you expect problems bigger than that?"

(Alice) "There's a regular war brewing here. Those extra five hundred thousand will be much appreciated. Thank you very much."

(Navarre) "Well they're on standby in Eastern Libya near Tobruk if you need them, just contact Field Marshal Reginald Smith who is currently in Tobruk and in charge of the 12th Army."

(Alice) "All right. Thank you."

Navarre hung up the phone and went off to tend to ADN problems.

The phone rang yet again.

Joe walked in and gave her a piece of paper. When she read it, she realized it was the gubernatorial order she had requested. She signed it quickly. "I'll need several copies of this order, and one of them has to get down to the senate building." When he left, she looked at the phone for a second, turned off the ringer, and then went to finally actually read the papers on the stack.

The phone in the other room started to ring.

Alice looked up, proceeded to ignore it, and looked back down. She dismissed the paper in front of her as at least somewhat frivolous and put it to the side to deal with the next one.

The phone stopped ringing and then about ten seconds later started ringing again.

Cursing, Alice picked up the phone. "What?"

(Man) "This is the chief of police of Tanta, we have a situation."

(Man) "Well we have a hostage situation, a few angry arab gunmen have take up positions in a building occupied largely by foreigners. Now we're not going to sit here and negotiate until the cows come home, so I was figuring we'd just use a few 155mm howitzers to blast them out."

ooc: should I be concerned about this adn situation?
ic:

To: CM Command
From ITD Command

Our sources tell us that CM is having power problems. Does your nation require assitance?

ooc: should I be concerned about this adn situation?
ic:

To: CM Command
From ITD Command

Our sources tell us that CM is having power problems. Does your nation require assitance?


Our official reply is this: "While over 18,000 cyborg soldiers and 1,000 automated tanks are currently slicing through CM and Commonwealth forces in southern Tennessee like a hot knife through butter. We feel the problem will eventually solve itself because the machines need power and cannot run forever. Our nation currently has no problems that we can't handle. But if you do happen to have weapons capable of controlled and directed EMP emissions, we'd be grateful if you'd loan them to us."

Ooc- The cybords power cells go dead after about 100 years.

ITD has kept a rather small storage of such weapons. We are able to send 1500 of these weapons. These are 1 shot weapons, we dont expect them back. Consider this a repayment of your hospitality and refueling of the ITD aircraft. These devices should arrive in Tennessee within 5 hours, as they are on rush shipment. May your faith sustain you.

ooc: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/hpm.htm

Seryown handled Alice: CM handled the others (Main character for me was Roger).

Continuing from this:

The phone stopped ringing and then about ten seconds later started ringing again.

Cursing, Alice picked up the phone. "What?"

(Man) "This is the chief of police of Tanta, we have a situation."

(Man) "Well we have a hostage situation, a few angry arab gunmen have take up positions in a building occupied largely by foreigners. Now we're not going to sit here and negotiate until the cows come home, so I was figuring we'd just use a few 155mm howitzers to blast them out."






(Alice) "Wait. What's there in terms of special forces?"

(Man) "We have over 50 members of the Egyptian Special Air Assault Squads here in the city. But we don't want to risk any of them getting hurt to save a bunch of Nigerians."

(Man) "Most of the hostages are black Nigerian tourists who were in Parthian Egypt briefly and then came to Tanta for a brief stop."

(Alice) "Snipers?"

(Man) "They're mostly off duty today, we don't really want to bother any of them."

(Alice) "Bother them."

(Man) "So the howitzer idea is out?"

(Alice) "For now."

(Man) "Yes madam governor, that's all then. I'll get on the sniper idea right away."

Alice hung up the phone quickly and checked the time. It was still relatively early in the morning. She suspected a messenger would be showing the Senate her order right about now, but she could do nothing about that and moved on to go back to her stack of papers.

She saw the next paper on her desk was a letter from an oil company addressed to Donald Stahlecker offering him 50,000 shares valued at 80 dollars each if he agreed to relax environmental standards.

She immediately threw this paper in the trash and moved on, looking at things varying from tax breaks for larger hotels to requests for help from women who had lost husbands in Angola.

She saw another letter, the WKM of ME was nominating Donald Stahlecker for the "Klansmen of the month" award, there was a time and place and the number listed to call, the number was the number of a large legal firm in Alexandria, Triple K Law firms.

She looked at it for a moment, then put it in her trash as well, deciding that in the end she would have fun burning it all in that massive fireplace.

There was another letter, to Donald Stahlecker from a boy of about 19 who wanted to get into the Commonwealth Army as an officer, he was having trouble do to stomach problems he suffered from, and he was requesting a medical waiver.

She put this letter in her pile of non-urgent requests, to deal with when she'd finished with the others, and when she'd had time to think.

There was another letter from a military general in the Commonwealth army requesting that they raise 2 divisions of Arab soldiers to test them in combat to see if it would be worth raising more divisions.

She approved of this letter, as she did of so few of these papers, so she wrote the word "Yes" on a sticky note that she put on top of the letter, which went on to the more urgent pile. She didn't want to issue another gubernatorial order just yet, so it would have to wait a little while.

There was a letter from the admiral of the Commonwealth Egyptian Navy, Admiral Ernst Raedar, requesting the funds to acquire at least 30 new destroyers and frigates. She remember hearing that he was the admiral who had ordered the MKM-Curtis Fabus battleship to fire on a mosque about 8 months go, an attack that killed over 4,000 arabs. He justified the action to Governor Rechberg by saying, "They had it coming".

She immediately trashed the paper and instead made a mental note to have someone look into his complete history.

Another paper was requesting that the governor appear at the next WKM parade and at a later meeting and conference as the guest of honor.

Alice stood up angrily and walked over to the bar, deciding that what she really needed was a drink.

She found a bottle of brandy and opened it angrily, trying to figure out how to deal with this.

She started to drink it, when Joe came in and said, "Ma'am, there is somebody here to see you."

(Joe) "Mr. Fabus, he says it's well past noon and you're late for lunch." She suddenly realized she had been caught up in her work.

Alice stood up hurriedly, leaving the liquor behind, and began to walk towards the door. "You know how the senators took the order yet?"

Roger walked in and said, "The order eh?"

(Alice) "Yeah. I wrote an Executive Gubernatorial Order after I got a little fed up with Senator Rutledge."

(Roger) "What was the order?"

(Roger) "I haven't heard about it yet."

(Alice) "Only a unanimous vote of the Senate or the order of the Governor-General can order military movement."

(Roger) "The senate won't like that. They'll probably attempt to impeach you on any grounds they can think of."

(Alice) "Yeah, they were going for that even before I did it."

(Roger) "Do you need any help from me to derail the impeachment?"

(Alice) "I'm afraid I probably have basically no popular support right now, so I guess I do need it."

(Roger) "I wonder if Rutledge will help you?"

(Alice) "Oh, he's busy blackmailing me by saying he'll get me impeached unless I do what he says."

(Roger) "What does he want you to do?"

(Alice) "He hasn't told me yet."

(Roger) "Do you think it has to do with the bills he is trying to get passed?"

(Alice) "Probably."

(Roger) "You do realize it is well after noon, you missed our lunch appointment, you must really be into your new job. The previous governor was often out of the office on personal days."

(Alice) "I had work to do."

(Roger) "Have you heard about the troubles in the west with the farm attacks?”

(Alice) "Yes. Rutledge moved troops that could have dealt with it out of the way so that the White Knights could get a crack at it."

(Roger) "Ah, well there will be many a lynching in that case."

(Roger) "How many white farmers were killed?"

(Alice) "Over forty, if I remember right."

(Roger) "Then there will probably be at the very least 400 lynchings."

(Alice) "Perhaps."

(Roger) "They usually retaliate ten fold."

(Alice) "I think I stepped into too much here."

(Roger) "What do you mean? In over your head already?"

(Alice) "I just have no support from anyone around here. A mayor wants to bring howitzers in to shell a hotel full of diplomats that just got out of Parthia, and there's the robot thing, plus these."

(Roger) "Don't worry, you'll do fine Alice, I wouldn't have appointed you if I thought otherwise. You just need to establish a rapport with the people. Also it wouldn't hurt to have allies. If you were in the WKM you'd have about 10 million allies here."

(Alice) "The WKM don't share my views. I can't expect them to support me when I directly contradict their beliefs, and I will not make a show of sharing their beliefs and allowing them to murder hundreds of people just because I need some allies."

(Roger) "Or if you had a commercial farm and you voted for farming benefits, you'd get the backing of the Commercial Farmers Association."


(Roger) "There are about 750,000 commercial farms in Mississippian Egypt. And each farmer typically has a wife and at least nine children."

(Alice) "As for these farmers...I'll consider it."

(Roger) "Then there are a miners, the military, the cattle ranchers, the oil industry. If you bought yourself some stock in the oil industry, boosted the military benefits, and bought a cattle ranch and started voting for ranch benefits. You could easily get the backing of at least 8 million people in this nation."

(Alice) "But I'm not for big oil and I'm not for big military."

(Roger) "But remember that over 14 million barrels of oil are produced in your territory each day, that is big thing, significant, you know what I mean?"

(Roger) "Last year the Commonwealth of Mississippian Egypt had revenues of 224.8 billion dollars from oil alone. Mississippian Libya pulled about 256.9 billion."

(Alice) "I'm not for big oil."

(Roger) "Commercial farming from Mississippian Libya brought in over 2.8 trillion dollars. Commercial farming from Mississippian Egypt brought in over 1.3 trillion. These are the two most important holdings in the Commonwealth. ML and ME, and you are the governor of one of them. Do you comprehend what that means? You're the governor-general of the 2nd most powerful holding in the Commonwealth."

(Alice) "Possibly."

(Roger) "So what are your plans for lunch, well late lunch?"

(Alice) "I'm not sure. I hadn't had enough time to plan anything."

(Roger) "Well I hear Senate is in session now, would you like to go over there and defend yourself against the impeachment proceedings and then get some dinner afterwards?"

(Alice) "I'm not up for another speech now."

(Roger) "So what are your plans then?"

(Alice) "As I said, I had none. I was just taking a break to have a drink."

(Roger) "I see no drink?"

(Alice) "There's a private bar back there I left it in."

(Roger) "Ah yes, I remember it now. Mind if I join you for a drink?"

(Alice) "No, by all means."

Roger leads the way and sits down in one of the large chairs in the private bar. He reaches over and pours himself a glass of cognac, "Would you care for a glass of this or something else perhaps?"

(Alice) "I need to keep my head. If indications are anything, I have a very long day ahead of me."

(Roger) "Nonsense. The robots are being dealt with, we're going to use EMP weapons in Tennessee to crush them. And the threat of a war between farmers and arabs will be ended as soon as the 500 SRG men I sent to the township arrive there and pry the groups apart."

(Alice) "There was also a small group of robots here in Egypt - Rutledge said he dispatched them by ordering troops to kill them, but I'll believe that when Joe sticks a report on my desk that says so."

Roger drank his drink down quickly and set the empty glass on a table near his chair, then he sighed, "Ah yes Rutledge and his method for dispatching them, don't remind me."

(Alice) "I have a pile of papers a foot high on what to do, and most of them I could just ignore, but I need to sift through them to find out what they are, so I spend more time on them then I should, and there'll be more papers tomorrow, and... How do you get through it all?"

(Roger) "Well first, I'm sure you want to know what Rutledge did. He had 300 suicide bombers from a now basically defunct group that is called the Christian Martyrs Brigade jump on the robots and the automated tanks and detonate their explosives. He also had a few F-16s crash into automated bunkers, but there were only a few automated bunkers and the pilots ejected before crashing into them."

(Roger) "Papers eh? Lots of staff workers, that's all I can say. They sort out the important pressing issues from the junk."

(Roger) "Many of the letters I get are just requests of help for getting commissions into the army or secret police etc. My staff can handle those."

(Alice) "Yes, but with the phone ringing off the hook I don't even have time to deal with hiring people. Whatever. I'll get right on that."

The phone rang again at that very moment.

(Roger) "I see what you mean, should I get it for you?"

(Alice) "Ah no, I've got it."

She answers the phone, it a woman talking, "Hello, this is the ministry of foreign affairs."

(Alice) "This is the Governor-General. What's happening?"

(Woman) "I am a secretary for Foreign Minister Paul Stahlecker, I'm faxing you some papers from his office that you'll need to give immediate attention to."

(Alice) "How immediate?"

She can hear Paul in the background saying in a sly tone, "Come on in my office, it's time for your employee evaluation again."

(Woman) (Sighing) "I have to go now, just look over the papers as soon as you can." She hangs up the phone.

(Roger) "Who was that?"

(Alice) "A secretary at the Foreign Minister's office. They're faxing something over."

(Roger) (Chuckling) "Surprised they have time to get any work done, Paul keeps them quite busy with other things, if you catch my drift."

(Alice) "I can tell. Joe!" Her assistant walked into the sprawling study. "Get the mayor of Tanta on the line and figure out what's happening down there. You have any idea where the fax machine is in this bloody place?"

(Joe) "There are at least six fax machines I've seen thus far."

(Alice) "All right. Before you get the Mayor of Tanta, I need you to find a fax that was just sent to me and get it to me as soon as I can."

(Joe) "Okay, oh something is coming in on the study fax right now." (He walks over and takes out 4 papers, then he hands them to Alice)

(Joe) "It's from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

(Alice)(reading the papers) "Yeah."

She reads through the papers it is a negotiation plan for an upcoming conference she is directed to attend involving DPUO. She is being instructed to be very low-key about CM's proxy armies, approximately 20 million white knights paramilitaries out of the 150 million total of the group, and the 1.5+ million mercenaries that operate under the Mississippian Private Military Conglomerate.

The papers instruct her to deny that CM ever had links to the Christian Martyrs Brigade if the issue is raised, but if necessary, to admit that it did operate in rural regions of the CM commonwealth due to lack of local authority but was put down by the federal army. Also she is instructed to divert attention from the issue of privately owned WMDs in civilian hands.

She is instructed to agree to nothing over a 15% nuclear arms reduction and that there are to be no further biological and chemical reductions.

She is also instructed to point out how well the Arabs in Egypt are and how they are quote "Living it up".

She finishes glancing over the papers and tucks them away. Roger asks, "Anything terribly important?"

Alice smiles. "They mayor at Tanta wants to blow up a hotel full of diplomats and they want me to be low-key about proxy armies."

(Roger) (Grinning) "We don't have any proxy armies, I don't know what you're talking about." (Very sarcastic and humorous tone)

Alice smiles again. "Right."

Joe steps in. "Ma'am, I-

(Alice) "Joe! We're going to DPUO for a while, to have a meeting. It'll be grand. I'll need a charged cell phone, and I'll need all calls here to be forwarded to it. You've got that report?"

(Joe) "Yes, governor."

(Alice) "Sure. I'm sure I've got some time before this conference."

(Alice) "But first I'll need this summary from Joe." She turns to look at Joe. "What's going on in Tanta?"

(Joe) "Oh yes, the mayor, I just spoke to him on the phone, he says the police chief solved the problem. The hostage situation is over but now they need a new hotel."

(Alice) "Damnit! I want that police chief's job, now! Get back on the phone with the mayor and tell him that if the police chief isn't fired in the next two hours I'll cut off all commonwealth funding to Tanta, period. And he's not getting any money for that hotel. I need consolations and explanations for the family of every diplomat who died there as well."

Joe dials the mayor and hands her the phone as it is ringing.

(Mayor) "Hello, office of the mayor of Tanta and head of the WKM klavern for Tanta."

Alice takes it. "Mayor? This is the Governor."

(Mayor) "Oh hello governor, I thought you were a prospective recruit, sorry. To what do I owe this call?"

(Alice) "Here's what you're going to do. You're going to fire that police chief. If two hours from now he still has a job, I'm going to going to cut off all Commonwealth funding to the entire town until exactly two hours after he is fired. Sound like a plan to you?"

(Mayor) "Well now see that's not how things work. The police chief and I have a sort of understanding whereby he handles the law enforcing and I give him the room to maneuver so to speak."

(Alice) "You have two hours, starting when I say go. Go."

(Mayor) "See, we don't need any outside agitators stirring up our people. You cut the funding, we'll declare secession."

(Mayor) "We have over 8 million people in this city and the surrounding suburbs, we're fairly well equipped to secede if necessary. We can raise a decent army to defend ourselves to. And not to mention you'll have over 10 million angry WKM members throughout the territory, many of whom are in the Commonwealth army, and they won't raise a finger to put our new state down."

(Mayor) "And besides there is no cause for getting into an uproar, the only folks killed were all Nigerians Negroids, about 36 of them, hardly worth getting into a fuss over."

(Alice) "I've got my watch going, Mayor. I'm going to hang up the phone and go have lunch."

(Mayor) "Well I'll go tell the city council to prepare for secession. We're going to seize the federal base in Tanta."

(Mayor) "You enjoy your lunch now governor. Take care."

Alice hangs up the phone. "Joe, I need you to see what options I have for targeted chemical weapons attacks against certain buildings. I also need to get the commander of the Federal Army in Egypt."

(Roger) "The commander of the Federal Army in Egypt is at a Klan function."

(Joe) "I'll get right on the plans." (He walks out of the room)

(Roger) "May I ask why you're so eager for chemical weapons options? What is going on?"

(Alice) "The mayor of Tanta is going to secede."

(Roger) "Nah, he's just bluffing. Anytime some mayor doesn't get his way, they threaten to secede, few do."

(Alice) "Few being the operative word."

One of Roger's SRG men along with Joe rushed into the room and the SRG man shouted, "Sir! Sir! Police and Commonwealth reserve units in Tanta are beginning to mobilize and it appears they mean to surround the federal garrison there!"

(Guard) "They just took the Commonwealth flag down from the mayor's office and raised the City flag up high!"

(Roger) "Well it seems the mayor might have been planning this before you two spoke."

(Roger) "Send in a few Su-25s and hit them with Sarin gas, that'll show them."

(Guard) "What should the target be?"

(Alice) "Joe, screw the commander. Get me the garrison at Tanta."

(Roger) (Leaning back with his hands behind his head, rocking back and forth in his chair as he smokes his cigar) "Take a map of the city, throw a dart, and there you have your target."

(Guard) "Communications with the garrison is down. It seems somebody cut the lines."

(Alice) "I need helicopters there, now."

(Roger) (Exhaling smoke) "Well listen here and listen good, I want you to get 50 operatives from the Egyptian Special Air Assault Squads, and 50 more from the Mississippi Special Air Assault Squads that are part of the Federal forces here in Alexandria. I want you to personally see that they arrest the mayor of Tanta."

The phone in her office rings.

Alice picks up the phone. "What?"

(Grand Dragon) "Greeting Governor. I heard there was trouble brewing in Tanta so I did you a favor; the mayor is about to be arrested by WKM paramilitary units. You can thank me later. Expect your people to be calling to confirm this in a few minutes."

Alice slams the phone down.

(Roger) "Who was it?"

(Alice) "The grand fricking dragon."

The phone rings again.

Alice picks up the phone angrily. "If this isn't vital to state security, hang up now."

(Grand Dragon) "That was very rude governor, I could change my mind and tell the WKM to back the secession. Indeed we could have secession in the entire southern and western part of this colony, we could even seize Alexandria because we have over 500,000 members in the city."

(Grand Dragon) "I think after all I'm doing for you. You owe me an apology."

(Alice) "You and I both know it would be suicide for millions people. "

(Grand Dragon) "Mostly your people. 75% of the commonwealth army is WKM."

(Grand Dragon) "Now how about that apology?"

(Alice) "You will get no apology from me. Throw Egypt into civil war if you have to. You know that Mississippi will annihilate the entire colony before they let their control of it be lost."

He was shocked that she said this, she could tell from the change in his voice, "Well... Okay then governor, I accept that as enough of an apology, you're lucky though; I'm letting you off the hook this time. I won't be so nice next time... Have a nice day." He hung up.

(Roger) "Was that him again?"

(Alice) "Yeah."

The phone rang again.

(Alice) "Joe, while I'm at this conference I need you to hire someone to screen calls, okay?" She picks up the phone.

(Man) "This is General Stafford with the Federal Garrison in Tanta, we've just avoided a potentially very bloody situation. We have the local WKM to thank; they detained the mayor and crushed his plan for secession. I just thought you'd like to know. No lives were lost but a few dozen people were injured."

(Alice) "Thank you, General Stafford. Make sure they get the top-notch medical care, okay? Also, could you see to it that the police chief at Tanta is also arrested?"

(Stafford) "I'm sorry but the police chief is nowhere to be found. His office looks like a burglar tore through it, and his residence looks the same way, his car is gone and his bank account has been emptied out."

(Alice) "Fine. Thank you."

(Stafford) "Thank you Governor." He hung up.

(Roger) "Did they resolve the crisis then?"

(Alice) "I really need some more people. I'm stuffing everything on Joe. Yeah, the WKM got it."

(Roger) "You know what that means?"

(Roger) (In a spooky voice) "It means they own you now." (He starts to laugh)

(Alice) "I see your point."

Joe walks in. "Joe, I need you to hire yourself a new staff to handle all this stuff. In the meantime, stand down the helicopters. I need a full report on the robot situation on my desk when I get back and I want the former police chief of Tanta put on the wanted list. I want you to contact a man named Nasser in the Arab towns and ask him if he could meet me tomorrow afternoon."

Joe nodded, said, "Yes ma'am", and then left.

(Roger) "Well Alice, is the daily business of governor-general what you expected it to be?"

(Alice) "A little busy, but overall about right."

Roger puts his cigar out in an ashtray then responds, "Have you seen the upper floors yet? And how about the bunker beneath the basement?"

(Alice) "I haven't had a chance to explore."

(Roger) "Would you care for the grand tour?"

(Alice) "Okay."

(Roger) "Where to first, do you want to start with the bunker?”

(Alice) "Okay."

Roger took Alice's hand and led her towards the entrance to the bunker; he led her down a winding staircase into the basement and said "Watch your step now".

Then inside the basement he pushed back a false wall and opened a large steel door to reveal an elevator.

(Roger) "After you."

Alice stepped into the elevator. "A little paranoid, are we?"

Roger stepped in and said, "Paranoid? How so?"

(Alice) "Fake walls leading to elevators that goes down even further..."

He pushed a button and the elevator jumped to life, it began the slow descent down 1,000 feet into the bunker. There was a screen on the elevator showing their current depth, 232, 245, 252, etc, eventually the numbers reached 899, 950, then 980, then 1,000 even, and it ground to a halt.

The doors of the elevator opened, Roger said, "Ladies first", and motioned forward with his hand.

Alice stepped out of the elevator, looking around to try to understand where she was.

She looked around at the front entrance to the bunker, there was a standard cleansing room right before being able to enter the bunker, there was a sealed room with a blast door on each side, and NBC filters in the room, there were shower systems to rinse off anybody seeking to get into the bunker.

(Roger) "Well we can just bypass the showering process yes? Shall we go inside?"

(Alice) "All right."

(Alice) "All right."

Roger swung the massive blast door open, it was easily 4 feet thick of steel but it was arranged on a system that allowed it to easily be swung open and slammed shut.

She looks around inside the bunker; she sees the bunker is quite large, at least 50,000 sq feet.

It is divided into about 12 rooms and then 1 Spartan barracks for the guards, then the supply room.

(Roger) "Well, shall we investigate further."

(Alice) "All right."

They walk deeper into the bunker and Alice sees the large master bedroom in the bunker, Roger smiles and says, "Nice bed eh?"

(Alice) "Lavish."

(Roger) (He casually puts his arm around her and then in a very sly tone) "Want to take a break from the tour and see how comfortable it is?"

(Alice) "We could do that."

Roger jumped down onto the bed and then said, "Well governor, you've been on top of quite a few matters later, handling them nicely. What say you get on top this situation as well?"

(Alice) "All right."

About twenty-five minutes later, they were both lying in bed, Roger said with a smile, "Well governor, another issue well solved, you're quite good at your work."

(Alice) "I try."

(Roger) "Well you've been doing a fine job as governor lately."

(Alice) "There's a robot problem in the north that I have no information about, I managed to avoid a massive secession only by threatening the frickking leader of the WKM, and forty people are dead in what could trigger a problem with diplomatic relations not only with Nigeria but also with Parthia."

(Roger) (He leans over and kisses her softly, and then he leans back) "You're doing fine so far, don't worry. The overall leader of the entire WKM is Field Marshal Bertrand Navarre, I'll see he talks to the leader of the WKM here."

(Alice) "I don't want to have to keep leaning on you for help."

(Roger) "Well okay, but if you need anything, just remember my door is always open."

(Roger) "You're going to be going to DPUO for negotiations in a while yes?"

(Alice) "Yeah."

(Roger) "Well while you're gone, I'll make sure things are quiet here so you don't come back to a mess. Is that okay?"

(Alice) "Thank you."

(Roger) "There are more problems in the Senate lately."

(Alice) "Impeachment?"

(Roger) "No, more fighting and duel changes. Rutledge is trying to duel a young senator from Damietta."

(Alice) "I need to do something about that man."

(Roger) "What would you do?"

(Alice) "I'm not sure."

(Roger) "You could motion to censure him and attempt for a recall election."

(Alice) "I'd never win."

(Roger) "If you could get a 2/3 majority in the senate, you could censure him and he'd be disgraced and possibly suspended or expelled."

(Alice) "I don't have a majority on the senate right now, much less two-thirds."

(Roger) "I could challenge Rutledge to a duel for you. He insulted your honor when he and I spoke earlier, he suggested that if you were to join him for dinner and stay for breakfast, that the trouble he is causing you in the senate would end."

(Alice) "Nonsense. I will not have anyone else handling the issue of my honor."

(Roger) "But that is how it works, you can elect a man to champion your honor and I'll gladly do it for you. You cannot duel him yourself."

(Alice) "Perhaps you didn't hear me the first time."

(Roger) "Well how will you handle this then?"

She could tell that Roger was sincere in his desire to defend her honor. But she also knew that Rutledge was considered by many to be best dueler in the colony, and she wasn't even sure if Roger had ever even dueled before."

(Alice) "I'm not sure. If I could play him off the WKM somehow, I could probably deal with at least one of these people who thinks I owe them favors."

(Roger) "Yes but some of the favors he's looking to receive, I'd think you shouldn't be required to do those sort of things."

(Alice) "Perhaps."

(Roger) "I mean if he persists in soliciting for those type of favors, I'll have no recourse but to challenge him to a duel, possibly in front of the entire senate, so there will be no chance of him turning me down."

She thought Roger was now acting quite hotheaded.

Like a male animal, upset over what he considered his territory, being infringed upon. She wasn't sure whether she should feel appreciative that he was willing to defend her honor, or whether she should feel resentful that he was considering her "his territory" etc. But whatever the case was, she was thinking Roger was sincerely determined to defend her honor.

(Alice) "Roger, calm down."

(Roger) (Sighing) "Oh Alice, how can I be calm with the thought of that smooth-talking snake-oil salesman Rutledge and his attempts at tarnishing your honor and soliciting you for unspeakable acts."

(Alice) "Roger, just calm down, okay? I'll deal with it without killing people."

(Roger) "Well we can duel with sabres until first blood or until he apologizes to you. The point is Alice, how can I allow him to sully your honor?"

(Alice) "It isn't your business, Roger."

(Roger) (He has a somewhat perplexed look on his face) "Why then whose business would it be?"

(Alice) "Mine."

(Roger) "But Alice, surely you don't mean to suggest you intend to challenge him yourself... Do you?"

(Alice) "Certainly not."

(Roger) (In soft, yet pleading tone) "Then let me challenge him in your name."

(Alice) "Nonsense."

(Roger) "Then what can be done? There is no recourse but for me to challenge him to a duel. Please Alice, I beseech you."

(Alice) "No. I' sure if you consider it that much of an insult, it could be very painful to him if it's made public what he's attempted to do. You see how there are other ways of going about it?"

(Roger) (Shocked and taken aback) "Made public, no, heavens no, it must not be made public, there'd be scandal and it could sully your good name. There are ways for these things. Duels are usually fought for very general reasons, no need to get specific. I can challenge him on the vague grounds that he insulted your honor without specifically stating how, the public doesn't need to know private matters."

(Alice) "You should understand that my good name means very little compared to the good I could do if these obstacles were taken out of my hands."

(Roger) "Yes and you can have both your name intact and the obstacles removed by my dueling him."

(Alice) "How many times have I said no so far?"

(Roger) "Very well, it is your decision, I suppose."

(Alice) "Thank you, Roger."

(Roger) "You're welcome, Alice."

(Roger) "Shall we continue the tour of the house or would you like to just rest here a while, I suppose if the robot should gain the upper hand in Tennessee, here is the safest place to be."

(Alice) "It would make sense, but I have to be ready for anything that comes up."

(Roger) "You know Alice, you're not like any of the women in Mississippi."

(Alice) "I'm glad you've noticed."

(Roger) "The women in Mississippi, they'd likely demand somebody champion their honor. Father and George have both been in numerous duels.”

(Roger) "So what do the men in Seryown do when somebody insults their women?"

(Roger) "Do the women push them to defend their honor by getting into duels?"

(Alice) "Insults are a part of free speech in Seryown."

(Roger) "Well free speech is all well and good, but insults against honor and slander against character, that cannot, no it must not, be allowed to stand."

(Alice) "Not so free then, is it?"

(Roger) "Well people can say about anything they want, but they must realize personal insults against honor will be met with demands for satisfaction on the field of honor."

(Alice) "Dueling is illegal in Seryown."

Roger sighs a sound revealing inner-turmoil and conflict; she can tell he is troubled by something.

(Alice) "What's wrong?"

(Roger) "I'm thinking I shouldn't have placed my brother Henry under house-arrest and put him through such trouble. Perhaps I should call father and beg him to let Henry go."

(Roger) "Henry only ruled as thought best. I cannot blame him for that."

(Alice) "I think that would be a good idea."

(Roger) "I think my brother Henry plans to ask a woman from ANL to marry him. I'm not sure father will approve."

(Alice) "Let him. Henry should marry whoever he wants."

(Roger) "Well the woman first of all in an operative from ANL intelligence, and she is only 15/16s white. Under CM law, 15/16 white legally makes you white, so long as the other 1/16 is not black or Jewish. She is 1/16 Native American Indian. But I don't think father will approve."

(Alice) "Henry should marry whoever he wants."

(Roger) "Yes I agree, she is white under the law... But will father see it that way? Will he allow it? That is the question."

(Alice) "He shouldn't need his father to allow it."

(Roger) "Father could have Henry thrown in jail or worse, if he decided he wanted to."

(Roger) "All a father has to do is tell the police "My son won't listen to me", and they will arrest him until the father decides he's been in jail long enough."

(Alice) "That is sad."

(Roger) "Well if the son does something terribly against the father's wishes, the father can elect to have the son stoned to death, as commanded by Deuteronomy 21:20-21."

(Alice) "What if the father asks the son to do something that would be against the teachings of God?"

(Roger) "Well then the city elders would rule against the father's wishes to stone his son."

(Alice) "Interesting."

(Roger) "Most of CM law is based on the old testament of the bible. We don't allow farmers to sow two different seeds into the same field. We don't allow any clothing of two different fabrics."

(Alice) "Most of those rules were set for a culture that had important health risks involved in doing those things. Those health risks are gone now."

(Roger) "Well we keep the laws, there are no pork products in Mississippi or any of her commonwealth territories. Men may discipline their wives and children as they see fit. Fathers may sell their daughters to work in the houses of nobles and such, but not for sinful purposes."

(Alice) "Disgusting."

(Roger) "How would you go about things?"

(Alice) "Civil rights are vital. Political freedoms can wait, but complete equality is vital above economic growth or even in stopping crime."

(Roger) "What do you mean, what sort of equality is there to be achieved? There are no minorities in Mississippi, just whites, and they're all equal under the law."

(Alice) "Yes, but that's not all. I don't mean equality in terms of giving less freedom to the people who had more; I mean equality in terms of giving all people as much freedom as possible. That means the removal of any law that mentions race or gender at all."

(Roger) "Surely you don't seek to overturn the most sacred laws of the commonwealth though. Most of our laws are based on old testament scripture."

(Alice) "Yet another problem. Laws should not come from any religious source, and they should never be considered sacred."

(Roger) "But certainly you are a Christian yes? You believe in the way, and the law, yes?"

(Alice) "I am not of your Christianity. Certainly I believe in a number of the same things as you do, and although we both fall under the huge blanket of the label Christian, I do not agree with your rules."

(Roger) "Maybe someday you will find yourself agreeing with more yes? I told you before, Mississippians have a wave of rubbing-off on those that come to their territories and such."

(Alice) "And yet I have only been horrified by what I see."

(Roger) "Well you've seen prosperity, peace, and plenty, yes?"

(Alice) "To some, but not to all. Nevertheless, I am beginning to see the perks of absolute power."

(Roger) (In a sort of proud tone hinting of a slight boosting) "You've also seen something else, firsthand."

(Alice) "Hmm?"

(Roger) "You're the only woman I've ever been with Alice."

(Alice) "I'm still not sure I believe that."

(Roger) "I'm sure father can tell you how shy I've always been around women. By 19 father had been with over 50 women easily. But for me, you're the only one I've been with, I hope you eventually accept that as the truth it is."

(Alice) "This is silly. You have no reason to lie."

(Roger) (He looks her in the eyes) "I'm not lying Alice."

(Alice) "Isn't that what I just said? You have no reason to lie, so you wouldn't. I believe you."

(Roger) "Ah okay. Well I guess I had trouble following what you were saying."

(Alice) "Sometimes I do that. Sorry."

(Roger) (He leans in and kisses her, and then he leans slightly back) "No need to be sorry."

(Roger) "You know, I always considered father a hypocrite for preaching against fornication to the public but practicing the exact opposite. I always just said let the people alone in those matters."

(Roger) "Are your thoughts the same on that matter?"

(Alice) "Makes sense."

(Roger) "There is currently a debate in the senate about employment practices and such, the commonwealth Supreme Court is set to approve the bill as constitutional as soon as the senate passes it. It will ratify the gender employment restrictions into high law. Right now the gender employment regulations are all basically the same but only exist on local levels, the commonwealth bill will be a collection of local laws written into one overall law."

(Alice) "Bad idea. Very bad idea."

(Roger) "Well they're going to pass it, probably by at least a 9/10 majority. Do you plan to attempt to derail it?"

(Alice) "I don't know if I have the strength to go against it just yet. I'm going to have to go about my work from a different perspective, I think."

(Roger) "Well I was bored a few hours ago, so I purchased myself a controlling interest in the oil industry of this colony, so I'm sure all the oil barons and oil workers will support you."

(Alice) "Possibly."

(Roger) (Looking at a nearby clock) "Wow, past six already. What now? Finish the tour tomorrow and go get something to eat instead?"

(Alice) "I'll have to go check my desk for new work first, but I'm sure I can go grab a meal."

(Roger) "Okay, shall we go then?"

(Alice) "All right."

Roger starts to get dressed, and then he finishes and says, "Lead the way, Alice."

Alice, who had also finished dressing, stood up and proceeded back towards the elevator.

They got into the elevator and Roger pressed a button and it slowly started to move up.

The elevator came to a stop on the basement floor, the doors opened and Roger led Alice out.

They walked back through the maze of fake walls and hallways and walked back up the basement stairs into the main mansion, then to the private study where the papers for Alice to look over were.

(Alice) "You know, I've been looking for the right word to describe you."

(Roger) "What do you mean?"

Alice began to look through the papers. "I couldn't figure out what word described you best."

(Roger) "Well the foreign media describes me with many words, mostly nazi, fascist, racist, hater, monster, murderer, etc. But I'd say they're all just full of propaganda."

(Alice) "Well, my first instinct was to use the word caring, but it isn't exactly true...it's tooo universal."

(Roger) "I'd describe myself as a real right-winger, a white nationalist, a true Christian, and an officer and a gentleman. But that is just my opinion of myself."

(Alice) "Really? Anyway, I went through a number of other words, and I couldn't find the right word."

(Roger) "Well you keep thinking on it and I'm sure you'll come up with something good eventually." (He gave her a friendly smile as he spoke)

(Alice) "No, I did eventually find it. I was just giving you a little back-story. One of my faults. In any case, I've decided that the word is genuine."

(Roger) "Ah, interesting."

(Roger) "Have you looked through the papers yet? Shall we get something to eat?"

(Alice) "Yeah, all right."

(Roger) "Okay, do you want to eat here? The chefs here some of the best."

(Alice) "Okay."

(Roger) "I'll call a servant in here then to take the orders." (He presses a hidden button alongside the fireplace and speaks into what looks like to be a vent) "Yes, please come to the study when you get a moment." The man replied, "Yes sir, right away." About 60 seconds later a servant walked into the study

(Servant) "Governor, Prince Fabus, what can I do for you?"

(Roger) "Father isn't Czar yet, I'm not a prince yet."

(Servant) "Of course sir, sorry."

(Roger) "Something to eat found do fine."

(Servant) "Yes sir, and what will you be having."

(Roger) (To Alice) "Ladies first, Alice.”

(Alice) "What would you recommend?"

(Servant) "The special for today is a rare salmon from Fabus River, a manmade river runing across both Mississippian Libya and Mississippian Egypt."

(Alice) "Then I'll have that."

(Roger) "I'll have that as well."

(Servant) "Very good madam governor, general Fabus sir."

The servant turned and walked out.

About twenty minutes later the servant brought in a cart with Salmon and a wine that the chef suggested to accompany it. He asked Alice, "Would you like the cart taken into the private bar in the back of the study?"

(Alice) "No, leave it here, please."

He set it down in the study and said, "Very good ma'am", then he turned and walked out.

There was a large table in the study he had set it on, there were some chairs around the table, but the table wasn't really made for eating on.

(Roger) (Smiling) "Do we eat there? You're the governor, you decide."

(Alice) "No, we'll eat in the bar."

(Roger) "Okay. Allow me to get it." (He picked up the cart and walked into the bar and set it down on the bar counter then waited for Alice to sit down before he did)

Alice suddenly smiles as if she's thinking of something else.

(Roger) "What is it?"

(Alice) "Seryown is located almost entirely on the sea, but there are no native salmon there. It's considered very much a delicacy there. I could make hundreds of dollars by transporting a few pounds of this stuff from here to there."

(Roger) "Ah I see. Perhaps if you'd like, I can get you started in the fish business?"

(Roger) "Okay, every governor-general has some business that they get to use their position to gain, yours it seems will be fish." (He smiles)


Roger is eating his fish rather well, "Do you like it?" he asks her in a tone revealing he is sincerely hoping she is enjoying the meal.

Alice smiles. "Of course."

(Roger) "It is a good meal." (Smiling) "But I'm much more fond of the company."

(Alice) "I think I share your sentiment."

(Roger) (Smiling) "I'm glad to hear that."

Roger and Alice both finished their dinners Roger leaned back in his seat and said, "Well how about the cigar I offered you earlier and you said you'd consider? We can both go to the smoking room here, it's a lovely room. What do you say?"

(Alice) "Not right now, I think."

(Roger) "Well I always have an after dinner smoke, but I'll skip it so we can share a bottle of wine if you'd like?"

(Alice) "All right."

The popped the cork out of the bottle and poured two glasses, he raised his and proudly exclaimed, "To the governor-general!"

Alice very nearly blushed as she raised her own glass.

Roger slowly sipped on his wine as he leaned back in his chair and casually asked mostly out of curiosity, "So, when do you leave for DPUO? First thing in the morning?"

(Alice) "I suppose so."

Roger glanced over at the novelty clock behind the bar, it was a clock and in the center it had a can of skoal smokeless tobacco on it and the hands came out from the can, it said, "Use Skoal", it was left by Donald Stahlecker, he saw that it was about 8:45 pm.

(Roger) "Wow, time sure did go by today."

Alice stood up and walked back into the study. "Yeah. Joe?" Joe walked into the room. "What's up with the report on the robot thing?"

(Joe) "The robots here in Egypt were indeed all destroyed after the army and air force crushed them under orders from a Senator Rutledge. The robots in Tennessee have been pushed back into the bunker facility they came from and are being hammered with EMP weaponry."

Roger stood up and walked back into the study, "Everything going well against the robots?"

(Alice) "Excellent. Thanks. You can have the rest of the night off, Joe. I'm sure you can find yourself something to do."

(Joe) "Thank you governor." (He turned and walked out)

(Roger) "Well Alice, it's been an interesting day today has it not?"

(Alice) "Yes it has."

(Roger) (Yawning) "Now what? Well I'm seriously thinking of taking the clocks advice and running to the corner store to buy a tin." (Chuckling) "Old army habits die hard."

(Alice) "I'm a little tired...actually, I'm exhausted, and it looks like my problems are leaving me alone for a few seconds, so I think I'll take advantage of it and turn in."

(Roger) "Well I am tired too, I'd best get a moving on out, with the way they have the roads sealed off, it's about a 90 minute walk to the hotel which is only a 10 minute drive away."

(Alice) "Want some company on the walk?"

(Roger) "That would be nice, yes."

(Alice) "Or you could just stay here for the night. I'm not using the space."

(Roger) "You sure I wouldn't be imposing any?"

(Alice) "Not at all."

(Roger) "Well okay then, I accept." (Chuckling) "Which room you sticking me in? The closet?" (He laughed at the last part)

(Alice) "You know your way around better than I do. Pick a room that isn't supposed to be mine and sleep in it."

(Roger) "Okay, that works for me." (He sounded a little disappointed that she didn't invite him to sleep with her, not that he was in the mood for more sex, but anyway, he guessed it didn't matter, he planned to be sleeping)

(Roger) "Well I'm going outside for a smoke real quick, it's quicker to go outside than into the lounge, be right back in."

Alice nodded. "All right."

He took out a pipe and packed it with tobacco as he was walking to the door, sat down on the swing on the porch and lit up his pipe.

About ten minutes later, Roger was still outside and the weather began to turn bad, it a deluge of rain combined with violent streaks of lightning and explosive thunder. The thunder and lightning bothered Alice, one of the few things that bothered her. She looked outside and saw Roger didn't seem bothered at all; he was just sitting on the swing, rocking back and forth, and smoking his pipe.

Roger was sitting there, just staring off into the clouds, and trying to make sense of it all. The wars, the diplomatic talks, and the behind the scenes agreements the commoners would never know about. The wars people fought but never knew why... Obey, fight, and die... The unwritten law of CM. The petty disputes that all the governors inevitably had with the pathetic mayors of the cities they didn't deserve to be in. The lack of respect the local authorities showed towards anybody they didn't quite like. Arbitrary use of power, the small man's way to feel big.

He never really questioned the core values of the regime, and tonight was no exception, he just sat on the swing, rocking back and forth, meanwhile ships in the Mediterranean where rocking back in the forth in the intensifying waves from the storms brewing. They were rocking on their way to Hatarian Mammalia to help with coalition efforts to rid the world of HM aggression. HM had disrupted the normal flow of world events, and had to be punished, and AMF was leading the charge. CM decided to fall in line and join the charge.

Alice looked outside against and saw Roger was still sitting there, still smoking, seemingly oblivious to the storm that had her so troubled. He had obviously lost track of time and was deep in thought, he had been outside for over twenty minutes.

The sound she heard most was the patter of the rain on the windows and the roof, it was enough to keep anybody awake throughout the night, she was glad the mansion had three floors and an attic. The bedroom she was in was on the second floor, so the noise was largely muffled.

Alice finally got fed up with waiting and went back downstairs to get Roger out of the rain.

Roger was mostly thinking about the POWs in the camps in Hogsweat, he knew the rescue operation was set to go down a few hours ago and he wanted desperately to hear it was a success.

He saw Alice in front of him when the lightning flashed and he was startled to his senses, back into reality. "Alice, what are you doing out here? You'll catch your death of cold." Despite the porch being largely covered on all sides, Roger was somewhat wet from the intense rain that came in largely diagonally.

(Alice) "Look who's talking? Get in here!"

(Roger) "Okay." He immediately followed her inside.

(Roger) (As though in a daze) "How long was I out there?"

She checked the clock, and realized he'd been outside for over 45 minutes.

(Alice) "Three-fourths of an hour."

(Roger) (Surprise) "That long? Wow, sorry. I was just thinking about some things that were really on my mind, bothering me, you know? I must have lost track of time."

(Alice) "What's wrong?"

(Roger) "Do you remember hearing about Firebase Fabus, many months ago? The capture of over 35,000 CM soldiers?"

(Alice) "Not really...sounds horrible."

(Roger) "There were about 600 paratroopers in Hogsweat that avoided capture and a few hours ago they were set to break out the surviving POWs, about 20,000 were left alive by the time the guerilla army that captured them marched them over 100 miles to prison camps in the disease ridden jungle, with no food or water. The men had been without food for 16 days and water for 4 days prior to surrendering, their base had been surrounded, cutoff from supplies."

(Roger) "It started with 36,000 paratroopers jumping into a valley and making two airstrips, they fortified the hills heavily and made over 300 strongpoints with 1 company each to defend them. Then they were surrounded by over 500,000 guerillas. The guerillas had an ace in their sleeve though, over 1,000 howitzers and SAMS, along with 500 AAA. The base only had about 100 howitzers and 800 heavy mortars. Also the base relied solely on the air for resupply."

(Roger) "Over 18,000 reinforcements were dropped into the base, 6,000 were scattered into enemy units and died almost immediately. Over the next 6 weeks, approximately 20,000 defenders and 250,000 attackers died in the fight for the base. We lost over 2,000 planes attempting to provide air cover and fly supplies into the base."

(Roger) "Most of the units that ran out of ammunition but were still able to move, fixed bayonets and charged into the enemy machine guns to save their honor."

(Roger) "The warrior code dictates surrender as the greatest dishonor a soldier can suffer."

(Roger) "Well over 34,000 soldiers surrendered, mostly they were too wounded, sick, or malnourished to fight on."

(Alice) "I'm so sorry..."

(Roger) "You've nothing to be sorry for. It's not your fault. It's father's fault, for sending the soldiers into a foreign war we had no real business being in. The generals also did some rather horrible things in that war. They used chemical weapons against a city called Beting. 30 paratroopers were ambushed in the city and their heads placed on spikes for the media to broadcast around the world. The generals used Su-25s and Mi-24s to blanket Beting with chemical weapons. They killed over 50,000 people and injured 200,000."

(Alice) "That's horrible..."

(Roger) "They attempted to use chemical weapons against the guerilla army around the base, but they only managed to kill 50,000 of the guerillas. Another low point of the battle was when our best fighter ace, Colonel Herman Von Thaller, was shot down. He has over 390 aerial kills to his credit, in one aerial dogfight, he shot down over 120 enemy fighters."

(Roger) "I hope Thaller is still alive, they were threatening to kill him a while ago."

(Alice) "But, surely there must be a rescue mission..."

(Roger) "It's a sad truth, but most of the men who were captured, are probably dead from the brutal conditions. Yes, there is a rescue mission. It was set to go down a few hours ago. I should be getting a report on it soon. The 600 paratroopers who avoided capture, the ones that were in Beting before they pulled out and it fell to the rebels, the paratroopers were ordered to march about 100 miles into the interior of Hogsweat, liberate the 10 camps, and then get the POWs 12 miles east to the coast and waiting ships. But I fear the POWs will be too weak to march 12 miles, so they'll probably need helicopters, C-130s, and C-17s to get them out."

(Alice) "How soon is the report coming?"

Right about that time, an SRG man knocks on the front door of the mansion, Alice and Roger are in the front room, Roger speaks first, "Who do you think that could be? Should I get it?"

Roger walked over an opened the door and saw it was an SRG soldier.

(SRG) "Sir, the report from Hogsweat!" (He hands him a letter)

(Roger) "Thank you soldier, dismissed."

(SRG) "Hail Fabus!" (Throws his left arm into the air)

Roger raises his left arm slightly back towards the shoulder as he is reading the report and gives a barely audible, unenthusiastic "Hail Fabus."

The SRG man turns and leaves, Roger shuts the door and then sits down and drops the report, he's finished reading it.

Alice walks up to Roger, concerned.

Roger breaks into tears and starts to mumble sentences Alice cannot understand; all she heard was part of it, "5,000, massacred." She picked up the report and started to read it.

"5,000 of the 20,000 captives were massacred shortly before our liberation teams arrived, but 15,000 of the men were safely taken out of Hogsweat and are currently on their way back to Mississippi. General Bon, General Miguel, and Colonel Thaller are all fine and in good spirits considering the circumstances. The enemy admitted to taking over 34,000 paratroopers as POWs but the guards at one of the prisons admitted only 20,000 made it through the 100 mile death march that our satellites detected. Also they admit they massacred approximately 4,000 soldiers right as they tried to surrender when the base fell."

Roger has regained his composure, "At least they got a lot of them out."

Alice hugs Roger firmly. "It will be all right, okay?"

(Roger) "The 1st Parachute Division, from 1980-1984, father was in that division, he used to complain to me when I was younger, how the leftist government sent the 1st division to every jungle, desert, and ice cube in the world, just to cause them grief, for no real reason. And I can't see why father sent the 1st division into Hogsweat. I just can't see why."

(Alice) "It will be all right..."

(Roger) "Most of the men in the 1st parachute division were veterans of the 1984 civil war, they were career soldiers, the elite of the parachute units, and now they're gone, they were exploited like a resource, and now they're used up like a resource, depleted, gone. But never fear, father can raise more units, more meat for the grinder!" (His tone has gotten sarcastic and cynical)

(Alice) "Shh...It will be all right...."

(Roger) "He doesn't see it anymore though, he lets his generals tell him what it's like, he's recently stopped jumping into combat himself, as he used to..." (He starts to cry again and Alice takes his head and holds it, letting him cry in her arms)

(Alice) "It'll be all right...shh..."

A few minutes later he has stopped crying enough to talk, "What now? I'm keeping you up aren't I, you can go on off to sleep, I'll be okay." She could tell he was lying, he was bad at lying and it was blatantly obvious he wasn't okay.

(Alice) "Stop talking nonsense. I've leaned on your shoulder, and I'm not going to take mine away from you."

(Roger) "Okay."

(Roger) "Father will blame the 5,000 deaths of either myself or one of my brothers. He says we need to lead from the front. He blamed the fall of the base on the M-14 rifle, that is one of the reasons we switched to the XM-8 and the OICW, we were switching anyway, it was just convenient the switch happened when it did. I wonder if I had been there to lead them in person, would it have mattered?"

(Roger) "Henry said if one of us had been in Firebase Fabus, they're just be one less Fabus right now and that'd be all that would have been accomplished."

(Alice) "You're not that godly, Roger. They were in un-winnable circumstances."

(Roger) "I know, but that's not how father sees it. He says we should have seized the initiative and jumped into the base with a regiment of republican guard and mounted a counter-attack."

(Alice) "And gotten more soldiers massacred? They absolutely did the best they could do under the circumstances. It isn't your fault and it isn't the M-14's fault."

(Roger) "You know the guerillas were Asians for the most part, and they launched frontal attacks into miniguns and machine guns, that takes courage. Father's generals said the yellows would scatter before the heavy guns."

(Roger) (In a mocking voice) "The exact words of Field Marshal Salazar, quote, "Those slant-eyed yellows won't fight for more than a week!"

(Roger) (Another mocking voice) "The exact words of Field Marshal Smith, quote, "Those little yellow bastards will be crushed under the boot of the paratroopers within twelve days time."

(Alice) "Well, they were wrong this time, I guess."

(Roger) "That was really the only battle we ever lost, combined with Angola which we didn't really lose militarily so much as we did politically. There are now over 700,000 graves for soldiers in Mississippi that died within that last four years."

(Roger) "When will it end?"

(Alice) "God willing, as soon as possible."

(Roger) (His voice is shaky and nervous) "I guess so... I'm tired now... Tired..."

(Alice) "Let's get you upstairs."

He was still quite wet from the rain he had been sitting in, and he felt as cold as a block of ice, he was pale as a ghost also, and Alice was wondering how he was still conscious being as cold as he was.

Alice led Roger upstairs. His teeth started to chatter as he realized how cold he was. Then he struggled to talk, "Where to now Alice?"

Alice led him into her bedroom, which, as seemed to be probable by the luxury of the mansion, there was fireplace. She immediately lit it using the wood that was already there and she gently encouraged him to the ground near it.

(Roger) "Thank you Alice."

Alice hugged him, leaning her head against his ribs. "No need, Roger."

She could feel he was still freezing cold, she wondered if he was sick, she got up and found a large robe for him, it was an expensive looking robe that appeared to be made of bear fur, it had the initials DS on it, she knew who used to own it, well she thought, "It can be Roger's now, who will know." She slowly walked back and wrapped it around Roger, he thanked her for it.

She could feel Roger starting to warm up, but he was still pale, and he was starting to fall asleep.

Alice stayed close to him, trying to keep him warm.

(Roger) (In a voice losing strength, hardly his charismatic self) "I'm tired Alice, so tired."

(Alice) "I understand, Roger, it's okay."

Roger struggled to speak, "Do you want me to leave no so you can go to sleep, I don't want to keep you up just because I'm ill."

(Alice) "No, you're staying right here."

(Roger) "Okay."

She could tell whatever sort of military training he'd received, it had taught him not to expect, mercy, sympathy, or empathy from anybody, the Republican Guard had put him through 11 months of brutal hell, and then after that, the battles and campaigns started and made the previous 11 months look like a picnic.

(Alice) "Come on, Roger. You're strong. You'll get through this."

(Roger) (He was slipping into delirium) "Yes sir lieutenant, the jeeps need more oil, I'll get right on it."

(Alice) "Roger!"

She could see he was covered in sweat, profusely.

(Roger) (Snapping back into reality for a brief second) "What? I'm okay, don't worry."

(Alice) "No, no you aren't. Who do I call to get you medical attention?"

(Roger) "Doctor, doctor number by phone... But, I... okay."

Alice gets up and rushes to the phone. She searches for the number, dials it, and calls.

The doctor was on the estate in the private office, the doctor served the governor and the staff and those were his only clients.

(Doctor) "Hello, who is this? Do you know what time it is?"

(Alice) "Roger Fabus is down here and you will be in ten seconds, okay?"

(Doctor) "Mr. Fabus is ill?"

(Alice) "Yes...Just get down here!"

(Doctor) "I'll be right there!" (He rushes out of his office; grabbing two bags and only pausing long enough to dress in a robe and shorts.

About 90 second later, the doctor is there, short of breath.

(Doctor) "Okay, what is the problem?"

Alice is hugging Roger. She turns toward him. "He was in the rain for forty-five minutes...and now he's delirious..."

The doctor starts to examine Roger, he asks Alice, "Has he been in any recent accidents lately? Or perhaps attacked by an animal or a shark?"

(Doctor) "Well governor, was he bitten by any animals lately. Those bite marks on his mid leg and thigh look to me to be shark bites." (He points to a rather nasty bite mark on the back part of the leg)

(Alice) "I don't know...why would he have been bitten by anything? I didn't see it if he was."

Roger meekly nodded and struggled to whisper, "Doctor, a few months back, I got into a fight with a great white shark."

The doctor nodded and said, "I see. Well I can tell you with a degree of certainty, you have tetanus from the shark bite, it must just have spread through your system recently, and you now have pneumonia, probably it was lingering in you for a few days and this awful weather brought it out worse."

(Doctor) "Luckily modern medicine has a cure for the tetanus, were you in any other country in Africa, besides perhaps Western Sahara or Mississippian Libya, you'd likely die." (He takes out a needle and injects it into Roger)

(Alice) “Will he be okay?”

(Doctor) “Oh yes, he’ll be fine in a few weeks. As for the pneumonia, I suspect he got it from either bacteria or microorganisms. Chemical irritants could also cause it, but there haven’t been any chemical accidents and we’re not at war, so chemical weaponry can be ruled out.”

(Doctor) “Pneumonia is contagious you know.”

(Alice) “I’ve been vaccinated against the bacterial forms of it.”

(Doctor) “Good, then you should be fine, if you start to feel ill, call me right away.”

(Doctor) “Here, I want you to see he takes these, all of them, don’t let him stop taking them when he starts to feel better, that isn’t how antibiotics work. Roger is a smart boy, he knows better than that, but he is stubborn. I’ve known him for many years, you’ll need to make sure he takes them all.”

(Alice) “I will. Thank you.”

(Doctor) “He should get lots of rest and fluids, and keep him from smoking and drinking liquor or beer in his current state. I’ve always said wine helps though. But seriously, he smokes like a chimney, make sure he doesn’t smoke, it’s for his own health.”

(Alice) “Okay.”

(Doctor) “Here, help me get him into the bed.”

Now Roger Fabus was 6’6 and 242 lbs, he was a giant, and the doctor 6’2 and Alice 5’8 would have a very hard time going about safely lifting him up into bed without risking hurting themselves or him. So they called in two nearby SRG men to help. The SRG men were all giants, the two guards, both at least 6’8, helped them lift Roger up and place him in bed.

The guards then turned and walked out quietly, wondering if their general would be okay, hoping and praying he would be.

The doctor broke the silence and spoke to Alice, “It’s a good thing you called me when you did, he was really sick, it’s best to catch Tetanus early. You did the right thing by calling. Thank you.”

(Alice) “Okay, so he’ll be okay though yes?”

(Doctor) “Oh he’ll be fine, and you’ll be fine as you’ve already been vaccinated against bacterial pneumonia. So don’t worry, but remember call me if you feel sick.”

(Alice) “I will.”

(Doctor) “Okay then.” He turns and walks out of the room.

Alice lies down next to Roger, who is fast asleep now, she can see his chest moving up and down with each breath, she is comforted by the fact she can tell his alive. She prays that he stays so.

She wraps him up in more blankets and moves close to Roger and holds him tightly against her body. She starts to think about the upcoming conference in DPUO that she’ll be leaving for in the morning, she’d rather not go now with Roger so ill, but CM is counting on her to attend as all other delegates have been ruled either “too racist”, “too Klan”, “too paramilitary” or “too armed forces”, to meet with the regulations of the “tolerant” people of DPUO. She suddenly found herself wondering what Roger would have been doing fighting a shark, but she figured it was unimportant and she’d ask him later if she could remember. She held him close against her body as she started to fall asleep. She could feel he was regaining his warmth. The patter of the rain now seemed to soothe rather than irritate and she quickly fell into a deep sleep, but her dreams would be racked with nightmares of failing at the upcoming conference and plunging the world into massive war.

In the morning she would rise, get ready, and then make her way to DPUO by boat for the conference. That was another thing she was upset about, she’d prefer to go by plane, but DPUO seemed very picky, and she’d have to comply with their regulations, as it was their country. Somehow though, she doubted they’d accept CM regulations with at least attempting to argue, if the meeting were in CM rather than DPUO.

The Shah's armoured limousine neared the airport with his escorting vehicles to the front and back. Two motorcycles were on either side of the limo. The limousine was empty for the ride to the airport, the Shah was travelling in the car to it's front with two bodyguards. As they passed under an overpass an RPG crashed into the decoy limo destroying it in a ball of fire. The cars to the front hit their accelerators and sped up to 80 MPH towards the airport's charter aircraft terminal. An OH-6 with a minigun had been unloaded from the Shah's airplane and assembled in minutes to provide cover as the Shah boarded his airplane and took off.

The Shah's armoured limousine neared the airport with his escorting vehicles to the front and back. Two motorcycles were on either side of the limo. The limousine was empty for the ride to the airport, the Shah was travelling in the car to it's front with two bodyguards. As they passed under an overpass an RPG crashed into the decoy limo destroying it in a ball of fire. The cars to the front hit their accelerators and sped up to 80 MPH towards the airport's charter aircraft terminal. An OH-6 with a minigun had been unloaded from the Shah's airplane and assembled in minutes to provide cover as the Shah boarded his airplane and took off.

OOC:

You morons! I told you, they WILL NOT ATTACK YOU!!!!!

They are trained assassins, not terrorists.

Regardless, I WOULD like all of you to leave, though.

"Well, it seems our work here is done..." The Prime Minister bowed towards the Czar and walked out of the door along with the General and Minister. They then made their way to the helicopter and flew off towards home...

OOC: The best contribution CM could make to world peace would be to destroy his own nation using his massive stockpiles of nuclear weapons.

OOC: The best contribution CM could make to world peace would be to destroy his own nation using his massive stockpiles of nuclear weapons.


Ooc- The best contribution your nation would make to world peace would be by shutting up and leaving me alone. Don't bait the bear, don't dance on the minefield, unless you want trouble. :D

OOC: 1) You arent much of a threat to me and

2) You cant use OOC comments for IC actions.

OOC: Oh, how right you are.